DIA.LO.GUE

you know, to see that you’re fine.

and leaving me struggling to get my peace of mind back

without having any chance to curse you in 5 different languages in front of your face.

but i won’t beg.

i won’t beg for answers.

i won’t beg for chance to curse you.

i won’t beg for your time.

nor your understanding.

i won’t beg for anything.

no more.

I used to refuse to watch any debate between climate-change deniers and any sane person on earth. I didn’t want to see the reality, I guess. I didn’t want to see how stupid a human being can be. I mean, I still wanted to believe that none of us can be that bad.

But then the “mightiest” nation on earth was withdrawing from Paris Accord.

So I decided to watch those abomination videos and I can’t help but being awed by how ignorant and stupid a human can be. I guess it’s true then, there are two absolute infinities that we, mankind, know: the universe and human’s stupidity.

I hear it all the time, “follow your dreams, listen to your heart.”

Well, what if my dream is to inherit some obscene amounts of wealth? What if my heart tells me to rob a bank for living? What if all I want to do in this life is to dodge taxes, pull off elaborate heists, and spend my nights in wild displays of debauchery? What then?

It’s a double standard, really. It’s more like, “follow your dreams... as long as your dream falls within pre-determined range that was decided by other people.”

ps : do you know that a simple sentence like “you’re not talented enough” can scar a person for life, like, it’ll make them believe that they’re indeed not talented enough for the rest of their life? And then, there will be a pent-up resentment in their heart that they won’t be able to tell anyone. And all that they can do is doing some strange wailing and going to some weird places in their head to escape.

Well, depends on how you see it. But if I may say, then yes, it’s a happy ending. The film is a love letter for those who dream to begin with after all. It’s a love letter for the city that gives people dream. And it’s a love letter for the dream itself.

La La Land is not a love story; it’s a story about love. A love for dreams, a love for passions, and a love for the way you see the world. Mia and Sebastian managed to make their dreams come true. What could they ask for more? Yes, they could ask for different scenario where all is well for them. But is that what they really want?

Anyway, I really like the movie.

...although I still like Whiplash more. In my defense, La La Land didn’t give me teeth-gritting tense like Whiplash did to me. Whiplash didn’t have any action scene, god heaven’s no; but it gave the audience the sense of urgency to care about the main character. La La Land doesn’t have that compelling characters. A passionate pianist who tries to protect what he loves the most with such passion and an aspiring actress who steps on ragged path to make her childhood dream comes true; interesting, but not that compelling to me. Without its musical numbers, dare I say that La La Land is just a good movie. 

I really love Arrival

The movie was smart, witty, and very beautiful looking. The music scoring was terrific and the actors did a very great job; Amy Adams was very talented and enchanting like always and Jeremy Renner was cheeky and, yet, very well-liked and Forest Whitaker... well, he’s Forest Whitaker; he’s always good.

It was the first time I watched a sci-fi movie that approached from linguistic-perspective. It was a smart and sophisticated sci-fi movie that asked about some big questions and did its best to answer them. There weren’t many action scenes in the movie, but it still managed to make me sitting at the edge of my chair with anticipation.

One of many things that hooked me was the music score. I always love music score that... I’m not sure how to describe it, but sometimes I didn’t quite like a music-score that  overdid the orchestra and didn’t gave the audience some silence to comprehend the situation. Am I making any sense? Anyway... Arrival’s scoring was really great. It wasn’t over-the-top, it was perfectly right.

And I love Jeremy Renner’s character. Well, I love Jeremy Renner in general, so... yeah. I’m not even sure why. I think it’s because he has this second-lead aura... you know, the kind of actor who seems more fit as a side-kick, not the hero. I mean, I don’t mean to insult because it takes talent to be able to play a side-kick. And I always love that kind of character because most of the time, second-lead is much more human and relatable than the main lead.

But I digress.