Update on Life as Head Girl Part 2 - the Stage Challenge Edition

Hey guys, sorry for deserting you for two months, but needless to say, I've been a busy wee lass. Last Friday, my school competed in Stage Challenge, which closed out the busiest four months I've ever experienced. So before I tell you about everything, I'll let you know what stage challenge is: an eight minute performance, usually done through dance, where you convey a message. Our performance this year was based around the idea of the dark side of money. The main character (played by my best friend and amazingly talented Cassie) is introduced to a materialistic world, and sees the downfalls of consumerism, losing everything to a world she wanted so much to be a part of. We didn't place in the competition (I may be biased, but we were robbed - we got beaten by dancing kiwi fruit and meningitis dancing to Skyfall of all songs, but oh well), but we got seven awards of excellence for Drama, Concept, Stage Use, Performance Skill, Costuming Character, Choreography and Set Design & Function (we were the only school to win that one so yay!).

I will say something: I've never been so proud of anything in my life. And while I don't like tooting my own horn, I've done a lot to be proud of, but this one takes the top spot. This year, I got to direct the performance and I've been busy sorting everything out for the past four months. I was lucky to have an amazing group of choreographers who came up with the performance, and their dances were far beyond than anything I could have ever imagined. On the night, I sat in the audience crying my eyes out from the moment the performance started. While I've always loved the exhilarating feeling of performing, seeing something you've worked on so hard for so long was the best feeling in the world. Honestly. When we came to the end of the performance - where Cassie commits suicide by falling off the back of the platform (kind of a downer, but that's Dannevirke High School for you, we never do happy, cute endings where the whole cast comes on stage), I just cried and cried and cried. There was an overwhelming feeling of proudness that I'd never felt before, because everything came together so well: the dances were perfect, the costumes were amazing, and the lights finished everything off wonderfully. I also don't think I've ever hugged so many people - or embarrassed myself so much by crying in front of every important figure in the school (the principal, the teachers, the board members). They're probably wondering how I ever got Head Girl now.

When it came to results time, I admit to being guttered about not being placed, but I started crying again because I was just so proud. It may sound cheesy, yet what I learned during this journey was far more valuable than any prizes. Because I've totally lost my good writing talents, I'll just list everything that I learned:

• That time management is the best skill anyone could ever have, and luckily I have that skill pretty downpat. There were lots of rehearsals (we had 18 hours worth of rehearsals over four days, and me and a couple of others worked on the set/performance for 50+ hours in one of the school holiday weeks), but being Head Girl and also working at a place that was extremely understaffed, my life wasn't put on hold for Stage Challenge. Let's just say, I actually did lots of work in all my free periods and school, and even took homework to work to do during my night shifts. Somehow, through all this mess I managed to get an Excellence for a Biology assessment, which is great because Bio is my worst subject. Mind you, I haven't quite caught up on my sleep yet - probably need to go into a coma for a month to do that. The bags under my eyes speak wonders for how much work I've been doing lately.
• Being calm is also a great quality. We had a huge committee with a lot of strong minds, and while I had several down days because of some of the friction caused, when it came down to it, I thought I handled the major problems pretty well. There was one day that was particularly horrible, but we managed getting through it and everything went well in the end. Being able to count to ten and not jump to conclusions was probably the thing that got us all through.
• Stage Challenge is probably the best fitness plan you'll get - even if you're not performing. On the day before the performance, we had a full day of rehearsals, and I don't think I've ever run around so much in my life. Looking back through the photos of that day, all you could see me doing was running through the frame
• I drank too much coffee and bought a lot of food to get me through. Turns out that whole coffee was the best thing ever, I went the last two days without caffeine and I felt perfect. Still, stage challenge started my coffee addiction.
• I've never felt so much gratitude in my life. My co-director Emma was amazing. My choreographers were amazing. My dancers were amazing. My set guys were amazing. Cassie was amazingly amazing. But especially the people who saw all my mental breakdowns behind the scenes - sorry, but thank you. I'm especially proud of our achievements as we did this with no teacher assistance. Which is very different from previous years.

