ex machina

i recently re-watched alex garland's 2014 ex machina.

something i thought interesting, but also super obvious, was that OF COURSE you can fuck the robots. of COURSE a man, especially that man, would make them sexy and fuckable. tho i guess i appreciate that he made them capable of "enjoying" the sex? but i think most men would prefer that even if many don't put in much more effort to make that happen.

so would a woman make a fuckable robot? i think probably not. and, actually, i think most women would make another woman robot, rather than making a man. i can't decide if that's because people tend to find women less threatening than men, of if we find it easier to order them around. (like how most digital personal assistants have women voices. [this may be because the west traditionally has women secretaries, nurses, assistants, etc.])

anyway, i'm glad ava got out. and while i did feel bad for caleb, like, what was he going to do with her anyway? 

the discovery

the discovery is a netflix movie from 2017. in it, a scientist discovers proof of an "afterlife." that is, some part of us goes somewhere after we die. he isn't sure what it is that goes, or where it goes to, but millions of people kill themselves anyway.

which i think is crazy. because even outside the "what" it is that goes, "where" is more important, no? lots of religious people believe that if you kill yourself, you don't go to heaven (or its equivalent), even if you would have if you'd just died. wouldn't that be the same in this the discovery world?

i feel like there may be a slight increase in suicides, but not that many more. the biggest change would be more religious people. and that the religious would be more religious.

another interesting idea is that murder may become more prevalent. because you're not ending their life, you're just... transferring them elsewhere. this makes a lot more sense to me. i think mercy killings would spike like a mofo. not sure about regular murder though, because it's not as if people who would but don't currently commit murder only don't do it because they're worried the victim has no afterlife. plus, there would still be legal consequences to murder. there would probably be more murder, but only a small increase. 

in case you cared: the movie plot summary

do i sound gay?

i recently watched the documentary "Do I Sound Gay?"

i won't get too much into the premise other than that a guy, who is gay, worries that he sounds too gay. he does a bunch of interviews and visits two speech coaches.

apparently gay "sounds" like either, but apparently it's speaking with a lisp, increased nasality, enunciation, a wider pitch range, breathy voice, certain lengthened vowel sounds, and adding like an "s" sound to some non-s sounds. gay speech is also stereotyped as resembling women's speech, maybe because young gay boys hang out more with women (because straight guys make fun of them, beat them up, etc.)

so i'm curious. what about gay guys who grew up around men only? or straight guys who grew up surrounded only by women (one guy in the documentary did, and he has a very high pitched voice. i don't think his speech had the other stereotyped traits, but from pitch alone, he certainly sounded female)? and do gay russian or chinese or bolivian guys also "sound gay" the same way americans do? can people identify sexual orientation people speaking foreign languages? probably not, because we're not particularly good at correctly identifying sexual orientation from speech alone, even when it's all in english.

but i'm also curious about lesbians and everyone on the spectrum. do lesbians speak differently as well? and if there really is a "gay" characteristic of speech, how to bisexuals or asexuals, etc sound?

interesting blog post that addresses some of my questions. https://joeclark.org/soundinggay.html

lorena

we watched the lorena bobbitt documentary on prime and it was... thought provoking. i'm not going to go too much into it because i don't have super strong opinions about it but:

- you come away from the documentary thinking that john is a real dumbass and most likely a real piece of shit person too. there are multiple allegations of abuse from several different women, a couple of which are really horrific. he completely denies everything and implies that the newer women are accusing him because he has a bad rep already. his testimony changes between trials, he's tried to capitalize off his mutilation (selling punny merch, porn, penis enlargement surgery, working at the bunny ranch...), and he writes these long creepy letters / fb messages / texts to lorena still. like, what the fuck. he's not a sympathetic character.

- you feel the opposite about lorena. her soft spoken-ness makes you want to believe her. and up thru today, she still works with domestic abuse groups. it's not like she's a perfect person without missteps, but you are made to feel that she's a good person. ...of course, the documentary is titled Lorena so it would likely either it would idolize or villainize her.

- women and men really did respond to the incident differently. men seemed to focus on the act of mutilation, while women were more interested in motive of it.

