Yep, his album is finally coming out. 23rd November. I didn’t think much of his debut single, For Your Entertainment. Kinda Mika like but it was interesting. Grows on you? I’m more interested in Time For Miracles, which will be on the OST of 2012. John Cusack doing epic film. Time For Miracles somehow reminds me of latter Stephen Tyler. At first, I drew comparison with Freddie Mercury, but I think Adam Lambert could become an alltime great if he really gets out there and not just be one for the mainstream public. Hang on, he’s gay. Okay, it’s definitely working already :). Enough hearsay - check him out on youtube. I can’t wait to hear his debut album..

Time For Miracles

Over the years, I may have been known as quite the Yasmin Ahmad critic. I never did appreciate her work quite as much as any fan that I knew. However, I must admit, she tried to be different and to make a difference. She tried to make a change and was the true purveyor of One Malaysia. Through her ads and films, she never held back on multi racial relationships and tried to convey that message wherever she could. That, was very respectable.

Condolences to her husband, family, friends and those who loved her for what she was, and what she was trying to be. It is a sad day for Malaysians.

Do check out her short film (potentially her last) on 15Malaysia.

I just realised I was talking about death and Jeff Buckley a day before the reported deaths of Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett.

Ironic. RIP.

Jeff Buckley, as you may know is a member of a the DB30 clan. Dead Before 30. Some of you may remember him as a tremendous talent who was able to cover songs and inflict that tragic, emo and eclectic sound to the song. Jeff who left the world in 1997 had previously released a debut album Grace and a follow-up (Sketches For my Sweetheart the Drunk), which was released after his death in 1998.

His most memorable number is none other than a remake of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah (which recently appeared on The Watchmen’s OST). The Jeff Buckley version has been covered succesfully by the likes of Damien Rice and of course in pop culture via Jason Castro on American Idol a few seasons ago. Anytime one of these covers climbs the charts, Jeff’s version re-enters the charts, mainly as a fan tribute to the cult legend.

Wanna relive Jeff Buckley moments? Catch the film My Sister’s Keeper starring Abigail Breslin and Cameron Diaz. It’s a bawl-fest but it features Jeff Buckley’s cover of Elton John’s We All Fall In Love Sometimes. Eclectic magic.

Check it out here.

The guys at Homegrown Space have upped the ante a little bit for Malaysia’s 52nd anniversary with an short film and song composition contest.
The theme is Merdeka. Hopefully we’ll see a big bunch of talents showcasing their compositions or shortfilms.

Details retrieved from the Homegrown Space site

The competition will take place from July of 2009 and will end 5.00pm August 27th, 2009.

For complete details of the video competition, please visit our website www.homegrownspace.com.my and on our Facebook group Homegrown Malaysia.

If you have any questions you can either post a comment on the thread for this article, send an email to mail@homegrown.com.my or call Joshua at 03-7806 5046.

Rules and Regulations

Indie Film:

1. The Theme for your short film is “MERDEKA”.
2. Total running time must be between 3 to 5 minutes in length, including front and back credits.
3. Winners will be selected by a judging panel that is comprised of working industry professionals.
4. Short films that are submitted must be the entrant’s original work and shall not infringe on any copyrights or any other rights of any third parties.
5. All videos/performances/audio files sent to Homegrown will be used as content for all Homegrown websites.

Song Composition:

1. Song submitted must be the entrant’s original work and shall not infringe on any copyrights or any other rights of any third parties.
2. Your entry should be in today’s modern genre, i.e.: pop rock, indie rock, folk, jazz, blue, etc.
3. Winners will be selected by a judging panel that is comprised of working industry professionals.
4. Total running time must be between 3 to 5 minutes in length.
5. All videos/performances/audio files sent to Homegrown will be used as content for all Homegrown websites.

Join us now and send an email to mail@homegrown.com.my with the following information attached:

1. Name, contact number, email address
2. An mp3 or mpeg copy of the song or video.
3. A brief description of yourself and your craft.

Finally got around to watching it.

