30 Day Movie Challenge: Day 05

I feel rather strange doing this silly challenge right now when the interwebs are a-buzzing with the Royal Wedding that is going on at this very moment. So, in spirit of this momentous occassion, let me take two lines to say 'Congrats!'. I give them about 7 years before the fairy dust wears off and Kate Middleton realises she's married Gollum's taller brother.

Onwards! Day 05 - a movie that reminds you of someone

This is rather easy. When I was in college, I was one of the few people who used to watch a lot of movies, at least among my circle of friends from med school. Unfortunately, I hadn't learned at the time the subtle art of movie recommendations. See, sometimes people have very different tastes when it comes to movies, and no matter how much you try to convince them that The Godfather is a work of art, they'll always come back with "but I don't understand why he has to talk so funny...!"

Anyway, one day a girl from my church asked me to recommend a good movie. Now, my friends had just finished watching this and they told me it was a great movie. I myself hadn't watched it, and I didn't even know what it was about, but my friends generally have great taste, so I suggested it to her. She said thanks, and headed out to rent it.

A few days later, I met her and asked her how the movie was. Big mistake. Apparently, the movie was very graphic in nature, and was about someone who was abused as a child. Not the kind of movie you recommend to someone of her disposition. I had unintentionally traumatised her, and caused her many nights of insomnia.

I never recommended a movie to her again, and she never let me forget it! In fact, to this day, I still haven't seen it.

The winner is - Cold Creek Manor (2003)

Runners up:

Signs (2002) [Haha wow, I wonder if you'll read this and remember]

Pulp Fictioin (1994)

Say It

What a strange evening it has been for me today. I got back from work around 530pm, just as the rain came down. The noise of it would have drowned out the sound of voices, had there been anyone speaking. No, today was one of those days I was alone, and I was fine with that. 

I am always surprised at my alternating dependence and indifference to company. Normally my evenings are spent talking with friends, listening to music, relaxing, planning dinner, even grocery shopping with them. I am not always good company, but I like to think that my presence is not a negative in a group. 

And then there are nights like tonight, spent without speaking to anyone, just music, movies, books and my thoughts. 

If I'm honest, I must admit I am rarely honest with myself. At times, it can be good, because reality is a brutal truth that sometimes is hard to digest. At times, however, it's good to know your weaknesses. And, if I'm being honest with myself right now, I must admit that one of my many weaknesses is my inability communicate effectively. It has been the bane of my life. I wonder if I will ever get over it, wonder if this will come back to haunt me with serious repercussions in the future. 

Or, like tonight, I wonder if I can not need it. Maybe, I can survive without having to explain myself to everyone, without having to make sure everyone understood my motives and my intentions for all my actions. 

Tonight, as I sit alone with my earphones and my laptop, I realise I am surprisingly content with being by myself. Not happy, not thrilled; but content.

In the words of the song, maybe, just maybe, 'all I need is the air I breathe and a place to rest my head'.

Time will tell.

How Not To Swear In The Workplace

Stumbled onto this online, and just had to share it. I can think of a few people who could really use a list like this either pasted on their desk or permanently glued to their arm.

This may be the only time I will ever say: well done HR!


Cheers!

G

Twenty Minute Posting: IV

This one is going to be all over the place; don't say I didn't warn you.


Some people say that it's easier to get words on paper than it is to say them. Some say writing helps to arrange your thoughts and get things in order upstairs. Some people are wrong.

I for one can't seem to get my figurative 'pen' to figurative 'paper' at all, and it's not for a lack of thoughts in my head; trust me, it's a-buzzing like a hornets nest right now.

("Hornets nest"?? Really??)

It's just too damn hard. I would much rather Google devise some elaborate machine or app that could extract my mind's thoughts and display them in HD on my browser. Surely, that isn't too much to ask from the people that gave us Google Goggles and, well, Google anything.


(I just spent 8 minutes of the allotted 20 minutes for this post 'thinking'.)


I watched a shit movie called "Love and Other Drugs", where Jake Gyllenhall plays a messed up but good looking guy and Anne Hathaway plays a messed up but good looking girl. They fall in love, and they 'fix' each other. Idiots.

Love doesn't work that way. Relationships don't 'fix' things. You don't discover some miraculous epiphany thanks to the person you are together with. You don't learn some inner truth while you're naked in bed and staring into each others eyes.

Sometimes I think we need relationships, only so that we can be understood. That's all. Not to be fixed, healed, 'completed'. If you're broken, screwed up, and have self-esteem issues, a girlfriend or boyfriend is not going to help you. Perhaps this whole waiting till you meet "the one" nonsense is more about you giving yourself time to realise what a jackass you are, and doing something about it first before burdening someone else with your garbage.

When people have relationship problems, especially people in my age group i.e. 26 and lower, it's not because there's a problem with the relationship or the other person. The problem isn't even 'you'.

The problem is that you don't know that it's you.


If anyone gets something out of this word vomit, I salute you. Otherwise, let this just be another rambling lost to cyberspace, a page of pondering destined to be 'misunderstood'.

30 Day Movie Challenge: Day 4

So on to Day 04 of this miserable challenge. Yes, 'miserable', because I just realised that I have 26 days left to go!

Day 04: a movie that makes you sad.

I think movies have to try really hard these days to 'make me sad', simply because so many lack the depth of movies I used to watch years ago. While many of Hollywood's 'drama' offerings these days obsess on trying to get you to connect with the characters, I find that I'm generally apathetic, and even sometimes bored, by the proceedings. Personally, when it comes to serious movies, simplicity is key.

However, there are some strong candidates for this movie, and most of them are from at least 8-10 years ago. Can anyone say that they didn't feel a punch in the gut at the graveyard scene in "Saving Private Ryan"? Or what about the utter hopelessness that Brad Pitt's "Se7en" potrayed? Russel Crowe's heroic death in "Gladiator"? Hillary Swank's journey for relevance in "Million Dollary Baby"? Liam Neeson's amazing performance as Oskar Schindler, sobbing and saying "I could have got one more, one more!" in "Schindler's List"? And then there was "Green Mile" - need I say more?

But, in the end there can be only one, so without further ado, the winner is : Requiem For A Dream (2000)

Is there any doubt that this was the most rivetting movie of it's time? I still remember the hushed silence that fell over our room when my college friends and I first watched this in someones room. What starts off as a fun, trippy movie about a few individuals that like to get high, turns into the most darkest, gripping movie I can remember seeing. I cannot remember who I felt pity for more in this epic story, and even now, just the thought of it fills me with an uneasy feeling.

But it's not just the story; it's the ambience, which reaches a climax with a brilliant ending, accompanied by the tune of Clint Mansell's ever famous "Requiem" (the actual name apparently is "Lux Aeterna"), a tune that could make someone watching cartoons and eating candy to burst into tears.

This, is how movies should be made.

Runners up:
Buried (2010)
Million Dollay Baby (2004)