Anyone doing anything great this weekend? One of my friends is having a Pre-Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday with a bunch of people so I’m excited about that. It’s potluck so I still have to decided what I want to bring. Other than that I’ll be doing alot of writing. I have been contracted to work on some project in my freelance writing business. I’m very grateful to have work coming my way. Hope you have a good one, and here’s a short list of some film-related posts I have come across the web this week…

Cloud Atlas too intellectual for American audiences?

Bored to Death the movie? 

The Comedy. 

Looking forward to Jon Hamm’s Brit accent.

Keep reading

I know I’m late on this one, but with all the (well-deserved) love from critics for the budding director-actor duo of Steve McQueen and Michael Fassbender, I had to jump on the bandwagon and make sure to see all the film projects these two share. I already saw Shame when it was released in theaters and loved it, so what was left was to backtrack to their first film together, Hunger. Everyone I know that has seen it, said nothing but great things so I knew I wouldn’t be a waste of time, watching it. It did not disappoint. For anyone who hasn’t seen it yet, the film centers on the approximately six months in the life of true life figure Bobby Sands, an Irish Republican who was imprisoned in Maze Prision in North Ireland for his often violent political-motivated activities against the British. He and his comrades petition to the British government to be treated as political prisoners rather than traditional criminals, yet they are denied this right. Decisions are forged among them to conduct a hunger strike with the goal of bringing to light the inhumane conditions they are forced to endure. The story doesn’t deeply get into the politics of it all, but rather looks at, through the lens of all those closely involved with, the events that led up to this historical hunger strike by the prisioners in response to their denial of political status. Understand, however, that this movie is not for the faint of heart; the film strikingly and gruesomely depicts uncomfortable situations the prisioners create for themsleves and abuse they suffer at the hands of prison guards. This, however, is truly a story of steadfast conviction in their decisions. In the same vein as Christian Bale’s The Machinist, Michael Fassbender’s textured performance and physical transformation to depict the wasting away of Bobby Sands is a necessary piece to shatter any illusions of glamor attached to his ordeal, and the powerful imagry of the film stays with you after its over. 

He could be beaten, but his spirit couldn’t be broken…

Long talks with his pastor-friend could not change his mind or weaken his resolve…

Yes, that is feces on the wall and he is tearing pages out of a bible….

His body will suffer but what he stood for will remain in people’s minds… 

If you have been as impressed with the new super director-actor duo of Steve McQueen and Michael Fassbender (Hunger, Shame) as I have, then you can’t wait until their next project. We won’t have to wait long. Their next collaboration will be 12 Years a Slave, an adaptation of an autobiographical historical text and written work of the former slave Solomon Northrup, which will also star Chiwetel Ejiofor (as the title character) and Brad Pitt. Shooting is set to start in mid-2012 with a possible release the following year. Steve McQueen has proven to me to be a force to be reckoned with in the filmmaking biz as well as a man who is not afraid of the brutal honesty regarding issues of race so I have no doubt that this will be a great one. More on the film’s premise:

Synopsis: A real account of a black man born free (Soloman Northrup) kidnapped from New York and sold into slavery in mid-1850s Louisiana later in his life. As no one believes his claims of being a free man, he is forced to witness unspeakable violence and emotional abuse. Though he tries to escape many times in order to return to his family, his attempts are foiled at every turn. It is only after years of enslavement that he realizes that he must take an incredible risk and depend on the most unlikely people if he wants to regain his freedom and see his family again.

This weekend I headed over the the theater to see the much-anticipated Shame, the new film from Steve McQueen and Michael Fassbender about a man who has trouble dealing with his sexual urges and whose sister unexpectedly drops by for a visit. As you would think, the film is blatantly sexual and erotic. But what made me uncomfortable the most was not the sexual nature of the film, but the raw emotions that were conveyed in every aspect of the main character’s life. Set in Manhattan, this is a portrait of a man who is surrounded the swells of the city but yet is very much alone.  He represents a great dichotomy of extremes - a man who is on one hand sexually obsessed and on the other totally ashamed of this obsession. Much of the credit should be given to the great cast and the director who set the tone and conveyed emotions through long shots, glances, pauses, measured words and body language. This film is the stuff of 200-paged theses as it has a revolving amount of themes from the relation of men to women, the fear of intimacy, and the complexities of sexuality, as well as a slight infusion of race relations. My Grade: A

SPOILERS. Brandon is a man who is uncomfortable with getting too close emotionally. He is fearful of intimacy of any kind which manifests itself into extreme loneliness. His Manhattan apartment is sterile and lacks warmth. He doesn’t enter into any meaningful relationships or have any real friendships not meant to benefit him professionally. Because of his addiction, he also has to continue to go to extremes to satisfy himself sexually. He is a man who is a slave to his desires, and we watch his struggle with it through encounters with strangers and navigation of everyday life. It is also interesting to note that he is a golden boy, this person that no one believes could be sexually perverse, illustrated by his boss believing it was someone else who clogs his computer with porn. He hides within himself; no one knows who he really is. 

The brother-sister dynamic is also very paramount to the story and it is through this relationship that we come to understand Brandon’s character in depth. Carey Mulligan (Sissy) is great here as the sister whose unexpected visit puts Brandon on edge.  She is herself a very lonely character riddled with her own problems and who forces Brandon’s own issues into the light. She represents an emotional relationship that he can never really detach himself from. This is only exacerbated by her neediness, not only in her need to be taken care of but also her physical need for his affection. He is scared that he can never have normal contact with a woman because of his addiction which often affects him getting close to his sister.  She also is aware, at least in part, of his sexual obsessions, which also causes him another layer of shame. Though she is in alot of ways his opposite - open, carefree, affectionate - she has a recklessness and her own inappropriate sexual inclinations that Brandon recognizes in himself. A combination of these things often causes him to lash out at her in both a verbally and physically abusive manner. Just when we are left to wonder if he cares for her at all, his heartbreaking response to her suicide attempt shows us that he is more scared, ashamed, and lonely than he is apathetic. 

The film has made me a believer. I have to admit that I have never really taken the idea of sex addiction too seriously. Now I think it is very real. Just like how meeting someone that is an alcoholic is needed to truly understand it to be a real disease, watching this film has made me come to a deeper understanding about the compulsive nature of it, the emotional struggles attached to it, and how the easy access of sex can play into it.