My Favourite Films

5. Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967)

Ever since I was small I have been captivated by the vivacious Katharine Hepburn. My Mother and Grandmother have always instilled in me the power of her acting and her ability to question society in the days when women weren't meant to represent any sense of masculinity and strength. Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967) is one of my favourite Hepburn films because it too encompasses a sense of questioning in an age of racial tension in America. The film tells the story of Joanna 'Joey' Drayton (Katharine Houghton-Hepburn's real-life niece), a young woman of a liberal upper class background, who has begun a love affair with Dr. John Prentice (Sidney Poiter), a young physician.

The couple visit Joanna's home in San Francisco, where she introduces her fiance to her successful parents Matt Drayton (Spencer Tracy) and Christina Drayton (Katharine Hepburn). John's parents also attend dinner ad are surprised to find that Joanna is white. Monsignor Ryan (Cecil Kellaway), a senior Catholic Priest friend of Matt Drayton's also attends the dinner and serves as the voice of reason and tolerance. This film is a beautiful film depicts the reaction of family and friends as they try and accept the choice made by Joanna and John. I recommend it to anyone.

4. Abre Los Ojos (Open Your Eyes) (1997)

After finding out that 2001's Vanilla Sky starring Tom Cruise, Penelope Cruz and Cameron Diaz was a remake, I immediately had to see it. Don't get me wrong, I loved Cameron Crowe's remake of the original, but there's something magical about the original.

From a prison cell, Cesar (Eduardo Noriega), a 25-year-old in a prosthetic mask tells his story to a psychiatrist Antonion (Chete Lera). Several flashbacks reveal important events: good-looking César is attractive to women. At his birthday party, he flirts with Sofía (Penélope Cruz), the girlfriend of his best friend Pelayo (Fele Martínez). Later on, he takes her home and stays the night, although they don't sleep together. The next morning, César's obsessive ex-lover Nuria (Najwa Nimri) pulls up outside Sofia's flat and when she spots César leaving in the morning, she offers him a ride back to her apartment to have sex. On the way there, however, she intentionally crashes the car, committing suicide, and César is horribly disfigured. Sofia can not bear this and returns to Palayo's side.


After César's disfigurement, he begins to have a series of disorienting experiences. He passes out drunk in a street and wakes to find that Sofia not loves him and his face is no longer distorted.
But as he makes love to Sofía one night, she apparently changes into Nuria. Horrified, César smothers her with a pillow, yet finds everyone else believes Nuria was indeed the woman everyone else calls Sofía.

From then on, fragments of his past begin to return to him and it becomes clear that shortly after his accident, he contacts Life Extension, a company who specialise in cryonics, to be preserved and experience lucid and lifelike virtual reality dreams. 

Returning to their headquarters, under supervision by prison officers, he discovers they specialise in cryonics with a twist: "artificial perception" or the provision of a fantasy based on the past to clients who are reborn in the future. He had committed suicide at home after sleeping drunk on the street, and was placed in cryonic suspension. His experiences from about the midpoint of the movie onward have been a dream, spliced retroactively into his actual life and replacing his true memories. At the end of the film he elects to wake up and be resurrected. Convinced his life since the drunken night in the street is simply a nightmarish vision created by Life Extension, César leaps from the roof of the company's high-rise headquarters, resolving to open his eyes once more to real life outside the cryonic fantasy.

This film really is a pleasure. It is complex, intelligent and audacious. Cameron Crowe's remake is also unforgettable. For me this film stands out because of its great soundtrack and beautiful imagery. However, Abre Los Ojos (Open Your Eyes) is an unforgettable experience.

3. Once (2006)

This film really is such a gem. I first saw this film with my sister and we both fell in love, mostly with the absolutely beautiful music. We got the chance to see the films stars, Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova in Sydney and it too was the most beautiful experience.

The film tells the story of an (unnamed) male who resides in Dublin writing hauntingly beautiful songs about his break-up with his girlfriend who cheated on him. He lives with his father and makes a living fixing vacuum cleaners, and singing and playing for money on the streets of Dublin. One of these nights he meets a young (also unnamed) Czech girl who plays piano, does odd jobs and cares for her mother and young daughter.

This unlikely pair begin a friendship based on their love of music and the Girl encourages the Guy to put together a demo disc in the hope they may land a music contract in London. Over the course of a few days the Guy and Girl embark on a journey together examining their past loves, and reveal their indescribable, unique love for one another through their haunting songs.

I would recommend to anyone to listen to this soundtrack. You will definetely not regret it. The music featured in this film is the most beautiful music I have ever had the pleasure to listen to.

2. Garden State (2004)

I can't really stand Zac Braff. I don't really know why, maybe I've seen too  many Scrubs episodes, and he has released some terrible movies in the last few years. However, Garden State is certainly not one of them.

