Winter break movie marathon

Happy New Year 2012, people!

Hope you guys had a good 2011 and new hopes for this year. My goal for this year is to inch closer to obtaining a PhD. I vow to give it my best and to have as little distractions as I can. What did you guys do for the new year? We just stayed at home. It's very cold now in Ohio, sub zero temperature! This morning, it finally snowed after a few close calls. This is already very good considering it's January. Last year it snowed from November to March! A friend asked us to join her to watch football (I still don't understand the fascination with American football in Obama Land) but we had already made plans to join another friend for new year, but that friend canceled instead. I was a bit bummed out but as it were the weather was horrid so it was nice and warm to just stay in. We did though do a winter break movie marathon via Netflix and here are some of the movies that we saw and those that I thought are worth watching.

Ombak Rindu

I really wanted to watch this since I had read the original story in the novel. Emee of course wanted to watch it for Aaron Aziz. :-P Anyway, she excitedly texted me to let me know it was already uploaded. I got on quickly before it was pulled out. Verdict: It was OK-ish. The acting was definitely good. I had in my mind what Hariz was and is, so I thought Aaron did a great job portraying Hariz as described in the book (and this is not a biased opinion since I am not a fan. I don't really like muscly guys he he he). I remember thinking of the scene in the toilet when he pushed Izzah hard to the floor. That looked so real! I didn't see however the point of putting in so many sexual scenes. In the book it was not necessary. You can depict love through conversations and other mannerisms right? For a love story that is quite typical, and for a movie based on a  novel that had almost cult-ish following for Malaysians, I thought the director did a good job. I didn't like Lisa or Maya in their roles; not that they did a bad job but they were just not right for the characters in my humble opinion. Maya is too old; Izzah is supposed to be young, around 18 and of course in the book she does not have Pan Asian looks. Like many people, I thought Fazura/Tiz Zaqyah would have suited the role better. As for Lisa, sorry am not a fan! Sebelum korang bambu aku, dia memang cantik tak dapat dinafikan. But to me, her getting married and leaving the acting world is not such a big loss to our film industry. Ha ha ha.There were quite a lot of details missing from the film that was in the book but I supposed that was to be expected. And what's up with Datuk Sufiah and her pseudo Western (I couldn't identify what it was!) slang? Sungguh tak natural! :-P All in all, it was worth two hours of my time. OK lah. And no, tak nangis. Langsung tak. Ha ha ha ha. 

The Stoning of Soraya M

Cite ni dah lama... tak ingat tahun berapa and cannot be bothered to Google. But it's a true story of an Iranian lady who was stoned because she was suspected of adultery. Soraya is an unfortunate woman indeed. She is a devoted mother to four young children but she is married to one of the most evil man on earth. He wants to marry a young 14 year old girl (who is from a rich family) but does not want to divorce her because then he has to pay alimony and split his meager possessions. He is lazy, rude, inconsiderate, pompous, arrogant and condescending. One particular scene stood out to me early on; she and the kids were having dinner and he saunters in late and demands to be fed. He is angry because she only has rice without any meat and he says spitefully: that girl can give me meat that you cannot give me! And she replies bravely: well, you don't provide enough for me to have meat on the table. The nerve of that stupid man!!! Anyway, he plots with the village mullah to persuade Soraya to divorce him. The mullah has his own plans; he offers to set up Soraya as his mistress if she divorces her husband but she refuses. Angry and spurned, both of them plot to bring her down by creating gossip in the village about her committing adultery with a man who recently lost his wife. Without revealing too much, the weak and naive man agrees to lie to the governor and based on that, the village committee decides that Soraya is guilty and must be stoned to death. 

What angers me greatly of course is the casual disregard for women in the movie; women are chattels and like the horrible husband says emphatically to his sons, 'this is a man's world'. And more grievously worrying is that this is NOT what Islam teaches but this has become the perception of Westerners who have little knowledge about Islam. Another thing that I noted was the themes concerning the danger of 'gossip/fitnah' and the misuse of power by the religious officers. Not only did they not properly verify the accusation, they also did not punish the man who was the supposed adultery partner with Soraya. In Islam, aren't both individuals punishable for adultery, why is the woman the only one who is stoned? For those of you planning to watch the movie, please do not bring kids into it. The stoning scene at the end is horrible, compelling, graphic and emotionally draining. I must say the Iranian actresses playing the two lead roles (e.g. Soraya and her aunt) did a fantastic job with every gesture,  movement and facial expression. I definitely recommend this, and yes, I did feel teary at the end as they showed the only known picture of Soraya. Truly a movie worth watching and owning a DVD copy. I felt so disturbed with the movie that I couldn't sleep the next day (even though I had my eyes closed during the stoning scene). 

