Thumbsucking and Sniffing

I saw "Thumbsucker" yesterday and it's probably just as well that I knew NOTHING about it prior, because I think I would have liked it even less than I did. It's basically a "coming-of-age" type film with the lead character, 17 yr old Justin having to deal with his thumbsucking tendencies. That's not his problem though, as the major iss-ewe is that everyone else, including his family think he is wierd. He ends up being misdiagnosed with ADD, and given courses in Ritalin which miraculously and humorously transforms him into a high school debating wiz. There are several other twists and turns in this film, and I actually quite enjoyed the ending.

It's not a bad film by any means. But I felt disappointed for many reasons. One is the casting, which is pretty off-key in my opinion. It looks "impressive" - Tilda Swinton, Vincent D'onofrio, Vince Vaughn, Keanu Reeves and Benjamin Bratt, but I think the characters would have been more believable had they not cast relatively well-known actors. Tilda Swinton, as good an actress as she is, I find very hard to believe as a suburban american mom. She's too elegant! And I can't help imagining her as Orlando.....

It's a bit of a shame, because the parents are pretty interesting in this film. Usually their stories are ignored in coming-of-age type films, but I think it would have been more succesful if the director had cast unknowns.

Another thing I found really irritating, was the camera work in "Thumbsucker". Nearly every shot kinda floated across the screen, which I found really distracting and obvious. Don't know what the point was, but it really gave me the shits.

I also found the score to be really off-putting. Most of it was the Polyphonic Spree, and a bit of Eliot Smith. But I found it really grating at times.

Whilst thinking about the film this morning on the way to work, I was reminded of my own habit of sniffing when I was a wee fella. By that, I don't mean sniffing glue or chroming, but just this little habit I had for about a year of sniffing like my nose was dripping or something. Not that it was. I think I sniffed throughout the 4th grade, it would be happen every second or so! At the time I was totally unaware of this quirk, but it drove Mum insane. She would often ask if anyone I sat next to in Primary school complained about my sniffing. Of course, 8 yr old boys don't care, so my sniffing lasted for quite a while :)

At some point it stopped, but I don't even remember when or how. I wonder why it even began?

I made someone cry last week

The Bat Mitzvah video is chugging along quite nicely....it's probably been 3 weeks since I started it. Yay, I am back in the land of longform drama. Sort of.

Anyway, young Jon at work is the apprentice designer working with me on this, and we've had fun collaborating on the jewish princess's home video. The dad came in on Tuesday morning to have a squizz, and while the video was playing on my computer, I snuck a peak in his direction and saw tears rolling down his face! He turned to us after it finished playing. Said that he loved it rah rah rah.......Snaps for Andy and Jon!!!!

I told Angus, the producer at work who put me on this job how the dad reacted, and he said "That's why I wanted you to edit it! I knew you could make him cry and get all emotional you big queen! You've got the emotional and romantic sensibility to create that type of video!" (NOT his EXACT words, but you catch my drift...besides, a bit rich being called a queen from dear Angus! There's actually 3 of us poofs at work - Gus, who takes the 40something senior position, yours truly covers the 30somethings - although LOVELY Sandra our new receptionist told me she thought I was 26! :) - and young Jon, who is the baby at 22. Oh there's also Grant, our IT guy who comes in now and then - he's late 30s I think, and is probably reading this entry...Hello Grant)

Anyway, not sure how I should take his comments *laugh*, particularly the romantic bit, as all of that crap seems to have been drained from my being thanks to He-Who-Shall-Remain-Nameless :)

Speaking of soppy video montages, I need to get my arse into gear and begin my niece's Christmas video!

4-Eyed Piece of Shit

That's what I was called tonight, as I left work and was walking towards my car to drive home.

At around 8.15pm I could see an old man walking in the opposite direction to me, and he was muttering to himself quite loudly. As I got closer, I heard him say something about "Fucken Kiefer Sutherland in 24...." (!) and I thought to myself, "damn - I should have crossed the road (even though my car is just metres away)". I also wondered what he was going on about, in regards to Keifer..........So anyway, as he passed me I tried to avoid eye contact but it was like watching a car crash and I could see he was already looking in my direction, and as we passed he said something like "Yearrrhhhh, you too you farkan 4-eyed poice of shit mutter mutter....". I could see he was one of the locals from the housing commission terraces around my work, quite possibly intoxicated, so I decided to ignore him.

It's the first time, I've copped abuse from a local resident since I re-joined the company I work at. About 6 years ago, I was spat at by a local from their balcony as I walked past below towards work. The sprog didn't hit me - thank god - but I knew it was aimed at me because I heard a voice say "Fuck off back to your own country". When I looked up to see who it was, they had gone back inside their terrace.

These slurs are quite rare these days (compared with what I copped at school on a daily basis), and in fact, tonight I was half-expecting the old guy to throw in a "gook" or "chink" reference, but he didn't. He just attacked my lack of perfect vision.

Anyway, as I drove past him, down the street, I opened my window and yelled out "Get fucked!!!!". He heard me too.

:)

Bar Mitzvah

this is quite funny, but really a bit stressful, as the next job i have is to edit a a 3 minute video for a 12 year old girl's Bar Mitzvah video!!!!!

the job is a proper-paying gig at work, as the client is some bigwig with lots of $$$ to pay for a professional video to be made for her.

now the stressful thing is that I have to wade through 26 hours of home video footage!!!!! yikes!!!!!

and edit that down to an emotional 3 minute piece on the girl's first 11 years!!!!

and I have 1 week to do it!!!!

thankyou, I might go into cardiac arrest right now....