Wasikowska

some of my favorite actors...

I don’t have that many favorite actors and If I do, they must be good. I have watched movies of Alicia Vikander, Rooney Mara, Eddie Redmayne, Tom Sturridge and they have a lot of good movies. The first time I saw Mia Wasikowska was in the movie Stoker and boy she was cool and creepy. She exude this eccentric and mysterious aura which reminds me of Wynona Rider during her Beetlejuice days. Mia’s chalk white complexion and slim physique makes her a good pick for 18th-19th century dark and sinister themed movies. I think she could pass for a high fashion model too because I’ve seen her sport just about any thing yet still look good say in the flick Restless, she sported those oversized clothes and pixie haircut but hey she rocked it. Alright, moving on, here are some of Mia Wasikowska's worth watching movies.

Jane Eyre (2011)

romantic drama

• Jane Eyre (Mia Wasikowska) - an orphan turned governess, fell in love with his master.
• Mr. St. John Rivers (Jamie Bell) - a missionary who took Jane into his abode, master of Moor home. 
• Edward Rochester (Michael Fassbender) - master (of the house) Thornfield Hall

Just a brief summary: The movie is based on a novel by Charlotte Bronte, 1847. 

Jane became an orphan so her Aunt took her in being her lone relative. Her aunt however dislikes her, called her a ‘liar’ and was sent her to an orphanage. Jane had a difficult life and her only friend at the orphanage died.  One day, Jane (now a young lady) was called to work as a governess for a french little girl at the Thornfield Hall. Little did she know, the house is owned by Edward Rochester, whom she met beforehand after the man fell from his horse on her way to post a letter. Mr. Rochester found Jane 'frank' thus grew a strong liking for her. The feeling is mutual thus Jane was heartbroken after one of the governess told her that Mr. Rochester might be engaged to be married soon. 

Jane saved Mr. Rochester’s life couple of times; the first time was when he fell from a horse and the second was when a fire broke out in his house thus he felt Jane might be his soul mate. Jane's been hearing strange noises at night and asked Mr. Rochester about it. He did not acknowledge and told Jane the house is safe. Mr. Rochester asked Jane to marry him, the wedding did not push through. It was revealed Mr. Rochester has a wife who's gone mental and was kept hidden inside one of the rooms for many years. Jane was distraught and ran away. Mr. St. John Rivers, a missionary allowed her to live in his house with his sisters and gave her a teaching job for a living. He asked for her hand in marriage but Jane declined because she’s still madly in love with Mr. Rochester. Jane stumbled into a big fortune after her wealthy Uncle passed away as she’s the only heir. Her aunt kept it from her for three years. Jane went back to Thornfield Hall, found the fire consumed it and left Mr. Rochester blind after he tried to save his wife from jumping off the castle, he failed though. It was a happily ever after though for Jane and his beloved Mr. Rochester. This movie made me appreciate the Victorian era, the fashion, the eccentric feel and of course the not so mediocre love stories. 

+ - +

Stoker (2013)

psychological thriller

• India Stoker (Mia Wasikowska) - only daughter of Richard and Evelyn Stoker
• Richard (Dermot Mulroney) - mysteriously died from a car accident
• Evelyn (Nicole Kidman) 
• Charlie (Matthew Goode) - Richard’s brother

India is close to her father (Richard) and taught her how to use a gun for hunting purposes. When her father died from a car accident, her mother (Evelyn) was like a stranger to her and wouldn't even allow Evelyn to touch her. After Richard’s untimely demise, Charlie, his brother went to stay with India and Evelyn. India felt suspicious with Charlie and one time saw him arguing with her nanny. During Charlie’s stay with India and Evelyn, rumors started circulating that her mother and Charlie have a relationship. India heared about the rumor from the same guys who’s been picking on her because they found her eccentric. I found India sexually repressed and saw a potential incestuous relationship between her and Charlie. One day India went on rouge and made out with a boy from her school. Things went awry so the boy started assaulting her. Charlie followed India, they killed and buried the boy together. India found out Charlie killed her nanny (she found the body in the freezer down the basement). But, what made India gone (even more) mental was, when she learned that Charlie also killed her Dad and is now wanting to kill Evelyn as well. India murdered Charlie with a shotgun whilst he was choking Evelyn. India, now a free woman, went into a driving spree and killed the cop who started chasing her for over speeding. Oh, Evelyn survived by the way. The End. 

Stoker is more of an art movie to me than a mainstream flick. I just love India’s shoes.

+ - +

Only Lovers Left Alive (2013)

vampire film

• Adam (Tom Hiddleston) - married to Eve for centuries 
• Eve (Tilda Swinton) - lives in Tangier 
• Ava (Mia Wasikowska) - Adam’s sister who lives in L.A.

