Let's pull some miracles.

Steven out.

I feel like I should have a resolution.

But I don't.

Ok, Oscar bets go here, in writing

$5 says Button for best picture. I'm not gonna bet for number of actual awards because you can win that with a bunch of technical oscars, which is just lame.

in, Mayur?

Steven,

The fact of the matter is, nobody owes you anything. You are not the legitimate creditor of anything in this universe. So you need to stop seeing things as being taken away from you. You had nothing.

Where you go from there, however, is completely up to you. And that's where you need to realize you're not fighting for the right to a perfect life - you're fighting for the privilege to be yourself. It is that sense of self-legitimacy, self-recognition, you realize, that you ultimately crave.

So ask yourself: "Did I earn this privilege to own myself?"

Frost/Nixon

pros: the facial emotions, the emotions!

cons: lack of intellectual nuance, the lack of nuance.

4 stars.

Slumdog Millionaire:

Well, well...it did live up to its expectations.

pros: it had an intriguing counterpoint, in terms of both content and style, to Button's theme of fate and destiny, told from a Dickensonion pov, and offered gorgeous cinemetography on the india, creating beauty from garbage

cons: i still don't feel like i got to experience flavours of indian cinema authenticity - ie. it still feels like a british film, like a gorgeous planet earth documentary w/ storyline value-added, but still a outside-looking-inside pov. for example, how did Jamal pick up 90% perfect British english from working as a chaiwallah, and why would he speak in that language when talking to Salim and Latika?

4 stars.

Some normal things in life are just so big, you just don't know what hit you when it comes.

I feel 5 years older already.

FML.

Question: when is reading for you guys? shud we have a reunion? Watchmen, perhaps? :)

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button:

First time I've severely disagreed with Roger Ebert, but...

Benjamin Button is the Oscar film of the year. Hands down.

It's been quite a while since I've seen an emotionally riveting film, but this hits it right on the spot.

pros

- amazing acting: Cate Blanchett was absolutely amazing, and as for Brad Pitt...I can't believe I'm saying this, Brad Pitt's Benjamin > Heath Ledger's Joker. Yes, he's that good.

- production is top-notch; the epitome of Hollywood storytelling

cons

- the forrest gumptation of the film was very prevalent - a lot of the elements seemed exactly the same

4.5 stars

Norma Rae

- accent fucking hard to comprehend

- directing was quirky

- oscar-worthy acting

- emotionally satisfying

3 stars.

Vicky Cristina Barcelona:

- quirky production

- disturbingly funny

- narrating irritating

- mediocre insights

2 stars.

Happy belated New Year's everyone,

I hope to start this year off by sharing a story I heard here on my travels in California:

The Lie

They lay down in the darkness. All was silent, except for the ticking noise from the clock on the wall opposite to them. 

Tick, tick.  Tick, tick. 

The man piped up, "You should really get some sleep. It's late now." He was a meager university student, and one of his friends has entrusted him to take care of their son while they went away on a business trip. This would be the last night, before they return from their trip. 

"I can't," said the eight-year-old boy. He was quiet child, and had been brought up in disciplinarian environment. This boy seemed very astute of his surroundings, but there was a sense of hidden frustration about him. 

"Why not?" asked the man. He knew the boy was probably thinking about his mother, but he was just trying to chitchat the child to sleep.

"It's only eight o'clock. It's still too early." There was a stutter in the boy's voice. 

The man chuckled inwardly at the child's attempt to make up an excuse for missing his mother. "But you can't know that," he explained diplomatically, "The clock is in the shadows. Neither of us can see the hands of the clock."

To his surprise, the boy started sobbing. Realizing he crossed a line, the man quickly tried to recover, "Hey, no need to get upset," he said, "you haven't done anything to offend me."

"It's not that."

"Then what's wrong?"

"I wasn't honest. I'm afraid I'm going to become a bad person."

The man was shocked at the boy's response. He tried to quickly rack up a response.

"Remember this," he said, "by the very fact that you have this very concern, I believe - no, I know for sure - that you will never, ever become a bad person."

"Really?"

"Really."

"Ok."

Soon the boy was asleep. Relieved that he dodged a bullet there, the man's thoughts then wandered - he wondered if the child somehow, perhaps unconsciously, sensed or even knew about his parents' predicament at the moment - that the boy's father was recently held in jail in another country, that the boy's mother tried desperately for a month before successfully pulling the father out.

There was no way to know what that boy was thinking. Sighing, the university student rolled over and slept.