Sona's Book and Picture Show

Blog about films, books, life, universe and everything.

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The Best of Buffy the beginning of 5th season: Buffy vs. Dracula, Real me, No Place like Home

...or the male population of Sunnydale:

Dawn makes an entrance and Harmony is adorable.

Do you give yourself any New Year’s resolutions? I usually don’t. It’s just a New Year’s glass of champagne for me. However, I have goals too. They just aren’t related to starting a new year. I want to get better in German and Swedish. And get a job. I know boring. But it turns out I don’t feel like I need anything else:-)

Christmas are over, New Year’s Eve too. When thinking about this I realized there’s no Christmas or New Year’s Eve episode in Buffy, at least I haven’t seen any. Well, Buffy manages without something like that, but I think It’s a pity considering that special episodes give shows special atmosphere.

The fifth season of Buffy begins with the episode named Buffy vs. Dracula, in which this legend enters Buffy’s little town. It was an entertaining episode and Dracula was powerful enough to mind-control even our mighty vampire slayer...:

...or the male population of Sunnydale:

Oh, Zander will always be my favourite kind of annoyance.

But the one of the biggest WTF of whole series was the very end of the episode.

When there suddenly appears an unexpected yet close family member, who hasn’t existed until the season 5, it usually means that the producers just don’t understand that the best time to end a show is when it’s still on top. I was actually worried that Buffy might have gotten to such a ridiculous phase and that the creators already exhausted all the good and SANE ideas.Nevertheless, from the first episode of the season 5 Dawn is here to stay. She’s 13 years old and she has a loooot on her mind.

Well, when I was her age, actually a little older, I had my own blog where I used to put all my god-awesome thoughts. Yes, online. Well, that’s one good thing about growing up at the end of 1990s for Dawn – her angsty bullshit was not out there, but in her diary instead. Now with Facebook and everything, the world has become a really embarrassing place.

While the episode Real me does a good job showing us the horrible-terrible-megawful relationship between Buffy and Dawn it absolutely doesn’t explain what the hell the kid’s doing there.

In another episode named No Place like Home Buffy gets into trance hoping to find out what magic makes her mom sick. She accidentally looks at the picture and sees this:

Buffy realizes that something’s wrong with Dawn and not in a sibling-rivalry/hatred kind of way… I’m not going to give spoilers, but the trance moment was very spooky and it’s really worth watching it.

However, what I want to point out and worship before I finish this post is Harmony. She’s not a new character but she hadn’t been extra entertaining before so I’m introducing her now. She went to the same high school with Buffy and used to be in a clique of popular. She wasn’t the most popular but certainly the dumbest. After the graduation Spike turned her to a vampire and it didn’t make her any smarter.

I suspect she somehow wants to prove herself so in Real me she decides to kill the slayer (= Buffy), which would certainly make her respected. She gets herself some minions and she’s amazing leader of the evil gang. Her plan consists of throwing a brick to the window of Buffy‘s house with this beautiful letter attached...

...to get her out and kill her as Harmony and her minions wait outside.

When Buffy and Harmony meets this conversation follows:

I wish there was more Harmony – the girl is just brilliant.

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The Best of Buffy season 4 3/3 Superstar and Restless

Today I prepared the best of Buffy, two episodes from 4th episode: one ridiculously hilarious and one deep and surreal.

Some minor spoilers ensue.

One of my personal best-ofs is Superstar. Since Buffy is a supernatural show with all the supernatural elements, not just vampires and their teeth, the writers had amazing freedom to do mostly anything. There were episodes about the alternate universe, body-swap, angst ridden wishes come true, universal amnesia, simply all kinds of shit. Superstar is another of those special episodes. Jonathan, one of minor characters that were lucky to get a name and some storyline once in a while, has always been a dweeby poor thing without any friends, with low self-esteem and the height less than 160 cm.

At the beginning of Superstar, Buffy, the almighty vampire slayer, finds a vampire nest and surprisingly claims that she and her Scooby gang need help. I yell at her: “Hey, Buffy, you’re a vampire slayer! What the hell?!” But she isn’t listening and visits this guy instead:

Jonathan grew up and even intro changed: it features many scenes with Jonathan fighting, deactivating a bomb or waving his fans after getting out of the limousine. I was puzzled at first: What is going on? Have I missed any of previous episodes? But you see, Joss Whedon (the producer of Buffy and now he does Marvel films) is not a fan of explanations. He just throws it all at you and you, all confused but intrigued, keep watching

So Jonathan is like a Superman, Ironman, James Bond and Vampire slayer together. He saved the world from ending (a lot), starred in Matrix, can sing splendidly, graduated medical school, gives expertly advices on romantic relationships, plays basketball like a pro, invented internet and has his own swimsuit calendar.

Which reminds me another Mr. Awesome:

However, Jonathan’s awesomeness comes at the expense of other characters, especially Buffy. She’s suddenly not so important, even though she’s a vampire slayer and even her mental capacities are surprisingly limited.

As a die-hard Twin Peaks fan I was smitten by the episode named Restless, which successfully takes many motives from TP. Firstly, we have dreams. In Twin Peaks dreams are encrypted solutions to Laura Palmer’s murder. In Restless, everybody falls asleep in front of TV and they have funny dreams. While most final episodes usually contain an ultimate badass fight with a major badass of the season, these matters were already solved before and Restless concentrated on foreshadowing and character analysis.

Willow’s dream includes a Greek poem, black kitten, school play, shenanigans. She, despite being/having been a notoriously shy person, is somehow starring in a high-school production of Death of a Salesman and Giles, the show director, gives the last instructions to the whole cast:

"…Now everyone that Willow's ever met is out in that audience, including all of us. That means we have to be perfect… Acting is about hiding."

Just the regular Death of a Salesman, what did you think?

Then all the sounds suddenly stop and the following silence and red drapes immediately reminds you of Twin Peaks, well, if you’re at least half of the fan I am.

Had to come.

Just like the shaking hands or the weird guy with the tray of cheese or the whole idea of something hunting you in your sleep.