- i liked that they focused on domestic abuse. this trial is just ONE story from comes from millions of untold stories. that being said, i do wish they had kept it more gender neutral. PLENTY of women abuse their partners; not just men hurting women.

snowpiercer

i watched snowpiercer, which was a really weird movie. i don't think i liked it. i'm not really gonna bother summarizing the movie cause i have a headache now. probably wondering from wtf i just watched. suffice to say that these peoples are on this train encircling the world. and this train won't / can't stop for nothing so it's a closed ecosystem. they grow their own food (they even have cow and chicken carcasses somehow...), somehow produce energy, and get a lot of the water from the snow outside, tho they do also recycle the water.

everything else aside, it had at least one major stupid (as if you didn't already think of several). a big part of the movie is that everyone has their place. we need an upper class, a working class, and a ... sheesh, not even lower class. but a class of destitutes. more than one time they talk about having to maintain a perfect balance, including, of course, how humans factor into it all. but why do they need a class of destitutes? like, what is even the point?

they apparently eat energy blocks made of bugs, so it's not like they eat regular food. but, like... there are fat destitutes. and there are a LOT of these destitutes. i mean, bugs have a lot of protein, and they procreate really quickly, but where do they get so many bugs to feed so many people?! and these people must still create a lot of waste. which they do what with? and more to the point. WHY?! the fuck is even the point of keeping these people around?

some of it might be a social thing. like, scare the other classes to stay in line or they'll be relegated to the lower class. but, like... why? if they fuck up that bad, just kick them off the train. duh. wouldn't that be way easier? this train even has a whole car of drug addicts sleeping it off in morgue-like box compartments. they also have another car of druggies just passed out on the floor. ...but... why?

part of the story is also that the conductor needs little kids to help run the engine. cause they're so small, see? and apparently the lower class breeds a lot. and i assume it would be inhuman or something to make rich kids work. that's not explained. but like... there are OLD destitutes. and a lot of non-procreating ones. basically, they got a lot of useless people back there. i mean, they do seem to do some manual labor, but not nearly enough to justify keeping them alive. furthermore, some of the destitutes, regular age and really old are handicapped. missing limbs. so they're probably not able to do a ton of work.

i dunno. it's all i could think during the movie. pretty sure that's why i have a massive headache right now. brain kept screaming "WHY?!"

the interview 2

rip, ting and i watched the interview on the 25th via youtube. it was surprisingly similar to the version i watched months ago! i only caught three changes: the franco/rogen party scene seemed much shorter, i think they added in a lot of the butthole stuff (esp at the end of the actual interview), and they definitely way changed the face on fire part.

all in all, reasonable changes. i was hoping they'd use the nicky minaj interview about superb ass / super bass (that was in the commercials) and cut off the rob lowe interview (that i saw the first time), but they kept lowe in. bah. i didn't think it was funny then, and it certainly didn't get any better.

overall, i stand by my original review in that the movie is hilarious. knowing what jokes were coming didn't change my reaction to any of them. i laughed probably almost as hard as i did the first time.

i'm glad sony decided to release the movie. i think they messed up quite a bit in their handling of this whole thing, but in the end, they did the right thing. i mean, i get that sony is a private company, and one not held in the united states, but i think it's fucking crazy that we would let some other govt tell us what we can and cannot makes movies about. our own government doesn't even censor us this way, so why would be give some other govt the power to?! especially when this movie is billed as an obvious work of fiction and comedy! i do think that the creators of the movie could have made some concessions to not offend real people. they could've called it north something, and not north korea. and it didn't have to be kim jong-un. they could've picked any name. most people would still know who you're talking about. but anyway.

one last thing: altho a lot of people illegally dled the movie, rip bought it, which i commend him for. he wanted to support sony's decision to release the movie. and there's no better way to say you approve than to monetarily back up your approval..

the interview

i signed a nda, but imma write this anyway since no one reads this website and since i only have positive things to say "the interview". i watched it a few months ago as a screener. (i get emails that invite me to these free movies. they're unfinished so sometimes the effects aren't done yet, or they ask for feedback about certain things. anyway. this movie) i didn't really know what to expect. it was billed as a comedy starring seth green and james franco. about 10 minutes into the movie i still wasn't that into it. it was kind of funny, but not that great. as the movie went on tho, it got better and better and as i was walking out of the theater later i was thinking that this was probably the best screener i'd ever seen. it was hilarious! i disliked a couple specific things about the movie, but overall, the acting, pacing, comedy, story, ending, action, everything was awesome.

so this sony hacking thing. honestly, i do think it's north korea. if only because their only demand is that sony not release the movie. i would never have thought a govt so petty as to hack a company because they don't like their product, but when the hackers asked for nothing except for stuff pertaining to this movie, well, who else would it be?

i'm interested to see what happens. i'm writing this post on the 16th but am waiting until after the planned release, just in case that nda (or the hackers) come back to bite me in the butt. but seriously, it was a hilarious movie. we'll see how much they change it. some parts, i know, have already been changed cause i watched the end helicopter explosion scene and that is MUCH "cleaner" now. the way it was before was surprisingly "detailed", even before any of this craziness happened!

