Movie Review: Mary & Max (2009)

MOVIE TITLE: Mary & Max
YEAR: 2009
GENRE: Animation/Drama

I wonder if any of you have heard of this movie before called "Mary & Max". If I recall correctly, I don't remember ever seeing this film in local cinemas, nor have I heard about it until I spotted it sitting untouched in a friend's external hard drive. He told me that he'd never seen it yet, but I copied it into my own, out of curiosity.

The film managed to take me by surprise, as I didn't have high expectations for it. If you know me well, very few animated films have managed to impress me, and I am very proud to say that this one has!

Based on a true story, our little tale unfolds in 1976, in the suburbs of Melbourne, Australia, where an estranged 8-year-old girl named Mary Daisy Dinkle, who lived with her emotionally absent father and alcoholic mother with a tendency for shoplifting. Being friendless and completely naive, she decided to randomly pick out a name from the New York phone book and write to the address. Scrolling through the long list of names in the directory, she decided to write to "M. Horowitz". M. Horowitz, or Max, as she learns later on, was an equally estranged man, with Asperger's Syndrome, a condition that renders him unable to physically express his own emotions, as well as perceive emotional facial ques of others. Thus begins a unique correspondence of letters between the two, but not without interruption by several incidences and misunderstandings along the way.

The juxtaposition of monotonous dialogues and narration, as well as the monochromatic colour scheme throughout the whole movie, with a vast array of emotions and symbiotically colourful personality of the characters combined (ironically) truly makes the film an immensely enjoyable one for the literature and art fans alike. And the fact that a monotonous and monochromatic film which features lifeless works of clay is able to stir emotions of the viewers (well, me at least) in such a manner makes the film a true work of art.

The movie will take you through the life of both Mary and Max as two unique individuals, from Mary's naive and querulous thoughts as a child through her ups and downs as she matures into a woman, to Max's monotonous expressions of his experience in life as a social outcast, and his rigid mundane daily endeavours. A truly insightful watch for the viewer seeking artistic and mental stimulation. But be warned, that the movie is not made for every random movie buff. No, this movie is for but the faint of heart, not because of the graphic explicitness (which it has none, if you discount the one scene where Max visualizes himself naked on a desert island; hey, it's just clay anyway), but because of the monotonous 'emo' theme throughout the movie may come as a huge bore to the common movie goer. Yup, you heard me, the movie is "very the emo," and the director, Adam Eliot beautifully brings the viewers into the climax of emo-ness when (SPOILER ALERT!) someone tries to kill him/herself. Truly, the makers of this movies should be crowned geniuses together with the likes of the Wall-E people for successfully drawing out raw human emotions from lifeless patches of clay.

Final words, I would so recommend this movie to all lovers of literature, theatre, fine arts, and art in general. Definitely earns a spot in the list of movies I deem worth watching over and over again.


RATINGS:
Rotten Tomatoes: 90% on the Tomatometer
My Rating: 8.5/10

Here's the trailer:

Don't let the trailer fool you. Take my word for it, it's super emo, unlike what the trailer portrays.

The Signs Of The Durian Season

Picture courtesy of Aesthetic Awakenings

Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come claiming, 'I have durians,' and will deceive many. You will hear of Durians and rumors of Durians, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the season is still to come. Durian lovers will rise against durian haters, and Malaysians against the "Ang-Moh". There will be thumps and thuds in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains.

Then your durian will be handed over at airports and hotels, and you will be hated by all nations because of durians. At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate durians, and many false salespersons will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of substandard durians, the love of most will grow cold, but he who stands firm to the end will feast. And this love of the king of fruits will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end of the season will come.

DURIAN SEASON IS COMING!!!

Burnt Biscuits

*Disclaimer: I want to be this husband, and father. Thanks, William, for sharing this.

When I was a kid, my mom liked to make breakfast food for dinner every now and then. And I remember one night in particular when she had made breakfast after a long, hard day at work.

On that evening so long ago, my mom placed a plate of eggs, sausage and extremely burnt biscuits in front of my dad. I remember waiting to see if anyone noticed! Yet all my dad did was reach for his biscuit, smile at my mom and ask me how my day was at school. I don't remember what I told him that night, but I do remember watching him smear butter and jelly on that biscuit and eat every bite!

When I got up from the table that evening, I remember hearing my mom apologize to my dad for burning the biscuits. And I'll never forget what he said: "Honey, I love burnt biscuits."

Later that night, I went to kiss Daddy good night and I asked him if he really liked his biscuits burnt. He wrapped me in his arms and said, "Your Momma put in a hard day at work today and she's real tired. And besides - a little burnt biscuit never hurt anyone!"

Life is full of imperfect things, and imperfect people. I'm not the best at hardly anything, and I forget birthdays and anniversaries just like everyone else. But what I've learned over the years is that learning to accept each others faults - and choosing to celebrate each others differences - is one of the most important keys to creating a healthy, growing, and lasting relationship.

