It’s a lot like The Fighter in that it’s a movie about two brothers who play the same sports and goes through a little bit of sibling rivalry and comparisons are inevitable. I haven’t watched The Fighter so I don’t know which one is better but I can safely say that Warrior will probably come out on top in my list of favorites.

The story is full of sports movie cliché of two underdog fighters who beat the odds and reach the top. There’s family drama along the way that’s meant to give the story emotional depth and substance. There are dramatic moments that some may accuse of being cheesy and over-the-top. It’s probably not going to win any Best Original Screenplay at any award shows.

But the execution of this cliché, linear and familiar story? FLAWLESS.

Director Gavin O’Connor presents the story at a leisurely pace since the beginning, taking the time to build up the situations, the characters and the action. Each one of his characters – Brendan, Tommy, Paddy – has a dark past but all of them live in the present. What happens in their past is never fully explained and that’s the beauty of it – O’Connor lets us, the audience, figure it out on our own. This in no way means the movie is cerebral, though. It’s more like a gesture of faith from the filmmaker’s part, trusting his audience to think for themselves instead of spelling it out for them. His storytelling is masterful and stylish… he tells a feel-good story with an arthouse/indie-esque sensibility.

Before watching this movie, I read that O’Connor wanted to make a movie where the audience ends up rooting for both of the Conlon brothers even though they’re rivals. He managed to do exactly this. Brendan needs to win because he wants to put a roof above his family’s heads. Tommy needs to win because he has a high sense of honor and duty. Brendan is the poor teacher whom life treats unfairly. Tommy is the tortured superhero-like war vet who breaks the law. They’re both flawed, very much so (there’s a scene where they both treat their father Paddy with so much disrespect that I wanted to slap them both), and yet they’re both equally sympathetic. If you watch this movie and see how Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton play their characters, you will understand. Both actors are extremely good, have a strong chemistry with each other despite appearing in only a handful of scenes together, and it will be quite impossible to say which I like more. I don’t have one that I like more; they really are equal in my eyes and yes, I end up rooting for them.

Which is why I never stopped crying for the third of the movie. I literally had tears running down my cheeks for at least half an hour toward the end of the movie. It was that emotional.

By the way, Nick Nolte? If he doesn’t get an award nod at least once for playing Paddy, I will be very disappointed. He’s amazing!

And although I previously never had an interested in mixed martial arts, I have to admit, it’s a very sexy sport. I think I would’ve still said this if Hardy and Edgerton never played characters who were involved in MMA. How do you say this? The combination of various disciplines of martial arts make for one thrilling fight choreography and O’Connor definitely knows how to shoot the fights to make them look interesting. There’s also something very sensual about two male athletes with god-like physique battling each other in a tangle of limbs and sweat. It’s not at all revolting as I’d previously thought it would be.

But to tell you what makes Warrior works as a movie as a whole is going to take me dozens of paragraphs and I doubt I can be coherent at explaining what it is. It’s not just one thing, but a lot of things. Each key scene is a big picture with an underlying minor moment that wrings out a reaction out of you – laughter, tears, gasps and whatever else it is it demands from you. An excellent performance by the actors is accompanied by either an intense fighting act and/or solemn, triumphant score that raises the goosebumps on your skin. A particularly bloody and brutal fight has humorous commentaries and may reveal a facet of the characters’ personalities. The movie is a combination of a lot of good things that is neatly presented as a wonderful package. Perfection.

On the one hand, I expected this kind of fiasco would happen. At least this time they warned us they were doing maintenance, so we could anticipate some errors.  On the other, I wonder why they can’t just run smoothly forever without frustrating their users. Oh well.

For those who are unfamiliar with the series, this is of course the on-screen adaptation of George R. R. Martin’s classic fantasy novel, A Game Of Thrones, the first in the A Song Of Ice And Fire series. It’s a story set in a fantasy realm called Westeros and deals with the positively medieval intrigue and politics of the land’s most influential families. Despite bearing the ‘fantasy’ label, the story is rooted heavily in reality (particularly The War of the Roses in England’s history) so, unlike LOTR, it has a strong historical feel to it.

The series is not for everyone (for one, the mature themes alone are enough reason for parents to bar the television from the kids during the show’s broadcast) and it has no obvious ‘movie star’ among the cast to immediately appeal to everyone (especially in Indonesia, because people here are usually more concerned about the ‘who’ than the ‘what’ when it comes to movies). The majority of the series’ population can also annoy the hell out of you with their misbehavior and the whole story is pretty dark. Furthermore, because of the very adult nature of the series, many parts of the series will definitely be censored so I’m not sure if GoT will be successful at all in Indonesia.

However, if you’re wondering if it’s worth spending an hour of your time to watch… the answer is a resounding yes. It’s a very well-made series, thoughtfully crafted and brilliantly executed, with performers that are simply flawless. There are not many fantasy series on television that deals with serious drama the way LOTR deals with it in cinema. It’s as if HBO is making a statement with this series, showing everybody else the correct way to make a fantasy show on TV. So, if you appreciate good filmmaking, this is an example of how any TV show should be done in all aspects.

Lord Eddard Stark is one of Sean Bean’s finest character performances so those who still remember how charismatic his Boromir was in LOTR will want to see him in all his glory here. I am truly glad that the show’s creators, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, picked him to play Ned Stark – there can never be anyone else in this role, in my opinion – and that Bean agreed to play him. And then there’s Peter Dinklage, one of the absolutely best two ‘small’-sized actors working in movies right now (the other being Warwick Davis), who gives a stunning performance as The Imp, Tyrion Lannister. If you thought he was brilliant in The Station Agent? Well, here he is even more brilliant.

