costa rica was beautiful, amazing, eye-opening, and so many other great adjectivies. many tears were shed, life was evaluated, goals were made, fun times and great conversations were had, and many many intriguing and amazing people are now my friends. i would say a great vacation.

on the first day of my vacation i finished the book into the wild. this book spoke to me in volumes. i think the time and place in which i read it was perfect. i can see it meaning less if i wasn't about to depart on a journey in a country which i'd never been to before to rediscover myself and figure out what i'm doing in life. on the last day of my vacation i watched the film version. emile hirsch says a line in the film during his portrayal of chris mccandless that really hit me. he says "The core of mans' spirit comes from new experiences." i will remember this whenever i'm feeling stagnant and stuck and it will breathe the life back into me.

i watched many movies upon my return to the states and seclusion in north carolina.

diggers
the kingdom
no country for old men
enchanted
fracture
the pursuit of happyness
pirates of the caribbean: at world's end
we are marshall

scout niblett (featuring will oldham) - kiss

goodness, i missed the whole month of november. how did that happen? tomorrow i leave for costa rica to visit my good friend lizzie, and then i'll be home for christmas for a bit. it's exciting to finally go on vacation and to actually go back to north carolina for more than four days. yet strange at the same time to be away from austin for a whole month. i will miss salad.



a bit of an update on some films to check out:

superbad
hilarious! ever since knocked up i've been on a crude humor movie kick. judd apatow and company are great though!

hannah and her sisters
this was our thanksgiving movie. we watched it after eating an enormous meal, and it's one of my favorite woody allen movies now. i did a lovely job at choosing this one.

paris, je t'aime
love love love this film! it's a must-see in my book, and i hate that term.

la vie en rose
another french film that i loved. edith piaf was a character and this film did a lovely job at portraying her life and career.

bright leaves
a man's journey following his family lineage through the north carolina tobacco industry. a doc that made me miss my homeland and inspired me to return to the idea of making a film about my family (an idea that will never come to be an actual project).

east of eden
a classic.

my country, my country
an iraqi look at the war on terror. very enlightening.

alpha dog and zodiac
two more mainstream films that i enjoyed also.

wah-wah

paris is burning
this film was very informative and interesting. it's about the balls in nyc in the 80s, when the transgender and gay population competed in "vogueing" and other categories for huge trophies.

the road to guantanamo
an excellent film by michael winterbottom, one of my favorite current directors.

zoo
a beautiful yet extremely hard film to watch. the subject matter is hard to swallow but the photography keeps you intrigued throughout the film.

i have been in mexico for the past couple of days. i am down here visiting my mom and brother and their significant others. not that they live here, we are all on vacation. they are just down here for a longer amount of time than me. watching movies in the room is strange. we are in cabo san lucas, and we have hbo in our villa. everything is in mono sound and has spanish subtitles. it is hard to watch and i tend to just read the subtitles even though i dont speak or know any spanish.

so far, i have been sucked into:

annapolis

rent

knocked up
a dvd brought by my brother.

for the past few days i've been going to screenings at the austin film festival. most of the films i've watched have been very well done with the exception of one film about zombies. it was like blair witch hung out with 28 days later and made a ugly baby. here's a list of the films that i loved.

juno
a hilarious film about teen pregnancy. written by diablo cody and directed by jason reitman (thank you for smoking). this movie is witty, charming, and i want to watch it over and over again because i know that i didn't catch all the great lines the first time.

lars and the real girl
i loved this film. yes, i'm biased a bit because i have a soft spot for both ryan gosling, paul schneider and patricia clarkson, but this is a sweet, original film. lars develops a delusional disorder in which he believes he is having a relationship with bianca, a girl from eastern europe that is devoted to god. the catch is she is a life-sized sex doll. to help him recover from his delusion the community embraces the situation and takes bianca in even though she isn't real. everyone gives a great performance and it's probably gosling's best yet. the production design is also cohesive in conveying the lonely, gloomy mood of the film.

the cake eaters

reservation road

in search of a midnight kiss

the living wake
brilliant, hilarious, original. i've never seen a film like this. the production design is amazing. writer/actor mike o'connell is a true character. the film inspires to be a period piece but not at the same time. if you get an opportunity to see this film, go watch it. you won't regret it.

american fork

starting out in the evening

don't eat the baby: adventures at post-katrina mardi gras

and a couple from netflix:

a summer's tale

head in the clouds

evening
not exactly what i thought it was going to be, but i enjoyed it nonetheless. it's a film with a great cast of women and a very interesting way to tell a story. you have a mother who is dying and remembering a mistake she made many decades ago. then you have her daughters dealing with a dying matriach and figuring out what to do in their lives and coming back together to share this experience and remember their mother.

fur
a beautiful film. if you are a diane arbus fan, you must watch this film. she is one of my main inspirations and this film just made me love her even more. i want to take portraits of everyday people all day long every day. the production designer did an amazing job.

broken english
i throughly enjoyed this film. it hit close to home. now i want to meet my french boyfriend and go to paris and play. plus, parker posey is brilliant in my book.

rocket science

venus

winter solstice

keeping mum

the good german

stranger than fiction