Thirteen Conversations About One Thing

Director: Jill Sprecher
Writers: Karen Sprecher, Jill Sprecher
Stars: Alan Arkin, John Turturro, Clea DuVall and Matthew McConaughey
Year: 2001
IMDB

My Rating: 8/10

What's the one thing that revolves around 13 conversations? Life.

The movie talks about happiness, but I don't think happiness is the one thing that they talk about. It's life itself as the subject. The movie is great because it talks about reality and actually shows you what reality is like, and how you approach reality according to your own belief. Everyone is struggling to get through life. But how do you get through it? What is the point to get through it? To get what you want? To be what you wish to be? What is it? What makes you you? There are a lot of great quotes from this movie about life. Here's one of it,

it's perverse, isn't it? people spend years developing their minds and educating themselves, but in the end, they just want to shut them off.

Apart from the subject matter, there are decent performances from decent actors, including Matthew McConaughey. Recommended.

Just to add, I'm on my lowest ebb at the moment. I think I have identity crisis. I don't know who I am, or who I want to be. I also have quarter-life crisis, I feel lost, scared, lonely and confused about what lies ahead of me. I have no will to grow up, to be someone, to make something. I don't know who my friend is, I don't know who would listen to my problems, and help me solve them. Probably no one would, they are my problems. The problem is me. I know, but what can I do? I'm lost and lonely without a single hope to drag me out of my misery. I'm just shit scared about my future, I don't understand anything, anyone, anymore.

XXX

The Detroit Tiger...

On my way home from Gothenburg, I listened to the entirety of Danny Brown's XXX (And it's free). Man, it's such a great album! Some of the lines he spit made me wanna laugh out loud, but I couldn't because of other people on the bus. Its extreme obsceneness becomes extremely laughable. The album as a whole is fucking great... it's got his fun side and his dark side. I don't claim to know that much about Hip-Hop, but this is the real shit.

Lianne La Havas

No Room For Doubt

Forget (Shlohmo Remix)

Le genou de Claire

Director/Writer: Eric Rohmer
Stars: Jean-Claude Brialy, Aurora Cornu and Béatrice Romand
Year: 1970 (France)
IMDB

My Rating: 7/10

This movie is a long conversation about friendship, love and desire. It's pretty much just conversations, not much going on, you could say that it's Rohmer's realistic approach. But the characters often explicitly speak of their thoughts and emotions, which seems quite unrealistic in the realistic films. I guess you could call that Rohmer's cinematic language. I don't particularly like his style, but this film is good, beautiful and worth seeing.

Sentimental Education

For me, this book isn't really on my list of things that make life worthwhile living, but it's surely a great book. I enjoy it very much, the unbearable sorrow of love makes me want to feel what it's like to be in love. To be despised and to despise myself. Isn't love a kind of self-loathing?

記錄人生

從台北飛到倫敦，要飛十四個小時．通常坐飛機都會超頭痛難過的我，這次帶了鎮定劑．上飛機喝了紅酒，服了鎮定劑後，開始看電影「賽德克巴萊」的第一部。看著看著就得到了我想要的效果－睡著。說是台灣第一部史詩電影，但看起來真的挺沒感的。睡了五六個小時後起來，精神果然有好一點，飛機上如果一直昏睡，真的是件很痛苦的事。但如果真的有睡，精神上真的有差．起來吃完晚餐後，沒興趣再看賽德克巴萊．就開始看起了紀錄片，一連看了兩部。

The Rum Diary

Director: Bruce Robinson
Writers: Bruce Robinson (screenplay), Hunter S. Thompson (novel)
Stars: Johnny Depp, Giovanni Ribisi, Aaron Eckhart  and Amber Heard
Year: 2011
IMDB

My Rating: 5/10

God, what a disappointment!

When I first heard that they were gonna make a movie of this novel, with Bruce Robinson as director, and Johnny Depp as the lead, I was really hopeful that it'd be a great film. Why? It's the Bruce Robinson who directed How to Get Ahead in Advertising and Withnail & I, it's the Johnny Depp who starred in another Gonzo's movie Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, a perfect combination of madness. Although The Rum Diary novel isn't as drugged and stoned as Fear and Loathing, the story is a very good one. It's hilarious, romantic, deep, horrifying, and devastating. When I was reading, I enjoy reading every line, he has a very simple but effective writing style. The book makes you wish you were in Puerto Rico in the 1950s with Kemp, enjoying what seemed like the last paradise on earth.

Then, you watch this film, it's got the basic story structure, but completely lost the vibe the book has. Like taking the fake drug, though looks the same, but no effect. Why bother?

Hej

 

Going there tomorrow, and I don't know exactly what I'm feeling. But, I'm not too terribly worried about not knowing how I'm feeling. As long as I know, I'm going somewhere I wanna be, it's good, good enough for me. Now, I'll start daydreaming about my life in Sweden until the time I get there.

Minimalism

new year, new laptop, new desktop display, and a new life ahead...