Then there ‘s a plethora of amazing female characters and performers. Headey as the wicked Cersei Lannister and Michelle Fairley as the strong and graceful Catelyn Tully are only two of the many amazing talents showcased here. At the head of these amazing performances is Emilia Clarke, a practically unknown actress from London, England, who plays the deliciously sensual and also very empowering Daenerys Targaryen. I salute Clarke for snagging this role – she is perfect all the way through and she can only get better.

A hopeful note for the prospect of this series in Indonesia is the fact that the books have been selling like peanuts and become bestsellers in the bookstore I work in. We’ve been selling the book and its three sequels, A Clash Of Kings, A Storm Of Swords and A Feast For Crows, since 2008 and we are constantly replenishing the stock. This series, along with Tolkien’s works, are the top-selling fantasy books in the bookstore. In the past three months, thanks to the Game of Thrones buzz in the US, the sale of Martin’s books have put the Fantasy category on top of the Romance category (which usually takes top spot) in the bookstore’s internal bestsellers list. This means that the people here are reading… they know the books (or they’re getting familiar with it) and they like it. So, if the series is played here officially, there’s a very good chance that the readership will become its viewership – it’s an instant fanbase, which is always a good thing.

Even though I’ve already watched the series in its entirety, I plan on watching it again on TV when it officially airs in HBO. It’s a series worth following at least two or three times over and investing in because the entertainment value is so high. So if you’re wondering if it’s worth your time or not… the answer is yes. Do enjoy it and let the ‘games’ astound you.

Enjoy this photo of the GoT cast from EW.com (from San Diego Comic-Con 2011), just so you can feast your eyes on the gorgeousness of the cast:

(My article on Game of Thrones will be published in Total Film Indonesia’s next issue.)

In case anyone is wondering what’s the latest LJ situation now, you’d be happy to know that:
- The website is up and running; have been for 24 hours at least
- The website can be accessed while logged in (in my case, I used Google Chrome for browser on my PC and right now Safari on my Macbook)
- The website is still very buggy. Sometimes it loads slowly, sometimes it loads normally.
- Users have reported they are able to post comments and SHORT entries.
- Users have reported that they are unable to change/upload/edit userpics.
- Users have reported that they are unable to post/edit LONG entries. (If you’re there to post fanfiction, for example, like me, then you’ll be met with an error message.) So, for now, keep it short.

The existing problems have been acknowledged by Livejournal, as evidenced by their status page.

I highly recommend Dreamwidth if you’re impatient to post your long entries/fanfiction. Some of my fanfic communities in LJ have done so – they upload the long fanfic entry on Dreamwidth and then link back to it from LJ.

This may be my last entry about the Livejournal situation unless there’s something major/urgent going on again. Good luck with everything.

SO. Latest updates.

The website is still having problems:

[+] I tried logging in to Livejournal using FIREFOX:
- First time at 10.45 my time (my timezone is GMT +7) I got this message: Varnish Error 503 Service Unavailable. Please try refreshing the page. If the problem continues, please let our support team know.

- But I can’t even get to the Support section of the site.

- Next step: I cleared the cookies in FIREFOX, logged in, and it works for me but all the pages load VERY SLOWLY. I had to reload many times to get the full view of the pages.

[+] Then I tried logging in with CHROME:
- The pages load very slowly even logged out.

- I experimented trying to open the support section. When I tried to open the support section, I got this message: Varnish Error 503 Service Unavailable. Please try refreshing the page. If the problem continues, please let our support team know.

- I still can’t log in from CHROME. I can only load the pages while LOGGED OUT.

[+] For ALL BROWSERS:
- I STILL CAN’T MAKE COMMENTS/POST REPLIES. There is something seriously wrong with their .bml thingie. I don’t know what .bml is but it’s just not working for me.

[+] At 11.15 (my timezone is UTC/GMT +7):
- I managed to submit support request after logging in via Firefox.
- I still sent e-mail to support@livejournal.com outlining the above problem.
- I have not yet received any replies.
- I saw someone else’s support request about how they haven’t been able to post anything in the last several days and this is Livejournal’s response:

The problem you are experiencing is related to the Distributed Denial of Service attack currently being experienced by LiveJournal. LiveJournal Staff is currently working with LiveJournal’s host to address this and limit the impact on users, however it is not known when service will be restored to normal.

While LiveJournal Staff are working to restore the site to normal operation, I recommend watching http://status.livejournal.org for updates.

[+] Finally, after realizing that the website is still screwing people over everywhere, just now Livejournal admits that there are still problems with the website:

LiveJournal Status

The site is currently up and mostly functional, but we’re not completely back. Pages may intermittently return Varnish Error 503 or fail to load for short periods of time. If you receive an error 503, or a page fails to load, refreshing the the page may work, and if that fails, waiting a few minutes and trying again can help. We’re still working hard to get everything back to normal.

Status Updated: 3:49 am GMT (Friday, July 29)

That’s your latest update. Make of that what you will. I’m seriously disappointed in them. They know their website is vulnerable against DDOS attacks – couldn’t they have done something to improve their system’s security? They’re an international company and blogging platform with global users. They should know better than to be lax about everything. I’m not going to entirely give up on them but this is very exhausting. Those who have been with Livejournal for many years (I’ve been there since 2003) deserve better service than what they’ve been giving us since 2009.

Seriously, Livejournal, I don’t hate you but… GET YOUR CRAP TOGETHER.

Finally, remember: BREATHE.

