Beautiful Kate

Director: Rachel Ward
Writers: Rachel Ward (screenplay), Newton Thornburg (novel)
Stars: Ben Mendelsohn, Maeve Dermody, Sophie Lowe and Rachel Griffiths
Year: 2009 (Australia)
IMDB

My Rating: 7/10

Kate is beautiful, and this is a beautiful film. The Australian outback is nicely shot. Actors put out reasonably good performance. Soundtrack is great. Overall, it's a good film. However, it struck me that this film lacks something. I'm not 100% sure what is missing, but it could have been a better film. The movie just didn't strike me on an emotional level. Maybe if I have a sister I love, I would? I don't know. As a matter of fact, I have seen a couple of Australian movies, they all seem to have the same problem. Working on extreme cases, which results no emotional influence over their viewers. Why? Australia has so many talented actors and actresses, but there's not one really great Australian movie?

Big Boi + Theophilus London

The most effortless, natural flow rapper who takes it up another level...

Absolute class, and absolute entertainment. What an amazing night it was.

Nowhere Boy

Director: Sam Taylor-Wood
Writer: Matt Greenhalgh
Stars: Aaron Johnson, Kristin Scott Thomas and Anne-Marie Duff
Year: 2009 (UK)
IMDB

My Rating: 7/10

I think, the thing I like the most about this film, is John's dialogue. I like his cynicism, witty and sarcastic comments. The rest is pretty standard, exactly what you would expect from story-retelling of some famous guy. Trouble, conflict, break-away stuff.

White Dog

Director: Samuel Fuller
Writers: Romain Gary (story), Samuel Fuller (screenplay)
Stars: Kristy McNichol, Christa Lang and Vernon Weddle
Year: 1982
IMDB

My Rating: 7/10

Didn't think that a dog movie would be about racism. But, it is quite nice.
It's moderately touching, and well shot.

The Fugitive Kind

Director: Sidney Lumet
Writer: Tennessee Williams (play "Orpheus Descending")
Cast: Marlon Brando, Anna Magnani, Joanne Woodward and Maureen Stapleton
Year: 1960
IMDB

My Rating: 7/10

An intriguing soap opera for grown-ups. Anna Magnani is amazing. She is not pretty, but she has so much soul, or she knows how to show so much soul to audience, it is very very rare to possess such powerful talent. Marlon Brando, a drifter with a guitar? What else is there to say?

New Albums I'm Really Into...

Clam Casino - Instrumental Mixtape

>>alone at night, this is a perfect soundtrack for night riding, but I listen to it almost all the time. with the beats hitting in my headphone, everything feels ready to expand into the unknown. really, atmospheric music is my thing, loud or minimalism.

Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks - Mirror Traffic

>> i like the album cover, but it's the music I enjoy. Malkmus' songwriting seems to have become mature, cuz he can write whatever he feels like, but at the same time, he hasn't improved at all, still singing with the same old random cynicism.

Jenny Hval - Viscera

>> still trying to figure out her lyrics. probably the most powerful and interesting lyricist I have heard in a long time. her voice brings names like Joni Mitchell, Kate Bush, Linda Perhacs to mind. a very versatile artist who put out a versatile debut album, and it flows effortlessly. sublime stuff.

Bon Iver - Bon Iver

>> this album is a grower. unusually beautiful and exquisite. to put it into a scenario, Emma was like a breakup night, sad and lonely. this album takes place the following morning, when he's still half sleeping, dreaming, slowly awakening...

3 Women

Director/Writer: Robert Altman
Cast: Shelley Duvall, Sissy Spacek and Janice Rule
Year: 1977
IMDB

My Rating: 9/10

This is a film that I feel okay with not understanding everything, I'm happy to leave it as a sort of mystery. Just look at how these characters develop throughout the film, it really wows me. Another weird film I love. Oh, this film was inspired by Bergman's Persona. Though they don't look alike, they are both about dreams and surrealism.

