Don't You Want Somebody To Love? Plus: A Single Man (2009)

Jefferson Airplane: Somebody to Love


A Serious Man (2009) Trailer


A Single Man (2009) Trailer

Listening to the song Somebody To Love in A Serious Man (2009), I'm writing this review on A Single Man (2009).

It is said that the movie is Tom Ford's , the director, personal story. I think filmmakers' creative input some kind or another must come from personal experiences. I agree that life experience is crucial to story-telling.

The story is about a middle class professor's, whose homosexual partner has just died, decision to kill himself by the end of the day. The story is mainly about his internal conflict. However, the side casts have some influence to his decision. Charley, his best friend and ex-girl friend partied with him that night and had a discussion about their relationship. I thought the plot would be about euthanasia, but I was wrong.

On the way to home, two men approach him at different circumstances. One is a man from Madrid outside a store, the other is one of his student. They both flirt with him in a subtle way. And you can't help to think: how come he has so many romantic encounters in a day?

He's mourns the death of his partner, and is very hysterical and depressed. Would he commit suicide by the end of the day?

Spoilers below:
I think the ending is brilliant. That's how you get an Oscar nomination. If the story ends with him burning his will, it would be too plain. Instead, the twist lies when he chooses to live, he died of a heart attack. It's so out of control and ironic.

Ending this way would leave some kind of regret and makes the audience think. It's meaningful.

Every angle is planned, from the way he opens his drawer, picks up his pistol, packs his suitcase to the lining of rifles and alcohols on the wall behind. I think the director is a perfectionist. He's obsessive with perfection would easily lead him to depression. That's why he came up with such a topic.

To conclude, the simplified formula of Oscar nomination = Psychology (life & death instinct, childhood ==> complex internal conflict of characters and meaningful of life) + unresolved ending

See you next time!

A Step Closer to Hollywood

I'm getting closer to Hollywood!

I'm going to take a class on screenwriting. Hopefully can learn the basics of writing a great story. I plan to write at least 2 to 3 screenplays to put into my portfolio.

Cheers!

Movies Update - New York, I Love You (2008), Nine, Eat Pray Love (2010), The Social Network (2010), etc.

I bought a bunch of VCDs today:


New York, I Love You (2008) Trailer

- New York, I Love You
- Nine
- All About Eve
- That Touch of Mink
- A Single Man
- Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
- Death Proof
- P.S. I Love You

Watched a lot of movies recently but no time to write my reviews.

Eat, Pray, Love (2010) Trailer


The Social Network (2010) Trailer


- Eat, Pray, Love
- Life As We Know It
- The Social Network
- 127 Hours
- Wild Target
- Despicable Me
- Machete
- The Kids Are All Right
- The Other Guys
- The Town
- Animal Kingdom
- The Romantics
- No Reservations
- Twilight: Eclipse
- Salt
- Killers
- Chole
- Iron Man 2
- Kick Ass
- About Schmidt
- Sex & the City 2
- Kill Bill
- Exam
- Pulp Fiction

Haven't Met You Yet

The Foxtrot by Nicole Scherzinger & Derek Hough in Dancing With the Stars is very inspiring. The background music is Haven't Met You Yet by Michael Buble. The danced a love story. It inspired me to direct a short love story between Mr. Bim and Be Be. Such a lovely couple.

The lyrics is about a man talking about how good he'll be to the girl and how amazing they'll be together. But they just haven't met each other yet. So it's all in his imagination.

Black Eye Peas - I Gotta Feelin'

Surprisingly, this song by the Black Eyed Peas is suitable for dancing Cha Cha Cha. The rhythm is so strong that you can count the beats (2, 3, 4 and, 1) clearly. But if you dance all 4 minutes 51 seconds, you'll be exhausted!

Shrek 4ever After (2010)

Shrek 4ever After (2010) Trailer

I think Shrek is targeted for adults. The story is about the man who doesn't cherish what he already has, until he loses them. Ogres are not lovely. But they have character.

The ending where Shrek dies is very touching. I'm touched usually when I associate the characters with my beloved ones. To have somebody to share life with is great!

Toy Story 3 (2010)

Toy Story 3 (2010) Trailer

Technically, the 3D effect is not that "wowing". The set is very coulourful, as usual. The characters are very unique and easy to remember.

Lotso is very adorable, even though he's a villian in Toy Story 3. He's huggable, very fluffy and smells like strawberry. I really want to have my own Lotso! I'll treat him well.

The surprise of the movie is Buzz's Spanish dance. I like the Spanish Buzz (El Buzzo?) so much! I like his Paso Doble dance so much and I like the song "Hay un amigo en mí" by the Gipsy Kings. Incidentally, I'm learning social dance. That's why I'm so intrigued by Buzz's dance!

The story has a very touching ending. I know what it's like to say goodbye to your favourite toy. Tell you a secret, I still keep my toys.

Shutter Island (2010)

Shutter Island (2010) Trailer

I'm glad that I didn't go to watch it in cinema. It's rubbish. A schizophrenic character in an asylum. I must give credit to the party that produced the trailer. They made the movie sound so intriguing and exciting. However, the movie was actually slow and boring. What a cliche.

How To Train Your Dragon (2010)

How To Train Your Dragon (2010) Trailer

I didn't watch this movie in cinema, therefore, the version I watched is non-3D. The story is interesting, it's the regular formular, how an ordinary kid got friendly with a dragon and got trained with it. But I was so tired when I watched that I fell asleep in the end.

I think if I watched the 3D version, I would give a higher rating to this movie.

Green Zone (2010)

Green Zone (2010) Trailer

I entered the cinema solely because of the attraction of Matt Daemon. The whole movie is around him finding WMD. But he couldn't find any. And he dug deeper into the mystery.

I think the whole story can be solved by the power of the press. If "Magellan" talks to the press, there would be no manipulation of the fact by the high-ranking officials. But politics is about self-interest. It is so complicated that average people would not understand.