Entre Les Murs (The Class)

On Tuesday, January 27, 2009, I went to see the movie Entre les Murs (The Class). This was the film that won the palme d'or at the Cannes film festival.

The story is about M. Marin, who's a French teacher at a French college (in France). This is equivalent to high school here, I believe. The students are in Grade 9, or Secondary III.

The movie shows a year that M. Marin has with a group of his students... His struggles, his triumphs (few, I think), him being tested by his students, and certain incidents in class, and where he stood on them in comparison with his other colleagues.

I enjoyed this film tremendously, as a teacher, because I can relate to M. Marin, his struggles, etc., as I see these problems in my high school classes as well. Granted of course, I probably didn't seem them at the level that he does, but I still see these issues. Of course, his issues reminded me so much of my old school.

Milk

On Tuesday, January 20, 2009, I went to see the movie Milk, featuring Sean Penn and a few other big names (like James Franco).

The movie is about Harvey Milk, San Francisco's first openly gay supervisor in the Castro. This film talks about his many failures to run for office before he successfully achieves his dream. It is also about his political activism for gay rights. At the end of the movie, there was no "This film is inspired by true events", so I'm thinking that this is a relatively correct representation so it could be considered a biography, though I do tend to take films like that with a grain of salt.

This film was very well done though, even though I am not a huge fan of Sean Penn. He was okay in this!

A morning of drama followed by an afternoon of cell phone drama

My goodness, I think this is better than a soap opera. Passions, eat your heart out!

Yesterday morning, on January 18, 2009, *Raoul and *Rupert wanted to go and work out and do my class. So, I called them in the morning to verify that they were coming, and left enough room so that after their dawdling, I would get to the gym on time. After my last experience with Rupert stopping at a particular Tim Horton's to get mocca and two breakfast sandwiches, I learned from that lesson. It turns out that Rupert couldn't find his shorts, and so we had to go to his house to find them. Then, after a couple minutes of searching, he changes his mind and decides not to go work out at all.

It gets more soap opera-esque. In the afternoon, Raoul, my friend and I go to brunch. During our meal, we get a phone call from Rupert stating that his new Ipod, the one that he just bought (well, he didn't even buy, it was paid for by Rupert, so technically speaking, the one that Rupert just bought) is not working, and he is asking for the receipt because he wants to go back to the store to exchange it (or refund it or something like that). Also, Rupert stated that this had to be done TODAY (i.e. Sunday), because it couldn't wait. Raoul informed Rupert that he was finishing his meal, and he can go and check to see if he had his receipt at home soon. We go home after the meal, and Raoul does not find the receipt. When Rupert calls again, he demands that the Ipod be exchanged - even though no one has receipt. Raoul tried to say that once his credit card bill comes in, he can use that as proof of purchase for the Ipod. That, apparently, is not good enough, as Rupert does not want to wait a month. He wanted his Ipod to picked up immediately so that Raoul could fix the problem. When Raoul informed Rupert that he couldn't pick it up now, because he was already at Best Buy, Rupert got pissy and hung up on Raoul.

At dinner time, Raoul invited Rupert over, and we had a relatively simple dinner. Part of our dinner was having mild Buffalo wings. I think Raoul cooked a full box (so about 30 wings), along with chicken strips and tomato couscous. Let me give you the breakdown of the wing distribution. Raoul had one, I had about six. Guess where the rest went? Also, when Rupert eats wings, he doesn't make sure that all the meat gets eaten. He just eats the centre half (I wouldn't even give 2/3), and the other stuff, he just leaves on the bone.

How does one manage to put up with someone like this, while non dramatic guys like me are perpetually single?

This better have been some really big emergency

Right after the movie, *Raoul checked his cell phone and discovered that *Rupert has sent him four text messages during the movie. So, Raoul calls Rupert back and chats with him for a bit. Turns out that aside from being able to stay the night, and he must be picked up immediately, because Rupert's mother will forbid him to leave the house, he also needed a favour.

It turns out that the favour was Rupert going to some house to pick up a piece of ID for his friend. This ID better be really important for something. That's all I can say. I didn't get to stay for the entire credits, plus, Raoul didn't take the time to defrost the car before going, because he was so afraid that Rupert couldn't come over, and because Raoul is so whipped. I was forced to be in a car that had frost on almost all the windows inside, and I was so afraid of a repeat of last Saturday.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

On Tuesday, January 13, 2009, I went to see the movie The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, featuring Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett.

Wow! This can easily be the best picture winner for the 2009 Academy awards. The premise of the movie is that a baby was born on the eve of the end of the first World War. However, this baby is born old. The father of the baby didn't understand this and took his baby to a local old folks' home. When Benjamin was first born, he had the body like an 80 year old. He had trouble hearing, he needed glasses, and the doctors weren't really sure whether or not he would actually be able to see. The doctors thought that he didn't have much time to live.

However, Benjamin keeps defying the odds, because every year, he celebrates a birthday, so he keeps on trucking! He meets a young lady, Daisy, who's the granddaughter of one of the other residents at the old folks' home. It was love at first sight.

Granted of course there were many twists and turns on both Miss Daisy and Benjamin's lives, we are told this wonderful story about how a couple deals with a relationship under unusual circumstances. This is a must see film, if you're into drama/romance. There were some very sad parts as well. I nearly cried.

Valkyrie

On Tuesday, January 6, 2009, I went to see the film Valkyrie, featuring Tom Cruise. This movie is based on the story about Operation July 20, a plot to assassinate Hitler and take control of Germany.

I don't know how historically accurate this movie is, since at the end, it was stated that some parts were dramatized for the film.

I didn't think that this movie was that great. It wasn't horrible, but it wasn't that great. Tom Cruise's acting was mediocre. There were lots of men in uniform, but that's not the type of uniform I usually enjoy. There were also some guys whom I recognized from The History Boys. There were at least two, I think.

I don't know, I wasn't impressed. Maybe you will be.