Well, well. It has been a few days. The thing about writing a movie blog is that when you can write is a bit determined by whether you've actually watched movies. So I think I might branch out a bit, make this blog a bit more open in scope. Anyway, another busy week where sleep has been a precious commodity and doco ideas have been somewhat elusive. On the plus side I have got back into writing mode, slowly but surely. I'm hoping to complete this sitcom pilot script in the next few weeks, although perhaps that's a little ambitious. I've been enjoying reading Russell Brand's book 'My Booky Wook' and got some new albums to spin on the ipod. Guided By Voices - 'Bee Thousand', The Go-Betweens - '16 Lovers Lane' and Animal Collective - 'Sung Tongs' are all on high rotation. Watched some movies too.

'Margot At The Wedding' (2007) directed by Noah Baumbach

I liked this film for the writing. The dialogue was clever and funny and the tone constantly shifted. The characters felt fresh and original, they were quirky yet offered a sense of truth. Having said that, many of the characters aren't particularly likeable and some scenes, especially those with Jack Black, are a little too farcical in tone to come across as strong emotional points in the film.

'Scarface' (1983) directed by Brian De Palma

Totally engaging film due primarily to the performance from Al Pacino. As Tony Montana, Pacino dominates the frame just as the character dominates others in the film. It's such a fascinating character amidst an epic and tragic storyline. Some of the set pieces are just masterfully played out, especially the scene of the first drug deal and the final climactic moment of the film.

'The Maltese Falcon' (1941) directed by John Huston

I'm really into these black-and-white private-eye noir films. This film is all about a bunch of characters who are all after the same thing and somehow, Sam Spade (played by Humphrey Bogart) gets caught up in the middle. While these characters all seem to be a little bit out of control, Spade is the essence of cool, even though he is the one who knows the least. This film is all about the exchanges between Spade and everyone else in the film, it's about power plays and witty dialogue. Most of all, it's good fun.

'Psycho' (1960) directed by Alfred Hitchcock

Classic thriller. Hitchcock is a master at creating suspense and what I really noticed while watching this film is the sense of the director's absolute control over the film. Every movement of the camera feels very deliberate. It's a great script too, in particular the scenes between Norman and Lila work really well to subtly build a sense of unease.

Well, another blog. I'm still really enjoying these Louis Theroux documentaries, I highly recommend the DVDs. I also watched this Russell Brand doco about Jack Kerouac's book 'On The Road'. I should read that book, I'm sure I have it on my bookshelf somewhere.

'Let The Right One In' (2008) directed by Tomas Alfredson

Absolutely stunning film. Very original, it's a Swedish child vampire horror/love story. I really liked it, it has this strange dark feel to it and yet at the same time it's quite sweet. It's also quite violent and yet there is this underlying romance and sense of whimsy to the film. It's a film of contrasts I guess, and yet those contrasts seem to work together to create this really beautiful film.

Followed up a Friday night out drinking by going to see The Crayon Fields at The Toff last night. Good band and the support acts were good too. The lead singer of The Crayon Fields has an interesting stage persona, his banter comes across as very introverted but quite funny at times. I particularly liked his line when they came out for the encore: "Now we're going to play some songs from the album '10' by Pearl Jam". Jens Lekman was in the crowd too which was kinda cool. Jens Lekman has a cool blog which can be found here. Oh, you know what. I watched some movies too.

'Not Quite Hollywood' (2008) directed by Mark Hartley

An interesting, dynamic and nice looking documentary about Ozploitation films, chiefly of the 1970s. I found it pretty entertaining although the heavy use of clips from the movies meant that by the end I felt like I'd just watched about forty trailers back to back. Good fun though.

'Badlands' (1973) directed by Terrence Malick

Another film that we watched for the screening series at uni. I really enjoyed this film, the main reason being the performances of Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek. They have a really interesting chemistry and this carries throughout the film. Also, the film has a raw quality and quite a strange tone that makes the story quite engrossing. There are some amazing images too, it's been shot really well.

'Inglourious Basterds' (2009) directed by Quentin Tarantino

There are some amazing sequences in this film but it doesn't feel quite as tight or complete as some of Tarantino's earlier films such as 'Reservoir Dogs'. Definitely the final chapter was the strongest for me, that was edge of the seat stuff as the film built to it's dramatic conclusion. But overall I found the film a bit patchy with some scenes simply feeling too drawn out and some dialogue not quite up to Tarantino's razor sharp standard. Many of the characters feel quite one dimensional and some, particularly the members of the Basterds, are seen just a few times and then never seen again. Having said that, it is an entertaining film with some really great Tarantino moments.

