Saturday, October 29, 2011

The New Lara Croft

Olivia Wilde

Here we are, continuing looking for recycled ideas, stories and heroes and villains! And the cycle it's getting shorter and shorter. Lara Croft: Tomb Raider was ten years ago. Actually both films suck a big deal but Angelina Jolie's lips and attitude took it to a bearable level. Olivia Wilde is no Angelina Jolie but I'm sure she doesn't want to be one either. It's about different generations, I mean! 
Cool choice, I think, because she's Olivia Wilde, a really beautiful girl.

Oscar Season

The Posters

I heared Marilyn Monroe portration wasn't worthy of the real woman. I hear Grace Kelly comes next, so let's see. 

I'm so curious to watch this film. A silent black and white film in theaters it's kind of unique, this days. 

This film marketing...

I want to see this film, I really do. I want to be disturbed by it.

Wow...

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

The Help

Written and Directed by Tate Taylor

This film is a typical portrait of the black fight in the American History and it’s a typical film where they are constantly pulling the tear out of you and it’s beautifully made. But before going further I need to emphasize the cast and their beautiful performances. They were so good, all of them. Just the way each of them stands out.


The film starts and we are introduced to a black housekeeper named Aibileen (Viola Davis) where she’s confessing something significant about her life. We are soon introduced to the perfect society of white girls, leaded by Hilly Hollbrook (Bryce Dallas Howard). Skeeter (Emma Stone) joins them in this tea party. She just arrived from college and got a job on a local newspaper and is determined to be a successful writer. We are in the Mississippi during the 1960s so there’s a clear and unbreakable segregation. Skeeter is a different girl. She’s independent as a woman and she has a sense of mutual respect towards black people. In the little aspect of just saying thanks as the housekeeper pours her a cup of tea. She asks for the help of Aibileen for her column, but soon she has the idea of interviewing the black women who spent their lives taking care of these southern families like Skeeter’s. We see Skeeter loosing friends but also becoming a real woman. We see Aibileen’s best friend and housekeeper Minny (Octavia Spencer) being the attitude between this group of women and her witty sense that makes her create an unlikely bond between her new boss Celia (Jessica Chastain), an outcast with a huge heart but a solitary because Hilly denies her presence in the club. The housekeepers, also called the help, have to face huge fears, but they join together, they fight and the lives of this Southern place will learn. This will bring hope to the lives of this minority of a community.




This film brings drama to every single scene; there is always something to be said. At the same time this film is colorful, from the set to the wardrobe and make up.  But I really can’t stop thinking about this cast. Director Tate Taylor exploits so well the different women. From Celia, who is so good but a sad wife making us feel so sorry for her (I wanted to hug that woman so badly), to Skeeter’s mother, to The Help, and their bravery to Hilly, a bitter woman because she didn’t had love and all the other shallow girls. We connect with them, because they’re all unique, because every detail matters and these actors made everything possible. Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer have this genius dramatic and comic timing. Jessica Chastain and Bryce Dallas Howard are brilliant. Bryce has the best role of her career. And all the secondary characters are good, again, because even they are well developed. I believe Emma Stone is chattered by her older mates! 


Director and writer Tate Taylor uses every detail and every trick to pull out the tear. The final scene of this film it’s also a goodbye scene and it’s also a scene that involves a baby crying and he takes the baby to the window and makes him scream and cry making the audience be uncontrollably touched not to say weeping like a baby.

Monday, October 24, 2011

In the Land Of Blood and Honey


Writer and Director Angelina Jolie is not kidding...it looks so promising.
I already fell in love.

Quote It


Wallace Wells: If you want something bad, you have to fight for it. Step up your game, Scott. Break out the L-word.
Scott Pilgrim: Lesbian?
Wallace Wells:  The other L-word.
Scott Pilgrim:  ...Lesbians? 


Sunday, October 23, 2011

Coming and Going

Directed by Edoardo Ponti and Written by Dewayne Darian Jones and Edoardo Ponti.

This film – what a joy! What a disgrace!
You know when you have this moment in a film when you have this laugh but it’s not necessarily something funny happening or a joke but just some detail for secondary reasons that makes you laugh? Coming and Going had that in me.
This is a romantic comedy where the guy is a successful doctor who lacks a great amount of confidence when it comes to women and the girl is an attractive young woman confident in a life without compromise but in night stands with boys, nothing more than that. They meet on accidental circumstances, literally. He’s temporarily in a wheelchair and she almost runs over him.


I was watching this and I was thinking. “I couldn’t write something like this could I?” I would never write something like this, beyond being too dramatic, I just couldn’t write this shallow and dumb people. I had a few laughs but I’m so severe when it comes to this stories. I know they’re suppose to be loose and light but fuck me…common, I believe not all romantic comedies suck. They can be good too!
I like fiction (or fantasy). It’s what keeps me going and it’s what keeps me questioning about this great duality between fiction and reality (it’s my blog tagline). But I like fiction like “Win Win” and I don’t like fiction, bad fiction, like “Coming and Going”. With “Win Win” I laughed effortlessly, I laughed with these characters’ genuine behavior and “Win Win” is mainly a drama. With “Coming and Going” I laughed but these characters did really stupid things and behaved not like a human being usually does, that’s a bad fiction for me.

 This post should be called – Being picky with Sasha Alexander’s husband!

