Melancholia

The first 10 minutes were vaguely reminiscent of Malick's The Tree of Life in that it decided to go in an artistic, Discovery Channel direction whilst an orchestra played in the background: 

Shots of the actors in these portrait-like positions and moving in slow motion heavily foreshadowed the plot that was to unwind, while never losing sight of the fact that, amidst all that was to come, another planet was about to collide with Earth and destroy every living being on it -petty problems and all.

Obviously, that's what the film focuses on. Petty, first-world people problems; namely the problems of spoiled Justine who can't seem to decide if she's pretending to be happy to appease others and herself or pretending to be sad so that people can coddle her and treat her like the centre of attention.

You'd have to be blind to miss that metaphor, seeing as her "depression" is what threatens to ruin everything she doesn't really seem to hold dear in her life -and the name of the mini-planet about to hit Earth is called Melancholia (who woulda thunk?).

Though, when it comes to end-of-the-world by way of planet collision movies, there's usually someone or something that saves Earth as the plot bounces from hero, to family, to president, to hero and so on and so forth.

That doesn't happen in this movie, which is all it seems to hinge on.

Unfortunately, that one scrap of "saving grace" is about as helpful as Justine's mothers' wedding speech: a breath of fresh, albeit bitter, air.

If you like deciphering and analyzing characters, motifs, themes and pointing out the symbolism of this and that, you might like it (though I'm very much that sort of person -and I didn't enjoy it). It's the sort of movie that you can talk about and feel every bit as miserable and sophisticated as the wedding party.

The only part I really enjoyed was when the wedding planner swore not to set eyes on Justine because she ruined the wedding. That's pretty much how I felt about this film.

To the director, I suggest you remove the whole planet collision bit. It's clear that all you want is to focus on Justine. Then again, if you were to remove it, you would have no choice but to rename the film "White People Problems" -but I guess you didn't want it to be that obvious.

Insidious

A friend of mine had explained the movie to me quite a while back and, having some time on my hands, being a lover of horror films (I just find them plain hilarious), AND because I had already forgotten the plot and the spoilers, I figured I'd give it a go.

The movie has the usual creepy new house premise in the beginning, what with the scary attic and the books not on the shelf, including various other little knick knacks being moved about. 

And they obviously didn't skimp on the heavy foreshadowing, considering the title for one of the books was about spiritual/astral travel, the furnace in the attic turned on by itself and weird things happened when the father was away/sleeping.

In fact there's one scene when the father falls asleep at school (after hours, of course) and is obviously travelling out of his body and watching over his son who is in a coma after falling off a ladder. 

Sidenote: There's a little chalkboard drawing of the doll from SAW behind him as he was dozing off. Because, you know...the writers of the SAW hexalogy had to put in that shameless plug...and act in the movie as the nerdy ghostbusting duo using state of the art technology such as a view finder (80's kids will know what I'm talking about).

Anyway, the movie did show some promise in the beginning, but took some hilarious turns which lead me to wonder if the writers were just farting around for the fuck of it.

Yes, I am talking about the garbage scene. 

Basically, the wife puts a record on, does a little clean-up (somehow missing the little kid facing the wall) and goes outside to take out the garbage. As she's doing so, the record skips and starts playing one of my most favourite songs "Tiptoe Through The Tulips" by Tiny Tim. As she makes her way back into the house, she sees something out the corner of her eye and peers into the living room window only to see a little boy gettin' jiggy with it. Startled, she walks towards the door, peering through the other window, but the boy is gone.

Really, that part wasn't the least bit scary and I have no idea why, when I type "Insidious, scary scene" into youtube search, THIS is the clip that always shows up.

To be honest, the only part throughout the entire movie that scared me the most was in the moments that followed after she walked into the house to look for the ghost boy. I literally jumped a bit in my seat. But the thrills die thereafter.

A priest makes a brief appearance, then a psychic and her two ghostbuster nerds show up which leads to one of the most retarded seance scenes in movie history. If Tommy Wiseau showed up yelling "You're tearing me apart, Elise!" followed by the "Oh, hi!" catch phrase, the scene would've been more watchable.

Then we find out that the skeptical husband used to do the whole astral travel thing until some old dead woman wanted in on that. The problem was somehow solved by not taking pictures of him anymore because in each picture she'd get closer and closer. 

There's no explanation for the lack of creepy old lady in the family photo.