I don’t want this post to get too long so I’m going to skip Zander and Giles, who both have their own dreads and fears reflected in their dreams. Also discussing Buffy’s dream would give you spoilers, so I’m just going to put this still here.

The fear of parents being always around…?

I absolutely love how the show can be both: mysterious and comical at the same time. Just like Twin Peaks – THE MOTHER OF TV AND CINEMA TODAY!

It’s so full of foreshadowing yet after watching you don’t feel much smarter because the writers hid all the clues pretty well. I’m in the middle of season 6 now and I’m starting understand what some of those things meant and it’s remarkable that the writers thought through what will happen in the future because to be honest some other TV shows feel like their writers just invent things "on Sunday evening" and the stories don’t make much sense.

Buffy did well, once again.

PS: It depends on how much time I'll have in the future, but I'm planning to rewatch Twin Peaks for gazillionth time, this time in German, so there's a post about it in near future too.

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Mean Girls (2004)

On Wednesdays we wear pink!

Yeah, I’m not gonna lie to you - this is predominantly girls’ stuff. However, it got beloved by the whole generation of guys, including me, who were teenagers when this film was in cinemas. If you don’t know this film, Mean Girls is a teenage comedy about fights for popularity among girls in an American high school. This description is true but it’s terribly unappealing. I even refused to see it when it was new exactly because it sounded like a complete waste of time and I gave it a try only a few years later. Then I got taken aback since it was so entertaining. Don’t get scared of the fact that the major character is played by Lindsay Lohan. She used to be awesome back in the days. No kidding.

Before you condemn this flick you need to know two more words. Tina Fey.

Ha ha ha. I swear I didn’t realize how funny it is before inserting the picture here.

Not sure if you know her. She’s very talented comedian, who wrote the script and then played Mrs./Ms. Norbury, the math teacher. She filled the film with all those funny lines that are still quoted even almost 10 years after the publishing. She is the main reason Mean Girls rule.

Another reason is the cast. As I said before Lindsay Lohan is brilliant. Well, in this film. Her character, Cady comes to high school for the first time as she has been homeschooled before because her family lived in Africa (her parents scientists blah-blah, now got jobs in US blah-blah) and according to Tina Fey Africa has no schools? Anyway, Cady starts the school now, for the first time in her life. Among the first friends she makes is Damien and Janis, the later played by Lizzy Caplan, weird goth with the right attitude.

Everybody should have their personal Janis.

Cady also meets the most popular girls called “Plastics”. Flawless Regina, evil high school queen, is played by Rachel McAdams, whose career got started by this flick and you've probably seen her in many many good films.

Regina for president!

Did you know her awesome hair was a wig?

Just like Amanda Seyfried. She’s excellent as dumb slutty Karen, a young woman of many talents. Unfortunately general knowledge isn't one of them.

Anyway, it film should compulsory because it teaches you so so much about life.

In reality Tina Fey is good friends with Amy Poehler, who plays Regina’s mother that longs for her lost youth.

By the way I love how fans adore Mean Girls’ quotes and they make all kind of crossover jokes like this one for example:

Or this:

Wow! This post’s gotten really big. Probably it’s time to finish now. I understand if somebody just doesn’t like films like this. Also I see that the story, setting and characters might seem completely unpleasant when you don’t know the film. However, this is a general problem with films, TV series or books. If you just briefly summarize the plot of anything, it mostly sounds boring and unoriginal. It is difficult to come up with something absolutely new. Maybe even impossible. So one shouldn’t pass judgments before seeing the execution, because that’s what makes it hit or shit. It doesn’t matter if you have the most original idea for a story if you can’t realize it. Realizing it is the tough part. Art is tough. That’s why van Gogh cut off his ear, right? It’s late and I’m starting to ramble. Enough.

The End.

PS: Merry Christmas or any other festival you have. Or just merry Monday, if you don't celebrate anything.

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The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared (2009)

Have I already told you about how I met Stalin? Seemed nice at first but then got pissed off and and spitted a lot. What about Truman? Good lad, we had a drink or too... I met Mao Ce-tung and we got along well together. Except for the political topics. I really dislike politics. I’ve always known that Kim Jong-il, that little boy who cried sitting in my lap once, would make it big. Yeah, I met him as well. Also de Gaulle, Churchill and general Franco, well actually everybody except for Adolf Hitler or Pippi Longstocking maybe. But only because I was in USA making coffee for the scientists, who were trying to invent an atomic bomb. Gave them some pointers too. I know I talk too much. I’ve always been too chatty… I can speak several languages too. I learnt some Spanish during blowing up things in Spanish civil war (they allowed me to wear my own sweater instead those annoying uniforms) and also Russian (a school named gulag)…

Does it sound at least a little bit believable?

I don’t know…

Does it sound like fun?

I think so!

WARNING! When reading this book you might experience some uncomfortable feelings caused by all the adventures Allan Karlsson, aged 100, experienced and you did not.

“Even if you’re well bundled up, it is bold to cross the Himalayas with only the help of a homemade map of the world and a compass. In fact, Allan could have walked north of the mountain chain and the Aral and Caspian Seas, but reality and the homemade map didn’t exactly match up.”

Because he really lived a rich life. Even his family was little quirky, so we know where did he get his impeccable personality.

“For Allan’s father, the whole thing had acquired a personal dimension since Lenin had forbidden all private ownership of land the very day after Allan’s father had purchased twelve square metres on which to grow Swedish strawberries. ‘The land didn’t cost more than four roubles, but they won’t get away with nationalizing my strawberry patch,’ wrote Allan’s father in his very last letter home, concluding: ‘Now it’s war!’ ”

So the whole book is like this. You read something like this and you don’t even know what to say. Swedish strawberries? What? Growing them in Russia? What? But then you go like awwww.

