PRODIGAL SONS
Mood Before movie: Good.
Ass-o-meter: Fine.
Comments:
What do you do when your family has one adopted son with brain damage and mental illness, another son who's a transsexual, and another son that's gay? You make a documentary film about it, of course.
Prodigal Sons is a documentary about people struggling with identity in almost every way imaginable. It also helps to make you feel much more normal...
This film highlights some interesting incites into the roll and importance of identity in peoples lives. It'll probably make it to the TV at some point, so check it out.
Rating: 3/5
VARESE, THE ONE ALL ALONE
Music:
Mood Before movie: Feeling normal.
Ass-o-meter: DUN DUUUUNNNNNNNNNN DDIIIIDDDDLLLLLYYY DDDUUNNNNN DUN DUN DDDUUUUNNNNN.
Comments:
Edgard Varese was a French composer that live most of his life in America. Varese's music is not exactly top 20 material. Consisting of a lot of percussion with complex and often strange rhythms, sounding not unlike something you might find in a 60's science fiction movie.
This doco consisted mostly of Varese's music played over the back of images. Having not really listened to Varese's music before I found this to be kind of annoying because the images were heavily influencing my interpretation of the music.
The most interesting part of this doco for me was right at the very end when they quickly covered Varese's move into using electronic sounds using tone generating equipment from the Phillips laboratories in Holland, long before the synthesizer was even invented.
I would have to say that this film is for massive music nerds only, and didn't really seem to offer much more than what you probably could have got from listening to Varese's music...
Rating: 1.5/5
CHOCOLATE
Trailer:
Mood Before movie: Like i'd just been invaded by 60's aliens...
Ass-o-meter: Wicked.
Comments:
Chocolate is a film from Thailand, and is another kung fu spectacular from, Prachya Pinkaew, the director of Ong-bak. What differentiates this film from the usual kung fu fair is that all of the usual bravado has been removed, and replaced with an ass kicking autistic girl...
Having seen Ong-Bak 1 and 2 I can safely say that this film craps on both of them. It has a story line, and a loads of cool action scenes, and even a hilarious lady boy gang, what more could you ask for?
I could have watched the young girl in this movie kicking the crap out of fully grown men for at least another few hours after this movie ended. Most enjoyable.
Rating: 4/5
YES MEN FIX THE WORLD
Trailer:
Mood Before movie: Good-o.
Ass-o-meter: Saving the world.
Comments:
It was all the way back in 2004 when I first saw the original Yes Men movie at the Melbourne International Film Festival, and since then I have been wondering what these guys have been up to. Turns out they were working on some pretty cool stunts for their next movie Yes Men Fix the World.
Having enjoyed the original Yes Men movie I had high hopes for this film, and I'm happy to report that I wasn't let down. This new film has been given a lot more spit and polish than the previous film, all of the gags in this film have been taken up a notch, and it even had a relatively cohesive narrative holding the film together.
I really like these guys, they don't have any of the pretentiousness that you will be used to from the Chaser boys, not to mention their stunts are much bigger and more intelligent. During one of the early pranks in this film I was actually so nervous for one of the Yes Men, that my heart felt like it was going to jump out of my chest. This movie was a lot of fun.
Rating: 4/5
Friday, July 31, 2009
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Day Six - And the clouds cleared.
I NEED THAT RECORD
Trailer:
Mood Before movie: First time ever at the Kino theatre! woo.
Ass-o-meter: Low.
Comments:
Those that know me will know that I collect records, so it will probably come as no surprise that this topic is close to my heart. I love independent record stores, and it saddens me to think that they might be dying out. If Missing Link records or Polyester was to close their doors it would be a very sad day for the music culture of Melbourne...
This documentary covered the general record company kind of stuff that you would have seen in other internet music download documentaries. So much of the content it fairly old news by this point. An interesting tid bit that I hadn't really considered is how big box stores like Walmart/Target will actually sell CDs at a loss just to get people into the stores on the hope of them making an impulse purchase. This making it cheaper in a lot of cases for music stores to go and buy their stock directly from Walmart rather than from the distributor. Making competition for the independant music store almost impossible...
This was a reasonably well made doco for what seemed to be a small amount of people that worked on it. Unfortunately, it lacked any real new or ground breaking content.
I also got handed a flier as I walked out of this movie for a new store that I haven't been to before... Here's the details:
Sunshine + Greese - Music, Books, DVD
117 Little Lonsdale St, Melbourne, Australia.
Check it out and post a comment if it's any good.
Rating: 3/5
AWAY WE GO
Trailer:
Mood Before movie: Wet but happy.
Ass-o-meter: No problemo.
Comments:
Away We Go is the new film from director Sam Mendes, it's in a similar vein to his previous film American Beauty but falls more on the comedic side of the fence than the dramatic. Like American Beauty, this film follows a couple, Burt and Verona, as they go through a change in their lives (getting pregnant), which forces them to ask the question “are we fuckups?”. For the rest of the movie they travel around America visiting an array of eccentric characters with young families. Each family they meet display their own, often strange, techniques for parenting while Burt and Verona look for a place to settle down to start their own family.
This type of film in the wrong hands can easily cross the line into being a gag based comedy, or even worse be turned into sentimental gush fest. However, somehow Mendes has a knack for clever casting and allowing the his characters to breathe on screen in such a way that by 30 minutes into the movie you feel like you can really relate to them.
In a lot of movies I find myself noticing technical aspects of the construction of the film, and start thinking how things could have been done better or differently. However, as a testament to the quality of the delivery of this film I can't really remember doing that because I was was enjoying watching all of the scenes play out so much.
By this stage in the festival I was ready for a lighter film to come along and sweep me off my feet, and this one did the trick.
Rating: 4.5/5
DEATHBOWL TO DOWNTOWN
Trailer:
Mood Before movie: 360-flip-to-half-cab-backside-smith-grind-to-hard-flip.
Ass-o-meter: not bad.
Comments:
This film picks up almost exactly where Dogtown and the Z-Boys left off in 2001, and charts the transition of skating from the surf beaches of California, to the streets of New York City, to become what it is today.
If you have seen and enjoyed the Dogtown and the Z-Boys documentary then you will probably also enjoy this film. It covers some of the history of New York City and tells the story of kids riding planks of wood down a street, into them using the architecture of the city to skate on instead of ramps.
I like skateboarding so I found this interesting. If you don't like skateboarding then you probably will find it hard going.
Rating: 3/5
Trailer:
Mood Before movie: First time ever at the Kino theatre! woo.
Ass-o-meter: Low.
Comments:
Those that know me will know that I collect records, so it will probably come as no surprise that this topic is close to my heart. I love independent record stores, and it saddens me to think that they might be dying out. If Missing Link records or Polyester was to close their doors it would be a very sad day for the music culture of Melbourne...
This documentary covered the general record company kind of stuff that you would have seen in other internet music download documentaries. So much of the content it fairly old news by this point. An interesting tid bit that I hadn't really considered is how big box stores like Walmart/Target will actually sell CDs at a loss just to get people into the stores on the hope of them making an impulse purchase. This making it cheaper in a lot of cases for music stores to go and buy their stock directly from Walmart rather than from the distributor. Making competition for the independant music store almost impossible...
