films: Love Actually, He's Just Not That Into You

warnings: possible spoilers ahead. for sure a metric ton of swearing.

11. Love Actually, dir. Richard Curtis. 2003.

watched March 9, 2011

57. He's Just Not That Into You, dir. Ken Kwapis. 2009.

watched November 25, 2011

Tackling these two (vaguely entertaining but frankly terrible) movies together, because I have things to say that only have marginal relevance to both. (Or maybe possibly it is entirely too relevant.)

Fuck these movies. Seriously, fuck 'em. I am so ridiculously sick and tired of these tired ridiculous heterosexist white-people romantic comedies that espouse ridiculous gender conventions that are often demeaning to women.

The first half of Love Actually I spent cooing reluctantly at the actors on the screen, and by the second half I was just shoveling popcorn into my mouth shouting, "Yeah, white people! Go forth and conquer the day!" and "Yeah, white man! Why don't you show off just how entitled you think you fucking are by doing what-the-fuck-ever you are doing!" Which is, alright, a bit of an exaggeration, but seriously, Hollywood, seriously. You have that much cash on you and you can't pay decent writers to write you something fucking new? Do you think only white people go out to see movies? On that note, do you think all non-white people have a shit ton of baggage that the script must address and oh no, a two-hour movie just ain't long enough for that? I get that at least one of these movies is about holiday cheer and spreading the warm and fuzzy feelings of love but god way to alienate a good percentage of your viewers by making every single love story between white people. (And don't give me shit about how Keira Knightley's husband in Love Actually was black, the story revolved mostly around her and her husband's white best friend.)

Some people might read this and go, "Whoa, aren't you being a bit racist against white people?" And I will reply, very earnestly, "No. You can't be racist against white people. You can't erase privilege like that." So if I had to admit to being anything, I'd say that I'm prejudiced against white people in shitty films like Love Actually and He's Just Not That Into You. Why are they the only ones represented? Do Asian-Americans and other hyphenated Americans just not matter? Are our stories not worth being told on the silver screen?

What else did I hate about these movies? Ah yes, the heterosexism. Way to erase the homosexual population, the bisexual population, the trans* population, the anything-that-isn't-straight-straight-straight population.

Also, He's Just Not That Into You: fuck you. Fuck you and your massive hard-on for gender essentialism. Fuck you and your pedantic "girls shouldn't be so assertive!"

Also, who the fuck was Drew Barrymore's character? Why was she even relevant? Was it just to give everyone a happy ending, if only in potentia? (I'm pretty sure I used "in potentia" incorrectly, but at this point I don't give a fuck.) Did she exist just to poke fun of the supposed perils of internet dating? Really?

God. I just. Come on, Hollywood, is a romantic comedy not about a straight white couple too much to ask for?!

film: Shame

warning: possible spoilers ahead.

59. Shame, dir. Steve McQueen. 2011.

watched December 13, 2011

This is a really fucking sad movie. Or a really sad fucking movie. Literally.

Awkward joke aside, Shame, directed by Steve McQueen (who, as every movie review seems to need to clarify, is a British director), is a movie about sex. About fucking, and a lack of intimacy, and how what we need shapes our lives.

I'm not sure I can clarify how I feel about this film. On the one hand, it's beautiful. McQueen mixes the classy, uptown-side of downtown New York and the breathtaking skylines and the seedy underbelly (good god everything sounds like a reference to sex, now) all in one film and does it seamlessly, forces us to see the full spectrum of the cityscape. On the other hand, it's stark and painful and so, so desolate - twisted, really, twisted and needy and when the film starts off you're sitting in the theatre staring helplessly at Michael Fassbender's bouncing dick wondering if you can give this movie what it needs, what it wants you to feel. Because really, Shame wants a visceral reaction out of you. Shame bares it all but doesn't tell you how to react to it. You watch the events play out on the screen and you can't help but ask questions: what is wrong with Brandon Sullivan? Did they just hint at the fact that his condition is a result of a brain injury? Are we supposed to judge him? What happened to him and Sissy, his sister? What the fuck is going on between the two? Is this movie brilliant or just really fucking unnecessarily convoluted? but the ending of the movie doesn't offer any answers. You feel like you should watch the film a second time in an effort to puzzle things out, but it's such a jarring, arresting movie that you feel like watching it again would just break your heart and refuse to return the pieces.

