Maggie’s Plan: A sweet and engaging screwball comedy

Maggie’s Plan: A sweet and engaging screwball comedy

A FEW years ago, someone important on the internet declared Greta Gerwig as her generation’s great screwball comedienne, a modern day Katharine Hepburn or Rosalind Russell.

With her charming presence, big smile and fast-talking ways, Gerwig has already won over audiences in Frances Ha, Greenberg and Mistress America. Now, with the release of Maggie’s Plan, she can add another career highlight to her portfolio.

The titular Maggie may be practical and self-aware, unlike the characters Gerwig previously co-wrote with partner and frequent collaborator Noah Baumbach, but she’s still incredibly warm. This is becoming something of a signature for Gerwig, despite any other faults her characters may suffer.

Sick of waiting for the right guy, Maggie concocts a plan to have a baby with the help of a sperm donor. Before she can carry through with the arrangement, she meets John (Ethan Hawke), the “bad boy of fictocritical anthropology” whose specialty is “commodity fetishism”.

His Danish wife Georgette (Julianne Moore) is described by others as a “monster” and by him as “wonderful, she’s just kind of destroying my life”.

The best character dynamics are between Gerwig and Moore.Source:Supplied

Walking through New York while exchanging clever banter on meaningful subjects like destiny, Maggie and John fall for each other.

Fast forward a couple of years and the two are shacked up with a kid as well as the baggage that comes with an ex-wife who has just published a book about being jilted by her husband for a younger woman. Maggie also thinks she’s made a mistake marrying John — she’s increasingly neglected by him and burdened with all the household minutiae while he tries to finish his great novel.

The plot sounds a little maudlin, the arbitrary way people fall in and out of love, but it’s all played for delightful comedy in a way that more than a little resembles the better works of Woody Allen (the jaunty soundtrack and New York setting adding to the homage).

The characters are also just a bit Allen-esque in their neuroticism, introspection and caricature but director Rebecca Miller has crafted a film that’s better than anything Allen has done in many years (except for, maybe, Midnight in Paris).

‘No, no, it’s fictoanthropology, not frictoanthropology.’Source:Supplied

Gerwig, Hawke and Moore are pitch perfect in their performances, working best when the dynamic involves the tinderbox situation created by these three intelligent but unchangeable characters. Maya Rudolph and Bill Hader provide welcome background support.

What also works is the world of Maggie’s Plan, a special subculture of New York academics, the kind that pins anti-fracking badges to their babies, attend conferences where Slavoj Zizek is the headliner and pickle entrepreneurs are a real thing. The film is in itself almost an anthropological study.

Maggie’s Plan is imbued with the kind of navel gazing that will inevitably grate on some viewers without the patience for it but for everyone else, there is much to like in this engaging and sweet screwball comedy.

thuyen hay Pada 00:22 Komentar

The sex talk teen boys need if we want to combat porn

The sex talk teen boys need if we want to combat porn

WHAT age do you think a boy’s first exposure to porn is? 14? 16? Try, 11.

That’s one tiny year older than my eldest, Dr Who-loving-Lego-mad son. Say it isn’t so. But it is. And the consequences can be addictive, destructive and in many cases brain-altering.

So what can we do to avert our children’s attention from the unreality of porn?

Recently I was invited to speak about intimacy for an audience of 14-year-old boys at a selective high school. The occasion? Their annual Sex and Relationships Day; a revealing and honest event that explores sex beyond biology class.

Speakers included the ex-detective who talked about sexual assault, the GP who mythbusted masturbation, penile size and STDs and the expert on porn addiction who gave an affable talk on the dangers of pixelated pleasure seeking.

I was one of two female guests in the line-up. And although I was asked to deliver a workshop on pleasure from a woman’s perspective, I wondered what new insights could I possibly share with the porn-savvy students. But the teenagers’ innocence coupled with intelligent questions unfettered by shame, detonated my prejudices and possibly even shed new light on my chosen topic; the clitoris.

“Good morning gentlemen.” I began, as my audience fidgeted and played with their hair.

“Over the next few hours, your heads will be filled with talk of penises, vaginas, genital warts, wanking, blow jobs and other Justin Bieber hobbies.”

