ESSIE SPEAKS OF VIRTUAL INSANITY

``Falling in love is just a socially accepted form of insanity``. Awesome quote. It has this timeless quallity to it that makes one feel asif one has heard it before. (By the way IS it someone else`s quote?? do let me know, unless of course, if I`m being paranoid)

Today it`s all about love. It`s about love crossing all boundaries. But we`re not talking age, sex or race here... It`s the very limits of humanity itself... This week we explore what love could very well be like in, ooh. a mere few decades... Scroll down for more.

Oh and um... You know how I`ve been most dreadfully naughty with updating my trailers? They`re all up to date now. Do scroll down and check them out if you`re into that sort of thing :)

happy viewing,
Essie

NOTHING QUITE MEASURES UP TO ``HER``

Those of you who know me in real life know that I still (yes, still) don`t have a smartphone. This makes me incredibly annoying if we are meeting up somewhere I`m not familiar with (not least because not only do I have no GPS, I have absolutely no sense of direction whatsoever – one friend of mine rather historically had to `navigate` me to a club for all of two hours. I was very lost.). Anyway, so I`m oldschool. I check my e-mail from home. I can`t tag myself in venues. The concept of a selfie is slightly lost on me and I don`t have Instagram. Now, 2014 may well be there year Sedef converts to smartphones but for now my little old `dumb phone` does me just fine. So when you guys all whip out your smartphones and get stuck to them doing this and that, I will make fun of you. My favourite quip is that you are surgically attached to your phone, or that you are in love with the thing. My quips a little more than jest, but Her makes the very valid point that artificial intelligence is here to stay and that well… Where there are intelligent beings capable of personal development … There will, inevitably be love.

Theodore (Joaquin Phoenix) is a writer. He works as a writer at the `handwritten letter company` composing letters for other people. He is good at what he does – he is considered one of the best writers in the company. He was once the life and soul of the party, he and his wife Catherine (Rooney Mara). All that is gone now. Theodore and Catherine are getting divorced and this has pretty much knocked Theodore for six. Theodore seems to be closing in on himself more and more and getting more and more depressed with each passing day until, completely on a whim, he buys a new, artificially intelligent operating system, OS1. OS1 is an artificially intelligent operating system designed to meet the users every need and be as close to being human as possible without having a body… Thus begins a very extraordinary relationship. Because the one thing Theodore needs from life is love. And Samantha (as the OS decides to call herself – voiced by Scarlett Johansson) may just be the girl for him…

Human VS Artificial Intelligence used to be something merely for the sci-fi geeks. You know, something you thought about if you happened to be a fan if writers like Isaac Asimov or series like Star Trek. But the technological developments of the last couple of decades mean that now artificial intelligence is, potentially, part of our everyday lives. Which in turn means mainstream art has begun to think about it. I mean fair dues; Spike Jonze is by no stretch of the imagination mainstream, but the point is that this is a film that was seen by a good many people, was awarded an Oscar and a good many other awards besides. I has raced its way through lists of iconic films and ``to watch`` lists. It has clearly struck a chord. And although relationships with computerized beings (what DOES one call them ??!!) are, for now, only really frequent in high-tech countries such as Korea and Japan, well, this may well mean that the trend is heading our way… 

I think this film has struck such a chord because it touches on a very sensitive point. A point only single people in their thirties will get. Your thirties is a time of life where most people around you are settling into their relationships. If not already married, people are moving in together, having children and generally taking step after step in that particular area of ``adult life``. Now don`t get me wrong, I am one of these single people. I am not discontent with my singledom either. But come on guys, put your hand on your heart and admit it. More or less frequently – depending on your nature – there are moments when you are filled with the sense that you will never find ``your other half``. There is a moment you look around at all the happy (or seemingly happy –but that is a different post all together) couples around you and think ``that will never be me``. And if you have been a confirmed bachelor, this is one thing, because you do probably know by now that just because you are single at the moment your world is not actually coming to an end. If however you exit a long-term relationship, it may feel as if literally all is lost. The whole story line with the friend Theodore got set up with annoyed me at first. It seemed to me, for a second, that it was a re-hash of that hoary old chestnut about clingy and slightly mad single women in their thirties (and there is definitely an element of this thought in the film. Think of the ``choking on the cat`` bit if you have watched the film.) Because clearly, if you are above a certain age and single there must be something very wrong with you *sigh*. But when I thought about it a little more calmly I began to get it. Because more often than not that IS how you approach potential new relationships if you are in Theodore`s shoes. If you were dumped I mean. Nothing and no one measures up to your ex who was, clearly, the most perfect person ever in the world. All those other people `left on the shelf` couldn`t even begin to compare to that perfection. Hence at first any new potential partner is riddled with faults. Even if they are not.