This was a reasonably well made doco for what seemed to be a small amount of people that worked on it. Unfortunately, it lacked any real new or ground breaking content.
I also got handed a flier as I walked out of this movie for a new store that I haven't been to before... Here's the details:
Sunshine + Greese - Music, Books, DVD
117 Little Lonsdale St, Melbourne, Australia.
Check it out and post a comment if it's any good.
Rating: 3/5
AWAY WE GO
Trailer:
Mood Before movie: Wet but happy.
Ass-o-meter: No problemo.
Comments:
Away We Go is the new film from director Sam Mendes, it's in a similar vein to his previous film American Beauty but falls more on the comedic side of the fence than the dramatic. Like American Beauty, this film follows a couple, Burt and Verona, as they go through a change in their lives (getting pregnant), which forces them to ask the question “are we fuckups?”. For the rest of the movie they travel around America visiting an array of eccentric characters with young families. Each family they meet display their own, often strange, techniques for parenting while Burt and Verona look for a place to settle down to start their own family.
This type of film in the wrong hands can easily cross the line into being a gag based comedy, or even worse be turned into sentimental gush fest. However, somehow Mendes has a knack for clever casting and allowing the his characters to breathe on screen in such a way that by 30 minutes into the movie you feel like you can really relate to them.
In a lot of movies I find myself noticing technical aspects of the construction of the film, and start thinking how things could have been done better or differently. However, as a testament to the quality of the delivery of this film I can't really remember doing that because I was was enjoying watching all of the scenes play out so much.
By this stage in the festival I was ready for a lighter film to come along and sweep me off my feet, and this one did the trick.
Rating: 4.5/5
DEATHBOWL TO DOWNTOWN
Trailer:
Mood Before movie: 360-flip-to-half-cab-backside-smith-grind-to-hard-flip.
Ass-o-meter: not bad.
Comments:
This film picks up almost exactly where Dogtown and the Z-Boys left off in 2001, and charts the transition of skating from the surf beaches of California, to the streets of New York City, to become what it is today.
If you have seen and enjoyed the Dogtown and the Z-Boys documentary then you will probably also enjoy this film. It covers some of the history of New York City and tells the story of kids riding planks of wood down a street, into them using the architecture of the city to skate on instead of ramps.
I like skateboarding so I found this interesting. If you don't like skateboarding then you probably will find it hard going.
Rating: 3/5
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Day Five - Brutal
LAND OF MADNESS
Mood Before movie: First movie of the day, feeling pretty solid.
Ass-o-meter: The entire bottom half of my body was numb by the end of this.
Comments:
Imagine being trapped in a car for about a week with a really boring french guy that told really boring stories about people killing other people in a really boring way, and you're some of the way to understanding how annoying and boring this movie was...
The ass-a-meter was off the scale in this movie and one of my comrads fell asleep for a good portion of it. I don't really feel like I should even bother going on further, other than to say, save yourself 2 hours of your life and don't see this film.
Rating: 1/5
MY MAGIC
Trailer:
Mood Before movie: Hurting.
Ass-o-meter: 1 x box of ACMI ass ache c/o Wile E. Coyote.
Comments:
This film was made in Singapore. It has a fat ex-magician in it. It has a little kid in it also. The fat ex-magician likes alcohol. He drinks alcohol a lot. Sometimes he drinks alcohol till he falls on his face and spews on the ground. The ex-magician needs money so he starts doing circus side show acts in the bar where he works. He hurts himself. The boss likes seeing people getting hurt, so he beats the poop out of the magician and gives him money for it. The magician runs away with his son and dies. The end.
Lets never speak of this again.
Rating: 1.5/5
VAN DIEMENS LAND
Trailer:
Mood Before movie: A world of hurt.
Ass-o-meter: Hurting like a guys face with an axe in it.
Comments:
Van Diemens Land is based on the true story of 8 convicts that tried to escape the Maquarie Harbour penal settlement in 1822.
If you like movies about pink bunny rabbits that play in the park and have fun with their friends, then this is probably not the movie for you. However, if you like really slow, brutal and harsh movies about 8 guys trying to escape a convict prison with no supplies or hope, then you're in luck! When you first start watching this movie you could be mistaken for thinking that it will become part of the high school history syllabus, until you realise that the whole film is solely about guys smashing each others heads in with axes and then eating each other....
This film brings a whole new meaning to the saying “you snooze, you lose”.
Rating: 2/5 (I'm being nice cause it's australian)
WE LIVE IN PUBLIC
Trailer:
Mood Before movie: In a universe of hurt.
Ass-o-meter: Full recovered - Awesome.
Comments:
This documentary was made by Ondi Timoner, who also made the DiG! Documentary. It covers both the life of Josh Harris, a crazy, eccentric, deluded, ego manic, visionary, experimental artist, ex-millionaire, internet media mogul turned psychological techno-experimentalist, and the role of technology in the future our lives.
Josh Harris' life is one that prior to seeing this documentary I would have only thought existed in myth. The guy made 80 million dollars at the time of the Dot Com boom through a couple of big new media ventures that were way before their time, and then blew all of that money on a couple of insane (and very large scale) human experiments/art projects thats only measure of success seemed to be directly proportional to their level of failure...
From the Q&A session after this film, i'm happy to say that Ondi really gets it, her vision for this film and it's commentary on the future of peoples lives and technology is a very important and relevant one. Amongst my movie watching comrads this definitely stirred up the most conversation and debate out of any film that we have seen at the festival to date. I would highly suggest that you check it out.
Rating: 4.5/5 (saved the day)
Mood Before movie: First movie of the day, feeling pretty solid.
Ass-o-meter: The entire bottom half of my body was numb by the end of this.
Comments:
Imagine being trapped in a car for about a week with a really boring french guy that told really boring stories about people killing other people in a really boring way, and you're some of the way to understanding how annoying and boring this movie was...
The ass-a-meter was off the scale in this movie and one of my comrads fell asleep for a good portion of it. I don't really feel like I should even bother going on further, other than to say, save yourself 2 hours of your life and don't see this film.
Rating: 1/5
MY MAGIC
Trailer:
Mood Before movie: Hurting.
Ass-o-meter: 1 x box of ACMI ass ache c/o Wile E. Coyote.
Comments:
This film was made in Singapore. It has a fat ex-magician in it. It has a little kid in it also. The fat ex-magician likes alcohol. He drinks alcohol a lot. Sometimes he drinks alcohol till he falls on his face and spews on the ground. The ex-magician needs money so he starts doing circus side show acts in the bar where he works. He hurts himself. The boss likes seeing people getting hurt, so he beats the poop out of the magician and gives him money for it. The magician runs away with his son and dies. The end.
Lets never speak of this again.
Rating: 1.5/5
VAN DIEMENS LAND
Trailer:
Mood Before movie: A world of hurt.
Ass-o-meter: Hurting like a guys face with an axe in it.
