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Movies

Jul 25
0

LUCY one of the best films ever made, no I am not kidding.

By | Life, Movies, Technology or Nerd Central, Zen | One Comment

I just went to see Luc Besson’s recent masterpiece, Lucy. I am still thinking about everything that happened in this movie. This is akin to how I felt when I left the Matrix for the first time. Or even one of my all time favorite movies, also by Luc Besson, The Fifth Element. Luc has an understanding of the universe and life that I aspire to reach. This movie shows the beauty of humanity and what we are missing in ourselves but what we ultimately can reach and achieve. I love that he consistently writes very strong female characters who, in the end, end up saving us all. As he says in this movie, “Only ignorance brings destruction. Not knowledge.” This is a film that makes you think for the entire film and keep thinking afterward. Go, see this film, and experience it for yourself.

I just watched the movie for the second time this weekend. It was even better the second time. I could sincerely watch this movie over and over and over again. The principals in this movie and the data thrown at you isn’t just entertainment, it is enlightenment.

Dec 12
0

Hardcore Zen and Brad Warner

By | Life, Movies, Zen | 4 Comments

Last Friday I was in Ojai for the screening of a documentary about Brad Warner and his Zen teaching.

I have read Hardcore Zen by Brad and I am almost done with his second book., “Sit Down and Shut Up. Punk Rock Commentaries on Buddha, God, Truth, Sex, Death and Dogen’s Treasury of the Right Dharma Eye.” I really thought that I understood what Zen was all about. In fact when I decided to start practicing Buddhism I specifically did NOT want to do the Zen Buddhism because I thought it was all fortune cookie type philosophy. Like well what happens happens and nothing you do or say is going to change it so que sera sera. UGH! I HATED that. I had spent my whole life in Scientology, (SUPER long story for another time) and I wanted to get as FAR away from that as I could. But the Zero responsibility thing was a NO for me.

Then one day, randomly, I came across Brad’s book. The cover immediately made me laugh. A dingy toilet in some crappy club and the words “Hardcore Zen” on the cover. I read the back and I laughed some more. At first I thought this would be great for my sister who is a voracious reader and and Athiest but I thought she might get something out of it, but ultimately, I was in the middle of reading the Dalai Lama’s book, “The Universe in a Single Atom” and struggling wouldn’t be an adequate term for what I was doing reading this book. So I thought maybe I would get a good chuckle and learn something.

This book has transformed me. I learned SO much, not just about Buddhism, which apparently I knew NOTHING about, but about life, punk rock, monster movies and how to be happy with right now. That is something that I have struggled with my whole life. I have never existed comfortably in the moment. I am ALWAYS in the future or mulling over the past. CONSTANTLY. This book was the first step in my journey to learning to truly live.

Then going to the screening and meeting Brad and seeing this BRILLIANT film made by Pirooz Kalayeh and I Like Nirvana has stayed with me and I would love to see it again.  Well, if you don’t get “it” from his book that he is just a punk rock dude who is also a Zen Monk, then you definitely get it meeting him. It made me realize and see Buddha in a new light as well. People say, “he was just a man” but we have little statues and HUGE ones all over the place depicting him. People bow to them. I wear one on my neck. But meeting Brad made me realize, he was JUST a man. And I am just a human doing what we humans do. Surviving. Living. But now I am going to really do that each moment. Each second. I am going to live. And that makes me so happy. Happier than I have been in a long time.

So thank you Brad.

Nov 02
0

12 Years A Slave

By | Life, Movies, Politics | No Comments

Dear Steve McQueen,

 

Your film 12 Years A Slave has hit me like a ton of bricks. It is still resonating with me now and hours have past since I saw the film. It will not leave me. I have never been so terribly uncomfortable during film as I was watching this one.

The unconfrontable, uncomfortable, horrible truth that you so eloquently tell in this film is so tremendously  and beautifully sad. It left me hollow inside. I almost couldn’t bear to watch all of it. But I had to see it to the end. I had to know that it was worth it. That this man made it back to his family and that they were all whole somehow again.

Slavery will forever be the albatross around Americas neck for as long as we all, as a country, choose to ignore its heritage and influence that still lingers in the air that we breathe on this soil. It will never truly be gone till that day.

There is no greater horror or evil that humans can inflict on one another than enslavement. I don’t pretend to compare myself or my story to that of Solomon or the millions that were enslaved and killed and tortured, but my own experience, being used in an indentured servitude, and being treated, minus the whipping but close to it, much the way Solomon was I understood completely how he felt walking toward that carriage. Walking, struggling to walk toward freedom. Not believing it was real, and part of him, trying to hold him there.

No film, no story, has ever captured what that feels like, to truly lose yourself,  to believe you are nothing,  no one,  worthless and have no hope and then show what it is to gain that back like this film did.

