Embracing English Roots

In the last week, I watched 2 indie films (which I believe were pretty mainstream in the UK), and zero blockbusters. (I have absolutely no interest in seeing 2012, for some reason. Oh, probably because I think that John Cusak and Amanda Peet are the most irrelevant has beens to cast as romantic leads in any film after 2004. Don't get me wrong... I loved John Cusak... when I was 10).

The Boat That Rocked (Or, to American Audiences: Pirate Radio)

I have been anxiously awaiting this one since I saw the trailer when I took my 15 year old brother to see the Hangover as an attempt to buy his love back after not picking him up at the airport.

Anyhoo, what's not to love? The peeps from Love Actually (which I made NB watch in prep for both this and Christmas), with particular hearts to Bill Nighy. Jack Davenport, aka Steve from Coupling, who is showing up everywhere these days, most notably Flash Forward...

...And that hottie mc hot hot, Tom Sturridge, who you might remember from previous posts as being the hottie son from Being Julia, Robert Pattinson's bff (apparently he was sleeping on his couch in NY?) and also from briefly dating Camilla Belle. (Side note: on LaineyGossip, she had a hilarious posts about "why is?" and one of them was Camilla Belle which I thought was dead on). Except Holy Mutha I thought he had a monobrow when he first came on. But it's ok, it was just his greasyEnglishboy mop of hair.

Thoughts on Talulah Riley? I just can't decide on her. She was in St Trinians, which I loved, but I didn't love her. She was in Pride and Prejudice (the Kiera one) as the sister that no one remembers. She was in a little movie with RPattz (there's that cinema incest...) which I didn't see but she looked annoying in. She was the love interest in this. IDK. She's ok. She's pretty. I feel like she's one to look out for, if anyone is interested. Bet you she makes it big.

Oh. Right. The film.

The plot: A bunch of dudes operate an illegal rock and roll radio station from a boat in the English Channel and have to thwart the government peeps who try to shut them down.

I liked it, it was hilarious. The dialogue was super snappy, and it was really fun and campy. I had some issues with the story... it was just kind of like... whaa? The whole bad guys trying to shut down the radio thing felt like it was just thrown in to give some kind of structure to the happenings on board. Most of the attempts by the bad guys were shut down by a line from Bill Nighy ("Well, I hired this awesome DJ, so our sponsors will give u

s money from abroad since it's illegal in the UK..."). But whatever, who really cares about a little thing like emotional investment in the plot? I'm just rooting for the boy to get laid.

Although I did cry in the end. NB hinted that he might have gotten misty-eyed also. Here's a hint: they might have borrowed some shots from Titanic and The Perfect Storm. Yeaaaa.

~

An Education

LaineyGossip told me to watch this, and apparently I take whatever gossip blogs say to their millions of readers as personal messages à moi. Oh, also I saw the trailer on iTunes and it looked trés bien.

At first I was hesitant about Carey Mulligan, because I think she looks slightly lesbionic with her new haircut for Wall Street 2, but now that I've seen the film I'm thinking she is way too awesome for Shia. Not that I don't love him. But... I love her more.

Jenny, a swotty 16 year old trying to get into Oxford, decides that school isn't that awesome when you can just marry a rich, exciting older man.

I loved this movie because Jenny was so so so real. At the beginning of the film, I was like ugh, she is so much cooler than I was because she's clever and witty, and drops little bits of french into her speech, which I remember being the thing to do at that age but my accent was always dreadful. Hers is perfect.

Then she goes out with Peter Sarsgaard's friends, and meets Helen who is all sophisticated and chic and does her hair and wears jewels and in real life was a Bond girl one time... and Helen says she got her fur from King's road, and Jenny says something like "c'est trop cher pour moi." Very subtle, I like it. But Helen looks at her like she is a complete alien and goes "What did you say?" and Jenny says "I said it's too expensive for me." and Helen says "No you didn't." and Jenny says "I said it in French." And Helen says...

... Why?