The Kite Runner

Many of you are probably familiar with the book and the movie. I liked the movie very much even though I have not read the story. It was set during the Taliban reign in war torn Afghanistan and tells the story of two little kids, Amir and Hassan. Amir is rich and Hassan is a Hazra boy who works for Amir's family. As the Taliban take over Afghanistan, Amir is forced to leave Afghanistan for the US with his father. He earns a college degree, marries a beautiful lady and becomes an accomplished author. After his father dies, he learns that he might be forced to return to his home country to rescue Hassan's son. Hassan and his wife was killed while guarding Amir's house. Movie ni pun banyak sangat tender moments; I definitely felt like shedding a tear or two. It's a story about friendship, love, cultural conflicts and of loyalty. There's also another stoning scene but it wasn't as graphic or gripping as The Stoning of Soraya M. Again, the unknown actors were superb in their roles. The little kids were wonderful; they were actual Afghanis but the adults actors playing the main characters were not and they had to learn the Dari language, which must have been quite difficult. The scenes were set in the US, Afghanistan and parts of China. I felt that it was such a quietly understated  but beautifully crafted movie about about human courage and compassion and it was easily the best flick that I saw during my winter break. Also highly recommended.

Well, the winter break is over and now it's time so start working again! Sigh.

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All-American Muslims @ TLC

This is a new show on American Muslims that debuted in TLC a couple of weeks ago. I hadn't had a chance to watch it until this week. I was very excited to see a show about Muslims in American in the midst of all the anti-Muslim sentiment in the US. This show follows the lives of Arab Muslims in Dearborn. You can watch the trailer I posted above.

I have mixed feelings about it. It's exciting what they are trying to do... I hope that in the end, it educates and let people know that Islam is a peaceful religion. And just like they are many different kinds of Christian or Buddhists, they are also many different kinds of Muslims. Some Muslims are devout, some are less so. Some are even kind of liberal. I am just wondering though about the choice of location. Why Dearborn? And why Arab Muslims? What about African Americans who are Muslims? Indian/Pakistani Muslims? Surely, the Muslim community is more diverse than that. But perhaps, as somebody mentioned, they chose Arab Muslims for a specific reason.

I get asked this question a whole lot in class, too. How do you feel about being Muslim in a non-Muslim country? Honestly, it is a question that has not occurred to me much, meaning I do not lose a lot of sleep about it because I come from a Muslim country where the question of my religion is not made salient. Here, sure I stick out like a sore thumb because of my hijab. But to say that it's difficult to practice my faith would be a stretch. It's not hard at all. I do things like I would do back home. I pray. I cook halal meat. We go to the mosque for Eid prayers (kalau rajin he he he!) and Sad goes to the mosque every Friday for prayers. I am perhaps also rather lucky as I am located in a university campus where my identity, although not well understood is tolerated. Just last week a classmate of mine asked me very politely why I wear the hijab and other Muslims (that he has seen) do not, and I was happy to oblige. I dare say if I was in another part of the US, such tolerance may be limited, or might not even exist. So I am happy to be where I am.

And I find it easier to deal with non-Muslims who accept our faith tolerantly, and with an open mind compared to other pseudo Muslims who drink and dress scantily, and look down on other Muslims who do not! (and there are quite a few here, mind you! :-P). Practice your faith if you want, but do not look down, condescend, insult or argue with others who choose not to. That's my take on it. After all... la ikraha fiddin...

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S'thing borrowed to s'thing blue!

For more, go to this website

Lagi seminggu nak sekolah haruslah buat bende2 tak berfaedah kan? He he he. Starting with...

