Thoughts

Ha I had almost forgotten that this blog existed. Goddamn exams! Anyways, I am back now. Here's what my thoughts have been to film-related news of the past couple of weeks.

1) So Quentin Tarantino has announced that he is thinking about retiring after he is done with his tenth film, which if you count the two Kill Bill movies as one, is three films away. The reason he has given is that he wants to leave his career at a high. While the reasoning is somewhat logical, all I have to say is this- NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!! 
I need more Tarantino movies, like hundreds more. Obviously that's not possible, but he can at least increase his stupid limit. I honestly think he's a genius, so I don't know what he's worried about. Although the fact that he has kind of planned his life as if it were a movie, makes me love and worship him even more.

2) Benedict Cumberbatch and James McAvoy may be starring in the Wikileaks movie together. Cumberbatch has already been cast as Julian Assange and McAvoy will probably play the disillusioned Wikileaks spokesperson Domscheit-Berg. Both of them have already starred together in Starter for 10 and Atonement. I am obviously incredibly excited by this new project and for seeing these two very talented and gorgeous, pretty-eyed and sexy-voiced British actors working together.

3) So The Amazing Spider-Man and its sequel continues to cause me distress. The role of Harry Osbourne is now up for grabs and vying for it are people like Dane DeHaan, Alden Ehrenreich, Brady Corbet, Eddie Redmayne, Douglas Booth, Sam Claflin and Boyd Holbrook. DeHaan, Ehrenreich and Redmayne are among my favourite young actors at present (haven't seen Ehrenreich in a film yet, but he's so pretty in the Sofia Coppola-Natalie Portman- Dior perfume ad). As it is I will probably watch the idiotic sequel because of Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone, and Shailene Woodley if she accepts the role of the goddawful Mary Jane, but it becomes so much harder to hate these films with such wonderful and good-looking talent involved. Burn Spidey, burn.

4) There is a Jackie Brown prequel in the works, which will be based on the book 'The Switch', written by Elmore Leonard. This book is a prequel of 'Rum Punch', which Jackie Brown was based upon. It will be about the characters Ordell Robbie and Louis Gara, who were played by Samuel L. Jackson and Robert De Niro in Jackie Brown respectively. The prequel will star Mos Def and John Hawkes in these respective roles. It will also star Isla Fisher as Maggie, who was played by Bridget Fonda in Jackie Brown. I am intrigued by this project and love the inclusion of Hawkes, who is a fine actor.

5) John Hawkes was among the many people interviewed in this year's batch of The Hollywood Reporter's Oscar Roundtables. I wait eagerly for these, though this year has been a bit disappointing so far. The Writers was kind of terrible because I just thought it was so odd to put Judd Apatow and Michael Haneke in the same room together. The Actors was rather good and maybe the most professional of the lot. The best was the Actresses, even though the interviewers suck at asking them the important questions. Still, Anne Hathaway, Helen Hunt, Naomi Watts, Sally Field, Marion Cotillard, Rachel Weisz (yaay!) and Amy Adams in one room together is too much brilliance. The Directors isn't out yet, and it is usually the one I enjoy the most.

6) Aaron Sorkin has announced that his script for the Steve Jobs biopic will be very unconventional- it will consist of three scenes of thirty minutes each, shot in real time. The three scenes will take place in the backstage during the product launches of Mac, NeXT and iPod. It sounds really novel and cool and I have trust in Sorkin (when he's not being too American) and cannot wait for this film to be made.

7) Did you know that I made a Bollywood syllabus with SDG for Ryan at The Matinee? SO EXCITED!!