And it is like whooosh you are a little embarrassed girl, and it's not like Helen is being rude, she is just genuinely perplexed. I was right thurr with Jenny.

Also later at dinner, Jenny gets all excited about the art and has a burst of enthusiasm and gives her very adult, flippant view on art, and they indulge her and make it so so clear that she is such a child playing grown up. And her man would tease her about being so bourgeois while doing ironically bourgeois things like drinking champagne at dinner and going to auctions.

Anyway, those were my two favorite moments. And also this white and red dress that she wears.

Also love: Olivia Williams as her teacher, and Emma Thompson as the head mistress. This was set in the 60s, by the way, which was interesting because the only thing women could do with a degree was go into public service or teach, and it was pretty normal to be insanely racist...

One thing I did not love: again, the plot was a little weak, or rather the overall lesson was. It was basically one big PSA to stay in school and not have sex. Um, that might clue you in on how it ends.

Hmm. It seems Emma Thompson shows up in both of these. Also bangs, which made me very analytical of my own. More to come on that topic. I also found myself sounding more English for a good half hour after... then I lost it again.

Notorious (the Alfred Hitchcock version, not BIG)

I have always maintained, a little arrogantly, that I hate Alfred Hitchcock. There's a couple of reasons for this: (1) I saw Birds, and bits of Psycho, and they are def not my idea of an enjoyable afternoon. (2) He and Quentin Tarantino are the gods of the pretentious film student, and I try to stay away from their stereotypes.

But pairing Ingrid Bergman with Cary Grant? Well played, Alfie.

I had to watch some clips of this in my production design class, and I paid special attention since in my production class I have been all Noir-obsessed. The three clips I saw kind of fit in with my short film's story really well, so I could steal some of the cinematography. Tonight I finally got around to watching the whole thing, because NB wouldn't let me have the TV on (it was distracting him from work) and I wanted to feel like I was doing homework without actually having to do anything...

Anyway, I would strongly recommend this, for when you are in the mood to feel cultured but watch trash (let's face it, these things are essentially thriller pulps...), and when you want to cry about how people back in the day were so much better than they are today. Especially the men. And the women had sweet clothes and got to be drunk all the time... oh. No change there.

Plotty: After Alicia(Ingie)'s German-sympathizer-actual-German-war-profiteering-or-something father is thrown in prison, Devlin (Cary), an American agent, recruits her to use her connections to dig up dirt for the Americans. Her job is to seduce Alexander Sebastian, an old friend of her father's who happens to already be in love with her and is also a big bad German. Natch, she and Cary have fallen in love so things go all topsy turvy.

I don't want to give a good/bad, because all the things that I might consider bad are so retro-fun that they kind of make the movie for me. Such as long panning shots where you can feel the camera man walking around. The 'binocular' viewpoint. The rear projection for the exterior 'Rio' shots that were actually filmed on a sound stage. And that point at the end of the first act when the two leads proclaim their love for each other and everyone in the modern audience is like ... whaaa?! Didn't you guys JUST meet???

Other than that awkward moment, the romance was fantabulastic. I adore Ingrid, yes, because she had a great trenchcoat in Casablanca, and who can resist a good trenchcoat? I'd like to say I love Cary Grant, but as it turns out, I haven't seen anything on his IMDB. Although he is 'First Sailor' in a movie called Singapore Sue, so that gets him mega props right there. Whatever it is, the two of them make a great couple.

She is all 'I love you and I know you love me, I won't sleep with this other man if you say so...' and he's like 'I won't say I love you, see if I care if you sleep with him, if you want to sleep with him GO AHEAD' and she's like 'fine eff you I will!' and then he is all bummed. In real life (um, the real lives of my friends?) this situation either ends with her going 'oh no I would never' and he continues to not love her, or she says FINE and then... he really doesn't care.

(Actually, it's probably movies like these that make women believe that men are more noble than they are when they are being douchey. Because we/I would love to believe that they are pining inside but have to hold their feelings in to be manly, when actually they have completely forgotten about you since they have some weed and video games to hang out with instead...)