Geez I'm tired and I haven't even done anything. Got the 'Louis Theroux Collection' DVDs and been loving watching that. As a result, haven't really watched any movies though.

'The Deer Hunter' (1978) directed by Michael Cimino

This film is pretty awesome. It's kinda long but once it gets going, it doesn't feel long at all. It's very much a film of three parts so it feels quite broken up, in a good way. The performances are outstanding, Christopher Walken in particular was great but De Niro was quality as always. The Russian Roulette scenes are intense.

Busy weekend, saw a few films. Saturday night went down to Bar Open for a couple of pints with Pete. Then made our way over to St. Kilda to catch up with Duy for another beer.

'District 9' (2009) directed by Neill Blomkamp

Awesome sci-fi action film with a really strong storyline. One thing that I really liked about this film is that the main character remains flawed throughout, even when he becomes an action hero type figure. The characters have real depth. The journey in this film is gripping, emotional and thought provoking. It raises a number of issues about race, discrimination and how we treat refugees; using the sci-fi storyline as a way of approaching difficult topics. One of the most inventive sci-fi films I've seen.

'Orphan' (2009) directed by Jaume Collet-Serra

Immensely creepy film. The performance of Isabelle Fuhrman as Esther is really disturbing. I couldn't help noticing that this film does borrow heavily from the film 'The Good Son'. A number of scenes explicitly mirror scenes from 'The Good Son' and the themes are pretty similar. However, 'Orphan' boasts a really neat twist that I didn't see coming. In fact, the twist serves to make all of the events of the film up to that point even more intense and creepy. It re-contextualises everything, which is what a good twist should do.

'War, Inc.' (2008) directed by Joshua Seftel

Bizarre film with no real sense of style that is basically very tedious. The plot is completely inscrutable and the tone is extremely quirky without being particularly amusing. I'm surprised I sat through all of it.

A full week back at uni. Went well. Tiredness kicked in by Friday though.

'Fucking Amal' (1998) directed by Lukas Moodysson

Watched this as part of this screening series subject at uni. It's a Swedish teen movie and I really liked it. I liked the use of camera, it gave it a raw and realistic feeling which suited the type of film that it was. I also found it very entertaining and well written. I'm beginning to find these types of movies pretty inspiring, where the emphasis is perhaps more on the acting and the performances, where the budget is quite small and so the film has a more raw quality. There was a similar feel in the movie 'Humpday'.

'The Sting' (1973) directed by George Roy Hill

Really cool, entertaining film that keeps you guessing right up until the end. It's just pure entertainment and it oozes cool all the way through.

Well, uni for one day then two days off. Well, not really two days off. Two days at work instead.

'Pierrot Le Fou' (1965) directed by Jean-Luc Godard

Perhaps I was in the wrong frame of mind to watch this but I just found it really hard to get into. It felt a bit slow and a bit disjointed. It had a quirky sense of humour running through it and some interesting shots but I just struggled to engage with the characters.

'Zack and Miri Make A Porno' (2008) directed by Kevin Smith

Pretty average comedy that probably peaks very early on when Justin Long makes a cameo. Some funny moments but the storyline is really predictable and pretty unrealistic. There's some pretty bad writing in there; scenes of no consequence to the story seem to go on and on and plot developments seem to occur completely by chance. The development in the relationship between the title characters is not very believable either.

Back to uni today in relaxed style with a 12.30 class. The class was sound design, looks like it'll be kinda interesting, should be pretty useful. Seen more movies too and MIFF finished up last night.

'Bruno' (2009) directed by Larry Charles

Pretty disappointing really. The thing is, while Borat was a pretty endearing character, Bruno is pretty grating. 81 minutes of Bruno is way more than enough and I can't see how the character warrants a feature length film. Sure, there are some laughs here and there and some funny comic set-pieces but overall I was just left wondering what the point of it was. It doesn't seem to poke fun of anyone in particular and the narrative is pretty crappy, Bruno's voiceover is really just there to thinly thread together a bunch of sketches.

'Bran Nue Dae' (2009) directed by Rachel Perkins

I'm not a huge fan of musicals on screen really but this was a bit of fun. Sometimes I find that films of the musical genre struggle to match the energy of their stage musical counterparts. Fortunately, this film manages to embrace a really theatrical over-the-top sensibility which works well. It also features good performances all round from a diverse ensemble cast. The whole thing descends into a bit of a farce by the end but it's good entertainment. Magda Szubanski and Geoffrey Rush steal every scene they're in.