If there's one definite thing Shame shows the viewers, though, it's this: Michael Fassbender can and will act the fucking heart out of you.

He is Brandon Sullivan. And as terribly cliché as that sounds, it's fucking true. You don't sit there watching him fuck a prostitute against a window and think, "god in that other movie he had such a huge stick up his ass that he probably didn't even know there was a meaning to fuck other than 'I'm going to kill you'!" You sit there in that theatre simultaneously repulsed and sympathetic and forlorn because here is a man, perfectly capable of being friendly and dating a lovely woman from work, who can't have sex when it's intimate and can't go on without sex. You sit there wondering if he tried so hard with that woman because he wanted intimacy, because he knew he couldn't deal with it but needed it anyway, or if he tried because it was just what was expected of him, what society told him to want.

Whether you loved the film or hated it, you can't deny that Michael Fassbender fucking owned the screen.

On a rather contradictory note, I think part of the reason why the film resonated so well with me is because of the underlying tone of emptiness. The opening scene of Brandon on his bed, just breathing - god. There's something so quiet and understated about it. It should be desolate, lonely, but it's not. It's just... there.

...good god, I am so terrible at movie reviews it's ridiculous.

film: The Ides of March

Blowing dust off the ol' blog again in an attempt to organize my thoughts on the film The Ides of March.

Warning: spoilers ahead.


56. The Ides of March, dir. George Clooney. 2011.

watched November 20th

What the fuck was up with the film's treatment of Molly and what happened to her?

I mean, it's possible I was missing things because I was occasionally acting as translator for my friend and so missed a few bits of dialog, but come on. I suppose I should give credit to the screenplay writers for not overtly casting judgment on her, but the moment it was revealed that she had "slept with" Governor Mike Morris, George Clooney's character, my face was a huge :/ because I'm not sure what I got.

See, I thought that the governor had raped her. I thought he chatted with her for a bit that night in the hotel, and then reached behind her and shut the door and raped her. And even if she didn't protest and even if she did go along with it, it wouldn't rule out rape because rape is very rarely the "guy jumps the well dressed (provocatively dressed?) girl in a darkened alley and rapes her while she cries and cries and tries to fight back" story that seems to pervade society's collective consciousness.

But then Steven, Ryan Gosling's character, tells the governor during the climactic blackmailing scene that the governor "made the one mistake [he] shouldn't've - [he] fucked an intern." (Or something along those lines, anyways.)

I was sitting there going, "wait a minute, did I not comprehend things properly? Did he not rape an intern??"

What kind of conclusions are the viewers supposed to draw about Molly? Are we supposed to assume that because she slept willingly with Steven - no, not only that she slept with him, that because she even took the initiative and flirted with him, whatever happened between the governor and her was consensual?

Also, wtf was up with the immediate questioning of Molly's sobriety?

I get that this film is about the ~corruption of politics~ and how it's so ~tough~ being a ~good person~ in politics. But really, we already know this shit. So George Clooney's environmental, secularist governor isn't actually perfect. So Ryan Gosling is perfect as Steven, the driven career man who'd do anything to get a seat at the big boys of campaign managing's table.

We already know this shit, seriously. Is it too much to ask for a film that goes beyond the obvious and instead of ~showing us how it is!!1 in the ~hard world of politics~ offers us a new perspective? Is it too much to ask for a movie that will legitimize a point of view that ISN'T the white, privileged man's? Something that doesn't recycled the same old (wrong) ideas about politics and where men, women, men of color and women of color fit into it?

And don't give me shit about how if I "want to see it so badly" I should just "shut up and write it myself". I mean, I get the point, but wow, way to be dismissive.

