5 Reasons I Loved The Perks of Being a Wallflower (in the end)

The silverlinings of standing on the edge of life. I've always been curious about this book, especially when the movie was released. Since a few friends told me the novel is way better, I decided to read it before watching the film. Actually, I still have to watch it, but I do love Emma Watson. Despite my Hermione obsession, I wanted a book with no movie poster as a cover, which I usually don't like, exception made for Roald Dahl's Fantastic Mr. Fox as the movie is by Wes Anderson and I adore him. However, I bought Stephen Chbosky's book in English, a British edition with a light blue paperboard cover.

I have to admit I kept my expectations very low because I thought I was about to read another sociopath teen novel about how everything can be rough and how love can save your life. And when I started reading, it was just like that. This guy, Charlie, well, he is kind of sociopath and awkward and strange and definitely an overthinker. The first half of the book gets you depressed to the core. You start getting annoyed by the incredible amount of different thoughts a 16 year-old guy can have about people and photographs of people and relationships with people. All you want to do is scream at this guy to get the girl and shut the fuck up because you're getting sad and you don't even know why. But if you were, you'd be missing the point. So no, I wouldn't say this is a Bathroom Book. It's more of a Train Book or an Airport Waiting Room Book.
The airport at night was just where I began to understand The Perks of Being a Wallflower and now I'm grateful to the people sleeping there and the silent people looking at those big screens and even to the people picking their noses thinking nobody saw them. Now I'm writing like Charlie does in his letters and I'm not sure this is good. So I'll cut it short. Here's the list of the 5 reasons I loved the book, at the very end.

1. Charlie is a positive guy. I'm truly sorry I misunderstood him in the first place. He always sees the best in others, even in people who don't deserve that. I'm kind of like that myself more than I used to be as a teen. I'm not saying people are all good and nobody will ever hurt you. I know it isn't an easy thing to do, but I try to understand others' behaviour and empathize with their reasons, even if they could be wrong. Understanding someone who's acting right is definitely easy, as easy as jabbing at them when they do very stupid things and I'm quite sure easy doesn't always mean fair.

2. Charlie loves his parents and does his best to let them know. I'm not a family person and I show very little affection to my parents. I guess this is normal when you argue all the time about silly and big things and there's a huge lack of communication. Anyway, I should be more understanding to my parents just as I try to be to people I don't know, as I said in the above point. I find myself thinking about death every now and then. I know this is pretty stupid now, but one day they'll be gone and when I think of that I feel really bad for all the times I made them feel sorry or sad or angry, especially for those times I could've tried to be nicer and I didn't.

3. Charlie loves his siblings. I'm an only child and I used to love it when I was a 4 year-old little bitch and I could have all the toys for me without sharing any, but now I don't. Plus, my family is quite small and we don't see each other very often, not even on national holidays. I'm scared of loneliness most of all yet I know one day I'll be my own family and I have to learn how to get by alone. That's something you will never worry about when you have a brother or a sister. Some time ago, a close friend of mine told me if she ever happens to be in trouble, she'll end up at her brother's. She said it like it was the most natural thing in the world and I felt a bit sorry for myself because I'll never know what this really means. I guess friends are kind of a family to us, poor only children, so I do hope one or two of them will save a spare room above the garage for me, like Chandler and Monica did with Joey in Friends. You know, just in case.

4. Charlie is special, but he doesn't know he is until Bill tells him. The novel is all about the everyone-is-special-in-their-own-way thing. I guess this could be true, except for some people who could be erased from the world and make it a better place to live in. Well, I don't hate anyone that much, actually, because hate takes too much energy and I don't have such a big supply. Back to the point, I'm pretty sure nobody knows they're special until someone says they are and makes them aware of that. Being special is something you cannot be by yourself. You need another person to let you know you're better than the ordinary crap surrounding you and when it happens, it is just great.

5. Charlie lives in the 90s. The novel is set between 1991 and 1992. Chbosky's 90s smell like sweaty band tees, cheap alcohol and burnt tyres. I have to say I loved reading of those times when people made mixed tapes, only used home phones and desperation was handwritten. I tried to picture what being a wallflower would be in the 2010s and the scenario is kind of pathetic rather than poetic. Charlie would have spent his days on Sam's Facebook and Instagram. There wouldn't have been any of those dramatic waits for a phone call from one of his friends because he could have used Whatsapp straight away. I bet he wouldn't have read all those books Bill gave him because he would have been too busy tweeting his feelings out and it's a shame, because that way Bill wouldn't have found out Charlie was special and neither would have Charlie himself. So, best time setting, cultural and musical references ever.

