A short story thing.

Ken turns back the clock
Ken was getting stressed. After watching his ‘Father of the Bride’ DVD for the third time that day, it had started to skip. “Not again!” screamed Ken. He was in quite a state. “What’s all that racket?” called his wife from upstairs. “Oh, nothing” muttered Ken. Just then, ‘Father of the Bride’ skipped again, right past his favourite bit, the bit where Martin Short plays the wedding planner, Franck! “Fuck” said Ken. His ‘Father of the Bride’ marathon was not going at all to plan. He picked himself up slowly and with shoulders slumped, he trudged up the stairs. Immediately his wife knew something was wrong. “What is it, honey?” she asked. Ken scowled, “Oh nothing! Only the fact that my ‘Father of the Bride’ DVD is broken.” His wife was about to chastise him for being so sarcastic but then she noticed something. A single tear rolled down Ken’s cheek. “Honey” she said, putting an arm around him. At that moment, there was a knock at the door. “Who might that be?” asked Ken’s wife. Ken wiped the tear from his cheek, stood up straight and marched towards the door. Opening it, who could it be but Martin Short! And he was in character, playing Franck! Ken looked at his wife who was grinning from ear to ear. “You didn’t!” he said. “I did” she replied.

Friday night was good. Dad's birthday dinner and then over to Duy's place for Huy and Van's birthdays. It was pretty huge, hundreds of people filling their house and backyard, mountains of barbecue, drinks and lots of fun. This morning I caught up with Adam for breakfast, was good to catch up. Other than that, just been working lots, though I'm off to Sydney on Thursday.

'RocknRolla' (2008) directed by Guy Ritchie

Ritchie delivers the same old schtick. It's alright with some pretty fun scenes and some cool characters but overall the story doesn't feel as slick as this film looks. Pretty clunky overall I reckon, mainly because the motivations and back stories of the characters aren't well developed enough. It's all style over substance.

'Bonnie and Clyde' (1967) directed by Arthur Penn

Pretty engaging film about the famous criminal couple. I didn't expect it to be quite so violent but it worked really well, it has a very energetic pace and the relationships between the central characters are intriguing and add tension to the film.

Great weekend spent at Sorrento with Michelle. Although it rained a bit, we still went for a lengthy walk to the beach, ate lots of food and had a top time. I don't mind the rain on holidays, gives you a good excuse to stay in and watch DVDs. Which we did. Watched the entire first season of 'Damages'. What a great show. It's not a show that I had heard much about but I now rate it highly. It's essentially a murder mystery pretending to be a legal drama and it's addictive, quality television. The cast is outstanding and it's stunningly shot, there's this great consistent style to it, particularly in the use of colour. Check it out.

'Schizopolis' (1996) directed by Steven Soderbergh

Pretty much an experimental film, I was quite captivated by it. It's funny and bizarre and I just liked the sense of freedom it possessed. It's as though Soderbergh isn't constricted by any rules in terms of conventional filmmaking here, it's more of a stream of consciousness type thing. A bit like a dream. Pretty inspiring actually.

'Casablanca' (1942) directed by Michael Curtiz

A classic that I've been meaning to watch for ages. I really liked it, partly because I really like watching Humphrey Bogart films. There's this great sense of place in this film, there's this place created which is almost fantasy, but is still based in reality. Really interesting dynamics between all the characters too, even the minor characters still add a lot to the film.

The last two items on today's agenda are:

1. My good friend Mike sent me this link and it's well worth checking out if you're into screenwriting, particularly writing comedy for TV. This is part 1 of 5. I found Graham Linehan's comments particularly insightful.

2. I made a mix CD today for a road trip tomorrow. Wanna know what's on it? If not, shut your eyes... now.

1. Foo Fighters - Keep The Car Running (Arcade Fire cover)
2. Paul Dempsey - Ramona Was A Waitress
3. Robbie Williams - Human (The Killers cover)
4. Chad Vangaalen - Willow Tree
5. The xx - Islands
6. Phoenix - Long Distance Call
7. Minus The Bear - Pachuca Sunrise (acoustic)
8. Jens Lekman - Friday Night At The Drive-In Bingo
9. Weezer - Can't Stop Partying
10. The Walkmen - In The New Year
11. Damien Rice - Coconut Skins
12. Bon Iver - Skinny Love
13. Tegan & Sara - Red Belt
14. The Streets - Never Went To Church
15. Ben Folds - Bitches Ain't Shit (Dr. Dre cover)

Not sure whether it will really flow.

Just before, I ate an awesome homemade hamburger. It was awesome.

'Polyester' (1981) directed by John Waters

I wasn't really into this film. I quite like the John Waters aesthetic and the whole celebration of the kitsch and grotesque thing, but I just found this film pretty irritating overall. The characters and the storyline didn't really appeal to me, made it hard to get into.

'Mister Lonely' (2007) directed by Harmony Korine

This is an interesting one. It's basically about a Michael Jackson impersonator who joins a commune of other celebrity impersonators. It's visually very interesting and the characters are quite different than those you normally see. There's a layer thing going on here, often an actor is acting as a character who is also acting as another person. Overall, although the pace of the film is fairly slow, a lot of subtle action happens, as characters develop and interact with each other. The tone of the film is very dark actually and although I felt a bit distracted while watching it, this is a film that I have continued to think about days after, it kind of lingers in my mind.

