Monika’s Pensieve

{FILM DIARY}

“Sugar Rush” (UK, 2005)

Finished Viewing: Thursday, 8th April 2010
Runtime: 20 episodes 24′ each (two seasons)
Director: Harry Bradbeer, Sean Grundy, Philip John
Cast: Olivia Hallinan, Lenora Crichlow, Richard Lumsden, Sara Stewart, Kurtis O’Brien, Sarah-Jane Potts
Production House: Shine
Plot: The story of a teenage lesbian, who is attracted to her (straight) best friend.

Scene from the Series

Rating: +1 (Loved It)

Impressions In Short
It’s fun, very different and in some ways very real. Plus you get a lot of great and very developed female characters.

More About the Film
There were a couple of things I really enjoyed in it. The whole family dynamics were brilliant. I particularly loved the younger brother. He’s not a major character, but when he appears he always makes a grand effect ;) The characters in the series are generally a lot of fun though.
I loved how psychotic and twisted Sugar became in the second series. It was completely absurd and yet she remained very real. I don’t think I’ve seen a female character quite like her before.
Kim, on the other hand, reminded me of Bridget Jones a lot. It’s a very different story mind you - after all Bridget is in her 30s and she’s not lesbian (although she does end up kissing another woman in the sequel ;-P). But I did think some of the humour was very similar. Kim’s voice narrates us through the story much like Bridget does in the films and not only is the humour of the voice-over very similar, but even the intonation and accent matches Bridget. Kim and Bridget have a very similar attitude towards life also - they have major setbacks, but they don’t give up and keep on trying. They are also both prone to jealousy attacks and drinking binges ;) To top it off, Sugar Rush and Bridget Jones even share a song on the soundtrack.
But comparisons aside, as a story Sugar Rush is very original and its one of the strengths of the series. I think I liked the second series better cause the humour gets even more absurd and the sex is hilarious, but both of them are great.

Recommended?
If it sounds like fun to you then yes, definitely :)

I don’t normally post these kinds of clips, but this one was just so cute and weird that I had to ;)

{FILM DIARY}

Shelter (USA, 2007)

Seen: Thursday, 1st April 2010 (cinema, LGBT retrospective)
Runtime: 97′
Director: Jonah Markowitz
Cast: Trevor Wright, Brad Rowe
Production House: GP Pictures
Plot: (from imdb)

When his college dreams are sidelined by family obligations, a young man finds comfort in surfing with his best friend’s brother.

Trailer

Rating: +0 (Liked It)

Impressions In Short
It’s basically a pleasant coming of age movie.

More About the Film
It reminded me a bit of Tan Lines. Unsurprising as the plot is rather similar - the lead character in both is a young man who is slowly discovering he’s gay and develops a thing for his best friend’s older brother. And both films have a surfing theme. But I thought Tan Lines was a lot funnier and I enjoyed it more ;-P Still, Shelter is a much more professionally made film and it’s interesting to see it entering the debate about whether gay couples should have adoption rights.
Zach is clearly a much better carer for Cody than his sister (the actual mother) and yet she demands that he stops seeing Saun for Cody’s sake (even though she continues seeing men who are much less child-friendly). A lot of the film is about that unfair prejudice and it makes a convincing argument I think.

Recommended?
Yes if the theme interests you. Not a must-see though.

{FILM DIARY}

Desert Flower (UK/Germany/Austria, 2009)

Seen: Wednesday, 31st March 2010 (cinema)
Runtime: 120′
Director: Sherry Horman
Cast: Liya Kebede, Sally Hawkins, Craig Parkinson, Meera Syal, Anthony Mackie, Juliet Stevenson, Timothy Spall
Production House: Desert Flower Filmproductions
Plot: (from imdb)

The autobiography of a Somalian nomad circumcised at 3, sold in marriage at 13, fled from Africa a while later to become finally an American supermodel and is now at the age of 38, the UN spokeswoman against circumcision.

Trailer

Also, you might like to see a news report about the film with short interviews with Waris Dirie and Liya Kebede.