Some say that Allan Karlsson is like something between Forest Gump and the good soldier Schweik. Allan also seems/pretends to be a little dumb while being extremely cunning at various crucial points in his life when making the history and somehow everything works out well. Only he doesn’t run as much as Forest does. And his life philosophy seems very similar to Schweik’s “It has never happened before that the things wouldn’t result somehow” – my attempt to translate my favourite quote from Schweik and “Things are what they are, and whatever will be will be” – from The 100-Year-Old Man…

Allan lives through a lot of good things, lots of tragedies as well, but his life is never boring even after he gets old, which is the usual age for people to stop doing anything remotely entertaining and start spending all their time praying and discussing one’s diseases. Because of that Allan decides to climb out of the window (he lives on the ground floor) and leaves the retirement house without mentioning his plans to everyone. Not that he has any. To make it short soon he has pretty pissed off Swedish mafia at his heels, dead bodies are piling up but Allan is always fresh and well disposed.

“Bucket was the leader; he decided which newspaper kiosk was to be robbed of cigarettes next. He was the one who had chosen the name – The Violence, in English, not Swedish. And he was the one who unfortunately asked his girlfriend Isabella to sew the name of the motorcycle club onto ten newly stolen leather jackets. Isabella had never really learned to spell properly at school, not in Swedish, and certainly not in English. The result was that Isabella sewed The Violins on the jackets instead.”

If you’re looking for a good gift for your family/friends/partner, which you could also enjoy yourself – those kinds of gifts are always the best – pick The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared.

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Young Frankenstein (1974)

I decided to watch some good old Hollywood classic and the airlines offered Young Frankenstein. At first I thought that it was the 1930s horror but it’s soon evident that the film is a parody with very contemporary sense of humour. Right in the second scene we meet doctor Frankenstein.

Oh, wait it’s the guy from Willy Wonka memes.

Hairstyle, man-liner and everything, to keep it short and sweet, Gene Wilder dominates from the very first scene. He was the co-author of the script so that’s the reason his character suits him so well. Doctor Frankenstein (if you didn’t know the Frankenstein was the scientist, not the monster, which didn’t have any name at all) is the grandson of the famous lord Frankenstein, who tried to bring the dead bodies back to life but he’s a man of science and he doesn’t believe anything like that is possible. However, the executor of his grandfather’s last will comes to visit the young doctor, who has to travel to the old scary family mansion in Transylvania.

At the railway station we see Igor, a stereotypical butler from scary stories (parodized also in Terry Pratchett’s Carpe Jugulum and many more) and everything is just hilarious. I really didn’t expect it to be that good.

I want my personal Igor now!

As one would expect, young doctor Frankenstein finds the secret laboratory and decides to finish what his grandfather started.

I found an interesting information that the director Mel Brooks managed to find the old 1930s Frankenstein’s props and used them again.

The film is full of awesome gags that made me laugh out loud.

All the actors did a wonderful job: doctor Frankenstein, Igor, Inga – the sexy assistant with German accent or Elizabeth – Frankenstein’s perky fiancé. 

The classic that won't bore you even after so many years.

Gene Wilder, you’ll be missed!

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Carpe Jugulum (1998) - Terry Pratchett

"Oh we're always alright. You remember that. We happen to other people."

Yes, I've been reading Terry Pratchett again.

Carpe Jugulum is a book (and please don’t run away, even though this topic has been overused big time in past, say, 10 years) about vampires. And before saying  “Nah, thanks, I've had enough, I’m going to watch Breaking Bad, because there are no vampires in it at all” you need to know one thing – Terry Pratchett was THE BEST. Terry Pratchett started writing in 60s/70s so he learnt a thing or two about the job. In 2009 he was knighted by the British Queen. Stephanie Meyer wasn't. So, yeah, read Pratchett.

Somewhere in the Ramtop mountains, there is the great and famous but also small and cozy Kingdom of Lancre. As Discworld is the world of magic, there must be obviously witches in the kingdom. Probably the oldest and most powerful is Granny Esme Weatherwax (not that she has ever had children or grandchildren, “Granny” is her function in the witch coven). She has a sense of responsibility and great courage but she is also the most stubborn and proudest person that ever walked on the Earth Discworld.

“When people were in serious trouble they went to a witch. Sometimes, of course, to say, 'Please stop doing it.'”

You don’t want to cross her.

Another witch is Nanny Ogg, elderly lady, who’s been married around five times, had numerous children and grandchildren and is the matriarch of the Ogg clan. She’s always smiling, drinking, joking and dancing and you can see her in the picture above on the right. Despite of looking like a sweetheart, she can fight like a pro except she cheats a lot.

“This is Lancre we’re talkin’ about. If we was men, we’d be talking about layin’ down our lives for the country. As women, we can talk about laying down.”

The blond head on the right is Magrat, who got married to the King of Lancre and her first duty is to the country now. She has just given birth to a princess and there is a great celebration connected to baptizing the baby in their palace, where they've invited the whole kingdom (it's a really small kingdom, though) and some rulers from neighboring countries, including vampires from Uberwald.

The Magpyr family didn't only come to confirm the good relationship of both countries. They've come to rule. And they don’t take no for an answer. Everybody in the kingdom including Nanny Ogg is absolutely defenseless against their mind-control and Granny Weatherwax ran away convinced she’s too powerless. The only ones, who realize what’s happening is Agnes, a slightly overweight young witch with a split personality, and Mightily Oats, a young priest encountering a personal crisis of faith.

Pratchett, as always, doesn't only offer us a compelling story with mythological creatures. He comments on everything mildly related to the story and it always stems from the real world issues. Quite often he comments on religion:

'And our Wayne said they tries to turn folk against other religions,' Nanny Ogg went on. '... I mean, it's one thing saying you've got the best god, but sayin' it's the only real one is a bit of a cheek, in my opinion.’ 

Pictured Nanny Ogg - merely the best.

But it never sounds like mentoring.

He makes a good job creating not only likable heroes but also the villains with their everyday struggles and we can perfectly relate them with some minor changes maybe.

'Lady Strigoiul said her daughter has taken to calling herself Wendy,' said the Countess. 'I can't imagine why she'd want to, when Hieroglyphica is such a nice name for a girl. And if I was her mother I'd see to it that she at least wore a bit of eyeliner-'

The proof of Terry Pratchett’s talent is that his can add a little romance that doesn't feel cheesy at all. However, somehow Agnes with Vlad have greater chemistry than most writers could reach in… ever.

