MyFilmviewsand Karamel Kinema started a very cool blogathon, which consists of 16 movie-related questions.
1. What was the first movie you saw in the cinema and what do you remember about that visit?
I remember seeing The Lion King and half of people crying when main lion's dad died. That's as specific as I can be.
2. Are there any movies you have very strong memories of which are not because of the movie (for example something which happened at the time you were watching it)?
They are, but there is no way for me to write that story.
But I'll give you another one - I was watching Hannibal with my friend and the face of Gary Oldman in this movie is the scariest shit ever. I went to the toilet, came back and my friend pause it on the shot of his face to scare me. Horrific.
3. Which movies had a big impact on you and changed a (small) part of your view on life? Frida really filled me in optimism. Fuck the obstacles, just do your thing.
4. Do you have any comfort movies which you return to because you are in a specific mood (for example if you are feeling down/nursing a heartbreak)?
I watch In the Loop no matter what mood I'm in. I also watch Jonah Hill comedies because they are so funny. I love Superbad so damn much. Seth Rogen's films are hilarious too, especially Zack and Miri Make a Porno. So apparently my idea of entertainment is a comedy with lots of swearing.
5. If a movie would be made about your life, what type of a movie would it be and who would you like to portray you? They're doing it - it's called Crimson Peak and apparently Jessica Chastain is playing me. Seriously, though, it would probably be a cross between really cute romantic comedy and some real disturbing Blue Jasmine/Fight Club-style self destruction. I would like someone I actually like to portray me and I've been told I kinda look like Michelle Williams so that's good (I have dark hair so I colored her cool character's hair from I'm not There above). Also - Tom Hiddleston should star as my love interest. Because I really want him to.
6. Which existing movie best represents you?
Well, let's see - half-heartedly doing my job, being annoyed with people, awful at driving, loving dogs and not being a big fan of crying babies, drinking....that would be Young Adult.
7. If you knew you would die tomorrow, what would be the last movie you would want to see?Probably In the Loop or Snatch. At least I'd die laughing.
8. If you can spend your life working in the film industry, what would you be and why?
Game of Thrones producer. Why? Look at this blog.
9. Did you ever have a first kiss with someone while at the cinema and if so which movie was playing?
I don't recall (Wolf of Wall Street Style).
10. What is your favorite movie relationship and why?
I think Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks in You've Got Mail. Because they connected through conversation and as long as you keep talking, as long as there is connection, love doesn't go away.
11. When did your love for movies start and how has it grown?It probably started when I saw Moulin Rouge! on the big screen. Then I went through all of Nicole Kidman's movies. To this day when I love the actor, I'll watch everything with him/her in it.
12. If you have to choose one film to watch with your loved one, what would it be and why?
I always show my friends funny comedies. It's important to laugh as much as you can.
13. If you can choose one character from a movie to be your significant other who would it be and why?Loki. He's hot, charismatic and he doesn't give a shit.
14. What was the first movie that made you fall in love with film and cinema?
That's kinda the same answer as 11, but the first movie I really, really loved was The Others.
15. How did your passion for movies turn you into a movie blogger?
I started reviewing movies in high school, then I started winning awards for the reviews + I was always very active on various movie message boards on the net. So I thought, hey let's have a decent place for my reviews. It's more than 2 years later - and it's still here.
16. What is your favorite date from a movie?
It's not really a date and it's an awful movie, but I really liked the scene from Friends with Benefits where Mila Kunis took Justin Timberlake up on the roof at nighttime and they were lying there, watching the sky. I love big cities, outdoors and night sky.
If you want to participate:- Give answers to the 16 questions above
- Write a blog post about it
- Include the blogathon logo in your post
- Add a link to the blogathon announcement so others can participate as well
Martin Scorsese's outrageous new film The Wolf Wall Street is the director's return to formula known from films such as Goodfellas and Casino. A story of crime, money and ultimate consequences. Or in this case - perhaps a lack of them? 
In the film's opening that takes you right to the middle of debauchery, Jordan gives us a tour of his life - big house, tons of drugs, his beautiful wife giving him a blow job in his Ferrari. And then we go back. We go back to the time Jordan was just at the beginning. A young kid on Wall Street, with an ordinary wife, ordinary life and with eagerness to get rich and live the dream. What dream? Everyone's dream.
Pretty soon the firm in which Jordan works closes. He is forced to look for another job. Because of how good he is at what he does, he starts new company with his odd new friend Donnie Azoff (splendidly cast and brilliant Jonah Hill). The company makes tons of money, Jordan brings in hookers and booze to his firm and his charisma keeps bringing in new people to work there as well as new clients. The word about the Wolf of Wall Street spreads like a wildfire.
