Thoughts

       Wazza people? Did you know that 'totes' and 'amazeballs' are words in the dictionary now? And this meme doesn't apply because they are an actual part of English. Memes, you have failed us. Personally I find 'totes' funny, but that's just me.

1) September has turned into unofficial Doctor Who month on this blog. Sorry if that inconveniences anyone. I'm just really in love with this show.

2) Film Buzz- Ewan McGregor will now star in August: Osage County, along with Julia Roberts, Meryl Streep, Benedict Cumberbatch, Juliette Lewis, Abilgail Breslin, Chris Cooper, Dermot Mulroney, Sam Shepard, Margo Martindale and Misty Upham. Phew! Some cast that. Also Zero Theorem, the new Terry Gilliam film with Christoph Waltz in it, will now have Tilda Swinton too. If that isn't a dynamite trio, I don't know what. Then Christian Slater will join the Lars Von Trier's Nymphomaniac, which already has Shia La Beouf, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Willem Dafoe. It sounds really fucked up. My thoughts are exactly that of Sati's. Ew.

3) Links- Read this uber-adorable post on Mette's Journey to Wes Anderson Land.

4) I didn't publish this last week because I thought about dedicating a whole post to it, but then it hit me that I have done a lot of Harry Potter tributes on this blog. Anyways, this is "Mischief Managed: A Harry Potter Retrospective"-

Needless to say I was in tears by the end of this. I have realised that I can no longer watch a Harry Potter film without feeling a little sad inside. These were such a special series of films; you can see it from the video. From the look to the music to the absolutely epic cast of actors, and the story itself is so great. I just wish that they would have been more appreciated.

5) TIFF news and reviews are pouring in from everywhere. So here is what I have surmised so far- To the Wonder is Terrence Malick's weakest film yet, Ben Affleck's Argo is probably the best out there (Roger Ebert has gon as far as to say that it will win the Best Picture Oscar this year)- both very unexpected. Mixed reviews for Cloud Atlas, The Place Beyond the Pines, Like Someone in Love, Seven Psychopaths and a lot of love for David O. Russells's Silver Linings Playbook though it's supposedly total sell-out on the part of the usually eccentric director. The Master too hasn't received the universal acclaim one would expect from a Paul Thomas Anderson film, which is the most surprising conclusion of all. The one I am now looking forward the most too, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, is getting really good reviews! Also the newly re-cut On the Road is supposedly better. I can't wait to see all these movies!

6) A Whole Lot of Trailers and an Ad- A second Cloud Atlas trailer has come out, that is half the length of the former. I am really looking forward to this film actually. It looks absolutely stunning. The new Elle Fanning film, Ginger and Rosa has a trailer out. It looks really beautiful and apparently Fanning has done a brilliant job in it. I'm a fan, so I really want to watch it. Midnight's Children, which is Deepa Mehta's adaptation of one of my favourite books ever. I think the trailer looks really good, and though different from how I imagined it would look like, I am really looking forward to see how this one pans out. A Late Quartet, which has a very impressive cast boasting of Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Catherine Keener and Christopher Walken. I am not entirely intrigued by the trailer- it's kind of meh. The new horror film with a very goth Jessica Chastain and Jaime Lannister (his real name is too big) Mama has a trailer out. It looks pretty bad. But that is forgiven because have you seen this ad for Yves Saint Laurent with La Chastain, directed by Nicolas Winding Refn? I want to marry it. Then there is Smashed with Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Aaron Paul. The trailer looks okay but word has it that the film is really good and Winstead has given a stellar performance. Lincoln, whose trailer had a teaser for it- lolwut? Anyways, it reminds me too much of the super-awful War Horse which wasn't that terrible in itself but for all the unnecessary praise it received. THAT NOMINATION BELONGED TO DEATHLY HALLOWS, PART 2! Never forget. Daniel Day-Lewis is a shoo-in for an Oscar nom though. Duh. Finally there is the trailer to the much-awaited Aamir Khan-starrer Talaash that completely delivers on what we had expected. I am so glad such films are still being made. I really hope it is good. 

7) Btw, how do you like the new banner? It's one of my most favourite ones yet. 

8) Finally, continuing from the earlier Jessica Chastain appreciation-life avenue of thought, I give you this (Stevee must be overjoyed)-

She's making me fall in love with purple all over again. Votte goddess.

That's it for now I guess. Byee.

"Go, Tricey! Run like the wind!"

        I don't think a better quote could be used to describe the second episode of Doctor Who series 7, "Dinosaurs on a Spaceship". 'Tricey' of course refers to the triceratops that the Doctor, Rory and Rory's awesome dad Brian ride on to escape from bickering robots. Oh yeah... it was that kind of an episode.

