Dogfight

I don't know where I was when River Phoenix died. I'll blame the fact that I was 10, but I got a major crush on him after he died (kind of wrong?) through movies like Dogfight and maybe for the fact he could actually act.

I even remember watching Stand By Me with my parents for the first time, it may have been not that long after his death and hearing my mum say 'He had so much talent'.

These young actors today (as a generalisation) have nothing on River. I even made him my subject for my year 12 biography presentation on him for english. Yes I proclaimed my love for a dead 80s/90s celebrity in the form of a well researched paper and speech in front of 30 seventeen year olds.

Dogfight was released in 1991 and is the story of Eddie (Phoenix) and Rose (Lily Taylor- who for some reason does not even have a photo on imdb.com! This woman was briefly in High Fidelity) in 1963 who meet under some ugly circumstances. Eddie is a marine and on a short leave before shipping out to Vietnam.

Eddie and his 3 marine buddies have this 'game' they play on their time off where the guy who can bring/find the ugliest girl to a dance they host, wins a large sum of money they all put into. Now this is all done under false pretenses to the girl they bring, who thinks she is being swept off her feet and wined and dined by a handsome marine. Don't call me Miss Obvious, but man that's cruel. I know boys are not nice guys but come on. That could screw a girl up for life, not too mention the self esteem issues. Anyway the film gets better.

This film had a very limited theatre release and I only happened upon it because of my love of River. Saying that Taylor is also good playing the initially shy but sparky Rose. Their relationship and the way it evolves is so cute and awkward but in a good way. I don't think it's one of his more well known films, but is definitely worth checking out.

Flirting

Flirting is an Australian film set in 2 corresponding boys and girls boarding schools in rural 1960s australia released in 1991. It stars Thandie Newton and Noah Taylor, although looking at the cover you would believe Nicole Kidman was the star.

This film looks into racism, the blossoming romance between Taylor (Danny) and Newton (Thandiwe) and their ultimate separation.

This film introduced me to the Trogg's song A Girl Like You, it is featured in a dance scene early on in the film and this song is still in my ipod. It also introduced me to Noah Taylor a great aussie actor who unfortunately never really hit the big time in the US and was regaled with being Angelina Jolie's IT geek in the Tomb Raider movies and the strange band manager in Almost Famous.

His character's uniqueness and even awkwardness appeals to Thandiwe, she herself being unique in the only black student at either school. The film also delves into the political situation at the time in Uganda which I admit total ignorance about.

Nicole Kidman does have a minor part in this film as the upper school prefect, Nicola. She plays the perfect ice queen with perfection but she does show character development in an interesting scene with Thandiwe late in the movie.

Overall the film's narrative is pretty simple, it tracks their blossoming (can I throw in a coming of age as well?) relationship, and their differing but at times similar experiences in each school.

To me, this film is ultimately so australian but then I also get the conflicting setting of the boarding schools which is more of an american or british concept in my opinion. Saying that, I love anything to do with boarding schools, be it the YA series Pen Pals or the more recent (and slightly more grown up) Prep. Probably because I had so little exposure to boarding schools, I held this fascination with them.

Curiously I never saw the first film starring Taylor's Danny character The Year My Voice Broke but I picked this one up at my local video store and even bought the VHS when they upgraded to DVD as I had never seen the movie anywhere else. It was widely acclaimed in Australia the year it was released, winning the best film at the AFI awards. It is interesting to see the actors so young and vulnerable, and since Newton has gone on to more high profile roles it makes me like her that little bit more since she chose to star in this little australian film.

Image from qag.qld.gov.au

3 Things I've learned from JEM!

1. Jerrica is too young to run Starlight music with Eric Raymond (evil guy left in charge after her dad dies) but not too young to run Starlight House, a home for foster girls? In episode one he calls Jem 'a kid'. Apparently a kid is perfectly fine to look after other young girls who are most likely more traumatised about never having a real home and are now getting looked after by 4 girls and a random nanny we see once. Heh. I never really understood how old Jem/Jerrica Bennett is meant to be. She must be over 18 otherwise she'd be into foster care herself but to be still called a kid, she'd probably need to be under 21. I'm going to go with 19.

Lesson learned: 19 is too young to run a music company (presumably because it is just outside the target demographic) but is quite alright to run foster children's home.

2.Mr Bennett (dear daddy who dies right at the beginning and we never get a glimpse of) is a truly outrageous clothes designer. Never mind the fact he also designed this whole synergy hologram program, the clothes (and car) the girls get presented with the first night they meet Synergy/secret warehouse were the coolest thing in the world to me in the late 80s when I was introduced to Jem.

I'm not sure if I'm just holding onto my childhood a teeny bit too much but some of the clothes the band wears is still pretty cool. I really wanted to go as one of the characters for my 80s party last year but it proved a bit hard with my lack of skill with a sewing machine. Shame because some of those outfits are still rad.

Lesson learned: Mr Bennett may have been gay, but he left his daughter a great parting gift with some awesome clothes and accessories.

3. Girl power is great, but for those really tough times you really need a strong boyfriend with purplish hair. Sure Jerrica can (attempt) fix her kitchen sink plumbing, pull off a concert when the band was only formed the day before but for those times when you're about to fall off a speeding boat or have a gargoyle statute fall on you, Rio is just handy to have around. Lesson learned: aim for the Spice Girls version of girl power.

I loved Jem as a youngster, I was never aware it was anymore than the first episodes that I watched originally, as I used to rent it from our video store where it was marketed as a movie. My favourite character was Kimber or Aja. Jem was okay but a bit predictable while Kimber had cool red hair, wrote the songs and was the 'other' sibling.

Several years later my grandparents got foxtel and I discovered the series continued and even had new characters and new songs I wasn't used to! The pain. I prefer not to watch these now and have just bought the original 1st disc DVD. I just pray this story isn't true. Some things should just be left in the past, in particular the 80's. It was a special time.

The classics

Not to sound completely dumb but I am really struggling with finishing Jane Eyre. It wasn't even on my list of books to read in an earlier post but I bought it back in February last year using a book voucher my brother gave me and I keep putting other books ahead of it to read.

I have 2 categories of books I choose to read: those which are lighthearted and usually 'chick lit' and I can read while I eat my lunch at work. And then there are those other books I want to read because they are classics, I've heard good things about them and I also feel it will give my book collection some much need street cred.

Unfortunately I think I am not just interested enough in the story to hurry to finish it. I promised myself I'd finish it in the work break between Christmas and new year and here we are early January with the book still about 3/4 finished.

I haven't connected with the characters much at all, and Mr Rochester is definitely not doing anything for me. I don't know if this makes me the opposite of a literary snob, but I'm putting it out there that I do not love Jane Eyre. Or Wuthering Heights for that matter.

Thanks to http://www.rarebookschool.org/ for the frumpist book cover pic I could find.