(Yea... I got pretty personal with all this... projecting...)

Even as individuals, they are pretty bad-ass. She is drunk all the time and taunts him by hinting about sex, and he is completely blase about the fact that she is drunk driving him around town, or that he just made a HUGE mess and has 5 seconds to clean it up before the bad guys catch him. Speaking of, the bigbad, Sebastian, is quite a sympathetic bad guy. He is quite genuinely in love with her and romantic, and doesn't seem terribly evil. And his creepy-ass mother is also pretty understandable. She might be a bitch, but she's always right. And she wants the best for her son. So... characters? Thumbs up.

And the best thing about thrillers, especially the ones where you know everything is going to be alright in the end: those moments where you are literally squeeling with worry, 'no, no, you STUPID cow! He's going to see you!'... and that sort of thing.

Ok, ok, the actual bad: The 'mystery' plot is pretty thin, like many James Bond's. 'Hey pretty lady, go um... find out... something. German.' 'Oh wow, (magical discovery), well at least now we know what's going on. Now you... find out where they're getting it from.' Really, does knowing they have uranium really tell me anything? Is this a secret no one let me in on?? But really. That's the only kind of annoying thing about it.

YAY! Because even if you don't like it that much, you can always go hang out with a crowd of film students and be all 'oh yea, I love the use of size in Notorious, you know, that was an enlarged model so they couldn't show her drinking out of it without cutting...'

Lots of ' ' and ... today. What's up with that?

On FFGs

After watching Twilight last night at midnight (which I will update you on shortly), the official FFG look is confirmed. For those of you who have never encountered an FFG, here's a little guide:

[You might think this is rude/extreme generalizing, and you're right, it is. But think of it like racism - if someone is being racist about their own race, that's okay right? And since I am clearly an FFG, no p, kiddo.]

1) Looks: The main thing about the FFG is that she is plain and unremarkable, which is why she has to live vicariously through Bella Cullen and Paramore and Hot Topic. This is why most FFGs have brown hair and brown eyes. Or at best, a dirty blonde. Alternatively, some kind of bright, dyed shade to mask the FFG bleh (see Osbourne, Kelly). The FFG is probably pretty pale, from living with minimal exercise and hiding in her room reading. For the same reasons, she can be sized anywhere from 0-100, but is never toned.

2) Fashion: This varies, depending on age and how rebellious she is feeling. Generally, she wears plain one-colour things, like jeans and a t-shirt. But since the FFG clearly craves attention, she lusts after Hot Topic punk, and might indulge in the occasional bow hair pin. The FFG may take outfit queues from books/music/tv that is a la mode, dressing as the main character does.

2a) OR if it is a really special occasion, such as a concert or the opening night of a FFG approved movie, she will don a 'band' shirt. By band, I also mean movies/books/whatever that the FFG is supporting. This band shirt is often slightly too small/ill fitting, clinging uncomfortably over the chesticles/love handles/arm fats/bra bulge. One mystery I have yet to solve: does the FFG like that all the other FFGs have the same shirt, or hate it? Is it like finding a kindred spirit or like going to prom and seeing some other slut in your dress?

3) Hobbies: There are a few types of FFGs, and hybrids. The music FFGs adore trolling iTunes for emo music and dreaming that the emo boy singing is in fact singing about her and how she broke his heart. The book FFGs enjoy reading young adult book series that star a (skinny) FFG and the devastatingly handsome boy who falls in love with her for no reason other than her sheer charm and wit. The movie/tv series ones do the same thing, except they watch them. All FFGs then proceed to log on to the internet and read/write fanfic and post comments on fan pages and try and get themselves prominent enough in the FFG world that they become minor celebrities. That is the ultimate goal. (See Meyer, Stephenie and Bella Cullen Project, The)

3a) Hobbies (no event available): The FFG likes anything to do with magic and fate, because you know that's the only way she'll snag her handsome handsome man who is sooo much better than the stupid boys who go to her high school and have crushes on the stupid cheerleaders. Anyway, this includes things like astrology, mythology, and fortune telling.