      The episode was written by Chris Chibnall and directed by Saul Metzstein. This episode follows the mini-blockbuster movie trend started by the last episode "Asylum of the Daleks". While that was of a creepy horror/family drama genre, this is like Jurassic Park on a spaceship- a total fantasy romp. True it did not remotely reach the standard of brilliance set by the previous episode, but "Dinosaurs on a Spaceship" definitely had its moments.

1. The show skips around many places and periods before the credits. This is to show the "team" that the Doctor recruits for this new mission that he has no idea about. We first have Queen Nefertiti, who is into the Doctor and smelling (?) him in some weird way. All I can say, best not let River see you, sweetie. She was played by Riann Steele, who although beautiful, could not save this character from being bland and forgettable.

2) Also Rupert Graves, who plays the adorable Lestrade in Sherlock, was perhaps the worst part of this episode. He wasn't terrible, but his character, Riddell was kind of super annoying, which is a shame because I was ready to fall in love with him Oswin-style. He was rude, misogynistic, "a walking innuendo" (which was just awkward), and no one could understand why the hell the Doctor had befriended him.
3) And now to the good things, namely Mark Williams and David Bradley. Three cheers for the Harry Potter cast!! Williams was born to play Brian Pond Williams. His interactions with everyone, but especially Rory were priceless. The golf balls part was a bit cringe-worthy, but the trowel comment, "What sort of a man doesn't carry a trowel? Put it on your Christmas list" and the drinking tea while watching the Earth from the TARDIS- ah I love him! I want him to be my dad, or a really nice uncle. (I'll get to Bradley in a while).

4) So anyways the Doctor gets all of them (Brian accidentally) to come on a spaceship with *Spoilers- in a River Song voice of course* dinosaurs in it. He has to stop it from its course towards Earth, otherwise it will be blown up with missiles by this really mean Indian lady.

5) Due to teleports, "Well thank you, Arthur C. Clarke," the Doctor, Rory and Brian get separated from Amy, Neffy and Riddell and two teams get formed as a result, both trying to figure out what is happening and saving their butts from dinosaurs- the former from pterodactyls and the latter from baby T-Rexes.

6) It won't be unfair to say that this episode belonged to the Ponds/Williamses. I already mentioned Brian and Rory, and now it's Amy's turn. She gets to play Doctor in her little band, show how knowledgeable she's become in her travels- "Whenever you enter somewhere new, press buttons", fangirl over Neffy and be a total queen.

7) Hey Rory is 31! Who knew? Does that mean Amy is 31 too? Ugh, this timey-wimey stuff is confusing.

8) The other gang in the meantime get chased by pterodactyls into a cave where they run into two bickering robots who are expertly voiced by David Mitchell and Robert Webb. They work for Solomon, played by Bradley, who is an excellent villain. He is greedy and diabolical. I liked that they went with a proper villain like that, especially after last week's conceptual evilness of Daleks and the Asylum. What makes Solomon even more reprehensible is that all his motives are monetary-based, which is why he comes to the ship on the first place as the dinosaurs are very valuable. He even puts a price on the entire Doctor's team, and when he cannot find the Doctor himself on any records, the Doctor responds by saying that he's worthless (heart = broken).

9) Also evil little Solomon orders the robots, who have fantastic arguements with Rory, to injure Brian, but that is a good thing since we, along with Brian, get to see Rory's "awesome nursing skills in action". Oh I love Rory so, but this was still not his crowning moment in the episode.

10) During Amy's snooping, she finds out that the ship was in fact a Silurian ark, as the dinosaurs were being taken to another planet to rehabilitate that. But the nice Silurians were mercilessly killed by Solomon.

11) Of course a very important and the final member of Doctor's team in this episode, one who will forever be known as the Agent Phil Coulson of the Who-niverse (thanks Tumblr!) was Tricey, the golf-balls loving triceratops. Anyways, Doctor, Rory and Brian escape Solomon and the robots while riding him. Geronimo!

12) The missiles are soon launched by evil Indian lady and everyone is getting ready for it. Riddell for once makes himself useful by acquiring "large" tranquilizer guns and Rory tries to help the Doctor with his own companion knowledge. It is at this point that 'The Thing That This Episode Will Be Remembered For Forever" happened-

"Good thinking Rory!"

I was watching this very early in the morning and literally said "What. Just. Happened?" aloud to no one at all. Tumblr obviously died as a result. RIP. Also, a hundred million fanfics came to life.

Still, this little scene is followed by Rory's crowning glory moment, another example to show why he is one of my two most favourite companions-

13) So then Solomon demands Neffy to let the others get control of the ship. He kills Tricey to prove his point *sniff*. She does come, and being a benevolent leader (as shown from history and not this episode) and gives herself up, in spite of Doctor's opposition. But then he gets one of those plans.