And that's my prayer for you today. That you will learn to take the good, the bad, and the ugly parts of your life and lay them at the feet of God. Because in the end, He's the only One who will be able to give you a relationship where a burnt biscuit isn't a deal-breaker!

We could extend this to any relationship. In fact, understanding is the base of any relationship, be it a husband-wife or parent-child or brother-sister or friendship!

"Don't put the key to your happiness in someone else's pocket - keep it in your own."

There Is A Life Outside Of Facebook

Ah, Facebook; the social networking site everyone's crazy about. It is the very piece of identification everyone should have, second to their identity cards. If you don't have Facebook, you'll look like an alien to everyone else. It's such an 'in' thing, that even the most stubbornly resistant people on planet earth would eventually succumb to the pressure of having a facebook account.

Contrary to other social networking sites, Facebook is not only limited to youngsters. Instead, it has successfully attracted hordes of users of all ages, ranging from kids to senior folk. I've heard of kids, as young as the age of SIX, asking for a Facebook account. And like it or not, we all dread the very day we'll see our parents/grandpatents sends us a friend request. Time to time, we would see a random teenager's status update reading something like this:

"Oh no! My mother sent me a friend request. Should I accept?"

or,

"My grandma is the coolest grandma on earth! She has Facebook!"

Excuse me, since when did Facebook become the pre-requisite for 'cool'? And what's with the surprised expression, like the world is ending tomorrow, when someone tells you he/she doesn't have a Facebook account? Please la, guys and girls. There IS a life outside of Facebook. Your virtual cow named Bessy on Farmville won't die even if you don't feed it for one day.

Okay, maybe it will.

But even if the cow dies, it shouldn't be such a big deal like everyone makes it to be. What's the point maintaining a virtual farm anyway? Honestly, I've been there too (not on Farmville though), playing Facebook games. In the end, we'll only find yourself playing it just for the sake of it without any goals. Some people will die if they don't log into Facebook for a single day. For others, it would seem like a huge sacrifice to make if they spend time with you instead of killing that Mafia boss from Timbuktu in Mafia Wars. It would be such a big deal to them until they would say, "Hey, I didn't log into Mafia Wars today because I attended your party, OKAY?!" Pfft! Big deal.

And you know what else I don't get?

Why is Facebook like the centre of the world to everyone? ESPECIALLY THE RELATIONSHIP STATUS?! I don't get the whole it's-not-official-unless-it's-on-Facebook nonsense. I've heard people gossip, "Hey, this so-and-so are officially together!"

And when I ask why 'official'?

"Because they just updated their statuses on Facebook!"

Come on lah, you mean all that holding hands, smoochy-moochy, lovey-dovey thing they do before that was not 'official'? And the best part is when I update people about other mutual friends, like, "Hey, did you know so-and-so are getting engaged?"

They'll ask: "Did you find out about that on Facebook?"

"No, I TALKED to them."

At the back of my head: "In case you don't know, it's something that normal people have been doing since the dawn of mankind."

I'm not saying that Facebook as a bad thing. It is actually very useful to keep in touch with old friends, communicate, share photos and stuff. But for goodness' sake, don't let it suck the life out of you!

People shouldn't take Facebook so seriously; it's not the whole world. For those of you who don't know, there IS a life outside of Facebook!

Thinking Of Changing My Blog Title

I need your take on my blog title. Thus far, I feel that the blog title doesn't really reflect the contents of the blog.

I have therefore came up with a proposal for a NEW BLOG TITLE:

"TO MAKE THE SHORT STORY LONG..."

I think this new title would suit my "cheong hei" personality and posts more than the previous title, and this new title is very... me.

What do you think? To change or not to change?

Amalkan Gaya Hidup Sihat, Perut Buncit Takkan Dilihat!

It's now my third month back in Penang, the food paradise. And after a year being away, I felt like diving into a pool of Char Koay Kak once I set foot on Penang soil. To top off my cravings for tasty Penang food, it also happened to be the Chinese New Year week, which means more good food, therefore, even harder to resist.

Char Koay Kak - Picture courtesy of http://www.foody.my/

To make the short story long...

It comes to no surprise, then, that I managed to pack on a whopping 3 kilograms within the first week! But it didn't really bother me much, coz hey, it is Chinese New Year after all, right? I continued feasting like nobody's business after Chinese New Year without bothering about my expanding tummy.

Until one day...

I was preparing to go for my interview, and was browsing through the options of clothes I can wear. And guess what? All my nicer formal clothes, which I previously looked good in, couldn't fit! I looked like an uncle with a potbelly in those shirts! In addition to those, the buttons from two of my shorts came off (I'm currently sticking to elastic waist shorts for the time being)! And here's the final blow: ALL my formal slacks couldn't fit! I kid you not, it was worse than The Incredible Hulk wearing Bruce Banner's pants!

At least The Hulk could fit into those pants. Aye, that's the rub.

