The Artist (2011)

Being the odds-on favorite to win the Academy award for best picture tomorrow, I wanted to see what all the buzz about The Artist was about before the actual Oscars. So Giulz and I just finished watching the film not more than ten minutes ago, and I don't know where to begin in writing about it. With what I knew about the film and all the hoopla surrounding it, some of my expectations were met, while others were surpassed. It was extremely refreshing to see this kind of a movie in this day of technology and special effects. A film that pays homage to the films that started it all, while adding a touch of modernity and surprising us with lessons about life that go well beyond the silver screen.

Without giving away too much, The Artist is set in 1927 Hollywood when silent films rule all. It revolves around George Valentin, who at the time is the best actor in silent film, and how his career and life change when sound films suddenly emerge, and a younger actress named Peppy Miller usurps his place atop Hollywood. Yes, the film is about silent film, and is also presented to us in that medium. This was actually the first time that I watched a silent film. I guess I subconsciously avoided the films of Chaplin and instead went for the hilarity of The Marx Brothers for my oldies fix. Yet while I was watching, I noticed that the way I was viewing the film was different from the usual. I found myself observing more every single change in the face, action and body language of the actors.

An Homage To The Greatest: 500 Episodes of The Simpsons

People who have had the chance (or misfortune maybe) to get to know me will definitely agree when I say that I am an intense couch potato, and an even bigger fan of cartoons. At 26 years old, my daily channel surfing still consists of Family Guy, American Dad and even Spongebob Squarepants. From my earliest days of watching Voltes V and Daimos on local TV to my current favorites mentioned above though, it is fair to say that all others are fighting for a distant second when it comes to being my absolute favorite cartoon of all-time. Without question, no cartoon, or TV show for that matter has been a bigger influence in my life than The Simpsons.

Without sounding blasphemous, The Simpsons was like religion in our house growing-up. When we had a betamax, we would record every single episode from RPN 9. When cable and a VHS came along, we would record episodes from Star Plus/World. It was family bonding time whenever The Simpsons was on, and it is no exaggeration when I say that we can probably tell you the whole plot of any episode from season 1-8 within it's first 10 seconds and even recite the whole episode's script as well. I put a disclaimer of only memorizing seasons 1-8 because the local and cable channels suddenly stopped airing new episodes or stopped airing it totally a few years back. It wasn't until recently thanks to Jack TV and Fox channel that we are able to watch The Simpsons on TV again, but by this time, people could easily get the entire series on DVD. So while I have watched some of the later seasons, it is the earlier ones that have really stuck with me.

The Simpsons is currently on it's 23rd season, and just recently aired it's 500th episode last February 19th. This makes it only the third primetime episodic TV show to reach that mark, the other two being Gunsmoke and Lassie. Despite the fledgling quality of current episodes, it is a testament to the greatness of The Simpsons that such a milestone was met, by a cartoon no less. So in homage of reaching such a feat and for basically being the greatest TV show EVER, I decided to come up with a list of my 10 favorite The Simpsons episodes ever. Choosing 10 among 500 was a challenge in itself, ranking them from 1-10 was downright impossible for me. So instead, I will show my 10 favorite episodes in chronological order of when they first aired, and you can see them after the jump.

So I raise my glass to the single greatest TV show out there. 23 seasons down, maybe another 23 to go.
Ti Saluto

The Descendants (2011)

It seems like ages since I've written my thoughts about a film down for people to read. If I remember correctly, the last film I wrote about was Grindhouse: Planet Terror back in the old Multiply website. So forgive this initial attempt at a comeback if it lacks any semblance of a valid movie review. As I write more, I'll try to do better I promise. It is also befitting that I re-start this hobby of mine discussing one of the most critically acclaimed movies of the year - Alexander Payne's The Descendants

The end of the year is usually where Hollywood studios release their bets for Oscar gold. Because of the Metro Manila Film Festival though, we get these films a few months delayed. This for me is both good and bad since by this time the nominations have been announced, so we only get those films that were actually nominated and not those that were snubbed but still worth watching. So when Giulz and I found out that The Descendants was now showing, we made it a point to watch it and see if the film lived up to all the hype and if George Clooney's performance was as good as his nominations merited. By the end of the film, the answer was a definite yes to my queries.

The plot of The Descendants is pretty straight forward- An absentee father attempts to mend his strained relationship with his two children because his wife is near death due to an accident. Seems cliche, pinoy-like even, but there truly is so much more to the film than the main plot. This movie is so far from the usual family drama where the absentee parent, in this case Clooney, is solely to blame for all the family's dysfunctionality, will spend the whole film being the nicest parent there can be, and they will live happily ever after. Much like his other films, Payne initially introduces us to the simplicity of the plot, slowly sucking us in, and then

Success

Boredom (and perhaps a little curiosity) certainly can push a man to do some silly things. My good friend Phil has been egging me to come up with a blog for the longest time now. The blog's main goal was to be one solely dedicated to beer and everything about it. It was supposed to be a joint effort but then I never found the motivation to pursue it. Phil on the other hand has already launched a very successful blog about Food and Photography, while my other brother Ting is creator of the sickest blog for all things hip-hop and basketball. Of course their blogs aren't limited to such topics and both are simply their way of sharing their thoughts, interests and passions with the world. So with the two of them, along with Giulz as my inspiration, I finally sat down to finish this. After years of delays and a few hours of work, this is what I got and all my feelings can be expressed in...

So what is to be expected of this "blog"? Nothing. I'm the type of person who has difficulty focusing on one topic for more than 10 minutes so I really don't know what this blog will contain in a month or a year. One entry maybe about politics in the country, and the next about the latest episode of Spongebob Squarepants. Looking back though there were two things that I really developed a passion for: Beer and Film. I know there are countless other places to read about these but it's alright. I have no illusions of grandeur and do not take myself an expert on either of these two, but I will try my very best to give justice to both in my writing.

So there you go. To all who chance across this page and take the time to read my seemingly disorderly thoughts put into words, thank you and I hope you don't feel that you wasted your time. I hope I don't embarrass myself.

Cheers!