Movies, AFMOA

I've really come full circle in these dorms.
Yesterday a new guy came over to borrow some movies and the first thing he noticed is how much stuff I have in here.
The first thing when I visited another person's room on my starting out time here was how filled their room looked and how empty mine was.
Life does go on, doesn't it?


Now, about all of these Oscar movies. People lost a lot of arms this time around!
(if you've seen them, you know what I'm talking about)

True Grit is one of the first ones I have to give praise to, since Hailee Steinfeld, who did this as her first movie, does a great job playing a serious, independent 14-year-old girl, who alongside Jeff Bridges and Matt Damon goes to avenge the murderer of a father.
This movie goes beyond the usual western scenery - really the shooting scenes are not as impressive as the communication between the characters, some of the comedy, the tragic ending and the friendships forming.
All of the three, and the supporting cast, do a wonderful job in portraying in-depth characters, who all change and influence each other. Most beautiful is of course the relationship between Bridges and Steinfeld, which keeps surprising you until the very end.

127 hours was not what I expected. I expected to see more of Aron Ralston's (played by James Franco) life before the accident happened and more of what happened after he got out. But in retrospect it is good they kept it down to a minimum to just show what it was like, the main focus in this movie was the psychological hell he goes through while trapped under a rock.
I had been afraid the movie was going to be slow, but it was not. James Franco holds his audience throughout the whole movie and presents a wonderful - well rather just honest and deep, the artistic range is wonderful here but not the contents of the movie - falling apart of a character between life and death.
The movie had me look away for a moment, but older and tougher men have confessed to also not stare at certain scenes, thus I do not mind.
All in all I was quite impressed with Franco, who had so far done a great job in Spider-Man, Milk or Eath, Pray, Love but went from a position in the background right to the center of attention now. He truly is one of the great ones, having a wide range of characters played.

The King's Speech was really a beautifully made movie, and a great example as to how a story where not much happens can be made into something amazing with great camera work and great actors. The main attraction here is the interaction between Geoffrey Rush and Colin Firth, who develop quite the friendship, and also keep surprising each other along the way of Colin Firth making his final speech.
The beauty of this movie is to show that every person is flawed and the journey and hard work to better yourself, be it for yourself or to support a whole nation, has been shown in a very moving manner indeed.
I do think this is rather not a movie for everyone as True Grit certainly and 127 hours most likely would be.

Black Swan - I think I have already given ms. Portman and ms. Kunis their praise for the roled in Black Swan, a most well-done psychological drama and artistical masterpiece of dance, showing the crises a ballet-dancer goes through and what a hard life it is, also one woman's struggle with her inner darkness.
It is a piece bordering on psychological drama, symbolism, surrealism, dance movie and horror. All these elements together might be confusing if used extensively, but the directors and editors have found just the right balance to make everything work together.
spoiler: The final performance where Natalie Portman turns into the black swan, is a very, very powerful scene. I kept watching it over and over again.


Now, about other movies I have recently filled my time with:

All Good Things - The performance by Ryan Gosling, being a melancholic and traumatized child with more hate than love for the world, and Kirsten Dunst being the pure, loving girl who gets abused by this hate, having done nothing to deserve it, is quite capturing. These actors play their parts well. Sadly there is something that goes missing along the movie - I don't know if it's the voice-over by an older Gosling - Why? why? - or the confusing ending, but it doesn't quite convince. Some of the potential ideas to play out in this are to be realized and because this was based on a true story, perhaps someone should have thought his realization through a bit better. However, still kudos on Ryan Gosling, whose acclaimed acting skills I have now noticed, and to Kirsten Dunst, although it really doesn't do much for her character range, since she has done unhappy wife before and thus knows well how to play this kind of person. However, she seems to have developed so I was not disappointed in her.

Red Riding Hood - I wondered how they would turn this into a sexy mystery-fantasy movie with more to offer than Amanda Seyfried's big blue eyes. The idea here is that the wolf is really a werewolf and there turns out to be a quite curious connection between it and red riding hood. Nevertheless this performance for Seyfried is for me just her resting on her laurels and playing Chloe once more, while showing a bit of angst due to the fact that her love interest is not to be realized, since she lives in a time where parents get to have the final say and one first courts the father, then the daughter.
I missed a great deal of character depth here, but there is a mystery, some action and the rooting for the different love interests of "Red Riding Hood", also the intense character of Solomon who comes to help catch the werewolf and whose character presents itself as suspicious until it's end.
On the whole, not bad to watch, if you are quite bored.

How Do You Know - now this I don't know why anyone in their right mind would watch. It's Reese Witherspoon playing Reese Witherspoon, Owen Wilson playing Owen Wilson, and what's his name stirring it up a bit. There is no depth and no surprises besides the usual comedic puns a la Owen Wilson and the romantic ending, and although the dialogues, especially the typical drunk-talk present a bit more honesty and layer in Witherspoons character, it just leaves me with no emotion and no great deal of interesting aspects to mention.
Sadly, another romantical comedy.

Never Let Me Go - they always say that the book is better than the movie. In this case, I think the both work together quite well. Reading the book first would be recommended, though. The sneaky way of mr. Ishiguro to describe what happens from a quite factual point of view and let the reader realize what heavy emotional burdens lie on all of the characters, is great, and one should first go through this experience. Then you can watch the movie and see how the great performances of Carey Mulligan, Keira Knightley and That Guy show you these burdens in an explicit way. The movie also gives a point of view from the teachers of Hailsham and shows how the outside world reacts to them, which is also pointed to in the book, but not so explicit.
A good movie. Very good along with the book. Also I would have to give kudos on the adaption, which changes some small details exactly right so they would work better in the movie, while leaving the story to live as it did in the book. Well done!



My life here goes on along the normal dorm-library-lecture-library-theatre-dorm route.
The weather in Marburg leaves me unhappy as it comes in sun and rain disputes - in the morning the sun might shine, in the evening you better put your coat on, or you will freeze and shiver.

I am on some days working hard, on some days hardly working, but in the end my professor is happy with the development of my thesis, I will keep trying my best to move on with it and get it done. Hopefully most of it by the 8.6., when I fly to lovely Estonia.

Also, I have once more realized AFMOA - Alcohol-Free Month Of April. I know you're not supposed to include "of", as it is a "small word", but I prefer not to discriminate. Every day of complete soberness is a day of healthy brain-cell activity!
Although Anne did put it in a great story: as the lion who is chasing the herd of antelopes, catches the weakest one, because it is slower than the rest of the herd, alcohol filters the brain cells.
If only it were so.


I miss my man, who has gone to his home for the time being, but as an eternal optimist the saying stands: amor vincit omnia.
If any of you girls who miss their men have good tips how to get the time to pass in a fast, fun way, let me know. All help is appreciated.

Still, a beautiful cherry tree blossoms right in front of my window.
And the sun shines through the clouds!
:-)