Picture courtesy of www.microwaves101.com

Thanks be to The Good Lord Almighty that I tried these on a good few days before the interview. So on the following Sunday, I set out on a quest for a new pair of slacks.

Alright, now on to the main point. I finally realised how... err... fat... I've become, gaining a total of 6 kilograms in 3 months, that I've finally decided to...

...are you ready for this?

EXERCISE!

*all the fat people gasps*

Yup, you heard me! I finally went for my first round today at my housing area, which happens to be an ideal spot for an all-round training. By all-round, I meant that it's a good place for all round shaped people like myself to train. The housing area I live in happens to have a fair distribution of leveled surfaces as well as steep surfaces, so you can have the option to walk, jog, hike or do all three - like I did. But I didn't stretch properly! =( And being flat-footed, improper stretching of the feet can lead to painful consequences. I ended up with a mildly swollen right foot, but that will not stop me from going at it tomorrow! An additional motivation to me exercising, is that Pippy Duck also needs to train for her upcoming mission trip, so I won't have any excuse for skipping training for at least 2 months.

I initially thought of documenting my daily/weekly progress on the blog, but the thought of snapping pictures of my ugly, flabby body would give you readers the nightmare that is worse than the Nightmare On Elm Street. And photographing my progress with a shirt on would not really do the trick. What do you guys think? To bare it all for the camera or not? Personally, I'm more inclined to 'Nay', but I would like to hear your opinions on this. Leave me a comment and let me know if you'd like to see my half-naked body on the blog.

I'm gonna end now with this story:

Not too long ago, I had a friend come up to me and tell me: "Reuben, you need to exercise! You're out of shape!"

I replied: "I'm not out of shape! Round is a shape."

P.S.: whydoihaveafeelingthattherewillbepeoplewhowilltellmetopostuppicturesofmyflabbystomachsotheycanmakefunofme?

Question: If A Christian Has A Bad Relationship With God, Is He Still A Christian?

We often hear Christians say: "Christianity is not a religion; it's a relationship."

But if a Christian has a bad relationship with God (i.e. they don't communicate, frequently disagree, and he deliberately goes against Him), can he still call himself a Christian?


Do share with me your thoughts on this by leaving me a comment here. I have thoughts of my own too, but I'd like to hear yours before I tell you mine.

New Layout, Baybeh!!!!

It's been about a month since I started this blog, and WOW, I never knew that quite a number of you are reading and following this. So, I would like to firstly express my heartfelt gratitude to you... yes, YOU! The one reading this. I'm talking to you! THANK YOU!

Now on to serious matters, I'VE GOT A NEW LAYOUT FOR MY BLOG, BAYBEH! *Does a nerdy dance* Yup, as you can see, I've decided to give me blog some personality! Not that my previous layout had no personality, but I think this would suit me better, no? Sadly, I forgot to copy a picture of my old layout before I saved this new one... darned it!

I would like to hear from you guys, about your opinion on this new layout. Do you prefer this one, or the last one? Do leave me a comment here (Facebook is alright, but I'd prefer that you comment here) and tell me if you love or hate this new layout.


'til I hear more from you guys,

May the fourth be with you.
(For those of you who don't get this, look at the post date)

Buy My Brand New iPad For Only RM1000!

As most of you know, I'm not exactly a very big fan of the latest gadgets. Most of you would know that the phone I currently use is only worth 20 bucks if someone were to buy it from me. I've never owned an iPod, PSP, iPhone, BlackBerry or any other trendy gadget you can ever name. It's just not me, to chase after these petty things.

However, I've recently had some extra money to spare, and decided to buy myself an iPad. Sort of like a birthday gift to myself. I was so stoked about having this new gadget, that I forgot to eat dinner before heading home. Yeah, finally I am a proud owner of a cool and trendy gadget! Now, my friends will not call me old-fashioned, but ogle enviously at my new gadget. I ripped open the packaging like it was the Berlin Wall that separated me from my iPad.

But upon seeing the iPad, my face turned downcast faster than a fat kid who dropped his ice cream. I felt like I've wasted my savings on something totally useless, because I couldn't figure out how to use it. Being so far behind time, I've actually lost track of how technologically advanced Apple products have become. They said that you can have hours of fun with an iPad, and that it was the must-have item of today, but I just couldn't figure out this thing.

Therefore, after much struggle figuring out this thing called an iPad, I finally decided to give up and sell it off. It is still in mint condition, except that the packaging is torn. Other than that...

No scratches, no damage.

Still.Brand.New.

Why am I selling it so cheap? Well, I just don't want to look at it anymore, because it just reminds me of how I foolishly wasted my money on a gadget I can't even use.

So, for those of you who are dying to own an iPad, this is your golden opportunity. Just leave me a comment here and your contact number as well and I will get in touch with you as soon as possible.

Here is a picture of my iPad (scroll down):

The instructions said to "just plug it in, and you're all set."

But plug it in where??