8) Lots of trailers- World War Z which has quite an exciting trailer and Brad Pitt and fast zombies, who look a bit too CGI-ey but I'm sure it will be fine in the film. Still, the zombie movie I am more excited for is Warm Bodies, which looks hilarious. I mean, it's a zombie romcom people- a zomcom! The whole story is evident from the trailer but I love Nicholas Hoult and Teresa Palmer is very pretty. The other supernatural Hoult movie with a trailer out is Jack the Giant Slayer, made by Bryan Singer and co-starring Ewan McGregor and Mark Strong. This looks a bit unfortunate, just like the other upcoming fairytale movie, Oz The Great and Powerful. This has a good cast- I am especially loving Rachel Weisz and Michelle Williams in this mix, but god too much is going on in the trailer and if the film is like that, we have a guaranteed technicolor headache, people :/ Speaking of, now that Twilight is over, there are many movies that want to target that whole demographic and some of them have trailers out. First of all, we have the trailer of Stephenie Meyer's very own The Host that has Saoirse Ronan (why Saoirse, why), Max Irons (next RPatz maybe? Though with definite Jeremy Irons genes), Boyd Holbrook and Diane Kruger. I will say it looks less painful than Twilight. Next, Beautiful Creatures actually has Jeremy Irons in it, along with the likes of Emma Thompson and Viola Davis. The reason I mention them first and not the protagonists played by Alden Ehrenreich (pretty :-) ) and Jane Campion's daughter Alice Englert, is because this trailer is an absolute monstrosity and I don't understand how people of their caliber are starring in this movie. It also has Emmy Rossum, remember her? The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones stars Lily Collins and Jamie Campbell Bower and looks okay-ish. I have heard good things about the books though, so we'll see. Jean Dujardin's next Mobius looks like a painfully predictable and stereotypical action-spy movie. Also I like seeing him happy- too much smouldering going on. A few comedies are also in the works- The Heat is made by the Bridesmaids folk and stars Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy as cops. The trailer is quite bad, but I like the people involved. Tina Fey and Paul Rudd are two other people who I like a lot and they are starring in Admission, which looks sweet. Parental Guidance has Billy Crystal and Bette Midler playing Marissa Tomei's visiting parents. I think I will watch this when it comes on TV... at some point. One of the better trailers that I have seen is of Steven Soderbergh's next and possibly last theatrical feature *sniff* Side Effects. Love Rooney Mara being a crazy person, and Jude Law looks good too. Goddamn Channing Tatum continues to get good roles though, so that sucks balls. The king of trailers this week is Now You See Me, which has quite an excellent cast headed by Jesse Eisenberg, who I love like shit. There is also Mark Ruffalo, Isla Fisher, Melanie Laurent, Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine and Dave Franco. The trailer and the premise looks intriguing enough, but I will say that there is a huge possibility of the film being really terrible, or conversely really good. Finally in the world of television, we have the trailer to the David Fincher- Kevin Spacey Netflix series House of Cards which looks fantastic. Only Fincher can get me excited about a show on US politics. It also stars Robin Wright, Kate Mara and Corey Stoll. And then we have the trailer to Doctor Who Christmas special The Snowmen, which will have Richard E. Grant playing the baddie and the introduction of the new companion Clara, played by Jenna Louise-Coleman who I have started to like a lot already. Accio Christmas!

9) Liked/loved The Cabin in the Woods? See this article on the its awesome opening titles.

10) Finally, just when you thought there possibly could not be anymore pictures of Ryan Gosling posted on this blog-

It's actually not sane how attracted I am to this poster. Reasons- 

a) Ryan Gosling

b) Nicolas Winding Refn

c) The beat-up face that reminds me of Fight Club

d) Beat-up Ryan Gosling

e) The fact that their previous film together was Drive

f) Ryan Gosling

I hope to blog loads now that exams are over. Tata!

Mini Reviews- Y Tu Mamá También, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown and Sex, Lies, and Videotape

       First, a note: I have sort of been on a movie-watching high and it's been really difficult to write any reviews because as soon as I finish one film and am thinking about reviewing it, I put on the another film and lose the chain of thought associated with the first one. So for now I'll be doing mini-reviews of films, and I'll probably do them in groups of 3s. They will have some theme running through them, according to my perception, instead of just putting them in random order or chronologically. Also, I am just going to keep doing these mini reviews until some day I decide to write a proper one for a single film, and then maybe I'll write more of these short ones. Let's see.

Y Tu Mamá También (Dir: Alfonso Cuarón, 2001)

Basic Plot- A very steamy coming-of-age tale about two reckless young friends, Julio and Tenoch, who go on a road trip across Mexico and to a seemingly made-up beach named "Heaven's Mouth" with Tenoch's cousin's wife Luisa, after she finds out that her husband has been cheating on her.


           This film was unlike any coming-of-age film I have ever seen, and by that I mean the transition in people from their childishness to maturity. And Julio and Tenoch were childish. Played by Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna respectively, we see how all both of these friends only seem to care about their girlfriends or their sex-lives or just fooling around. And generally I am not this reprimanding of people, but the backdrop of the story shows how there is a huge change going about all around Mexico and these two seem oblivious to it. I really loved the scenes explaining the lives of people during this time, and how Julio, Tenoch and Luisa just sort of drove by. Luisa is played by the gorgeous Spanish actress Maribel Verdú, who is the object of desire for both these young men. But this is where it gets interesting for me, as they both are very much her objects of desire too. We may think she goes on this slightly hedonistic trip with them to get back at her husband, but what she is really doing is experiencing life. Amidst all the sex-talk and flirting and taunting and fighting, we see how Louisa happens to these two friends, and how they change due to the most unexpected things. I personally felt bad about how different they are at the end, but c'est la vie I suppose.


