reviews! reviews!

Euro Thursday

skipped work last thursday to head to the Shangri-la Cineplex where Cine Europa was running. for more than a week, film buffs enjoyed free screenings of carefully selected films from the European Union.

i failed to make it to the 12 noon showing of You and Me (Toi et Moi) from France but made it to the 230PM movie, The Wave (Die Welle) from Germany.

the movie is a moving drama about a teacher who struggles with a subject he did not really want to tackle in their school's Project Week. to make it more interesting, he thought of an experiment done to his class as they discussed "autocracy". it became quite a riveting project as they developed their knowledge and experience on fascism and neo-Nazism. the experiment however spins out of control bringing it to an explosive ending.

i am particularly pleased that The Wave is a contemporary movie. and as i was about to rave about how i love German music with all it's disco, tantric, heady beat, google tells me the OST is actually composed of songs from several artists all over Europe like Sweden, Britain, and even the US. Lol!



my second movie that day was Italy's production of Fyodor Dostoevsky's life and love called The Ghosts of St. Petersburg. it's a profound movie alright but the bleak, wintry setting of Moscow and Siberia made me feel its gloom all the more. i must have snoozed in some of the scenes.

we did not make it to the 3rd movie because tickets ran out already. i finally got my cinema pass later that night but sadly i was not able to go back to Shang anymore for the last screening days. i hope they open up more cinemas for more people next time. and i hope too that i'll win in their raffle promo which gives a trip to Europe as the grand prize. sigh.

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Palahniuk Virgin No More

i spent my weekend watching over senior high school kids sweat it out for the Ateneo College Entrance Test and got to pick this book in case i get bored. i know it was quite a rash move, maybe i should have picked something more juvenile or wholesome at least like The Little Prince or Catcher In The Rye hehehe...

Six hundred dudes. One porn queen. A world record for the ages.

Snuff is about a porn star who plans to end her career by starring in a world record of bedding 600 men. on camera. think of it as wrestling's Royal Rumble. 60 seconds of wham-bam-thank you-mam and then comes the next guy all turgid and ready for the dive.

the barely 200 page book takes you behind the scenes where guys from all ages, shapes and sizes walk around naked with just their number inked on their bodies. they amble around, munch on donuts and chips and popcorn and some jack off to keep themselves ready for action while waiting for their turn.

there's nothing remotely erotic in this book really. the botched porn movie titles like Whore War One, The Blowjobs of Madison County, A Tale of Two Titties, etc, etc. were all hilarious. the characters are not your typical boy/girl next door, hollywood celebrity types but merely your scumbags, filthy types.

it is shocking in a ridiculous kind of way and like Fight Club, it feels filthy and icky reading it but it's an enjoyable ride just the same.

i finished the book that afternoon session in between reading the test instructions to the kiddies. Palahniuk's words were indeed a fresh breather to the rather rigid academic texts i had to blurt out to the class haha!

"MASKOT"

so my college friend, Macoy Tang is now a true blue cartoonist!

got a copy of his mini comic book, Maskot. i don't really know what's it's called but it's just photocopied and can easily be passed on and distributed/sold to friends.

it's a story about, well, a mascot who had quite some mis/adventures with his costume.

it is not entirely pambata more so because it shows us a little bit about how grouchy this supposedly funny man could be.

i like it's simplicity and candidness but i have to admit i'd get to appreciate it more if it is colored. :)

thanks, for the gift, Tang and like any comic book fan i would surely treasure this one. i know you'll still go a long long way and i can't help but add, i'm sure our friend, Bambie is beaming and is so proud of you now.
btw, i'm a fan of Gerry Alanguilan's Wasted too and i'm happy for you that he's endorsing this piece as well, yey!

current reviews

MOVIE: Harsh Times

this is quite a surprisingly absorbing film especially when i haven't really heard anything about it then. i sort of just picked it up off the shelves in Video City and wow, i'm impressed!

i'm never a fan of Christian Bale not even as Batman but he is indeed oh-so-good here! i'm actually googling for any awards or citation buts can't seem to find any. it is a bit similar to Training Day especially since it has the same creators but I have to say this film moved me more, even if that has Ethan Hawke in it hehehe...

oh yeah, Freddy Rodriguez (Havoc, A Walk in the Clouds) is as yummy anyway. add in teeny but ever gorgeous Eva Longoria as well.








BOOK: A Thousand Splendid Suns

i have to say it was a bit laborious reading this one. i had to stop in between chapters in order for me to breathe and most often shake off the negative images that never fails to make me cringe.

a thousand splendid suns is about two women finding their lives intertwined amidst the atrocities in Afghanistan. it spans almost 30 decades of the countries darkest years starting from the Soviet occupation, to the rise of the Mujahideen, and later the rule of the Talibans. i honestly could not tell which ones oppress them more. it seems that instead of being hopeful about seeing their current enemy falling, another more barbaric rule would later follow.

i saw myself taking notice of the timeline alongside my own and it breaks my heart realizing that while i was feeling high and mighty and rebellious supposedly battling teenage angst all of these oppressions were going on in their country.

what bothers me more is that the human drama, the violence was even more severe in the confines of their own homes. among husbands and wives, among sons and daughters. i would like to believe that indeed war could turn the sanest of men into the vilest of creatures.

it makes me wonder how could anyone ever gather enough strength to go on, where could anyone draw hope in ever seeing a better life again.

i so admire how the author could use the most beautiful words, the most awe-inspiring imageries in spite of the war torn background.

i love Kite Runner, and i love this one too. i really can't decide which one is better but i believe i don't really have to. just like with the former, i also cried, moped, and pondered on this one.

