March recaps

The list of movies I watched this month(*), almost chronologically:

1. Broken Flowers (2005)
2. Pride and Prejudice (2005)
3. As Good As It Gets (1997)(v)
5. The Importance of Being Earnest (2002)
4. Bugsy (1991)
6. Up Close and Personal (1996)(v)
7. Terms of Endearment (1983)
8. Mr. Wrong (1996)
9. Frankie and Johnny (1991)
10. The Pink Panther (2006)
11. Something's Gotta Give (2003)(v)
12. Big (1988)(v)
13. Anna and The King (1999)(v)
14. Chinatown (1974)
15. The Squid and The Whale (2005)
16. Garden State (2004)
17. The Mask of Zorro (1998)(v)
18. Working Girl (1988)
19. American Beauty (1999)
20. Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory (1971)
21. V For Vendetta (2006)
22. Anger Management (2003)(v)
23. The Insider (1999)
24. Shopgirl (2005)
25. Matrix Reloaded (2003)(v)
26. Matrix Revolutions (2003)(v)
27. Saving Private Ryan (1998)(v)
28. Gosford Park (2001)
29. Traffic (2000)
30. In Her Shoes (2005)
(*) may or may not be complete
(v) have been watched before

Personal record has been broken this month. I watched in total of 30 movies and two incomplete oldies–Goodfellas, Heaven Can Wait–from the earliest record I can remember–March 3, Broken Flowers–to last night, a sweet chick flick, In Her Shoes. It means in average, I watched a movie each day. This could happen because I got myself a new membership account at a video rental place, and it's got lots of old titles to offer.

I'm not really sure if the list includes all the movies I watched this month. Only recently I had the idea to make a list out of it. But I guess it's almost complete, if not already, since I don't normally watch movies via tv broadcast, and I have all my ticket stubs and rental records organized.

From the big screen adventure, there were four visits to see Broken Flowers (disappointing, really), The Pink Panther (not really intended), V For Vendetta (oh, a hell of a ride), and… V for Vendetta again. Yes, that's correct, the same movie, spaced exactly one week in between. While the first visit was quite exicting, the second one was rather unnerving due to the scarce audience (only about 6 other people sharing the theatre). I loved that movie a lot (should've said this in the previous post: I don't think V is a terrorist if he's creating terror inside the government. At the end people are eventually pouring down the streets dressed in his mask to see him blowing up the Parliament; can you really call it a terrorist act?) that I became a little smitten by Hugo Weaving's persona. I meant to watch The Matrix again to listen to his distinct enunciation of "Mr. Anderson", alas the rental place doesn't carry that title. Eventually I settled with both the sequels, though.

An interesting fact about this list is the presence of five Jack Nicholson's movies. Apparently he got me hooked, too, temporarily. Starting with As Good As It Gets, one of my all-time favorites which tells the story of perhaps the most sarcastic character I ever see on screen. I have to say James L. Brooks is a genius by bringing up such an original story (and too many great lines). He also picked the perfect guy to fit the role, couldn't be better than Jack. Melvin Udall is undoubtedly my idol. Also from Brooks is the 80s family drama also starring Nicholson in a role rather representing him in real life a little, Terms of Endearment. It's a touching story, and I suppose according to my teacher in middle school, the kind of story that would make a brilliant novel. Something's Gotta Give is a closer representation of Nicholson's real life, or what the critics refer to as the movie where "Jack playing Jack". I completed the Nicholson mania with Anger Management, where he played a crazy shrink, after Chinatown, which didn't appeal to me as much it should have, considering what a legend this movie is.

One third of these movies were watched before. I'd been dying to want to see Up Close and Personal for a long time, mainly becaused the song Celine Dion sang in it is one of my favorite songs of all time (cheesy, yeah), and although I didn't like the movie as I used to once, it was good to see Michelle Pfeiffer. I'd rather watch her than Melanie Griffith. What the heck made Working Girl deserve 6 nominations for Academy Award in 1988, I have no idea. The story was nothing unusual; if anything, it was like a chicklit story of the era. And more, if it's possible to have chicklit in Siam's 19th century version, Jodie Foster could serve the pleasure. She is still a great actress, but aww, Anna and the King… must the frigid King look so irresistable before a sophisticated English woman's eyes? Great music, poor love story.

