pogoism

Tomorrow is Cinco de Mayo. It doesn’t take a genius to work out that this means the fifth of May in Spanish. It’s not really celebrated much in Mexico, really just in the state of Puebla, but has come to be somewhat of a Mexican heritage day in the US, like St. Patrick’s Day and Oktoberfest. According to Wikipedia:

The holiday commemorates the Mexican army’s unlikely defeat of French forces at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862, under the leadership of Mexican General Ignacio Zaragoza Seguín.

While outnumbered, the Mexicans defeated a much better-equipped French army that had known no defeat for almost 50 years. However, Cinco de Mayo is not “an obligatory federal holiday” in Mexico, but rather a holiday that can be observed voluntarily.

Anyway, yesterday, Alonso and I headed down to Sparks to the Cinco de Mayo event there (organized by the Nevada Hispanic Services). To be honest, it wasn’t what I was expecting. I was expecting a big old festival, with dancing and stuff, but alas, no. It was more corporations flogging their products and services to Hispanics and lots of food – nachos, tacos, corn, Mexican candy… yummy.

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After Cinco de Mayo we went to the Grand Sierra Movie theater to see Watchmen. Alonso has been wanting to see this for ages, and I’ve been hesitant. It’s not really my kind of film – I don’t like action or sci-fi movies, and I assumed this would be both. Long story short, Alonso didn’t like it, and I loved it. Having said that, the story took quite a while to develop, and some of it felt redundant and didn’t really add much to the overall movie. Gran Sierra, by the way, is a great place to see a movie – We only paid $3 each (I’m not sure if it’s that all the time, though), and they have couches!

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I had to submit a date my final day of work last week, which made me a little sad. This whole placement, which I didn’t really  have much time to look forward to, is all coming to an end. I’ve got my final project to be working on, tying up all the loose ends, and before I know it, I’ll be back in Belfast in final year. Speaking of which, house (well, apartment) hunting, is proving to be trickier than we thought. All the great places are for June rents, and whilst I’d be happy to pay for 1 month that I’m not going to be there, there’s no way I’m paying 3. *sigh* I guess it’ll be okay in the end…

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And finally… if you’re one of the few people who I personally know, and you a) can’t remember pogoism.com and b) don’t subscribe via RSS, you can find this blog at joel-riley.com

Which is much easier to remember :)

I don’t normally need a lot of convincing that religion is a load of baloney, but this “documentary” annoyed me.

I use speech marks, as Bill Maher did a *really* bad job. For one, he’s not that funny. He might have been in the 80s, possibly the 90s, but he’s not anymore. Rather than it being a serious, well thought-out piece about religion, it became more of an attack on anyone who dares hold any belief about anything. He interviews a whole list of people, but almost every time, before he showed the interviews, he set them up as comedy characters. For instance, he would show footage of them pre-interview saying “testing testing” into their microphones and so on.

He chose some poor subjects for interview, clearly just for comedy purposes. I don’t want to sound like a boring git, but if you’re going to try and do a documentary about a contentious subject like religion, you should at least try to show some balance and give your participants a fair chance to express their views. In one scene with Mohamed Junas Gaffar, of the Taiban Mosque in Amsterdam, he showed him receiving a text message. On the screen appeared some mock captions, which show the imam plotting to kill Bill after the interview. A pretty cheap shot, and a total stereotype.

In another, he interviewed Rev. Ferre van Beveren, of the First Universal Church of Cantheism – a religion based on the inherent goodness of the cannabis plant. When Maher got bored of the conversation, he pretended that the Reverend’s hair was on fire. Hilarious.

He showed the extremes of religion (such as anti-Zionists, people claiming to be Jesus Christ, and ex-gay ministers), and never showed us the more moderate sides, constantly bombarding us with images of war. He clearly hadn’t done his research well either, because at one point he showed images from the Troubles in Northern Ireland, which, if he’d looked into it a little more, isn’t to do with religion.

Finally, and probably the biggest thing that bugged me about this movie, is that he doesn’t have the balls to actually confront the people he interviews directly. He attacks religion through smarmy captions or during his monologues. The one saving grace of this film is his genius reaction when, after interviewing the Democratic Senator from Arkansas Mark Pryor about his creationist beliefs, he says “you don’t have to pass an IQ test to be in the Senate, though”. Comedy gold.

Every weekend I talk to my mum back in England, and I always suggest films she should watch. She watches them, and most of the time she likes them. So, on Sunday’s I’ve decided to do a short blog called “Read, Listen, Watch”, where I recommend things I’ve come across during the week that you should, well, read, listen or watch.

• Read: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. [Amazon.com]

I love Swedish crime novels, particularly Henning Mankell’s Kurt Wallander books, so this book really appealed to me. Mikael Blomkvist, a disgraced financial journalist, accepts a case to investigate the disappearance of teenage heiress Harriet Vanger. Helped by sociopathic hacker Lisbeth Salander he unravels the mysteries of her disappearance. I cheated and listened to it on audiobook, but it’s a gripping story that’ll have you hooked.

• Listen: Fist of God, MSTRKRFT [iTunes]

There were quite a few contenders this week, as I also got Röyksopp and Erin McCarley’s new albums. As much as I love these, MSTRKRFT’s new one is the one I’m going to recommend. It’s a brainless album, and seems to take a lot from Justice’s debut Cross. It’s intense, the only down tempo track being John Legend’s Heartbreaker, and it’s the first album I’ve listened to in a long time that left me worn out after the 39 minute run-time.

