008. Dreamgirls

I just had to use this poster that managed to pull a real life Effie on poor Jhud.

Watch and sing along to the trailer here.

Dreamgirls, also known as "Beyonce: The Musical", is about the struggles of Effie "And I am telling you" White as she goes from back up singer to Donkey from Shrek to back up singer to Beyonce to being totally ousted from her group, all of this while never giving up her dream of making it big. Truly inspirational.

 Despite the snark, I actually enjoyed this movie a lot. It's probably a fictitious take on the life of the Supremes and Motown but it's still interesting to imagine things going on similarly in real life. Jennifer Hudson does a good job as Effie White. Yeah, she's super annoying at times but I don't really think thats Hudson's fault, Effie is meant to be a larger than life diva.

 The pacing in the beginning was a bit slow but that's about my only complaint about this movie. The acting was pretty solid and Hudson is more than competent enough to handle this role, I clearly underestimated her. Beyonce herself is actually a surprisingly good "singer-actress". Eddie Murphy was as close as he'll ever be to creating a character that can compare to Donkey but sadly he fell a little short. Good stuff all around. The music is really good and I even preferred Beyonce's Listen to Effie's  (overplayed) signature song  (in the context of the movie, I mean).

As a side not I want to mention that this could just as easily be reinterpreted as Beyonce's life story. I can imagine the people in charge of casting had themselves a laugh when they decided to cast "Singer clawing her way to the top while receiving preferential treatment among the girls" Deena. They probably looked far and wide before settling for "Singer clawing her way to the top while receiving preferential treatment among the girls" Beyonce. Then they cast Kelly Rowland-esque secondary character Lorell with some chick who often looks like Kelly Rowland. At this point they decided to fuse LeToya and LaTavia into one character (not personality wise, just mass) and bam, you got the Effie character. Effie is later replaced by some character no one remembers (the parallel to that Destiny's Child member no one remembers). While I am aware that this is movie is not about Beyonce and her climb to the top (even going so far as taking time away from Taylor Swift) but rather a fictional take on Diana Ross and the Supremes the similarities are undeniable.

In any case, recommended. If you're a fan of good movies, musicals or both this movie is for you. If you hate musicals on the other hand go watch Kramer vs. Kramer or Austin Powers Goldmember  in case you are jonesing for something good or something Beyonce and can't get your fix from Dreamgirls.

Journalism Week 1 is over.

My first week as a Journalism student is over! Okay maybe not really since I had no Monday class this week but it feels like it so I decided to blog. So far my classes and instructors seem pretty cool.

Canadian History is definitely promising to be the least interesting but to be fair there is only so much you can do with a history that was based on signing a bunch of treaties . At least Mike Walsh, my instructor who constantly refers to himself as a dinosaur but drops more Jersey Shore references than anyone I know, has a fun sense of humour and has structured the classes  in a very engaging way. Today we discussed the burning of the qur'an, Canada's freedom of speech and enlisting in wars.

My other class today, Writing for Newspapers, was just an in class assignment that was actually more fun than I expected it to be, even though I still found it a bit challenging. Kathy, our instructor, seems to really know a lot but for some reason I can't exactly pin down yet, I'm frightened of her. I think it has to do with the fact that I don't feel my English is at the same level of everyone else's and it just makes me super paranoid.

Regarding my other classes I really don't have much to say. Design for Print seems fun and unlike anything I have ever done before. Also this is my teacher. Yup. Part time wise newspaper man, part time cool punk rocker in a band called Jam Toast. Go, him!

Intro to Desktop Publishing reminded me a lot of high school computing class except you know, programs people in the biz actually use. We didn't get too into it (most of the class consisted of us taking mugshot pictures so our instructor can remember our names...what did people do before computers?) but the little she did talk about promises great things for my life. Soon your eyes won't be offended by the awful blog design I stole from someone else. Before you know it, employers won't glance over my boring resume thinking I'm just one more of a bunch (unless the rest are also indesign-knowledgable people in which case I'm screwed).

And finally there is Research Techniques. From what I heard through the grapevine it was one of the least liked class by my fellow journalism students but I loved it. Andrew clearly knows a lot about his field and his documentary really reassured me I was in the right field. Its the sort of thing I want to be doing some point in the future. Fingers crossed.

Technically I have one more class on monday but its History of Journalism so I'm not exactly expecting great things from a history class.

Regarding my movie project I'll probably get back on schedule sooner or later. Currently I'm battling a deadly case of common cold and I am too weak to piratebay search the next movie. I have (black) musical Dreamgirls which seems like a good movie so I'll watch that and a couple more over my long weekend and I should be good. Plus we all know black musicals are the best kind of musicals because they deal with real things (I still have my fingers crossed for Precious!: Based on the Film Precious: Based on the novel Push by Sapphire, the musical about a fat black girl who is precious inside and out. She will be played by Kelly Clarkson in blackface).

All in all, life is good and is best expressed by a chibi peace sign which I googled and instead found this chibi effeminate Link from The Legend of Zelda. You're a beautiful girl, Link. Date me.  