i'm glad sony changed the release date, from some north korean holiday to christmas day. it did seem unnecessarily antagonistic. them changing a few scenes here and there is also okay. i just hope they didn't ruin the movie.

one more thing. while, yes, the movie does make fun of the north korean leader, i felt like it mostly made fun of americans. kim was portrayed as a lonely, misunderstood, hypocritical person. but any actual vip (esp leader of a something as big as a country) would be lonely and misunderstood! the movie makes you feel bad for him. i mean, yes, north koreans are brainwashed to believe some incredibly fantastical stuff about their leader, but every hero's background is exaggerated at least a  little. but the americans in the movie were idiotic. i mean, even the cia looks ridiculous sending that can't-do-anything-right pair to do such important dirty work!

(follow up post romrow)

anna karenina

i watched anna karenina recently because i couldn't get thru the book. it's forever long and everyone has a million names (as the russians do) but i'd always wanted to read it since it's a classic and i've never read a russian book before (i know... not even crime and punishment!)

in any case. the movie is worth a watch. it's shot really interestingly. some of it's like a play; there's a stage sometimes. some of the movements (the dance scene especially) is very choreographed, like a ballet. it's really interesting.

but, the point of this post, actually, is that some people is crazy. i dunno what it is about love, but it turns some people into raving lunatics. a lot of people grow out of it (i certainly did) but some people do not. i guess i'm just curious about why people act crazy. like, what do they think they're accomplishing? guilting people into things, stalking people, berating them, being paranoid... this does not keep people in love with you. in fact, it will eventually drive them away from you. it's tough being in love with someone who is all about the drama. a normal person will indulge you for a while, but no brand of crazy is so awesome that they'll stick around forever. ...unless there's something wrong with them as well.

isms all the same

school district takes only boys to see a movie about why racism is stupid

a dallas school district spent $57,000 to take 5000 boys to see the new movie red tails. why boys? “There is only so much available space at the movie theater, so the decision was made for boys to attend the movie.” district leaders thought the boys would enjoy the action movie more than girls.

so what did the girls do? some of them got to watch the 2006 movie akeelah and the bee. others, since not every campus showed the movie, had regular school lessons. ...

it's just so crazy that the movie happened to be red tails since it's pretty much about how excluding people based on something like race is stupid.

support

rip and i watched a movie a few weekends ago. there wasn't anything out that we really wanted to watch, but rip had a free movie ticket that was expiring so... there was haywire, redtails, and contraband. we watched haywire, mostly because the showing time worked out best. but i also wanted to watch it because it's an action movie with a female lead. (rip rolled his eyes when i said this, but eh, that's who i am). you might say, hey, that actually happens a lot: catwoman, underworld, tomb raider, and while yes, those female characters do kick ass, they are also portrayed as sex objects. the haywire commercials did not portray gina carano as a sex object who happens to be tough, she was clearly a very tough woman who happens to be sexy.

in any case, the movie was interesting. i didn't like it much at first. there was minimal background sound / music, and what music there was, was really... cheesy. it felt like it was trying too hard to be "hip" and not hip like cool, but hip like from the 60's and 70's. it reminded me a lot of the ocean's 11 actually. anyway, the style took some getting used to, but all in all, i liked it. ...altho i think most audiences will not agree. which is a shame, since their dislike isn't really of the movie itself (or being unconvinced of a strong female lead), but because of the style of the movie. it really did have a lot going against it...

(btw, i was also thought of watching redtails because of the controversy associated it: how studios wouldn't give george lucas any money for it since the movie didn't have any leading white roles. but at the end of the day, you should support what you feel most strongly about, and while i absolutely care about racism, feminism affects me in a more direct way. [you could argue against that, of course. but it's one the "perks" of being in the model minority living in a place that is quite racially diverse])

miss representation

extended trailer from miss representation, which premiered at the 2011 sundance film festival.

you can also find screenings of the movie at their website. i hope something comes up close to us because i want to see this movie!!

movies

i love watching movies, tho i normally don't get to watch nearly as many as i'd like. the last few weeks, however i've watched tons!

