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Thursday, August 19, 2004 Act
Yesterday: Got my student license from LTO. Twasn't that time-consuming. Nearly an hour. Today til Monday: Day and night dreaming of what's gonna happen once I get my hand on the steering wheel. On Tuesday: Driving lecture, maybe about driving ethics, road and traffic signs, car whatabouts and all those requisites-to-actual-driving know-how (Ahah! Yeah!). Think this is as important as the skill itself. Theme song ko ngayon ay...dyaran... hit it! *Cues the band and grabs the mic* Magda-drive ako hanggang Baguio Isasama ko ang girlfriend ko Magdadala ako ng pagkain Magda-drive ako hanggang Visayas Magda-drive ako buong taon Gusto kong matutong magdrive Gusto kong matutong magdrive Magdrive....drive (Overdrive by E-heads) Wednesday, August 11, 2004 Act
Again, I had to kill two hours before the screening time. Instead of soring my ankles strolling around stalls, I decided to hit SB and had a coffee confection Edgy recommended: Raspberry mocha power-blended whip rhumba frap. The barista threw me a constipated look after reading my order. 'Twas his first time to concoct such combo, he remarked. When he called out my name to get my order, he pulled a grin like saying, good luck there sir! But good heavens, I liked it... loved it. Worked perfectly well with the pages of Eleven Minutes. Minutes flew fast. I just finished the last page of the chapter I'm reading and flipped the book to a close. Sipped my last inch from the glass and headed to Cinema 9, fourth floor. Bringing with me the long-kept excitement for this film and frankly, yes, a load of expectations. As I sat middle seat in the premiere area, and as trailer scenes were flashing one after another, I tried to paddle off whatever expectations I have of the film. It's cause I learned that the best way to enjoy a movie is to watch only with the expectation that the film at least has characters and plot. Nothing more than that. 'Cos when you realize the "more" while and after watching it, then you say it's good enough. Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation is an example of a movie that can suspend you in the air with the highest expectations possible and let go of its hold allowing you to bury yourself deep into the grounds. But don't get me wrong, Eternal Sunshine is actually a good, great film. Better than Translation. It lived up to most of my expectations. (See, I didn't succeed in casting them away.) As rare as Tarantino's Kill Bill series will you get full-sense engaged as early as the first few scenes. Here, there wasn't any action happening but the photography was something surreal that you feel like smiling for no reason at all. This is actually consistent throughout the rest of the movie. Cinematography was creepy good on Joel Barish's memory scenes. Jim Carrey is unbelievable. I really never thought he can deliver such performance. They say he was like that in The Truman Show. I haven't seen that though. But his character, for me, is the most unforgettable facet of this film. He just captured the emotions so poignantly well. Kate Winslet looked so lovely althrough out. I liked the hair colors eh! She just completed the great cast. She was so natural, so spontaneous especially on the train scene. My only problem with the movie was how the complex, nightmare-ish memory scenes caused me headache. I don't know, maybe it was the rhum content of the coffee or the aircondition. But that made me wish the movie to fast forward to a point where those sickening (I thought) scenes are through. I really felt my head got heavy. Towards the end, just when I was like, "Ahhh okay, ahuh I see now," I was reminded of Christopher Nolan's Memento. Movies that begin with the ending. Though Eternal Sunshine didn't actually start with the very ending but you catch the similarity in the approach. Removing someone from your mind is easy but removing someone from your heart is another story. So goes the tagline. Wow! Something new and something different just when you thought filmmakers are suffering from scarcity of ideas. The musical scoring too was great. And the soundtrack as well I guess. I already downloaded Everybody's Gotta Learn Sometime by Beck, the song that played when credits rolled up. Love it. ;) By and large, the movie did not sweep me off my feet though. I thought it would. I expected it would. Maybe because I was just like that. Expecting too much. Which is wrong. Hearing so many good words from critical reviews does that to you, like filling your glass with too much ice cubes when only a spoonful of water will be poured in. But in fairness with Eternal Sunshine, it almost filled my glass full. Almost , yeah almost. To quantify it, I'm giving it 8.5 stars out of 10. Monday, August 09, 2004 Act
My first "solo" movie was (solo = watching alone) was eons ago. Dekada '70. No, not during that decade, am not that old eh! Watching Dekada was actually my first time "solo." And it was only last week that I did that again. You see, am not that kind of introvert that I prefer watching movies alone than with companions. I know some people who're never in all circumstances that they'll watch alone. And they were actually surprised that I can do that. I learned about lonesome moviegoing from a friend. Oh and did I not enjoy the company of myself?