Something borrowed

Dah lama nak tengok movie dia. I've read the book and was curious to see what the movie would be like (watch the trailer above if you haven't seen it!). I know a lot of people don't favor movie based on books but I don't really mind. Besides, Emily Griffin is a fantastic writer who writes about romantic relationships, and that isn't too hard to replicate in my opinion. I loved most of the casting. I thought Kate Hudson was perfect as Darcy, and the male actor as Dex (I can't remember his name, but he has been described in the book as the guy who had 'perfect hair) but Ginnifer Goodwin is too pretty as Rachel. She's supposed to be really plain Jane but no way is she that! Sweet/pretty is more like it, I think. Anyway, this movie is light-hearted and fun. I loved the script, especially the banter between Ethan & Darcy. And lets face it, it's pretty realistic. How many of us has had a Darcy in our lives? You know, the friend who tries to show up everyone, the one who is ultra-competitive, yet is so sensitive (or rather oblivious) to any criticism. In my opinion, this movie depicts the complicated dynamics of female friendship much better than other chick flicks, such as Bride Wars (also coincidentally starring Kate Hudson!). I was just rather peeved with Rachel's reaction to Darcy's behavior, in the book as well as in the movie. She's at fault because: a) she has given in to Darcy all of her life and NEVER said a word about it even though she's obviously hurt and b) if she really loved Dex, she should have said something before it was too late, and she had many opportunities! And yes, snatching a BFF's fiance/bf is taboo in female friendships, and you can sort of understand Darcy's over the top reaction to it. All in all, even though there were one or two minor things (that I can observe) that strayed slightly from the book, I thought the movie was a good representation of the book.

Moving on to...

Something blue

It was on reduced discount on Amazon so I downloaded it in my Kindle. This book is a continuation of Something Borrowed. This time, it's based on Darcy's point of view. Now, if you've read/seen Something Borrowed, you would absolutely hate this character. Emily Griffin is such a good writer that you ended up rooting for her! It starts with the scene where Darcy finds out that her friend Rachel is having an affair with her fiance. Darcy being Darcy, she is absolutely gob-smacked that goodie goodie Rachel 'betrayed her' and that Dex would prefer a PLAIN JANE instead of HER. She also decides to absolutely milk the situation and exploit it to her advantage by announcing Rachel's betrayal to everyone in sight and neglects to mention that she had cheated on Dex on several occasions (although she justified it as 'not sex' but just heavy 'making out') and actually got pregnant by having sex with Dex's best friend, Marcus! However, things don't go her way as she has a major falling out with her parents, and people rapidly lose sympathy with her predicament, and when Marcus abandons her, it is the last straw as she is left without any support system. The only one she usually relies on in times of crisis, is Rachel, and she already told Rachel to drop dead! She decides that the only course of action she can take is to flee to England to live with Ethan (who took a job as a writer in London). I liked the description in the book about English culture and way of life, and I find the blow up between her and Ethan believable. Hence, my favorite thing in the book is her transformation from a selfish hoe to a mature adult. And yes, there is a happy ending so no worries. For a chick flick, this is one of the BEST of its genre. :-) But don't take my word for it: read it on a lazy Sunday when you want to waste a couple of hours, and want to finish a good book in one sitting.

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The kids are all right!

Wow... it's been quite some time since the last update. I've been busy tying things up for this semester, and I think I am doing OK for my classes except for Stats III. The instructor is mercurial, very prone to sudden outbursts and plays favorites in class. Therefore, things are definitely unpredictable. Last semester for Stats II, we could tell the lowest grade we were getting was a 'B' (and that is guaranteed even though you get all As for your assignments!) but this semester what worries me is that the lowest grade is a 'C'. A 'C' is bad because I have to repeat the subject, and I know this won't be offered again next semester because he is leaving and they haven't found a replacement for him yet. Oh well... as usual I try my very best and hope that everything is OK. People often ask me about my grades in grad school. Really, it doesn't really matter because at the end of the day, in the academic world people look at the quality of your thesis. All the 'As' in the class don't really matter if you can't apply it all to a good thesis! 

Add to that my classmates (who are mostly Americans) are really very laid back about grades and are not really competitive. And I love it this semester that there are about 5 of us in the same boat and we are working together (e.g sharing notes, doing homework together)... that definitely takes the stress out of things. However, things are not the same in all departments. I was shocked when somebody I knew (who was in a different course, and in an almost all international students kind of course) remarked that she didn't care about the 'learning' in class and was intent on collecting all As and getting a 4.0 every semester!!! This was rather strange coming from a grad student OK! And isn't that a lot of pressure on yourself? But who am I to say... he he he he he. Students in Malaysia are typically concerned about getting As all the time through regurgitating and taking as many extra classes as they can. An education system that is set up in rewarding academic achievement by how many As you get... can you really blame them?

