Variations on the same theme

If you read this entry, prepare to be "spoiled" for Firewall. "Spoiled," quotation marks, because this whole film is so unsurprising that I'm not sure it actually qualifies as being spoiled.

Okay, so. Firewall. Is a crappy movie. But we all knew that already. And Seattle and its outskirts seem to have amazing, free-for-all wifi coverage? Neat. Also, Harrison Ford bores me, but oh, Paul, and oh, Nikolaj. (And oh, Robert and Alan while I'm at it. Does Alan Arkin need that much money that he needs to take small uninteresting parts? People! It's Alan Arkin! Why are you not offering him amazing parts already? Well. At least I got to see him a bit. And hear him. There's something special about his voice.)

But really mostly, Nikolaj and Paul. Bill and Liam were totally shagging. That's why Liam didn't look too worried when Beth went all "he doesn't have any reason to keep you around once he's got the money." What he was thinking was, "'course he does, I'm the best shag he's ever had."

Also, 24's Chloe going all "what did I do wrong, Jack?" "I don't understand, Jack" blah-blah-whining-blah meant déjà-fuckin'-vu and I could've done without. Hell.

I can't believe even the dog made it. Seriously. Richard, mate, you're working on a romcom? Sure we need a happy-for-all ending. But when you're working on a movie with a bad guy like Bill Cox? You want people to die, and no all the bad guys don't count. Bloody hell. The bleedin' dog made it. ...okay, Harry died as well, but hell do we not care about Harry or what. Bill totally would've killed at least one family member to make Jack realise he meant business.

Although, granted, I adored the Flintstones/cookie scene. Paul at his best villain, all chuckling at the cartoon before assuring the kid there were no peanuts in the cookies, "I promise." Oh, how I loved that scene. (Okay, not Paul at his best villain, because, just no, hello Gangster #1, and hello Kiss Kiss Bang Bang too, but still.) Also loved him in the pancake scene. I think I have a thing for Bill mixed with food items. ...mmm. Anyway.

So the movie was crap, but I was duly warned by enough friends that it would be, and thus it went alright. I'm very grateful I went with Joey, though, because I'm sorry, I hate people who talk during the movies, but I wouldn't have made it without commenting through the whole thing. Honestly.

Tonight's Ice Age 2 yay! Hopefully as funny as the first one.

Oh, and I spent ten good minutes trying to figure Bill out once out of the theatre. Why did he want the money all that badly? It irks me to see Paul interpret a character that is so undefined, apart from his coldness and greed. Why the greed? How did he get there? We know nothing about him. Hmpf.

As a sidenote, no matter how badass/psychotic Paul's got in previous movies, I'd never found him so physically impressive. Which is ironic when you think of the "Harrison barely felt his punch" anecdote, but still. He was physically impressive, the way he handled himself, and dominated some scenes and other characters. I was rather nonplussed.

Also, got the 2-disc edition of Serenity in the mail today! Yay! Am off to watch Take a Walk on Serenity. BDH love!!

At last, an update! And a real one at that. I've had such little time to myself, and I need to polish up that translation of "Almost Normal" I'm doing for the Nuit Rose ("Pink Night," it's an event organised by the LGBT youth association Joey works at, where they show gay and lesbian films, and this one needs subtitles), but I thought I really should update now or else I never would. 'Cause I keep going all lazy at the thought of everything I need to talk about. So, here goes.

( Sports Night goodness. )

( Life on Mars yay! )

( The pilot of Numb3rs. )

( Whedonesque-type stuff. Kane, Nathan and Jonny! )

( Syriana, Capote, personal life and a COWBOY HAT. )

By Jesus and all his whacky nephews, The L-Word looks like a good show again! And I thoroughly enjoyed the last episode of Lost! I don't know what's going on. Likely because The L-Word is getting more and more into serious, heavy stuff (but god could someone get rid of Carmen like super soon?) and because Lost actually gave us some answers for once.

This evening I met up with a French journalist, for a paper she's doing on fanfiction. It was interesting to discuss it all with her, in more of a social sort of light. ...I might have babbled about Firefly. A lot. She encouraged me! A Browncoat can't help herself, now, can she?

On another note, I'm watching Velvet Goldmine and, yum. (Also, heeee! Eddie Izzard!)

I've just watched I, Robot and man. I don't think I'd have made it through the whole movie if not for Alan. I do not enjoy action blockbuster types, it's become very apparent. Will Smith and I really aren't best mates, to start with. And the whole movie is just so... very... obvious. There's nothing subtle about it whatsoever. That said, I expected them to abuse Asimov more than that.

