Italo's Corner

That's MISTER Punxsutawney Phil to you...

2012-02-02T20:54:00.000-08:00

Groundhog Day

A newscast weather reporter wakes up in a small sleepy town of Punxsutawney on February 2nd (a day like today) to see whether the groundhog will forescast whether winter will last much longer or not. Except that he will be reliving the same day over, and over, and over, and over…

That’s the premise of one of the best comedies I’ve ever seen: Groundhog Day starring Bill Murray and Andie McDowell. At first it might have seemed an ordinary comedy but when things started getting real weird and absurd is when Groundhog really takes flight and becomes an extraordinary story of perseverance, love and redemption.

The reason I love Groundhog Day is that you start with a cynical and arrogant character named Phil (Bill Murray here at his very best) who unwillingly goes out on this special report about the Groundhog Day traditional annual event but would much rather be elsewhere. He’s such a big city guy that he can’t barely stand having to spend his precious time in this town, doing this silly report that he’d much rather not do at all, accompanied by his news crew of Rita (Andie MacDowell) and cameraman Larry (Chris Elliot).

His day’s experience is detailed extensively and it may seem that it’s going nowhere until… Phil wakes up the next morning to Sonny and Cher’s I Got You Babe on the alarm clock. From then on it’s as if he was having a déjà vu moment except that he’s reliving the same day all over again. At first, he brushes it off as coincidental but as the day progresses he realizes that every event during his day in Punxsutawney is repeating itself and he can foresee every single thing that’s about to happen beforehand. In the following days after his initial surprise Phil feels invincible, able to do and say things in a perfected way and hoping that “doing it well” is good enough for him to allow him to see the “next day” but, regardless of what he does, he wakes up to I Got You Babe every morning, in the same room, having to co-exist with same locals and visitors that come to see the groundhog predict the weather.

He begins to develop feelings for Rita but he doesn’t know how to impress her. And it’s not that he hasn’t been trying: Phil has been gathering information about what Rita’s likes and dislikes, stuff about her past, her ideals for the “perfect” man and, in a way, trying to “become” the perfect man for her. He learns how to play the piano, he learns ice sculpting, he rescues everyone who is in danger, he’s almost a superhero that tries and tries but still cannot reach Rita’s heart. That’s the only person that he cannot get to and this drives the man insane.

On one of the funniest scene from Groundhog Day, Phil believes that he’s God for he can foresee everything that’s about to happen not just to him but to everyone around him. When he decides to reveal his secret to Rita, she doesn’t think he’s being serious and so Phil begins revealing everything he knows about everyone around them in the diner they’re having breakfast at. It’s his best stab at being honest and truthful to Rita which seems to do the trick. She becomes interested in what he has to say and begins to take him seriously for once. Throughout the course of this one day, Phil and Rita seem to be connecting and really begin a relationship that may lead on. They even go to his inn and spend that evening together until midnight comes and… nothing happens. He explains that nothing would happen until the next morning but she still won’t believe him and she storms off.

Phil’s Groundhog Day suddenly becomes like a curse that he can’t snap out of. He tries to off himself way too many times: he electrocutes himself in the bathtub, gets run over by a truck, jumps off a building, he even kidnaps the infamous groundhog nicknamed Phil (coincidence?) and drives off a cliff to certain death. Yet the next morning he still wakes up to the same song on the alarm clock:

Babe, I got you, babe
I got you, babe
I got you, babe

Groundhog Day is certainly not your average comedy, it’s actually kind of nightmarish to find yourself in such a situation: what would YOU do if you were trapped in what’s possibly the most boring and ordinary day of your life, in the same town with same people for what it may be an eternity? That’s one of the many question this film asks: what’s our purpose of living? What does it mean when you are forced to relive one day of your life over and over again? What would you change? What would you do differently?

Bill Murray’s character ponders on this questions and the possibility that he may spend an eternity trying to figure out what will it take for him to “earn” his ticket to live to see tomorrow. If you really think about it, Groundhog Day is more of a smart and philosophical caution tale than a comedy and this is where the movie really explores the human psyche and the things we take for granted every single day, always relying that there will always be tomorrow. What if tomorrow never comes? How can we be sure that tomorrow is guaranteed?

Maybe we should ask those questions to Punxsutawney Phil himself?

And The Nominees Are...

2012-01-26T19:55:00.000-08:00

Last week they’ve announced the nominees for this year’s Oscars which airs February 26th on ABC and there’s always a twist with the number of Best Picture nominees which is not 5, it’s not 10, it’s now 9 nominees… Oohhh, whatever, who cares? There’s still 2 or 3 that really deserve the Oscar but I guess they gotta keep the suspense every year. Here are my prediction for this year’s results, let me know what you think:

Best picture

“War Horse” This is by far my favorite of the Best Picture nominees, I really hope that it wins.
“The Artist” It’d be interesting if this film actually wins, it’ll be the second time a silent film ever wins Best Picture.
“Midnight in Paris” I Still haven’t seen it but it’s the movie with the least chance of winning. I like Woody Allen’s film but I haven’t seen a great movie from him since Hannah and her Sisters or The Purple Rose of Cairo.
“Moneyball” Insteresting… (not)
“The Descendants” I’m curious to see this film, but as far as winning Best Picture, I really doubt its chances.
“The Tree of Life” Here’s one of those artsy films that I don’t really wish to see. At least it wasn’t Melancholia…
“The Help” Here’s the People Choice award for Best Picture of the Year. It’s my second favorite after War Horse so it better be one of these two, if both of these fail to get the Best Picture statuette, there’s also…
“Hugo” Great film by one of our best directors of our time: Martin Scorsese. ‘Nuff said.
“Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close” Great cable movie, I’ll wait to see this one on demand.

Best actress

Glenn Close, “Albert Nobbs” I still havent heard great things about the film but Glenn Close is one of my favorite actresses. She’s got really great competitors this year such as:
Viola Davis, “The Help”. One of the most subtle yet powerful performances of 2011. Too bad she won’t win it this year…
Rooney Mara, “Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” She really channeled Lisbeth Salander so well, it was hard to even notice that Daniel Craig co-starred this remake. Then again the nomination should belong to the original Girl with the Dragon Tattoo: Noomi Rapace for she’s the one that made the role so memorable and so hard to match. Sorry, Rooney, you were great though.
Meryl Streep, “The Iron Lady” And the Oscar goes to…
Michelle Williams, “My Week With Marilyn” I wish Michelle had won in this category but there’s no competition after seeing Meryl Streep transformed into Margaret Thatcher. Better luck next time…

Best actor

Demian Bichir, “A Better Life” I’m sure it’s great he washonored with a nomination but I doubt anybody will actually vote for the guy, or see the movie.
George Clooney, “The Descendants” I don’t know about his performance here but I think this year there’ll be a real twist as you watch the next nominee in the list:
Jean Dujardin, “The Artist” Yup. You heard right. I really believe that we got our next Roberto Benigni here. I only hope he doesn’t jump from chair to chair to get his award. It’s just a fresh face that we may or may not see again in Hollywood but he seems very likable and, honestly, The Artist has that cute, artsy element that Oscar voters like. Here’s my pick for best actor, mark my words.
Gary Oldman, “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy” He is a great actor that will continue making great movies but not my favorite of the bunch.
Brad Pitt, “Moneyball” I would have never thought that Moneyball would be such a critic’s pick. Kudos to Brad but, honestly, he’s had better roles, don’t you think? His role in Twelve Monkeys is by far my favorite.

Best supporting actress

Berenice Bejo, “The Artist” Never heard of this woman and I don’t think she’s the strongest of the group.
Jessica Chastain, “The Help” The award should go to the OTHER nominee from the same movie.
Melissa McCarthy, “Bridesmaids” This is a tough one but I don’t think that Melissa will win this time. Her role was way to raunchy and over the top which probably made for “most memorable” role but award winning?
Janet McTeer, “Albert Nobbs”
Octavia Spencer, “The Help” Yes, yes, yes!!! If there’s an actress that brought her heart and soul into her character was definitely Octavia as Minny Jackson,she really brought up her game and deserves it.

Best supporting actor

Kenneth Branagh, “My Week With Marilyn” I don’t know if his was a truly strong performance, he was alright but not the greatest. Just hand it over, will you?
Jonah Hill, “Moneyball” I don’t think so.
Christopher Plummer, “Beginners” Here it is: ding, ding, ding, ding!!! A role of a lifetime for the 82 year old actor whose past achievements alone make him a winner in my book. It’s the story of a father who recently loses his wife and realizes at this stage in his life that he’s gay and needs to come to terms with his son, played by Ewan McGregor. It sounds like a dream role already.
Nick Nolte, “Warrior”
Max von Sydow, “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close” The (one and only) Exorcist!! Love the man but I’d rather vote for Christopher.

Best director

Michel Hazanavicius, “The Artist”
Alexander Payne, “The Descendants”
Martin Scorsese, “Hugo” I believe Martin should win. His movie was a cinematic experience that I will never forget, great director as well. Who doesn’t remember Taxi Driver or Cape Fear. Great filmaker who’s always pushing the boundaries and, with Hugo, he certainly broke his own mafioso mold. That’s a bold move that I hope pays off.
Terrence Malick, “Tree of Life” I still haven’t seen this movie (and probably will see just to compare with the praised reviews I’ve read thus far) but it just seems one of those movies that can only be appreciated if you’re in film class. It doesn’t sound like your regular kind of movie which is why he may actually win. I’m betting that Terrence will get the award (even though my heart says Scorsese!)
Woody Allen, “Midnight in Paris” If it was another year he may have had a chance but Woody Allen was best during the 70’s and 80’s, that’s when his films really shone best.

Best original screenplay

“The Artist” This is certainly a critic’s favorite, this is the surest bet for a win, although I’m keeping my hopes up for:
“Bridesmaids” I’m rooting for Kristen Wiig here, it’d be a great accomplishment and I certainly look forward to her next script.
“Margin Call”
“Midnight in Paris”, which sounds original and witty but better than Bridesmaids?
“A Separation” I heard this story is awesome, that’s why it’s my bet for Best Foreign Film.

Best adapted screenplay

“The Descendants” I believe this movie will take the gold. I just like the story and curious to see how the script acts out.
“Hugo” Great movie but I don’t believe it was a great script. I wouldn’t place my bet on this category in my company’s pool.
“The Ides of March” Too political for my taste. If I were a Republican I may go for it…
“Moneyball” then again I don’t really care for baseball either.
“Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy” I hear it’s a very complicated and confusing film to understand. It doesn’t sound like a great adaptation if you ask me.

Best foreign language film

“Bullhead”
“Footnote”
“In Darkness”
“Monsieur Lazhar”
“A Separation” Here’s the only film I would be certain of gathering the award. How come I haven’t heard or see the other films? I would have like to see all of them instead of wasting my time with Mission Impossible or J. Edgar…

Best animated feature

“A Cat in Paris”
“Chico & Rita”
“Kung Fu Panda 2”
“Puss in Boots”
“Rango”

Best animated short film

“Dimanche/Sunday”
“The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore”
“La Luna”
“A Morning Stroll”
“Wild Life”

Best live action short film

“Pentecost”
“Raju”
“The Shore”
“Time Freak”
“Tuba Atlantic”

Best art direction

“The Artist” Just cause it’s black and white doesn’t necessarily mean it’s artful but then the voters may think that way.
“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2” Where was its Best Picture nomination? I’m disapointed why couldn’t we take off Moneyball or Tree of Life and place this film. Oh well, on the upside it’s made way over a billion dollars in the box office so I’m sure they’re still laughing all the way to the bank.
“Hugo” If there’s one award for this little movie it should be for art direction. I love the way the movie seems so magical and extraordinarily easy on the eyes, a real spectacle. I’d be very disappointed if Hugo doesn’t win here.
“Midnight in Paris”
“War Horse” It’s my favorite movie but artsy? My money goes for Hugo here.

Best Cinematography
“The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” Copycat.
"The Artist"
“Hugo” I love the sets of the train station and the silent film studio, visually stunning.
“The Tree of Life” If there’s a category where this movie will win (and probably should win) is this one. I bet you this movie will win just for the first 15 minutes of the movie.
“War Horse” Really great landscapes and the war scene are pretty intense. Pretty good contenders though.

Best costumes

“Anonymous”
“The Artist” Hmmmm, I guess the costumes were great, you never know
“Hugo”
“Jane Eyre”
“W.E.” Oh, C’mon, give Madonna one more award to brag about (although I’m sure she didn’t “design” the costumes but it’d still be a win for her film. One complain though: why wasn’t Andrea Riseborough even nominated for Best Supporting Actress award? How disappointing for she was great in this film, I hope we see more of her in the future. Maybe Swept Away 2?

Best documentary feature

“Hell and Back Again”
“If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Libration Front”
“Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory”
“Pina” I think this is the one, I heard it has great 3D special effects, then again I haven’t seen any for it’s a wild guess there.
“Undefeated”

Documentary short subject

“The Barber of Birmingham: Foot Soldier of the Civil Rights Movement”
“God is the Bigger Elvis”
“Incident in New Baghdad”
“Saving Face”
“The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom”

Film editing

“The Artist”
“The Descendants”
“The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo”
“Hugo”
“Moneyball”

Make-up

“Albert Nobbs” I don’t believe Glenn Close had such a great transformation here, it’s much harder to make a man look natural as a woman as in Tootsie but not the other way around.
“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2” If there’s one award this movie deserves is make up. Here’s my 2 cents.
“The Iron Lady” Meryl Streep performance is what brought the character to life however the make up really helped a whole lot.

Original score

“The Adventures of TinTin”
“The Artist” Here’s an easy win…
“Hugo”
“Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
“War Horse”

Original song
That’s it? What about Madonna’s Masterpiece? Why only 2 songs and 9 picture nominees? Booooooo!!! What about NONE!!!!

“Man or Muppet”
“Real in Rio”
Sound editing

“Drive”
“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”
“Hugo”
“Transformers: Dark of the Moon”
“War Horse”

Visual effects

“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2” the movie looks great and all but it had all been done 6 times before so there’s no element of surprise here. All Harry Potters was visually great.
“Hugo” I think this film was very unique and original so my vote goes here.
“Real Steel” I heard this is a very good movie despite what I originally thought.
“Rise of the Planet of the Apes” This should have been among the best pictures nominees, how disappointing that Andy Serkis wasn’t nominated either but he would have still lost to Christopher Plummer… But it would have been nice…
“Transformers: Dark of the Moon” Really? It’s been done before, what’s so great about this one now? I’m tired of all this Michael Bay excess (which is probably why it may just win here)

Alan Dean Foster's Alien

2012-01-26T17:29:00.000-08:00

Alien

I’m a little rusty in my reading. I used to read a book within a week or sometimes two. As of lately it’s taken me much longer than that. So I decided to go for short stories or novels and last time I went through my local public library I found a copy of Alan Dean Foster’s Alien which was a novelization of the 1979 film starring Sigourney Weaver as Ripley, Tom Skerrit as Dallas, John Hurt as the doomed Kane and the mysterious Ash played by Iam Holm. Wow, what great cast isn’t it?

The first few lines of the novel is what really caught my attention and my curiosity: it describes how every one of the Nostromo crew members are in hypersleep as they’re travelling in light speed en route towards Earth bringing oil cargo (apparently Earth has run out of its precious natural sources). Curiosity enticed me to continue reading: it turns out that everybody is actually “conscious” even while they’re in state of hypersleep which I thought was an interesting concept. The story goes on to describe each of the crew members so, by the time they’re awaken by Mother (Nostromo's computer) to answer a distress call from an unknown planetoid, you kind of know a bit about them, which I thought was a great basis for the novel.

However the following chapters in the story are a tad bit tedious: the landing on the planet, the search for the distress beacon that caught the Nostromo’s attention (that’s the name of the ship), the description of Jones who, in case you guys forgot, is the name of the cat. I’m not lying when I say that I was sometimes thrown off a few times when the author speaks of Jones as if it were part of the crew, even describing its “thoughts” as if the cat really could think logically. But if you’ve ever wondered what’s it like to be a cat in outer space then this is the novel for you... Anyone?

After the painstaking details of the crew exploring this hostile planet in search of the distress signal, they finally arrive at the point where they’re getting closer and closer to the alien’s nest. That’s when the novel picks up as well as the story of a crew that’s divided as to whether or not to admit Kane back into the Nostromo in a comatose state with an alien in shape of a hand attached to his face. For being such a technical writer that describes the ship, or being in hypersleep state, or several devices and futuristic items such as a GPS system and "Bluetooth"-like earpieces or the different controls and going-ons in outer space and the foreign planet and not to mention the corridors and passages of the Nostromo, which Alan Dean Foster describes in great detail by the way, there’s a lack of substantial description of the actual creature other than the superficial details as bleeding acid, or having sharp teeth and sharp claws.

SPOILER ALERT There's a scene towards the end of the novel that's different from the movie: Ripley, being the sole survivor from the alien's attack on the other crewmembers (except for Jones), gets ready to board the shuttle that will mark her escape from the Nostromo and the alien, she stumbles upon cocoons that contain Dallas and Parker still alive, if barely. I thought this was a desperate move on the author to bring closure to whatever happens to the victims once the monster got a hold of them. So basically the alien would capture its victims, preserve their bodies as they hatch more lethal spawns, preserving the alien's species. And this might have worked in the first Alien movie but I think it was a wise decision on Ridley Scott's part to leave it alone and allow the sequels to develop this even more, as in James Cameron's great sequel Aliens.

Alan Dean Foster is the author responsible for fleshing out the Star Wars novels which George Lucas based his films on. Still, I’m disappointed at the fact that this is just what they called a “novelization” of the film and so it doesn't ring true or original anymore, basically it tries to explore more details than the movie could cover in 116 minutes.

It’s also kind of distracting that, having seen the movie a few dozen times, I found that the book has less details than the actual movie, if that’s possible. It’s one of those weird cases where the movie is far better than the novel, just like the curious case of Brokeback Mountain.

SPOILER ALERT The only interesting bit is the constant, ever changing behavior of Ash who’s been instructed to “protect” the creature above the crew itself. Ash's revelation that the whole Nostromo crew is expendable except the alien was what made this story worth a read. Ever since I saw the film I was more shocked to find out that Ash was not even human but a robot sent by the Company to divert the Nostromo, pick this alien creature from this isolated planetoid and transport it back to Earth. This explains Ash's fascination with the creature and, I must say, the chapter in the book which details Ash's confrontation with Ripley and the remaining survivors of the crew is the best chapter from the novel.

The next time I visit my local library I will pick a good novel that hasn’t been turned to a movie for it’s quite better to imagine everything you’re reading on your own without having to relate the characters to their respective actors. Only exception to the rule: having read William Peter Blatty's The Exorcist, Stephen King's The Shining or Ira Levin's Rosemary's Baby were the great exceptions to this rule. I wish I could say the same for Alan Dean Foster's Alien. Another great thing I discovered about the library is that they interconnect with each other so if you think of a book or a movie that you would like to read or watch you can just log into their website, enter your membership information to log in, drop the item in your cart and next time you visit the library it's waiting for you. Especially in these hard times we're living in it makes all the sense in the world to just utilize your library's entertainment potential and say goodbye to Netflix or, should I even dare to say it, you cable or satellite providers. Hey, everybody's got to cut some corners somehow, right? It's the only way to survive in the real world.

As far as Alan Dean Foster's Alien is concern, I expected to read something I didn’t know about the monster. I never became engaged in the monster as much as I did with Ripley's or Ash's characters, the only two characters that make this story readable and dramatic at all. As well as that goddamn cat, ahem, I mean Jones. My recommendation? Watch the movie, skip the novel.

Ridley Scott’s Alien A
James Cameron’s Aliens A+
Alan Dean Foster’s Alien B-

The Iron Lady

2012-01-19T18:35:00.000-08:00

Meryl Streep is The Iron Lady

I will admit that, before watching Meryl Streep in The Iron Lady, I was rooting for Michelle Williams for Best Actress Oscar for her beautiful and subtle performance as a troubled and surprisingly shy Marilyn Monroe from My Week With Marilyn. That all changed after I watched how Meryl Streep transformed herself into Margaret Thatcher in an otherwise average biopic of the first female British Prime Minister in the early 80’s through 1990.

From the early shots of her when the film focuses on the Prime Minister years after she left office and, apparently shortly after her husband’s death in 2003, we spot the weaknesses in a woman that has never allowed anybody to trample her since before she even became involved in politics, a woman so determined not to be tied down by any man, even made it quite clear to her husband Dennis Thatcher the minute after he proposed to her.

Her rise to power was no bed of roses though. In The Iron Lady we see how this remarkable woman had to learn how to become the woman she was to become: more assertive, demanding, build her presence and become even more extraordinaire than she already was. She had to face a lot of criticism and hatred from her peers as well as her enemies (and she had quite a few attempts made against her life, but she’s still alive and kicking today at 87 years of age).

The most I remember from this woman is her involvement in a war to claim (or reclaim) the Falklands islands (also known as Malvinas, in Spanish) from Argentina which was a big deal for all South Americans, it was certainly a very controversial and a test that she was put through. I actually remember hearing about this back in 1982 when Argentina occupied the islands and Margaret Thatcher decided to declare war and reclaim these islands, although I was very young at the time but I always saw her as a ruthless tyrant that wanted to “get back” islands that didn’t really belong to her to begin with that’s another Oprah all together and I frankly don’t like to discuss politics (All I gotta add to that is: Las Malvinas son Argentinas, that’s it, I’ll drop it now). What I do recall is how Argentinians and most South American countries united forces to fight the British but they ultimately lost the battle on June 1982.

SPOILER ALERT I was surprised that The Iron Lady didn’t touch many political issues during the movie and focused more on her life before, during and after being Prime Minister. I particularly like Streep as a vulnerable and troubled Margaret Thatcher, the side of her that we never got to see. She was a very dedicated woman that many times put her job ahead of her family. We see how Margaret maintains a solid conversation with her dead husband whom at first we believe is a “flashback” however we soon realize she’s really just losing her marbles and being tormented by the memory of him, maybe a sign of how much she became used to him and how he had always supported her in every way, even if he was against the idea of being married to the Prime Minister.

It was a touching and incredible performance by the chameleon known as Meryl Streep. If there’s a person that could blend in so well into many diverse characters is Streep: one year she played a nun in Doubt, then a ruthless boss of a fashion magazine in The Devil Wears Prada, next she transformed to Julia Childs in Julie & Julia and she does it with such easy that’s hard to see the real woman behind the character. I wonder what will she be picking up next, a superhero?

It’ll be interesting to see how this year’s Oscar race plays out for Best Actress spot, Meryl faces some strong contenders this year vary from Michelle Williams (My Week With Marilyn), Viola Davis (The Help), Glen Close (Albert Nobbs), Rooney Mara (The Girl With Dragon Tattoo), Charlize Theron (Young Adult) or even Kristen Wiig for Bridesmaids (furthest chance, all of which have had a chance at the Golden Globes but we’re still yet to see the nominees for the Oscars (which should be pretty soon now). So I keep my fingers crossed for Michelle but I wouldn’t doubt for one minute that Meryl Streep will pull the rug under her feet this year. Nobody messes with this (Iron) Lady.

Breaking Up With Adele

2012-01-18T21:24:00.000-08:00

Adele's 21
Track Listing

1. Rolling in the Deep (Best song from 21. That simple.)
2. Rumour Has It (This song will send you back in time circa 1965, pretty groovy tune)
3. Turning Tables
4. Don't You Remember
5. Set Fire to the Rain
6. He Won't Go
7. Take It All (You don't want to piss a woman this much and if you you're asshole, this song goes great before you get to track 11. This album should be retitled: "The Breakup", its definitely her best topic since every song speaks of heartbreak, an emotional rollercoaster)
8. I'll Be Waiting
9. One and Only
10. Lovesong (not many people can cover this The Cure but Adele does it with such finesse that I can't decide which version I like better now)
11. Someone Like You (Bring out your box of tissues, ready? Now hit play... The difference between this breakup song and, say, Alanis' You Oughta Know, is that Adele's deliverance reveals that she isn't really over her ex and having to hear her say that she wishes the best for them two is so heartbreaking yet sincere, never sarcastic and reveals a wound that still doesn't heal, it's pure heaven)

Some music takes time to sink in. I usually wait a few weeks, even months before I decide to write about new music that really moves me. With Adele's 21 it's taken me a few weeks to really weigh in on her latest CD titled 21 (I assume that's how old she was when it was released since her first album was titled 19, so I guess we can expect odd numbers from Adele, looking forward to 23, 25...) and not because I didn't love it from the first time I heard it when we were heading to Las Vegas last November (I think?) but because I needed time to let the songs sink into my brain before I could make up my mind. For some odd reason is easier to critique a movie than music, it has to take time to really become part of your daily soundtrack and to be more fairly give the final grade.

Well, it's to no surprise by now that 21 is a true masterpiece. Ever since I heard "Someone Like You" and how emotionally charged that this song among all other tracks I was immediately sold. Every time I heard the songs they start sounding different and more beautiful, the same feeling that I got from listening Alicia Keys' Element of Freedom or Sade's Soldier of Love where just about every tune is better than the next. I must say that 21 is quite better than 19, although I've only heard 19 a couple of times but I can already tell how Adele has evolved and her emotions are so much more raw than in her previous work.

Besides "Someone Like You", I enjoy "Rolling In The Deep" which reminds me of Janis Joplin or Aretha Franklin back in their hayday when they just played soulful and meaningful songs, songs that spoke louder than words, when everytime you heard them meant something different and profound. And there's just a tenderness in Adele's voice that's so distinctive yet she could hit those powerful notes so effortlessly to deliver that energy that each track contains within. I'm not even going to categorize her since I realize that putting labels to music is gotten so old and if a song hits you in your heart and you know you really feel everything she's going through, if it carries that message and it hits home then her mission has been accomplished.

And please I beg of you (yeah, you Facebook haters): stop comparing Adele with Amy Winehouse since they're both very different people and each has their own talent and they each have their specific styles, it's just unfortunate that Amy is no longer with us but you shouldn't take it up on Adele. So just sit back, put that record on and relax. And if you happen to shed a tear or two, that's just a risk you're gonna have to take.

Just Like Hævnen

2012-01-17T17:54:00.000-08:00

In a Better World

I like it when a movie takes me completely by surprise. Once in a while Dean and I stumble across a movie that really move us and get us talking. That’s the case with this little known Danish gem called “Hævnen” or “In a Better World” (I like the original title much better, even though I thought hævnen means Heaven: it’s actually Danish word for revenge).

It’s roughly the story of an unlikely friendship between two boys Christian (played with steely precision by William Jøhnk Nielsen) and Elias (Markus Rygaard), the latter of them is a victim of humiliation by the school’s bully until Christian decides to take action in his own hands. It’s a situation we all (by WE I mean everybody who’s ever been verbally or physically been mistreated in school for being different) wished we could have the guts to have done to our oppressors yet it quickly becomes an obsession to get “even” with everybody who bullies whether they’re in school or even in the world of adults.

A very interesting point the movie makes is that the world we live in while we’re growing up is just as raw and unforgiving as the real world is and we get to see both sides of the coin when Elias’ father gets slapped silly multiple times by a mechanic who’s all very happy to finish last in a fight that his father seeks to avoid. In the Bible we read about Jesus saying to turn the other cheek when people offend us but when you apply that scenario in the real world literally it just doesn’t seem fair (or smart). And both Christian and Elias want to seek hævnen even though Christian takes this to the next level.