The other, not completely disconnected point is most clearly put across by Theodore when he talking about Samantha. On more than one occasion he says of Samantha that it is ``great to be with someone who is excited about the world``. I see what that is about completely, although I find it hard to put into words. We all get hurt at some point. We all get jaded. And rather unfairly we desperately search with this joie de vivre in others, without exactly being generous with handing it out ourselves. We have in Samantha someone who is only just discovering the world, combining all the qualities of a child, truly excited with new life, with the sensibilities of a grown woman.

Her is a very, very deep film. It asks a lot of serious questions about love and relationships. And although if were to go into a detailed analysis of what I think of each one I would have to possibly start up a new blog or something like that, I think there is one last very valid point to be made. In a world where we are more and more obsessed with appearances, Theodore ends up bypassing the gorgeous single woman he gets set up with and falls for a woman without a body. They have ``phone sex`` and go on dates ``via camera``. So whatever other points the film makes, I think Her makes it perfectly clear that for a relationship to truly work out you have to know to look below what is only skin-deep.

On the surface a simple boy meets girl… Only with so many twists and turns… Spike Jonze has truly outdone himself this time. Definitely a must-see. 

ESSIE THINKS OF GROWING UP

Aaah becoming an adult. A grown-up. It was almost a dream time when we were children, we would know `everything` and be able to do whatever we liked... 

However more often than not, growing up is by no stretch of the imagination easy. Especially if you`re after something slightly out of the ordinary... This is a film about chasing your dream. Only its about chasing your dream in the real world... 

And no it is not some dark little number you should watch at peril of being plunged into depression. Really, just step on in. It`s rather unlike anything you have seen before... 

happy viewing,

Essie

OF THE JOYS OF BECOMING AN ADULT : ``FRANCES HA``

Here`s another one of the big indie films I missed. And another confession – I almost didn`t finish this. Almost. This confession will no doubt surprise people who have known me, or read my blog for a while. I am literally anal about finishing a film I have started. The problem, I am mature enough to confess both to myself and to you, was not the film. The problem was that the film struck very, very close to home. And this is what makes it such a good film in a way. Noah Baunbach and his partner Greta Gerwig present us with a painfully realistic slice of life. Carving out your own destiny in life is really, really not as easy as films and stories would like is to believe…  Films and stories other than Frances Ha that is.

Frances is a dancer. Well, she`s trying to be one. Ok, ok she`s an understudy. But she`ll make it onto the company proper like, really soon. She`s an unconventional girl – but then again who needs conventions? She has her best friend and flat mate Sophie and she really loves her job but… Life goes on and Frances seems to be stuck. And when Sophie takes the ultimate `` next step`` and moves to Japan with her boyfriend Frances is left to face life alone. The fact that Frances can`t afford the rent and has to find a new place is one thing. The fact that she may actually lose her position as an understudy altogether is another thing all together. With everything seemingly crumbling around her, will Frances find a way to make her dreams and plans a reality?

A lot of reviews I have read paint Frances Ha in a slightly ambiguous light. There are several different ways to interpret any film and this one is no exception, but for me Frances Ha is without a single shadow of a doubt, about how complicated `learning to be a proper adult` can be. The film is riddled, from beginning to end, with all the little frustrations real life brings. Frances is a `love her or loathe her` type character with her seemingly incurable awkwardness. There is a lot of caricaturing going on there of course but if she does frustrate you, bear in mind it may be because she strikes closer to home than you might think. The older we grow, the less we like to admit it but we are all awkward sometimes - and some of us more so than others.  Oh come on, you know what I mean. You, like me, were sure that by a certain age (25, 30, whatever your personal concept of `adult` is) you would have `it all` figured out. Yet while for some of us life just slotted into place in a series of seemingly smooth moves, the rest of us were left wondering about, wandering where the starting point was. If you have ever felt stuck in the pit stop as the other `drivers` complete lap after lap in the race of life, this film is about you. Ok, ok us.

