Sag Habor

The discolouration on the limestone reminds us that there is beauty in decay. The yellow and red flowers are so vibrant! They make me feel happier being American.


There is an American flag flying over this scrumptiously lovely overflowing flower basket! The colours offset each other brilliantly. Walking around Sag Harbor it is comforting to know that such a quaint little beach town is still here, just two hours away from the city, to remind us that the world is truly lovely. Lovelier than we think it is.


I love signs. Especially vintage style old signs like this that feel as if they have just brought us back in time. The white paint looks a little weathered, like the sign has seen so much, healed so many minor ailments, helping people realise that help is right through this door.


This child was concentrating so hard at driving this little fire red truck that I could sneak in this happy snap. It just looks like he is having so much fun! Sometimes I wish I was still little enough to hop into one of these roadside toys and relive my childhood, and to take a break from everyday stresses of the city. I love New York City and all the energy it gives me, but sometimes you need something bright to remind yourself of all the lovely things that you can find outside of this lovely city.


Look at how fun that dress is! I didn't buy it, but next time I walk by this store I will be sure to go in and take a little look around. I just love little boutiques like this. And the hand painted open sign makes this store feel more like a home.


I have never flown a kite before but did you know that people who do take it very seriously? There are competitions devoted to these beautiful creations in the sky. On a summers day you can see so many of them painting colours through the wind! I think this is such a unique and creative passion that makes our world a prettier place, which is just so lovely. I have another photo of one of these kites which I think is just exquisite.




*This is actually just pretty great. I thought it was a creepy/cool mug. Watch the coastlines disappear?!?! Horrifying. Let's buy a million of these for the republican party.


How wonderful is it that a local firehouse would have pancake breakfasts for the locals? Firehouses are always such stable, dependable places. They make you feel safe. There is one in every town, protecting its residents. This makes the firehouse feel so welcoming like the whole town is a family and the firehouse is grandmother's kitchen.


I love cleaver window displays, especially for cute little stores like this one. The letters are scrabble tiles, and there's a giant crayon in the window! And it's pink! Walking past this store would cheer up anyone's day.
(I'm sorry, I got nothing. This is harder than I thought.)


This wooden horse inside an art store in Sag Harbor immediately caught my eye. It is so intricate and unique. Each piece of wood looks like it was made just for the part it is nailed to. It is as if nature is providing the brushstrokes to create this work of art. Having this in the window makes the whole store look ethereal and earthy. I used to love horses. In fact, I still do! They are such majestic animals. I love watching dressage shows when I have the time but I don't get to watch television very much. I think it is so neat all the things horses can do, as if they were dancing ballet, which I love.


When I walked past this window these amazing old irons just begged to be photographed. They have such weight to them, with such an important job, to make clothes more beautiful or to look new. I like to think about the tasks of objects. I think it's so neat that everything has a job to do in this world. It is sad that so many people in this world don't know what jobs they want to do. I am so lucky that I have known what I wanted since I was a little girl and I'm in the best position to achieve my dream. As some of you may or may not know, I recently just graduated and have now been flung into the reality of what I want to do and I am so excited to get started.

micallef

Babel

***

This movie annoyed me. To me it served no purpose. I had such high hopes for it too.

Even though it set out on such a large scale, spanning across three continents telling stories that is deeply involved in international policy and diplomacy, the actual outcomes are quite trifling. It left me feeling empty. I feel like everything it is trying to say has been said before and in less suffocating ways.

As a film I can't really fault it. The acting was superb across the board, well constructed story arcs. the jilted time-line was unnecessary but easy enough to follow. nice photography, nice direction, everything was...nice...

But it shits me. So many things that didn't have to happen happened just to heap on the catastrophes for a more harrowing experience. All through the film the poor American tourists were put through so much suffering, they were elevated to the level of affliction of the Moroccans. But in the end, they went home more or less intact while the shit storm was still going on around them and everywhere else. and Santiago, jesus, don't we even get to know what happens to him? The Japanese story was tacked on without too much thought. I mean sure, it's connected somehow, in a very little way, but the segway was largely inconsequential and quite frankly, dispersed the narrative into a trivial personal problem.

I mean, make up your mind. If you're going to film a narrative driven movie, then make the cause/effect actually mean something. If you want to reflect the randomness of it all then stop using the narrative to manipulate your audience. Three stars is really me being generous, purely on the basis of my love for Cate (who had a total of three scenes) and Gael Garcia Bernal (who had even less, and then disappeared)

It made me sad, and world hating. But hey, don't take my word for it. The boy liked it a lot, and said I was being too cynical.