Sex ed is about so much more than putting condoms on cucumbers (or bananas) these days.Source:istock

The mention of JB with reference to BJs broke the ice. Still, a teacher sat nearby, keeping a close watch; a wise move since, within moments, the alpha boys began the chest beating …

“Miss, Miss! Ask Adam to draw you a penis — he does amazing penises.”

Uninvited, an anatomically correct member quickly came to life on A4. It was mildly confronting; maybe it was the smiley face on the head that threw me. But I was glad the penis reared its head. It set the tone for a lively, relaxed and uncensored discussion.

“What makes up a vulva?” I asked.

“Uh, the vagina…”

“There’s a urethra in there…”

“Isn’t Vulva a car brand?”

After agreeing that the components of a vulva could technically transport you but wasn’t strictly transport, I asked the boys to draw a vulva and use dot stickers to indicate where the clitoris, vagina and urethra are.

Alpha Adam grabbed his phone for a quick pic and the teacher pounced.

“No Snapchat!” he warned before he turned to me and said, “I don’t want it going viral.”

Nope. Nobody wants that.

The boys continued to draw and I fired off more questions.

“Look at your vulva. Can you see the ‘bald man in a boat’, or heaven’s doorbell?”

Blank faces, smirks. Even Alpha Adam was speechless. So I continued.

“They’re euphemisms for the clitoris — it’s an incredible part of a woman’s anatomy with 8000 nerve endings compared to the 4000 spread over your penis’ head. The clitoris is extremely sensitive…”

“Is it really so sensitive, Miss?”

“Really. And it’s often, mishandled too. We don’t play it like an air guitar. It’s about gentle touch. Or firm — depending on the woman.”

“…so we shouldn’t smash the clitoris.”

“Definitely not.”

“But Miss, if I’m on a one-night stand, can I ask her how she wants to be touched?”

Did these boys believe that touch is confined by time? Did they think intimacy was the proverbial wham, bam?

Thank you, porn for screwing with reality.

“Yes!” I replied, “You should absolutely ask her how she wants to be touched.”

The boy looked genuinely gobsmacked by my answer.

“But is there a science behind touching the clitoris, Miss?”

“If we shouldn’t play air guitar on it … how should we touch it?”

Desperate to match the boys’ earnest energy, I launched into an impromptu demo with my index finger raised in midair.

They were mesmerised. But I faltered.

“Guys, there really is no right way …” I said, dropping my hand. And 20 wide-eyed teens were crestfallen. But I couldn’t speak for the idiosyncrasies of the world’s entire clitoral population!

Thankfully, the talk quickly veered into length of orgasms followed by a debate initiated by the boys on whether sweet nothings were the same as dirty talk.

And then, “So, Miss, does a woman who is more emotionally connected to a man feel greater pleasure?”

Wow. Unexpected magic; and a question that filled me with hope because, contrary to popular preconception, our young men aren’t looking for the “sex ed” prescribed by porn stars. They seek a level of honesty, realism and heart that’s completely alien to adult films.

As the students filed out of the classroom, high-fiving me, one particularly quiet student held my gaze and whispered, “thanks”. Even Alpha Adam nodded his appreciation as he left. All boys, in fact, a credit to their school.

If I could name and praise this high school for the phenomenal work they’re doing in sex education, I would, in a heartbeat. Flying in the face of what’s “acceptable”, “safe” or classroom-appropriate for so-called impressionable minds, this school is an unapologetic beacon.

As for me, a mother of two boys already asking me questions like, “how long should you have sex” and “what do you feel like afterwards?” – this experience was beyond priceless.

I learnt that our country’s teenage boys will readily reject porn when the facts are freely shared by us, their parents, educators, mentors and friends.

We just need to set aside our prejudices and give these young men the truth they deserve about intimacy even if the blushed cheeks belong to us.

Writer and sex educator Phyllis Foundis.Source:Supplied

Phyllis Foundis is a TV host, writer, producer, TEDx talker and intimacy activist. This is an edited extract from her book, The Joy of Sags, available in September 2016. You can follow her on Twitter.

thuyen hay Pada 11:49 Komentar

Ritz Carlton to open Australia’s tallest hotel in Melbourne

Ritz Carlton to open Australia’s tallest hotel in Melbourne

The Ritz-Carlton being developed for Spencer St, Melbourne, will be Australia’s largest hotel at 79 storeys high.

