some movie blog

2010-08-07T20:30:00.000-07:00

Well, I have moved out of home. I'm now living in North Fitzroy. It's a bit of a change but it's going well. I'm living with 3 other guys and the house is pretty big, my room is certainly much bigger than my old room.

Last week was a bit of a mess. Car troubles and I lost my glasses. It's unusual for me to lose things so I think I must have just been tired and not concentrating, but nevermind.

MIFF has been a bit underwhelming this year. I ended up watching seven films, meaning that I had three left over on my Minipass. Bit of a waste really. I could have gone this weekend, but having lost my glasses it would mean that everything would be all fuzzy on the screen. I'm not that fussed though.

The films that I saw were:

'Hahaha', 'Beeswax', 'Splice', 'Four Lions', 'The Wedding Party', 'Flickan' and the 'Accelerator 2' short film program. Nothing really blew me away or stuck with me, although of those films 'Four Lions' was the standout for me. It was pretty funny and well written which you'd expect for a film written by Chris Morris and the 'Peep Show' writers. The one thing I didn't expect was so much slapstick. It was a like a classic farce.

'Hahaha', 'Beeswax' and 'Flickan' were all good films. 'Splice' and 'The Wedding Party' were pretty average. And the 'Accelerator 2' program was a bit of a mixed bag. There seemed to me to be a number of films that had a similar tone or theme. When the film 'When the Wind Changes', (directed by Alethea Jones, a lecturer we had last semester) came on, it was a refreshing change as it was really the only solidly comedic film on the program. It was funny and well done and one of the standouts. Also, the film 'The Kiss' was a solid, tension building film, another standout.

2010-06-28T19:46:00.001-07:00

So I guess you're probably wondering how I got to be this tall. Well, let me tell you, it took years of hard work. You don't get to be this tall just overnight!

This blog has gotten a bit looser, as you can probably tell.

I just got a haircut. Haircuts are never something I look forward to, but over the years I've gotten used to them as a sort of necessary annoyance. Anyway, it's done now. And I feel better.

It's raining. It's cold.

I watched 'Toy Story 3'. Watch it, it's brilliant. Pixar are so consistent with their filmmaking. Compare it to the latest 'Shrek' film which I haven't seen but, it can't be good, right?

I've been watching lots of 'Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job'. I love it, it's the best.

Plus, I've started listening to 'Creative Screenwriting' podcast after recalling a somewhat drunken conversation at a party a few moons ago. It is excellent and quite inspiring.

I started writing properly yesterday and after a bunch of pages of rubbish, I found one reasonable sketch. So that's something.

So there you have it. A scattered blog.

2010-06-22T04:29:00.000-07:00

Here's a blog, just for you. I made it out of sticks and glue.

Today I went to the 'Titanic' exhibition at the ol' Museum. Tell you what, it was damn good. The exhibition has actually been really well thought out, every room conveys a different mood, it draws you in, it doesn't just feel like a museum exhibit, it's evocative, interesting, it tells a story. It somehow personalises the whole thing, engages you. Of course, it's hard to mention the 'Titanic' exhibition without also mentioning the film 'Titanic'. So there, I have now, glad I got that out of the way.
Patrick's rating: RECOMMENDED (in bold)

Hey, so I've watched a few movies lately. These include 'The Road' (bleak, depressing, but quite nicely filmed and acted), 'Get Him to the Greek' (not bad, funny in parts, quite patchy in tone and narrative though) and 'Towelhead' (Not bad, not amazing). But the one I really want to mention here is 'Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call - New Orleans'. Directed by Werner Herzog and starring Nicolas Cage, this film pretty much blew me away. It's bold, extremely unconventional and yet it sits nicely in the hard-boiled detective/noir genre. It's really funny too. I'm a huge Cage fan, I'll happily watch anything he's in and even if the film is horrible, I normally enjoy whatever Cage brings to it. In this film, Cage is given license to go absolutely batshit crazy. This = awesome.
Patrick's rating: See it! (in bold and italics)

2010-06-17T01:10:00.000-07:00

Well, an entire semester has passed by. Whoosh, just like that.

Last night was our screening night at the Rivoli. It was a fun evening, it's always interesting watching everyone's films. Unexpectedly, our film picked up a couple of awards which was a nice surprise.

It's been an intense semester, particularly the pre-production and shooting of our 16mm film. However, in some ways I have found that this semester wasn't as stressful as last year. Maybe that's just because coming back to a course after having completed a year, you know what's expected, you have that experience behind you. Even though the projects are harder, you're doing it with a year's experience.

I've enjoyed this semester. My favourite subject turned out to be Directing. Mainly because it exposed a lot of the acting world to me and taught me a lot. Plus it was always engaging and interesting.

So where am I now? I'm on holidays. Sort of. By that I mean, I'm not at uni for a while, but I don't want to look at it as a holiday. It's important to keep momentum going, to keep working hard.

Some things I'm into at the moment:

TV

'Misfits'
The premise of this show doesn't sound all that appealing necessarily - it's basically like 'Skins' meets 'Heroes'. But the writing on this is excellent, every episode explores the characters further while developing an interesting narrative arc. Yes, the characters have powers, a bit like 'Heroes', a bit like 'X-Men'. But it's not really about the powers as such, instead they're simply narrative devices used to explore the character.

'The Inbetweeners'
Extremely funny, well written sit-com. It doesn't feel all that original and yet it still feels very fresh. Simon Bird is excellent in the central role but this show is very much about the dynamic between the characters. Yes, another 'Skins' comparison, but this show feels like 'Skins' except played purely for laughs.

'Community'
If you're not watching this, why not? Best U.S. sit-com for a little while, well, maybe this and '30 Rock'. I like Abed and Senor Chang the best.

MUSIC

The National - High Violet
I really liked The National's last album 'Boxer'. This one is good too, probably not as many hooks as 'Boxer', but still a very solid album.

Hot Chip - One Life Stand
An infectious album. Every song is great. 'I Feel Better' was stuck in my head for days.

RADIO

These three are making me laugh consistently. Track them down.
Hancock's Half Hour
Adam and Joe
Knowing Me, Knowing You

2010-02-12T17:59:00.000-08:00

Well, yes, here we are again I suppose. It's true, I have been neglecting this blog somewhat. The reason? Well, I suppose when I started this thing, the idea was to chronicle the movies that I watched and to add in some other stuff too. Lately though, well, I've kinda stopped watching movies and thus, this blog has lost it's core structure. I still watch movies here and there of course, but I haven't deliberately been setting out to watch things.

Why is this exactly? To an extent, I felt like it was a bit of a chore at times. I wasn't getting the most out of the movies. Perhaps I wasn't in the right mindset? I was movie-d out I guess. So that's my excuse for fewer blogs, but I can assure you that the blogs will pick up again soon. Oh, I suppose the other thing is that my writing focus has been directed elsewhere. I have been focused on this zombie film project, but to a greater extent I have been writing a lot more short humour pieces for this other project I'm working on.

This week? Lots of work, I'm afraid. Soccer on Monday. Thursday I ventured out into the rain and met up with Kaiser, Lachlan and Caitlin at the Astor to watch 'Kill Bill 1' and 'Kill Bill 2'. I'd seen these films before, but not together on the big screen. You know what? I don't think they're very good, really. I feel that Tarantino's recent films have been a little too affected by that Tarantino-esque sensibility lately. It's as though he's been told a little too often how great he is and so the films have become a bit self-conscious. It's as though he's almost saying "Hey, you thought that was good, check THIS out!" That doesn't make them bad films, they're distinct, unique, interesting films all of them. But they just feel messy to me and the visual side of things tends to be a lot better than the writing. I do believe that Tarantino writes really great individual scenes in these films but altogether they don't feel all that cohesive. I'm not a big fan of the way he divides these films into chapters either. Interestingly, a lot of the stuff he was being lauded for in 'Inglourious Basterds' - structure, the mixing up of languages - it's all already prevalent in the 'Kill Bill' films. I don't know, I just felt that scenes tended to go on a little too long, dialogue was drawn out and nowhere near as punchy as in his earlier films. And at the end of the day, the storyline to 'Kill Bill' is pretty boring. If I was asked to choose which film is better, volume 1 or 2, I would probably argue that 2 is superior, though chiefly due to the presence of Michael Madsen, who gives the film a lot of character. But that's really just a personal preference.

2010-02-09T16:00:00.000-08:00

Well, it has been some time. I've been exhausted, I think.

Big weekend. Chris and Amelia's wedding on Saturday. It was a nice wedding. Long day when you combine the wedding, the in-between afternoon tea bit and the reception so I was pretty tired by the end of it. Nice though.

Sunday I went into the city with Michelle and met up with Lorry, Anna, Pete and Duy. We watched 'The Wiz' at ACMI.

'The Wiz' (1978) directed by Sidney Lumet

Wow, I really did not like this film. It was basically a re-make of 'The Wizard of Oz' but pretty shithouse. The songs weren't memorable, it was overlong, Diana Ross wasn't likeable at all in the main role, she was a bit too screechy. The design of the film looked cheap and hasn't dated well. A lot of it is quite creepy and yeah, it was a struggle to get through. There seemed to be a song for every moment in the film - irritating. Lorry started groaning every time a character would start to sing, it was indeed very groan-worthy.

'Daybreakers' (2009) directed by Michael Spierig and Peter Spierig

A really cool, original take on the vampire film. The story felt fresh and interesting and not all that predictable. Although it was cheesy in parts and the cinematographer seemed to love using the slo-mo effect, it was highly entertaining throughout. I really enjoyed it.

2010-02-01T14:47:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I drink too much coffee and I feel anxious.

Big, huge, epic weekend. Saturday, Chris's bucks party. It involved a lot of paintball and eating all that I could (which wasn't much). Paintball hurts! But not as much as I thought it would. Still, now I'm covered in bruises. It was a boiling hot day and wearing all the protective gear and the camo stuff, I was sweating right from the start. The games were pretty fun, although it took me a little while to get into it. I found that I really enjoyed finding a good spot and then sniping people. Once I worked out the trajectory of the paintball, the wind and weather patterns and other variables, I was well into it. Exhausting though.

Sunday I was feeling rather wrecked. That didn't stop me from heading over to Lachlan's place where we began writing this feature film. I reckon it went really well. I've never really co-written something before, but it seemed to make things easier, it's a lot of discussion basically. So yeah, we worked out the overall framework of the story, some of the key scenes and characters. Should be good.

'Sydney White' (2007) directed by Joe Nussbaum

A pretty mindless Amanda Bynes teen comedy, sort of a modern day re-telling of 'Snow White', but not really. I enjoyed it, even though it was pretty rubbish. It was fun to just watch the different shades of orange that Amanda Bynes turned from scene to scene.

2010-01-28T15:08:00.000-08:00

So, here's another blog.

Australia Day was on the other day. January 26th. I went to Healesville Sanctuary with Michelle, just for something to do that was a bit different. It was quite nice, wandering around and looking at animals. My favourite was the 'Birds of Prey' show, that was quite cool. We also ate lunch at the bistro there, not bad, although some woman smashed a bunch of glasses and then said "I apologise". That's a weird phrase I reckon.

I haven't watched very many films lately although I did watch 'Bad Eggs' again, a DVD I picked up for about 6 dollars at JB recently. I mainly got it because I'm a big Tony Martin fan and it's the only feature film he's directed. It also features a 65 minute documentary on the making of the film, which is quite good.

Other than that, I watched all of 'Dead Set', the Charlie Brooker penned zombie TV show. Solid show that, really well written and paced. The way it's shot looks great too.