14) The plan is that they'll fly the ship away from earth. First this is an obstacle as it can only be flown by two pilots of the same gene pool, but hey! Brian just happened to be there that day- we can either call this contrived or think that maybe, possibly, the TARDIS could have figured something out and thus materialized when he was with Amy and Rory. Whatever. As Matt Smith said, "Never apply logic to Who." Then the Doctor has to save Neffy from Solomon while making the missiles target his ship instead. And in the meantime, Riddell saves them from the danger of oncoming dinosaurs.

15) My favourite moments in Who are always the quieter moments between all this hoo haa. In this episode, it is when Doctor and Amy discuss how his visits are becoming fewer and further in between, which is a real concern to her as she is still the girl who waits. The Doctor assures her that he isn't trying to wear them off and then in a foreshadow-y move that would have made Christopher Nolan proud, he says "You'll be there till the end of me" to which Amy replies, "Or vice-versa." And then they look at each other in this really concerned manner.

16) Okay so that scared me. I have a horrible feeling that something bad will happen to Amy since no one will actually believe Rory dying. Gahhh.

17) Anyways while Amy heads off to fight dinosaurs with Riddle like a man, or well two men, the Williams men fly the ship and the Doctor goes to save Neffy. He does so, and then in a very uncharacteristic fashion, leaves Solomon to die from the missiles. I did think it was odd. This is something the David Tennant Doctor would have never done, but when you think about the genocide committed by Solomon, it is a fair judgement. Just not what we are used to.

18) The ending is as happy as they come. Brian sees the earth from the TARDIS as mentioned above, but then also goes traveling all around it. The dinosaurs get a planet named Siluria. Neffy and Riddell become lovers because she does prefer his innuendos to her boring husband. Only the Doctor looks really concerned. About what though, we can only speculate until Steven Moffat puts us out of our misery ("or vice versa").

         Definitely a fun episode, see! The ship looked pretty cool and the dinosaurs were very believable. It is sad that we have to keep comparing it to the previous episode, but since that was so perfect, it is a little difficult not to do so. Still, with characters like Brian (who will be back for "The Power of Three"!) and the robots and that fateful kiss (Drory forever), this episode will always be remembered fondly.

         Now next week is the episode I am looking most excited for, except for "Angels in Manhattan" of course, though that's more of a scared and anxious excitement. The excitement for "A Town Called Mercy" is pure and unadulterated. Trust Doctor Who to be the only thing outside of a Quentin Tarantino movie to make me excited about westerns. But seriously, this one looks cool. Can't wait!

"Save us!"

        This is a new series of posts I am starting about the brilliant and legendary sci-fi show, Doctor Who. The new series has just started and I will recap/review/discuss/freak out about every episode thereof. I barely discuss television in this blog and it'll be a good addition, I hope, to it. Maybe after Doctor Who gets over, I can make another show the main focus and continue. I know this all sounds half-baked, and that's because it is half-baked, but seeing that the new episode of Doctor Who will come out today, I am slightly constrained for time and I just want to start writing these posts. With time, will come more sense, I hope again. Till then, bear with me and as the Doctor says before doing something crazy, "Geronimo!"


           First, a little background on Who and me. I started watching the fifth series of the New Doctor Who last September. I have only watched the new series, from Doctors Nine to Eleven and am not going to pretend to be someone with immense Who-knowledge. I don't think I will ever watch Classic Who, since that spans about four decades. I started watching Doctor Who because: 1) Tumblr and its Who-obsession is a little hard to ignore, 2) I thought Matt Smith had a very interesting face, 3) he appeared to be a wearing a bow tie, which I love, as this Doctor person, 4) I had seen a little bit of it on a flight and it looked interesting enough... certainly worth a look.

          The first episode I properly saw was "The Eleventh Hour". I was immediately swept away. I loved the humour, the cleverness and the whole save-the-day aspect of it. The Doctor reminded me of people like Indiana Jones and Tony Stark. Matt Smith's version of him looked so young, but it was believable when he said that he is 900 years old too, like a really happy vampire. The childlike looks mixed with this great wisdom was a wonderful combination that I found hard to ignore. His "companion" was Amy Pond, a gorgeous and feisty redhead (!!). There were evil villains and childhood obsessions and cracks-in-walls. There was a totally awesome part in the climax when Smith officially introduces himself as the Doctor and tells the aliens trying to blow up the planet to "Basically run" with the new theme playing in the background. I loved it, all of it. And from then on, I saw the whole of series 5 and 6, that are about Smith's Eleventh Doctor and then went back to series 1 with Christopher Eccleston, the Ninth Doctor, followed by series 2, 3, 4 of David Tennant's Tenth Doctor.

