Book Review: The Silkworm (2014)

TITLE: The Silkworm (2014)

AUTHOR: Robert Galbraith (pseudonym of J.K. Rowling)

RATING: 3.5/4

 

~ “‘Someone bloody famous,’ said the hoarse voice on the end of the line, ‘better’ve died, Strike.’” ~

Whenever a series in any medium chooses to release installments which fail to acknowledge past events, especially if it features recurring lead characters. Each story might have a thrilling plot but when it misses an opportunity to chart the growth of these fictional individuals along the way, it feels a little hollow. When an author does seize the chance to do so, it creates a rare and uncommon bond between reader and protagonists, hardly different from dropping in on a group of favourite people once a year and checking up on what shenanigans they have been up to.

The Silkworm is only the second installment in this burgeoning new series created by “Robert Galbraith”— a pseudonym unmasked last year as the secret identity of J.K. Rowling— but it has already taken steps to create a universe in which there is steady progress in the lives of the main characters. The case is quite different from its predecessor, The Cuckoo’s Calling, and it doesn’t rely too heavily on drawing on past events but acknowledging them to have taken place with the right amount of back story before moving along. It might sound like an inconsequential detail, yet it helps make all the difference in creating a familiarity not dissimilar to a certain magic castle in which a bespectacled wizard once kept returning to every year.

In the new adventure of “The Cormoran Strike Novels”, we are plunged back into the world of London and nearing the end of a massive investigation conducted by former war veteran turned private investigator, Cormoran Strike. After the infamous events of the first book, Strike has gone from being homeless and clientless to the mostly highly PI in demand. Following this opening chapter which feels lifted straight out of a James Bond pre-title sequence minus the gunfights and big sequences, Strike is recruited by an elderly lady to search for her husband. The missing person in question, Owen Quine, is a writer who has disappeared shortly after submitting his latest manuscript, Bombyx Mori (translated: a type of silkworm), rumoured to be a masqueraded critiqued attack on several prominent people in Owen’s life. In a tale worthy of Sherlock Holmes, the case takes a nauseous twist when the writer is found dead, murdered in a fashion that would make Jack the Ripper proud. What happens afterwards, I’ll leave unspoken and unspoiled.

The Silkworm is a superbly written, enthralling mystery that spools out with the perfect amount of tantalising suspense and intrigue to keep feverishly turning the pages to the revelation of the killer’s identity while strongly bound together by a cast of characters that leap out of the page with distinct voices and infectious personalities that is traditional J.K. Rowling. It’s also quite witty when you least expect it. The personal lives of Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacott seamlessly blend in with that of the mystery without either component outdoing the other. There are quiet moments in the story: Strike watching a match between Arsenal and Spurs, Robin’s disastrous attempts to get her fiancé, Matthew, and Strike to meet for drinks and a birthday dinner for Strike organised by his sister. Perhaps they might not add up to much but it lends charm and depth to The Silkworm oft-absent in most other novels within the genre. Anyone is in doubt over J.K. Rowling’s skill to craft a fine mystery need only take a look at the books that made her name to understand that she successfully kept an entire world on tenterhooks for a decade with many of the secrets within the Harry Potter verse.

An underlying thematic similarity runs between The Silkworm and The Cuckoo’s Calling. If the murder of Lula Landry took Strike behind the scenes into the unpleasant underbelly that lay beneath the glamour of the fashion and modeling world, then The Silkworm takes a peek behind the curtains at the machinery that is the book industry and its influence on the lives of authors, publishers and literary agencies— territory that J.K. Rowling is no doubt familiar with. In both instances, Strike discovers that fame and fortune comes at terrible prices at times, a thin veneer that barely covers the tumultuous and unpleasant toxicity that keeps it afloat. Perhaps Cormoran Strike Novel #3 might investigate the inner workings of the filming and television industry.

Either way, it is an indisputable truth: J.K. Rowling is at the top of her game and shows no signs of slowing down or running out of creative steam. It is with trepidation and unbridled excitement I look forward to the next adventure— even though the case of Owen Quine is wrapped up with the final pages, seeds of conflict and potential storylines are being sown within the lives of Strike, Robin, Matthew and co. Perhaps they won’t achieve the same level of adoration that the Boy Who Lived and his friends still receive today but it is foolish to assume that Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacott won’t stick around for long. Their work has only just begun.