Oh, and I bought a Playstation 2. They're quite cheap at K-mart at the moment and games/accessories are very cheap for it too. I reckon it was money well spent. I'm not really in the market for buying a more new console, just wanted something to play now and then and the Playstation 2 has a huge back catalogue of very good games. Anyway, so I'm having fun playing 'Black' at the moment.

So there's an update. Big weekend coming up, I feel.

2010-01-24T16:30:00.000-08:00

Pretty good long weekend thus far. Saturday night was a night out with Duy, Pete and Bart. Headed to Cabana, some lounge cocktail bar place where Pete's friend was having a birthday. It was pretty good and long islands were cheap for a little while. After that we headed to Ding Dong, ran into Lashi, drank some more, danced a little, ordered a mystery shot, pretty sure it was chartreuse and vodka, instantly regretted it and then seconds later felt a lot better about it. So that was good but eventually we left, stood around outside while certain members of our party smoked cigarettes. Then a bloke from New Orleans came up to us, gathered the surrounding people into a circle and told a rather lewd joke, the punchline of which, in retrospect, I don't really get. It didn't stop me from laughing wholeheartedly at the time however. Following all that, we went to China Bar for nasi lemak. Somehow in the last 6 months, the late night kebab has been replaced by China Bar. This is not necessarily a good thing.

Yesterday I went to the cinema with Michelle to watch the double feature of 'Toy Story' and 'Toy Story 2' in 3D. It was really good and I recommend it. Although I'd seen both films when they came out originally, I hadn't seen them since then so basically I'd forgotten a lot of the plot, especially the first 'Toy Story'. That film has some really dark elements actually, such as Woody having vaguely murderous thoughts about Buzz. I mean, at one point Woody tries to run over Buzz with a remote control car. There's also that kid who exhibits all the warning signs for a future serial killer who has created all of those bizarre circus freak toys. Scary stuff.

As for the 3D, it's good and not gimmicky, it just makes everything look a lot crisper. The animation of 'Toy Story 2' is a little more sophisticated when compared to the first film, but then you'd expect that. Also, there's an intermission between the two films where for ten minutes you get a bunch of trivia and animations, almost like some special features from the DVD or something. It's quite good and keeps you entertained if you decide to stay in the cinema rather than leave to get, I dunno, toast or something.

2010-01-20T02:25:00.001-08:00

To say that I haven't seen any movies lately would not be strictly true. In fact, it would be a downright lie. A downright lie. The reality of the situation is far different.

I have watched three Wes Anderson films. Twice. Twice each, I mean. Once without commentary and then once again with commentary. The films that I have watched are as follows: 'Rushmore', 'The Royal Tenenbaums' and lastly 'The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou'.

I've seen all of these films before, but after recently watching 'Fantastic Mr. Fox', I was keen to re-watch them in greater depth. I suppose what I got out of this was that Wes Anderson is very much the complete writer-director. He writes with a very clear visual sense of what the film will be like and executes it perfectly as a director. It is as though he sees the film as a whole, even at the writing stage. He also has a very strong sense of visual style. I think it would be fair to say that he is an auteur director, certainly.

Other than that, I suppose I consolidated in my mind my responses t0 all of his films.

To me, 'The Darjeeling Limited' is still my favourite. It's a simple film on the surface, but has a lot of depth and it's paced very well. The jokes aren't overt and yet it is still very funny in parts. It helps that it was co-written by Jason Schwartzman, I think. It has a Schwartzman sensibility that complements Anderson's style. This is what made 'Rushmore' such a great film. Schwartzman's lead performance in 'Rushmore' is great and just really suits the film, it has this real quirky feel. 'Rushmore' is probably my second favourite. The storyline is interesting and the relationships are very dynamic, constantly changing throughout the film.

'The Life Aquatic' is the weakest film, I reckon. There's something about it that doesn't quite work, perhaps it's that there are far too many peripheral characters that aren't really fleshed out. Maybe that dilutes the importance of the other characters. Or perhaps it's just too cute. Too much style over substance though and it makes it a little bit boring, even though it's visually so dynamic. I'm not sure, I mean, listening to the commentary track from Anderson and co-writer Noah Baumbach, it seems as though the focus of the film was chiefly on the relationships between the characters. Although, this aspect seems to get a little bit overshadowed by the overall look of the film, I feel. Bill Murray isn't used all that effectively either, he's great when he's playing off other actors but too often in this film he's a solitary figure, acting on his own.

'The Royal Tenenbaums' is somewhere in the middle for me. I'm a little indifferent towards this film. I think it's good, but a bit overrated. It looks great, has interesting characters, but again perhaps suffers from having too many characters. For instance, Bill Murray's character in this film is presented as a main character, but he isn't really. I wonder if this character and the Dudley character could have been cut, who knows. Anyway, there are some great sequences in this movie and I reckon Luke Wilson is excellent here. It just lacks a real emotional punch somehow. The closest is the scene with Angelica Huston and Gene Hackman in the street, near the start of the film.

As for the other films, 'Fantastic Mr. Fox' and 'Bottle Rocket', well I've only seen each of them once. 'Bottle Rocket' was pretty good, but it's Anderson's first film, it's low budget and so it's hard to rate it compared to the other films. I remember it being quite funny though and I'd like to watch it again. And 'Fantastic Mr. Fox', well I'd probably put it somewhere in the middle too, probably after 'The Darjeeling Limited' and 'Rushmore', maybe around about 'The Royal Tenenbaums'.

I know it's a bit of a pointless exercise in ranking films like that, but whatever.

So those are the only movies I've watched lately.

2010-01-17T02:11:00.000-08:00

So it's been an interesting week. My car didn't start the other day. Turned out I needed a new starter motor. Money, money. Also had to take a bunch of days off work because they're upgrading the computer system. And my auntie and cousins are visiting. So it's been good.

'Up In The Air' (2009) directed by Jason Reitman

Cool film. It's clever, has interesting characters and while some bits are a little predictable, the overall arc of the film did not end up where I expected. A pleasant surprise, that. George Clooney is excellent in the main role, as is Anna Kendrick playing the main supporting role. Together they work well as a different take on the classic odd couple dynamic. So yeah, I thought it was sharply written and worked well, it's funny but also has a lot of depth. Jason Reitman is certainly shaping up to be an excellent director. Oh, the other thing that was cool was the presence of some excellent comic actors in small supporting roles, including Zach Galifianakis, Danny McBride and Jason Bateman.

'The Princess And The Frog' (2009) directed by Ron Clements and John Musker

I took some of my young cousins along to see this and it was pretty enjoyable overall. Perhaps it's the fact that I'm a bit older these days but it didn't quite seem to have the same charm or humour as some of Disney's earlier animated films. I'm thinking mainly of films like 'Aladdin', 'The Lion King' or 'The Emperor's New Groove'. This film feels a little smaller in scale than those films, less epic somehow, but it's still good fun. The hand drawn animation is in stark contrast to the now more prevalent 3D computer generated style, but it still looks great. The story in this film is perhaps a little bit weak, the bad guy's plan seemed pretty convoluted and silly to me and the essential underlying moral of the film seemed a little unclear at times. Basically though, this film isn't aimed towards me, it's aimed at a much younger audience and the kids I was with seemed to enjoy it.

Bum

2010-01-13T03:50:00.000-08:00

Last night I went to Revolver for the premiere of 'Bum', a feature length documentary by two guys I go to uni with, Callum Padgham and Tavis Urquhart. Such an impressive effort, to make a feature film in first year uni.

Anyway, it was a really good night, there was a big crowd and a bunch of Swinburne folks to catch up with. I got in there early, armed myself with a pint and scored one of the few seats in a prime position.

I thought the film itself was excellent. The gist of the doco was that Callum spent 7 nights living on the streets of Melbourne, essentially walking a mile in the shoes of the city's homeless. And by the end of the week, those shoes were looking pretty holey. I must admit, when I first heard the premise of the film, I was a little apprehensive. For one, the idea has been played out before, most recently an episode of 'Dave in the Life' on SBS focused on this very concept. Also, the concept certainly raises the issue of just how close can someone really get to being truly homeless? There are a number of issues associated with homelessness, such as mental illness, physical disability and abuse that are difficult to examine within this film's framework. However, I reckon the film dealt with these intrinsic problems quite well. The main thing was that it remained consistent in asserting that it was presenting a specific individual's experience of homelessness and that this was not at all representative of homelessness as a whole. This was an important point that was reiterated throughout the film and especially at it's conclusion. The point was made that Callum's experience was a particularly lucky and unique one. His was almost the best possible scenario and it was still pretty bad, raising the idea of how bad things could really be for those in less fortunate circumstances.

The key to the film's success was definitely Callum himself. Essentially the viewer is being asked to spend 90 minutes or so with him non-stop so it's important that he remains an entertaining but also sympathetic character. Fortunately, he manages to be charismatic and funny throughout, while also not strictly playing everything for laughs. There is a point quite early on in the film where he risks losing the audience (I won't reveal the moment here cos it will spoil it). However, rather than lose the audience, this moment provoked a roar of laughter at the screening last night. It's a point in the film that shows that Callum is willing to push things to the limit and I reckon it's the point that actually won the audience over. It's an important moment in the film as it sets the uncompromising tone of the whole thing. It's probably for this reason that the film works a lot better than the episode of 'Dave in the Life'. In that show, there is always the sense that Dave is living the experience through the people he meets rather than totally immersing himself in the situation. In 'Bum' however, Callum appears to totally immerse himself in this 7 days and in turn, it immerses the viewer in the film.

Overall it's a bloody good effort, this film. The film certainly raises a number of ethical issues throughout, and it's definitely thought provoking. It really stands on the line between hilarious hi-jinks and serious issues but somehow it retains a sense of balance. The film is very funny, highlights include Callum going to bed on the casino floor, taking an unauthorised dip in a hotel pool and also giving new meaning to the "all you can eat" buffet. These more comedic scenes are used to good effect and are interwoven with other moments that present some really interesting truths about homelessness. In particular, the scene at the end of the film where Callum helps a homeless man in need is very poignant. It's quite a complex multi-layered film really, but then, so are the issues that it's addressing. There's a lot going on here and there's a lot to take in and it doesn't offer any simple answers. It's damn entertaining though and I'm still thinking about it.

2010-01-11T16:05:00.000-08:00

Man, that Owl City song 'Fireflies' sucks. I was just taking a look at the current Aria singles chart and it's number 1. Freaking number 1. It's such a blatant rip off of the Postal Service. Maybe not directly in terms of the actual written music or lyrics, but definitely in terms of style. The Postal Service released one album 'Give Up' in 2003, it's a brilliant album that blends Ben Gibbard's distinct vocals with Jimmy Tambarello's stripped back beats. What Owl City have (has?) done is taken that style and simply mimicked it, really badly. The result is the most half-arsed, watered down, syrupy pile of crap, I mean, the dude has actually auto-tuned his vocals to sound more like Ben Gibbard. What annoys me is that this song is number 1 on the charts instead of being condemned to the trash heap for being unoriginal tripe. It's one thing to be influenced by an artist, but it's another thing entirely to take an artist's specific sound and claim it as your own.

And what's with this song at number 5, Jason Derulo - 'Whatcha Say'. I mean, the whole hook of the song is sampled straight from Imogen Heap's 'Hide and Seek'. So what's the point? At least the original was, you know, kind of original. Now it's just been turned into derivative radio-friendly pop nonsense with a killer hook that was already proven a killer hook back in 2005! The song was featured on 'The OC' for fuck's sake. I'm not saying this is as bad as that Owl City rubbish, it's just blah. Maybe I would have less of a problem with this if the song was credited as Jason Derulo featuring Imogen Heap or vice versa. Yeah, probably vice versa.