Silent Hill

##/5(*'s)

words cannot quite cover it. I remember consciously thinking all through this movie that this is THE suck. but by the last ten minutes i was having so much fun that...i almost like it.

no no, i need to get my head together. no this film is THE SUCK.

out of five stars, i give it ## (that's right, two hash)

with immortal lines such as
"They say this place is haunted, i think they might be right"
this is solid gold shit.

radha mitchell, you're a babe, and you kicked all kinds of ass as a fucked up woody allen chick and i had all kinds of hopes for you, i thought you were gonna blaze into hollywood and be another aussie blonde leggy type who'll hit it big for a while until some relationship turmoil turn it all wry for you. why dear god did you sign up for this piece of crap? at least you still look good though, and i'm sure that nurses scene was good fun for you to shoot.

on to the review proper.

the horror flick checklist:

creepy girl, check
oddles of monsters, check
lots and lots of screaming, check
grimy film stock, check
flood of bugs, check
sudden blackouts and bright fadeouts, check (repeatedly)

in other words, the utmost conventional horror film imaginable, minus the scares. the soundtrack was from the game which was quite nice, but didn't quite provide the shock value the film desperately needed. it was really quite hilarious.

although i say this now, the couple next to me were proving me quite wrong. he had to keep reassuring her that it was a movie, out loud, at every scene. i wanted to fucking punch her out.

the last 20 or so minutes redeemed it somewhat. with a creepy scene involving the (very nice) cleavages of a headless army of nurses, and the most brutal, violent final massacre. a woman was ripped right down the middle after being sodomised by rusty barbed wire hentai tentacles style.

and to think, i could've been watching naked girls in DOA instead.

Munich

**1/2

ok...how do i approach this?

quite simply. i didn't like it. it felt contrived. it came across very spielberg-ish -- overly sentimentalised, and a dragged on ending which artistically works as it makes it more open ended but just unnecessary, and a bit strange (especially the love making with the flashbacks. i can only guess what bana must be thinking thumping into the camera like that).

there's plenty of controversy surrounding the plot, with one side heralding it as a beacon of light and the other condemning it falsities. frankly, i don't care, so lets just talk enjoyment levels shall we?

it was very episodic, with each segment contrasting (in both tone and style) rather than building on each other successfully. there are some great moments which hit the right notes, but then other dodgy periods where you have to think, did that really have to be there? remember the good old days when spielberg understood pace and rhythm? well to hell with that, now that he's a studio trump card he can do whatever he wants. and no wonder that cinematographer at summer course hated this movie, what was with the clumsy zooms? which, no did not add a sense of realism and yes, was out of place. and all the repeated ideas of "HOME". felt like i had to sit through Garden State again, kill me, kill me now. don't ruin a good moment with "HOME" crap.

enough of the bad. bana was good. cept for the crying, no that really didn't come from a good place, or the right place. his associates were quite enjoyable until they got picked off one by one. the godfatherly head of the family business guy was quite the don, and geoffery rush was...geoffery rush. All the characters hit the right spots, i got quite a kick from the wife.

no it's not a bad movie, by all means. If the issue at hand is something that interests you, then this provides some poignant, and naive arguments. so that's the political part of political thriller, as for the thriller side of things, yes there are guns and explosions, tension and some really great moments. but overall it just didn't work for me. then again, i didn't expect it to. if from the trailer you think you'll like it then you probably will, otherwise there really isn't a point to see it, even if you're one of those "but i have to see the new spielberg movie" types. let me ask you something, of late, how many spielberg films have you been fully satisfied with?

Rumor Has It

**

i love love LOVE the graduate. Out of all the (limited amount I'm seen) of movies made in the '60s i'd have to say it's one of my favourites. so ok, this movie had the premise going in its favour.

Shirley MacLaine definitely gets better with age. maybe that's just because i HATED the movie version of sweet charity and i blamed her for it. but boy does she make a good bitter, scathing old crone. First In Her Shoes and now this, she is quickly overtaking Diane Keaton in the "person i would most love to have as a screen mom" stakes. Kevin Costner, i don't know, i never warmed to him after Waterworld...though The Upside of Anger is supposed to be good. but i can see where Ebert & Roeper is coming from when they said that he is someone who is believable as having been once a very sought after stud. Mark Ruffalo is, i don't know, never liked him. Can't get the image of him from In The Cut out of my head. he is just not likeable in my books. and Jen, well, she's always playing Rachel isn't she? even in the Good Girl, she was demure and discontented Rachel. There is nothing wrong with that i love Rachel, and Rachel works in so many situations. but it just makes it a tad predictable.

In the words of Dean "it's just not funny enough to be a good comedy or dramatic enough to make a good drama" (or something to that effect, yes you mr. imdb i'm quoting you). Amen brother.

but a good rental maybe. there are some good laughs in there somewhere. maybe take out the graduate too and watch it as a double feature. that way there's enough good to even things out.

The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe

****

i'm almost embarrassed to admit how much i enjoyed this. a preamble is due i think.

in terms of the message of the narnia books, i'm completely of the Philip Pullman school of thought. that it spreads a very world hating view. It wrongly condemns a child's innate wish to grow up, and the answers that it gives, aka, that the best things that could happen to the children after all this adventure was death and going to heaven, that answer is a very scary one which no parent in their right mind should be promoting to their kids. That aside, i've always wanted to marry Mr. Tumnus, and always always loved the Ice Queen story by Hans Christian Anderson which Lewis unashamedly ripped off for Jadis. and being the child at heart i fell into Narnia as eagerly as Lucy did.

anyone who's being through year 7 with me would know that little itch i've always had about the BBC version of the series. the bucktoothed lucy, made the whole damn thing so annoying. and so i was really worried, the parts demanded much of the children and if the kids sucked well, goodbye sequels and it's subsequent millions (though look at the harry potter kids, i mean judging by that first one.....) But i didn't have to worry at all! i mean ok there was a little overacting by lucy but she was so damn cute she got away with it. Susan was aptly annoying, i hated Edmund just as much i was supposed to. and Peter. ok this is going to sound very wrong considering he's 18 but boy, he's really somethin' (hey that wasn't as bad as the emma watson worshippers). i think this is stemming more from my need for a big brother figure all my life though. that and the absolute horror in his face when he thought he'd lost lucy, oh and the fact that he looks like he could be a prince you know, a little like a younger william.

ok that's enough of the little ones.

