MirrorMask

I watched MirrorMask on Valentine's day - rather appropriate considering one of the main characters is named Valentine. :P A beautifully artistic, kindof trippy in an Alice In Wonderland kind of way. It's a collaboration between Neil Gaiman, Dave McKean and Jim Henson. The story is about a girl whose parents run a circus. She hates her life and spends her free time drawing and making up fanciful stories. She gets into a fight with her mom, who then falls ill. After visiting her one night, she falls asleep and seems to be transported to a world where everyone wears masks. The world is a compilation of all the drawings and creations she's ever dreamed up. Throughout her journey, she realizes that a darker, more vicious version of her has stolen her place in the real world. Throughout her adventures, she meets many of her creations, the good and the very very bad. The movie is filled with incredible creatures. My favorites were the creepy, slightly evil sphinxes.

they like to eat books

King's Speech

Saturday night on February 12th, I saw The King's Speech. It has an amazing cast: Colin Firth as Bertie aka King George VI (Mr. Darcy from the BBC Pride & Prejudice), Helena Bonham Carter as Queen Elizabeth (Bellatrix in Harry Potter and Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd), Geoffrey Rush as Lionel Logue the speech therapist (Captain Barbossa in Pirates of the Caribbean), Jennifer Ehle as Mrs. Logue (Elizabeth Bennett from the BBC Pride & Prejudice), Michael Gambon as King George V (Dumbledore in Harry Potter), Guy Pearce as King Edward VIII (Count Mondego in The Count of Monte Cristo), and Timothy Spall as Winston Churchill (Wormtail in Harry Potter and countless other roles in my favorite movies). The reason why I listed all those actors is because they're wonderful actors from some of my very favorite movies. And King's Speech was also an amazing film. The first part builds up a lot of pressure and then you're taken completely off-guard by Logue's humor. Helena Bonham Carter is amazing as the queen; she is usually cast as a super crazy lady (ex: Bellatrix, the Red Queen, Mrs. Lovett) so this was a much different role for her.

The film as a whole was very well done - the cinematography and script were presented in such a way that it emphasized the little comedic moments in a time of great stress and seriousness. You could also see very clearly the contrast of English class and how each of them attempts to alleviate the pressures of responsibility and respectability.

It was rated R, not for sexuality or violence, but for language. Which was hilarious. The king stammers, a huge problem when you are an important public figure. In his therapy sessions, he discovers that he doesn't stammer when he is angry and/or swearing, so he goes on a cussing rampage. It's kindof refreshing for him (just going off and not having to be restrained to respectability) and for the viewer (seeing him let go of his tension and gain confidence).

It's also a great glimpse into history. King George V dies, and Bertie's brother is next in line, but he marries a divorced woman and steps down. This leaves Bertie to become the next King - right before World War II. He is thrown into the responsibility of kingship with a serious speech impediment. It's a really inspiring and heartwarming movie. I love the dry British humor and the personal look at history.

Also, I still love Colin Firth.

On Dreams and Sleep Deprivation

Haven't been sleeping well for the past couple of weeks. Having young, spunky roommates who like to party late, get up early for jobs, and can still get by on a few hours of sleep can do that to ya. But other than being really anxious and fatigued, I've gotten some crazy dreams.

I was in our old house in Plymouth. We were in my parents' bedroom packing everything up to move. I picked up a broken umbrella. i was handing it to my dad when the umbrella got struck by lightning. Apparently this is how zombies are made. So, zombies started crawling all over our house and swarming us. But the zombies were celebrities and characters from movies. Either way, they still wanted our brains. So, my dad was being epic and using an ax to chop down any that came in the room. My mom had a rifle, Sasha had a pistol, and Lise had a mini chainsaw. But I couldn't find a weapon. After I tried in vain to keep the doors and windows closed, I found the broken umbrella again. I picked it up and tried stabbing the closest zombie. Amazingly, all the zombies collapsed and disintegrated. It sounds like a fast and unimpressive dream, but I was terrified for what seemed like hours as we struggled to keep from being brain-burritos.

The second dream was even more terrifying. I was walking around some sort of dance studio with two other girls. At the end of a hallway was this creepy little girl in a blue frilly dress, collapsed on the floor, the dress billowing out around her. We felt funny leaving her all alone in the studio. As we approached, her eyes unfocused, her smile got toothy and lopsided, and she ripped off the dress to reveal a tattered, yellowed dress and two saw-like appendages for arms. She used them like a pair of insect jaws, and the sawblade-like teeth were like shark teeth, jagged and overlapping. So she started running at us and we screamed and ran around the studio. One of my friends got sliced by one of her "arms," and my friend's arm started getting similar spines coming out of her arm. We all ran into a dance classroom and shut the doors. The injured girl started shaking and screaming and transforming. I struggled to hold the door closed, but the creepy jaw-armed girl was so much stronger (even though she didn't have hands...?). As she started chopping at the door, one of my fingers got cut off and my arm burned as it started changing. I struggled to keep her out, but the pain got so overwhelming that I stumbled back. I battled her with my one saw-arm and somehow got her to fall. As she/it hissed and spat, I pinned her down with my foot and tried to chop her head off with my arm. It only left little dents in her scaly skin. I fainted before I saw any other effect. When I came to, my friends and my arm were normal again and the saw-armed creature was grey and dead.

Freaky stuff.