The world is annoying me

Elite’s latest film review… 

Watched Chris Morris‘s Four Lions the other night with Neill, and although we were both really tired (it was a week-night), we stayed awake until the very end and only fell asleep as one during the DVD extras. Well done us. 

So, Four Lions is about a bunch of useless silly indignant young men, who carry a lot of hostility and frustration inside them like so many people of all ages. There’s always somebody else to blame for whatever is wrong in our world, it’s never ourselves who are to blame. I know all about it, I’m from Israel where self-blame is mostly an impossible notion for most people. There I go adding my own cynical voice into it. Shut up Elite! Anyway, they are young British Muslim men in their prime that decide to blow themselves up and kill innocent people to win a place in heaven (or in Alton towers as Waj puts it), which is obviously horrible of them and a very scary idea, and yet they managed to charm me to the extent I really want to be their friend. 

That’s probably the point of the film, that they could be any young, spirited and of varying degrees of idiocy British guys – they could be my friends, your friends. I did feel and think all sorts of things after, and when you think about a film for a long while after you’ve seen it, you know it’s good. 

Actors did a fantastic job, especially Kayvan Novak, Riz Ahmed and Adeel Akhtar. Brilliantly directed, brilliantly acted, brilliant script, and so funny.  I hope this ends up being a must-see for years to come. 

Greenberg 

Ben Stiller does a grand job of portraying the 40 year old self obsessed child, who likes nothing better than writing grumpy letters to the council and trying to make people who care about him feel guilty all the time. Greta Gerwig is alright, don’t know what all the fuss is about – she’s hardly charismatic in this film, but perhaps that’s why her praises are being sung at the moment. She’s a good actress, granted. 

Anyways, Greenberg made me feel awful about myself – I’ve read some reviews that say it’s got a good ending because his character starts to change at the end, but I disagree. I felt depressed because I couldn’t see a good ending, and because I am Greenberg. I’ve always been. I’m about 50% Greenberg I think. And that’s not a good thing to be - I don’t want to grow old alone like him because I was never able to accept people and had demands too big to be realistic. I don’t want to carry old disappointments all my life without being able to move on and embark on new adventures. The fact that Greenberg is a musician who was “that close” to making it is just another little crushing crystal of salt on my own wounds. How pathetic he is. How pathetic am I? One of Baumbach‘s better creations 

Again, a film that makes you think and therefore highly recommended. Hmmm thinking about good films like that makes me happy… I shall draw a little happy picture for you. 

Wish I had a happy dog