But don`t go thinking that this is some dark and gloomy tale of angst. Oh no, Frances is eternally positive, she makes a good go of every situation and, as often is the case in real life, even in the most bizarre or seemingly impossible situations, yes, things work out. The name of the film, Frances Ha , comes from a small, understated scene at the end of the film. Frances` full name is Frances Hadley, but when she finally finds her own flat, the space in the doorbell is not large enough for her full name so she has to put `Frances Ha`. If I were pushed to read some kind of deep meaning into this it is that, even at the  moments we seem to have well and truly `arrived` somewhere in life, we need to remember that we are all works in progress. Everything changes. Even the most `set in stone` scenarios. But is this such a bad thing? When things are bad, we can remind ourselves that like almost everything in life, this too will pass. So what of the good things? Even if some good things in our life end, is starting a new adventure such a bad thing?

Like life, Baumbach`s Frances Ha is, as a film, neither optimistic, nor pessimistic. It is an honest, warts and all, no holds barred story of one woman trying to find herself in life. And like life, what you make of it depends, to a large extent, on you. I have to admit, I rather liked it.  

ESSIE SPEAKS OF FAMILY LIFE

Aaah families... It`s one of those things in life that either really works for you or really, really doesn`t.

For the ones that really, really work out we have Disney films. For the ones that don`t, we have films like August: Osage County. Scroll right on down but be warned, this film is not an easy one to watch.

Oh and yeah. I`m not doing very well with the whole getting the number of updates to two a week thing. My appologies -  I am working on it. And you should be sein a marked improvement in the number of posts you see weekly. Just... Maybe not this week.

happy viewing,
Essie

BECAUSE WHEN IT`S REALLY DISFUNCTIONAL, THERE IS NOTHING MORE PAINFUL THAN A FAMILY : `AUGUST : OSAGE COUNTY`

This is another film that should technically come with a disclaimer. I definitely knew not to expect a light hearted family comedy when I started watching it (and even if you have done no research at all, this fact becomes blatantly obvious under ten minutes into the film) but blimey, I did NOT expect it to hit me like a sledgehammer. Not like this. Those who know how close I am to my mother and grandmother can easily put two and two together to figure out that this was not easy watching for me personally but I think the problem is pretty universal. This is a family portrait. A frighteningly realistic one of what goes on at the other end of the `family` spectrum, when all is not rose-tinted Hollywood bliss.

Barbara (Julia Roberts), Ivy (Julianne Nicholson) and Karen Weston (Juliette Lewis) are three sisters. Ivy lives close to their parents in Osage County, the delegated family member who takes care of the parents while the other two sisters have, to all intents and purposes, made a dash for it, living their own lives far, far away. God knows there is stuff to run away from. The matriarch of the family Violet (Meryl Streep) is not the easiest person to get on with by any stretch of the imagination, so much so that she has pushed her husband Beverly (Sam Shepard) to his wits end. So when tragedy forces all these strong and disparate people with years of unspoken grudges to bear under the same roof, nobody can quite predict what the result is going to be or who, if any of them, is going to get out of this ruthless melee emotionally intact…

This film is based on a play by Tracy Letts and I have no shadow of a doubt that she had first-hand knowledge of the workings of a problem family. I mean at least one. I mean I say that, but hand on heart, how many families can really aspire to what the mainstream holds up as `perfect`. At one point in the film Ivy speaks of how she has lost faith in the whole concept of sisterly love. `Just random bunches of cells that are genetically connected` is how she describes herself and her sisters. I do see her point. I don`t see things quite as darkly as all that, but I do see her point. It is a tough lesson to learn – and not all of us end up learning it – but the fact is, in my experience of the world, that just because you have family ties with someone it doesn`t necessarily mean you get along. It doesn`t even mean you like each other. In fact, if for whatever reason you turn out to be not very compatible as people, your relationship may well turn into a special kind of seething black pit of resentment that you only see between relatives. This usually has its roots in the fact that despite, for whatever reason, you don`t like or don`t get along with the person you are forced together, time and again, sometimes for decades… I mean there can be upsides to this kind of non-compatibility, God knows I have my own share of difficult relations but this has, for the most part, taught me patience. It has given me the ability to look more effectively for the good in people. Because when you are `lumped together` with a group of people, it is actually quite rare that you are able to have a relationship with them spanning decades or lifetimes and be unable to see the good in them at all. Because let us remember, it is very rare indeed that a person has no good in them at all… It all depends on how willing we are to look for it. That`s what makes families so extraordinary for me. It can well be that you are like chalk and cheese, even with your closest relations, but somehow you make it work… Except when you can`t…

