Seems like a spectacular this year. What was the highlight for you?
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The Painted Veil
A beautiful English love story in China. Made me cry.
The Dark Knight
Intense, powerful, sinister; the Joker was spooky, Batman was raspy.
Mamma Mia
Hilarious choreography; spectacular scenery; dubious singing; love Amanda Seyfried.
Changeling
Angelina outdoes herself, but the treatment of women was horrible.
Milk
The power and passion of one man – Sean Penn – incredible.
Emile Hirsch has never looked better. Moving story done justice.
WALL-E
Who doesn’t love this cute little robot with a personality?
A funny action movie without a cliched romance? I'm there!
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These are people who publish articles like The Climate Change Fraud (they also think like this.)
What I want to know is: where the f did they get this idea I'm a conservative, of all things? I have been called many things, but c-word is not one of them. My dad made me listen to right wing radio all the way across America (considering we were in the Heartland of the American Right) in order to counter my "extreme left wing/Obama-messiah complex" (his words, not mine) which meant I had to listen to the likes of Rush Limbaugh sing "Barack the magic negro" or play "Hallelujah" every time they mentioned Obama's name (which was actually kind of funny.)
(Aside: I also don't understand why so many political parties are called liberal when they're conservative - and it's not just Australia!)
If I were K, I think I'd be insulted, and if I was Sara, I'd be offended.
I'd just like to point out to these people that I am:
1) Democrat
3) climate change believer and crusader
among other things.
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painfully) single status. So long as I shall live, and I have friends (such as these), I shall not want for boys (after all, boys are stupid, are they not?) It doesn’t change the fact that I’m still pining after a guy (The Boy), much like last year (new boy, too, and there’s been one between), but I’m not holding out.
And I’m adopting Rayne’s motto: life's more fun without strings, right?
Because really, I wouldn’t have had it any other way. I don’t have any regrets about what might have happened with whom – of course, I wish some of the guys would have asked, but there aren't any moments I shied away from that might have lead to something else, and there haven't been any offers to turn down.
I am young, single and attractive* and one day, my prince (or any prince) will come!
Today, I want to make a shout out/declaration of love/dedication to two groups of people near and dear to me:
Consider this my Valentine to you.
Have you heard about the girl who is auctioning off her virginity? (It’s currently going for about $5.3million AUS) I’m thinking I should do the same with The Kiss.
Any bids?
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*most days of the week
I know I've been a little wanting in the blogging department, but I've been sick (mysteriously and unhappily) twice in the past two weeks, been to Melbourne twice in a week (with the upside being that I've been both Slumdog Millionaire and Milk [go read Kayleigh's review, it sums up exactly how amazing a film it is, but better still, go see it!!] both of which I LOVED and are totally deserving of the awards I want them to win at the Oscars) and then visited my mother's family for four days over the weekend. Sara was supposed to be coming to stay this weekend, but she's sick too, and might not be able to make it (to my dismay.) Many stories to come about my fabulous adventures in America, but for now - look! Photos!
Everybody knows that Slumdog Millionaire is about a poor boy from the slums who wins – and wins big – on the Indian version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire? But much like The Curious Case of Benjamin Button it is told in reflection, when the boy – Jamal (Dev Patel, who you may recognise from Skins) – is arrested and tortured under the (contrived) suspicion of cheating. The beginning torture scenes are shocking and horrific, and it sets the tone for much of the film, which does not shy away from the harsh reality of the slums and poverty in
Perhaps the reason this film is so popular is because it’s a film about overcoming adversity (and when doesn’t
The real stars of Slumdog are the Indian children who play the younger Jamal, his older brother Salim and love interest Latika, another refreshing reason to love this film; there are no big name, Hollywood actors in this film. For the most part, they’re native Indians (what do you call someone from Mumbai?) who capture the spirit of a city that has proved – mostly recently this November – resilient.
“What can a slumdog possibly know?”
“The answers.”