The beauty of Hævnen is that is not trying to focus more importance to the drama that the boys are experiencing with that of their parents and we get to see all sides to the story. Every one of the characters have a good motive to feel and act as they do and the dialogue and acting of everyone in the cast left me breathless. It’s strange that movies like this get unnoticed while other blockbusters get too much exposure sometimes. I never knew that this movie was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film in 2011 and won, it’s no wonder that we need to look further than Hollywood to see the real gems on the silver screen.

My Foreign Language Wishlist:

Biutiful (Mexico),
La Teta Asustada or The Milk of Sorrow (from Peru, and just so you are in the know the literal translation is The Frightened Tit, so I think Milk of Sorrow is more suitable for a title),
France’s A Prophet, and
USA’s In the Land of Blood and Honey (which is actually Angelina Jolie’s directorial debut set in Bosnia).
My early Oscar prediction for win in the upcoming 2012 Oscar Academy Award (or so I heard): Persia’s A Separation. It already won the Golden Globe so it's a sure bet.

From The Sky Down

2012-01-08T09:47:00.000-08:00

I always thought that U2 was the greatest band to come out of the 1980's. Ever since I heard Bono giving it his heart and soul in songs like "New Year's Day" or "Sunday Bloody Sunday" I was hooked. Then along they came with The Joshua Tree. Suddenly they became iconic, almost invincible, it would seem as if they had it all together, that nothing would be able to stop them. Well, it turns out that I was wrong.

After watching U2's latest doc titled "From the Sky Down", I realized that this band and its members almost hit rock bottom after Rattle and Hum was realeased. They were criticized, scrutinized and they were shaken up to the point where they almost believed what rumours were being said about them. It's incredible how the written word by the press can really destroy a band, a group, a marriage, an actor, a career with just a pen and paper (nowadays, all we need is a popular website like Perez Hilton and blog your heart away and let it immediately go viral for the whole world to see). It never ceases to amaze me the power they have when they write about someone and publish it as the ultimate truth, many a times without actually checking the facts. From The Sky Down explores the many bands that had dissolved over the years: The Clash, Sex Pistols, Van Halen... apparently U2 as well.

After their Lovetown Tour was over in 1989, Bono and Edge were dissatisfied with their sound. They had explored American music, went mainstream and were criticized by the media so they had to reinvent themselves. Their formula had worked up until now but their material was limited and their presence in their concerts was somewhat lacking as Bono admittedly say: they were musically not prepared to go on such a big scale. Just like it happened with Beatlemania, U2 saw themselves bigger than life, too mainstream and popular for their own good and every single thing they were doing was being scrutinized, filmed, recorded until there was too much U2 to go around. They began to run out of steam and so naturally they needed to get away from it all, flew over and headed over to Hansa Studios, Berlin shortly after the Berlin Wall had been knocked down, still Germany was divided in spirit, as well as the band members themselves. It was a difficult time, a confusing time, an end to an era.

And so they had to start from scratch, from zero. They had to throw everything they were comfortable doing and start fresh. And it wasn't easy. Up until that point they were pretty comfortable with their sound and success, but mediocrity could not be acceptable anymore, they had to evolve. This is the same reason The Beatles were such a successful band: they reinvented themselves, pushed each member to their creative limit up until the point when they broke up they were still reinventing themselves, trying new sounds that had never been heard before. Songs like Because, or I Want You (She's So Heavy), or Within You Without You, or Tomorrow Never Knows, just to name a few, were songs that were not commercial, or mainstream, or radio friendly, or pop but were necessary for them to express themselves and tell the world: you either like us or hate us but we're gonna do things differently from now on, we need to break the mold. And that's what The Beatles did. And that's what U2 was getting ready to do while recording Achtung Baby (by the way, they just celebrated their 20th, that's right, twentieth anniversary in 2011, can you believe it? God, I feel old!)

What this meant for Bono and Edge (who are the creative force of the band) was to explore themselves and come up with a sound that's so unique that had never been heard before. When I watch them both I picture John Lennon and Paul McCartney arguing about what sounds will work best although respectfully, never getting throwing into each other's throats yet being a little bit tough on each other as well as themselves. There's a point in which Bono and Edge are hearing a recording from 20 years ago and marvel at the way they came out with a song while working on another. I believe they were working on Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses when suddenly Bono started humming a new song all the while they were all following his lead. There is no video of the moment but from the look on their faces, seeing the big smile on their face listening to their own voices from 20 years ago, you could tell it was a pivotal moment in their recording. The result? A very personal and aching song called One.

There was something very interesting that Bono says at the end of Sky Down that really resonated with me: in between recordings and albums there is nothing, they always have to reinvent themselves and start from scratch, that's their biggest lesson learn from their success of Achtung Baby. Here's what Bono says at the end:

"You have to reject one expression of the band first before you get to the next expression and in between you have nothing. You have to risk it all"

I need to do the same, I need to write and experiment with what people had not read before, I get inspired by their story: their struggles, failures, and success all aim to teach me something in life. I now have a new admiration for U2 since I've seen they're only human and they also make mistakes, for every Achtung Baby there's a Zooropa, for every Abbey Road there's also a Beatles For Sale, for every Ray of Light there's always a... I better stop now, right Maddysboy?

Witness For The Prosecution (1957)

2012-01-04T22:06:00.000-08:00

Marlene Dietrich and Charles Laughton

The other day I started watching a movie from 1957 called Witness For the Prosecution starring Charles Laughton, Tyrone Powers and Marlene Dietrich in an adaptation from a novel by Agatha Christie and directed by Billy Wilder who had previously directed Marilyn Monroe in The Seven Year Itch and Gloria Swanson in the classic Sunset Blvd. Although I had never seen Marlene Dietrich in a film before I knew that she is quite a name in the glamorous old Hollywood movies of an era that shall never come back again, when real movies had really good scripts and when you really had to pay close attention to the story and just enjoy the great performances
.
Witness For the Prosecution is as complicated and multi-layered as mystery movies ever come: a man (Tyrone Powers) has been wrongly charged of murdering an old lady and is seeking legal advice from a famous attorney (Charles Laughton) who happens to recently come back home after having a heart attack. He's not supposed to take on any stress that may jeopardize his health but as stubborn as they come, this old man won't give up his cigars, take on this murder case while fighting with his nurse that insists he shouldn't be doing any of it. I love the way this movies present these characters in a comical, multi-layered yet simple way and allow them to take shape.

When the accused man's wife (Marlene Dietrich, as stunning as ever) comes to the lawyer's home to supposedly defend her husband and give him an alibi in court but, it turns out, shes as devious and mysterious as they come. That's when the real mystery begins and everybody seems to be a suspect.

It was a real joy to watch all these characters and see what unfolds in the courtroom, especially a crucial moment in which Marlene Dietrich takes the stand, as a witness for the prosecution nonetheless and breaks down while being questioned by the defense lawyer. At first I wasn't sure if that was her voice since they don't focus on her right away while she's delivering her lines but then it becomes clearer, and clearer, and clearer: "Damn you, damn you, Damn you! Damn you! Damn youuuuuuuuu"... I didn't know what to do so I started laughing since it's just like one of those lines that are always featured in the vignettes for the Awards Ceremonies as the pivotal scene of the movie yet it becomes instantly classic and her deliverance certainly deserves an award of some sort (unfortunately no such luck for Marlene that year) and I had to stop and rewind and rewind it just to get my fix.

There are certain movies that I can quote line by line such as Mommie Dearest , or The Birds, or Sunset Blvd and now I have a new classic Hollywood line that I already started quoting to my boyfriend and always get him to laugh (in gutural deep voice:) "Damn you, damn you, Damn you! Damn you! Damn youuuuuuuuu"

Ahhhhh, they don't make movies like this anymore...

War Horse

2012-01-03T22:26:00.000-08:00

War Horse

I thought that the Oscar race was pretty much over. I was leaning towards The Help or Hugo since those are the only 2 movies that I could see being nominated for Best Picture. That’s until I saw War Horse… Here’s how I know that War Horse is going to win an Oscar for Best Picture of 2011: When Steven Spielberg decided to take on this story about a young boy and his beloved horse I kept thinking it was a hard sell and it might be another of those “artsy” movies that I’ve come to hate lately (Can you say “Melancholia” and “Tree of Life”?) or, even worse, a Disney take on the stage play that’s been a hit on Broadway (although I’m eagerly awaiting for Book of Mormon and Billy Elliot to come to a stage in Los Angeles). So many other stage productions have attempted to make the leap from Broadway to Hollywood and vice versa, some of them work pretty well (Chicago, The Lion King) and some not so well (Hairspray, Mamma Mia) and so my expectations for War Horse were very high. After watching the first few minutes of the movie I felt that this movie could easily be just another flop and so Steven had a daunting task of building the story in such a way that it didn’t become sappy and plain.

The story begins when a young boy named Albert Narracott (played by newcomer Jeremy Irvine) who takes on the care of an admirable horse he names Joey and struggles to keep this horse in spite of his family economic struggles.. One day Albert and his horse are put to the test when the landlord comes to collect the overdue rent or take the horse away from the Narracotts. Albert has to teach his horse to plow a field and get it ready for next harvest but, after a few times that the horse attempts to pull the plowing equipment through the dry soil, they fail terribly as everybody begins to walk away in disappointment. When everything seems to be a lost cause it suddenly begins to rain facilitating Albert and his horse to plow the field, and restoring the family's pride and honor.
Unfortunately, the Narracotts are unable to come up with enough money for their mortgage (it sounds like the average American’s story right here) and World War II is about to begin so they begin to look for horses to serve in the war. When Albert finds out about his father’s intentions to sell his precious horse he runs over to town to stop this trade. His father is devastated as well but they’re paying him top money for Joey and, during times of war, that’s the best chance they will get to sell their horse. It’s sad watching Albert being separated from Joey and, as much as he begs to join the infantry to be together with his noble horse, he’s too young to join the military yet.

From this point on the story takes us from one owner to another as the horse is first seen in a battlefield where his rider gets killed in combat; then we see him go behind enemy lines and meets another black horse, at first they challenge each other at first but they begin a “friendship” of sorts. Our horse (I should call him Joey, just to make it easier) always comes through for his friend and saves him many times from doing strenuous work that Joey’s been used to doing before and, by doing so, saving his friend’s life. Suddenly, I began seeing Joey, his friend and the other horses as equally engaging as their human counterparts. It’s incredible but you can’t help but care for whatever happens to this horse while the war develops, it’s like you’ve become attached to him somehow and you fear for his life every step of the way.

SPOILER ALERTS AHEAD There are some scenes in the movie that mad me question: how inhumane we humans can be? These noble animals are so loyal and smart that they deserve as much respect and admiration as any other soldier fighting WWI. There was a moment in the movie when Joey watches his friend, the black horse, die from exhaustion. It sparks something in Joey that cannot be describes in words, I just needed to watch on the screen and see Joey run run through the battlefield, taking barriers of barbwire along the way until he could run anymore. It was as if the war had finally claimed his life.

Somewhere in the trenches there was also Albert, who had also joined the military and was fighting the war, always looking for his horse Joey. Albert, as his horse, also loses a friend in the line of combat and we get a glimpse of the nightmare that is the war in all of its gory and nightmarish nature as only a sensible Steven Spielberg could ever do. As I was watching the scenes of war it reminded me of Saving Private Ryan and the symbolism that it represents for the director whose own father was a war veteran himself.

At the heart of War Horse, there is a scene that will have me crying along with most people in the audience that day. The scene finally reunites Albert and his best friend Joey after four years of war in one of the most heartbreaking scene I've ever recalled to see in film before. It's a reunion so touching that it brought tears to my eyes; a reunion of two friends broken up to be brought back together by destiny, against all the odds. It's a scene that I would have never thought it'd be so touching yet it was. Now I understand why the stage play, in which they use puppeteers to give the horse live on the stage every night, is such a hit as well as this movie is.

FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION:

Best Movie of 2011: War Horse (Sorry, Melancholia)
Best Director: Steven Spielberg
Best Cinematography: beautiful landscapes and natural beauty throughout the film.
Best Actor: Joey, the horse (they should allow animals in this category, right?)

Follow Your Dreams

2011-12-29T22:28:00.000-08:00

It’s been a while since I’ve written anything personal until today. Every time that I want to write about a good movie or show or whatever I don’t hesitate one bit in writing about it, I even think about my blog while watching the show, waiting to have the words and paragraphs come to me when I turn my computer on either that night although mostly I prefer to wait a couple of days later when the movie’s subject has finally settled in my head and I can think clearly of what I liked or disliked about it.

When it comes to writing a personal entry in my blog I always turn to Sam’s blog, a person who knows how to address a certain issue, personal struggle or her love life in a personal level that makes it interesting and impossible to skip, almost addicting. That’s just one quality that I don’t possess but I really try once in a while to come clean about certain issues or ideas. Maybe it’s paranoia but I feel as if by telling it all I become a little vulnerable and prone to being hurt but when I recall how good it makes me feel after hitting that PUBLISH button and I long for those moments when my heart and mind take over and I let my hands be their instrument. Sometimes I don’t even notice how much I carry inside and blogging certainly opens a new area in my brain that I never thought I would be able to exploit again.

I recall back in high school that I always had my dream of becoming a novelist. I even started writing all different kind of short stories in Spanish, stories that I’d share with some friends and classmates, even teachers who always told me that I should pursue my dream. My biggest wish was to one day publish my own book, having my name printed on a hardcover novel, it was an impossible dream but I’d spend hours of my day daydreaming what it would be like to write and entertain people by pouring in my all in these stories together and see them materialized in print.

One of my first items that I wanted to purchase was a typewriter. No, it wasn’t a PSP or a flat screen TV or a car, I just longed for a typewriter, that’s all I wanted. I know it sounds weird but it was something that I kept thinking about owning until I finally did, only when I did my life in the States had just begun and a million things were going through my head at the time. There was something else more important to do, more things for me to figure out than simply writing. It just seemed like a waste of time, something unimportant, something that could take second place to anything I was doing at the time. I did the college thing, I did the job thing, I did the purchasing of a home, getting into several relationships and trying to find my ground, sometimes disappearing in the shadow of my partners and going with whatever it was they needed me to do. Basically I lost myself and I was nowhere to be found. How boring would have been to write anything when I had a million and one things stuck in my head, half of them unfinished and never fully accomplished.

Somebody taught me how to love myself and how to respect myself and, although it took me quite a while to learn this, how to start writing again. Not only to write about anything specific but something that would soothe my mind and put together many loose thoughts that I never got to say, I never got to express my feelings about my daily life and how much I longed to say this or that but never found a channel to express it. So I started my blog thanks to her and I never stopped ever since. I’d like to thank Sam for opening this wonderful side of me I thought I never would recover and to Dean for supporting me in every way possible by reading my blog and giving me his feedback. I was finally able to express my emotions, my joys, my disappointment and frustrations along with my dreams and aspirations. It opened a door that was once opened but I had shut close along with a side of me that enjoyed to write just for the fun of it, to entertain, to create, to inspire anything at all. It kind of became an obsession and I finally felt as if I’d found my long lost ability to reach people in a way I hadn’t done before, to touch people in ways I could never do with spoken words. I realized that this is my destiny, this is what I always wanted to do.

Now that 2011 is almost over and people start asking me about New Year’s resolutions and everyone speaks about losing weight, start working out, or give up smoking (all of which I plan to accomplish, too, except for smoking) yet all I can think about is that I must go back to writing, not only as an outlet to critique movies, plays, TV or entertainment in general but I also like to explore different stories that have been lingering in my head over the years, stories that I wanted to materialize but never gave them a chance to. Suddenly it became clear to me: this is what I really wanted to do all my life. If I didn’t tell these stories then who would? Nobody will get into my head and steal these stories and write them for me and, who knows? Maybe I got something going on that may be interesting and may suddenly become a New York Best-seller… or not, but I would never know this unless I tried, right?

So my New Year resolution is here, clear as day: Follow your dreams. Somebody somewhere once wrote: “You must do what you love to do and everything else will fall into place, if you write from your own heart and soul you cannot go wrong” (or was this me talking to myself there?). Anyway, what can I possibly lose if I didn’t at least try?

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

2011-12-29T21:54:00.000-08:00

The Dragon With The Dragon Tattoo

No question who’s the real star in the latest remake of the Stieg Larsson’s Swedish trilogy that’s captivated audiences worldwide (Don’t I sound like that Moviefone guy? Then again, you probably don’t remember who and what was Moviefone, do ya?), and I’m not referring to Daniel Craig here, I’m referring to Rooney Mara who stars as Lisbeth Salander a.k.a. the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. She’s a little known actress who just happened to have been cast in another great film in 2010, she played opposite Jesse Eisenberg as his girlfriend in The Social Network, only to dump him 5 minutes later so there was no real chance for her to explore her character with that little screentime.

In The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo she doesn’t date a nerd: she is the nerd. But not just a regular nerd either she’s a computer wiz who is able to crack anything and everything that comes her way, she knows her way through impossible tasks thrown her way and she does it with a blink of an eye. In her latest assignment she’s sent to investigate a reporter (played by Daniel Craig) who is in the midst of a legal scandal. However as the story unfolds, they must join forces to crack down the disappearance of a girl over 40 years ago that still haunts millionaire Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer).

I love the setting of the story that takes place in snowbound Hedestad, Sweden. From the moment that Mikeal Blomkvist (Daniel Craig) comes to meet Henrik in person, you can feel the isolation and the tension of being so far away from everything and everyone, it’s like being cut out of the real world and, in a way, it is. It reminded me of the scene where Jack Nicholson takes his family up the snowbound Overlook Hotel in The Shining. Sometimes the setting of a story makes all the difference and The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo certainly takes advantage of this setting.

SPOILER ALERT: Comparing Rooney Mara’s performance from her Swedish predecessor’s (Noomi Rapace) is hard to decide which actress played Lisbeth Salander better but at the climax of both movies the scene that’s stuck in everyone’s minds is the scene where she gets raped in such a violent way by her parole officer that it’s hard to shake off this horrific scene. It’s one of those scenes that is disturbing to watch yet you can’t turn away from the screen. Lisbeth is such a character though that you would think that after all she’s been through she would be able to fight back but she’s so fragile and defenseless that you feel her pain and desperation that you wished you could help her in some way… That’s until she gets her sweet revenge. It’s one of my guiltiest pleasures to watch Lisbeth take revenge on her oppressor in such a way that she turns him into a sheepish and obedient servant that she manipulates in whichever way she wants. No matter in what language these scenes are: they are what makes both The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo versions so compelling.

The only complain that I can think of is that the story attempts to cover way too much ground for just one movie. You don’t know if you enjoyed the family mystery bit, or the murderer still on the loose bit, or Mikeal’s scandal bit, or Lisbeth’s personal struggle bit. It’s hard to stay focused unless you’re reading the novel series by Stieg Larsson which possibly cover as many subplots as possible and I bet it’d be a great read but it doesn’t always translate well into one single film. Another peeve of mine is that I kept comparing both versions of the movie to the point where it was distracting me and I kept wondering: Was Lisbeth Salander more bisexual than the Swedish version? Was Mikeal Blomkvist more compelling the first time around or was he just uninteresting this time around (sorry Daniel Craig but I liked Michael Nyqvist better)? Did this new rape scene seem way longer than in the original version? Was the killer in the original version (or even the book version) more frightening than the new version (I shall not reveal who that is for those who still haven’t seen it)?

And the biggest question I needed to ask is: why does Hollywood try to imitate every single successful movie out there? Are there not enough stories, best-seller novels or scripts out there that deserve the movie treatment? I think that Hollywood producers take American audiences for granted and they underestimate their appreciation for the arts. I’m sure if a movie is good in Chinese, or Swedish or Spanish then you should just watch it and not have to wait until they remake it in your native tongue, and you’d be surprised to know how many movies have been redone in the past that were better left alone: The Eye (better in its original Japanese version), Open Your Eyes (redone and retitled for American audiences as “Vanilla Sky”, never able to imitate the original Spanish version), Diabolique (I heard the French version was much scarier than the American version starring Sharon Stone) or even Fright Night which was one of my favorite films in the 80’s (I’ve heard the remake with Colin Farrel was really bad). One lesson to be learn here: if it ain’t broken why try to fix it?

I've Been Brainwashed

2011-12-27T19:38:00.000-08:00

Who is Mr. Brainwash after all? Is this guy for reals or is he impersonating someone else doing the work? There seems to be a little controversy online, trying to figure out who is the artist of the latest Art Show installment showing right now in West Hollywood, California. Some people say it's Thierry Guetta, others claim it's street artist Bansky, other claim is just assistants doing all the work and he takes all the credit. Well, I have no idea and, frankly, could really give a damn. What I know it's that Mr. Brainwash's latest (and still ongoing) L.A. Art Show is amazing and cannot be missed in the short days that it'll be in exhibition. It's a mix between pop culture mashed with street art and graffiti, it's provocative and provokes controversy which is what good art should do anyways.
I had never heard of the artist until he became involved with Madonna and worked on her Greatest Hits collection titled Celebration where Madonna's picture was given a touch of color that at the same time resembled Marilyn Monroe's blond hair and red lipstick but still this cover was quite unique an different that Mr. Brainwash (whomever he may be) made it his own.

In addition to having Madonna, Mr. Brainwash has a fascination with celebrities such as Andy Warhol, Cate Moss, J.F.K, The Beatles, Michael Jackson, Elvis and just about everyone who's probably influenced the artist one way or another. Everything you see seems to be an "accident" splattered all over the walls but it carries a symbolism of its own: there's KFC's Colonel Sanders trapped inside a birdcage as if he was representing one of his own chickens or in another room which seems to be a crime scene we see Steve Jobs' picture surrounded by old computers and black paint splattered all over the wall where it reads: "the show must go on". There are infinite subliminal messages found throughout this old building so you just need to immerse into the place and take time to admire and decipher what it all means, usually not finding any real answers if not more questions.

You're never sure if you like his art or discard it as street graffiti but that's part of the effect he may want to convey: to make you feel lost, disgusted, amused, scared and excited all at the same time. Every level you explore in this run down building tells a different story: one level has a police car all tagged and graffiti'd, on another level you encounter giant spray cans, then another level has writings all over the wall or images of celebrities such as Marilyn Manson, Madonna, Michael Jackson, Angelina Jolie, Leonard Nimoy all wearing a similar blond wig, red lipstick and blue eye shadow.

It all doesn't make sense but in all this chaos there's a new found admiration for street art that I've been curious about before but disregarded it as trashy or street gangs but never an art form. This was very revealing to me and had me wondering: what does it all mean to me? I'm sure it's telling something about myself that I've never pondered on before. Also it made me realize that art is perceived in many different ways and what may be trash and chaotic for some maybe artful and creative for others. I was sort of like in the middle of the fence and enjoying every moment of it.

Neverland Revisited

2011-12-14T15:26:00.000-08:00

Neverland on SyFy

Think you know the infamous fable of Peter Pan and Neverland? Yes you say? Well, after watching the original television movie on Syfy titled Neverland almost all those questions you never thought to ask are finally revealed: Who's Peter Pan (Charlie Rowe)? Where did he come from? Who are the lost boys? How did they find Neverland? Why doesn't Peter Pan ever want to grow up? How did Peter Pan's friendship with Captain Hook even started? Why did they become sworn enermies? Why so many questions?

I certainly love to answer all these questins but that would take the fun out of watching it for yourselves. What I can reveal is that the story takes us before Peter and his orphans friends got trapped in Neverland back in their hometown of London at the turn of the century. These poor kids have to survive hunger and find shelter from the police or whoever wants to turn them to the jail or the orphanage, these kids have learned the hard way of living and surviving without the supervision of an adult, except for a charismatic grown man by the name of Jimmy (Rhys Ifans). Peter and Jimmy have a special bond that is very apparent from their meetings and they both are streetwise and have learned to cheat and steal in order to survive. Apparently Peter and his gang are to going to help Jimmy rob this jewelry store in search for this magical "orb" which is valued at a very high price but apparently the robbery goes awry and Jimmy finds the orb inside a chest among with other valuables and is transported along with Peter's friends to Neverland: a world contained within this magical orb, it's sort of like a world or dimension caught within the real world inside this orb (as pictured above with Peter), a place where nobody ages one bit and time seems to be still, thus Neverland.
When Peter finds he orb and follows his friends and Jimmy he realizes that his friends have been captured by pirates who had apparently been adbucted more than a century before into this Neverland and he must now find a way to help them. Along the way he meets a tribe of American Indians that help Peter get his friends back, every one except for one: that's Jimmy who is now romancing his way out of trouble with the Captain of the pirates (don't worry, she's a female although it would have been interesting had it been a male, huh?) When Peter learns that Jimmy is still in the ship, he comes back to help Jimmy get away in a boat that's waiting for their escape but Jimmy, as it turns out, deceives everyone by turning his back on his best friend Peter, who is as astounded as I was. SPOILER ALERT: You know what's Jimmy's full name? James Hook.

Jimmy Hook and Captain Elizabeth Bonny

Throughout Neverland, Jimmy gets a chance to redeem his actions to Peter however every time that he gets Peter's trust (along with ours) he goes and does something even worse than the time before. All these lies and deceits lead to the death of one of Peter's friends, many Indians and even some creatures from Neverland as the fairies. As you may know, Tinker Bell helps Peter Pan recover from an injury where he almost loses his life (thanks, in part, to Jimmy-or should I say Hook?) and she takes Peter to a land of fairies somewhere in the forest and they give Peter back his life as well as new fairy-like properties like the ability to fly. It's still exhilirating to see the excitement in Peter's eyes when he learns that he's actually flying and with his new found power he has the courage to confront Hook and the pirates and try to restore peace to Neverland which may never happen, as long as we have Hook and pirates, there's always bound to be trouble.
There's many great actors in Neverland, by the way: Charlie Rowe is a charming boy who is just as bit precocious and likable as Peter, then there's his best friend turned enemy James "Jimmy" Hook played by Rhys Ifans (remember him as Hugh Grant's roommate in Notting Hill, always with his underwear and no pants?), as well as Q'orianka Kilcher as the American Indian girl that helps Peter and friends despite everything he's caused on her people (she was Pocahontas in 2005's The New World with Colin Farrell), Bob Hoskins as a pirate (just like in 1991's Hook) and Keira Knightley as the voice of Tinker Bell.
I recommend this movie for the whole family and make sure to catch both episodes since it's quite long so they had to break it into 2 parts, great special effects by the way you'll be blown away as to how much detail they were able to do here and it's on basic cable, it doesn't get better than that. Now about those pesky commercials though...

Madonna's W.E.

2011-12-13T20:40:00.000-08:00

My own expectations for Madonna's W.E. were running high. I admit that walking into the theater and sitting down waiting for this film to start I said a little prayer for Madonna and hoped that her movie wouldn’t turn out to be a total disaster and I would have to shelve it right next to Swept Away. I don’t even know why but I felt a connection with Madonna as a director and I eagerly awaited for this moment to see what she had spent all her time and energy this past few months after she bid farewell to her fans with her Sticky & Sweet Tour around the world… as well as Guy Ritchie. It’s an interesting moment for the artist that has given us so much in the last few years and she seems to have matured more and more with age, become a wiser person, one who’s a little more careful about her next project instead of just diving in head first without calculating the outcome. Her latest project, W.E., seems to be a very important break from her music career, a project that's very personal and dear to her.

