Happy-Go-Lucky

-SPOILER-



Happy-Go-Lucky is about a time in the life of Poppy; a bright and happy girl.

The Movie start out with her girlfriends at a disco having the time of her life. She then goes home to her flat (plastered), along side her flat mate, sister and friends. Poppy is a primary school teacher who’s flat mate is also a primary school teacher. Poppy is living a great life; she has great friends, a great home, an amazing job, and a sexy new boyfriend. But Poppy has got a dilemma, she doesn’t know how to drive. So she hires a driving instructor to teach her how to drive for 22 pounds. Poppy drivers name is Scott and he is the complete opposite of Poppy. He is a lonely religious man, who was picked on and teased in school. He has a very pessimistic look on life, that makes Poppy want to brighten up with her flirtatious teasing and comedic one-liners.

While teaching at primary school she comes across a young adolescent who has been beating up on the other boys. She puts her self out there to help this little boy by giving him the attention he needs and also help from a social worker. If you step back and watch the movie as an observer you can see that she tried to help Scott in the same way she helped the little boy. But her actions end up being misunderstood and worst way. There are a couple instances where your afraid for Poppy’s life, because she is trying to please everyone.

My Review-

The feeling I got when I left the theater was whoa I didn’t see that coming, and WOW that was a great story. The director did a great job of sucking you in to the story, and making you feel like you were really there, experiencing all of her joyful moments and skin crawling tension between her and Scott the driving instructor. I will say I absolutely loved her flat mate Zoe played by Alexis Zegerman. I found her monotone voice to be very comedic and entertaining throughout the whole movie. Zoe’s got a great line in the movie where she says “You cant make everyone happy”, which is very true. I think that one line really sums up the story of the movie. Which was beautifully put together by Mike Leigh. He did a great job of showing raw emotions between the driving instructor Scott and Poppy, and the great friendship between her and her flat mate Zoe. After watching the film and discussing it with my family we came up with the conclusion that the movie is not about what makes people happy, but about the emotions that come with the driving lessons. Its like everything leads back to Scott and the Saturday driving lessons. The ending really is surprising. I over all really enjoyed seeing Happy-Go-Lucky and I wouldn’t mind seeing it again.

2 month vegetarian experiment is now over???

So I decided a couple a weeks ago that I was going to put an end date to my vegetarianism; well not really. What I mean to say is I was a Lacto-Ovo vegetarian for exactly 2 Months; I am still a vegetarian, because watching my family eat unhealthy foods; that include some form of meat in them (it can be disgusting sometimes) makes me sick to my stomach. I can not imagine myself eatting any of that stuff (stuff meaning hotdogs, chinese food with random bits of chicken from random parts of a chicken, and the un-none meat products that is fast food), the sad thing is that I used to eat that crap.

I have decided to revise my eating habits just a little bit more; I've decided to add fish to my diet, because 1. I like fish and 2. I know that I'm not eating processed fish food (that is if I stay away from fish n' chips and McDonalds fish filet "surprise"). I think I'll stick with the fresh stuff.

My diet during my experiment mainly consisted of fryed eggs, lots of vegetables, peanut-butter, milk, whole wheat, whole grain, and 12 grain breads, and on occassion tofu.

I will admit its not easy going cold turkey on meat or on anything for that matter. So you have to understand that no ones perfect and I did mess up a couple times, but they weren't deliberate, more like accidents. For example lets say I ordered something and I didn't know there was meat in it until after I started eating it and yes I read the description of the food on the menu. Lets just say I didn't make that mistake again.

Here are a few things I noticed while being a Lacto-Ovo vegetarian...


1.) I don't feel like there is a solid mass in my stomach anymore when ever I eat a meal, because I used to get that feeling when I used to eat some meat.
2.) I noticed that I watch what I eat more.
3.) I have learned to cook better, which is great for me and great for when I cook food for friends. Oh n' by the way I make a great buttered noodles dish and a mean bell peppers omelet.
4.) I overall feel better.
5.) Not going to lie, sometimes I hate going out to eat with friends and family, because some restruants dont serve anything close to vegetarian food.
6.) I noticed that I get picked on sometimes by friends or family for being a vegetarian (gosh I really hate that). Sometimes a complete stranger will ask me why I became a vegetarian, and all the people that asked me were very polite and kind; so far.
7.)....I'll add more to the list later.

Overall, I plan on staying vegetarian. For how long though? I don't know. Like I said before on a previous entry "I dont see it ending anytime soon".

"Delicatessen"

The first time I saw the movie "Delicatessen" I was overwhelmed by the intensity and craziness of the movie, and that is exactly what I expected coming from the directors of "The City of Lost Children" and vice versa. That is with the exception of "Amelie", because its just so damn cute and endearing. About a month after I saw Delicatessen for the first time; I started having flashbacks of different scenes from the movie. I also had a overwhelming urge to watch it again. And I did. I have to say it was way better the second time around, but I am not saying that I didn't like it the first time. I'm saying that its a-lot to digest when watching it for the first time. Now that I think about it that's how it is for almost all movies.



Something stood out to me when I watched it the second time around, and that was; the movie seemed more like a touching love story, than a crazy post-apocalyptic surrealist black comedy; to me its like a tender love story between the two peaceful people, who got mixed up with some cannibalism, butcher knifes and lots n' lots of water. If I was to play the game "desert island" and the category was films, I would hands down put this movie on that list; along side the movies "Dan in real life", "Lost Highway", "Garden State", "Iron Giant", and of-course "Amelie". =)