Ugh. But overall, good acting and the plot was well-paced, no matter how hackneyed I found it. Also, Ryan Gosling's face was excellent.

films: February

warning: spoilers, swearing, mightily uninformed opinions.

5. Unstoppable, dir. Tony Scott. 2010.

Feb 4 (on flight - Air Canada)

Air Canada is a nice airline to fly with. Each seat has a screen of its own, so you can go through and pick radio channels, tv shows, music programs, and best of all, movies. Instead of sleeping through my red-eye flight, I decided to watch movies. When I navigated my way to the "Blockbuster" category, the guy sitting next to me suddenly reached over, pointed at theUnstoppable box on the screen, and promised, "This is a really good movie. Watch it!"

So I did, after thanking him for the recommendation.

The movie reminds me vaguely of The Fighter, because in a way the action is very much... subdued. You go in knowing what's going to happen: Denzel Washington and Chris Pine are going to save the day. The big execs in charge of the railroad company are going to show off how much of a profit-driven asshole they are. Chris Pine's character Will is going to get back together with his wife, and they're going to have a big kiss at the end of the movie because that's just the way Hollywood rolls.

It was a good movie, don't get me wrong. It was suspenseful in the right ways and not too heavy-handed with the melodrama and the characters, while rather two-dimensional, aren't terrible.

But ultimately this movie fails for me. Why so damn predictable? This is probably because I don't "know" movies - the technical details of filming or the use of lights or the editing - but I felt nothing for the characters. Frank's two daughters waitressing in Hooters? Baw, tell me more. Will is separated from his wife and son and yearns for them? Poor baby, what happened. The train is stopped by the heroic actions of Frank and Will and the support of Rosario Dawson's character Connie? So inspirational! Let's all put our hands together for these small town heroes!

The moral of this film is I'm a heartless word-that-I-shall-not-use-because-I-am-taking-women's-studies-and-using-this-word-makes-me-feel-guilty.

6. Date Night, dir. Shawn Levy. 2010.

Feb 5 (on flight - Air Canada)

If I had to describe this film in just one word, it'd be "disappointment". Steve Carrell, Tina Fey, shirtless Mark Wahlberg... Come on, it could have been so awesome. The jokes were flat, Steve Carrell and Tina Fey were bogged down with a script that was more stupid than entertaining, and jesus christ Mark Wahlberg will you cut your damn hair?!

7. Pride and Prejudice, dir. Joe Wright. 2005.

Feb 11 (at home, with momma)

AHAHA Mr. Darcy. Now that I've watched the British miniseries, I can just say that the movie version with Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfadyen is much more... sensual. The scenery, the costumes, the dialogue - everything is lusher, brighter. The understated

I watched the movie just a couple days after reading the book, which was helpful because it helped me stay on track, plot-wise.

8. The Cove, dir. Louie Psihoyos. 2009.

Feb 18 (at home, with parents)

This documentary was: beautiful heartbreaking inspiring but also very, very one-sided. I'm not sure, however, if showing the fishers' side of the situation would make it any better - I mean, how do you justify slaughtering dolphins the way they do? How do you justify something so obviously unnecessary?

9. 127 Hours, dir. Danny Boyle. 2010.

Feb 22 (theatres, with Mike)

The best word for this movie is "intense". But not overwhelmingly so, I felt - it may be because I knew what to expect from this movie, as the story is made the rounds the first time the news broke. A large portion of the audience is going to know what they're going into, and even if someone's never heard of Aron Ralston they're going to hear the whispers: "it's the movie about the guy who cuts his own arm off". Still, despite the predictability of the plot (he gets stuck, he's going to get flashbacks to happier times/regrets, he's going to film himself telling his parents/family goodbye, he's going to cut through his arm with just a cheap knife), the film is an enjoyable one thanks to the stunning scenery and the gorgeous James Franco.

What can I say, I'm just shallow.

