Nine (!) Liebster Awards Bring Stevee Back to Blogging Land

Hello, darlings. Long time no talk. How are the children? The cats? The dogs? The zebras you have on your back lawn? I hope they're all well. Life has been peachy for me lately, as in my absence there's been some small sporting event going on, I went and saw the independent, micro-budget The Dark Knight Rises again on a big screen (so surprising that it could get distribution!) and I patted my cat every now and then. Okay, all joking aside, I had a great break. It has been nice not having anything to do. Alas, when I realised I had nine Liebster awards to tend to, I thought that it might be high-time that I return to blogging (I'm sorry if I've missed an awarder out, but I think I looked everywhere). By now, you probably know the rules of this award: tell 11 random facts about yourself, answer the 11 questions you've been awarded with, pass it on to 11 different blogs. I won't be doing the last part, since I'm pretty sure everyone has this award now, so sorry about that. And please bear with me: there are a lot of questions, I know, but it had to be done.

11 random facts about me.

1. I sing in the shower. It used to be to just The Muppets' soundtrack, but then I made a playlist on my iPod called "Cute sing-along songs", so now I have a wide array of songs to sing in the shower. Because I'm that cool.

2. It is my birthday next Wednesday and my friends are getting angry with me because I keep organising my own birthday. But I think they're up to something. 

3. It is Indy's (my dog) first birthday the day before my birthday and we're going to celebrate it by watching Carnage, A Dangerous Method and, uh, Battleship.

4. I'm in love with Ezra Miller at the moment. Not just because he's good looking, but I was reading this and the way he articulates being a teenager is amazing. 

5. I really need to buy my own domain for this blog but 1) I'm too poor at the moment and 2) I'm scared that something will happen and I'll lose a whole lot of readers because they won't be able to find me. 

6. I just made this website for our local theatre company and I kinda like what I've done.

7. Sometimes I get all sad because I want to go back to Melbourne to go to the Pancake Parlour. And eat all of the pancakes. Apart from the ones with weird stuff on it. 

8. I miss the Olympics. Four years is far too long to wait for the next one. 

9. There's a screening of The Cabin in the Woods at the Palmerston North division of the NZ Film Festival, but no-one could take me to it. Which is dumb. I don't think I'm be going to the film fest at all this year.

10. I love The Graham Norton Show. It is my Friday night thing.

11. If you ever give me praise or anything I'll probably think you're lying. Because I'm strange like that.

Nikhat’s questions.

1. What was in Marsellus Wallace’s briefcase?
I like to think it was the key to Quentin Tarantino’s awesomeness.

2. Who’s head will you go all “Being John Malkovich” in?
Ezra Miller. He’s a bloody interesting young man.

3. A cinema personality whose biopic you want to see, and who would play them?
Hands down Vivien Leigh. Her life was so cinematic. I don’t really know of anyone who could emulate her, but I would love to see Michelle Dockery (from Downton Abbey) play her.

4. A film you wish you lived in.
Midnight in Paris!

5. What do you think of when I say Bollywood?
TradeMe (like eBay but in NZ form). We once had a Bollywood section at work but we had to sell them all on TradeMe. So I got saddled with that task. Which was annoying because the movies weren’t pre-loaded onto the site so I had to fill out all of the information on them too. Fortunately, that was the morning before ze big Paramount call.

6. Hero, villain or antihero? Also, who is your favourite from the chosen character type?
Antihero, just to be different. I love Mark Zuckerberg from The Social Network.

7. Favourite supporting role of all time.
Do I really need to answer this? Ralph Fiennes in Schindler’s List.

8. Favourite music video.
Good question. I actually dunno. I’ll tell you what I hate though – music videos that are just footage of behind the scenes stuff.

9. Favourite cartoon show from your childhood.
Powerpuff Girls. Man, that stuff was the best.

10. A film you wish you had made and would have been remembered for.
A part of me says Schindler’s List because Steven Spielberg ought to be proud of that achievement, but if I made The Social Network I would be pretty darn happy.