2010-01-10T02:45:00.000-08:00

'The Counterfeiters' (2007) directed by Stefan Ruzowitzky

A fine, fine film. Go to the video store, borrow it now. It's pretty heavy going, but an excellent film. It's basically about a Nazi counterfeiting operation within the Sachsenhausen concentration camp where specifically skilled Jews were made to counterfeit money to fund the Nazis. It was a compelling and deeply affecting story. The performances are really strong and the film itself looks great; I'm not sure if it was shot on digital but it has a very grainy quality which actually works well for the film.

'JCVD' (2008) directed by Mabrouk El Mechri

A weird sort of film where Jean-Claude Van Damme plays a version of himself in a fictional narrative, a narrative that is a lot like 'Dog Day Afternoon', except a really dumbed down version. It's a postmodern take on a Van Damme film, I guess, although it doesn't really work. It has interesting moments in it, but these are chiefly when Van Damme is going about his mundane life - talking to his agent, posing for photographs with fans or just sitting in a taxi. Ironically, it's the central story about a bank robbery that that feels tired and cliched and almost superfluous to the film. It's clunky and pretty derivative and really detracts from what makes the film interesting, which is seeing Van Damme as the ordinary guy that he is. Similarly, the courtroom scenes are pretty cliched too. I guess the film suffers from some average writing, which ensures that what could have been a pretty interesting, perhaps even a 'Being John Malkovich' type film, is relegated to just B-grade action crap. Which is either really ironic and super-postmodern. Or just crap.

2010-01-09T15:59:00.000-08:00

'The Piano Teacher' (2001) directed by Michael Haneke

For the most part, I really liked this film. The main character, played by Isabelle Huppert, is fascinating. It's an original character study that really draws you into the film. Haneke has a great style as well, setting up static shots and just leaving them, refusing to cut until it is absolutely necessary. It gives the impression sometimes that you are looking at a still photo as there is only subtle movement within the frame, if any. The main problem that I had with this film was the same problem that I've had with other Haneke films I've seen ('Funny Games' and 'Hidden'). That is, the first two thirds of the film are utterly compelling, masterful works. Then, the final third it feels as though Haneke pulls the rug out from under you, the final act is underwhelming, almost wilfully obtuse. It just didn't seem to flow with what had been set up before. In the case of 'The Piano Teacher', there was an interesting conclusion to the film, but at the same time, not really a conclusion at all. It seemed to cheapen the overall film and also subvert the central character, simply so that Haneke could defy the audience's expectations or sense of satisfaction. I'm not sure, Haneke's films seem to be universally critically lauded so it may just be personal choice here.

'Terminator Salvation' (2009) directed by McG

I found this film pretty boring. Long, tedious action sequences don't really do it for me these days, I think it's probably the prevalence of CGI. There's a long car chase type scene in this film and although it was impressive to look at, it just seemed to lack spark. I just always have this sense that what I'm looking at isn't real, so what's the point? I don't get lost in it because there's no sense of danger. The storyline in this film is kind of interesting but a bit convoluted, I hadn't watched the 'Terminator' films for a while and so I kept going "Wait, so who's this guy?" or "Hey, is he relevant in the other films or is that a totally new guy?" or "That kid from 'Alpha Dog' is in everything these days". There's something about McG's style too, the action sequences are flashy but they always seem to cut right at the crucial moment of impact. For instance, a character will punch another character and just as the fist is meant to make impact, it cuts to show it from a different angle, thereby missing the most interesting bit. It's a style that works a lot better in the 'Charlie's Angels' films where the action and violence are meant to be cheesy. Perhaps this film wasn't as raw as it needed to be. Or perhaps it just needed a bit more Arnie.

2010

2010-01-02T22:31:00.000-08:00

First post of the new year. So, Happy New Year.

My new year was good, a fairly quiet night at my place with a few people over. A barbecue and a variety of alcoholic drinks.

I'm heading back to work tomorrow after two weeks off. It'll be good to get some structure back in my life. The last few weeks have been good but fairly uneventful. Can't really remember what I've done, although I went out for dinner the other night for tapas at Basque which was nice. I've been watching a lot of DVDs. Finished 'The Shield' season 7. That was great, a good ending to the show. 'The Shield' is a seriously good show, check it out, it's very cheap at JB HiFi at the moment. Also watched the first season of 'Breaking Bad'. It's a short season, but that show is unreal. I really liked it. I also re-watched all of 'The Office' (UK). I had forgotten how brilliant that show is. It's not just funny, but also very moving because you really invest in the characters. Just wow. I'm also slowly getting through 'Deadwood' and '30 Rock' season 3. Plus, this great show which some kind soul has uploaded all of on Youtube. It's called 'Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe'. Now this is my kind of show. It's basically a show that analyses and critiques TV and it's sarcastic, sharp, savage and very funny. It sometimes reminds me of 'The Angry Nintendo Nerd', a series of video game reviews that I used to watch on Youtube which were similarly sharp and hilarious.

'Fantastic Mr. Fox' (2009) directed by Wes Anderson

I'm a big Wes Anderson fan and I was really looking forward to seeing this. It's great fun and it looks amazing, the animation is very cool and it's stylistically got that obvious Wes Anderson touch. Lots of symmetry and balance, a tightly defined colour palette and trademark camera zooms. The script is offbeat and funny, and the characters are interesting. This film doesn't really make any bold statements or anything, but it's compelling nonetheless. One thing that surprised me was how many young children were in the cinema when I watched this. I suppose the fact that the film is based on a Roald Dahl book and it is an animation suggests that it's a children's film but I didn't think the script itself was geared towards kids. It's very much a Wes Anderson/Noah Baumbach script, dealing chiefly with dysfunctional relationships and family issues. There aren't really any concessions made for kids here (apart from the deliberate lack of swearing). In fact, the film could probably very easily have been a live action film, if you ignored the fact that the characters were written as animals. If this were the case, it definitely would have been an adult film. I guess what I'm trying to say is that the tone feels more adult, I imagine a lot of the charm of the film would have gone over the heads of young children. Anyway, it's cool, go see it.

2009-12-27T16:07:00.000-08:00

Haven't watched too many movies lately because I've been slowly getting through 'The Shield' season 7, plus 'Breaking Bad' and 'My Name Is Earl'. All great shows. I did venture out to the cinema yesterday though.

'Sherlock Holmes' (2009) directed by Guy Ritchie

This film is just so-so. It's fairly entertaining and well written but it just seems to lack a spark. It doesn't feel exciting or funny, it just feels pretty flat and monotone throughout and I'm not sure why. There are some decent fight sequences, the story is compelling enough (although pretty predictable) and Holmes is an interesting character. So what was it? I guess it comes down to the characters. Their relationships aren't developed enough so I didn't have any real investment in the film. Plus the whole film is quite dark colourwise, the colour palette is mainly greys. Also, Robert Downey Jr. plays Holmes in a very understated, detached way and so there is this strange flatness to the film - it never quite kicks off like you expect it to. A bit dissatisfying.

2009-12-25T04:39:00.000-08:00

Well, it's Christmas Day-night. Christmas night I guess you'd call it. It was a good day, spent with my family, eating duck and ham and vegetables and pudding and drinking wine. There was ample wine. Michelle visited in the evening and we all exchanged presents. Christmas is nice, isn't it.

The other day I watched all of season three of 'The Mighty Boosh'. I have now watched every season and all the associated special features. It's a curious show. After watching the first season, I declared it to be very overrated. It was original, yes, quirky, colourful, interesting to look at, bizarre, improvised. In short, it had a bunch of great qualities. The thing was, I just didn't find it all that funny. I guess I found it a little badly directed in terms of the comedy, some of the improvised dialogue seemed to go on a bit too long and the beats were in the wrong spots or completely missing. People said to me "you must watch season two though! you'll love it." So you know what I did? Exactly that.

Season two was a lot better, I thought. It definitely benefited from re-locating the show from the zoo to the flat. It seemed to open things up a lot more. 'The Priest and the Beast' was the first episode I watched where I thought "wow, great show". That episode blew me away, it's brilliantly written. Still, I found the season to be a little hit and miss overall. The darker episodes are my favourites in this season by far, particularly the last two "The Legend of Old Gregg" and "The Nightmare of Milky Joe". The Boosh seem to be at their best when they're being as edgy as possible, pushing things in a very dark direction.

So, the third season which I just watched the other day. It's not a great season really, probably about the same as season one. I mean, it's very watchable, interesting television but just not any brilliant episodes like there were in season two. The best for me was "The Strange Tale of the Crack Fox", but chiefly because of the Crack Fox character. It's a really demented episode but it seems to lose some steam in the second half. The interplay between Vince and the Fox is great but unfortunately shortlived.

So, what to make of 'The Mighty Boosh'? The show is consistently quite good, sometimes even brilliant. It's certainly different from anything else out there, which is a good thing. But I don't know, I kinda wish it was consistently brilliant rather than just consistently good. I think when they tie themselves down to a location, such as the zoo or the shop, the episodes tend to suffer. They tend to come across as much more restrained, even sitcom-like. Perhaps it just comes down to personal preference, but the episodes that I love are those where Vince and Howard are on some adventure somewhere without any real explanation for why.

2009-12-23T19:09:00.000-08:00

Christmas Eve! Yesterday I ventured back to uni to get out of this Summer subject that I had enrolled in. Stopped by the Lucky Coq for a beer and a pizza too and then headed to the city. Did a lot of walking around with no particular aim. I've been sitting around at home a lot lately, so it was good to get out and about. Also went to see Tom's band 'ATM 15' play at the Evelyn last night. It was a pretty fun gig. Stayed at Tom's place that night, woke up with a killer headache. Seems to feel better now. Also had dinner last night at some place on Brunswick St. The service was really bad, the waitress was quite aggressive at one point, effectively blaming me for a mistake that she'd made. Made things quite uncomfortable.

'Planet Terror' (2007) directed by Robert Rodriguez

I found this movie pretty boring. It's a weird one, because the whole thing is meant to be a pastiche of those 70s era d-grade horror films which is a cool idea in principle. In practice though, I didn't really get the point. It wasn't really funny at all and the violence was too cartoonish to be entertaining. It basically felt like a poorly executed episode of 'Garth Marenghi's Darkplace', with all of the humour removed. Perhaps if the characters were a bit more interesting or likeable it would have worked better. The fake trailer at the start of the film for 'Machete' looked like a way better movie.

2009-12-20T20:39:00.000-08:00

'Avatar' (2009) directed by James Cameron

Ok, it's a given that this film is visually spectacular. It's definitely unlike anything I've seen, the 3D and the colour, the whole thing, it is a genuine cinematic experience. Definitely see this in the cinema, don't wait for the DVD. Aside from that though, the story of the film is pretty bland and predicatable. If it wasn't so visually arresting, I think I would have gotten quite bored. In fact, I did get a little bored in parts because the story just didn't excite me in the same way that the effects did. It's a story ridden with cliches meaning that it felt like I'd seen this movie before. It's basically your classic epic tale of a soldier falling in love with a woman from the enemy side and then being faced with the decision about where his allegiances truly lie. The problem is, this classic structure makes the film utterly predictable and the characters aren't strong enough to make it really interesting. There's a sci-fi twist to it, sure, but there is some pretty shocking writing in this film, the opening third is pure exposition of the worst kind and there appear to be some scenes and speeches virtually lifted straight from 'Braveheart'. This film also suffers from having "bad guys" who are "bad" simply because they are "bad guys". I can't stand that kind of thing. At the end of the day though, this film is really all about dazzling special effects and it truly delivers in this respect, it is certainly amazing to look at. I just wish the effort put into the visual side of things was matched by the writing.

