2009 Archives
Disco Pigs
Today, I want to write about one of my favorite movies ever, called Disco Pigs. It is starring Cillian Murphy and Elaine Cassidy, who are best friends Pig and Runt. The two are turning 17, and they are getting ready to deal with all the changes that life throws at them as they grow up.
You see, Pig and Runt were born almost at the same time in the same hospital. They have been best friends since they were born. They have their own language, their own way of communicating, and they are always together. Pig and Runt also live next door to one another, and their rooms are next to each other. They put a hole in the wall so they can hold hands and talk at night when they are in bed. They call themselves the king and the queen of their own little world.
Up to before the movie starts, their two lives are well balanced and they live in their own bubble very comfortably. But when they get older, things start to change. Runt, who is the girl played by Elaine Cassidy, starts to want to date boys, and Pig only wants to date Runt. He gets jealous and violent and acts desperate when she goes away from him. One day, she is sent to a school in Donegal and it’s the first time they are separated in their lives. They have to find a way to deal with growing up and all the changes that are happening in their lives and inside them all at the same time.
The reason this is one of my favorite movies is becuause as a young person you can relate to really being close to someone before you grow older, and then you start to drift more and more away from them with time. I can’t tell you how the movie ends but I will say that it is very painful, just the way that growing up into an adult can be. I hope you check it out.
Plum
Nine
I just read about this movie that’s going to come out in November. It’s called Nine, and it’s directed by Bob Weinstein –the same director who did Chicago with Queen Latifah, Richard Gere, Catherine Zeta Jones and Renee Zellweger.
Nine has an all-star cast as well, that’s probably even more impressive than Chicago, if that’s possible. They all have Oscars or Grammys. It’s going to be:
- Daniel Day-Lewis (main character)
- Marion Cotillard (wife)
- Judi Dench (colleague)
- Fergie (prostitute)
- Penélope Cruz (mistress)
- Nicole Kidman (muse)
- Sophia Loren (mother)
- Kate Hudson (journalist, just has an Oscar nomination)
I don’t know why the film is called 9, because it only has 8 people in it. But I do know the movie is based on Fellini’s movie 8 1/2, and it stars Daniel Day-Lewis as an Italian film director Guido Contini. Guido is trying to balance out all the different women in his life, at the same time as trying to finish a movie and get through a mid-life crisis. And they sing all the way through.
I’m not ashamed to say I really liked Chicago. I saw the Broadway Show, and I actually liked the movie more, which isn’t too common. I liked how the lead characters were cast so well in their roles, and they also made each of the songs work really well on film, which can be hard because they were made for the stage. Queen Latifah became so famous after filming this movie. I really liked how the makeup and costumes were done as well. So, this makes me really look forward to seeing Nine on November 25th. I’ll leave you with a link to the preview here.
Plum
The Sweet Hereafter
So, I read a review by another blogger about this film and he was really slagging it off and so I went and got it and saw it. It’s another one that got highest prize at Cannes in 1997, and here’s what it’s about. There is a terrible accident that happens to this community of people. In the wintertime, a bus full of schoolkids loses control and crashes into a lake. Then the bus sinks and all these little kids die. It affects the whole community, cause almost everyone in the town has lost someone that they love.
So, there is this lawyer who comes in and wants to get all the parents together and sue somebody so the families can get some kind of compensation. Well, first of all, a lot of people think, well, it was an accident so why are we dragging this thing out? And who would we sue anyways? So, the lawyer says we could sue the city, or we could sue the bus company, or we could sue somebody like that because it must have been someone cutting corners.
The lawyer himself is really interesting cause he’s got a daughter himself. His daughter is a drug addict who just uses her dad to get money to get high. So he’s really angry and hurt in his own personal life and he wants to find someone to blame, too.
So the movie goes back and forth with the lawyer guy when he is trying to get all the families together to make a case. He talks to the bus driver and he talks to all different kinds of parents and he talks to one girl who survived the bus crash. The girl is played by Sarah Polley and she was crippled by the accident. The lawyer wants her to testify in the lawsuit. She doesn’t want to but her dad makes her (oh, and she’s sleeping with her dad by the way).
Well, I can’t tell you what happens in the end of the movie, of course, but one thing I will say is it was really unexpected. I disagree that this film was confusing and unoriginal, because I have never heard of something like this before, and I thought all the actors did a really good job. I would recommend this film to other people who want to see it.
Plum
[image: imdb.com]
Underground
I watched a really cool Yugoslavian film over the weekend.. it was called Underground. It came out in 1995, and it got the highest prize at Cannes. It was directed by Emir Kusturica.
[image: imdb.com]
Basically, it’s about these two Yugoslavian guys who are best friends during World War II. They live in Belgrade, and they are both in love with the same actress. It covers them over 15 years of World War II, the war ending, the Cold War, and the Yugoslav Wars. So, it’s a lot of conflict and awful things happening, but at the same time, you get to know these characters and they have so much inside of them and they are so alive, that they steal your attention away from all the war and death going on.