EDIT 2.54 PM (UTC/GMT +7)
I just made two posts from Firefox and Chrome and they worked.
- Post 1
- Post 2
- Post 3 (at 3.23 PM UTC/GMT +7)

So for now the website is running fine for me while logged in. However, the status page still warns us of error (unchanged from a few hours before). Expect some other errors still in the next few hours, or even in the next few days. Let’s just hope nothing screws it up again.

Additionally, TIME wrote Why Have Hackers Hit Russia’s Most Popular Blogging Service?

EDIT 8.50 PM (UTC/GMT +7)
- I managed to make a longer post (than the previous 3 I posted) around 10 minutes ago: Post 4 – PROGRESS.
- I tried posting a fanfiction (around 2000 words) to an LJ community earlier, but failed. If your post is a long one, the website will give you an Internal Server Error warning. That part is still buggy or whatever, so keep your post shorts for now – SEMI-PROGRESS.
- I can now post comments on my Friends’ LJ pages – PROGRESS.
- I received a response from LJ support for my support request this morning but they didn’t explain anything new, just to try and clear cookies and reload if Varnish Error message appears, etc. Very standard, very generic. – WHATEVER.

I wish you luck with your LJ adventures, people.

If you’re wondering what’s going on now, here’s what’s happening as of 9.01 PM (my time in Jakarta, Indonesia – we are UTC/GMT +7): currently the website is DOWN. It doesn’t matter if you’re logged in or not, you can’t open it. This has been a persistent problem throughout the day since this morning.

Livejournal has posted in their LJ maintenance page:

Sorry we broke the LJ again…
Hi all,

For the last few days site performance has been pretty bad, however we’re slowly making changes to get as many people access to the site as possible. We keep getting new equipment to beef things up, so the chances of this happening again are pretty remote. Sunday night we experienced a surge of increased junk traffic. Our site is already pretty fragile, so it caused a lot of cascade failures and I stayed up all night with ops to bring stuff back up.

Sorry guys, I hate being so serious, but we’ll get everything sorted in a few days.

In the meantime, the most reliable way to access the site is logged out. Viewing certain journals while logged in may give you a timeout error due to some bugs we’re working on. If you’re constantly getting errors, try clearing out your cookies and trying again.

-Andreas

I’ve now activated my Dreamwidth account so I’m blogging there and here.

I’ll update again if I experience anything bad and need to rant about it somewhere. On the meantime, hang in there, LJ users, and keep your fingers crossed. Also: BREATHE.

EDIT 10.00 PM (UTC/GMT +7):

New status from Livejournal:

LiveJournal Status

We are still having a lot of issues related to the high traffic, as most of you are of course aware — many users still have no or very limited site access, etc. While remaining logged out allows some users to use the site in that manner, this unfortunately does not work for everyone.

We are still working on it, and working with our providers to redirect/mitigate traffic as much as possible. Sorry that we do not have better news yet; we’ll keep you updated. Thank you.

Status Updated: 2:11 pm GMT (Thursday, July 28)

And basically their Twitter account is saying the same thing, that “unfortunately, we’re still having site issues“.

This is a major setback from yesterday, actually, for me. Yesterday, I could browse pages while logged in using Firefox after I cleared my Firefox cache. Today, the website is just down like the downest thing in the whole world.

Naturally, I am beyond frustrated. The last time they experienced DDOS attack in spring it took them two weeks, give or take, to resolve the issue. But since I’m tired of bitching about it. I’ve decided to just… stay away from it for now. Hence, my blogging at Dreamwidth, trolling at Tumblr and tweeting about the situation like mad on Twitter. (Don’t you just love social media of the 2000s?)

I’ve said this before. I’ll say it again: BREATHE.

LiveJournal Status

While we’ve gotten site access returned for many users, we know many other users are still unable to access the site at all, or are only able to do so intermittently. We’re sorry for the interruption to your LJ usage, and are still working hard to get site access back to normal for everyone as quickly as possible. Thank you.
Status Updated: 2:47 pm GMT (Tuesday, July 26)

Meanwhile, their twitter claims:

Site access is back for many, but others are still unable to get on at all, or only intermittently. Sorry, we’re still working on it! Thanks
about 14 hours ago via web

And:

If you still can’t access: we haven’t forgotten you. Try deleting your LJ cookies: works for some, not all. Hang in there. ~Carrie
about 7 hours ago via TweetDeck

So… GREAT. Just great. The site is STILL in trouble. You can no longer rely on Down or Not because it’ll just tell you the website is UP but of course this is bullcrap because many – SO MANY – of us are still unable to get the website to function.

Let’s compare notes again, shall we?

[+] My location: Jakarta, Indonesia, South East Asia – current time of post: 11.42 AM – Jakarta time.

[+] I tried accessing Livejournal using PC and Google Chrome half an hour ago (11.15 AM):
I can log in, but can’t browse anything but did not even try to clear cache/cookies because Chrome takes a long time to do this task.

[+] I switched to Mozilla Firefox (still on PC) on 11.20 AM:
I can log in, but can’t browse anything.

[+] I switched to Internet Explorer (on PC) on 11.23 AM:
I didn’t log in and immediately open a random page that I usually frequent and I can open that page.

[+] The IE thing above gave me the idea that MAYBE the problem is logging in. When you log in, you can’t browse. (Which is STUPID, by the way, and why the hell is this happening? Not that anyone will give me an answer…) So I logged out of Firefox and tried to open pages and… IT WORKED! I can browse the website – open any pages – without logging in from Firefox.

[+] On 11.30 AM (approximately), I cleared the Livejournal cookies from my Firefox. I logged in again and… NOW I can browse the website by logging in from Firefox. But it’s still loading kind of slowly and sometimes you get a TIME-OUT ERROR from the server and you have to refresh/reload the page again.