This is how picky I can be with films; romantic comedies become an easy target.
Is not enough that I got stuck with a particular scene from the beginning of the film (Sasha Alexander shirtless moment…) 

There’s this awful effect of the planet; 

I counted two guys (actors) looking at the camera, what the fuck?? Were you really that distracted, Ponti? Common!

Don't look at me, dude...

Then the romantic dinner; with Sasha’s beautiful face and you have a fucking wine bottle in the middle of the screen? It’s freaking there…it’s ridiculous. You forgot to thought how that looked in a big screen…it gets pretty visible (and I didn't watch it in theaters). 


Then there were these angles, because the protagonist is often in a wheelchair… 

Alex's ass...acting role.

For a moment I thought I was watching Parks and Recreation! 
No, this is really a screencap from the film!

There is this scene of time lapse really unfortunate, it was like I was watching a lame version of a tv show!

Nop...

I guess you were too loose on the set Edoardo Ponti!


And I was so irritated with the protagonist, I was really disturbed and believe me, I really like him. I think Rhys Darby is hilarious. He was awesome in “The Boat that Rocked”, but I just couldn’t stand him! I wonder why…Sasha Alexander was so loose in this role, what a delight. 
Now here it goes a typical fans geek response – you know what? It was worth it. Damn worth it. I say two words – Sasha Alexander. See? What an ordinary person I can be, sometimes. And this was a typical review of a fan.


Oh and Edoardo Ponti had a funny cameo!


On a conscious note – I know how hard, how difficult, how frustrating nerve wrecking and impossible it is to create a film and I know that I’m only doing the easiest part that is criticizing (ok, I feel a little guilty). So I just want to say I have always a certain consideration…I know this film was hard to make... The guys from “Once” had less many and still managed to do something beyond words. So at the end of the day, as long as you’re doing it with passion!

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Picture Moment

Catherine Deneuve...Happy Birthday!

Petit Deneuve.

 The smoker...



I see her as an independent woman...

...with a reserved attitude

...and is there something more attractive than that?

 Then there's her elegance.



Also, Catherine Deneuve with a tribal tattoo!

Surrounded with boys!

But Black and White is something else-
Love her.

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Picture Moment


Looking back...also called Nostalgia.
They mean so much in this century, I can't even begin to describe. Love them.

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Abbie Cornish looks at things


I read that sentence from a film critic, I find it hilarious. But after watching this trailer my thoughts are exactly that – I WANT TO SEE ABBIE CORNISH LOOKING AT THINGS. Are you kidding me? Wide shots of Abbie Cornish? I can’t even breathe. Why you do this to me, Abbie? Why?
I’ll be there, front row, to see Abbie looking at things. 


Monday, October 17, 2011

Quote It

Everything Must Go - Written and Directed by Dan Rush


Nick Halsey is an alcoholic who just lost his job, his wife and his house. He’s holding his life in his front yard. Samantha is a pregnant wife that just moved in across the street making her his new neighbor. Their different situations in life will bring them closer and help them reviewing what’s really going on with their lives. I find this passage really interesting. Samantha tries to talk some sense to Nick but something else is revealed.


Samantha: You know, you need some help.

Nick: I’ve tried help.
Samantha: Yeah, well, maybe it wasn’t the right kind. You know, there’s new medications, new therapies.
Nick: I don’t need medication.
Samatha: Well, you can’t live like this.
Nick: Why not?
Samantha: ‘Cause it’s not normal.
Nick: Normal? What’s normal? That guy Stanley what’s-his-name down in the blue house, his wife blew her brains out last month ‘cause her daughter didn’t make cheerleading. Kenny practically lives by himself, you know? Elliot and Kitty, I can’t even tell you what they do. I’m no different than any of you. I just don’t hide in my house, okay?
Samantha: What does that mean?
Nick: What?
Samantha: “Any of you”.
Nick: Nothing, nothing. I’m just saying…
Samantha: No, you said “any of you”.
Nick: Never mind.
Samantha: No, go on. I’m a big girl. Say it.
Nick: I don’t want to do this right now.
Samantha: Say it.
Nick: What’s his name?
Samantha: Who?
Nick: Your husband. John? Jeff?
Samantha: Jack.
Nick: Jack. He started out in a regional office, right?
Samantha: Yeah.
Nick: He impressed some people who moved him up to the big leagues. How many years?
Samantha: Two.
Nick: Two years?
Samantha: Yeah.
Nick: Now he’s back at the regionals. You’re sacrificing your promising career as a photographer for him.
Samantha: So?
Nick: I figure you out in five minutes. He drinks. They transferred him out here ‘cause he fucked something up. You probably thought it was a good idea to come out here. Might even save your marriage. For better or for worse, right?
Samantha: Right.
Nick: I just wanted to know one thing. What kind of man lets his wife, his pregnant wife, move alone across the country? And what kind of woman stays with a man like that?
Samantha: What kind of woman? What, so it’s my fault? You must be really good at your job, you know, just reading people so easily, figuring out what bullshit to sell’em.
Nick: Hey?
Samantha: God, what?
Nick: You need to put up some curtains.
Samantha: Why? So I don’t have some drunk staring at me all day?
Nick: No, so you don’t have to look at your future.


Simplicity gets to be tricky when it comes to cinema. When I see this expressed simplicity in ‘Everything Must Go’ I find it mesmerizing. I think this film is beautiful and even romantic without having a romantic story line.