and the winner is...

Last night I went ahead and watched the Baftas live. Normally I don’t bother because I only end up getting annoyed when the people who deserve to (read: who I want to) win, don’t. Of course it was absolutely no different this year, but I have been really fascinated by a couple of films who were up for awards, so I thought I’d show my support (Inception, 127 Hours and The Social Network, in case you were wondering).

Predictably, The King’s Speech won practically everything. I haven’t seen it yet so I don’t know what the fuss is about, but it still bored me that it got almost every single award. If you follow me on twitter, you will have read my reactions firsthand. The whole show was a mixture of the abysmal (Helena Bonham Carter’s hair, Rosamund Pike’s attempt at presenting an award) and the completely wonderful (Emma Stone’s dress, Andrew Garfield and Jesse Eisenberg invading each other’s personal space on stage). David Fincher quite deservedly won Best Director, Aaron Sorkin got Adapted Screenplay (again, quite deservedly. I'm reading the book it's taken from and I have read the screenplay. I was dazzled by it's magnificence), and Inception won all the smaller awards like Special Visual Effects and Sound and the other awards that they don't actually show being presented apart from in a montage at the end of the programme. Tom Hardy won the Rising Star award, which I was NOT cool with. I like him and everything, but I voted for Andrew Garfield, and when I actually take the time to vote for someone, I expect them to win (by the by, Andrew is completely terrible at being a gracious loser. He kept pulling faces every time he and/or Jesse Eisenberg didn't win something. Which of course I loved). I was annoyed that 127 Hours didn't get anything, too. At least there's still the Oscars to come, but I'm only expecting similar results.

Did anyone else watch it? Were you pleased with the results? Was anyone else really annoyed that some people who won awards hadn't actually bothered to turn up to collect them?

gpoy

Thank you to anyone who wished me luck for my interview on Thursday - my silence since then wasn't because I imploded with panic and died in the interview room. No, it is simply laziness on my part. Also, I have tragically become addicted to Tumblr and because everyone I follow posts almost constantly, it takes me hours and days to keep up. I'm probably going to have to give it up soon because it is taking over my already hostile and anti-social life.

The interview (to get into university in September to train become a primary school teacher) actually went quite well - the exam was very difficult and the group task was intense, but the individual interview seemed to go swimmingly. Or so I am hoping (it could end up being one of those cases where you think you've done amazingly in an exam and then WABAM, you get a big fat F).

So I really haven't been doing anything else - as always. On Thursday night I went to Hayley's and we ate and ate and ate and maybe drank a bit and watched Andrew Garfield films. The Social Network, the sheer perfection of which I still cannot get over, and Never Let Me Go. I spoke about the novel Never Let Me Go when I read it a while ago. I think I must take back my Carey Mulligan comment in that post because I've realised now that she is wonderful and I adore her. I also think I figured out why I didn't like the book - it was just so cold. It was a love story with no love. The only passage that affected me was when Tommy says something like 'We've loved each other our whole lives...'. But I digress, I am talking about the film.

Which is spectacular, can I just say. Absolutely stunning. It was beautiful, graceful, emotional, heart-breaking and quite breath-taking in parts. The bit where Tommy gives Kathy a hug after he hasn't seen her in ten years... it was the most touching moment I can imagine. And I have to admit that Keira Knightley was quite good. I mean, she was a perfect Ruth. I hated her, so she must have played the part well. Carey Mulligan was excellent, but it was Andrew Garfield who completely blew me away. He was Tommy in every single aspect; he was every single inch the character from the book. Only with more feeling. He destroyed me. What a fantastic film.
On Saturday I went to my local library as part of the whole 'support your library now because the government are going to shut them down because they're actually nazis and will probably burn all the books' campaign that was going on. I am ashamed to say that it has been a long time since I last checked a book out of a library. I tend to buy them from Waterstones instead - which probably explains why libraries are in jeopardy in the first place. I forgot how perfect libraries are, and I intend to start going frequently now. I urge you all to start doing the same. I think the plan was to get so many people to check out books that there wouldn't actually be any books left in the libraries and they physically couldn't shut them down.

Speaking of books, I have been given a place as a book giver on World Book Night! My book choice was Fingersmith by Sarah Waters. I am hoping to somehow be able to give some of my smashing readers a copy of the book (I have 48 to give away), so keep your eyes open for news nearer the date if you're interested in a free book. World Book Night is on 5th March, and there are probably events going on in your area, so do look out for those also.