STAFF WRITERSnews.com.au

• Email a friend

THE Ritz-Carlton is coming to Melbourne to overshadow Australia’s existing luxury hotels.

That’s figuratively overshadow and literally overshadow.

The 79 storey Ritz-Carlton at 250 Spencer St will be the tallest hotel in Australia when it is built by Far East Consortium property developers later this year.

That’s almost 30 floors taller than the Melbourne’s current tallest hotel, Collins St’s Sofitel, almost 20 floors taller than the Gold Coast’s Hilton Surfers, and four floors taller than the World Tower skyscraper in Sydney.

Melbourne’s Ritz Carlton, above, will include sky restaurants, a sky bar, a pool, a pool bar, a gym, a day spa and a ballroom.Source:Supplied

”Far East Consortium will be bringing the Ritz to life at our West Side Place development in Spencer Street, in what is set to become Australia’s Tallest hotel,” executive director Craig Williams said.Source:Supplied

Figuratively, the Ritz Carlton plans to overshadow Australia’s existing ritzy hotels with its centuries old reputation for elegance and luxury.

In fact, the hotel chain invented the word “ritzy” which the dictionary actually lists as the very definition of elegance and luxury.

“When the president of the United States travels anywhere, he stays in the Presidential Suite at the Ritz, such is the hotel’s unparalleled reputation,” Far East Consortium executive director Craig Williams says.

US President Barack Obama stayed at Moscow’s Ritz Carlton during a visit to Russia.Source:Supplied

This suite at the Ritz Carlton in Moscow, Russia, reportedly costs about over $23,000 a night.Source:Supplied

Melbourne Lord Mayor recently complained that hotel occupancy rates were through the roof and the city needed more rooms for hire.

The Ritz Carlton development in Melbourne should make available 250 more rooms to visitors to the city.

thuyen hay Pada 07:29 Komentar

Twelve things you’ll wish you knew before visiting Japan

Twelve things you’ll wish you knew before visiting Japan

Who needs an excuse to go here? Picture: iStock

Cassie McClementsnews.com.au

• Email a friend

AFTER stepping foot in Japan you’ll quickly notice that there are rules, both written and unwritten, that everyone seems to know and follow.

Don’t be caught out by surprise. Here are some top tips that will come in handy for anyone visiting for the first time.

Stock up on yen.Source:News Limited

1: Take plenty of cash

Japan is largely a cash-based society, so you’ll find that some places may not accept your credit card — especially outside of major cities.

You’ll generally need to use cash in local restaurants, bars, markets, tourist sights and ryokans.

I recommend changing your dollars to yen before arriving in Japan.

It’s an extremely safe place, so the biggest risk is probably losing or misplacing the cash.

The Shinkansen bullet train is the best way to see Japan. Picture: iStockSource:Supplied

2: Buy a Japan Rail Pass before arrival

Whether you stay for a week or two, I’d recommend getting a JR Pass.

This handy pass will give you unlimited travel around Japan on the Shinkansen (bullet train), local JR commuter trains, JR buses and even JR ferries.

I ordered mine online at the Japan Travel Centre. You can validate your pass once you arrive in Japan at one of the exchange offices.

You’ll find them at most major train stations around the country: here is a full list.

P.S. Don’t forget to take your passport along with you.

It’s the done thing. Picture: AP/Katsumi KasaharaSource:AP

3: You’ll see a lot of people wearing masks

Step foot out of your hotel in the morning and you’ll see dozens of commuters wearing surgical masks. Visit any convenience store and you’ll find shelves stocked full of vitamin C supplements.

In Japan, unlike in Australia, calling in sick for a common cold is completely unheard of. If you get sick in Japan, be respectful of the culture and grab a mask for yourself rather than coughing and sneezing on the train.

Make your approval heard while eating in Japan.Source:istock

4: Do slurp

Visit any ramen restaurant and expect to find a room full of people hunched over huge bowls of noodles, slurping loudly and eating incredibly quickly.

Enter British tourist (that’s me), I order what I hope to be chicken from the vending machine, grab a stool at the counter and within minutes, I’m presented with my lunch. But how do I attempt to eat this huge bowl of deliciousness? And why is everyone slurping so loudly?