• Most of all - I love directing. I really do. Since I wasn't performing, these pictures of me 'in action' are as close as you're gonna get to seeing me participate in the production. I look like Steven Spielberg. Someone hand me an Oscar.

Before I get into a little photo gallery of the performance, I'll give you an update on me and the movies. To be honest, I've lost interest in movies quite a bit lately since I've been so busy. I only watched 13 movies last month (down from the usual 30), and most of those were rewatches because I can't focus on new movies at the moment. I've just about cancelled my Fatso account because I can't keep up with the two movies I get a month. However, I've been getting quite sentimental over some movies - The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Django Unchained and Silver Linings Playbook recently came out on DVD so I've been recommending them left right and centre. I saw Anna Karenina, which I actually really liked. Joe Wright was very inventive - and it was achingly beautiful. But the movie that is currently my everything is Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby. Yes, I loved it. It was near perfect. The soundtrack is my life. Leonardo DiCaprio was the perfect Gatsby. Elizabeth Debicki was the perfect Jordan Baker. And Baz Luhrmann...wow. If I were to ever be a filmmaker, I'd be pretty much exactly like him. Which is kinda why our stage challenge took after extravagance and such. And probably why I decided that it would be a good idea to put one dance group in bobbed wigs and feather headbands. Yeah, it wasn't inspired by The Great Gatsby at all...

Anyway, here's a gallery of the performance. Thanks to Maxine for being our amazing photographer on the day:

This is our opening scene - three working girls hating life. All set to the tune of 'Money, Money, Money'. Just imagine the lyrics playing out on stage.

The main character gets the idea that the rich life is just what she needs.

This is our 'business dance', which is still set to Money, Money, Money. They basically lure Cassie into the 'rich life', and give her some money so she can go on her way.

With the money she's given from the business people, she's introduced to the materialistic world of excessive consumerism. And yeah, you see the bobs and the headbands...hmmmm, thanks for that, F. Scott Fitzgerald/the perfection of the 1920s. (this scene is set to Money Honey by Lady Gaga)

This is probably one of the biggest reasons as to why we won the only Set Design and Function award - our vault opens, some people come out of it, and then it closes by itself. Well, as far as the audience knows...but man, we did well with that one! Special thanks to Seth and Jared for making that piece of magic.

Yeah hey, my name is Baz Luhrmann.

This is when consumerism kinda bits back. The mannequins are all quite serious and all hate Cassie now, but she's totally oblivious.

This is the business world gone wrong - everyone who has been chewed up and spat out by the demons of consumerism and have learned the hard way that money doesn't buy happiness. This is set to Lux Aeterna from the Requiem for a Dream soundtrack...yeah, I was going for the most depressing song I could find.

This dance - set to Carmen by Lana Del Rey - is the last scene, showing the desolation and loneliness that valuing money over things like family and friends can do.

Not only is this picture perfect, but this was easily my favourite part of our performance - I cried so much because the whole movement went so perfectly.

DHS: bringing you happy endings at Stage Challenge since never.

Now that it's all over, I will say that while I don't miss having to go up to school for 10 hours a day and stuff like that, there's plenty of memories that I miss from Stage Challenge. Like eating Chinese on the set after spending something like nine hours making it, or all the coffee runs, or just being around an awesome group of kids for a few hours. I'd like to say that now Stage Challenge is over, I can get back to blogging - but alas, my life has not stopped being busy yet. If you want to read a blog describing every fabulous facet of The Great Gatsby though, maybe I can help you there?

Anyway - another public thank you to everyone involved with this project - and a public thank you to you guys for making me pass 600,000 hits even though I'm not a regular poster! What's been going on with you guys in the cinematic world these days? How was Man of Steel? How bad was After Earth? How are all the 2013 movies going - because I sure as hell don't know! Let me know in the comments!