The story is based on the story of King Edward VIII and his romance with Wallis Simpson in the 1930’s as well as Wally Winthrop’s story, a New York woman in the late 1990's who is so obsessed with Wallis that she tends to emulate her in every way possible until it becomes a bit of an obsession (maybe is Madonna seeing herself in the mirror, after all, she’s quite obsessed with the story?). SPOILER ALERTS AHEAD I should warn you that in the following paragraphs I may ruin the movie for you so if you plan to see W.E. you should definitely see it for yourselves and then read this review, alright? Fair warning.

Now back to W.E. Wallis Simpson (Andrea Riseborough) was actually an American aristocrat who happened to be married for the second time when she met the King’s successor and started to entertain an elite group of socialites that orbits Prince Edward. Wallis was such a great hostess that Edward started inviting her more often to his social gatherings. The young and handsome prince is to be next as the King of England but as we can see he’s not very thrilled with the idea of ruling England and more interested on hosting parties and having fun with his fame. Nothing wrong with being a prince and enjoying life, right? I mean, that’s what I would so myself if I were in his shoes. Upon getting to know Wallis Simpson though, he quickly realizes that she’s different than anybody else he’s ever met before, even though he’s dating Lady Thelma (Katie McGrath, I actually had thought it was Keira Knightley up until now) but Wallis has something that speaks to the Prince that puts him in between a rock and a hard place: he must either choose Wallis Simpson, who is currently married, or choose to be the King of England, a title that he’s inherited since his brother George has a speech impediment that prevents him from being the favorite to the throne (You really must catch King George VI’s incredible story in The King’s Speech with Colin Firth to understand).

On the other hand we have Wallis Simpson. A woman who is not afraid to speak her mind and one that looks up to Edward and his friends and is ambitious enough to be where she’s at. Madonna explores Wallis’ first marriage, if only briefly, and shows how abusive her husband is, to the point that she loses her unborn child when she takes a brutal beating from him. It’s quite understandable why Wallis must leave that man, of course, although throughout the film we never know how she gets to leave him, we just know she does and marries Ernest with whom she seems happily married to so I don't quite understand what makes Wallis leave this good man for the Prince (besides the fact that he’s royal and all, there really isn’t any indication or even an argument between them, which I think it’s kind of odd to just leave out, don’t you think, Madge?)

Wally's story goes like this: set in 1998 NYC, a woman recently married finds herself pretty much alone in her nice condo while her husband goes to work and hardly ever comes home to bed. The newlyweds don't have much in common to begin with, she apparently marries him for convenience (perhaps?) and he obviously owns her as a trophy wife and soon he begins an affair behind her back. It seems that her only escape from her reality is to visit a museum where Wallis and Ernest's (or W.E., for short) items were to be auctioned. She feels a connection to Wallis Simpson in particular and begins to wonder how much did she also have to give up to be together with her love, the King of England. During her frequent visits to the museum she meets this handsome security guard (Oscar Isaac) and they begin a friendship that leads to something more...

That's the only problem I have with this film, as in 2009’s Julie & Julia: why do the secondary characters take over the story? You wanna know the life of a woman who revolutionize French cuisine for all Americans and the world (Julia Child) or the woman whose blog becomes popular because of Julia Child, the blogger Julie Powell? Same thing happens in W.E where we begin to see Wally’s screen time increase as the movie goes along while Wallis’s tragic story of love and sacrifice diminishes towards the end of the film.

Madonna as director of W.E.

Who’s story did Madonna want to tell? Are we supposed to follow both women equally in their journeys? Why not spend more screen time with Wallis Simpson and the exiled King Edward VIII who had to give up his role as King in order to be with the woman he loved, later to be forced to live in south of France, away from the Royal Family and his homeland to avoid the scandal and criticism from marrying a divorcee? Or would you rather see an unhappily married woman search for herself in the artifacts of Wallis and Edward? At one point you’re not sure where to invest your whole attention to and the movie loses precious momentum that could have be spent developing King Edward and Wallis Simpson’ story a bit deeper than what meets the eye.

Don’t get me wrong: W.E. is still visually breathtaking and one thing I must say about Madonna is that she’s an expert in the details, from the wardrobe to the make up to the hair style, and Andrea Riseborough as Wallis Simpson really shines through. Every time I saw Wallis on the screen I was captivated by her confident inner beauty, she was obviously the purpose I came to see the movie and it made me think of Madonna's Evita Perón. Madonna’s muse fleshed out a beautiful performance that will be hard to forget. Andrea Riseborough is W.E.'s real star power and deserves her first Oscar nomination for Supporting Actress (or is it Best Actress, I’m confused here) and her performance is certainly worth your hard earned dollars. Bonus: you get to hear Madonna’s first single in a long time since Celebration: Masterpiece

W.E. B

Director: Madonna B+ (for effort, W.E. is her best movie to date)

Andrea Riseborough (as Wallis Simpson) A+ Oscar caliber performance, such a revelation!

James D’Arcy (as King Edward VIII) B

Abbie Cornish (Wally Winthrop) She may look quite a bit like Madonna’s BFF Debi Mazar but her troubled marriage and her love affair with the museum’s security guard steered me away from the real interesting part of the story so C

Oscar Isaac (Evgeni) for such a minor role in the film, I believe he brings credibility and more passion to the film and kinda sorta make me care for Wally’s story, if only for just a bit B+

My Week with Marilyn

2011-12-05T22:53:00.000-08:00

Michelle Williams as Marilyn Monroe

Many people saw her as an iconic, unbelievably confident and sexy movie star. And sure, she was. Marilyn Monroe will forever be the girl that everyone thought they knew but deep inside she was as scared as anyone else could have even been. In My Week With Marilyn, we see a young and beautiful actress who lights up any room as soon as she walks in, a star in her own right. We also see Norma Jean, an innocent and lonely American girl that lived a rough childhood and fought so hard to make her Hollywood stardom.

Nobody could deny that she was beautiful and yet so enigmatic that men will literally become speechless in her presence, even her costar Laurence Olivier (Kenneth Branagh) who simply adored Marilyn on screen however, upon meeting her in person, realized that he got more than he had bargained for: she would be late every single day of shooting and, when she decided to show up to the set of The Prince and the Showgirl, she felt that everyone was staring at her as if she was out of this world, she felt incredible pressure from the director and costar Sir Laurence Olivier, his crew and everybody. Everyone except for Colin Clark.

You may be wondering what Marilyn saw in this young boy, who was basically a nobody (he was third assistant to the director, a title that just meant he was a go-getter) but saw in Marilyn something nobody had seen before. They somehow connected in a level that nobody else had figured to do, not even her own entourage of people. It was funny to see how Marilyn was "coached" by this woman who wouldn't leave her sight at any moment, programmed to say what Marilyn needed to hear: "That was a great performance, Marilyn" "You're the greatest star in the world" "You look outstanding in that dress", etc, etc, etc. I'm sure if that was today that Marilyn could have just download an app from iTunes to tell her constantly all the compliments that she needed to hear (don't they have an app for that too, Siri?), except that's not what she needed to hear, sell he just wanted someone to be franc with her and tell her how things really were with an unbiased opinion, that was Colin Clark.

Michelle Williams does such a marvelous job with the role that she was given and I would not be surprised if she was the frontrunner in next year's Oscar race for Best Actress. It's not as if any actress could fill those shoes and I couldn't picture any actress of her age playing this role as dead on and as natural as she did in My Week With Marilyn. Stress and tension built upon Marilyn during filming and, even though she had recently married (for the third time) and had her "people" be there for her when she needed them, she still felt all alone in a foreign country with all these respectable actors she had never met before, she felt intimidated and inferior to her fellow actors. Everyone on set was expecting this bombshell spill confidence and arrogance all over the place yet she was a simple girl who wanted to become an actress, someone who wanted to be taken seriously and not be typecast. Unfortunately, that was precisely the reason she was chosen to star in The Prince and the Showgirl, Laurence Olivier makes very clearly to her in one scene that is so tense that you could see the smoke coming out of his ears he was so furious that Marilyn didn't believe in her role and it took her almost twentysomething takes just to get it right.

The Prince and the Showgirl

She needed an escape and Colin Clark was it. He was so star strucked that he hardly even cared that he was being used by Marilyn. He didn't care to know that after the filming was over that she would just drop him and never look back. He still didn't care and decided to risk his job just to be with her for as long as she needed him. It was like watching a couple of teenagers in love even though she was already in her early 30's and he was 25. They still seemed so innocent and naive in believing their affair would actually last longer than a week. There were times when you actually saw something in Marilyn's eyes that indicated that she might have considered dropping everything and just live a simple life... Yet she quickly recollected her thoughts and quipped at how she couldn't live a "normal" life anymore. Nothing could ever be simple with her anymore.

My Week With Marilyn is fascinating to watch because I never realized that Marilyn Monroe was so insecure and so dependant on others, as well as dependant of her pills. Deep inside she was just a person that nobody could really understand, not even the people closest to her knew her well. Yet for one week, she was careless, swam naked in a lake, slept with Colin even though she had recently married... In other words live free and be happy if only momentarily, even if it only lasted one week. Nobody could take that away from her.

Why You Should Watch "American Horror Story"

2011-12-02T20:41:00.000-08:00

“I can’t believe they just said that on basic cable” is usually what I say after watching FX’s American Horror Story. They get away with a lot in this show and it’s right in the opening with their disclaimer: Viewer Discretion Advised. Hey, if that’s all they had to do how come every network is not doing this? I never watched Nip/Tuck but I hear that they also showed a lot of nudity and sexual situations in that show and both shows were produced by Ryan Murphy. You would think that Ryan Murphy, famous for producing the crowd pleaser GLEE on Fox, was incapable of shocking but, with American Horror Story, Murphy has shown that he can shock audiences… and make them come back the following week for more. He certainly got me watching…

American Horror Story in a nutshell is about a beautiful home built in the 1920s or 30s (the actual home where AHS is set in Los Angeles was built in 1908 by one of LA’s most influential architects during the early 1900s, Alfred Rosenheim) where every owner has a dark and creepy story of deceit, horror, paranormal situations and murder. It all started with the Montgomery’s and their tale of wanting to have a baby of their own, Charles Montgomery (Matt Ross) is a doctor who performs abortions in this home and is assisted by his wife Nora Montgomery (Lily Rabe). Their story has kind of taken center stage in the latter episodes where we see Nora’s ghost wanting to have a baby of her own and is seen always crying and lamenting not having her baby.

Among the many owners who have come and gone there is another family that moved in: the Harveys. Larry Harvey (played by True Blood’s Dennis O’Hare) is not very upfront with his story and the home apparently was set on fire and one side of his face gets badly burnt and disfigured. SPOILER ALERT In the last episodes we learn that he’s been having an affair with the neighbor next door Constance (Jessica Lange) and Mrs. Harvey apparently set the house on fire. Larry Harvey is being such a pest to new owners the Harmons: Connie Britton as Vivien, her cheating husband Dylan McDermott as Ben Harmon and their troubled teenage daughter Taissa Farmiga as Violet. From the pilot episode we can tell this family is so dysfunctional and messed up that I'm just hooked to AHS just to find out what else the Harmons must go through before they realize their home is being haunted by at least a dozen ghosts, if not more. Their home is even featured in a Murder Tour that passes on a daily basis. Talk about some impossible piece of Real Estate to sell…
Every week we get to uncover more and more mysteries about the house and its fascinating past. Throughout the different episodes we get to see many characters come and leave this home, some leave on their own and some stay there permanently. I particularly like the maid Moira played by both Frances Conroy and Alexandra Breckenridge. Her story is peculiar: she was the maid to Constance and her husband back in the 80’s, I think. Moira is beautiful and sultry and she wears very provocative French maid outfit while dusting around the home so it’s not surprising that all men fall for her whether she wants them to or not (usually she does) and, curiously enough, only men can see this young seductress while women see the older Moira. SPOILER ALERT When Constance catches Moira having an affair with her husband, she shoots them both dead in a moment of rage, later she has the ability to see the ghosts around the mansion and punishes Moira by making her a slave to her and to every new owner of the mansion.
That’s the “curse” that every ghost that inhabited and died here must endure, they cannot leave the mansion by any means, if only once a year on Halloween night. They can however walk into any room they wish, they will appear and disappear at will, they can even murder whomever crosses their path, they can also fall in love (as proven with ghost Tate and Violet). Heck, they can even have sex (you might have heard of Rubber Man who has sex with Vivian Harmon (and may have impregnated her?) so nothing is off limits for these spirits. I like that these spirits are troubled and torn between their good and evil natures, they’re not one way or the other: they’re just as human as the living.
The reason I like AHS is that I can never expect what’s coming up in the next episodes for every episode features different stories and flashbacks that American Horror Story will always have me guessing. And as long as they continue to shock me every week, I will keep watching… How about you?

5 REASON WHY YOU SHOULD WATCH
AMERICAN HORROR STORY (From the Parental Guide Warnings, so same reasons why your kids should not watch):

1. Sex & Nudity

A man is seen nude (rear nudity) standing in front of the fireplace
A man masturbates violently (buttocks shown) and cries afterwards (It should be noted that it’s Dylan McDermott’s butt, and that’s just in the pilot!!)
A man wearing a latex bondage suit has sex with Ms. Harmon.(Who is this mystery man? Well, you just have to tune and find out… Although I would have preferred not to have known, he was much scarier when he was incognito)
The young maid Moira wears provocative thigh-high stockings with garters, pleasures herself, and then tries to seduce a man. (How about EVERY man?)

2. Violence & Gore

This series contains very violent scenes which include quick shots of violent gore, many people getting their throats slashed/ripped out, self mutilation (wrist/throat cutting), physical fights (which lead to anything from bloody noses to death), people being shot to death, graphic stabbings, cigarette burns, a character is run over by a car, another character eats raw meat (including a brain), a mad doctor sews animal parts together and even baby parts with animal parts, some deceased characters have grotesque wounds on them, and a girl is cut in half at the waist by an elevator in a dream. Any questions?

3. Profanity

Many uses of profanity meant to shock. Oh, yeah, they use the S word, the C word, the F word… ‘Nuff said

4. Alcohol/Drugs/Smoking

Some drinking and smoking by the daughter. (Well, this isn't GLEE or supposed to be role model for teenagers by any means)

5. Frightening/Intense Scenes

Numerous scenes (some scare jumps) meant to shock and horrify.
A disfigured monster scares two teenage girls.
A man burns his family
An episode features a flashback of a school shooting, which is very intense and several students are brutally murdered.

Need any more reasons…?

Don't Mess With Them Spaniards

2011-12-01T22:30:00.000-08:00

The Skin that I Live In

I was supposed to have seen this movie by Pedro Almodóvar a couple of weeks ago when my friends Fernando and Edwin had come to town by they had already seen it the night before so we ended up watching Immortals instead. I didn’t really anything to write about Immortals since it probably would have taken me one paragraph to summarize it. It wasn’t good nor bad, just a mixture of elements from several movies like 300, Gladiator and Clash of the Titans come to mind with a lot of elements from Starz’ series Spartacus (as in heads flying and blood being splattered all over your 3D glasses) which was probably the producers’ intent all along. It makes for a great water cooler conversation but not so much my cup of tea. Especially now that there are so many good movies coming out, there’s no time to be wasting in watching blockbusters (OK, so maybe The Muppets but that’s about it).

So enough with the previews, now on to the feature presentation of this blog entry: Pedro Almodóvar’s The Skin I Live In starring an old Pedro’s go-to actor who you might have heard about before: Antonio Banderas playing Robert Ledgard, a surgeon who runs an experiment in his secluded home outside of the city (not sure where that is, although it’s obviously somewhere in Spain) with a young attractive woman Vera Cruz (played by Elena Anaya) who appears to be locked inside this room with little furniture, a bed, a yoga ball and way too many anti-depressive pills to count. Marisa Paredes (another go-to actress of Almodóvar) plays Robert’s mother Marilia who attends to the young lady’s needs, cooks her meals and communicates with her via intercom and has practically no contact with Vera, except when she needs something. It’s funny that her name is Vera Cruz, as in Veracruz, Mexico, which was probably intentional by the Spanish director famous for his wicked (real wicked) sense of humor as proven in other of his famous films: “Tie Me Up, Tie me Down” which starred Antonio Banderas as a rapist whose victim ends up falling in love with him, or “All About My Mother” where a mother who's lost her only son in a tragic accident searches her baby daddy to find out he's a pre-op transsexual. No matter what, you’re always guaranteed a twist or two in all of Almodóvar films accompanied by his sick sense of humor and sexual situations that always dominate his stories. The Skin That I Live In is no exception to this rule, either.
A few questions ran through my mind early while watching The Skin: who is this woman? What kind of experiment is being run on her? What does Robert want to accomplish and what are his real motives? I will warn you that if you really want to be surprised by watching this film then you should read no further for I believe that I need to reveal a few things about the plot in order to fully understand these characters and their intentions. So fair warning, SPOILER ALERT, DANGER, ROBINSON, DANGER!!! As the movie unfolds we learn that Robert is experimenting with Vera’s skin in particular, making sure a synthetic skin he’s been working on sticks and heals properly on her skin. Up until now, it seems a bit of a Dr. Frankestein’s story and my mind started wondering: is he reconstructing his late wife who was in a horrific car accident that left disfiguring burn scars all over her body and face? Did he use his beautiful daughter to do an experiment that has gone too far? In an early conversation between Robert and his mother, she hints that she looks an awful lot like his late wife and she must be killed.

Pedro Almodóvar

Pedro Almodóvar has become quite the filmmaker over the years and he’s been exploring darker themes in his last movies, some successfully and some not. What I didn’t like so much about The Skin That I Live In was not the plot nor the story but it was a little bit the editing. I don’t mind it so much since we have to leave a little bit of mystery and suspense in the story but cutting back and forth between scenes gets a little bit repetitive and less enjoyable. SPOILER ALERT There’s plenty of flashbacks in the story and a lot of the elements in the puzzle are revealed in a slow burning way: Robert’s wife dies from car accident leaving her so depressed with her condition that she commits suicide by jumping off her bedroom window while her daughter is witness to her horrible death. In another flashback a few years later, Robert and his daughter attend a party for the first time and she meets a boy named Vicente and they have a walk in the gardens but, being the naïve girl she still is, when it came time for these two to get it on, she panicks and starts biting Vicente’s hand when he tried to muffle her mouth when she started screaming. I forget how but she loses consciousness and, when her father finds her lying down by a tree and comes to get her, she wakes up in terror and is convinced that it’s her father who attempted to rape her. It’s quite a complicated plot yet it gets even weirder after that.
Pedro Almodóvar Robert places his daughter in a mental institution and is frustrated that she will not believe him when he says it wasn’t him who attempted to have sex with her. In his rage, he searches for Vicente whom he had seen flee the party in his motorcycle that night when he came looking for his daughter. Once Robert kidnaps Vincent and takes him to his secluded home, the really bizarre story develops (Do I need to warn anymore? Yes, there are more SPOILERS ahead): Robert’s ultimate revenge is to perform a surgical procedure on Vicente that will certainly teach any guy to stop messing around innocent girls like his daughter and he announces to Vicente that he’s about to perform a vaginoplasty. I could hear the audience giggling in disbelief and possibly enjoying the idea of cutting this young boy’s manhood just to “teach” him a lesson. I found it a bit disturbing actually although everyone around me found it funny. Just like Fatal Attraction was a warning for those cheating husbands to stop fooling around in the 80’s, now with The Skin That I Live In them rapist will have something to fear about. Ultimately, I don’t know how I feel about the whole plot that gets more twisted and twisted thereafter: in a scene that Pedro Almodóvar probably contemplated in a morbid and sadistic way, Robert explains to Vicente that from that point forward he will be referred to as Vera and that in order for his new acquired vagina to be fully functional he had to stretch it with a full set of dildos from smallest to biggest that Robert lay out as to making a point that this is his punishment for messing out with his daughter. I get that the idea may seem funny to some people but, in my humble opinion, it’s just cruel and sadistic and the crime that Vicente may have committed doesn’t deserve such punishment. And maybe that was Pedro Almodóvar’s intention all along to not make anyone feel comfortable and leave the theatre with a controversial topic of conversation.

One thing I must say is that Antonio Banderas hasn’t been as interesting as in his native Spaniard form, you can tell he’s become a humble actor who has learned the hard way that a pretty face doesn’t necessarily go a long way in Hollywood (well, maybe a little) and I was glad to see the actor reunite with the director that catapulted his film career with classic films as Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down, Matador among others. Heck, he should have asked Penelope Cruz who has been faithful to Pedro Almodóvar all along which brought her to a respectable status in Hollywood (and in much better roles than Antonio’s poor Hollywood choices: anyone remembers him in Assassins? Or Spy Kids 3D?) There are some parts of The Skin That I Live In that seem to hint at a classic horror movie, or a film noir, even a comedy (a laugh or two is always welcome in such a film full of tense moments). Did he try to make this a comedy, a drama, a horror story? The best way to ever describe it is: it’s a Pedro Almodóvar film. Deal with it. Punto y aparte.

Movies I’m looking forward to seeing (and reviewing) in theatres:

W.E. (I hope this Madonna directed film about the affair between King Edward VIII and American Divorcee Wallis Simpson doesn’t get negative reviews but, more importantly, I hope the movie deserves positive reviews) Opens Dec. 16th
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (first Sherlock Holmes was decent, still directed by Guy Richie and both Robert Downey, Jr and Jude Law reprise their roles as Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, respectively. (Dec.16th )
We Bought a Zoo (Opens Dec. 23rd)
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (Dec 25th)
The Iron Lady (Can you now say: another nomination for Meryl Streep?!!! This movie also opens in theatres Jan. 13th so she has as many chances of being nominated as Glen Close, so let’s cross our fingers for both)
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (the remake better live up to its expectations…) Opens Dec. 21st
The Adventures of Tintin (looks visually gorgeous and you just can’t go wrong when Steven Spielberg’s behind it) Opens Dec. 21st
War Horse (Also directed by Spielberg, he takes the challenge of adapting the powerful Broadway play that won over theatre audiences to a feature film) Opens Dec. 25th

Glenn Close in Albert Nobbs

Albert Nobbs (I saw previews for this drama before watch The Kin That I Live In and it’s now piqued my interest. Look for my review soon. Can you say Oscar nomination for Glenn Close? Although it doesn’t open till Jan.27th so I’m not sure if it’ll qualify for next year Oscars… Maybe they’ll release it in selected theatres first, c’mon let’s get Glenn Close an Oscar she certainly deserves, she’s been nominated 5 times but never actually won the statuette)

Hugo

2011-11-29T21:45:00.000-08:00

Martin Scorsese's Hugo

I always thought a Martin Scorsese film should feature gangsters with machine guns. I don’t think that’s too far off since he’s directed and produced some of the best mob movies ever on film: Casino, Goodfellas and, more recently, his HBO Original series Boardwalk Empire. However, Martin Scorsese’s work lately has really surprised me from thrillers like Shutter Island to documentaries like George Harrison: Living in the Material World or No Direction Home: Bob Dylan. The only thing that’s always been consistent with Scorsese is his style and his vision. Every movie he’s directed is a masterpiece in its own right whether you like the man or not. He’s certainly a great director.

So when I sat down to witness his latest film titled Hugo, I was curious to see what he had in store for his viewers this time around. I was secretly hoping for a dark and twisted tale but I was pleasantly surprised to see that Hugo was as visually stunning as I’d hoped it would be: from the opening credits where Hugo comes on the screen hiding through the mechanisms behind the clocks at a train station, I was immediately transported to Paris in all its 1930’s glory: from the wardrobe, to the buildings, to the cobberstone streets, the beautiful vintage cars to the almost magical Paris train station that submerged me into a world that’s as old as it is new to an audience (**that’s me**) that’s been craving for the perfect Holiday film. And Hugo certainly is just that: a great Holiday film in the line of “It’s a Wonderful Life” or “The Polar Express”, where there’s still innocence, dreams and magic to be found in the movies.

Hugo, the title character, is an orphaned boy that lives inside Paris’ train station where he’s in charge of making sure that all the clocks run as clockwork. It’s an assignment that he takes with the most regard and is very passionate about. He lives secretly behind these clocks looking onto the passerbys that have become as part of his daily routine, a part of his own little world: enters the flower girl bringing her fresh cut flowers to sell in the station, enters the station inspector wearing a prosthetic leg (played by Sasha baron Cohen) and his loyal Doberman dog, or an older couple that never really seem to get their relationship off the ground due to her vicious little dog. Among these characters there’s one in particular: George Méliès (Ben Kingsley) who runs a shop full of magic tricks and toys. He observes the man and is curious as to what makes the man such a “scrooge”.

In the first few minutes, Hugo believes that George Méliès is an evil man. After all, he takes away his precious notebook away from the boy and attempts at turning Hugo to the authorities for no apparent reason. There is, however, something that piques George’s interest: a drawing of a “automaton” a.k.a. robot. He questions the boy as to how he came about this notebook and, when Hugo refuses to answer him, he takes the notebook away from him and threatens to burn it. I remember being saddened by George’s actions but I also wondered: what made his so upset? Why did he want to know about the notebook? What events took place to blacken his heart and make him so bitter about everything?

Luckily, Hugo meets Isabelle (Kick-Ass’ Chloë Grace Moretz), a young cute girl that lives with George Méliès, and is his only hope of ever seeing his notebook again. She’s as opposite to George as she could be: a girl full of life and charismatic smile, whenever Hugo spots her in the train station she’s always smiling and playing around with other kids and just radiates warmth. Once their relationship develops, Hugo reveals a secret he’s kept from everyone else: he hides an actual robot inside the train station that he calls home, it’s an antique that Hugo and his late father were putting together and, although most of the work has been done, he’s missing a key piece to the puzzle in order to activate this robot’s mechanisms that may hold the mystery behind his father’s death. Key word here is a “key” in shape of a heart which Isabelle happens to have, hanging as a pendant.

I won’t reveal the pivotal point of the film since I believe the end to this movie should not be messed with. What I can reveal is that you will fall in love with Hugo. I mean, the way Scorsese orchestrates each scene is a visual extravanza that few can accomplish (except for Tim Burton, maybe) and the twist the movie makes after this scene changes the whole theme of the movie from the story of a poor orphan boy and his robot to a homage to silent films and how much work goes into them. It’s sort of like watching two different films in one yet both stories tie in together somehow at the end. I love every scene and how much thought went to making this film. I can also appreciate the attention to detail Martin Scorsese went through to get Hugo made, it must have been a labor of love for him and I believe he must have felt accomplish at the result, as he certainly should. It’s nice to walk out of the theatre with the assurance that you just witnessed a great film with a nice message at its very heart. If this movie ever gets nominated it is certainly well deserved and my vote goes to the actors, especially Ben Kingsley for always bringing the best of every character he’s ever played since Gandhi as well as Martin Scorsese who is one of the most amazing and brilliant directors of our time.

