Oscar Worthy?

I feel like I watched a movie after months - Actually I did watch a movie after months! The Husbaand went off to babysit his best friend (whose wife and child are absconding in the UK) and I decided to catch up on some Oscar fare! I started with The Kids Are All Right followed by the much touted Social Network.

I have to say I cannot understand the typecast butch with the short hair and the manly clothes! I'm certain there must be relationships where both are feminine or both are somewhat butch. In this case, Annette Bening is called Nick, dresses in trousers and vests - I understand the controlling part but the need to be masculine? is it not possible to be lesbian, in charge and feminine? I understood Julianne Moore's character more - the sleeping with the man does not imply she is straight or even bisexual just that she is tortured and making bad choices to force the situation. The movie is good but apart from the fact that it was a same sex relationship, all the issues seem the same. Mark Ruffalo as the 'F***ing Interloper' trying to move into a ready made family, was the best thing in the movie for me but I cannot understand the non conclusion of the sub plots like Joni kissing the boy or Tanya and the other fruit picker (this maybe just me though with the need to tie up all threads!).

Having read "The Accidental Billionaire', I have to say the movie stayed true to the book in most part but still the book had more impact. Maybe watching the movie, little less than a year after everyone else creates a certain prejudice but I was certainly not raving about the film. The book very clearly states that for Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook is the biggest thing in the world but that did not come out for me in the movie. In the case of Eduardo Saverin, the things he might have done seem personal and the point of Sean Parker is not overtly stated as a threat. The music does set the scene and Jesse Eisenberg acts the part of a borderline genius but I'm not sure that A Girl is the source of all his angst.

I also thought that the films very not very gripping but that could be the effect of watching them at home on a not very large screen - the distractions and ability to pause does not create the tension to pay attention! I really could not understand the Oscar hype around the films in comparison to previous films which I loved - The Reader, Million Dollar Baby, even Life is Beautiful! 

Next on the list to conquer - True Grit and The Fighter.

Random fact!

Even though, I claim 'Clueless' as my favourite movie, it probably is Sleepers'. To me the movie exemplifies the word 'poignant' - I don't know what it is that makes it so - the friendship between the boys, the waste of lives, the unfinished story between Carol and Micheal, the relationship between Fr.Bobby and the boys - something about the movie makes me feel.

For me, the film manages to clearly show the loss of innocence, from the mischievous children to to the stoic adults.  It also clearly depicts choice - how 2 boys followed the obvious decisions while others managed to break away, even though it involves cutting a part of who you are. 

It's the sort of movie that makes me appreciate my life, appreciate the art of telling a story and the strength of human relationships!

Red Carpet thoughts!

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  Sandra Bullock's lipstick scares me!
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  Charlize Theron thought we would not be able to find her boobs so she wore directions
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  J.Lo wore an icecream!
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  What is it with dead birds at the end of minidresses - Demi Moore, Vera Farmiga, Elizabeth Banks(who is she?),
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  Zoe Saldanha looks like an alien that should be on Na'avi is on the end of her dress instead!
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  Love Love Love Rachel McAdam's dress!
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  Miley Cyrus bottom half is so pretty - so sad she forgot to wear the top of it!
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  Yum Yum Yum!Taylor Lautner - I'm a cougar!
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  Cameron Diaz looked gorgeous - can I have that dress for my wedding?
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  SJP's dress needs an explanation - mathematical, astrophysics, anything?
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  Sigourney Weaver wore a bow???? did she think she had to bring a gift?
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  From twitter, for the first time, Best Director may be prettier than Best Actress (will credit when find the tweet again!)
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  ummm.... James Cameron left Katherine Bigelow for that?
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  Helen Mirren has to be the most graceful person I have ever seen
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  Anna Kendrick's dress was also really pretty - 2nd wedding?

Other random opinions from Twitter:@blaftness: Invade nation. Bomb to hell for 7 yrs. Kill lakhs. Make complex sensitive movie about the experience. Celebrate with moving awards show.