My HIMYM Finale

I need to write something about it.

I waited for hours for the finale of all finales to start yesterday. As I don't live in the US, it wasn't that easy to watch it with the rest of the world. I had an eye on Jeopardy! in the meantime and thanks to a countless number of ads I know exactly who's the democratic candidate you should vote for in Pennsylvania, go Tom!

It's 2 am finally and HIMYM starts, for the very last time.

The video quality is shitty and it lags every 2 minutes, which causes me something very close to a nervous breakdown. I am well aware I'm in the middle of the night, so I keep calm and try to focus on what Carter & Craig had prepared for all the fans.

I even miss a bit of the first part, but then it is quite okay. And it is just beautiful.

I've read a lot of negative comments today on the Internet and I have to say I don't know exactly how I feel about the finale. The only thing I know is that it didn't disappoint me. And here the spoiler part comes, so if you haven't seen the finale yet, you may not want to read this. Really, you don't want to. Go make (or smoke?) a sandwich someplace else.

I've hoped for Robin and Ted to be together since the show started. I had temperature, I was in high school and I didn't know anything about life (more or less like today), yet I did want them to be a couple. Truth is I felt immediately really close to Robin in the way she is and in the way she commits to achieving her job dream. Casually, her final goal is mine too, as I've always wanted to become a journalist and travel the world. Ted is way more concerned about settling down and starting a family. All the blue French horns in the world are of little use for two people who want such different things in life and they eventually break up.

And that's when I started hoping.

You may think I'm a bit of a dreamer (read idiot) to think that the girl who's introduced to us like "Aunt Robin" would become the other half of the Mosby universe in the end, but I wanted to believe, like Marshall did with Nessie.

So, yes, I liked the finale. I even cried a bit while watching. I was glad, despite the fact it was a bit unfair and melancholic. So is life, but that doesn't mean sadness should prevent you to enjoy the ride. I don't agree with some of the disappointed fans who think that the show should have ended at season 2, if the writers wanted Robin and Ted to be together. The timing between them wasn't just right. Robin is the one who said "Timing's a bitch" and it really was that way for her and Ted.

I love the way they stay friends anyway, yet we all know it is way more than that. Especially for Ted. He doesn't hide he is around the corner waiting for her to be ready, yet I think their friendship is real. He's always been there for her, like no one else has. And then, when she has doubts on her wedding day with Barney and confesses Ted maybe she should be with him, Ted pushes her away. She deserves that a bit, honestly. I'd say it is kind of Aldrin justice.

And she does deserve to see Ted's happiness with The Mother. At this point, he is ready for someone else, for a new perspective in life. Ted isn't the same person anymore, but neither is Robin. While he's enjoying his happy years with Tracy (now we finally know her name!), Robin and Barney split up and she gets away from the gang, leaving a brokenhearted Lily and becoming a very famous reporter. She and Ted both have experiences meanwhile, they both find new places, new people, they both just live, like the rest of the group. And I wouldn't call that "pointless".

I'm a HIMYM lover, but I'm not blind. The show quality got worse in the last two seasons. I guess Carter Bays and Craig Thomas had some troubles in carrying on a TV show they wrote taking inspiration from their own lives while they were just playing for The Solids and not knowing it would get that successful. The show is undeniably long, but it is funny all the time. Focusing on Barney and Robin's wedding for a whole season was maybe a tricky choice for such a brief relationship. I guess it was just another way of throwing us off about the finale and it did work out.

I didn't like the fact we've seen so little of The Mother during season 9. We should probably have seen more of her with Ted. The Mother is the most perfect girl on this Earth to become Mrs Mosby. Tracy and Ted have so many things in common and I believe the love they share is damn real. I don't think Ted doesn't love her because of Robin. I think he loves The Girl With The Yellow Umbrella just for that.

After all the heartbreaks in his life he needs someone to be the other half of a perfect pair. That's why I think her death is the only possible way for such a big love to end. And that's why I think getting divorced is the right way for Barney and Robin to break up, instead. They were in love yet not so compatible like Ted and The Mother and they realize that before you can say "Legendary".

