Feast of Fools

It's a terrible thing when the promise of a shopping trip to Lakeside with your little brother is a truly exciting thing. A clothes shopping trip. A clothes shopping trip to buy clothes for the holiday that *he* is going on. A clothes shopping trip to buy *manky Essex label* clothes for the... oh, you get the idea. And yet, verily am I all excited at the prospect. >.<

In other news, I went to see Charlie's Angels 2 with Lizzie. And lo, it was harmless deeply crappy fun of all kinds, just as you might expect really. I decided it was going to be watchable when I looked it up on the IMDB pre-viewing and noted the credits entry for 'Deranged Mongol'. I didn't manage to figure out which one he was in the film though, there were several possible candidates... Also notable for cameos by more random actors than you've ever heard of, including the bloke who played Maximus' faithful slave in Gladiator as Irish Henchman #1. Took me a good long while to figure out where I knew *him* from... ^_^

Now here is a proper review. Went round Naomi's with Jon last night and we watched Dirty Pretty Things (and The Odd Couple, but that's another story). Definitely one of the best films I've seen in a long time, and I recommend it A Lot even if art films are not generally your style. The plot is wonderful, the humour British and understated and hilarious, and the director produces more suspense with almost no music and no cheap blockbuster tricks than any big-budget Hollywood thriller I've ever seen. The acting is *fantastic*, especially Chiwetel Ejiofor who put in one of the most virtuoso pieces of acting I've ever seen, and Benedict Wong (great name ^_^) as the mortuary porter who is the most wonderful and funny and loverly person who really *ought* to exist but unfortunately doesn't. Also Audrey Tautou (Amélie from Amélie), who was likewise excellent and whose surname I will one day make a French person pronounce for me.

Oh, and if you see it, try to see it on DVD rather than video. It's got a gorgeous seedy sterile sharp-edges-neon-and-twilight palette which was not really emphasised by our dodgy rented video that kept going black-and-white on us. ^_^;;;

CAZ GOT A FIRST!!!!!! *entire family throws parties on her behalf* Not that I should be at all surprised, but all the same... Mum and Dad say huuuuuuuuuge congratulations and stuff. ^_______________^

And Ivan, should I forget to say this next time I speak to you live, your 'Bile and Vitriol' blog post was one of the funniest things I have read in far too long and caused me to nearly choke to death on a chocolate biscuit I happened to be eating when I started reading. And oh, the irony of that. ^_^