'Dog Day Afternoon' (1975) directed by Sidney Lumet

Excellent film. I really, really liked it. The performances are excellent, particularly Al Pacino who just dominates. He's an amazing actor. I really liked the largely improvised dialogue between characters, improvisation creates an interesting dynamic. The way the film is structured is really interesting too, there's always this build up of tension and then the tension is broken, this pattern repeats constantly, subtly giving more information about the characters. You never really get the sense that the central characters are essentially doomed, there is always this element of hope and humour in the film.

2009-12-19T01:07:00.000-08:00

'The Square' (2008) directed by Nash Edgerton

Really solid, tightly written Australian thriller about a man whose life slowly unravels around him following a series of poor choices. It's well acted and feels very gritty and realistic. In terms of lighting, the film is quite dark in parts; scenes could perhaps have been better lit. Overall though, a very satisfying and gripping thriller.

'Stranger Than Fiction' (2006) directed by Marc Forster

This film is about a man who starts hearing a voice that is narrating his life as he lives it. Based on this premise, I was expecting this film to be a bit cheesy and to not quite work. However, it really won me over and I enjoyed the film a lot. This is largely due to the strong cast, the relationship between Harold (Will Ferrell) and Ana (Maggie Gyllenhaal) is convincing and compelling while there are strong supporting roles provided by Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson. The story progresses well and I found the conclusion satisfying and not predictable. Worth watching.

'Good Night, and Good Luck' (2005) directed by George Clooney

Well made and brilliantly shot in black and white, I found this to be a really interesting film despite not knowing much detail about the period in history that it represented. It's very well acted, particularly noteworthy is the central performance of David Strathairn.

'Yes Man' (2008) directed by Peyton Reed

Really enjoyable light comedy. I quite like Jim Carrey and although the story is pretty unbelievable in parts, I couldn't help but smile most of the way through. Rhys Darby is an excellent supporting comic actor too.

2009-12-16T17:34:00.000-08:00

A full week back at work. Been quite busy though.

Monday night Tom and Marty dropped by. Hadn't seen Marty for quite a while and he was sporting a rather impressive beard. We did the only sensible thing given the circumstances and went to Nando's to eat delicious chicken. Stopped by the video store, the collection of which was sadly pretty lacklustre. However, managed to pick up 7 weeklies and headed home to watch a DVD.

Tuesday night was Laura's birthday. It involved lots of vegetarian food, playing the 'Glee' soundtrack loudly and drinking countless bottles of wine. And then watching 'Man vs. Wild'. It was obviously a good night.

And last night? Well, met up with Mike in Camberwell to watch a film. Then stopped by Sofia's for some dinner and said "Hi" to Omar who was working.

What else is new? I finished reading a book, 'The Visitor' by Lee Child. It was good, a real page turner. I'll read more of his stuff I reckon. Also, turns out I'll have lots of work in Jan and Feb which will be handy money-wise. I'd like to try and balance that work with a couple of writing projects that I'm developing though. One is a feature length zombie film, quite dark but may have comic elements. The other is a TV show idea, a comedy-drama focusing on a middle aged man and his family. My focus at the moment is really getting the structure right before I start writing dialogue and action and stuff.

'Look Both Ways' (2005) directed by Sarah Watt

Well acted, good characters, some cool animation. Felt pretty slow though, the pace of it was quite drawn out and given the film's focus on death, it felt pretty heavy going. This wasn't necessarily a bad thing, still a good film. Just not a lot of action, more of a character piece.

'A Serious Man' (2009) directed by Joel Coen and Ethan Coen

An incredibly complex film despite it's fairly simple plotline. It's full of mysterious loose threads, unexplained subplots, compelling peripheral characters and brief vignettes. It really feels like a Coen brothers film. I found it engaging and well put together but ultimately it was a little dissatisfying. I guess there were so many elements that I would have liked to have been carried through more but having said that, that's also part of the charm of the film. Not everything is spelled out or developed as you might expect, most of the really interesting stuff is only hinted at. There is no real conclusion to the film either, it kind of stops short, leaving things ambiguous. I'm still thinking about this film though, definitely thought provoking.

2009-12-13T23:54:00.000-08:00

'Waltz With Bashir' (2008) directed by Ari Folman

Incredible film. Totally engrossing story and the animation is brilliant. It's an interesting pairing of story and animation, but it works really well. This film is totally original, like nothing I've seen before. It's visually so impressive and the ending is intense.

'Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs' (2009) directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller

I was initially not so keen on seeing this film. Based on the title and the previews, I thought it might be too much for kids. However, I really enjoyed it. It's smartly written, the concept works quite well and it's actually very funny. The characters feel well fleshed out and original, the story develops well and there's some really smart relationships and dialogue in this film. The 3D animation is great too, just a really enjoyable film.

'The Invention of Lying' (2009) directed by Ricky Gervais and Matthew Robinson

Oh dear. This film sucks. The concept could probably have worked but it seems that the script wasn't anywhere near developed enough, leaving the film feeling really flat and monotone. It's full of little plot holes which would be easily overlooked if it was funny. But it isn't. I barely laughed at all. I just didn't care about the characters, the relationships felt unrealistic, the script was really lacking in jokes and even though it's full of awesome cameos, every single one feels wasted. The thing is, it's not particularly badly made, it's just clearly a bad script. Would have been the worst film of the year but then Rhys reminded me of 'Year One'. Even so, it's still a coin flip.

2009-12-11T03:27:00.000-08:00

Sydney re-cap continued.

So Saturday we went to 'Homebake'. It was a great day but long and exhausting. We got there at about 11am and left after 11pm. Here's a rundown of who I saw.

'Boy & Bear' - Amelia's friend's band. They were really good, one of the best bands I saw actually.
'The Middle East' - Excellent. Really getting into this band.
'The Bumblebeez' - Just nuts, dudes dancing around in rabbit/skull masks.
'Underground Lovers' - Vince's band, was cool to see them at Homebake, had a brief chat to Vince afterwards.
'Eskimo Joe' - Not bad, wasn't really into it though.
'Hilltop Hoods' - Awesome set, it seemed pretty stripped back though. Live hip-hop is a totally different experience compared with listening to an album. There just aren't those same production elements, rather it's all about the performance. Great stuff.
'Jet' - Good live band but I'm really not into Jet. It didn't help that there were all these asshole Jet fans behind us being asshole Jet fans.
'Powderfinger' - Great way to end the night, we were in a prime position less than a metre from the front. Would've been even better if they'd played some of their earlier slower stuff but still, I'm quite liking the stuff from the new album.

That was about it, not including brief fragments of sets that you catch as you take a break. If the schedule was different, I would have loved to have seen 'Tumbleweed', Paul Dempsey, Sia and Sarah Blasko but inevitably at festivals, there are time clashes. By the end of the day our legs were totally wrecked. Went back to the hotel, jumped into the sauna followed by a quick swim. (we did this every night - brilliant) Thoroughly exhausting day.

On the Sunday, Nathan and Amelia picked Rhys and I up (Eleonora met us later on) and we headed to Manly. It's a weird name for a place, Manly. Had a bit of a wander round, ate a pub lunch and ended up at this little beach with this man-made rock/sea water swimming pool that was part of the beach. Cool day. That night we ate lasagne at the apartment and watched 'The 40 Year Old Virgin' on TV. And of course, had a sauna and a swim.

Monday was a day of very little. We kinda just hung out, stayed close to the apartment and saw another movie (see below). That evening we headed out to a bar to meet up with Amelia, but the line was pretty huge (especially for a Monday) so instead we went to a nearby pub, had a beer and played some pool. Amelia crashed at the apartment later on too.

Tuesday we took the train and the bus to Bondi Beach. It was about 35 degrees and the beach was pretty packed with people. I pretty much just relaxed, read a book in the sun. After that we went to 'Hurricanes' and got these mad burgers and ate them at a picnic table as seagulls bickered over the last of the chips.

Wednesday we headed for home, back to Sydney airport, back on the plane and by the afternoon we were all back in Melbourne. The week was a bit of a blur. We managed to cram a lot in, I reckon. Top week.

Oh, and it would be remiss of me not to mention the discovery of 'Mad Mike and Mark', an unintentionally hilarious show on Animal Planet that we became a bit obsessed with. Mad Mike and Mark are a pair of South African (actually I think Mad Mike was Botswanan) guys who travel around Africa taking photos of wild animals. The photos are usually really appalling, totally out of focus and badly framed but the main appeal of the show is the duo's relationship. They're kind of like competitive brothers but they also have a bit of a bickering married couple vibe to them. Anyway, it had Rhys and I impersonating them all week. Check it out.

'Zombieland' (2009) directed by Ruben Fleischer

Pretty good fun overall but not at all scary. By the end I think I felt a bit underwhelmed, like it was more style over substance. Still, I enjoyed it, particularly the Bill Murray cameo which has to go down as one of the greatest cameos of all time. Somehow I didn't feel that the four main characters really gelled as a group though, perhaps there was too much of a contrast between Woody Harrelson's "tough-as-rusty-nails-dipped-in-poison" Tallahassee and Jesse Eisenberg's "Woody Allen-straight-outta-grade-school" Columbus. I'm a sucker for zombie films though, particularly comedy zombie films so this is well worth a looksee.

2009-12-11T02:19:00.000-08:00

Wow. I haven't posted for quite some time. But there's a good reason for it. I've been in Sydney! Here's a bit of a re-cap.

Rhys, Eleonora and I flew up and stayed in an apartment in the south of Sydney. It was a pretty good location, close to Central station and a shopping centre. The apartment was cool too, plus the place had a sauna, swimming pool and spa.

We flew Tiger and despite hearing some dodgy stories, I found them to be totally fine. Everything was on time, no issues at all. The train in Sydney to get from the airport to the city (a 10 minute train ride) was a massive rip off though.

The first night, we did some food shopping and picked up some booze and then went and watched a movie (see below).

The following day we headed to the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House, just wandering around, sightseeing. Sydney totally blows me away every time I go. After that we headed over to the 'Hamish and Andy BYO Pool Party' where the queue to get in was getting huge. Still, we joined the queue and after a little while we got in and secured an awesome spot pretty close to both stages. What followed was a fair amount of waiting around and chilling. At one point I ventured out on a food finding expedition as we were all starving and returned with bountiful provisions. We were set and eventually the show got underway. It was really cool to see Hamish and Andy doing a live show, having been a fan of theirs for ages. Plus we got to see Powderfinger and John Butler Trio perform and we had a great spot. Megan Gale was there too, just kind of hanging around. The crowd there was big and filled with heaps of screaming teens. It seemed that any time any one mentioned the word 'Hamish', the crowd went nuts.

We were pretty exhausted, but that night we met up with Nathan, Lisa and Amelia, my Sydney buddies that I met in Europe. It was rad seeing them again, it's been a while. We went to Newtown and had dinner at the impressively named 'Thai-tanic' (best pun of the week) and then went to a bar for a quick drink. Called it a night early cos the next day was pretty huge.