Much has been said about this so let me just rundown some of my comments about Ramona Diaz's Sundance Best Cinematography winner: 1. 'Twas funny. To a certain point though, that you somehow don't know whether to laugh or be saddened 'cause the issues are too close to home. Since the subject underlyingly deals with how we were fooled as a nation. But I managed to get out of that feeling and enjoyed the movie as it was. 2. Imelda's a good speaker, she just becharms her audience. I felt that on those interviews inserted throughout the film. She's intelligent. To think that she knows binaries, the language of computers, and those Boticceli whatever painters she mumbled, God knows to whom those names belong, while she was flipping those art pages. Oh but hey, there's a very thin line between being intelligent and being crazy. She thought so herself. There's a very very thin line. 3. The movie exposes, albeit we already know it, the asshole-fondling relationship of the Philippines with America. Particularly the US-Marcos alliance, how the Marcoses licked, water dripping from their mouths, America's ass. You would know with how Bongbong and Imelda speak of disappointment when Uncle Sam left them hanging in the air in '86. 4. Oh and those 7 portals of peace and order which, like she was unaware of what she's doing, became 10. And yeah this is where she talked about binaries, the 1s and 0s of computers. And I thought, what do binaries have to do with peace and order? I've first encountered these geeky 1s and 0s when I was first year high school and never did it slightly touch my head that it may be an entranceway or a resolution for peace and order! Dah! 5. My favorite part is when these housemaids in white were swanking Imelda's ternos and gowns in a terrace while alternately swapping with scenes from a "home-along-da-riles." Hardcore irony. 6. The operatic singing irked me good deal! 7. I already saw the clip of her "bolo" assasination attempt in ABS-CBN's Sapol Kayo D'yan, now defunct. I'm just thinking if she was insinuating something when she said, though jokingly, that her assasin should have tied a yellow ribbon on the filthy bolo that stabbed her. Aquinos are associated with yellow right? 8. When you campaign in an election, do you distribute studio-shot pictures? 9. The ending just concludes how delusional Madam Imelda is. She's sure to be welcome in heaven with no less than an open arms. 10. It's easy to be beautiful... because beauty is natural. Quote to make you feel good. After all, maybe it was a feel-good movie.
Monday, August 02, 2004 Act
Researching for his bestseller works, I got an itchy hand on getting American Gods or The Sandman for their superb reviews. But as I read from I guess one Peyups literature thread, since I'm a first time Gaiman reader, it's good to start with Stardust or Neverwhere. These books, as they say, will prepare you to understand the author's plot formation style. The "preparation" thing got me all the more excited. I bought Stardust during the time that I was on a thriller hype-slash-hangover for fiction after finishing Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code. I postponed that DVC aftereffect (where I'm planning to have its prequel, Angels and Demons) and got myself a fantasy Stardust was the first fantasy book I've read in this young adult age. Moons ago, I never wanted to read fantasy novels. I thought they weren't apt for readers my age. But after flipping the last page of Stardust, finishing the book for less than two weeks spending time to read every passing morning and night, Mister Gaiman made me love what I thought is not my cup of tea. Fantasy. Stardust is a fantasy about surprises which happen to change even your surest of plans, even the most determined of hearts. Just when you thought you're certain of your life, your life turns you in a complete, unexpected full-circle turn. The characters on the book were simply unforgettable. Just so full of life. Gaiman wrote his imagination's figments as though he has ever followed the trail of a falling star and found out that it was a shimmering lady, like he has ever joggle himself on top of a wind-surfing cloud. These and more are what Gaiman makes you feel when you read his books. And one thing I really like about him is that he can actually tackle love without all the preachy-mushy-cheesy ways. Interestingly, after some ten to twenty pages when I started reading Stardust, Tim Burton's Big Fish was squeezing into my head. The pictures I'm developing in my head were actually scenes from the movie. Ewan McGregor was the one I imagine being Dunstan Thorn. One of Gaiman's critics actually aligned the author with Tim Burton, the former's the master for fantasy books and the latter for films. My next Gaiman, my vision tells me, would be American Gods. I think I'm "prepared" now. Tuesday, July 27, 2004 Act
And now for my first post, my take on The Piano.
But silence is what engulfed me after two hours of watching The Piano. Effectively enough because the film's touching on silence itself as its subject. I didn't even know how to begin writing about it. But after some minutes of rolling my eyes and rolling in my bed or should I say after shaking off a bit of the movie's effects on me... I can say something. Everything about it leaves you feel taken away to where the characters are. From the magnificently mournful beach to the mountains which together in one scene gives a tug in your heart. The forest, with its mud and filth, was just beautifully used to help show the conflicts amongst the characters. Amazing use of nature by James Campion. The story. One word - engaging. And mind yah...with unpredictable twists. Erotic. Add this adjective. There were a lot of touching. Naked bodies. Oh and with a few fontral scenes. But to tell you honestly, I forgot about it being erotic or what towards the ending. Only now that I'm writing this that I remember, it was arousing. The conclusion was so affecting that I looked petrified on my bed even after the credits curtain is shown up. Acting, on the other hand, was average. There were some confusing scenes of Holly Hunter who played the mute piano owner. Confusing in the sense that her face fails to deliver complex emotions. Something she should've done better. But I'd have to give credit to her 'cause what she did was hard. There wasn't any dialogue given her. All the emotions necessary for all the scenes were to be thrown through her face and her eyes. Sam Neill, Hunter's aloof husband, was a bit scary when his character was consumed by anger towards her wife and Harvey Keitel, the horny wifeless man she's having an affair with. I heard Campion used a lot of symbolisms on this movie, but that'd have to come in another post. Search ko muna. Panoorin ko rin ulit 'to. This is going to be definitely one of my most favorite flicks ever. Maybe not particularly for the performances but for its entirety. And I'll begin digging for James Campion films from now on. |
As announced, yesterday's after office main attraction was the third leg of my LM series. Movie: 
The second time I did that was, as I've said, last week. Movie: 
The aspirant doctor-cum-astig peyups columnist-cum-gutterboy, pseudonymed as 
It's best to watch a film with no expectations whatsoever. I had none when I loaded the DVD on my PC.
