Movie Night #6

Am I terribly old fashioned?

A couple weeks ago I watched Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (2008). It's based on a 1938 book I read in 2011, with the same name. I absolutely loved reading it, it was fast paced and the story was interesting - it's about a governess, Guinevere, who can't hold down a job. She keeps getting fired, she's poor and she's homeless. She manages to steal a card from a lady who needed someone at her home from the employment office and shows up in the address saying she was sent from the employment office - and instead of kids, she finds Delysia, a young cabaret singer with tons of lovers - one whose beautiful apartment she lives in, one who's the son of a West End producer and who she's hoping will give her the main role on a musical; and her musical partner at the cabaret, Ned the Pie Maker (I used to love that show! so sad it only had one season!), who is the only one who tryuly loves her but doesn't have a penny. Guinevere is then hired as Delysia's personal manager or something, and accompanies her to various social gatherings trying to avoid that her lovers discover about each other. Guinevere ends up discovering there's a lot more to her than she thought, and although I guess it's just chick lit I do feel like it's different with two strong, feminine main characters who go after what they want and work hard for it haha. The movie changes the plot a bit but was still cool, and actually had a happier ending than the book. It was interesting reading about the military "trials" (when the army and air force practice fighting before a war? I don't know how to explain it) in London, as the book was published in 1938, a year before World War II broke out - I didn't know people knew there was gonna be a war so long before it actually started and then practiced for it!

 :(( so sad. 

Movie Night #5

"He's my high school nemesis" 

The other night I came around this quirky movie from New Zealand. It's with the guy from Flight of the Conchords! If you like that show, you should probably watch Eagle vs. Shark (2007), they have the same kind of humour. In fact, I'd say this movie is a mix of Wes Anderson and Flight of the Conchords. I really like the props they used, all the prints, tapestries, costumes! <3 <3 <3 There are some stop motion bits in the middle. mostly involving apples.




Nancy: What do you parents do?
Shark: They're dead.
Eagle: DEAD. Good one Nancy.
Nancy: I'm sorry hon.
Shark: No problem.
Eagle: She's an orphan. Like Oliver Twist.

Eagle: Lily is like... the best female Fight Man player I've ever seen. And she's a dancer.
Shark: No I'm not.
Eagle: Oh. I thought you said that once.



Eagle: I gotta dump you. My life is just too complicated right now. I guess that what I'm trying to say is that I need to be alone. I'm too busy... with the revenge mission and everything. Sorry.



Shark: You know... life is full of habits. but in between the habits, there're some very lovely bits.

Movie Night #4

"Are you a regular, or a goofy?"

Tonight's movie is Electrick Children (2012), which I had never heard of before yesterday when it was suggested to me by Netflix. AM I GLAD I TOOK NETFLIX'S ADVICE. I totes consider this movie my favourite movie ever now. It's the story of a 15 year-old Mormon girl who unawarely listens to a blue tape containing a rock song called "Don't leave me hanging on the telephone", by the Nerve, and suddenly suffers an immaculte conception and finds herself pregnant. That plot only would already have made me fall in love with the movie, but then it gets better: her father, a reverend (priest?) says she will have to marry a neighbohood kid the next day, so she runs away from home to LAS VEGAS in order to find the person who sang on the blue tape and impregnated her. I mean, WHAT? She then goes all Felicity on us and tapes her journal on the same machine that led her to the situation in the first place. She meets all these people, including Macaulay Culkin's younger brother, and sets on her quest of finding the father of her child.
One of the best things in the movie is the way she so naïvely talks about things: she's never talked on a "cellular phone" before, neither has she had PIZZA NOR HAMBURGERS. What a sad existence. She also says to the tape recorder about Macaulay Culkin's brother: "Clide is... perhaps.. the spawn of Satan." HAHAHA. Now that's a sentence I shall incorporate on my day-to-day conversations.
Also, I don't know much about mormons, but do they really give out peace signs as promises of good intentions or something?

Watch this movie if:
* you're into prairie clothing (I guess my fashion taste is pretty similar to Mormon's taste in clothing)
* you're into shiny tacky las vegas neons
* you're into weird plots
* you're into beautiful scenary such as Utah's rock formations (not sure if that's how you say it in English)
* you're into cute mormon décor like the hanging flowers of the wedding scene <3

Don't watch this movie if:
* Don't be silly. One cannot not watch this movie. Don't watch this if you want to lead a sad, sad existence, as if you could never eat pizza or hamburgers.
* I guess perhaps if you're mormon.

A pleasant day to ya,
V.

