Cutest thing

Look at these two!

My Review of Slumdog from 2009 - Trip down memory lane..

Slumdog Millionaire A-

In the glorious marching band that is the assembly line of films seeking attention from the Academy, Slumdog Millionaire marches the fastest, beats the loudest and ultimately sets the pace for the whole ensemble. Danny Boyle’s most decorated film yet is a cinematic triumph – relating betrayal, love and tribulation.

The film is quintessentially an exploration of prejudice and the intense hierarchies it creates in countries like India, with Danny Boyle focusing on the unfortunate cluster of people suffocating amongst the dregs, their fates inescapable. Modern day Mumbai acts as the setting for our ‘fairytale’ film; Jamal Malik, an 18 year old from the slums is on the verge of the biggest day of his life, and just one question away from 20 million rupees. He is arrested when the show breaks for the night on suspicion of cheating. Desperate to prove his innocence, Jamal tells the story of his life in the slum where he and his brother grew up, of their adventures together on the road, of vicious encounters with local gangs, and of Latika, the girl he loved and lost Each chapter of Jamal's increasingly layered story reveals where he learned the answers to the show's seemingly impossible questions.

Simon Beaufouy’s screenplay is based on Vikas Swarup’s award winning book ‘Q&A’ where Ram Mohammad Thomas, a poor young waiter becomes the winner of the biggest quizshow in history. The screenplay has been meticulously honed through various research trips to India by Beaufouy– in an interview recently, he related the camadarie of the slums and how impressed he was with the attitudes of the children.

For a film like this to be artistically successful, chronicling the life of its characters from different ages, it is important for the growth of the characters to be natural rather than prosthetic – so accurate casting was crucial and the casting directors were successful.  Dev Patel provides a sense of vulnerability to the film's main character; he himself is on the cusp of being man with his figure signifying the awkwardness of adolescence. Freida Pinto gives the film startling beauty and although she appears in just three  scenes the message of her desperate beauty is successful communicated. It is important for us to immediately grasp that her beauty is one you would cross all ends of the earth for. Apart from Patel the film's cast is composed of actors from India notably Aneel Kapur the biggest actor in the country who plays the host of the quiz show. However, no actor involved in the film is worthy of outlandish appraisal for their performance, it being a very strong ensemble who are able to make its message effective through their convincing delivery.

Following the release of this film the India’s slums have been put under a microscope. Although at the surface we are shocked away from vicious slums, a clearer picture of India is created. The idea to dissect poverty in this film enriches the depth of its messages. India’s Diaspora shouldn’t be hostile towards this film for bringing a harsh reality to our screens or worst yet feel ashamed of their country. Slumdog Millionaire has serviced the nation of India better than any aid appeal or charity ever could. 

Boyle’s direction triggers such strong emotions during the first hour of the film. It is so beautiful when such a talented director can create a film like this for the masses; Boyle’s other films have him trapped in the comfort of a smaller audience, they include the heart-warming ‘Millions’ and the whimsical comedy ‘A Life Less Ordinary’ but none of his films have acquired this much attention from the mainstream audience. Hopefully, this will encourage more of the less mainstream directors to showcase their talents in bigger films.  On the other hand the cynics amongst us may say he has sold his soul here, but if Slumdog Millionaire is his last big-screen, big-budget endeavour he will leave everyone happy. His talent has been introduced to the blockbuster hungry film-goers and he has surely left a mark on Indo-British cinema. 

The director Danny Boyle’s achieves a minor miracle with the creation of this film. Filming in such a chaotic environment means that there are various obstacles that he had to overcome. Mumbai is a city that always changes and even in spans of a few days the setting of the streets can change, this coupled with the majority of the film being shot in the mini metropolis that is the thriving and bustling slums, being able to create a two hour feature film in a set reminiscent of Oxford Street in Christmas Eve is quite an accomplishment. His direction means that we are not observing the surroundings and the people but we are thrown in to this little world for one hundred and twenty minutes.

Slumdog Millionaire is stunningly engaging from the very beginning; capturing the imagination with every scene. The visual and digetic complexities develop an inexorable setting so convincing, any audience would be undoubtedly hooked – the appeal of the film benefits from this effect; as the characters are absorbed more thoroughly and the story becomes more endearing.

The film is a success and a triumphant celebration of all things good in cinema today. With hope, an emotional love story and a vibrant setting this film is to be remembered. Since 1929 eighty brilliant films have been heralded by the academy, but this year an exceptional film will be celebrated. 