Comments:
Van Diemens Land is based on the true story of 8 convicts that tried to escape the Maquarie Harbour penal settlement in 1822.
If you like movies about pink bunny rabbits that play in the park and have fun with their friends, then this is probably not the movie for you. However, if you like really slow, brutal and harsh movies about 8 guys trying to escape a convict prison with no supplies or hope, then you're in luck! When you first start watching this movie you could be mistaken for thinking that it will become part of the high school history syllabus, until you realise that the whole film is solely about guys smashing each others heads in with axes and then eating each other....
This film brings a whole new meaning to the saying “you snooze, you lose”.
Rating: 2/5 (I'm being nice cause it's australian)
WE LIVE IN PUBLIC
Trailer:
Mood Before movie: In a universe of hurt.
Ass-o-meter: Full recovered - Awesome.
Comments:
This documentary was made by Ondi Timoner, who also made the DiG! Documentary. It covers both the life of Josh Harris, a crazy, eccentric, deluded, ego manic, visionary, experimental artist, ex-millionaire, internet media mogul turned psychological techno-experimentalist, and the role of technology in the future our lives.
Josh Harris' life is one that prior to seeing this documentary I would have only thought existed in myth. The guy made 80 million dollars at the time of the Dot Com boom through a couple of big new media ventures that were way before their time, and then blew all of that money on a couple of insane (and very large scale) human experiments/art projects thats only measure of success seemed to be directly proportional to their level of failure...
From the Q&A session after this film, i'm happy to say that Ondi really gets it, her vision for this film and it's commentary on the future of peoples lives and technology is a very important and relevant one. Amongst my movie watching comrads this definitely stirred up the most conversation and debate out of any film that we have seen at the festival to date. I would highly suggest that you check it out.
Rating: 4.5/5 (saved the day)
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Day Four - Cranes.
SHOW ME A STORY
Mood before the movie: A little tired.
Ass-o-meter: All abord the train to ache town.
Comments:
Short film documentary. It's kind of a strange genre in my opinion. As a film maker I can really only conceive of two reasons why you would choose to make a short documentary, the first being that you don't have the money to make a feature length doco, or two, that the topic of your doco is very small and wouldn't have enough content for anything longer. Optimistically I would hope that because it's only going to be a 10-20 minute film that the film maker has distilled the content down to it's very essence and packed it into this short period of time to blow my mind.....
Unfortunately, this selection of Short Documentaries really didn't come even close to blowing my mind. Firstly, this morning one of the documentaries that was scheduled to play was from China and it go pulled, presumably due to pressure from the Chinese government to boycott the festival. So this film was replaced with a film about cranes, and the people that drive cranes, who as it turns out are fairly boring. Really, there was only one stand out film amongst these from Ireland, and was a little snippet of a husband and wife living on a farm. This doesn't sound too interesting but the film makers clever use of stop motion animation made it visually exciting and engaging.
Oveall Rating: 1.5/5
KISSES
Trailer:
Mood Before movie: Pretty tired.
Ass-o-meter: Low.
It seems that film festivals are magnets for films about kids copping the rough end of the stick. Set in Dublin, Ireland, this movie is no exception.
The movie follows two teenagers (Dylan and Kylie), that on the spur of the moment, decide to run away from home with only a handful of cash. Like any good teenager they immediately blow all the money on mixed lollies and wheelies shoes. After this they try and find Dylan's older brother who also ran away from home two years earlier. The rest of the film follows the highs and lows of their night on the town.
Kisses was well made and uses a nice subtle blend of black and white to colour from the first act to the rest of the movie. This film was entirely in english, however, there was points in it where I couldn't understand what they were talking about due to their t'ick working class accents. The young actors in the film did a very good job, with a special mention to the young actress (Kelly O'Neill) who I think stole the show.
Rating: 3.5/5
GIRLFRIEND EXPERIENCE
Trailer:
Mood Before movie: Lazy. Didn't even have to leave the cinema from the last film....
Ass-o-meter: Once again, pretty low.
Comments:
Drop a few bucks in the Soderbergh machine press the button marked “Movie” and hey presto, a new film pops out. This film was not unlike a sugar filled can of Soda either really; Looks shiny, is pretty palatable, but contains no real sustenance.
This is another story about the a high class hooker that's “struggling” with maintaining her life with her boyfriend and clients. I say “struggling” cause really there is no struggle going on here much at all. The only problem really arises when she tells her understanding boyfriend that she might leave him for a guy that she just met and had a coffee with.... I'd say this would go in most real life hookers books as being the best day imaginable...
So in the end, I didn't really care about what happened in this movie. I think the ass-o-meter was low because timeline of scenes was so jumbled up that it kept my brain busy enough trying to figure out exactly when things were happening. Which is also generally the mark of a film that the film maker has tried to save in the editing room... No such luck on this one.
Rating: 2.5/5
Mood before the movie: A little tired.
Ass-o-meter: All abord the train to ache town.
Comments:
Short film documentary. It's kind of a strange genre in my opinion. As a film maker I can really only conceive of two reasons why you would choose to make a short documentary, the first being that you don't have the money to make a feature length doco, or two, that the topic of your doco is very small and wouldn't have enough content for anything longer. Optimistically I would hope that because it's only going to be a 10-20 minute film that the film maker has distilled the content down to it's very essence and packed it into this short period of time to blow my mind.....
Unfortunately, this selection of Short Documentaries really didn't come even close to blowing my mind. Firstly, this morning one of the documentaries that was scheduled to play was from China and it go pulled, presumably due to pressure from the Chinese government to boycott the festival. So this film was replaced with a film about cranes, and the people that drive cranes, who as it turns out are fairly boring. Really, there was only one stand out film amongst these from Ireland, and was a little snippet of a husband and wife living on a farm. This doesn't sound too interesting but the film makers clever use of stop motion animation made it visually exciting and engaging.
Oveall Rating: 1.5/5
KISSES
Trailer:
Mood Before movie: Pretty tired.
Ass-o-meter: Low.
It seems that film festivals are magnets for films about kids copping the rough end of the stick. Set in Dublin, Ireland, this movie is no exception.
The movie follows two teenagers (Dylan and Kylie), that on the spur of the moment, decide to run away from home with only a handful of cash. Like any good teenager they immediately blow all the money on mixed lollies and wheelies shoes. After this they try and find Dylan's older brother who also ran away from home two years earlier. The rest of the film follows the highs and lows of their night on the town.
Kisses was well made and uses a nice subtle blend of black and white to colour from the first act to the rest of the movie. This film was entirely in english, however, there was points in it where I couldn't understand what they were talking about due to their t'ick working class accents. The young actors in the film did a very good job, with a special mention to the young actress (Kelly O'Neill) who I think stole the show.
Rating: 3.5/5
GIRLFRIEND EXPERIENCE
Trailer:
Mood Before movie: Lazy. Didn't even have to leave the cinema from the last film....
Ass-o-meter: Once again, pretty low.
Comments:
Drop a few bucks in the Soderbergh machine press the button marked “Movie” and hey presto, a new film pops out. This film was not unlike a sugar filled can of Soda either really; Looks shiny, is pretty palatable, but contains no real sustenance.