'You would, would you? I'd like to be constantly craving blood?' 'You constantly crave chocolate, don't you?' 'How dare you!' 'Blood tends to be low in carbohydrates. Your body will adapt. The pounds will just drop away...' 'That's sickening!' 'You'll have complete control over yourself . . .' 'I'm not listening!' 'All it takes is a little prick-' 'It's not going to be yours, mister!' 'Hah! Wonderful!' said Vlad and, dragging Agnes behind him, he leapt into the Lancre Gorge.

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Pippi Longstocking (1969 – 70)

Since I learn Swedish I decided to watch some Swedish film. I browsed IMDB list and guess what? All the films are about bad, worse or terrible people or terrible things happening to people. Don’t you believe me? Let’s have a look.

Okay number 1 is the story about Princess Diana, so I understand the absence of happy-end, but the rest WHY YOU NO LIKE LAUGH?!

But then I found a treasure.

I always enjoy returning to my childhood and to all the things I used to love,many of which I still have soft spot for. I still love Duck Tales – the theme song is unbeatable. All the singers today (like Rihanna and... eh... I don’t even know who else there is actually) can walk home because Duck Tales theme is the best, it’s as simple as that.

Anyway, one of the childhood loves was Pippi Longstocking. I had a nice book and I dreamed about having a horse and monkey and living in Villa Villekula and being as eccentric as Pippi. She was my feminist role-model. She was strong physically and mentally resistant too, as she didn't mind anybody thinking anything about her. She was independent and responsible enough to do all the household chores by herself.

Laundry. In the rain.

Watering the flowers. In the rain.

However, another thing one notices when watching an older film is how much has changed since it was new. I’m not talking only about CG effects, which are pretty hilarious though.

I don’t really watch stories for children anymore, but I don’t think they contain little girls flashing their panties in every other scene. I’m wondering have we become overly sensitive to stuff? Is Pippi a paradise series for pedophiles?

Anyway I watched a few episodes in Swedish (not that I understood much) but it gave me warm fuzzies. Not only it makes Sweden look like it has Mediterranean climate (what a stinky lie), but it has an important message about respecting oneself in the first place, which is something that even much older people struggle.

PS: If Pippi existed really, it would be Bjork. Just look, she's dancing with a mailbox!

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Clueless (1995)

Let’s get this classic started.

I decided to watch something that doesn’t require much thinking and I remembered that I planned to watch Clueless half a year ago. It’s 2013 and 90’s are starting to feel they happened like ages ago, which they actually did and I no longer look at that fashion with cringing but with some kind of appreciation one has for vintage. That’s right, 90’s are already vintage. God, we’re old.

See?

Clueless begins as a simplest film with braindead characters wearing clownish clothes and saying stupid stuff. Cher (Alicia Silverstone) is a beautiful but completely stupid teenage girl, whose only hobby is shopping. She befriends a new girl, Tai (Brittany Murphy), who immediately proclaims her love for drugs(!). Cher decides to give her a complete makeover - because she’s just too old to play with dolls so she plays with human beings - to become one of the most popular kids at the school (high school of course, all films like this are set in high school). Later poor Cher finds out that Tai has stolen her limelight and whole her life starts to crumble. However, even from the beginning one finds out that the whole film is so stupid it’s actually fun:-O

The film is inspired by Emma by Jane Austen, which I tried to read but failed completely. Maybe it was because the book is written in early 19. century and in English or because the dialogues are dreadfully boring.

The strategy of this film is that you don’t expect anything deep. If you’re in for a joke you’ll have tremendous fun with silly Cher and her silly friends.

Another reason to watch is young and likable Paul Rudd, who plays Josh, her intelligent something-like-stepbrother that goes to college and watch news.

One of many comical characters is the teacher played by Wallace Shawn. This guy is just so good that one day I’m gonna watch every film he was in. I’m sure I won’t regret it. He was also in The Curse of Jade Scorpion by Woody Allen.

Though I’ve just read quite praising reviews (some of them written by men) I’m not going to pretend that this is a film that will definitely appeal to everyone. Nevertheless, if you want to watch something silly that makes you laugh – this might be a good option.

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The Best of Buffy: Season 4 2/3: Hush and Who are you?

I'm gonna introduce you to the scariest Buffy episode I've seen so far. It would give you goosebumps no matter how many horrors you've seen in your life. If you haven't seen it I'm pretty sure you don't believe me. I understand: Buffy – what kind of name is that? But I swear that I've seen whole fourth season and no episode comes near Hush. In the first moment we can see our protagonists in a class where their teacher talks about communication. Later we see them having problems with their relationships and they also complain about missunderstandings and whatnot. Also, Buffy fells asleep during the class and has a strange dream. On the series dreams have a prophetic function – they are not as strange and memorable as Twin Peaks dreams but they're cool enough. So in Buffy's dream she sees a little girl singing an odd song:

Can't even shout, can't even cry The Gentlemen are coming by Looking in windows, knocking on doors They need to take seven and they might take yours Can't call to mom, can't say a word You're gonna die screaming but you won't be heard.

How awesome is that!

She confides in Giles, her mentor, but he has no idea what it means. At night magic happens (I'm not sure how to call the things that happen on this show) and we can see this:

Is someone stealing people's bad breath?

In the morning guys wake up and find out they can't talk. Buffy thinks she's sick, Willow thinks she's deaf and Xander thinks Spike did it, who reacts like this:

Buffy is still people's favourite series despite being old and long time over because its hilarious conversations, which are usually full of amazing jokes. However, this episode is different. As nobody can talk, the two thirds of it are basically a silent film. Before they were awkward and tried to hide behind babbling but now with the babbling made impossible the characters start to communicate their real attitudes and feelings with actions.

Apart from that they obviously need to stop the monsters responsible for this. There is some pretty intense nightime chasing and escape from floating Gentlemen:

during some creepy music while their victims can't scream or call for help.

BTW Willow meets her new romantic interest in this episode.