Martin Scorsese

For Your Consideration, Oscar voter:
·
Best Movie of the Year: Hugo
· Best Director: Martin Scorsese

· Best Supporting Actor: Ben Kingsley as George Méliès

· Best Supporting Actress: Chloë Grace Moretz as Isabelle

· Best Visual Effects

· Best Cinematography

· Best Costume Design

Homeland

2011-11-23T17:57:00.000-08:00

Showtime series HOMELAND

2011 Fall Season is in full swing right now and there's just so much to watch that DVRs can't hold that much, luckily there's On Demand for some stations just in case one or two episodes don't get to be recorded. So, remember how excited I was about the Fall TV shows and how I predicted that Terra Nova, Playboy Club and Pan Am were gonna be the new hits this fall? Well, it turns out I was wrong. From the new lineup of shows I must say that I'm more fascinated with 2 shows thus far: FX's American Horror Story (which deserves to be in premium channel, not a basic cable network) and the revelation that is Showtime's new show Homeland.

I will talk about the latter since this show has proven to me that a good script and a star studded cast headlined by Claire Danes as CIA officer Carrie Mathison and Damian Lewis as Marine Sergeant Nicholas Brody make up for a great drama that doesn't stop at just one layer of story with one twist. Homeland keeps surprising me every time and keeps me at the edge of my seat. It's big enough to have been made into a movie but the complexity and layers that this show has cannot possibly be contained into a 2 hour movie, not even 3. It's actually originally based on the Israeli series Hatufim, also known as Prisoners of War, which was created by Gideon Raff and remade for American TV.

So the story goes a little bit like this: Prisoner of war Nicholas Brody has returned from Iraq after eight long years of suffering being beaten and tortured. He returns home to his wife (the beautiful Morena Baccarin as Jessica Brody from the latest ABC series flop V ) and kids who had no clue that he was still alive and had presumed dead. She's become involved with his best childhood friend and, upon learning that her husband was alive and was being sent home to his family, she decides to pretend things had never changed and that she's not romantically involved with anybody.

On the other side of the spectrum we have Carrie (Claire Danes), a CIA agent who has been informed that one of the American P.O.W. (Prisoners of war) had been turned terrorist by Al-Qaeda and so she immediately suspects of Brody and decides to take the initiative to bug his home moments before he gets there with his family to observe his every move. The problem lies in that she works in unorthodox ways and may have psychological problems of her own which may jeopardize the mission. At first, she's observing Brody with his family and some odd behaviors coming from Brody give her clues that he may indeed have been turned by Al-Qaeda. SPOILER ALERT One episode shows Brody going to his garage, placing a rug on the floor and begins praying as a Muslim. Not that there's anything wrong with that, the man had eight years imprisoned and tortured that anyone would switch religions just to keep your sanity but there are certainly several other clues that Carrie tries to connect together: how he behaves in public is totally a farse since she's seen how the man acts at home, he treats his wife as if he didn't know her (which he probably doesn't since coming back from such a horrific trauma), how his moves seem so calculated, it's just creepy.

What I like about Homeland is that it really makes you wonder to what extend should the CIA, FBI, the Government in general cross lines and violate a citizen's right to his privacy just to get to the bottom of everything: from bugging his phones to placing surveillance cameras to following him around... SPOILER ALERT Even starting a relationship with him? Yup, you heard right!!! That was right about the moment when I gasped in disbelief: some people even go to the extend of having a sexual encounter just to get information or clues? Carrie is obviously crossing the line in many ways than one and Brody is now not only suspicious but now clearly aware that he's being targeted by the Government.

Are they right to suspect him? To what extend should the CIA infiltrate this man's life? What if he's actually innocent? Is that the way we treat heroes? I mean, for God's sakes the poor guy was tortured for eight long years... Wouldn't you be tempted to do anything to stay alive even if it means turning against your nation? Will they order a second season of this amazing show, please?

Homeland, an outstanding series that deserves many more gripping seasons: A+
Claire Danes as Carrie Mathison, a CIA operations officer assigned to the Counterterrorism Center. She's surprised me by playing an austictic pioneer Temple Grandin and so far she's doing a superb job with Homeland, kudos!!! A+
Damian Lewis as Nicholas Brody, a U.S. Marine Sergeant who was rescued by Delta Force after being held by Al-Qaeda as a prisoner of war for eight years. You never know whether he's innocent or guilty as charged, not many actors can pull that off and maintain you guessing from one episode to the next. Wow, what a revelation!! A+
Morena Baccarin as Jessica Brody, Nicholas Brody's wife. In my opinion, she could be a little bit more emotionally unstable, she's still gorgeous though so I give her a solid B.
David Harewood as David Estes, the Director of the CIA's Counterterrorism Center. He is Carrie's boss (and ex-lover apparently) C+
Diego Klattenhoff as Mike Faber, as a U.S. Marine Captain. He was Nicholas' best friend who, assuming he was dead, started dating Jessica Brody. He's certainly more passionate than Jessica Brody so he gets an A
Morgan Saylor as Dana Brody, Nicholas Brody's daughter. Rebellious teen who calls her mom whore for sleeping with her father's best friend... Yeah, she gets an A just for that!!!
Mandy Patinkin as Saul Berenson, the CIA's Middle-East Division Chief. He is Carrie's old boss and mentor. His character is essential to the story and for some reason I trust the man's judgement a lot more than Carrie's and besides the actor radiates charisma like noone else in the show, he's certainly an A+

Melancholia

2011-11-22T21:07:00.000-08:00

I like artsy movies, I really do.

There's nothing better than getting a good dosage of culture now and then. I enjoyed movies like 2001: A Space Odyssey without really understanding it at all (particularly the caveman bit and the weird ass ending), still I can appreciate it as an expression of the director or the author of the story.

Hey, the movie doesn't have to make any sense to me since I'm just a tiny spec in the universe and therefore my opinion can matter less to Lars von Trier, the director and author of Melancholia starring Kirsten Dunst as a bride to be who happens to be manic depressive and is about to do a very bad, bad thing on her wedding night. SPOILER ALERT: Also, a cosmic catastrophe is bound to happen: a planet named Melancholia is to cross paths with Earth's and the question throughout the movie is whether it may or may not collide and destroy life as we know it. It's the end of the world as we know it...And I feel fine!!!

And I get it that there's some artistic value in the opening scenes when we see Kirsten Dunst in her wedding dress in different scenes: falling in a pond, walking on the grass while being held back by roots, or electricity emanating from her fingertips. It's beautiful to see these images as if they were moving paintings, moving pieces of art. One thing I must admit is that I loved the opening of Melancholia: the premise, the unusual silence, the beautiful music from Richard Wagner's Tristan und Isolde's opera that elevates the film from your regular science fiction movie to another status. Look, I get all that.

What I don't get is that Melancholia has been praised as the movie to watch for in the Oscar race, especially Kirsten Dunst's role as a distressed bride who is not ready for commitment and is clearly uncomfortable throughout her wedding reception but later on rejoices in the thought that the world is coming to an end and there's nothing we can do about it. I just don't get it. And I'm not the only one that doesn't get it, either. I typically like this sort of movies that are thought provoking and ponder more questions than answers: what would you do if you had a few days to live? What would you do? Where would you rather be? Why does this movie that starts off with a wedding reception that lasts for what seems forever end up being a science fiction flick? I have no idea whatsoever, please someone explain it to me as if I were a five year old.

Apparently Kirsten's character Justine have certain visions that we see in the opening of the film and is about to marry (hold on to your panties, girls and boys:) to Alexander Skarsgård from True Blood's fame (Yup, he plays the evil yet lovable Eric Northman) who seems as confused as I was towards his soon-to-be wife. It's like a roller coaster to watch Justine deal with her dysfunctional parents that there's no denying that Justine got her psychological issues from them. Justine's sister Claire (Charlotte Gainsbourg) is trying to keep the peace at this party which doesn't seem to ever end: the father (played by the great William Hurt) seems to be an alcoholic and a womanizer and their mother hates his guts. Actually the mother seems as manic depressive as Justine herself, everything that comes out of her mouth is bitterness and just plain evil wishes for the young newlyweds. To be quite honest, it was kind of depressing to watch these scenes with Justine and Claire's parents, the evident depression that Justine displays throughout the first half of the movie takes a toll on you and maybe that was the Lars von Trier's intent whom apparently had suffered from depression himself (and maybe still does?) and so basically you're seeing his therapeutic exercise displayed on film.

The newlyweds don't seem very passionate towards each other, either. On one hand you see Alexander's character Michael trying his best to be the perfect groom, to please Justine even though she seems to be out of it the entire time, trying to please the guests, trying this, and trying that but it's never believable or palpable. Who knows? Maybe he was just as confused as me... Then, on the other hand, you see Justine trying her best to please Michael, her parents, and her sister Claire who has spent so much money in this beautiful wedding, in this beautiful castle which seems too good to be true, surrounded by this lavish garden, a golf course, a stable with beautiful horses. I mean, who wouldn't be thrilled, right? SPOILER ALERT Well, it turns out Justine isn't very thrilled about the whole thing and decides to fuck one of her guests, who is just as astounded as I was to watch the bride humping him in the middle of the golf course (still with her bride's dress on) while everyone is looking for her, including the clueless groom. I mean, the story couldn't be any more whacked than this, right?

Well, it gets weirder. After the disaster that was the wedding and the reception, all the guests leave the party... including the groom himself! I tell you, I just could not believe what was unfolding but for the story's sake I let it slide. I mean, just a few hours ago the couple seemed so in love and so ready to commit and spend the rest of their lives together and for some odd reason after the wedding and reception (and a couple million of € Euros € later) they decide it's not gonna work out? I want my wedding gift back if I was a guest to this wedding!! They even beat Kim Kardashian or Britney Spears' record for the shortest marriage in mankind's history...

And that's not all, ladies and gentleman. Oh, no! This is when the movie really takes a turn for the worst. There's still the fact that Melancholia is rapidly approaching Earth and, against all scientific predictions, these planets seem to be making impact in short of five days. Claire's husband John (Kiefer Sutherland) stays positive and assures his wife that nothing is gonna happen while Justine knows from her visions that the impact is eminent and unavoidable. So the question is: do you stay put and brace for dear life? Or, like Justine, contemplate the end of days as a welcome relief and the knowledge that there's nothing else after that? SPOILER ALERT John cowardly committs suicide after the knowledge that Melancholia is surely in Earth's path leaving Claire and their son to their own devices. Claire is devastated to know the truth that the end is near yet Justine seems so calmed and relaxed about the whole thing as if nothing was happenning. A chilling conversation between the sisters takes place and Justine reveals that she's been having visions of this moment and that there's nothing to look forward to after they die. There's no afterlife, no heaven nor hell, no other planets out there that may possibly have life forms. There's just nothing. And so they must face the reality of their situation and they decide to go to the garden, hold hands and await for the inevitable. The end.

If you believe that I'm making this up, go ahead. I dare you to see Melancholia and if you love it then please explain to me why... Maybe I don't think as a movie critic, or I don't get the artsiness of Melancholia and I don't think this movie deserves the great critical buzz is getting but, then again, I'm not a movie critic, I just play one on my blog.

Melancholia's breakdown Opening A+ The Wedding B Ending: D Whole Movie: C
Kirsten Dunst as Justine, a young woman with a promising career and a seemingly perfect life. She experiences depression and becomes more cynical during the second half of the film, but also visibly stronger in response to the impending events. And I don't believe that she should be win an Oscar for Best Actress, that should be Viola Davis for The Help. Sorry, Kirsten. A
Charlotte Gainsbourg as Claire, sister of Justine, mother of Leo and wife of John. As a parent who cannot protect her son from the apocalypse, Claire becomes increasingly fearful and distraught as Melancholia makes its final approach. A+
Kiefer Sutherland as John, father of Leo and husband of Claire B
Alexander Skarsgård as Michael, the newly-wed husband of Justine, who leaves her on their wedding night. Razzie award for Worst Actor in a Film? You betcha... D
Cameron Spurr as Leo, the young son of Claire and John, who seems to help Justine throughout her depression. She returns his affection and comforts him during the second half of the film, holding his hand during the apocalypse. A+
Charlotte Rampling as Gaby, the bitter and cynical ex-wife of Dexter, and mother of Justine and Claire. A
John Hurt as Dexter, the fun-loving father of Justine and Claire, and ex-husband of Gaby. A+
Stellan Skarsgård as Jack, the self-centered and manipulative boss of Justine. B

Victor/Victoria's Secret

2011-11-20T07:01:00.000-08:00

I had to change the title of this review from "The Night That Dick Van Dyke Stole My Seat" to "Victor/Victoria's Secret". You may ask yourselves: why was the title to my review of Malibu Stage Company's production of Victor/Victoria "The Night Dick Van Dyke Stole My Seat"? Well, here's why: he did!!!!
Let me flashback to the beginning of the story (cue harps playing): I originally ordered my tickets online (like any average person would do, right?) and I selected my two seats to see this show last night, they were seats B10 and B11, respectively. We even arrived about 40 minutes before the show since a lot of people had turned out to get their seats ready as it was a "sold out" performance. While we were waiting we saw Cindy Crawford and her beauty mole and, later on, Dick Van Dyke showed up, yup the same Dick Van Dyke who co-starred with Julie Andrews herself in Mary Poppins. Needless to say, Dean and I were star struck and were thrilled to be sitting in such a small venue with such famous people.
When it came time to get my seats B10 and B11, somebody decided to cross out the B11 on my post-it and wrote over it C17. I thought to myself: "Hmmmmm... Self: that's odd..." and therefore I approached a very nice lady at the entrance. I explained to her that I'd bought these tickets in advance and they happened to be together. When she saw my program with the post-it sticker she turned white (actually whiter than she already was) and attempted to explain what had happened: apparently she had to "give up" B11 because another couple bought the same seat and she made the executive decision to change my seat one row behind, all by myself there since she had to accommodate the other couple. You could have imagined what color my face turned when I'd heard this bullshit and I wasn't gonna let this one slide easily. I stood there for what it might have seemed an eternity to this lady since I was not happy with her decision to split Dean and me in favor of another couple. I mean, who were they? Barack and Michelle? Cher and Chaz? Bill and Hillary? Well, as it turns out it was Dick Van freaking Dyke himself and his girlfriend (I tried IMDB, Google, Wikipedia but I have no idea who she was, just know she was half the man's age, can you believe he's 85 years old, wow!!) and so when I saw him come into the theatre and sit next to Dean, I decided to let it slide. The lady apologized and gave us a consolation prize though: complimentary glass of white wine that I downed as if it were a shot of tequila, God I was still so very upset!!
The main reason I went to see this stage production was because a good friend of mine, Anibal Silveyra was part of the cast and so I decided to support him. He played the role of Henri Labisse who owns a bar in 1930's Paris where our poor Victoria ends up asking for a job as a singer, and boy can she sing! One powerful high pitch note and she could literally break glass which, unfortunately for my friend Anibal, he always happens to be holding a glass of wine so throughout the story I saw Anibal coming back with a Band-Aid, later a turban of a bandage around his head, later a hand was wrapped around in a bandage, much later the other hand... Towards the end of the show he was a hot mess full of bruises and cuts and bloody bandages all around. He was basically trying to uncover Victoria's secret (oh wow, Victoria's got a secret? hahahaha): she was really a woman impersonating a man who impersonates a woman on stage... I know it sounds confusing and that's the beauty of the story.
See, in order for Victoria (played by the great Julia Holland) to make a name for herself, her best friend Toddy (Jake Broder) suggests that she came out as a man impersonating a woman on stage as one of Paris' most controversial and unique shows at the time. Imagine how taboo for a gay man to impersonate a woman but if this man was really a woman that would be disastrous. Still, Victoria decides to let her hair be cut, change her wardrobe (with a little help from Toddy), change her voice to sound more manly and change her name from Victoria to Victor in order to delight and shock audiences with her high notes and wonderful voice (I tell you, Julia Holland came really close to perfecting the already talented Julie Andrews who originally played Victor/Victoria on the big screen back in 1982).
To complicate things even more, a handsome man named King Marchon (Butch Anderson) comes to see her performance and, while everyone is in disbelief that Victor/Victoria is a guy impersonating a woman on stage, he believes that Victor is an impostor and is actually a woman. A woman he actually finds quite attractive. However, King Marchon has a girlfriend named Norma Cassady (Kristin Towers-Rowles takes on the role that Lesley Ann Warren did on the big screen version) who is as charming as she is annoying. She's loud, obnoxious and just wonderful to watch on the stage. This is one role that almost out shadows Victor/Victoria's role and is certainly the one who ultimately steals the show with a song that she sings to King Marchon about being in Paris makes her horny and urges King Marchon to come to bed with her. However he cannot "perform" the deed as well as she had hoped that he would, his mind is somewhere else and it didn't involved Norma: it involved Victor/Victoria.
And so the rest of the story involves King Marchon trying to figure whether Victor/Victoria is either a man or a woman until it becomes impossible to resist falling in love with Victor/Victoria regardless of her gender. That's the beauty of this story which I found fascinating the first time I'd seen it: why should it matter what gender is your soulmate, when you've found real love and a real attraction sparks... Should it really matter what gender they were? That's the problem we still have with society and what people don't quite understand (some people still can't) is that there's been gay people since the beginning of time and we will always be here till the end of times. Everyone should ask themselves this question: if it weren't for the gay, lesbian and transgender community... How boring this world would be!!!!
This production is coming to an end pretty soon so there's still a chance you can still see it at the Malibu Stage Company Theatre in Malibu, California. For ticket information, please go to www.malibustagecompany.org/ and make sure to check out Blake Edward's Victor/Victoria live. There's also a nice in memoriam dedication to Blake Edwards (July 26, 1922 – December 15, 2010) and his extensive film work: Victor/Victoria (starring his wife Julie Andrews), Breakfast At Tiffany's, 10, Pink Panther, among many other classics with such stars as Jack Lemon, Peter Sellers, Audrey Hepburn, Dudley Moore, Bo Dereck, among many other stars. In 2004, he received an Honorary Academy Award in recognition of his writing, directing and producing an extraordinary body of work for the screen. Victor/Victoria was nominated for seven Academy Awards and won the Academy Award for Original Music Score.
So I urge you to go see Victor/Victoria while you still can and whatever you do: make sure you don't mess with Dick Van Dyke's seats!!!

Nowhere Boy To Man

2011-11-05T11:56:00.000-07:00

“Half of what I say is meaningless
But I say it just to reach you,
Julia
Julia, Julia, oceanchild, calls me
So I sing a song of love, Julia
Julia, seashell eyes, windy smile, calls me
So I sing a song of love, Julia
Her hair of floating sky is shimmering, glimmering,
In the sun
Julia, Julia, morning moon, touch me
So I sing a song of love, Julia
When I cannot sing my heart
I can only speak my mind, Julia
Julia, sleeping sand, silent cloud, touch me
So I sing a song of love, Julia
Hum hum hum...calls me
So I sing a song of love for Julia, Julia, Julia”

~John Lennon, from The Beatles (White Album)

NOWHERE BOY is based on John Lennon’s early life before he even met with Paul, George and Ringo (Ringo is not EVEN featured in the film) so it was refreshing and interesting to see John Lennon in a different light before he was even big and famous for being part of quite arguably the best rock and roll band to ever grace the planet: The Beatles (Obviously, I’m biased when I say this, Gosh! I even have John Lennon tattooed to my calf FOREVER!!!!).

Aaron Johnson stars as the young John Lennon who is always causing trouble for riding on the roof of a bus, getting into brawls with bullies, or flashing girls in school, or missing class and never paying attention in class whenever he decided to attend class (it sounds a lot like me, actually LOL) and lives with his Aunt Mimi (the wonderful Kristin Scott Thomas in a superb supportive role here). Little did I know about his troubled childhood and I was taken aback when I saw what unraveled during Nowhere Boy: John didn’t actually know his mother and grew up thinking that she was somewhere far, far away along with his father and was left to Aunt Mimi’s devices to raise this rebellious yet lovable character. I love how the film star never tries to imitate or glorify John Lennon in any way, there are some acts that John does to his Aunt Mimi, his friends and even his mother during this film that made my jaw drop.

Speaking of his mother Julia, in his search for her it’s a friend of him (or was he his cousin, I can’t quite remember) that tells John where she is. It was shortly after his favorite Uncle George dies of a heart attack that John’s demons come back to surface. See, he’s got this image in his head that a woman is slamming the tinted windows in his front door, and he can’t quite understand why this flashback is so disturbing to him and he can’t quite understand to what extent that episode was stuck in his head since he could remember. Was it his mother? Was it Aunt Mimi? Who was it and why was that so troubling to him?

SPOILER ALERT As it turns out his mother Julia (Anne-Marie Duff) was not as far away as he’d thought, his cousin shows him that Julia is actually at walking distance from where he’s always lived, a few blocks from Aunt Mimi’s home. The first meeting John ever had with Julia was awkward: a sixteen year old confident boy suddenly becomes very sheepish and vulnerable in front of your very eyes, it was touching watching John melt in the sight of his real mother whom he had given up on, the thought of seeing her was beyond belief and was more than a dream come true, it was as if the boy had hit the jackpot and was suddenly in the presence of his other half, a part of him was ripped from him when she was out of his life for 12 years or so and suddenly he felt the urge to catch up with Julia.

Julia, as it turns out, had remarried and had 2 daughters and lived her life as if she had never had a son before. Upon seeing John at her door you could tell that a dark episode in her life had returned to haunt her yet she didn’t let it show to John and they began a strange and wonderful bond where they would go on dates to the movies or buying records or out and about. She also introduced him to music and her love to play music. It was Julia that awoke a part of John that was always there yet he never knew it until he met Julia.

See, Aunt Mimi and Julia were total opposites. Where Aunt Mimi was the strict woman that tried to cope with her husband’s death and raise this teenager that crossed the lines quite a few times and hid the truth about having met his mother (Mimi’s own sister) and the fact that they were getting to know each other and missing school sometimes just to be with Julia. The real drama begins on John’s 17^th birthday when Julia decided to throw a party in his honor. The drunken teenagers playing rock’n’roll music while John was being his bad self in spite of his mother, he started to resent the fact that she pretty much abandoned him without a trace and the fact that they had lived so close all this time and never had bothered to be part of his life when he needed his mother the most. Aaron Johnson does a great job in containing all that anger and rage inside John for as long as he could in order to explode in front of the camera when he finally confronts Julia in her front yard and demands that she tells him what was the reason she abandoned him with his Aunt Mimi and never looked back.

It’s a validated reason, actually. I put myself in his shoes and became enraged myself that he had to go out of his way to find her and, upon finding her, she never told him once the reason(s) why she had to do what she had to do. And that is probably the most heart breaking moment when, upon coming back home with his Aunt Mimi along with Julia, that he learns the awful truth that he was seeking all his life: when John was a little boy, around 5 or 6 years old, he’d watched his parents get in a huge argument that turned a bit violent and John was given a choice: You want to go with mommy or daddy? Just thinking of the scene bring chills down my spine, how can you have a young boy make such a horrible choice? What kind of parent would ever do that to their child?

Having come from a broken home myself, I had to make that same hard decision but it was my own decision to go with my mother. Nobody had sat down and explained what was wrong with my family but I wasn’t five years old trying to make an adult decision. To think that John had to make this hard decision at such a tender age was just too much to bear. Then we get to see how Aunt Mimi came to John’s rescue when she witnessed Julia and her husband get into a heated argument and took it upon herself to get this innocent boy out of harm’s way and hid him in her own home where she would raise this kid as her own. It’s the ultimate sacrifice that a woman can ever make, a sacrifice of love for a young boy who has no knowledge of what’s happening in front of his very eyes. John’s father apparently took off to Germany to never return again while Julia came to see John at Mimi’s house. That was the haunting image of Julia knocking on their door, the image that will forever be stuck in John’s memory and one that will keep coming back as if it were a horrible nightmare, a troubling dream that John can never quite put together until this very moment. It’s a scene so emotionally charged and performed quite well that I needed a few moment to contain my own tears, it’s certainly the best scene in NOWHERE BOY.

SPOILER ALERT Unfortunately Julia’s fate, it turns out, it doesn’t get any better than that. On her way home after finding out that John and his Quarry Men were going to perform that night at a club she gets run over by a car. John was obviously devastated but at least he had been lucky to have met such a strange little woman who may or may not have been bipolar (in my opinion) but was a somewhat positive influence in John Lennon’s career, he even inspired John Lennon’s song titled Julia from the White Album (lyrics above, left), a very personal and intimate song that sounds like a lullaby, a song that probably helped to soothe his pain and loss as well as also served to heal the wound that Julia had left in him. Upon leaving on tour shortly along with his new band (The Beatles) after this tragic event, John and his Aunt Mimi had a very special moment, a moment in which John conceals and accepts Mimi as his guardian and mother, a moment Mimi was probably waiting to hear for a very long time.

Oscar performances by all three main characters: watch for Kristin Scott Thomas for her supporting role in NOWHERE BOY and a new face I’d never seen before (unless you’ve seen him in Kick Ass) is Aaron Johnson as John Lennon in a very subtle yet strong performance, watch him sing “In Spite Of All The Danger” at the end of the movie and you’ll understand why he deserves his first Oscar nomination.

They're Still Walking

2011-10-27T18:45:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I’m forced to stare away from the screen out of mere disgust. Then again I have to remind myself that the blood and guts are fake in The Walking Dead which is right now in its terrific and scary-as-hell second season over at AMC. Ever since I watched the few episodes last season I was immediately captivated by the story of a cop Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) who wakes up in a deserted hospital when suddenly he realizes that no one is alive and he’s now surrounded by the flesh eating walking dead- which sounds so much better than just plain zombies for some reason.

His story of survival in the first episode finds him surrounded by what seems like about a hundred zombies and his only refuge is inside this army tank after the horse he was riding into Atlanta City gets eaten alive by the walking dead in what’s arguably the most disturbing scene in the series by far (although the second season opener they must open up a zombie’s insights to look for clues as to whether he eat or not a little girl that’s gone missing from the group, it’s a pretty close toss up here). Trust me, every time I see this show I’m terrified of what they’d be showing up next and I gotta make sure I’ve eaten at least a half hour before watching this show and there’s so much to watch that it’s easy to just pick something else stored in that wonder called a DVR.

So Rick Grimes reaches his wife and son who have escaped the chaos that’s become their hometown and have decided to retreat to the nearby woods where they apparently have found it safer to hide from the zombies than the urban area. Meantime Rick’s fellow cop, partner and best friend Shane (played by Jon Bernthal) had assumed Rick was eaten by the zombies that invaded the hospital he had left his friend in and took both his wife and son to safety. However, a romance develops between the two and the whole situation worsens when Rick joins the group of survivor totally unaware of their affair. It’s possibly the best worst scenario possible when you fear being eaten alive by zombies and having to worry about a love triangle. Up until now Rick suspects nothing of their affair and is best if he doesn’t since his whole life revolves around his wife and kid whom was shot in last week’s episode when a bullet that was meant for a deer went through the animal and still reached the kid and now he’s fighting for his life.

I tell you, this is one heck of a dramatic series that takes all these scenarios very seriously, even though we still haven’t answered many lingering questions yet: how did this happen? Is there a cure? How many humans have survived? Will this be the end of human kind as we know it? This answer was properly answered last week when one of the characters pondered “What if we’re just going through a process of evolutionary elimination? What if this was all supposed to happen?” We shall continue to watch to see these and other answers revealed, in the meantime make sure you pop that popcorn and grab somebody before you sit and watch it all unfold in the next Walking Dead episode.