Oh Hey There - An Update on Life as Head Girl and What's On My Cinematic Mind

Hey guys, here's a voice from the past (like a month and a half ago or whatever). Does everyone remember me? If you're a little confused about me popping up in your feed/twitter/timeline etc etc etc, when I departed the blogging world on the night of the Oscars I told you it wasn't forever. I may not have blogged all of March, and this will probably be my only post for April but I'm still here, chugging away. The reason? I'm having my first weekend off in like, forever, thanks to a kidney infection which has slightly chucked my life off the rails for the past two weeks. And by that I mean I've been forced to do this strange thing called 'relaxing'. Which basically means that my parents and the doctor force me to stay home and I do more work. Hmmmm.

Anyways, this has been a crazy insanely busy term. I could probably count the amount of free lunch times I've had in the past 11 weeks on my left hand. Not that I'm complaining; I effing love being busy. Well, mostly with the extra-curricular things. School work is just the same as last year. Here's some cool things that happened in the last 11 weeks:

Got my name up the top of the prefects board, which still freaks me out immensely and every time I'm in the hall I admit to staring at it for a minute and wondering if I'm in real life or not. Kind of weird, but there you have it. Also, I'm on the main page of the school website. All these reminders steal freak me out just a little.

In this past week me and my fellow head prefects went to a Young Leaders day, which is where there were five inspiring speakers there to inspire us leaders of the future. I actually felt like a better person for going to it (aside from the fact that I was pretty sick throughout the day), since the quality of speakers was so great. The theme was 'heroes', which was all kinds of awesome because they had a whole lot of references to movies. They even had a whole lot of clips from The Help which almost made me cry. Anyway, movie stuff out of the way, that day was just what I needed after coming off the back off a rough week.

I took some pretty photos a few weeks back. I still like my photography when I get the chance to do it.

I'm hard at work with Stage Challenge with my Deputy Head Girl, Emma (who's birthday is today - happy birthday again girl!), and a team of totally amazing people. We've had a lot of ups and downs but we're finally right on track getting sponsors and getting our performance together. There's under two months to go until show date, which definitely means that I'll be so far removed from this world and my life will be Stage Challenge from here on in.

If there's one thing I've learned this term, it's that support from others has pretty much been the greatest thing ever. It sounds kinda corny but when I can't do twenty things at once there's always someone to do one thing for me. People are amazing.

However, this isn't just a post on my life as Head Girl. While my movie watching has taken a significant drop (by this time last year I was well over 100 movies already, but this year I'm around 80), I've still been keeping an eye on the movie world. So here's ten movie related things that have been on my mind for the past few weeks:

Only God Forgives trailer - There's no way that I can't compare this to Drive, it looks just a great as that. But what I love most, aside from all of the red, is Kristin Scott Thomas looking so badass. I've always loved that woman (does she ever age?), but she looks especially fantastic here. And then there's that slow motion shot of Ryan Gosling in his suit getting ready to beat the crap outta some guy. That's the stuff dreams are made of (okay, the violence isn't really necessary but you get where I'm going).

Jessica Chastain being adorable on Facebook - every time Jessica posts something on Facebook I want to cry. But when she posted this super cute photo of her in front of a billboard showing her YSL Manifesto campaign on the River Seine, I was so unbelievably happy for the entire week. How adorable is she? The perfume is pretty amazing, too - I have a sample that I got last week tucked in my blazer pocket. Birthday present, maybe?

The Bling Ring trailer - I've watched it 500000000 times and I still can't get enough. Sofia Coppola is perfection. Emma Watson looks stunning. Yeah, I can't handle waiting for it.

Spring Breakers - I just wanna see this so bad. Don't ask me why, because I really don't know. It just looks so different and out there. Plus, it didn't help that Alex at And So It Begins was so inspired by the movie that he came up with this awesome FYC for the Lammies.

The Great Gatsby's everything - I have the tiniest feeling that this won't be very good but it is one of my favourite directors adapting my favourite book with my favourite actor playing my favourite character. And there's also my favourite singer, Lana Del Rey, featuring a new song in the latest trailer. To go along with that, the production design looks stunning. One day I'm gonna get rich enough to make a house that has everything in this slideshow. LOL.

