Thoughts

1) Remember when I had intended to embark on a "Crazy Nikhat Month" earlier this year (yeah, that totally happened), and I had asked you guys to suggest crazy disturbing but essential movies for me to watch? Josh had recommended Dogtooth and Alps, both directed by Greek director Yorgos Lanthinos. Even though I gave up on this month after Eraserhead (yikes!), I did watch both of Lanthinos's films and really liked them. Last week, it was announced that he is going to make his first English feature called The Lobster. The synopsis is really interesting-

"An unconventional love story set in a dystopian near future where single people, according to the rules of the Town, are arrested and transferred to the Hotel. There they are obliged to find a matching mate in 45 days. If they fail, they are transformed into an animal of their choosing and released into the woods. A desperate Man escapes from the Hotel to the Woods where the Loners live and there he falls in love, although it’s against their rules."

The cast also is very impressive. Jason Clarke, Ben Whishaw, Lea Seydoux, Olivia Coleman, Ariane Labed and Angeliki Papoulia are all going to star in the film. Here is what the director had to say about the film-

"The Lobster is a story about love, without being a conventional love story. It observes the ways and reasons certain people come together to form couples, while others don’t. It is a story about the terrifying effects of solitude, the fear of dying alone, the fear of living alone and, above all, the fear of living with someone. Forcing ourselves to like someone is one kind of suffering; trying to find someone we really like is a different sort of suffering. The Lobster tries to discover synonyms for love in words such as fear, norms, deadlines, matching, synchronicity, naivety, prosperity and lies."

2) Is it me or are there suddenly a lot of biopics being announced? There is the Stephen Frear's helmed Lance Amstrong biopic with Ben Foster in the lead role. There is already an official image that has been released. The film also stars Chris O'Dowd, Guillaume Canet and Breaking Bad's creeptastic Jesse Plemons. Next, Tom Hardy will play Elton John in Rocketman. Did anyone see this coming? I honestly did not. It is being written by Billy Elliot's writer Lee Hall and has been described as a bigraphical musical fantasy with hyper-visuals and a non-linear storyline. But with Hardy joining this project, he has had to drop out of a few. Everest, which is going to be directed by Doug Liman, earlier had Hardy playing climber George Mallory but now that he has dropped out, Benedict Cumberbatch is in talks to be the replacement. And for the role of George Finch, actors such as James McAvoy, Tom Hiddleston, Henry Cavill, Dan Stevens, Matthew Goode and Jim Sturgess and a couple of others are being considered. All I can say is wowsers, this might become my dream movie! All the beautiful British men unite! Finally, Emile Hirsch is going to play John Belushi in a biopic about the doomed comedian. It will be directed by Steve Conrad who wrote The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. Again, I did not expect that but I do love Hirsch and he needs to come in more movies.

3) So Tim Burton had finally gotten back into everyone's good graces with the announcement of Big Eyes, but alas, it wasn't to last. He is going to make a sequel to Beetlejuice that will be set 26 years after the original. WHYYYYYYY?!!!!!! Michael Keaton has already agreed to star. The only way I can condone this movie is if Burton casts Winona Ryder too. She was the all-black-wearing morbid heart and soul of the first one and I have been waiting for her comeback for forever. Do it, Burton!

4) Craig Roberts is going to star in 22 Jump Street, the sequel to the surprisingly fun 21 Jump Street 2012 remake. Both Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill are returning to reprise their roles and this time around, they will be going undercover to a college. I adored Roberts in Submarine and Skins: Rise so this is good news.

5) Woody Allen's next film is going to be called Magic in the Moonlight.  There isn't much info on it yet except that it is set in the south of Fraance, it is a romcom which spans 20 years, presumably during the 20s and 30s. The cast is led by Colin Firth and Emma Stone and also stars Marcia Gay Harden and Jacki Weaver. The first official image has been released and I must say, all of this looks very promising. Stone seems perfectly suited to be a comic lead in Woody's movies and here's hoping this isn't another Jesse Eisenberg-To Rome With Love deal. I still haven't seen Blue Jasmine because India is a crazy place but yes, Woody forever.

6) They found a new Christian Grey! I don't know why I have this need to keep posting about this movie but the whole thing still seems so unlikely, I just want to see where they go with it. Anyways, Jamie Dornan will play the complicated perv and True Blood's Luke Grimes will play his brother. I actually really approve of both these casting choices. If anything, I will watch this movie for hot men and these two totally are. Dornan played Kirsten Dunst's sexy beau in Marie Antoinette and Grimes plays the dreamy vampire James in True Blood.