Anyway the husband decides to get back into the astral travel thing to retrieve his son from "The Further" *chuckle* and in the process meets a few unsavoury characters -one of whom happens to be a pedophilic Darth Maul who has Dalton (the boy) chained up while he files his nails and listens to Tiny Tim via phonograph.

Fucking hipsters.


The father frees Dalton and they run. Just when they're about to go back into their respective bodies, the father gets a little cocky, tells his son to go on without him, and decides to face the old ghost woman who's been stalking him.


He wakes up from the astral travelling, Dalton wakes up, but the psychic realizes that the old woman has possessed the dad, which leads to her being choked to death and the wife finding out and end scene. 

Yes. Sadly this leaves an opening for a ridiculous sequel which is probably what the writers were looking for because they know we've had enough of the SAW franchise. 

Limitless

To be honest, I didn't care for it when it was out in theatres, mainly because I 

a) didn't know what it was about and;

b) had no interest in yet another movie with some slick-haired pretty boy as the protagonist.

Not to mention that

c) it looked like one of those movies about a scandal on Wall Street involving shots of actors trying to look pensive in the back seats of limos.

But when I overheard the premise while on the bus, I definitely became curious and couldn't help but go for it once the opportunity presented itself, yesterday.

So I'm watching the movie and it's pretty cool, but I can't help but feel like I've seen it before. 

Sure, there's the borderline "Inception" sort of premise to it in terms of unlocking dormant (no pun intended) parts of the brain and the ramifications that follow when one isn't quite ready for the experience as well as what happens when someone takes it too far or does it too often.

Okay, so obviously there are a number of similarities between the two movies which can be interpreted as odd at the very least, considering the book "The Dark Fields" which "Limitless" was based on was published in 2001 and the treatment for "Inception" was brought to Warner Brothers in 2001...which makes one think if maybe there was some sort of Inception thing going on between Glynn and Nolan.

...My point here is that "Limitless" was familiar, regardless of the "Inception" factor.

Why?

Anyone who's been diagnosed with ADD/ADHD and has taken prescription meds will know EXACTLY what I'm talkin' 'bout.

For those of you who don't, I shall briefly explain:

Prescription meds for ADD/ADHD range from Adderall to Vyvanse, but they all (as far as my experience takes me) more or less give you the feeling that Eddie experiences when he takes NZT-48. You lose appetite, you lose the need to sleep, sure you get a little quirky but you are able to get shit DONE -not to mention the fact that you understand things better. Work moves along more fluidly, more descriptively and then you just want to do more because you've already accomplished so much.

At one point in the movie, he says something about how he needed to keep moving forward and I can definitely relate, though of course that's mainly the ADHD talking and no it did not involve me jumping off a cliff...physically speaking, at least.

He gets more ideas, wants to move into another niche career-wise, moves in different social circles and in essence becomes a very different person. He's cleaned himself up in more ways than one, he's more motivated, cunning, able to tear away from the situation and see it from an objective point of view and actually look at the options around him as they are embedded in the little details he, on any other day, would not have noticed.

Even the ability to extract certain memories happens, though sadly nowhere near to the extent portrayed in the film.

To be blunt, NZT-48 is like the love-child of a Ritalin-Steroids-Viagra threesome. You become confident, feel as if you're unstoppable which provides a mental boner so great that you want to just intellectually fuck the shit out of whatever task is presented to you.
There are the ugly side-effects, the feeling of NOT feeling like you're good enough without it; even when you try to look at your notes or the beginnings of a paper you were working on, it'll look just like Eddie's financial algorithm files: Hieroglyphs. Indecipherable symbols without that magic smart pill to make things clearer.

It's sad. And it sucks. But it's true.

Anyway, in the end he gets it permanently done that way he doesn't have to worry about taking pills for the rest of his life or what have you. He publishes a book, gets involved in politics, and threatens the guy who tries to blackmail him, even though the dude was the one who took a chance on him when he was getting into the investment game and continued to take a chance on him because he knew he was onto something.

But you see, that's the other thing about NZT-48 and I guess ADD/ADHD meds in general: they turn you into a more cynical person who can calculate the moves of others because you are now able to see the paths of possibilities and their ensuing results. The ones you pay more attention to are the ones wherein you are more likely to get hurt. 

The hyper-awareness can lead to paranoia, but it's all in how you handle it and who you surround yourself with. Not to mention the fact that Eddie made a stupid move by downing one pill after another. 

Who the fuck does that?

In any case, twas an interesting movie. Could've been less drawn out and the on-again off-again relationship was annoying, but all in all a decent film.