Director: Marc Forster / Genre: Drama / Actor: Khalid Abdalla / Actor: Atossa Leoni / Actor: Shaun Toub / Actor: Sayed Jafar Masihullah Gharibzada / Year: 2007
Child Rape Pakistan Taliban Afghanistan Adaption Coming of Age DVD

The Film…
Though most of the film is set in Afghanistan, these parts were mostly shot in Kashgar, China, due to the dangers of filming in Afghanistan at the time.

The plot of the movie follows that of the novel. It tells the story of Amir, a well-to-do boy from the Wazir Akbar Khan district of Kabul, who is haunted by the guilt of betraying his childhood friend Hassan, the son of his father’s Hazara servant. (cc) Wikipedia

My Thoughts…
Been interested in seeing this film since hearing some time ago about some rather intriguing business surrounding a child actor having to be relocated to another country due to stigma over being involved in this film. All very strange.

Any poop, this film is impressively multifaceted with several parts (separated by many years) and poignant imagery throughout. I cannot knock the film-making, pacing is spot-on and the recreated afghanistan pre-the russians mucking it all up is wonderful to see.

Only problem is I can’t help getting a general air of superiority on the american film makers part, it all becomes rather “oh thank god they escaped that nasty afganistan place to the paradise that is america where they can live in peace and freedom!” ‘Cos like no other country in the world, including ones rather closer to afganistan are free. I’ll give the film makers the benefit of the doubt (and the original author i guess) that this sentiment is un-intended, but I believes its rather naive for them not to see how it could come across that way.

My Rating:90

aka “This Special Friendship”
Director: Jean Delannoy / Genre: Drama / Year: 1964
Coming of Age Based On Novel Child Gay Boarding School YouTube

The Film…
a 1964 film adaptation of the Roger Peyrefitte novel Les amitiés particulières directed by Jean Delannoy. The plot revolves around Georges de Sarre, a fourteen-year-old boy who is sent to a Catholic boarding school in 1920s France. Georges starts a “special friendship”, i.e. a friendship with homosexual overtones, with a twelve-year-old student, the beautiful Alexandre (Alexander) Motier.

My Thoughts…
My word was this film difficult to track down, it doesn’t seem to have ever been released with english subs, at least not on DVD. Believe it or not I ended up watching it on YouTube split into 18 parts. Crazy!

This film has some parallels with Romeo & Juilet. Only where the forbidden factor of their love being entirely different and it is incredibly touching (I say that too often). What probably makes this tragic love story even more affecting is the incredible and joyous charisma of the kid who plays the younger boy. I also feel respect for the older of them for not showing any sign of shame, and for freely talking about his love with a friend of his own age.

The ending kicked the air out of me, twice infact, but I’ll try not to spoil it. Ugh, it all seems so unfair.

My Rating:93

Director: Jason Reitman / Genre: Comedy / Year: 2007
Pregnancy Teen Divorce Adoption Drama Romance Independent Film

The Film…
Ellen Page stars as the title character, a sharp-tongued teenager confronting an unplanned pregnancy. (cc) Wikipedia

My Thoughts…
The great cast really make this film sparkle, or was it the script. Could be both? Wizard. So anyway, I guess Lovely would be the word for this one. Awww, Ellen Page is so…. Well I can’t wait to see what she does next career wise.

But my overwhelming feeling after watching this is, I reeeeallly want to watch some episodes of Arrested Development right now… For the 200 millionth time.

Oh and the adorable asian girl protesting abortion so totally reminded me of Monica Wolf.

My Rating:92

aka “Bear Cub”
Director: Paul Andrew Williams / Genre: Comedy / Year: 2004
dvd Gay Sex Spanish Parenthood Boy

The Film…
Cachorro (known as Bear Cub in English-speaking markets) is a 2004 Spanish gay-themed (in particular, the gay Bear community) drama film written and directed by Miguel Albaladejo. It is about a bearish gay man who ends up looking after his nephew while his sister goes away to India and in turn makes him develop a fatherly bond with the boy as well as forcing him to alter his lifestyle. The Spanish word cachorro describes any young, furry animal such as a cub or puppy. (cc) Wikipedia

My Thoughts…
This film explores quite a bit, including a fair few sides of gay culture without getting muddled at all. It attempts to put right some mis-conceptions about gay men bringing up children. I especially liked how the boy simply didn’t care about what his uncle got up to and as is typical is a lot wiser than a lot of the adults. Which makes me wonder, what age is it that people start seeing things that are different as being wrong? Ah well.