Other shows I'm psyched about this fall season:

The Gifted Man
American Horror Story (Next blog probably...?)
The Good Wife (not so good anymore...)
Modern Family
Boardwalk Empire
Pan Am
Terra Nova

The Rocky Horror Picture Experience

2011-10-18T22:32:00.000-07:00

The Rocky Horror Picture Show

I remember back in the day when I was young (hey, it’s not like I’m 64 or anything, but I’m close to 40 so I can get away saying that) and I used to go to the theatre it was way different than it is today. Don’t get me wrong it’s a good thing that today we have numbered seats, managers that you can go to complain should there be someone in the audience making way too much noise, or people throwing popcorn from mezzanine or saying obscenities at the screen. Believe me, them people would be kicked out in no time should that happen nowadays. It’s been quite a while since I’ve had a movie theatre experience like that and I’m glad that certain things are intolerable in the today’s world of “best customer service experience”. Believe me, I’m the first one to roll my eyes when I see someone answering their cell phones in the middle of a good movie or when I hear people talking while the credits aren’t rolling just yet.

All this went to shit last Saturday. I was invited by a very good friend of mine to go to watch Rocky Horror Picture Show at the Nuart Theatre, West L.A. last Saturday at their midnight showing with the cast of Sins O' The Flesh. I hesitated for a while but then my boyfriend said it’d be fine as long as we took a nap before going (actually he referred to it as a “disco” nap, yeah that’s how old we are LOL) and we’d be fine to attend their midnight show. I had never experienced Rocky Horror nor hadn’t seen the movie yet… I know what you’re about to say: how come you’ve never seen Rocky Horror Picture Show, starring Tim Curry and Susan Sarandon before they hit it big, especially Susan whose role in the movie probably catapulted her into stardom? My apologies to you. Actually, there’s quite a long list of movies I’ve yet to see that for some reason or another I’ve stalled watching for fear that I may not like them (the case with Rocky Horror Picture Show) or that I’d rather see a new film than something that premiered 36 years ago. Still I decided that seeing that everyone had seen it but me then I should just “get it over with” and go see it. I knew it would be cheesy and absurd yet I was curious to see it in the theatre with a live shadow cast performing alongside the movie and so I said “what the heck”, at least I got something to do during the weekend and for the cost of a movie ticket I would certainly enjoy the show, however bad the movie could be.

Upon showing up around 11, my boyfriend and I noticed there was a line already forming outside Nuart Theatre and it reminded me of the times where I would line up to see movies like Star Wars, or Flash Gordon, or Gremlins, or E.T. I mean, these and other movies kept me coming for more week after week after week, rain or shine I’d be lining up to see whatever movie was playing in the theatre and mind you back then there was only one or two choices, not 20 or more as there are today. When I grew up it was one movie playing in one theatre and whether you liked it or not it was gonna be playing there for a month or more depending on how popular the movie was. Anyways, back to last Saturday, while in line we started noticing that we were pretty much the oldest people in the line and we started questioning if we were too old for this kind of experience. It’s funny how quickly we’ve become the old dudes that would still go to a club or show up at Disney movies. And then suddenly we noticed all these dudes dressed up in drag, trying to walk in their high heels they probably stole from their mother’s closet as well as teenage girls wearing provocatively short lingerie and slutty outfits that I realized: who cares if we are the oldest in the crowd, we’re pretty much invisible in comparison to these people!!! That’s until I saw my friend Jesse come along to join us… in the best transvestite outfit he could ever come up with, full with skilled placed makeup, high heeled boots and striped stockings and that’s when I realized: we have a good advantage against these youngsters who are still wearing diapers when it comes to dressing up in style. Suddenly, we were in company of the elite crowd of misfits, but we were the “coolest” misfits in the bunch.

Before the show started there was this ambiance of going to a party in the theatre, all these teens were up on stage dancing to music playing by a DJ, full with party lights and everything before the cast showed up to present the Science Fiction Double Feature. There were some ground rules: no drugs (obviously!), virgins (to the show) must be sacrificed in this ritual I shall not repeat due to copyrighted reasons (I’d rather let you be surprised, but you may want to watch this movie before you go, fair warning), whatever you are going to throw then do so from front to back (for mere liability reason since it’s allowed to throw toilet paper at a certain point in the movie)and, last but not least, no matter what you do you cannot take a picture of Trixie, the stripper. Other than that, you can have all the fun you’ve never had since 1979 when it was allowed to yell obscenities at the screen, talk during the show, dance, laugh your ass off as you’ve never done before. It’s like suddenly all the rules we’ve been programmed to follow are thrown out the door… and I had so much fun I hardly remember what the movie was about.

I’ll try to describe it in a nutshell: a young couple (played by Susan Sarandon and Barry Bostwick) of love birds get lost on the road, their car breaks down and after walking in the rain they end up in this mansion in the middle of the woods and get greeted by this Quasimodo of a butler (Richard O'Brien) who lets the couple in after they ask to use their phone for help (Note to youngsters: remember it’s 1975 and there’s no cell phones, besides this movie touches on every cliché of every horror movie in the past, sort of like a Scary Movie parody of horror films before) but little do they know that what's about to unfold that night involves a Transvestite from Transylvania, the great Tim Curry playing a wacky character called Dr. Frank-N-Furter who's just so extravagant and sexually ambiguos that you just never know what to expect from his character.

It's a little bit of a take on Dr. Frankestein and his creation, in this case Dr. Frank-N-Furter's creation is an Adonis of a man who he nicknames Rocky, a dumb blonde that is all muscles and no brain. The story just gets wackier and wackier as they introduce Meat Loaf's character, Dr. Scott in the mix, then some aliens from out of space and it's just harder to explain from that point forward but as ridiculous and ambigous as this story goes the actors in the movie really play their roles as serious and straight faced as they possibly can making this the campiest movie I've ever seen in my life, yet as entertaining and fun to watch as anything else. And the songs are great too, a mix of acid rock, rock'n'roll, psychedelic rock, and just all fun, the lyrics are to die for such as Sweet Transvestite or I Can Make You a Man or Dammit Janet just to name a few. These songs are as timeless and funny as they were in 1975. By the way the movie was based on a British rock musical stageplay of the same name, the perfect show to not only see but experience for yourself. It's one thing to talk about it until I'm blue in the face but you really must experience Rocky Horror Picture Show for yourselves with an open mind and ready to laugh outloud.

Part of me, the 40 year old, was concerned with the normal rules of engagement of the movie experience, the concious part that creates the rules that everyone must oblige by yet the teenager inside of me was having the time of his life and I just remember how much fun can be had at a movie theatre (I highly recommend leaving the old man home for this show and just enjoy the show).

Here's a short list of some movies I've yet to see but some reason or another I haven't come around to seeing:

Ben Hur
Sound of Music
Paranormal Activity (1-3)
Harry Potter (all of them!!!)
Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith
Willy Wonka and the chocolate Factory
Pink Flamingos
The Godfather trilogy
Apocalypse Now
Monty Python (all of them!!!)
And many, many more

Living In The Material World

2011-10-17T22:17:00.000-07:00

I look at you all see the love that's sleeping
While my guitar gently weeps
I look at the floor and I see it needs sweeping
Still my guitar gently weeps
I don't know why nobody told you
How to unfold your love
I don't know how someone controlled you
They bought and sold you too
I look at the world and I notice it's turning
While my guitar gently weeps
With every mistake we must surely be learning
Still my guitar gently weeps

It may seems like a sad song to you, a song about a man that laments everything. But into looking through George Harrison's soulful deep dark stare, I realize the man was lamenting what he had become and the man he could potentially be, while everyone around him told him he should be one way or another. He was a very different Beatle. He was not as big as John Lennon or Paul Mc Cartney but he was a little hidden talent who worked behind the scenes more than anything, he was the man behind the curtains who liked to look from aside, or look at the Beatles as an outsider, very self concious of where his life was headed but having a strong sense of self, a strong sense of what he wanted his music to carry: this sweet, spiritual side of him that could not be contained inside this phenomenom that was the Beatles.

In the opening scenes of Living in the Material World, the new HBO documentary directed by Martin Scorsese we take an unusual look at the most enigmatic Beatle, the one that was not always in front of the newscasts, the reporters, he was no newspaper headlines material as John and Paul were which helped him create his own sound and his own songs that graced some of the Beatles albums such as Revolver's Taxman, White Album's While My Guitar Gently Weeps or Abbey Road's Something and Here Comes The Sun which became some of The Beatles' most recognizable and beloved songs of their careers.
We also meet a man who became more spiritual and embraced Indian culture and Hinduism with his friend and sitar player Ravi Shankar, who appears in the documentary numerous times and was such an influence in both his music and his own life gave a complete twist. He saw something deeper than any of the Beatles had, something that he was searching for, something so unique and exquisite that he spent many hours listening to Ravi play his sitar and teaching him the techniques to perfect the art.

George Harrison was like a sponge absorbing every little essence he could from Ravi and the Indian culture that he even introduced some of this music into The Beatles with songs like The Inner Light, Revolver's Love You To and Tomorrow Never Knows and the incredibly ahead of its time Sgt. Pepper's Within You Without You which, in my opinion, brought The Beatles to a status that had never achieved before. At least first time I heard Within You Without You I thought to myself: what does it mean? How does it come into play into my life? It didn't need translation, it trascended everything and the answer was always there: look inside yourself and there you will find peace, you didn't need no temple, no clergy, no middle man: just you and God.

George Harrison was idolized by the hippie movement of the 60's which in this documentary he admitedly dispised, one weekend he spent with them was all he needed to realize it was not what he was looking for, this world of drugs, peace and love was not what he was searching for and he knew he had to meditate more as to where he wanted to go spiritually and artistically.

It's funny that he said that in this documentary himself since I thought for the longest time that he was a hippie himself, a man who took to drugs and experimented with a sitar and period, that was it. In Living In The Material World I have re-discovered why I've always loved The Beatles so much: they're not just four lads from Liverpool that created the best singles of the 60's and were musically talented but now also I see a side of them I hadn't really come to think about before.

There was something very interesting that was said during this doc, he basically says for a man that has everything, they handed him anything he wished for, anything he ever wanted, anything within his reach he could have but if you have emptiness in your heart and soul then you're still not a rich person and you cannot take it with you. In life everything we own that is material is worth nothing when we leave our bodies and what George Harrison did constantly was to prepare himself mentally and spiritually for that moment in which he had to leave his body for his next adventure. I'm sure that wherever he is, he's playing his sitar contemplating how much he'd acomplished, how much he's left behind: his legacy, his family, his garden.
Boy, was he ever so proud of that garden.

A Very Memorable Kodak Moment

2011-10-11T21:16:00.000-07:00

Going to see Iris at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood was a treat I will never forget. For starters, this was a gift I never expected to receive (although I was hoping I would LOL) that I enjoy watching with the person that I’ve come to share so many other live performances like Cirque Du Soleil’s The Beatles LOVE, O, Viva Elvis and Kooza that I was more excited to find a new experience together, that was the biggest treat I could receive.

Seeing Cirque Du Soleil is certainly an experience to be shared and “IRIS, a journey through the world of cinema” was no exception. From the moment you walk inside the iconic Kodak Theatre which has been home to the Oscar Academy Awards since 2002, you immediately feel the grandeur, after all you ARE walking where the movie stars once walked through. The Kodak Theatre holds over 3,000 people so we decided to take the Metro Red Line which happens to have a stop right at Hollywood and Highland and avoid the parking mayhem, which can be costly nowadays.

Cirque Du Soleil has brought over its occasional shows to L.A., I remember seeing Quidam and Saltimbanco in Santa Monica and near the Staples Center (before they built L.A. Live, that is), but they never had a permanent home as they’ve done in Las Vegas. Now with IRIS, Cirque Du Soleil has claimed their spot in the heart of Hollywood permanently with a show that combines wonderful stage sets, innovative props, wonderful costumes (I love the girl with the cylinder that “plays” a movie while she’s spinning it around her waist), magical movie screen tricks and designs typical of Cirque Du Soleil’s repertoire.

On every Cirque Du Soleil show I’ve watched so far, there’s always one or two things that get stuck in your mind and every time you see the billboard or sign of the show takes you immediately back to these great scenes. With IRIS this happens in the opening of the second act: it’s basically a “behind the scene” look at a movie set that keeps on changing, you see acrobats defying gravity on a tent pole, other performers dangling from the ceiling trying to put a light bulb on, or numerous performers in costumes in fact there’s so many things going on at the same time that it’s probably gonna take a couple of shows to fully grasp all the action going on in this scene which is magical, mystical and amuses the eye. For some reason this moment put a big smile on my face, I just couldn’t believe my eyes, it’s a setting that will definitely be stuck in my mind forever and one memory I will forever have imbedded in my brain.

As I’m writing this blog entry I actually have Danny Elfman music playing in Pandora in my iPhone. Danny Elfman is responsible for giving this Cirque Du Soleil production their richest score they could have wished for (after Beatles’ LOVE, of course). There was a point in IRIS when I imagined Tim Burton and Danny Elfman were running the show, there was a little bit of their extravagance during this show that Danny Elfman fans will be glad to see and hear.

Another beautiful point in IRIS was a number inspired by noir films such as gangster movies, mob, crime, suspense. The scene starts on a street in front of this brick building set apparently in the 50’s. I still have no idea how they’ve accomplished this but you could see different performers inside their respective windows of this building either fighting, kissing, murdering somebody when suddenly the stage opens up and we’re suddenly taken to the roof of this hotel where we see performers jumping in and out from this trampoline with shotguns in their hands, fighting in mid-air and doing spectacular acrobatics while Danny Elfman puts out his best score of the night. It reminded me of his music from 1989’s Batman or 1990’s Dick Tracy with all the action sequence played out on the stage.

By the end of the second act with everything that I’d witnessed and the trickery they were able to pull off during every acrobatic act, it’s clear again that Cirque Du Soleil has captured my imagination as well as my admiration and has managed to leave an indelible impression on me. Thanks to Maddysboy for not only taking me to see this spectacle but also for being the person I can always turn to and talk about this show for many years to come. Cirque Du Soleil's IRIS is a must see, four thumbs way up!!!!!!!

127 Hours

2011-09-19T22:29:00.000-07:00

I'm a little rusty lately. I apologize. It's kind of hard to get back into the habit of writing stuff out and blogging, it's amazing how Blog Talk Radio has changed my habits recently, some for the good and some for the bad. The good part is that I love this new found media which I had heard a while ago through my friend Sam but I had never ventured on until I decided to be on her Pet Peeve's show and... the rest is now Blog Talk Radio history.
It's certainly created an outlet for me to express myself in a way I had never imagined I could express before. I mean, I always wanted to be a writer so blogging for me was no big deal, I could spend hours and hours blogging and it's still a very relaxing and tranquil medium to express but having an online radio show is a totally different experience which has certainly taught me a lot about how to better listen to people, how to interact with others, how to manage my time and have enough material but unable to cover half of it... and accept that it's OK, as long as I and my listeners liked the show it didn't matter if it didn't flow the way I had pictured it.
Blogging is a very controlled and calculated risk whereas radio can take you places you never knew you could go to and it's very liberating to have that as an outlet. I miss blogging though, I miss having time to actually think what I was gonna say before I hit publish, this gives me time to stop, reflect, proofread and make sense of it all before I allow it to reach my dear readers, however many I have reached I don't know.
It's nice to know when you're in control, when things work out the way they should be. I watched this movie yesterday after having heard so much about this guy's adventure in the Utah's Canyonlands National Park where Aron Ralston (James Franco) had made his routine to venture all on his own and jump from rock to rock in his bike, carelessly defying death with every move he made.
It's exhilarating to watch this daredevil and seeing how he breathes danger and nature, he loves this place so much that he's almost forgotten about the rest of the world, it's like he's become a loner who enjoys his time more when he's alone in the wild than when he's around his family. Yet he records every moment along the way with his camcorder and camera, he chronicles his journey as if he just wanted everyone to live through his every adventure and be able to tell the story: I survived this, I survived that...
After parting ways from a couple of very attractive young girls who were lost in the wilderness of this beautiful and astonishing park, Aron decides to take a shortcut back to his truck in order to get ready to party with these girls later on that evening. There's all these cracks in the mountain that allow very little space to go through it, it's like being caught inside a giant maze where there's no safe way out unless you're as experienced as Aron is. His confidence allows him to jump as a jaguar from rock to rock without care... Until the unthinkable happens.
He falls along with a giant boulder that pretty much smashes his hand and forearm and traps him in the middle of nowhere. His initial reaction is to scream for help but as the camera zooms out we realize it's almost impossible for anyone to hear him. He's literally caught between a rock and a hard place as his self titled book is called and he must find a way to chip away from this boulder to free his hand and arm from the boulder.
What I most liked about the movie is not so much the fact that he had to resort to drinking his own urine, or the fact we were witnessing a man severing his own arm to liberate himself and find his way back home. It's more interesting to focus in what was going through his mind while he was trapped all this time alone in the freezing cold temperature, suspended up in the air with little food and water to sustain himself. I think what came through at the end was a man who recovers himself, a person who's forced to look at himself and see how selfish he's been, how he's shut out everyone in his life to pursue these adventures. He was destined to fall at that precise time, in that precise place as he himself describes it:

"You know, I've been thinking. Everything is... just comes together. It's me. I chose this. I chose all this. This rock... this rock has been waiting for me my entire life. It's entire life, ever since it was a bit of meteorite a million, billion years ago. In space. It's been waiting, to come here. Right, right here. I've been moving towards it my entire life. The minute I was born, every breath that I've taken, every action has been leading me to this crack on the out surface." Aron Ralston

Sometimes, we have to go through a tragedy, a harrowing experience of this kind to realize how precious our lives are. As Aron was cutting through his arm in his last attempt at making it out of there alive a vision of his unborn child was presented to him. People may not believe this is a sign that God exists, but Aron did. There are moments in one's life where we have to stop and thank Him for opening our eyes, if just for a little bit, to realize how much we are loved and appreciated and how we depend on others and how others depend on you.
On more than one occasion I have stopped and thought: what would have happened if I hadn't gone there, if I hadn't taken the chance, if I hadn't listened... Where would I be? I thank God that I had a chance to open up my eyes and see what was in front of me, kick myself in the ass and move on with my life... God works in very mysterious ways and it's in the darkest moments that we find the light.
We all carry this boulder on our shoulders, we just gotta know when to let it go...

Cinéma Vérité

2011-08-29T23:09:00.000-07:00

Cinéma vérité (French: [sinema veʁite], "truthful cinema"; English: /ˈsɪnɨmə vɛrɨˈteɪ/) is a style of documentary filmmaking, combining naturalistic techniques with stylized cinematic devices of editing and camerawork, staged set-ups, and the use of the camera to provoke subjects. It is also known for taking a provocative stance toward its topics

And they judged. They called them monsters, they received all kind of criticism, they got hate mail and blacklisted, they got labeled the "weird" family. I wonder if those people ever saw themselves in the mirror: didn't they experience the same issues as the Louds? Didn't they feel any remorse? Didn't they ever argue?

I guess the Louds were too ahead of their time, now everything we see in TV is reality TV and there's just nothing we can do about it: Jersey Shore, Big Brother, Real World, Keeping With the Kardashians, The A List, Housewives of (fill in the blanks), etc, etc. TV may never be the same...

Just remember: the Louds did it first... And it's not TV, it's HBO (Cinéma Vérité is an HBO Films production)This is the story of an all American Family: the Louds. The year is 1973. And what you're about to see has never been done nor conceived ever before: to follow a follow the Louds wherever they went and filmed their every move for about a year or so. Pretty crazy, right?

I mean, who would have thought that this medium would catch on. It was presented to PBS as a documentary on a real family with real people, unscripted and real... At first the idea of having a film crew follow everyone's moves seemed cool at first, especially for Mrs. Loud herself, Pat Loud (the very likable and "real" Diane Lane), who finally has to proove to everybody that her family really got it together. There was something in this family that brought the attention of a filmaker (played by Tony Soprano himself James Gandolfini) whose ambitious PBS project would portray how a "perfect" family is really not.

Mr. Loud is a very elusive man, almost invisible to the whole family. He's always travelling and leaving his wife to take care of the kids (all 5 of all) and keep their perfect little home as perfect as it can be. But if you look real closely, you see that the Louds have a tension that grows and grows while the cameras keep rolling. They start subtletly but they become louder and louder as they get more comfortable with the film crew. Maybe this "perfect" family is not so perfect after all...

But, wait a minute, have YOU stopped for a minute to bother to look at YOUR own family? If I had a filmcrew following me and my family around trying to catch something worth showing then I'm sure that something will eventually turned up. Every family have their skeletons in their closet and the Louds are no exception. They will fight, they will disagree, they will look the other way... they will cheat, too.

What makes this story so heartbreaking and sad is that back in the 70's we were all too naive to realize that "reality TV" was not about the good things and positive things in your life, a la Brady Bunch, but mostly the negative and the degradating factors attracted more audiences. And oh too many times Pat Loud is convinced by the filmaker that she's making history for other women who are going through what she was going through: she had an image to portray to the American publichat she was capable of doing it alone, even if this meant destroying her family apart.

The most heartbreaking scene is when Pat has to confront her husband (Tim Robbins as Bill Loud) and ask him to leave their house. She had finally had enough of his cheating and she would not take it anymore. She had gathered all her children and told them what was going to happen and she was prepared for the next step, except she had changed her mind about the whole thing being documented in film. Even though Bill Loud was the womanizer and cheating husband that he was, he certainly didn't deserve the spotlight of the excruciating cameras that followed him inside the home, filmed the whole dialogue between the two, followed to his bedroom and finally watched him leave in his car to go to a local hotel which Mrs. Loud had already prepared for him to stay. It was like watching a train wreck in super slow motion, except there was no emotion. Just awkward silence. It's a moment that should be fulfilling and liberating for her but it's not, it's just sad; a family breaking apart in front of the cameras for the whole world to see. And people tuned in to watch.

The Help

2011-08-22T11:02:00.000-07:00

The Help

I was discussing what kind of an audience would go see The Help this weekend... Is it going to be white folk or black folk? Well, it turned out the gay folk is the right answer!!! Everywhere I turned I saw the gay couples getting their popcorn and small Coke Zeros, anticipating The Help to be another cult movie they'd be talking about come Monday morning by the water cooler.
I compare this movie to some of the great movies set in the south: Fried Green Tomatoes, The Color Purple, Gone With The Wind, Steel Magnolias and so on and so forth. All those movies portray very women struggle to get their independence, to have their voices be heard, to set all differences aside and look at how we are all the same deep inside, how flawed we are as human beings.

Based on the best selling novel by Kathryn Stockett, The Help is set in Jackson, Mississippi in the early1960's where African American women worked as nannies-cooks-housekeepers for upscale white women after generations of ancestors did the same thing dating back to the times when they were actually slaves who had to right to do anything else for their lives but work under these families for generations. These women worked all their lives without a decent salary, without any health benefits, unable to even support their own children's food and basic education.

In one scene of The Help, one housekeeper was begging her snotty boss Hilly (played by eerie perfection by Ron Howard's daughter Bryce Dallas Howard) to give her a loan so that both her children could have a chance to advance to school and their education however Hilly gave a look at this woman and practically asked her maid to thank her for not accepting her request, stating matter-of-factly: "You will thank me one day", to which the whole audience in the theatre gasped in disbelief.

Yet the scene that really got me holding back my own tears was one where Charlotte Phelan (Allison Janney who plays Emma Stone's mother in this movie), who has treated her maid of twenty-something years fairly and respectfully all along, asks her old maid to get out of her home as she was pressured by one snotty guest to do so after the maid's daughter storms into a dinner to say hello to her mother. It broke my heart to see the disbelief in the old woman's eyes (played by Roots' Cicely Tyson) when she's told to step our of this home after so many years of dedicated service, so many years when she's raised Emma Stone's character to be the great young woman she had become, and she's getting the door slammed in her face. Both women know that by this single act that their friendship has been destroyed in one unfortunate instant, one moment in time Charlotte wished she could have taken back, and an act her own daughter Skeeter (Emma Stone) condemns her for as well... She'd driven away her daughter's counselor, best friend and confidant forever...

I won't go into detail as to the extend of every housewife's insults and assaults at these poor women's rights but I will tell you that these crimes against their pride and humanity anger everybody that was watching this movie, whether they were black or white, gay or straight... We are human and therefore anything that happens to these women is proof of how dehumanize we've become, not only white people but just in general whenever we see injustice in our everyday lives we sometimes don't act upon it and we only watch as something unfolds in front of our eyes and we just turn the other way, sometimes it takes courage and humiliation so we opt not to do something about it even though we were raised not to look the other way.
As one character in the movie put it: "Sometimes courage skips a generation" and it's true, sometimes you're raised a certain way, to think a certain way but as you grow older you see that what they taught you is incorrect and wrong, for instance you're taught that being gay is wrong and that is "unnatural" but then you grow up and realize how wrong people were to tell you this and it really hurts to admit that even your own family, the people that are closest to you are the ones to stab you in the back and turned the other way.

Luckily we see how a white girl's determination to get all maids to talk about all the injustice and mistreatment they have and continue receiving in the homes they work for (and may continue working forever) make it into a book titled "The Help" that speaks for them, a book that transcends racial barriers and bring discomfort to some people and joy to others who see finally the light at the end of the tunnel.
We see how Aibileen (Viola Davis) and Minny (Octavia Spencer) regain the strength and their dignity by having their lives, and the lives of many other maids like themselves, plastered forever in this book that had given them voice when nobody had even given them faith before. These women learn that by sharing their worst experience working under such stress and constant humiliation they liberated themselves of the oppression and are determined to live proud and thankful to have faced their demons face on.

I commend these actresses in giving these characters their charisma and letting their personality shine through which makes this movie a masterpiece. Watch out for these actresses to win a golden statuette next year for this is possibly the best movie I've seen this year yet. Bravo to Viola, Octavia and Bryce Dallas for the performance of a lifetime. And a little SPOILER ALERT here: Remember how American Pie turned you away from apple pie before? Well, after seeing The Help you won't see chocolate pie the same way again either...

Apes of the World Unite!!

2011-08-08T21:36:00.000-07:00

I was a little worried when I went to see Planet of the Apes. Being a fan of the original 1968 Sci-fi classic Planet of the Apes, starring Charlton Heston as Colonel George Taylor and Roddy McDowall as the charismatic ape Cornelius, I grew up watching every sequel and TV spinoff from this interesting story about a world run by monkeys, I mean, apes. I was fascinated by the story and I remembered how I watched these movies over and over in awe at the awesome script and twists and turns that the story had and it was hard to think that there were very talented actors behind the mask, sometimes out staging the “human” actors in the series.

The story got a spinoff when Tim Burton took a shot at it, and failed, with his 2001 Planet of The Apes remake with an much less passionate Mark Wahlberg as the astronaut who crashes into this world ruled by apes and man are the hunted and kept captive and experimented with (just like we do with monkeys now).

That’s where Rise of the Planet of the Apes rose to the occasion and showed us how inhuman we humans can really be. How many times we've seen videos where animals are mistreated, caged and slaughtered in such a way that we’ve become so insensitized. James Franco stars as a lab scientist about to find the cure of Alzeimer’s disease from which his own father (John Lithgow) suffers from. And, obviously, they resort to testing in these chimpanzees that develop extraordinary intelligence that surpasses the scientist’s expectations.

