A poem, an interview and a trial.

Continuing my Glasgow Film Festival adventure, I went to see "Howl" at the GFT on the 19th of Feb.

And once again, when I was looking around at the website to figure out what movies I wanted to see this one definitely called out to me.

"Sorry James, but let's be realistic."

James Franco is in it. Not only is he one of my favorite actors today, but he's a damn good one, and he has an Academy Award nomination to prove it. Alright, so he didn't win, but let's face it being nominated opposite the guy who delivered the most gut wrenching performance of the year for his portrayal of a king who stutters, doesn't exactly give you a chance.

The first time I discovered James Francos talents was from his tiny cameo in the comedy Date Night which starred comical genius Tina Fey, and my love for him just kept on growing after that. That is because I totally ignored the disaster that was co-hosting the Oscars with Anne Hathaway. It was so puzzling to me how such a brilliant and funny actor was not able to bring some kind of excitement to the hosting gig of the year. But hey, it's the Oscars they were probably nervous. Let's all together just forgive the Academy for picking young hosts and cut the poor duo some slack.

Ginsberg

But to sum up, I was sold.

What's the film about you ask?
It's basically about Allen Ginsberg, a poet, who was a leading figure in the Beat Generation, and his poem titled "Howl", which is considered a classic poem of the beat generation. The poem can be summed up in that it is about the way Ginsberg viewed the world at that time, and how destructive the forces of capitalism and conformity where in the United States.

The whole story is told through three interrelated threads: an animation that portrays the surrealism of the poem, an interview with Ginsberg where he talks about how he came to be the artist that he was, and society's reaction to the poem, which is known as "the obscenity trial".

Before the film began, we, the viewers, were told that the movie was written and directed by two renowned documentary film makers, Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman and that actual court transcripts and interviews with Ginsberg were used to write the film's screenplay. All this really showed in the film and made it that much more interesting.

While the animation of the poem was pretty awesome, it did not in anyway help me understand the poem, which I'm ashamed to admit but I really know nothing about poems, so I won't pretend that I do.

Sad Don Draper (<-- click it you'll laugh!)

The cast of the film was brilliant. Everyone from the main roles to the little cameos such as Mary-Louise Parker, David Strathairn and Treat Williams.
But most importantly James Franco really delivers in this role and it really showcases his talents.
Apart from Jon Hamm, who was just showing us what Don Draper would have been like as a lawyer, and the answer is: the same.

All in all it's an incredibly well done movie and highly recommended by moi.

A goat and a funky grave.

My Glasgow Film Festival adventure started with the screening of the film "Boy", on the 16th of Feb.

When I went on the GFF website to pick which movies I want to see for the blog (and for my personal enjoyment), this movie just popped right out.
First of all, the fact that they sum it up by saying, [t]he year is 1984 and Michael jackson is taking a small town in New Zealand by storm; no one loves him more than young Boy, was enough to convince me that I needed to see this. It also doesn't hurt that it's the highest grossing New Zealand film of all time and that it won several awards at film festivals all over the world.

I mean, how can you not like this?

But Michael Jackson is hardly the centre of the story. (Obviously.) The film is more about how two brothers who live with their grandmother, meet their estranged father for the first time, as far as they can remember, after he gets out of prison. The elder brother also has a goat as a pet, which I found extremely intriguing since that's my favourite animal.
Now, don't let the seriousness of the topic mislead you, one of the best aspects of the film is that is tells a serious story in a comical way that just makes you leave the theatre with a smile on your face. (How's that for advertising!)

It's everything a movie should be (according to me at least), light, cheesiness-free and with an ending that won't give you delusional expectations of reality yet will not make you wanna jump off a bridge after watching the movie.

Boy, his father & Rocky

The hilarious and well written script was delivered by an incredibly talented cast, specially the children, who had better comedic timing than Graham Norton. And Boy's younger brother Rocky was definitely my favourite. Not only is he adorable, but he has some extremely funny moments.
I can't really compare this movie to anything, it stands on its own.

All in all, a very moving story, with a lot of laugh out loud moments. And all this was accompanied by a beautiful and simple score, that like everything else in "Boy", made the film flow that much smoother.

The awesome shirt.

Like I said, I won't exactly be "reviewing the films I see here per se, I'll just share my random thoughts about them. And on that note, here are the 5 things I will take away from this movie:
1. Life sometimes really is more a comedy than a drama.
2. It wakes up the child in you, which is always a good thing.
3. My fondness for goats has only grown and now I wish I could have one as a pet too.
4. I want a shirt like Boy's. ----->
5. Boy & Rockys mothers grave is extremely funky, I cannot describe it, but trust me it is funky (as in cool and awesome, not the other definition), if you ever see the movie you'll know what I'm talking about. And no, obviously I was unable to find a picture to illustrate what I mean.

If all this hasn't peaked your interest, here's the trailer:

One last piece of advice, make sure you watch the movie with subtitles otherwise you'll get a headache from concentrating so hard.

Introducing erm... well the Introduction.

This is a blog about the film scene in Glasgow, Scotland from the perspective of a 20 year old non-Scottish female, who has recently moved to Glasgow to study. The blog/me will explore the variety of film related stuff here in Glasgow over the span of 5 weeks, hence the title of the blog which I've used as a homage to one of my favorite films (no, I will not say which...). That is to say I will explore film in Glasgow for 5 weeks and probably only find the time to blog about it in the last 2 weeks of said 5 weeks. As you can tell I'm a very eloquent writer, but I won't brag.

Anyway, by the end of this great journey which we shall embark upon, you will see what a rich film culture(?) Glasgow has, I mean they have their own film festival!
But sarcasm aside, I am really excited about this since I am a big film buff (most people have google as their homepage, I have IMDb) and I will also get the chance to explore what Glasgow will have to offer me over the next few years as I try and complete my course.

Over the next few blog posts I will try and "review" some movies that were screened (and that I've watched) at the Glasgow Film Festival, which was on from the 16th of February till the 27th, and then I'll blog about some of the many venues that are available here in Glasgow for movie-watching. I will also blog about a few of my favorite Glaswegian actors out there.

I would also like to add and emphasise that I tend to ramble on about random and sometimes pointless stuff/stories and I  have a tendency to get heavily sarcastic. Sarcasm being a key word here.

Before we kick things off I would like to thank my dear friend Yazzy, who kindly took the time to make the fabulous background that you are enjoying right now, because I have no photoshopping skills whatsoever, and because she's awesome.

So, if you've stumbled across this blog, have fun, if you don't like it just close this window OR if you're really bored try and guess which movie each of the pictures in the background is from. (Hint: most of them will be mentioned in the blog. Just sayin'.)

- Mariam