Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Movies To See This Holiday Season
I had the pleasure this Fall to see some awesome movies with Chelsea. She had an internship with IndieVest that allowed her the opportunity to add me as her +1 on the list for a bunch of special screenings.
We saw...
The Visitor
With a Q&A with Richard Jenkins, Haaz Sleiman, and the film's producer, Michael London.
Amazing movie, go see it. I give it an A-, at times a little slow, but has a message and is well done.
Then we saw the new Emma Thompson and Dustin Hoffman movie, Last Chance Harvey. The two stars were also at the Q&A with the film's writer/director, Joel Hopkins.
Maybe it's because I'm younger than the intended audience for this film (I assume) but I found it to be mostly ooogie. Dustin Hoffman has done far better, as has Emma Thompson. Hoffman was mostly stalkerish through the whole thing...which Emma Thompson's character was supposed to like? I didn't get that.
But sitting through the movie was worth it to see the Q&A, they were both DARLING. Hoffman had little interest in what some of the audience's questions were, but in a funny way, and Emma was so delighted and tickled pink to be there that she was goofy. They did have wisdom to impart on us. I need to find clips of it online so I can remember exactly what it was they said.
Next, we saw Milk. I'm not even going to comment about it here because I've done that already below, scroll down and read that entry.
This past weekend, we did a mad dash to Beverly Hills to see Revolutionary Road starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. See, at first, we went to the wrong theatre...it was definitely not at the Arclight Theatre...but at another one. Whoops. We hopped in the car and made it as the LAST people admitted into the screening. Tight.
The movie itself was AMAZING! So good. Sam Mendes out did himself. The acting was so real, and so truthful. I haven't read the book, but the movie was full of catchy dialogue and pregnant silences. It dables in the realm of unhappiness and questions sanity from minute to minute. My absolute favorite shot in the movie is one with Kate Winslet's character, April sitting at the dining room table centered in the frame, with Leo's character, Frank, standing in the living room behind her shoulder out of focus. He's yelling at her, but she's stonecold.
Kate looks absolutely GORGEOUS in this movie. Absolutely gorgeous.
The Q&A had Kate, Leo, Justin Haythe the screenwriter, Kathy Bates, Michael Shannon, and Kathryn Hahn. Kate, Leo, Justin and Michael all seemed like they agreed with the serious nature of the questions and all answered very seriously. Kathy Bates and Kathryn Hahn on the other hand were COMPLETELY out of their element. They both felt out of place, you could see it on their faces, in the posture and in how they answered the questions directed at them. It was weird. All the ladies looked beautiful though.
And now...a movie I know I'll be seeing with my family, or well...my sister and Mom at least...
My sister really wants to see this movie, The Tale of Despereaux. Since we'll be in Canada on Christmas Day...maybe we'll have to take our cousins to see it! I think I remember this book, we read it at Day Camp to the Campers one rainy day. Good book, Great Story! So glad to see it's a movie.
Have you seen the list of people who lent their voices?! Dustin Hoffman, Matthrew Broderick, Emma Watson, Tracy Ullman, Kevin Kline, rounded out by Stanley Tucci and William H. Macy!! YAY!
Awesome...go see it.
Movies are fun, good movies are better.
We saw...
The Visitor
With a Q&A with Richard Jenkins, Haaz Sleiman, and the film's producer, Michael London.
Amazing movie, go see it. I give it an A-, at times a little slow, but has a message and is well done.
Then we saw the new Emma Thompson and Dustin Hoffman movie, Last Chance Harvey. The two stars were also at the Q&A with the film's writer/director, Joel Hopkins.
Maybe it's because I'm younger than the intended audience for this film (I assume) but I found it to be mostly ooogie. Dustin Hoffman has done far better, as has Emma Thompson. Hoffman was mostly stalkerish through the whole thing...which Emma Thompson's character was supposed to like? I didn't get that.
But sitting through the movie was worth it to see the Q&A, they were both DARLING. Hoffman had little interest in what some of the audience's questions were, but in a funny way, and Emma was so delighted and tickled pink to be there that she was goofy. They did have wisdom to impart on us. I need to find clips of it online so I can remember exactly what it was they said.