'Where The Wild Things Are' (2009) directed by Spike Jonze

I thought this was great. Visually amazing, I loved the way that the wild things looked and the locations too. You could really pick the Australian landscape. The story is quite simple, there's not a lot of action, but the themes are actually pretty dark with the film focusing on the relationships between the wild things and the central character Max. The actor who played Max is a little bit annoying but still suited the character quite well. I'd like to see this again, it's almost hypnotic to watch.

I'll continue this re-cap in my next post.

2009-11-28T20:20:00.000-08:00

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.

2009-11-28T20:01:00.000-08:00

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.

2009-11-23T03:02:00.000-08:00

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.

2009-11-19T03:51:00.000-08:00

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.

2009-11-19T03:13:00.000-08:00

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.

2009-11-16T23:22:00.000-08:00

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.

2009-11-13T15:33:00.000-08:00

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.

2009-11-06T17:11:00.000-08:00

'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.

2009-11-04T01:06:00.000-08:00

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.

2009-10-31T17:10:00.000-07:00

Last night, had dinner with Pete and Ryan at Yellow Bird. Then it rained and rained. So rather than going to Belgian Beer Garden as planned, we ended up drinking beers at the Coq. Left kinda early to make my tram. I'm tired of being tired, so it was probably a good move.
On Thursday, went to 'Screen Worlds' a free exhibition at ACMI. Went for uni. It's pretty cool. Check it out, a whole bunch of TV, film, video game, art installation stuff. I also played Quake for about an hour against Rhys, Lachlan and Eleonora. Lots of fun. Saw a few movies this week too.

'Saw VI' (2009) directed by Kevin Greutert

I'm a big fan of this franchise but now it's getting kinda old. The acting in this is pretty bad throughout and there are parts that don't make sense in the context of the previous films. There is this constant re-writing process going on in the 'Saw' films, as each new film draws on the previous ones, altering the storyline. I actually thought this was pretty cool in the previous ones, but in this one it's a bit stupid and there are parts which just seem like lazy writing. There are some pretty glaring errors in this film which don't logically make sense and are just there to provide some pretty horrific death scenes. I got the vibe that the writers were hoping the audience had paid just enough attention to the previous films to know what was going on, but not enough attention to notice mistakes. Tobin Bell, who was such a great bad guy in the early films, is relegated to bit part player and the film really suffers for it. Having said that, there is a great twist at the end of the film.

'Michael Jackson's This is It' (2009) directed by Kenny Ortega

I really enjoyed this film, although I wouldn't really call myself a fan of Michael Jackson or anything. It's a documentary of sorts, basically a whole bunch of rehearsal footage and some brief interviews. There are complete performances from Michael Jackson, performed to virtually no one, just some of the crew. The thing I took away from this film was just how profoundly talented this guy was. His singing and dancing is unbelievably good and his attention to detail in getting everything right is fascinating. The parts where you see Michael interacting with the band, pointing things out to improve, just trying to get it spot on. Interesting stuff and very entertaining.

2009-10-28T01:54:00.000-07:00

A short story, to be developed into a sketch.

Kentucky Fried Inglourious Basterds pt. 1
They often say that it is not the battle that counts, but the war. Well of course, that depends. Colonel Sanders had edged his troops further and further into enemy territory. It was getting dangerous, he knew that. His men hadn’t showered for weeks. But the stench of sweat and blood was so firmly entrenched in their nostrils that they just didn’t care anymore. They just simply did not care. Colonel Sanders poured the last remaining water from his flask onto his lips. It was just a few drops. “Argh” he swallowed, those drops of water trickling down his dry, parched throat. “MEN!” he croaked. His band of men came scurrying around the trenches, like ferrets in a live studio taping of “Ellen”. “Men”, Colonel Sanders said again, this time a little more quietly, "you are all men, right?". The men all murmured agreement. "I thought so" said Colonel Sanders. He pointed at a farmhouse, high on the hill. It had a thatched roof and an old mud brick wall lining it. “There it is” he said. There was a gasp. Colonel Sanders surveyed his men, his head slowly turning, taking them all in. It was Lieutenant MacDonald who had gasped. “Quiet, MacDonald! Now, this is where we will find number 11.” Jack Kristofferson, otherwise known as “The Prof” said “But, well, but will it make all that much difference?” Colonel Sanders shot him on sight. “I am not a real Colonel, you know” he said.

2009-10-28T01:39:00.000-07:00

A different, sprawling kind of blog today. My eyes are tired. What's new with me apart from watching TV? Well, not a whole lot. Except that I ate way too much Nando's the other day. What am I saying? Too much? There's no such thing as too much Nando's. Oh, actually Saturday night was rad. Went out for dinner for TQ and Mish's birthday. Followed that up by going to Murmur and drinking. Good fun.

So I was watching 'Glee' yesterday and there was this bit in it where Jane Lynch's character is writing in her journal and there's this voiceover monologue as she ponders her life. At one point she says:
"I'll lose my endorsements. And without those endorsements, I won't be able to buy my hovercraft."
I love stuff like that. Why? Because it isn't explained. At no point in the series as far as I can remember has she mentioned wanting a hovercraft. There's no reason for it. And that's why it's funny. Yet so often in writing, editors will often ask "Why? What's the character's motivation here? How does this serve the plot? You need to explain this."
Yes, in writing straight narratives, those are all valid points. But if the sole reason that the line is there is cos it's funny, not because it serves plot, character or whatever, then leave it in. Cos funny rules. There's a lot to be said for things that make you go "Huh?".
A similar example happened when I was watching the latest ep of 'Peep Show'. A bunch of characters are sitting around talking about one of them becoming a father. Mark says something about being the first one of them to have a child before Super Hans mentions that he has twins. Never in six seasons has there been any mention that Super Hans has twins. That's awesome.
I also wanted to mention that the latest episode of 'The Office' was truly great. It wasn't particularly funny (not that funny at all really) but it was great, just really dark, edgy stuff. One of the finest shows going around.

2009-10-23T19:03:00.000-07:00

So, it's been a little while. This was a strange week for me. I was filled with nervous energy making it hard for me to sleep. Hopefully that passes soon, though it doesn't seem like it will. Did much happen this week? Aside from work and uni, on Tuesday night I went to Brunswick for Tom's birthday. It was dinner with a bunch of Tom's friends at a pizza restaurant. Good food, good fun. Afterwards we went back to Tom's place for beer and ice cream, a curious combination that somehow worked.

You know, lately I've been noticing that there are actually quite a few TV shows that I'm regularly watching on Australian TV.

'Glee' is just great fun, it's very cleverly written in that it deliberately employs a lot of stereotypical characters (the jocks, the cheerleaders, the nerds) but often plays them against type with great comic effect. It's funny, it has musical numbers that break up the show nicely and it has Jane Lynch. Jane Lynch is awesome.

'Man vs Wild' is a show I just discovered recently and I find it totally engrossing. Bear Grylls takes you through various environments, illustrating what to do in survival situations. The thing is, Grylls is quite a believable guy and despite the fact that many of the situations are probably orchestrated or set up with a team of researchers and experts behind them, it's still good viewing. A similar show that I used to watch is 'Survivorman' which is pretty much the same idea except with no crew, the guy in 'Survivorman' is genuinely all by himself with a camera.

'John Safran's Race Relations' is probably the best show I've seen in ages. The first episode was so entertaining and it's largely because the show is very much centred around Safran. His personality is what really drives the show. I also recommend you check out Safran's old audition tape for 'Race Around the World', it's great.

I've continued to watch 'Hungry Beast'. It has improved, I reckon. It's still not compulsive viewing by any stretch, but it's gotten better. This may be largely due to the fact that the hosts are more consistent, there doesn't appear to be so much of a revolving door of individuals, although maybe it's just that the regular hosts are now more familiar to me. The sketches are where this show could be improved, I'd love it if they were a bit more edgy. There's still this weird blend of comedy and current affairs style segments. Also, some segments are a bit misguided, the point is a bit unclear sometimes.

'Ten' (2002) directed by Abbas Kiarostami

I thought this was pretty cool. The film is basically set in a car, as an Iranian woman drives around, picking up passengers. It's divided into ten chapters, hence the title. The thing about this film is that the camera stays static, focusing in on either the passenger in the car, or the driver. This allows performance to remain the most significant element in the piece, giving the film a sense of realism. The static camera is a little unsettling at first, as you're almost sitting there waiting for the camera to move or for an edit, but once I realised that that was how the film was structured, it allowed me to just settle into it and take in the characters. It's very effective.

2009-10-18T04:43:00.000-07:00

Last week was a bit stressful. A lot of work to do plus I had some car problems. But then the weekend came around and things relaxed. Pretty quiet weekend. On Saturday night I went down to some bars in St. Kilda with a few of the guys. Good night. Also, a brief respite from homework meant that I got to watch some movies.

'Pretty In Pink' (1986) directed by Howard Deutch

It's a little slow to get going, some of the relationships between characters don't quite work and the main character Andie, well, I didn't find her particularly likeable. The story of this film is built around this idea of quite strict segregation between groups at a high school, an idea that seems pretty dated now. Having said that, there are some great performances in this movie. Jon Cryer is great as a kind of lovestruck joker, adding a real depth to a character that could perhaps have become simply comic relief. I thought James Spader played a really interesting role too.

'W.' (2008) directed by Oliver Stone

A biopic, detailing the life of George W. Bush. It's a strange viewing experience because it came out so recently so I found it very difficult to divorce my perception of the real Bush with the Bush portrayed in the film. It also made me think of the Matt Stone and Trey Parker show 'That's My Bush!' although 'W.' is not a parody. Anyway, it was a little hard to know how to take this film, although it's quite good. For the most part, it's played pretty straight and Josh Brolin is convincing as George W. The film really focuses on George W's life, his relationship with his father and his entry into politics. Interestingly, it has a pretty light tone throughout. Politically, the film feels fairly impartial, although the focus here doesn't seem to be the politics so much, but the title character. I think this film would be really interesting to watch in about ten years time.

'Whip It' (2009) directed by Drew Barrymore

I didn't expect this to be great but I was actually pleasantly surprised. It's a solid film and I really enjoyed it. It has a great cast, some really nice moments plus Ellen Page is always very watchable. The dynamic between the characters is always interesting too. I think this is a really important element in movies that often gets overlooked. When you see two or more characters on screen, it has to work, there has to be something interesting going on between them. Not only that, but I reckon there should be a number of different dynamics going on between a variety of characters. This is what really works in 'Whip It' and makes it engaging throughout. Plus the subject of roller derby is interesting and good to watch.

'Bronson' (2008) directed by Nicolas Winding Refn

When I was pretty young, I remember watching some Refn films on SBS, the 'Pusher' films and also 'Bleeder'. There was something about them that really captivated me at the time. They were dark, violent but they had this amazing visual quality to them. These are the things that I noticed in 'Bronson' too. It's an incredibly visual film, shots are extremely well thought out and are kept still, allowing the viewer to really take them in. At one point, I paused the film and just by chance it had paused in the middle of a transition fade. I noticed the colours, the overlapping images; just stunning stuff. Also, the central perfomance of Tom Hardy as Bronson is intense, it is at once theatrical and menacing, brooding and violent. It definitely keeps you watching.

2009-10-14T06:31:00.000-07:00

Haven't been doing much except filmed another doco with Rhys last night. Went well. Today I worked. Just finished an essay. Exciting stuff. You know what's terrific though? Every week there's a new episode of 'The Office', 'Peep Show' and 'Curb Your Enthusiasm' to watch. So good. Here's something I wrote. Short and silly.