*sigh*




SONG ALBUM: Third by Portishead




portishead has always been my female radiohead.

definitely great for head-tripping. makes me feel fuzzy and heady and hazy and floaty with all those wonderfully dizzying colors everywhere.

finding one's bible

"i spent today outside a funfare. Since I can't afford to fritter money away, i thought it best just to watch other people. i stood for a long time by the roller coaster and i noticed that most people get on it in search of excitement, but that once it starts, they are terrified and want the cars to stop.
what do they expect? having chosen adventure, shouldn't they be prepared to go the whole way? or do they think that the intelligent thing to do would be to avoid the ups and downs and spend all their time on a carousel, going round and round on the spot?

at the moment, I'm far too lonely to think about love, but i have to believe that it will happen, that i will find a job and that i'm here because i chose this fate. the roller coaster is my life; life is a fast dizzying game; life is a parachute jump; it's taking chances, falling over and getting up again; it's mountaineering; it's wanting to get to the very top of yourself and to feel angry and dissatisfied when you don't manage it.

it isn't easy being far away from my family and from the language in which i can express all my feelings and emotions, but, from now on, whenever i feel depressed, i will remember that funfair. if i had fallen asleep and suddenly woken up in a roller coaster, what would i feel?

well, i would feel trapped and sick, terrified of every bend, wanting to get off. however, if i believe that the track is my destiny and that God is in charge of the machine, then the nightmare becomes something thrilling. it becomes exactly what it is, a roller coaster, a safe, reliable toy, which will eventually stop, but, while the journey lasts, i must look at the surrounding landscape and whoop with excitement."

i'm glad i found this book at this point in my life when i've been having a sorta roller coaster ride of my own. but then again i've always believed that our lives are always beset with ups and downs and we just live through the motions each day.

it's great to find a book which almost details what you feel and how you go about it and offers wisdom to deal with it. i admire Maria, the lead character, a young Brazilian woman who was brought to Switzerland supposedly to work as a dancer but ended up on the streets and working as a prostitute. she seems really sexy and gorgeous, and witty and strong while fighting her own demons like any seemingly weak woman out there as well.

i could read her diary over and over again and still see new light each time. and even if i wake up feeling gloomy one day, i'd only reach out to the book read some excerpts and feel great about reminiscing those times when we did have that one great love we know we'd never regret having and being thankful for that moment when we we're genuinely happy. after all, in this crazy world, being happy even for a day is already a miracle in itself....sigh....

and did i tell you that this book is oh so steamy, hot, hot too?!!! Eleven minutes is theoretically the actual time that sex happens. and this is what people think most about all the time. a mere eleven minutes hahah! but then the challenge is how to make that eleven minutes extend up to eternity. and that could only be achieved with love...oh well...

this book also details the journey of a woman who's slowly finding her own sexuality leading to her happiness. and how her profession has taught her a lot about men and how to deal with them. maybe i should be a prostitute then hahaha!!

i'm making this my bible for now. YOU, go read it and be enlightened!!!;)

at first sight

i realized i'm not a nicholas sparks fan anymore. i find this book a letdown, can't say major letdown..slight lang hehe...

though i loved a walk to remember and the notebook so much i remembered i stopped buying his books after having predicted the ending of a bend in the road even midway to its story.

maybe i imagined it to be much of a hardcore love story or a suspense love thriller, if there is such. i found the first few chapters to be too mundane, too ordinary. i mean, most couples are actually going through what was described and i learned nothing new there (or maybe because i just Pex a lot :D ) and those suspicious emails were just sort of a lousy distraction and was never resolved anyway.

the ending may not have been predictable but it was a major disappointment. sigh. i'll still might read his books if my sister still buys them (paging!) but i don't think i'd buy them again for myself. bleh!

how about you, have you read it and actually like it??

hail to the Orange Girl!

i kinda thought it's but another children's story meant for adults like his previous Ringmaster's Daughter, but Jostein Gaarder, one of my fave authors of all time wove something different, something so close to home. The Orange Girl, the Norwegian author's latest release just showed how talented and how he has personally drawn me into his works. Set in a small town in Norway in contemporary times, this is a story of Georg who receives a letter from his father who's been dead for 11 years. Reading the letter made him know his father better but also made him ask several questions about his life and their existence.

when you know you're gonna die anyway, will you still prefer to breathe in, give more to others? will you be willing to step into some fairy tale knowing that you could only stay a while? will you still peek at some nice package knowing that you can't take a thing you fancy in there? what you don't know won't hurt you, isn't it? sometimes it's safe to assume that leaving will be easier when you don't imprint much of yourself in the world. or is it?