It's complicated!

used to be a Facebook option for a relationship status but I think everyone can choose this - whether you are married, engaged, dating or even single! 

Watching the movie of the same name, it makes you wonder what makes relationships work. In the case of Jane and Jake Adler, it had past it's sell by date - having screwed it up once, they were simply in different places and stages in their lives to make it work again - this in spite of being very well matched!

I have had timing issues with someone who most people would think would be be a perfect match but having missed the boat on several occasions, that ship has now sailed!I know of others who have found their perfect match but found it too early that they cannot hold onto it while growing as a person. Friends have moved continents for love only to have the relationship end. Married friends have issues with change - as a person, as a unit - basically, Relationships are complicated!

The film also focuses on how the children are affected - even adult on the verge of marriage themselves children find it hard to keep adjusting to changes in the relationship of their parents! I find this is true in the case of friends also, most couples tend to have his and her sets for the first couple of years - after finding your legs in a relationship, you eventually settle into a comon set though I have friends who usurped their partner's friends as their own after the split. A relationship no matter how much we can say is between 2 people, it impacts more lives than that - family,friends - it's all a part of the relationship - coz they also help define the individual in the same!

When I see my parents, my family or just generally look around me at successful happy couples, I wonder how? what is the secret that they possess? is it a family recipe, is it just luck, is it a facade? I'm not sure what exactly the answer is - is it just one or a mixture of many? People can say what they want but one thing for sure - it's not simple!

Things to do - done list!

What I've been doing the last couple of weeks feeling like a busy busy girl:

• Trying to catch up on reading and not really succeeding
• Gone for the Juggler's niece's Godbharai to Baroda where I might complain, have not eaten Gujurati food - rest was nice
• Said Goodbye to 2 girl friends with massive staggered farewells including trips to Goa, clubbing and the finale - bar crawl last saturday.
• Went for a wedding peripheral exhibition with the other bride to be
• Started watching Season 6 of 'Two and a Half Men'
• Spending girlie nights at the partyhouse [read house of juggler's best friends]
• Started Homeopathy and reasonably pleased with the results
• Discovered yummy cupcakes at Sante
• Had extreme period pain and gotten up twice at 4am with it[Please remember this blog is also for posterity so im allowed to mention random details of my life!!]
• Not watched any movie worth talking about majorly - liked 'Kaminey' but that's it
• Realised the minimum number of people I need to call for the wedding is 125!
• Loving the music of 'Wake Up Sid!' espescially Kya Karoon?
• rediscovered a love for Indian chinese food - Mr.Chow's Zindabad!

Little things make my life!

Random Thoughts

Random Thought # 1: In India, in the 80's action films were so popular coz people wanted to rebel against the sytem, they saw the 'Angry Young Man' as their representatives, fighting against the injustice [I've heard License Raj was not so good - I don't know!].Therefore cotton candy movies do well today coz people aspire to lead those lives which is a possibility in this open economy. They see the young urban adult as someone who they can possibly be given enough time etc.

Random Thought # 2: Indians are not service oriented people - we always try to cut corners - we are subservient by nature but contrarily, we cannot excel at service. It is at odds with our personality - in contrast, the chinese are extremely service oriented without the personality to drive it. What the world needs is front office Indian and back office Chinese. (this came after discussion with thebride)

Random Thought # 3: Why Oh Why cannot I be a particular person? so I don't have to spend 10% of my time rectifying my own created messes. I think I need a chinese back office for me.

Random Thought # 4: I love Girlie nights, I love my girl friends and I hate it when they move away espescially 2 in the same week.

Random Thought # 5: Next year, should I go back and study something unrelated and try and change my life direction or should I just stay where I am?

Funeral blues

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.
Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead,
Put crêpe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.
He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last for ever: I was wrong.
The stars are not wanted now: put out every one;
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood.
For nothing now can ever come to any good.
- W.H.Auden

I first heard this poem in the movie '4 weddings and a funeral' and till date, it makes me cry.

