Private Benjamin

I really don't want to play to the stereoptype of girls liking girl-power movies but I really, really love Private Benjamin so much!
I watched it again recently with my dad, who seems like an ulikely suspect to watch this kind of movie with but he's the best feminist I know.
I really don't like Goldie Hawn, she seems to play the same character in every single movie, which is always dictated by her never-changing hair colour.
In this movie she is perfect. She has perfect comic timing, and her acting is spot-on.
In a way she is type cast. Hawn plays Judy Benjamin, a spoilt debutante who is constantly seeking her father's approval. Her greatest ambition in life is to have a huge mansion and a professional husband but when things don't go quite as planned she decides to do something drastic and joins the US army.
Along the way she proves to everyone that she's not just pretty face, she rises in the ranks of the army and becomes ambitious and powerful. Eventually she is again faced with the decision of marriage and security versus her need to succeed as a woman.

I think that it's a completely relevant movie, it was made during the eightees but it makes you think...
have things really changed all that much?
Women are still struggling with decisions like this everyday. As much as we're now brought up to want careers theres still a niggling feeling, in the back of your mind that maybe you do need to be a domestic goddess after all. It's like you have two choices either you work towards your career and everything else takes a backseat or you get married young and have three kids and a dog by the time you're 25. There is no middle ground!

At the end of the movie, when Goldie Hawn walks down a wet, muddy path in full wedding regalia to the sound a military drum roll its powerful and emotional. It's ranked as one of the funniest movies of all time but it also hits you hard in a dramatic way. The best comedies are the ones that also reach you on a dramatic level.

Midrand-Home of the access code

Today I went to visit my midly estranged uncle in Midrand.
I say mildy estranged because Indian people don't really believe in being fully estranged, its like having 'half a cup' of tea. Even if you truly dislike someone in your family you don't really ever say it to their face. You use excuses like German measles, horrific car accident and stolen phone until finally you're caught unawares one day and have to actually go visit them.

Driving into Midrand is like driving into another world that shouldnt even classified as being part of Johannesburg. It is a community dumped into the middle of nowhere. There is literally a savannah surrounding their most popular shopping centre. And everyone lives in gated communities! There are no stand alone houses! You drive on roads that are almost swallowed up by the dust and sand of the numerous construction sites of more and more and more apartments and complexes.

And the thing that Midrand is most famous for is its use of the access code. One needs an access code, given to you by the residents, to enter and one to exit otherwise you will surely be sent packing. For once I was prepared with the code, so we skipped the line of visitors who were getting their car boots checked by the security guards, God forbid we snuck in some contraband cupcakes. I pulled right up to the residents entrance hit the code and drove my dusty Hyundai Getz through the gates while I disgruntled guard tried to stop me. It was so crystal-clear that my car and I didnt belong in this pseudo-African palace/Bali-resort style housing community. I mean, as I told my cousin, that very morning my dad ripped off the plastic skiriting that was falling off the underside of my car, and used it to clean the cobwebs of the ceiling.

Either way I'm glad I live in the real world and not in Midrand.

Accidental Interventional

This week I had the absolute worst allergy of my entire life. Out of nowhere my skin got tomatoe-red and insanely itchy. I couldnt stop scratching and the itching got so bad I started to cry and whimper "Why is this happening to me?!".

To make matters worse no one believed that I had a proper medical condition because this situation happened to coincide with me having my first whole joint in about three months. So my friends and sister all thought I was on some kind of stoned trip and freaking out.

They decided to stage some kind of an intervention. It started off ok, with my sister sitting on the edge of my bed saying comforting things like, "It's going to be ok, you didnt have that much" and "It's ok to say no" But as the itching got worse I really did start freaking out because no one was helping me!
My dizziness because of my allergy was misinterpreted as me almost passing out. From there things escalated as my friend started shouting," She's going to peel her skin off like a naartjie!!!" as she threw me into a cold shower.I'm sure she was entirely convinced that she was doing God's work.

In the end the shower actually really helped with my burning skin. It was difficult to sleep with three concerned heads talking over me about whether they needed to drive to the hospital or rehab but eventually I dropped off and all was forgotten. Atleast now I know that should I ever have a substance abuse problem, my friends have been drilled and are ready for the worst.

Impromptu Tacos and a pint of Guiness.

Recently I've been the brunt of my friend's jokes about being a premature senior citizen because i never go out anymore. So this weekend I decided to be spontaneous and do everything I used to when I was still far from the brink of 25. As you can see I am indeed having a quarter life crisis!

