Here is a still from the new Saoirse Ronan movie "City of Ember".
If you have not read the book, I urge you to do so. It is meant for the teenage audience, but it seems to me that this is where incredibly rich and imaginative stories are coming from these days. The premise of the book and supposedly the movie is centered around the City of Ember, the one known surviving settlement and "the only light in the dark world" that's slowly dying as supplies run low and the electrical system starts to fail. Lina Mayfleet and Doon Harrow, two 12-year-olds who watch as the light of Ember flickers and race to discover a way out. The story is brilliantly paced, with no real action to speak of, just a wonderfully told story about survival and the imagination of children.
If done correctly (and if director Gil Kenan has any of the magic left over from "Monster House") this will be a stunning movie and perhaps a surprise hit.
I mean, how typical, release a sub standard track as a lead off single for her album and then I hear a few of the remixes here and all is forgiven.
If enough tracks off the album get remixed I can then make my own version of the album that I love and forget the original if it is shit.
I just need to redesign the album images.....she just looks so tired in the pics, as I am sure she is. Perhaps she needs some more of the those vitamin B shots.
Ohh and how hot is this cover....another for my collection.
Firstly Romola Garai in "Angel". This is the story of a young woman with incredible imagination who refuses to accept the world around her, and creates her own realities. At the moment it doesn't seem to be the thing to break her out, but then again it is just a trailer.
The Saoirse Ronan in "Death Defying Acts". This premise is while on a tour of Britain in 1926, Harry Houdini enters into a passionate affair with a psychic out to con the famous magician. The trailer does not do much to excite me, but I am curious to see how Saoirse follows "Atonement". (this has had release nightmares so do not expect very much at all)
And then this little trailer which for some reason looks like it could be a lovely little movie. "The Waiting Room"
She was the only black kid in a private school, and when she became part of a clique called the 'fearsome 5', the school called her mum to complain about her bulling and her mum replied "I don't give a fuck! She's the only black girl — I'm glad she fits in."
Can you love someone just from a story?
If not for the story how about the music. She mixes electronic beats with punk guitars and New Wave synths with her own sassy vocal delivery. Think M.I.A. meets Tegan and Sarah.
Check out the official video below for 'L.E.S. Artistes'.
What I'm searching for, to tell it straight, I'm tryin to build a wall Walking by myself down avenues that reek of time to kill If you see me keep going be a pass by waver Build me up, bring me down just leave me out you name dropper Stop tryin to catch my eye I see you good you forced faker Just make it easy. You're my enemy you fast talker
Chorus: I can say I hope it will be worth what I give up If I could stand up mean for all the things that I believe
What am I here for I left my home to disappear is all I'm here for myself Not to know you I don't need no one else Fit in so good the hope is that you cannot see me later You don't know me I am an introvert an excavator I'm duckin' out for now a face in dodgy elevators Creep up and suddenly I found myself an innovator
Chorus
Change, change, change, I want to get up out of my skin tell you what if I can shake it I'm 'a make this something worth dreaming of
Aside from being kind of cute and a little bit..... .... ... ... .. ...... ... . .. .. .. .. .. .. ... .. . ... . ... .... .... . . . a place you send your kids to in the summer to get rid of them while you have affairs and drink copious amounts of gin.
Well ... . .. .. not alot.
He is from L.A. I believe and is about to make it HUGE, especially here in the U.K. where we like different music.
Check out his classy and hot music video for the soon the be released "Black & Gold".
Well at least traditional animation that has nothing to do the great Pixar.
I know you are all going "Lilo and Stitch"? REALLY? And probably thinking I have no taste.
Well you are wrong. Sure the film has some flaws, especially with the space invaders ending that seems so out of whack with the rest of the story, but what it more than makes up for it with is heart.
Directed by the out and proud gay man Dean Deblois with directing partner Chris Sanders this is a Disney film unlike any other I have ever seen. It is the only one that has made me openly sob as an adult, even after watching it the 10th time this weekend.
The premise is Stitch, a wicked creature condemned to die, escapes from his faraway planet and lands in a Hawaiian village, where he's adopted as a pet by Lilo, a misunderstood and quirky orphan (featuring the best voice work I have heard in some time by twelve year old Daveigh Chase). Together they run amok, pursued by Lilo's exasperated older sister Nani, and by a pair of bumbling aliens sent to earth to capture the fugitive. It all sounds like typical disney fare, but it is far from this.
At the heart this is a story of a lonely child and her extraterrestrial friend yearning for a nuclear family. You know Nani and Lilo are alone. Lilo lashes out at her school friends and is an outcast because as Nani (an wonderful performance by Tia Carrere) says:
"They just don't know what to say".
After seeing a shooting star Lilo wishes for a friend, and angel to come. It is these quiet moments that you realise this is probably the most realistic portrayal of a child struggling with the death of her family that you will see.
If you put it on paper, this Hawaii based story it sounds like the latest Oscar bait independent drama: "After the death of their parents Nani must prove to child services that she is capable of being a guardian to her young sister Lilo who is having trouble dealing with her grief. The addition of a new pet makes matters worse and Nani struggles to keep her small broken family together".
It was this story that captured my heart so much. The truth the writers found in this small family unit is astonishing. The two sisters screaming at each other and each going into their bedrooms to scream into a pillow are both extremely funny and so true. The relationship between the sisters is not only complex but oh so true. Nani is not prepared for having to be the care giver, and constantly resorts to making decisions based on sisterly fun rather than adult responsibility.
The death of the parents is treating extremely unsentimentally for a Disney film. You only see a picture of the family all together, and the death is explained heartbreakingly simply to Stitch by Lilo:
"It was raining, and they went for a drive. What happened to yours? I hear you cry at night. Do you dream about them? I know that's why you wreck things, and push me."
Of course at the end of this film, Stitch begins to yearn for a family of his own and realizes he needs to make his own. He is an outcast that i feared, but have found acceptance in an unlikely place (this could so be a thinly disguised gay acceptance movie, especially considering that the two aliens sent after stitch have to find earth disguises and one picks up some wigs and becomes addicted with the way he feels as a woman. So much so when is partner tried to try on his wig he screams "You're just jealous because I'm pretty!!" Thank you Mr. Deblois!!!)
The moment in the film where I loose my shit and start blubbing is at the end when Stitch is being sent back and he has to explain to the aliens who Lilo and Nani are with his broken English:
"This is my family......I found it, all on my own. Is little, and broken, but still good.... Yeah......still good."
Jesus tears.....STOP!!!
So there I wanted to share my favourite Disney animated film to you. It also features one of the best disney songs I have heard in forever. If you haven't seen it, give it a go. For extra fun see how many previous disney film references you can find in it.
For a fun Poll....What is your favourite traditionally drawn Disney animated film of the last 10 years?