Vampires Adam and Eve (yes, they’re Adam and Eve indeed) have been married for centuries but live apart, Eve in Tangier whilst Adam in Detroit. Adam is sad about the modern world and calls the stupid humans 'zombies.' He spends his vampire life in his crypt/two storey apartment in Detroit making funeral music and collecting rare musical instruments. He became friends with a human named Ian who procures musical instruments for him (rare guitar models etc). He asked Ian to never tell anyone about him and their business deals which the later adhered. One day, Eve flew from Tangier to Detroit to visit Adam and the two reminisce the old days.  Ava crashed into Adam’s apartment and showed interest in his music and of course ration of 'negative O' blood. Ava met Ian when all four of them hang out together one night. However, she bit and killed Ian to Adam’s disgust. Adam and Eve threw Ian’s body to a pool of acid which eventually dissolved his body to oblivion. Adam kicked Ava from his apartment which angered her. Eve took Adam with her to Tangier because they suspect people would be looking for Ian. In Tangier, Eve’s blood supplier, another vampire dies after drinking a contaminated blood. Adam and Eve both famished due to lack of good blood devoured the lovers making out in the street.

Only Lovers Left Alive isn’t mainstream and very satirical which is why I watched it because I’m a sucker for non-commercial films. I love the dirge they played almost the entire film and of course the casts; the Androgynous Tilda Swinton is so apt to play the role of a vampire as always because of her chalk white skin and let me also say that I became a fan of Tom Hiddleston after I saw him in this movie Crimson Peak. 

+ - +

Restless (2011)

romantic comedy, drama

• Enoch (Henry Hopper) - a funeral crashing guy who has a ghost friend
• Annabel (Mia Wasikowska) - a cancer patient, Enoch’s love interest
• Hiroshi Takahashi (Ryō Kase) - Enoch’s ghost Japanese veteran friend, he committed suicide through seppuku/hara-kiri. 
• Elizabeth Cotton (Schuyler Fisk) - Annabel's older sister

Enoch, an eccentric and out of school teenage boy (who often crash funerals decked in black suit) met Annabel for the first time. Annabel attended her friend’s funeral, saw Enoch and smiled at him. The two became friends after Annabel started joining Enoch in his funeral crashing pre-occupation. Enoch later on found that Annabel loves Charles Darwin and is fascinated with bugs and water birds which made them quite a good match as they’re equally eccentric. Annabel later on disclosed to Enoch she’s got cancer and will only live for three months. The two started dating and Enoch told her about his ghost friend name Hiroshi, a war veteran who killed himself through seppuku. It was later on revealed in the movie that Enoch’s parents died from a car crash and him the lone survivor, went into a coma for three months. The accident left a huge trauma on Enoch so he left school after he beat one of the school kids for mocking his dead parents. Enoch also had phobia riding cars. Annabel passed away soon after and the movie ended with Enoch reminiscing the happy days he spent with Annabel before he say his Eulogy. I love this movie because of Annabel’s positive approach to dying which is kind of unusual to people who only have few months to live. 

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Flick Picks

I have been rummaging the web for best movies of 2015 and way back. This is what I got, a couple of intelligible British films and of course the popular Maleficent which I never got the chance to watch until recently. Nothing, I just feel like writing about different movie genres today. It’s kinda like hand picking from a handful of those sappy coloured M&Ms. 

The Danish Girl (2015)

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Setting: Mid 1920’s in Copenhagen, Denmark

Characters:

• Lili Elbe/ Einar Wegener (Eddie Redmayne)- landscape artist, turned Einar to Lili; first known individual who underwent sex change
• Gerda Wegener (Alicia Vikander)- Danish painter married to Einar
• Hans Axgil (Matthias Schoenaerts) -Einar’s childhood pal
• Henrik (Ben Whishaw)- Lili’s love interest
• Dr. Kurt Warnekros (Sebastian Koch) - performed Lili’s sex change surgery

I’ll make this as brief as possible although the film is quite lengthy but I assure you it is interesting.

Gerda and Einer Wegener is been married for six years and they’re both artists. Gerda paints people whilst Einer (or Ei-nah as they pronounce it all throughout) paints landscapes. 

One day after coming home to their flat, Gerda asked Einer if he could pose as a model for one of her unfinished portraits of a woman. In the painting, the womans leg isn’t finished yet so she asked her husband Einar to wear stockings, a shoe and dress. Einar, discreetly, seemed to have instant fascination with women’s clothing and everything (which I found a little peculiar considering they’ve been married for half a decade). Gerda, not knowing this rode along and even prepped Einar, as a woman for an exhibit she’ll be attending. Gerda’s friend called Einar Lili. 