Must-Watch Animated Films: Part One

The word “animation” bears the unfortunate stigma of immediately and unfairly being associated solely with ‘kiddie fare’. Certainly, most such films are geared towards younger audiences but that isn’t always the case. Animation is simply another medium of film-making.

Now this is NOT a list of non-childish animated features. Nor is it a list of the best animated films ever made. These are simply the ones that I feel every person should watch at least once in their life.

Check back in over the next few weeks to see the later installments!

[Note: this list is in no particular order]

 

• Coraline [2009]

This adaptation from Laika Studios is what happens when you cross Neil Gaiman’s brilliant novella with the delightful mind of Henry Selick. Coraline is Alice in Wonderland but with a darker twist— there’s even a talking cat. The visuals, especially those of the Other World, are riveting and the voice casting, particularly Teri Hatcher as the Mother and Dakota Fanning as Coraline, is pitch perfect. Ultimately, it might have more appeal for an older audience while children may find this a little too disturbing for their liking.

PS: this is one of the rare instances where overall, I prefer the film to the book. Don’t get me wrong, I love what Neil Gaiman wrote but the adaptation was a little better. Go check both out!

 

• The Lion King [1994]

For many people, The Lion King is a symbol of childhood. Objectively speaking, this isn’t the most original story: it is, for all purposes, a Disney take on Shakespeare’s Hamlet but with the standard tropes the company is familiar for: musical numbers, remorseless villains and— what would a Disney movie be without them?!— obligatory sidekicks (good and evil)!

Yet in this film’s case, the clichés— if you will— only serve to enhance the charm: Elton John’s songs are still memorable and possibly the best music written for it, Hans Zimmer’s score is phenomenal (and this was his only Oscar win to date, funnily enough), the casting is impeccable (Jeremy Irons as Scar is outstanding and the animation sublime! It also spawned the immortal motto of “Hakuna Matata”. It means “no worries”.

• Spirited Away [2001]

You haven’t seen animation until you’ve watched a Hayao Miyazaki film.

Spirited Away might look for all intents and purposes like a Disney film— don’t let that fool you for even a second! This is a wonderfully mature tale populated with complex characters and animation so gorgeously detailed it is breathtaking. It’s a children’s tale for grownups and a rare delight. In a completely deserved win, it took home the Oscar for Best Animated Feature in 2001 and it is not hard to see why: Spirited Away easily puts nearly ninety-percent of Disney’s fifty-plus year old filmography to shame!

 

• The Iron Giant [1999]

Brad Bird made a mighty splash and a name for himself with The Incredibles, Ratatouille and Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol but in an ideal world, his directorial debut should have done that long before he moved to Pixar. The Iron Giant is a Cold War story depicting the friendship between a small boy, Hogarth, and the Iron Giant that fell from space and consequently, their struggle against a federal agent and the US Military. It’s a wonderfully warm, funny and exciting tale hinting at Brad Bird’s great prowess yet to come. The film also sports some surprising vocal talents, including Jennifer Aniston, Harry Connick, Jr., Christopher McDonald and… Vin Diesel as the titular Giant. Anyone wondering why Marvel wanted him to play a tree with a vocabulary consisting of “I am Groot” should watch this to understand why.

• ParaNorman [2012]

Laika’s second production was yet another brilliant tale with a mature angle to the entire proceedings. Think of ParaNorman as The Sixth Sense in a more humorous vein. Norman, the protagonist, can “see dead people” but they’re friendly and mean him no harm. The same cannot be said about society, deeming Norman to be a freak. ParaNorman is also the first animated film in which one of the characters is actually gay, a move that co-director Chris Butler says is connected explicitly with the message of the film^[1], .

How To Write A Best-Selling Young Adult Novel in Ten Steps

[NOTE: This is actually a repost of an old post from my old blog, Holmes Hideout, which I wrote at the end of 2012- literally. Going back through it, I find it still contains some humourous value in it and felt it’d be a shame not to share it with a newer audience. It also sheds some startling light on the phenomenon of YA novels that was so massive in those years (not so much now except perhaps in film- the new trend is superhero movies/reboots/remakes/shared universe franchises. Nonetheless: enjoy]. 