There are different kinds of love in life, let's face that. None of them is unique, none of them lasts forever. Robin and Ted's isn't perfect and easy. It's just a kind of love which takes time to get right. It's mature and I guess it'll be long-lasting because of all the years it took to become real. In 2030, when Ted begins to tell the whole story to his kids, he and Robin are 50 something (and still no wrinkles, wow!). It's high time for these two old guys to enjoy their right timing for once. They have my blessing.

My HIMYM Playlist

HIMYM is going to end in less than 24 hours. For those of you who know me, you already are aware I'm going to mourn forever. Better with some ice cream and alcohol.

For those of you who don't, well, let's say I spent my afternoon creating a playlist on Spotify with my favourite songs, picking out from all the 9 seasons and feeling blue. If you're anything like me, and you're going to be desperate too, there you go. Nothing is better than a good playlist of songs recalling beautiful and sad memories at once.

https://play.spotify.com/user/11126830844/playlist/0QggwUVSExxTjgbHuMH3W0

Girls

Girls season finale. Did I like it? I did. A lot of things happened during this season 3. Charlie and Marnie broke up. I used to think Charlie was the cutest guy on Earth and Marnie didn't deserve him, before learning he's a jerk. Or maybe being with Marnie isn't that easy as she's a huge control freak. Anyway, I would like him to come back next season, you hear me, HBO? So maybe Marnie will stop trying to be with all the guys she can't have just because she feels insecure. Adam gets a role on a Broadway production. I can't believe it, considering he spends half his life on a couch doing nothing but jerking off. Hannah still strives to become a writer and not being consumed by ambition and jealousy. Jessa finally admits she's a junkie, which makes her the most honest character of all. I love the fact she tries to help Beedie killing herself, that's very sweet and brave of her. I don't love exactly when Beedie changes her mind after having swallowed the whole contents of her pill jar. I guess it's not easy, but euthanasia is really something you should focus on before it is definitely too late. Shoshanna? Well, I don't like her much, first of all because I can't stand her tone of voice. And guess what? She dumped Ray like he was the greatest loser of all time and then, when she finds out he'd slept with Marnie, she wants him back! Definitely too easy.

Not a single good thing happened in this season finale, except maybe for Hannah being accepted at Iowa Writers' Workshop (any place left? just wondering).

That's the point with Girls, it always has. I've been watching it since the first episode was released and I can remember I was so excited because I felt it was something I belonged to. Something which was so close to real life of young people it hurt like hell watching. I guess this is pretty unexpected for a TV show, to be that real. We mostly want to be entertained when we turn on TV. Girls isn't entertaining at all in the way we would like it to be. Not in the sense it's not funny, because it is. Lena Dunham is one of the most talented writers of her age. I'd be the happiest person alive if I could get some of her writing talent one day. Girls is more like a punch in the face. You didn't see it coming and when you get someone's just hit you, you're ready to hit back. Then, you realize you're only going to crash your weak fist in your reflection in the mirror and you feel numb. I think it's one of the few shows which can picture perfectly what's like being 20-something today and not make you feel like everything's easy because it's not, really. And the soundtrack is pretty amazing, which is definitely a bonus. Everytime I watch an episode I tell myself I'm going to download all the beautiful tracks in it, but obviously I forget to. The only thing I know for sure is that I do want the job of the guy who's paid to pick out the songs. It must be one of the best jobs in the world, just think about it. You're at your desk with you coffee mug listening to new bands and match them with different scenes. Then, once approved, you go home with the awareness that people will feel sad for a song which made you feel sad in the first place, or in a good mood for another song which made you glad. It's like being the God of tunes. You play with people's feelings and they don't even know. But maybe my imagination is running a little bit too wild.

I am happy there's going to be a season 4, anyway. I must admit I've cried sometimes while watching TV shows or movies because I was sorry for my favourite character and experiencing a deep empathic moment. I am a sensitive person, don't blame for that. Girls is different. The times I've cried for it I did it because I was feeling sorry for myself, no favourite characters involved. I haven't a favourite characters among the four of them, actually. This is another thing I do love about Girls. Hannah, Marnie, Jessa and Shoshanna are far from being perfect. They're full of flaws but that's what makes them real. I love all the Girls in different ways, but none of them is exactly a role model and that's a good thing because neither are we. I don't need to watch another Tv show with a supergorgeous, fairylike protagonist (Rory Gilmore, I still love you, anyway) and feel like my life's crap when I can see how Girls' lives are as crappy as mine.