This is another story about the a high class hooker that's “struggling” with maintaining her life with her boyfriend and clients. I say “struggling” cause really there is no struggle going on here much at all. The only problem really arises when she tells her understanding boyfriend that she might leave him for a guy that she just met and had a coffee with.... I'd say this would go in most real life hookers books as being the best day imaginable...
So in the end, I didn't really care about what happened in this movie. I think the ass-o-meter was low because timeline of scenes was so jumbled up that it kept my brain busy enough trying to figure out exactly when things were happening. Which is also generally the mark of a film that the film maker has tried to save in the editing room... No such luck on this one.
Rating: 2.5/5
Monday, July 27, 2009
Day Three - A light strole through the park.
A light day today, only two movies on the list.
MOON
Trailer:
Mood Before movie: Uncomfortable.
Ass-o-meter: I'm sorry Dave, but the Ass-o-meter is offline.
Comments:
Going into this movie, I knew that it was directed by the son of David Bowie (Duncan Jones). So I was fully expecting it to be a case of “Daddy, can I have 5 million dollars to make a movie?”, “Sure son, you're the gonna be the bestest director in all of the galaxy.”, type of deal. However, after seeing it, I have to eat the words that I didn't even say out loud... Kind of like one of those little throat vomits...
The movie is about Sam (Sam Rockwell), who in the not so distant future, is living on the dark side of the moon where he solo-mans a Helium-3 mining station. In the future the Helium-3 is harvested from the Moon and used back on Earth to run fusion reactors which in turn provide power for the whole planet. After three long years of working at the station, his contract has finished and he finally gets to go home to his family.... Or does he?.... DUN DUN DUUUUUUUNNNN.
Anyway, whilst very obviously drawing from many classic sci-fi movies of the past, including 2001 A Space Odyssey and a couple more that I wont mention (spoilerz), this film managers to have an air of freshness to it. Most of which can be attributed to the very impressive performance by Sam Rockwell. Sam in his usual way plays a likeable character that you can immediately warm to, and this is certainly part of what kept me invested throughout the movie.
Overall, I really enjoyed this movie. The themes in a lot of cases have been done before, but this time with a fresh twist.
Rating: 4 Ziggy Stardusts.
WHITE NIGHT WEDDING
Trailer:
Mood Before movie: Recovered.
Ass-o-meter: Lower back was getting a bit funky.
Comments:
The name White Night Wedding comes from this movie being made in Iceland, where it stays light for 24 hours a day during summer (still looked pretty cold to me). The movie is kind of like a Romcom, but minus the Rom and with not a great deal of Com. Picture Four Weddings and a Funeral, on a small island of the coast of Iceland, only with 3 less weddings, and you're starting to get the idea.
Another interesting thing about this movie is that it's the highest ever grossing domestic film in Iceland.
This film had a bit of a dark edge about it, that slightly stifled the comedy a bit. Also, it jumped around a in time which at first was a little confusing, but some would argue that i'm easily confused, so this really isn't a big deal. I think in the end, I found it a bit difficult to really warm to the characters in this (ie. Needs more Hugh Grant). It was nice to see a well trodden romcom/dramedy type of scenario get some Icelandic treatment though.
Rating: 3/5
MOON
Trailer:
Mood Before movie: Uncomfortable.
Ass-o-meter: I'm sorry Dave, but the Ass-o-meter is offline.
Comments:
Going into this movie, I knew that it was directed by the son of David Bowie (Duncan Jones). So I was fully expecting it to be a case of “Daddy, can I have 5 million dollars to make a movie?”, “Sure son, you're the gonna be the bestest director in all of the galaxy.”, type of deal. However, after seeing it, I have to eat the words that I didn't even say out loud... Kind of like one of those little throat vomits...
The movie is about Sam (Sam Rockwell), who in the not so distant future, is living on the dark side of the moon where he solo-mans a Helium-3 mining station. In the future the Helium-3 is harvested from the Moon and used back on Earth to run fusion reactors which in turn provide power for the whole planet. After three long years of working at the station, his contract has finished and he finally gets to go home to his family.... Or does he?.... DUN DUN DUUUUUUUNNNN.
Anyway, whilst very obviously drawing from many classic sci-fi movies of the past, including 2001 A Space Odyssey and a couple more that I wont mention (spoilerz), this film managers to have an air of freshness to it. Most of which can be attributed to the very impressive performance by Sam Rockwell. Sam in his usual way plays a likeable character that you can immediately warm to, and this is certainly part of what kept me invested throughout the movie.
Overall, I really enjoyed this movie. The themes in a lot of cases have been done before, but this time with a fresh twist.
Rating: 4 Ziggy Stardusts.
WHITE NIGHT WEDDING
Trailer:
Mood Before movie: Recovered.
Ass-o-meter: Lower back was getting a bit funky.
Comments:
The name White Night Wedding comes from this movie being made in Iceland, where it stays light for 24 hours a day during summer (still looked pretty cold to me). The movie is kind of like a Romcom, but minus the Rom and with not a great deal of Com. Picture Four Weddings and a Funeral, on a small island of the coast of Iceland, only with 3 less weddings, and you're starting to get the idea.
Another interesting thing about this movie is that it's the highest ever grossing domestic film in Iceland.
This film had a bit of a dark edge about it, that slightly stifled the comedy a bit. Also, it jumped around a in time which at first was a little confusing, but some would argue that i'm easily confused, so this really isn't a big deal. I think in the end, I found it a bit difficult to really warm to the characters in this (ie. Needs more Hugh Grant). It was nice to see a well trodden romcom/dramedy type of scenario get some Icelandic treatment though.
Rating: 3/5
Day Two - Hanging Tough
It's day 2, and the good news is that I still love the movies...
Young Freud In Gaza
Mood Before movie: Fine and 32 degrees.
Ass-o-meter: Getting slightly numb by the end.
Comments:
“I am calm, I am comfortable, I am safe.” These are some simple words that certainly most of us living in Australia take for granted. However, in Gaza these words, as spoken in a relaxation exercise used by Psychotherapist, Ayed, is a whole different story. To these people having lived their whole lives in daily fear of Israeli attack, or infighting between factions of Hamas and Fatah these words are obviously little more than a dream.
This documentary follows Ayed around Gaza as he speaks very candidly with some of his regular clientele about their issues. Issues which range from depression, stress, anxiety attacks and suicidal tendencies.
I found this documentary to be interesting and offered a very human face to an area of the world that only ever makes the news here as a result of some type of bombing. Beyond bringing these stories in a fairly rudimentary fashion to the screen, I didn't really feel that this film quite delivered anywhere else in much depth. If it makes it to the TV I would definitely recommend you give it a look, however, I wouldn't go rushing out to see it at the cinema.
Rating: 2/5
Accelerator 2 - Short Films
Accelerator 1 and 2 are a series of short films chosen from 1000 entries specifically for the festival.
Jacob (12 min)
Jacob is a short film set in 1940's Central Australia, where an Aboriginal family are expecting a child. When the child is born it turns out unexpectedly to be white, which raises some questions.
