Women On Screen

September 28th 2010 00:23

A few months ago, I posted a review of Back to the Future. I had rewatched the series, all three movies, and really enjoyed it. I wished I had enjoyed them more when I was younger. Well rumors are flying that teen-pop-r&b singer/heartthrob, Justin Beiber, may play the lead role in the remake of the film. People are aghast at the idea of Beiber playing Michael J. Fox's role of Marty McFly. He's a singer not an actor, plus he's certainly no Michael J. Fox. Considering I didn't even know who Beiber was until two days ago, I'm in different.

I am however aghast at the idea that they're remaking the Back to the Future films! I mean c'mon, seriously! Can't Hollywood come up with some new material, that they just don't remake the classics? It's such a disappointment. How are they going to modernize the Delorean? A Prius? Sheesh. They can't find a single writer to write a new story about time travel that they have to mess with something that should be left alone for the sake of purity. There's word they're going to remake Spiderman and Superman too already! I mean those movies aren't even ten years old and they want to reboot the franchises already? Shame, shame, shame. If I am alive to see a remake of The Godfather, I might have to throw down.

Okay end rant. How would you all feel about Beiber playing McFly? How about the films getting remade in general?

Oh, and I saw a Dolorean this summer - bad ass!

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Don't Always Say No to Fur

August 31st 2010 05:55

I've recently gotten into photography. And I thought I'd check out Steven Shainberg's "Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus" starring Nicole Kidman. (Shainberg directed 2002 breakout indie hit "Secretary" starring Maggie Gyllenhaal.) It's based on real life American photographer, Diane Arbus. I was vaguely familiar with her because I had seen some of her photographs, mainly, the one of the twins and the one with a small boy holding a grenade in the park. See below:

The film isn't a true-to-fact biography of Arbus. Instead, it's a creative non-fictional piece on how Shainberg envisioned Arbus' move from commercial art director to photographer of the marginalized. Arbus was famous for her black and white portraits of individuals on society's fringe, including circus people, transvestites, nudists and otherwise "deviant" people.

Because I wanted to know more about Arbus, I was a little disappointed that it wasn't more biographical. But that disappointment was short lived once I saw the director's visual direction for the film. The entire 2 hours was visually captivating, which makes sense considering it's a film about photography and aesthetics. There are scenes where the room decor, clothing and camera framing truly take center stage. It made it clear that this is Shainberg's very polished imagination instead of a real life representation. But it doesn't come off as too wild. It has just enough of an air to it to make me wonder, is this real, could this have happened? And not only wondering if it was possible, but hoping it was so.

Kidman does an outstanding job of being torn between her ready-made, 50s Americana life, and the pull of her own desires for something more unique, more strange. Her husband, Allan Arbus, played by Ty Burrell, plays his role of being left behind to a tee. At first, he wants to indulge his wife. The he wants to understand. Then he realizes that he is not part of this indulgence--he just can't be. Then he loses her. Robert Downey Jr. was excellent as Lionel Sweeney, a man suffering from hypertrichosis (extreme body hair) who captivates Arbus' eye and heart. This was a pleasant change considering my dislike for Downey after Iron Man.

I definitely recommend this film if you're in the mood for something a little strange and little lovely. Have a glass of wine--or even better, some fancy champagne cocktail--and indulge.

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Inception: Full of Dreamy Men

July 18th 2010 19:54

I just want to start this post with

:: SPOILER ALERTS ::
:: SPOILER ALERTS ::

Mainly because I write these on a whim, and it's just easier that way. Saw the midnight showing of Christopher Nolan's new mind-bender and summer blockbuster, Inception. And it was good! It was filled with action, interesting plot lines and some sweet eye candy.

For those of you who don't know: Inception is all about stealing real world information from a sleeping person's dream as well as placing ideas into a sleeping person's mind. The former is called extraction, the latter inception. Inception is supposedly impossible but Leo DiCaprio's character, Don Cobb, assures us that it can be done. And thus goes the rest of the movie.

First, the men: Cobb is the main man, and he assembles a crew that includes Joseph Gordon Levitt (of 3rd Rock from the Sun and 500 Days of Summer fame) and Tom Hardy (of nothing that I know.) Between these three men, they cover the mysterious and broken, dapper and formal, and action-hero bravado gamuts. Levitt may possibly have the single funniest moment in the entire film. And don't think this film doesn't have it's funny moment. There's plenty of wink, wink, nudge, nudge sort of humor that befits a summer blockbuster.

For the women: I was super excited to see Ellen Page (of Juno fame) in this film. I wondered if she'd really fit in though as this isn't her usual quirky, teen role. I figured she was probably try to stretch herself. Unfortunately, she comes up short. And not because she sucked, but just because of the role itself. Essentially, she's the newbie in the gang as Ariadne, so she asks a lot of boring questions and makes a lot of obvious statements, so that the audience can follow along. Unfortunately, it makes her a nuisance, which is a real shame, because as the architect, Page's could have had come across as much, much stronger and more crucial.