10. Raiders of the Last Ark, dir.Steven Spielberg. 1981.

Feb 25 (theatres, with Norman)



11. Pride and Prejudice, dir. Simon Langton. 1995. (TV miniseries)
Feb 27

AHAHA COLIN FIRTH. Being a TV miniseries, there was more time to stay truthful to the novel, which was really enjoyable.

11. The King's Speech, dir. Tom Hooper. 2010.
Feb 28 (theatres, with Lareina)

Great film. Impeccable acting. Lovable characters.

Also the most disappointingly, boringly beautiful film of the year. I wish I was kidding. This is probably because of my disappointment with the Oscars this year (I know, such white people problems), but David Fincher should have won that goddamn Oscar, okay. It felt like anyone could have filmed this movie and made it as beautiful as it is.


(Off topic, but I had a moment in the theatre where I chuckled loudly because omg, Mr. Collins from Pride and Prejudice! In The King's Speech! COLIN FIRTH AND DAVID BAMBER REUNITED! /IMDB nerd)

ARGH I GIVE UP this will be all. February films, finished!

film: The Cove

Just watched The Cove, a powerful documentary about the slaughter of dolphins in Taiji, Japan.

Comprehensive note will come during the February post, but a few points that came to mind, mostly as a response to my parents that turned into a general rant against a small percentage of the population:

1. The first thing you say when you watch a film like this should not be, at least in my opinion, the sentence, "There are worse things happening in the world." The people watching this will most likely know there are terrible things happening in the world. "Better" and "worse" are relative terms. If someone wants to cry over the senseless slaughter of dolphins, then that also has nothing to do with you or the fact that you believe worse things are happening in the world.
   
   
2. There's no such thing as a "better" cause to be passionate about. It is all relative. One of my pet peeves is when people say shit like, "Why do you care so much about (this)? What about (that)?" I care about (this) because I care about (this), okay. If you think (that) is that much a more noble, better cause to fight for, then FIGHT FOR (THAT) YOUR FUCKING SELF. Go out and find organizations that share your thoughts about (that). If there isn't one, fucking make one. There are +6 billion people around the world, chances are SOMEONE CARES ABOUT (THAT) TOO. Stop shitting on other people's efforts to make the world a better place in their own way by implying/saying outright that there are better things to spend their time, energy and money on.
   
   
3. I don't give a shit if it's a philosophical question, don't ask me something like "So if you had a dolphin and a person before you and you had to kill one of the two, you'd kill the human?"
   
   Number one, IRRELEVANT QUESTION, STOP FUCKING DERAILING.
   
   Number two, NO REALLY, STOP DERAILING.
   
   Number three, DERAILING! The discussion is about dolphins and how to save them, not fucking KILLING PEOPLE INSTEAD OF DOLPHINS.
   
   Number four, it would truly, truly depend on the situation. 99% of the time yeah, I'd save the person, but what if it's fucking Hitler? Do you think that's an absurd proposition? Well, your question was ridiculous, okay, it was fucking absurd. Most probably I will never face such a clear-cut decision in which I do not need to consider history, and I'd rather not spend time considering what I'd do in such a situation. I think dolphins are important animals, I think the slaughter is senseless and should be stopped, I think this film was a good one and I'm going to fucking cry over it. Does this mean I'm going to go out and kill a person to save a dolphin? NO, because I don't need to kill a person to save a dolphin. What do you accomplish by getting me to pick a human being over a dolphin? You've proved that I value the life of a human being, possibly slightly more than a dolphin's. Does that mean I think dolphins are inherently useless? No. Does that mean I think dolphins should be senselessly slaughtered for meat that no one voluntarily eats anyway? No. It just means that in the 0.0000000000000000001% chance that a situation like that ever occurs, I will choose to have the human being to be saved. CONGRATULATIONS.
   
   

Or maybe I am totally wrong and there is a "better" cause to root for. I am almost itching for someone to start a conversation about this just so I can start yelling. Terrible of me, I know.

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?!