I found that this film really didn't really offer me any incite into anything, and it didn't seem to be commenting on anything beside the shame that someone might obviously feel having a child from what is alluded to be a forced encounter. 2/5
One Night (27 min)
This film followed the evening of woman on a night out on the town. I found this film to be really quite repulsive, and I think that was mostly because I couldn't figure out whether the film maker intended for the audience to be repulsed or not.
I really didn't like the woman that were being depicted in the movie, and in most cases where the audience found something funny, I found it to be mostly what I find frustrating about people. I'm going to give this film 1/5 cause the music and sound design was well done with some nice subtleties in the audio mix.
Boxer (12 min)
Thank god for Boxer, there had to be an oasis somewhere past the last 2 mirages. Boxer was a born of a simple idea and delivered in a well paced and interesting a way. For me, this is what a short film is all about. 3.5/5
Undergrowth (10 min)
This film felt like a technical exercise that was made to put in the film makers show reel. It made no sense and did little more than fill 10 minutes. 1.5/5
Mokopuna (11 min)
Ahhhhh, dialog, I knew there was something missing in these short films. Why not have some of the characters talk to each other? It's a genius idea. 3.5/5
Imprint (12 min)
Another technical exercise seemingly in aid of a show reel. This film looked nice and had some quite annoying plinky piano mood music over it. 2/5
The Cat Piano (8 min)
Yes please. This is an animated film made in South Australia and was narrated by Nick Cave. The stylised animation of this movie was obviously very deliberately conceived and perfectly executed. Nick Cave's cool cat delivery of dialogue put the icing on the cake of this little beauty. This film saved this session for me. 4.5/5
Overall Rating: 2/5
North
Trailer:
Mood Before movie: Powering through.
Ass-o-meter: I barely noticed that my seat was last re-sprung in 1972.
Comments:
This movie was like a Norwegian Western, with Jomar making his way North on his trusty steed (Lynx Snowmobile) meeting a bunch of interesting Norwegian characters along the way. It's delivery style is also not unlike a slow burn western, with not a flashy jump cut to be seen.
I quite enjoyed going on the journey with Jomar the depressed Norwegian anti-hero. I felt like it had a lot of deeply engrained charm, and just enough quirk to keep me interested all the way through.
This film is worth seeing if only for the scene with the old man in the teepee that mysteriously has a chain tied with one end around his leg and the other attached to his Ski-Doo...
Rating: 3.5/5
10 Conditions Of Love
Trailer:
Mood Before movie: Ready for controversy.
Ass-o-meter: Given that ACMI's seating is about 30 years younger than every seat that I have sat in during the whole festival thus far, this seems hardly fair...
Comments:
Based on the fact that the Chinese consulate in Australia formally requested (read: demanded) that MIFF pull this film from the festival, it is safe to say that it has received quite some hype in the media. Not to mention that the MIFF web site is basically out of order right now due apparently to Chinese hackers. It's safe to say that this things got a bit of buzz on it.
Content wise, I found this film to be very interesting, I really wasn't aware of the plight of the Uyghur people or even that there was such thing as Eastern Turkestan before this seeing this documentary. (which as far as the Chinese government is concerned is business as usual.) So it's content was all very interesting for me.
The film covers the life of Rebiya Kadeer and the history behind the Chinese assimilation of East Turkestan.
During the Q&A session with the director (Jeff Daniels), he mentioned briefly something that summed up a fatal flaw in this documentary. The film contains no real stand point from the Chinese Govenment's side, and this is mostly because the Chinese Government have not supplied a stand point. Also, because this has all happened in China, there is very little footage available to tell the story in a documentary format. That said, what this documentary does well is put a face to the Uyghur people, and shows vividly Rebiya Kadeer's passion and strength in fighting for her people's cause. Given that it took Jeff Daniels 3 years to gain the trust of Rebiya (ie. prove he wasn't a Chinese spy) to actually make the documentary this in itself was quite a feat.
The producer said that they are currently in negotiation to show the film on the ABC. So when/if that happens you should check it out.
Or read more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebiya_Kadeer
Rating: Topic 4/5, Execution 2/5
Young Freud In Gaza
Mood Before movie: Fine and 32 degrees.
Ass-o-meter: Getting slightly numb by the end.
Comments:
“I am calm, I am comfortable, I am safe.” These are some simple words that certainly most of us living in Australia take for granted. However, in Gaza these words, as spoken in a relaxation exercise used by Psychotherapist, Ayed, is a whole different story. To these people having lived their whole lives in daily fear of Israeli attack, or infighting between factions of Hamas and Fatah these words are obviously little more than a dream.
This documentary follows Ayed around Gaza as he speaks very candidly with some of his regular clientele about their issues. Issues which range from depression, stress, anxiety attacks and suicidal tendencies.
I found this documentary to be interesting and offered a very human face to an area of the world that only ever makes the news here as a result of some type of bombing. Beyond bringing these stories in a fairly rudimentary fashion to the screen, I didn't really feel that this film quite delivered anywhere else in much depth. If it makes it to the TV I would definitely recommend you give it a look, however, I wouldn't go rushing out to see it at the cinema.
Rating: 2/5
Accelerator 2 - Short Films
Accelerator 1 and 2 are a series of short films chosen from 1000 entries specifically for the festival.
Jacob (12 min)
Jacob is a short film set in 1940's Central Australia, where an Aboriginal family are expecting a child. When the child is born it turns out unexpectedly to be white, which raises some questions.
I found that this film really didn't really offer me any incite into anything, and it didn't seem to be commenting on anything beside the shame that someone might obviously feel having a child from what is alluded to be a forced encounter. 2/5
One Night (27 min)
This film followed the evening of woman on a night out on the town. I found this film to be really quite repulsive, and I think that was mostly because I couldn't figure out whether the film maker intended for the audience to be repulsed or not.
I really didn't like the woman that were being depicted in the movie, and in most cases where the audience found something funny, I found it to be mostly what I find frustrating about people. I'm going to give this film 1/5 cause the music and sound design was well done with some nice subtleties in the audio mix.
Boxer (12 min)
Thank god for Boxer, there had to be an oasis somewhere past the last 2 mirages. Boxer was a born of a simple idea and delivered in a well paced and interesting a way. For me, this is what a short film is all about. 3.5/5
Undergrowth (10 min)
This film felt like a technical exercise that was made to put in the film makers show reel. It made no sense and did little more than fill 10 minutes. 1.5/5
Mokopuna (11 min)
Ahhhhh, dialog, I knew there was something missing in these short films. Why not have some of the characters talk to each other? It's a genius idea. 3.5/5
Imprint (12 min)
Another technical exercise seemingly in aid of a show reel. This film looked nice and had some quite annoying plinky piano mood music over it. 2/5
The Cat Piano (8 min)
Yes please. This is an animated film made in South Australia and was narrated by Nick Cave. The stylised animation of this movie was obviously very deliberately conceived and perfectly executed. Nick Cave's cool cat delivery of dialogue put the icing on the cake of this little beauty. This film saved this session for me. 4.5/5
Overall Rating: 2/5
North
Trailer:
Mood Before movie: Powering through.