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If you follow my 10 steps, you will easily be able to write a young-adult novel catered to meet the requirements of readers in the 21st century: 

1) Create an uninteresting, meek female protagonist who’s very insecure about themselves and co-dependent, not to mention complete helpless damsels-in-distress 24/7. 

NOTE: exceptions CAN be made but nobody gives a damn because three-dimensional characters are alien to this genre! 

2) Create a male protagonist who seems to spend all his time at the gym because he’s built. He will fall in love with the female protagonist because that’s what is expected of the genre and because he’s clearly got no one better to fall in love with. In this genre, insecure boring females are the Queens!

 

3) Male protagonist should be perfect and flawless with- this is VERY IMPORTANT!- an endless amount of patience to have nothing better than to listen to the female protagonist whine constantly. Why is this important? Because that’s what your targeted demography (i.e. 13-50 year old women) wants. They are not there to read about a flawed male protagonist- that’s what boyfriends and husbands are for!

 

4) Make your male protagonist a supernatural being. Like a vampire. Or an angel. Or a werewolf. Bitches love supernatural beings. Even if said being is a 110 years old trapped in a teenager’s body. It is not considered as pedophilia.

 

5) Create ANOTHER male protagonist! This guy will most likely have been a friend of the female protagonist since the beginning of time and is usually (gasp!) secretly in love with her. He’s got to be a nice guy and a perfectly legitimate choice for a girl to fall in love with; yet in the end, he will get kicked in the nuts because he’s not bad-ass like the main male protagonist.

 

6) Now create a love triangle between the female protagonist and the two male protagonists- even though the reader ALREADY knows that the girl is going to choose the supernatural bad-ass perfectly muscular male protagonist. Because pointless love triangles with predictable outcomes are a MUST and completely unclichéd, trust me! No requirements necessary to make it interesting.

 

7) Spend the next 500 odd pages describing how perfect the male protagonist is. If you’re a little more creative, you can add in a little plot to make it seem “exciting”. NOT a must!

NOTE: keep a thesaurus with you at all times when writing scenes involving the male protagonist so that you never run out of adjectives to describe how perfect he is. 

 

8) Don’t stop at one book. Create a trilogy. Better than a trilogy, make it a quadrilogy (that’s four in a series). And your fourth book should be very big- because in case the books are adapted into films, the final book can be split into two films even though it’s highly unnecessary but will be done in “the name of the fans who are clamouring for more”. 

 

9) Give your books mysterious and obscure titles, preferably after times of the day, like ‘Morning‘, ‘Afternoon‘, ‘Evening‘ and ‘Night‘. The titles don’t have to make sense. 

10) Watch as the books become best-sellers and tarnish the good of literature as we know it, while the film adaptations win all the MTV Movie Awards each year. 

 

NOTE: if you can- by some miracle!- make your books appear to be “metaphors” for abstinence, then you’ll seem a little more credible as an author to the oblivious fans. The intelligent ones will see through the facade immediately.

Five Reasons Why Mary Jane Watson Is Amazing

Women don’t get a lot of love in comicbooks unless they have powers and dress up in a tight-fitting revealing costume. If they possess neither, their duties most often include the need to be rescued constantly or in a worst-case scenario end up dead to cause mental agony and pain to the hero (check up what happened to Green Lantern Kyle Rayner’s girlfriend to see what I mean).

Yet when done right, they succeed in being pivotal and important characters on their own terms. Hence, the women in the world of Spider-Man are just as vital as the titular hero. Ol’ Web Head has quite the list of ladies: Black Cat/Felicia Hardy, Betty Brant and Carlie Cooper, to name a few. But none have been more popular than Gwen Stacy and Mary Jane Watson.

Comparatively, Mary Jane Watson has been in the spotlight more than Gwen Stacy, thanks to the prominence given to her in adaptations.

Sam Raimi’s trilogy always focused on MJ (do you mind if I call Mary Jane Watson “MJ”? It saves time typing) while Gwen Stacy, played by Bryce Dallas Howard, was more-or-less shoehorned in a minor capacity in Spider-Man 3 (2007).

