Movie Spree of 2 :: Loving Juno

From the remaining few movies I have, my urge of sharing my thoughts on this movie tops the rest of them. Yes, it's the minimal-budget-but-maximum-attention very much anticipated ( at least, I did ) Juno!

Some may feel skeptical whether this will turn out as just another teenage comedy that once flooded our movie screens. The answer is definitely a big NO! Imagine a toned down Katherine Heigl's Knocked Up, blended with a tint of artsy directorial skills, very amusing lines for Ellen Page, and folky soundtrack. In all, that sums up to a consludion: Juno is quite movie of its kind, and definitely not even close to Knocked Up, talking about a quirky-geeky-cool teenage girl experimenting sex and getting pregnant. Skip the disastrous aftermath and drop-dead shock scenes because these did not happen. The storyline could be quite expected since with the word "pregnancy", you can either get a life is killed or saved. However the spotlight of this story is that , but the characters that are very amusing instead. Juno and his open-minded parents with a sense of humour, then her cheerleader friend that is not close to typical dumb-blonde at all: why should you miss this. Last but not least, Juno is played by Ellen Page, the creepy little girl from Hard Candy. You know, "that" girl!

Since this movie is from the director of Thank You For Smoking, we can very much expect nothing less than a good movie, and this time, with a good soundtrack.



Instead of the ordinary Juno's poster, I would rather use this poster that really gives me a laugh.

Let me know if you have watched it. If not, get a taste of it with the trailer here.

Weekly Screenings - American Gangster

I'm in the mood to do some movie screenings this week. Crapping about 5 movies in a week is an underestimation of the actual visual load that comes through my pipeline. And yes, you're lucky. You'll get the fresh stash before you head to the cinemas.

Here's the first click on American Gangster.



I could never have expected Denzel Washington to be playing the villain. And here he is, playing the role of a mafia leader's driver cum apprentice in Harlem. After the death of the man everyone in Harlem looked up to, the underground kingdom crashed. Then, Denzel Washington inherited his mentor's teachings and built his own "company" from scratch. This is quite amazing for a true story and Denzel has done a great job playing the man crashing someone else's head into a grand piano. That is, literally, a cold-blooded man.

Somehow, Russell Crowe's sloppy cop look does not impress me very much. Period. It's enjoyable for 2.5 hours. Then, it's the end of story and nothing much came along. I enjoy myself even more watching the movies I pick at home. Yes, I'm that bit hard to please.

Next in line will be... I have not decided yet.

Kickoff

Of exact 100 RSS sources, including my own's, that I subscribed to, I think my post-holiday syndrome is the most severe. The active contributors in my list such as NOTCOT.org and The Sartorialist have started their first post of 2008 way days back. Me? I'm still a turtle-crawling grass-mowing and beef-jerky-chewing slow.

As a start, I'll write about the two fashion/trend-related feeds that have turned into my daily must-read. Well, it's also because they have daily or almost-daily updates and interesting contents. You've seen them up above ^. Yes, NOTCOT.org and The Sartorialist.

1. NOTCOT.org

I discovered this site when I was surfing Mooie's blog. ( Note: Mooie is a local boutique with a young and funky spirit that reminds me of Palate Palette at Changkat Bukit Bintang. I'm not going to share the link because Mooie's stuffs are more and more disappointing lately!

Back to NOTCOT.org. Out of my 3 months observation, I would say NOTCOT.org seems to be the electronic version of underground trend magazine mogul with various spin-off sister sites such as NotCouture, NOTed, The Gallery, TasteSpotting and last but not least their dot com. Of all these spin-offs, I'm more impressed with NOTCOT.org and Tastespotting for I love pretty stuffs and delicious food however to date, I only subscribe to NOTCOT.org as...come on, do I live it the States? I will not put myself in a situation such as loving a LV Speedy so much and knowing myself will never buy one until my salary really makes me smile everyday.

In short, give it a click. I hope you'll enjoy it.

2. The Sartorialist

Two words.
"Photography" and "posh funky people".

Okay, that's three. But, you get me.
This chap obviously has a link to GQ.com in his blog and such have I wondered one day if he's shooting for GQ magazine. The portraits he took for the street series are very beautiful. Somehow, the bokeh gives the character more personality and the contrast of colors in their clothing just perfects the whole composition of everything. I'm no photography expert but somehow, I know it's not as simple as clicking a shutter and it'll be that good.

Click on it everyday and you'll know how much your wardrobe needs a revamp. Or, at least that is what I feel these days. Urge to splurge, don't you agree?

Anyway, these two are just the tiny bits of the talented blogger pool out there and I'm enjoying reading them these days. I'll see if I smack on anything impressive tomorrow.

Till then, "tank" you.

Solitude

Taken at White Sand Dunes, Muine, Vietnam

Some people commented that the pictures I took at this sand dunes look great. Sometimes, it's the place being so beautiful that, no matter how you press the shutter, the saturation of the sky will always be so perfect in the end. Margie concluded this when she stayed in Europe. I couldn't agree more.