   500 days of summer - very cute! i liked it
   harry potter and the half blood prince - (again) not bad
   harry potter and the deathly hollows - okay, prob not great that i walked away most excited about the wedding dress being an alexander mcqueen tho. for someone who's never read the books, there were too many questions i was left with (to be answered in the next movie apptly [my friend who did read the series said so])
   a single man - very beautiful, tho a bit slow. and quite heavy handed i thought. good tho.
   an education - interesting movie. cute, but in a good way.
   splice - very very weird. creepily sexual. lol, i knew it wasn't really going to be a "thoughtful" or "philosophical" movie, but, lol...
   brothers - good. worth watching. it doesn't cover any new territory from other war movies, but it was well acted. best of the bunch.
   super size me - funny. educational, but really, you just learn details. we already knew all this didn't we? ...tho of course i am watching this movie many years afer it's release (lol, there's one scene showing gas prices: $1.67) "every time i drive past a fast food place i'm going to punch my kid in the face"

movies

oh man oh man there are a lot of movies i wanna see right now... let's see how many i actually watch?
zombieland, toy story 1 and 2 in 3D, whip it, where the wild things are, the invention of lying, and coco. and i kind of want to see surrogates.

for fun only?

i watched the hangover recently, which was a pretty damn funny movie. however, i'm worried about the message the movie unwittingly sends out.

in case you don't know, the movie is about four guy friends who go to vegas for a bachelor party of one of them. the "bachelor" is a nice guy, his soon-to-be bother-in-law is a weirdo, another friend is a married morally challanged "smart guy" who you can tell has gotten way wit tons stuff before, and the last friend is sort of straight laced who's is kept on a VERY short leash by his girlfriend (he tells her they're going to napa for the party, not vegas.). anyway, they're only supposed to spend one night in vegas before heading back to la for the day of preperations before wedding day. that night tho, they start it off with a round of shots from the weird guy's flask.

the next morning they wake up to find their hotel suite in shambles, with a tiger in the bathroom and a random don't-know-who's baby in the closet. they can't remember a thing from the night before. they're all missing brain and liver cells (one ended up in the hospital with broken ribs), one of them is missing a tooth but is married to an "escort," and they can't find the groom. antics ensue.

in the end, of course, everything comes up rosy. they find the groom, make $80k, don't end up in jail, make it to the wedding and ditch the controlling girlfriend. whew! to add icing on the cake, they find a camera that documents their "missing" night. apptly they found strippers, met various d-list celebrities, and in general looked like they had a whole lot of fun. yay!

...wtf? how can it possibly be all flowers and rainbows if you can't remember a fucking thing but ended up in the hospital and pulled out your own fucking tooth! you didn't actually have a fun time if you can't remember a moment of it. why doesn't the whole weekend scare the shit out of these people?! oh, right, because they got away with it all. they didn't end up in jail, you can always get a crown, and i'm sure no one came home wit vd. all of which would not happen in real life.

i understand that it's just a movie. and that most people understand that movies aren't real life. but come on. you're basically saying that it's okay to get drugged up and drink way too much and black out and not remember anything, because you're gonna have fun (that you can't remember), and you're gonna be okay, and everything will work itself out. no matter wat trouble you get yourself into while you're blacked out, you can talk yourself out of once you wake up. and imagine the stories you can tell!

while all the main players in the movie are male, imagine if this were a group of female friends. how much you wanna bet that in real life, at least one of them (if not all of them) would be raped, and likely, multiple times by multiple people. imagine even, that it was not real, and it was just a movie about four women who went to vegas for a bachlorette party and got drugged and drunk and did all things the boys did. do you think this movie would even make it past the idea pitching stage? no, of course not. because there are serious dangers for women who are blacked out. unlike for men. ...wait, no, that's not right either.

...get real, hollywood.

no longer lost

you kno that last scene in lost in translation where bill murray's character whispers something to scarlett and you can't hear wat he says? even sophia coppola (the director) doesn't kno. but now you can!

Tags: movie, lost in translation, bill murray, scarlett johansson, whisper

movies 2

watched two more movies over the weekend. went wit harry and and did something i haven't done in like 10 years, we movie hopped! first we saw stranger than fiction, then we saw the fountain. btw, movie websites are getting better and better. some of them are seriously amazing... go to them! and hm... i think i'm gonna start rating movies like reepal. not wit stars tho, or numbers. that's too confusing. so imma do... wait for dvd, go watch now, and buy dvd.
stranger than fiction. good movie. it's will ferrel exercising his acting chops. so perhaps it's not as comedic as you might expect. i wasn't expecting it to be tho, so i was okay. it's quirky and interesting and smart.  it's a love story, but not a full on romance. a bit predictable but not boring, even so. good music. altho that might be because i like spoon.
the fountain. absolutely beautiful. a bit confusing tho. it's the type of movie you'll need to see more than just once to fully understand. after it ended, most of the audience stayed and quietly talked it over. it's also a romance. i urge you to go see it wit your boif / girlf. i saw it wit harry and it just wasn't as good. it's incredibly moving (i cried, seriously, like 7 times). and i'm seriously planning on watching all of darren aronofsky's films, starting wit requiem.