Lately, though, Gwen Stacy has been enjoying an upsurge in popularity thanks to Emma Stone’s performances in the rebooted films. Not only did Stone imbue Gwen with some serious lovable charm and smarts but her active involvement in helping costumed boyfriend with pesky villains helped make her one of the films’ best components instead of functioning as an obligatory ‘damsel-in-distress’. Revolutionary, right?

Except Mary Jane had been doing the same for years in the comics.

There is a lot of love for Sam Raimi’s work over the reboot. I love those films, too. The first two, at any rate. But for the mere sake of nostalgia, I will not deny that the trilogy wasn’t without its faults and the biggest complaint I had was with the depiction of Mary Jane Watson. I do not blame Kirsten Dunst— after all, actors and actresses have to simply make the best with the scripts given to them. But I hated the way the character was portrayed. Not that it’s much better across other media— the Spider-Man PlayStation game, for instance, committed the same cardinal ‘damsel-in-distress’ sin. Instead of the cool, fun girl from the comics, we got a soap-operatic, whiny excuse of a MJ. Such a travesty! What many people may not realise is in the source material, MJ was always a downright bad-ass, again and again and again and Peter has admitted many times that she was one of the strongest women he knew. From the time she was with Peter, she was a massively important centre in the comics. Which is why I want to tear my hair over after in The Superior Spider-Man #31 last month, she made it clear that she was done with Peter (then again, nothing is permanent in comics, so fingers crossed). Thanks a lot for One More Day, Marvel, that’s the outcome of such a stupid editorial decision. Dweebs.

So without further ado, let me present five instances throughout the history of Spider-Man, in no particular order, in which Mary Jane Watson demonstrated that she was completely amazing and at times, a real bad ass.

1)     The time she attacked a Spider-Slayer in Pittsburgh with a baseball bat to save Peter

Events in The Amazing Spider-Man issues #290-292 turned out to be game-changers for Spider-Man lore to come. At the end of #290, Peter proposed to MJ (the second time he’d done so) only to be turned down again. In the next two issues, MJ leaves for Pittsburgh to take care of family matters but later calls Peter and asks him to come and help her. Peter flies out to join her, unaware that Alistair Smythe is tracking him with his Spider-Slayer. Long story short: Spider-Man and Smythe engage in battle which Smythe nearly won if MJ hadn’t grabbed a baseball bat from a nearby kid and hit the Spider-Slayer!

Sounds like a dumb move, right? Except it was all a ploy to buy Peter the few crucial seconds he needed to recover… although his response to seeing Smythe almost kill MJ was to tear the Spider-Slayer to pieces and threaten Smythe with the same treatment if he tried to harm anyone again. Seriously— that bit of courage requires serious cojones to pull off without being paralysed with fear.

2)     The time Mary Jane turned her horrible father in to law enforcement to bail her sister out

While Spider-Slayer in Pittsburgh took central attention in #291-292, the reason MJ was in that town was a family conflict. Her father, Phillip, had convinced MJ’s sister, Gayle, to steal a rare manuscript for him to sell on the black market. Gayle got caught and Phillip wanted MJ to find the paper and bring to him. She ended up aiding her father, much to Peter’s uneasiness despite promising to support her decision no matter what. After the battle, MJ hands in the script, only for her father to get arrested for the crime. The move took even Peter by surprise. In the end, Gayle was released and reunited with her children and estranged sister. The real happy ending, though, is all this made MJ change her mind about Peter’s proposal and she agreed to marry him. And the rest, as they say, is history.

3)     Escaping the devious clutches of her obsessed landlord and admirer entirely through her own efforts and saving Spider-Man from death… again!

David Michelinie’s and Todd McFarlane’s run on the series as writer and artist respectively yielded two beautiful outcomes: the introduction of fan-favourite anti-hero/villain Venom and the dark disturbing storyline in which Mary Jane is kidnapped by her obsessive admirer and landlord, Jonathan Caesar. The event is notable for being downright unsettling in that the antagonist succeeded in hitting Peter where it hurt most and he wasn’t even a major villain! Pushed to the brink of despair, Spider-Man resorts to beating up every criminal he comes across in New York in his frantic need for information. Caesar hires two criminals, Styx and Stone, to kill him and by #309, it all boils down to a hair-raising climax in which Spider-Man is nearly killed in Central Park and saved at the last second by none other than MJ.