It was highly entertaining to listen to Sonny, though, and pick up more and more of Alan's voice as the movie went. And it was fascinating to watch him, and think, wow. That's all Alan. (Apart from some of the battle stuff, obviously. He's not that good that he can somersault all over the place. Though he did do some of the fight stuff, just FYI.) But mostly, I felt kinda bad that he'd have gone through that much trouble for a part that, sure, is potentially so very interesting, but that has a place in a movie that so doesn't exploit, or celebrate, said potential. I still see how fulfilling, as an actor, it must have been, to work on a role like this. Especially since they spent a month before filming began just working on the character, and doing all sorts of theatre stuff that Alan obviously loves doing. But I can't help wonder if it mustn't have been more frustrating than anything else, in the end. Seeing the finished product, and thinking "okay, they say the journey's more important than the destination, and the journey sure was exciting on top of fucking exhausting but I kinda would have liked the destination to be a bit more with the quality."

So what if I'm biased? The only reason why I wanted to see this movie at all was because of how Alan talked of Sonny in his interviews. Here are a few choice excerpts, you'll see what I mean. (Beware, the rest of this post is rambling on and on and on about Alan, the kind of rambling I usually reserve for shadesofbrixton. But today, everybody gets to read more than they ever wanted to know about my favourite pilot!)

( Thank you, Alan, for being one of those guys who talk about their acting, and not because they're full of themselves, but because they love it. And geek over it. )

Right now is me being puzzled because I just realised I never actually ranted about Alan all that much before. On LJ, I mean, obviously. Or did I and then forgot about it, flist? *creates an Alan tag for the occasion*

In case any of you were wondering whether they ought to go and see The Libertine (or "Rochester, le dernier des libertins" in French), like I know kowaio and plumedephenix were... the answer is, DON'T.

In the name of all that is even only semi-good and vaguely entertaining cinema, do not spend any money on this movie.

Yes, I know, just look at that cast! Plus, Johnny Depp playing the Earl of Rochester, how can we resist? Yes, I know. But do resist. Do.

Three words. Dull. Dreary. Boring.

And you know how much I love Johnny. So me, saying this? Me having been bored all through a movie in which he stars prominently? It means a lot.

You're all warned.

Review time, now that we've watched all four.

( The Taming of the Shrew. )

( Much Ado About Nothing. )

( A Midsummer Night's Dream. )

( Macbeth. )

I, ladies and gentlemen... have a job!
Okay, so it's not the bestest job ever. I'm working with Acadomia, for you French peeps to who it actually means something. I'm gonna be giving English lessons (and possibly a few French lessons to junior high students, too), for at best 10 to 15 hours a week, but it's better than nothing. I have an appointment on Tuesday so they can get a good idea of what kind of pupils to give me, and give me my first few missions. I don't rightly know how I feel about teaching again, but I shall do my best. Hopefully things will go well. It won't be much money, but it's money all the same.

Now for a change of subject, Narnia! Let me bask in James McAvoy love... and dammit, I really need to do a batch of icons soon, because I need a James icon among other things. ( Narnia at last! )

That said, the Dive from Clausen's Pier is a baaaaad movie. But Sean Maher is absolutely lovely and sex-worthy. And when he speaks French? Very cute.

Kiss Kiss (Bang Bang) - not the recent one, but the one with Stellan Skarsgard, Chris Penn and Paul Bettany. It's a very weird little film, but Stellan and Paul are... well, they're Stellan and Paul. Stellan has a compelling quality to himself, it's odd. I need to watch Dogville again, which I've been meaning to do for a couple weeks now, but you don't just watch Dogville. That film breaks me too much. As for Paul, well, he made me cry. Which, you know, is what Paul does. Entirely too easily. But still.

Speaking of which. shadesofbrixton and I were talking the other day, and wouldn't Paul make the freakiest, creepiest Blue Glove ever? Meep. It's very scary. (Possibly you don't realise how creepy Paul gets. That would be because you haven't seen Gangster Number One. Which you should.)

Lost, spoiler-free - the Analucia ep was good enough, though I found her whole flashbacks entirely too clichéd. Same goes for Kate, although she wasn't as annoying as she could've been, which was a nice surprise. And Sawyer's chest is pure SIN. Just sayin'.

Also, I love Eko so fucking much. ( Not-really-spoilerish-but-you-never-know quote. )And do not want anybody to be nice and offer him another shirt, because the ripped one? Suits him so well. Oh yeah.