11. Favourite joke.
I am a master of jokes, but one that I can never stop pissing myself laughing over is also the most stupid joke of all time. Don’t judge me.
“What did one banana sitting in the sun say to the other banana?”
“I think I’m peeling.”
I was brought up on “1001 Cool Jokes”, and this one gets me every time.

Aziza’s questions.

1. What’s the song that you keep listening to these days (the repeat curse)?
At the moment, my list is:
“Rise” and “The End” from The Dark Knight Rises’ soundtrack; “Dance on our Graves” by Paper Route; “Rainbow Connection” from The Muppets’ soundtrack; “All the Young Dudes” by Mott the Hoople and “No Church in the Wild” by Jay-Z & Kanye West feat. Frank Ocean.

2. The last film you saw in cinema? 3 words to describe it please.
The Dark Knight Rises. OMG, THE TEARS!

3. Childhood crush?
Hugh Grant was my first real crush, because there was a poster of About a Boy in my classroom and I thought that he was pretty good looking. Five years later I’d be crushing on the other guy on the poster, Nicholas Hoult.

4. Think of a soundtrack of a movie and tell me the best song from it, one that you still listen to, years after you’ve seen the film.
“Talk Show Host” by Radiohead from Romeo + Juliet. Awesome song.

5. What’s that one genre of films that you don’t usually watch?
Horror. Unless they’re old school.

6. If you could adapt a book into a movie or miniseries, what would it be and why?
I’d love to adapt F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, but that would be haaaaaaaard.

7. Tell me one actor/actress that you would be starstruck by (imagine you walk in a Starbucks and you see him/her 2 feet from you – possible reaction: eyes wide open, legs shaking, suddenly it’s hot in the room).
Jessica Chastain. I would probably die or something.

8. If you could recommend a book to your readers, what would it be and why?
The Great Gatsby…if you haven’t already read it. I love that book to the end of the Earth and back.

9. How would you describe a perfect (or close to perfect) script? What are the key elements it should have?
Just check out the scripts for The Social Network or A Separation. And then you’ll see.

10. Favourite British actor/actress?
Vivien Leigh or Kate Winslet for actress, Colin Firth or Ralph Fiennes for actor.

11. What did you have for lunch?
Hot chips from the school canteen and some fruity creamy pastry thingy that kept falling apart on me. It was yum, though.

Anna’s questions.

1. Any actors you show promise for?
Ezra fuckin’ Miller. What a guy. And Jeremy Irvine…I can see him developing over the next few years. Oh, and Nicholas Hoult. And Saoirse Ronan. And Shailene Woodley.

2. Anyone you’re hoping makes a comeback soon?
The fun, “I don’t need an Oscar to make it happen” Leonardo DiCaprio.

3. Name someone in Hollywood you find overrated.
Johnny Depp. I’ll get a lot of haters for that one, but I just don’t like him.

4. What do you do apart from blogging and watching movies?
Tell funny jokes. Sing in the shower. Cuddle my dog. Eat. Sleep. Be generally awesome.

5. What TV shows do you watch?
I used to watch True Blood, but I haven’t got around to season five yet. I’ve see the first season of Game of Thrones. Downton Abbey is my main deal, though.

6. Your most prized DVD?
My copy of Memento, even though it is the wrong zone. Or anything by Christopher Nolan, for that matter.

7. Do you watch movies in theatres more or at home?
Of course at home. It’s hard having the closest cinema being two hours drive away.

8. You have the chance to go back in time to see a film premiere. Which film would you see?
Gone with the Wind. That would have been exciting.

9. Dog or cat person?
I love cats. But my dog tops them all. So, cat as a whole, but just Indy to represent the dogs. But Indy thinks he is a cat, so I guess cats are it.

10. Whose movies have you seen the most of? (This can apply to actors and directors.)
Probs Leonardo DiCaprio. I’ve seen the large majority of his movies.