Rating: +2 (Adored it)

Impressions In Short
I think it’s fair to say that it left a very strong impression on me - I was still sobbing long after leaving the cinema, which I think my mum found slightly amusing ;) I don’t remember the last time a film had me crying so much. But I laughed a lot also ;)

More About the Film
At its heart the film is a classic underdog sort of story. Only in this case the story really happened and the main character is a Somalian girl, who goes against everything that society wants her to be. First she flees when she’s forced into a marriage at the age of 13. Then she escapes Somalia, ends up in London and eventually becomes an international supermodel there. And finally she starts speaking up against female circumcision and becomes one of the biggest figures in the worldwide struggle against it. It’s an amazing story because of its lead character (as far as I’m concerned Waris Dirie is one of the bravest people I’ve ever heard of), the bizarre sequence of events that happen to her and because of how honest the film is about what being a woman actually means and how there still is a practice in the world that attacks the very essence of it.
It’s a very feminine film in some ways. I loved the “girl talk” scenes - in particular the one when Waris finally talks to her roommate about being “cut”. It’s a very moving and very intimate scene.
The acting was awesome. Liya Kebede and Sally Hawkins were both amazing, but all the bit parts were great also. The UK has a great tradition of realistic acting and it was really utilized here. I also loved the soundtrack.
On the minus side of things, the narration had its holes. In particular I wondered what happened to Waris’s younger brother. She makes a promise never to leave him and then she does and then nothing is made of that. There were things like that in the narration that were a bit annoying. And then the cinematography and choice of shots was very boring and run of the mill - like in a bad TV series. That was one of the most disappointing things in the film for me.
It still was fab though, I enjoyed it a lot :)

Recommended?
As far as I’m concerned, yep! ;-P Don’t be put off by the serious subject matter or by me having a sobbing attack ;) It is a very emotional movie, but it’s a pleasant film to watch and even if you’re not into the subject matter, it works very well just as a plain underdog movie.

{FILM DIARY}

Singh Is Kinng (Australia/India, 2008)

Seen: Saturday, 27th March 2010 (cinema, BollywoodFestiwal.pl)
Runtime: 135′
Director: Anees Bazmee
Cast: Akshay Kumar, Katrina Kaif, Om Puri, Kiron Kher, Javed Jaffrey
Production House: Blockbuster Movie Entertainers, Big Screen Entertainment
Plot: (from imdb)

A comic caper about Happy Singh, a Punjabi villager who goes through a series of misadventures and eventually becomes the Kinng of the Australian underworld.

Trailer
See it here.

Rating: -0 (Ok)

Impressions In Short
It was alright, but nothing special really.

More About the Film
This is just your standard Bollywood masala film. Akshay Kumar is quite amusing and it’s fine for a laugh, but that’s all I have to say really, so it’ll be a very short review ;-P

Recommended?
I suppose that Akshay Kumar and Katrina Kaif fans will enjoy this. Otherwise I don’t think this is a must-see.

{FILM DIARY}

Dulha Mil Gaya (India, 2010)

Seen: Friday, 26th March 2010 (cinema, BollywoodFestiwal.pl)
Runtime: 152′
Director: Mudassar Aziz
Cast: Sushmita Sen, Fardeen Khan, Ishitta Sharma, Shahrukh Khan
Production House: Insight Productions, Maverick Productions
Plot: Donsai is a spoilt brat and a womanizer. After his father dies, he is forced to marry the girl his father chose for him, if he wants to keep the family fortune. So Donsai tricks the girl and her family into entering the marriage and then just leaves them there in the countryside and continues his previous life. The girl comes after him and with the help of a supermodel (one of Donsai’s many glamorous friends), they try to make Donsai fall in love with his wife.

Trailer

Rating: +0 (Liked It)

Impressions In Short
It’s a pretty generic Bollywood romance, but it has some quirks here and there. The main reason it works is Sushmita Sen and Shahrukh Khan - they really make the movie.

More About the Film
Basically this is the standard Bollywood romance kind of setup. Initially I thought this would be tough going. Fardeen Khan is the male lead in this (he plays Donsai) and I find him very off-putting. Until Sushmita Sen (who plays the supermodel) appeared on the screen I was wondering why I even bothered to come and see this. But once she came on, it was brilliant *grin* Just her posh accent and behaviour and everything - it was hilarious. She really made everything come alive. She had some very good sidekicks as well (Lotus is so obviously gay ;-P but that was also somehow appropriate *grin*).
Donsai’s bride was much better when she was still the country girl with ugly glasses. When they started glamorizing her she kind of lost her appeal to me.
Shahrukh doesn’t appear until the second half of the movie. It’s more than a cameo, but far from a leading role. Once he appears the film really warms up. He basically plays Sushmita’s love interest. It’s an odd relationship and I quite liked it. They both love each other, but Sushmita’s character doesn’t like admitting it and she doesn’t want to marry him. He, on the other hand, just tries to respect her wishes and therefore doesn’t propose. Naturally (and I don’t think this is much of a spoiler ;-P), she ends up proposing to him at the end of the film. She goes down on her knees and everything, which I thought was pretty sweet ;)

Recommended?
I think yes for Sushmita and Shahrukh fans - I don’t think you’ll be disappointed cause they’re both a lot of fun in this. But otherwise not really.

