Review: the Constant Gardener

For most types of businesses, there are certain important films you should see... stockbrokers should watch "Wall Street", geneticists should watch "Gattaca", teachers should watch "Circle of Dead Poets", etc. Not necessarily because they are always amazing movies (though that is a bonus!), but because they portray the glories and pitfalls of the profession and allow someone outside your field to have a basic understanding of your work - even though it can be quite caricatural.

For the work I do, "The Constant Gardener" is as close as I've seen. It's a dark movie about how a big pharmaceutical company exploits Kenyan patients in risky medical experiments. It's cynical, understated (not least because of one of the true masters of the understated, Ralph Fiennes). It's not always a clear-cut issue who the big bad guy is, which is one of the strengths of the movie: indeed, it paints a picture of huge companies or governments where the blame is shared by a lot of individuals who in small ways contribute to the big picture of the problem.

As a clinical research associate, my job is to prevent this type of abuse on innocent patients. It is our job to make sure that they are informed of the research, aware of what treatment they are receiving, well taken care of by their doctor - even if they don't want to participate in research. In Sweden I might not be on the frontlines of preventing the events in "Constant Gardener", but in my small way, I feel I'm contributing to the solution.

The film itself is good, well acted, beautifully directed. Ralph Fiennes and Rachel Weisz are great in the leads, and my favourite "creepy Brit" Bill Nighy as always steals the show in whatever scene he's in. And the plot is intriguing and exciting as any thriller should be.

Grade: 4/5
Better than: Mission Impossible 2
Not as good as: Last King of Scotland

Review: Margot at the Wedding

I loved Noah Baumbach's "The Squid and the Whale", a tragi-comic story about a family breaking apart, and how both parents and both sons try to cope, try to pick sides and try to go on with their lives. It's very funny, very sad and very twisted - all at the same time. Laura Linney, one of the hottest actresses in Hollywood, is fabulous in it (despite never wearing make up!)

Now it was time for a second of my laminated top 5 actresses to star in a Baumbach movie, namely Nicole Kidman. The film is every bit as twisted, funny, sad and nonsensical as the Squid, and once again portrays two families in the full-blown process of disintegration and reconciliation. And Nicole is wonderful in every sense of the word.

Grade: 4/5
Better than: Fried Green Tomatoes
As good as: The Squid and the Whale
Not (quite) as good as: Juno

Review: Morgan Pålsson

"Hipp hipp" is the finest Swedish group of comedians. They hail from Skåne, south of Sweden, and originate from the same sort of university entertainment groups as Monty Python. Though not as good as the Pythons (who is or can ever hope to be?), they're in the Swedish elite - not that hard considering the competition ;)

As a film, "Morgan Pålsson" takes one of the sketch characters, a self-absorbed and completely incompetent journalist (Morgan Pålsson) and turns into a feature-length sketch. It's funny at times, but it's hard to make a collage of skits work as a movie, which is my main critique of the film. It worked, made me laugh more than a few times, but there were a few moments where you expect the joke from a mile off and had to wait till it got fresh again.

Grade: 3 stars

Better than: [insert Swedish comedy film here]

Not as good as: Hipp Hipp TV episodes (the "blind Nazi" sketch really had me crying/laughing)

Time to go to the movies...

Since Biotider shut down, I've experienced a bit of a drought on the cinematic side: I simply don't know what movies are hot and what movies are not anymore! But here are the movies I'm super-syked about:

• The Dark Knight
• Indiana Jones IV

It's gonna be a good movie summer I think!

What's on the big and little screen?

It hasn't escaped anyone that movies is a passion for me, but I can also surrender to the addiction of really good television shows. Stuff I'm currently excited about:

Good TV shows

Californication
Excellent TV show, courtesy of "Showtime". David Duchovny is actually very funny and irreverent as a cynical writer trying to piece his life and family together. Really moving and really amusing at times, and both at the same time at it's very best. Quote: "Rehab is for quitters!"



30 Rock
Comedy show, behind the scenes of a comedy TV show. And while the TV show inside the show is like SNL (a type of humor I don't really get), 30 Rock is full of an intelligent, quirky sense of humor. Quote: "DId you know that the inner state schools have lower literacy rates than the Sudan? - That doesn't sound right. -Hm, maybe it was Sweden? Or was it teen pregnancy? (sighs) I need to read more."