Skyfall being more and more entertaining every time I watch it - I wasn't the biggest fan of Skyfall upon it's release and now I finally know why: it is so unbelievably flawed it is actually kind of great. I really don't care that much for the story but Adele's perfect song and Roger Deakins' perfect cinematography (along with sassy Daniel Craig and Ralph Fiennes) are the things I obsess over, and kind of detract from the really stupid decisions in the film.

Brit Marling - I saw Sound of My Voice the other day and I adored it, particularly Brit Marling. I've loved her since I saw Another Earth this time last year, but she just keeps getting better. Can't wait to see The East. I wanna be her.

Garrett Hedlund in On the Road - I'm still yet to read Jack Keruoac's original novel which means I can't really judge last year's adaptation as a whole, but if there was one thing I was impressed with, it was Garrett Hedlund's performance. He was on fire. Definitely one of the best performances of last year outside of Matty M, Logan Lerman and Jessica Chastain.

Matthew McConaughey domination is complete - Speaking of Matty M, he's in Christopher Nolan's latest! Already my most anticipated film for like, ever.

Mary Elizabeth Winstead in Smashed - Another great performance I saw recently was Mary Elizabeth Winstead's turn as an alcoholic in Smashed. Jennifer Lawrence ain't got nothing on that. Where was her campaign?

Schindler's List on Blu-Ray - I finally got my own copy of the 20th anniversary blu-ray of my second favourite film, which came just in time since my original copy has been watched a few too many times. I'm actually too scared to take it out of it's case, it is so pretty.

Roger Ebert - I was so saddened by the loss of Roger Ebert last week that I actually had to stop myself from crying when I found out at school. I've always adored his writing and it was a huge inspiration for many of the reviews you saw here back in the day. Ryan at The Matinee wrote a lovely tribute to him, which pretty much sums up my feelings towards Mr. Ebert. May you rest in peace.

So that's it, folks - I'll probably be back in a few months, but who knows? I'm greatly enjoying 'retirement', but I'll keep you all posted every now and again. Keep an eye on my Twitter and my Tumblr. Until then, everyone stay golden. What's on your cinematic mind, I'm missing these discussions!

If Movie Titles Laid Everything Out For Ya...Part II

Last month, I did a wee post that showed what it would be like if titles were a little more...straight-forward. Just like Salmon Fishing in the Yemen and Man on a Ledge. Because these days, people are so stingy with their money that they need to know exactly what they're in for straight from looking at the front cover. Some people use Photoshop to do this, but I'm using Photoshop to give them the new titles they need. And here they are:

Because Joss Whedon knows how to do things that you don't.

Prometheus...Stevee's Home Musical Style

Much has already been said about Prometheus, so I didn't know how I could approach letting my opinions on the film be known. I realised that I wanted to talk the film out instead of writing about it, because my thoughts on the film are extremely passionate and wayward. That lead to this idea that I came up with earlier in the day: there are so many songs around that could fit some of the scenes in Prometheus. And then I thought, what if it was a musical? So what we have here is a video where I sing you some of the songs I remixed to the movie. Yes, I am singing, and sorry, my voice is pretty awful. I couldn't just write these done, or simply say them...I had to put them to a tune. My facials are pretty spastic, too, but I'm sure you'll be okay with that. In case you were wondering, this is actually how I am every day. (sorry for the smallness of it...something got stuffed up in the upload and I can't be bothered changing it)

Just for the record, this is the rating I'd give Prometheus:

What do you think of Prometheus being a musical? What songs would you put in it?

Random Thoughts I Have While Working at a DVD Store...