This is a pretty selfish thought, isn't it? I've never said I am not a self-involved bitch but Girls taught me it's almost okay to be that way.

Her

I hope you all agree that Her should have won more than just one Academy Award. I can suggest the one for Best song, which went to the very annoying Frozen song. Honestly, I really can't see what you all are concerned about. An average Disney movie, not even the best one so far, beautiful location as I love Nordic countries, but that's all. The song is quite good, is very Disney, but an Oscar for that? No way. Karen O deserved that, if you guys from the Academy didn't want to be politically correct and gave it to the Mandela song by U2 which was actually pretty good.

Was The Moon Song the only thing I enjoyed of Her? Hell no. The story is beautiful and romantic without being cheesy or banal and I guess in the end the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay was the most appropriate for such a kind of movie.

I even faced my hatred for Scarlett Johansson (which has nothing to do with the fact she's undoubtfully gorgeous and she's got a breast I can never ever grow, no matter how many pregnancies I'll have) and really liked her voice performance. The movie is set in a future but not scary Los Angeles where computers, apps and softwares are a huge part of daily life for everybody. A green-eyed and moustached Joaquin Phoenix is Theodore, a sensitive guy whose job is making up letters for every occasion at BeautifulHandwrittenLetters.com. That sounds a bit like Tom and his greeting cards from (500) Days of Summer, and the tendency to melancholia and unhappy love is quite the same. Theodore is getting divorced and hasn't had a date in ages. He seems so unwilling to start a relationship he (spoiler!) even rejects Olivia Wilde and we all know that nobody could do that and be in his right mind. Theodore feels alone and buys this new operative system with a consciousness, programmed to be like a real person. He's charmed by Samantha's non-metallic, hoarse voice and they start a relationship which eventually turns into love. Now don't imagine any kind of relationship between a sort of robot and a human being, because it's not. Samantha talks, makes jokes, laughs, gets angry and feels like a person and maybe that's the point. The film isn't a love story between a man and an operative system, it's a love story - fullstop. That's why I don't think Theodore chooses Samantha because it's easier and less complicated than dating a person with a body. He chooses to be with her after having experienced all the other possibilities reality can offer to a quite handsome, even if moany, man. And that's the core of pure and mature love. I guess instead she loves him back because she knows little else and starts getting away when she comes to experience how wide the world can be, especially if it's an infinite, borderless virtual one.

The movie really broadens your mind about the way people act in relationships and deal with love. I left the theatre and felt like huge, thinking of all the connections we make in our lives and how we really need to experience the sense of possession to feel we're in love with someone. This kind of awareness leaves you speechless, while images of a beautiful LA roll on the screen, made even more beautiful through a great colour grading which guessed right the perfect tint. I've never been a LA person as I picture myself more like an East Coast girl, but Spike Jonze made me enjoy the sunny skyline like no director before. Plus, am I the only one thinking he's hot? Because, let me tell you that, he is and I wouldn't mind at all if he played any song on the uke for me. No offense, Joaquin.

There's only one Kate in London

Il n'y a que Kate Moss qui est éternelle.

This guy from Belgium, Stromae, sings this line in his song Tous les mêmes. I don't like him that much, but this sentence struck me because it's so true and by the way this post is not about him, it's about her. Or better HER.

She turned 40 last January and she's still amazing. I turned 2+4 a few weeks ago and I'm terrified about spotting a wrinkle anywhere on my face. Kate is like some sort of goddess with no age. She still looks like the girl on the beach as in Corinne Day's pics and anyone who saw the film About Time will understand me.

Anyway, I won't bother any of you with facts you all can see, particularly on this Playboy cover.

Kate is not that tall, not that curvy, not that traditionally beautiful, yet I do adore her. I can't even remember where my adoration comes from, I can only recall memories of a younger me buying obsessively Rimmel mascara and lipsticks to get the London look. I learnt it's something you can't buy, it's just something you have or not, and I still have to decide if I can get some.

So now imagine when I got to London nine months ago now (sigh) and I was having this interview for an internship with the coolest boss in the world, an English photographer who also happens to be one of the best persons I've met so far in my life. I had applied as editor for the blog he runs together with a website providing London pics to magazines, newspapers and other websites. We were chatting drinking coffee and he told me, totally unaware of my addiction, that one week earlier or so he and his assistant had shot Kate Moss (no guns involved) for some holography picture. They helped this cool guy Chris Levine (the creator) with Jeff Robb (the maker), who already took the holography of Queen Lizzie currently at the National Portrait Gallery. My face when I realize that if I had got to London a bit earlier I could've helped them with the shooting was priceless. The face I put up when he told me she was supernice and "tiny, just like you" was even more ridiculous, as I tried to conceal and not to look too excited about it.

