M&M: Candyman

Helen Lyle (Virginia Madsen) is a graduate student in Chicago researching urban legends. During her research she comes across a local creature: the Candyman. Candyman was originally the son of slaves, who earned himself quite a bit of money when during the Civil War, he invented a machine to mass produce shoes. He fell in love with a white woman, who got pregnant from him. His father didn't like that at all. So he sent a bunch of people to brutally murder him. The right hand was sawn off and after they poored honey over his body, he got stung by hundreds of bees and eventually died from that. But when you stand in front of a mirror and say is name five times, he'll come back as Candyman and will have a hook for his right hand. He'll then kill the person that called him.

Helen and her friend Bernadette Walsh (Kasi Lemmons) want to try that. But Bernadette hesitates and leaves before saying his name five times. Helen does say it five times. Following that strange things start happening. The police take notice of Helen and it's none other than Candyman himself, who is able to help her out. But Helen has to end this curse.

You'll have to see for yourself to find out if she succeeds and how the story ends.

I became aware of this movie a while ago after I found a set of movie posters. The one of Candyman attracted me most. There's not much to see. Just one eye of a person, but the pupil of the eye has the shape of a person (Candyman) and at the eye itself there is just one single bee to be seen. This combination attracted me so much that I eventually watched the movie. The movie is fairly brutal. The story of the creation of Candyman itself should make that obvious. But there's almost no actual violence to be seen. There is talks and hints of the brutal acts, but not directly shown. But maybe I saw the cut version. There's also an R-rated one. You should in any case not be afraid of bees. Virginia Madsen was reportedly hypnotised to be able to shoot some certain scenes with bees. Who know if this is true or if that itself is another “urban legend”. In any case, towards the end there are lots of bees shown.

The movie is based on the short story “The Forbidden” by Clive Barker and can be found in volume 5 of his “Books of Blood”. Currently I haven't read the story yet, so I can't say anything about to compare it with the movie. Douglas E. Winter however speaks about Clive Barker and “The Forbidden” and the parallels as well as differenes to “Candyman” in a roughly 18 minutes long video Candyman [A Story To Tell: Clive Barker's 'The Forbidden'] (English), positive for the movie and also the changes they made compared to the short story.

Fun fact: Kasi Lemmons, who plays Helen's good friend here also plays a good friend to lead actress Jodie Foster in “The Silence Of The Lambs”.

Miss Marple and the helicopter

Yesterday a police helicopter was flying in the city. It wasn't actually flying a lot. It was more hovering in one position for a long time. Still at work I looked on the internet to find information, but didn't find any on the spot, not even on the pages of the police. In the evening I searched again with a bit different words than previously and eventually found information. Whether it was because of the different words or because of time passing, I am not sure. The helicopter wasn't searching for a person of any kind, like a co-worker and I had suspected, but had done overview shots.

The next day I told the co-worker that I had searched for information again in the evening and found some, too. She then called me "Miss Marple".

M&M: Buried

The plot of Buried from 2010 is simple: Paul (Ryan Reynolds), an American truck driver was in Iraq when he got kidnapped and is now waking up buried in a box. Apart from the clothes he's got on, he only has a lighter and a mobile phone.

Ryan Reynold is most famous in recent times for his portrayal of Wade Wilson/Deadpool. As much as comic fans enjoy seeing Reynolds in this role, he can also be serious and convince with limited possibilities which are given to him in Buried. Those who expect action and much movement should stay away from this movie. A plot in a sense is not existant. A man is trapped in a box. But that's exactly what fascinated me about the story: the huge constriction of possibilities for the actor in this situation.
Apart from voices of other people with whom Paul is talking, Ryan Reynold carries the movie effectively all alone. Reynolds achieves, in my opinion, successfully to create a feeling of suspense and to hold that throughout 90 minutes. I felt with him and was able to feel the anxiety and tightness in the box. In that time Paul as well as the viewer are faced with many questions: How did he end up in the box? Where is he now? Even if he can reach someone on the phone, how are they going to find him? Are they going to reach him in time before either air and/or phone battery run out? As a viewer you'll ask yourself if Paul maybe deserved being stuck in the box.

To find out if or how those questions are answered, you'll have to watch the movie yourself.

Magical blow

Did you ever wonder what's so magical about blowing? As a child we blow out candles on our birthday cake and make a wish. As a child, after we hurt ourselves, mommy blew on the body part that hurt to make the pain go away (or at least lessen it).

Maybe, just maybe, adults would be a bit happier again, if they pursed their lips more often and let all the air out and make a wish. But it's got to be something you really want. Not just something willy-nilly, because I just told you to and you don't really want to. Go on. Make a wish. Inhale. Purse your lips. Exhale.