Wait, but wasn’t she imprisoned until then?

Certainly. Until the sight of Styx (the guy can kill anything just by touching it!) prompts her into action. MJ initially tries to dispatch Caesar by applying a lamp socket to a puddle of water he is standing in. When that doesn’t work, she simply smashes the lamp in his face… and succeeds in electrocuting the goons instead. MJ immediately tracks her husband down and shoots Styx as he’s about to destroy Peter.

Bottom line: in the direst circumstances, MJ triumphantly overcame them and not only prevailed but saved Peter as well— all without powers, too. Damsel in distress? Pah! More like Heroine of the Hour!

4)     Evading capture by the Green Goblin during the events of ‘Goblin Nation’

In the final story arc of The Superior Spider-Man, Norman Osborn had emerged from the shadows he’d been hiding in all the time and unleashed his army on New York. Part of his plan to destroy Spider-Man (and Otto Octavius, consequently) was to kidnap the people the webslinger cared about. One such target included Mary Jane.

Big mistake. When the Goblin’s minions (literally kids in Goblin outfits) crashed her apartment, MJ didn’t sit around screaming. Nope! She got out Peter’s old webshooters and webbed those mini-Goblins to the wall and with her boyfriend, collected Aunt May and Jameson Sr and took them to safety! The moment she deals with the little Goblins is simply spectacular! No chance the next screen incarnation of Mary Jane would do something like this, is there? Also, there’s a possibility that Green Goblin realised he may have bitten off more than he could chew when concerning Ms Watson.

5)     Everything about One More Day

Writing about this actually hurts because I was forced to read One More Day to better acquaint myself with the events. Reading it made me physically nauseous. The story essentially wiped out Peter’s and MJ’s marriage in a few pages with such ease and little effort that it is nothing more than the WORST possible way to indirectly reboot a series, retcon history and function as a deus ex machina! I abhor book burnings of any sort, but I wouldn’t hesitate throwing this to such a pile!

So why does this make MJ such a strong person? Simple. She agreed to go through with the whole thing.

Despite how overall crappy this is, the moments before which Memphisto (Marvel’s version of the Devil) realigns time end up being some of the most gut-punching scenes drawn and written. As a Spider-Man fan, reading those sections felt as if a part of me did die. It honestly hurt and it is little wonder that the Spider-Man community was pissed off. Ultimately, through MJ’s visibly difficult yet selfless decision, she enabled the world to forget Spider-Man’s identity and prevent Aunt May from ever getting shot. But the price paid was simply too much and even though it has been seven years gone, the injustice and the pain of it all still rankles.

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And there you have it! Do you know of any other moments that made Mary Jane Watson memorable? If so, leave them in the comments below!

Ten Best Films of 2013

At last, I can finally compile this list! Mind you, there are still a few films from 2013 I wish I could have watched but I’d have to wait till the end of this year to do so.

Comparing it to last year (see: Ten Best Films of 2012), there are a few noticeable traits in my selection I felt I should point:

• a straight-out horror made the cut (The Cabin in the Woods fell into horror-comedy territory)
• three foreign films (I’m expanding beyond Hollywood fare)
• two comic book adaptions that aren’t Marvel or Disney (and non-American)

Like with the previous list, it became apparent that I should employ the “Honourable Mentions”  and “Runners-Up” categories again. The difference in the criteria is that the “Runners-Up” films just missed the cut while the “Honourable Mentions” are good but would possibly find a place between the numbers 20 and 30.

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HONOURABLE MENTIONS: The Wolf of Wall Street, Kill Your Darlings, This is the End

RUNNERS-UP: Fruitvale Station, Enough Said, Upstream Colour, Captain Phillips, Spring Breakers, 12 Years A Slave

10) The Conjuring

The last good horror movie I watched was The Shining. Mind you, there has been a handful of passable horror fare in recent years, except past their shock value they slip from the mind (e.g. Sinister, Mama). The Conjuring is both old-school and innovative enough to feel fresh, a horror flick that scares, has a juicy premise and two respectable actors headlining. The “witch” plot may have been the central focus but I was fascinated just as much with the Annabelle subplot that opens the film and later plays a central role in delivering a good scare. Dolls are creepy. Period. Also, I’ll never be able to play a clapping game again after this.

