Probably but Not Definitely
July 16, 2008
So I can’t decide, really. Improving my typing speed, or exercising my fingertips, comes naturally to me. But I am not comfortable anymore in this space. I think I need to find a new vomit place. Maybe it is a part of turning over a new leaf – whatever that means. For the meantime, this blog and I are in a, uhm, cool-off stage. I will be back when stories are ready for posting. Or when I have finally settled somewhere else. Dumdidumdum.
P.S. I watched Donnie Darko for the first time (yeah I am like seven years late) on YouTube – 12 parts in all – and a voice in my head said, “Donnie Darko is my new superhero.” I have my share of obsessions, healthy or not-so, and “Donnie Darko. Donnie Darko. ” keeps buzzing in my head since yester night after watching the movie and before I went to bed until this morning and now I am writing about it, duh. Do I still have to say that it is my current favorite? Oh wormholes and killer soundtrack.
Movie Quotes Meme
June 11, 2008
Tagged by: Myself =)
I am tagging Sir Harold, Tonee, Lala, Thea, Gela, Franco, Rizza, Yannie, Trish, Mitch, KC, Cedie, Anna, SP, and Mimi.
1. Pick 15 of your favorite movies.
2. Go to IMDb and find a quote from each movie.
3. Post them here for everyone to guess.
4. Fill in the film title once it’s guessed.
5. No Googling/Using IMDb search functions.
6. If tagged, you must successfully guess one of my films, or make three wrong guesses.
1 Pan’s Labyrinth
My name is Ofelia. Who are you?
Me? I’ve had so many names. Old names that only the wind and the trees can pronounce. I am the mountain, the forest and the earth. I am… I am a faun. Your most humble servant, Your Highness.
Has anyone seen Taxidermia?
May 17, 2008
Taxidermia (György Pálfi, 2006), hands down, is the most disturbing movie I have ever seen this year. My brain was blown out mere seconds after this Hungarian movie started, so I knew immediately that I was up to something frighteningly extreme.
Let’s have a quick rundown, shall we? Sexual deviation. Check. Extreme behaviour. Check. Bizarre fantasies. Check. Animal slaughter. Check. Self mutilation. Check. Human decapitation. Check. Gruesome scenes. Check. Yes, I almost gagged while peeping watching.
This graphic movie does not run on shock or horror value alone though. Taxidermia managed to hold my interest even with all the blood, flesh, and sex; gore, murder and perversity; excess, deviance and obsession. Yes, there are light, comic scenes for added measure, too. See that fleshy couple up there? Watch out for them.
The movie is about the surreal saga of three generations of men: the hair-lipped soldier, the obese speed-eater, and the skinny taxidermist, all part of a lineage, who had odd and tragic lives. All three strange stories make you really think about the extent of human behaviour.
Taxidermia actually reminds me of Crash; the latter pushing the limit of sex and sexuality. Side note: Stories as of late are alarmingly crazy, by the way. Now excuse me, I should go watch something else, maybe PBB Teen edition or the Cartoon Network, just to normalize my brain function.
Spider-Man (Do not forget the hyphen!)
May 5, 2007
Sitting through the latest movie franchise of the friendly neighborhood Spider-man is a good alternate for actual baby-sitting. I have watched it earlier today with my younger cousins, aged 10 and five, and I have not received a single hair-splitting vexation.
Spanning more than two hours, Spider-man 3 readily captures the viewers’ unrestrained attention with its aerial fight scenes, speedy transitions, and what-not. The downside(s): the annoying love triangle, sucky personal issues, the so-so dialogues, and the main characters themselves.
One unforgettable line, though: “That’s not what I hired you for!” shouts the Daily Bugle editor when he sees his secretary flirting with the revamped Peter Parker. The perpetually agitated editor, I swear, was the only one who has stirred the whole cinema, and that is solely with his human jest.
Not Peter Parker or Spider-man. Not even when he turned Black, which is basically what’s the movie all about. An unfair trade for us who had waited, stood in line, and paid tickets for a movie that has shoved movies more worth-watching into the gutter of most cinemas.
Peter Parker is still the same naive guy except during the time the black goo, a symbiote, clung to him. The symbiote carried by a meteorite, which dubiously crashed near Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson’s spiderweb for a love nest, has turned him angry and vengeful, with a penchant for strutting un-coolly on the streets of New York and dancing confidently on the floors of a jazz bar.
Mary Jane Watson still has that paste-y smile and unchanging facial expression (even when she’s on the brink of falling to her death.), and Topher Grace, oh, he is the crass photographer Eddie Brock, who is Peter Parker’s competitor in the Daily Bugle, and he turned into Venom. That was, by the way, what he got after wishing inside a church that Peter should be killed for humiliating him. Oh machismo.
