Movie review: Her - Spike Jonze

I will admit it, when my boyfriend told me about this movie when it first came out in the cinema, I wasn't very impressed. Maybe it was the way he described it, or just my cynical nature coming through, but whatever it was, it was with great reluctance that I accompanied him to see it. And I couldn't have been more wrong.

Everything about this movie is impressive. Without exaggeration, I would watch this film a hundred times over and still probably not find anything to hate about it.

Her is a film directed and written by Spike Jonze, about a man named Theodore in the final stages of his divorce with his childhood sweetheart. Lonely, he turns to a new operating system (the film is futuristic) called OS1 for companionship, and his relationship with new found "friend" Samantha (Scarlett Johansson) increases and develops. Without giving you any spoilers, this film depicts perfectly how introverts on the internet feel about the friends and slightly more than friends they make.

Although filmed in Shanghai, the film is set in Los Angeles. The shots of this film are incredible, pale pastels set against startling brightness ocasionally makes for the most aesthetically pleasing cinematic experience I have had to date.

This movie contrasts the relationships we go through in life. Friends, family, co-workers, childhood sweethearts - and the question we are forced to ask ourselves for the first time since the explosion of technology, can you really love somebody  you have never met?

Some ramblings about Ukraine

So with all the mass hysteria that has been circulating recently thanks to Putin and Ukraine and god knows what else, I thought my blog was due a post on my own thoughts about the matter.

My parents met in Moscow in the 80s, my mother did a French and Russian degree, my father was based there for almost fifteen years... there was no way I'd ever escape Russia as a conversational topic. To make matters worse, my school decided to ruin my year 13 leisure time with Russian history from Alexander the 2nd until Khrushchev, and what a bundle of larks that was (Partially sarcastic, I did find it very interesting).

However, for those of you who feel somewhat confused or befuddled by the whole situation, I suggest you look at this:

This is a video explained by John Green in relatively simple terms what the problems are/were, and John Green may just be my favourite YouTuber by a slight margin.

When I arrived in Sweden with my dad, we got into a taxi and immediately my dad picked up on his Ukrainian accent. My inner journalist was bursting with questions and, after I overcame my shy tendancies, pretty much asked his life story. Originally from Kiev, married to a Russian-Ukrainian woman, he had so many stories and opinions on the matter to tell me. It was interesting hearing things first hand, and actually really sad to hear that his family were still back in Kiev, and needless to say, the poor man was very worried about them.

It just goes to show, it's worth getting to know strangers sometimes. Everyone has stories, you need only ask for them. And what a wonderful stroke of luck it was that I met him, because otherwise, this post might never have come into existence.

Some photographs

Hello again people of the internet! Firstly, a strange phenomenon has come to my attention that my blog has been viewed in fourteen countries across the glove! This is a.) very exciting and b.) a little bit scary but nonetheless, hello to you all wherever you may find yourself today.

So, after a series of not so pleasant events in my personal life, I somehow found myself in reasonable amount of despair in my bedroom back home when I saw in the corner of my eye, my hardrive from my first laptop. The nostalgia that burst through my veins was somewhat cancelled out by the sheer embarrassment of rereading my chat logs from MSN, some barely even readable due to the amount of emotiocon-ing and various other horrendous spelling mistakes but it was very very funny. However, what I would like to share with you today are in fact photographs.

I have always been a keen photographer. Upon recieving my first disposable camera at age seven, I have been obsessed by cameras - and that is not an exaggeration. I am fairly proud of my 4,103 photos on my phone that clog up my data usage, and my multiple SD cards full of random photographs I have taken over the years.

 Anyway, here are a few of my favourites with some descritions beneath. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did, it is now more clear to me than ever how lucky I am to have such beautiful places to call home in my life

This was taken on my birthday in 2012, and it's the lake in front of my house, on the opposite side to the one below. September Sweden is incredibly beautiful, and this captures  for me exactly what an ideal autumn looks like.





This was taken on self timer in 2011 by me in my back garden in Stockholm, Sweden. The sky is looking particularly beautiful in this photograph, and I think this encapsulates the long Swedish summer days very well. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



So before houses started springing up all over the place on my street in Sweden, it used to be very common to see these little furry garden destructors. And although they are a nuisance and my elderly neighbours have a personal vendetta against them for eating their azaleas, they really are cute in person.

So with these few examples, I can tell you that I am beyond excited to start my Photo Journalism module in September. (Ahhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!)