4) Ambition: I'm sure there are lots of noble FFG ambitions, but the real dream is to become an author and get to make an FFG movie about your own book where you can choose the dreamboat that falls in love with you... er, the heroine of the book. Next best is to be such a huge fan that you get to interview an FFG idol, go to a premiere/concert for free, or at least write such awesome fanfiction that you get a few FFGs of your own. Uh, the real dream being that the FFG idol spots you in the crowd and speaks to you, and you utter such a memorable line that he immediately whisks you off into his Hollywood life and you can write a novel about it and... it's a never ending cycle. At the very least, an FFG would like to rise above the FFGdom and be BFF to some FFDidols. God, that got complicated.

5) Habitat: The FFG can oft be found loitering around CD or bookstores, sometimes libraries. On weekends, they may be found in clusters. To find them en masse, check out the FFG events, as listed earlier (special occasion where one might where a band shirt).

6) Patron Saints: Bella Cullen, the chick from Paramore, Liz from Roswell, Cho Chang... it's an endless list.

7) Queen of the FFGs: Stephenie Meyer

Happy Hunting!

Duke's Cafe

Where: 8909 W Sunset Blvd, Right next to the Whiskey A Go-Go

What I had: Half sandwich (corned beef) half salad ($7 something with tax...)

Rave review: "Celebrity endorsements cover the walls, and tourists, musicians and actor/model regulars rub elbows at communal tables or the counter. The diner-staple menu features 60-odd sandwiches and burgers, plus meat loaf, salads and pork chops with applesauce. But it's breakfast that really sizzles: Omelettes come with multiculti fillings like kosher salami and chutney. Blintzes and corned beef hash are hefty and homemade, and health-conscious diners can opt for egg-white scrambles and fresh fruit." - City Search

Their rating: 9.1

My rating: 5

Why:

Okay, first of all, there were like 5 people in there and none of them looked like hung over movie stars to me. It was pretty dingy. And here's a question: why would you want to rub elbows with tourists, as advertised above?

Anyway, the corned beef itself was pretty good. Now let's discuss the bread. It is literally a slice of white bread. You know, like sliced bread, like Gardenia or Sunshine? Really not classy. And being only half a sandwich, it is 2 halves of a slice. This makes sandwich look pretty lame. There is also nothing in said sandwich other than the beef. No lettuce, no avocado, no tomato...

Then there's the side salad. It is a base of iceberg lettuce, my pet peeve, with some carrot slices, green pepper slices, and some gross red cabbage slices. And they threw a piece of cantaloupe in there for good measure, I guess, which I mistook for a cucumber.

PLUS, they use Styrofoam boxes, so they don't even get bonus points for being environmentally friendly or anything.

On the bright side, I love my internship. They give me a $10 stipend for lunch. Highest paid Hollywood job I've ever had, woot woot! Moving up in the world.

I'll Never Be Indie

I would love to be Indie. Really I would. I'd even settle for faux-indie. However, sitting here in a very boring Micro-econ class, I have come to the realization that my dreams will never come true. Here is why:

Cool Indie Music - Those who know me well, or even just sort of, know that I am musically challenged. I rely on various wonderful sources for my music: daddy, cousins, roommates, significant others... and all of these ensure that I am never ahead of the curve, and also that I never have to know who or what I'm listening to because it is just played for me. This makes it difficult to be all supportive of some unknown band, unless one of the above happens to drag me to a concert. With recent aquisition of car, I also listen to the radio but that just makes me even more mainstream and also, I still have no idea who I'm listening to, as usual I can only hum along.

