The Clearing

Despite major reservations, a bunch of us did finally give in to the hype, and decided to watch the best advertised movie in recent times--Snakes on a Plane. In case you haven't heard, it is unadulterated crap. The highpoint for me was waiting for Samuel L. to say m*&^%$#f&^%$# which he did--sorry if I'm killing the suspense here--just twice in the whole movie, with the first one coming when the movie was almost 80% over (almost killing me with anticipation... sitting outside a plane). It was fun nonetheless, like watching a Govinda movie, and admiring and celebrating the incomparable cheesiness of it all. Here's a no-nonsense review (scroll to the very end to read the review for this film).

On Saturday, decided to watch Little Miss Sunshine with friends claiming that it had got good reviews in the NYtimes (which is definitely high praise, after all, when was the last time Stephen Holden actually liked a movie?). This one started off looking like a typically vague and pointless arty movie with strong existential themes (i.e. not my kind of movie): the opening shot is about a woman taking in deep breaths before entering a hospital room to meet her depressed brother who slit his wrists in an unsuccessful bid to end his life. The brother is forced to move into the sister's house and has to share a room with her son who reads Nietzsche and has not spoken a word in the last 9 months in one of those teenage-rebel-without-a-cause deals. Fortunately, the mood of the movie becomes lighter from there on--we are introduced to the father who is trying to make a career out of teaching optimism, a grandfather whose cussing ways would put Samuel J in his Pulp Fiction avatar to shame, and finally the daughter who is a sweet 8 year old whose sole ambition is to win the Little Miss Sunshine which is a beauty pageant for young kids in distant California. The plot of the movie revolves around the family's very eventful and entertaining 600 mile trip to that pageant.

The movie is highly recommended--it's thoughtful and sensitive, along with being one of funniest movies I have recently seen.

Labels: Reviews

This is great news! I missed most of the match but saw the last two games, and even with Andy Murray serving for the match at 40-0, I was not convinced about his chances of winning it, so larger-than-life is Federer's aura, not to mention his now 62-5 record this year. Andy seemed very calm, contrary to what we have come to expect from him--his tendency to tighten up when closing out matches--and even though Federer was able to save two match points, Andy was able to seal the deal, incredibly, in straight sets, with a sweet backhand passing shot. Federer was not playing his typical flawless game but that is usually irrelevant when this man plays.

Andy is the first person not named Nadal to have defeated Federer this year. Gasquet came pretty close last Sunday in the finals of the Toronto masters, but seemed to have got a bit overwhelmed by the occasion in the third set (funnily enough, the tournament is officially known as Rogers Masters--I guess they forgot the apostrophe!). This is a great build-up for my first trip to the US Open--inexplicable, I know, since I have been in this country for more than 6 years now, and fairly close to Flushing Meadows throughout--Federer is looking mortal for once and I'm beginning to entertain serious fantasies of a final that does not feature Lord Federer.

Labels: Sports

Here's a post that puts expectations from married life into perspective. It's from a woman's point of view, but the very honest sounding description of the greyness of the couple's feelings vis-a-vis each other is worth reading about, at the very least for its ability to disturb.

Labels: Reflections on life

I meet this girl, who is attractive to me--an impression, no doubt, created by the fact that she deigns to talk to me (what wonderfully low esteem!). I'm conflicted--at this advanced age (actually, represents attitude fairly accurately, an attempt at humor is not being made here) caution (atleast being aware of the need to be cautious) comes pretty easily, at the same time there's an impatient part of me that wants me to decide really fast what my feelings for the girl are, and take steps towards getting into a relationship, fulfilling physical (don't say a word, I warn you) and emotional needs. The first approach, I know, is the right one, but it's the second one that seems more compelling (no brainer, I guess).

The romance I was constructing around this girl is related to the experience of a very close friend. He's now married (in fact, the ceremony took place only about 2 weeks back) to a Romanian girl he had been dating for about 4 years. There was, atleast in my mind, a very endearing devotional aspect to the relationship from my friend's side from the very beginning--without much prompting from the girlfriend, within weeks of starting to date her, he took it upon himself to teach himself her language. His efforts were diligent and now he's so highly proficient in Romanian that he can easily hold his own in any conversation with his wife's friends or even her relatives back in Romania, for that matter. That's the fantasy I was building involving this girl whose native language, not unlike my friend's case, is different from mine.

Recently, I went out for dinner with these guys and I complimented my friend on his decision to learn the language. Turns out there was more to it than what I was romanticizing it to be--he actually enjoyed learning the language independently of the fact that it was something his girlfriend wanted him to do. When I told my friend what my hopes from this girl were, he went on to add, that no relationship is as perfect as I was imagining his to be (No 'rainbows day after day') and every relationship also comes with its issues that require working out. No new stuff here, really, but it's sometimes necessary to be brought back to Earth. That's enough self-disclosure for the time being, stay tuned.

Labels: autobiographical, Reflections on life

It's incredible how little I have to write about, so I'll just ramble along a bit. Writing this blog, considering the number of people who view it, is in any case a lot like having a conversation with myself. I do, however, apologize to any readers who might be choosing to keep their identities secret (why, mate?).

I saw My SuperExGirlfriend the other day. It was a last minute, somewhat reluctant, decision to see it, instead of Lady in the Water--ultimately capitulating to the pressure put by the highly unfavorable NYtimes' review of Shymalan's latest, atleast two of us in the group had read. The low expectations worked in our favor, and we ended up really enjoying ourselves. The movie is a bit of a spoof of Superman. Whereas, the comic devices/situations are not all that original (except, perhaps, the shark being thrown into an window of an apartment in a high-rise building?), what really works in the favor of the film is the editing which is very crisp--the director, apparently, does not like to linger, which translates into not making the bad parts of the movie worse. So do watch it if there is not much else to choose from--that is indeed a good recipe for having low expectations from a film, watching a film not for its sake but as an excuse for an outing or a break from research (sorry, too specific there, replace by word that applies better to your case).

Labels: Reviews