{FILM DIARY}

Heaven on Earth (Canada, 2008)

Seen: Monday, 22nd March 2010 (cinema, BollywoodFestiwal.pl)
Runtime: 106′
Director: Deepa Mehta
Cast: Preity Zinta
Plot: (from imdb)

Chand, a young Punjabi woman, travels to Canada to marry a man she has never met. They live in a crowded suburban house and Chand has to also put up with her husband’s abusive behavior.

Trailer

Rating: -1 (Disliked It)

Impressions In Short
Preity Zinta is absolutely amazing, no wonder she won so many awards and critical acclaim for this. But the film lost me the moment they brought in the Jamaican superstition bit (which was relatively early on).

More About the Film
The film starts off very realistically and I liked that. The way the relationships between people are portrayed and the way the whole situation was sketched - it was very real and had a lot of detail. But soon after the abuse starts and Chand talks to her Jamaican friend at the factory… that’s when it goes all wrong. The Jamaican woman gives her a root that she says will make the husband fall in love with Chand. Chand fails to feed the root to her husband though and throws it into the garden. The root turns into a snake and the snake turns into a duplicate of her husband and the film goes crazy and quite pretentious.
If not for the whole supernatural subplot, I probably would have enjoyed this film very much. The realistic bits are done very well and Preity Zinta put in a fantastic performance - I’ve never seen her this good before :)

Recommended?
It’s worth seeing for Preity Zinta, definitely. Otherwise… I’m not so sure.

{FILM DIARY}

Remember Me (USA, 2010)

Seen: Friday, 19th March 2010 (cinema)
Runtime: 113′
Director: Allen Coulter
Cast: Chris Cooper, Robert Pattinson, Lena Olin, Ruby Jerins, Pierce Brosnan, Tate Ellington, Emilie de Ravin
Production House: Summit Entertainment, Underground Films and Management
Plot: Tyler Hawkins is a 22 year old New Yorker, who is going through a stage of rebellion. The film is the story of his relations with his father, his younger sister, his flatmate and his first love.

Trailer
While I usually love trailers and clips, even when they’re a bit inaccurate, in this case I advise everyone not to watch any because they will not give you any idea whatsoever what this film is like :] Even the clips that have been released for promotional purposes have been re-cut somewhat and give a false impression of the film.

Rating: +2 (Adored It)

Impressions In Short
I haven’t been surprised by a film this much in ages. I had expected something completely, completely different and was way off the mark. It was also way better than I expected it to be, which is great cause my hopes weren’t that high ;-P

More About the Film
Apparently, when they showed this film to a test audience and asked people to write down what other films this one reminded them of (standard procedure at test screenings in Hollywood I think), everyone wrote down that it reminded them of nothing… And well, I think that’s accurate ;)
The thing is, it’s very difficult to explain to people what they can expect of the film and therefore difficult to get the right sort of audience to see it. I’m not sure how I’m going to go about it in this review either…
So anyway, my first advice is to forget the romance and family drama labels. I suppose that’s what you have to call it if you want to label it, but in this case labels are unhelpful. You’re going to get a false idea of the film if you try to categorize it.
The tone of the film is immensely sarcastic. When we meet Tyler’s family for the first time, they’re all gathered by the grave of Tyler’s older brother. Tyler’s father (Pierce Brosnan) is, as usual, annoyed with him. The dialogue between them goes like this:

- Couldn’t you have worn a tie?
- I could’ve.