You know those good old jobs you have when you're a teenager? Well, as you know, the job I have is coincidentally at the local DVD store. I've been working especially hard these holidays, mainly because I'm saving up for my trip to Japan at the beginning of next year and my beloved laptop needs a new battery. Needless to say, neither are cheap. So in between trying to catch up on sleep and then catching up on the biggest pile of homework I've ever been subjected to, my holidays have been spent at work, where I usually clean shelves - i.e., the worst job in the world (probably not but I do feel like chopping my head off after I've done like, ten minutes of the bloody job). And I often think a lot, about movies in general. So here are the random thoughts I've had in the past week or so:

-Ray Liotta is in a crapload of straight-to-DVD movies. I found Breathless, Street Kings 2, The River Murders and Powder Blue today. For one thing, before we got those movies, I had never heard of them. For another thing, that's a bad thing. But come on, this is Ray Liotta we're talking about. He's the guy in Goodfellas. And Goodfellas was awesome. I'm hoping that Killing Them Softly means he's getting back on track, but then again, he is keeping straight-to-DVD movies alive. 

 -Basically, what Ray Liotta fits into is my self-made club called the "actors playing dress-ups". Now, I have a generally negative relationship with straight-to-DVD movies because we always get so many of them even if they look like (and are) crap. I don't know what these actors are thinking when they sign up to them, so I just assume it is because they wanna play dress-ups. Because they always pop up in these bloody movies. Here's the list, anyway:

Christian Slater (seriously, Christian, I am over seeing you in these films)

Cuba Gooding Jr.

Dolph Lundgren

Bruce Willis

50 Cent (this guy is actually the worst for playing dress-ups)

Val Kilmer

I should be grateful to these guys, though. People always rent their films, so in a way, they're keeping our video store going.

It's All in the Love Triangle...

I often get asked by people who have missed The Hunger Games craze what makes all the teenage girls go wild over it. Most people just know the movie/book as the one about all the kids killing each other. And how  could that possibly be appealing to teenage girls?

And I say that there is one vital ingredient: a love triangle.

You see, The Hunger Games is rich with ideas. There are kids killing each other because the government thinks that it is okay to punish the peasants for being peasants. The higher power like to think they are walking cupcakes. Any moment there could be an uprising.

But no, let's not obsess over all these problems. Let's not even acknowledge them. Because, in amongst all of the futuristic political turmoil, the only thing on the teenaged minds is the obviously really important love triangle between our heroine, Katniss, the man she's thrusted into the competition with, Peeta, and her buddy from District 12, Gale. I personally didn't have a problem with the love triangle in the books. It is kinda sad how Katniss has to pretend to be in love with Peeta so she can survive, but her true love lies with Gale. But the love triangle is so horribly done in the movie...and yet, little teenage fangirls who haven't picked up the book have got their armour and picked their side.

Dark Shadows, or: How Eva Green and Co Went Crazy (Over Nothing)

Once upon a time, I used to be in love with Eva Green. Okay, maybe I pretended to be. You see, when I was 11 (jeez, it is hard to believe that I was once that young), I had a HUGE crush on Daniel Craig. And I hadn't even seen Casino Royale until I'd been 'in love' with him for at least three months. Anyway, through this mini obsession I also decided that I would be obsessed with Eva Green.

And how could you not be? She's insanely beautiful.

Admittedly, I haven't seen that many of her films. I haven't seen The Dreamers, even though I've promised myself all these years that I would. But I have been impressed with her work in Casino Royale, Perfect Sense and even The Golden Compass, to a degree. But then there's Dark Shadows.

Her performance in Dark Shadows is like this whole other beast. In fact, the entire movie is.

So she plays Angelique Bouchard, a witch who was jousted by Barnabas Collins (Johnny Depp) back in the 1700s and made him into a vampire to suffer forever. The guy wakes up in the 1970s, and then he finds out that Angelique is still around, causing all sorts of witchy havoc. Witchy havoc which includes, well...I'm not actually sure. She likes to burn stuff down, yell a lot, bulge her eyes at inappropriate moments. And there's the weirdest sex scene I never knew I needed to see. Now, I have watched four seasons of True Blood, so I am no stranger to the mysterious world of vampire sex. But wow...Eva Green really went for it in this one. I would say that Johnny Depp did too, but he didn't look bothered either way. There was flying around the room. There were weird shots. There was a red snake tongue. While I had my head buried in my hands, somehow Eva Green got even more crazy.