Tracey Letts finds so many little things to touch on surrounding this kind of difficult situation. She touches on how difficult it is to get used to the concept of caring for your parents… Violet`s mental decline is especially hard to watch, although it is hinted out that she has never been the easiest of people to live with. Then there is Ivy, the one who got left behind and couldn`t leave her parents to fend for themselves… The line between taking responsibility for your family members and sacrificing your own life is such a fine one sometimes and taking a step either way is more painful than words can express… It is this pain the August : Osage County captures so well…

So yes. August: Osage County is about families. The real deal. Warts and all. Good times and bad. It is definitely not a feel good movie, nor is it for the faint of heart. But I reckon, if we watch it with honesty, many of us, if not all of us, will find something from our own families in there somewhere.              

ESSIE SPEAKS FROM THE HEART

I wish I had a nice, logical explanation for the fact that I have a very serious documentary and a tv series about vampires in the same update. All I can tell you is that these are the two things that caught my eye this week. They caught my eye and made their way straight down to my heart. I needed you to know about it.

I really need you to know about Blackfish. I have hated zoos ever since I was five years old, but this, I believe, is one of the best documentaries made on the matter along with The Cove.

And then, not to `take the taste away`, but to show you there are ways to entertain ourselves without enslaving other living beings - we have a collection of real live monsters for your amusement.

Scroll right on down ladies and gents!

happy viewing,
Essie

A MUST SEE FOR ALL OF US : BLACKFISH

Warning. This documentary is harrowing. And this is as it should be. I personally reckon you should force yourself to watch it anyway. I did – and this despite the fact that I already hate zoos, animal parks, in short anything that entails humans keeping animals in tiny enclosures. Or large enclosures. Heck, enclosures period. Especially if you`re a fan of all the Orca shows , you need to see this. It isn`t scandal-mongering. Yes, death and bloodshed is a part of it but we don`t see people being torn limb from limb. Don`t worry if you have a sensitive stomach – there is barely a drop of blood in sight. I won`t give any guarantees on you not having a broken heart though. That`s another story.

Blackfish tells the stories of a number of different wales in a number of different institutions but is vaguely centred on Tilikum, known as the largest killer whale kept in captivity. Living up to his dastardly name, Tilikum is responsible for the deaths of three keepers and several injuries. But Tilikum is a savage hunter and killer right? Maybe it was the trainers that weren`t careful. Or maybe… Just maybe there is something more serious going on here…

First of all, let me assure you of one thing. I mentioned it in the intro I`ll assure you of this again – there is very little actual blood. You will not be tormented with torturous re-enactments or vats of unconvincing fake blood. Real footage is used when it can be, as are police interviews and the minutes from court cases. But trust me, having a weak stomach is no excuse for not watching this fella. What we do have is eye-witness accounts. Visitors who witnessed the attacks, sure but you have to realise that the attacks themselves are only a result. What the documentary really shows us is what pushed Tilikum to attack and kill three different trainers. The answer is sadly easy to guess : we did.

Blackfish interviews former trainers, people employed by the park all the way down the line, right to the guys who are responsible for catching the whales in the wild and reel them in. It is all very well and good imagining killer whales are these dumb critters who know no better but these are animals with complex family lives. Actual languages. A large brain that has been scientifically proven to have extra parts to it the human brain does not have. And we abduct them when they are calves and keep them in concrete pools with no stimulation for all of their lives. We force them to live with other animals and tell the kids they are one big happy family while they actually probably don`t even speak the same language. We make cuddly toys of them and make sure we don`t think about how the mothers cry when their calves are abducted. Because they do. That was the anecdote that touched me the most (so much so that, since as you may know I am very close to my own mother, I called her at what was in Turkey the middle of the night sobbing and had to be calmed down. Mom I have to say you handled the situation very well considering.) Anyway this anecdote was about a mother and calf. These two lived in a SeaWorld park and were utterly inseparable. Until the calf started getting a bit disrespectful to the keepers, you know, she`s young, she`s giving them some attitude. SeaWorld decides the way to go is to separate the calf and the mother, so the calf is shipped to Florida. The mother is inconsolable and starts making these weird cries no one has ever heard before and in somewhere like SeaWorld this collectively are decades of experience working with animals. So experts are called in and the calls are analysed and the results are shocking as they are harrowing. They are long distance calls. She is perfectly aware her baby girl has been taken far, far away and in her desperation she is trying something humanity has never heard before to see if she can somehow reach her…