So instead of our planned itenerary of going for a quiet movie and coffee. I decided to drag my best friend to a tiny Mexican place that I've never been to before but have driven past many times. The fact that there were no other customers didnt dissuade us or that I got the feeling that the waiter didnt really care about anything we were saying. He just nodded at everything. My initial impression of this place wasnt great because their lime margarita tasted like frozen sea water but I was really suprised that the food was that good. We started with chilli poppers which are battered and fried jalepeno chillies, stuffed with chicken and cheese. For mains I had a crunch chicken taco which was awesome but the Mexican rice on the side was literally out of this world. My friend had the chicken fajitas which were also really good, just spicy enough and incredibly cheesy, melty and delicious.

So after this feast and also as part of my spontaneous streak we ended up going to a pub in Parkhurst, not realising it was St Patrick's day. The pub was packed, smoky and loud, everything I've been avoiding since I started feeling old. It took me awhile to acclimatise myself  but eventually I got back into the swing of things. I drank Guiness and Kilkenny which on any other day but St Paddy's day I hate but went down really smooth that night. As bustling and noisy as the pub was it was awesome! I love being South African, everyone is so friendly and chatty and anyone can claim to be one eighth Irish for St Paddy's day and you'd never even know.

I got home exhausted because this is the most I've done in a long time but seriously very fulfilled.
Impromptu nights are the best nights. You're never dressed right but eventually you don't care, you can't be disappointed because there was no expectation of anything to begin with. But those are the nights where everything just seems to go so right.

The Descendants

I've gone through a period of watching really dark, morbid albeit critically acclaimed films recently.
I always think that these are the type of films that are going to make me think and are going to change my life. But the one film that has really done that for me is The Descendants. It's not epically emotional or particularly stylish. Its not really even what we're used to as a post-modern audience, the protagonist Matt King basically narrates the entire story. It's not a grand expose, there aren't really any twists and turns. This film is so simple in its execution but deals with such complex issues of family, grief, responsibility.

George Clooney is absolutely at his best in the role of Matt King, a Hawaian lawyer who is dealing both with the loss of his wife, who is in a coma afer a boating accident, and the dilemma of selling off his family's acres of untouched land which is their family legacy. The dynamic between him and his daughters is explored and there are so many touching yet not overly sentimental moments. In the midst of the most intensely sad moments there are also moments of laughter and that's what makes this film so real. Alexander Payne as a director is just so good at those awkwardly funny moments that are often so whacky that they cant help but be real. Yet the thing that I like the most about The Descendants is that more than anything it is a real movie, it explores real life issues and touches your heart but its also really entertaining.

Sex and the City weekend marathon

It is such a cliche that all women are in love with Sex and the City. Yet every girl I know whether they are super girly or tomboyish or just trying really hard to break the sexist stereoptype seems to somehow be touched by some element of SATC.

Kudos to the creators who surely hit a goldmine but what is it that makes women love this show so much?
When I think about it so little of it actually does echoe my own life. I dont identify totally with any of the characters because their personalities are written to be so 2D and specific. They each represent an example of an aspect of every woman, it's like trying to fax a photocopy.
When you watch the old seasons the fashion is just so ridiculously bad, you see horrible things like Alanis Morrisette with dodgy braids kissing Sarah Jessica Parker, all the male characters look either like porn stars or extras that they got of the street. You literally have to look for the girls' reactions to understand whether they are meant to be hot or not.

But still theres something that just entertains me and draws me into this show. Maybe its that the writing is just really that good, maybe the characters do tell women something about themselves but I think more likely is the comforting feeling that you get watching women in their 30's and 40s who are still trying so desperately to figure things out, usually unsuccessfully, which makes you feel just a little bit better about your own life.

Neighbourgoods market reviewed.

I've decided to review my original post of the Neighbourgoods market because I think last week I was possibly irritable because of the blazing sun and didnt really get the full impact of Neighbourgoods.
I still think its pretentious and over-priced but it really is so ultra cool. I love the fact that you'll end up randomly seeing five people you know on the rooftop. I love the fact that people are so friendly and talkative in the middle of the city.