I will admit I like a film with a good soundtrack and Braff offers this to his audiences almost perfectly.


I couldn't write the plot summary anymore encompassing than this:

"Andrew Largeman shuffled through life in a lithium-induced coma until his mother's death inspired a vacation from the pills to see what might happen. A moderately successful TV actor living in Los Angeles, "Large" hasn't been home to the Garden State in nine years. But even with 3,000 miles between them, he's been unable to escape his domineering father Gideon and the silencing effect he's had on his son from afar. Stunned to find himself in his hometown after such a long absence, Large finds old acquaintances around every corner living quite unique lives as gravediggers, fast food knights and the panderers of pyramid schemes. Meanwhile, at home, he does his best to avoid a long-simmering but inevitable confrontation with his father. By a twist of fate, Large meets Sam, a girl who is everything he isn't. A blast of color, hope and quirks, Sam becomes a sidekick who refuses to ride in his sidecar. Her warmth and fearlessness give Large the courage to open his heart to the joy and pain of the infinite abyss that is life". 

1. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

 Upon initial viewing of this film I wasn't quite sure if it was as brilliant as everyone was making it out to be. To be quite frank, I didn't really get it! I viewed the film a second time, I absolutely loved it. This film is filled with such depth and intelligence

Joel Parish (surprisingly brilliantly portrayed by  Jim Carrey) is an unhappy, withdrawn man who meets Clementine (also brilliantly played by Kate Winslet) a girl who is everything he is not, a free spirit, although at times dysfuntional. They are attracted to each other immediately despite their differences

They interact as if they have never met one another before, but in actual truth the pair were former lovers who separated after two years together. After a shattering fight, Clementine, in her true reckless spirit, decided to pay for program to have her memories of Joel erased from her mind. Upon learning of this procedure, Joel also has his mind wiped immediately after Clementine. However, Joel while unconscious, has second thoughts and decides he will do whatever it takes to fight the procedure and keep the memories of Clementine.

Much of the film revolves around Joel trying to preserve his memories. Audience watch as we view their love and courtship in reverse. However, it appears that all his memories of Clementine have been erased.


The employees of the Lacuna Corporation are revealed to be more than just peripheral characters. Mary (Kirsten Dunst) had an affair with the married doctor, Dr Howard Mierzwiak, who heads the company (Tom Wilkinson). In order to keep the affair a secret, Mary has the affair erased from her memory.

Patrick (Elijah Wood), who is lonely, becomes fixated on Clementine during her own erasing procedure and uses Joel's own personal mementos to seduce her. This situation proves to have a critical effect on the films main storyline.

 Once Mary learns of the affair she had with the doctor, she steals all records and sends them to all clients. Joel and Clementine both listen to their initial erasure tape recording and realise their relationship can still exist, even if everything isn't perfect

If you haven't seen this film, please do. It is beautiful.

If the list were continue: Shaun of the Dead, The Breakfast Club, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Donnie Darko, American Beauty, Amelie, Almost Famous, To Kill a Mockingbird, One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, Casablanca, The Shawshank Redemption, Breakfast at Tiffany's, The Green Mile, Kpax, Giant, The Shining, Empire Records and This is England.

Why businesses NEED social media...

Where are your customers?
Jacob Morgan with Chess Media Group wrote a short but sweet post in mid-March. His approach to convincing potential clients on adopting social media goes like this:

“If I told you that many of your customers and prospects interacted and communicated in the social space would you invest in having a presence there?”
“What if I told you that you would never know you made a single direct dollar off of any of those customers and prospects in the social space, but you knew that they were still there, would you still invest?”

Now step in the executive’s shoes for a moment and imagine how you would react. Would you say, “Yeah, even still, I refuse to go where my customers are.” Of course you wouldn’t and that is why this approach is effective.

There is a sense of urgency within both small and medium sized businesses, but when we look at large companies, they are publishing hugely effective social media campaigns. There’s a disconnect. Small and medium sized businesses don’t usually have PR and Marketing departments. If they do, it’s one or two employees representing each main department. With small businesses, it’s a resource issue, so many times you have executives sitting in their office justifying social media out the window. So what might motivate decision makers, within companies, to integrate social media in their departmental plans?