So many things - so little time!

I'm finally motivated to blog....couple of things have happened in life - went on holiday, got engaged, parents met etc etc but let's focus on my favourite subject - travel.

The bride is planning a 10 day vacay in Italy - making me incredibly jealous - very excited for her but still incredibly jealous and we got to discussing our top travel destinations that we want to visit. All of The Bride's currently seem to be in Europe. (1. paris 2. rome/ venice (though now florence also) 3. london 4. dublin 5. scotland. 6. moscow. 7 prague. 8. berlin).

I have a travel agenda for the next 3 yrs where I plan to strike off 1.New York 2. Istanbul (Turkey) 3. Angkor Wat/South East Asian island preferably Koh Samui. Post which, I will be looking at South America - Inca and Mayan civilizations{Machu Pichu- here I come!!] and also torn between the Eastern European countries like Prague etc. This list does not even include a trip to New Zealand where I will spend more than 6 days this time and explore the South Island.

There are so many places in the world that I will never get to see and this really causes me pain!

I will get down to making a comprehensive list of where all I need to go in the world and post it so I can have the pleasure of ticking it off/striking it through when I'm done!

Also, I have discovered new music after quite a while - In addition to the love of my life Robert Pattinson, 'Twilight' film also introduced me to a band called Muse whose track 'Super Massive Black Hole' is in the soundtrack. I really like the sound and realised how much I missed knowing good music or just hearing different things. In the middle of these discussions, I learnt about Damien Rice and also the sound of Gomez both of which I'm currently enamoured and listening to on loop on youtube. It's music like this which makes me realise why I need a Mp3 music player and why just radio on the phone is not enough!

I also appear to have given up reading - the last books I read were on holiday - Curtis Sittenfeld's Man of my dreams - eminently skippable and Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go which I found very interesting - I also remember watching a movie on the same thoughts - 'The Island' starring Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johannsen. Since then I have started a Joanne Harris 'Rune Marks' and the last in the Thursday Next series 'First Among Sequels' - both of which are still pending completion.

Hey Upper East Siders...

Rumour has it Curly Girlie has fallen into the trap of watching the most addictive television show. Will she be able to fight off the addiction and go back to leading a normal life? or will she be joining her colleagues in gossip girl rehab when there are no episodes? Only time will tell…
Xoxo
Gossip Girl

I've been quite active I think in the recent past - watched Dev.D, Underworld - The Rise of the Lycans and He's not that into you. I've not read a lot tho I finished Jasper Ffordes 'Big Over Easy', another crime novel and in the middle of 'Something Rotten'. But what I really have been doing for the most part is watching 'Gossip Girl' - yes I know how scandalous is that? My life could not further away from that and yet that is pretty much my highlight of the day - what will Blair and Chuck do now? Will Serena and Dan make it? Will Little J ever turn out to be a nice person? Will Nate find one girl and settle instead of trying it on with every chick he meets? So many questions....I watched 18 episodes of season 1 across 3 days - trust me I was not answering the phone, I was not moving my eyes from the TV screen lest I missed one minute of the Upper East Side life!
In other Televison related incidents, recently, I have been obsessed with Kyle XY [I follow this on TV so it's even harder], Desperate Housewives Season 5, Heroes [of course, but this chapter leaves a lot to be desired], and my current comedy favourite - How I Met Your Mother - if you have not seen this show, quit reading this right now and go watch!! It is one of the funniest sitcoms to start this side of the 21st century. I have to say tho I'm a little bit addicted to the new 90210 but I think that it's just a throwback to the original Beverly Hill series which all of us have good memories of espescially me with Luke Perry - I wish he would do a guest appearance on the show.
So as you can see, Ive been slightly involved! What is it about TV shows that make me forget my real life and get involved in the convoluted imagination of a script writer?

