Memo about a movie: The King’s Speech

26 01 2011

You just have to see this movie. Colin Firth plays King George VI, Queen Elizabeth’s father. He’s stammers and seeks the help of a speech therapist, Lionel, played by Geoffrey Rush. A relationship develops – funny, deep, painful at times, but remarkable. I guess this is at least partially based on fact – the post movie words indicated it, which makes it a great story to make a movie about.

You could feel the pain and at times, I admit, the eyes felt a bit misty. There were some unusual wide-angled scenes that made the King look vulnerable, which he certainly was and Geoffrey Rush, well why don’t we see more of him man!? Fantastic.

Unmissable is my rating.

Enjoy.


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Memo about a movie: The social network

11 01 2011

I bought my tickets online for the movie this evening and on my credit card being swiped at the till at the Rialto in Newmarket, our tickets were generated. Such is technology nowadays. Some drinks and popcorn for Tim and we were on our way.

Following the founding  of Facebook, largely though the settling of two lawsuits by Mark Zukerman, the story doesn’t make anyone look too flash at all. Zukerman comes across as sad and obsessive. Could he be so now with a majority stake in a company worth $25b? Maybe. The power of an idea that goes viral on the internet is inspiring. I kept thinking through the movie “what next?”. No doubt some 18-year-old will have it. Partway though the movie Tim discovered that his soft drink was flavourless. Ah, the disappointment.

The Social Network is a fast movie, looks honest, if not a bit predictable with two-dimensional characters, but hey, that could be true. Ending with a rather sad attempt by Zukerman to reconnect with the girl who dumped him, I guess we were being told he wasn’t completely narcissistic. Only others like to think that narcissistic’s aren’t. The narcissistic is content as they are.

If I was internet-powerful like Zukerman I could probably make mischief out of the theatres inaction over Tim’s soft drink when we left. Strange that the manager couldn’t see the irony in the experience and the movie. Hope he’s allowed to see the movie one day. Even if only to reinforce the reality of the web, we should all see this movie. And it’s a fun and at times funny flick.


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Memo about a movie: Island City

3 12 2010

You just have to see this movie. That’s all I really want to say! It’s funny, crazy and sweet all at once.  A prison guard – sorry Correctional Facilities Officer – (Andy Garcia), and his family which includes a son with a fetish to feed women, a daughter at college who’s had breast implants so she can work as a stripper, and an inmate, on parole under Dad’s supervision.

Dad is away once a week “playing poker”. Actually he’s having acting lessons but doesn’t know how to tell his family! His “manager” is a classmate (she was in the Woody Allen movie Matchpoint) and when success hits, it almost all unravels.

You’ll love it.

Stephen


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Memo about a movie: Predicament

27 08 2010

Predicament is a New Zealand movie set in the 1930s in the Taranaki. It’s a black comedy about a group of young guys who hatch a plan to blackmail an unpopular and wealthy land-owning family.

Things don’t go quite to plan and a very anxious lead who for some reason is made to look like Harry Potter, ends up with a head in a box in his attic.

Tim Finn plays the Dad and has a pretty silent role for most of the movie.

I laughed and enjoyed the rich tones and earthy, dare I say, foreign film feeling.

Stephen


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Whatever Works

23 07 2010

It’s the title of a Woody Allen movie that I saw a while back. For some reason I often find myself thinking about it and tried to buy it today, without success. I’ll try to see if I can buy it on-line. A grumpy Quantum Physicist played by Seinfeld creator Larry David talks to you during the movie – yep, right at you. It’s hilarious. He meets a 21 year-old runaway and despite his protestations and rudeness, she falls for him and they marry.

Christian fundamentalist Mum turns up a while later, aghast at the turn of events.  Later Dad turns up, looking for Mum, to find her settled into a relationship with two men and his daughter married to a bitter, complaining old man.

Things take a turn for the best for Dad though, who finds his soul-mate at a bar. Everyone ends up where they should be.

It’s very funny, meaningful and touches on lots of things I enjoy – big bang, religion (the parents see the light!) and relationships that make people happy for themselves, not for others.

Whatever works. I liked it a lot.

Go Woody!


