OBAMA-SELF

Am I the only one who can enjoy watching movies alone all by myself? I'm not being anti social or something but if you watch a movie with more than three people there's a good chance you will never get a good seat. Whether it is in the rear or too far in the front. This happens mostly if the film is a blockbuster one. I remember that when I watched The Avengers I chose to go alone since if I make an announcement in the local press (okay I'm just being hyperbolic here), I might not get a good seat. 

A good seat is important for me, I do not want to sit in the front rows staring at Bruce Willis's skin pores, nor do I want to sit too far back. Why? Well since I paid for the ticket with my hard earned money so I deserve to get what I wanted, that's why.

However in this world, one does not simply get what they want. There are moments when I have to yield to powers greater than I and have to watch a movie where I got to sit in the rear, hurting my delicate neck in the process.

Usually people have this argument; it is the togetherness that counts when you watch movies with bunch of friends. But I beg to differ, I do like hanging out with people, but not at the cinemas while watching a film since we got a place for that called; restaurant, or musiums, or the Army Headquarters or supermarket.

And that is why, whenever I really wanted to see a movie I prefer to go alone (by go alone means that I didn't tell anyone that I planned to watch a certain movie at certain time and place. I also didn't update it on my Facebook and Twitter. People need not know where I have been) and I actually enjoy it. All they need to know that I have done watching the film. There are also times that after I watch a film, I didn't write the review at all so no one knows what I have been watching and I am fine by that.

Although for the first time (it happened years and years ago) I did that, the ticket lady have that surprised look. 'You are going alone?' she said. Then I said with a beaming smile; 'Yeah just me'.

Here's the benefit of watching movies alone;
1. You can (not always but most of the times) get a good seat in the middle row since you are alone, even if the film is about to start in 15 minutes and it is a blockbuster one.

2. You can concentrate better.

3. You can snap and hush people who talked during movies since they are strangers, not your friends. You can be cruel.

4. It is economically cheaper to go alone (sometimes all I want is just to watch a movie, then go home, no pre or post activities), you spared time and money hang out pre and post watching movies at some over the top restaurant that sells lemon tea at the price of Rp.20.000. You can call me stingy if you wanted to. I'm fine by that since it didn't disturb anyone's peace.

5. By going alone it is you who decide when and where will you be watching it. There will be no high ranking officials meeting at the White House to decide when and where.

Okay I admit watching movies with your girlfriend is also fun but just the two of us no more and we sit in the middle. It is not worth it to watch a movie with your girlfriend but you sit directly in front of the screen. However if you are still single (and doesn't really keen to mingle too much), going alone is reccommended. What annoys me are people who said; I can't go watching that movie, I have no one to accompany me. Bitch please.

The most refreshing thing is when I enter the cinema and there's few than 10 people inside the cinema. It happened mostly when the film is independent, non-mainstream and (hold your breath), black and white. The audience tend to be more civilized.

I remember watching After the Curfew at the first day of showing and there's only nine people. It was so quiet and nobody talk. I really enjoy it since the seat next to me is empty and I can put my bag on the empty seat while I scratch my balls without being afraid some strangers might look at me in the act.

I also remember watching Biutiful, it is a Spanish film with running time more than two hours. It is less likely that teenagers and kids will watch it. It is also less likely to be sold out or watched by more than 20 people. I went to the cinema 10 minutes before the film started and got myself a good seat.

I did enjoy the film and as I enter the cinema, there are only nine people there. After I watched the movie and land my scrawny (but smooth and hairless) ass at home I said this to myself; well, that was an amazing experience for me!

SEVEN PSYCHOPATHS

Directed by: Martin McDonagh
Starring: Colin Farrell, Sam Rockwell, Woody Harrelson, Christopher Walken, Tom Waits, Abbie Cornish, Olga Kurylenko
Running time: 110 minutes

Only few movies managed to transcend genre barriers, lies as a cross for so many movie genres and absurdly entertaining. The Coens are successful in doing that with Fargo and No Country for Old Men, Quentin Tarantino with his movies and this one that does not easily fall into the drama/comedy/buddy movie genre manages to do the same too.

But for me this is a semi-meta film which remind me of Adaptation, that tells the power of storytelling, redemption and how people manages to face the harshness of life, all presented in a unique way by McDonagh. It is amazing, not in a jaw dropping way but in a contemplative one that the delicateness of the story can be presented as clever as possible.