**the note on top written by colleague who introduced me to GG!

I love you, Leo!

'What's eating Gilbert Grape?' has always been one of my favourite movies - mainly coz I have a huge huge crush on Johnny Depp [Crush is putting it mildly - let's just say if Mr. JD was in my vicinity, I am not responsible for my actions] but Gilbert's younger brother was also cute in the movie. Imagine my surprise, when a few years later, it turned out the brother was not autistic, could paint and spit far distances and would eventually drown to save his lady love - Jack Dawson in 'Titanic'. It seemed that with the Oscars, Leonardo Dicaprio had arrived. To me, it seemed like he was another one of the good looking actors like the 80's brat pack, who would act in a wide variety of movies doing essentially versions of the same role and continue being a super star. It still takes me by surprise that he has managed to override his good looks and do supremely interesting films time after time. The first time, he burst onto my consciousness post Titanic, was in 'Romeo+Juliet', which though I loved the movie, just enforced my belief that he was going to be a heart throb. Then 'Catch me if you can' happened and I was like ok then...After I saw 'The Aviator' I knew I was wrong. The man is fabulous - it's really not fair, how can you be so good looking and have the courage of your convictions to act in all these great films as well? and date these greek goddess type women as well....Gaah!Of all the Leo films I have watched,the most recent being 'Body of Lies', I have to say 'Blood Diamond' is my hands down favourite - his character in the movie and the last scene where he realises he can never leave Africa is so poignant...of course, the massive pink diamond helped as well.

I realise there is a reason people say to wait a while or not judge a book by the cover...If I can write off Leonardo Dicaprio, can you imagine the potential of the people I might have dismissed through the years??

The Unbelievable Hulk!

So I did see 'The Incredible Hulk' yesterday as planned and the title is apt - it is absolutely incredible and not in a good way - the proportion is all wrong, the pace is too slow and generally the ending with Stark in it prompting the thought of a triquel or whatever the hell you call it is just unbelievable!

I was most amazed at the lack of constant proportion in the movie - in some scenes,the Hulk is shown as massive dwarfing buildings and in other scenes, he is shown as only 1.3 times taller than the average human which makes him roughly the same size as a basket ball player in the NBA.

Unlike in Iron Man, I cannot complain about the lack of action in this movie - there was more than enough fun chase scenes through the very pretty slums in Brazil, there was violent face off in the middle of New York and the villains is really excessively ugly - I am not looking forward to evolution if the human species is going to look like that in the coming millenia!

Actually coming to think of it, a movie combining the thought and wit of Iron Man with the mindless action of the Hulk coz there is obviously no brain behind it just might be the best bet after all!

In the Hulk, another point that escaped me was the inability of the green monster to communicate - I mean he was/is a cellular biologist for crying out loud - he finds it impossible to string together a few words - he was able to string together DNA easy enough to change himself! and if I were the Hulk and Liv Tyler had to literally whimper 'Bruce' one more time and that too unintelligibly, I would possibly forget that deep within, there is a source of love and strangle the living daylights out of her!!! I find these actresses so wasted in action films - Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts - she has enough acting credit to her name not to need to be seen in a non challenging role like this - unless she was a fan in which case it's completely excusable! I'm not sure what Liv Tyler's acting credits are but it seems to me that love interests in comic book movies can be done by aspiring actresses rather than these known names. though Jennifer Connelly did the previous Hulk after being seen in a Beautiful Mind - go figure!

I suppose seeing the movie in a preview theatre that seats 30 people altogether may not have helped my experience which would have been vastly improved by watching in complete comfort in a red lounge! Let me clarify though - not a bad film, worth a watch but not to the standard I was expecting espescially from an Edward Norton!