Currently, good movies

Juno
Adorable film that will leave you all warm and fuzzy inside, but with enough bite and well written dialogue that it won't initiate your gag reflex. Ellen Paige as Juno is awesome and well deserving of the Oscar nomination. My biggest beef is that Micheal Cera and Jason Bateman (two of the stars of the awesome TV show "Arrested Development") while both in the film, have no common scene :(

WAZ
It starts off with Stellan Skarsgård trying to play a hardboiled cynical cop named "Eddie" (yes, it's about as unintentionally funny as it sounds), which lowered my expectations for the rest of the film. But then the plot and script crank it up a notch, Eddie becomes fleshed out, Selma Blair (black-haired girl in Cruel Intentions, Hellboy and In good company) has the best role of her carreer. Warning: some scenes make Seven look like a picknick and bring Saw to mind.

Biotider: going out with a Bang!

Source:SvD

Previously on "Inside the Mind of Mr O.", I asked the question: if an enterprising business falls in a near-total monopoly, does it make a sound?

The answer is hell yes! After SF decided to discontinue our server access to them, we decided to send out a carefully crafted press release to our associates and friends in the business, as well as several newspapers. The response was overwhelming; twice we made the frontpage of the online edition of Svenska Dagbladet, the #2 newspaper in Sweden, with a total of three articles and one blog; an editorial by Peter Wolodarski in the print edition of Dagens Nyheter (#1 newspaper in Sweden); plenty of blogs, chief among which was our good friend Daniel at Bloggywood, and many, many emails that really cheered for us and admonished us to continue the good fight.

So yes, we made a resounding impact, generating a lot of support and encouragement for us and bombarding SF with badwill. That is a comfort I suppose - but the fact remains, that as long as SF holds a monopoly, they can afford not to care. They can wait out this storm of bad press until it blows over and continue on with their backwards business practice.

And no matter how hard we work(ed) on it, Biotider was still a side project by three highly motivated guys with other (real) careers to consider. How much time and effort can we keep sinking into a project that cannot work as long as SF remain stubborn in being the sole proprietors of their marketing information?

The jury is in. And the verdict is...

...really hard to interpret. SF's response is a disappointment, in the sense that it is neither a positive go-get-em-tiger! (not that we expected that), nor a situation where negotiation is welcome, nor a clear-cut refusal. It's simply a very vague, very Swedish "njaaääääeeeej", non-confrontationalist "cover your bases" sort of answer.

It's sad to see a monopoly reach to the point where even positive forces are brushed aside on a whim. We're not going out peacefully.

On the next episode: if an enterprising business falls in a near-total monopoly, does it make a sound?

Biotider: Do or Die

We've worked long and hard on building the best Swedish website for films and cinema: Biotider.se. During strenuous two years we've managed to build an increasingly popular website - high visitor counts, many cooperations with other websites and cinemas across Sweden and increasing ad revenues. Cinemas sorely need all the help they can get, because it is a decreasing form of distribution for films, losing ground to peer-to-peer and home cinema systems.

Which brings us to our relationship to SF, which for all practical considerations holds a monopoly on cinemas in Sweden after Astoria went the way of the dodo last fall. From the beginning on, we expected them to be excited about our project and hoped they would participate, or at the very least, be carefully indifferent to it. I think we were surprised to receive the cold shoulder from them, but decided that the project was far too promising - and important - not to pursue.

By the end of 2007, we were beginning to attract a lot of attention, including receiving an award for one of the best entertainment websites in Sweden (InternetWorld's top 100 Swedish websites annual listing). Whether for that reason or for something altogether different, SF decided in december 2007 shut down our server's access to their viewing times, effectively crippling one of the mainstay features of the website: showing times for films for cinemas across Sweden.

We are currently in talks with SF. After all, we are promoting their services - so why the attitude? one may wonder. While the dice are rolling, we have to employ the age-old adage: "hope for the best, plan for the worst". And we are doing both.


Check out Nicolas' entry on the matter:
http://behind.biotider.se/2008/02/03/state-of-biotider/

This is Sparta!

I hereby issue a challenge to my friends. We've all been enthralled by the movie "300", and one of the most emotionally charged scenes ever to be seen on a screen is the one where King Leonidas of Sparta screams:

"This... is... Sparta!!!"
-Gerard Butler, as King Leonidas

To review the splendid glory, watch the Youtube video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDiUG52ZyHQ

The challenge is the following: the first one to yell "This is Sparta" while having sex, preferably during orgasm, wins! Your partner must be able to corroborate your statement. While there is no cash prize, our everlasting honour, glory and respect will be yours.