As some of you know, I've been volunteering at the "11ème festival de films gays et lesbiens de Paris," which was happening at the Forum des Images in the Halles, from October 14th to the 23rd - which would be yesterday. What does it mean? It means I opened for some of the movies, checking tickets and all, and got to see the movies for free. So I thought I'd go through everything I've seen, and review it. You've got both shorts and feature films, both small independent things and big premieres (the biggest being Neil Jordan's Breakfast on Pluto and Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain).

Unveiled - a German/Austrian movie by Angelina Maccarone, to be released in April 2006. The movie follows Fariba, who fled Iran when she was denounced as a lesbian, and has to pretend to be a man in order to stay in Germany. ( A film that was about discrimination, not just homophobia. )

Courts côté garçons/Gay shorts - only two of them caught my attention in a good way. First would be Boy, a Kiwi short by Welby Ings. Very eerie, and interesting, such an odd atmosphere, with broken-dolls-turned-angels. Well worth seeing. Second was Les couilles de mon chat (My Cat's Balls), a French short by Didier Bénureau, where Rémi agonises over having to have his cat castrated. Very funny, and it touches on some interesting issues.

The D-Word - the relatively well-known Dyke TV-produced parody of the L-Word, with dykes all over instead of glamorous, rich and beautiful lesbians. It got a few laughs out of me.

Butterfly - a Chinese film by Yan Yan Mak about Flavia, a married woman who fell in love with a classmate when she was younger, and is now falling in love with another woman and cannot keep repressing the memories and denying that part of her life. ( Good, but longish. )

Courts côté filles/Lesbian shorts - on the whole, much better than the gay ones I found. The one that stands out most is Who's the top?, an American short by Jenny Livingstone. Here is the official site, if you're interested. It's about kinks, and sex, and love, and it's funny and smart and well-written and well-shot and well-acted, and there's Broadway dancers, and also a small part for Steve Buscemi. (I did not squee in the theatre when I saw him. At least not out loud.)

Transparent - an American documentary by Jules Rosskam about transparenthood. Female-to-male transexual parents speak of their experiences, both on the process and transition, but also - mostly - about how they view their role as a parent. Preconceived ideas shatter, and it was a fascinating documentary. Then followed a small debate with Kael T. Block, a pretty famous FTM trans in French circles. Really enlightening.

Sugar - a Canadian movie by John Palmer, with Brendan "Roswell" Fehr. Who, it turns out, can really fucking act. He plays Butch, a prostitute who Cliff, the hero of the movie, falls in love with. ( It gets to you sort of like Requiem for a Dream did, and it's all about addiction too. )

Breakfast on Pluto - an Irish and British film by Neil Jordan, to be released in early 2006. It is the story of Patrick 'Kitten' Braden, a transvestite amazingly portrayed by Cillian Murphy. ( A Neil Jordan film - did you really think I wouldn't like it? )

Brokeback Mountain - the 'surprise film' to close the festival, the much-awaited Ang Lee "gay western" with Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhall, to be released in early 2006. Jack and Ennis meet while working for a rancher up on Brokeback Mountain, and slowly fall in love, but they then go back off the mountain and back to their own lives, get married, get children. ( Not as moved as I thought I would be. )

And on an unrelated note, Joey's back tomorrow. Yay!

First off, after having watched the whole of season 2 of Boomtown (all six episodes, yessir), it's official, it sucks. I don't know what happened, maybe the network was putting the pressure on them because they didn't have a good enough audience and so they had to make it less original, but hell. Suddenly it became... just like any other show. They still made the most of Neal McDonough's amazing acting skills, for instance, but his character was not the same. The writing itself absolutely sucked! I know, I'm being harsh, but hell I'm feeling harsh. After such a first season, how can you drop to something so common-place? The very thing that was the core of this show, the split-up narration with scenes that sometimes did not gain their meaning until the very end of the episode when we got the final piece of the puzzle... gone! The complexity of the characters, their never-that-simple relationships, or on the contrary their decidedly straight-forward and touching and endearing interactions... adieu! I wish they hadn't got a second season. Because the way the first one ended, with those three episodes focused on Fearless, David and Joel... brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. They should have ended it on that.

That said, Joey has never seen The NeverEnding Story. Is it just me, or should no child be allowed to grow up without having seen the NeverEnding Story?


"The video arcade is down the street. Here we just sell small rectangular objects. They're called books. They require a little effort on your part, and make no bee-bee-bee-bee-beeps. On your way please."