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Showing posts from 2020

Singular Movie for the Singular Year

I’m Thinking of Ending Things begins normally enough. As the film opens, Jessie Buckley plays a young woman on a date with Jake a guy she has been seeing for a few weeks. But, as her interior monologue informs us, she wants out. Or at least she thinks she does. Jake is nice and all, but he’s not really right. Or is he? She is, after all, on her way with him to meet his parents. That’s got to mean something, right? But her discomfort with their relationship soon spills out into the audience. As Jake drives her through a snowstorm to get to the farm where his parents live, their conversations — touching on everything from physics to movies to poetry to Broadway (Jake has a special place in his heart for “Oklahoma!”) — feel oddly scripted, as if they’re parroting grad-school assertions that they think are what two intellectual people would say to each other in similar circumstances. There’s a palpable artificiality. Are they living their lives or those of others? Of course, seeing as the

Nobody

Nobody knows it's empty, The smile that I wear. The real one is left behind in the past  Because I left you there... Nobody knows I am crying. They won't even see my tears. When they think I am laughing, I wish you were here... Nobody knows it's painful. They think that I am strong.  They say it won't kill me,  But I wonder if they are wrong... Nobody knows I miss you. They think I am all set free, But I feel like I am bound with chains,  Trapped in the mystery... Nobody knows I need you.  They think I can do it on my own,  But they don't know I am crying  When I am all alone

Passive Aggressive

You’re a nice person—and you never want anyone to think otherwise, especially not your co-workers, the lovely people you sit next to five days a week (in non pandemic cases) So, in an effort to always be kind, you water down feedback by saying things like, “Maybe it’s just me, but…” And while those kinds of comment qualifiers are usually coming from a good place, chances are the person receiving it won’t take it that way. They’ll think you’re just being passive-aggressive and not-so-subtly hiding what you’re  really  trying to say. To prevent you from ever being that person, here are three phrases you should avoid in meetings based on my very own (and very common) experiences—plus, bonus, I tell you how to say what you’re thinking in a more straightforward, but polite way. 1. “I Was Surprised/Confused/Curious About…” What the Person Hears: “You’re Wrong.” I worked with a woman who often tried disguise her criticism in this way. Rather than just being upfront that she didn’t

Joker and Mental Illness Continued

Not an expert on this through reading materials or degree  but thought of putting my thoughts on what happened and how mental health can be further broken down into  Arthur Fleck described chronic depression, saying things like, “All I have are negative thoughts,” and “The worst part of having a mental illness is people expect you to behave as if you don't."    Depression is characterized by low interest, poor sleep, sometimes irrational guilt, low energy, poor concentration, increased or decreased appetite, and suicidal thoughts.  This is worse if followed by delusion . Joker had the desire for being important and being connected to important people. For example, during his fantasy of being on the show, he demonstrated a desire for a fatherly hug and being told, “I wish I had a son like you.” When he had a fantasy of dating the woman in his apartment complex, within the delusion, she was at the comedy club laughing at his jokes, and was concerned about him during his mother’s

Joker and Mental Illness

Saw Joker .During the movie I felt a mix of nausea, disgust, sorrow and pleasure. Afterwards, I had a headache, but in the best way possible. Maybe this paper is to help me better understand this movie, with the dark lighting, grim ambience, filthy apartments with no skyline, and unsettling music. It left me feeling unsettled, angsty, and maybe, if you are reading this, you have some similar emotive responses leading to your curiosity about his diagnosis.   A friend told me, “If a movie makes you feel something, good or bad, it’s done its job. It’s not about whether you like it or not, it’s about if it worked to make you suspend disbelief that that person or those people were actually going through that thing.” And Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker did that. He was incredible. Maybe the complexity of the story and the things I will discuss here are in part the reason it is the top comic book movie of all time. Perhaps the start of the empathy the audience begins to feel is when they show a chara

