A few days ago I got back to my garden route village home after a week’s holiday in Cape Town. I stayed with Nikola Tosic and his family in Sea Point. Nikola was recovering from an illness and I’m resting an ankle injury so we were both out of action from our usual training habits and similarly frustrated in sport senses. It was a great relaxing time hanging out, seeing friends, eating good food, going for coffees, watching movies and swimming a bit. I looked at lots of all sorts and read bits of things but felt like a writing holiday. I didn’t even write more than a few words in a note book. Blogging was out of the question. So this a bit of a longer post to get back into the routine.
After spending a day trying to ease back into my routine-lacking lifestyle I returned from a dinner and decided to watch a film. One became many and it ended up running like this…
Control
This is a beautiful black and white film about Joy Division’s vocalist and lyricist, Ian Curtis, his rise and demise. I like their old post-punk music and his unique awkward energy and lyics. It’s a mix of inspiration, with a fair share of bleakness and a very sad end.
Resident Evil Extinction
This is quite a nicely made surface treat. Milla Jovovich apparently dies and then comes back many times. The script is pretty lame and boring stock Sci-Fi good vs evil battle. It was mildly entertaining but I can’t think of much else to say about it. I can’t even remember if there was a plot or not.
Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead
This is odd and pretty fucked up. It starts off like a really bad porno, then evolves into a tale of two luckless brothers who plot to rob their parents’ shop to improve their cash flows and fuel their dream of buying their way out of misery. The biggest loser is bullied into doing the dirty work. He doesn’t have the balls so he gets some dodgy bloke to help and ends up getting his mother killed. From there it just gets worse and worse as they fall apart and bad luck keeps following them.
Atonement
Ian McEwan is one of my favourite writers so I’ve been keen to see this screen adaptation since release. By the time I got to this I was not tired enough to sleep but far from energised. Probably as a result I found it a bit boring to start with. On the crude level it was less dramatic than the previous two films so maybe that had something to do with why I was ready to sleep on it around half way. I continued when I woke up and it seemed fresher. Of the four films this one made the strongest impression and sticks in my mind. I’d like to see it again and get around to reading more than the first few pages of the book some time.
So that was the movie marathon. Since then I’ve not watched anything other than some bits on YouTube. Mainly I’ve been reading, writing and swimming a bit.
I told Nikola I watched four films in a row and he reckoned I’m depressed as I’m missing his mother’s cooking. I laughed. I’m not sure if he was being ironic or not. Depression is such a nonsense fashion that I think people are too preoccupied with these days. Indulging in a bit of melancholy can be quite fun. But his mother is a damn fine cook and I do miss her food and his family’s great hospitality.
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