007. Taxi to the Dark Side

Stomach the trailer here
Taxi to the Dark Side is a documentary that tries to understand the circumstances that led to the death of Dilawar , a taxi driver that along with his 3 passengers was captured and sent to Bagram, an air base where suspects of terrorism were held. There his head was covered and he was submitted to stress positions and severe beatings to the legs until his body gave out. Dilawar died in Bagram. He was 22 and had a daughter and a family that were given a death certificate in a foreign language and no real explanation of what had just happened. The worst part is that Dilawar is not an isolated case.

Taxi to the Dark Side explores the American policy on torture and it is a really eye opening documentary that while graphic and at times very difficult to watch, is essential to understand if the human race ever wants to better itself.

Throughout the movie , vaguely familiar scenes of dehumanization of suspects in Abu Ghraib are shown and peppered with interviews of former soldiers (most of which were discharged), its the sort of stuff we saw on the news and decided maybe its best if we changed the channel. We hate torture, it disgusts us but lets not ruin our dinner by paying it too much attention. I think this sort of attitude passive allows this sort of intrinsically human, disgusting behaviour to carry on unchecked. You need to want to throw up. You need to hate humanity a little for what its capable of. This is the gasoline that lights the fire.

I think its easy to look at this documentary and conclude "Those Americans are awful people." You have people that are almost caricaturesque in appearance and fit the role of villain perfectly. From Yoo to Rumsfeld (who is quoted as saying "I stand 10 hours a day, why do terrorist suspects stand only 4."), these are the people that are destined to fill all circles of hell. Regardless of how easy it may be to cast them as the dark side, the USA are not alone in doing these awful things. They were using old torture chambers that belonged to Hussein. Canada is currently investigating claims that Canadian soldiers also took part in similar scenarios. Tony Blair gets called "war criminal" more often than he gets called Tony Blair. And the list goes on and on. I don't think the US, nor those military people responsible should get to wash their hands of what they did, but to simplify the situation is to minimize its real effect and that's the last thing families of victims, such as Dilawar's would want right now.

As a side note, I was actually pretty ecstatic about how fundamental to this investigation journalists were. It's definitely something that I considered when choosing my new career path and I find it inspiring. As difficult as it may be to be the first to see these things, its necessary and it changes lives and the world. So go journalism!

Recommended, definitely recommended. You need to know and see this and let that disgust motivate you to do something about these sort of things.

006. Death Proof

You can watch the trailer here.

 In case I haven't made this clear I'm a huge Quentin Tarantino fan. I remember watching Pulp Fiction back in 1995 or so, and immediately falling in love with it. Scenes like Jules and the roommates, or Vincent and Mia's night out stuck with me for 15 years and I can still recite them in my head like it was yesterday-- although to be fair, I've seen this movie many times since then. There is just something about a good Tarantino movie that makes me feel good. His movie have a clear, recognizable identity no matter what sort of genre they are tackling. Its the sort of feature that speaks about the quality of a filmmaker; with Tarantino and his movies, its impossible not to see his love for the movie industry and the influence on that industry that will remain long after Tarantino writes his last dialogue scene. I guess its unusual then, once the previous love affair is considered, that I had not seen this movie up until now. Death Proof is the Tarantino half of a double feature homage to old exploitation films called Grindhouse. The other half belongs to Robert Rodriguez and it wasn't that good.  Sadly I watched that pretty early on, and that added to the disappointing box office, it just gave me the impression that Death Proof wasn't up the standard set and I decided it was maybe for the best if I didn't watch it.  Fortunately I was wrong to jump to that conclusion.

 Death Proof is an original twist on the straightforward slasher film. Stuntman Mike (Kurt Russell) has a deathproof car, a remnant from an era in which actual stunts were preferred over CGI, and he loves to use it--especially on beautiful young girls. The movie itself is kind of structured around two main arcs, and while it is a nice refreshing idea, ultimately it seems to work against the movie. The first arc did a nice job of setting up the plot and building up the momentum. The second arc just puts back at square one and it gives the movie a very slow paced, empty feel; which is not to say that there is nothing good going on in the second half. Oh no. The second half is good in its own way. The last scenes are among the most satisfying scenes I've seen since Up, although satisfying in a different sort of way. Unfortunately the slow beginning of the second half is a little too much to ignore and it really decreases the quality of the film.

  Another great facet of this movie is the music. I'm not entirely sure if its original score, or if its music handpicked by Quentin Tarantino (I'm leaning towards the latter, I'm sure google could answer this for me but I'm lazy), but each and every song or musical note in this movie fits perfectly. I can't imagine the sultry lap-dance by Butterfly to any other song. Its change of pace and raspy voice made the scene engaging, sexy and frankly even did wonders upping the "creepy-factor" of Stuntman Mike. If I were a filmmaker I'd imagine the sort of care and attention Tarantino pays to every small detail would be inspiring. Hell, I feel pretty inspired right now and I only like writing.

 All in all, Death Proof is a really good movie, even if it is nowhere near Tarantino's best. It is however, a beautiful love letter to the exploitation movies, a time when stunts were "bad-ass" and CGI didn't cheapen everything it touched.  It has a couple of nice little details here and there that give a hint of continuity if you're planning to watch both movies from Grindhouse together.