Cool Indie Clothes - I hate vintage shopping. I would love to love it, but I don't like the smell, or touching old things, or the idea that I am wearing something that has been worn by some stranger's armpits. No thanks. I also don't make my own alterations to generic pieces, nor do I support small boutiques. I am definately more of the Payless kind of girl (which has actually gotten a little ridiculous. This morning in class I triumphantly noted that the girl next to me was also sporting some Payless footwear, then was horrified to realize that I am obviously over frequenting the place...), and nothing gives me more pleasure than a shopping spree at Wet Seal / Forever 21 / (horror of horrors) Elegance at the UV. For those of you that aren't familiar with USC's amazing University Village, Elegance is the only clothing store and is basically like someone inhaling the worst of Hong Kong and sneezing it up in the ghetto of Los Angeles. Anyway, my point is: my style just doesn't cut it.

Cool Indie Job: I don't even know if this is actually indie, but I've always wanted to work at a record store a la Empire Records (but as previously discussed, this is just not in the stars for me) or else, how do the kids at Borders and Hard Rock and almost any cafe always look so cool? Any job I've ever done has always had the resume-building incentive of getting me closer to being swallowed up by the corporations.

Cool Indie Smoking: I don't, but dang it looks cool. I know there was that whole "smoking isn't cool thing", but really, who are you kidding? It's super cool. Not when I do it, because I cough up a black phlegm filled lung with every puff, but everyone else does pretty good with it.

Cool Indie Artsy-ness: I am not talented enough to be artsy. I would love to be a great photographer and take beautiful over-exposed polaroids of my friends and I lying around in our quirky outfits, unforch I am definately more the drunken snaps on my digi cam facebook photo kind of gal. I also can't write songs, or poetry, or publish a zine, or do a comic strip, or make beautiful art. I can barely write screenplays and even those aren't very good.



And here is the worst one, that I definately do not have. It is also the no 1 thing that you need accodring to wikiHow under How to Be Indie:

Cool Indie Mentality: "Recognize that being indie isn't just having the look. Indie is all about embracing individuality, and consciously deviating from elements of mainstream society." Well sheet. There goes my dream. Because I am tragically mainstream - last week I watched Jumper and am desperate to see Definately Maybe. And I like to copy people. And I like mainstream society, especially the TV watching.

So really the only thing I can do is lie on the grass between classes with the Neighbour Boy and doze in the sun. For those few moments I feel terribly chic and trendy, but then I realize that my butt crack is showing and it's back to reality.

PS. I stole these pictures off this girl-I-sort-of-know's facebook, without her knowledge and thus duh, permission. As such I will probably be imprisoned for copyright infringement or something. But she does terribly cool things and is my secret hero.

For all my young men

Apparently "men who masterbated a lot in their youth are less likely to have prostrate problems".

From Bruce Beresford's Josh Hartnett Definately Wants to Do This Film ...

So yea. I'm sure you'll all take this to heart.

Across the Universe

So I took Dom boy to see Across the Universe. I thought it was something a bit cool and idie that we could do together that would totally up my cool-older-sister points. Not that I don't have enough. I have tons. Millions.

The Plot: Is NOT about the Beatles, as I thought (and told my brother). Both of us waited with bated breath for the band to form, but it never did. It's actually just about this English sex god (not really, he's a dock worker... but he's my new hero... and as I have excellent taste, you all should look out for him in the future) Jude, (aka Jim Sturgess aka not really famous yet but will be in the Other Boleyn Girl) who goes to America in the 60s-70s to find his long lost daddy. In England he meets Max, (aka Joe Anderson, aka cute in the David Spade way, aka friend of James since he's also in becoming Jane) who becomes his new bff. Joe has a hot sister (Evan Rachel Wood, aka Marilyn Manson's girlfriend... that's as far as I 'll go with her) whose boyfriend is away at war and it all gets very political and complicated, all you need to know is that it's a love story and there is not a Beatle to be seen.

The Good: The men are pretty hot. Men that sing and wanna hold your hand = <3
[edit: Ok so I don't know why it erased everything else good I had :( But I also said that the sound track was so amazing that I would buy it despite only buying about 5 CDs a year. And I did buy it. I'm listening to it now. The effects and cinematography are awesome, especially if you are a film student but even if you aren't, even if you have no artistic inkling whatsoever I think you could still enjoy it. Finally, I adored this chick TV Sharpio aka not famous at all but look out for her...]