Submarine

Director: Richard Ayoade
Writers: Richard Ayoade (screenplay), Joe Dunthorne (novel)
Cast: Craig Roberts, Sally Hawkins, Yasmin Paige and Paddy Considine
Year: 2011 (UK)
IMDB

My Rating: 8.5/10

Wonderfully funny and touching. I think the casting is wonderful. Oliver and Jordana makes a lovely couple. Oliver's parents look and act exactly like their characters. I'm glad the film didn't linger on just portraying first love. It actually explores some family issues. There are hilarious moments, sad moments, and moments where you can look back on your life and think "ah, I was there before!" Well, we're not that young anymore. However, I love how this film reminded me, and refreshed my feelings towards love.

Alex Turner's music is really good, and fits with the film perfectly. Oh, yes, better than Juno I think...

The Victim

It is his second work. Along with his first novel Dangling Man, they are considered Bellow's "apprentice works", before he unleashed his true literary voice in The Adventures of Augie March.

I should have read that before I took the book from library shelf, should have chose Augie March even it is massive. Well, that's my next book. This is not bad... but not at his best.

How to Get Ahead in Advertising

Director/Writer: Bruce Robinson
Cast: Richard E. Grant, Rachel Ward and Richard Wilson
Year: 1989 (UK)
IMDB

My Rating: 9/10

Well, I study marketing, and I fucking hate it. And this film tells you exactly why we need to hate advertising/marketing. For general taste, this is a fucking weird film, but it's not done for the sake of weirdness. It's an over the top satire attacking our modern lifestyle, on advertising.

The more I learn about marketing, the more I see marketing in everything. Everything can be part of marketing. When you tell your friends some online shops have massive sale, it's a word-of-mouth marketing. When you wear some fashionable coats, you're advertising yourself and the coat. When will this fucking end? When you made that purchase, wait, no it doesn't end there... you need to keep on buying and buying buying buying and then die. But the aggregate marketing system doesn't stop because of you dying. The system has perfected itself with some help from humans. The monstrous system has already crept into everyone's mind with us knowing it, and tell us "want, need, consume". Now, isn't that a wonderful system?

I want to put some quotes here, but without context, I'm afraid they won't make much sense. Just watch it, how to get "A Head" in advertising...

...And God Created Woman

Director: Roger Vadim
Writers: Roger Vadim , Raoul Lévy
Cast: Brigitte Bardot, Curd Jürgens and Jean-Louis Trintignant
Year: 1956 (France)
IMDB

My Rating: 6/10

Shit movie, but Brigitte Bardot was burning HOT!!!

Rabbit Hole

Director: John Cameron Mitchell
Writer: David Lindsay-Abaire
Cast: Nicole Kidman, Aaron Eckhart and Dianne Wiest
Year: 2010
IMDB

My Rating: 7/10

A deep, moving movie about dysfunctional family.
Nicole Kidman's performance is just terrific.

Billy Liar

Director: John Schlesinger
Writers: Keith Waterhouse (novel), Willis Hall (play)
Cast: Tom Courtenay, Julie Christie and Wilfred Pickles
Year: 1963 (UK)
IMDB
My Rating: 7/10

A film about a dreamer. I'm very much a dreamer myself, except that I don't lie like Billy does. Interesting film. Some of the highlights must be some wild imaginations by Billy, Tom Courtenay's performance and Julie Christie. Man... Julie Christie... I'm in love with a movie star...

The Beautiful and Damned

My God, the first half of the story was the story of my life... I was in a relationship just like what Fitzgerald have written, except that she's not as beautiful as Gloria in the book, but her personalities and thinking are very much alike with Gloria. After I've read some critical essays, some people find that this novel lacks of unity. True, the first half of the story is quite different to the second half, but who cares! He has written this book with heart and soul (obviously, there are a lot of input from his personal life), and told the tragic romance with fierce poignancy. The joy and hardship of being in a relationship. It also questions the big question, "what's the use of doing anything when nothing is worth doing?" This is a wonderful masterpiece. Maybe because I'm a hopeless romantic, and a hopeless pessimistic...