Next, we saw Milk. I'm not even going to comment about it here because I've done that already below, scroll down and read that entry.
This past weekend, we did a mad dash to Beverly Hills to see Revolutionary Road starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. See, at first, we went to the wrong theatre...it was definitely not at the Arclight Theatre...but at another one. Whoops. We hopped in the car and made it as the LAST people admitted into the screening. Tight.
The movie itself was AMAZING! So good. Sam Mendes out did himself. The acting was so real, and so truthful. I haven't read the book, but the movie was full of catchy dialogue and pregnant silences. It dables in the realm of unhappiness and questions sanity from minute to minute. My absolute favorite shot in the movie is one with Kate Winslet's character, April sitting at the dining room table centered in the frame, with Leo's character, Frank, standing in the living room behind her shoulder out of focus. He's yelling at her, but she's stonecold.
Kate looks absolutely GORGEOUS in this movie. Absolutely gorgeous.
The Q&A had Kate, Leo, Justin Haythe the screenwriter, Kathy Bates, Michael Shannon, and Kathryn Hahn. Kate, Leo, Justin and Michael all seemed like they agreed with the serious nature of the questions and all answered very seriously. Kathy Bates and Kathryn Hahn on the other hand were COMPLETELY out of their element. They both felt out of place, you could see it on their faces, in the posture and in how they answered the questions directed at them. It was weird. All the ladies looked beautiful though.
And now...a movie I know I'll be seeing with my family, or well...my sister and Mom at least...
My sister really wants to see this movie, The Tale of Despereaux. Since we'll be in Canada on Christmas Day...maybe we'll have to take our cousins to see it! I think I remember this book, we read it at Day Camp to the Campers one rainy day. Good book, Great Story! So glad to see it's a movie.
Have you seen the list of people who lent their voices?! Dustin Hoffman, Matthrew Broderick, Emma Watson, Tracy Ullman, Kevin Kline, rounded out by Stanley Tucci and William H. Macy!! YAY!
Awesome...go see it.
Movies are fun, good movies are better.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Romantic Comedies
4:25:13 PM js: I kinda wish my life was a romantic comedy
4:26:10 PM ma: you have the power
4:26:19 PM ma: the guys always have the power in RomComs
4:27:12 PM ma: the girls are helpless oafs that sit around waiting for "Serendipity" to smack them in the face
4:29:00 PM js: damn... that's true isn't it...
4:29:05 PM js: stupid movies
4:30:27 PM ma: hahaha
4:31:04 PM ma: that's the trap about RomComs...is that no matter how independent the chick is in the movie and throughout the movie, her life is never complete, and the movie not over, until they live happily ever after
4:31:48 PM js: There's gotta be some romantic comedy that's flipped those roles around...
4:32:02 PM js: hmm...
4:33:46 PM js: But the thing about romantic comedies is that the guy never actually has to take any risks, its always made obvious to him, either by the girl herself or the plucky (and/or gay) best friend, that the girl loves him. So then its just all about him doing something about it
4:47:06 PM ma: right
4:48:23 PM ma: but the girl doesn't have an active role, it's the guy that must decide she's worth it and must risk everything
4:48:34 PM ma: she doesn't have a decision to make
4:48:36 PM ma: it's made for her
4:49:18 PM js: well, I suppose presumably she made a decision to love the guy?
4:50:59 PM ma: but the suspension of disbelief is that her life without a man is absolutely miserable and unbearable
4:51:20 PM js: True, stupid movies
4:26:10 PM ma: you have the power
4:26:19 PM ma: the guys always have the power in RomComs
4:27:12 PM ma: the girls are helpless oafs that sit around waiting for "Serendipity" to smack them in the face
4:29:00 PM js: damn... that's true isn't it...
4:29:05 PM js: stupid movies
4:30:27 PM ma: hahaha
4:31:04 PM ma: that's the trap about RomComs...is that no matter how independent the chick is in the movie and throughout the movie, her life is never complete, and the movie not over, until they live happily ever after
4:31:48 PM js: There's gotta be some romantic comedy that's flipped those roles around...
4:32:02 PM js: hmm...