09) Mud

Matthew McConaughey may have taken the Best Actor Oscar for Dallas Buyers Club but I find his best film in his recent resurgence will be Jeff Nichols’ Mud. Technically made in 2012, it only got a release the following year (so I count it as a 2013 film). The film follows two boys (played by Tye Sheridan and Jacob Lofland) who encounter Mud (Matt McConaughey), a strange man who lives in the boat stuck up a tree. Mud agrees to give them the boat he inhabits if they help him. It’s all so strange and funny and sad and heart-warming and heartbreaking at the same time and anchored by some great performances, especially from Tye Sheridan. It also reminds us why Reese Witherspoon was given that Best Actress Oscar all those years ago.

(Fun fact: Christopher Nolan cast McConaughey to headline Interstellar primarily based on his work in Mud)

08) Snowpiercer

Hollywood, take note: this is how you can make a good comic book movie. Even though it’s a South Korean movie directed by Bong Joon-ho, the stars include Chris Evans, Kang-ho Sung, Go Ah-sung, Jamie Bell, Alison Pill, Tilda Swinton, Octavia Spencer, Ed Harris and John Hurt— a damn stellar line up. It’s ferocious, serious and it’s got a fantastic fight scene set within cramped quarters. Chris Evans proves he’s got the dramatic chops to go with the pretty face and is far grittier than he’s ever been (or at least, that I’ve seen). The film pulls some surprising punches, it’s got an intriguing premise (humanity surviving an apocalyptic wasteland aboard a train divided by class) and a delightfully scene-chewing villainous turn from Tilda Swinton that finds the right balance between campy and sinister.

07) All Is Lost

Robert Redford was a big name back in the day. The man also founded the Sundance Film Festival that allows small flicks like Little Miss Sunshine a chance at the big game. He’s been relatively quiet over the last decade although that isn’t going to last with the release of Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Before joining S.H.I.E.L.D, however, he was the sole star in this powerful near-silent movie by J.C. Chandor. I’m not exaggerating the “near-silent” part—there must be a total of ten lines uttered in the entire runtime. Think of it as a low-budget Life of Pi- without the tiger, 3D effects and dialogue. All Is Lost proves one thing: age be damned, Robert Redford is still brilliant even when just staring at the screen wordlessly. Kristen Stewart could learn a lot from this film.

06) Ernest et Célestine

Frozen may have picked up the award for Best Animated Feature but (personal opinion) it certainly didn’t deserve it. Any other candidate was better but my pick was this delightful French film of a friendship between a mouse and a bear. The visuals are beautiful in its simplicity and have a watercolour-esque feel to the entire proceedings. There’s an English dub on the way but somehow, I enjoy the original version it was made in. It’s also disconcerting to realise how rare it is to find an animated feature nowadays that actually focuses on themes of genuine friendship without involving even the faintest hint of a romance. Ah well, c’est la vie.

05) The Spectacular Now/Blue Is The Warmest Colour

Thematically, it feels fitting to have these two films in a tie. I know that’s a bit against the rules but can’t be helped.

I kept pitching The Spectacular Now to people as being 2013’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower. I couldn’t be further from the truth. The Spectacular Now is more mature in its approach and (I hate to use the word but I can’t think of a better one) real in the matters it deals with. It also features two helluva performances from Shailene Woodley and Miles Teller. A massive of the book it is based on, this is one of the few adaptations I’m glad made a few changes, particularly regarding the ending. If I had to compare it to a past film? I’d say it is this year’s Say Anything.

Blue Is The Warmest Colour, like The Spectacular Now, is also an exploration into the trials and tribulations of adolescence and sexuality and what it feels like to grow confused and whatnot— except it’s set in France and about a lesbian. The movie might be most memorable for the drawn-out sex scenes bordering on uncomfortable but Adèle Exarchopoulos and Léa Seydoux thankfully keep audiences spellbound with chemistry that is charming and electrifying that helps the three hours to pass by without dragging.