And Harry Osborn (James Franco), he’s Peter Parker’s best friend until his death. They’re, you know, BFF (Best Friends Forever). Like the kid who saw the blonde model/lab partner/police captain’s daughter/Eddie Brooks’ love interest (whew, the connections!) kiss Spider-man on the lips while hanging upside down (MJ, you have the right to get angry. That was your Kiss), I was queased-out, albeit only slightly.
Okay, I have wasted enough brain cells writing this crap when I have not even spent enough brain cells that could have helped shed a few calories while watching Spider-man.
P.S. I think Ratatouille and the new Harry Potter movie look promising based on the trailers. =)
November Madness
November 8, 2006
November, the psychological thriller film about a photographer who seemingly experienced three “realities” on one single day (November 7), was shown yesterday (November 7) on TV. Not really a strange coincidence but an apparent deliberate synchronization from the management of Star Movies. =)
The three “realities” were tagged as (1) denial, (2) guilt, and (3) acceptance. Each reality happened on the same date but it all had three different outcomes.
Brings to mind one mind-boggling thought in Einstein’s Dreams, a book by Alan Lightman, that there are three alternate realities each happening simultaneously. “19 April 1905 (18) Time has three dimensions; each act has three possible outcomes”.
We need not to compute how many “universes” we have if there are three alternate realities happening simultaneously. It’s enormous. If there are alternate realities, then maybe there’s no point in wallowing over regrets since our other selves have done what we failed to do. Maybe my other selves are now a (1) rocket scientist; (2) a Project Runway contestant, and (3) a backpacker somewhere in South America…. The possibilities are endless. Wishful thinking. =)
But well, we are all stuck here in our own collective parallel universe – seeing, feeling, hearing, tasting, and smelling the real. =)
I love Elsa y Fred, the 2004 Argentinean film that…
October 15, 2006
I love Elsa y Fred, the 2004 Argentinean film that was shown today at the Spanish Film Festival.
Directed by Marcos Carnevale, Elsa y Fred is a moving, crazy love story of two elderly neighbors. Elsa is a whimsical and unapologetic woman who lives her life according to her rules while Fred is a serious, hypochondriac widower who just lost her wife from heart attack.
The two offbeat characters are entertaining to watch. Elsa never runs out of funny remarks and crazy deeds, fully complementing Fred’s Mr. play-it-safe demeanor. Elsa teaches Fred how to live “carpe diem”, while Fred learns to love and live again.
Together, they lived their lives vicariously and pursued their own happiness, including fulfilling Elsa’s long-standing dream.
Sigh.
"Desperation – it’s the world’s worst cologne." …
October 12, 2006
“Desperation – it’s the world’s worst cologne.” — Singles
When you just want to pry over the romantic lives of strangers, hoping to discover the significant variables in coming up with a successful formula for that four-letter word, Singles, Cameron Crowe’s 1992 film, is an ideal movie to watch.
Set during the early years of the grunge era, Singles tells about the romantic relationships of two couples, as well as of their friends. Cliff, the long-haired member of Citizen Dick, is getting weary of his 23-year-old girlfriend Janet. “What can I do, man? She’s crazy over me,” Cliff tells his band mate during the early part of the movie. Janet breaks up with Cliff later, making Cliff realize how important Janet is in his life.
Meanwhile, Steve, Janet’s workaholic neighbor, meets alienated romantic Linda at a gig. Steve tells Linda during their first meeting: “My friend and I have this argument, and here it is. He says when you’re at a place like this you can’t just be yourself, you need an act. So anyway, I saw you standing there so I thought, A: I could just leave you alone. B: I could come up with an act, or C: I could just be myself. I chose C.” Linda is not prepared yet for another relationship but when Steve tells her the “the parking space cliche”, she realizes that Steve is sincere, honest, and has the characteristics she wants for her man.
Steve and Linda’s rocky relationship proved to be long-lasting while Cliff and Janet…were really perfect for each other in spite of their differences. Debbie, a friend of Janet and Steve, also finds the perfect one for her after going through seemingly desperate ways of getting one.
What I like about the movie is that it is romantic without getting mushy and hopeful without being pathetic. The dialogues are trite yet true, striking and quotable. “It’s better to be the dumper than the dumpee,” Linda says while cleaning the toilet bowl using Steve’s shirt. In a car conversation, Steve’s friend tells him: “Tonight I’ll be the super me.” “What if the super you meets the super her and the super her rejects the super you?” asks Steve. “Then it’s no problem.” “Uh-huh. Why?” “Because it was never you, it was just an act. I live my life like a French movie, Steve.” Coolness.
Next Cameron Crowe’s movie to watch: Say Anything starring John Cusack.
