To Boldly Go Where Ollie Hasn't Gone Before

Star Trek, Dir. J. J. Abrams, 2009
I saw this with my film club (Kevin, desayuno_ingles, sushidog) and Victor from Big Brother 5. From our seats a few rows behind Victor, I noticed he was as horrified as me by the constant conversation and noise in the cinema. That's because most people couldn't contain themselves with the action and humor on screen, which I guess is a testament to the film's success. I kept thinking "oh, I wonder what will happen in next week's episode", to then be reminded that all this character introduction and set up will only be continued next year. Spock stole all the scenes, Simon Pegg had bad timing, and Kirk was a mixture of Luke Skywalker, Luke Perry 90210 and a punch bag. The action scenes were brilliant and the special effects (black holes, planets, space ships) were frequently gorgeous to watch. While you wait for the sequel, why not watch Star Trek: Phase II (a.k.a. the future of television).



The Innocents, Dir. Jack Clayton, 1961
Why haven't I seen this before? Why, why, why? And why did I watch this by myself at night? Spooky mansions, creepy children, a sexually repressed governess and a screenplay by Truman Capote that lays heavy into the narrow-minded religious mind and the horrors that can lurk in the corner of our eyes - there's something here for everyone. It's like the long lost sibling to The Haunting, from 1963. It's based on Henry James' classic The Turn of the Screw, brought to life through beautiful black & white cinematography. If ghosts do exist then I have no doubt they look and behave exactly like the ones in this film.




Suspiria, Dir. Dario Argento, 1977
A good example of a beautiful failure. It's a visual feast for the eyes, with some crazy ass set design that made me grateful I hadn't smoked a joint before watching it. I could practically feel the walls that made up the strange dance school where things go chop-chop in the night pulsing with evil. The story, editing and acting, however, were a bit pants. Its influence on popular culture is noticeable too; I can see where Quentin Tarantino and Pedro Almodovar got some of their inspiration, as well as the Hostel films and even the composer for the Harry Potter soundtrack. Kevin gave up on it after ten minutes because of the bad dubbing.

Gobsmacked

As seen on madebrazilfeed:

The Brazilian Federal government released yesterday in Brasília the Plano Nacional de Promoção da Cidadania e Direitos Humanos de LGBT, a groundbreaking national plan to promote rights of gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transsexuals. The plan is composed of 51 key policies developed in June of 2008 at the National LGBT Conference. It includes:

• the legalization of adoption rights by homosexual couples, and the equality of civil rights of homosexual couples.
• the development of a sexual diversity educational program in the curriculum of military and police officers.
• the revision of the current restriction for homosexuals to donate blood.
• the right to automatically change name and sex without having to file a lawsuit in the case of transsexuals.
• rating television programming which contains homophobic content as inappropriate for children and adolescents.
• adding homosexual families as a theme to educational books.

The plan may also play an important role in the legalization of gay civil unions on a federal level, and in the approval of the law which criminalizes homophobic acts.

I never thought I'd see the day when Kevin and I would be able to live in Brasil without any legal worries! I really hope this goes through; it will give us more options for the future.