I can relate to stories about writers having difficulties finding muse for his writings, I am a writer myself and must face so many moments where I just don't know what to write but the deadlines are chasing me. Although I haven't write any screenplay (not yet) but this is the sort of movie I put close at heart. Writing is not just punching keyboards and it's all done in 15 minutes. Writing is a result of our thought process, equipped by our own unique experience and it all ended in words and sentences. After you write you feel a sense of fulfillment that you can sort all the randomness inside your head into something more structured and tangible. Writing should be everybody's habit since if you write and re-read what you write several years later, you get to know who you really are and that you realize that you had more layers than you thought you have.

Using a shih-tzu dog as a Mac Guffin, it works well just like that suitcase in Pulp Fiction and rabbit's foot in Mission: Impossible 3. The story is about Marty (Collin Farrell) a screenwriter in Los Angeles who is struggling to write his screenplay titled "Seven Psychopaths". Living the Irish stereotype (alcoholic and look gloomy), his friend, Billy (Sam Rockwell) is a dog-thief, dragging his problems into Billy's doorstep, thus set chains of events that involved Hans (Christopher Walken) and a crime boss in a very unpredictable way.

I have to give thumbs up to the writing since it doesn't take five hours to put everything together, the layers of the stories managed to convey the message pretty well helped by good acting quality, except for Colin Farrell who looks like he is playing the same character in In Bruges (which happen to be the first film Farrell worked with McDonagh). It also avoid so many movie cliches, thus makes this film genuinely original (did I just wrote that?) in the year where most movies are sequels, comic book adaptation or based on a best selling novel.

END OF WATCH

Directed by: David Ayer
Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Michael Peña and Anna Kendrick
Running time: 109 min

If you remember the reality show Cops, then this movie is not much different. Breathing fresh air to the found footage genre (fuck you Paranormal Activity! Why? Why not), David Ayer manages to bring a gut wrenching police story into the screen.

This is Ayer's second credit as a writer-director, after Harsh Times (2005). He also wrote Denzel Washington's Oscar-winning Training Day (2001) and two other cop movies, Dark Blue (2002), S.W.A.T. (2003) and The Fast and the Furious (2001). It can be said that Ayer is an expert on cop movies.

There wasn't much good cop movie nowadays and this one could be the best of this year (and a possible Oscar contender for Best Picture). The main characters are two cops, Brian Taylor (Jake Gyllenhaal) and Mike Zavala (Michael Pena); good friends and partner in the LAPD.

Taylor loves to tape his experience as cop and he would like to make a documentary about it someday. Meanwhile Zavala is a family man. They both being good friends for years and their chemistry is good. We can see how they talk to each other in the patrol car that reflect their closeness. In the first and second act we got to see how they do the job, from solving a domestic crisis to saving kids from fire. They are heroes but not without flaws. They are also human being. Sometimes they acted like tough guys and sometimes they are nice. Behind the badge, they are just like us who have dreams and hopes.

However job is job and they have to do it seriously. The two cops are transferred into a tough neighborhood with a large population of Mexican-American and they stumble upon a large drug stash.

The drug lord in Mexico is not happy about this and ordered that the two cops to be killed. We know hos this ordeal going to end. The film didn't waste the time by doing so many cop movie cliche, although the one-of-the-cop-is-about-to-get-married and the-other-one-is-about-to-have-a-baby has been used so many times to evoke emotion.

All I can say this film really shows the ugly side of Los Angeles that almost as dangerous as the Rio De Janeiro's favelas in Elite Troops.

Being a cop never easy, you put your life in the line of fire and as the title suggest, it is an euphemism used within the law enforcement community for an officer killed in the line of duty. You know how these kind of story usually end but it is the journey that makes it worth to watch and I can say that End of Watch is highly underrated, just like Brooklyn's Finest.

ATAMBUA 39 DEGREES CELCIUS

Directed by: Riri Riza
Starring: Gudino Soares, Petrus Beyleto, Putri Moruk
Run time: 120 min

In the spirit of neo realism just like The Kid with a Bike and so many Iranian films, the newest collaboration between Riri Riza and Mira Lesmana (they are very successfull with Laskar Pelangi and Sang Pemimpi) is very satisfying. Bear in mind, if you are the sort of moviegoer who likes only mindless mainstream movies, this is not for you, but for those who wanted to see something different this is the right one.