4:33:46 PM js: But the thing about romantic comedies is that the guy never actually has to take any risks, its always made obvious to him, either by the girl herself or the plucky (and/or gay) best friend, that the girl loves him. So then its just all about him doing something about it
4:47:06 PM ma: right
4:48:23 PM ma: but the girl doesn't have an active role, it's the guy that must decide she's worth it and must risk everything
4:48:34 PM ma: she doesn't have a decision to make
4:48:36 PM ma: it's made for her
4:49:18 PM js: well, I suppose presumably she made a decision to love the guy?
4:50:59 PM ma: but the suspension of disbelief is that her life without a man is absolutely miserable and unbearable
4:51:20 PM js: True, stupid movies
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Milk, it does a body good
Chelsea managed to grab 2 tickets, or well, let’s call it what it is…she allowed me to be her +1 to a screening. So far I’ve ridden Chelsea’s coattails to see “The Visitor”, an amazing movie about illegal immigration and finding oneself in another’s plight. I highly recommend that movie, beautifully done on all accounts.
She also brought me to see Emma Thompson and Dustin Hoffman in their newest movie “Last Chance Harry”. That movie was…not as great as I would have liked it, but the Q&A after it was the best part of the experience and well worth sitting through the movie for. I’ll post clips of it here once Variety.com decides to edit it and post it all. Emma Thompson and Dustin Hoffman said some amazing and insightful things about life, love and living life and love. I didn’t have a notebook with me and was too busy snapping 100+ photos of their facial expressions to write any quotes down.
But what I really wanted to write about was the latest movie she brought me to see, “Milk”. This movie is about the political life, and as the screenwriter described it, about a movement surrounding the man that was Harvey Milk. Harvey Milk was a politician and political activist in the late 1970s. Look him up on Wikipedia if you don’t know who he is or what he’s about.
I was anxious throughout this movie. It could have been that the opening shots reveal that Harvey Milk was murdered, shot in cold blood. It could have been the subject matter, gay and lesbian rights that made me uneasy. But I think more than anything, it made me uneasy that this movie didn’t feel like a period piece the way it was intended. It scared me how much of today’s world, today’s hate, bigotry and misunderstanding was paralleled in what was supposed to be the past.
THE PAST!
This movie took place 30 years ago. Thirty years ago a proposition was defeated in California that would have proclaimed that any homosexuals (as determined by who?) would be banned from the public school system of the state. If you even so much as supported any gay cause, it would be grounds for termination.
The protests were a little too familiar; the chants drove home.
Why is it that 30 years ago we were learning the tools for success that were not implemented this time around with Proposition 8?
I hate to be drawing the parallel, so many more people will because it’s SO blatantly obvious. Thank goodness these filmmakers chose to remind us of the past, so we can learn and grow from its example.
This movie might not sit well with everyone. I know that, these filmmakers know that.
Another thing. Chelsea and I discuss it quite often. We’re completely different people living in different worlds, more or less. She’s a black lesbian, and I’m a white straight girl. I don’t know what it’s like to be a lesbian. I won’t know. She won’t know what it’s like to be a straight female. She can pretend, but neither of us really understands the battles we each need to fight. I started to understand, through this movie, that I would never fully understand what it’s like to be a gay man either.
Milk’s relationships in this movie seem shallow, at first. Some grow in depth as time and energy are spent with them. But the ways in which Milk meets and nurtures the relationships with his companions is very different from how I approach relationships in my life. I don’t think that picking up a guy in the subway is a great way to choose a life partner, but I also have to look at the medium. It’s a movie. Let’s make it simple. The end.
Ok…that’s movies. I totally am a TV kid though. Love ya movies, but sometimes you take me deeper than I want to go. I didn’t mind this particular movie taking me so deep though. I think that’s a sign of a great movie, when I can still escape while at the same time bringing some substance into my existence.
She also brought me to see Emma Thompson and Dustin Hoffman in their newest movie “Last Chance Harry”. That movie was…not as great as I would have liked it, but the Q&A after it was the best part of the experience and well worth sitting through the movie for. I’ll post clips of it here once Variety.com decides to edit it and post it all. Emma Thompson and Dustin Hoffman said some amazing and insightful things about life, love and living life and love. I didn’t have a notebook with me and was too busy snapping 100+ photos of their facial expressions to write any quotes down.