Executives like numbers

Show executives the potential of social media by using statistics. There was a great post over on the Social Media Club website a couple of days ago, based on the 2011 Social Media Marketing Industry Report. That post highlighted the benefits of using social media platforms:

- 72 percent of respondents said social media Increases website traffic

- Improved Search Rankings – (62%)

- New Partnerships – (59%)

- Better Sales – (48%)

- Reduction in Marketing Costs – (59% for self-employed, 58% for small businesses)

- Respondents were twice as likely to increase leads using social media

Let’s face it, executives like numbers. They see the direct affect an action has on the bottom line. Most companies went through a phase where employees went to their director or manager and pointed at social media saying, “Come on, look everyone else is doing it.”, but of course in the beginning they had no numbers to prove it. If you research communications, marketing, public relations and media for years, then follow and research social media as it evolves, you will be convinced that social media is just about the most powerful tool so far in human history. Without numbers and statistics though, arguing this case is difficult. Executives, branch directors and managers are slowly realizing the potential of online communities, likely because we now have over 7 years of wide spread usage of blogs and a handful of years of accumulated usage and sales statistics from online social networks.

Consumer Expectations – An Example

Imagine an advanced software company. There are a few employees at this startup and they are selling custom programs, and yes they have had a few repeat customers, but they find acquiring new clients to be difficult. The executive is wondering why, and the reason is quite simple. Take a look at that bullet list above because the second item highlights the issue in this example. Search rankings are important, but make no mistake about it, those metrics are tied to social media. If I hear about a really interesting product and I google the company or product name, there should be at least a handful of results pointing to their website, but alas, in this case, there is only one related link. What do you imagine a potential customer will think with these results? Maybe, “This is an advanced software company trying to sell me a computer program and it’s hard for me to find them online?

When it comes to information and research, the online world is now more important than our physical world.

Imagine this same software company, but in this next scenario, they have integrated social media into their marketing, PR, SEO and customer service strategies. How different do you think the picture is? The first page of the search results alone will be filled with network accounts and profiles of this company, and even a positive review or two on separate social networks. That is the effects of social media on business. Consumers will expect companies to be engaged in online communities.

Businesses that are not connected to these types of services will either join, or exist as a small mom and pop shop, limited to their own city. Today, that advanced software company would not be able to expand into other cities without using social media. I realize I might be preaching to the choir here on Social Media Today, so let me add some more depth below.

Learning Curve

Many online communities are guilty of deception because they seem to be user-friendly. In fact, there is a hidden learning curve. By that I don’t mean learning the buttons and the interface.

Tap into the deep functionalities of the online communities to accelerate participation and engagement with your followers/fans/friends, ultimately leading to more quality relationships and therefore more sales.

The reality is that on twitter alone, you could search “twitter tips” and you will get thousands upon thousands of blog posts that provide helpful tips. The deep functionalities of every community offers their users accelerated organic connections. You’ll notice this with Facebook, LinkedIn and all the other social sites as well. About once a month I’ll see a blog post outlining tips and tricks, stuff you didn’t know, settings that will change your experience with such and such social network.

If a company has been on Twitter for 3 years, they will inevitably have more followers than a company that just joined (more like 50 followers). The experienced company has already climbed that “deep functionalities learning curve”, so they are doing what works. Whereas the new company is still figuring out their strategy and positioning, while only sending out tweets about their service. One key point in using social media for business is to engage with clients and consumers, right? Businesses want more quality relationships and of course, increased revenue. The sooner a company starts climbing the deep functionalities learning curve, the sooner their Klout (Online reputation and engagement metric) score will be at a respectable level.

Good Social Media Consultants can provide that crucial guidance, but just be aware that there is a learning curve. If you hire the right consultant or advisor, he or she will help your find those hidden functionalities, to tap into the true potential of each social media website.

The Effects of Social Media

I realize some of you may disagree that social media is “the most powerful tool so far in human history”. If you agree with me, you might already be thinking about Tunisia, Egypt, Libya etc. Or you may be wondering why the top handful of social media websites are being valued about 50 times above their latest revenue reports. Let me go further and point out that I am certainly not alone in this perspective. One scholar at Simon Fraser University is predicting that social media might be bigger than the industrial revolution in terms of societal effects. Now, let that sink in before going to the next paragraph!

Avoiding social media and not integrating it into your multi-departmental strategies is a dangerous decision because consumers expect it and despite the deceptive nature of some of the popular social platforms, there is a learning curve to climb.

I believe some of us can see the crest of the oncoming social media wave, but like a great surfer, you might want to swim towards it to get that great reward before it’s behind us when social media has evolved into a completely different system.

(Article taken from: http://socialmediatoday.com/austenm/288998/practical-reasons-why-businesses-need-social-media).



Such an interesting article. I have been currently working with a local business on increasing their advertising in order to increase their sales and business awareness. Social media is the way of the future. Even if someone doesn't want to know about your business or any upcoming sales, their bound to see it anyway! I say this because on a daily basis I see or read many things on Facebook and Twitter that I really have no interest in learning about, but because I check my newsfeeds regularly, I see it!

The online world really is more important then our physical world!

More to come on the world of social media...