• Watch: In the Bedroom [IMDB]

I’ll be honest, this film wasn’t what I was expecting. Instead, the story begins with a college kid, Frank, back at his parents home in Maine where he is dating an older women with two small children. Her ex-husband returns, and after a few violent episodes, he kills Frank. The film portrays his parent’s relationship and life as they grieve for their son. A powerful film.

Having seen Baz Lurhmann’s previous films, Moulin Rouge! and Romeo + Juliet, I had high hopes for his latest offering “Australia”. Australia doesn’t have the same whirlwind editing that his previous films had, but it does keep the melodramatic emotion.

It doesn’t disappoint. You’ll no doubt hear that it’s long. And at 2 hours and 45 minutes, it is. But it’s never boring. Yes, it’s true that it could have been cut down dramatically – the first 2 hours of the movie are poorly paced, but the visuals and story more than make up for this – it’s enthralling.

Nicole Kidman plays Lady Sarah Ashley, who arrives in Australia to discover that her husband has been murdered, and inherits his cattle farm. She meets The Drover (Hugh Jackman), who helps her to run the farm. A competition between her and the rival cattle farm ensues to secure a contract with the Army.

This film isn’t just a melodrama though, it has a bit of everything – war saga, love story, Western, social-conscious drama, all making it very watchable. And, as usual, Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman give stellar performances.

If you get a chance to see this, you should. Having said that, I wouldn’t make a massive effort to if you’re not a fan of Baz Lurhmann’s previous work. It is, after all, fluff.

After the jump, the trailer for Australia.

Read the rest of this entry »

This Is England

I’ve been meaning to watch This Is England for absolutely ages, but finally got round to it this week. I had read glowing reviews of it, so started watching it with high hopes, but to be honest it did disappoint a little.

It’s a film that explores part of the skinhead movement in working-class England in 1983, and follows the story of one boy, Shaun. We quickly learn that Shaun’s dad was killed in the Falklands War. After being bullied at school one day, he runs into a group of older skinheads, and he becomes part of their group. Then, Combo, an older skinhead, returns to the group after serving a prison sentence, and radicalises the group into becoming anti-immigrant. A few leave the group, but Shaun decides to stay. Then, one night, they all get high, and Combo beats Milky, the only black member from the original group, and kills him, leading Shaun to question the movement.

Overall, it’s a very powerful and tense film, particularly with the use of original footage from the era, showing events such as the Falkland’s War, and speeches from Margaret Thatcher, grounding it in periodic authenticity. However, there were some cringy moments, like the ‘first kiss’ scene, and the story between Combo and his ex-girlfriend. Despite this though, it’s honest and true, and a great depiction of the skinhead movement.

I’d highly recommend you make an effort to see this, it’s one of the finest examples of British cinema out there.

XXY

I went with a few mates to QFT to see XXY, and none of us were really sure what to expect. I assumed the title referred to the medicial condition Klinefelter’s Syndrome, where the patient has the chromosomes XXY, as opposed to XX (for a female) or XY (for a male). This usually results in smaller testicles, and reduced or complete eradication of sterility. However, it quickly became clear that the film was not about this, as it was said that the main chacracter, Alex, is actually intersex (has both male and female genitalia).

Alex has been brought up her whole life on a cocktail of drugs and medication to keep her outward appearance female, but we learn that she has stopped taking her medications. Alex’s parents have moved her around a lot, to keep her from the negativity that could result, and have moved to a secluded location near the sea in Uruguay. Her mother, Suli, invites some of her friends, one of them a surgeon, from Argentina to stay to discuss the possibility of an operation. Alex has sex with Álvaro, the surgeon’s son. Then, some local men find Alex and forcibly pull Alex’s pants down so they can see her genetalia, but they decide not to report it to the police. Alex decides that she no longer wants to take the medication, or have an operation.

This is a very daring film, with the issue of intersex people rarely explored. I can only think of one instance, and that was (a very good) episode of Grey’s Anatomy. The filmmaker treats it very delicately and fairly. It is a truly beautiful film, with much attention paid to the characters emotions and the scenery. Perhaps the best thing about this film is the ending – there isn’t really one. Its annoying when you step out of the cinema, but with more thought, I realised that this is probably the best way, as for Alex, there isn’t really an ending.

I thoroughly enjoyed this film, despite the subject not being what I thought it would be. However, my friends didn’t really seem to like it, so the verdict’s out…

The Dark Knight

Now, I have to admit, that I’m not really a fan of these comic-book films, and I went to this film reluctantly. I was wary that it was going to be a victim of it’s own hype, and not quite manage to cut it, and the length worried me somewhat.

How wrong I was.

What a fantastic film! The plot is somewhat long and complex, so I won’t go too much into it here, but it focusses on Batman’s (Christian Bale) fight with the Joker (Heath Ledger) and DA Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart), and his affections for DA’s assistant Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal).

Heath Ledger really is as good as everyone is saying he is, on par with Hopkin’s Lecter, Christian Bale as Batman was good too. Everything about this film is marvellous!

Go see it, now!