[+] I tried submitting support request and was still unable to do so. I still can’t do anything with the website that has to do with submitting forms (like update page, reply comments, etc.) I had to submit my support request via e-mail to this address: support@livejournal.com

[+] Livejournal did respond to my previous two support requests that I sent them yesterday but they gave me a generic answer that DOES NOT HELP AT ALL:

I am sorry for the inconvenience. This is happening because of network difficulties over the last day. Our site operations team is working to get this resolved as quickly as possible.

Many users have already had their access to LiveJournal restored, and we’re working on getting the site running properly for everyone else. We are updating our status page as well as Twitter and Facebook when we have new information. I’m very sorry for the frustration.

[+] My new support request complained about not being able to browse while logging in: #1349796
(I’m not sure you can see this because it’s marked as private but there you go.)

[+] I suggest if anyone wants to let Livejournal know how much problem they’re still having, write them an e-mail to that address (support@livejournal.com) and hope/pray they can answer and resolve the situation soon.

I know writing all of the above down won’t help solve the problems that has been happening with the website but I do find it comforting when people can discuss and talk about the problems together. I bitch and moan about this problem all the time (because I’ve been using Livejournal to blog since 2003 and it’s more important to me than Facebook, Twitter and whatnot so I really hate it when it’s not working)) but I’d also like to help people see the situation in a clearer way. At least by writing this I hope people know they are NOT alone in this situation.

Anyway. Fingers crossed that something positive will happen with LJ soon.

EDIT:
2.47 PM Livejournal is totally down again for me right now. None of the browsers work to open the page at the moment.

5.23 PM It worked for a while after my last edit, but now it’s not working again. As in, it’s totally down again. *SIGH*

7.20 PM Still down. (Worked for 2 seconds about half an hour ago but then it just went dead again.)

7.45 PM Currently up but don’t know for how long. I’m guessing… not long.

7.52 PM The website is up but it still won’t let me do anything. It won’t let me post comments, post updates, vote in polls… Is there something wrong with their.bml thingie?

8.05 PM Is this another DDOS attack?They really should have just said so, if that was the case. Status needs to be updated… ASAP.

9.29 PM [FINAL UPDATE] The website is down again. The status page has been updated with the confirmation of DDOS attack:

LiveJournal Status

We can now publicly disclose that we have been experiencing a large-scale DDoS attack the last two days, which has been the reason for the site issues most users have been experiencing. The traffic load has been immense, at many times our normal load level, and the attack is still on-going. We are in constant contact with our providers to mitigate the attack as best as possible. We again apologize for the disruption to LiveJournal usage, and are working to get everything back to normal as soon as we can. Thank you!

Status Updated: 2:29 pm GMT (Wednesday, July 27)

This means the website will continue to be up and down intermittently until they deal with the problem entirely. And that might take a couple more days to do because the last time it happened in April, they went on for almost a week.

Since this is happening, I suggest we don’t overwhelm their servers by loading and reloading in vain. Stay away from the website for a few hours and continue monitoring the server via sites like downornot. It’s best to just let LJ’s ops team work their issues and deal with the problem.

[+] I’m on a PC right now and regularly use Google Chrome. With Chrome, I can only access Livejournal’s front page (log in and then it gets me to Welcome Back, tomatoe18 page) but can’t open ANY of the pages, including my own LJ at the url http://tomatoe18.livejournal.com

And this is the latest message I get from it:

This webpage is not available.

The webpage at http://tomatoe18.livejournal.com/__setdomsess?dest=http%3A%2F%2Ftomatoe18.livejournal.com%2F&k=ljdomsess.tomatoe18&v=v1%3Au1348578%3As5280%3At1311678000%3Ag226008acfbfb315454ffe157c3496f06f8a9e924%2F%2FThanks%2520for%2520signing%2520in%2520%252F%2520LiveJournal%2520loves%2520you%2520a%2520lot%2520%252F%2520Here%2520have%2520a%2520cookie might be temporarily down or it may have moved permanently to a new web address.

Error 324 (net::ERR_EMPTY_RESPONSE): Unknown error.

The message is the same for all of the Livejournal pages I try to open using Chrome. I tried clearing the cache – still doesn’t work at all.

[+] On the same PC, I switched to Firefox and Internet Explorer. I logged in with Firefox – no problem; all pages work fine but kind of slow loading. I didn’t log in with IE but manage to open the pages but still slow loading.

[+] Then I switched computers to Macbook and used Safari. I didn’t log in but I can open all of the pages. It loads a teensy bit faster on Safari but then my page’s background picture is wonky, LIKE THIS.
Is this a problem with Scrapbook or with the coding? I’m not even sure where the problem is because it only does so in Safari.

[+] LJ needs an update from LJ maintenance. The Twitter page and the status page also need to be updated. I’m just really confused about what’s going on right now and I see on Twitter a lot of people are complaining that, although the site SEEMS to be back up, it’s still not working for MANY people.

[+] It took me FOREVER to submit this Troubleshooting inquiry to the Support Board. It has been taking me FOREVER to open the Support Board, too, so I ended up sending email to support@livejournal.com where I got automated response.

EDIT
[+] I forgot to say: my location is in Indonesia, South East Asia, and this post was made on 7.18 PM, Jakarta time. (Just in case someone is reading this and wants a time frame…)

What about you?

Livejournal did not let me post this, so I’m doing it on WordPress. What has the Internet become? Complaining about one blogging website on another…

As for me, being the movie buff who’s more than just a little obsessed with Harry Potter, I hightailed it out of the country on Friday, flew to Singapore and stationed myself for three days in Shaw Lido cinema in Orchard Road to watch these summer movies that are not playing here in Indonesia. It’s my second trip to Singapore to do the same thing – the first being in last May, where I watched eight movies in the span of 60 hours – and I managed to amuse myself before the real world caught up with me and made me want to dig a hole and hide there with a Hobbit (preferably in the form of Martin Freeman, of course).

