Cielo nublado con posiblilidades de lluvia

I saw The Dreamers yesterday night, and oh wow. Oh man, I'm in love. One of those movies, you know? The premise: Matthew is an exchange student in Paris, and he meets and falls in love with a pair of fraternal twins, Isabelle and Theo, and the three of them seclude themselves from the world, lost in a fantasy world made up almost entirely of reminicenses of old movies while the student rebellion of 1968 comes to a peak outside their window. So yes, there is incest, somewhat explicit sex and a lot of nudity, and yet, I loved it to pieces. Just - the way they interact with each other, the games they play, it was all incredibly moving, even if they're all somewhat disturbing characters. Then the love of cinema of all of them was just incredible, and the lovely Parisian atmoshere coating everything and the subplot of the revolts was really well made. I'm only sad that it didn't have subtitles for the French parts, few as they were, and I feel like I lost something of the sibling's interactions. In all, I just loved it, so, so much.

It's weird, though, remember what I said a few days ago about gratuitous sex? It didn't feel like that at all in here, because, just like in Y Tu Mamá También, sex is one of the main ways in which the character interact, and it tells a lot about their characters. Plus, they were really well made, and not at all pornographic or anything of the like.

Cielo parcialmente nublado

I saw Sakuran last, uh, Thursday, I think, and I kept on forgetting to write about it for some reason. It's a pretty straightforward film, girl fights adversity only to find true love at the end, but it was pretty well executed, and the cinematography was just about brilliant, made entirely of bright, vibrant colors and contrasting colors. The music was pretty good, too, really jazzy with hints of bossa nova, rock, electronic pop and tango, which aren't at all what one expects to find in a movie set in the samurai-ruled Japan. Even though logically I know that an Oiran is nothing like a Geisha, comparations with Memoirs of a Geisha are instinctically made, because it has somewhat the same plot (young girl is sold! Girl fights through adversity only to become the best at what she does! Girl finds love! AND all while wearing Kimono!), and really, Kiyoha has ten times the guts and will to live meek Sayuri ever had. She's quite an amazing character, too, because she's childish and selfish and capricious and has quite a modern-day approach of life for a woman living as a whore in the Tokugawa era Japan. So yes, a very pretty, very nice movie, even if not a master piece.

And then, after yesterday's cinema fiasco (which was really a hard blow for me, because Amores Perros is one of my favorite movies ever and seeing Guillermo Arriaga going so low as that [en el hoyo y siguiendo cavando, como decimos por aquí] was downright depressing for the state of today's Mexican cinema) I just had to go see something decent. I chose the movie well.



I saw The Painted Veil, and my, but what a lovely, enchanting movie. First off, I loved the characters, the movie did a great job of developing them into kind, loving people that can be completely horrid at times - they're mean, and petty, and childish at times, and I loved it. A right battle of wills. And then the setting was gorgeous and while my dad is right and there was much more to be done with the photography because the landscapes were just stunning, it was still gorgeous, and the time frame helped it somehow. And then the plot was awfully interesting and well done and the ending had me tearing up a bit. I honestly tip my hat off to both Edward Norton and Naomi Watts, they gave wonderful perfomances - completely believable, and their accents were top-notch (or at least they were to my uneducated ears). Ah, it was just nice to see something good enough to restore my faith in the film industry.

Cielo despejado

I saw El Búfalo de la Noche (The Buffalo of the Night) today, a movie I'd been looking forward for months, and I'm sorry to say it disappointed me. It hardly feels like Guillermo Arriaga's writing (the man who wrote Amores Perros, 21 Grams and Babel) - it felt clumsy, amateur-ish. The worst of it, though? The gratuitous sex scenes. Seriously, it's like someone's taking their clothes off every five seconds, with no motivation whatsoever (all Camila Sodi does is get naked for five minutes, talk for two of them and THAT'S IT. That's ALL she does in the entire movie, ugh), and while it was nice to see Diego Luna's bits, yes, I'm shallow like that, it just gets boring when it's not helping to the story at all.

So yes. It had lots of potential, because the characters are pretty interesting (especially Gregorio) and there's some subplots that are honestly intriguing but they fall flat and they're never developed. The premise is: Gregorio's girlfriend, Tania, cheats on him with his best friend, Manuel, while Gregorio's locked away at a psychiatric hospital, and when he finds out, he kills himself. Days later, Manuel gets a letter written in Gregorio's handwriting. It could've been such a good mystery, and all of the characters are deliciously insane (literally), but it just didn't live up to my (or anyone's) expectations. It's not a bad movie per se - it's still better than most of the crap in the cinemas right now - but it's not that good either.

For all that Guillermo Arriaga keeps on bitching on and on about not needing Alejandro Gonzáles Inárritu's directing to shine, he's done a piss poor job of convincing me.

...lluvias pobladas? No me acuerdo.

An old entry I forgot to actually post. Originally dated July 14th and posted now for the sake of thoroughness.

I'm watching Howl's Moving Castle right now, and really, now that I think about it, the Potter movies really do fare well as book adaptations go, I mean -- as enchanting as Miyazaki's film is (because it's Miyazaki, and he can do no wrong in my eyes), it's nowhere near the sheer awesomeness that the book is (then again, HMC is one of my favorite books, so...). Howl isn't nearly enough of an asshole, Sophie isn't nearly enough of a nosy bully and the With of the Waste isn't nearly enough of an evil bitch. That's not ever saying anything about Michael suddenly being turned into a six year old in desperate need of Ritalin and the scarecrow being all happy-happy, and the way they pulled a World War II-esque plot out of their asses and DID I MENTION THERE'S NO DRUNKEN, RUGBY PLAYING HOWL WHICH IS SUCH A DISAPPOINTMENT?

Er, now it sounds like I hate the movie, don't I? No, I do like it, it's got fantastic music and a lovely feeling to it that makes me smile and smile and well, Miyazaki did wanted to turn it into a more him movie, instead of a Diana Wynn Jones one.

Cielo despejado

Oh, I saw this wonderful movie yesterday! Tadpole, the story of a 15-year-old boy in love with his 40-year-old step-mother, was much more than I thought it'd be, and once again, I was reminded why I like Aaron Stanford so much as an actor. I seriously laughed so much, and was pleasently surprised at how good the writing was. The characters were pretty engaging, too - the weight of the movie fall on Oscar's shoulders, and he doesn't disappoint as an interesting, complex character that has the perfect mix of adolescent yearning to impress and a mature mindset. Visually, no, the quality isn't that good, but the script and the acting really make up for it, and I was seriously impressed with it. The music and the Voltaire quotes really add to it, and honestly, it closes with David Bowie's Changes - how can that go wrong?

Cielo parcialmente nublado con lluvia por la tarde

Just a little something I did for a friend - her mom needed some illustrations about different stages of childhood. Drawn in markers.