Okay, maybe I'm being harsh on Eva Green. I remember when that awful trailer came out and everyone was posting gifs on their Tumblrs to show their appreciation for the minute or so of footage they'd seen of Angelique Bouchard. I admit, Eva looked like she was doing good. But then you see the movie, and she's just too much. It is nice to see an actress going all out, but the problem is that there's not really enough development behind her character to justify how batshit crazy she is. She's just taking the jealous ex-lover to an extreme level. A level so extreme that it can't even be justified by the fact she's a witch.

However, Eva Green isn't the only one in Dark Shadows who is over the top. There's the case of Chloe Moretz. I'm neither here nor there on the girl. She's like, a year younger than me and has managed to be in movies with Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Jessica Chastain (fun fact: Jessica actually played Chloe's role in a made-for-TV version of Dark Shadows a few years back) and Mark Strong, so yeah, I'd say she's doing pretty well. Dark Shadows shows exactly why most people shy away from these child stars. Chloe plays Carolyn, the teen daughter who is, well, everything you stereotypers can list about your perception of teenagers. The problem is that Chloe is a teenager, which worries me about what she really thinks teenagers are like. I mean, I don't even know what to say about her performance - it is like she's on drugs (don't even get me started on the 'twist'...). Which I suppose they kinda all were back in the 1970s, but case in point, Dark Shadows is a big mess of good actors being given stereotypes and told to go wild. And the problem is, they do. They go absolutely insane on making everything so over-the-top that they lose sight of what actually makes for a good movie. And yet, this has to be one of the most tame films that I've seen from Tim Burton. Which is partly due to the fact that the film is not sure of what it wants to be.

It wants to be a family film. Sticks in a weird sex scene a la True Blood but double the weirdeness.

It wants to be a comedy. Makes it into a big family melodrama.

It wants to be a drama. Still tries to make jokes. That are usually not all that funny.

It wants to be a horror. The 'evil' person is way too insane to be scary.

It wants to be a Tim Burton movie. So it has Helena Bonham Carter in it for like, five minutes so it can be justified as that.

At the end of the day, it had a nice soundtrack. And Michelle Pfeiffer. Who is the only one who seems to keep herself on the ground.

What did you think of Dark Shadows? Did you love or loathe Eva Green? Was Chloe Moretz the perfect teenager?

If the Titles Laid the Whole Movie Out For Ya...

In the past couple of weeks, we've been blessed with two movies that have very straight-forward titles: Salmon Fishing in the Yemen and Man on a Ledge. From those titles, you can instantly guess what the movie is going to be about. So I wondered, what would happen if this happened for a whole lot of other movies? Hmmmmm? Of course, I had to whip out my funny cap and Photoshop and come up with these gems. Advertising would be a whole lot easier if they had these titles.

Coming at you straight from "Biopic Pity Parties for Oscars", in association with "Meryl Streep Guarantees Oscars".

Little Shop of Horrors...

Hey. I have my life back. I actually had to take a moment to breathe in the fresh air yesterday and let the fact sink in that there's no more Little Shop of Horrors. No more rehearsals. No more shows. No more watching people getting gobbled up by Audrey II. I've been in many productions before, and have experienced this same feeling. Surprisingly, though, unlike those other productions, I haven't really complained about the amount of rehearsals I've had to go to. No, life as an assistant director was pretty alright.

This story really begins back in March when my drama teacher said that I could direct the school production. Best day of my life. Alas, the school decided that they didn't want a production (if we were playing rugby on stage or something, it would have happened in a heartbeat), and thus my world pretty much came crashing down around my ears. Thankfully, my drama teacher offered me the chance to help out with Little Shop of Horrors. So back in June, I gave up a lot of my spare time to do just that, and I don't regret it at all. It was aces. I even got to direct my own scene (the scene in which Audrey gets eaten), which was pretty fun.