The Wolf of Wall Street is first and foremost a hugely entertaining movie. Not only is it expertly timed and well made, it's also hilarious. From genuinely brilliant and funny dialogues to amazing situational humour, this film is one of the funniest films Scorsese has ever made. There are scenes here that immediately shoot this movie up to the cult classic status. I dare you to watch Jordan's crawl to his car and not laugh. I double dare you.
In spite of the film's long run time it's never boring - there are few glitches like Jordan's speeches to his employees that went for a tad too long, but in the grand scheme of things it's a very minor flaw. The film uses so many interesting techniques - because of cleverly put flashbacks it gets even more laughter from the audience and because of planned continuity errors and little tricks (like when Jordan is on top of the stairs and he sees more steps than there actually are) it does hell of a job portraying Jordan's clouded state of mind.
Another thing I keep hearing is that the film glamorizes drug use and debauchery. Guess what? It doesn't need to glamorize it. Everyone knows that the kind of life style Jordan has an appeal on its own. You don't need a freaking movie to think that. You tell me you wouldn't want to have all that money, cars and houses? Right. Simply telling a story of rich criminal is not necessarily an approval of it.
This is why it doesn't really matter how much time Jordan spent in prison, or how much money was confiscated from him. Sure, his jail sentence was outrageous - what was it? 2 years? - but no matter how long he is gonna be there - 5, 10, 15 years, he's gonna get out and continue to be who he has become. He is a greedy, money hungry man and unlike most of the people in the world he is blessed with traits and skills that enable him to make that money.
I myself was shocked only handful of times. Nudity and swearing don't have any impression on me neither does heavy partying or drug use. But there were some moments that made me go 'oh, they went there'. It was a moment when Jordan elbowed his wife in the stomach during the argument scene and the whole 'how to not get sued by little people' conversation. I didn't think it was over the line but it definitely made me a bit uncomfortable.
The cast is all for the craziness - I don't think I've ever seen more demanding performance from DiCaprio. The things he does here - from having a candle up his ass to moaning like an animal while high and desperately trying to communicate his thoughts - are mind blowing. He is funny, genuine and devoted. I liked his performance especially because of the inclusion of that lunch scene with McConaughey in which Jordan is such an innocent kid - look at him being all humble and grateful. And then he becomes such a beast. The contrast is startling.
Because here is another remarkable thing about the movie. Jordan is a shit. He knows he is shity, he knows he is a degenerate, he knows he is an addict and he knows that what he is doing is something people would call criminal. But I wasn't thinking 'oh, I hate this guy' even for a second. DiCaprio and Scorsese make Jordan so fun to watch you have no time to think that. Even when he rats out the people of his own firm to save his sorry ass you are still so enthralled in the film you have no energy left to actively root against him.
I'm sure there are people there saying - but hey, he helped them. He helped that lady he mentions during his speech. But what good did it do if in the end 'he gave them everyone'? He took from the rich, sure, but he didn't do it for some great purpose. As he himself said it, he took their money because he knew how to spend it better. And that's OK. There doesn't need to be any message here, but for me the ending I mentioned above was very telling.
RELATED POSTS: 
RELATED POSTS:
Jack from the awesome 
Today we all mourn the loss of a great acting talent. An actor who gave us many incredible performances and sadly won't do so anymore. And while thinking about that, it's truly hard to stop the tears.
There's been a lot of movies about survival in 2013. In All is Lost Robert Redford was trying to survive on an open sea. In Captain Phillips Tom Hanks was abducted by Somali pirates, who were hoping for ransom. In Gravity Sandra Bullock was floating in space and desperately looking for ways to return to Earth. In 12 Years a Slave Solomon Northup had to endure the terrors of slavery in order to stay alive. Nature, greed, space, hatred. All as relentless and vicious as a disease. But at this time - 1985, in this place - Dallas - this disease was also something those four things weren't - unbeatable.
Ron looks for answers and help on his own - he finds out there are drugs out there that are far more effective than what people with HIV are given in hospitals. During one of his hospital visits he meets transgender HIV patient Rayon, who in spite of Ron's aggressive an homophobic remarks, shows him kindness.
As with the most incredibly moving stories, the movie is based on real events. Ron Woodroof and Dallas Buyers Club really existed. A month before Ron died screenwriter Craig Borten interviewed him to create the screenplay. Borten recorded many hours of interviews with Woodroof and had access to his personal journals. Then he attempted to attract interest in making the film in the mid 1990s, with Dennis Hopper to direct and Woody Harrelson as Woodroof, but the film was unable to secure financial backing.
McConaughey is the real star of the show here, apart from Woodroof himself, the man who literally cheated death for many years and managed to beat the odds. McConaughey helped get this movie made and his commitment to the part is quite astonishing. He lost 47 pounds for this film and it's quite horrific how different he looks here. The guy we always saw in fine suits or showing off his bare muscular chest in romantic comedies, not only became this gaunt looking character he is playing but also, over the last 5 years, a damn fine and daring actor.
