The Special Effect of Mary Poppins

Mary Poppins is full of special effects. Enjoy.

So this Tsotsi

Just look at them. They are so bad/cool/hip/dangerous. And as they walk through their neighborhood streets there is this crazy-brilliant urban song playing in the background. Amazing. Just like out of a movie.

This movie has instantaneously become one of my favorite foreign films. Yes, the plot is amazing. Yes, the actors are unbelievably realistic. Yes, the cinematography is beautiful. But all of this could not carry the same weight if the music embedded into the film was absent.

The music allows viewers to feel the rush of the moment.  In other scenes, music/sound allows us to look beyond the appearance of a character or location, and for brief moments hear the beating heart and the blood rushing through the body of a certain individual (most of the times, it is David we can hear).

One of the scenes I find to be most memorable is when Tsotsi is walking through the streets with his gang and this song comes on. (play the video)

Gary Oldman and Transitions

Gary Oldman in The Professional as Norman Stansfield

Here we have Norman casually killing a woman as she bathes. It's a jump cut

Here's another jump cut. Norman's famous "Everyone!" scene

Gary Oldman should have a room full of Oscars, just saying.

He's brilliant... in every film.

My name is Paikea Apirana, and I come from a long line of chiefs

I'll be brief: this movie is wonderful.

If you care to know why this movie is wonderful continue reading.

Okay, so this movie was great from the beginning.  I really loved the fact that the girl who plays Paikea is not a professional actress, and like her, many of the people in the movie are not professional actors.  No they are not professionals, but they are Maori. I think that this Hollywood-escape made the movie so refreshing.

There is so much value and richness that this film brings from a historical perspective.  The call to war, dances, chants, songs, etc. that we see from the Maori people in the movie are so lively and undeniably enchanting.  

I appreciated that the film took a subject that is so personal to a specific group of people, such as the history of the Maori, and makes it accessible and fairly relatable to a grater audience.  While I watched this film I was reminded of my culture and my personal need to live up to the expectations that it holds me to.

Experience Colombia:It's beauty and it's horror

I saw this movie this summer, and it is amazing. It's an independent film, but with so much to offer.  In Retratos en un mar de mentiras (Portraits in a sea of lies) you will get an amplified view of Colombia; you'll see the horror that has stigmatized it for years, but you will also see the beauty that has managed to survive despite it all. It's clever, modern, simple, and rich in culture. 

Short response to The Road Home

So, The Road Home, you're an interesting film. First you're all like 'I'm going to tell you the story of son who wants to get the heck out of this blizzard of a town, but first has to fulfill his god-ordained duties of burying his dead father.' But you trick us because about twenty minutes into the film you decide to tell us the story of how his mom and dad met (how the mom ran him down, actually), and fell in love. Not your typical love story, but, hey, that's okay!

Now allow me to touch on some symbolism that caught my attention: the barrette.  From the first moment the teacher gives the girl the barrette, I can't help but think of my childhood. My mom loved decorating my head with barrettes, but I hated them because I thought they were too flashy for my taste. Anyway, clearly the barrette is symbolic for childhood.  But then the girl loses the barrette, and just about kills herself trying to find it.  She finally finds the barrette outside of her home, near the fence that separates her home from the outside world.  My response: the barrette near the fence is symbolic for that transition between childhood and womanhood.  One moment we're in our parents home, the next we're out on our own journey. Pretty clever, I'll give you that. 

Classic "Gone with the Wind" camera movement

When I think of Gone with the Wind I can't help but think of the scene in which Scarlett  walks into Ashley's birthday party. Seriously, this must be one of the most iconic camera movements of all time.  The camera zooms into her face, giving us a close up. That eyebrow has the power of wiping out an entire village.  You have to love Scarlett O'Hara!