Ass-o-meter: I barely noticed that my seat was last re-sprung in 1972.
Comments:
This movie was like a Norwegian Western, with Jomar making his way North on his trusty steed (Lynx Snowmobile) meeting a bunch of interesting Norwegian characters along the way. It's delivery style is also not unlike a slow burn western, with not a flashy jump cut to be seen.
I quite enjoyed going on the journey with Jomar the depressed Norwegian anti-hero. I felt like it had a lot of deeply engrained charm, and just enough quirk to keep me interested all the way through.
This film is worth seeing if only for the scene with the old man in the teepee that mysteriously has a chain tied with one end around his leg and the other attached to his Ski-Doo...
Rating: 3.5/5
10 Conditions Of Love
Trailer:
Mood Before movie: Ready for controversy.
Ass-o-meter: Given that ACMI's seating is about 30 years younger than every seat that I have sat in during the whole festival thus far, this seems hardly fair...
Comments:
Based on the fact that the Chinese consulate in Australia formally requested (read: demanded) that MIFF pull this film from the festival, it is safe to say that it has received quite some hype in the media. Not to mention that the MIFF web site is basically out of order right now due apparently to Chinese hackers. It's safe to say that this things got a bit of buzz on it.
Content wise, I found this film to be very interesting, I really wasn't aware of the plight of the Uyghur people or even that there was such thing as Eastern Turkestan before this seeing this documentary. (which as far as the Chinese government is concerned is business as usual.) So it's content was all very interesting for me.
The film covers the life of Rebiya Kadeer and the history behind the Chinese assimilation of East Turkestan.
During the Q&A session with the director (Jeff Daniels), he mentioned briefly something that summed up a fatal flaw in this documentary. The film contains no real stand point from the Chinese Govenment's side, and this is mostly because the Chinese Government have not supplied a stand point. Also, because this has all happened in China, there is very little footage available to tell the story in a documentary format. That said, what this documentary does well is put a face to the Uyghur people, and shows vividly Rebiya Kadeer's passion and strength in fighting for her people's cause. Given that it took Jeff Daniels 3 years to gain the trust of Rebiya (ie. prove he wasn't a Chinese spy) to actually make the documentary this in itself was quite a feat.
The producer said that they are currently in negotiation to show the film on the ABC. So when/if that happens you should check it out.
Or read more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebiya_Kadeer
Rating: Topic 4/5, Execution 2/5
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Day One - Let it begin
Wow, now that was quite a 14 hour rollercoaster of filmy goodness.... All aboard.
Today was a bit of a learning experience as far as packing 5 festival movies into one day goes. Things learnt include: not to buy unwieldy 12 inch vinyl records that you have to cart around to 5 movies, the importance of planning a decent sized dinner break somewhere in your schedule, and that films will always run overtime (so 30-45 minute breaks between movies end up being about 5 minutes at best.)
Now to the movies:
Who's Affraid of the Wolf
Trailer:
Mood Before movie: Optimistic.
Ass-o-meter: First movie and already some ass numbing... oh no.
Comments:
The first film of the festival started off in style with me getting the only seat in the cinema with a cup holder (arthouse cinema heaven). This alone immediately put me in an optimistic mood.
Who’s Afraid of the Wolf comes from the Czech Republic, and is a film that I feel like I have to patronisingly refer to a ‘nice little film’. Small in scope, it’s a story told from the eyes of a child, Terezka, and tells of her learning her parent’s long kept secret...
Considering this film was told through a childs eyes, it really was quite well delivered. Information came mostly in watching the parent’s encounters in Terezka’s point-of-view or from conversations heard from the other room. By halfway through the film I could really see how Terezka might confuse her mother for being an alien.
Overall, this was a decent low budget film, from writer director Maria Procházková. Worth checking out if you’ve got a few hours to spare.
Rating: 3/5
The Cove
Trailer:
Mood Before movie: Slightly less optimistic
Ass-o-meter: Like floating on a velvety cushion of air.
Comments:
In a basic sense it’s a documentary about the killing and capture of dolphins around the world. In a broader sense it touches on much wider topics like the general contamination of the world’s food supply and the destruction of our oceans.
The documentary focuses on a town in Japan called Taiji where over 20,000 dolphins are being slaughtered every year, or sold to be show dolphins in captivity. This fact, until now, has been a closely guarded secret by the town and seemingly the Japanese government.
Is that legal? You might ask, well, apparently it is legal due to a loop hole in the law that some how says that dolphins are too small to be considered part of the IWC whaling agreements (which means that Japan has to pretend that they're killing whales for scientific purposes).
So what's the big deal, can't we just consider them to be the cows of the sea? Actually no, as it turns out the meat from a dolphin actually contains toxic levels of mercury that is 40 times that recommended by the world health organisation. Which in the past has lead to deformities in babies and many other medical issues in adults.
Then WTF Japan?? Exactly, W.T.F. Japan! Stop being retarded for crying out loud.
This documentary is really well made, compelling, and will make you feel like doing something about the issues that it raises. Lets just hope it does some good.
I suggest you see it, and then join the fight:
http://www.takepart.com/thecove/
Also keep an eye out for Louie Psihoyos (the director) in the future. He says his next movie will be about the five apocalypses that our planet could quite possibly face in the near future. Based on his work on the cove, it will definitely make for some interesting watching.
Rating: 4.5/5
All About Actresses
Trailer:
Mood Before movie: Feeling like becoming an activist of some description.
Ass-o-meter: Generalised ass numbing and right cheek ache.
Comments:
As the title might suggest, this movie was all about actresses. Unfortunately, it wasn’t about particularly interesting actresses, and contained no particularly compelling reason for you to want to watch it.
As far as film making is concerned, it was a total mess, featuring some kind of post modern filming of a woman filming other woman device that was never really utilised in any sort of interesting way. Not to mention, annoying Bollywood style musical interludes that seemed totally out of place, and told us little more than what the character had already been frenching on about for the last 10 minutes.
This film also was guilty of committing the cardinal sin of using the same coloured subtitles the backgrounds in half of the scene. Who makes the decision on subtitle colours??? I have no idea, but after spending presumably shitloads of francs making a movie, how about dropping couple of bucks on a black outline of your white subtitles.... Jesus...
To sum up, unless you're a bit of a cock that likes to stand in MIFF lines and pretend that you're in-the-know about french actresses don’t waste your time on this one.
Rating: 2/5
Blessed
Mood Before movie: Hungry
Ass-o-meter: Pain was centralised to my brain, no time for ass pain.
Comments:
Let me start by saying that the Australian film industry right now needs to have a bit of a look at itself. We as a collective nation seem to produce an astounding amount of films based on tragic event. In the last month alone we have seen the release of Samson & Delilah and the Last Ride. Now, hot on the heels we have another one, however, this isn’t just any tragic movie, this film is like the Perfect Storm of tragic movies...
