Personal Review: An Education (Motion Pictures- 2009)

I finally watched this movie last night using a borrowed DVD player from a friend. I knew that this movie is interesting, cuz it was nominated for 3 Academy Awards... The movie is about the life of an eighteen-year-old student. She is intelligent, mature, and almost prepared to go to Oxford in the following year. One day she meets this charming man driving in his sport car... Since then, they become closer to each other. Well, ok, let's face it... An unexperienced teenage girl who has never been introduced to fancy things or get familiar with glamorous world VS a man double her age who learned everything from the street. Before she even realizes it, he already introduces a lot of new things and becomes an integral part of her small world. I'm not gonna be judgmental and make comments about older guys who are fond of "teaching" much younger women, but I just find Jenny's characters in this movie are well described; I was once like Jenny. In the end, she learnt that her experience is what can make her stronger than her peers, and she becomes a survivor. I really like the way this movie ended. Simple, crisp, and elegant. I give it 8.4 out of 10 stars.  

Movie Review: Bangkok Traffic Love Story

Woman in her 30s. Single. Looking for love. Cliché, I know. So many movies had portrayed that fact in many ways. This movie is just one of Thailand's contribution to the colorful world movie industry. It's not gonna win any awards. It's not gonna be remaked from generation to generation. It's not even gonna make you miss Bangkok, that has been labeled by travel warning lately. But it is gonna make you laugh for sure. A light bubbly movie that will make you smile... well, maybe not like 3 "Idiots", but this one is realistic enough. A combination of comical, tacky, and unpretentious humors. 

Meet Ly, a woman who works at solar energy company. She still lives with her Chinese family, despite the fact that all of her best friends are already married. I can definitely relate to that, although I am not living with my family anymore. So her story begins with her drunk night, which leads her to meet this handsome guy who works at BTS. Nothing really special about the boy-meets-girl story, but it was quite entertaining. Too bad that I wasn't feel touched; maybe it is simply because of the foreign language that sounded ticklish in my ear, or maybe it is because I know it is only a movie.

My favorite scene is that when Ly opened the memory card from his camera. It reminded me of my own memory. All those horrible pictures. All those hidden snapshots. Could not stop wonder what happen to those pictures now. Oh well, love is silly. And often than not, we want to be silly for that special someone. 

Rate: 6.7 out of 10. Watch it only if you have spare time.

Festival Sinema Perancis is Here

I still remember sitting in Planet Hollywood theatre Bali, two years ago with my friend, Carla, and watched this sickening French movie which portrayed many horrible scenes; a woman soldier being stripped naked and raped by 5 enemy soldiers, and later on a scene where a guy's genital was being cut off. I couldn't stand it and decided to get out of the cinema until the movie end. Since then, I haven't watched French Film Festival again. 

Well, now the festival is here again... You can visit the official website and see the movie trailers. French movies often have different approach, especially towards sexuality and humour... therefore, if you are looking for entertainment (seriously), my advice would be to avoid the thriller, war, or horror movies. 

Here are the movies that I'd like to watch: 

Faubourg 36 - Paris 36 

The story is set in a suburb of north-east Parisbetween December 1935 and July 1936 during the “revolutionary” period of the “Popular Front”. Three unemployed performers decide to take over by force the music hall where they worked a few months earlier and stage a popular show there.

Showing at: Blitz megaplex Grand Indonesia April 24th - 18.30.

Le Code a Changé - Change of Plans

A dinner party is the dictatorship of appearances: you dress up, laugh, tell stories, pose, share memories and plans. Anxiety is concealed behind humor and pain stifled by bursts of laughter. And for a few hours, you’re taken in! That’s all that counts. If you have the right codes, respect the other guests with cordiality, hypocrisy and high spirits, there’s a chance it’ll be a good evening... But the masks slip on the way home...

Showing at: Platinum XXI FX Plaza April 21st - 19.30.

Le Concert - The Concert 

30 years ago, Andrei Filipov, renowned conductor of the Bolshoi orchestra, was fired for hiring Jewish musicians. Now a mere cleaning man there, he learns that the Châtelet Theater in Paris invites the Bolshoi orchestra. He decides to gather together his former musicians and to perform in the place of the current Bolshoi orchestra. As a solo violin player to accompany his old musicians he wants Anne-Marie Jacquet, a young virtuoso, so that this concert becomes a triumph.

Showing at: Blitzmegaplex Grand Indonesia April 25th - 16.30.

Les Bureaux de Dieu - God’s Office  

Djamila would like to be on the pill; Zoé’s mother gives her condoms but calls her a whore; Nedjma hides her pills because her mother searches her bag; Hélène complains about being too fertile; Adeline wished she could have kept it; Ana Maria has opted for freedom. Anne, Denise, Marta, Yasmine, and Milena are the advisers. They listen to each of them as they wonder how to cope with sexual freedom. In “God’s office”, you laugh and cry and feel swamped.
 

Showing at:

Yogyakarta • Studio XXI May 1st - 12.00, May 2nd - 21.00
Denpasar • Galeria XXI May 8th - 21.30, May 9th - 18.00, May 10th - 20.30.

For the complete listing, you can go to this link. Let me know if you pick the same movie ;)