movies

have seen quite a few movies lately: jerry maguire, borat, marie antoinette, and casino royal, the new bond film.

jerry maguire. most of you have seen it so i won't go over it much. but that little kid? jonathan lipinski or watever? he's the cutest ever! the movie itself was good. could've done witout the nudity tho...

borat. disappointing. i was looking forward to liking it but... some parts were hilarious but overall the movie wasn't so awesome. the commercials give away a lot of the funny parts (but not some of the funniest bits of all). it was supposed to be hella funny because it was supposed to be all real, or unscripted or watever. but it wasn't. and i'm not talking about the parts where he argues wit his producer. i mean the bear, or garage sale, or pam anderson... eh, anyway. the movie wasn't bad. but it also wasn't good.

marie antoinette. i was totally looking forward to seeing this film and i was not at all disappointed. i think that it helped that i already knew the movie wasn't going to be 'conventional'. reepal didn't like the movie at all. i think he was waiting for the story to kick in. well, it doesn't. not really. it's just not that type of movie. wat it was... it was arty and beautiful. well shot wit good music. exuberant and colorful, candyful. i loved it.

casino royale. of the four, this is my favorite. i gotta say that i wasn't quite sure about daniel craig as bond. i didn't find him attractive enough, which i kno sounds silly for judging a whole movie. but bond is supposed to be hella attractive. anyway. after seeing the movie? wow. i'm sold. totally. he makes a great bond. i read something somewhere about how he's not handsome, but he's sexy. the bit that sold me on him being bond was when he was in the shower wit the girl. he does these two things and just wow. i don't want to ruin anything. but the finger thing and the temperature. :) i liked that. and he has a nice low voice. besides just sexy tho, craig does a good job. he's very human in this movie, which i liked. there's this part towards the end when he's on the boat talking to m and he's touching his feet. lol, i dunno why, but i thought that was nice.

i was pretty ew when i saw him wearing his tight little swim trunks in the commercials and movie. but really, wat else would work? reep said in some interview daniel said that the wardrobe people brought over a lot of different types of swimsuits. but craig said that the little shorts were the only thing bond would wear. which i agree wit. i just... wish bond would have worn regular board shorts. eh. oh! and nearly everyone in this movie has bad teeth! eek! or big noses... bond's love interest was pretty, but she looked better without all the overdone makeup. and her top teeth were a bit off. and the 'sexy lady' of the movie had a huge head. and an ever larger nose! and the 'bad lady' of the movie wasn't bad looking but her nose in profile was hugenormous! bah. and maybe that's just me as an american, but wat's wrong wit these europeans who don't care about orthodontistry! and yeah, i kno, i don't have perfect teeth either. but hey, i'm not an actor.

anyway, the movie itself is very solid. it's supposed to be like the 'first' movie. how he becomes like the bond we kno now. i think they did a really good job wit that. he blunders a little bit. doesn't have the drink or the name down just yet. but he's so egotistical that he carries it all off quite well. the movie addresses his personality and character. how come he can't seem to be true to just one women. and how come he seems so aloof and emotionless. anyway, definitely worth seeing if you have the time.

btw, for those of you who think you've seen him before, you probaly have. appt he's been in lots of things, including layercake (as the main character), munich, sylvia (her love interest), road to perdition, i dreamed of africa, and even tomb raider (her love interest). who knew? full list here.

sofia

marie antoinette. the french trailer. far better than the american one. and you get to see kirsten dunst's ass. i think anyway. body double perhaps. i can't wait for the movie. no, not for her ass. and not even for her. i don't like her much. but for sophia. i like her lots. and did you kno that this was supposed to be produced before ' lost in translation '? but she got writer's block and wrote that during her bit wit this. anyway, you kno the rest.

shopgirl

so i recently watched shopgirl and was really blown away by the fashion in the film. you can see the thought that went into each outfit. and i like that you can gauge her character's evolution from her outfit choices. :) wat i'm most surprised about however is that i can't seem to find any blog about this! in many interviews claire danes is asked about her characters wardrobe and yet no site has screenshotted and then catalogued her outfits. i find this especially annoying because i fell in love wit a necklace she wears in the film. it's a white coral branch pendant on a simple metal chain. and some of her dresses... wow. anyway, if anyone comes across a site that has more pictures or her on set fashions i would be forever indebted to you. :)

bunny!

i forget. did i ever post this amazing moterolla advert? try to identify all the different movies referenced in this.