Last night, we had a premiere for NEW MOON (yes, the movie), and I’d love to post my review for it, but right now I’m still at a lost for words. IT WAS THAT BAD! Everybody seemed plagued with the HORATIO virus – staring off into a space mid-sentence with a pained look that never seems to go away. All I can come up with right now is that: IT’S EVEN WORSE THAN TWILIGHT (the movie) ! So while I try to muster up the courage to write about it and face the wrath of the TWIHARD fans, I’ll leave you with this video.

ALWAYS (Universal Motion Dancers Wannabe on Youtube)

While we wait for me to get around to having my films developed and scanned, I leave you with quotes that hit you in the right spots from a movie that broke my heart into 20 million little pieces.

SOME KIND OF WONDERFUL

Keith Nelson: You can’t tell a book by its cover.
Watts: No, but you can tell how much it’s gonna cost you.
Keith Nelson: Wow, I never knew you were so deep.
Watts: You want shallow, call Amanda Jones.

Keith Nelson: I’m sorry. I’m sorry I was so hard on you.
Watts: Me too.
Keith Nelson: You always hurt the ones you love.
Watts: So when are you going to beat the shit out of Amanda Jones?

Watts: You break his heart, I break your face.

Watts: Because I’m driving you crazy and you’re driving me crazy and I’d rather not see you and have you think good things about me than have you see me and hate me. ‘Cause I can’t afford to have you hate me, Keith. The only things I care about in this goddamn life are me and my drums and you.

Watts: [putting on Keith's diamond earrings] What do you think?
Keith: You look good wearing my future.

And that last line up there, my friends, is when the fauces just couldn’t stop leaking. To all the WATTS in the world, A TOAST TO ALL OF YOU! You guys are my hero. :)

After seeing that movie, I went home to watch She’s All That.

Hehe.

7 Reasons To Go See ‘Where The Wild Things Are’

Posted by Dr. Cole Abaius (cole.abaius@filmschoolrejects.com) on October 12, 2009

Where the Wild Things Are is note after note a love song to childhood – and every facet of that world that we live in when we’re not quite a part of this concrete world, where we can see beyond what things really are to what they might be, when we still feel like kings of the universe even when we’re scared and alone. I realize that you’ve probably already figured out whether you want to see it or not, but I loved this film so much that I felt the need to nail down exactly what I loved about it.

For the cynical – my usual disclaimer that this isn’t paid for by the movie or the studio or that trippy girl wearing a wolf costume to the screening I was at. At FSR, we believe in the magic of movies we love and feel comfortable shouting from the rooftops about them.

And I flat out loved this movie.

Here’s why:

1. A Time Machine To Ten Years Old

From the opening scenes, the movie is completely from Max’s young perspective. Spike Jonze has done a great job of making a hole in some snow look like an ice fortress to the audience. The camera angles are low which helps getting back down to that level, but over all the feel of the film is an excuse to remember things how you used to remember them. To see a toy boat as an adventure on the high seas, and to see a pile of clothes and cardboard boxes as the rocketship that it really is.

2. It’s Darker Than You Think

I feel like most of the reasons I give should come with the disclaimer that the film isn’t all that perfect for children, but I don’t pretend to be an expert on that sort of thing. I’d probably be surprised by what most kids can handle, but suffice it to say that this flick isn’t all bluebirds singing songs about how fun working all day in the forest is. Reverting to childhood means reverting to a time where everything is bigger than you, you don’t understand most of what’s going on around you, and things are genuinely scary. The film essentially mirrors the darker tone of the book where the absence of a father looms large over everything, a family doesn’t always act like you want it to, and the seas are choppy. At the heart is an emotional truth that it’s tough being a family, and Where the Wild Things Are doesn’t pull back from how hard that can really be. Even if your family includes a giant goat-monster. Fortunately as a balance, it also populates the world with great bits of humor and life that come from left field or from the strong characters that have been created on screen.

3. The World is Breathtaking

At first, the sweeping landscapes occupied with strange, wonderful beasts will seem ethereal, but I started to realize that everything in the film essentially exists within our world. It’s just the best-looking stuff from it. Wild forests, warm deserts, and crashing sea shores all captured by beautiful cinematography combine to make the film a postcard tour of a place from our imaginations that’s reachable in real life. The look of the Wild Things is perfect, and the giant fort they make is also a sight to see stemming straight from the sketchbook of my childhood.

4. Max

My usual hatred of children in film should make this point even stronger. The actor they got to play Max – Max Records – is perfect. He’s fun to watch and manages to be (for lack of a better word) an every-kid who fills his day and his mother’s ears with stories. His character is stuck at an age where he’s starting to think and ask questions, but he’s not quite old enough to be told or understand the answers. Records is fantastic at characterizing that and pulling every bit of sympathy or joy out of a scene. He’s also joined by good performances from Catherine Keener and great voice performances from James Gandolfini, Paul Dano, Chris Cooper and Lauren Ambrose.