Another one of these everything-is-strange-and-wrong-but-mostly-strange episodes is Who are you. There is a character that was introduced in previous season but I find this episode to be the best moment to introduce her. There is another vampire slayer – Faith. While Buffy is a good girl, who fights evil and tries to make the world a better place, Faith is a provocative and dangerous girl, who seems to have no conscience about her mistakes. Also, she's fun.

So this crazy Faith is pissed at Buffy because she's a villain now and every villain is pissed at her because she's the protagonist. Faith has been a bad bad girl lately and there are guys from The Slayer Council on her tail wanting to put her in a prison because she misbehaved big time. So she finds a way to kill two birds with one stone. She gets revenge on Buffy and avoids prison using a magic device on Buffy that exchanges their bodies.

Buffy is now in Faith's body and she's being deported to prison, while Faith enjoys Buffy's life, which full of freedom, friends and relative normalcy. See, Faith has been a renegade loner and she never lead a normal life nor she had any experience with belonging anywhere. At first she has blast:

Faith always loved mocking Buffy about being a good girl, so when she takes her body, naturally she must have some fun with it. Therefore, she teases our poor Spike, who doesn't know anything about the body exchange.

Spike: You know why I really hate you, Summers?

Faith (in Buffy’s body):‘Cause I’m a stuck-up tight-ass with no sense of fun?

Spike: Well, yeah, that covers a lot of it.

At the end we see the two girls meet and fight this out. While Faith has done some terrible things in her past and seemed to be indifferent about them, now we're learning she mightn't be completely okay abour the mess she's made. Notice that this is Faith in Buffy's body hitting and screaming at her own face.

Faith's meltdown is a sight to remember.

The episode end with Buffy discovering the extent of mess Faith made and Faith leaving the town as a stowaway in a wagon of a freighttrain or something looking like this:

Once again, one of amazingly not only written, but also delivered episodes because one has to give credit to both actresses for imitating the character of each other so well.

BTW Willow has a witchgasm in this episode. You just need to see it.

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Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

One of the Jim Carrey's good ones.

I've seen Ace Ventura, Dumb and Dumber and The Mask. While they aren't completely bad, unless one is a child, they might not win Jim Carrey a lot of respect and credit for his acting skills. Sadly when I hear the name Jim Carrey many people immediately think of these... eh... simple films. The thing is he has some good ones too. Maybe I'm gonna start a new project on my blog: The good films of Jim Carrey.

One of them is Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind:

Considering that it is a drama about a relationship, it is actually good. Even awesome. I'm not a fan of romance and I don't watch nor read anything like that at all. However, if you've seen this film, you will probably agree with me that a love story can be engaging and non-sentimental.

For those who haven't seen it – we have a protagonist named Joel (Jim Carrey), who met strange but endearing Clementine (Kate Winslet). The first time I saw her in the film I fell in love with her and her hair and everything about her. I don't like tasteless experiments and attention grabbing fashion choices but there's something that melts my heart when I see Clementine. She steals a lot of scenes for herself.

It seems that she and Joel obviously fell in love and are about to start a relationship,but waaait. 18 minutes into the film there are suddenly opening credits and Joel is crying. When he gets home, he takes an unknown pill and fall into a some kind of trance. Some guys arrive into his flat, including Frodo Baggins and Kirsten Dunst, and strangely mixed but still easily comprehensible collage of scenes of their lives begins (or Joel's live, because even though Clementine is a big part of the film, she's still a little mysterious and most of the time we don't know what's on her mind despite of her constantly talking). I love how the whole story is chopped and shuffled and the one thing that enables you orientation is Clementine's haircolour.

What we learn during following scenes is the fact that Joel decided to erase his memories of Clementine and their relationship. During the erasing process he experiences many scenes from various phases of their relationship in non-chronological order and the guys on special effects team had a show-off party or something because it looks super. Pat-pat on your shoulder. I cannot describe it, one needs to see it themselves. I also love the camera work. It's shaky, which creates documentary atmosphere, and differentiates it from big fake hollywood blockbusters.

I'm wondering if I'm supposed to write about the message of the film. Or does it make any sense looking for any messages in stories in general? Everybody finds their own. For me the message of the film is that we should sort our own shit by ourselves and just live with it. The idea of erasing memories out of one's mind might be quite cowardly perhaps, I don't know. Doesn't matter how much we don't like them they are still a part of who we are and they prevent us from making the same mistakes again. What do you think?

[sonaoclock]

The Best of Buffy Season 4 (Part 1): Freshman and Something Blue

Is German completely impossible or what? I was quite easily passing through several lessons when suddenly... Accusative! Dative! Possessive pronouns! What the hell? Tell me, am I stupid or is German grammar absolutely impossible to learn? I'm Slovak and I managed to learn English with all its articles (we have none), perfects (we have none) and neanderthal word order, but this German... I remember things from several years at school but the inflections will probably make it impossible for me to be able to speak this language ever. And should I even begin with the der-die-das business? It's hard. And it's no French when it comes to sex-appeal either, if you want me to be honest.So I watched some Buffy to relax a little. I was rewarded by one of the best one-episode villains ever (ooops, spoiler) in an episode called Freshman. Meet Sunday, a vampire.

I love old fashion, don't you? Not only she's visually memorable, she has plenty attitude and she's no sweetheart at all. In other words: pure awesomeness. She definitely deserved more episodes than one.

I tend to complain a lot about cardboard villains with no personality and horribly forgettable lines, so I feel in love with Sunday instantly. She has amazing lines and every single one has a joke in it and that's all I want: ENTERTAIN ME.Sunday likes to kidnap freshmen, turn them to vampires and steal their stuff. While rummaging through their things and looking for something useful she never forgets to comment on how pretentious, oh-so-artistic and completely unoriginal they are.

BTW Buffy made it to the university. Thank god, considering that Sarah Michelle Gellar was around 25 then. Isn't it hilarious when actors around that age play 18 year-olds? Nevertheless, in Buffy it's not that obvious  thank god. Buffy is new, disorientated and doesn't knows almost anyone, so she immediately gets depressed from being nobody. On top of it she meets Sunday, who kicks her ass. Then Buffy does the most sensible thing – seeks help. However, her watcher, who used to be librarian is now unemployed but he's having time of his life with a lady friend.

