Joaquin Phoenix doesn't want to be famous?

We will never know if Casey Affleck made a mistake when he let slip that 'I'm Still Here' is a work of fiction early in the film's release. The announcement, planned or otherwise, colours how a viewer views this mockumentary.



 For a long time, the many stunts, appearance and media buzz that sprung from Joaquin Pheonix career change allowed the project to be question mark in the public's mind: is this actually happening?
The number of views, column inches and airtime that the Letterman appearance alone generated showed how valuable this confusion was to the makers of the movie.

Continues after the jump

Melbourne Gadoh premier: killing the 1Malaysia fantasy

I wouldn't call it a mixed crowd. I saw many familiar faces, the core group of student activists who inevitably were at every event anyway. Here and there were friends of friends, significant others and the odd Australian who was roped in to watch somehow.

It was a premier, of sorts, a Melbourne premier, for Gadoh, a Malaysian film from 2009. It's difficult to not think of the movie as cliched, and it probably avoided even greater obscurity by it's frank communal dialogue.

The muhibbah-ist that I am, I found little amusement in the strong language used against each other by the opposing races. Melayu and Cina lah. Cina pendatang, Melayu bodoh, Cina pengotor, Melayu malas are all too familiar taunts from my growing up in Kuala Lumpur trying to fit in between groups of friends of different backgrounds that even when used in comic situations, I cannot laugh.

Of course, we Malaysians don't hate each other that much. We love our food irrespective of its origin.

So it was over Nasi Lemak, post-movie, that the conversation turned to hate. 'Is there really that much tension between the races?' asked the innocent. The answers varied: "Yes" "There were fights everyday in school." "Not to that extent." "Not everywhere." The answers were as diluted as the teh tariks.

Very little evidence exists to suggest that Malaysia is a frank and honest-speaking country. Maybe behind closed doors with fellow conspirators we share, but out in the open we live in a constant shade of bland; vague and dull.

So why do we continually put up with the increasing levels of ineptitude, injustices, and unhappiness?

Is the fact that our splintering society still works for us today enough for us to continue to say 'It's still alright.'?

Maybe we need films like 'Gadoh' to jolt us awake, no matter how rudely, and make us realise the dysfunctional relationship we've been sharing for so long. The realisation does not come with a solution, but it can be the start of a process towards a real solution. It can be the spark that makes us want to know the strangers who've been around us for so long, and start to understand them.

Then, maybe, we can actually live with one another under the same roof.

Alice in Wonderland.

Before I begin, we need to be clear that the reason why Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) is so famed, and I dare say, immortal in the literary world is that he is a logician that speaks nonsense. And obviously I mean it in the most impressed manner. He has a way with words that skates beyond that is understandable but still capable of forming images in our heads. And that was the entire point of Alice in Wonderland. Knowing that itself, I do not think that it translates very well into a movie.

A peek behind Avatar's curtain

Ars Technica writes that a ‘city of geniuses’ worked on Avatar. The credits read like a who’s who of the special effects industry. WETA, Industrial Light and Magic are only two more well-known example of the many effects houses that have worked on making this movie a reality over  the past decade.

Why chase zombies when you can play golf instead?

I hate gore. I stay away from anything that requires me to sit through watching people get cut into pieces. I find no joy in the portrayal of various kind of dying, dead and undead persons.

There is of course an exception to this rule. If a film is so good that is almost universally well-received by the movie geeks then it no longer becomes recommended to avoid it but perhaps even wrong, gore or no gore. Zombieland fits that bill.

Papadom mengecewakan?

Pastinya ramai peminat filem Afdlin Shauki meletakkan satu harapan yang tinggi keatas filem arahan terbaru beliau, Papadom. Aku sendiri tidak terkecuali.

Maklumlah, dari Buli, Buli Balik ke Baik Punya Cilok, setiap karya beliau pasti tidak mengecewakan. Keunikan filem-filem beliau ialah jalan cerita dan lawak yang bukan dari jalur filem malaysia kebanyakan. Pasti sahaja wujud babak pelik dan selamba yang beliau selitkan. Berani, mungkin itulah perkataan paling sesuai untuk menggambarkan  karya-karya beliau.

Isteri si pengembara masa: dari kaca mata seorang lelaki...

Gua baru lepas pegi tgk cerita tu, sekarang masa untuk review atas paksaan dua orang manusia (Bro MLH dan juga Dol Petik Bawang). First gua nak kasi tau, kesalahan pertama yang diorg buat adalah menayangkan filem ini ketika mana filem-filem yang besar seperti Gerhana Baru (New Moon) dan 2012 klua. Memang salah besar.

Secara kesimpulan nya movie ini, mencerita kan tentang seorang manusia yang mempunyai keupayaan untuk mengembara ke masa silam dan masa hadapan tanpa mampu menguasai kuasanya itu., dengan kata lain, beliau akan pergi ke masa hadapan atau pada masa lampau nya dengan tiba-tiba (automatic)

"Ado ko dia nok buvi gewe dio ko saing hok jahak.. "*

Orang Kelantan ni, macam mana nak kata, sering dijadikan bahan tawa orang ramai.

Suasana semasa, prejudis lapuk, dan cercaan media semuanya berpadu untuk menjadikan rakyat negeri Kelantan bagaikan si dogol - village idiot, bak kata orang. Segala nama dan adjektif yang negatif bagai automatik dikaitkan dengan negeri Che' Siti Wan Kembang ini. Tak macam orang Terengganu. Orang Terengganu semua baik.