          I will give a detailed account of all this on a later post, but I must talk about how people have their "own" Doctors, basically meaning that one of the eleven incarnations of the Doctor will always be their favourite and represent for them the 900+ year old time-and-space travelling alien. My Doctor is definitely Smith's bow-tie-and-tweed-jacket wearing Eleventh Doctor. I think he is just delightful and well, awesome! And I love what the current head writer of the series, Steven Moffat, has done with Smith's reign. I have always enjoyed the more epic scale of Moffat's writing. It feels like an adventure or a fantasy or a sci-fi story, with all these fantastic characters in them, headed by "the mad man with a box". Yes his predecessor, Russel T. Davies has a more emotionally-driven core to all his series, but for me at least, I think Moffat's tales can be very poignant too, albeit a little crazy at times. I guess that is because he himself is such a fanboy of the series that he just wants to put everything in there and then realises that he needs to reconcile all of that, as we can see in the sixth series. That definitely got a bit messy, but it was a lot of fun too.

          So all this introduction brings us to the actual matter at hand, the episode 7x01 named "Asylum of the Daleks":

1) Just from the get-go, the scale and the look of the episode is leaps and bounds ahead of anything I have seen in Doctor Who yet. If one would compare the comically terrible-looking Atraxi from "The Eleventh Hour" and the gorgeous Dalek parliament in "Asylum of the Daleks", they can see how far this show has come in only two years. There is an immediate blockbuster movie appeal to it.
2) Before the opening credits, we are told that though most of the universe now believes that the Doctor is dead, his mortal enemies, the Daleks, think otherwise and are even able to trap him via this human-Dalek chick- that was a bit contrived because it isn't that easy to trick the man or he would have been dead over ten times by now (he sort of is, if you think about it).

3) Also we see the very surprising divorce taking place between childhood sweethearts, Amy Pond and Rory Williams. I really like how this show exploits Karen Gillan's, who plays Amy, modelling background since her character, the erstwhile kissogram, is a big model now. The Daleks abduct them too.
4) I love the part when all the Daleks start pleading "Save the Daleks!" Especially with all the lights. My thoughts were exactly like the Doctor's, "This is new."
5) Btw, in case you are a non-Who watcher and are reading this just because you love me so, the Daleks are an alien race that hate everyone and everything except each other and their big aim in life is to "Exterminate!" everything in their path. Unfortunately for them, the Doctor is always in their path. They look like a big letterbox mixed with a vacuum cleaner, which is why even though they are pretty ruthless, I  can never take them very seriously. But I think that as a concept, the Daleks are definitely a very formidable enemy because they are completely made of hate, and even find it beautiful, as the Doctor finds out in this episode.
6) Hey new opening credits! There will be a new one for each of the first five episodes, which are the last five Ponds episodes *sniff*. Anyways, this one had the "Doctor Who" sign embedded with the Dalek "eggs".

7) I don't think I was the only one who was confused to see Jenna-Louise Coleman, the new companion who was reported to be introduced on in the Christmas special, popping up in this episode. Still, with her souffles and Carmen, I was immediately drawn to her character, very Stan Lee-ly named Oswin Oswald. Okay yes, she's the typical Moffat woman- sexy, brainy and fun, but gah I want to be her already.
8) So basically the reason the Daleks have recruited the Doctor and his companions are because a ship has landed on a planet named the Asylum, where they keep all the mad Daleks, and since someone has gotten in in spite of the planet's force field, these unstable Daleks that even the normal Daleks are scared of, can get out. So they need someone to go to the planet, close the force field from inside so that they can destroy the planet, even though they find such extreme hatred divine.
9) The ship is Oswin's and she's been transmitting "Habanera" from Carmen as a distress call. I love Eleven's face when he asks Oswin what she has been doing for over a year to protect herself from the Daleks and she replies that she's been making souffles, and he goes "Souffles? Against the Daleks?" He's the only person who makes me want to sing "Funny Face".
10) So the Daleks choose the Doctor, their "Predator" and Amy and Rory to be the ones to complete this mission and fire them at the planet. "You're going to fire me at a planet? That's your plan- I get fired at a planet and expected to fix it!"
11) The Asylum is shown as a snow-clapped planet. The outdoor scenes were shot in Spain and the show keeps its now big-budget look. Amy and Doctor land on the ice and Rory actually fell into the underground tunnels of the place, where all the Daleks are kept.

12) At this juncture, I have to say that I have decided that Donna and Rory are officially my favourite companions. Arthur Darvill plays Rory with so much heart and has a brilliant comedic timing. The whole scene when he discovers that he's surrounded by all these mad Daleks, with their "eggs" is both scary and funny, which isn't easy to pull off, but he does so effortlessly.
13) Okay so many people found the rotting-skeleton-Dalek-hybrid-puppet-things with the laser coming out of their heads scary, but I didn't. I felt the Dalek eye that Oswin operated to talk to the Doctor when he has crashed on the planet was much more sinister.
14) Anyways this thing called nanogene cloud in the planet turns all organic matter into a Dalek, which is why there are rotting-skeleton-Dalek-hybrid-puppet-things, and Amy loses the nano-field bracelet protecting her from it.