Love Story : Eric Segal raw revolt

Well, I had my doubts! I am not a sentimental reader or viewer. I hardly cry while reading books or watching movies or while facing problems in real life. I consider myself an analyst, a problem solver, someone who likes to maintain a distance from emotions and watch the process of pain and suffering from a neutral position! Okay! I am exaggerating a bit. I do burst into tears, but not by a Fictional Story, that too a romance. Nope, no ways! It’s just impossible.  Though, as I began reading Love Story, I was amused by Segal’s wit, his brilliant repartees, easy humor and the cool slangs his protagonists indulge in. With Sonovabitch and bastard ruling the roost! And, as Segal continued with his tale of chalk and cheese falling in love, I was amused by the fiery romance. Yes, Love Story is after all the story of two youngsters, studying in college, and what else to expect when tall muscular Harvard hockey jock Oliver meets the mousy, bespectacled Radcliffe music undergrad in a library! A

OCD and Two Movie Characters

These days I have a crazy anxiety and the extent of O.C.D has increased multi-times. First time in my life though that these OCD are being accepted world-wide, cleaning hands multiple times, cleaning the doors with Dettol and water, all packets that are brought from outside are wiped and sanitized. The list is cool and endless. Till now OCD, anxieties and worries are not understood very clearly. Anxiety does not mean you are nuts, O.C.D does not mean you need attention. Acceptance by brain and society is required. May be details and my sojourn with these situations on later blogs. Here I am trying to explain a bit about OCD and hope distinction will be understood. Two movie characters we will try to understand. Hope we have seen these two movies, The Rain Man and The Aviator. If not please do watch them. Taking some liberty assuming you would know these characters. Raymond In Rain Man Some people think severe intensity of OCD was displayed in this movie. Dustin Hoffman d

The English Patient Revisited

In World War II Italy, British Army nurse Juliette Binoche takes shelter in an abandoned monastery to wait out the conflict's final days. Her patient, horribly disfigured amnesiac Ralph Fiennes, cannot be moved, and she is in retreat not only from the war but from her personal curse: Everyone she loves dies. As the English patient is slowly and painfully compelled to remember his tragic past in pre-war North Africa, the nurse comes to terms with herself and her luck. This heartbreakingly beautiful film, a brilliant adaptation of Michael Ondaatje's equally beautiful novel, is a sort of  Casablanca  for our time.  While  The English Patient  has many of the same ingredients—mysterious strangers, shady dealings, and sudden romance set against the background of impending war—it's a much starker film with a much more serious theme than ships passing in the night. In the end, it's a tragically lovely story about the cruel devastation of selfish and ungoverned love. It's a

Revolutionary Road -Rethought

The icy waters of the Atlantic kept them from a happy ending in Titanic.  In Revolutionary Road the small disappointments of daily life threaten to curdle and destroy what seems to the outside world like a perfect marriage. Revolutionary Road is the long-awaited film version of the Richard Yates novel of the same name. The author spent his life chronicling the shattered lives and broken hopes of people disappointed by the American Dream. He was one of the great American writers of the 20th century. His view of the world was so bleak and uncompromising that it is not entirely surprising that he died in relative obscurity in 1982. Revolutionary Road has long been considered one of his finest achievements and the film version does justice to the story, even if it feels a little too reverential for its own good. In the Connecticut of the Fifties Frank Wheeler (DiCaprio) and his wife April (Winslet) appear to be living the American Dream. He has a peachy job in the marketing department of a

Love In Times of Corona

So Junta Curfew starts tomorrow. Some 12 hours later. A pandemic I have not seen in my mid 30 s life and with my line of business, a crazy chaos we are trying to bring order on. My partner told me of a brilliant idea on what would Gabriel Garcia Marquez would have written should he be alive today. Have been seven years I have blogged so perhaps the flow wont be a lot. A lot however has changed in these 7 years. We are all growing older. The small things that gave joys are still giving same set of joys. We have changed as a person, people around us have changed and the way we used to express has changed. What that has not changed is our curiosity. How will be the love in corona be like ? How different it was from social distancing we need to have. Was not Florentino not in some kind of isolation ? Isolation inwardly and extravagant everywhere. Was Fermino not in some kind of isolaton ? Isolated inwardly as well as outwardly . Social distancing sounds fanciful but have not