Finally, Jesse Eisenberg was on SNL last week, so obviously I had to watch it because I am in love him and his awkwardness. The following song was one of the sketches on the show and it perfectly encapsulates me and Hayley and the way we live our lives. Do enjoy.



We are the original creeps. And we are learning these dance moves for when we go out for my 21st in less than two weeks. LESS THAN TWO WEEKS. Oh no.

Inspire #23

the social network

It's 2:08am and I have just finished watching The Social Network. I missed it when it came out at the cinema, but I saw it in a, cough, totally legal way on the internet (never fear, internet people, I will definitely buy the DVD when its released).

Just...wow. I loved it. For a film that is 99.8% super-fast talking and 0.02% minimal action (a bed gets set on fire...of course), it was astonishingly captivating. Maybe it was Jesse Eisenberg's killer condescension (I took notes - Eisenberg, you astound me). Maybe it was because I was waiting for those tiny glimpses of Joe Mazzello in every fifth scene (yeah, he has a ridiculous nose, but I find him adorable and his performance in The Pacific makes me want to cry whenever I think about it it was so good). Maybe it was because I was hoping to see Justin Timberlake get a good smack. Whatever it was, I was hooked. Completely amazing, actually quite fascinating, and enough Andrew Garfield to give me hectic dreams for a couple of nights. Everything I need in a film, really.
And er, yeah, so Andrew Garfield is the new Spiderman. I knew that. What I didn't know was that he was going to look like this: WOAH.

Review - Never Let Me Go

Today I finally, finally, got my PGCE application paid for and sent off. It's a massive relief just to have it done now, but no doubt after 1st December (the closing date for applications) I will start panicking about whether I'm going to get an interview or not...but I'll think about that then.

I've been quite slow with posting recently because I haven't been able to think of anything to write about. I'm also really tired all the time, so whatever free time I do get, I just want to sit there doing absolutely nothing. Maybe watch a cheeky bit of University Challenge so all my brain cells don't die. My head is crammed full of Bret Easton Ellis, Fight Club and Wordsworth at the moment, so it's quite nice to think of something else for a little while (no offence Bret, you know I love you more than I love mince pies).

I originally wasn't going to do a review post for Never Let Me Go, because quite a few of you recommended it to me, and I didn't want to offend everyone. But nobody I know has actually read it, so I wanted to vent my frustrations at it out somewhere. So here goes: (Kathy H lovers, look away now).

I hadn't read any of Kazuo Ishiguro's books until I picked up Never Let Me Go, and I almost certainly won't read another one. I just did not dig his style. The idea for the book was fantastic (click here for spoilers) but the book, to me, just never seemed to get going. I constantly felt like the narration was building up to something huge happening, but the event it was building up to just never occurred. I can't quite put my finger on why I didn't like the book aside from the writing style - in fact, it isn't even that I didn't like the book. I was simply completely indifferent to it. I couldn't bring myself to care about any of the characters, and maybe that sounds a little heartless (especially considering the purpose of the characters), but I really didn't like any of them. Ok, maybe I liked Tommy a little bit - he was very sweet - but I couldn't stand Ruth (it's quite apt that Keira Knightley is playing her in the upcoming film adaptation - bad acting for a bad character).

I can see why this book is so popular, but I don't like books that are simply written and I don't like books that are poorly written, and I didn't think Never Let Me Go was impressive on any front. To be honest, I was just bored. By about a third in I was only reading it so that I could finish it. I couldn't see any development to the story and there was absolutely no depth to the characters, which sounds very pretentious on my part, but I am an English Lit student afterall.

I've tried not to give much about the story away here, because if you are planning on reading it, the idea for the novel is very cool. However, I cannot say that I would recommend this to anyone. Sorry to all those pople who recommended it to me! At least I'm honest, right?

I am looking forward to the film though, even if it does feature Keira Shiteley and Carey mind-numbingly-boring Mulligan. Helllllooo Andrew Garfield!

Weekly Review: 1st - 7th November

I haven't done one of these for the past couple of weeks because I have been busy doing boring things, like sorting my life out. I have basically spent the past two weeks organising meetings with various university tutors/careers advisors to try and get some semblance of organisation into my life, and the rest of the time I have been writing essays, researching dissertation material and swapping jobs (don't even go there. The fuckers). Not exactly blog-worthy stuff. And while this week hasn't in any way more interesting, I have got a few film and book recommendations for anyone interested.