I totally understand what they're trying to do with Neighbourgoods and similar set-ups like Arts on Main. The target market are hipsters but if you ask these hipsters where they live they'll all probably say the Northern suburbs or Randburg (the same as the north but with slightly better street cred). Hardly any of us ever go into the city. It was really different when I lived in London because all people ever wanted to do was get to the centre of the city. That's where everything happened and the closer you were to the centre, the better your cred. In Joburg its different, most areas in the CBD are badly deteriorated and have a reputation for being inhabited by illegal immigrants whom South Africans are deathly afraid of. The urban regeneration project is on/off but with places like Neighbourgoods and the surrounds you can see that they are trying to get people back into the city.

There are so many worries when you decide to make a trip into town. 'Will I get lost with all the one-ways that arent picked up by the gps?', 'Will I find parking?', 'Will I get mugged by a crack addict?'. Luckily none of those things happened to us. It seemed really safe, I parallel parked like a boss!(although not everyone can be like me) so we were literally across the road from Neighbourgoods and we were also really suprised at how close it was! So the Joburg CBD isnt really like Mordor to us anymore.

Also I felt really bad about what I wrote last time about the paint tin pot plants. I actually spoke to the stall owner this time round and she told us that she lost her job and formed a sustainable development NGO. When she discovered that some company had been dumping hundreds of paint cans she decided to do something with them. So I feel kind of ashamed for judging her so harshly her invention isnt half as over-priced as some of the things inside Neighbourgoods and she really is doing a good thing.

Neighbourgoods Market

Last Saturday I went to the Neighbourgoods Market with a few freinds. Neighbourgoods is located in the middle of the Joburg CBD, I can't tell you exactly where it is just that we drove through one badly deteriorated area, then drove through another 'deteriorated for effect' area and parked next to the 'Pikitup' collection plant. From there we followed hoards of hipsters through the thoroughly upgraded inner city to a non-descript grey building which somehow everyone knew was the neighbourgoods market.

The market is cool, almost too cool to handle! It is literally a Saturday morning solace for hipsters. I was slightly discouraged by the first stall I saw which had a guy selling paint tin flower pots for R40! (seedling not included!) Talk about milking people's concern for the planet. But when you enter the foodhall all is forgotten when you're immedietly confronted by delicious smells and even more exciting is the amount of choice you have. There are so many different national cuisines, oysters and sparkling wine, gourmet cupcakes. You are literally spoilt for choice.

You can sit on the rooftop of the building which has amazing views of the city and drink fresh strawberry and pineapple cocktails. There is a small section for clothing in the market too but it seems to be more of an after thought. The main attraction was chilling in the sun with incredible food and refreshing drinks and hipster spotting ofcourse.

Midnight in Paris

Finally a movie for all those literary snobs out there!
If Woody Allen isn't appearing in his own film then he's directing Owen Wilson to fill his role.
Owen Wilson's character is a neurotic, bumbling screenwriter (sound familiar?) who is writing his novel while holidaying in Paris with his fiance and her family.
He's having trouble completing the novel because of his lack of confidence and his general unsurity about his ability. He constantly wishes for what he believes to be the golden age of American literature, the 1920s.
As he strolls through Paris each night he is magically transported into the world of the 1920s where he meets his literary idols, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway among other artists of the time.

The premise is interesting and there are incongruous moments as with any Woody Allen movie that make it worthwhile. However, in the end, the metaphors were just too blatent and climax was too light-hearted. For most of his career Woody Allen has been writing love letters to New York, which he's done brilliantly but now it seems like writing half-hearted postcards to mistresses. His films set in London and Paris just simply dont match up to his earlier work.

We Need to Talk About Kevin

On Tuesday I watched the film 'We Need to Talk about Kevin'.
I vaguely remember reading the novel yet by the end of the film I began to doubt whether I ever did read the novel.
I was slightly confused. The filming technique is raw and morbid as is the case with these really poignant films.
I adore Tilda Swinton and she did a good job in this film as did John C Reilly as usual.
The actual film didnt really fill me with as much sadness as I expected. It's a very specific story about a mother who isnt naturally able to have maternal love for her child but also about a child who is disturbed. The relationship between Kevin and his mother is explored in fragmented scenes which show his calculated hatred, his depression and his need to do harm and his mother's reaction to all of this.

The film itself was ok. The acting was fantastic but for me it just didnt have the impact I expected.
The physical climax of all Kevin's disturbia is violent and shocking. This, for me, ruins the film because the real thoughtfulness is in the quiet moments of disturbed behaviour that one encounters. Swinton's performance is truly amazing in those quiet moments that show her despair.