The thing I really love about this film is how it’s basically like an eyeful and an earful at all times. One of the first scenes is when the zoo gets bombed by the Germans. And so there’s all these tigers and monkeys and stuff screaming and ratling their cages, and then theres all these bombs dropping. And in the very first scene, there is a band that plays behind the main guys, who are coming home drunk. It’s hard to describe it in words cause it’s so visual and there’s so much that goes on, but here is one version of the preview:
stay tuned for more movie reviews
plum.
Withnail and I
pic from jdmfilmreviews.com
I really dig films and one film I dig is Withnail and I. Its a proper classic English movie that was produced by George Harrison’s film company HandMadeFilms. It was written and directed by Bruce Robinson. It is set in Camden in 1969 and it has songs by Jimi Hendrix, the Beatles, David Dundas, etc.
It kind of reminds me of Fight Club because there’s two guys in it, and one of them is really crazy and out there, and the other guy doesn’t have a name but he’s telling the story. And they live on the outside of society and they’re trying to figure out their way of living life and how to get by. And they have these crazy adventures and something goes wrong between them at the end. I won’t say what because you need to see it for yourself.
People should watch this movie because it’s a big part of English culture– it’s the 60s and Withnail and I’s lives were changing at the same time as society was changing. And its really funny but not in an obvious way like a lot of American films can be.
I really want to watch all the films made by HandMadeFilms, which are (I struck through the ones I’ve seen):
- Monty Python’s Life of Brian (1979)
- The Long Good Friday (1980)
- Time Bandits (1981)
- Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl (1982)
- The Missionary (1982)
- Privates on Parade (1982)
- Bullshot (1983)
- Scrubbers (1983)
- A Private Function (1984)
- Water (1985)
- Mona Lisa (1986)
- Shanghai Surprise (1986)
- Track 29 (1987)
- Withnail and I (1987)
- Five Corners (1987)
- The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne (1987)
- How to Get Ahead in Advertising (1989)
- Powwow Highway (1989)
- Nuns on the Run (1990)
- The Wrong Guy (1997)
- Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998)
- Welcome 2 Ibiza (2002)
- Always Crashing in the Same Car (2007)
- Fifty Dead Men Walking (2008)
I watched part of The Long Good Friday and part of The Life of Brian but I can’t remember anything about them so even though I crossed them off I need to watch them again. I’m gonna write some more film reviews on here. I feel like if people watched the movies I watch they would understand me better and there would probably be less ponces in the world.
Plum.
whats wrong with music these days?
OK. Now this REALLY pisses me off… how come musicians today don’t have ANY SOUL?
I was listening to loads of famous artists from the 60s, and they were just being themselves and it was like they didn’t have an ego, they were just focusing on being talented and trying to make things better in the world.
I mean listen to this interview where Janis Joplin says shes successful but success doesnt change her because she just keeps the idea to stay true to herself and be real.
Take a look at Jimi Hendrix in this interview on the Dick Cavett Show in 1969. He says that compliments distract him and he says that you have to remember your artistic roots. Then he says like, you can sing more blues the more money you make, because some young people lose their soul when they start making money and getting successful.
This is what George Harrison who was my favourite Beatle, said in an interview with LE FIGARO about the state of music today man:
“You know what irritates me about modern music, it’s all based on ego. Look at a group like U2. Bono and his band are so egocentric… The more you jump around, the bigger your hat is, the more people listen to your music… The only important thing is to sell, and make money. It’s nothing to do with talent.”
Yeah, now, we have U2 and stars like Beyonce who says she is planning to be a legend and get all these awards. That’s not what it’s about!!!! And look at Katy Perry, taking off her clothes and pretending shes into girls so people will buy her albums?! JLo wanting people to buy her stuff and concentrating more on her clothing line and perfumes and her butt, instead of actually playing good music!
Even like now, all my friends are running around pretending to be rock stars and everybody wants to be a movie star so they can be famous and rich but why?!?! The REAL, original rock stars didnt even like the WORD rock star! They just wanted to be honest people and reach out to other people and wake them up with their art. That’s what I want to do too somehow.
People are so forgetful, its like we learned the lesson years ago, but then we forgot the lesson and just started wearing the clothes they wore in the 60s and listening to rock and messing up our hair but underneath it all we just don’t get it.
plum.
Cool Friends
Does anyone else out there have a friend who they think is SO cool, maybe even cooler than you are and you want to be just like them? My best friend Joanna is like that… She’s really fun and enthusiastic and active and she’s always doing interesting things and going interesting places and stuff. I feel like I can’t be like that– but I REALLY want to be just like her. We are best friends and we see each other every day, but I’m always scared she’s going to stop being my friend and get bored with me.
