Emir

I really loved Emir in spite of the fact that musicals usually drive me crazy.  Maybe it's because I'm Filipino and so is this film.  I've been longing for a renaissance in Filipino cinema, but it seems to be a long way off... which is why I found this film so impressive, the production values and acting quality were quite good compared to most Filipino movies I've seen.

Filipinos have a flare for melodrama....I once saw a commercial for a Filipino TV show (it may have been a movie) that consisted of--I shit you not--a carousel turning in slow-mo, a guy running up to the carousel, looking around for somebody, not finding them, then a zoom in to the guy's face where a single tear rolls down his cheek.  It was 100% serious.  So yeah, Filipinos have a tendency to overdo the emotionality in cinema, and do what they call "OA" or "over acting."  The whole OA concept seems to just be a way of life...and we all know that corny overacting really lends itself to musicals, which is part of what really made Emir work, I think.

The film follows Amelia ^ a Filipino girl from the middle of nowhere that goes overseas to be a maid.  The story kind of both pokes fun at/is a tribute to the "OFW" or "overseas Filipino worker."  The story actually follows Amelia until she is like middle aged...they used the same actress which works, I guess, with Asians because you can never really tell how old we are, anyway...

Some of the ballads really dragged but the dancey numbers were really fun.  Oh and, Filipino names are awesome.  Sup, Boyong?

I brought my mom with me to see the film because she actually grew up in the Philippines and speaks good Tagalog.  I really lucked out that this film showed right here in my hometown of San Jose during the SJ portion of the SFIAAFF.  Unfortunately, after this film, all the festival excitement that's been brewing lately is over!

Pink Floyd the Wall

Amidst all the excitement lately I made it to a midnight showing of Pink Floyd the Wall at Camera 3. I probably won't make it out to another midnight movie until Rock 'n' Roll High School in July.  I'd never seen The Wall, but I am familiar with Pink Floyd's music in a cursory way.  I actually think Dark Side of the Moon is a better album, but what can you do?

I thought the animated sequences were really great.  You can really tell that animation director Gerald Scarfe worked in political cartoons....the animation from the film had the same sort of drippy, evil looking feel that political cartoons get.

The whole concept is kind of overwrought, but I think that anyone who's ever felt really sad can get understand what Roger Waters is trying to get at... "The Wall" as a metaphor seems almost too easy, but at the same time you can't think of anything more apt.  It's something insurmountable, uniform, soulless...it is the problem, but we're all a part of it.  And blah, blah blah.

Meet me in St. Louis

For my second trip to the theater in 2011, I saw Meet me in St. Louis.  There is an awesome restored old movie house called The Stanford Theatre  that I have been going to for years and I caught this there.  Nice to see it on the big screen.  Judy Garland had an amazing voice! She even made Christmas songs sound nice.  She looked really pretty if not borderline tranny at times because of weirdly shaped eyebrows...

There were some interesting costumes.  Like, there's no way people actually dressed like that.

What was the movie about?  Who even knows.  It's not really about anything. Just a bunch of trivial stuff that some family gets into (ballroom dance drama, etc).

WE'LL DANCE THE HOOCHIE COOCHIE

Stanford Teatre's restored interior, complete with Wurlitzer organ~