15) Meanwhile Oswin helps both the Doctor and Rory to navigate the place and protect themselves from the Dalek as she has managed to hack into the Dalek mainframe. At these moments, Oswin truly shines for me. Telling Rory to take off his shirt because "Does there have to be a reason?" and making fun of the Doctor's chin, and having my favourite exchange in the whole episode:
“Is there a word for total screaming genius that sounds modest and a tiny bit sexy?”
“Doctor. You call me the Doctor.”
“I see what you did there.”
♥ ♥
16) I have been reading about how this episode evokes the atmospheric terror of The Thing. I haven't seen the movie myself, but I really want to now.
17) I liked the part when Amy goes all psyche-Dalek (see what I did there) and sees visions of various people when there are Daleks instead. Ballerina Dalek was pretty.
18) Also when the Doctor blows up the Dalek, or rather makes it blow itself up. Geronimo!
19) And, Amy slapping Rory when she gains consciousness was fun.
20) From here on, the show becomes much darker and emotional. Oswin talking about how a person becomes a Dalek when love is subtracted from then and hatred is filled in them has a bang-on effect when you think about it retrospectively.

21) Also, my favourite part of the episode, along with Oswin and the look, was the emotional scene between Amy and Rory. Amy's look of hurt when Rory says that she should wear his bracelet because it'll take longer to subtract love from him since he loves Amy more. I can sort of accept that (I wish I could get someone who would wait 2000 years for me), but I am pretty sure that Amy loved him a lot too. Still, when she talks about how she had to give him up because she could not have children after Demon's Run, and thus not make Rory happy in that way, her love for him can also not be compared. And then they realise that the Doctor had already secretly put his bracelet on her, and we see the Doctor fixing his bow tie, proving Amy's earlier statement wrong- "It's not one of those things you can fix like you fix your bow tie." Doctored!

22) I'm not going into the main plot twist of the episode, except that Oswin is amazing, Moffat is a troll and all the Daleks have officially forgotten who the Doctor is-

"Doctor Who?" (times million)
"Fellas, you're never gonna stop asking." <-- I love the way Smith says that too.

        All in all, it was a cracker of an episode. Epic in scale, but with a superb emotional bang. For someone like me who isn't particularly impressed by the Daleks, I liked how it didn't focus on them so much as again, the concept of them. This is why when the Doctor suddenly finds himself surrounded by the craziest of all the Daleks, those who survived him, and literally screams for help, we can understand what a malevolent race they really are. Moffat put in the perfect balance of humour, horror and drama in it. The director Nick Hurran made it feel so movie-like, and the whole look and mood was Jenna-Louise Coleman as Oswin is already a fan-favourite and it will be very interesting to see how she will return in the Christmas special. Matt Smith, as always, is the flaily, mean, genius-y, hilarious, concerned Doctor who I love. Gillan and Darvill too shine in their big scene. My favourite first episode since "The Eleventh Hour".

        The next episode, that is merely minutes away, is called, rather gleefully, "Dinosaurs on a Spaceship". It has people from Harry Potter! Mark Williams aka Arthur Weasley will play Rory's dad and I can just imagine how humorous this duo would be. Also David Bradley aka Argus Filch is there and I guess is the baddy. Finally we have Rupert Graves from possibly the better but less funner half of the Wholock phenomenon, Sherlock where he plays Lestrade. He is said to be an Indiana Jones-esque character and that will be fantabulous!


Note: This post was originally titled "The Doctor and Tyra" because I was going to discuss the current America's Next Top Model episode too. But I realized that I really don't have the mental capacity to write about that hot mess. The only reason I am mentioning all this is because I wrote an equally insane opening paragraph to this post that I masochistically need to share because I'm afraid this is the peak of my creativity. I give you, my spur-of-the-moment pitch for, "The Doctor and Tyra": 

'The TARDIS accidentally crashes into the Top Model house and the Doctor finds himself surrounded by crazy model wannabes who are actually from planet Fierce from the Pot Ledom galaxy and Tyra Banks is their psychotic alien ruler extraordinaire who wants humans to become her slaves, but fashionable ones and is disgusted by the Doctor's bow tie and orders him to remove it and since he cannot stand for such a stylistic travesty because obviously "Bow ties are cool", he teaches this to the models who then kill Tyra with her own curling iron zapper. GERONIMO!'

Oh wait, I think this is the plot of Tyra Banks's next bestseller. My bad. Ignore all of this.