04) Her

Her has a pretty ridiculous concept: “a man falls in love with his Operating System”. If I’m not mistaken, a similar premise was explored for laughs in an episode of The Big Bang Theory. Her doesn’t play it for jokes— that isn’t to say it’s not funny. It succeeds by taking the universe, the premise and the characters in this little sandbox with all seriousness. Spike Jonze has proved his ability in the past to tackle quirky fare with Being John Malkovich and Where The Wild Things Are, so it seems fitting that he’d be the one to pull this off, deservingly rewarded for his efforts with a Best Original Screenplay Oscar. Simply put: it’s a moving funny little affair with a lot of heart.

Which is why it is criminal that Joaquin Phoenix and Scarlett Johannson were ignored for their work. Johannson, in particular, deserves to be lauded for her convincing us exactly why it was so easy for Theodore Twombly to fall in love with a disembodied voice. Phenomenal stuff, this.

03) The World’s End

The concluding third chapter in the quirky, comic-fuelled Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy from the brilliant minds of Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg is bigger and bolder than Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz (spoilers: TWE has aliens!), yet impossibly retaining the humour and all the elements that made the previous instalments such a hit! The emotional component is probably the most profound, thanks largely in part to scene-stealer Simon Pegg, though he nearly loses the limelight to co-stars Nick Frost, Paddy Considine, Edie Marsan, Martin Freeman and Rosamund Pike. They even managed to rope in yet another James Bond actor (Pierce Brosnan this time)! The World’s End is wildly wacky and hilarious and certifies Edgar Wright proving he had the chops to craft memorable flicks— which is why Ant-Man will no doubt be one of the best superhero films next year.

02) Before Midnight

Yes, I loved this movie and I am not ashamed to admit it. Also, I am not alone in this consensus, so you might as get over the shock that I consider a romantic drama to be one of the best films of the year. Doesn’t hurt that I am a massive fan of Richard Linklater— you might remember his other work like School of Rock.

Before Midnight is (so far) the third instalment in this unlikely trilogy, picking up nine-years after the cliff hanger ending of Before Sunset, both in story and real-time. There’s new stuff this time around: for starters, more characters! Nudity! Middle aged issues (no, seriously)! But all this proves necessary, contributing to the organic aesthetic depicting the progress of Jesse’s and Celine’s relationship over time and how the initial doe-eyed romance (fondly referred to as “the honeymoon phase” of any relationship) of first encounters must give way to the reality of life. Even the greatest love stories can fizzle out— the trick, as countless testimonies and this movie proves, is to not let it die.

I’m still holding out on the hope that Richard Linklater, Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy revisit this universe for another outing: it’s the rare series which deserves to continue not for money but for the experience of growing up with these characters, dropping and checking in every ten years or so to catch up with them like visiting old friends.

01) Gravity/Short Term 12

 

Can’t be helped: I found Gravity and Short Term 12 to be the best films of 2013 for vastly different reasons, so it’s a tie. One is a marvellous, jaw-dropping visual fest (the fifteen minute single-take opening and the rousing last ten minutes alone are worth watching in 3D). The other is a small yet moving stirring drama that packs a very solid punch.

Gravity pushed the boundaries of what could be done with technology and 3D and to say the outcome is overwhelming is the understatement of the year— I actually jumped out of my seat, triumphant fist in the air, when Alfonso Cuarón won the Best Director Oscar.

Short Term 12, conversely, was grossly snubbed by the Academy Awards. Part of me blames the fact that most of the nominees were selected from the second half of the 2013 calendar. Very sad— Brie Larson delivers a nuanced performance that could give Cate Blanchett a run for her money, the rest of the cast is equally wonderful and it simply exceeds expectations from start to finish as a whole.

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What did you think were the best films of 2013, dear Reader? Leave your comments below!

How To Recognise a Disney Villain

Note: this was originally supposed to be The Snarky Quill’s first post but somehow, it kept getting pushed back until now. Don’t ask me why. It just did.