Buffy's smartypants attitude can be really annoying sometimes, but this line was delivered perfectly. Shame on you, Giles for not helping her! Sad, lonely and beaten Buffy goes to the pub to drown her sorrows, where she meets Xander, who's having the best moment on the show. He's being extremely supportive and... yes a little horny like always. But still supportive, observe:

Another episode worth watching and rewatching is Something Blue. Scooby gang holds captive dangerous evil vampire Spike in Giles's bathroom since they have no fancy gothic cellar. I know it's really hard to trust that they are the good ones after this statement, but they are.

That cup is the cherry on top of the whole episode

Willow is extremely depressed about her love life and she makes a spell that should make the pain go away. When the feelings don't change, she thinks like she's loosing her magic powers, however, she actually makes things happen without knowing it. She says things about Giles and Xander and they immediately became true and then she declares that Buffy doesn't care about her and she's more interested in hanging out with Spike “so why don't they marry each other?”.

And this is how the producers give us the taste of the best couple on the show. You see being a TV show producer is all about the art of not giving the audience what they'd like to see without pissing them off too much. Because they can't give us what we want – we would be happy for ten minutes and then stop watching because happiness is boring, right? We want the promise of something more happening in next episodes and that's what keeps us watching. We want to be teased don't we?

Stride of pride today, walk of shame tomorrow.

Bonus at the end: Some of the students hang this banner in one of the university corridors:

Next time I'm thinking... Eternal Sunshine of Spotless Mind?

[sonaoclock]

The Graduate (1967)

It's like I was playing some kind of game, but the rules don't make any sense to me. They're being made up by all the wrong people. I mean no one makes them up. They seem to make themselves up.

How weird I haven't blogged about this one considering it describes the feelings of young people, me including, very well. I don't know about you, but I'm the graduate, I'm the guy. However, not only we're having a personal crisis, there is an economical crisis as well. Some compare the generation of young people today to the “lost generation”, which were originally soldiers that came back home after the Second World War ended and felt like they didn't fit in. Thank god we don't have any war here where I'm from but we are lost in an economical sense since it's quite difficult for us to find a job because we don't have the experience, which we can't get because they won't hire us. And in such a situation a few of us dares to dream about an ideal job and what we want to do with our lives. Our future looks like the opening scene of The Graduate:

There's some great imagery involved.

Benjamin was Dustin Hoffman's first starring lead and I can't imagine anyone else. He was sooo young! And everything was so orange back then! That's one of the things I love about the old films – the colour scheme creates specific atmosphere.

At home there's a big party for Benjamin to celebrate his graduation but he's not really into it. He moves among all the people that keep congratulating him and all the time his head is taking up most of the frame, which makes us feel the claustrophobia Ben feels. When one of the guests asks about his plans he simply answers: “I was just going upstairs.” The conversation with his father in the famous aquarium scene speaks volumes too.

Since having a personal crisis about one's future is simply not enough, our Benjamin catches eye of Mrs Robinson. She kind of forces him to drive her home, enter her house and generally doesn't take as an answer.

Did I mention that this lady rocks? I love how they start laughing, because they can't help it. It's like watching the best blooper, which director decided to keep in the film.And so Ben is tangled in an affair with an older woman, to who he plays second fiddle. Young Dustin Hoffman was excellent choice for the role. I love how he stutters, how insecure and helpless he is, especially in comparison with Mrs Robinson.In second half of the film he seems to have found a goal for is life, but is that so?

Most parodied scene in history of whole cinematography. It is quite difficult to talk about a film without actually spoiling anything in case you haven't watched it yet. Yes, it happens. I haven't seen Godfather for example. There it is. I hope we can still be friends:-)

[sonaoclock]

Why should Napoleon Dynamite (2004) be the man of your dreams (or your rolemodel)?

I've seen Napoleon Dynamite twice, but you can bet your lunch that it's worth it. If you've seen it already, watch again. If you haven't, what are you waiting for? When I came across this film for the first time I was like: “Napoleon Dynamite. Sounds weird, but fun.” Then I googled it and saw this guy:

I fell in love.There are various opinions about the film. There are fans, who love it, and then there are people, who don't find the jokes funny and complain about the lack of action. If you're a serious person or if you need a major conflict that will get solved by the end of a story, this might not the film for you.Everybody else this way.And turn this music on.. please.

Not only Napoleon is naturally one of a kind with his looks, he has many great characteristics, which I'm going to focus on?Napoleon Dynamite is a real name of an American high-school student, who's living with his grandma. As a pet they have a llama, which Napoleon takes care of when his grandma is in the hospital for most of the story. Even if he doesn't want to. 

1. Napoleon is responsible and reliable. Napoleon is the most socially retarded awkward character there have ever been, yet somehow he's still a charmer. Different from those male romantic leads, which are so popular these days. Better. in some popular phenomenons today. Ehm, Edward Cullen, ehm, Christian Grey. Both of these characters are basically badlyatrociously written manipulators and abusers that know everything better than everybody else because! Even though, Napoleon is awkward like hell and sometimes completely oblivious he's still much smarter than the two above mentioned.

Okay, this is supposed to be a joke but he's so right! We do!

2. Napoleon understand the other gender. The main characters from Twilight and Fifty Shades of Grey have basically nothing to do except stalkinghanging out with their girlfriends all, really ALL THE TIME. Napoleon Dynamite has hobbies. He has imagination and likes to draw.

He has moves you can only dream of.

3. Napoleon has a life. Even though many misunderstand Napoleon and some even bully him, he doesn't become a broody, mopey pain in the ass and after a moment he actually copes with others not being helpful and he helps himself.

4. Napoleon just deals with it. When a new student arrives Napoleon befriends him immediately and then supports him in school elections doing everything possible without absolutely any jealousy nor selfish reasons.

