Saturday, May 24, 2014

Tentang Seseorang yang Tidak Sempat Memakan Apelnya Pagi Tadi

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Apples Weekly #1: Makan Apel

Bangun kesiangan, terburu-buru berangkat ke kantor, aku bahkan lupa membawa apel yang semestinya kumakan sambil menunggu kereta api. Aku sudah mencucinya, lalu entah bagaimana tertinggal di meja. Lalu aku sadar penyerantaku juga tidak ada di saku maupun tas.

Beginilah nasib bujangan, tidak ada yang mengingatkan untuk membawa apa-apa, apalagi memberiku cium selamat pagi.

Tapi kesendirianku akan berakhir bulan depan. Karena itulah aku pindah ke rumah yang sedang kucicil, meninggalkan kosan yang berjarak lima menit jalan kaki dari kantor.

Teringat cincin yang kusimpan di lemari kamar membuatku tersenyum sendiri. Untung kereta sedang memasuki stasiun, jadi perhatian semua orang tertuju kepada ular besi itu.


Thursday, May 22, 2014

X-Men Days of Future Past: Story of Renewed Past

6 comments:
Keywords: action, sci-fi, super power, time travel
Audience: 13+ (under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian)
Violent content: some blood and severed limbs (mild visualization)
Sexual content: almost nudity (not only Mystique)

Warning: you may think this review contains mild spoilers (although I don't think it does)

I'm not a big fan of X-Men, but I like it enough that I'd been looking forward to Days of Future Past (DOFP). And I heard that it would be Jackman's last time playing Logan/Wolverine.

I rarely watch movie trailers (I hate them, in fact), so my expectation was build up upon my own assumption from random stuff I found on internet about DOFP. I thought that somehow the older team and the younger (past) team would meet and work together against a massive danger. It turned out that only one character does the time travel (doesn't need an expert to guess who, this poster is obvious).



Friday, May 16, 2014

About Beauty and Why I Gave Up On It

4 comments:
I am not what beauty products and tv shows would refer as beautiful in their campaign. Dark skin, curly hair, too wide eyes, big round face, wide forehead are not listed in the stereotypical features of beauty. At least that was the trend during the first 20 years of my life (still apply for most of them nowadays, though).



Some of you might think it's ironic that a supermodel was who make me finally understand that I am indeed beautiful. But it was Tyra Banks and her American Next Top Model who showed me that women who look like me could be approved as very beautiful by those who are most critical about visual beauty.

And when I believe I'm beautiful, I decided to cover it.

I am a muslimah (feminine noun for "someone whose faith is Islam"). In Quran, muslimahs are instructed to cover their heads with veils (khimar) and their bodies with loose clothes (hijab). However, I don't wear them only for Allah. I wear them also for myself and all women in this world.


Friday, May 9, 2014

Locke: Redeeming a Grave Mistake

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Keywords: family, baby, mistake, construction, driving
Audience: 13+ (for some language and a subtle recollection about sex)


Warning: this review contains mild spoilers.

Yesterday I saw Locke on Blitz--it had to be Blitz because 21 didn't screen it. It's a movie I'd been looking forward to since watching its trailer before Wind Rises. I'd known it would be a 90-minute with Tom Hardy and he would be the only person seen on screen. I'd known he would have phone calls that would drive the story.

Well, I just hadn't imagined that those would be all I'd get in the movie. I'd expected a few dangerous maneuvers, even one simple danger, when he was driving. But there was none.

However, it's a good movie with a story-telling different from others. You might want to see it while it is still available on Blitz.

flicksandbits.com


So, Tom Hardy was Ivan Locke, a construction director at the peak of his career. When he started driving, he was nine hours away from a giant project: more than 200 trucks would come to the building site to pump concrete material for the building's foundation. His coworkers relied on him because his works had never been anything but perfect. Yet something called him to go, something more important than the biggest project of his career life.

"It's a family matter," said Locke to one of his coworker by phone.

It's not death. In fact, it's about life. He's going to have a baby and he had to see it. He decided to make sure that the baby know him and he was adamant to be responsible of the baby. The mother of the baby was not his wife.



Why did the woman go through with her unplanned pregnancy? She was a lonely woman, too old to hope for a baby. She thought it was her last chance for happiness.

Why was Locke risk everything to be there for his baby? He could come after his project was completed.

While the woman was a believable character, Locke was very deep. The foundation of his character was very solid. His decision rooted from his past experience in life. And the way he run things, both everyday and all the way in the journey to set things right, was the only way expected from such a person.

His family, his job, his soon-coming baby. Ivan was trying to make everything right, because something had been not right in his past.

His lovable sons, his bad-mouth but trusty coworkers, his way of talking (and cursing). Those are what will keep you engaged to this movie.

The pressure, the suspense, the tears...

All and all, Locke tells you a story about family and responsibility. It's about putting your best effort to redeem your mistake, however dire the consequence is.

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