Disney is a word synonymous with many people’s childhoods in different parts of the world largely in part to the revolution of VCR, VCD and DVD. While Disney had been around as far back as 1938, it can be argued that the Mouse House company regained both its footing and dominance in the very animation industry it had helped revolutionise with a Second Renaissance in the final decade of the twentieth century. The creative spark burst into flame with The Little Mermaid and died around with Tarzan. That’s not to say it’s completely dead— it has enjoyed yet another resurgence that triumphed in 2013 with the rabid success of Frozen, culminating a total gross of over a billion dollars and a recent win for Best Animated Feature at the 86^th Academy Awards.

A film isn’t different from a meal. Both require various ingredients to be skillfully and artfully brought together in a concoction that would be unimaginable without the contributions. Disney’s animated features tend to follow a standard recipe that is changed and modified to a certain degree to suit the film without too much deviation to make it unrecognisable. What ingredients, I hear you ask from across the screens that separate us? Oh, it’s easy: catchy musical numbers, a good-looking (white) hero and heroine, the mandatory sidekick usually voiced by a famous person and… the villain.

If you were to put these bad people on a spectrum… you might find that they tend to share some commonalities that make them a classic Disney villain.

1.      Red/Black/Purple coloured attires

The dress code in invitations sent to Disney antagonists: “The theme is either black, red or purple.”

Maybe it’s part of some unspoken code in The Villain’s Bible or How To Be Evil 101 (a popular favourite with the bad guys of today) but the Colour Triad of Black, Red and Purple— black, namely— has remained an inexplicable standard of popular fashion choice for Disney villains. Don’t believe me? Take a look for yourself.

Costumes designed by Ralph Lauren

I get it: with most of the running time devoted to song-and-dance sequences, only a limited amount of screen time is given over to the evil doers. Clothes symbolizing characters’ natures aren’t novel and the use has been around for centuries. Disney villains, on the other hand, can be classified as either: (a) black- malevolent and brooding (b) red- flamboyant (c) purple- in pursuit of getting grandiosely drunk with power and being the alpha of whatever. If you scrutinise each villain’s nature with their choice of fashion, you’d start to notice the parallels. The rule, of course, doesn’t always apply. But I bet you’d be hard-pressed to find a Disney villain in other colours which the heroes haven’t taken.

2. Cool sidekicks

Everyone in a Disney film needs a sidekick to stop us from waking up to realise how empty the stories can be. Their primary purpose is comic relief and yet they tend to be the best marketable merchandising characters for children. When they side with the heroes, they. When they side with the villains, they provide moral support, encouragement, humour and sing catchy songs… and give the villain someone to conspire with in secrecy. Though these sidekicks are meant to be one-note (as is the fate of most Disney characters), some tend to display more depth to them than would be expected. The most prominent example actually takes place in a direct-to-video sequel (sadly enough) in which Jafar’s parrot, Iago, attempts with the greatest difficulty to prove his loyalty to Aladdin— a task not made any easier when Jafar returns in… The Return of Jafar.

“I know you love me. Yes, you do!”

3.  The traits of smooth and cool villainy

After the sidekick, you know who the coolest character is? If you guessed “the villain”, you earn a prize of self-congratulations and the imagining of me giving you a proud pat on the back.

Pardon the cliché: but every story does need a great bad guy. The eccentric flamboyant ones are all the more charming and glib to the audience it is performing before (I can’t speak for the others but I loved the villains and wasn’t the least frightened of them). Smooth-talking antagonists laced with evil are still trending even today— one look at the popularity of Loki in The Avengers or Moriarty in BBC’s modern interpretation Sherlock is all it takes to confirm this. The guys admire their tenacity and debonair Machiavellianism and girls simply go crazy for them. They are ultimately the sort of people you’d invite to a party if only for the sole reason that they capture your attention more than the oft-vanilla yet handsome hero. I say the hero is good-looking in comparison as the Disney antagonists are slightly off-degree in the looks department.

“I make evil look gooood!”

And yet, despite all that…

4. Disney villains are single

“Why will you not get with this?!”

Ain’t no rest for the wicked and no time for courtships! When was the last time a Disney villain started off the story a) married or at least b) in a relationship? Certainly, all the world domination/evil plans getting in the way of libido being put to good use but it’s a crafty lesson in teaching children that evil never gets laid— which promptly confuses hormone-raging teenagers in later years to question why the girl of their dreams is perpetually interested only in the aloof bad boy archetype instead of a nice guy like him.