Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale her infinite variety

Happy Birthday blog! I started this blog exactly a year back with no expectations. Now I know that people read it, and that I have seven fantastic followers, seven times more the number of followers I wanted to gain in a year. Next year is college year, so that will mean even more dedicated blogging, hopefully.

Thanks!!

A is for AWESOME

       So I have an elite list of favourite chick-flick-high-school films. To get into the list, the film should have:
1) chicks aka girls
2) humour(because it is a chick-flick)
3) bitchy-ness(same as above)
4) a high school
5) an original story
6) an everlasting impression


       As of yesterday, I had 6 films in this list- Heathers, Clueless, Drop Dead Gorgeous, 10 Things I Hate About You, Mean Girls and She's The Man (will write about them someday, promise). Many films have almost made it into the list- Princess Diaries (I like both together), Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (I like all 7 together), The Virgin Suicides (very dark humour- not exactly chick-flicky), She's All That (too sweet), Cruel Intentions (too bitchy and no real high school), Slap Her She's French (it just somehow doesn't belong in the same league), and all the John Hughes Brat Pack classics (they're not chick flicks).

        And now there is a new member in this elite list, and with great pomp and pleasure I induct *cue drum roll* Easy A!!

         Easy A has been inspired by the story of Hester Prynne, the protagonist in Nathaniel Hawthorne's famous novel A Scarlet Letter. But with a very high school twist. Olive Penderghast (I love the name), who is a nobody at her school, becomes the talk of the place when the religious fanatic Marianne overhears her lie to her best friend Rhiannon about losing her virginity over an otherwise boring and Pocket Full of Sunshine-filled weekend. Instead of denying it, Olive likes the attention and soon with her new-found slut status decides to help homosexual Brandon by making him appear straight by testifying to having had sex with him. They go to a party and behind closed doors with an underwear-obstructed key-hole, have really loud fake sex. Rhiannon gets jealous of Olive's popularity and over a very heated phone call, Olive decides to really get into her skank-shoes, and clothes and buys a whole lot of stripper-esque clothes and stitches an 'A' on them, courtesy Hester. She goes to school like this, and everyone is awestruck with the bad-ass attitude and the tramp clothes. However, a number of guys find out about the fake sex thing, and they ask her to lie about having done, well, sexual deeds with them so that they too get a reputation. She does so, in exchange for gift coupons and vouchers, but soon things start looking bleak when Marianne's boyfriend Micah gets an STD and blames it on her. In fact, he is having an affair with the school councellor and wife of english teacher, Mrs. Griffith and got it from her. To save her favourite teacher's marriage, Olive takes the blame, only to get more drastic condemnation from the religious circle that now includes Rhiannon. While all this is happening, for the first time since her bad reputation surfaced, Olive gets asked out on a date by a boy called Anson. She is very happy about this untli she realises that Anson literally wants to pay and have sex with her. She escapes from him, only to run into the only nice guy in school, the mascot-playing Todd. Olive has had a crush on him since eigth grade, and had lost her only opportunity to kiss him while playing Seven Minutes in Heaven, when he was nervous about it. She still lied about doing so on his wish, and knowing this side of hers, he doesn't believe her fallen-woman image. With a little help from her very liberal parents, Olive decides that she will do a webcast telling her story to all of the school, after doing a very slutty-showgirl number at the school game to create interest. The whole film in fact is her telling this story. The film then ends with an awesome tribute to 80s teen films like Say Anything and Breakfast Club.

         This was very fresh film. Once again a classic story has been updated to our time to show its never-ending relevance and impact. Clueless was based on Jane Austen's Emma, 10 Things was based on Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew and She's The Man on again Shakespeare's Twelfth Knight. The obsession with fallen women is still present today, as it was in Hawthorne's days, though the terminology might have changed a bit. Like Hester Olive also battles this image, but unlike her it is after she embraces it due to what it does with ones popularity level. I loved the 80s films references, and the fact that instead of being nerdy looking, Olive is very pretty but still invisible. Her problems are very identifiable, and despite the fame, we understand her loneliness. Along with that, it is very novel in showing the Christian fanatic group of teens, who are generally shunned from such stories due to the unappealing aspect. Also when it ends, I like how it neither glorifies nor condemns sex.

        Emma Stone is Awesome! She is one of the genuinely funny, self-loathing and prettiest new actresses. She has a long way ahead. Her Olive is hilarious, cute, gorgeous and plain lovable. She has a great body and face and I personally loved the lingerie type clothes on her. This is the first film with her as the protagonist, and she is charming in the way she handles her whole situtaion. Cannot wait for her to get it on with my-future-husband Andrew Garfield as Gwen Stacey in the upcoming Spiderman reboot! Amanda Bynes as Marianne was fantastic since she always plays a rebel. Also I'm glad she didn't quit acting, despite having played a teenager for what seems like her whole life. I love Dan Byrd, and he is so funny in the fake-sex scene. Penn Badgely was a sweet supporting character, but he ain't no John Cusack. Thomas Hayden Church was pretty convincing too as the cool and mental teacher. Lisa Kudrow and Malcolm Macdowell were there, but only to add to the very strong support cast. The best were Olive's parents played by Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson. Who would not want parents like Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson? I would kill to have parents like Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson. They are wacky, witty, radical and just cuddle-able. The world needs more parents like Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson!!