11. Name your guilty pleasure.
Going on Stardoll for fun. Because I’m really nine years old at heart.

Alleyandthemovies’ questions.

1. What made you want to start a blog?
Not sure. I was originally going to start it back in January 2009 but I never finished the post I was doing. But when I well and truly started it that October, it was because I wanted to do “A Movie a Day”. This was inspired by the release of Julie & Julia in cinemas, where Julie cooked her way through Julia Child’s cookbook in a year. I looked for my own spin on that, but I was a really crappy blogger back then.

2. Is there anything else you love to do besides devour films?
I guess I also like to surf random history stuff on Wikipedia.

3. Choose out of these two: Magnolia vs. Memento, Forrest Gump vs. Catch Me If You Can, The Jerk vs. Blazing Saddles.
Memento, Forrest Gump, haven’t seen the other two.

4. If you had to choose one movie to watch for the rest of your life, what would it be?
The Muppets. Because then I’d always be happy.

5. Is there truly a difference between a movie and a film?
They’re spelt different?

6. What’s your favourite quote about life?
"A big man has no time really to do anything but just sit and be big." - F. Scott Fitzgerald.

7. Explain the name of my blog.
Okay, I hate my blog name now. But back in 2010, I was obsessed with Inception. And I remembered there was a “Paradox” situation in that. Unfortunately, I wasn’t aware of what paradox really meant. But I put cinematic in front of it and basically I got “Cinematic Contradiction”, which doesn’t make any sense at all. And I hate saying the name of it to people I know in real life, because they think I sound really smart and douchey. But I can’t go and change it now.

8. Has Denzel Washington had his “movie” yet?
I thought that Training Day was widely regarded as his “movie”, so I don’t know. He probably has, and now he just makes the same movies over and over again. Safe House was not the most original thing out there.

9. Who’s the most important in the filmmaking process: the director, screenwriter, or main actor?
The director. The vision behind it all.

10. Do you have a Netflix account? If so, how many movies are in your queue?
I have a Fatso account (which is the same thing), and I have 90-something films in my queue. But I’m downgrading my account again because I’m so poor :(

11. What’s Hitchcock’s best film and explain why.
Psycho. It was the first of his that I ever saw. And I haven’t seen it since I was 11, and even now I still hold it in high regard.

TheVern's questions.

1. What would your dream movie theatre have, besides just what is being played?
A red carpet and a little box office at the front to get your tickets at. Our old cinema in town had both of those, but the owners effed the cinema itself up. Which is immensely annoying.

2. Name one movie that would actually be good to remake.
Waterloo Bridge. I mean, I love that film to death, but I'd love to see a slightly more modern spin on it.

3. What irritates you the most about blogging?
That it takes up so much damn time. I've had a nice time not doing anything lately.

4. What do you like the best when blogging?
That it makes me look really busy.

5. Do you play drinking games to movies? If so, what do you drink?
No...I don't drink, unlike everyone else my age.

6. What is the best way to help save us when dolphins try to take over the world?
I guess we just stay out of the water. I mean, they can't do much without water, can they?

7. What movie do you flat-out refuse to watch, no matter how good people say it is?
I don't really refuse to watch anything. Although I kinda don't want to watch too much more Lars von Trier, since I've really gone sour on the guy lately.

8. Name at least 3 movies that you still watch on other formats besides DVD and Blu-Ray.
Uhhhhh...I don't have too many other options, unfortunately.

9. Have you ever danced with the devil in pale moonlight?
No. I'm usually dancing by myself because I'm so cool.

10. What is a good movie you have a hard time convincing people to watch?
In Dannevirke: foreign movies. My friends: old movies. My mother: anything that doesn't have blood squirting out of it. My father: any movie at all.

11. What toppings do you like on pizza?
When my friends and I go to the movies in Palmerston North, we always go to Pizza Hut and get four pizzas since they're $4.95 each at the moment. We get Hawaiian, Pepperoni, Beef and Onion and Classic Italian. I love them all. But I particularly love MeatLovers. Which is out of our el cheapo budget, sadly.