It seems improbable, almost downright impossible that Jamal should know any – let alone all – of the answers the show throws at him. But various and sundry turns his life has taken, from orphaned and homeless to beggar to tour guide to cook to serving tea at a call centre, means he knows more than people think.
However, the magnificence of this film lies not only in the story being told (so uplifting, turbulent and emotional) but in the sensation of it, being expressed and felt and shared through sweeping panoramas, unflinching close ups, a thrilling soundtrack (one of the highlights) and a determination not just to show but to evoke the slumdog experience, as much as possible through the medium of the screen. And it works; the audience laughed collectively when Jamal climbs out through a long drop to get an autograph from his favourite Indian film star, gasped and became palpably tense when it came to that final question. I myself got the shakes and then cried (several times throughout, probably more than I’ve cried in any other film – I don’t tend to cry that much, despite what jdl might tell you). You are inhuman or insensitive if you walk away from this film unmoved.
9/10
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Now here’s a “reality” TV show worth watching, even if it is only to make yourself feel smarter by comparison (or, in my case, console myself that I’m not the only dateless, desperate, never-been-kissed person on the planet). I managed to catch the first episode of this season late one night last week:
Host: which is closer to the Earth, the moon or the sun?
Beauty #1: the sun
Beauty #2: aren’t they the same distance?
Beauty #3: they’re the same thing
H: how many stripes on the
B: 52
H: who won the civil war?
B: us
H: who is us?
B: The
H: Tell me a word that rhymes with orange.
B: Morange.
H: what’s morange?
B: [laughing] more orange
H: What are the first five words of the
B: I don’t know
H: who gave it?
B: I don’t know
H: Where was it given?
B: [shaking head] I don’t know
H: in the equation E=MC2, what does the e stand for?
B #3: let me tell you right now, math and I do not get along
Geek: when was D Day?
Beauty: [shrugs]
Geek: 1942
Beauty: No, that was when
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To grow younger seems like the ideal – youth is wasted on the young, and all that, so by the time you are young, but old in years and all that, you can enjoy the wisdom of your years. Or something like that. But for Benjamin Button, it would seem that growing young, rather like growing old, is a curse. Ultimately, Benjamin realises three things about growing young, the same of which could be said for growing old; no one is perfect forever, nothing lasts (isn’t that a shame) and "it's never too late or, in my case, too early to be whoever you want to be."
This is not a Brad Pitt movie, in which Brad Pitt plays a man who becomes younger; he is Benjamin Button, whose burden it is to grow young before his time, to live his life backwards, as it were. He first walks, unaided, at age seven (or eighty-something), drinks his first beer shortly after, goes to a brothel (where he surprises with his teenager-like energy), gets drunk and has his first kiss when he is maybe 60 years old (or twenty-something) with Tilda Swinton, who is perfectly cast as an older, unhappily married woman with whom Benjamin has an affair.
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is, at its heart, a love story of two people for whom the time never seems right, mostly because one of them is growing older while the other is growing younger. The story is told from Benjamin’s point of view, as Daisy’s daughter reads his diary aloud to her on her deathbed, whilst the horrible Katrina gathers force outside. Pitt’s voice is truly suited to voiceover as he recalls his life in a lilting Southern accent. As we remember his life with Daisy, the returns to her hospital bed become unwelcome intrusions in the story of Benjamin Button, born as an old man in a baby’s body, abandoned by his father who, distraught by his wife’s death in childbirth, cannot bear to look upon his bizarre face, and is adopted by the kindly and sterile Queenie.