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A beautiful narcissist

9 06 2010

I’m not sure whether I should be putting this blog in here as a memo about a movie or under my corporate psychopath blog – the movie wins but suffers the header. In the world we live in today where very little seems original and you can have a copy of whatever you want, Coco Chanel’s style in Coco & Igor is delicious. The movie got me right from the start with the dramatic beginnning in the premiere of Stravinsky’s new work in 1913 (though what’s with the opening credits still appearing after what seemed like about 20 minutes?!). It was an artistic movie, mainly in French, with some Russian and a little English. Chanel is portrayed as a striking, independent, sexual and ruthless woman who would play second fiddle to no-one, including Stravinsky. Her lack of conscience at destroying his family felt harsh and there was little doubt that she got what she wanted in life. And with style.

It was glamorous in setting, though the pain of lust vs family was very unglamorous. Narcissitic behaviour is often excused with the phase “but she’s so amazing at….”, as if excellence at something excuses destroying other lives. It doesn’t and the movie made it plain to me that it doesn’t.

I liked it. What to do with my front room? Been thinking about a makeover – maybe black and white…..


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Otahuhu Otahuhu I love you

1 06 2010

On Saturday my son Tim and I decided we would take a train trip from Britomart to Sylvia Park.  Actually we were going to go from Mt Eden but the Western Line was closed for completion of the double tracking.  There’s something vaguely international about travelling on the train especially when the train heads up the wrong line!  ”Excuse me, I asked to go to Sylvia Park – it might have been helpful if you’d mentioned we were on the wrong train”.  ”You’ll need these – get off at Otahuhu and the train to Sylvia Park will arrive 4 minutes later”.  So armed with our transfer tickets we headed to Otahuhu.

New York New York, I love you is a series of short films about, unsurprisingly, New Yorkers, and love. It’s a bit predictable but pretty funny and the briefness of the stories kept my attention. It’s got a Seinfeld feel to parts of it “why does the pharmacist have to be two and a half feet higher than the rest of us?” went though my mind.  The old couple out on a day trip to deserted Coney Island on their 63rd wedding anniversary could have been straight from The Sopranos – what do you do if the person you are walking with across the street is simply too slow to make it by the time the lights change? Well the wife kept on walking and he just put his hand up and stopped the traffic.  Good call.

A lesson too for Casanova. Be careful about who you try and seduce. They might end up being more of a professional than you.  That was funny.

Four minutes on the train station at Otahuhu were almost sureal.  Where is that place? It’s like some deserted platform on the outskirts of Chicago during the height of the great depression. I must go back – the potential for photography is outstanding. The views towards the Manukau Harbour as the sun lowering in the sky are stunning.

I wonder why the train station at Sylvia Park isn’t integrated properly into the Centre. That would make it more appealing and a lot easier for old folk out on day trip. I’m not sure I’d drag my Mum through all this. But if I did I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t leave her to fend the traffic off on her own!

The movie: I liked it.


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Memo about a movie – A Single Man

11 05 2010

Achingly tender. The story starts when I was just 17 days old. I’m sure that had nothing to do with the story, but it held me there, at the start.  Professor George Falconer (Colin Firth) is an English Professor of English in Los Angeles dealing with the tragic death of his lover of 16 years in a car accident.

He relives the life he shared while in the depths of grief that he struggles to overcome. Switching between inconsolable misery and flirtation with young lovers the screenplay for me was so tender you could feel it.  Teaching Aldous Huxley to his students great quotes that I wish I could have recorded were interwoven through the storyline:  ”Experience is not what happens to you.  It is what you do with what happens to you”. 

George’s lifelong friend Charlotte (Julienne Moore) lightens the story to compare George’s situation with her pathetic self-pity at her divorced status. Moore’s role was much hyped, but added little to the story for me.

I loved the cars, the 2-door Mercedes Benz with ticking analogue clock and wind-up chrome bordered windows.  Falconer’s house was an architectual dream  “windows in a lush sub-tropical Californian garden”. I hope the director’s know that people like me love to notice these details which can make even a mundane movie a feast for the eyes.  Not that this was a mundane movie.

Only infrequently in life do moments of great clarity come to us and this movie reminds us that this can only happen when we live in the moment. The past is gone, the future is uncertain. Now is where the power is.

I liked it. A lot.

And that’s my first movie memo!

stephendrain.org


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