A Most Peculiar Day
One morning Alexander woke up and thought, today is one of those different sorts of day. He put on his dressing gown, wandered downstairs and proudly proclaimed at the breakfast table “You know, I've been reading an awful lot about cults!” His wife Carol was a little bemused. She poured a glass of orange juice, hoping that he would unwrap and then invest himself in his morning paper. Instead, she felt his eyes resting on her, waiting eagerly for her response. “Yes, Alexander” she eventually replied. Alexander spoke excitedly at once. “And that is why, well, I have signed us, all of us, up for this!” Alexander produced a glossy brochure. On the front was an island, white sand kissing the deep blue water, palm trees casting fine silhouettes. Words in bold font read “Fairweather Meadows.” Carol, sassy as she was, said “Well the weather may be fair, but those sure don’t look like meadows.” Alexander cuddled Carol and said “Oh dear, you’ll love it, you’ll simply love it.” He sipped his orange juice and Carol smiled. “That orange juice is poisoned, you know” she said. Alexander gulped. This really was turning out to be a different sort of day.

2009-10-12T05:54:00.000-07:00

Just shot a doco with Rhys at Duy's place. I reckon it went really well. Tomorrow we start shooting a different doco too. I like doco because it's raw, it's real, the action just happens and it's unpredictable. You can get some really nice moments.

Saturday night was nice. Went to Sam and Manisha's engagement party at Arcadia in South Yarra. It was cool, drank some beers, ate some mini-pizzas and some jelly beans. Most enjoyable.

Last night went down to the Corner Hotel to see 'The Middle East' play. Great gig. Drank some cider, watched some bands. I quite liked the first band who were called 'Dragging Pianos', I think. Nice one.

On Friday night I had burgers with Michelle and we watched a movie. Which movie? This one.

'Up' (2009) directed by Pete Docter and Bob Peterson

Wow. This film is amazing. My first thought at the conclusion of the film was: faultless. Possibly the best film I've seen this year. Definitely my favourite Pixar film. The script is just incredible, it's a film that would be enjoyed by people of any age. It runs the full range of emotions, it's exciting, full of adventure and pathos and it's also very funny. I watched it in 3D and it was really cool. The 3D didn't feel cheap or gimmicky, it just served the story. The great thing about this is the way the characters are written, they all have a great deal of depth, their personalities are motivated by clear plot elements. In short, they all exist in the film for a reason, they're not just there to be "comic sidekick" or "evil bad guy". Loved it.

I watched another movie this week, 'The Magician' (2005) directed by Scott Ryan. I won't do a review of it because I've watched it a heap of times and I tend not to review things I've already seen. I also have to write an essay on it in the next few days. However, I recommend you check it out. It's an Australian film, shot for a tiny sum of money. It's a feature but it's shot like a documentary and damn it's good. A real achievement. There's some excellent dialogue in it, the narrative is short but it works really well and it's very funny. Scott Ryan is excellent as the lead actor, actually he's the reason this film works so well.

2009-10-08T22:18:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd do an update to my article of last week about 'Hey Hey' and 'Hungry Beast'. I watched both of these shows again this week and here are some general thoughts.

'Hey Hey It's Saturday'

Obviously the whole blackface 'Red Faces' thing has been all over the press, even making it's way onto 'The View' in the U.S. I don't want to comment on the skit too much, though when I saw it, my main thought was "What the hell were they thinking?". I was surprised that the producers of the show hadn't picked up on the potential that the skit had to cause offense.
The show is pretty daggy. I mean, even the sets are the same as they were ten years ago. That's part of the appeal I suppose, but it's not really a step forward. A lot of the jokes are quite lame, but then, I was keeping in mind that it's a family show so it's aiming for all ages.
The pacing of the show is quite slow and the graphics and titles are pretty raw, particularly compared to shows such as 'Rove'. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but it certainly is bucking the contemporary trend.
Daryl is a very competent host but he's also quite annoying.
The presence of Ossie Ostrich was excellent, a real highlight. I love the way Ossie just makes these quiet, subversive but very witty comments off to the side.

I definitely think a show like 'Hey Hey' has a place in the contemporary Australian television landscape. The main reason that I think it works is because it has a really wide cast who all contribute in some way. The people that make up the show aren't just people either, they're characters and they are all different. This keeps the show moving along, it's consistently quite funny mainly because at any moment any one of Ossie, Dickie Knee, John Blackman, Red, Wilbur, Russell Gilbert or the many others can chime in with a joke. The audience never knows where or when the next joke will come from and the fact that it's live means that anything can happen. Add to that the regular segments such as 'Red Faces', 'Plucka Duck' and 'Molly's Melodrama' and the show has a real structure that can be played with.

It's an excellent model for a variety show and it's the reason that the show can consistently provide two hours of entertainment regularly. However, there are aspects that are a little tired, 'Hey Hey' can't go on forever. Perhaps we need a new show that kind of combines the formats of 'Hey Hey' and 'Rove'. 'Rove' could definitely be longer, it would give it more room to breathe. 'Rove' would also work better if there were more people involved that had defined roles, that could provide jokes so as to support and also subvert the host (like Ossie Ostrich or Dickie Knee, though not necessarily a puppet). I guess one of the big things that came out of watching 'Hey Hey' is that a show tends to work better if the host isn't the one and only thing that the show revolves around. For instance, 'Hey Hey' is hosted by Daryl Somers but it's definitely not 'The Daryl Somers Show'. 'Rove' would benefit from this kind of approach.

'Hungry Beast'

This show just doesn't really work. Why?

Way too many hosts. 19? What the hell. They all just kind of blur into each other and their personalities don't really shine through. Some of them are genuinely quite charismatic though, such as Dan Ilic.
It feels like the television version of a uni newspaper. I read this description on Twitter somewhere and it pinpointed exactly what I was feeling about it. It's just a little too earnest, dare I say a little too tryhard.
It's not consistent. It's very hard to get a grasp on the show because the hosts and segments vary constantly. A comedy sketch followed by a piece to camera followed by an interview with a grieving widow followed by some graphics about... who cares?
Yeah, the graphics. Not a very interesting or effective device to link the segments.
I keep drawing comparisons with 'Race Around The World'. The reason that 'Race' worked was because it had a structure. There would be the video made by a racer and then some judging. Was the judging necessary? Probably not, but it gave the show structure. It's the same reason that Tom Gleisner has a presence on 'Thank God You're Here'. He gives the show structure. Structure is really lacking in 'Hungry Beast'. You need a unifying presence.

I'm quite disappointed with it overall. Mainly because the concept is great but the execution is so average. I think it basically comes down to a lack of structure and cohesion. Without that, the show looks like a bunch of random clips strung together. I was initially reluctant to criticise 'Hungry Beast' because I reckon there should be more shows giving newcomers in the media industry a chance. But, as a show, I'm really struggling with it. It could just be a classic case of too many cooks in the kitchen.

2009-10-08T22:10:00.000-07:00

Last night was quite cool. Pete and I met up after uni and hung around his place for a little while, watching 'The Fast Show' and eating garlic bread. Then we headed to Malvern. In Malvern, we went to Jeffrey's Books, a store where Tony Martin was appearing for a reading/signing session for his new book 'A Nest Of Occasionals'. It was great. Tony read from the book, answered questions and signed stuff. I got two copies of his book signed, one for me and one for Michelle. Briefly chatted to him too, asked him whether he was watching the latest 'Curb' season (he's waiting for the DVD release) and Pete asked him about an upcoming project with Shaun Micallef (some sort of New Year's Eve variety show- sounds cool). So that was all very interesting, meeting someone a bit famous that I really admire. Afterwards, I was starving so Pete and I headed to a Chinese restaurant in the city, I can't remember the name but it was good.

'Strikebound' (1984) directed by Richard Lowenstein

An Australian film about a miners strike in the 1930s. It was interesting and worth watching, largely because I haven't seen an Australian film like it before. It had a kind of British sensibility, in the sense that it examined the working class and was quite gritty and political. Given that this was Lowenstein's first feature film, it's a hell of an achievement.

2009-10-06T23:34:00.000-07:00

Well, everything's going to be ok, isn't it? I think so. What's new with me? Well, on Monday night I was part of a film shoot. My role was to be boom operator, a role that turned out to be far more complex than I first envisaged. The film was all shot in one take, a really long take covering a vast distance along Chapel St. Very tricky. However, it was a fun shoot, hard work but good people to work with. Finished at 2am.
This whole "sleep" thing is becoming quite a bother. Quite a bother indeed. And it was only made worse by Mr. Daylight Savings getting involved. Now I'm not falling asleep until somewhere between 2am and 3am every night. But, as the French might say "Such is life" (although they would say it in French).

2009-10-04T16:29:00.000-07:00

Some more (fiction, obviously) writing. This one's quite old.

This reminds me of the time I met famous Shakespearean actor Kenneth Jones. I was walking down the street one day and Kenneth Jones came up to me and asked me if I would like some cake. Of course I said “Yes please Kenneth Jones sir” and took a piece of cake and started to eat it. What follows is the exchange that followed as recorded by the courts.
Me: Excuse me Mr. Jones but what sort of cake is this?
Kenneth Jones: Why, it’s cheese-cake.
Me: Oh really? It sure doesn’t taste like any cheese-cake I’ve ever eaten, Mr. Jones.
It was at this point that the bees started stinging my face.
Kenneth Jones: No, no, no. Not cheese-cake. Bees-cake!
You’ll notice that these sound quite similar.
Me (bees stinging face quite severely now): But Mr. Jones, these bees are stinging my face! Quite severely now!
Kenneth Jones: Why are you calling me Mr. Jones? That’s not my name. And I’m glad you’re enjoying my bees-cake.
And that is the time that I met Kenneth Jones.

2009-10-03T21:29:00.000-07:00

Some more writing.

The Experiment
Two men decided to conduct an experiment entitled “Do plants have feelings?”
They each bought a plant and for a period of one week they each conducted the following experiment. The first man (Emmanuel) was to be particularly nasty to his plant. The second man (Hooch) was to be particularly nice (to his plant). The aim was to determine whether plants do in fact have feelings. Here is what happened.

Emmanuel’s diary:
Day 1
“You are not a very nice plant at all. All of the other plants think that you are a ferret with leaves.”
Day 2
“You are inferior, plant.”
Day 3
“Get out of here. Why do you just sit there, foolish plant.”
Day 4
Today Emmanuel pointed a pistol at the plant for a period of two hours. He watered the plant but added sugar-free cordial to the water.
Day 5
Today Emmanuel held up his rude finger to the plant and randomly jeered it.
Day 6
“Did you take my wallet, plant? I can no longer trust you. You are untrustworthy and clearly a member of the criminal class.”
Day 7
Today Emmanuel pretended to punch the plant on more than one occasion. He would frequently sneak up on it and shout “Boo”.

Results: Plant shows signs of fatigue.

Hooch’s diary:
Day 1
“You are a better than average, plant. Well done.”
Day 2
Today Hooch gives the plant a Playstation 3 game. Unfortunately, the plant does not own a Playstation 3, but it is a nice gesture.
Day 3
“Nice stamen.”
Day 4
“Plant, you are looking very nice day. Does anyone ever tell you that? I probably do not tell you enough.”
Day 5
Today Hooch dresses up real nice, buys a box of chocolates and a bunch of flowers. Upon presenting these gifts, Hooch realises with much horror that the bunch of flowers are possibly relatives of the plant, but it is too late. The damage has been done.
Day 6
Today Hooch pats the plant.
Day 7
Today Hooch read the plant “The Magic Faraway Tree”. Twice.

Results: Plant shows signs of fatigue.

Conclusions: Inconclusive data.