That’s when we meet Ceasar, a baby chimp whose mother was shot in an impulse to defend him from being taken away. This chimp is so adorable and, having been given a chance to live, end up growing up at the scientist’s home where he develops into a super smart chimpanzee that can easily communicate through sign language and becomes one with the family. Even the audience becomes attached to Ceasar who grows up incredibly fast from a baby to an adult chimp right in front of our eyes and which each passing moment we see more humanity come out of Ceasar’s eyes, the actor they modeled his movements after is also the man who articulated the newest (Peter Jackson's) King Kong himself, Andy Serkis. He's got such a presence in the movie as the alpha ape Ceasar that just one look in his eyes and you could just tell that this CGI imagery has been able to capture the actor's presence and translated it to the screen.

But there comes a time where Ceasar has to be separated and sent to a “sanctuary” where he gets the inhuman treatment we fear so much… And he grows bitter and more bitter by every passing moment. It’s hard to watch how an innocent and tender chimpanzee suddenly becomes a vengeful ape that, along with his cellmates, create a revolution.

And what’s even funnier is to see how kids and adult alike were actually cheering in the theatre when they saw the apes getting their revenge at the iconic Golden Gate in San Francisco. I know it’s wrong to cheer when we see them kicking some human ass but these apes are not killing people left and right, they’re just surviving the chaos that their world has always been and their fight has long awaited and justified. And maybe we humans deserve such a fate, after mistreating and wasting the only planet that we have I wouldn't be surprise if we become apes' pets and servants...

Be All That You Can Be... On Steroids

2011-07-25T22:31:00.000-07:00

There was a little hesitation in watching Captain America: The First Avenger yesterday. I'd heard very little about it from the critics, maybe a rumour or two on Facebook but I tried not to read much into them since it’s happened to me before where people have told me they love this movie or that movie and I happen to hate it (case in point: Inception, Transformers 2, and many others) and so I went with low expectations to see it. It’s kind of sad that I've become so weary of any movie that looks good in previews but they’re really hard to read until I am seating there, popcorn and soda in hand, and expect the unexpected… Just don’t keep your hopes up, it’s just another superhero movie and that’s that.
I haven’t been excited about seeing a superhero movie since Spider-Man 2 and The Dark Knight and it’s hard not to compare every superhero movie with the greatest of the bunch.

So when I heard that Captain America: the First Avenger was just one of many superheroes to come in the upcoming years I was hesitant and afraid that there will be backlash. I mean how many super-hero movies have come lately? Too many to count if you asked me, I’m still trying to remember which one sticked (Thor, Dark Knight, Iron Man, Spider-Man 2, X-Men) and which ones didn’t (Green Hornet, The Hulk 1 and 2, Iron Man 2). One thing I hate about watching these films is that they take the audience for granted, they know they will do well in the first week or two but word of mouth now quickly spreads via internet, cell phones, TV, Radio, Facebook, Twitter and in plain word of mouth whether the movie is worth multiple screenings or must have DVD status or not.

And so I was ready to give Captain America a chance: the premise was interesting and I always like to see an origin story where you see the heroes, and sometimes the villains, develop into their iconic status. In this case we see Chris Evans as Steve Rogers (whom we’ve seen before as the Human Torch in Fantastic 4- another disappointment, by the way) a young kid who wants to be a soldier in the wake of World War II. A simple story, yet he’s not your average healthy all-American boy but a scrawny tiny man who has too much ambition in that little body of his, and this effect has got to be one of the best things I have seen in many movies yet: they shot all these scenes with the real Chris Evans (as opposed to be a body double) and they digitally “shrank” him after production was completed. If there’s any recognition about this film it should definitely be in the Special Effects category on this effect alone and also in the Sound Editing category too, especially in one scene in which there was an aerial battle scene with classic planes, it was a real treat to watch.

Anyways, after many attempts at being recruited into the Army have all failed, one man (a scientist played by the wonderful Stanley Tucci) sees in this tiny little man the courage and the tenacity that many soldiers don’t have and he recruits him based on a hunch that he will be the chosen one for an experiment that ultimately makes him a super-soldier. The scene, which has been played over and over in previews, is best one in the film where everybody roots for Steve to come out a new man, a man who's confident and super powerful and even though we get the outer shell of a super-hero (and what a body it is!!), he's still the same insecure yet tenacious soldier. It's funny how his character held the same flaws that Steve Rogers have, even after becoming this super-soldier, he's still a tiny person inside.

Luckily, this movie have many great supporting actors: there's Stanley Tucci playing the scientist that holds the secret to making him so powerful, there's Tommy Lee Jones being the grouch he's always played so well in the past (remember him in The Fugitive?), the villain is played by Agent Smith himself, the man with a thousand faces Hugo Weaving playing another villain here as Red Skull (great special effect on his face, with the lack of his nose) and Captain America's love interest the enigmatic and gorgeous Hayley Atwell, she's a feisty British girl who steals his heart before and after the transformation. I wished they had been more screen time for these two lovebirds but I guess they wanted to keep it PG 13 and actually the movie ran a little bit over 2 hours and they made sure you stayed throughout the whole credits for the upcoming Avengers trailer which is coming next summer 2012.

I loved the whole era costumes from the 30's and 40's, all the retro backstory which made the story so much believable although I would have preferred to have seen a little bit more action and maybe some real war footage which the movie tried to cover up but I guess you don't wanna take this story to such a serious place from which there's no turning back... And so I'm happy to report that Captain America: the First Avenger is a decent B+ in my book, hopefully it stands the weight of time on its shoulders...But that's the same thing I said about X Men: First Class and it turned out everybody had hated it, so who am I to judge?

Super 8

2011-06-13T22:07:00.000-07:00

Super 8

I'm so glad I grew up in the 70's. It was such an incredible and exciting time to grow up without the distractions we have today.

There were no such thing as cell phones, no internet, no Facebook or Google, technically no cable (I certtainly didn't know it), no technology except for Nintendo and Pinball machines. Walkman was barely introduced and disco music was king. I remember being a kid that enjoyed summer days in the park, at the beach, rollerskating with my cousins and neighborhood friends.

I fell in love with movies though, I remember clearly how much I laughed and cried at movies like King Kong, Superman, E.T., Star Wars, Flash Gordon, Krull, Neverending Story. These movies were like my only addiction growing up, I had to go to movie theatre sometimes to see the movies more than once and each time was a different experience, I started quoting the lines (even if they were in Spanish) and I remembered my favorite characters and plotlines.

When I saw Super 8, I suddenly remembered why I love growing up in the 70's: it was a fun time, being a kid meant just that: you could explore your town, run around causing havoc, misbehaving, doing what you felt like doing, cursing, talking about girls, horsing around. In a very long time I haven't experience what it means to be a kid in the movies, and fewer movies capture the innocence and imagination of their main characters, in this case a few teenagers growing up in a rural Ohio town where everybody knows everybody else. These kids are obsessed (especially one of them, Charles the director, played by Riley Griffiths) with making the perfect horror movie that they would go to all lengths trying to get the best shot until one night when they were filming near the train tracks when suddenly the train they were filming pass by derails and they find themselves running for their lives. The scene was so well choreographed that it feel as if the train is literally inside the theatre, shaking everyone in their seat while we're clutching on to them, hoping that every kid makes it OK. Luckily they all do... and unfortunately the cargo content as well...

The scene is all captured by their 8mm camera which is the only witness to the events that unfolded that night.

Super 8 holds the suspense of the "creature" that escapes out of this train all throughout the movie and that's the beauty of it: we get to know a little bit more about the kids, especially the sheriff's son Joe Lamb (played by newcomer Joel Courtney) whose mom has died in a drunk driving accident and has left the kid pretty much alone dealing with his authoritarian father (Kyle Chandler) who has yet to come to terms with his wife's sudden death. We feel his pain when his father pretty much avoids having to talk about their loss, instead his father creates a wall between them that's so hard to cross thus he seeks out his friends to escape his home's desolation. On one scene his friend's having a family dinner in one of those scenes where, even as chaotic and lunatic as this family looks, you can almost feel how Joe Lamb must feel, having to come home to an empty house where his father cries inside the bathroom and mourning his loss in silence.

These kids' stories are so complex and intricate that it's almost more interesting than what's at stake in the heart of the movie but I truly didn't care. I believe that director J.J. Abrams has accomplished to go back to the roots of storytelling and portray three dimensional characters in an otherwise ordinary summer, popcorn movie. It was so fun watching these kids create their own sci-fi horror zombie movie within the movie that it was the same low tech that they show at the end of the movie that I was looking forward to seeing; it's amazing after seeing such amazing and state of the art special effects throughout the film yet the piece I will remember fondly and really treasure in my mind is the end result of their school project which pays homage to George Romero's zombie movies and Steven Spielberg's (the film's executive producer himself) own early Super 8 projects.

This is the most fun I've had in the movies since E.T., Star Wars or Indiana Jones... And that's coming from the 10 year-old boy still living inside of me...

The Few. The Proud. The Mutants

2011-06-13T21:44:00.000-07:00

X Men: First Class

Last night I was lucky to catch 2 movies that I wanted to see, first one was X Men: First Class and then Super 8. These two movies were pretty much the ones that I was expecting more this summer, besides Captain America and Rise of the Planet of the Apes (the previews look really good, by the way).

Let's start with X Men. The story goes back to when Magneto and Professor X are both 12 years old. Their backgrounds are totally different though: on one hand Charles Xavier (Professor X) is a very fortunate boy who lives a very pampered life, gets to live in a beautiful mansion, attends the best schools one can ever get into meanwhile Magneto, formerly known as Erik Lehnsherr is an unfortunate boy with a very dark past. As we had a glimpse in a previous movie before, his sad story begins when he's taken away from his parents in a concentration camp and, filled with rage, he's able to bend the metal barb wire and fence that separates him from his parents whose fate doesn't look very good at all.

It's hard to understand how these two boys living in different continents and with such different backgrounds can ever become friends and that's where this movie relies on the wonderful performances of two young actors; James McAvoy as Charles Xavier and Michael Fassbender as Erik Lehnsherr. They're both great actors and they carry the movie through pretty well and we see their friendship strengthen but then rage and a need for revenge takes Magneto over but we can clearly see his point: while all humankind is against the mutants, what's a mutant to do but fight back?

We also get to see how Raven gets to be Mystique, a beautiful young girl who takes anyone's shape at a moment's request. Even though her story gets explored very little, Jennifer Lawrence gives her the sassiness she will later possess when she gets to be Rebecca Romijn (minus Stamos) and we see how she's insecure of her own looks and how she doesn't see how beautiful she is in her natural blue skin and red hair... and naked...

It's always fun to see who else makes a little cameo in this movie we see Hugh Jackman's Wolverine for a split moment when Professor X and magneto are trying to recruit mutants for their school of the gifted but he tells them flat out to FUCK OFF!!! (Very funny sequence, indeed) and then we see a glimpse of Rebeca Romijn as a grown up Mystique, I also thought I saw Storm somewhere but it was just too quick and I'm sure if I see it on demand I'll be able to pause and spot different future X-Men but there's just too many to count and luckily the story focuses on these two frenemies more than anyone else and we get to see how Professor X and Magneto benefit from each other until the tragic moment comes and we see how Professor X gets paralyzed, something Magneto may never forget himself for.

As always is good to see how these characters fit into shape into the whole story and how they came to be the way they are in the first movies and now we understand that their differences in opinion and stubborness really got in their friendship and even though I have the greatest admiration for the previous actors playing Professor X (Patrick Stewart) and Magneto (Ian McKellen), I'm glad these new talented actors lived up to their expectations.

Italo's Radio's On The Air

2011-06-08T23:52:00.000-07:00

I cannot believe that I survived my guest appearance at Sam Suga's Blog Radio show last night. It was certainly an exciting and very challenging experience that I may not soon forget... And one that I can listen to over and over and over again...

For those who missed it I'm referring to a new way to blog that I've discovered through my good friend Sam who has been doing her show a long time and has now returned to her talk radio show format.

You can check Sam Suga shows either live or prerecorded (archives) by going to www.blogtalkradio.com/samsuga and you can also listen to my own (not so private) talk show at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/italosradio in which I'll be discussing different topics that I enjoy such as movies, TV shows, music and anything under the sun that I can think about. I like having structure and for some reason even though it's supposed to be whatever format you like it to be it's not easy to talk for 30 or 60 minutes about nothing at all and in order to prepare for this upcoming show of Top 10: Puerto Rico I actually had to spend time researching in Wipipedia, in my own blog, even through looking at my pictures which for me is the best way to remember and picture what is it that you wanna say and make it sound like it's flowing naturally, even though it's not.

One good recommendation that Sam Suga gave me is that I should run several test blog entries to listen to myself speak since sometimes I sound repetitive or monotone or say monosyllables like ummmmmm, ehhh, y'know, like, etc etc and after running the first test I decided I need to be more prepared for my "real" show which is tomorrow night at 8PM following Sam Suga's podcast at 7, I think she'll be talking about being Pampered and giving yourself a "treat" be it a relaxing massage, or a pedicure, or going shopping, something you enjoy doing for yourself NOT others but MY favorite show of hers is when Sam talks about her Pet Peeves and what makes her tick. I was fortunate to be a guest in her last show last night so I got a real opportunity to get my feet wet and be prepared for my first solo show. We talked about what really upsets us both, among some of the things we mentioned I pointed out people using their cell phones inside movie theatres and how they annoy the heck out of me, also how every movie that's coming out is now in 3D when it doesn't need to be (Clash of Titans?), Sam complained about getting her meal orders messed up almost every single time and how some people just have her drive them around town doing THEIR own errands and wasting her precious time when she could be relaxing at home after a long day of working, and so on and so forth.

Just this morning I was told by some of my co-workers and friends that the show went great last night and even though I haven't listened to it I will be listening to myself and spot areas for improvement, it's a great exercise to listen to your own voice and judge yourself and improve the next time you're on the air. Some topics I was thinking about:

*Top Ten: Scariest Movies of All Time

*Top Ten: Best Albums (as in Music Albums) of All Time

*Top Ten: Best Superhero Movies

*Top Ten: Worst Movies EVER (Ahem, The Happening?)

*Top Ten: Best Song of the 80's

*Top Ten: Fill in the blank...

And I will have more of course, I have created a special email address where you're welcome to send me your own request and your feedback on the show and upcoming shows, below is a link to the Sam Suga's Pet Peeve's Show which aired last night and guest starred myself (as Victor) and meantime let me prepare for my show, it's gonna be better than the last one, I promise (maybe I should have some tequila shots before I get on the air to loosen up?)

Here's the episode from last night, now available on demand

Dream a Little Dream of Me

2011-05-26T21:34:00.000-07:00

The New Secret Language of Dreams

I have decided to start doing some reading recently and it's been hard to keep to any particular book. I have tried reading several at the same time but none attracts my attention. I have tried reading Eat Pray Love, while eyeing on Ricky Martin's Me and other books Dean and I have bought recently. I even got some very interesting books on Werewolves and Urban Legends which still appear fascinating to me yet they're still not very appealing to read while at work.

I don't know how my dear friend Dena does it, but I cannot read an entire book if my life depended on it. Last time I finished a book was probably when I was in college. Even reading short stories like Brokeback Mountain was like pulling my teeth out. But I have become quite fascinated with this book I recently bought at Borders (may it rest in peace) solely based on the cover picture, it's titled The New Secret Language of Dreams by David Fontana. Now I had never heard of the first one called The Secret Language of Dreams, and David Fontana has also authored The Secret Language of Symbols, Teach Yourself to Dream, and other best selling books. So I'm lucky that I got to read the enhanced edition of the best selling book there and I can see why it's a best selling book.

What I first thought it was going to be it's merely a dictionary of dreams, a quick interpretation of symbols and images in our dreams that I've seen over and over before. And that would have been okay, except that when I started reading this book I realized this book was different: instead of giving straight forward explanations like if you dream of a dog that means you are an animal lover or if you dream of a butterfly that means an angel has visited you in your sleep, blah blah blah. I mean anything he said would probably be interpreted his own way and there was no way to question since I have little to no clue in the matter of symbols (by the way the former examples are totally made up so in case you dream of a dog or butterfly, don't think of what I've just said, sorry but I must have my little disclosure here) but I was pleasantly surprised to see that this book was quite different.

Ever since ancient civilization there's been dreams. Some dreams are so great that the Greeks, the Romans, the Egyptians, the Mayans, the Incas have all idealized temples, pyramids, architecture, ideas, philosophies through their dreams. If it wasn't for such dreams the greatest world wonders would not exist today: Taj Majal, Macchu Picchu, the Great Wall of China, the Roman Coliseum, Egyptian Pyramids. I'm sure that even the first person or caveman had a dream when they discovered fire, or the wheel, or the power of healing, medicine, etc, etc. All throughout history we know that dreams speak louder than words, all throughout the Bible God and His angels have spoken to prophets and mortals through dreams: Noah to build his arc, Abraham to sacrifice his only son, Moses to bring about the ten commandments, Mary announcing that she would conceive a child even though she was still a virgin, Joseph to run and save baby Jesus from Herod's annihilation of newborns, among many other Biblical events, including the Apocalypse.

Many authors have been inspired to create fictional worlds and characters through their own dreams, specifically Dante's Divine Comedy and his dreams of the several level of hell. There's no way in hell that anybody could have imagined that book quite like Dante if it wasn't for his dreams, pun intended. Many philosophers have relied in dreams to come up with life's greatest theories, solve life's mysteries known to man thanks to their dreams. I'm sure that Nostradamus had his revelations come to him in dreams, as well.

Are you convince about how important dreams can be YET? Good...

What this book tries to accomplish is not to answer riddles or clues by directly associating certain elements in our dreams whether you dream about an old house, rough waters, an old person, a dead relative, etc, etc. At least NOT necessarily... See, if we take one element out of context is like reading through the lines of a story and what we should accomplish is to try to piece together our dreams. How? Well, for starters the author suggests we should keep a dream journal that we can start jogging down whatever it is that we can remember the moment that we wake up from a dream. the more detail the better that way we can really have a better interpretation of such dreams.

We dream every day and if you doubt it, ever since I've started reading this book and stop to jog down my dreams I have noticed that if I record what I'm dreaming outloud then I should remember the next morning and the more detail you can find the better, I prefer using Voice Memos App in my iPhone that way I don't even have to turn the light on, find a pen and piece of paper and by the time you try sorting your ideas in your head you forget what you just dreamed about. So far my dreams have involved a blue elephant with gold paintings on its skin, Lady Gaga giving me an interview, certain adults that I know acting out like children, about Facebook... and that's JUST in 2 days. Imagine what I can accomplish in a week, or a month or a year...

The best method I use is to record yourself as soon as you wake up, as fresh as you can still remember the details of the dreams. David Fontana has a few exercises that you can practice while still conscious in order to capture more details in your dreams, start noticing your surroundings, the different elements that you see in your dreams but first you must train yourself how to capture these details while you're awake that way it's better to describe your dreams more vividly to later on try to decipher on due time. Even the author says that it may take a long time before we can remember full sequences in dreams BUT it's possible, all it takes is practice...

Now let me read on but I will let you know if I have any fruitful and meaningful dreams, in the meantime I have to figure out what a blue Indian Elephant and Lady Gaga have in common, any ideas?

The Good Ex-Wife

2011-05-23T22:54:00.000-07:00

The Good Wife

Talk about good drama!!!

So the best drama on network television to date just got through the best finale ever!! I'm talking, of course, The Good Wife starring Julianna Margulies as Alicia Florrick on CBS. I've been following this drama from the beginning and I must say that this show has grown on me and I suffer every step along the way with Alicia Florrick when she realizes the depth of her husband's betrayal, Mr. Big himself Chris Noth as Peter Florrick.

There was a time when I used to root for the guy when he was portraying the eternal bachelor in the long running series Sex and the City. Even though he kept hurting Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker), there was something about Mr. Big that made you forget all about it when they got together in the end- although he was a little bit of a softie in the movie versions of Sex And the City. Now that I see his character in The Good Wife as the newly elected Chicago's District Attorney Peter Florrick I can't help but wonder: what does he hide from his wife? How much longer must he hurt her? How intricate was his betrayal? The great thing about this show is that there's so many layers to these characters, and it's not a simple answer to everything.

For instance, how would YOU react if you found out that your BEST pal at work, the woman you confide your every secret with about your personal life has CHEATED with your husband? Now mind you, Kalinda (played by Archie Panjabi) is a tough as nails detective whom I've hardly seen cry or even show real feelings but when she was confronted by a disgruntled Alicia about having slept with her husband, be it past or present, Kalinda broke into tears (even though she did it inside the elevator, away from Alicia, and yet it was very moving to see the bonding between these two women break in an instant.) NOW we realize how much Kalinda has feared for so long: having betrayed Alicia without having met her before, Kalinda was always hesitant to become intimate with Alicia, there was always a mystery with Kalinda and all through the past seasons I kept wondering why was she so reserved and so private and nobody could describe it better than Kalinda herself when she told Will Gardner in the season finale: "One thing I have learned is that you can NEVER confide in ANYONE" (She was referring to backstabber Cary, of course)...

Speaking of Will, I won't be spoiling any secrets but this finale had one moment I was waiting for: Alicia finally decides to do something for herself and it was refreshing to see that she gets what she deserves... But I won't spoil any secrets, you have to catch it for yourself, I believe the show is running on Primetime On Demand and judging by the upcoming movies coming to a theatre near us (Cowboys & Aliens, anyone?) I think some of the best programs can now be seen on the small screen.

What else am I excited for? I can't wait to catch TNT's Falling Skies which looks like a better storyline than District 9 or ID4 (Independence Day, for those who were not around back then) and it promises to open with a bang. Then there's the new season of True Blood on HBO which it's always good, Camelot playing on Starz! is actually kind of interesting although King Arthur has yet to grow on me (I find Ralph Fiennes as Merlin much more interesting and complex and also King Arthur's sister Morgan, played by Eva Green) and, of course, Showtime has Eddie Falco as Nurse Jackie and Toni Collette as Tara in United States of Tara which I've caught up with as well... So it seems that TV looks more promising than movie theatres... And that's a good thing... Thank God for DVR's, right?

Puerto Rico, La Isla Bonita

2011-05-10T22:18:00.000-07:00

It's good to be back!!

I want to thank everyone who followed my Facebook posts while on the Enchanted Island of Puerto Rico, as you may know (unless you have been watching way too much Royal Wedding coverage on TV) Dean and I just came back from the wonderful land of his ancestors and MY new favorite vacation destination.

We went through the streets in Old San Juan which is famous for its cobblestone streets, wonderful and colorful homes with beautiful balconies, several spots to shop (lots of jewelry, handcrafts and rum, baby!!) and the most interesting spot of them all: El Morro fortress which has a whole history of Spanish battles that go all the way back to the 1500's with the British, the Dutch, the occasional pirates and finally the American when it was finally turned over in 1898.

There is a museum that's very interesting and hold many Puertorrican artists' work that feature a great deal of religious paintings from 2 centuries ago all the way through the 1960's, among them Campeche paintings whom has been credited with being the best painter that Puerto Rico has offered. There was a painting in particular with which I've personally become fascinated with about a boy with no limbs (Pictured left). His story is very sad: this boy's portrait was commissioned in order for doctors in that era to document rare cases in medicine and possible treatments yet the painter was so moved by this poor couple of farmer's boy's innocence and tenderness that his painting was still dignifying and his angelic eyes tell one hundred stories without saying a word.
If you ever get a chance to visit Old San Juan please do not miss this rare and fascinating collection of paintings gathered a few steps from El Morro in Galeria Nacional or if you're in San Juan you can also visit and even closer look and Campeche's work and his pupils' work in the Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico.

Another excursion you shouldn't miss is the Museo de Arte Contemporaneo that's also a modern look into Puertorrican and Caribbean culture looked through Caribbean artists from Puerto Rico, Cuba, Dominican Republic, and other islands.

That's another interesting thing about Puerto Rico is that these Caribbean islands are somehow culturally interconnected and they worry about each other's news just as much as they worry about everything else that happens in the rest of the States and the world. It's like being in a different country but at same time you can tell the influence that the U.S. have had over Puerto Rico. Still, Puertorricans are very warm and proud people, people who like their cuisine, their culture, love to talk (Oh my and can they talk for hours on end!!!) and you feel welcome and part of their family.

Speaking of food, I just remembered how great their food is from mofongos to tostones to arroz con habichuelas or gandules, etc. etc... My mouth starts watering just thinking about it LOL However there is something for everybody and as we found out there are exquisite Argentinian, Peruvian, Brazilian, Chinese, Japanese, Thai restaurants that we stumbled along the way and oh those ice cream parlors are AWESOME!!! You should check out the Ben & Jerry's in Old San Juan in which every table is decorated with different music bands like The Beatles, The Doors, Madonna, etc. etc. etc... You don't know whether to read your table and chairs or eat on them.

Other places we would recommend to try Buenos Ayres (Argentinian and Puertorrican meats and plantain creations) and Perurrican (the perfect Peruvian and Puertorrican marriage) in Condado or Lima restaurant (very fancy yet exquisite Peruvian food in Miramar), El Galeon have really good mofongos and other seafood dishes of Puerto Rico over in Aguadilla, among other places.

And don't get me started on the beaches!!! Puerto Rico is probably the BEST destination for beautiful beaches from the Atlantic Ocean all the way to the Caribbean side, especially in this smaller island called Vieques which holds some of the most breathtaking and quite isolated beaches I've ever seen in my life.

And there's all kinds of beaches: some for snorkeling, some for surfing, some featuring white sand, some for exploring and some that glow in the dark... What? You think I'm making this up? Here's the scientific proof to back me up, courtesy of Wikipedia:

Bioluminescence is the production and emission of light by a living organism. Its name is a hybrid word, originating from the Greek bios for "living" and the Latin lumen "light". Bioluminescence is a naturally occurring form of chemiluminescence where energy is released by a chemical reaction in the form of light emission. Fireflies, anglerfish, and other creatures produce the chemicals luciferin (a pigment) and luciferase (an enzyme).[1] The luciferin reacts with oxygen to create light. The luciferase acts as a catalyst to speed up the reaction, which is sometimes mediated by cofactors such as calcium ions or ATP. The chemical reaction can occur either inside or outside the cell. In bacteria, the expression of genes related to bioluminescence is controlled by an operon called the Lux operon.[2]Bioluminescence occurs in marine vertebrates and invertebrates, as well as microorganisms and terrestrial animals. Symbiotic organisms carried within larger organisms are also known to bioluminesce.More info? Click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vieques

Bioluminiscent Tour through Island Adventures
Bioluminicesce Bay should be named an 8th natural wonder in the world, said my friend Latif and he added that this microscopic organism responsible for the glow in the water is a protozoan of the family dinoflagellata (?), a unicellular organism with 2 flagella that allow it to move through the water. OK, so maybe I had little to no clue to what he said BUT the experience of going into the water in the dark is an experience that I shall never EVER forget: it feels as if you're swimming with little shining stars all around you and whenever you move in the water these "organisms" literally glow in the dark making it the best experience to be had and unfortunately it may not be there for long due to pollution and the same tours that have been going on, these organisms are scarce and rare in different part of the world, especially the ones in Mosquito Bay and Sun Bay in Vieques. You may try to take a picture or capture it on video but there's nothing like the real thing and feeling as if though you're one with nature and you feel amazing surrounded by such amazing nature.