The good thing about this list is mostly the movies entertained me. Almost all but a few, though. I wouldn't suggest anyone to watch Frankie and Johnny despite the rather impressive name Al Pacino listed as a cast member. Even if the king of romantic comedy, Gary Marshall, cut this movie into a 60-minute package, it'd still be painful to watch. Also to avoid is Mr. Wrong, another supposedly rom-com starring Ellen DeGeneres. I'm glad she stops making movie and sticks to her talkshow. Then I'd throw The Pink Panther into the list, but I guess everybody probably already know it sucks (I paid for a ticket to see the Pink Panther, and I didn't mean it just in the opening credits!). However, it's easier for the eyes to watch Steve Martin performing his slapstick comedy than him turning into a serious, incredibly boring personality in Shopgirl.

Four English movies with main actors from across the Atlantic are on this list. First of all, the highly praised adaptation of Pride and Prejudice fell short of expectation compared tothe 1995 BBC miniseries. Keira Knightley did a good job, but she's too pretty for the role of smart girl Lizzy. Jane is the pretty girl; in the movie she looks like an ordinary English woman. Matthew Macfadyen? Maybe if I hadn't seen the BBC version I'd've thought he was the perfect Darcy. Great, but not great enough. The Importance of Being Earnest has the potential to be a funny English dramedy, but somehow it got screwed up in the first half, but it was better through the second half. The creators of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory must've been humbled by last year's more extravagant, more imaginative version. Honestly I had to take a break watching it. I also wished to take a break while watching Gosford Park yesterday because it was too complicated, too sudden, and too damn many people to remember! I was happy to see Clive Owen, though.

So that's about it, all the movies that provided an occupation for me throughout March. I'm looking forward to April, when hopefully the cinema has better treats, and I can start crossing the classic movies list again.

V For Vendetta

This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, is it vestige of the vox populi, now vacant, vanished, as the once vital voice of the verisimilitude now venerates what they once vilified. However, this valorous visitation of a by-gone vexation, stands vivified, and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin van-guarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition. The only verdict is vengeance; a vendetta, held as a votive, not in vain, for the value and veracity of such shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous. Verily, this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose vis-à-vis an introduction, and so it is my very good honor to meet you and you may call me V.

Very Vascinating. 4.5/5.

(I hope that says something about my verbosity–or lack thereof.)

The Squid and The Whale

When I first read that The Squid and The Whale is a family drama, I immediately assembled a(nother) list of movies to watch/rent/buy with it among the most wanted, along with a few other Oscar contenders (interestingly, Capote never really made it into the list; I wonder whether it was because the theme was too disturbing to me, or it was just because of Phillip Seymour Hoffman, who freaked me out a little bit, or whataver), but in my experience, as far as items on top of a list go, they usually stay uncrossed for quite some time. The list is nowhere to be found now, so I don’t bother to obsess over it anymore. Until tonight at the rental place I saw copies of it on the cashier display. Hello local distributors, since when do you guys release unknown movies so fast? Not knowing how the rental policies apply for new films in this particular place (just registered with them a couple of weeks ago—and I usually rent movies in the older catalogue category), I grabbed it quickly and put in Garden State for an addition, only to be informed later that I could have them for two days. Great.

In the surface, the Berkman family seems like a perfect family. The parents are educated, highly intellectual PhDs in literature, and the kids seem to follow their parents’ success path. Young Frank wants to be a tennis “pro”, unlike McEnroe or Connors pro, but like the family friend tennis coach pro (who apparently sleeps with the mother). Older brother, teenage Walt is struck by the brilliance of his father and exhibits a sophisticated level of literature knowledge and musical ability to impress his friends. The mother, whom I first thought must be the “victim” of her husband’s mental abuse of some sorts, turns out to be the one who has had various affairs for four years. The father, a once famous writer, portrays an arrogant person now struggling to sell his new book. These four persons, bound together as a broken family, try to cope with their new situations as the kids switch back and forth between their parents’ house, and each of them has his problems to face.

Though sometimes funny in a painful way, this is a sad, almost real observation about a divorced family with believable hostility I can symphatize with. In a scene nearing the end, when the father turns up at the mother’s house to pick up the older kid, he asks her if he didn’t try hard enough to save the marriage. That little hint towards a happy resolution gave me hope, but of course, with everything that precedes before that scene, it’ll be a little hard to picture them back together again. Someday, maybe.