Thank you for making this movie and telling this lost story. Everyone needs to see this film, to know this story, to understand it so that we can once and for all unshackle ourselves as a people and as a nation from slavery.

Oct 03
0

Thanks For Sharing

By | Movies | No Comments

This movie was not the happy-go-lucky, Rom-Com that I thought I was going to see.

Yes it was funny but that was just to offset the seriousness of the subject being dealt with in this movie.

Yes they are talking about Sex Addiction. But this movie shows that ANY addiction, when not taken care of, confronted and handled will be the detriment of all involved. Whether that be with your family, friends, your job or just yourself. It is a roller coaster ride of raw emotion and a real look at what can come from addiction and how help, once you really want it and really make the decision to change, can be a wonderful life affirming thing.

The cast was great and Pink aka Alecia Moore was AMAZING! Way to go for her first time out in a movie. I can’t wait to see more from her!

Oct 03
0

Salinger

By | Movies | No Comments

Well I was eagerly anticipating this movie. “Catcher in the Rye” has stuck with me since 6th grade when I read it.

I felt connected to Holden Caulfield as I know many millions of people around the world have. I also read Franny And Zooey. Which I also loved and found myself in love with the Glass family. I never read “9 Stories” or “Raise High the Roofbeam Carpenter.” But I hear they are good as well.

Watching this movie was sad. It was getting a look at a hero of mine and finding out that he was covered in body lice and just lived to spread that around to as many people that he could.

I feel the movie fell off point many times. The filmmaker and other authors even, kept saying how WWII created Holden and Catcher and without them it would have never been written. I disagree, since Salinger had 6 chapters of Catcher with him when he stormed the beaches at Normandy. Yes the war messed him up mentally. Yes he saw atrocities. Yes he was heart broken. But he was also a major perv. Always desiring women between the ages of 14-18 or women who looked like that.

Even when he had a woman he was busy writing endless love letters to young women all over the country. Maybe if he had spent more time on his books they would have been done sooner.

I guess it doesn’t take away from his body of work that he was such a jerk but it muddies it a bit for me.

The film was good enough. Frankly it was cut together like it was meant to air on Television as a part of a 3 or 4 part mini-series. But very informative.

Sep 24
0

In A WORLD . . .

By | Movies | No Comments

Dear Lake Bell!!! YOU ARE MY FRAKING HERO!!!

I LOVED this movie to pieces! It is a movie about the movie industry and LA and life without being over the top or lame.

It takes into account all of the LAness of the business and doesn’t over or under do it.

It is also a brilliant movie about family and how families relate to each other. As a woman with a sister I felt like I was watching scenes from my own relationship with my sister play out on the screen. The way you captured the bond as well as the humor and humanity was brilliant.

Sister code!

Sep 24
0

Mortal Instruments City of HOLY HELL WHY????

By | Movies | No Comments

I actually wanted to see this movie. I haven’t read the books but in recent years I have become a mini super fan of the YA fantasy/Sci Fi genre. I enjoy the magic and other parallel worlds that they talk about.

From the trailers I knew this was going to be a special effects bonanza and I was actually looking forward to that.

After watching the movie I felt totally ripped off. There was SO MUCH story that could have been explored there. SO MUCH. Really good stuff that could have been focused on and made more relevant. Instead we get Jonathan Rhys Meyers with the WORLD’S WORST hair extensions doing his WORST  80’s B-Movie bad guy impersonation. WHAT?? So bad. AVOID at all costs.

Sep 24
0

Riddick

By | Movies | No Comments

Dear Vin Diesel, I love you. Really I do. I think everything about you is fantastic and I actually think you are a good actor.

But could you please so me a favor and not go all Schwarzenegger on us with these really bad one liners and silly facial expressions?

I knew what Riddick was and is. I had no huge expectations going into this thing. I knew it was going to be sci-fi/horror fluff. And it was.

The story was THIN and the jokes were tired but the action was good and the cast was great. If you want to see nasty aliens and some good action then check this out.

Sep 05
0

Riddick- Yes I am gonna see this Tomorrow.

By | Movies | No Comments

I am not sure what it is about the Riddick series but I MUST see this movie. I am drawn to it like a moth to a flame.

Pretty much anything that Katee Sackoff is in I HAVE to see. She is one of my personal hero’s. I can’t wait for Longmire to come back so this will have to hold me over till then. I will let you know what I think once I get out of the theater!

Sep 03
0

Closed Circuit

By | Movies | No Comments

This movie is getting TERRIBLE reviews.

And honestly I don’t know why. It was a great movie.

It was paced well, the actors were great, the story had a fantastic arc and it was really well done.

This is the kind of movie that you actually have to THINK while you are watching it. It is not going to be laid out for you at all. You have to watch.

Also it is a government conspiracy that may cut to closely for some Americans. Also the “Closed Circuit” title implies that the cameras are gonna play a larger part than they do so I guess the voyeurs out there were probably disappointed.

Go see this movie!