         I hope you liked this. I don't know how many of you watch Doctor Who, but you should because it is awesome :)

Thoughts

Hiiii people! I don't know why I sound so excited. I have literally been sleeping all day. My virtual persona seems wayyyy more active than I am, which just goes to show how lethargic I am in real life. So after that useless bit of trivia about yours truly that no one asked for, I give you my thoughts of the week-

1) BEFORE MIDNIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! IT'S HAPPENING!!!!!!!!!! OR RATHER IT HAS ALREADY SUPER-SECRETLY HAPPENED!!!!!!!! ZOMG I'M SO EXCITED THAT EVEN THESE MANY EXCLAMATION MARKS PALE IN COMPARISON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2) Yeah... so Before Midnight, the third part to the absolutely wonderful Before Sunrise-Sunset movies has wrapped up filming in Greece. There is a picture and everything. I am not even going to speculate about what has happened or will happen. I just need more of Celine and Jesse in my life, and I am very thankful for the existence of this movie. With this and The World's End, we are seeing the possibility of two of the greatest trilogies ever coming out next year. Yaaay!

3) Fassy is going to play a rockstar in new indie movie, Frank. It is a comedy that also stars Domhnall Gleeson, aka Bill Weasley, as "an aspiring musician who finds himself in over his head when he joins an eccentric rock band led by Fassbender." Fassy, as everyone knows by now, is a super-actor who seems to never rest because he is permanently filming. I'm not complaining though. This project seems like fun, and I don't think I have ever seen Fassy do anything comic. His Archie Hicox and Erik Lensherr had elements of humour in them, but that's about it.

4) The other two big movie news of this week is that Spike Jonze's next film, Her, will have Joaquin Phoenix falling in love with a computer. "In the not so distant future, Theodore (Joaquin Phoenix), a lonely writer purchases a newly developed operating system designed to meet the user's every needs. To Theodore's surprise, a romantic relationship develops between him and his operating system. This unconventional love story blends science fiction and romance in a sweet tale that explores the nature of love and the ways that technology isolates and connects us all." This will be amazing. It's sort of like his previous films but then not really. I love Phoenix being weird. It also has a great female cast consisting of Rooney Mara, Samantha Morton, Olivia Wilde and Amy Adams. Presently both Phoenix and Adams can be seen in Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master, whose next will be an adaptation of  Inherent Vice, about "Larry 'Doc' Sportello a private eye based in Los Angeles in the late 1960s. He’s a believer in the psychedelic free-love era, and his case involves an ex-girlfriend, her real estate billionaire boyfriend and a kidnapping." And none other than Robert Downey Jr. is said to be eyeing this role. I can see both these films being out-of-this-world fantabulous! Cannot wait.

5) This is probably the most unsurprising news ever, but there's a new Woody Allen film in the making that I just found out about. It is being filmed in San Francisco. As always, it boasts of a pretty impressive cast, headed by the sublime Cate Blanchett (2nd Oscar time please!), Peter Sarsgaard, Alec Balwin and Sally Hawkins. I am yet to see To Rome with Love, but seeing how every alternate Woody film is brilliant (the last one being my beloved Midnight in Paris), I have high hopes for it.

6) Links- A very happy 23rd birthday to Sati and a very happy 1st blog birthday to Aziza's Picks :D

7) Trailers- Hansel and Gretel Witch Hunters, which looks so hilariously bad that I almost want to see it. The Impossible, that looks like an incredible family drama and stars one of my most favourite actors, Ewan McGregor and also Naomi Watts. The To Do List which has the awesome Aubrey Plaza, looks fun though not all that much. Still, I love her and I will probably watch this. The Iceman that has Michael Shannon, Ray Liota, Winona Ryder (!!), Chris Evans and James Franco. What can I say, it had me at Winona (please let this be her comeback). A really cool cast overall actually. On the Road's latest trailer looks really good, and I like it so much more than the previous one. It is more along the lines of what I imagined it to be. Also, with the reediting of the film, it will be interesting to see how much better a film it has become.

8) Finally, Doctor Who series 7 started this week and it was abso-bloomin'-lutely epic!! I am thinking of doing weekly posts on it and on, wait for it, the hot mess that is America's Next Top Model. Let's see if I can find time this week to do the first one, otherwise I'll just freak out about Who in the next weekly thoughts post. Until then, let's just rejoice the Doctor style-

Bitchin'

That's all folks.

Thoughts on Turning 20 and a List

            It has taken me a while to finally write this post but better late than never, right?

            My 20th birthday was certainly the most interesting one I have had yet. About a month ago, I put down a demand in front of my parents that I wanted to spend it in Delhi, with my school friends. They bitched and moaned about it, but they too had been planning a trip there, and so they finally agreed and I was over the moon.

           Now before I go any further, you must know that for some inexplicable reason my fate follows the Tyler Durden philosophy of “losing all hope was freedom”, which basically means that whenever I really want something to happen, the opposite happens, but when I stop wanting it, voila!

