Showing 11 - 20 of 20
The ballad of a sad man
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 10/01/2014
» In Inside Llewyn Davis, the ballad of failure proves more tender than the banality of success. His own guitar and somebody else's cat in tow, Llewyn Davis, based on 1960s folk singer Dave Van Ronk and played with hang-dog grumpiness by Oscar Isaac, hops from one stranger's couch to another in New York's pre-Dylan folk scene, looking for a place to sleep and a professional salvation he thinks he deserves (and he deserves it).
Vacant homes and empty heads
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 06/09/2013
» Meet the Spring-break revellers from hell. Sometimes clad in Pussy Riot-style balaclavas, but most of the time in fluorescent bikinis, Faith (Selena Gomez), Candy (Vanessa Hudgens), Brit (Ashley Benson) and Cotty (Rachel Korine) orchestrate the year's most hallucinatory orgy to date, a candy-coloured bacchanalia of robbery, bong parties, contraband firearms, murders and a C-cup binge; all of this lubricated by endlessly flowing booze and a riotous beachside cacophony. Bored kids looking for gratifying oblivion, pushing and pushing and pushing the limit of fun. Spring Breakers is driven by the anxiety of excess, visually and psychologically, showing us how an American-style pursuit of happiness can edge pursuers over the cliff and into the sunshine of hell, where they feel right at home and become even more happy.
Radiohead redux
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 26/07/2013
» Every day Amnarj Sonimsart wakes up at 3am. "That's normal for an 80-year-old," he chuckles. The first thing he does is flick on the TV to catch BBC and CNN; then he checks the stock and oil prices, noting down important fluctuations for later use. At 4.20am _ he states the time with the casual precision of someone who's been following the same schedule without fail for a long time _ his driver takes him from his house in Pattanakarn to the radio station in Lumpini Park ("my daughter forbids me from driving"). At 5.10, Amnarj begins sipping a cup of Ovaltine while scouring the Thai-language newspapers laid out for him, lighting on items of interest and quickly digesting their contents. On the dot of 5.50am, he prepares for a task he's performed for 46 years straight: leaning slightly forward, he gets ready to switch on his mic and go on air.
Teenage Wildlife
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 19/04/2013
» Director Chookiat Sakveerakul has established himself as a specialist in depicting the thrill, the drama and the inevitable disquiet of adolescence. Some of his most memorable characters are young people who're growing up. Especially in The Love of Siam and in the touching first part of his previous work, Home, boys are crossing the threshold of childhood into something else as they still try to grasp its emotional meaning. It's hard being a kid, but it's harder leaving childhood, wading into the jungle of adult feelings, of adult consequences. When in good form, Chookiat has a natural knack for capturing and relating that shaky uncertainty.
Tales to bewitch, Enchant and bemuse
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 21/12/2012
» Ang Lee gives us a phosphorescent whale, blue-neon jellyfish, carnivorous seaweed and a sublime tiger as manifestations of fear, flesh, Vishnu, spirituality, the will to survive, etc. Visually, especially in the oceanic voyage of the boy Pi and his hungry Bengal tiger, this is a gorgeous film (in 3D) as Lee, adapting the Yann Martel book, pushes the tale beyond the realm of teen adventure into existential parable.
Real monkey business
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 14/12/2012
» This is a lovely little kiosk run by lovely little women, and sometimes frequented by lovely little people with an after-school sweet-toothed craving. ChimpChimp Crepes & Co, on the ground level of Le Chateau Mansion in Soi Ekamai 12 next to Ekamai International School, is an enchanting elfin cabin (it would've been perfect were it set by the woods, but alas...) serving warm crepes, silky gelato, crunchy waffles, homemade ice-cream and hot and cold drinks, smoothies and coffee, all in a snug open-air corner of sofas and benches.
Written in the stars
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 19/11/2012
» When Sawalee Pakapan was little, she saw a movie about a young woman who arrives in Hollywood and dreams the Tinseltown dream of becoming a star. The woman, played by Janet Gaynor in the 1937 film A Star is Born, walks down Hollywood Boulevard and, in a moment of reverie, places her own hand on the handprint of a great movie star fantasising that fame would one day ask her to leave her own print on the ground.
The Lottery labyrinth
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 22/10/2012
» For 230 years Thai people have gambled on the lottery _ legit and underground, paper-based and imagination-prone. Along with every discussion of the lottery comes a whole syllabus of tangled subjects: economic value, political manipulation, tax structure, legal philosophy, morality, superstition, national character, the distribution of wealth and luck.
Stone brings out the Savages
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 21/09/2012
» Oliver Stone's Savages is cheerfully cynical, ingloriously basked in the Malibu sunshine and fired up by threesome sex, super-bred cannabis and bong-water bravado. It's lurid, sexy, funny, chaotic, cluttered, and if the grisly violence turns you off then Blake Lively _ playing a very dumb blonde _ and her two beaus (plus John Travolta, pudgy and hilariously nervous) will also chip in laugh-out-loud moments, all the while with the director winking off-scene.
Time capsule unlocked
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 17/07/2012
» Before photographs of people outnumbered the entire population of the world, having one's image captured on film was a privilege, a real cause for pride.