             The film is directed by Alfonso Cuarón, who is superb. At the face of it, it might seem to be a simple story but it really is not. All three leads were great, but I especially loved Verdú, who I think captured the enigma and the beauty of being an older woman so effortlessly. She is so sexy and serene and funny and sad; I think she really was the backbone of this whole tale.


Rating- 8.5/10

Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (Dir: Pedro Almodóvar, 1988)

Basic Plot- Pepa is a television actress, whose lover Ivan has just left her. On trying to find out the truth behind where he is, she goes to his former lover Lucía's house and sees that he has a son named Carlos. Both of them later meet when he comes with his fiancée Maria, who while apartment-hunting, are looking at Pepa's penthouse. Also Pepa's friend Candela is there, trying to escape from the police for harbouring Shiite terrorists in her house as she was in love with one of them. So in all this confusion, Pepa has to bring about order, but not without having a few nervous breakdowns of her own.

           My first Almodóvar, I really did not know what to expect while going into this. All I know is that throughout the film a Tyra Banks term was going on and on in my head, the term being "fiercely real" women. That is exactly what all the women in this film were. They were beautiful and sexy, yes, but they were also mental and funny and sort of romantic to the point of becoming cynical. They were portrayed so brilliantly in this, and showed an aspect of them I don't think has been done enough justice in all the other films I have seen- the aspect of men in their lives. I mean there are so many films that tell women to "move on to better things" and care about other stuff, which is fine, but you have got to admit that men are a very integral part of their existence.

           The dialogue was so witty and I could not stop laughing through the length of the film (I can only imagine how much funnier it would be in Spanish). This film started out with being sort of a romcom, and then there was drama and comedy throughout, and it had a very thrilling ending, so I thought it had all possible aspects to a story in it. And the fact that it was women running the show never failed to amaze me. Carmen Maura was the main protagonist Pepa, and she was fantastic I thought. There were also María Barranco, Antonio Banderas, Rossy de Palma and a sort of favourite of mine in all her fabulous madness, Julieta Serrano, who played Lucía. One thing that really stood out for me were the colours in the film. I think we are going through this whole tainted lenses and HD digital camera thing right now (I'm not sure what we call it exactly...help?), and while the end product is enchanting, it has become repetitive for me. So to see a film in which everything is so vivid and stands out, most of all the red, which is I think to show off the sexual aspect of the film more- I welcomed it in all its unfamiliarity. Can't wait to see more of the legendary auteur's work!

Rating- 10/10 

Sex, Lies, and Videotape (Dir: Steven Soderbergh, 1989)

Basic Plot- Ann and John are unhappily married. Ann is in therapy as she thinks the waste management problem in the world is more important than her sex-life, and John is sleeping with Ann's free-spirited sister Cynthia. In comes John's old school mate, Graham, who generally befuddles people as he meets them. John disapprove of him, and Ann feels like she should, but she is drawn to his simultaneous display of reserve and intense honesty. Also, as she later finds out, he makes videotapes of women talking about their sexuality. All four of their lives come together and everything changes.

          I am predicting that this film will go on to join ranks of films like Fight Club for me, in the sense that I was not really expecting anything when sitting down to watch it, and was totally blown away by what had just transpired when it ended. The story is totally unique and it is probably the sexiest film I have ever seen. The idea of sex, whether being repulsed by it or intrigued by it, is always there. And it is completely embraced without anyone trying to demean it in any way. The characters are such oddballs, especially Ann, played by Andie MacDowell and Graham, played by James Spader. I loved the innocence and the queasiness of MacDowell, and her final emancipation. James Spader, who played Graham, won numerous awards for his role, and rightly so. He walked on such a dangerous territory, because Graham had to be provocative and sensitive and aloof all at the same time, and in the right measure to make him likeable. He did exactly that. Laura San Giacomo, who I know as Julia Roberts's hooker friend in Pretty Woman, was excellent as Cynthia too in all her sensuality and was a stark contrast to her sister. The quartet is completed with Peter Gallagher, who plays the quite repulsive and well, close-minded John. 

        The film obviously brought about the indie film revolution. Without this, Pulp Fiction would have been part of the distant future. Soderbergh never expected it to be this big, winning Palme d'Or at Cannes and all, but how could it not? The concept, the budget it worked with, the actors, the filming, all were unlike anything seen then, or well anything I have seen yet. It ages beautifully, and shocks and surprises perfectly.


Rating- 10/10