MUSIC THIS WEEK

This week I've been listening to a lot of softer stuff, particularly John Mayer's most recent album Battle Studies, and sundirtwater by The Waifs. I know John Mayer gets a lot of bad press because he is a bit of a dickhead, but his music is beautiful and his voice makes my spine melt a bit. I don't know anything about The Waifs other than that they are an Australian band; a friend recommended the album to me because he's had it on repeat for a while now, and I fell in love. It is sort of deep south dirty folk music; when you listen to it you want to be sat around a campfire by the Mississippi river or something.

FILM THIS WEEK

You have probably established from my quite frequent mentions of him recently that I have developed a bit of a thing for Andrew Garfield. I actually think it is his fault for being so adorable in The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. How was I not supposed to watch every other film he's ever been in after that? Siobhan at Listerine Kiss recommended that I watch The Red Riding Trilogy with Andrew in, and so I did. If you haven't seen it, I cannot recommend it enough. I have only watched the first part so far, but it's fantastic. Lots of delicious Yorkshire accents (holla!), lots of wide shots of the Yorkshire Moors, lots of Andrew Garfield without his shirt on...it is a lot like the dreams I have. I can even deal with those mad sideburns and even madder flares he has to sport.
I then went for Boy A, which, er, perhaps wasn't the greatest decision I have ever made. He plays a reformed child murderer, so he's kind of hard to love in that, but it's a wicked film. Very sad, intimate and depressing, but still good. I think he's a quite wonderful actor. My favourite thing he's ever done though is this:



On Saturday night I went to see Due Date at the cinema. It was fantastic. Robert Downey Jr is perfection, AND he actually looks tall in this film! Zach Gallifkakakakaiisskaisisksksis must be really, really short if he makes Rob DJ look tall. It isn't as funny as The Hangover (although you can definitely tell it's by the same director) but it's still excellent. I highly recommend it to any non-serious cinema-goers out there.

BOOKS THIS WEEK

I'm constantly stuck in American Psycho at the moment - I'm writing about it in my dissertation - so I'm feeling a bit messed up on the literature front, but I did manage to sneak in an absolutely incredible book that I found in the kitchen at work. The Light of Falling Stars by J. Robert Lennon is a novel about a plane crash and the way that it affects a group of people's lives, and also how each of their lives gets intertwined with one another's. It is a beautiful book; heartbreaking in parts, but if you have read The Time Traveller's Wife as many times as I have, you won't have a problem with it.

The book I'm reading at the moment is one that a woman at work lent to me called A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving. Has anyone else read this? I've just past the halfway point and I am loving it; it is so rare to find characters in novels that actually talk like real people, but this book nails it. It's so funny and so odd at the same time. It's very difficult to explain the plot because it's so weird, but it's basically about this kid, John, and his best friend Owen Meany, who appears to be some kind of genius prophet and voice of the Lord. Or something. I'll let you know when I finish it, but so far it is spectacular.

Sometimes I feel like strapping pirhanas to my feet and kicking people in the face.

Hannah at cyrillawest just tagged me in a post that basically involves writing down a load of stuff that I like and hate. Because I like a lot of things and also hate a lot of things, this could be fun. CHECK IT.

i like Crunchy Nut Bites

i like Andrew Garfield (he's my fave at the moment)

i like my BlackBerry

i like The Like

i like really old scrapbooks

i like films where men wear really tight shirts

i like Zara

i like ugly shoes

i like pals

i like libraries

i like red hair

i like mid-length skirts

i love Frank Iero

today I am dressed like an overgrown schoolgirl

i hate people who dress like schoolgirls

i hate my BlackBerry (why do you keep shutting the internet off, you retarded piece of technology?)

i hate deadlines

i hate the future

i hate peas

i hate monkeys

i hate how everyone is, like, soo in love with Cheryl Cole when really she's just a thick chav with a pretty face and will never do anything for our country except clog up our tv screens with shitty reality shows about people who are worse at singing than even she is.

i hate my face, and broad shoulders and my huge birthing hips

I hate people who make a noise when they eat. STOP IT STOP IT STOP IT.

I don't know who to tag now, so, you know, fill this in if you want to!

All photos mine or sourced through Google Images and Zara.com (edited by me)