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

Facebook is so 2007...

I was at a party when the following comment was made: "Facebook is SO 2007!"

General laughter ensued at this comment. But it stuck with me, and after mulling it over for a few days, I started agreeing... Facebook felt new, fresh, exciting and trendy, and now I can hardly be bothered to log in anymore.

Is it my natural tendency to not feel the initial excitement of having a friendlist of 100+, or does Facebook occupy a social niche which I'm starting to outgrow, that of having as big a network as possible, no matter how anonymous?

At any rate, the end result is the same: unless someone urges me, I rarely log onto Facebook by my own.

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!

My TOP 5 laminated!

Fans of "Friends" will remember an episode where Ross has trouble deciding which 5 celebrities he would add to his list of beautiful women he would never turn down. The trouble is, as always, that there are more than 5 celebrities you can imagine, so the challenge is to laminate the list - make it final! Here's my personal take on the "top 5", with 2 brunettes, 2 redheads and 1 blonde:

My top 5 laminated ladies

Salma Hayek

Monica Bellucci

Nicole Kidman

Laura Linney

Tuva Novotny

I would also like to thank those who did not make it to the final five but made the selection a lot more difficult than it should have been:

Close but no cigar*

Naomi Watts

Kirsten Dunst
Jessica Alba
Kate Beckinsale
Elisha Cuthbert

(* Sigmund Freud would love my double entendre there, I'm sure)

Headline News: the tiniest dictatorship in Europe falls

On the wikipedia homepage, the following headline item drew my eye: "The Channel Island Sark abolishes the last remaining feudal system in Europe. "

I laughed out loud several times while reading about this island. If we were any earlier in april I would strongly suspect an elaborate April Fools hoax, but this seems legitimate. Try finding the parts of the article referring to the "One Man Invasion" and "Clameur de Haro" for extra kicks. I used to think people living on small islands inevitably became crazy: I now know this for a fact!