Arriving in Singapore’s Changi Airport at 9.30 AM on Friday, July 22nd, the first thing I did after passing the immigration line was to get a cab to go to the theater. Having paid SGD 19.80 in fare, I arrived at 10.15 AM in Shaw House in time to buy a set of movie vouchers from the ticket box and exchanged them with six movies that I wanted to watch. The first thing I watched there was X-Men: First Class, which I think is a movie that everyone ought to watch every Friday morning to kick start their weekend, and I made a note in my little black book of secret, random thoughts about it, writing “McFassy Bendervoy bromance first thing in the morning gives a whole new meaning to ‘first class’.”

After that, it was onwards to the second movie – Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2. FINALLY. I’m usually the first person in the planet to watch a new Harry Potter movie but this time around I had to wait a week to watch it. But I have no regrets because it doesn’t matter how soon or how late I watched it, my first viewing of it left me completely in tears. If you’d asked me right after the movie finished what I thought about it, I wouldn’t have been able to tell you because all I remembered was crying for more than half of the movie, especially at all the Alan Rickman’s Severus Snape’s moments.

I don’t know if watching  Green Lantern after Potter was a good idea but it wasn’t like I was given a choice of the showtime. The movie plays only once throughout the day and the 5 PM showtime was the only time I could watch it. So still riding high from the Potterdrenaline I watched as whoever wrote the script of the movie screwed up the story of one of DC Comics’ best superheroes (of 2010, at least, because Geoff Johns’ Blackest Night series was one of the best things to have happened last year). I’m also putting the blame on whoever decided to cast Blake Lively in this movie. But at least Ryan Reynolds remain extremely pleasing to the eyes so it was NOT a total lost.

My movie line-up for Friday ended with the clad-in-CG-costumes superheroes, allowing me to have dinner and meet up with a friend rather early. But come Saturday morning, it started all over again. I watched the 10.30 AM showtime of Kung Fu Panda 2 and both laughed and cried myself silly in the theatre; the movie was indeed made of awesome.

And I knew for sure this time that I made the right choice of watching that movie first before the next one because my 12.30 appointment at Shaw Lido’s Theatre 2 is going to be with a long, exhausting and utterly explosive movie directed by Michael Bay. It really is just better to start with something light before a movie like Transformers: Dark Of The Moon. That way, whenever you start feeling frustrated at Rosie Huntington-Whiteley’s complete lack of talent, skill and ability for acting, you can just remember how Jack Black and Angelina Jolie’s characters in the previous movie have sort-of-kind-of-did-that-really-happen inter-species romance, giggle for a moment and say, “Really? Po and Tigress? REALLY?” To be honest, though, Transformers 3 was very good. The only bad thing about it was the female lead, if you could call her that. Other than her utter unimportance to the story and her bad acting, I liked this third Transformers installment quite a lot and not only because Alan Tudyk’s Dutch is probably the best character the franchise could have ever had. Then again, I’ve always been a fan…

Finally, I ended the day’s moviegoing activities by watching Your Highness. Mind you, this sort of comedy is really not my thing… it’s juvenile, it’s crude, it’s gory and it looks cheap (did they not get a special effects budget?) But surprisingly, I laughed a lot and it’s probably the first time ever in the history of me liking movies that I actually enjoyed Natalie Portman’s performance. Go figure!

Sunday was a day of repeats. I watched Harry Potter and Transformers again… and managed to come up with more substantial thoughts about other than “OMG SNAPE YOU WONDERFUL MAN YOU!” Which is good… because one of my assignments this month is to write a review for the movie for the magazine. I almost didn’t watch Transformers for the second time but, I thought, oh well, it shouldn’t hurt to watch Optimus and Megatron try and kill each other. Plus, it was worth spending money to see Alan Tudyk again. So I did. (Fair warning: I’m stalking this actor from now on!)

Having a movie marathon weekend is so much fun. I just wish, of course, I didn’t have to do it in Singapore. I think it’s extremely ridiculous that we don’t get to watch summer blockbusters in Indonesian cinemas. Some sources have been saying that the situation has been resolved now, the movies are coming back, and in fact HPDH Part 2 and Transformers 3 are going to play very soon in cinemas, and they are coming back this month, etc. But seriously? We shouldn’t have to be made to wait this long to watch them in the first place.

I’m not saying I don’t want the government and the movie distributors to collect their collective crap together, but I’m only saying: don’t you have a more efficient way to do that without sacrificing the people’s need for cinematic entertainment? Yes, I realize that not everybody thinks movies are all that great and I know there are other forms of entertainment that we can still enjoy, but have you tried talking to a foreigner about not being able to watch Harry Potter or Thor? Have you ever tried telling people who live abroad, “We don’t have Hollywood movies in Indonesia anymore”? Have you ever tried explaining the whole situation? If you have, then you should have felt what I felt when I tried doing – extremely ridiculous and pathetic.

Anyway, rant aside, this weekend has been fun for me. Of course it makes discovering the news about Norway and Winehouse, plus meeting a dead Livejournal website, all the worse because, after having so much fun, these incidents felt all the more rage/sorrow-inducing. But I can’t imagine where I would be right now if I hadn’t watched those movies before finding out for the nth time what a sad world we live in… I’d have probably drowned myself in a pond somewhere out of depression. The fun and entertainment those movies provide, at least, allowed me to escape to several fictional worlds where I can recharge my happiness levels if even for a short while. That’s why I enjoyed the trip and that’s why watching those commercial blockbusters was, is and always will be essential for my well-being.