As a youthful old man, with spirit and energy beyond his years, Benjamin first meets Daisy when she is seven, and he not much older. Though in that moment he falls in love, their time has not yet come. While down at the docks one day, a captain is looking for a man to do a day’s work. Benjamin volunteers, and so becomes part of the crew aboard the
There are two things that make this film Oscar-worthy; the witty, sharp, entertaining dialogue (“Would you still love me if I were old and saggy?" "Would you still love ME if I were young and had acne?") and raw passion and emotion of the acting in the film is what carries it. We do not need Daisy to tell us she could not stand seeing Benjamin becoming younger, better looking, as she became older. The devotion between Daisy and Benjamin is obvious. And the decision Benjamin has to make is painful and heartbreaking. From their first candlelit tryst under a table to their carefree years spent froliking in a
I had a completely surreal experience in this film in that I lost all sense of time and space, until I saw a koala postcard, and, feeling a jolt of recognition and pride, remembered that I was, in fact, in Australia, in the middle of a warm summer’s afternoon, not in New Orleans, weathering out Katrina, or watching Daisy dance on a Parisian stage, sometime earlier in the last century. Sure and it’s a loooong film, but it is completely engaging, moving to the point of tears in several instances. It is well deserving of the 13 Oscars it has been nominated for, and I hope it is recognised and rewarded as such.
9/10.
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Frost/Nixon
Milk
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire
This category, perhaps, has the toughest competition. I could really see any of these films winning. I’d really like to see Slumdog Millionaire win, or even Milk.
Best Actor
Richard Jenkins, The Visitor
Frank Langella, Frost/Nixon
Sean Penn, Milk
Brad Pitt, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler
Another tough category. It would be really nice if Mickey Rourke won, but I’d also like to see Sean Penn win for Milk – I’ve heard it’s a stunning performance (which I’m dying to see), which he won awards for in the New York Critics’ ceremony, and in recognition of his fine body of work.
Best Supporting Actor
Josh Brolin, Milk
Robert Downey Jr, Tropic Thunder
Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Doubt
Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight
Micheal Shannon,
It’s too bad RDJ didn’t get nominated for best actor for Ironman, because Heath Ledger obviously has this category all tied up – and deservingly.
Best Actress
Anne Hathaway, Rachael Getting Married
Angelina Jolie, Changeling
Melissa Leo, Frozen River
Meryl Streep, Doubt
Kate Winslet, The Reader
Kate Winslet, having won two Golden Globes, for her roles in
Best Supporting Actress
Amy Adams, Doubt
Penelope Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Viola
Tanaji Henson, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Marisa Tomei, The Wrestler
This category is up for grabs, however, I think with two nominated from Doubt they’re likely to knock each other out, so it’s between Penelope Cruz, who has been celebrated for Vicky Cristina Barcelona, and is a very worthy actress, and Tanaji Henson, who I thought was very good in CCoBB.
It’s also too bad WALL-E didn’t get nominated for Best Film. I really hope it wins Best Animated Picture and Best Screenplay.
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An article in Time summed it up well: “OK, but didn’t [Bush] do anything right? Well, he came up with serious money to treat AIDS and malaria in
God. It is really too bad we didn’t have that other guy.
However, I suspect that, behind the buffoonery, Bush – like fellow Republican Sarah Palin – is a good person, a devoted parent, and a patriotic American. Unfortunately, good leaders and good people are too rarely the same person.
Hopefully, we can look forward to both in Obama.
I watched - like millions around the world - Obama's inauguration speech. While it wasn't quite as inspirational or as uplifting as his victory speech, and may have lacked a catchphrase, a central, ideological quote that summed it up, like FDR's "the only thing we have reason to fear is fear itself" and JFK's "ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country," that's not to say it wasn't optimistic, determined and empowering. And so what if he mucked up the oath a little? I've always thought that the way they say, in such long sentences, much be hard to be remember. He's only human, after all - he's not the Messiah.
"On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.
On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn-out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics.
The time has come to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.
For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth; and because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation, and emerged from that dark chapter stronger and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and that America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace.
For as much as government can do and must do, it is ultimately the faith and determination of the American people upon which this nation relies. It is the kindness to take in a stranger when the levees break, the selflessness of workers who would rather cut their hours than see a friend lose their job which sees us through our darkest hours. It is the fire fighter's courage to storm a stairway filled with smoke, but also a parent's willingness to nurture a child, that finally decides our fate."