Before the screening, I thought potentially that this could be the best Malaysian film to date. I now realise that this is definitely the case. It was refreshing. In all fairness, it wasn’t a total musical but where there was music, it certainly worked. The lyrics, which were written by Joon Han were all so well written. It seems puzzling as I won’t have pegged our director as the musical kind. The acting was pretty decent, especially with Jerrica Lai and Peter Davis. Jerrica’s theatre experience definitely showed as she easily crossed over from exagerrated theatre performances. Peter Davis probably has a career as a presenter as he is Pan Asian (ok, if you haven’t watched it, this won’t make much sense to you). Hannah Lo, Hannah Lo. She does have that cool-bitch look about her, which made her perfect for her role in Sell Out, but it’s obvious that she needs more acting experience. Not bad for a debut.

What I really liked about the film is the Malaysian cultural references in the film and a lot of pot-shots at indie film makers. What I don’t particularly like is the disjointed nature of the film. Without a big plot holding the stories together, it seemed disjointed and several smaller plots working in different directions.

In short, this film is a refreshing result from a gutsy film maker. I do wish to see more from the director and more films in general that may not necessarily be a musical type film, but something more on this level of film making. I am curious to check out Yasmin Ahmad’s Talentime. Hopefully she has learnt from Sepet and Gubra.

The artiste revolution in Malaysia continues to take a bold step forward. Now we have a little space in Mutiara Damansara. It’s run by Homegrown Space, which is an ongoing project to help local talent get discovered. Whether you are a musician, poet, artist, filmmaker, etc, this is the place for you. They’ve got a pretty decent music lineup weekly, which started from last weekend.

I’m looking forward to 23rd where Yuna and Pete Teo will be part of the lineup. Check out the other weekly slots at the Homegrown Space Schedule Page.

The Homegrown Space Website

Hmm, apparently it has already been screened. Now, this is an interesting one. It’s one of Yasmin Ahmad’s works and again I must say that I’m intrigued at the possibility of this being a good film. Pete Teo’s music on the OST, which is a plus point, which almost made me watch Gubra all the way. Check out the trailer at the official site. Spunky Pamela Chong is one of the leads and I’ve heard interesting reviews about her debut acting role. First impressions: It’s another Yasmin Ahmad play on multi racial love/hate relationships. It’s a theme that she has overplayed via her movies and TVCs, so this movie doesn’t bode well from the start. And again, I don’t fancy seeing Harith Iskandar’s topless body dancing around. God have mercy on our eyes.

IMDB
Official Movie Site

It’s been awhile since I have felt some potential from a Malaysian film, and I’m sorry to all the fans of Yasmin Ahmad, Sepet and Gubra were not good. Aside from the acting of Choo Seong, Sharifah Amani, Ida and that bald guy, the films were borderline cringing and make me feel like I was listening to someone scratching their nails on the blackboard. Or better still, using a coin. Sorry, I had to let you know how I felt but this post is not about that.

It’s about Sell Out!, a movie by Yeo Joon Han, starring Jerrica Lai, Peter Davis, Kee Thuan-chye, Lim Teik-long,
Wong Wai-hoong, Lee Szu-hung and Hannah Lo. I’ve not actually watched it obviously, but I’ve heard of it for some time now and recently saw two variations of the trailer. It was genuinely witty and funny without even trying. Apparently the screening in Malaysia is to be postponed from March to May, which is not great news, but more time to build up buzz? The acting looks pretty natural and if this film comes off very indie-like, without even trying.

So let’s hope the film is as good as the trailer. The film has gotten some rave reviews from film fests across the world.

Can’t wait. Also check out the trailers at: Youtube.

Oh yeah one more thing, the lead’s name is Rafflesia Pong. C’mon, even that is funny.

Check out the Sell Out Review

SELL OUT!

Year: 2008
Country: Malaysia
Length: 110 mins
Language: Manglish, English, Mandarin, Cantonese
World Premiere: Venice Film Festival

Director/Producer/Editor: Yeo Joon Han
Starring: Jerrica Lai, Peter Davis, Kee Thuan-chye, Lim Teik-long,
Wong Wai-hoong, Lee Szu-hung, Hannah Lo.
Website: http://www.amokfilms.com

So Leo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet’s roles in Revolutionary Road were ignored for the Oscars, despite Leo getting nominated and Kate winning the best actress award in the Golden Globes. It’s like the Titanic all over again I suppose ;).

I hope it will be Brad Pitt’s year as I have him pegged to win the best actor gong for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, despite him losing out to Mickey Rourke.