Guys, parents… Please teach your children that zoos are cruel. Teach them that animals should be free in the wild. Let`s put these horrors out of business so other families don`t have to be rent asunder like this. One of the trainers interviewed says that he thinks that in 50 years we may well look back at these days as decades of incomprehensible cruelty. I devoutly hope he is right… 

THE BEGINNING OF A QUEST - AN EARLY APPRAISAL : `PENNY DREADFUL`

Now, I told you guys I`m keeping more on top of things as far as film and TV goes. Or at least I told you that this was the intention -  the results have been patchy to say the least. But I was so struck by the first episode of Penny Dreadful I simply had to chat to you about it. Even though there are inherent dangers of starting a review of something based on a single episode. But then again, there could be fun in re-evaluating my review in a couple of weeks…

We are plunged into the dark streets of Victorian London. A mysterious woman leads our hero, an American one time performer, now odd-jobs man (and very odd indeed his jobs are) on a quest with their mysterious patron. On the way they will encounter monsters we thought were mere legend. Blood-sucking monsters, a certain Dorian Gray and an ambitious young doctor, Dr. Frankenstein all await your attention… Hold onto your hats gentlemen, it`s going to be a bumpy ride.

Now, so far we have all the staples a series like this should have. An `everyman` character in the shape of our American , Ethan Chandler (Josh Hartnett). He is both handsome and believably talented and fit enough to survive the battles with the monsters – as you may have guessed, he is an ex-soldier who now makes a living in one of the many `wild west` shows doing the rounds in Europe back in the 19^th century. I mean I like the fact that he`s not just unbelievably lucky or magically talented - he actually has army training and thus survives his first encounter with a vampire. Of course we have the femme fatale character too.  Vanessa Ives (Eva Green) who is a beautiful and mysterious woman with a dark secret. They will `drag it out` for an episode or three but so far we know it involves reversed crucifixes and spiders so I think may well be a curse of some description in there somewhere. Then the rich patron and explorer, Sir Malcom (Timothy Dalton) whose quest we are on. It`s a tad bit banal and predictable unfortunately, his daughter has been kidnapped by vampires. And the fact that he is pretty sure she has not become lunch means that there is another dark secret involved in the story somewhere. So there we have it. We have a believable protagonist (I love the fact that even in a British series the hero ends up being American. Or it may simply be the fact that there is a subtle irony on the fact that the British having explored the USA before that now an American comes back and explores the `undiscovered` world of the UK). God I need to stop going off on tangents, ok, we have a believable and handsome protagonist, a love interest, curses, magic and a source of inexhaustible wealth that removes money as any problem as far as adventures go. We`re all set for some serious adventures, groundwork is first class.

And I mean so far it`s all very believable. Very clean and tidy. I love the fact that Dr Frankenstein who is ostensibly a good guy  (although it is early days of course) borders on the unpleasant. He is not an idealist at all, he is after making the `biggest conquest` science can make : conquering death. Thus he is overambitious, snooty and bordering on the anti-social. I sense a very dark British take on a lot of classic horror characters coming up. Just the sort of thing I love. Another thing the series has managed to do is to get some very disparate monsters to coexist. It is all very much part of the `Victoriana` ethos and has a very good theme running through and tying them together. It bodes well as we have more supernatural creatures due to come on board, I will be curious to see if it gets at all messy though. God knows it has the potential to do so though.

So I mean yeah, for its first episode Penny Dreadful has done an alright job. It is definitely full of promise. I have been looking for something to get my teeth into since I got disillusioned with Game of Thrones (I`m a purist and got cross with the TV series for going off script with the book so stopped watching it at the beginning of season 3). Now I`m a bit picky with my TV series. But I have a sneaking suspicion that my personal quest may have come to an end… I`ll keep you posted.