In 1999 the referendum which lead to the independence of Timor Leste is in chaos. Riots and murders happened as civil war broke. Those who supported for integration run to East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia and those who wanted independence stay in Timor Leste.
 

The story itself set 13 years after the riot as teenager Joao (Gudino Soares) and his father, Ronaldo (Petrus Beyleto) chose to stay at Atambua, Indonesia (border city between Indonesia and Timor Leste). Actually Ronaldo left his wife and daughter in Timor Leste. Joao himself missed his mother by listening to her voice on an old tape recorder. Joao who works as a motorcycle rider for hire suddenly fallen for Nikia (Putri Moruk), a new girl who came from Kupang and looks mysterious.

Life is hard in Atambua, and it looks so much different than Indonesia's major cities. It seems time stops in the 90s there. For many Indonesians, Atambua is a strange land, as if it is another country but yet it is still in Indonesia. The whole film is in Tetun, the regional language, but the strength is not in the dialogue but in the silence of the visual and the inner struggle of the characters.

Embracing neo realism, the cinematography is stunning without trying to gloss it out since it looks natural. Although the back story is about the event in 1999, the story didn't fall to become preachy and boring, in fact it is quite simple and solid. The casting of unknown actors and actress help to strengthened the neo realistic image of the film.

Limited release in Indonesia, I think the timing is not right since the cinemas here are still busy with Skyfall although the film itself is good and offer many viewers a whole new story form a part of Indonesia not so many people know of.

In the end, Riri gives us a question; why does politics and countries divide families? What is nationalism and the most important of all a statement that a blood relationship and family is stronger than anything.

The 39 Degrees Celsius (Americans, we use metric system here) means that in that body temperature, a human body considered to almost reach a critical point and combining it with the title, it could mean that these characters are living their life in the edge.

SKYFALL

Directed by: Sam Mendes
Starring: Daniel Craig, Javier Bardem, Judi Dench, Ralph Fiennes, Naomie Harris, Bérénice Lim Marlohe
Running time: 143 minutes

Is this the end, hold your breath and count to ten because Skyfall deserve to be in the top ten Bond movies. Back with style, Mendes put Bond to basic or to say it more classy, deconstruct it The Dark Knight way. No flashy gadgets or fancy cars, just Bond being old fashioned against the modern world. In 143 minutes Bond and non Bond fans got an interesting story and character to watch.

Daniel Craig is back for the third time (and the third time a Bond film shoot in Istanbul and Turkey after From Russia With Love and The World is not Enough), fulfilling the common promise 'James Bond will return' in every Bond film. 

Six years after Casino Royale and four years after Quantum of Solace, Craig embodies Bond more comfortable. In the pre-credit scene he is accidentally shot in Istanbul then back from the dead to meet M (Judi Dench) who have to face a new problem; MI6 undercover agents being exposed by some criminal mastermind who happen to crack MI6 computer network. Bond must solve this problem and eventually met Silva (Javier Bardem) the ultimate villain of Skyfall.

But this is the new world where enemies are not easily distinguished in terms of race, ideology or even motives and Mendes put this question; was it necessary for Bond to exist in the world where enemies are hard to define? and how 'human' Bond can be where his skills are not as good as it use to be.

Here we see the human Bond where he must use his basic wits to defeat a sophisticated enemy and several quiet moments to be solved in a loud bang. Some who seek classic Bond elements might be a bit disappointed since the second and third act happened in England not in an exotic country where usually some fancy villain HQ get blown up.

Neal Purvis, Robert Wade and John Logan’s script is solid and gives a whole new meaning to Bond. Roger Deakins give a smooth and classy look for Skyfall, some scenes are just plain beautiful. Especially the one with Aston Martin DB5.  

Not just that, the story also ask a deep question; what must Bond do to adapt to the new ways of war. It is establishment vs reinvention and the most important is; who is James Bond without his gadgets and fancy cars. Can he use his basic skill to survive?

You can say Casino Royale re-boot Bond, but this one reinforce the re-boot in a way that can satisfy Bond and no Bond fan. Mendes has set a new bar for Bond and one thing for sure, Bond will return.