The Quest for Twisted Movies

I'm shamelessly insatiable when it comes to watching movies. Not normal movies, mind. I've gone independent.

Then again, I used to roll my eyes at friends who loved to deviate from the norm. To them, it wasn't cool if you admitted to listening to Backstreet Boys or to watching Titanic. As long as something received hype from more than 40% of the general population, it was considered too mainstream.

My friends would check out weird titles like "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind", "The Constant Gardener" and "Closer". Meanwhile, I struggled to stay on the mainstream path by watching "Harry Potter", "Kingdom of Heaven", and other yawn-worthy flicks because I thought if the movie can receive so much hype, it MUST surely be a good indicator.

My film repertoire remained within the mainstream-and-very-typical-Hollywood-flicks circle until about a year ago. I watched Perfume in the cinema and lo and behold, I was hooked. That movie made me stare at the screen in wonder from the start to the finish. Not once did I yawn. I was not even tempted to lie back. Hell, I was on the edge of my seat each and every second of the screening!

That movie was such a blast that I was left feeling breathless. Then came the search for movies that had a similar genre to Perfume. A friend recommended "Fight Club", "Butterfly Effect" and "Wicker Park" to me, all of which I have downloaded and enjoyed immensely! And came some more from the mainstream-deviating friend I mentioned above: "21 grams", "American Beauty", "Magnolia", "Happiness", "Me and You and Everyone We Know", "Pan's Labyrinth" and the list goes on and I think I enjoyed every single movie I watched - just because it was different.

And it should be, because most of the movies I have just mentioned are independent films, films that don't need to conform to the Hollywood marketing ploy. Films that still receive nominations and awards nevertheless. Films that generate enough profit through the sale of DVDs than cinema tickets. Films that I can actually sit through without feeling like I'm attending a lecture.

I'm now on a quest to give myself kicks out of finding good independent movies. I just hope there are enough out there before I run out of things to watch.

Since May 18th I have...

... sat for, and PASSED (hip hip hooray the Gods must favor me *despite my agnosticism*) professional exam number 2, Financial Mathematics! I strongly doubt my ability to replicate this feat.

... flew to New York

... flew to Los Angeles, thereby establishing it as my favorite city in the whole of US!

... sat for, and PASSED (I swear I must have been super-duper lucky) professional exam number 1, Probability!

... moved off-campus to a darling of an apartment that is just 5 minutes away from Drake

... thrown a house party that was on par with the likes of a fraternity one

... tried paintballing, and received a paintball-hickey on my thigh from my darling housemate

... attempted to cook, and failed, a couple of times (note: chicken rice that was first raw, then turned into porridge after the addition of a LOT of water)

... been excited to take a class in Visual Basic Application, but was disappointed greatly when the class turned out to be a failure

... become a rebel and dropped above-mentioned Visual Basic class despite all the prostestations from fellow classmates.

... realized that the Derivatives Markets part of Actuarial Science is a pain in the arse.

... started playing truant (only for the above-mentioned Derivatives Markets class though)

... made plans to go to Turkey at the end of the year

... decided that applying for work in the US may require too much effort. Hence will return to Malaysia in May 2008

... made up my mind that I will try to conquer the rollercoasters in the Midwest before leaving this country!