2009-10-03T20:30:00.000-07:00

Wednesday night was a very interesting TV night. On Channel 9, you had the return of a classic Australian show, 'Hey Hey It's Saturday', a show that hasn't been seen on our screens for ten years. It was presented in exactly the same format as when we last saw it, featuring the same veteran performers. On the other hand, on the ABC was the premiere episode of a brand new show from Zapruder's Other Films called 'Hungry Beast'.

These two shows present an interesting contrast within the Australian TV landscape at the moment. Australian television seems to be in an interesting period currently as commercial networks look towards finding the next 'Masterchef', basically a show that everyone in society might be drawn to, that all members of the family will watch. 'Masterchef' worked essentially because it was a show that was geared toward a whole range of demographics. A big reason that people watch television is so that they have something to talk about with other people at school or work. It works as a unifier. It's similar to what 'Talkin' About Your Generation' has successfully achieved recently and it's also one reason why 'Hey Hey It's Saturday' was so successful in the past. It's interesting then that 'Hey Hey' has returned, placed on Wednesday night against 'Celebrity Masterchef' and this new show 'Hungry Beast'.

From all reports, 'Hey Hey' rated really well although whether this is due largely to the curiosity factor will remain to be seen. I watched most of it and enjoyed it, it seemed to retain the same spirit that it used to have, the performers all have that great chemistry and it was pretty funny overall. Some elements felt a bit tired and definitely the John Farnham cross was a laughable misstep because the delay was so extreme. Overall though, the show was good family viewing. It seemed to fill a void that has been lacking in Australian television of late, that of live variety. It's a domain that hasn't ever been filled since 'Hey Hey' left our screens, the closest approximations that haven't been axed within a season have probably been 'Rove' and sadly 'The Footy Show'. There have been some attempts such as the ill-fated 'Micallef Tonight', a very funny show that didn't get much of a run, but there has been nothing as sustained as 'Hey Hey' was. Can 'Hey Hey' come back permanently? I don't see why not, it still works as a show. But ultimately, it can only be a temporary fill-in. Australian television still needs to develop something new, fresh and exciting. Live television, particularly the variety format, is important because it exposes new talent on our screens.

While 'Hey Hey' represents an old favourite, re-booted for a new generation; 'Hungry Beast' on ABC represents an entirely new concept, an untried format. The premise of the show is that nineteen young media newcomers (sort of) are given pretty much free reign to create a half-hour weekly show. The emphasis seems to be on news and current affairs but the tone is light and features comedy sketches and pranks as well. Did it work? It is very hard to judge a show based on the first episode but my reaction was basically disappointment. I was expecting this show to be like a new 'Race Around The World', a show that was fresh and exciting and really allowed the individuals in it to create whatever they wanted. It was a brilliant show that should be brought back, it introduced us to such talents as John Safran and Tony Wilson. I think 'Hungry Beast' is the sort of show that could be quite up and down from week to week, such is the nature of the experiment. I found the first episode quite patchy overall and there seemed to be a struggle to link the various segments together. It was also heavily stylised which seemed to undermine the premise of the show- to present raw talent producing raw material. Perhaps, I've misinterpreted the idea behind the whole thing but it seemed way too flashy at times for what they were trying to convey. The comedy sketches were disappointing, one in particular I'm pretty sure was based on a 'Hamish and Andy' thing from a few years ago. Having said all that, the show is an interesting experiment and will no doubt produce some great moments in the coming weeks. It certainly presented a contrast with 'Hey Hey' on Channel 9. In the same Wednesday evening, the ABC was exhibiting what might be considered the future of Australian television while on Channel 9, it was the past re-booted.

2009-10-02T20:06:00.000-07:00

Last night was nice, went to Comme Bar, had some beers, caught up with some people. Here's some movie reviews.

'Strange Fits of Passion' (1999) directed by Elise McCredie

Not bad. A light comedy-drama focusing on the romantic life of a twenty-something Australian woman. It had some nice moments but overall felt a bit patchy, as though some scenes didn't quite work together. The ending in particular is quite abrupt, introducing some totally new themes and this isn't explored enough.

'Wisconsin Death Trip' (1999) directed by James Marsh

A documentary film about the town of Black River Falls, a town that seems to have a history filled with murder, insanity and suicide. The film uses reenactments as it's main device but also features old photographs and modern day footage. It's shot really well, the film looks great and it's not like any documentary I'd seen before. Having said that, it pretty much stayed at the same pace all the way through, giving it something of a monotonous feel. Interesting in parts, though.

'The Soloist' (2009) directed by Joe Wright

A quiet drama about the relationship between a journalist and a street musician. It's okay, although not much happens in the story. This film is chiefly about the performances of Robert Downey Jr. and Jamie Foxx and as such, it feels like the kind of film that has been made to generate Oscar buzz. They're both quite good, particularly Foxx, but by the end of the film I felt a bit dissatisfied. Overall, it seemed to be lacking depth. I never felt like I was ever really that intrigued by the two characters and the dynamic between them was at times difficult to gauge. Also, the use of flashbacks gave the film an unneccesarily cheesy melodramatic feel.

2009-09-30T01:58:00.000-07:00

'Death Proof' (2007) directed by Quentin Tarantino

The great thing about Tarantino is that he knows what his audience wants and he delivers it. I really enjoyed this film, the concept is great, it builds the tension nicely, there are some great car chase sequences but most of all there is lots of interesting dialogue. The main thing I liked in this were all the little references to other Tarantino films. It gives the movie a sense of place, as though it exists within the same framework of Tarantino's world. It's little touches like this that really interested me. Plus it's the way the director plays with genre. The big thing I noticed was that he knows all of the rules of the genre which means that he also knows when to break them, making for a very different kind of film.

2009-09-29T04:21:00.000-07:00

A short story.

The Global Financial Crisis
Graham was in a hurry. He pulled his coat tight around his shoulders, protecting himself from the winter chill. Quickly, he marched down the main street but before he knew it, he had been stopped. “Excuse me, sir!” said a short, squat man in a tight fitting jester outfit. Graham was not impressed. He continued walking, muttering, “I’m in a rush, I’m not interested.” Suddenly the jester was in front of him again. “Sir! Do you love bargains?” asked the jester. His eyes were open wide, waiting for a response. Graham halted a moment, he thought about the question. “Well, yes. I suppose I do love bargains. But I’m in a hurry.” The jester jumped up and down excitedly. “I knew it!” he called, “You look like a man who loves bargains. I sure can pick ‘em!” Graham tried to continue walking, but the jester was tugging on his sleeve. “Sir, sir!” said the jester. “Yes?” Graham asked. “Quick, this way, it’s Mad Monday at the Llama Barn. Lots of bargains sir, everything half price!” said the jester, barely pausing to take a breath. Now wait a minute, Graham thought to himself, this sounded promising. He loved the Llama Barn. “Oh, I didn’t realise you were from the Llama Barn” he murmured, his eyes lighting up, “I love the Llama Barn. Half price you say?” The jester seemed a little downbeat now. “Yep, half price. Everything. It’s Mad Monday.” Graham started walking back in the direction he had come from. “Well, maybe I’ll take a look” he said. The Llama Barn sold everything, from novelty thongs to imitation fruit. Graham entered the shop and picked up a mug. It had the words “Ken’s Mug” embroidered on the side. Ken would love this, thought Graham. “I’ll take this, please”, Graham said, presenting the mug. The jester grimaced and pointed at a small sign on the shop front. It read "Mad Monday. Everything half price." Graham squinted. In tiny writing below this sign was a smaller sign. It read "except mugs." Well, thought Graham, this doesn’t seem very mad at all. The jester said, “We have to have a modicum of sanity, you know.” Graham looked surprised. “How did you know what I was thinking?” he asked. Then, the jester vanished in a puff of confetti. A high pitched voice whistled past Graham’s right ear. “I can read minds” it said. Immediately, Graham tapped his breast pocket. His wallet was gone. Graham was getting sick of this. It was the third time this week he had been duped by a street jester while trying to buy Ken a mug.

2009-09-29T03:06:00.000-07:00

A day at uni. A day at work. I finished reading 'The Great Gatsby' by F. Scott Fitzgerald. I really enjoyed it. I think I should read it again, but maybe not straight away. I don't read anywhere near as much as I used to. Perhaps I should aim to read a book per week. For now though, some more Comedy Influences.

Graham Linehan
I'm a huge fan of his writing and there's just so much of it. Recently there has been 'The IT Crowd' and 'Black Books' but then there are all of his collaborations with Chris Morris, very edgy stuff. I really liked that first season of 'Big Train' but then you could really notice the difference when he stopped writing for it in season two. 'The Fast Show' is something I've been meaning to see more of as well. Most of all though, I love 'Father Ted'. I can remember watching it when I was in primary school I think, it was on late at night on TV. In particular, I remember they always showed the Christmas episode every Christmas, appropriately enough. The show was just a wonderful take on the sitcom genre, with such an original concept and brilliant characters. It really stands up to repeated viewings today and is one of my favourite shows ever.

Chris Lilley
I reckon 'We Can Be Heroes' and 'Summer Heights High' are easily two of the best Australian comedy series of all time. Chris Lilley's characters are spot on, brilliantly written and acted. They're just observational gems. I think the great thing about Lilley's comedy is that there is always an underlying truth to it, he takes recognisable Australian characters and finds the inherent humour in them. These shows don't rely on catchphrases for the sake of catchphrases either, such as in a show like 'Little Britain'. Instead, if a character such as Jonah happens to have a catchphrase it is because it is integral to the way they speak, in fact, it is integral to their character as a whole.

The Office (US)
I'll preface this one by saying that the original British 'The Office' is a favourite of mine but currently I am really into the US version. Initially I wasn't a fan of the 'The Office' (US), mainly because the first season borrows heavily from the British one and it feels like a pretty pale imitation in comparison. However, as each season goes on, the series really finds it's feet and becomes a totally separate entity. That's a great achievement, to start off with a hugely successful model and then to diverge from it so significantly that something totally new and different is created. The cast is brilliant and the characters and stories have really developed around the talents of the cast members. It's a show that consistently makes me laugh, it's smartly written and you actually feel quite connected to the characters.

That's it for now.

2009-09-26T19:54:00.001-07:00

I thought I'd sometimes put up some short pieces of fiction writing. They're not really structured but are just short exercises, things that I might look at developing or might scrap. Ideas, really, mostly stream of consciousness. Anyway, here's one.

Astronaut School
At astronaut training school, Bertie Dirtweed was never top of the class, but he tried. His instructor was always saying to him “Bertie, are you going to be an astro-thousand or an astro-naught?” Bertie would always reply “An astronaut”, believing this to be the correct answer and although technically it was, it wasn’t what his instructor wanted to hear. "You'd better start putting in astro-thousand percent, Bertie" his instructor said. Bertie spent many a summer in the brig as a result, which in astronaut school is an anti-gravity bin. It’s the same as a regular bin except spinning constantly and full of compost. Of course this meant that Bertie became acclimatised to weightlessness much faster than his fellow pupils. Still, it didn’t help him in "the long run". ("the long run" was the annual astronaut training school marathon, an event that Bertie was appalling at, like most things.)

2009-09-26T19:22:00.000-07:00

This week I've had a vivid dream every night which is unusual. Today is last day of mid-semester break.

'Traitor' (2008) directed by Jeffrey Nachmanoff

A solid thriller featuring an outstanding performance from Don Cheadle. The film builds tension really well and keeps you guessing, blurring the lines between just who is a terrorist in this film and who is not. Cheadle is great in this film as Samir, a complex character with strong convictions. Without giving away too much, the narrative develops the character of Samir really well, particularly in the way that he is perceived by the other characters in the film. Also, the ending features a really clever twist, even if it is a little improbable.