I'm Ill - Facebook on Holiday - Results Day

I miss my aggressively long blog posts, and I just got the energy to do it, then I caught a cold! WTF, it's AUGUST I know, but here I am, with a stuffed nose and tissues everywhere, I hate this! And thanks to a girl that will not be named to prevent an angry uproar against her, my best shorts have been ripped! That sounds a bit suggestive, but I ripped it doing starjumps on a trampoline, not very sexual or macho. The Italy blogpost is still cooking, and I have only done 2 vlogs! The 10 Days in Italy just totally upset my rhythm I think, have to build all over again. We'll see.

One thing I want to talk about is this - people who go on Facebook while on holiday. Seeing as I didn't go on Facebook at all during the 10 days i was abroad, I feel that everyone else should honour my actions. For me, it's so annoying when people are on facebook on holiday, I sort of forget they are on holiday. It's even worse when they call it the best holiday ever, i mean seriously! If it's the best holiday ever, why are you on Facebook. I don't care if your hotel has internet, and it's just THERE, read a book, learn a new language, just PISS off facebook.

I probably don't even feel that strongly about the subject, but right now, it feels like I do. To be honest, it's simply just a slight dislike of people who go on Facebook while on holiday. It just seems sad to me, I mean surely you didn't go all that way to do what you'd be doing at home? I'm sorry if anyone's offended, or does this, but yeah; i just find it anal.

Tuesday, the day, has never meant so much to me. Something as ordinary and bland as 'Tuesday' now has a profound and inhumane effect on me. When someone says 'Tuesday' my heart immediatedly skips a beat. It's result's day Tuesday. I hope I won't write anymore on it than that, and that by then I would have solved many of my psychological problems! I hate myself for getting nervous, I really shouldn't be. It's just that what I see PERSONALLY as a fail, is very different from what what'shisface sees as a fail. That's what's going to end me. I just don't want to be dissapointed on that day, I want to be 'surprised' and 'happy' any sad surprises and I'll be an ultra drama queen. If you haven't seen me cry before, Tuesday may just be that day!

Look Who'll Be on Glee

Took me a while to realise who was who!  

Hey Guys

It's been a while, been very busy and very lazy almost been 2 weeks since my last update! That is such a shame, since then I've been to Italy for 10 days and had french cousins round; so I've  been a tourist for a prolonged period. I'm a bit too lazy to do a whole post about Italy, there is almost too much to write. I'll do something simpler about my last 2 weeks.

See you soon :)

Dollar Dollar Dollarr

So much dollar, had to snap it.

Feel like such a G! How very nouveau-riche.

These are SOOOO ANTM 

Jennifer Hudson - AFTER

OMG! She looks like something she would have eaten a few months ago.
Before-

After -

Italy

Super stoked about tommorow, going on holiday for the first time in AGESSSSSSS. It's because I feel like I'm on holiday living here in England; so I guess it would be like going on holiday while being on holiday - if that makes sense to you? One thing I'm peed off about is that I don't get to see any of my good friends before I leave, because I thought I was leaving at 5am tommorow, so I didn't go out tonight or do anything meaningful during the day. 11 days I'm staying, which is a long time, no? The one meaningful thing that has made my day and my summer and my life was that my friend gave me his camera to use for my holiday! I literally was fighting depression going to Italy without a Camera, but now it's all OK; my holiday is saved. Praise be to Beysus.


The excitement really kick started when I realised that all my favourite things come from Italy, like seriously. Think about it I'm sure all of your favourite things are from Italy too. If your favourite things like me are Pasta, Pizza, Ice Cream and Valentino's fall collection; OK the last thing was added for emphasis, but you get my point. Italy's amazing. In England you can't go a mile without a shitty pub or fish'n'chips joint, hopefully Italy will be the same, but with Ice Cream joints, pizza joints and pasta palaces (Hello alliteration!) I hope our guests take us out to dinner every evening, I'll die happy! Oh and Piano is from Italy, therefore music is from Italy, so woo!

One thing I'm bummed about though is that Italians speak Italian, why not French, German or Chinese. I've never had any desire to learn Italian, just such a dud language for me - doesn't get you anywhere, it's just there in Italy. I'm always bragging about my linguistic skills but it's a total bummer I'm going to be just the average ignorant tourist on this trip. With me doing no languages next year, this summer would have been my perfect, I fear only chance to use one of my languages abroad. My chinese teacher had promised to take me to China, but that sort of dissolved, very quickly too. The good thing is that my french cousins are coming over as soon as I come back, so at least I get to flex those language muscles one last time. Oh shit, that just reminded me of results day, ineedamoment. Who invented Results Day, SERIOUSLY!

We're staying with family, but we're be roaming the first day I think. I do need to learn some phrases though as we land in Milan and need to get to Modena, which is like 2 hours away on train, so yeah. Hopefully it's one of those shameless countries where everyone speaks English.