Two Tickets For... questions.

1. What made you want to start blogging?
See question 1 of the Alleyandthemovies section.

2. Who is the most influential person in my life?
Actually, everyone around me. I don't just look up to one person, I look up to many. Like, I look up to my parents, and I always want advice from my friends. And I look up to famous people like Christopher Nolan, Jessica Chastain and most recently Ezra Miller, who is a pretty sussed out teenager by being totally confused by everything. I even look up to a whole lot of bloggers. I couldn't name a person who is the most influential.

3. Which movie are you most looking forward to that comes out from here to the end of 2012?
I would say The Great Gatsby, but that got delayed (grrrrrrrrr). I guess it is either The Perks of Being a Wallflower - admittedly for Ezra Miller but I'm sure that'll change once I read the book - or Looper.

4. What hobby do you do besides blog?
Write my joke book.

5. What's your favourite cult classic movie?
What even defines cult classic these days? I mean Strange Days is pretty cult-y in a way, but I'm not sure that it is a classic.

6. If you could do something else with your life besides what you currently do, what would it be?
Clean Christopher Nolan's house. Or somehow become a part of his family.

7. If time travel existed, what would you use it for?
To relive all of my greatest achievements of last year. Or to see The Dark Knight on the big screen again. Boring, I know.

8. If you could be any television or movie character in history, who would you be and why?
That's a tough question. Probably Captain America, because he's so modest.

9. Boxers or briefs?
I don't have any boxers :(

10. If you could make one change in any movie, what would it be and why?
I would have loved to have heard 'Lucky' play in The Dark Knight Rises or something. Chris Nolan, I know you love Radiohead, so you should use more of their songs in your movies.

11. Describe your perfect movie-going experience.
Being with my friends and crying at the end. It doesn't get much better than that.

R.Hamilton's questions.

1. What is your guilty pleasure (movie or otherwise)?
Looking up pictures of Ezra Miller on Tumblr for fun.

2. Do you see your blog as anything more than a hobby?
I actually do. It has brought me such goodwill in the last year or so. However, when I go to someone "oh, I'm blogging at the moment", it makes me sound like I'm on Tumblr or something. Bloody Tumblr, you've ruined everything cool about blogging. But I still like you.

3. What's your favourite ever kids film and why?
The Adventures of Milo and Otis. I love that film to pieces. Someone should get it for me for my birthday.

4. If you had to delete one genre from the course of history, what would it be?
Gornography. Especially straight-to-DVD gornography. But gornography only comes in straight-to-DVD.

5. Do you have a movie that everyone loves but you just don't get?
The Descendants. I know it is somewhat recent but how that got so many high-level passes is beyond me.

6. If you had the opportunity to interview one film-related person ever, who would it be?
Christopher Nolan. So we could compare cups of tea.

7. What's your day job?
Being an underachieving student. No, I'm actually quite an overachiever, but that doesn't mean I always get the grades I want. And I'm also fully equipped on being so damn awesome. Along with providing a jukebox at school. And telling bloody funny jokes.

8. Is there anywhere that you have never visited, but always wanted to?
Christopher Nolan's house.

9. What movie never gets old for you?
Mean Girls, The Devil Wears Prada and The Social Network. I could watch those for years on end.

10. What's the weirdest thing you have ever seen or the weirdest thing you have ever done?
Actually it was just recently that I was at a friend's birthday party, and I really wanted sausage rolls. So I went out to the kitchen and saw the sausage rolls, and seriously went nuts. Like, I couldn't stop laughing I was so excited. I managed to get the sausage rolls back in the lounge, where I sat down and started crying because I was so damn excited about these sausage rolls. Then we decided to play Charades, so I went back to the kitchen to get some paper, and then I started laughing extremely hard again. I had no idea why I was laughing, but I just couldn't stop. One day I'm going to die from these laughing attacks.