Holidays. Working as much as I can though. Saturday night I went with Duy and Pete do eat all that we could at 'Volcano Joes'. It seemed like a good idea at the beginning but by the end I think we were all having second thoughts. After that, with full bellies, trekked into the city for a very brief stint at the Belgian Beer Garden to meet up with Benno and co and then ventured to Yellow Bird for a solitary beer. Watched a few movies too this week. I expect my movie intake to increase a fair amount now that I'm on holidays.

'Unforgiven' (1992) directed by Clint Eastwood

A classic western movie with Clint Eastwood at his brooding, menacing best. I quite enjoyed this film but one thing that I really noticed whilst watching it was the way that the story is structured. Clearly, a lot of care has been taken in the writing of the screenplay, especially in the way that the story dramatically unfolds. Information is revealed to certain characters, but not others, ensuring that some information is also often withheld from the audience, creating suspense and drama. It's quite a dark film, in the sense of the way that it is shot. It is definitely a film where shadows are used to great effect. Worth a look.

'The Party' (1968) directed by Blake Edwards

An interesting film. Peter Sellers plays a bumbling Indian actor, Hrundi V. Bakshi, who has been accidentally invited to a Hollywood party. The film takes place almost entirely at this party and Bakshi is kind of a combination of Mr. Bean and Borat, I reckon. Much of the humour derives from slapstick and from Bakshi's politeness throughout. Sellers is excellent and much of the comedy of the film is quite understated, despite the audacious nature of many of the comic set pieces. The tone of the film is quite light, it sort of just breezes along, with the action being driven largely from Sellers' performance.

So, uni is finished for the year and holidays have officially commenced. This week was a bit of a mad rush to get all my work done and handed in, but we got there in the end. Now what for the next 3 and a bit months? I'll work a bit, heading to Sydney in early December for a week and doing a summer subject for uni in January. But other than that - dunno.

Thursday night was the end of year Swinburne doco screening night at the Station Hotel. It was a good night, the films were all amazing and much beer was imbibed. Reflecting on the year, I think it's been very successful. I've learnt a lot, met a heap of awesome people, made some movies, written a fair amount and had heaps of fun. Now I've gotta get used to this whole holiday mode thing.

'Manhattan' (1979) directed by Woody Allen

Good film but for some reason I struggled to get into the flow of it. Generally I quite like Woody Allen films so I'm thinking it's because this week I was a bit stressed and distracted. I should watch it again. I liked the tone of it though, the dialogue was great and it's really nicely shot. There's some really interesting shots in there, positioning actors slightly off screen so you just get a hint of them entering the frame.

'Masculin Feminin' (1966) directed by Jean-Luc Godard

I found myself drifting off in this film. Not because it was boring, but because it was a bit hypnotic. There were elements that I really liked, although as a whole I didn't connect very strongly with it. I have found this to be the case with quite a few Godard films that I've seen, the exception probably being 'A bout de Souffle'. My impression was that this film was something of an intellectual exercise, an act of narrative experimentation, and there's nothing wrong with that. It's a little bit difficult to assess this film as a whole, given it's somewhat disjointed structure, though I was struck by the compelling still interview sequencs and the random acts of violence that occur throughout the film.

'The Box' (2009) directed by Richard Kelly

This is a pretty eerie film. It features a nice slow build up to what is essentially a science-fiction mystery film, with strong elements of the noir genre. I really liked the story elements that appeared crucial to the plot, although it was never exactly clear why. By the end of the film, I was left with a lot of questions and only a few answers. I left the cinema thinking about the film, that's for sure, but beneath that I wondered if it was all really as clever as it appeared to be. It didn't feel anywhere near as tight or controlled as Kelly's first film 'Donnie Darko'. I guess I felt that the film had a compelling first act, before becoming a bit too wild and unrestrained as more and more ideas were introduced. There were quite a few loose ends and unexplained sequences. Also, I noticed in the credits that the film was based on a short story by Richard Matheson (writer of 'I Am Legend') so I might have to check that out.

Monday was something of an epic day. Started with uni, pizza at the Coq, Screen Worlds to play Rhys and Lachlan at oldschool Quake, met up with Pete, back to Prahran, Grill'd for dinner, back to Pete's place for a bit, city again, Toff in Town, met up with uni people again. And then? Watched Vince's band 'Underground Lovers' play. It was a great gig, the place was packed, and there was beer. Should be good checking them out at Homebake in December. After that, raced off quickly and just managed to get the last tram home.

'Switch' (1991) directed by Blake Edwards

Bizarre comedy about a chauvanistic guy who dies and then gets sent back to Earth in the body of a beautiful woman. I don't know if I misunderstood this, but it seemed like much of the plot hinged on the main character getting raped by his/her best friend and then that being presented as an okay prelude to a marriage. (A marriage that the heterosexual male-trapped-inside-a-female's-body is fine with, despite cringing when the priest utters the words "you may now kiss the bride"). Very strange. I may have totally misread the plot, but this all seemed pretty odd to me, given the light tone of the film.

'Interview' (2007) directed by Steve Buscemi

This film plays out like a theatre piece. It's basically about a political journalist who has been sent to interview a Paris Hilton-esque movie star. The film focuses on the shifts in power between the two people, illustrating the constantly changing dynamics, the fronts that people present to each other and also the romantic tensions at play. It's an interesting film, the performances are quite strong, although the characterisation of Sienna Miller's character, Katya, seemed a little off.