See you in 11 days, I just found out there is no internet there :'(

Cute Picture

Vlog - Kanye West, Lindsay Lohan

Watch :)

Last Night - Red Eye (2005), Phonebooth, Lolita (1997)

Let me paint a picture for you readers out there. It's 12:00am in the 'morning' and I've convinced myself rather prematurely that I will be going to sleep in the next 5 minutes. Then I switch on BBC1, and find this film RedEye, I normally don't like watching films on TV as I have such a short attention span when I watch TV and I just can't stay on one thing for more than 40 minutes. This film was ending anyway so i thought why not.

The last 20 or so minutes of RedEye was simply put one of the best 20 minutes of film I've seen it years. One of the reasons I stayed on this film was because of Rachel McAdams and Cillian Murphy (Inception). It's a thriller where Rachel plays the daughter of a hotel manager who is kidnapped by a stranger on a flight in his attempt to assassinate a Government official. I sort of wish I joined the film earlier, but it was still really interesting and quite easy to follow. The last minutes of the film was her escape and the consequent chase and scramble to save the Government official and her father. The film as a whole probably wouldn't have been that interesting I imagine, but what I saw was so so entertaining. I wasn't at the edge of my seat, I got up and was fighting when she was fighting, running when she was running and dodging when she was dodging. It was madness, after it finished I was on a little high, I couldn't possibly go to sleep after all that!

After that I was on the search for another thriller that could have the same effect, I ran into Phonebooth with Colin Farrell. I'd seen it before but it's one of those films I think, I really like it so I can watch it again in patches. It's such a clever film, wasn't as thrilling as Red Eye but put in the right mindset to fall the final film of the night, Lolita, but more about that in a second. Every time I watch Phonebooth I always think that I could outsmart the psycho-killer, not sure how but I think I can. I swear every single film like this has the same voice for the psychotic killer. In between Phonebooth I browsed at a spanish film called Talk To Me, by the genius that brought us Volver (Penelope Cruz). It might have been good, but I didn't have the commitment to watch a film that relied on me reading subtitles.

Then came Lolita. Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita is one of the finest and most celebrated novels over the last century; yet relatively unknown by the masses. Books like Animal Farm and Lord of the Flies are 'household names' but Lolita is more of an hidden treasure, especially here in the UK. That is unless you study Literature in University or in some sixth forms. The book is about a middle-aged man who marries his landlady because he's obsessed with her 12-year old daughter, which he later develops a sexual relationship with. Strangely I've never read the book, I always say I will but one I can never find it, and two the only novels I buy are often written by Chinese authors. The novel is controversial and revolutionary in the way it deals with sex and  sexual temptations, it's definitely not a book that can be studied for GCSE which limits it's popularity I guess. I'd have loved to study it, way more interesting story and more things to talk about here.

The film is so sensitive in the way it deals with the book. The images are so delicate but the first half of the film presents Lolita as such a seductive girl, we are almost made to be attracted to her with her short skirts and provocative outfits. I think this is one of the most important elements of the film, your reaction to it. It tells you about yourself, how do you react to what happens? Who is the victim? Who is in control? These may seem obvious from what I've told you about the film - middle age man having sex with a 12 year old girl after her mum dies - but it's far more complex than that. Dominique Swain was 15 at the time of the shooting and she plays a 12 year old girl, so every time she had sex scenes with Jeremy Irons a pillow had to be placed between the two. How can an actor agree to such a role? Everyone must have been nervous and anxious on set, basically making porn with a 15 year old girl. In the 1962 film, half the scenes were deemed illegal and inappropriate and it was highly censored.

It's a film everyone has to see, it's a book everyone has to read, basically it's a story you have to absorb, to see your reactions. Like I swung throughout the film about who I thought was in the wrong. On the one hand as the adult her stepfather shouldn't do this, he should be in control, but this girl is messed up - she later uses sexual favours to get money and other things. For some of that film it seems she is in control. The twist at the end of the film is genius, where she becomes involved with another older man. The acting is phenomenal, especially Dominique Swain, it takes a very mature 15-year old to do a project like this, her parents must be very liberal. At times it was soft-core child porn, which isn't OK. Throughout the film, I was talking to a very good friend about it, so we constantly like trading ideas on the film, which added to the enjoyment of it.

From now on, I've decided that I'm going to call any girl I think is a slut, a Lolita. That's going to be a saying I use. Lolita is much worse than a slag, yes, but still. I ended up going to sleep at 3am, but it was worth it. Go see the film, or read the book. If anyone has seen it, let me know, be interesting to know what you think.

The novel is ranked #4 in the Modern Library's Best books of the 20th Century, to put it in perspective, Lord of the Flies is #41, Animal Farm is #31 and A Clockwork Orange is #65, tough crowd.

Vlog - Bike Stolen