5. Napoleon is the best friend you can have.Also, he has a friend. However, he's not the only gem in the family. This is his thirty year old brother:

A strýka vám nechám ako prekvapenie... Actually the whole town is totally quirky. As a friend of mine once put it, you just don't know if the story is set in early 90s or if their town is really behind the times. This film is one of my top ten. It makes one roar with laughter and scream „You go, Napoleon!“, because he's the character one just can't help but sympathize with. Not many films have such likable characters you remember even after years. It is cult flick but don't let the fact that hipsters quote it discourage you. PS:

[sonaoclock]

The Best of Buffy Season 3 (Part 2): Wish and Doppelgangland

I've seen four seasons of Buffy so far and The Wish episode is probably the one I liked the most. I like what if ponderings and alternative universes so this episode hit the exactly right spot. When rewatching it I realized how many hints about the further development are there. It's like whole Buffy was made for watching and rewatching and discovering something new. Let's watch The Wish then and pay attention.

Without revealing any spoilers I'll only tell you the necessary. The episode starts with the consequences of one little misplaced kiss. Cordelia is mad for being a social pariah and concludes that everything wrong in her life is somehow Buffy's doing. She complains to her new classmate Anya: “I wish Buffy Summers had never come to Sunnydale.”

Also Anya is not a normal human. She is an ugly fairy godmother that grants wishes.

Cordelia then finds herself alone in suddenly devastated schoolyard and discovers that the school is half empty because the rest of the kids have been gradually eaten by vampires. See, in this new universe Buffy didn't arrive to the town and therefore didn't stop the vampire boss at the end of the first season. Our Scooby gang pictured bellow doesn't exist.

Willow and Xander are dead and Cordelia is starting to second thoughts about her wish. Giles, the librarian, has recruited some minor characters we know from previous episodes to help fighting against vampires, who took over the city. On her way home Cordelia feels quite uneasy walking home. She gets even uneasier after bumping into these two.

This was the moment I knew for sure that the episode would be epic. Xander and Willow are vampires now! Awesome! All the relationships – love, friendships, hatred – simply never happened. How intriguing is watching all these characters interact in this bizarre wishverse. And die. Yes, there will be deaths. I'm not going to say anything more only this: I had to rewatch the end of this episode 5 times, because it was just that good.

Fortunately, there's another episode that partially recycles the idea of alternate universes and also connects the wishverse (the universe Cordelia wished for) with the real world. It's Doppelgängland. Everything has been back to normal ( as if one can call Sunnydale normal) at the end of The Wish (that's not a spoiler right? Because you always know thing will be well again.) but now vampire Willow is back.

Thank god.

Sure she's pretentious as hell but it's fun seeing her taking matters into her own hands and trying to turn Sunnydale into the vampire town it used to be during "The Wish" episode. It takes a while until her friends realize she's not the Willow they know. I don't understand why, just compare these two:

And yes, both Willows will face each other. And there is some nice forshadowing too. This episode is all about Willow, which is a nice change since usually everything is about Buffy. I get it – the title, but still. Buffy kicks ass like no one but Willow has better lines.

And the best clothes.

Anyway, if you don't want to watch 7 seasons of Buffy, watch at least the episodes I highlighted in my two posts. You won't be disappointed

[sonaoclock]

Terry Pratchett – Reaper Man 1991

rsienicki

Život je zvyk, kterého se člověk velice težko zbavuje.

Third time the charm. Or was it fourth? Or fifth? I don't even know how many time I've read Terry Pratchett's Reaper Man. It's a classic everybody seems to love. Everybody meaning Terry Pratchett's fans.

Because listen: Death gets fired. In times of economical crisis I believe I'm not the only one who can relate. These bad news are brought to him by auditors – strange entities (yes, Pratchett's world is full of entities) that worship order and despise all chaos, therefore they like mankind just as much as you like mold in your bathroom. Since the whole story is about life, death and afterlife (and another topics, which I'm not going to spoil for you) in the beginning there's nice comparison of life of the longest living trees and insect with 1 day life span, which very closely resemble certain naked ape's worldview:

The shortest-lived creatures on the Disc were mayflies, which barely make it through twenty-four hours. Two of the oldest zigzagged aimlessly over the waters of a trout stream, discussing history with some younger members of the evening hatching. 'You don't get the kind of sun now that you used to get, ' said one of them. 'You're right there. We had proper sun in the good old hours. It were all yellow. None of this red stuff.' 'It were higher, too.' 'It was. You're right.' 'And nymphs and larvae showed you a bit of respect.'

Terry Pratchett is quite old (so old that he was already old twenty years ago when this book was published) so writing about older generation in this way makes him the coolest person ever.

Also I'm struggling with myself to choose some good quotations that wouldn't be too long to put you off. For example the whole part with mayflies was amazing but can I paste here whole 3 pages? Will you read it? Won't I get to prison for breaking copyright law?

Death's layoff has great consequences simply because everybody and everything dies and the energy keeps hanging around for Death isn't there to guide them to afterlife:

The word he (wizard Ridcully) uttered was unfamiliar to those wizards who had not had his robust country upbringing and knew nothing of the finer points of animal husbandry. But it plopped into existence a few inches from his face; it was fat, round, black and glossy, with horrible eyebrows.

Trust Terry Pratchett to make it as weird as possible but still keep some sense in it. Not only words are alive, though. One of the victims of the postmortal service breakdown is Windle Poons, an unbelievably old wizard, who comes back as a zombie ans after some priceless shenanigans with his now ex-colleagues from the Unseen university:

'Hang on, though,' said the Bursar, who had managed to catch up with events.'Why should that worry us? We don't have anything to fear from the dead, do we? After all, they're just people who are dead. They're just ordinary people. People like us.'

The wizards thought about this. They looked at one another. They started to shout, all at once.

So Windle becides to enter the Fresh Start Club.

Not to give you any more spoilers I'll just tell you that the story is set in Ankh-Morpork – a large city, which suspiciously reminds other cosmopolitan city in UK.

Ankh-Morpork has always had a fine tradition of welcoming people of all races, colours and shapes, if they have money to spend and a return ticket.