The reason why all those drastic transformation works here is because of hugely entertaining script that is so gripping it doesn't really give you time to register just how much McConaughey and Leto sacrificed to play these people. Another thing I appreciated is that unlike in films like The Machinist, the camera doesn't masochistically linger on characters' skinny, ill bodies. It's not gratuitous Oscar baiting - it's simply acting and becoming the characters
There are two really lovely moments in the movie, showing that unity, that truly moved me - the first one is when Ron and Rayon are shopping and one of Ron's old buddies refuses to shake Rayon's hand. Ron grabs his old friend and twists his hand telling him to 'shake his hand' (there seem to be a lot of cry babies having issue with Ron referring to Rayon as a male not female - dry your tears and use your brain, that's my advice to these people). Then there is the hug scene. It's not about gender, sexuality, beliefs. It's about a fight these two souls share.
As much as I did love the character of Ron, I wish Rayon was written a bit better. He is not based on a real person, but several people Ron worked with. I don't understand why the writers didn't take this opportunity to flesh out his character a little more. His pivotal scene, in which he talks to his father and asks him for money to repay Ron for his kindness, is very good but much too short. I felt like that scene was a missed opportunity to show Rayon's background. I don't think Jared Leto's work here merits an Oscar, which he will get for this, because of the writing and the fact this could have been such better written character, but he was really great in the role.
Eve is played by Jennifer Garner and I thought it's a real shame how little she has to do, because this could have been such a good character and performance. There is a truly lovely date scene between Ron and Eve, but McConaughey is given such great material in this moment that Garner is essentially coming off like a blank canvas of which his brilliance bounces off. Still, I thought Garner did very well. I have no idea what people's problem is with her delivery of "He was my friend too!" line - I thought it was a lovely, honest and powerful moment.
RELATED POSTS:
RELATED POSTS:
His 
ah, the kinky times:
The cute moments in which he acts like a 
That time he made 
If HBO's goal was to make everyone out there wish it was April 6th already with the brand new special for Game of Thrones that just aired - they succeeded. Not only did we get plenty of awesome stuff including very fun answers to fan questions, but also so many new shots from the upcoming season. The ending shot of featurette is probably the most epic shot of the show so far - look at the size of Drogon! I'm actually terrified.
This is the beauty of knowing the story before the show airs - for non-book readers this is just a shot of Shae lying on the bed. But for us who read the book? OH. MY. GOD.
RELATED POSTS:
Andrew of Encore's World of Film and TV is hosting his 
In both movies the characters are battling the idea of love those around them believe in. Adele is continuously bugged by her 'friends' who keep persuading her to date a guy and she is rejected by them when she falls in love with a girl. In Her while Theodore actually enjoys tremendous amount of support from his friends and colleagues, you can see just unconventional what he is doing - and that would be having a relationship with a computer program - is in the scene where he meets with his ex wife who mocks him. Both Adele and Theodore do what rebels do - they continue to love who they chose and not being bothered by those trying to take away the meaning and importance from the love they have in their hearts.
Both in Stoker and Kings of Summer teenagers look for freedom and search for the answer to the question - who am I? India finds her liberation by accepting her true nature, while the boys attempt to build their own paradise far away from their lives, parents and worries. The point is - being a murderous psychopath and living in the woods is not exactly the society's approved way of growing up.
12 Years a Slave shows the defiance of Solomon Northup, a man kidnapped into slavery - he refuses to let go of his sense of worth, human dignity and the idea of freedom and he doesn't lose the hope of being rescued. While throughout the film he sees people who abandoned their hope, he refuses to let go. In Mandela we see a man so determined to lead his people towards equality and freedom he sacrifices his happiness and his own freedom and spends his life fighting for others.
In The Wolf of Wall Street Jordan Belfort not so much challenges the society as he fights the whole world - here is a man so greedy, selfish and arrogant he doesn't believe anyone has the right to tell him what to do or to interfere with his illegal, amoral proceedings. He lives outside the law, much like Alien and the girls in Spring Breakers, who abandon the normal way of living for the sake of money and crime. In The Bling Ring bunch of spoiled kids choose even easier way to what they want - instead of just buying their ways and using connections to good jobs and ultimately becoming filthy rich, they steal. But here is a disturbing twist to all those movies - each crime, in the end, goes somewhat unpunished. Ordinary people still look at Jordan as if he was God, the kids from Bling Ring find fame and the two last girls standing from Spring Breakers are shown as heroines. And why? Perhaps because choosing the easy way to things we want and getting them when we want them, is still a dream many have.
RELATED POSTS:
