never gonna grow up
i luv films about growing up. about how teeners and tweeners struggle to fit into the adult world. experience life with raging hormones. first luv. first crush. first sex. first smoke. first heartbreak. fitting in. going against the flow. rebelling against the establishment. hating parents and all symbols of authority. being lost. bad skin. pimples. wandering and wondering.
the gap years between having a job, paying taxes and having a family and well, uhm, death. that's a very short time, mind you.
you know what i mean.
&&&&&&
my teen-age years were a fog (no pun intended). i don't remember much of it. what can i say, i am old. i also don't remember much of my twenty's. it went so fast. when i woke up, i was already depressed and celebrating my 30th birthday (i felt old and thought death was knocking) at a friend's posh mansion in greenhills. my best friend baked me my favourite banana chocolate cake, her maids prepared the sumptuous dishes, while her husband prep up the whole place to make it look like a ballroom in a five star hotel. i was dating a really gorgeous young guy at that time.
those were the days!
&&&&&&
anyway, i had a swell time last night at the movies. finally i saw stephen chbosky's perks of being a wallflower starring the adorable threesome of ezra miller, emma watson and logan lerman. they are so luvable that i wished i have friends lyk them way back in high school when i was struggling with a lot of things, including my sexuality. i grew up in a conservative, strictly military family where homosexuality is frowned upon. it did not help that we lived inside a military camp for a long time.
the film is a blast, a very faithful adaptation of the book. it helps that the writer of the novel (sort of catcher in the rye for the 90s kids) stephen also wrote the screenplay and directed the movie. so his vision for the book and the characters are translated well into the big screen.
the story is really simple. a painfully shy, troubled freshman named charlie (logan lerman) feels lyk an outcast in his new school. his childhood best friend committed suicide, so he has no one to help him navigate the volatile waters of high school. and of teen-age life.
he is terribly lonely. even his older sister, a senior at the same school, ignores him in the campus. books and his english teacher (played by the still handsome paul rudd) are his only friends. to ease his loneliness, he starts writing to a friend about the highs and lows of his freshman life.
then he meets a flamboyant, funny gay senior in class (ezra miller, camping it up a little) and his step sister sam (the now grown up and luvly emma watson). they became friends. great friends. they showed him the other side of high school - parties, friends, theatre, heartaches, crushes, first luv, sex.
i won't ruin it for you by telling the whole story. besides, i am not getting paid for that. so watch it.
&&&&&&&
the setting is the 80s. a luvly, luvly decade mind you. before iphones, laptops, tablets, internet, ipad and whatever. i was filled with nostalgia and longing as charlie plays his favourite songs - the smiths, air supply, new order - in his cassette player. remember the days of rewinding and forwarding the cassette tape using a pencil or a ballpen?
and the typewriter, sam's gift to charlie, where he writes his letters.
(they look so weird, right? i mean, if i were born in the 2000s and see them today, i will be wondering what they are for. i used to own one, by the way, in college when i thought i would be the next jack kerouac or hemingway or sidney sheldon. i would play "making luv out of nothing at all" while writing poems and short stories about my crush who kept on ignoring me. triple chos!!!)
&&&&&&&
the soundtrack is gorgeous as well - smiths (asleep), david bowie (heroes), new order (temptation), dexys midnight runners (come on eileen), sonic youth (teen age riot).
&&&&&&&
this movie ranks up there among my favourite youth-oriented films - clueless, threesome, sixteen candles, singles, pretty in pink, mean girls, reality bites. the list is long, i am not going to bore you.
if you have nothing better to do after shopping or swimming in the beach, watch it.
you won't regret it. drinks on me if you hate it.
oh and did i mention that paul rudd still rocks? i'd still date him even if he has grown a bit older since clueless. chos!
&&&&&&&
here is the trailer:
the gap years between having a job, paying taxes and having a family and well, uhm, death. that's a very short time, mind you.
you know what i mean.
&&&&&&
my teen-age years were a fog (no pun intended). i don't remember much of it. what can i say, i am old. i also don't remember much of my twenty's. it went so fast. when i woke up, i was already depressed and celebrating my 30th birthday (i felt old and thought death was knocking) at a friend's posh mansion in greenhills. my best friend baked me my favourite banana chocolate cake, her maids prepared the sumptuous dishes, while her husband prep up the whole place to make it look like a ballroom in a five star hotel. i was dating a really gorgeous young guy at that time.
those were the days!
&&&&&&
anyway, i had a swell time last night at the movies. finally i saw stephen chbosky's perks of being a wallflower starring the adorable threesome of ezra miller, emma watson and logan lerman. they are so luvable that i wished i have friends lyk them way back in high school when i was struggling with a lot of things, including my sexuality. i grew up in a conservative, strictly military family where homosexuality is frowned upon. it did not help that we lived inside a military camp for a long time.
the film is a blast, a very faithful adaptation of the book. it helps that the writer of the novel (sort of catcher in the rye for the 90s kids) stephen also wrote the screenplay and directed the movie. so his vision for the book and the characters are translated well into the big screen.
the story is really simple. a painfully shy, troubled freshman named charlie (logan lerman) feels lyk an outcast in his new school. his childhood best friend committed suicide, so he has no one to help him navigate the volatile waters of high school. and of teen-age life.
he is terribly lonely. even his older sister, a senior at the same school, ignores him in the campus. books and his english teacher (played by the still handsome paul rudd) are his only friends. to ease his loneliness, he starts writing to a friend about the highs and lows of his freshman life.
then he meets a flamboyant, funny gay senior in class (ezra miller, camping it up a little) and his step sister sam (the now grown up and luvly emma watson). they became friends. great friends. they showed him the other side of high school - parties, friends, theatre, heartaches, crushes, first luv, sex.
i won't ruin it for you by telling the whole story. besides, i am not getting paid for that. so watch it.
&&&&&&&
the setting is the 80s. a luvly, luvly decade mind you. before iphones, laptops, tablets, internet, ipad and whatever. i was filled with nostalgia and longing as charlie plays his favourite songs - the smiths, air supply, new order - in his cassette player. remember the days of rewinding and forwarding the cassette tape using a pencil or a ballpen?
and the typewriter, sam's gift to charlie, where he writes his letters.
&&&&&&&
the soundtrack is gorgeous as well - smiths (asleep), david bowie (heroes), new order (temptation), dexys midnight runners (come on eileen), sonic youth (teen age riot).
&&&&&&&
this movie ranks up there among my favourite youth-oriented films - clueless, threesome, sixteen candles, singles, pretty in pink, mean girls, reality bites. the list is long, i am not going to bore you.
if you have nothing better to do after shopping or swimming in the beach, watch it.
you won't regret it. drinks on me if you hate it.
oh and did i mention that paul rudd still rocks? i'd still date him even if he has grown a bit older since clueless. chos!
&&&&&&&
here is the trailer:
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