Random musings

I've not posted in a bit - mainly coz I've been too busy with life!! So I've been thinking [yes, I do that as well]...... I never prescribed to the theory that people write when they are unhappy or unfulfilled but it seems to be true for me also - when I had less to do or I was not so occupied, I wrote a lot more. Nowadays, I'm happy where I am so there is less need to vent or find an outlet for the energy. It's not like I'm doing anything different - I've seen a couple of movies, read a book [actually in the middle of it], hung out with people but nothing has motivated me to pour my heart out. The thing is...the movies were good - Transformers, Simpsons and Chak De, hanging out was fun also - new people espescially but I have not had that urge to share with the world at large. I seem to be happy sharing it at that moment itself and not need to publicise my opinion to anyone who wants to listen.
This worries me in a way - it means that my life is bigger than my writing! For a lot of people [authors mainly one would suppose..], writing is their life - nothing supersedes that. So again, I don't have a driving passion in life, other than life itself! I don't need to do anything to the exclusion of all else........ even work does not define me. This is scary because it's passion that crosses the line for you from mediocre to brilliant in anything you do. If I lack that passion, how will I ever fulfill what I can? and what's scarier is obviously I don't want to.....
Not that I think that being happy is not enough - it's more than!! I think it's important to have friends, enjoy life, marriage, kids - the works but I think in today's world, you need more definition than that - you need to have your own driving force - your " I need to do this to exist" bit which is seperate from "I need this person to exist" because at the end of the day if all else ceases, you will still have yourself and your "drive" to continue......

Zodiac - sign not to watch!

So I saw this movie.....Zodiac which was based on the real case files of a serial killer in of course Amrica from the late 60's to the early 80's - the film starred "dreamy eyed" Jake Gyllenhall [as described by MSN Entertainment] and Robert Downey Jr [the same drug addicted one - very nice actor tho] and I would love to tell you why the film was made but I can't. My problem also is that the film is 2 1/2 hrs long - for an English film going nowhere, that's crazy!! Most people know I can't sit still for more than 30 seconds at a time.....during Salaam - E - Ishq - practically a 4 hr movie [I liked it tho], I started fidgeting after 3 hrs and shook the entire row along with me - Friend had to physically restrain me from creating semi-earthquake catastrophe!! Anyway, back to movie.....it started with people getting shot and carried on from there with no purpose. I mean, the case was never solved, a journalist got obsessed with it, got divorced coz of it, another journalist was driven to drink, it ruined a cop's life, and the man who supposedly did it was a pedophile, and liked publicity and so wrote cipher's with the 'Zodiac' alphabet [some vague medieval code - only interesting information in the whole movie], claimed responsibilities for murder's he apparently did not commit, stole his name and symbol from a watch brand.....Ok now it seems like I'm wandering but the movie is the same...there is no definite conclusion so I cannot figure out why they made it and that too, why they made it so long?? There is this episode of friends where Monica makes friend's with the woman who stole her wallet who does all sorts of crazy things coz she claims she lost 2 hrs of her life watching 'Dead Poet's society' [which I feel is quite a sweet movie by the way] - I currently feel the same!

These are a few of my favourite things!!

I've had a very good weekend extended to Monday - mainly coz I read the 7th and last in the series of Harry Potter - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and I saw a really funny movie! Please note from here on if you've not read the Harry Potter please discontinue reading...

So I was fairly pleased with the book on the whole with the twists and turns that occured. The ending kinda sucked in my opinion because according to me Harry won on a technicality - I mean Expelliarmus is not exactly a spell to win a battle on! I don't care if that's his trademark as mentioned in the book. I mean Draco used it on Dumbledore - Harry used it on Draco and lo and behold he is the true owner of the Elder wand!! Such a technicality!! and of course the epilogue is really well written...but I'm not sure if it was necessary??

Other than that, this whole love angle and dying for the good of the world is a straight lift from the bible!! this is Jesus incarnate - maybe coz I'm catholic and a fan of all the code in Da Vinci but this is really a copy of the sentiment in the New Testament. Da Vinci code has this bit about how all fairy tales etc tell the story of Mary Magdalene but I'm slowly coming to believe that humans like to hear the same story again and again - that one person will save them from doom.