But let’s be straight about one thing. It would do us well to remember that Obama is half-black. That is not to question or undermine that he is black, but only to point out that Obama’s background has arguably been a mostly white one. Does that make him any less black? Perhaps, in some people’s eyes. But more than anything we should celebrate that he is of mixed race. Like the young boy Nulla in Australia, who is accepted by neither whites nor Aboriginal because he is both, is it not those of mixed race who are, at least not so long ago, shunned by both? So it is not of greater significance, then, that Obama, being not black or white but both, should be able to unite all Americans, black, white, alike?
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I was intrigued by this show a while back, and highly recommended it, first by Gem, then by Emma whose season one review is much better than mine, and basically mirrors my thoughts.
What's not to love? The British accents that are almost impossible to understand (“these are my frans”), the cute boys, the scrapes, the attempts to lose virginity, the constant sex, the drug highs, the alcohol binges, the wild parties, the angry parents – it’s like a page out of our own lives, right?
Well, maybe for Brits.
Sid is a bumbling, lovesick sweetheart (no, I’m not developing another TV crush…OK, maybe just a little. But he could lose the beanie more than once.) Cassie, though, is my darling. She’s spacey, but she’s smarter than people give her credit for. Well, except when it comes to the not eating. She’s working on it, though.
Tony (Nicholas Hoult, who has come a long way – and a lot cuter – since his miserable About A Boy days), on the other hand, is a complete and utter arse.
It’s hilarious, but it hits you with some pretty hardcore shit. Drugs, overdoses, death, secrets, homosexuality, betrayal, and I know pregnancy is in the bag – but this isn’t in some glossy, Gossip Girl, “my daddy will pay for this to go away” afternoon recreation, it’s gritty, “fuck it all” drama, and therein lies its allure. It’s tough, complicated – each teen has their own messed up universe to deal with – and down to earth, which is a nice change from airy fairy shows like The OC.
Kate Holden sums it up pretty well: “the windows and doors open, the sweet zephyrs wafting, the bare skin sunning, the beer gardens, picnics and cricket grounds your new pleasure palaces, the fridge full of cold drinks and cucumbers…the scent of hot eucalypt bark…pub crowds spilling out on to the street…perplexity at where all the young women have bought their perfect, smooth, tanned legs: there must be a shop, surely they aren’t simply born with them? Nectarines. Treeless streets of parched asphalt down which one much stumble laden with shopping under the pitiless glare of afternoon sun. The extraordinary russet gilding of trees around dinner time, when each leaf seems brassed with warmth. Storms. The irresistible temptation of late-night strolls in air as soft as warm water.”
But, as she rightly points out, “there are a few drawbacks to the heat. Unbearable lassitude, for one. It’s hard to be productive when you’re forced to lie prone one a couch weakly soaking your feet in buckets of cold water and letting the watermelon juice trickle from your mouth into your ears.”
For me, summer is the Australian Open – we usually go, but this year we aren’t, as my brother is going to be in Cambodia doing charity work – either in Melbourne or watching from home under a struggling air conditioner, icy poles, lemonade, endless hours reading, dust storms, looking out for snakes, seeking cool solace in the creek, and playing tennis on our gravel court.
How are your winters and/or summers?
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-
-The
-
-LA was lovely, even if there are too many people and the smog is so
mething horrific. But the beaches – and shopping! – were very impressive. No celebrity spotting, probably because we flew out the day before the Golden Globes. We stayed in
I can’t tell you how much I’ve missed reading your blogs, I feel like I’ve missed so much. Feel free to leave me a summary comment about how your Christmas/holiday
s have been (with links, if you like) – much appreciated! Tell me everything. ;-)
Did anyone see any good movies over the summer? I’m dying to see Slumdog Millionaire, Benjamin Button, Changeling and Milk.
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*Unfortunately, my new 1GB memory card – bought solely for the purpose of being able to take more photos – decided it wanted to be formatted after I’d taken almost 200 photos in
**Has anyone heard of him before? He has a TV show called Mind Freak, and apparently is quite the sensation.