11. Would you rather have to erase your top ten favourite movies of all time from complete existence (so no one knows they ever existed except you) or never be able to watch a movie again yourself?
Wow, this is like Sophie's choice. I'd rather not be able to watch a movie again myself. What a sacrifice.

The Movie Waffler's questions.

1. Which city and country do you live in?
I live in the bustling metropolis of Dannevirke, in that country that everyone thinks is exactly what they see in Lord of the Rings, New Zealand. And no, we don't ride Kiwis to work, and we're not all orcs. We're just bloody funny people.

2. If I should watch one movie I may not have seen what should it be?
The Room. For shits and giggles.

3. What's the best comment ever left on your site?
I don't know, there's so many that I love. So I'll pick a random one from page 30 of my comments..."Excellent review of, yes, a truly underrated film. The line: "...break from the vampires and go back to some good old paedophile torture," had me rolling." - Alex Withrow on my Hard Candy review. Actually no, I really love that comment!

4. And the worst?
I haven't had many 'bad' comments. Apart from spams. But they make me laugh.

5. Of all the posts you've written, which are you the proudest of?
My tips on how to be good at blogging. I just think that those are really good pieces of advice. Man, I felt like Dr. Phil writing that.

6. What inspired you to become a blogger?
My fingers. They needed to do some typing.

7. Do you write in your native language?
I guess my native language should be Maori so no.

8. How often do you visit the cinema?
Whenever I get the chance to go to Palmerston North or really want to see something (like The Dark Knight Rises). Which ain't very often.

9. If someone is sitting near you in the cinema and keeps talking do you call them out or ignore them?
Ignore them, because someone else usually deals to them first.

10. When it comes to new releases have we ever had it so bad?
I don't know, I don't really care about cinema releases. But August and September are awful months on the DVD front compared to July.

11. Is 3D here to stay?
Yes. I wouldn't want anything to be 2D unless it was paper. No, jokes. Probably, until we invent 4D. And then when we get to 5D we might be able to add a dimension of character development.

Maria Sofia's questions.

1. Most embarrassing moment in the movie theatre.
When the guy sitting next to me at X-Men: First Class was talking to himself about his sandwiches and 1pm, and then he stood on my toe before he went to the toilet. It wasn't embarrassing for me, but I was embarrassed for him.

2. Most cherished memory of a movie experience.
Crying during any film. I love crying. But I can promise that I'm a happy person.

3. Favourite book to film adaptation.
Probably The Social Network, since I've read the book and seen the movie.

4. Actor/Actress whose wardrobe you'd steal.
Jessica Chastain's. Have you seen the way this woman dresses? I want to marry her wardrobe.

5. A film character that has changed you.
Mrs. O'Brien from The Tree of Life, actually. I'd love to be as lovely as her, and I try.

6. A film that scares/scared the hell out of you.
We Need to Talk About Kevin. Partly because of the double earthquakes, but also because a high school shooting is my worst fear after earthquakes.

7. A scene from a film that popped into your head...just now!
That scene in We Need to Talk About Kevin where Kevin gets in trouble for trying to eat his sister with a vacuum cleaner and then Franklin comes in with a Christmas tree and he smiles this weird smile thingy and it is really attractive. Damn, now I'm thinking about how attractive Ezra Miller is!

8. Is there a review/article that has been laying around in your drafts for a long time?
Actually no. I write my stuff on the spot. I try to avoid drafts, even if it is just for like three hours. Which is weird, but I'm OCD.

9. A film you're looking forward to watching (unreleased).
The Great Gatsby. More than anything.

10. Musicals: yay or nay?
YAY! How can I sing in the shower otherwise?

11. What was for you the most memorable use for sound (song or effect) in a film?
'Where is My Mind?' at the end of Fight Club.

12. A little known actor or actress you love.
I'm pretty sure I've made Ezra Miller very well known lately, so maybe Zoe Kazan? I love her. Can't wait to see Ruby Sparks.

13. Whose life you'd like to see depicted on film?
Mine. That would be hilarious.

Ah, so yeah, is there anything else you could possibly want to know about me?