From that moment on I spent a significant part (more significant than I would admit) of my summer chasing Kate, trying to spot her in Primrose Hill, where she lives, and in one of her favourite pubs nearby. Nothing. And then, wandering on the Internet, I found out she'd been spotted on some yacht in Calabria. Can you believe that? I couldn't.

Timing between me and Kate has never been right.

There was an exhibition in London for her 40th birthday in January and February and of course I went back there in March. And Topshop will launch a new collection designed by Kate in April.

A few months later, timing is still a bitch.

However, when I got back home to Italy last fall I hadn't bumped into Kate. That was one of my summer's biggest regrets. But then one day, my boss from the internship emailed me and ask me for my postal address, which I gave him. A few days later, my mom handed me a small yellow packet. It said DO NOT BEND in red.

Remember Kate's holography? The original, big one was sold at Christie's for £115,875. The envelope contained a smaller yet precious version my boss sent me.

My adoration was complete.

The Grand Budapest Hotel

Let's picture a table reading with Wes Anderson. I can see a bunch of old friends getting back together for the first day of school. They sit quietly. Then two of them glance up (usually Jason Schwartzman and Edward Norton), grinning at each other and they start throwing paper balls. Someone draws stylised genitalia (or even realistic genitalia, don't ask me why but Owen Wilson seems a pretty talented artist to me) on a colleague's script (I'd say Tilda Swinton's) and they laugh and giggle until long-haired Wes calls them all to order.

Okay, maybe this vision is way beyond every professional actor's imagination, but let's pretend it happened. And I bet it was just like that during the making of The Grand Budapest Hotel.

The events are introduced by The Author (inspired by the Austrian novelist Stefan Zweig), recalling a visit to the Budapest Hotel in the late 1960s, a decade in which its glory days are over. We follow the Young Author Jude Law meeting Zero Moustafa, the owner of the Budapest who's willing to tell him about his life and the reason why he doesn't want to close down the hotel. And that's when the real story begins.

Ralph Fiennes (he has the nose in this one) is Monsieur Gustave H., more than a concierge of a super luxurious hotel in the fictional Republic of Zubrowka in 1932. He makes sure everything's perfect and guests are happy, especially if they're needy and blonde. He also mentors Zero, the new shy lobby boy apprentice, starting sort of a friendship with him. But tragedy awaits. War is getting closer and it's not easy for anyone to pass the border. But this is little trouble for Gustave, more concerned about the mysterious death of one of his special guests, Madame D. She is found dead in her mansion and the concierge is convicted for murder, but ready to prove his innocence with the support of Zero and his girlfriend Agatha, who also happens to be a very crafty baker at Mendl's and will provide help in an unexpected way.

The film is extremely funny in that peculiar Anderson style we all know and love. Dialogues between Zero and Gustave are so witty and cynical it was hard for my armchair neighbours to watch themselves. There's also some average bloody scenes, cut off fingers and A LOT of dead bodies. And after all that, you're all craving for your happy ending, right? Well, you shouldn't. Moonrise Kingdom taught us it can't rain all the time and sun will always come up in the end and stuff like that. We all exited the theatre in a positive mood in some sense. Uh-uh. The Grand Budapest Hotel leaves you with some gracious sadness, if such a kind of sadness has ever existed. You find yourself thinking about the passing of time and how things change, sometimes not in a good way. You understand why the art of telling a story is important to keep people alive even if they're not and how you can be attached to places reminding you of what you loved the most. The best thing (which is my favourite thing in every Anderson movie) is that you don't even realize you're getting sad while watching. There could be blood, and death, and breaking up but all of these things together are presented in such a visual perfection and harmony you can't help yourself enjoying them and know they are right where they're supposed to be. Plus, you don't have time to get really desperate because you're too involved laughing at those wonderful lines and appreciate the perfect ensemble of characters written for the first time by Anderson alone.

It worths every penny of the 12.50 I spent to watch it. Anyway, if going to the cinema was a little less expensive in England I'd be a lot happier.