There's not really a lot I can say here because many of you didn't see it. And hell, I wish you could (if you live in NZ though, you might be in luck). Well let me tell you that it was just a really good time. The rehearsals were mostly good. There were a few dropouts, but everything fell into place. I had to even be Audrey once. Which meant singing. And of course, my singing skills don't venture too far outside the shower and my vocal range is the size of a pea but I managed. I do admit that I missed being on the stage quite a lot. I love performing. Even if I can't sing my way out of a paper bag. However, this hasn't really deterred my over-ambitious and stupid want to be a director. Unfortunately, school has, and now I'm destined to be something really boring. Directing was fun, and I'd like to do it again. Who knows when that will happen, though?

So now I'll just share some photos. Other photos are either on my Facebook or here. All the show photos were taken by me, so don't misuse them. Otherwise I'll be after you!

Being a Teenager Through the Eyes of Stevee

Unfortunately not as interesting as "Being a Teenager Through the Eyes of Hanna, Teenage Assassin"

What follows is a mess of a post. Because that's what being a teen is all about...

If there is one thing that I loathe more than anything in this world, it is the idea of a hipster. The people who think they're too cool for the mainstream, and make a habit to tell you so by degrading whatever slice of mainstream pie you like. Teenagers seems to think that this is the pathway to being cool. No matter what, mainstream can still be cool. However, while I was out walking my dog today, I came to some strange conclusion that, well...

Being hipster is now extremely mainstream.

And then I realised, what even was a hipster? It is all about the corners we back into. And those corners are pods on the internet. I belong to many different pods, each of which have a lot of different people, who have very different ideas of me and the things I like.

Let's start with Facebook, and the every day people that fill the world that I really inhabit. I'm not going to get into your average discussion about high school stereotypes, because truth be told, there isn't really a lot of that going on in New Zealand (not from my experiences, anyway). I could say the simplest thing about film, such as The Social Network is directed by David Fincher, and I've had people reply "oh my gosh, you know so much about movies." This is one of those situations best described by those "What society thinks I do, What teachers think I do, What I actually do..." memes that were going around the internet a while back. When people ask me what I'm doing and I reply "oh, I'm just blogging", here's the basic rundown:

What society thinks I do: Write graffiti with punctuation. Thanks for that, Contagion.
What teachers think I do: Not homework. But I do homework when I have to, thank you very much.
What my parents think I do: Talk to people on Facebook.
What I think I do: Write Roger Ebert worthy stuff, which also make you roll on the floor laughing.
What I actually do: Write messy thinklings like this and then rave about Ezra Miller even though he has nothing to do with anything.
What people on Facebook think I do: Reblog photos on Tumblr. 

The "I Love Ezra Miller" List.

Forgive me, I didn't know how I could title this post. Because I don't really have any particular reason to post this post, apart from the fact that I do indeed love Ezra Miller. Okay, so I'm doing this to 'celebrate' the long-awaited release of his debut film Afterschool, which first came out at Cannes in 2008, but has only just come out on DVD here four years later. Heck, I was in primary school when this movie originally came out. Which makes me feel kinda old. Oh well. The film itself didn't really warrant a full-length review from me, but it was worth a few words. So, I guess I can thinly veil what is basically an excuse to write about Ezra with promoting a little seen film. Along with a whole lot of his other little seen films that I think deserve a few words. What we have here is just a random list of all of the films I've seen him in - let's just say that it is a 'timeline' of his rising star status. Because I'm hoping that this guy becomes the next big thing.

Afterschool (2008) - Robert

Afterschool is a strange little film, heralding the feature debut of director Antonio Campos and of course Ezra Miller. Shot on a shoestring budget with a grainy camera, the film takes place in a boarding school, where Robert captures on camera the death of some twin sisters that go to his school. Throughout the film, we see the way everyone reacts to the deaths, before eventually finding out the truth to what really went on. This is a film which has a lot to say, mainly about children and their gadgets, but also the decisions that children make. However, while it has an interesting enough story, the movie wasn't very exciting. It was very much a 'beginners film': endlessly experimental but often losing focus. Which is kind of a shame, because I would have liked to see this film go much further than it did. Ezra's performance was brilliant, though, considering how young he was and how demanding the role was.