3.5/5.

Obligatory Oscars post

After reading the news reports, watched some of it (yeah, stupid local station broadcasted it live, and I had no idea at all–-doesn’t matter, for everything else, there’s YouTube), here are my thoughts:

1. First of all, I’m wondering how many times a star, or anybody else in that matter, lucky enough to be sitting in that theatre had to clap their hands during the period of 200+ minutes of the show? Man, they clapped a lot.

2. Jon Stewart. He was kinda nervous in the beginning, got confused a little bit (“I don’t really have a joke”–haha), showed some honesty (“I’m a loser”), but generally I think he kinda nailed some good jokes at the right time. Not exceedingly hilarious, ‘cos he “played by the book”, so I guess it wouldn’t hurt to see him again next year. I know people were expecting him to throw some political jokes—I thought he would probably throw some punch lines about gays or Brokeback and the president—and not getting enough of them, except for the duck-shooting phenomenon, but I don’t blame him, he’s got enough pressure on his back for the last five months.

3. My favorite part has got to be Itzhak Perlman and his 5-piece original score suite. I’ve watched it a few times now, and whenever he gets to the eerie cue on Memoirs of a Geisha, he gives me goosebumps. That’s why, now that I’ve come to really think about it, the Oscar should’ve gone to John Williams.

4. The soft music playing in the beginning of acceptance speech, thanks to Bill Conti and friends, was rude. I’m not sure, but it seems like this year there were fewer people reading off unknown names on a piece of paper than before. Some guy who won in a technical category or something did it, I guess. Even after that good lesson exercised by Tom Hanks.

5. That number sung with people doing slo-mo on the background? It was horrible. Jon Stewart was quick to acknowledge it. He also made comments after the other song, “It’s Hard Out Here For A Pimp”, which, in my opinion, went utterly out of place for a show this “elegant”.

6. Speaking of elegance, what is that thing on Charlize Theron’s shoulder? (I’d love to hear what the Fashion Police say about it)

7. Couldn’t stop laughing watching the makeover duo Will Ferrell and Steve Carell maintained their straight faces while reading the teleprompter. They did a good job with Steve’s eyelashes.

Oscar predictions and picks

Yeah, people, it’s March 5 already (March 6, in my case), the biggest annual celebration in Hollywood! E! is already counting down to its live red carpet show. Since I’ll most likely be asleep when the Oscars are handed out, I’m planning on a nice satisfying sleep in hope for my picks to win. So here are the significant ones, predictions followed by picks:

Best Picture: Brokeback Mountain
My pick: Crash (needn’t say more)

Best Director: Ang Lee
My pick: George Clooney (show some support, I love the guy! :p)

Best Actor: Phillip Seymour Hoffman
My pick: Heath Ledger (can hardly hear the guy mumbling)

Best Actress: Reese Witherspoon
My pick: Felicity Huffman (I prefer Felicity to Reese, always)

Best Supporting Actor: Paul Giamatti
My pick: don’t really have a favorite, any of them is fine by me

Best Supporting Actress: ? (I’m pretty clueless)
My pick: Rachel Weisz/Frances McDormand

Best Original Screenplay: Crash
My pick: Crash

Best Adapted Screenplay: Brokeback Mountain
My pick: A History of Violence (fat chance, I know)

Oh, and these two technical ones shouldn’t be left out:

Best Original Score: Brokeback Mountain (because John Williams collects too many of them already?)
My pick: I’ve heard all of them except for Memoirs of a Geisha, a tough choice… don’t like ‘em all.

Best Original Song: In The Deep – Bird York (Crash)
My pick: ditto

Still griping over the lack of nominations for A History of Violence (for example, why not Mortensen over Phoenix? or… make way for best picture nomination by ousting… let’s see.. Munich?), but I understand, there were too many good movies released last year, and mostly they’re “issue movies”—serious, smaller-scale movies with weighty content. Otherwise I’m quite content with all the nominations. At least the academy has class enough to dismiss the name Zhang Ziyi from the best actress nominees. Anyway, I say what I want, it doesn’t matter anymore. They’re gonna serve what’s on the plate, and I can’t watch it. Dammit! =(