Einar now in Lili’s persona attracted the attention of art dealers and one of which was Henrik. He became attracted to Lili because he said Lili’s was ‘old fashioned.’

Einar and Gerda’s relationship went rocky because Einar disappeared and became Lili. Einar turned homosexual basically which was not socially accepted back then since it was during the 1920’s and people think differently during that era. The psychiatrists after series of examinations called him ‘pervert’ and many other psychological terms. 

I admire Gerda for having an open-mind which I completely understand since she’s an artist. She supported Lili all the way through and even tracked down Einar’s childhood friend Hans for moral support. Hans also kept an open mind.  

Lili and Gerda turned to Dr. Kurt Warnekros as he’s known for studying cases similar to Lili. Dr. Kurt Warnekros explained to them that Lili needs to undergo couple of major surgeries, first to remove the male organ and second for Lili to have a female organ. Whilst recovering, Lili decided to find a life of his own and told Gerda to do the same. Lili decided to work for a perfume company and enjoyed it, his co-workers knew he’s a she.

Lili/Einar though had gone so far and pushed his body’s limits. He/she or Lili (ok I’m getting confused now) asked Dr. Kurt Warnekros to push through with the second surgery (which is for him to have a female genital)even though he’s not fully recovered and his body is still quite weak. This decision eventually caused his death due to infection and blood loss.

Lili’s story or should I say ordeal may have been peculiar back then but all I can say is that being homosexual in my opinion is something people cannot hold up against as there might’ve been chemicals in our body causing it aside from the environment one is exposed to. It’s not at all times people may have wanted to be but if their body says otherwise who are we to resist right? I think it’s a chemical reaction in human body, I guess it’s the lack of testosterone or estrogen or whatever.

This film is really of good taste. The nudity and all did not bother me neither because they were done with class and the plot calls for it as well so no wonder why It gained so many positive reviews from film critics. I recommend this film but it’s PG18. 

The Danish Girl is actually the first time I’ve seen Alicia Vikander, the second was with the movie Ex-Machina which I would be reviewing in a bit. I thought she’s a good actress because she just doesn’t care being stripped. I knew a lot of good actors/actress who need not strip to reap awards but there are so many good ones who wouldn’t care being nude because acting is an art form by itself. I also watched this film because I saw Eddie Redmayne is on it and I was impressed with his acting in The Theory of Everything, this dude is an impeccable actor.  He’s also done total frontal nudity in this film and he just wouldn’t care neither, it’s like the cinema is his huge stage. 

Alright, moving on..another one on top of my list is this enigmatic film Ex-Machina.

Ex Machina (2015)
⭐️⭐️⭐️

• Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson)- A Programmer
• Ava (Alicia Vikander) - a humanoid robot, has AI (Artificial Intelligence)
• Nathan (Oscar Isaac) - CEO of his software company called Blue.

Alicia Vikander is becoming one of my favorite actress (or actor like what they call it nowadays) because she doesn’t just star in some shitty flick, just like Rooney Mara, you barely see her neither in not so interesting movie genres. 

Caleb, a Programmer won a week long visit to Nathan’s home somewhere faraway. Nathan owns a software company and he sort of picked Caleb to give him his feedback and observations about his humanoid creation named Ava which has AI. Nathan’s home by the way is a luxurious hotel like facility in a secluded mountains of the unknown.

When Caleb saw Ava, he was drawn to her because she resembles a real human being except she’s way more genius. Ava has a face of a human but a body that’s half human, half robot. 

One night while he’s fast asleep, he experienced a power outage which left him locked up in his room. This made caleb wonder what he has gotten himself into. His room does not have windows and when he switched on his in room TV, he saw that Nathan’s home is blanketed with cameras and he’s able to see Nathan’s whereabouts and so as Ava’s.

Ava, during one of the power outages told Caleb she’s the one causing the power outage and that every time that happens Nathan cannot see nor hear what the two of them is talking about since the cameras are also out. She pretty much made Caleb believe that Nathan is the villain and that they both need to escape from Nathan’s facility. Caleb made up a plan so both of them could escape, he asked Ava to cause another power outage while he programs all the computers so they everything work as planned.

Caleb seemed to have fallen under Ava’s spell didn’t realize that Nathan knew about their plan to escape because he can hear everything even if there’s a power outage. Nathan divulged that Ava made Caleb believe every word she said and little did he knew Ava is a rat on a leash, she outwit and used Caleb in order to escape. Caleb, already fell under Ava’s trap told Nathan that he already programmed everything and as soon as 10pm strikes all the entry points would open and Nathan will be locked inside his home once the power is out. Nathan pissed off punched Caleb after having lost control to his own home.

