The first feature film I was involved with, Queen Bee, has been released for public starting today. As one of the crews, I’ve been given the privilege to watch the gala premiere on Tuesday night and bring a friend. I decided to “bring” Aqi to come with me, I am sure he’d love cocktail parties and will meet his friends. Too bad he was late! So we didn’t take any picture, unfortunately. Thank God I met Diana and Dipy way long before he came. He arrived on around 9 pm, and the movie was suppose to start at 9.10!

G2000 dress, mum’s brown belt, Tonik vinyls bag, Kulkith shoes – with Diana!

So, how was the movie?

Let’s make the synopsis short: Queen is a 17-years-old girl, stylish, uses BB, rich, wants to hang out with her friends but rarely get his parent’s trust. Different things: Daddy runs for president and Mum died when she was still a little girl. Now get the picture?

This is not a cheap movie you often hate in the cinemas. I’d categorize Queen Bee to a ‘classy’ teen movie, perhaps like Eiffel I’m In Love (but way much better than this one :D). I might say that this is a great start for Fajar Nugros as a director, since this is his first full-length feature movie. Backed up with great producers including Salman Aristo (yes, the well-known scriptwriter who wrote Ayat-ayat Cinta, Laskar Pelangi, and all) and Bernhard Subiakto (owner of Octovate Group, his previous movie was Lost in Love), Fajar didn’t disappoint me at all. The script was well written, maybe it’s because the writer is still incredibly young, Ginatri S Noer (yes, almost as well-known as Salman Aristo). The marketing and promotion for this movie is in a massive scale. The soundtrack is just great (come on, RAN, 21st Night… so teenage-ish right?).

Queen Bee desperately wants to be an icon of teenage girls, like Gossip Girls, it simply aims to be the “younger” version of Sex and the City. The main character, Queen (Tika Putri), has got everything she wants/needs (except freedom and a perfect ‘family’, this one’s a bit cliche though). Rich daddy (Mathias Muchus), pretty face, a gank (that is not afraid of seniors), a Macbook, a Blackberry (the bling-bling one on day 1, the orange one on day 2), an iPod, a new Mazda car, 2 identical digital cameras, beautiful black hair, a lot of clothes, talent to design clothes, one handsome guard (Oka Antara!), one beautiful guard (Dinar!), attention from the public, and a handsome, rich boyfriend (Reza Rahardian. You have to see his BMW motorcycle). What else would you want to have?

The movie was okay. Most of the people in the studio gave applause as soon as the end credits appeared (I followed them, Aqi didn’t). But, the movie didn’t “flow”. Rough cuts were almost everywhere, from this scene jumped to another one without letting the scene finished. I was annoyed by that, but generally, the film is good. I could understand the message of this movie, and it was not ‘uh another teen movie’. Very refreshing in between these sex horror comedy movies. I was also annoyed with Queen’s gank’s overdressed style to school.  I have warned Fajar though. No need to be ‘that’ stylish to go to school like in sinetrons. Plain like AADC girls is stylish enough! The most stylish girls in school are the ones who look effortlessly stylish and pretty! Get rid of the jeans jacket, those scarfs, the sunglasses…

Tika Putri’s acting was good for a beginner, she made me feel what she felt in the emotional scenes. But, she still couldn’t transform herself into a 17-years-old girl though she’s just a year older than me, still not that carefree and playful like the normal SMA girl. Oka Antara also played well, but I think he was too thin (according to the press kit, he had to lose 7 kilos of his weight! Too bad)! He should have added fuller muscles :-) I enjoyed Dinar’s appearance as one of Queen’s guards. No need to tell you about Mathias Muchus and Jajang C Noer’s acting, right? The winner, for me, was Reza Rahardian. I really love the way he transformed himself from a handsome, kind, gentleman, to a… (uhm, spoiler alert, watch it yourself. But watch his acting during the ending scenes, it’s just great. I LOVE IT!) I also hate and love Sarah Sechan’s appearance. I lmao when Aqi said “SIKATTT!” while she was going to drink alcohol… Hahaha. You will notice some cameo if you work with the team. You will see Fajar, you will see Bie, you will see Biru (Ginatri & Salman’s daughter) in certain scenes. :D And if you watch the film real closely, you will notice a few ‘bloopers’ (uhm what do you call it?). Aqi noticed each of them! Could you tell me?

It’s way much better than Eiffel I’m In Love, 30 Hari Mencari Cinta, and Catatan Akhir Sekolah for sure. Too bad, it still cannot reach AADC and Mengejar Matahari (according to my taste and feeling). Technically it’s great, but emotionally, I still felt like something was missing (but I dunno what). I think the film-makers should get rid of Queen Bee’s “message” because it was too long, boring, and (sorry) useless. I didn’t get it. Who was she talking to? Us?

Congratulations for all of the crews and casts, especially Fajar Nugros, Ginatri S Noer, Bernhard Subiakto, Rendy Prasetio, Salman Aristo.

Anyways… one big question for the team (if you are reading this). Where was the soon-to-be vice president? Isn’t he supposed to be there as well for the campaigns, the meetings and all? If he was there, why didn’t he ever be mentioned (besides in one of the TV news)? :D

Go, sting the cinema, bees… Watch it will you can. Worth to watch. Perhaps 3 stars out of 5. What do you think?

My personal life, well… Been busy with a lot of stuff, especially preparing for the first ever Indonesian Youth Conference. Are you willing to support?

                          

The ceremony actually started on 3 PM, there were a small exhibiton and costume players’ performances. I decided to depart late because I only wanted to watch the movie screening, which began at 6 PM. I only watched 2 (of 3) terms though.

Movie Highlights
Semua karya menunjukkan betapa majunya Indonesia dalam produksi sinematografi, terutama di bidang animasi (lebih banyak karya animasi yang ditampilkan). These are my favourites, anyway:

                          

Today, Anggie Setia (senior advisor of The Cure For Tomorrow) and I went to Usmar Ismail Hall, Kuningan. Yesterday she contacted me: “Hey, I’ve got a good news for you. I have 2 tickets…” I wasn’t aware enough about the event, but then, I decided to go (though I had to miss the match between Indonesia and the Korea Republic) because it really sounded interesting.

So, I took off from school to Pasar Festival, our meeting point. And then, we walked to the venue. I was in a bit of doubt at first, because in the front of the venue there were no banners at all about the event. When we got inside, we were instantly welcomed by a few environmental-friendly corporations’ stands such as WWF, Equinox Publishing (the one who held this event), XS, Aksara Bookstore, etc. It was cool. The mineral water was even served in the old packaging (bottles made of glass). They exhibited solar energy technology and led lighting too. There were banners with earthy messages everywhere, like “Plant A Tree”, “Save Ink and Paper”, “Use Recycled Papers”… And I got:

If you have seen David Guggenheim’s “An Inconvenient Truth“, this is not the movie screening. This is the live presentation! There was an expatriate who lives in Bali, named Emerald Starr. He was ordered by Al Gore himself to present about global warming phenomenon in South East Asia. He came all the way to Jakarta for this event.

Marvelous! Unfortunately, although the tickets were given for free (by the internet), the seats were not fully equipped. The presentation room looked like a cinema studio/hall, like in 21 Cineplex. So the venue was cozy enough.

The presentation was better than the one which was used by Al Gore in the movie, because WWF added more about Indonesia (especially the deforestation issue). One thing which was too bad: I was the only high school student who went there.