Two movie reviews for your viewing pleasure

Mood: Jeff Buckley- Everybody here wants you [and now you know I'm in the mood for the arthouse]

So because last year I watched like four movies at the cinema, this year I'm overcompensating. I'm in luck too because its that time of the year when arthouse flicks rule the world [Its almost oscar season time you know].

So I parked my lazy ass down to see Marie Antoinette and Babel.

Marie Antoinette

I watched Marie Antoinette by myself, partially because I had a feeling dragging my friends [or even SB] to see it would be a mucho bad idea. I was right. However I'm getting ahead of myself. When I got there, I was completely surprised, the cinema was packed for a tuesday afternoon, it was bizarre I was expecting myself and perhaps a fashion design major to be there. Wrong. The cinema was filled with japanese girls, couples, and ummm.. families [don't worry the lady took her kids out when she realised it was the wrong movie]. So I hunched over my seat and started to watch.
Firstly, I have to mention the first thing that everybody and their handbags notice are the costumes. They are fucking fantastic. You are going to come out of the cinema wanting a corset and some shoes. The detail in it alone is staggering, there are just so many accessories I covet that if I actually wore them everyone would laugh at me [would I like a garland in my hair? yes please, and add some ribbons] oh and the shoes.. *closes eyes and silently cries.. the shoes, Iwantiwantiwant. I came out of there thinking I need my hair to be white blonde and in curls. So bravo to Sofia Coppola, you hit the shallow point in our souls [I almost typed soles -_-].
Oh, and cake, you're going to come out and stuff your face with cupcakes.

Now. now. I loved the Virgin Suicides, it really is one of my favourite movies of all time. Its so ethereal and yet grounded, it just hit the right note so it wasn't completely airy fairy [they were just girls! not images] but the movie is based on an equally awesome book. So y'know Sofia Coppola had a good base to work on.
However I realise Marie Antionette is based on the biography by Antonia Fraser, because I read it a month before the movie. But its not a book to base on a movie on. Its a great book but you know how most books focus on one event in a life and its like BUMP, this book is like all the events and so its not BUMP as opposed to bumpbumpbumpbumpbump, small circumstances do not a movie make. And thats whats wrong with this movie, nothings happening! You get to watch her have dinner, throw dinner parties, attend parties and try to have sex with ol' Louis but thats it! .. That would work if were watching reality tv, but it doesn't really cut it here.
And then you have the patented Sofia Coppola touch with the ethereal aura, but are you trying to establish her as some sort angelic image of a teenager [yeah if so, go the aura], or are you trying to turn her into the Paris Hilton of her time?? [if you're trying to turn her into a shallow party queen- NIX THE AURA]

So nothing much happens in the movie [they didn't show the revolution, well they did about two minutes of it] and I was bored, and I have a high tolerance for long movies. About forty minutes into the movie I started fidgeting and this was even with the parade of dresses. It was much worse for the guy [part of a couple] sitting in front of me, I think he was about to sleep- he kept nodding off.

It doesn't really say much for a movie, if you go in and then come out wanting your hair done. I was highly disappointed, I was really rooting for it to become my new favourite movie. [On my final note, imagine if I had dragged SB to see it?!Ha. I don't think I'd be alive to type this blog out. and I'll leave you with that]

and onto Babel!

Babel

How the heck am I supposed to describe Babel? Now that I've had a day to think about it, I still don't know whether I really liked it or hated it. I think I might have to watch it one more time to tell you. Impressions, impressions. The acting was fan-freaking-tastic, there was not a weak note among the entire cast, they hit all the right notes and I'm pretty sure I cried during the sequence with the surrendering brother [not cried cried, mind you, but I was slightly leaky.] If I think about it, it was about two and a half hours and it was slighhhhhhtly too long, there was a lot of extraenous sequences that could have been cut, but maybe they had some symbolic metaphor that I missed. See? I'm giving it a pass because everyone was fantastic, but if I loved it, I'm pretty sure I would know if I loved it. Mmm, anything else? Oh the nightclub scene! hahahahaha.. I must be completely debauched [or the director is] because I knew exactly how it felt, from the music to the laser lighting. Wooee.. I started squeezing SB's hand at that point and I'm sure at that point he made a point to lock me up and never let me out ever again[ when I asked him about it later he pretended he didn't know what I was talking about, but HE KNEW!]

Things that were annoying: The lady in front of me crying so hard that when her mobile rang, she didn't even bother to switch it off. Of course the damn thing rang again, and she was still heaving. WIPE YOUR TEARS AND SWITCH IT OFF.

and as a bonus!

Million Little Pieces by James Frey

I picked this up because of the Oprah debacle, and what an overhyped piece of crap this book was. Best writer of our generation, my ass. In fact, my ass is a better writer [It is!]. I got thirty something pages in and I got utterly sick of the repetition, on two pages alone it mentions that his girlfriend is a smart cheerleader three times and she got hit by a train six times, oh and along the way he chants "I'm an addict, a criminal, a loser" OVER AND OVER AGAIN in the exact same phrasing! I wondered if I was losing my head and reading the same page... wait? I recall turning the pages! Finally I gave up and threw the book against the wall where it currently sits on my bedroom floor gathering dust. [Much to SB's relief and my own] don't read it, actually read it, pick a page in the middle and don't worry you've lost anything, because if you picked any other page it'd be EXACTLY THE SAME [ack! I've picked up his repetitive diseased!!]

Sigh, I'm done. Until next time.