Let me know in the comments if your wish came true. Also let me know if you've got ideas about what's so magical about blowing.

The wrong door

The other day I entered the tram through the right entrance next to the driver. The tram was pretty packed. At the very front and the very back it's also very cramped for my taste. Next to me was a young man. The next three stops the exit was on the left side. On the third stop a couple of people passed us to exit. When he noticed that he was where he wanted to go out, too, he approached the driver, “Could you...?”, pointing at the closed right door. The driver couldn't contain a grin. The young man noticed his mistake himself without the driver needing to say something and exited still on time.

M&M: In The Heart Of The Sea

It seems fitting, after writing about a whale with over 80 plastic bags in its stomach, to now review a movie about whales and the sea: “In The Heart Of The Sea”.

This movie from 2015 was directed by Ron Howard, who with “Apollo 13” and “A Beautiful Mind” already did movies based on true stories.

“In The Heart Of The Sea” is a bit similar to “Titanic” from the year 1997: a true ship accident and a (supposed) survivor telling other people the story. The movie here essentially tells the story behind the world classic “Moby-Dick” by Herman Melville. The sinking of the whale ship “Essex” in 1820 was in part inspiration for the novel. The movie “In The Heart Of The Sea” is based on the book “In The Heart Of The Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex written by Nathaniel Philbrick.

Around 1800 whales were excessively hunted. On August, 12^th 1819 the Essex started with a crew of 21 men. It should be mentioned that just 3 days after that, the ship capsized. The last captain of the Essex was George Pollard (played by Benjamin Walker). According to the movie Pollard got the position as captain not because he was skilled, but because of his family history and was sort of born into this position. Petty officer second class Owen Chase (Chris Hemsworth) doesn't like that at all. Mostly because he is truly skilled and longs to be captain himself. This leads to tension between the two of them. Also on board is Henry Coffin (Frank Dilane) as ship boy. Coffin, only 17 years of age, was Pollards cousin.

On November, 20^th 1820 the crew finally found a group of whales. A whale attacked the boats so forcefully that the crew had to cut the leash. As they wanted to go back to the Essex later, they found the boat at an angle that part the bottom of the ship was showing. The crew worked hard to return the ship to an upright position, but was attacked by a whale several times. The force of the attack was so strong that some of the planks burst. The crew was able to get some food supplies from the Essex into the catchers, before on November 22^nd the Essex sank.

The problem with what followed was that the 3 catchers weren't build for long rides on deep sea, which lay ahead of the crew. Catchers are build for short, fast rides.

Owen Chase (the first helmsman) and Thomas Nickerson (the ship boy) were among the 8 survivors of the originally 21 crew members. Herman Melville hired on a whale ship in 1841. Which is how he came to meet the son of Owen Chase, who gave Melville his father's journal to read. Inspired by these writings, Melville wrote the novel “The Whale”, which today is known as the world literature “Moby Dick”. In the movie Melville (Ben Wishaw) goes to Thomas Nickerson (Brendan Gleeson),in other words a direct survivor, to be told what happened on the Essex. It probably makes more sense to tell the movie in flashbacks from a survivor. This meeting never took place though.

By the way, I saw the movie “Moby Dick: Heart Of A Whale” from the year 2015 directed by Jürgen Stumpfhaus. In it they suggest that some certain sounds whales make to communicate with each other were similar to workings the blacksmith did on the harpoons on the Union in 1807 and also the dinghy repairs of the Essex in 1820. Maybe the whales have misinterpreted the repair noises for whale sounds and that's why both of the ships were attacked.

Nail clipping. The right hand first or the left hand first?

Since I just clipped my fingernails again, I came to think about a scene from "Nymphomaniac 1", not for the first time.

An old man meets a young woman and lets her live with him. He introduces himself as "Seligman", which seems to be an odd name. He explains that it means "the happy one". She calls herself Joe and asks if he is happy.

Seligman: Well, I suppose I am. - In my own way. Even if I'm the kind of person who cut the nails
of the right hand first.
Joe: What does that mean?
Seligman: Well, I divide humanity into two groups: the people who cut the nails on the left hand first,
and the people who cut the nails of the right hand first. My theory is that the people who cut the nails
of the left hand first, they're more light-hearted. They ... they have a tendency to enjoy life more, because they go straight for the easiest task, and save the difficulties for later. - So what do you do?
Joe: Always the left hand first. I don't think there's a choice. Go for the pleasure first, always. And then when you've done the left hand, only the right hand remains. That's... that's the easiest one left.
Seligman: I never thought of it like that. - Well, you're never too old. Never too old to learn.

Which hand do you clip first? Let me know in the comments.