Muine has a stretch of 6km shoreline which gives way to the blooming of development projects for resorts and restaurants. Naturally, tourism will rise to be the major source of income for locals - be it the kids or adults. Fortunately, right after the 6km coastline, all I could see was still the normal fishing village life and stinky fish market. For now, the children are still naive, playful and fun to "hang out with" since they did not request for money after each game we played together or each photograph I took, which was very likely to happen at other parts of Vietnam.

The point is - white sand dunes area is far from other attractions hence is also less desired by the throng of tourist buses. I'm glad this allowed me to take my shots that day, and also ignoring the teases from those that will not comprehend why I rather walk further to explore the possibility of good shots than sledding sand. Even though I could only venture as far as 2 hours' of time could allow me, or the dunes were not in the shape I dreamed of, still, the moment of you standing on top of the dune, looking afar to stretch of monotone is magnificent. Solitude, it is.


I hope the scene will stay how it is for another 10 years. Maybe less.

It's the "list" thing, again.

Here's what I want to watch in 2008.

1. Michael Clayton // There Will Be Blood // The Great Debaters
Drama Thiller or whatever grim genre or heavy storyline to watch along with bubbly smile. Get your popcorns ready and hold tight to your seat! Every year there will be a few big shot productions that we all should not miss eg: Crash, A Beautiful Life etc. And these few are just part of the league.

2. Persepolis
Monographic animation from the perspective an Iranian girl about her coming-of-age tale in Teheran and Vienna in an amusing way. Or not? At least this is the plot I could recall. Still not keen? Read this -> this film is France's Official Submission to the Best Foreign Language Film Category of the 80th Annual Academy Awards (2008).

3. PS I Love You
Gerard Butler being romantic and Hillary Swank being too girly than she’s born to be. I definitely will not miss this.

4. 21
Teenager’s version of Ocean 11/12/13. Why not? We’ll see if Jim Sturgess http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0836343/. And, this is a true story about the smart kids (that I’ll never be) fooling everyone else. Why miss it?

5. Juno
A highly acclaimed movie with Ellen Page from the unforgettable Hard Candy, about a underage pregnant teenager looking for adoptive parents for her new born. I’m looking forward to see the sarcastic attitude in her character.
Note: When I checked back Hard Candy in imdb.com, guess what, I saw Sandra Oh in the movie screenshots. :|

6. 4 Months 3 Weeks & 2 Days (Original Romanian Title: 4 Luni, 3 Saptamani Si 2 Zile )
This is about another premarital pregnancy. This time, two girls are plotting after a DIY abortion. Young girls out there should pay attention to this so that you’ll get inspired to devise an alternative to the conventional scratch-it-then-drop-it abortion method. Okay, that’s not how you do it? That’s why I need to watch this.

7. Purple Violet
I know I know. This might another underperforming plot that under-utilizes good actors. But, come one! Selma Blair? And an adult version of The Sisterhood of Travelling Pants. It’s time for me to ditch all my grim depressive indie movies and go back to the mainstream lovey dovey motivating happy sappy stuffs. Nonetheless, The Sisterhood of Travelling Pants is releasing in 2008 with the same cast in Part 1. Don't miss it since it will be a superb reunion after the 4 girls - Blake Lively (Gossip Girl), Amber Tamblyn (Joan of Arcadia), Alexis Bledel (Gilmore Girls) and America Ferrera(Ugly Betty) got it big in their acting career.

8.Man In The Chair
I was googling on the director Michael Schroeder since the name sounded catchy enough for me to stuff an impressive reason why I include this movie in my list. Well, I could’t find any names that ring a bell to me other than Honey, I Blew Up The Kid. However, whatever happened below does not dictate what you can achieve. The story line sounds very moving to me and the reviews have been good so far. So, I’m putting this in my list! It’s about underdogs and the long forgotten old men in a home helping out a teenager to shoot a movie to win a film competition for students. I’m expecting a lot of chemistry between the young and the old.

9. Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day
A retrenched governess entering the glamorous social life of entertainment industry after working for an actress. The plot sounds typical until I came across the name Lee Pace as the musician that the actress’s involved with secretly. Lee Pace?! That’s one daisical yes to watch.

10. The Diving Bell & The Butterfly ( Original French Title: Le scaphandre et le papillon )
IMDB says, “The true story of Elle editor Jean-Dominique Bauby who suffers a stroke and has to live with an almost totally paralyzed body; only his left eye isn't paralyzed.” That doesn’t sound tempting until I read that the film is shot from the perspective of Jean using his unparalyzed left eye to explore & communicate with the world.

What I Missed was Across The Universe which I'm sure all The Beetles fans did not. I’m not one huge fan but it’s good to feel all retrospective and young with The Beetles ecstatic rhythm all compiled in one movie again.

The, I tried to think Which albums in 2007 were good enough to catch my attention and I can’t think of anything other than Feist’s The Reminder album. Other than this, Rolling Stones did quite a good list of 100 best songs of 2007 that I quite agree with. So, click on and compile your New Year Even party mix tape.

Until then, I'm off somewhere.

Adios.