Maybe because she looks like Claudia from the Babysitters Club? Actually, more because of this.


The Bad: I wasn't very into the whole Sadie plot, their landlord who is a singer and is seeing another roommate of theirs who moved there from Detroit after some really adorable little black kid got shot. Anyway, it was ok but I found it distracting and had too much attention so it got tiresome, especially since it wasn't like about anyone's real lives so it's not like they were impossible to leave out/give less songs to. Yea, a lot of the plot got a bit schizo and random, but I assume that was the drugs that were probably censored out of the Singapore version.

The Ugly: Evan Rachel Wood's nose and acting. I could forgive either if the other wasn't there. Actually, it wasn't her nose, there was just something about her face being a little too horse-ish... I had remembered her as being very delicate and waif-like, but she seemed a little course in this, much too course to be a muse. And her acting... I mean it wasn't awful, but it was pretty awful actually. Ummm she just got a little melodramatic and teeny boppery.

Other things to look out for: Great cameos from Bono as some kind of insane hippy (hippie?) that I was convinced was Robin Williams circa August Rush, and also from Selma Hayek as the hot nurse.


Yay or nay? Umm, I'd say yay if you're into (old) music and a hot English man or if you are particularly into arty film effects (I have a neighbour who would probably adore all the animation-y parts). If you are in a mellow mood, maybe when it's raining. Also yay if you like Evan Rachel Wood coz her boobs are all over the place. Nay if you are looking for something with lots of action and or humour and or horror and or any genre stuff basically.

PS. Here's another thing: When they did 'a little help from my friends', I couldn't stop thinking of the Wonder Years. And when they did 'All you need is love' I had a terrible montage of Moulin Rouge and Love Actually that wouldn't leave my head.

Martha O'Connor

So, it seems that The Bitch Posse (the orig American title...) has a whole lot of the author's life in it, which is pretty interesting. (She's mostly Rennie, the fallen-from-grace valedictorian, I think. But probably lots of her in the other characters too. Also doubt her friends killed her ex lover.)

She also has a nice blog.

Bored as I'm S'pored!

2 good movies you can watch on the plane:

Ratatouille - For delish food and a cute french chick Oh ok, and some good old happy feelings etc. Brad Bird is kind of amazingly talented.

Goya's Ghosts - For historical settings/costumes (Spain during Napoleon's time), Natalie Portman and that scary man from No Country For Old Men (Javier Bardem)

Movie Marathon

Someone please please drive me to a movie theatre and leave me there for days

1) The Golden Compass

2) Juno

3) Atonement (James!!!)

4) 27 Dresses

Crutchfield Electronics

No More Ladies

Probably the best written film I've seen in a long time. It was on TCM last night, so if you don't like black n whites, read no further, although I really think you'll probably love it anyway. It was pretty timeless. Or actually, it was pretty racy, much to the shock of Rona and I. (Incidentally, Rona was into her 12th hour of straight television at the time. Just thought I'd throw it out there.)

Tagline: Joan Crawford plays some rich New Yorker who manages to score a big time playboy as a husband. She is completely aware of his womanizing ways, but loves him anyway, except when he hooks up with some other woman and she decides to teach him a lesson.

The Good: Everyone was pretty good looking. I don't usually go for the 30s hero type, but they were all pretty hot. But more importantly, it was HILARIOUS. Who knew people in the 30s were having affairs and talking about sex and drinking all night all the time? And implying that they swore (Grandma says: I haven't said 'darn' in 20 years...")? Shouldn't they have been focussing on things like the great depression? Great characterizations. Women were pretty independent, lots of great parodies (watch for the Englishman).

The Bad: Well, okay, the plot wasn't the MOST original, but that's ok. Back in the 30s it might have been.

The Ugly: Some of Joan's clothes were hideously marred by strange big bows and nun-habit bibs. Also, her hairstyles weren't very sexy.

Yay or Nay? Yay. Come on guys, it's a classic. And I think it would appeal to both men and women. So there.