7) Sherlock series 3 will come out on January 19th, 2014. CURSESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!! So much waiting :'(

8) So Paul McCartney's new video is fucking bonkers. Not only is it shot in Abbey Road studios, but it has like a million famous people. They just keep coming!

a) Johnny Depp needs to start looking sexy in his films again because that man has the bone structure of a god.

b) Meryl Streep is the bestest.

c) Chris Pine looks so happy just to be there. Seriously, this-

He's like an introvert trying to socialise at a cool party. One of us! One of us!

9) Pixar's next, The Good Dinosaur, has a first poster out. It *is* very Dreamworks-y, but whatever, I love Pixar. The story is set in a sort of alternative universe where the meteors that destroyed the dinosaurs actually never came and the dinosaurs are still there and they have become farmers and are trying to kill little bugs on their land, which are actually cavemen. Dawww.

10) The next Across the Universe Podcast episode will be the first time we have a guest on. Ryan from The Matinee will be our first visitor from across the universe, so to speak. We will be talking about our Favourite Music-related Movies (excluding musicals). We would love to hear some of yours which we will mention in the episode depending on the amount of responses we get. Do comment below!

11) Trailers- The teaser to Doctor Who's 50th Anniversary special "The Day of the Doctor" is finally here! It literally just teases and gives nothing away but god, I missed Eleven :( Zac Efron, Miles Teller, Michael B. Jordan and Imogen Poots star in The Awkward Moment. It's a rather random red-band trailer to a rather random movie but I have a new-found appreciation for Efron so I shall give it a go. The Immigrant boasts of a very incredible cast- Marion Cotillard, Joaquin Phoenix and Jeremy Renner. The period settings don't hurt either. The trailer is interesting enough. X-Men: Days of Future Past finally has a trailer out. First of all, the Hans Zimmer score in the trailer, though setting its mood in everyway, isn't really a good thing. Ask Man of Steel. That worked for the Dark Knight trilogy and I am scared that Bryan Singer might end up Nolan-ifying this. Why can't everyone just be happy? Secondly, I am actually very skeptical about this film. It has a tad too many people, like 5 normal ensembles in one and I don't know how well Singer can pull it off. Thirdly, I will *obviously* watch this film because McFassyMan or McManBender or whatever you call it but I am not keeping my hopes up for you know, the story and execution and all that important stuff. Just give me the gorgeous men. In direct contrast to this, I actually think Captain America: The Winter Soldier looks great. The first film was unique with its period settings and I think this one will also be unconventional due to the spy and government angle. And then there is THIS. God bless Tumblr. My favourite trailer this week is actually not a real trailer at all, but I wish it was! The Midnight Coterie of Sinister Intruders is just perfect. I love Edward Norton.

12) I know I have already spoken about Masters of Sex but I saw its opening credits for the first time today and they are fucking fantastic! They are probably my favourite since True Blood. Everyone please watch the show. All the actors are just killing it.

13) Finally, God bless Tumblr x 1000000000000000000-

Everyone who read it in the original Mean Girl voices are as cool as Glen Coco!

Everyone who tried to imagine the Game of Thrones actors saying the lines just got punched in the face by Regina George!

Byeeeeeeeee.

All men are created equal. No matter how hard you try, you can never erase those words.

"This is Harvey Milk speaking from the camera store on the evening of Friday, November 18. This is to be played only in the event of my death by assassination. I fully realize that a person who stands for what I stand for, an activist, a gay activist, becomes a target or the potential target for somebody who is insecure, terrified, afraid, or very disturbed themselves. Knowing that I could be assassinated at any moment, any time, I feel it's important that some people know my thoughts. And so the following are my thoughts, my wishes, and my desires, whatever, and I'd like to pass them on and have them played for the appropriate people.

I have never considered myself a candidate. I have always considered myself part of a movement, part of a candidacy. I considered the movement the candidate. I think that there's a distinction between those who use the movement and those who are part of the movement. I think I was always part of the movement. I wish I had time to explain everything I did. Almost everything was done with an eye on the gay movement.

The other aspect of this tape is the business of what should happen if there is an assassination. I cannot prevent some people from feeling angry and frustrated and mad, but I hope they will take that frustration and that madness and instead of demonstrating or anything of that type, I would hope they would take the

power and I would hope that five, ten, one hundred, a thousand would rise. I would like to see every gay doctor come out, every gay lawyer, every gay architect come out, stand up and let that world know. That would do more to end prejudice overnight than anybody would imagine. I urge them to do that, urge them to come out. Only that way will we start to achieve our rights.

I ask for the movement to continue, for the movement to grow, because last week I got a phone call from Altoona, Pennsylvania, and my election gave somebody else, one more person, hope. And after all, that's what this is all about. It's not about personal gain, not about ego, not about power — it's about giving those young people out there in the Altoona, Pennsylvanias, hope. You gotta give them hope."