I mean, I want to be really confident and spontaneous and outgoing and not need other people to approve of me! Joanna hardly ever gets upset or scared or unhappy, she’s always just texting her friends and going and doing fun stuff with them, she never gets down like I do…. she’s just so amazing and everyone loves her. It’s really frustrating!!!! :’o(
Anyways, I think that this website is a really cool idea for me because it’s a place where I can just come and say what I want to say and its like an outlet for me. It’s like how Eminem just always says what he’s thinking and stuff and that way, when he’s living his normal life, he is more calmer.
OK, gotta go and do some work, I have to write an essay on Italy and Japan for school.
xoxo
Plum
Cinemas vs Downloading
So everyone keeps going on about how Pirating and Downloading is bad and if you do it, the Government will track you down and lock you up and eat you for breakfast! Well, maybe they will. But I’ll take my chances till then.
The reason being that I don’t feel cinemas are doing their bit against the whole download issue. Ok, so they put the Piracy warning at the beginning of the film, but that’s just meant to scare people into going to the cinema, out of fear of being caught watching a film at home. What cinemas should be doing is lowering their prices! I know I live in Central London but still, £9.80 to watch a film I might not even enjoy? Cinemas argue that they need to charge more because less people are coming to the cinema, because they’re downloading films and watching them at home. But, they could turn this around. If every cinema ticket was £5, no matter what time you went to watch the film, people wouldn’t bother to download films. They would be able to go to any film they fancied the look of, whether blockbusters, independent, foreign or indie films!
Furthermore, cinemas are claiming you’re paying £9.80 for the ‘cinema experience’, the ‘unique’ sound system and the ‘extra-comfy’ seats. The problem is that my cinema experience has been ruined several times by un-comfy seats, bad acoustics and noisy chavs chatting throughout the film! For example, Odeon charges extra money if you sit in their ‘Premium’ seats. These are meant to have the best view and acoustics of the whole cinema. But, I once sat in some which were slightly to the side of the screen and couldn’t hear half of the film. I don’t ever ‘upgrade to Premium’ anymore. And neither should you!
Hello World!!
Hello everyone,
I’m 15 years old and sometimes people really piss me off. I need an outlet online. I’m kind of shy in real life, but I DO have opinions and things to say, and so from now on, I’m going to say them here. My first post is going to be pretty symbolic… u better comment if you know what I mean!!!! –Plum
JORDIN SPARKS – Battlefield lyrics
by Wayne Wilkins, Ryan Tedder, Louis Biancaniello, Sam Watters
Don’t try to explain your mind
I know what’s happening here
One minute, it’s love
And, suddenly, it’s like a battlefield
One word turns into a
Why is it the smallest things that tear us down
My world’s nothing when you’re gone
I’m out here without a shield – can’t go back, now
Both hands tied behind my back for nothing, oh, no
These times when we climb so fast to fall, again
Why we gotta fall for it, now…
Chorus:
I never meant to start a war
You know, I never wanna hurt you
Don’t even know we’re fighting for
Why does love always feel like a battlefield, a battlefield, a battlefield
Why does love always feel like a battlefield, a battlefield, a battlefield
Why does love always feel like
Can’t swallow our pride
Neither of us wanna raise that flag, mmm
If we can’t surrender
Then, we’re both gonna lose we have, oh, no
Both hands tied behind my back for nothing (nothing), oh, no
These times when we climb so fast to fall, again
I don’t wanna fall for it, now…
Chorus:
I never meant to start a war
You know, I never wanna hurt you
Don’t even know we’re fighting for
Why does love always feel like a battlefield, a battlefield, a battlefield
Why does love always feel like a battlefield, a battlefield, a battlefield
Better go and get your armor (get your armor), get your armor (get your armor)
I guess you better go and get your armor (get your armor), get your armor (get your armor)
I guess you better go and get your
We could pretend that we are friends, tonight (oh)
And, in the morning, we wake up, and we’d be alright
‘Cause, baby, we don’t have to fight
And I don’t want this love to feel like a battlefield, a battlefield, a battlefield
Why does love always feel like a battlefield, a battlefield, a battlefield
I guess you better go and get your armor…
Chorus:
I never meant to start a war
You know, I never wanna hurt you
Don’t even know we’re fighting for
Why does love always feel like a battlefield, a battlefield, a battlefield
Why does love always feel like a battlefield, a battlefield, a battlefield
I guess you better go and get your armor (get your armor), get your armor (get your armor)
I guess you better go and get your armor (get your armor), get your armor (get your armor)
Why does love always feel like (oh, oh)
Why does love always feel like a battlefield, a battlefield
I never meant to start a war
Don’t even know what we’re fighting for
I never meant to start a war
Don’t even know what we’re fighting for…