Containing five separate story lines each comprised of some of the most horrific real life tales of woe that you would ever like to see. The first half of the movie paints a picture of children who have been forced into terrible situations, with every step making you cringe away in the hope that when you look back some kind of Christmas miracle made it all go away. The second half of the movie shows you the mothers of these children dealing with the outcomes of these events.
The strength of this movie is the performances that Ana Kokkinos was able to pull out of the largely young cast of actors. This being the World Premier of the film, I had a few of the younger cast members sitting behind me, and heard one of them say that she didn’t know if she did a good job, but Ana said it was good so she was happy with that. I can safely say that Ana was right, all of the performances in this film were spot on and really brought some serious weight to the stories being told.
This is one of those films that is hard to watch but in the end really tells important stories of people that in most other cases society turns a blind eye. So if you’re not already feeling depressed (or if are and want something to push you over the edge), check this one out.
Rating: 4/5
Thrist
Trailer:
Mood Before movie: Depressed, and something got in my eye during blessed... so they were a little stingy.
Ass-o-meter: Left cheek light ache.
Comments:
Okay, let me start by saying that I missed the first 15 minutes of this film, due to the Blessed premier running overtime. So coming into this thing I was slightly confusing for the first 10 minutes. There was a priest, and he was a bit weird, something wasn’t quite right with him, and a girl that lived with a family that was being treated like a slave and liked to run down the street with her shoes off.... Crazy Koreans...
Anyway, from there on, I never really felt like this movie quite got off the ground, it seems to be threatening to be awesome, and at a lot of stages I was ready for it to be awesome, but the awesome just didn’t quite come. There was a lot of nice little set pieces, and the whole movie was shot well, but it lacked something compelling to really sink your teeth into (*boom ching*).
For my tastes it wasn’t really a Horror movie, and it wasn’t in any way a thriller, there was some comedy moments (some of which I missed due to the setup being laid down before I got there). So i’m not really sure quite where this film sits audience wise. That being said, it did win the jury prize at Cannes this year, so maybe there was something more that maybe I missed from the emotional pounding I just took in Blessed.
If you are into Horror films, you probably should check this out, it definitely had some cool bits to it just maybe not the summing of the parts quite the way I would have liked.
Rating: 3/5
Day One out.
Today was a bit of a learning experience as far as packing 5 festival movies into one day goes. Things learnt include: not to buy unwieldy 12 inch vinyl records that you have to cart around to 5 movies, the importance of planning a decent sized dinner break somewhere in your schedule, and that films will always run overtime (so 30-45 minute breaks between movies end up being about 5 minutes at best.)Now to the movies:
Who's Affraid of the Wolf
Trailer:
Mood Before movie: Optimistic.
Ass-o-meter: First movie and already some ass numbing... oh no.
Comments:
The first film of the festival started off in style with me getting the only seat in the cinema with a cup holder (arthouse cinema heaven). This alone immediately put me in an optimistic mood.
Who’s Afraid of the Wolf comes from the Czech Republic, and is a film that I feel like I have to patronisingly refer to a ‘nice little film’. Small in scope, it’s a story told from the eyes of a child, Terezka, and tells of her learning her parent’s long kept secret...
Considering this film was told through a childs eyes, it really was quite well delivered. Information came mostly in watching the parent’s encounters in Terezka’s point-of-view or from conversations heard from the other room. By halfway through the film I could really see how Terezka might confuse her mother for being an alien.
Overall, this was a decent low budget film, from writer director Maria Procházková. Worth checking out if you’ve got a few hours to spare.
Rating: 3/5
The Cove
Trailer:
Mood Before movie: Slightly less optimistic
Ass-o-meter: Like floating on a velvety cushion of air.
Comments:
In a basic sense it’s a documentary about the killing and capture of dolphins around the world. In a broader sense it touches on much wider topics like the general contamination of the world’s food supply and the destruction of our oceans.
The documentary focuses on a town in Japan called Taiji where over 20,000 dolphins are being slaughtered every year, or sold to be show dolphins in captivity. This fact, until now, has been a closely guarded secret by the town and seemingly the Japanese government.
Is that legal? You might ask, well, apparently it is legal due to a loop hole in the law that some how says that dolphins are too small to be considered part of the IWC whaling agreements (which means that Japan has to pretend that they're killing whales for scientific purposes).
So what's the big deal, can't we just consider them to be the cows of the sea? Actually no, as it turns out the meat from a dolphin actually contains toxic levels of mercury that is 40 times that recommended by the world health organisation. Which in the past has lead to deformities in babies and many other medical issues in adults.
Then WTF Japan?? Exactly, W.T.F. Japan! Stop being retarded for crying out loud.
This documentary is really well made, compelling, and will make you feel like doing something about the issues that it raises. Lets just hope it does some good.
I suggest you see it, and then join the fight:
http://www.takepart.com/thecove/
Also keep an eye out for Louie Psihoyos (the director) in the future. He says his next movie will be about the five apocalypses that our planet could quite possibly face in the near future. Based on his work on the cove, it will definitely make for some interesting watching.
Rating: 4.5/5
All About Actresses
Trailer:
Mood Before movie: Feeling like becoming an activist of some description.
Ass-o-meter: Generalised ass numbing and right cheek ache.
Comments:
As the title might suggest, this movie was all about actresses. Unfortunately, it wasn’t about particularly interesting actresses, and contained no particularly compelling reason for you to want to watch it.
As far as film making is concerned, it was a total mess, featuring some kind of post modern filming of a woman filming other woman device that was never really utilised in any sort of interesting way. Not to mention, annoying Bollywood style musical interludes that seemed totally out of place, and told us little more than what the character had already been frenching on about for the last 10 minutes.
This film also was guilty of committing the cardinal sin of using the same coloured subtitles the backgrounds in half of the scene. Who makes the decision on subtitle colours??? I have no idea, but after spending presumably shitloads of francs making a movie, how about dropping couple of bucks on a black outline of your white subtitles.... Jesus...
To sum up, unless you're a bit of a cock that likes to stand in MIFF lines and pretend that you're in-the-know about french actresses don’t waste your time on this one.
Rating: 2/5
Blessed
Mood Before movie: Hungry
Ass-o-meter: Pain was centralised to my brain, no time for ass pain.
Comments:
Let me start by saying that the Australian film industry right now needs to have a bit of a look at itself. We as a collective nation seem to produce an astounding amount of films based on tragic event. In the last month alone we have seen the release of Samson & Delilah and the Last Ride. Now, hot on the heels we have another one, however, this isn’t just any tragic movie, this film is like the Perfect Storm of tragic movies...
Containing five separate story lines each comprised of some of the most horrific real life tales of woe that you would ever like to see. The first half of the movie paints a picture of children who have been forced into terrible situations, with every step making you cringe away in the hope that when you look back some kind of Christmas miracle made it all go away. The second half of the movie shows you the mothers of these children dealing with the outcomes of these events.
The strength of this movie is the performances that Ana Kokkinos was able to pull out of the largely young cast of actors. This being the World Premier of the film, I had a few of the younger cast members sitting behind me, and heard one of them say that she didn’t know if she did a good job, but Ana said it was good so she was happy with that. I can safely say that Ana was right, all of the performances in this film were spot on and really brought some serious weight to the stories being told.