-From a tape recording to be played in the event of his assassination, quoted in Randy Shilts, The Mayor of Castro Street: The Life and Times of Harvey Milk (1982)

Some films and some people are just there to inspire us. After watching Gus Van Sant's Milk yesterday, I was full of emotions and respect. I mean I love the idea of revolutions, when people fight against all the wrongs that the society and the government force upon us, but to be led in such a revolution by someone like Harvey Milk would have been life-changing. I already feel that my life has been forever altered in this wonderful way just by watching the film.

      Milk was the first openly gay man to be elected in a public office in USA, in the Castro District of San Francisco. He was famously called the 'Mayor of Castro Street'. He became one of the city supervisors. He campaigned fiercely against a surge of anti-gay movements that bigots like Anita Bryant and John Briggs. He got many many followers and won a national movement against Briggs Initiative, which was a proposed law to fire homosexual tecahers. However, soon after he was killed alongside Mayor George Moscone by Dan White, another city supervisor who had resigned recently but wanted his job back. 25000-40000 people marched the streets of San Francisco with candles to honour him.

      The film shows the amazing life of Milk, but with so much more. It starts and ends with the tape that Milk made to be played at the event of his assassination. It showed his humble beginnings and his meteoric rise. His love affairs and his brilliant friends. The marches and the feel of USA in the 70s. Gus Van Sant used a lot the material that was already there from the many documentaries on Milk, most importantly The Times of Harvey Milk directed by Rob Epstein, to show people like Anita Bryant and the gay marches, and ofcourse the announcement of Milk and Moscone's death. Along with that we got a look into Milk's personal life- his lovers Scott Smith and Jack Niro, his friends like Cleve Jones, Danny Nicoletta and Anne Kronenberg.

      Dustin Lance Black came and breathed life into the almost-dead film that had been in production for fifteen years. He showed Milk as a lovely and powerful leader. The dialogues are funny and impactful. The somewhat non-linear chain of events keep the viewer anxious and happy at the same time. Van Sant, who generally makes films about people who are "different", namely To Die For, Good Will Hunting, My Own Private Idaho and Psycho, maid Milk so perfectly that the earlier ones now almost fade in comparison. But that is just my opinion. The precision in everything, from the place to the clothes to the dialogue is incredible. Once again he showed the vulnerable side of men without, no pun intended, gaying them up. I mean, just how Milk said, they were all men, who only loved with their hearts and not according to prevailing mores of the society. All the 'good' characters are bright and colourful, and the 'bad' ones bleak and sad. Amongst the critics who were rolling over it, the film got a positive reaction from many Christian magazines as well, and I think to make a film about such an important person and movement, and not to offend anyone, is just fantastic. To love one another, that's what humanity is, and Harvey Milk and this film showed that to all of us.

      Now actor-wise, what can be said about Sean Penn's acting abilities that hasn't been said before. He's a truly gifted actor who portrayed Milk so well that he stole the Oscar from teh favourite Mickey Rourke. He was passionate and adorable and just so stunning as Milk. He became Milk in this film, and no one had any doubt about it. I loved him so much in this role, and the way he spoke and carried himslef. Everything he said was honest and genuine. This was a Sean Penn film through and through. But that doesn't mean that the other actors and characters were not good. They were very important to show us Milk's character and beliefs. James Franco is always fantastic, and though he must have trampled over many women's hearts by playing a gay man- Scott Smith, he is one of the best young actors out these. So is the disgustingly talented Emile Hirsch. He was so cute and funny as Cleve Jones, with the hair and the glasses (must have), and the attitude (absolutely must have). Josh Brolin was very good too, playing the psychopathic bigoted arsehole Dan White. I couldn't recognise Diego Luna who was the lovestruck Enrique in The Terminal. That's a good thing as he was so sweet and mental and tragic as Milk's lover Jack. And Scott Pilgrim's Allison Pill was also there as Anne Kronenberg, the lesbian among the gays, but fabulous nonetheless.

      I have to mention the ending. It is absolutely one of the best endings I've ever seen and I'm a big believer is in the whole "All's well that end's well" ideology. From the moment that Milk is assasinated and he looks out of his window to see the opera house that he had spoken to Scott about, to the absolutely heart-wrenchingly beautiful candlelight vigil, and the fact that Milk somehow had predicted his ending..."I'll never make it to 50" (Milk died when he was 48), to the assassination, to the uprising. It was just heartfelt and exhuberant and just so right.

I'm just going to go ahead and say it. Watch it if you have any heart in you, and you'll love it!



My name is Harvey Milk and I'm here to recruit you!