Having said that, here is what needs to happen: WORLD, START MAKING SENSE AGAIN. You’ve had your chance to screw us over this weekend, now right yourself and make us happy again without us having to resort to Hollywood entertainment to smile.

THE TOTAL FILM INTERVIEW: DANIEL RADCLIFFE

Jack Kipling. Alan Strang. Arthur Kipps. J. Pierrepont Finch. And, of course, Harry Potter. After 10 years, Daniel Radcliffe’s journey as the young wizard whose name is on the mouth of every people in the world will end in July 2011. “I actually miss Harry,” said Radcliffe of his on-screen alter ego, “like you would miss a friend who you haven’t seen for a while. I do feel the fans’ pain.”

In early March 2011, Total Film Indonesia has its eyes glued to a YouTube video of the 21-year-old Brit actor Daniel Radcliffe singing “I Believe In You”. The song, from Broadway musical How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying, is beautiful and not only owns the song, but he should be able to own the world with it. Or, at least, should he ever feel inclined to join the reality TV show, he could really impress the judges of American Idol.

A month later, Radcliffe and his fellow How To Succeed cast performs live at The Today Show, this time singing “Brotherhood of Man”. Agile and acrobatic, Radcliffe sings and dances as if he was born for it. It is now wonder, then, that Rob Ashford’s How To Succeed gets nine Tony Awards nominations and a generally positive reviews from all corners. And surely the Harry Potter alumnus will not be begging anyone for jobs after the Warner Bros. film franchise ends its run on multiplexes.

The young actor has proven he can work in any media: he’s a live action film actor who has done TV (Extras), stage (Equus) and even animation (as the voice of Edmund, a parody of Twilight’s Edward Cullen in The Simpsons‘ “Treehouse Of Horror” episode). What next? Forming a band and releasing an album with Rupert Grint, Tom Felton and Matthew Lewis? “No. I would not be good in a band. I don’t think I particularly have a rocky kind of sounding voice.”

That’s what he said to TFI when we interviewed him last year in August in Claridge’s, London, a couple of months after the Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows shoot wrapped up. Radcliffe had waited for us with a firm handshake and a warm greeting and, like a good host, offered us a drink as we sat down. On that day, the actor who was born on 23 July 1989 did not resemble any character he has played. But despite his jeans-and-t-shirt-clad slight frame and completely fluffy hair, he still manages to exude poise, presence and professionalism.

Radcliffe may sidetrack himself and tell an unrelated story but he always remembers the original question at the moment you find yourself about to despair. Then he returns to it unprompted. His stunningly blue eyes will be focused intently on you as he answers your question. During our chat, he faltered – very slightly – only once, when he forgot the name of his ‘eldest son’, which we had to remind him of. But on the whole we found it was quite impossible not to fall at least a little bit in love with the charming Mr. Radcliffe…

Very soon all the Harry Potter fans will experience withdrawal syndrome. What do you suggest for them to be able to deal with it and how would you deal with it?
I’m fortunate because of course all my friends worked on it as well, so we sort of… we talk a lot so I don’t have to miss it too much. Because the thing I miss most is hanging out with the people. So I think I’d just maybe read the books again. That’d probably be a good thing to do. I think they might do that, anyway. I suppose, treasure it for what it was, while it lasted. It ended at the right time, I think.

Was it hard, ending it?
It is hard. It will be very, very odd for people. In about a month’s time it’s going to be very strange, for me, because it’s generally about two months after I stop filming something that I start to get… I actually miss the character, like you would miss a friend, or something, who you haven’t seen for a while. It’s a very peculiar feeling. So yeah, that’s coming up. I’ll be feeling that soon, so I feel their pain in advance, for them.

Whose reaction was worst when it ended?
Probably me (laughs). I was going to think of someone else, but probably me. I have to say, me, Rupert and Emma were all in floods of tears. I’ve never seen Rupert cry before… ever.

Maybe he’ll deny it if you ask him…
I don’t think he will. You know why he won’t? Because there’s footage! (laugh) So I could confront him with that… but Emma’s a girl so she’s allowed to cry. Me and Rupert like to view ourselves as being quite, you know… not tough – because we’re not tough – but I don’t think we get emotional about things too often. But that final day was really… It was heartbreaking. Really heartbreaking. Another candidate for that would be David Heyman, our producer. He was very upset as well. It was a genuinely very sad day. I hate to say it but it will probably be on the DVDs. I don’t know but there was certainly a bit of behind the scenes footage filmed of us. I’m sure they’ll show that, and I think it’s probably right that they do because it means a lot to us.

You’ve worked with the same people for a decade. In the future, are you going to avoid them or, if they’re attached to a project, are you going to jump at the chance?
Nice question! I would jump at the chance, absolutely, definitely, both in terms of crew and cast. Actually, funnily enough, our second unit first AD on Harry Potter is in The Woman In Black. Which is brilliant. He’s a guy I know really, really well. He gets the set moving, and he’s fantastic. It’ll just give me that little bit extra confidence, knowing that I know somebody there because then it’s not like your first day at school. But Richard Griffiths said something to me once, that after your second job you will never again have the experience where you don’t know anyone. After you’ve done two jobs in the film or theatre industry, you will always know somebody you’re working with. Which is, fairly true, I have to say. What would be interesting, actually, is that I think probably directors would be more hesitant about combining people from Potter. I don’t think the issue would be us being reticent about that at all. I think it will be that they don’t particularly want to put us together because it’s so… When we’ve all grown up and look wrecked, like we eventually will do, then they might use us, together because nobody can tell the difference. But I think they’d probably try to split us because, you know, if my next film I was playing Alan Rickman’s son, people might find that a little hard to take so quickly after Potter.