Movie Night #3

"shut the fuck up shut the fuck up shut the fuck upppppppppp"

Tonight's movie is Magnolia (1999), featuring a gross misogynist Tom Cruise who says stuff like "Respect the cock!". N told me about this film months ago, but I never got to finish it because it's 3 hours long. I'm glad to finally know where the famous sentences "What am  I doing? I'm silently judging you" and "Ladies & Germs!" come from! However I didn't leave the movie theatre (so to speak, since I watched it on my laptop) light-hearted: the movie is pretty sad. I guess everyone has regrets in life, which is a fucking bummer. "We may be through with the past, but the past ain't through with us." It's a really good movie though, and both of us recommend it! One of these nights when you have some free hours and a desire to mope around over your disappointments in life, we mean. 

Movie Night #2

 Feeling lonely? I'll lend you a cat!

 

Rent-a-neko, 2012

I had little doubt I'd like this movie when I came across it online. IT'S JUST SO CUTE. It's the story of a young Japanese woman whose grandma, her only company, dies - and she's left behind with this weird gift of attracting cats. Since she knows that you can't feel lonely if you have cats around, she makes it her job (literally) to rent cats to lonely people. WHERE DO I SIGN UP? (for both the job and renting kitties). 

 

To find new clients, she walks around a lake with a megaphone yelling "feeling lonely? I'll lend you a cat!" with 6 cats in the back of her wagon. Lonely people respond to her call and, after she inspects their houses to see if they aren't just some creeps after cats, she lends them a cat that suits them.

 

At the end of their interview, she charges them only 1,000 yen. If you're not familiar with Japanese currencies, know that this is worth today less than 10 dollars! So her clients, always very thankful for her to have relieved them of their loneliness, ask her "oh, but how will you get by?" and she answers "why, do I look like I'm having trouble getting by?" and they'd go like, "yeah" (rude). So she always makes up a different day job that makes her millions of yen everyday, like a stock trader, a fortune teller or a commercial jungle writer (in all of which she's aided by her kitties, of course.)

 

The movie is also a great way to become familiar with Japanese culture. For example, her main dream is to find a husband (jeez). One thing I don't get about the movie though, is that she thinks of herself as this super weird person who can't deal with other people, when in reality she's just really kind and adorable to everyone. Also, a notion of Japanese people's problems: one of her clients is really sad because his daughter said he smells worse than her dog, hahaha. Oh, and there's also her transvestite neighbor who is always telling her how weird and ugly she is, and how she'll never find a husband. DUDE YOU'RE AN UGLY UGLY MAN-WOMAN. STOP TELLING HER LIES. RUDE.

OK, maybe I went a little overboard with my screenshots? It's just that this movie is so cuteeeee. Check out her flowery playsuit + polka-dotted red shirt combo, so pretty <3 Anyway, if you think you'd like a movie about cats, loneliness and filling up holes (not in a dirty way), I totes recommend this to ya.

A pleasant day to you,

V.

Movie Night #1

Now you're gonna die wearing that stupid little hat, how does that feel?

Falling Down (1993), featuring a chicano LA and an angry Michael douglas sweating.
You know when everything goes wrong in the same day: traffic, you get ripped off at a convenience store, you go to the wrong neighborhood, you go to a fast food chain and miss the breakfast menu for FIVE MINUTES, and then their hamburger is squished and doesn't look anything like the pictures???
What do you usually do in one of those days? I'm guessing you get fucking pissed, maybe yell at a loved one, and probably end up growing a cancer or something. Maybe you get passive aggressive, at most. Well, my friend, Michael Douglas ain't keeping it to himself. He's gonna fucking destroy your store because a coke can is 85 FUCKING CENTS (oh, 1993). AND HE'S GONNA DO IT WITH YOUR OWN BASEBALL BAT. And then pay only the fair amount of 50 cents for the coke and leave.

MICHAEL DOUGLAS IS ANGRY AND HE AIN'T TAKING NONE OF YOUR SHIT.

You should watch this movie if: you're feeling angry, if you like late 80s/early 90s aesthetics, if you've had a bad day/life, if you'd appreciate a view of LAs Mexican side, if you have a thing for tiny hats, if you want to learn how to throw a grenade

You should NOT watch this movie if: you feel like killing people because they made you mad, if you feel like buying a military outfit and a gun, if you don't like bloody movie scenes, if your wife has a restraining order against you (you might get some nasty ideas from this movie if that's the case - go watch something mellow, like a Disney movie or something, and leave your wife and kid alone, man!)

V.