I twirl the noodles around like spaghetti, while trying not to splash the broth on the business man to the left of me and naturally try to be as quiet as possible while eating.

Little did I know that in Japan slurping noodles is considered a good thing. In fact, the louder the better! It shows that you are enjoying the meal and it enhances the gastronomic experience making it even more tasty.

So, the lesson here is to throw out all the rules of noodle-eating etiquette as we know it and slurp away!

Taking shoes off before entering someone’s home is a custom observed throughout Asia. Picture: iStockSource:istock

5: Take your shoes off

In Japan, it’s customary to slip off your shoes when entering a room, some restaurants, bars, and most importantly in someone’s home.

I stayed in a traditional ryokan in Hakone where I managed to scrub up on my Japanese etiquette. On arrival, you’ll find an array of slippers which prompt you to take your shoes off at the door.

These slippers can generally be worn anywhere indoors, except when entering rooms with tatami floor.

You’ll often find that appropriate footwear has been strategically placed throughout the ryokan. I even stumbled across a pair of toilet slippers inside the bathrooms.

Visit an onsen like a pro. Picture: Supplied FlightSource:Supplied

6: Go nude

There are several rules of etiquette to remember when you bathe in a public hot spring bath (known in Japan as an ‘onsen’).

Number 1 being “Bathe nude”. In Japan it is customary to take off all your clothes when you visit an onsen. In fact, the only thing you can bring with you is a small wash cloth, which you balance upon your head while bathing.

Okonomyaki, a savoury pancake, is a local specialty in Hiroshima.Source:Supplied

7: More than just sushi

There is so much more than just sushi and sashimi to send your tastebuds on a frenzy.

You’ll find plenty of culinary specialities across the country and the great thing is, it’s pretty much impossible to get a bad meal in Japan!

I’ve listed a few of my favourite finds below.

Number one on a foodie’s agenda should be a visit to Dōtonbori in Osaka — a street full of the most amazing food vendors. While you’re here be sure to try the Takoyaki (octopus balls), grilled crab claw and fried Gyoza (meat dumplings).

Try the local speciality Okonomiyaki in Hiroshima. A Japanese savoury pancake layered with cabbage, yakisoba noodles, bacon, egg, topped with the most delicious sauce.

Yakitori (grilled chicken on a skewers) can be found on streets in Tokyo.

Visit Ichijōji, the famous Ramen Town in Kyoto for a big bowl of creamy chicken ramen.

This country does vending machines like no other. Picture: iStockSource:Supplied

8: Vending machines serve almost anything

Japan is a country like no other. It will never stop surprising you with its quirky and creative weirdness.

Want a hot can of coffee? Get it from a vending machine. A cup of instant noodles? An umbrella? A hat for a cat? You name it, the list goes on.

The offering of gratuities could actually be taken the wrong way in Japan.Source:istock

9: There’s no need to tip

Nobody tips in Japan. Ever.

In fact, tipping is seen as a rude gesture. Don’t be surprised if a taxi driver hands your tip back, or a waiter chases you down the street to return it.

In Japanese culture, when you give extra money, it is essentially telling the employees that they need to improve their service.

Don’t walk and eat in Japan — sit back and savour the joy of dining.Source:Supplied

10: Don’t litter

Being a regular snacker — especially in a country where I find myself getting super excited about anything edible that I pass — I soon realised that rubbish bins simply aren’t a thing here.

The reason was explained to me later — the Japanese find it rude to eat on the go (oops).

Be sure to take a backpack or tote bag around with you and keep hold of your rubbish until you return back to your hotel.

Haneda Airport in Tokyo is a lot more accessible that Narita. Picture: Tomohiro Ohsumi/BloombergSource:Supplied

11: Fly into Haneda, not Narita

Haneda Airport for most travellers is a lot more convenient to fly into than Narita International Airport owing to the distance from Tokyo for both.

A train ride from Haneda to Tokyo Station takes approximately 28 minutes and costs around 580 yen (about $AU7.40), while the train ride from Narita to Tokyo Station takes around 58 minutes and usually costs at least 2600 yen (about $AU33).

thuyen hay Pada 10:19 Komentar