Who or what will you miss the most out of everything?
Working with Gary Oldman was one of the most brilliant things I’ve got the chance to do. He’s an inspiration and I’m very proud to now be bale to say he’s a friend I met up with him recently, actually, in America. But I suppose the most important person to me on that sat was a man called Will Steggle, who was my dresser. He worked in costume and we got each other through the films, basically, because you’re there for then years and there are good days and bad days. There are some days when I’m like “oh my god, I’m tired” but we’d gee each other up and we’d tell each other to stop complaining and get on with it. It’s great, we love each other. He’s awesome and he’s my best mate. So for my best memories, even though I can’t think of a specific one, he was probably there for all of them.

Tell us about the epilogue. Who ages best?
Me. Out of the boys, me. Rupert does not age well (laugh) Obviously [Emma and Bonnie Wright] aged better. They aged the best but the boys were all, like, “Yeah, give us the fat suits!”

But you’re Aurors!
I know, exactly! I’ve got a tiny layer, which doesn’t really add… it just adds a bit of bulk to my shoulders that makes me slightly wider but I haven’t got a belly or anything, like Rupert. Rupert looks like Hermione has just been feeding for the last nineteen years. But I think Rupert was really keen on that. And Tom and Jade, his girlfriend, look fantastic. I’m so pleased that Jade’s done that because I never thought she would. I thought she’d be really, really embarrassed because I know her. The reason I’ve got to now Tom so well is because Jade’s one of my best friends. She looks just brilliant as [Astoria] and their boy, Bertie [Gilbert], is the perfect mini Malfoy. He’s thirteen years old with not an ounce of puppy fat, just this incredible jaw line. He looks incredibly imposing. But I think it’ll be a really good scene.

How about your own children?
My children are adorable. My children are fantastic. They’re wonderful, sweet, all of them. Arthur [Bowen] is very good, sort of the quietest of the three and he plays Albus. He’s very, very sweet, young polite. And then there’s the other two. There’s Will Dunn who plays my elder son… who is…

James?
James! Thank you very much. Oh god… I should have read that script better (laugh). He reminded me a lot of me when I met him in the auditions. I think that’s why I was like “he has to be one of my kids!” Even though he’s not as pale as I am but he has this… he’s very chatty, he’s fourteen… kind of like how I think I am – very bright but not academic. he had a lot of trouble at school. Not trouble but, you know, school wasn’t easy for him, like it wasn’t for me. And he’s super bright, a really smart kid, so that was great to have him as my son. And then there’s Daphnie [de Beistegui] who plays Lily. She was amazing. She’s just like this little, incredible creature. She kind of basically adopted me as her father for the days that we were filming. So she would sort of be hanging onto me as we were walking around the set, which was great. And she’s really, really sweet. They’re all so smart, Arthur, Will and Daphne are all very bright.

Did you feel that this scene should’ve been played out with older actors playing your characters?
I actually did say that in interviews before, that I’d rather they cast new people, so that it won’t be distracting. But I think it’s been done really well. Apparently, it’s been lit… I’m sure it’ll be touched up a bit in post-production like they did in Benjamin Button. The technology does now exist to make that stuff work well. I think it’s going to be a divisive scene because a lot of people don’t like that part of the book. I think a lot of people might have an objection to it in the film. We like it and we put it in. Somebody was saying to me that they’d seen it and they thought it was quite moving. It’s a scene I’m very, very looking forward to seeing, definitely. [Note: The epilogue has since been reshot in December 2010.]

We heard from a couple of Hufflepuff extras that you chatted with them. You even said that your favorite cheese was Stilton…
It is.

Blue or white?
Blue (laugh).

You remember them?
Yes. The Hufflepuffs were a rowdy group. They were brilliant. There were these two, Ben and George, who got so excited so very quickly. I love them both dearly. They’re like I was when I was nine and like every nine-year-old should be. They’re insane! They have no concept of when they should stop making faces when the director’s talking to me or stuff like that. But that’s all part of the fun!

After all this… you remain so polite, patient and enthusiastic – even to the point of talking to all the little Hufflepuffs between takes. How are you not a total diva?
(laugh) I don’t know. I love talking to the background because we have great kids on our films. They’re brilliant and they all want to be there. In the earlier films, there were some quite obnoxious kids in the background. On the last few films, they have just been brilliant. I think that, if you’re an actor, especially if you’re the principal in something, you have to see yourself as the… just like Amanda Knight is the head of the make-up department, and Lisa Tomblin is the head of hair, and Jany Temime is head of costume, you have to view yourself as the head of your department. So you lead by example and set a good example. I hate the hierarchy of the film industry. It’s one of the only things I dislike about the film industry. You hear horror stories about actors that won’t let people talk to them. I just think that, to be honest, if you’re doing that, you must be pretty stupid. There are moments, obviously, when you say, “I just want to be alone now”. That’s fine… but I think I have a more interesting day talking to them than I would be just chatting to myself. If you’re involved and you’re checking that everyone’s all right, everyone knows what they’re doing. There’s a legendary man called Michael Stevenson, who’s been in the film industry since long before I was a twinkle in my parents’ eye, and he is just amazing with names, If we have a Great Hall scene with four hundred extras, he will know every single one of them by their first name. He’s phenomenal. I watch him because he’s always going around and checking, “Do you know what you’re doing? Do you know what you’re think at this point?” Eventually I want to direct one day so you learn from people like that, in terms of how to run a set… how to make everyone work as happily and as most efficiently as they can. That’s kind of the art of being on a film set, I think: happy efficiency. If you can get that, then you’ll probably make a good film. Even if you don’t, everyone will want to work with you again.