Terry Pratchett's won't spare the religion either:

'Hyperopia, goddess of shoes, thinks that Sandelfon, god of corridors, is the long-lost twin brother of Grune, god of unseasonal fruit. Who put the goat in the bed of Offler, the Crocodile God? Is Offler forging an alliance with Seven-handed Sek? Meanwhile, Hoki the Jokester is up to his old tricks -'

If you haven't just died of laughter you aren't human.

These are just some of the jokes in Reaper Man, which is full of hilarity but also other interesting topics worth thinking about.

Another must read book.

[sonaoclock]

The Best of Buffy Season 3 (Part 1): Band Candy and Lovers Walk

Buffy - "She saw these scores and her head spun around and exploded."

Giles - "I've been on the Hellmouth too long. That was metaphorical, yes?"

As I mentioned in my previous post about Buffy, the show is getting better with each season. In season 2 I highlighted 2 episodes, now I'm going to highlight 4. Not because only 4 of 22 were good but because they were extra special mega awesome fun.

I like when there's something wrong and characters are behaving differently than usually. This happened in Halloween, Becoming II (both season 2), Band Candy and Lovers Walk.  

In Band Candy Giles's old vengeance is coming back to Sunnydale and by means of magic candy turns every adult to a teenager. Well, not physically, but mentally and emotionally. Giles, Buffy's watcher, and Buffy's mom, both in their forties, start dating an behaving like this.

Buffy hates it. Giles hates that Buffy hates it. This happens:

Buffy's the best.

Their school principal, who's hates everything and everybody, has also had a piece of magic candy:

Everybody was an idiot, which is generally a very good plot device. Nobody wants to watch smart people doing smart things and frown very seriously all the time. This is a genuine feel good episode.

Another episode of this kind is Lovers Walk. To avoid the spoilers I'm not gonna spoil the beans about whose relationship ended, got strong or started, just in case you were one of the under the rock living people (just like me), who haven't yet watched Buffy. In third season there's no Spike – except for this episode and as I mentioned before his sole presence makes everything butterflies and rainbows – granted, rainbows and black unicorns, but that's quite alright. Now he returned to Sunnydale to get magical help from the Scooby gang (read Buffy and guys). Heartbroken and drunken Spike complains about batshit insane Drusilla leaving him for a fungus demon (“Do you have any idea how ugly they are?”) and one can't help but feel for him. He's looking for Buffy at her home, but she isn't there so he confides in her mom.

And then he asks her for cocoa and marshmallows. For reals!

BTW Angel is good again in this episode. During the show he's good then bad, good and bad again – one can't keep track. Just in case you wanted to know what's his trigger to become evil, it's a moment of happiness. That's the code for orgasm. See, I told you Buffy was pure hilarity.

Later Spike captures and threatens poor Willow that he'll kill her but soon he has a meltdown and she's confusedly consoles him. The beginning of their friendship is a complete awfest.

Scooby gang does what they can including breaking into a magic shop (yes, there are places like magic shops in Buffy's world) and even though the plan doesn't work, our brave Spike never loses his heart. He has a plan B.

[sonaoclock]

Arthur Conan Doyle – The Hound of the Baskervilles 1902

“The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observes.”

I've just finished The Hound of the Baskervilles and I liked it but I can tell you now that it is a perfect reading for autumn/winter evenings. The atmosphere of dark nights at the Devonshire moors full of mysterious howling is something that might make the cold weather and long darkness much more bearable for you.

Right from the beginning Doyle shows us Sherlock's (yes, there's Sherlock) self-confident and even haughtiness he's famous for. After his colleague Dr. Watson share his theory about an unknown man, who has forgotten his cane at their office, Holmes says:

"Really, Watson, you excel yourself," said Holmes, pushing back his chair and lighting a cigarette. "I am bound to say that in all the accounts which you have been so good as to give of my own small achievements you have habitually underrated your own abilities. It may be that you are not yourself luminous, but you are a conductor of light. Some people without possessing genius have a remarkable power of stimulating it. I confess, my dear fellow, that I am very much in your debt."

Is this a compliment or an insult? I can't even tell. Well done, Mr. Holmes, well done.

Then there comes the owner of the cane (he's a doctor) and he's asking for help for young Henry Baskerville, who inherited the mansion in Devonshire from his uncle, who... /spoiler/ has just inexplicably died there. After the cane-guy reads Holmes an old manuscript about a legend of evil Hugo Baskerville and a spectral hound, Homes is naturally intrigued and sends Dr. Watson to Devonshire mansion promising he'll come later. He sends him alone to this place:

Tsk, tsk, Holmes.

The mansion is surrounded by vast moors that swallow every thing that wanders into it and at night the residents hear desperate howls of the “huge black creature, with its flaming jaws and blazing eyes“.

So much for the plot. In the book I noticed some historical evidence of the post-victorian mentality, which might seem completelly ridiculous today but it all was a real deal in 1902.

Doyle and women: I started to describe the role of the female characters in the novel but then I realized that would be full of major spoilers so the only thing I'm gonna tell you is that... well, there's definitely a victorian heritage problem here.

Doyle and “science”: Phrenology is a serious thing here.

“You interest me very much, Mr. Holmes. I had hardly expected so dolichocephalic a skull or such well-marked supra-orbital development. Would you have any objection to my running my finger along your parietal fissure? A cast of your skull, sir, until the original is available, would be an ornament to any anthropological museum.”

Pssst, I think somebody's hitting on you, Sherlock.

Easy-peasy: bigger head means bigger brain and, therefore, intelligence. Everybody knows that scientific research centres are full of elephants, doeglings and those... whatitsnames... the big fish... whales! Sona, this is your day. It's the big head of yours, that's what it is! One needs to praise themselves if there's no other way.

And phrenology nowadays.

I read The Hound in English and the old language was a little difficult for me sometimes but I generally understood. I'm not going to pretend I understand every Holmes's argument and neither the motive for the murders seems really plausible but if you think something else, feel free to share. The atmosphere is created masterfully and I'm considering watching a film adaptation at some point later.