          I give this little piece of information because just the week before we were scheduled to leave, my little brother fell really sick and the whole plan was very nearly scrapped. Still, with cautious optimism and a whole ton of meds, my family and I led on. We persevered through a terribly uncomfortable two-night train journey to Ajmer (the first of our two stops). We tolerated the awful hotel room that had been booked for us. Things seemed brighter, and then I got a high fever on the eve of my big day.

          So at nearly midnight on the 24th of August, I was in a non-AC Indian train, sick and tired and annoyed! Still I found myself reflecting backwards, and forwards. I was unexpectedly having all these thoughts that were further triggered by an extremely appropriate song I happened to be listening to at the moment. The chorus of the song is “Forever I’ve known, that nothing lasts forever” and I just knew that I had to record these musings somewhere because they felt oddly important and something I would want to look back on maybe a later birthday.

Note- Thank God and Samsung for the memo app in my phone- a friend when-one-doesn’t-have-a-pen-or-paper-or-even-sufficient-lights-for-that-matter is a friend indeed.

          I am of the opinion that certain events in a person’s life allow them to, however phonily, philosophize everything around them. Blame the assortment of pills and ayurvedic tonics brewing in my stomach at the time, but that’s exactly what I started to do. I mean I had been, to avert my brother’s taunts about my “lame train birthday”, making up all these claims about how it is actually very symbolic since like the train, I too am moving from one place in my life to another. But at that moment, these fake excuses started to make sense. Even the actual striking of the clock at midnight was at some random junction where the train had just stopped, and this weird age that I had not been bracing myself for at all started. Just like that. Due to the play, my brother’s sickness and the traveling, I had not had any time to freak out about the birthday and then it just suddenly came out of nowhere and hit me like a big, yellow school bus!

          And as I do in any given situation, I started thinking about films. How now the teenage films were not for me anymore! How could this be?! Strangely, two of the best films I had seen recently were about women dealing with their age- Bachelorette, in which the women were stuck in their high school personas and Another Woman, in which the protagonist, who was in her 50s, looks back at her life. I had also read a book on a similar topic, and all this made me realise that the reason why I wasn’t feeling like the age that I was. I had grown up watching and reading and listening and thinking that 20 is different. That that would be the age when I grow up and know what to do and how to be. That I would come of age, whatever that means. But age really is, just a number.

          The reason I say this is because in the morning, after I almost fainted in the train station, I, Nikhat Zahra, 20 years old, slept cuddled up next to my mommy (because that’s what I do when I’m sick, okay). The rest of the day was much nicer. My health improved. I met my friend who I had not seen for more than a year. We went to a little music-y gathering in her college, that on that perfect, rainy afternoon was a beautiful and enjoyable experience. We had McDonalds and later a slice of really delicious chocolate cake. She and my other friend gifted me a pair of sex dice and this uber cool camera-shaped USB thing (best gifts everrrr!). We unfortunately couldn’t get drunk or do anything more eyebrow raising, but for a day that was very close to not happening at all, it ended up being really fun.

         So now I am 20 years and 10 days old. Have I come of age yet? Probably not. Have I done the things I wanted to do by the time I was 20 years and 10 days? Mostly no. But as they say, the youth is wasted on the young. I now look forward to make the best of these years of my life.


           Also speaking of the list, here are My Favourite Coming Of Age Films (what else?). I'm putting random quotes instead of explanations because my own perception of the term is hazy-

Honourable Mentions: While it's probably my favourite film of the lot, I just cannot accept The Breakfast Club as a coming-of-age film presently. Right now, it represents the eternal power of youth and only that for me. I will probably regret not placing it in the list later, but it is what it is. Also I have practically no memory of 400 Blows, and though I know that I really liked it, I don't remember my feelings for this aspect of it. The other mentions are About a Boy, Ghost World and Fish Tank.

10) Clueless (1995)

"I want to do something for humanity."

9) The Graduate (1967)

"It's like I was playing some kind of game, but the rules don't make any sense to me. They're being made up by all the wrong people. I mean no one makes them up. They seem to make themselves up."

8) Igby Goes Down (2002)

"I'm drowning in assholes."

7) Stand By Me (1986)

"We knew exactly who we were and exactly where we were going. It was grand."

6) Margaret (2011)

"Because... this isn't an opera! And we are not all supporting characters to the drama of your amazing life!"

5) Submarine (2011)

"I often imagine how people would react to my death."

4) Rushmore (1998)

"The secret, I don't know... I guess you've just gotta find something you love to do and then... do it for the rest of your life. For me, it's going to Rushmore."

3) The Dreamers (2003)

"Before you can change the world you must realize that you, yourself, are part of it. You can't stand outside looking in."