More stuff about Puerto Rico in the next blog in which I talk about a serial killer in the island aaaaaaahhhhhhhh!!!!!!! Stay tuned, boys and girls...

Swimming With Sharks

2011-04-19T22:40:00.000-07:00

After watching Hanna, I was suddenly in the mood for some good ol' nature programming. Sometimes is just good to relax and let the power of your High Definition TV take over and marvel at the wonders of our dear and forgotten planet of ours.

As soon as I saw the iceberg in shape of a certain castle we might have seen somewhere before... A resemblance to Sleeping Beauty's castle cleverly turned to an ice castle then I knew there was something magical and special about this Disney's Nature documentary titled Oceans which takes us to a whole universe within our deep and mysterious oceans, at times a violent and thunderous waves crashing on the reefs or lifting ships as if paper toys and other times as calm as a pool with ripples or the slight movement beneath the surface.

Then we submerge in a whole new world underneath full of wonderful creatures, big and small, from Great White Sharks to Killer Whales to Sperm Whales all the way to the smallest organisms lurking in the reefs, they coexist in a world that no human could ever comprehend, a world that's so silent and so peaceful that we can just glimpse if ever so slightly and marvel at how all those creature interact.

One thought that came to my mind while I was watching these amazing creatures travelling thousands of miles every year is that for them there are no frontiers, no distinction among their species and even with other species they coexist with, there's a kind of camaraderie that can only be described by watching this great film about survival and a love for life that we humans sometimes take for granted. There are many trades we can learn from these incredible beings about loving ourselves, and loving our surroundings and respect the environment.

There are just too many scenes to count but I will probably remember most the Sperm Whales who travel such an incredible distance every year, also the tender Mother Walrus overseeing her offspring stay afloat, also how the courageous divers that filmed Oceans got so close to a Great White shark, so close even to touch them and demonstrate that these feared monsters of the sea are misunderstood by us, humans... I just don't believe that last statement one bit though, if I see a shark's fin be it big or small, I'm out of the water before I can realize whether it's harmful or not. Better safe than sorry, I say.

Hanna

2011-04-11T22:24:00.000-07:00

Saoirse Ronan is HANNA

From the first shot in a winter wonderland, somewhere in a European woods covered in white powder snow, we see a seemingly innocent, fragile little girl target practicing with... a deer!!! We have now entered a world in which a girl is not what she appears to be. Saoirse Ronan stars as Hanna, a 16 year old trained to kill by her father, played by Eric Bana, in an undisclosed location in a forest, away from civilization in what seems like another world all together.

Her father is preparing her for battle, training her to be ready even during her sleep, she has to be ready at all times. The mission is unclear but Hanna is training to be the best assasin ever and she knows when her time has come to face her destiny.

This story is not original by a long shot and has been done before but director Joe Wright, whose credits include the astonishing Atonement, Pride and Prejudice and The Soloist has entered into foreign territory here and has given this action genre a sensibility it would never have had this been directed by, say, Michael Bay. Hanna unfolds in a very timely manner, in a very subtle way until Hanna meets her main target: a ruthless CIA agent named Marissa acted by the always great Cate Blanchett who is very committed in hunting and destroying both Hanna and her father Erik (at least it was easy to know who Erik was since it rhimes with Eric Bana, hahahahaha) who have been escaping from her all their lives.

It turns out that Hanna is not an ordinary girl: she'd been engineered to be superior specimen and both mentally and physically advanced than your ordinary girl, even when she appears vulnerable Hanna is far more prepared for the worst case scenario and is very ready to fight whoever gets in her way to look for her father and meet him in Berlin. We see how Hanna is unfamiliar with the modern world: the cars, the music, the boys, even friends seem to be a new concept she'd only read about in books that she's memorized word by word. She discovers many things that the father has been hiding from her, some things to protect her and some other things that she eventually ad to find for herself when she was ready...

The whole movie flowed pretty well and I was happy whenever there was an action scene since The Chemical Brothers were in charge of giving every chase, escape or fight scene a pulsating, energetic feeling that kept my blood pumping and gasping for more, I love especially a scene in which Hanna escapes from a CIA facility filled with agents looking for her, we see emergency lights illuminate her path and almost synchronize with the music that was playing, that's when you realize what a great director this is when he notices the smallest details in a powerful scene (remember that everlasting scene in Atonement by the beach which seemed t transport you to that World War II nightmare?) and makes you want to see more of him.

And more of Saoirse Ronan and her Lovely Bones, too.

Power Girls

2011-04-04T22:53:00.000-07:00

The Runaways

My hat comes off to Dakota Fanning as Cherie Currie and Kristen Stewart as Joan Jett for their portrayals of the lead singers of the punk rock band called The Runaways which started off circa 1975 with a group of unknown female rockers who broke every mold in Rock 'n' Roll history by forming an all girl band, something that had never been tried or done before then.

Thanks to the unorthodox guidance of Kim Fowley, played maliciously well by Michael Shannon whom you've probably seen before in HBO's Boardwalk Empire and Tigerland among many other movies where he blends onto the landscape so well that you remember the face but can't quite place him, he's a music producer that sees in Joan Jett and Cherie Currie a golden goose that's ready to be exploited, something that will change music landscape forever and will introduce a new concept onto the punk/rock movement that had never been explored before, a concept that will forever change the lives of a handful of teenage girls into something out of this world.

What I admire most about this film, first featured in Sundance Film Festival last year, is the fact that its very young cast was as close to the real age of the real life characters in the film: Kristen was 19 to 20 years old once she picked up on the project and little Dakota was between 15 to 16 which is a shocker to see this little girl who's been in movies like Secret Life of Bees, I Am Sam and War of the Worlds and now she's all grown up and taking such a risky role as the mildly wild yet innocent Cherie whose own life takes the movie centerstage and we see her growing from an innocent 15 year old girl to a rock n' roll superstar that sees fame as a way to hide herself and ignore everything that's going on in her life back home. Cherie starts using drugs and other substances to escape her own little problems while her twin sister takes care of her drunken father back at home while she tours around in Japan with The Runaways. Her performance here shines through unlike everything she's done before and we finally see what we haven't seen before: the woman, the actress giving the performance of her life. I don't know about comparing her performance to Black Swan's Natalie Portman but in her own right she did perform to the caliber that would deserve an Oscar nomination.

By now you know how much I loath the Twilight saga movies, whether it's because of the storyline, the sappy plot, the performances, the teenage eye candy among many other factors (Vampires "glowing" in the sunlight? Gimme a break!!!) however Kristen Stewart just blew me away last night when I could no longer see Bella but all I kept thinking about was her similarity to Joan Jett: not just her looks but her whole persona changed 180 degrees to get into the rock legend that keeps on rocking until this day (Joan Jett's last album properly titled Sinner was released in 2006) and make me forget all about her Twilight days (which I hope are over for good). I believe these two actresses have a long way to go and I am certainly looking forward to these runaways in the near future... as long as it doesn't involve vampires and werewolves, except in True Blood...

For The Bible Tells Me So

2011-03-23T21:52:00.000-07:00

So yesterday I was minding my own business until I overheard a conversation going on behind me. A woman was telling this guy that she doesn't believe in dinosaurs because the Bible says nothing about their existence. At first I thought I had heard wrong but then the guy rephrased what she had just stated and she repeated: "I believe dinosaurs never existed since there's no mention of them anywhere in the Bible and therefore they never existed, just like I don't believe in aliens from out of space or UFO's, I also don't believe in dinosaurs"

I had to turn around and see where this conversation would go. This man, who was burying himself in a book about science of all things, turned red, blue, purple and back to pink in like 5 seconds following her statement and he started saying that he's a man of faith as well, that he's also read the Bible and there's a lot of scientific flaws in it that cannot be explained with today's logic. To this her response was: "I don't believe in science either".

That's right about the time that I've decided to join the discussion. I could not let this man go on thinking that his battle was lost, I certainly had no business in the matter and maybe I should have kept my mouth shut but I could not believe the words that kept coming out of her mouth. If you don't believe in fairies, witches, UFO's and the such I would have no problem with that but dinosaurs whose bones have been found, examined, proven authentic, scientifically taken apart and put back together with so many scientists and knowleageable people with great theories and factual documentation are real. They may be extinct but to go on record and say I don't believe in dinosaurs is just wack and to top it off to state that the reason that you don't believe is that it's not in the Bible?

Having read the Bible myself once or twice, I got the sense that it wasn't scientifically accurate: for instance, how can we believe that God was in such a rush that he needed to create our planet and its habitants in just mere 6 days and then take a "break", why should he be on a schedule? Did he have to meet a deadline? What would have happen if it took thousands of years as science has proven? Would he have gotten in trouble?

Also, there are many other myths that the Bible doesn't discuss: if Adam and Eve were the first humans on the face of the Earth and we're their descendants then the only way we could have procreated was by incest? Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with telling a story with a mystical and magical point of view but can this be really taken literally?

I'm sure if the Bible had to prove every scientific question thrown at it, it would be a much bigger selection of books and in today's standards the Bible is a bit dated; there was no computer, no mass communication, no satellite, no internet, no cell phones back then, in those times we still thought the Earth was flat and we were surrounded by water guarded by sea serpents and sea creatures that would sink a whole ship and its crew. If it wasn't for scientist and wise people questioning our existence and our surroundings then we wouldn't be where we are today. If the Bible was to be written today then it would have to be altered for the times in which we live in.

The other night I was watching a documentary on TV called "Pray Away the Gay?" which was featured in Our America with Lisa Ling in the Oprah Winfrey Network which also talks about "formerly" gay people who go through life denying their sexuality and supressing their primal insticts just trying to get rid of their gayness and everything that the Bible calls an abomination (which happen to be just 6 verses in the entire Bible, by the way) and why? Just because the Bible tells them so. .. Many of them go on to marrying the opposite sex in hopes that this will solve their "problem" or "condition" when there really isn't anything wrong with their sexual preference and they go on to living miserable little lives and just keeping their doors shuts to happiness and wholesomeness, even resorting to celibacy, depression and even suicidal thoughts. Why would God create such conflict and make us the way we are without a purpose in life?

And what about life in other planets? What, the Bible doesn't talk about it either? Do you really think that in this vast universe that has no end we're all alone? You have to stop and wonder: if we're the only living civilization in the galaxy, what a big waste of space that would be!!! We're really only a spec in the universe under one God, why should we fight amongst ourselves? If we're all one big family, why do we kill and hate each others for challenging ourselves and expand our brains if just by a small percentage and allow these theories to sink in our heads? I'm sure that if God was to have a say in it he will open our minds up to change, we should be evolving and not regressing, that's what it's all about. Instead of pulling our Bibles every 5 mins or so, why not try to use the best gift that God has given us and accept that we are only human and as humans we're allowed to make mistakes and I'm sure those people that wrote the books that make up the Old Testament and New Testament were inspired by the love of God but who's to say that they didn't write what He's told them to write word by word? Maybe there's something lost in translation?

I believe that God, as powerful and complex as He is has allowed this human race to mingle and mix as we should have done from the beginning of time, why make us all equal in His image when He can have so much more fun with all that drama that we go though day in and day out. Do you really think he cares if you're gay or straight? Black or white? A saint or a sinner? I'm sure He already knows about this for he created us in His image, with the same dilemmas and tribulations as the next person, noone is above or below anyone else, everyone is the same through His eyes. I'm sure he's gotta have a great sense of humor to create as diverse and complex human beings as He has, I'm sure He knows where we're coming or where we're going. So chill, people, there's nothing to really worry about, He gets it. Do you?

Who You Think You Are?

2011-03-07T22:27:00.000-08:00

MyHeritage.com

Who do I think I am?

I was talking to my grandma last Friday and we started to talk about family and our roots. She started to talk about her parents and her brothers who have all passed away except for one living sister whom we never knew about until recently, apparently my great-grandfather had a fling and now it turns out that I have a new aunt-grandmother to add to my "family roots" and now there's a whole ramification starting from this "new" relative that I never knew I had, there's a whole history to do with anybody that my family might have been involved with.

Have you ever wondered: what if you're walking through life and come across a far relative you never knew you had? What is that person's history and their own alternate family tree? Do they even know who we are? Wouldn't it be grant to connect all the dots and find out about your ancestors?

Then an idea clicked in my head: what if there was a website where you can build your own genealogic "family tree" for free? And so started my new obsession with my family tree and its roots when I googled genealogy and among the different websites I found myheritage.com which is totally free of charge and you can build your own tree starting with yourself, your parents and their siblings, then grandparents and their siblings and so on and so forth.

And who better to help me build this than my closest ancestor: my lovely grandmother whom I love dearly and has the patience of going through the phone book that's turned out to be my tree. I mean, it's so interesting to see how many different ramifications and how many ins and outs it takes to discover who are your relatives, you can even add one, two, or more "spouses" and their respective children and so it's like Guess Who game where all the participants have been there for quite a while but you just never knew about them and, who knows, maybe you can find new friends... or just help you keep them at a distance...

The good thing about this site is that you can share your family tree with anyone you like and although some people may not want this information to be on the internet (Oooops?) I still find this quite fascinating to be able to connect the dots and see where this may lead you. You can also print out your own family tree for free or order a custom made genealogy family tree (not free) but the feature that I like best is not yet available (c'mon guys!!!) which is called "slideshow", I imagine this feature will go through your family tree like in a movie that you could probably play in a family reunion or in a projector for everyone to see... That's my ultimate dream: to be able to connect as many people as I possibly can, it may take me a few days, or weeks, or months or even years yet I believe the end result will be amazing.

There's also an iPhone app called FamilyConnect powered by My Heritage that allows you to add photo to your database and tag people. It's not the greatest app since you cannot edit or add more relatives to the family tree from this app but you can have a list of all the people you've added so far through the Family Builder in your computer which is kind of cool but it will be a lot better if you could add dates like birthdates, marriage dates, divorce dates,death anniversary dates, etc to your database remotely, maybe they're working on it or something... Or maybe if I went through a different website although I've already invested so much time here already... Maybe I should hit "print" before I keep going... and going... and going?

Creepy or Angelic?

2011-03-01T23:22:00.000-08:00

Scala & Kolacny Brothers

Now that the Oscars are over everything can go back to normal, awards season is finally over (thank the Lord) and we no longer have to wonder which was the Best Movie of 2010: The King's Speech. And therefore I lost my bet for Best Movie (I thought it was going to be The Social Network) but I'm glad either way: I thought both movies were deserving of the Golden trophy and now we can expect the same for this year, too bad we have to wait till the last week of the year to try and catch all the best picture nominees (this year I still have to catch up with Winter's Bone and Biutiful which lost the Best Foreign Film race).

So now I wanted to talk about something completely different for once, although it's kind of related to The Social Network, in a way... It has to do with a quiet unknown choir called Scala and Kolacny Brothers from Belgium. I know that it may not ring a bell but it's a choir that really have shown that a choir can only be hip and have taken upon themselves to interpret some of rock's most amazing songs to date from U2 to Nirvana to Red Hot Chili Peppers to Alanis Morrisette to Coldplay and many more. Their cover of Radiohead's Creep was featured in the trailer for The Social Network and it actually made me go see this movie if just so I could listen to this song again (it wasn't featured in the movie though, very disappointing...)

At first listen they sound like any ordinary church choir but then when you pay close attention to the lyrics you may find yourself singing along since you actually recognize most of the songs: they've covered U2's With or Without You, or Alanis' Ironic or Depeche's Dream On, Kings of Leon's Use Somebody, or Divynils' I Touch Myself... Yeah, really!! I'm not making this up, it's actually not their best song but it's funny to hear these girls singing to their top of their lungs: "I don't want/ anybody else/ when I think about you/ I touch myself..."

My favorites so far are U2's With Or Without You, Coldplay's Viva La Vida and Radiohead's Creep. I actually ran on my iTunes the 25 most played songs and Creep comes up there, it's just such an amazing rendition of the song about a boy who can't quite function when he's around his secret crush, whenever the choir hit the highest notes in the song it gives me the chills and I feel as this guy would probably feel, I imagine this version of the song sounds more stalkish and powerful than the original and the lyrics really make this song such a classic, it's almost as if they elevated the song to a new frontier; I believe that there are some songs that may sound even better when these angelic choir masters have a take on the them.

I look forward to more wonderful surprises, my suggestion would be to cover The Beatles' Across the Universe or I Want You/She's So Heavy or perhaps Because... or how about Madonna's Like a Prayer? Or Bjork's All Is Full Of Love or Pagan Poetry? I'm sure these and many others will be perfect candidates... Please, please, pleaseeeee!!!!

Transamerica

2011-02-26T20:56:00.000-08:00

TRANSAMERICA

It was a Wednesday night and there was nothing else to watch after watching E's Soup and Chelsey Lately and Syfy's Faceoff (a contest about make up artist, it's getting pretty interesting so far by the way) and I had recorded this movie with my favorite "housewive" Felicity Huffman who plays the role of a transexual man who is about to go through his complete transformation to a woman until he finds out that he has a son whom he needs to meet and resolve his issues once and for all before the much awaited surgery tha will complete him (or should I say her) as a woman. His psychiatrist suggests that he goes and meet this son that he never knew he had and come back in one week in order to go through his transformation.
However things get complicated when he meets his troubled son who turns out to be a hustler and an addict who is in jail and lives in a pigstye with other hustlers like himself and has recently lost his mother over suicide and wants to escape from his stepfather. Felicity introduces himself as a church lady who's been sent to help him out of his misery and attempts to do the right thing by taking him back to his stepfather but quickly realizes he's made a big mistake: the stepfather turns out to be an abusive, drunk and molesting son of a bitch whom his son hates with all his guts.
On one side of the spectrum you see how Felicity's character longs to be a woman, he tries to be a real lady with principles and integrity but then you start noticing the father (or mother) figure that he wants to be for his son, he really wants the best for him but yet cannot come to terms with his son finding out that A: he's not a woman and B: he's also his father whom he's never met. All through the movie this boy paints a portrait of his father as if he was out of this world, he keeps saying how successful he is and the home he owns, etc etc without knowing that all along he was already talking to his father.
I love this wonderful rendition of a transexual man, Felicity does her best to do a serious portrayal at all times, her voice hits such a low range and she keeps it all throughout the movie that there was never a doubt in my mind that I was watching a man who's fighting with his sexuality in all his complexities.
This is what an Oscar should be about: this role only comes once in a great while and you just cannot compare this actress transformation to Reese Witherspoon's role in Walk the Line (although I have nothing against Reese and I have yet to see Walk the Line) but the statuette was robbed from Felicity Huffman. I demand a recount!!!

Oh, Gnomeo Gnomeo

2011-02-26T20:06:00.000-08:00

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It's been quite a while since I had a day out with my favorite group to see a movie, last time we went to see a movie together was to see The Happening which everyone knows how that turned out (Believe me, I don't want to revisit that movie EVER!!! I don't care if it's free, on cable, or wherever I still refuse to see it one more time) but anyhow the point was to go out and see a good movie and believe me it wasn't hard to pick a movie that's better than The Happening... Trust me on that one...
Unfortunately ever since that incident I have the habit of reading critics' reviews to see whether or not a movie is even worth watching and in this case we (well, I mostly) decided to go for the cute appeal of this Dreamworks' animated effort powered by Elton John's wonderful music and score called Gnomeo and Juliet, loosely based on the classically tragic Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet.
I was pleasantly surprised that the gnomes in Gnomeo & Juliet, divided by a garden fence, were just as hilarious as I would have hoped they could be. These two rivals English garden gnomes have been long time rivals and they could easily be dintinguished by their respective color: it's the blues against the reds, with a few exceptions along the way (there's a green frog and a pink flamingo, among other colorful garden items in this animated flick) but all in all they're pretty much sworn enemies and there's no question about the matter. Starting with the opening scene in which these gnomes race each other with lawn mowers to defend their honor and prove once and for all who's best among the blues and the reds. It's an exhilirating race backed by Elton John's Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting, complete with Matrix style moves and amazing acrobatics that you could expect from any decent action film.
And so it turns out that Gnomeo has never seen Juliet, who's always been protected by her father as a garden jewel, something so precious that must remain on top of this elaborate fountain that can the the envy of the whole neighborhood, this garden is so animated and full of color that is hard not to marvel in the awesomeness and realistic look of this garden. Even the scratches, the tiniest damages, chips and natural wear of these articles are what makes this animation superior and delightful to watch. Of course it's not animation on a large scale as with The Lion King or Toy Story or Fantasia but it's the tiniest details to the gnomes and other garden artifacts that keep you wanting to see more characters out of Gnomeo & Juliet. And of course in the middle of it all is the heart of the story between two gnomes that can never be together, for being from opposite sides of the fence, for honor and glory... and plain stupidity but such is the story that holds it all together.
I wouldn't go so far as to call Gnomeo & Juliet the next Best Animated Movie of 2011 since there's so many more coming our way: Johnny Depp's take on the chameleon Rango which looks like a pretty funny take on a Western full of desert reptiles and other creatures; also another movie which takes place in Rio de Janeiro with two parrots that get caught in bird trafficking in Rio looks cool, too.

The Race is On!

2011-01-27T21:53:00.000-08:00

The Oscars

It's official: the Oscar nominations came out last Tuesday, ALL 10 of them, it’s weird to see that but it makes the race a litlle bit more interesting and unpredictable. So they covered my favorites:

The Social Network (which seems to be the most likely to win after winning the Golden Globes),
The King’s Speech (Go Colin Firth!),
Toy Story 3 (which will most likely win for Best Animated Film this time around, so why take a spot that may have exposed another movie in this category, certainly there were many to choose from…),
The Fighter,
Black Swan (Go, Natalie Portman)…
I still gotta see The Kids Are Alright,
True Grit, and
127 Hours… Yeah, about the other 2 I’m not really happy about:
Inception which, I thought, was quite boring, confusing and very pretentious got in the top ten, also a movie I’ve heard very little about
Winter’s Bone also made it.

A few other movies I’d like to see regardless whether they were nominated or not is Biutiful (Javier Bardem got his Best Actor Oscar nod for it), Blue Valentine (although I’ve heard it’s pretty depressing so I gotta be in a mood to see that)

So which of the 10 Nominees will you pick for Best Movie of 2010? Which movie SHOULD have been nominated?

Too bad that The Company Men which I saw last weekend starring Tommy Lee Jones, Kevin Costner, Ben Affleck, Chris Cooper, among other great actors was released this year or else it should have been nominated as well (it opened January 21, 2011) and it’s such a great story that I hope people still remember it come nomination day a year from today or so (maybe it’ll be on cable by then so a lot of people would have been able to see it. Although with Social Network, King’s Speech or Tru Grit, it had slim chances to win the Oscar- even Toy Story 3)

The Company Men is a very current and true everyday story about how fragile our little lives really are: some of us live thinking that everything we got is what we deserve, we live our lives as if tomorrow may never change our condition and so we give ourselves many luxuries and buy things just 'cause we can afford them but never once it crosses our minds that these things may not last forever and sooner than we expect we can be stripped down of everything material, we may lose our job, a job that we thought would always be there... A job that we think nobody else can do but us. Guess what? We’re just as dispensable whether we become CEO’s of a multimillion business, we can run a whole department and think we’re irreplaceable until reality hits you in the face and you see yourself in the street with no other skills than your bad little habits you can live without: your Porsche, your golf course, your expensive house, jewelry, furniture, etc etc.

That’s what Ben Affleck, Tommy Lee Jones and Chris Cooper among other VIPs find out the hard way when they’re given a box where you can store all their precious items off her desks they held dear and out they go, no matter how long they’ve been with the company, no matter how good they think you are, they’re out and on their own. It’s a wake up call for these men who all their lives have been living vicariously without thinking of the consequences. At first, they believe that it’ll be just as easy to get into another company AND maintain their salaries and be able to maintain their lifestyles until little by little they wake up to the reality that ANY job will do, especially in this economy when most people ARE unemployed and the market is very hard for anyone, whether you’re qualified or not. Out there you’re just another sad statistic, you’re just as valued as the person next to you, except you're older and possibly more cocky than the 20 year old who’s just as qualified as you are and is willing to work for half of what you make.

Once in a while it’s good to know where you’d stand if this same thing were to happen to you, I have myself wondered once or twice what would I really do if I didn’t have a job, if I didn’t have the daily routine of coming to work as much as I "hate" my job I feel very fortunate of having one and being able to provide myself and my family with everything they need. It’s always good to think for the future and seeing your options out there so you can appreciate what little you have for other people have struggled and continue to struggle out there in the streets, looking for a job that they’re overqualified for but it’s the only solution they could find. After I came out of the theatre I felt with a feeling of gratitude, a feeling of revelation that nothing lasts forever but if you surround yourself with people who love you for WHO you are and not WHAT you make, everything else doesn't really matter.

Now, if I could just hit the jackpot though...

Country Weak

2011-01-19T21:57:00.000-08:00

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It turns out that after all those great movies come out just in time for awards season, all good movies disappear along with them.
Last year brought us great movies as The Social Network (which already won a Golden Globe for Best Picture last Sunday), Black Swan (Golden Globe winner Natalie Portman stars), The King’s Speech (with Golden Globe winner Colin Firth), True Grit (which I’ve yet to see), Frankie and Alice (with Halle Berry playing a woman with multiple personalities) and suddenly all good movies went poof and disappear off the face of the map.

Case in point: I went to see Country Strong featuring Gwyneth Paltrow as a superstar country singer who apparently has it all but suddenly is stricken by disaster upon falling off the stage while under the influence of alcohol and losing her baby, she was 5 months pregnant. Don’t get me wrong, I like Gwyneth Paltrow and she is very talented and even sings these country songs herself but the picture falls flat very fast and have way too many clichés to even count.

She’s unhappily married to (real country superstar himself) Tim McGraw who sends her to rehab but quickly gets her out before she’s clean and he just puts her onstage when she was at her most vulnerable and drunk out of her mind to perform. It’s like watching a trainwreck in motion when her character crumbles in front of thousands of fans that have come to see her and give her another try.

The only one that could foresee all of this is a guy named Beau (played by quite unknown Garrett Hedlund who was also featured in TRON: Legacy) who is sort of Gwyneth’s “sponsor” who is more concerned with her own well being than her real husband. Also in the mix is another young country singer named Chiles (Leighton Meester) who is trying to climb up to fame but has a bit of stage fright issues and doesn’t perform her best under pressure. They’re really the supporting force behind this movie, their performance is what really keeps the movie somewhat together and likable, which I wouldn’t say about Gwyneth’s Kelly and Tim’s James characters. The songs featured in the movie were pretty decent though, I will admit that even though I’m not a big country music fan I can appreciate when the songs are pretty good regardless of its genre and so Country Strong has a good enough soundtrack.
...I wish that I could say the same about the dialogue and an ending that was predictable (although I didn’t predict it, it was Dean) and didn’t hit a high note.

The Cape

2011-01-19T21:48:00.000-08:00

It’s been done before. Maybe not very long ago.