Fast forward, Ava and the other humanoid Kyoko connived and killed Nathan. Ava escaped, now fully dressed as a human after she scrapes other humanoid’s skin for her own use and left Caleb locked up in Nathan's facility.

The End.

It was SciFi (Science Fiction) so the terminologies they used in the Film is pretty  'out there.’ I mean, so much Science could cause nose bleeds lol. I wish I switched on the subtitles so I was able to understand it much better :D

Anyways, this movie is pretty cool even If I’ve seen tons of movies about AI and stuff. The Film's approach is kind of different because they infused SciFi with Psychological thriller which made it interesting. In most movies, Drama is paired with Psychological thriller but Ex-Machina twitched it a bit. This movie though is not for everyone because it has turned boring on some parts because of the jargons but nevertheless if you’re a fan of SciFi this may be for you. This flick also has a lot of women nudity because they’re humanoids, robots that are skin coated so what to expect right? Don’t worry the nudity is called for it’s just that it’s not really for kids, a lot of PG stuff.

Ok, Let me go to a different genre, let’s go for something GP (General Patronage), Angelina Jolie’s Maleficent. This movie was one of the top grossers back in 2014 and I can say it was pretty nice.

Maleficent (2014)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

• Maleficent (Angelina Jolie) - a powerful fairy from Moors
• King Henry (Kenneth Cranham)- the King who wanted to conquer Moors.
• Stefan (Sharlto Copley) - Maleficent’s love interest
• Diaval (Sam Riley) - saved by Maleficent from being held captive by the King’s soldiers

Little fairy Maleficent lives in a magical forest called Moors, she loves her powerful and enormous wings. One day, the fairies were bothered and called Maleficent when little boy Stefan entered the enchanted forest. Maleficent asked Stefan to return back what he took from the forest, he eventually did and the two developed a special friendship. Maleficent learned that Stefan was poor and dreamt about living in the palace someday. Years passed, Maleficent grew into a beautiful young woman and her special friendship with Stefan remained.

One day again, King Henry invaded Moors hoping to conquer Maleficent’s enchanted forest because of avarice. Maleficent fought against the King and his army and she won of course since she’s very powerful herself. King Henry after having defeated by Maleficent longed to kill her. 

Stefan worked as a soldier for the King but he became ambitious and yearned of becoming a King plotted against Maleficent. He drugged her and cut off her enormous wings as a proof (to the ailing King Henry) that, he indeed killed Maleficent. He was crowned the new King afterwards.

Maleficent was devasted when she woke up with her wings gone. She still has powers but she never felt complete after losing her wings. She saw this poor crow captured by men so she decided to use her magic by turning it into a man. The shape shifting crow became Diaval. To give thanks to Maleficent for saving his life, Diaval became her wings and spied on the now crowned King Stefan.

King Stefan married somebody else, had a child named Aurora. After Maleficent learned about the news, she went to the Palace and cursed (the still baby then) Princess Aurora, that she will fall asleep once pricked by a spindle wheel’s needle on her 16th birthday and only a true love’s kiss will wake her up. The three good fairies took off with Princess Aurora (with King Stefan’s blessing) for her to be protected from Maleficent which they later on called the bad fairy. Little did they knew, Maleficent has been looking after Princess Aurora along with Diaval all along.

Maleficent discreetly loved Aurora like a fairy Godmother because she’s not really evil, she was just broken hearted after what Stefan did to her. Nevertheless, she protected and kept Aurora away from harm. Maleficent decided to revoke her own curse towards Aurora but failed. Aurora learned about the curse because one of her fairy caretakers told her about it by accident. She also learned that Maleficent is the bad fairy they’re pertaining to who cursed her. 

The curse still happened exactly on Aurora’s 16th birthday. The fairies thought a kiss from a Prince would free Aurora from the curse but that did not happen. Maleficent, saddened by what she did to Aurora kissed her cheeks thinking she will never wake up. Aurora woke up which means Maleficent loved Aurora all along. King Stefan, for some inexplicable reason still wanted to kill Maleficent. Aurora found Maleficent’s wings and freed them. Maleficent and her powerful wings reunited, King Stefan lost and died. Princess Aurora was crowned as Moors’ new queen (I think). 

It was a happy ending because the movie is for kids, which means we can’t break their hearts. Seriously, it was a nice movie although it was a dark fantasy film the goodness still prevailed. Maleficent may have horns but she has a big heart. Well, from an adult’s point of view, the movie maybe for kids but it’s about oppression and abuse of power. 

I’m done and out! I have tons of movies to watch and I will keep you guys posted.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - highly recommended

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️  - somewhat highly recommended

⭐️⭐️⭐️    - it was alright.

⭐️⭐️       - nah.
⭐️          - waste of time.

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