But what I really wanted to write about was the latest movie she brought me to see, “Milk”. This movie is about the political life, and as the screenwriter described it, about a movement surrounding the man that was Harvey Milk. Harvey Milk was a politician and political activist in the late 1970s. Look him up on Wikipedia if you don’t know who he is or what he’s about.
I was anxious throughout this movie. It could have been that the opening shots reveal that Harvey Milk was murdered, shot in cold blood. It could have been the subject matter, gay and lesbian rights that made me uneasy. But I think more than anything, it made me uneasy that this movie didn’t feel like a period piece the way it was intended. It scared me how much of today’s world, today’s hate, bigotry and misunderstanding was paralleled in what was supposed to be the past.
THE PAST!
This movie took place 30 years ago. Thirty years ago a proposition was defeated in California that would have proclaimed that any homosexuals (as determined by who?) would be banned from the public school system of the state. If you even so much as supported any gay cause, it would be grounds for termination.
The protests were a little too familiar; the chants drove home.
Why is it that 30 years ago we were learning the tools for success that were not implemented this time around with Proposition 8?
I hate to be drawing the parallel, so many more people will because it’s SO blatantly obvious. Thank goodness these filmmakers chose to remind us of the past, so we can learn and grow from its example.
This movie might not sit well with everyone. I know that, these filmmakers know that.
Another thing. Chelsea and I discuss it quite often. We’re completely different people living in different worlds, more or less. She’s a black lesbian, and I’m a white straight girl. I don’t know what it’s like to be a lesbian. I won’t know. She won’t know what it’s like to be a straight female. She can pretend, but neither of us really understands the battles we each need to fight. I started to understand, through this movie, that I would never fully understand what it’s like to be a gay man either.
Milk’s relationships in this movie seem shallow, at first. Some grow in depth as time and energy are spent with them. But the ways in which Milk meets and nurtures the relationships with his companions is very different from how I approach relationships in my life. I don’t think that picking up a guy in the subway is a great way to choose a life partner, but I also have to look at the medium. It’s a movie. Let’s make it simple. The end.
Ok…that’s movies. I totally am a TV kid though. Love ya movies, but sometimes you take me deeper than I want to go. I didn’t mind this particular movie taking me so deep though. I think that’s a sign of a great movie, when I can still escape while at the same time bringing some substance into my existence.
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Best Photos
So I just got a new camera, and I love it. Here's a few of my favorite photos so far! I just wanted to post some. Yes, this blog has become lame. I'm aware.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Friends and not-so-friends
I've been doing a lot of thinking.
Maybe it's because I'm headstrong or stubborn, but this is my belief:
I believe that a friendship is not strong until it has survived trials.
I believe a relationship is not strong until it has survived trials.
This is where I find myself. I'm at a crossroads in a number of relationships in my life. There's a choice on both sides of a relationship, I must choose to forgive and forget or to move on without that person in my life.
I think the best relationships in my life, the best friends that I have, the friends I've had the longest have endured these trials and lived through them. That's why these people are my absolute best friends, because we've managed to work through and be there for each other when we most needed it.
I have the best friends in the world. That's something no one can take away from me. I know I have people that would be there for me in a heartbeat if I needed them, because they have been before.
Thank you, you know who you are.
Maybe it's because I'm headstrong or stubborn, but this is my belief:
I believe that a friendship is not strong until it has survived trials.
I believe a relationship is not strong until it has survived trials.
This is where I find myself. I'm at a crossroads in a number of relationships in my life. There's a choice on both sides of a relationship, I must choose to forgive and forget or to move on without that person in my life.
I think the best relationships in my life, the best friends that I have, the friends I've had the longest have endured these trials and lived through them. That's why these people are my absolute best friends, because we've managed to work through and be there for each other when we most needed it.
I have the best friends in the world. That's something no one can take away from me. I know I have people that would be there for me in a heartbeat if I needed them, because they have been before.
Thank you, you know who you are.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)