5. The Music

This may be a splitting point for some, but the soundtrack is tailor-made for any indie kid sensibility. Using simple instruments or the convenient sound of a toy xylophone or children’s choir, Karen O and the Kids have created something that balances between film score and playroom symphony. It’s subtle, but it always elevates what’s happening on screen, especially since a lot of the film is a slow-burn with minimal dialog.

6. It’s Challenging But Fair

It would have been all too easy to create another children’s escapism movie where the parents are cruel, the big sisters are cruel, and a fantasy land of no worries awaits us all. Where the Wild Things Are has its fair share, but it’s more rounded than that. Catherine Keener’s character is a mother trying to make life work who clearly loves her son and sweetly dotes on him but doesn’t understand what to do when his built-up frustration is unleashed. What’s created is a realistic-looking family which helps paint a better picture of childhood, family, and gives the flow of the story (and where it ends up) a natural, understated feel. Simply put, there’s not an insincere bone in this movie’s body, but that doesn’t make it easier to swallow. It makes it much harder. Plus, instead of following a standard story arc where things are great, things get tough, and a solution lets everyone sail off into the sunset – it’s a film where a kid gets a chance to solve things his way. And since a child doesn’t always know how to make sense of the world or how to fix things, it takes the story in some very challenging directions.

7. Kid Logic

One of my favorite things in life is the completely accurate, yet completely wrong logic of children. They see the world in a different way, and have a lot to teach those of us who have forgotten how to look at a tree and see the crow’s nest of a pirate ship. It’s a difficult task to capture that point of view, and beyond Records playing his character well, the writing from Spike Jonze and Dave Eggers nails down the world from the view of someone who’s 4-feet, 4-inches tall with incredible accuracy. The way Max sees the world makes logical sense, but is usually wrong, and since we’re already seeing the world his way, we have to go on the journey and learn the lessons along with him. Get ready, for better or for worse, to revert back to your childhood.

source

So I’ve officially moved. This site’s far from being finish – there’s still much work to be done, but I think it’s good to go. Many thanks to Weak and Dex for doing the dirty work for me (troubleshooting the free hosting and other things it would normally take me months to figure out).

So now that the move has been discussed let’s move on to more important things. Like say, John Lloyd’s movie with Vilma Santos and Luis Manzano? Saw it with both Grace and Weak at Greenbelt 3 Cinema (where movie tickets leave a gaping hole in my wallet and in my heart huhu). I’m not about to say that the movie revolutionized Philippine Cinema, because it hasn’t. And I’d rather tape my butt shut before I say it has. But it sure did have it’s winning moments.

(Warning Spoilers!)

1. The gay florist friend criticizing Vilma’s look. “Ang buhok mukang librarian. Ang salamin mukang teacher. Ang damit mukang principal…” or something like that.
2. Sampalan moment between JLC and the Star for all seasons. The only part in the movie where Grace, Weak and I weren’t laughing.
3. John Lloyd and Lucky dancing, with matching himas sa muka. That was pretty awesome.
4. Vilma getting corn rows.
5. Vilma locked in the diner’s freezer.
6. and the way (A certain somebody died). It was almost as awesome as Regina George getting hit by a bus.
7. Last but not the least, Pamela. She was the only person in the cast supposedly based in New York who actually felt authentic to me.

Of course this movie also had a lot of FAIL moments.

1. WHERE ARE ALL THE GLAMOROUS PEOPLE? They were in New York for chrissakes! Their gay party scene not only lacked HOT GAY MEN (which I’m pretty sure is one of New York’s surplus), they lacked GAY MEN period! Unless of course the premise was that the party was exclusive OR the bar kinda sucked.
2. John Lloyd lacked the grooming, glam, and fierceness of an actually gay man. He didn’t feel gay at all. I’m not saying that he should act like a total queen, it’s just that all he did was cry or tear up in the movie which is what he does most of the time in his other movies – so what’s the difference? How is that gay?
3. Nikki Valdes’s house – I’ve seen way too many movies that were set in New York.. movies, tv series, even read way too many books – it almost feels like I’ve lived there myself. And let me tell you, the movie, tv series, book New York houses were nothing like Nikki Valdes’s house. Her house was too Pinoy. From the dining tables and  chairs to the way her dining room was structured. It was not New York at all.
4. Rafael Rosel’s accent. All I can say is – WATDAFAK?
5. Their extras. They kept looking at the camera, overdoing their lines. Where did the production team get their extras?? They could’ve just hired me and I would have done a better job than all of them combined.
6. The controversial kissing scene. What was that????? It was worse than a typical Koreanovela kissing scene (the kind wherein the leads just stand there, two closed lips glued together, and the camera moves around for a good 15 seconds to give the illusion that they’re really kissing and their heads are moving). JLC’s and Lucky’s didn’t even last 5 frigging seconds! And they were supposed to be in love? What were they thinking? That they were a GP-rated movie?

I felt like I was watching Kimmy Dora instead of In My Life. It was more laughing than crying, not that that’s a bad thing. I was just expecting way too much from the movie, I guess.

Here’s Grace and Weak after we watched the movie.