And that sort of sets the tone for the film *grin* The whole cast delivers the sarcasm very well, so a lot of it is downright hilarious. In fact for the first time ever me and Kin actually got into trouble in the cinema for “laughing too loudly”, which was a bit strange as we sure as hell were not the only people in the cinema laughing out loud this time (I get that there are films where our sense of humour may be disruptive to others, but this really wasn’t one of them). But then that guy generally was strange. After fiddling around with his mobile for a lot of the film without feeling he was being disruptive to others, he ended up leaving in the middle of the screening.
But I digress… The thing that completely doesn’t come through in the publicity material is that it’s a very beautifully shot film. It’s done in long shots with a lot of silences, which is the style that suits Pattinson best and he was awesome :) I think many of the people that look down on him solely because he’s the star of Twilight will be surprised with this role. I mean I was surprised he was this good and I actually do have some faith in him ;) I’m very keen to see what he’s going to come up with next - if these sorts of films and roles are the route he’s taking then it’s going to be a very interesting career to follow!
The romance is an important part of the movie, but there are other relationships in the film, which are just as important to how it plays out. I absolutely loved the whole subplot between Tyler and his little sister. The kind of banter they had between each other and the way they supported each other was great. It’s rare to have an 11 year old character written so well.
The cast was generally very stellar, so it’s a good film to watch for the acting. But I suppose it’s the writing that makes this film what it is. It’s a very unusual script. I find it hard to explain why it’s unusual exactly ;) But it is ;-P I suppose at its core, the film is a story about grief and how different people react to it in different ways, how it can bring a family together or tear it apart. But having said that, it doesn’t stop the film from being very funny most of the time. The ending was very WTF - it comes from nowhere and I know there’s a lot of debate on whether they should have gone that route. I initially felt the ending was wrong, but then after I thought about it a bit, I realized that this story doesn’t have an obvious or natural ending. I’m still not sure if that was the right way to finish the film, but I get why they did it and it does go well with the theme of grief. Anyway, if you don’t want to be spoiled, don’t go to the imdb boards or you will be spoiled.

Recommended?
Yep, definitely recommended unless you’re not into sarcasm cause then I suppose a lot of the film will be lost on you. If you don’t care for Pattinson, don’t worry, it’s a very different part to Twilight and he really suits it. And going through the threads and reviews on imdb only the people who didn’t get the film generally speaking seemed to have a problem with him. Otherwise a lot of people who absolutely hated him in Twilight, seemed to like him in this.

{FILM DIARY}

The Hurt Locker (USA, 2008)

Seen: ??? sometime in March, didn’t note down the date :-/ (cinema, special screening)
Runtime: 131′
Director: Kathryn Bigelow
Cast: Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, Brian Geraghty, Guy Pearce, Ralph Fiennes
Production House: Voltage Pictures, Grosvenor Park Media
Plot: (from imdb)

Iraq. Forced to play a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse in the chaos of war, an elite Army bomb squad unit must come together in a city where everyone is a potential enemy and every object could be a deadly bomb.

Trailer
See it here.

Rating: -0 (Ok)

Impressions In Short
A well-made war film which doesn’t accuse anybody. Mainly it just tries to portray what the reality of the situation is like for American soldiers stationed in Iraq.

More About the Film
It was interesting to see a film which had so much “guy talk” directed by a woman. The characters were portrayed very well and all of them had distinct personalities and their own ways of dealing with the stress of the situation.
Like most war films, it’s emotionally quite heavy, but it does have it’s comedic moments as well.
I didn’t really have much to say after seeing it and I have even less to say now when it’s not so fresh in my memory ;) So I’ll leave it at that.

Recommended?
Er, I suppose yes if you feel like it. But I don’t think it’s a must-see. Mainly, it’s interesting to see what won the Oscar.

{FILM DIARY}

Presque rien (France/Belgium, 2000)

Seen: Thursday, 18th March 2010 (cinema, LGBT retrospective)
Runtime: 100′
Director: Sébastien Lifshitz
Cast: Jérémie Elka?m, Stéphane Rideau
Production House: Lancelot Films, Man's Films, Radio Télévision Belge Francophone (RTBF), arte France Cinéma
Plot: (from imdb)

Mathieu, 18, spends the summer at his mother’s summer house, in Brittany. On the beach, he meets Cédric, a boy his age. A love-story begins between the two boys.

Trailer

Rating: -1 (Disliked it)

Impressions In Short
It’s one of those films that embodies what I don’t like about French cinema ;-P Beautifully shot and very cinematic, but pretentious and lacking actual content.

More About the Film
After I left the cinema I was wondering not just what the point of the movie was, but what the storyline was. The narration is non-linear and many things are left ambiguous. I mean, it’s not that it was annoying exactly (if it had been then I’d have probably rated it -2 ;-P), it’s just that it felt a bit purposeless.
It is very beautifully shot and very cinematic though.

Recommended?
Possibly recommended to those who like French cinema or just generally very “cinematic” films. Those who like a strong plot or vivid characters will probably be disappointed.