The film doesn’t flinch at all from what the “bears” can get up to, ding-a-lings et all, which is really strange considering the general tone of the film. But I guess, the whole message then should be… why should any of it matter?

My Rating:92

Director: Ethan Coen / Genre: Drama / Year: 2007
h.264 720p Psychopath Serial Killer Assassin Adaptation Crime Thriller

The Film…
No Country for Old Men tells the story of a drug deal gone wrong and the ensuing cat-and-mouse drama as three men crisscross each other’s paths in the desert landscape of 1980 West Texas. (cc) Wikipedia

My Thoughts…
Ooh, this film wasn’t as complex as I had imagined which is always a bonus in my book, feared I’d have to be joining dots all over the place. Nah, it felt a bit like a western actually, albeit in modern times. Javier Bardem is awesome, and scary as heck, even if he does look freakily like that guy with the un-pronounceable name from “Look around you” and “hardware”.

Jolly good then is the summary.

My Rating: 94

This films page 

It’s suffocatingly humid in my room, i’ve got a noisy A/C but i always feel kinda guilty turning it on Watching this show Paul Merton’s made about silent comics I was reminded about the dvd release of the silent sci-fi Metropolis from a few years back, it had an extremely dire soundtrack, which sounded like some horribly cheesy 80’s synth pop, but without the charm that could often entail. I then had a sudden idea/urge/what-if to make my own soundtrack for Metropolis. When playing it back you’d have to be quick to play both the film and my soundtrack at the same time… but it could work? Ack, who am I kidding, I’ll never get around to doing it. Such a dreamer I am.

I’ve another idea. This is a blogging engine idea, but it’s so obvious that I’d be very surprised if it hasn’t already been done, but as I haven’t seen anything of the like so far I’ll explain it anyway. What if, when commenting on somebody’s blog, if you have logged into their site using open-id, or typepad or any one of those authentication systems their blog pings back to your own blog to tell your blog that you’ve made a comment on their site, and also send a copy of the comment text along with the ping. Then, your blog could keep an archive of all the comments you’ve made on other folks blogs, maybe even have a latest 5 comments down the sidebar or somewhere. I’m so positive that could be useful that I think I might even have a go coming up with some kind of MT Plugin. That is… if it hasn’t already been done, I’m sure it must have? Of course, the big caveat is that everyone will have to implement the plugin on their own blog before it can become useful.

Singapore film Be With Me has been barred from the Oscars for having too much English.

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/…

Did nobody tell the academy that the first language of Singapore is English? Or at least it’s supposed to be, when i was there I couldn’t tell head-nor-tail that anybody said to me. It begs a question as to what service this category serves. To be fair to the academy i’m pretty sure digiguide have it wrong and that the category is actually called “Best film in a foreign language”. But, this category should not be needed at all if the academy wasn’t so non-inclusive and blind to foreign material for the overall best film category. Wouldn’t the passion have been included for best film in a foreign language if the academy knew what the fuck they were doing?

It’s end of year lists time again. Where does the year go? Who the heck knows. I’ve still got a huge pile of music I haven’t even touched yet so i’ll have to put the best music of 2005 list off for a bit. So i’ll do best films instead. Hmm, it isn’t any easier, there are more films i want to see but haven’t than films I have but i don’t care about films as much as music so… Also, it’s a little tricky to say which films are 2005 or not, because the release dates are always screwed up, some of these films are years old but were only shown in the UK this year. Any poop, here’s my favourite films of 2005 (as far as i have seen, or can remember seeing), you can click and hope for a description, but usually you’ll be disappointed. ha.

1. Der Untergang
2. Koktebel
3. Crash
4. Santa Sangre
5. Dare Mo Shiranai
6. Dead Mans Shoes
7. Batman Begins
8. Million Dollar Baby
9. Napoleon Dynamite
10. Garden State
11. My Summer of Love
12. Sideways
13. The Incredibles
14. Vera Drake
15. Tarnation
16. Notte Buongiorno
17. Ray
18. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Gal…
19. Speak
20. Mysterious Skin
21. Sin City
22. The Life Aquatic with Steve Zisso…
23. Swimming Upstream
24. Comme une Image
25. The Aviator
26. Shi Mian Mai Fu
27. De Tweeling
28. Geoul Sokeuro
29. Duma
30. Inside Im Dancing
31. Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story!
32. Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge …
33. Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfo…
34. The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie
35. I Heart Huckabees
36. Mibu Gishi Den
37. Melinda and Melinda
38. Kinsey
39. Being Julia
40. The Woodsman
41. Closer
42. 9 Songs