I was super thrilled with the Snape angle and I believed I've voiced the opinion earlier about disbelief in Snape and how Neville would surely play a bigger role and he definitely lived upto his destiny.

I was also upset about the fact that J.K Rowling used the word 'Bastard' in describing people in the book - at the end of the day - it is a children's novel and it leaves a bad taste in the mouth. I noticed it this time - I'm not sure whether it has occured before and this is why I think she has started writing with her adult audience in mind as well.

I'm still a huge fan of the Potter series since the imagination is just fantastic - Some argue that Lord of the Rings is as big a fantasy but LOTR is much darker in a lot of way and frankly I just don't get the whole World War association everyone keeps on about though that series is definitely written for people above the age of 12.

yesterday - I saw a really funny movie after ages - Wild Hogs - of course it did help that I was a bottle of beer down and that too half bottoms up - I always find alcohol helps take a film over the line from mediocre to good but in this case - I dont think the booze had a big role to play. The movie is about 4 middle aged men wanting to be big bad bikers - and they lead really normal middle of the road american lives. The movie tries to have touching scenes but mainly lands up with hysterical situations which are just funny! and the cast is nothing to sneeze at - Tim Allen, William H. Macy, Martin Lawrence and the main man - John Travolta. Ray Liotta and Marisa Tomei also make an appearance. The star cast is big in my opinion but the noise level on the movie was real low. Maybe this is the kind of movie that does well through word of mouth alone - maybe viral marketing is what was used!!

There was an article in the Time Asia magazine recently on John Travolta and his career graph. For every hit, he has a flop and he is still a bankable star in Hollywood. I think bcoz his hit movies become cult films - Saturday Night Fever, Grease, Look Who's talking, Pulp Fiction, Face-off and now the one coming up Hair Spray - where he plays a woman. Something to look forward to!!

Khalid Mohammed....step aside!!

I saw "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" yesterday - like everyone else on the internet I'm going to share my opinion of the movie!! It was by far the most boring book of the series - nothing really happened - and the high light of the movie apparently is Dolores Umbridge so there was really nothing in the book! The book is more like a stop gap - tho if I remember correctly in the 6th one - Voldemort does not make an appearance and it's really a history lesson about Tom Riddle. Anyway was quite happy with the movie since it really kept all the essential elements - it did twist the storyline a bit e.g the person who told on Dumbledore's Army is actually Cho Chang's friend - and she has the word Sneak formed across her face in pustules i think for telling since the document they signed [which they showed in the movie by the way] was charmed!! On the whole I was quite pleased with the whole thing - I suppose was happier since had re read the book early in May so remembered quite a few of the things! but the thing is that in this movie, Daniel Radcliffe according to me is already looking older than his character and HP is going to be 18 in the final one which is a good 4 years away so DR is like going to be like ancient! Another thing is the whole Neville Longbottom twist in the tale which could have been specified since I'm hoping there is something more to that angle in the story since he really has lost a lot to Voldemort as well as HP. Can't wait for "Deathly Hallows" on Saturday coz then the suspense is over - Who/What is RAB??!
I also wanted to know if they going to make Shopaholic movies - now that would be fun!! even if they combine 2-3 books into one - it could be quite entertaining!! [Charade: any thoughts on this one??] Since they are finally making a 'Sex and the city' movie!

The day before that had been for P's birthday - we did dinner in Spice Tree and then went to drink at Vertigo. Did not realise at Spice tree that entire area was P's party so ended up ignoring quite a few people - by mistake! Anyway had nice fun time, met loads of people and made fun of half of them - always a good thing!

Looking forward to this week since cousin and baby arrive finally - going to be seeing baby after February - and the first time entire family [mostly] will be together since baby born!! however work wise.... boss is back after a week's break so will wreak havoc playing catch up since everyone knows - when the cat is away, the mice will play!!