This is one of those films that is hard to watch but in the end really tells important stories of people that in most other cases society turns a blind eye. So if you’re not already feeling depressed (or if are and want something to push you over the edge), check this one out.
Rating: 4/5
Thrist
Trailer:
Mood Before movie: Depressed, and something got in my eye during blessed... so they were a little stingy.
Ass-o-meter: Left cheek light ache.
Comments:
Okay, let me start by saying that I missed the first 15 minutes of this film, due to the Blessed premier running overtime. So coming into this thing I was slightly confusing for the first 10 minutes. There was a priest, and he was a bit weird, something wasn’t quite right with him, and a girl that lived with a family that was being treated like a slave and liked to run down the street with her shoes off.... Crazy Koreans...
Anyway, from there on, I never really felt like this movie quite got off the ground, it seems to be threatening to be awesome, and at a lot of stages I was ready for it to be awesome, but the awesome just didn’t quite come. There was a lot of nice little set pieces, and the whole movie was shot well, but it lacked something compelling to really sink your teeth into (*boom ching*).
For my tastes it wasn’t really a Horror movie, and it wasn’t in any way a thriller, there was some comedy moments (some of which I missed due to the setup being laid down before I got there). So i’m not really sure quite where this film sits audience wise. That being said, it did win the jury prize at Cannes this year, so maybe there was something more that maybe I missed from the emotional pounding I just took in Blessed.
If you are into Horror films, you probably should check this out, it definitely had some cool bits to it just maybe not the summing of the parts quite the way I would have liked.
Rating: 3/5
Day One out.
Friday, July 24, 2009
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Inglourious Changes
I have to say that I don't envy the job of the Festival Organisers this year. There seems to have been a lot of last minute changes to the programme that i'm sure kept them up at night...
The latest change being Ken Loach's Looking for Eric being replaced by Sam Mendes' new film Away We Go. I'm not too upset about this cause Sam Mendes has a pretty solid record of making good films.
You might also note that my list does not contain the gala opening of Quentin Tarantino's new film Inglourious Basterds (with special guest Q&A session with Quentin Tarantino). Those in-the-know might say, "Well, those tickets sold out in 30 seconds, so I guess you just weren't committed enough to get up at 11am and play fastest-fingers-first with a bunch of movie nerds". Well, to those 'in-the-know' I say, "Shut the fuck up, I was one of those nerds sitting there at 11am, and I pressed the button and got one of those coverted gala tickets..................." only to find out 3 days later that you also have to hit the Checkout button before the ticket gets registered on your Passport... and if you leave a ticket in limbo land for some magical length of time the ticket that you sat at your work desk staring into the browser for an hour to get would just disappear.... like that.... gone.... Inglourious Fail.
So, here is a list of 11 things that I will now never get to do with Quentin Tarantino:
1. Bring Peace to the World.
2. Clown Around.
3. Win badass trophies.
4. Sing show tunes.
5. Do a Broadway number.
6. Lay down some Jazz Hip Hop Improv.
7. Eat Donuts.
8. Dress like ladies.
9. Drink manpagne and look like Andre the Giant.
10. Suck on Hookerz toes.
11. Get punched in my face by his manager....
The latest change being Ken Loach's Looking for Eric being replaced by Sam Mendes' new film Away We Go. I'm not too upset about this cause Sam Mendes has a pretty solid record of making good films.
You might also note that my list does not contain the gala opening of Quentin Tarantino's new film Inglourious Basterds (with special guest Q&A session with Quentin Tarantino). Those in-the-know might say, "Well, those tickets sold out in 30 seconds, so I guess you just weren't committed enough to get up at 11am and play fastest-fingers-first with a bunch of movie nerds". Well, to those 'in-the-know' I say, "Shut the fuck up, I was one of those nerds sitting there at 11am, and I pressed the button and got one of those coverted gala tickets..................." only to find out 3 days later that you also have to hit the Checkout button before the ticket gets registered on your Passport... and if you leave a ticket in limbo land for some magical length of time the ticket that you sat at your work desk staring into the browser for an hour to get would just disappear.... like that.... gone.... Inglourious Fail.
So, here is a list of 11 things that I will now never get to do with Quentin Tarantino:
1. Bring Peace to the World.
2. Clown Around.
3. Win badass trophies.
4. Sing show tunes.
5. Do a Broadway number.
6. Lay down some Jazz Hip Hop Improv.
7. Eat Donuts.
8. Dress like ladies.
9. Drink manpagne and look like Andre the Giant.
10. Suck on Hookerz toes.
11. Get punched in my face by his manager....I'm tearing up here....
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Morgan Spurlock Eat Your Heart Out.
Let me start from the beginning... About two months ago I noticed that the Melbourne International Film Festival was just around the corner again. This usually means that I wait for the program to come out and carefully plan to see a few of the most interesting films. However, this year I figured it was time to man-up and really see a serious amount of movies.So I rounded up a couple of friends that are as stupid as me and we all purchased $400 film festival passports, and each booked 2 weeks off work. Now months later what was a stupid idea has become a reality, and we now have booked 47 movies to watch in 2 weeks...
If there is one thing I have learned from documentary film in the past, when doing something possibly idiotic always take your camera crew to a doctors consultation beforehand. So, today I went and visited my doctor and he informed me of the risks associated with doing something like this:
Doctors Concerns:
Vitamin D Deficiency: Already being the whitest man on the planet, there is a real possibility that I might turn into some type of creature of the night. Here’s hoping I at least turn into a swarvellous dead character like Bill Compton, and not some other kind of other dead freak.
Square Eyes: We all know that watching large amounts of television or movies can result in a person getting square eyes (artist’s rendition). As a child, my mother pointed this out to me at least 5 times per day so it must be true...
Busted ass: Sitting in 3rd world Art House cinema seats for 10 hours a day can take it’s toll your butt. To avoid any kinds of bed sores, or other skin related issues, I will be liberally applying topical cream on a bi-hourly basis. As you will know, when bored, you will be far more aware of just how much your ass hurts from sitting down over long periods. As a result, I have decided that ass soreness will be one of the metrics that I use to rate films on this blog.
Film Ratings:
As we all know most Film Critics are lazy hacks that just sit around and smoke weed all day. So they can only manage to convey their like or dislike of a movie by using a simple out-of-five star rating... Well, picture for me now, David and Margret having sex... *cough* Oh wow, a little bit of spew just came up *cough* and then Margret giving birth to a Super Reviewing baby (me), far superior in all ways to any reviewer that ever existed. I give you; Davegret the super reviewing baby....
Films will be reviewed based on the following:
Mood Before movie: This metric will help you to understand exactly how I was feeling before going into a movie, as this may well affect my end rating of the movie (ie. to counteract my festival fatigue).
Mood After movie: This metric will allow the reader to understand my change in mood after seeing the movie.
Ass-o-meter: The one metric that cannot be argued with.
Rating: A simple star rating out of five, to keep the hack critics happy.
Comments: Anything that I might have found interesting about the film.
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