The other main woman in the film was Marion Cotilliard (of La Vie en Rose fame), who is lovely, lovely, lovely. Oh and crazy in the movie. She plays Mal, Leo's wife. Something about Mal, I loved and clicked with. Not sure what it is since she didn't have much screen time, at some point literally being locked away in a room. But she was interesting and relate-able in a heart broken sort of way.

I don't know if this movie passes the Bechdal Test. Page and Cotilliard speak to each other at some point, but I'm fairly sure it's about Leo... but I could be wrong.

You might read reviews that the movie is all complex, but it's really not. It takes place in real life, and then they enter a dream only to go to sleep and enter another dream, only to go sleep again and enter another dream (and surprise, they even go to sleep again and enter another dream.) So it's four layers of dreams and yes time runs differently in each dream and it's "confusing" but it's really not.

I think the first half is more interesting, when everything is getting explained and played with because it's just a really interesting concept. The second half of the film when everything goes into action, while good, wasn't what did it for me. I think the second half of the film is what kept it from being a cerebral, independent film, and shifted it into summer blockbuster, which is fine. I think I would have it enjoyed it just the same had it stayed cerebral.

OH YEAH! Did I mention Cillian Murphy (of 28 Days Later and Batman Begins fame) is in it? I didn't know until I was sitting there in my seat guzzling soda and dropping popcorn on the floor. And bam, he comes onto the screen and he plays a major role as Robert Fischer Jr., and he doesn't disappoint. He is lovely and well played. Ahh, yeah, do this movie. Maybe even see it twice.

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It's All the Rage: Dragon Tattoos

July 9th 2010 00:14

I just finished watching the recent Swedish thriller, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - based on the popular book by Steig Larson. I had tried reading the book before, but couldn't quite make it past the first few pages. I guess I prefer my thrillers via film rather than word.

:: SPOILER ALERTS ::
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Help! Break-Up Movie Recommends?

July 6th 2010 23:51

Hello Fellow Ladies.

My boyfriend and I broke up a few weeks ago. And it sure was messy. In fact, you can read all the juicy details here: Talking With Myself
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Sophia Coppola, I hate you

June 11th 2010 02:44

I just watched Marie Antoinette. It was so terrible I thought that I would official abandon this column.

Instead, I just decided to make this column less intellectual and more ranting

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Iron Man Has a Problem with Women

May 23rd 2010 15:19

While many people are basking in the glow of the new Iron Man 2, I thought I'd better play catch up and watch the first one. In so many ways I wish I hadn't bothered.

I should start off by saying, I love the comic genre. As a kid, X-Men was always my favorite. But I watched and read a lot of Batman and Spider-Man too. So, don't think that just because I'm a woman, I'm predisposed to not like the genre. Sin City is one of my favorite movies. And I'll admit I didn't know much about Iron Man when I went into the movie, so I can't be sure if the flaw is specific to the movie or to the original comic storyline

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He Aint Closin Me Down!

May 9th 2010 00:26

I recently got a letter from the Orble admin saying they were going to shut down my account because it had been too long since my last post. Oops!

I apologize to my faithful readers, between a full time job and graduate school, I didn't have time. Not that writing a blog post takes long, but watching a movie and performing some analysis does

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Date Rape: Existed in the Past, Exists in the Future

March 10th 2010 03:54

This weekend, I sat down with my boyfriend and watched one of his favorite movies from the 80s: Back to the Future! (#1). I had seen parts of it before, but never the whole thing through. I was never that into Michael J. Fox, but boy, that Crispin Glover sure is handsome! (Although, apparently nuts? So my boyfriend says. Can anyone verify this?) I was hooked as soon as Huey Lewis & The News' "Power of Love" came on. What a great song! And overall, the movie was enjoyable, and a great watch on a Sunday night.

But, there was one point in the movie that really shocked me. And no it wasn't the "shit" bombs being dropped. Ooh, how racy, they said shit. The scene that shocked me was the attempted (date) rape scene. Date rape, what date rape scene

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The Score is Love: Match Point

February 3rd 2010 01:11

I'm a huge Woody Allen fan, Manhatten and Annie Hall are definitely part of my favorite films of all time.While I'm semi-resistant to his new works, Vicki, Cristina, Barcelona blew me a way and will no doubt be a longtime favorite.

In anticipation of You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger, Allen's newest film to be released this year, I watched Match Point (2005). Match Point stars Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Scarlett Johansson, as well as Matthew Goode (hey, good lookin'!) and Emily Mortimor. A quick plot breakdown: Meyers plays Chris Wilton, an Irish, class-climbing, ex-tennis por who's giving lessons at an esteemed English club. He makes friends with Tom Hewett (Goode), dates Tom's sister Chloe (Mortimor) and pursues Tom's fiancee (Johansson). I won't go any further than that because I wouldn't want to spoil the fun

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