Tilda Swinton. She scares me. I hated her in Orlando (i blame the director). and pretty much everything else she's being in. But she's always brilliant. Her face has this otherworldly quality about it. she truly looks alien. and yet she was in Thumbsucker pulling off the bored suburban american house wife. HOW DOES THAT WORK?! in a word, she was perfect.

and Mr. Tumnus. who would've thought that the annoying little brother in Wimbleton would make such a good faun. and he was good wasn't he? all darty eyed and lowered heads. and the scarf. That image, the image that supposedly started the whole series has always been my favourite image, of anything, ever. The snow, the lamp, the faun with the red red scarf and the brown paper packages tied up with strings (these are a few of my favourite things.....). And they kept it perfect, and lingered on it, and my heart soared, melted, and plummeted accordingly. i was quite happy being manipulated in this way.

and while we're on images, boy were there some impressive ones. even of the wardrobe while lucy was pulling the sheet off. it was perfectly majestic and dwarfed her so completely. (can you tell that i really loved this film yet?)

it's not without it's faults though. With all the digital wizardry, i don't get why do they still look like cardboard cut outs when the kids were looking over the frozen lake. and the end when Aslan defeated Jadis (what did happen there by the way?) and everything moved around Peter as he witnessed it, the foot soldiers who travelled passed peter were sped up digitally and...looked like...they were...skipping... When i saw it in Hoytts the screen was a tad dark for the night scenes to pop and the sound were also a tad soft for it's manipulative purposes. and of course, much corny lines which really is to be expected. I was surprised at just how much humour was in it though.

honestly, i can't wait for the next one. i sound really pathetic and it's a little sad that the movie i've given out the highest mark for so far was this...but i don't care. i loved it, and that's what these reviews are about right? making me happy?

Good Night, and Good Luck

***

i can appreciate that this is a very fine film. and i can recognise that had i been remotely political, i would have enjoyed this very much. But i'm not, and i didn't. Georgie boy could scratch that pretty head of his and throw the focus around as much as he likes, but to me, the entire movie was a McGuffin. and i SOOOOO badly wanted to love this. Truth be told for the first half i pretended really hard to care, or even know what was going on. It really just comes down to the simple fact that i didn't live through the era, i can see the fight but i didn't know the sides. yeah sure it's McCarthy and his exploitation of the paranoia surrounding communism spreading in America. but i just really didn't care, and i think i dozed off for a couple of minutes closer to the end.

So why still three stars? because it was beautiful. everything felt right. and for once i know the only fault lies in me. I had failed to enjoy a brilliant film, and you know what? i still don't really care.

Walk the Line

aaaah. mr and mrs oscar darlings this year.

***1/2

'twas just as i thought it would be. which would've been disappointing cept for the fact that Joaquin Phoenix is a god who could pull you into any dark place that you didn't really want to go before and then make you realise it's not so bad, you've been there yourself once. I'm still rooting for Philip Seymour Hoffman for the little gold man though. Reese was cute. then again she always was and i always knew she could pull at a deeper string if given the right role. enter June Carter.

The movie itself was...I don't know, was it just me or did it look a hell of a lot like that TV movie version of Elvis with Jonathan Rhys Meyers? They got started the same way, same kind of relationship with the two parents, and the same drug and girl related problems. Hell it was even Elvis who hooked Cash onto the same drugs. On top of the trailers which give too too much away and the media overload, i really felt like i was watching a movie i've already seen. Don't get me wrong i still really liked it, just didn't punch me in the face with it's brilliance.

But ho the music! now i've never been one for country. sure i've hummed along to some bluegrass in my time but don't ask me for any names. And i've only ever heard of Johnny Cash and June Carter (cept for, once again, the barrage of trailers), and i must admit, after the entire movie, all the songs sort of roll into one another... but in a pleasant medley kind of way. i was very very impressed with the singing. from miss witherspoon especially. i mean sure joaquin sounds exactly like cash who was supposed to be one of the most unique voices, but seriously, you lower your voice to a certain degree, add a drawl, and it pretty much comes out that way. but she was pretty damn pitch perfect. (ok yeah yeah recording studios and what not it's still impressive).

one final note, mum LOVED it.

the sickness begins...

So, my mind dump. if you've found this post, then you're really really bored.

this is where i put up my movie review, book reviews, random craziness.

and the colours? well i was lazy, and the template was available. a sort of anti-ricep0d if you will