The Cape plays like a superhero comic, very much like Heroes, or No Ordinary Family, or Smallville along with many other TV series out there that is trying to create momentum and a cult following, as Lost, Twilight and The Vampires Diaries. I’m not saying that The Cape is not good though, believe me I expected less from another TV series based on comic book superheroes, the action is superior than other TV shows I’ve seen. But the question is: is it worth it sticking around to see if this show gets axed in the middle of a season like Flash Forward was, or it doesn’t live up to the initial hype. It’s pretty soon to tell but I’m not one to complain since I’m enjoying good TV shows more than I’ve done before, sometimes when all you see in movie theatres is another Focker sequel, or another Shrek movie, or romantic comedies like No Strings Attached then the only other resort is Primetime TV.

So in the pilot, policeman, husband and exemplary father Vince Faraday (played by David Lyons) is framed by a villain nicknamed Chess who is doing all this crime around the city while at the same time running his own band of police and attempting at running the whole city and manipulating anybody that gets in his way. Peter Frain a.k.a. Chess is played by James Frain who’s been seen himself in other great shows such as The Tudors and True Blood, he’s wickedly great to watch in this show now and hope that he doesn’t get killed just yet- I’d like to see this villain for the long haul, besides, what’s the best part of a superhero series without a wickedly super-villain as well?

And so now that he’s been framed for a crime he didn’t commit (sounds like The Fugitive, huh?) he’s encountered a band of bank robbers that become his mentors in becoming more than just another crime fighter but a superhero who goes by The Cape, which is his own son’s comic favorite superhero. This band of circus performers is headed by Max Malini (Keith David) who teaches him about the special powers that the cape can give him along with some circus tricks that he gets to apply when he’s crime fighting. It’s a very fun and colorful group of weirdos who will help our hero become the best hero he can be.

Another problem The Cape faces is that he cannot get in touch with his wife and kid since their lives are in danger should Chess happen to know that Vince Faraday is alive, especially when and if he finds out that he’s The Cape.

I guess you should stick around to find out… Unless TV producers decide to leave us hanging…

Stay tuned...

Whenparentstext.com

2011-01-13T21:54:00.000-08:00

So I stumble across this website called WhenParentsText.com yesterday when I read it on EW Top Ten List of the week and it’s just a basic forum where people post funny texts they get from their parents. At first I wasn’t going to pay attention but I felt a bit curious and as soon as I started reading different posts with mom and dad exploring the internet, discovering texting for the first time, talking about the most random things (pelicans, owls, kids’ whereabouts, dinner, etc) and once in a while you get those texts that just warm your heart.

There was once in particular that really touched me about a father who asked his son or daughter if their feet were cold. He explains:

“Because when you were younger I’d come in while you were sleeping and rub your feet when they were cold”
It may seem funny, or even creepy, but I think parents have a funny way of showing they really love you:

Mom: Are you home yet?
Me: NO, still driving.
Mom: STOP TEXTING AND DRIVING.
Me: Okay
Mom: STOP TEXTING
(3 minutes later)
Mom: Are you home yet?

I wonder if they’re gonna come up with a website about kid’s texts, I bet it’ll a riot as well. I’m lucky that neither my parents know how to text or else I wouldn’t see the end of it hahahahahha, I bet they’d be just as funny if not more funny than these parents:

Mom: What kind of identification do we need?
Me: Just need something to prove you’re my parent like a birth certificate or something…
Mom: What if I’m not really your parent?

Or how about:

Me: I’m just having a really bad day…
Mom: just remember, baby, at one time you were the strongest sperm.

I tell you the funniest remarks can come through so wrong, they’re truly funny. I’ve been saving all the best jokes and maybe I’ll come up with a best of parents texting entry, I bet this one will be there:

Dad: I set your ringtone as a crying baby because it’s annoying… and it cries. Just like you.

Or:

Mom: Do you want waffles or muffins for breakfast? Just text “A1” for waffles or “B1” for muffins.

Me: Why do you go through all that trouble? Why can’t I just text “waffles” or “muffins”
Mom: we’re texting in code! ;););)
Me: Waffles
Mom: A1 or B1?
Me: WAFFLES
Mom: Sooo….A1?
Me: Mom. Yes.
Mom: I think I would rather have muffins. I’m making muffins.

And the prize for the tear jerker goes to:

Dad: Mom cried because she saw the left-over salmon in the fridge and she thought of you and how you love salmon.

Awwwww...Isn’t that the sweetest thing? I teared up on that one… No matter in what shape or form, parents have a way to always get to the bottom of your heart, one way or another… I love you, mom!! Maybe I will teach her to text and I may be posting it on WhenParentsText.

Be Italian!!

2011-01-10T21:24:00.000-08:00

I should know better than to ever listen to a critic’s review of a movie before I see it. I heard horrible reviews about Nine, the movie starring A-listers like Daniel Day-Lewis, Nicole Kidman, Penelope Cruz, Marion Cottilard, Sofia Loren among other great actresses that came together in this musical based on a Broadway show from the 80’s about an Italian filmmaker named Guido Contini who is a very successful film director but is suffering from a director’s block (sort of like a writer’s block) and can’t really come up with the next subject for his upcoming film, much awaited by the Press and his fans.

Problem is that his producer has already titled it: Italia. As broad as that title conveys a lot of pressure into the italiano virtuoso that he must get away from all the pressure he’s getting, away from everybody and actually he takes off to an undisclosed location, a beautiful hotel away from his crew, his producer, even his own wife and closer to his lover Penelope Cruz, in one of her best roles out of this film. Guido tries very hard to juggle his mistress, his career, his marriage but has no rest and little time to actually enjoy his life; it’s as if he lives to please other people (especially women) and forgets to please himself (no pun intended… really!!) and so his life becomes too overwhelming and gets to a point when the truth cannot longer be contained.

And so the musical introduces the nine women that orbit his life: from his tender yet strict mother (Sofia Loren), his wife (Marion Cotillard), his mistress (Penelope Cruz), his muse and go-to-actress (Nicole Kidman), an attractive reporter (Kate Hudson), even a street hooker he once met as a kid (Fergie), and lastly his assistant and confidant the great Judi Dench… Wait a minute, that's seven… It should have been called Se7en but it was already taken, I guess.

So I’m kind of puzzled as to why it didn’t do well with critics and the Oscars, I thought the performances were amazing, particularly Daniel, Penelope and Marion who did a phenomenal job in their respective roles and the music was just fantastic, I enjoyed Kate Hudson’s number the best, it’s titled Cinema Italiano and as soon as you hear it, you feel like getting up and dancing, I totally loved it. Kate Hudson has never been so radiant as in this wonderful movie. Also, Penelope’s A Call From the Vatican is so sensual and plain perfection, that I’m glad that it was Penelope to perform it (this part would have either gone to Catherine Zeta Jones, Amy Adams, Gwyneth Paltrow or Anne Hathaway) and it was her that brought out her top game for this role and brought out the mistress’ desperation and distress to the part. However, it was Marion Cotillard who stole the movie by playing Guido’s always supporting wife her heart and soul with her performance, I think she was the one woman that Guido neglected to pay respect and really deserved it. His betrayal was that much painful when you knew Marion was involved, she certainly had given him her all and had constantly forgiven his affairs, over and over and over again until it was enough. No woman should have to go through so much for any man.

And although Nine didn’t deserve an Best Picture Oscar or anything (although it had Oscar written all over it for its Oscar caliber cast- almost all of them were winners or nominees), it shouldn’t have been treated the way it was, it’s certainly a decent and quite artsy film that never quite made it to the big awards show so next time I’ll go with my instincts and just watch the movie, I’ll stop reading the reviews… Except when it comes to M. Night Shyamalan’s next movie…

Other Nine Little known facts:

1 The role of Guido Contini would have been for Javier Bardem but he took a year break due to exhaustion.

2 The original Broadway musical opened May, 9th 1982 with Raul Julia as Guido and won 5 Tony Awards.

3 The latest Broadway production in 2003 had Antonio Banderas playing the infamous italiano. He was approached to reprise this role for the film version but he turned it down. He would have starred in 2 films based on Broadway musicals: Nine and Evita.

4 Rob Marshall who directed Nine chose Marion Cotillard instead of Katie Holmes who had also auditioned for the part.

5 Nine was nominated for 4 Oscars but didn’t win any. Penelope was nominated for Best Supporting Actress.

6 Other actresses considered for Nine: Barbra Streisand as Lili, Demi Moore as Luisa Contini, Katie Holmes as role of Carla

7 Guido Contini is based on real life italian director Federico Fellini.

8 Nine is not to be confused with the animated movie 9, which came out earlier in 9/9/09... Or District 9 which is about aliens living as exiles in South Africa... Or the erotic 9 1/2 Weeks starring Kim Basinger and Mickey Rourke...

9 Why is it called Nine? Nine is based on the film 8½, which stands for the number of movies that Federico Fellini had directed to that point. And I always thought it was 9 women, oh well, now I know.

The Ben Affleck Project

2011-01-10T20:55:00.000-08:00

The Town

The Town.

I have a problem with this title. I mean, yeah it’s the story about Boston and a few of his residents behaving badly, led by Ben Affleck and his pal Jeremy Renner in a series of bank robberies amid this town which happens to be the actor/director/screenwriter’s hometown. When I think of The Town, I can’t help but think about M. Knight Shyamalan’s The Village and I almost immediately wanna turn it down. Although I have no better suggestions for the name, the title should speak about the drama and tension of this gang of friends who like to live dangerously, defying Boston police and FBI agents who can’t wait to put their hands on these men.

And I root for the bad guys here. Why is it that every time that a good crime movie comes on you end up rooting for the wrong side of the law? I mean, we shouldn’t be encouraging this bad behavior but whenever I saw these men dressed up as nuns with guns running around town fleeing from the cops in a near-impossible car chase in the narrow streets of downtown Boston, the only concern that I have is whether or not they’ll make it alive.

It also helps that there’s a love story that holds the story together, a story about a bank robber and the girl who’s experienced the assault first-hand and lived to tell her horrible experience. Their relationship develops when Ben Affleck follows the one possible witness that they let go in the opening bank assault. The scene was so charged and violent that you don’t realize these are the same people that you see later on talking and walking without a mask, whenever they change into their costumes they became wild beasts but underneath their disguise hide regular people that you’d see in the street and you just never think they’d be capable of any wrongdoing, particularly Ben Affleck who’s on the verge of letting everything go, get away from the hell that’s become his life: his father has been imprisoned for years now, his mother’s disappereance remains a mystery that he could never quite grasp, his daughter’s mother is the town’s whore and best friend’s sister. Everything about this town is holding him back and will never let go… he needs to cut everything that attaches him there, he must cut free before it’s too late…

Why is it that in every crime movie there’s a character that swears: this is the last time? I’ve seen too many movies in which there’s always a “last time” and it turns out to be so deadly and devastating? Don’t they know that when they get pretty close to being caught? I guess that’s the nature of this genre that we may continue to see in every crime caper. The Town is pretty smart and well scripted, though and, even though we know what the end result will be like, you still root for this "last time" to really work out for them and see them really take off and get out of town to Florida, or wherever it is they dream of going to.

Pretty good performances here from Ben Affleck, Jeremy Renner (from Hurt Locker), Rebecca Hall (she was also in Vicky Cristina Barcelona) and Mad Men's Jon Hamm as the FBI agent who's trying to keep up with this gang who's always outsmarting them, one way or the other. I believe this movie should at least get a nomination for Best Movie and quite possibly Best Director for Ben Affleck

Viva New Jersey!

2011-01-03T21:45:00.000-08:00

Jersey Boys at The Palazzo, Las Vegas

Remind me to never EVER book a stay in Las Vegas during the holidays, ESPECIALLY NYE!!!

So as you can figure out by now is that I went to Las vegas last weekend for the big party to welcome a new decade, now the 2000’s are a decade gone by and the new 2010’s begin with a blast. Don’t get me wrong, as long as you have great company (which I did) nothing can go wrong… Even when it did (it involves an Angry Egyptian Cab Driver, a coked-up former supermodel, a drag queen turned DJ Lady Bunny, the crazy and obnoxious drunks roaming around the strip like zombies out of Zombieland, among other casualties) it was fun just to have someone to share it with. It’s one vacation I shall never forget…

So the highlight for this trip was seeing Jersey Boys at the Palazzo a.k.a. the one inside The Venetian. It’s the random told story of four guys out of New Jersey who join to create a band called Four Seasons with Frankie Valli heading the band that came out with great songs in the 60’s like Sherry, Big Girls Don’t Cry and Walk Like a Man. The story is divided in 4 parts: Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter, each one is told by one of Four Season’s member in his own words and although at the beginning the story seemed complicated: they went in and out of prison way too many times, the story of how Tommy De Vito discovered Frankie through his friend Joe Pesci (yeah, THE Joe Pesci!!) and almost immediately saw a real potential in the voice that would ultimately make their band enter the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

What little I knew about this band is the story of how screwed up Tommy was, he was always getting himself into more and more trouble and over the years that he evaded taxes and earned even a bigger debt with some rich mafiosos from his hometown, he’s the whole reason the Four Seasons became Two, then became just a one man show with Frankie Valli stepping up to the plate and paying off Tommy’s debts and getting the band up from the ashes. It was also Bob Gaudio who developed a sound that had rarely been heard before and who really had to fight with DJ’s and studios across the country to record and play one of the bands most underrated, and possibly best, song: Can’t Take My Eyes Off You. I still get chills down my spine when I heard that song played live, Jersey Boys was one of those shows where the actors display such talent for being an all around performer, both singing, acting and running in and out the stage, it was a marvel to watch and a great addition to shows that deserve its own permanent place in Las Vegas and I greatly recommend it to everyone who loves music, period.

By the way, I'd like to wish all of you a Happy New Year 2011, a lot of acomplishments in 2010 I'm grateful for at work, at home, in love, in my life that I intend to continue growing and growing into a better person that I was last year. Everyone: Happy New Year and may all your resolutions (like mine) come true, we all have the power to accomplish it, we just gotta say NOW is time!! Like someone said on Facebook: you don't have to wait till New Year to set goals and resolutions, we should do it all throughout the year. Amen to that.

TRON

2011-01-03T20:59:00.000-08:00

Even I couldn't resist. As soon as Sam Flynn enters the Grid, a digital world created by his father back in the 80's, we are in awe of something so great and so grand that cannot be described in simple words. It's just amazing how much has technology advanced since 1982 when we first saw Jeff Bridges enter this fictitious world that he created and became trapped in the first TRON movie.

The first thing that really had me surprised was how young Jeff Bridges' character looked, first as we had a glimpse back when he last saw his son in the 80's and later in the movie as his alter ego personified as CLU (short for Codified Likeness Utility... I had no "clue" until I searched this on IMDB), the evil carbon copy that was created to build a perfect world, an alternative universe filled with "programs" that roam around a dark city lit up by neon lights. The first few minutes we see Sam try to stay alive in a gladiator-style contest in which only the smartest and the fittest survive.

Yet the best scene is probably when Sam gets handed a little "stick" device that becomes a motorcycle unlike I have even seen before and soon we get treated to one of the best high speed chase scenes ever seen in film history. It's full adrenaline to watch and you feel as if you were inside the Grid. And I don't mean having the 3D glasses helped because I honestly didn't notice the difference between a 2D scene and a 3D one, it was either very subtle or not there at all, again I didn't see the benefits of having this stupid looking glasses on top of my prescription glasses, you can just imagine how uncomfortable I felt. I hope someday we can go back to normal again, a day when the 3D madness goes away, or even a day when you won't need 3D glasses to see a 3D movie? Anything is possible, right?

At the heart of the film, Jeff Bridges' Kevin Flynn is a man trapped in a world that he created but has no control over anymore. He sees CLU as the new ruler of this world now, he's lost all control of this magnificent yet doomed universe that's as flawed as it is fascinating to see. Kevin has created a monster that cannot be controlled, a program without a heart and full of human flaws implanted by his own ambition. I can't help but think of Kevin Flynn as a God who created a seemingly "perfect" universe that has turned against himself. Luckily we get a great actor that can act as both a righteous computer programmer and his ruthless alter ego that will stop at nothing to accomplish world domination, if it wasn't for Jeff Bridges the movie would have certainly fallen flat and become souless. Also we get a gorgeus program nicknamed Quorra, a very naive yet kick ass vixen in the shape of Olivia Wilde, she's certainly an actress to watch out for.

Beware of the Black Swan

2010-12-13T22:27:00.000-08:00

The Black Swan

The Black Swan is unquestionably the best, most suspenseful movie to come up this year, right there after Let Me In. At first, I thought this movie about a ballerina trying to grab the lead role in a production of The Swan Lake in which the lucky (?) chosen girl has to prove to do more than just play one role of the Swan Queen/White Swan but also her evil counterpart called The Black Swan. Sounds simple enough, right? I mean it’s the typical story of a girl who wants it all, who wants to have this part so bad that she will go to extreme lengths to achieve this. Wrong!
Natalie Portman plays Nina Sayers, this overachiever who wants to demonstrate her duality yet her perfectionism is her worst enemy. She seems to always be trying too hard and her instructor demands only the best from her. Every step, every move she makes is scrutinized by this arrogant and womanizing instructor who might have broken a few ballerinas' hearts, including former ballerina superstar played by Winona Ryder. However the movie has little bit to do with the production of The Swan Lake, or with the affair Nina has with the instructor, or Nina's domineering mother (Barbara Hershey) but more to do with what's eating Nina inside, what she's becoming.

This story reminds me of Frank Kafka's novel Metamorphosis in which the main character slowly but surely transforms herself from being so pure and innocent to one day wake up a monster, a horrible being who is so intriguing yet you're always guessing what she'll do next.
Suspense builds as we try to make sense of the strange circumstances that lead Nina to secure her part as The Swan Queen. The Black Swan has managed to keep me guessing all the way to the very end and at the climax of the movie I could almost feel the tension growing while we see Nina perform the role that she was always meant to play.

It’s the end of the year and the best movies start piling up for the Oscar race. If I may add my two cents in the nominations I would like to suggest The Black Swan for the best movie of 2010. Also Natalie Portman has blown me away in one role that had me rooting for her while at the same time be frightened by her alter ego, the Black Swan... Just do it, will you? You don’t want to upset this bird.

King George's Speech

2010-12-07T21:24:00.000-08:00

The King's Speech

I know the title doesn’t sound like much. The story about a prince who becomes a king against his will and has a speech impediment that doesn’t allow him to speak more than one single sentence whenever he gets nervous. Yet the first few minutes where we get to see Colin Firth show up in a public event and he gets to that podium to speak and we see the terror in his eyes and everybody’s just staring at him, some shaking their heads in disappointment prepare us for a totally different kind of movie, a movie about perseverance, facing your deepest fears head on and just an extraordinary story about an extraordinary man that became the King of England against all the odds.

And it makes quite a difference when there are great actors involved: there’s the title character played marvelously by Colin Firth as King George VI (whose daughter shall later become current Queen Elizabeth II), his wife Queen Elizabeth is played by the great Red Queen from Wonderland herself Helena Bonham Carter who supports him 110% and stands behind his man throughout his ordeal and the ever extraordinaire and brilliant Geoffrey Rush as Lionel Logue who helps the prince who becomes the king quite unexpectedly in trying to overcome his speech problem and address a nation that is in the middle of an eminent World War II.

What I liked more about this movie is that it doesn’t just brush through the surface but it goes deeper than just his disability to speak in public but also interacting with his family where he feels comfortable and his speech is really not that bad and then his interaction with his tyrant father and his younger brother who both tortured him as a child and possibly helped in worsening his disability even more. We see the man as he was, not just a superficial character but a real character whom we feel for every time that he’s to speak in public or address anybody. He certainly has a different mindset than his brother and a real potential for being a king but his stutter problem stops him right on his tracks. Until he decides to trust in the unorthodox techniques of Lionel who treats him not like royalty but as an equal which allowed him to open up and trust this man will see him through those disabilities and confront them, he’s the one person along with his wife that really believed in him and helped him deliver the most important and relevant message as King of England.

Oscar buzz galore! I bet that Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush and Helena Bonham Carter will all receive their perspective nominations AND win them!! Also Best Screenplay, Best Cinematography (as every movie about Royalty and beautifully palaces should), and quite possibly Best Movie of the Year.

That’s how confident I am about The King’s Speech.

King George VI: [Logue is sitting on the coronation throne] Get up! Y-you can't sit there! GET UP!

Lionel Logue: Why not? It's a chair.

King George VI: T-that... that is Saint Edward's chair.

Lionel Logue: People have carved their names on it.

King George VI: L-listen to me... listen to me!

Lionel Logue: Why should I waste my time listening to you?

King George VI: Because I have a voice!

Lionel Logue: ...yes, you do.

Look Who's Walking

2010-12-06T20:01:00.000-08:00

AMC's The Walking Dead

I hate zombies, I always have… Ever since I was a young boy (yeah, I used to be once) I was petrified of watching zombies on the screen. Still I was fascinated by the genre and one day I faced my fears and I headed to the theatre to watch Return of the Living Dead back in 1985 or 86 and I had to drag all my schoolmate to see it over and over again. I never realized the social innuendos behind the genre (and I still quite don’t get it fully) but the fact that these zombies feeding on human brain was just so frightening yet incredibly irresistible to not watch.

Fast forward 25 years later and that kid inside of me still feels squirming whenever I see a zombie flick, be it a comedy like Shaun of the Dead or Zombieland or as seriously disturbing as 28 Days Later (and even Weeks) I still cover my eyes when I see fake blood being splattered all over the screen. And so I was hesitant to convince myself to watch the first episode of AMC’s new hit show The Walking Dead on demand one rainy day in fear that I may find it horrible and disgusting.

Well, I was right about it being horribly disgusting yet this particular zombie story is quite different than all others that I have forced myself to watch: The Walking Dead has a Lost feel to it where our characters intertwine with one another and there’s always more to the characters than just people trying to survive their apocalyptic destiny.

I find myself rooting for Rick Grimes (played by Andrew Lincoln) who is a sheriff that wakes up from a coma only to realize that everyone around him is gone and his first few minutes in that hospital are the most horrifying anyone could have imagined. Everyone has deserted this hospital and the more Rick roams around he starts to realize that something has gone horribly awry here that has forced everyone to leave him alone at anyone’s mercy. Actually he’s not quite alone, you see. At first the only glimpse we get of these hellbound creatures is only their hands, lurking from behind chained doors that warn: DO NOT OPEN DEAD INSIDE.

The few first minutes of The Walking Dead are so eerie and devastating that I can’t help but think what would I do in his shoes? What can you possibly do when everything you once knew is gone and there’s noone there to explain it to you, you just woke up in the aftermath of an apocalypse… What to do? Do you look for others? Do you just run for shelter or you fight back? Will the zombies ever stop coming?

The story revolves around Sheriff Grimes and his search for his wife and kid whom he later on meets in the 3rd episode but she hadn’t realized he was still alive and she might have already found someone else to put out her flame… in his best friend, Shane. This love triangle still hasn’t developed much however, a few more subplots are on the way and so this is just the beginning of an incredibly story of survival, betrayal, madness, love and the never ending zombies coming at you from the place you least expect them.

No matter in which shape or form these zombies come out at our characters: they may be old people, children, women, even the characters we come to like in the show… Once they’re bitten there’s no turning back and the better you get rid of them the better. In one powerful and heart breaking scene, one girls gets mortally wounded by a zombie and her older sister doesn’t seem to let go of her sister and she holds her all night until the time comes when the inevitably starts coming back as a zombie… And she shoots her sister herself… She wanted to be the one to do it and that she did.

It’s not your typical funny-horror fest that we’ve come to know over the years and sometimes you forget you’re watching a zombie show until one of those suckers come on the screen. And they’re pretty fearless too, they will attack on anything that’s walking, be it human or non-human (so far I’ve seen them eating horses, rats and deer), but apparently these zombies smell humans and respond to noise and they’re more active at night. Regardless, you never know when they’re lurking from…

God, how I hate those zombies… Yet I love this show…

Show Me How You Burlesque

2010-12-02T22:16:00.000-08:00

Christina Aguilera in Burlesque

"Of course, me being me, I had to give her one tiny bit of advice. It was in the scene in which Tess says, "OK, I'm going to build the show around you." There was a close-up on Christina, and though she had a beautiful look on her face, I knew she had more to give. I went up to her and said, "Christina, this is the moment you've been waiting for all your life. Not your character's life, but yours. It's now or never." Moments later I watched her pull years of tears out of those baby blue eyes. Yeah! I know this beautiful child can go as far, and as deep, as she wants to go. I'm proud of her and I am proud to be in this film with her."

Cher talking about scenes with Christina Aguilera.

Last week when I went to see Burlesque I was expecting to be entertained. I mean, I didn’t care whether it got good or bad reviews, I wasn’t interested in the story or the plot or whether or not that even mattered. It was just a movie that would keep me entertained for 105 minutes… And I wasn’t disappointed.

From the opening number in which Cher comes out with her crew of mischievous and scandalous burlesque dancers singing “Welcome to Burlesque” while a mesmerized Christina Aguilera (along with a mesmerized theatre audience) walks into this magical bar where “anything goes” -but not really- we’re hooked and the less they talk the better. The story we’ve seen hundred of times before: a girl from Nowhere, Ohio moves to Hollywood, California for one reason only: to sing, dance and look pretty… and maybe looking for love? In this case, loves comes in the shape of Cam Gigandet (I know, I had to Google him, too) who’s better known as the villain in the first Twilight, who is also from the Midwest and welcomes Christina into this bar where only a few talented make it. Obviously, all of them are gorgeous and perform number after amazing number while Christina looks at them from the corner of her eye while she hustles as a waitress.

All this time, we’re waiting for the right opportunity in which Cher gets to see Christina’s vocal talents and we get to hear this when she steps up onto the stage and lets out her voice take over with “Tough Lover” and then the movie went to a much different place…

I felt as if I was watching a revue show in the heart of Moulin Rouge, somewhere stuck in time, and Christina filling the room with her wonderful and powerful voice and finally I remembered why I came to see this movie.

And it’s been quite a year for this performer to still surprise us even more: earlier this year she came up with Bionic which placed her in the lead after her last hit Stripped (although I still favor Stripped a lot more than Bionic, but it’s a decent album nonetheless) A very good song that came out off Bionic (which is hardly played in the airwaves) is a little song called “Lift Me Up” which I actually had heard much earlier in the year where she sang this song live during the telecast of “Hope For Haiti” to help victims of the devastating 2010 Earthquake that moved a lot of artists here and in Europe. The way Christina sang this song was so emotional and raw that every time I hear it I tear up, she’s one of the few artists who have managed to move me in such way.

Then she wowed me with a remix of Genie in a Bottle titled Genie 2.0 from her Keeps Gettin' Better: A Decade of Hits, which I still like to play in my iPod and in my car. AND she still managed to write 3 songs from this phenomenal soundtrack which I had to immediately buy after the credits rolled.

In short, the movie was not a grand plot but that was to be expected, however Christina’s performance along with the supporting help of the legendary Cher lifted this movie from being just a mediocre musical soon to be forgotten. I’m sure it probably will be on DVD in like 3 months or so and everyone will forget it within a year from now but the power of the songs, choreography, lights, costumes will last until Oscar night, this certainly deserves Best Song, Best Costumes, Best Supporting Actress (for Cher), Best Supporting Actor (Stanley Tucci and Alan Cumming both have hilarious roles in Burlesque) and possibly Best Actress for Christina Aguilera whose performance was really above average and when she sees an opportunity to shine under the spotlight she takes it by the balls.

Now THAT’S how you Burlesque…