another bad entry.
written: 9:06 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 03, 2006
On Sunday, my parents and I were at this Tiong Bahru coffee shop at 12 in the afternoon to buy curry rice for my brother. There was a television crew there filming some brand-new recycled TV programme for Channel 8. I thought they were filming a brand-new rehashed drama series and so I got out of the car just to see what was happening (note: I'm highly interested in how movies and TV dramas work behind-the-scenes). Needless to say, there was a considerable crowd of people standing near the production crew and they were watching quite intently.
I checked out the scene for a couple of seconds and then decided it was boring. Since my dad was still queueing up for food, I went to get a jasmine green tea. And the funny thing? The uncle asked me, "Are you from the television station?"
Ah, if only. Imagine the money I'd get. I'm so strapped for cash that I can't even buy Season 4 of Buffy, or anything for that matter. Damn.
Moving on now.
I've finished watching my Buffy DVDs and now there's just a void where the show used to be.
Okay, I exaggerate, but I'm stretching my things-to-do-in-the-afternoon list pretty thin now. Besides, I love that show, and it sucks that I have no more Buffy to watch. No, wait, it sucks even more that I have no more Buffy/Angel angst/non-angst to watch. Bleah. I'm even tempted to watch Angel: the Series. But I don't want to see Angel with Cordelia, or anyone but Buffy for that matter. If this keeps up I may like Buffy/Angel more than Logan/Veronica. Like, oh my god.
(Warning: Buffy Season 3 spoiler)
(As a kind of side note, I'd like to say that I bloody - no pun intended - loved the scene where Angel feeds on Buffy. That scene struck me as awfully erotic: her offering her bare neck to him, him on top of her, his perfect half-naked body. The excruciating pain, the animalistic passion, the irrepressible sexual tension. Then I read that Sarah Michelle Gellar played the scene like she was having an orgasm, which explains the final kick of the table that sent it crashing. Absolutely perfect.)
I just think Seasons 2 and 3 were so perfect. I so loved the last 3 episodes of Season 3, especially The Prom. Buffy/Angel angst made me cry, him breaking up with her was the most heartbreaking thing ever (even more so than Veronica breaking up with Logan, but not as much as Logan hurting Veronica in that amazing Look Who's Stalking scene), and then he shows up at her prom and gives her one perfect high school moment. I mean, the hotness that was David Boreanaz in a tux aside, it was just amazing and beautiful and sweet; simultaneously, it was tragic and painful and sad, because that was the last blissful moment they'd have together. The helplessness of the situation and the intrinsic way in which the two of them are drawn to each other and keep going back to each other are completely heartbreaking.
And then there was Buffy's Class Protector award. That totally teared me up.
How funny that I'm technically watching this a second time.
I WANT SEASON 4!
Okay, enough Buffy talk.
**
So I watched Crash and I think it's largely a heavy-handed, preachy piece of unimpressive cinema for which the stupid Academy was retarded in awarding Best Picture, especially considering the fact that Capote was a much, much better film. Crash reminded me of Traffic and Magnolia, the former I didn't like because I was 15 and thus stupid when I watched it but I'd like to watch it again, the latter I hated because it was self-important and pretentious and had Tom Cruise, and I don't want to watch ever again even though I was about 15, too, when I watched it.
My point is, there is nothing original about Crash. It doesn't say anything new on the subject of racism. Worse still, it doesn't trust its audience's intelligence and thinks that it can get away with bludgeoning the audience over and over again with its loud, querulous RACISM IS VERY VERY BAD! message.
To that I say, Whatever. Its obvious good intentions aside, I think the people behind this movie were more concerned with its accessibility. They were probably afraid that the general movie-goer wouldn't "get it" if it were actually subtle and intelligent, and so they chose the dumbing-down route by producing...that. I mean, I totally saw the Ryan Phillippe's character shooting that black guy thing coming. It was so obvious. It was, in fact, the only way the stupid movie could say, Look, there's a bit of racist in each and every one of us, including the most well-intentioned.
Like, duh. Please, tell me something I don't already know. The only people who are capable of liking this preachy and intellectually-insulting...movie are probably people who liked Munich people whose movie diet includes Pearl Harbour, Daredevil and the X-Men franchise, and so when they see one movie that deals with the oh-so-controversial subject of racism, they fall all over themselves and wet themselves in their excitement at saying, "Oh my god! Like, a totally important, like, movie, that, like, deals with, like, RACISM!"
Want a good film that deals with the same subject? Try American History X. On the most fundamental level, that film is actually coherent.
I have to admit: I watched Crash partly to be justified in bitching about its ridiculous Best Picture win. I mean, come on, I knew I'd find it completely overrated. I don't buy most of Hollywood's attempts at serious cinema (hence my intense hatred for Munich) because they cater to the average movie-goer way too much by dumbing down their material. Which is really, really sad, to tell the truth. Crash was almost like reading a Margaret Atwood novel, except without the elegance of style of the latter; it totally threw out the whole 'show, not tell' thing, and it didn't even stop at telling. It continued to tell over and over until it becomes a shout which eventually crescendoes into a scream.
Oh, and before I forget, I hated the last 10 minutes. The writers must have ran out of things to write, because the stupid musical montage thing was just so lazy.
Anyway, I haven't anything substantial to write lately. Nothing has been going on. Um, nothing has been going on inside my head, too. I'm going to mindlessly exist for another week until school starts.
Then again, chances are, I'd continue to mindlessly exist even when school starts, especially after taking into account the tedious modules they're forcing down my throat. I mean, seriously: Company Law? Principles of Singapore Land Law? Can I say I Don't Care?
Just. Kill me now.
before sunrise // before sunset
Previously:
- - Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2017
I'm moving. - Sunday, Jul. 11, 2010
In all honesty - Tuesday, Jul. 06, 2010
What I want for my birthday... - Sunday, Jul. 04, 2010
On Roger's behalf. - Friday, Jul. 02, 2010