        The reason why Easy A is now on the list is because it really does fill all the necessary conditions. Olive is a excellent female character, the film is very very funny, the bitchy-ness is in your face, there is a high school, the story is fantastic and so very properly adapted from a 19th Century classic. And of course, try as you must, one cannot forget the webcast, the crazy chapter names, the fake sex, the religious bimbos, Olive's clothes and just Olive. I guess one of the conditions is also to have a brilliant female protagonist(s) and along with Veronica, Cher, Amber, Kat and Bianca, Cady and Regina and Janice and Gretchen and Karen and Damien, and Viola, Olive is truly unfogettable.

CAPTAIN JACK'S BACK!!!

Me finally learning how to put youtube videos on the blog happened along with the release of the trailer of one of the most anticipated films of next year, starring the best actor of all time playing the best character of all time.
Coincidence? I think not.

It had never occurred to me that our lives, which had been so closely interwoven, could unravel with such speed.

     

      Never Let Me Go is based on the novel with the same name by Kazuo Ishiguro. It tells the story of three "special" people- Kathy, Tommy and Ruth. They are special because they are "clones" made for organ transplantation for "humans" suffering from incurable diseases. When these clones grow-up, they give "donations" and eventually "complete" after a few of them. However, in the school where Kathy, tommy and Ruth grew up, Hailsham, there runs a rumour that if two of the students are in "verifiable love", these donations can be "deferred". I put these words in quotation marks because the whole story is based on our understanding of these words.

*SPOILER ALERT*
      The film is narrated by a twenty-eight year-old Kathy, who is a carer of the donors now. She is soon going to start donating herself, and now she looks back upon the lives of her two best friends, Ruth and Tommy, and hers. Kathy was always a passive, introverted but affectionate girl who fell for the sensitive and misunderstood Tommy since they were kids. But the more extroverted Ruth vies for his attention early on and they become inseparable until they reach their late teens. By the time they're all eighteen, they leave Hailsham and go to this place called the Cottages, where they meet other clones and hear for the first time about the deferrers. Tommy works out that the artwork that was taken by the students in Hailsham to be put in something called the Gallery, was a way to look into the souls of the students and see if they were truly in love. He tells this to Kathy, and also that it could not happen for him and Ruth, but rather with him and Kathy as she had submitted many of her sketches to the Gallery. Ruth however intervenes and due to an incident with a porn magazine, manipulates Kathy into feeling miserable about herself and her feelings for Tommy. Their friendship breaks, along with the separation of Ruth and Tommy. Kathy starts her job as a carer, where she's rather good, until nine years later when she runs into Ruth. Ruth has already donated twice and is very weak unlike Tommy, as she informs Kathy, who has also done two donations and is doing very well. They all embark on a trip together to see a washed-up boat they had heard about and here Ruth apologises to Kathy for keeping Tommy and her apart all these years. She admits that they always belonged together, but due to the deferrers story, and a fear of being left alone if they both got together, she had done everything. She now wanted to make amends and so she gives them the adress of the Madame who represented the Gallery so that they can apply to get deferred. Kathy and Tommy finally come out with their feelings towards each other, and go to see Madame, only to find out that the whole deferrers story was indeed a rumour, and the Gallery was a way for them to try and show others not what was in the children's souls, but that like normal children, they had souls. Kathy and Tommy leave the place empty-handed and with a bleak future ahead of them.

      The basic plot of the film, if you notice, is very similar to Michael Bay's The Island. Except, the story  isn't. Never Let Me Go is the most poignant film I have seen about matters of life and death, mixed with science fiction and a truly dystopian world. Beautifully written, the story touches the very core of your heart and leaves a permanent mark, very much like the scars on the donors' bodies. The existential metaphor of what our lives on this earth is like, the role of love, the role of those in charge, and our "completion" or death is so fitting, it's amazing. I don't remember actually crying throughout a film, but I did for this one. I mean, I knew the story as I have read a bit of the book and searched on it, but it is really frightening and touching at the same time. Two things made me weep- the metaphor, and the relationship between Kathy and Tommy.
      The metaphor was just so fascinating and terrifying. Everything in the story- the children who wear these tracking devices on their hands, who are scared to cross the fence of the school, who wait for days when the old clothes and toys from other people arrive for them as gifts, the grown up kids so uncomfortable in the real world, the fascination with sex, the idea that all of their "originals" are from the trash of the society like prostitutes and thieves, the deferrers rumour, the donations, the Gallery and the completion; just everything stands for something in this world. I especially loved the deferrers story. The idea that somehow our lives can be better, or in the case of the characters in the story without donations, for even a few years because we're in love, I mean isn't that what we live for? And of course the whole significance of art, that it is the only way to reveal if we have hearts and souls in us, because only through art can you show your love to others.