'Baby Mama' (2008) directed by Michael McCullers

Decent comedy, pretty funny with a light tone and a heap of big name cameos although at times I felt like scenes could have been a bit tighter. Steve Martin's character for instance isn't all that funny, mainly because all the other characters have a lot of witty dialogue whereas Steve Martin's character relies a lot on his natural charisma instead. There are a few disjointed elements too that don't quite come together by the end but overall, pretty good fun.

Watched some more movies. Drank some Long Islands.

'Humpday' (2009) directed by Lynn Shelton

Smart, funny, well written movie. Great acting, great tone. It delivered a lot of moments of truth about relationships within a highly original narrative.

'The Loved Ones' (2009) directed by Sean Byrne

Fantastic. One of the best cinema experiences I've had. The whole audience seemed to really invest in the movie and there was a real collective sense of having experienced something great. An exciting, interesting horror movie, probably one of the best I've seen.

'The Hurt Locker' (2008) directed by Kathryn Bigelow

Tense, smartly shot and very involving film about a bomb disposal unit in Iraq. Has some excellent action set pieces that build suspense really well while also giving a good insight into the psyche of soldiers at war.

Hey, so I've been away for a bit of a holiday but I have still seen some movies since my last post. It was a nice holiday although it did involve a quick trip to the emergency room at one point. Perhaps a little too much excitement than what a nice holiday warrants.

'Dead Snow' (2009) directed by Tommy Wirkola

What begins as a fairly cliche ridden horror film about a group of students alone in a cabin quickly becomes a balls-out hilarious take on the zombie film genre. This film manages to reference its filmic predecessors while also offering something new to the genre. The violence is graphic but also very comic and some of the scenes are really funny in a 'Shaun of the Dead' kind of way.

'35 Shots of Rum' (2008) directed by Claire Denis

An interesting and quite poignant film. Really nicely shot too although I probably didn't connect to the subject matter all that much.

'Dogtooth' (2009) directed by Giorgos Lanthimos

What begins as a sort of quirky, funny film quickly develops into a pretty disturbing story. I knew nothing about this film before I saw it. As the film progressed, the tone and the subject matter never really converged for me and so I wasn't sure whether to laugh or to feel empathy for the characters. At the end of the film I perhaps felt a bit alienated as a result. For me it was a film of two halves. The first half I thought it was really funny but by the second half, perhaps not all that funny at all. Highly original though and a very engaging, thought provoking film.

'The Savages' (2007) directed by Tamara Jenkins

Very good film that deals with the complex issue of two siblings dealing with their father who has dementia. The acting of Laura Linney and Philip Seymour Hoffman is outstanding.

'The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada' (2005) directed by Tommy Lee Jones

A contemporary sort of western movie. Pretty good but felt a bit too segmented. A little difficult to get into, probably because I didn't really understand the motivations of the main character.

'Funny Games' (2007) directed by Michael Haneke

Kind of interesting dialogue and builds tension pretty well but ultimately a pretty dissatisfying movie. It never really kicked off for me, the tension builds but then there wasn't a great payoff. I thought the dialogue was pretty funny but the actual violent scenes which were mostly shown off screen lacked real impact. Haneke likes to keep the camera in a fixed position so that the action can enter and leave the frame at will. This is an effective device in creating suspense but it needs to build to something interesting and powerful. The power needs to shift in the narrative, there needs to be more at stake perhaps.

What a busy week. I was on a film shoot for three days. Also, went out three nights in a row. Watched a few MIFF films in between. Great week but bloody exhausted now.

'Unmade Beds' (2009) directed by Alexis Dos Santos

I really enjoyed this film. The characters were interesting, they somehow felt very real and they really grew on me as the film progressed. Also, every shot seemed really well framed, it was a bit like watching a music video clip. Everything looked great, the story was very character based and although not a lot happened in the film in terms of action, it was very well written and always engaging. It definitely had a quirky sensibility to it and a great soundtrack too.

'Moon' (2009) directed by Duncan Jones

Amazing. The performance of Sam Rockwell is something else. The film is really tightly written too and the conclusion is very satisfying while not being predictable at all. It definitely builds upon sci-fi conventions and plays with expectations that the audience may have from previous sci-fi films such as '2001: A Space Odyssey' and 'Solaris'.

'I Love You, Man' (2009) directed by John Hamburg

Quite a fun film. Funny dialogue and deals with the interesting topic of male friendships. The cast is great too with a very even spread of familiar faces. Just a very enjoyable film to watch.