Definitely recommended if only for the climax of the first act, that is a scene that will very difficultly rivalled in cinema for a long time.

My Day at Orientation (incredibly original title thought up by Journalism hopeful: me)

  I am now officially behind (by 1 day, nothing too serious) and it because yesterday I had orientation for school. It was both somniferous and exhilarating at different times. The first part was more of a general "Oh hey, here is a bunch of information that everyone could easily access on our website but we'll make you sit on uncomfortable bleachers for roughly an hour and a half while we waste precious time of your life that you will never get back" kind of information.
 
  The second part however was Journalism-specific and was pretty cool. There was actually plenty more people than I expected following around the yellow shirted individual carrying the "Journalism-Print" sign. We eventually reached the Newsroom (I'm basically Clark Kent now), where we sat down, received a copy of the Sheridan sun and were welcomed by our course coordinator and course instructors. The instructors seem (upon the shallowest of judgments) to know what they are doing, and the course load seems challenging but manageable. I'm mostly excited about actually working (albeit salary-free) for the newspaper at the beginning of next year; the experience is the sort of invaluable bonuses of college vs. university--at least for me. The only course I'm dreading at the moment is (and I am aware of the ridiculous contradiction) "Writing for Newspapers 1". It promises to be the most difficult--while at the same time probably the one I will be most helped by so its not all bad.

  At some point, after the instructors had introduced themselves and their courses, a second year student--invited by the course coordinator-- gave us a bit of a heads up as to what to expect and what sort of things to do to help ourselves move forward career-wise. Most of it was probably common sense, but she did mention that in journalism portfolios are very important. She suggested we contact websites that we like to visit and ask them if we can write for them--most of them will probably say yes. The idea of doing this sort of activity is something that never even crossed my mind and the mere mention of it was a bit nerve-wracking. Suddenly my brain began to scramble through my internet history trying to come up with a site that I could possibly write for-- I have yet to figure it out. I don't think adult oriented site cam4 needs any writers (although some more accurate descriptions would be appreciated, I bet) and I can't really think of any particular subject I would feel comfortable writing about. Perhaps music--although I must admit that I would probably have to read more about it. In any case, after the initial shock and general feeling of unpreparedness, I decided that I'm not going to allow myself to predict failure so fast. I'm going to read more websites, write fake articles in my spare time (what spare time) and eventually contact websites hoping they'll have me. Take that, general pessimism and tendency to self sabotage!

  Regarding the movie project, I'll probably watch 2 movies between today and tomorrow to get back on track. No big deal. Problem solving magic.

005. Kramer vs. Kramer

Please watch the trailer here.

When I decided to add this movie to the master list I did it for 2 main reasons. The first one was that my infinite amount of anal retentive rules for this project obligated me to watch a certain amount of academy award winning movies--easy enough had I already not made myself watch most of the recent ones. I had to go all the way back to 1979 for this one. The other reason is that I like Meryl Streep as an actor. She's amazing. She takes over whatever scene she's in and everytime she's on screen she makes me wonder what's going to happen to movies once her generation of actresses die out. Will we be left with Hilary Duff and Lindsay Lohan? Or will the Dakota Fannings and Jacob from Twilight prevail (I'm kidding about the Jacob part. Team Edward.)

   Anyway back to my original point, Meryl Streep is amazing. Surprisingly enough, she's not even the best actor in this movie. Dustin Hoffman plays Ted Kramer, abandoned husband, impressive father, survivor. It's really the best acting I've ever seen him in--the only other role my mind seems to remember at the moment is Bernie Focker from those awful Ben Stiller movies. Hoffman did an excellent job of showcasing his anger at his wife leaving, his patience (or sometimes lack thereof) for his child and his desire to do what he thought was best for his son--namely full custody. It's really disappointing he decides to link himself to Ben Stiller every now and then because he's a really good actor.

 The kid himself was really good, too and according to wikipedia is the youngest person to ever be nominated to an Oscar. So yeah. Go, kid! He doesn't seem to have a very active imdb so maybe this was a fluke for him.

 A cool aspect of Kramer vs Kramer was the weird contradiction (purposefully mentioned in the film) of the wife sort of embracing that wave of feminism from the 70s and finding her own purpose beyond being a mother/wife while at the same time the father that embraces his importance in child rearing doesn't get the same sort of respect even though in a perfect world he should. I hope nowadays the courts are much more fair independent of gender because I know from personal experience that fathers can singlehandedly do a great job at raising children.

Also for those who have been living under a rock or don't understand the title, this movie is about a custody battle. I'm not entirely sure how accurate this is legally-- Law and Order taught me that appeals don't usually involve new evidence and that seems to be somewhat important towards the end. I don't really care though. My parents divorced pretty early on and while I imagine they were more like the Roses than the Kramers, I know both my parents did what they had to do with our best interest in mind. The emotions portrayed by the Kramers during this movie are among the most real and relatable I have ever seen during a movie.

Recommended. If you will only watch one movie I recommended from this list, so far this is it.