2) Juno (2007)

"Uhhh, I hate it when adults use the term "sexually active." What does it even mean? Am I gonna like deactivate some day or is it a permanent state of being?"

1) Almost Famous (2000)

"One day you'll be cool. Look under your bed, it'll set you free."

         I hope you liked this, whatever it is :)

The Month that was- August

Sorry I'm a bit late on this post! August has been a bit of a blur, due to the play, the traveling, the birthday, the ill-health etc. I had honestly felt that this was the month where I have watched the least number of movies, but apparently no. I managed to squeeze in 26 films this month (counting a film I rewatched twice). Yaaayy!

Firsts:

1) Kahan Kahan Se Guzre- This is a documentary that was screened in my college about a very eminent Indian theatre and cinema personality, M.S. Sathyu. It was alright.

2) Beowulf- Because we're studying it in our course and the professor wanted us to see how terrible this adaptation is. It truly is.

3) Haywire- That Fassy vs Carano fight has become my most favourite fight of this year. The rest of the film fades in comparison.

4) Margaret- Oh I loved this. It was so flawed, but I was at a loss of words and just a bundle of emotions after I saw it.

5) Swingers- It was fun. Vince Vaughn gets on my nerves though.

6) 2 Days in New York- This had its moments, but not as good as its predecessor, 2 Days in Paris.

7) Short Cuts- I had been meaning to finish this for months. It was very good. I love ensembles.

8) Waking Life- This should have been a part of my animation month. So weird and dreamy. But it needs to be watched completely awake.

9) Bachelorette- And thus, a life-long love for a movie is born. I adored it. Almost every minute of it. It was everything I wanted Bridesmaids to be.

10) Cabin in the Woods- This was so clever and awesome! I can see this becoming a cult favourite.

11) Stagecoach- For film studies. I quite liked it, and also didn't fall asleep! Point for westerns.

12) Delicatessen- Oh this was so dark and cool and quirky and pretty and delightful. There were sequences in it that I will love forever.

13) Another Woman- Oh Woody. Many a time when I watch one of Woody's movies, it ends up being the perfect cure for whatever mood is ailing me at the moment. This was no different. Just lovely.

14) The Last Picture Show- There were elements of it that were just spectacular, but I found it very hard to concentrate on the movie.

15) Stand By Me- I love how simple yet how profound this was. A truly remarkable coming-of-age film.

16) Shirin Farhad Ki Toh Nikal Padi- This could have been a good film. Casting Boman Irani and Farha Khan as its leads was nothing short of extraordinary, but god. So much unnecessary drama. Eugh.

17) The Deep Blue Sea- The only thing more stunning than the look of this period drama is Rachel Weisz's flawless performance as its tragic heroine. Pretty good. Stupid last shot.

Rewatched:

1) The Dark Knight Rises- Frustrating because it is so close to perfection and then lets stupid flaws come in its way.

2) I'm Not There- There's so much of this film I don't understand, but the fact that it exists makes me happy. 

3) Hugo- For film studies. I made them watch it after we finished studying Méliès.

4) Singin' in the Rain (twice)- The first time for this post, and the second time for film studies.

5) Bachelorette- I had to watch it again. It's just that much fun!

6) Batman Returns- I love you Michelle Pfeiffer. You are still the best Catwoman ever.
7) The Princess Diaries- It was coming on tv. I like it. Bite me.
8) The Tree of Life- Made my film studies class watch this as well. I'm sure some of them hate me by now.


TV Shows:

Well, True Blood season 5 came to an end. So did The Newsroom but I just gave up watching it. Regarding True Blood, what a crap and fucked up season! There was a lot of unnecessary shit, but it did end with a bit of a bang so yaay! And it had a fairy strip club, so YAAAY! a) Favourite episode- Save Yourself. It was a fun season finale okay. Points for death by fly, orgasmic fairy-human birth, evil Bill. b) MVP- Deborah Ann Woll as Jessica Hamby. I love her. She makes this show fun and almost realistic, because she is as confused by this world as we are. Also the scene where she makes Hoyt forget her *tears forever*. c) Favourite quotes- Steve Newlin's incredible admission, "I'm a gay vampire American", Jason Stackhouse's "That train has already sailed" and the deadpan queen, Pam's "You don't know me that well. My angry face and my happy face are the same."

Books:

Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood- Read it throughout my train journey. Not the best book to read when you're suddenly looking back on the last 20 years of your non-life and wondering what happened, but really well-written. I liked the detailed style of writing, but sometimes it got on my nerves.

Final tally:  

                           Firsts- 191                        Rewatched- 89                       Shorts- 16

                                                                      Total- 296

This month I will hopefully get my viewing back on track. There are quite a few posts I intend to publish soon (though intention vs reality is a significant factor to consider), so watch out for them. Byee.