films: January

Movies! Lovely things. These book/movie posts are entirely for my own benefit, so please do not expect smart-sounding reviews or even coherency, really. Also, do not expect that I will somehow reign in my shameless abuse of the caps lock or shift key.

WARNING: possible spoilers.

1. The Social Network, dir. David Fincher. 2010.

Jan 1 (in theatres with Lareina)

OH MY GOD THE SOCIAL NETWORK. The amount of love I have for this film (and my newfound obsession with Jesse Eisenberg and Andrew Garfield) is ridiculous and frankly quite embarrassing. So because I suck at writing coherent and thoughtful reviews on anything anyway, here is a list of things I could gush over for ages and ages.

Things I loved about TSN:

1. The script. It was fast-paced, snappy, funny and so damn smart. One of my favorite scenes in the movie is the part where Mark Zuckerberg is hacking into Harvard's systems and creating Facemash.com. Or maybe it's the dialogue between Mark and his ex-girlfriend Erica Albright. Or maybe it's the "if you guys were the inventors of Facebook, you'd have invented Facebook" moment that the trailers love to use. Or maybe it's Mark being all "I need you" and Eduardo replying immediately with "I'm here for you!" and OH MY GOD YOU GUYS, this movie was essentially a tragic gay love story. But I'm supposed to be writing about the script so DIALOGUE. And the action. The scenes in general. It is important. It is amazing here.
   
   
2. Critics and non-critic people in general kept on talking about how TSN's scenes were longer than scenes usually are in movies, and how it's such a novel thing and it works so well here. I agree - I think I like it. I say I think because I was so absorbed in the story that I didn't notice how long or short the scenes ran. No part of the movie dragged on for too long or cut off too quickly, and everything about the scenes worked, okay, why am I trying to write something cohesive and structured, let's just get onto point 3 so I can actually gush:
   
   
3. The characters. I will clarify and say Eduardo Saverin in particular, because there were just moments where his expression just BROKE MY HEART and I wept (in my heart) for his poor betrayed self, even though I wouldn't say that Mark did the wrong thing. Mark did the right thing for his company; he just did it in very asshole-ian way. Anyway. Eduardo's stupid big eyes! Mark's sense of humor and acerbic wit! "Wait, let me check your math."!!! Interestingly (oh my god I am jumping all over the place), it wasn't the "I was your only friend" scene that killed me the most, it was the moment where Eduardo pulls out two beers from the fridge, pops the cap on one, and holds it out, only to see Mark come in and pull out his own beer. The expression on Eduardo's face! Mark's continual obliviousness! UGH BOYS.
   
   
4. The soundtrack! My god, between TSN and Tron: Legacy, my ears were very, very happy.
   
   
5. This story was just a tragic gay love story, okay, and it broke my heart.

As you can tell, I enjoyed and still do enjoy this film very, very much.

2. The Green Hornet, dir. Michael Gondry. 2011.

Jan 14 (in theatres, with Mike)

There's nothing much to say about the film itself, other than it's a comedy/action film that requires very little thinking to watch and that Jay Chou steals the show. It's funny enough, yeah, which is occasionally all that I ask for in a movie, but it's also kind of stupid. The protagonist, Brett something, is unsympathizable, and I don't even care that no such word exists according to Google Chrome. I could not sympathize with his character at all. Period. Oh, your dad died? Sorry, but YOU'RE STILL A GRADE-A+++ ASSHOLE.

One thing, though: I was inordinately excited for Jay Chou. My friend Mike even commented on it: "I think this is the most Asian I've ever seen you being."

It's not as easy as it seems to explain why I was so excited, but it's mostly a visibility thing. It's hard to understand if you watch movies and TV shows and see a majority of characters look like you. In my case, I watch tv and movies and see mostly beautiful white people; people who look like me are frequently relegated to supporting roles, or background characters - the most obvious example would be the movie adaptation of popular television show Avatar: The Last Airbender, M. Night Shyamalan's The Last Airbender. If you don't know about the clusterfuck that is that movie, then I will not be the one to tell you - just google "avatar" and "racefail" or "racebending"and there will be a shit. ton. of articles and blog posts about it.

It's not enough to say that one might be white, but they're "ugly", or not conventionally pretty, so it doesn't really count. It doesn't matter - privilege is intersectional, meaning that the privilege of being white is not cancelled out by the fact that you DON'T have the privilege of being "beautiful". Just because a white girl* doesn't look like Natalie Portman** doesn't mean the white girl isn't white, and that's what we're talking about here - visibility. Wait, what the fuck? Is that what I was talking about?

ARGH this is supposed to be about the movie. Back to TGH!

I was inordinately glad to see a fellow Asian person on the big screen in North America, and thrilled to see that even though it's a funny shitty movie, he's the saving grace of the film. JAY CHOU IS AWESOME, OKAY. Why is Seth Rogen's character SO FUCKING STUPID. Why couldn't the Asian guy get the girl for once. Why couldn't this movie be about Kato and him dealing with working for a terribly stupid employer who only knows how to fuck things up but still considers himself the "main character". Why couldn't this entire movie be Kato making lattes and kicking ass, huh?

3. Team America: World Police, dir. Trey Parker. 2004.

Jan 17

AHAHA THIS MOVIE. HOLY SHIT THIS MOVIE. If you have not seen this movie, then just watch it and read what I have to say later. (Or never.)

POINTS AGAIN, BECAUSE I AM LAZY.

• I had to watch this for an intro to communications class (BEST CLASS EVER?) and while some people might think that applying semiotics to TA:WP will ruin their enjoyment of the movie, I'm finding that I'm enjoying it more. I want to watch it again with a friend and just analyze the shit out of every scene. The music (the lyrics, I mean), the ridiculous action tropes, the 2-dimensional characters...
  
  
• Along that note, while this movie pokes fun of America, I don't think it's a critique on the "America the Bumbling Superpower" myth, but a perpetuation of it. (Yes, I want to go there.)
  
  
• I watched this at like 2 in the morning, in bed. My ribs hurt from trying to keep in the laughter.

Is this movie a layer of stupid-smart-stupid or smart-stupid-smart or smart-stupid-stupid or stupid-smart-smart or ??? I don't even know anymore, guys.

4. The Fighter, dir. David O. Russell. 2010.

Jan 29 (in theatres, with Mike)

Christian Bale never, ever fails to creep me out with his intensity. Which is a good thing, I suppose, but really, it's just creepy. Melissa Leo was phenomenal as Alice Ward, I felt; the scenes with Alice and Dicky kind of broke my heart. The entire ensemble was lovely, really.

Plot-wise, I felt that the film was rather understated - despite the fast-paced action of the boxing scenes, the story unfolded quietly, almost subtly. Nothing about the events that happened surprised me, or shocked me, or even reached out through the screen to shake me and force me to feel something. It gives the film a quiet power; I liked it. Not a movie that made me want to stand up and applaud while saying, "Yes, this is the film I didn't know I wanted to see!" but a good movie nonetheless.

If I had to list the movies in order of preference, it'd be The Social Network, Team America: World Police, The Fighter, then The Green Hornet.

Films I'd like to watch this February: Boy A, The King's Speech, Casablanca, and, hopefully, the documentary Waste Land.

* I'm sorry, except I'm not really.

** Why did Natalie Portman have to go and support Roman Polanski? Why on earth would anyone support a person who DRUGGED AND RAPED A THIRTEEN-YEAR-OLD?!