      Kathy's and Tommy's relationship has to be one of the most heartbreaking love stories I have ever seen. They were always supposed to be together, but never got the chance. The way Kathy looks at Tommy, especially after he and Ruth start going out, is so sad. She regretfully remarks, "I think girls are always mean to the boys they like. So maybe Ruth had liked him all along. Maybe I should have teased him too." Instead she was his truest friend, and treasured the cassette he had bought for her. This cassette, called Songs after Dark by Judy Bridgewater, contains the words "never let me go" and Kathy is shown often listening to it in the dark, thinking about Tommy. When they finally get together, their life together is cut short by the donations and the disproving of the deferrers rumour. When Tommy cries out in anguish, much like how he did as a child, Kathy as always comforts him. Kathy is shown looking at him when he has his operations done. The film ends with her thinking about him.

      All the performances were brilliant. Carey Mulligan has such a beautiful voice, and her narration is very impressive. She is the observer, and we feel her sentiments by the way she views things. I personally liked this performance of hers much better than in An Education, and she really has a long long way to go. I hate Keira Knightley and I hated Ruth, so that's that. Now coming to Mr. Garfield, well, he's simply splendid. Tommy is slightly confused, very innocent and emotional, and Andrew plays him perfectly. His character in this film, to me, was a mixture of Eduardo Saverin in The Social Network and Sheldon in I'm Here. And have I mentioned before how much I love his voice? A great deal to answer that question. He and Mulligan had excellent chemistry. One of my favourite scenes in when they have been told about how the deferrer story is untrue, and they both are sitting on the sofa holding back their tears. While Kathy is reserved as usual, trying to still smile, Tommy's face is full of hopeless sorrow. The child actors- Izzy Meikle-Small, Ella Purnell and Charlie Rowe, who played Kathy, Ruth and Tommy as students in Hailsham were really good too. Purnell actually reminded me of a smaller Eva Green, but Small (??) looked exactly like a younger Mulligan. Rowe was just adorable.

      The settings are breath-taking, especially the boat on the beach. The whole film has a very mellow cinematography, sort of like a grey dream, which is exactly what it was for the clones. The music is lovely, moreso whenever the "never let me go" song plays.

I definitely recommend everyone to watch it. With a box of tissues by your side.

Silence is the most powerful scream

Video- Classic Silent Types

WATCH THIS!!
NYTimes made 14 actors act out 14 silent movie types in segments of 1 minute each. The only silent movies I've ever seen are Charlie Chaplin's and Laurel and Hardy's. So I cannot say which film or which actor the actors in the video are portraying. Hence I decided to give each segment my own name, just based on the story being told.

1) Javier Bardem- Bittersweet Symphony
2) James Franco- Mirror Mirror on the Wall, who's the Dreamiest of them All?
3) Natalie Portman- The Drama Queen/Too Gorgeous for Her Own Good
4) Jesse Eisenberg- I'm CEO Bitch!
5) Chloe Mortez- Anger Management
6) Matt Damon- Read the Curse Words off My Lips
7) Michael Douglas- The Chair/ The Boss
8) Jennifer Lawrence- Thriller/ Rape in the Valley
9) Noomi Rapace- Total Effect (everything together makes the shot work- the singing, her earing, the cigarette, the perfectly polished nails, the dazzling microphone)
10) Vincent Cassel- Happy Feet/Fly Me to the Moon
11) Anthony Mackie- Run Forrest Run!
12) Robert Duvall- Gilette/ Shaving for Dummies
13) Lesley Manville- Telephone Conversation/ Wrong Number
14) Tilda Swinton- Angels with Dirty Faces/ A Prayer


My absolute favourites have to be Natalie Portman, Noomi Rapace, Vincent Cassel and Tilda Swinton. I was very happy that younger actors like Jesse Eisenberg, Chloe Mortez and Jennifer Lawrence got a chance too. Vincent Cassel is bloody sexy. And Tilda Swinton is an absolute Goddess, I love her to bits.

He looked like the love thoughts of women

So, the Sexiest Man Alive thing is out again, coinciding with this rather wonderful quote I found and put as the title. This is my own little list of faaaiiiinnneee men (actors only). I made it under 40...just so that I put pics of people other than Johnny Depp..
Enjoy!

Tom Sturridge- though he is practically a beggar, god does he look good....

Ryan Gosling- My earthquake man, I can never get enough...

Andrew Garfield- Pretty darn perfect

Daniel Radcliffe- 'Cuz being funny does matter.

Ian Somerhalder- Them eyes...

Joseph Gordon-Levitt- adorable till the end of days. Love his smile!

Matthew Goode- Brits make me go high

Leonard Di Caprio- He is my Jack and my Romeo

Jensen Ackles- I like manly men...sometimes

James McAvoy- The accent kills me.

Ewan Mcgregor- He's brilliant!

Jesse Eisenberg- I love Nerds



Of course I missed out someone...who??