How did your preparation for How To Succeed go?
I’ve been taking dance lessons, at this point, for just over eighteen months and singing lessons for two and a half years. That was actually for something else, originally. Just to be clear, I haven’t known about How To Succeed for all that time but just for the last year or so. When I was doing Equus, I would sing the Milky Bar theme at the beginning and I kept getting it wrong. So the idea that I’m now doing a musical, that is quite embarrassing, actually.

But your training seems to have paid off…
I got sent to a singing teacher to teach me the melody to the Milky bar ad and then he said, “You’ve actually got quite a good voice. Do you want to keep cooing and seeing me every so often?” Then it started off… I’d have a singing lesson maybe once a month. Then it was once every two weeks and then once a week. Now I’m seeing him three times a week. I love it. And he’s great, my singing teacher… I also love my dance teacher but dance is a lot more painful. Dance does not come as naturally to me at all. A lot of hard work has been done and there is still a lot of hard work to do but I will do it.

You’re a music lover yourself. Does that mean you’re going to start your own band soon?
No. No, I think… I was just saying, actually, to somebody the other day that one of the best things you can do in life, and particularly in this industry, is recognize what you’re not good at. I would not be good in a band. I have no musical talent. I don’t think I particularly have a rocky kind of sounding voice. I could probably fake it but… hey, if you come back to me in five years and I’m in a band then, you have full permission to quote this back to me… but I find it a bit boring when actors go to do bands. Because a lot of bands the actors are in, you wouldn’t have heard of them unless the actors were in them. With Jack Black being the obvious exception to that because Tenacious D is hilarious. But for me, I don’t think that’s on the cards any time soon… no.

There are so many young British actors, such as yourself and Robert Pattinson that are on the rise. What do you think?
The thing is, I think it’s so much more exciting than just myself and Robert. It’s Aaron Johnson, Nicholas Hoult, Eddie Redmayne… there is a really amazing crop of young British actors at the moment who are coming out, doing amazing things. Eddie Redmayne did brilliantly on Broadway, in Red. And did I mention Nicholas Hoult?

Yes.
I did! Good. It’s a very, very exciting time for the British film industry, generally. I’ve only been in it for ten years but there has never been a time before that there have been six huge films all filming in England at the same time. You’ve got War Horse, Hugo Cabret, the Martin Scorsese film, X-Men, Pirates of the Caribbean and Captain America. I think there’s one other but I can’t remember what. But in terms of myself and Robert… I don’t know Rob, very well but I thoroughly enjoyed working with him. I’ve always known him to be a lovely man. I haven’t met him at all since Twilight started. I don’t think he’s probably got very much time to meet people. He’s doing great for himself and it’s lovely to see somebody that you work with go off and do brilliantly. AA/LJ

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Five star turns
How to act in movies by being Daniel Radcliffe…

1. HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN (2004)
Where did the cute boy in the first two Harry Potter films go? With Alfonso Cuaron taking over directorship of the third Potter movie, Daniel Radcliffe took another step to maturity. Even though he was still very young in this installment, he was able to generate enough sexual tension with co-star Emma Watson to make us believe he was a lot older. This was also the first time ever where, under the guidance of an adult film director, we could see the sharpness of Radcliffe’s acting. Good sign for the future!

2. MY BOY JACK (TV) (2007)
Compared to December Boys, the coming-of-age flick (where Radcliffe played an Australian boy) that was released in the same year, his performance in this made-for-TV movie (ITV1) was rather more compelling. As the son of renowned writer Rudyard Kipling, Radcliffe played Jack Kipling who fought in the World War despite his poor eyesight. Yet another first time for us, the audience, to see Radcliffe showing an aptitude for high class drama.

3. EXTRAS (TV) (2006)
He only once appeared in this BBC comedy that Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant labored on but that was enough to roll the stomach of anyone who watches. Who could ever forget Radcliffe throwing a condom at Dame Diana Rigg’s head? “Ricky’s lovely. He’s really, really nice, him and Stephen Merchant. And very funny in real life,” he said in 2006. “I wouldn’t have turned down this role. It’s nice to work with people who are at the forefront of comedy at the moment.”

4. HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX (2007)
In Potter‘s darkest installment, Radcliffe had to emote. A lot. He needed to convey Harry’s doubts and pains, especially when his godfather (in the form of Gary Oldman) got Avada Kedavra-ed. Apparently, he executed it perfectly. And when Voldemort took temporary possession of Harry’s body, we were treated to a sight of the wizard’s transformation from boy to young man and it just struck us how very mature Radcliffe had become. Delicious.

5. HARRY POTTER AND THE DEADLY HALLOWS: PART 1 (2010)
From fisticuffs with Ron to awkward dances with Hermione, Radcliffe displays another example of his constant, steady skill as an actor in the first part of the Potter finale. He said kissing Watson was “weird” but it was more difficult for him to pretend to fight with Rupert Grint. “It’s impossible to hate Rupert,” he said. But the result was definitely not a disappointment – he could only get better in Part 2.

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NOTES: For more of my articles on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part Two, buy Total Film Indonesia Issue 20 (July 2011) and Issue 21 (August 2011). This English version of the interview is a partial translation of the article that appears in Total Film Indonesia Issue 20. (Some points of the interview have been extended, however, matching the original transcript of the interview with Mr. Radcliffe.) This interview was translated exclusively for this blog and is not to be posted anywhere else without permission. If you are a website owner and want to translate this to another language other than English/Indonesian, please contact me in the comments and I will get back to you ASAP.