Original poster. Source: Google images and this website

Anyway... I digress. I wanted to write about the movie I saw recently. I know, I know, it's a bit late to write about it since the Oscars already came and went but this movie is totally worth the watch. You should already know that I guess from the all star cast: Annette Bening, Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo... I now know why some people thought that Annette Bening should have won for her portrayal as half lesbian couple. It was interesting that they portrayed lesbian couples are very similar to the traditional hetero couples; one is earning and the other one keeps house. Annette is excellent as the 'man of the house': self-absorbed, tight assed, overworked and over-entitled! Their kids grows up wondering who their father is and they seek out their sperm donor, a rather disheveled looking Mark Ruffalo. Turns out he wants to play dad without having the burden of responsibility, and is rather a cad. He turns out sleeping with one of the lesbians (huh??) whilst having already an affair with another young lady working in his cafe (he has his own business). BTW, that young lady is played  by Yaya DeCosta who was formerly in America's Next Top Model. I must say she's a pretty decent actress! (better than expected!). Lest I spoil the plot for you (TMI?) all is well in the end. I really loved their realistic treatment of the modern blended American family and the sensitive portrayal of how lesbian couples face the same problems like all other couples: empty nest syndrome, defining success with academic achievement, not taking for granted your partner etc. I am not sure if this movie has been (or will be) shown in Malaysia due to the sensitive topic, but if you have a chance to watch this, please do! Watch the trailer, too if you're curious!

Have a great week, everybody!

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The Social Network

Jesse Eisenberg & the real Mark Zuckerberg. Credit: Google images

It's the award season right now and I managed to catch this movie after wanting to watch it for so long.

A movie about Facebook is an obvious focus of interest for contemporary film makers, and  of course us Internet users. Facebook has become so popular that verbs are built upon it (i.e. Facebook me) and if you don't have a Facebook profile you are pretty much out of the loop! I was eager to watch it because I wanted to see the historical beginnings of it and was expecting it to be a light, though informative movie. I wasn't expecting it to be this thrilling and thoughtful! 

The film summarized in detail the origin of Facebook in the humble college dorm and its ascend to the huge, corporate office in Palo Alto, California. Zuckenberg quit university to expand Facebook to California on the advice of Sean Parker (who started Napster, was influential in the expansion of Facebook and also starting Chatroullete). If you have no interest in technology and social networking websites, have no fear, this movie is about friendship too. How friendship can change because of money, and how greed can change who you are.  A lot of the storyline though is centered on the lawsuit brought upon Zuckerberg by his former best friend and other students claiming that he stole their idea on Facebook. If you Google, you would know that these lawsuits were settled, and that his former best friend had his name restored back onto the masthead of FB. Read more about the film and other stuff at the official website.

Jesse Eisenberg as Zuckerberg was excellent in his portrayal; just the right mix of geek, ambition and a wannabe jerk. Even if he doesn't win an award for his role, there should be more interesting roles coming to him because of this performance. A question that lingered for me though was if Zuckerberg was really as ruthless, introverted and sarcastic as portrayed in the movie, and was he really just under the influence of Sean Parker and thus aspired big things for Facebook because he wanted to be like Parker? (If you Google, you would have found out that Zuckerberg insisted that he did not create the site to 'meet girls' but he wanted to 'build things'! Why would he admit that he created it to 'meet girls'? Ha ha ha ha ha. They did however, manage to make sure that ever single thing worn by Zuckerberg in that movie was something that he has worn before, that's really good attention to detail!).

And is Sean Parker really that horrible? (Justin Timberlake was really excellent, and it's a pity he wasn't nominated).  And if the portrayal of Zuckerberg is really true, isn't it kind of ironic that someone as awkward , socially inept, and as friendless as that (at one point in the movie the former best friend shouted at Zuckerberg: "I was your only friend!" only to be met by a blank and inscrutable stare) would be the genius who would create the most powerful social networking website known to man (as of now)?  Other critics claimed that it was an anti-geek or anti-technology movie, but to me it was just an interesting take on how important technology is to our generation, and it was worth the two hours spent watching it and fighting my sleepy eye.

Interesting fact: Look out for Disney Star Brenda Song as  Christy Lee, the former best friend's girlfriend. I seldom see her in a serious role, so it was a pleasant surprise.

Did you guys watch it? What are your thoughts on it?
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