'Alpha Dog' (2006) directed by Nick Cassavetes

Terrific film. It's written really well, setting up crucial plot points and key character relationships early before executing a subsequent payoff much later on. The story is about drug dealers and brings together quite a large ensemble cast that works really well, chiefly because the characters and performances are so strong. Justin Timberlake and Anton Yelchin are particularly good. For the majority of the film there is a mood that is dynamic and fun, however beneath that there is always a sense of danger, of tension, perhaps even of impending doom. Much of this is created through on screen labels of seemingly irrelevant characters, identifying them as 'witnesses'. Witnesses to what? Well, as the film moves towards it's climactic point it always keeps you guessing. Well worth checking out.

2009-09-25T18:45:00.000-07:00

'Tom White' (2004) directed by Alkinos Tsilmidos

A quality Australian film driven by a top lead performance from Colin Friels. It's about an average middle-aged family man who has a mental breakdown which leads him to basically opt out of his life and become homeless. It's an interesting story with lots of original characters and the cinematography looks great.

'All the Real Girls' (2003) directed by David Gordon Green

I really liked this film. It looks amazing, shot in the same style as Green's first feature film 'George Washington'. There is a sense of stillness to this film, as though each scene could be a painting. The action unfolds in a subtle and controlled way, introducing the characters and building the relationships between them brilliantly. The romance at the centre of the film is played out so well, it really drew me into their world. It's not a simplistic film at all, there is a lot going on here, the film is at times poignant and heart wrenching.

2009-09-24T23:36:00.000-07:00

Here's some more Podcast Reviews.

Adam and Joe
I've just started listening to this recently but I really like it so far. It's basically a compilation of the best bits of their BBC6 radio show. Adam and Joe are both quite funny and they bounce off each other really well so the show moves along at a good pace. The segments are top quality as well, especially 'Song Wars' in which Adam and Joe each have to create a song based on a common theme.

Keith and the Girl
I haven't listened to this show for a long time but I thought I'd mention it because I used to be quite into it. In fact, I think I have listened to over 500 episodes of it. The show features a New York couple, Keith and Chemda, who tell stories from their lives and just generally chat. It's very funny, particularly the early episodes when they tell stories about their jobs as children's party clowns. The main reason that I stopped listening to it was the fact that I was finding their output a bit too prolific to keep up with - an hour long show five times a week is a lot, but I think I might return to it at some point.

Sound Opinions
This is an excellent show about music. Usually, each episode will centre around a particular theme which might be a special guest musician, a classic album or a genre of music. The hosts are Jim DeRogatis and Greg Kot who are both Chicago based music critics. They are incredibly knowledgeable and entertaining and this show has introduced me to a lot of great music.

The Life with Roy & HG
I've always been a big fan of Roy & HG and have followed their various radio shows for a while. This one, like their old Triple J show, is focused on sport and it's very funny. I love the way these guys bounce off each other and riff on a topic, subtly building towards a conclusion that is both humorous and unexpected. Great stuff.

That's it for now.

2009-09-24T20:57:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was a pleasant day. I headed over to Brunswick to hang with Tom. We had a coffee and went out for lunch and chilled at his place for a bit. Twas cool. Last night played some soccer, I think we lost. The day before that was a full day at work but it was quite good because I ended up writing a fair bit. Wrote about eight short pieces of which three or four I think I'll be able to extend into full sketches. It was a bit of a relief because up until then I've had some writer's block, just had to push through it I suppose. I might put some short pieces on this blog perhaps, I'm not sure.

'The Fog of War' (2003) directed by Errol Morris

A well constructed, thought provoking documentary centred around the former U.S. Secretary of Defense, Robert S. McNamara. The film uses interviews with McNamara as the main structural device and also uses a lot of compelling archival footage. The film is split into eleven parts, based around eleven lessons learnt from the life of McNamara. The film is great viewing chiefly because McNamara is such a charismatic speaker, he really offers a unique insight into recent American history, politics and war.

2009-09-23T00:24:00.000-07:00

I spend a lot of time listening to my ipod. Some weeks I reckon I'd listen to about thirty hours worth of stuff (mainly because I have my ipod on all day at my job). Anyway, a lot of that time is spent listening to podcasts, currently I listen to about 15 different ones. Thing is, it's always difficult to find out what podcasts are good. Usually you have to listen to a few episodes, see what it's like, work out whether you want to commit to downloading it every week. Then more often than not, you decide no, it's not really worth it. So on that note, I thought it might be useful to do some Podcast Reviews of stuff that I have spent time listening to.

Get This
This was a radio show hosted by Tony Martin, Ed Kavalee and Richard Marsland. It ran for two years up until 2007 but you can still find (nearly) all the episodes online. With a different co-host each episode, it's a mix of talk, in-jokes, hilarious sketches and awesome talkback. It's just addictive once you start listening to it and I still quote stuff from it, two years on.

Hamish and Andy
Sure, they're ridiculously popular, but for good reason I reckon. I have consistently listened to this from the beginning and it's stayed consistently funny. There's just a great comedic chemistry between the duo and they're always striving for new ideas and pushing the boundaries to keep the show fresh.

The Russell Brand Show
Man, at first I wasn't too sure about this show but I really got into it as it went on. It definitely reached a high point right before it got axed. I'd suggest it was so good because Russell Brand was always pushing the envelope with his comedy. I love his theatrics and his use of language, it's an improvisational style of comedy that's just hilarious. Matt Morgan and Mr. Gee are very funny also. Find it here.

The Ricky Gervais Show
Just a great radio show. Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant combine really well but it is Karl Pilkington who makes this show truly brilliant. It's strange to think that in a radio show that features two of the finest comedy writers ever, it is Karl that steals the show. Hilarious.

Flight of the Conchords
Before the tv show was this 6 part BBC radio serial. When I travelled around Europe, I listened to this obsessively on repeat. It's very funny, it has great cameos and the songs really stand up to repeated listens.

The Sound of Young America
This radio show, based in Los Angeles, has introduced me to so much new stuff, whether it be music, tv shows, comedians, artists - whatever really. It's basically a show about pop culture, the host Jesse Thorn interviews all manner of guests and even when it's about something that I might not be into, I still find it really interesting.

This American Life
A one hour radio documentary. Each week is a different theme and it's always something really interesting and insightful. The key thing about this show is that although it's all factual, it always tells a fascinating story that I've never heard before.

The Treatment
Each episode, Elvis Mitchell interviews someone important in film. He's one of the best interviewers I've ever heard because his knowledge of film is so huge that he usually offers insight on a film that even the interviewee hadn't thought of. He does it in a way that suggests a great passion for film.

There are lots more but I'll leave it there for now, to be continued.

2009-09-22T19:40:00.001-07:00

'(500) Days of Summer' (2009) directed by Marc Webb

While watching this film I became increasingly frustrated. I found it quite hard to get into, it was a bit all over the place. It employs a range of storytelling techniques, most of which don't really work. The worst of these is probably the use of voiceover narration which seems totally out of place. There's also a pretty awkward dreamy dance sequence. I don't know, I really wanted to like this film but the tone of it was a bit confused. The characters weren't quite likeable enough for it to be an interesting romance but it wasn't really funny either, despite the light tone. The film's structure is non-linear, it plays with time, constantly shifting back and forth so as to create these kind of snapshot memories of a relationship. It's an interesting technique, but I had to wonder whether it really served the narrative. Instead, I found it kind of fragmented the story, ultimately undermining it. It didn't allow me to get involved with the relationship, to see it develop. The structure seemed to be that in one scene it's quite romantic and happy but in the next you see Joseph Gordon-Levitt's character miserable. This sequence then repeats for a good portion of the film. I found this a little tedious. Having said that, there were some nice moments in the film, I particularly liked the split screen "Expectation vs Reality" scene. I also thought that there was some nice chemistry at times between Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel. Basically, I left the cinema feeling a bit ambivalent about the whole thing, I'm still not totally sure what I think of it but I still keep coming up with criticisms. I guess that means I'm still thinking about it days later though.

2009-09-20T22:04:00.000-07:00

My good friend Pete recently wrote this about 'The Micallef Program':

"They never push for laughs, instead the sketches have a concept that is followed through."

I hope he doesn't mind me repeating it here, but I found it a really insightful comment and something that I have thought about a lot since. It's true of many of the best and most edgy comedy programs, whether sketch or otherwise. I love that idea that a laugh is not necessarily the driving force, but instead it is more about the communication of an inherently funny idea. This notion really reinforces the complexity and also intangibility of humour.

To add to that, Tony Martin recently wrote this article in 'The Age'. Essentially it is about important figures in British comedy in the past twenty years. This article really made me think about my own influences when I write. Comedy and comedy writing is an area I'm fascinated with. It's definitely an area I would love to work in professionally.

Anyway, I thought it might be interesting to include a segment in this blog entitled 'Comedy Influences'. Here is Installment No. 1. (in no particular order)

Shaun Micallef
Without doubt, a huge influence. I have all of his DVDs and for me, the three seasons of 'The Micallef Program' are probably a peak in Australian comedy. I really love Micallef's command of the English language, when Micallef talks his language manages to go off in all manner of tangents, doubling back on itself and going on a comedic scenic route before getting to his eventual point. Micallef's sketches have a very strong sensibility to them which I suppose you'd have to call distinctly Micallef-esque. Often they play with conventional television formats such as the quiz show or the documentary tropes, subverting them hilariously.

Armando Iannucci
Much of the British comedy that I love has Armando Iannucci's writing behind it. Although I have not seen all of his work yet, his sketch show 'The Armando Iannucci Shows' has some of the finest sketches I've ever seen. He really focuses in on the awkwardness and silliness of many of life's conventions. I won't mention all of the shows he's written for, but 'I'm Alan Partridge' in particular is one of the best sitcoms I've seen. Really, Iannucci's comedy writing track record is ridiculously strong and although much of his stuff hasn't been shown in Australia, a lot of it can be found on Youtube.

Larry David
By following up 'Seinfeld' with 'Curb Your Enthusiasm', Larry David created something totally new, but which still retained that Larry David feel that made 'Seinfeld' so funny. There are definite similiarities between the two shows, particularly in the tone and structure of the stories, yet 'Curb' still feels totally original. To be honest, I wasn't sure 'Curb' could sustain as many seasons as it has but after just watching the sixth season, I'm still loving it. The reason is the quality of writing, every episode has a solid arc and because the dialogue is all improvised it always feels very fresh and very, very funny.

So I think I'll leave it at 3 for the first installment.

2009-09-20T21:58:00.000-07:00

Well, Michelle's birthday drinks on Friday night was a big one. So much so that Saturday I was pretty exhausted and fell asleep watching the second half of the football. I'm on mid-semester break now and it feels weird.

'The Jerk' (1979) directed by Carl Reiner

This is a pretty silly comedy but it slowly grew on me as it went on. It has some genuinely funny gags and once I got into it, I started to enjoy it. Steve Martin does his Steve Martin shtick and it plays out like a cross between a Pee-Wee Herman movie and a Will Ferrell movie. You can definitely see how this film has influenced contemporary comedy films.

2009-09-16T01:45:00.000-07:00

So they're bringing 'Hey Hey' back. I used to love 'Hey Hey'. There's not enough live TV on these days and that's probably the reason that I usually find myself watching 'Rove' each week. It's not that I really like watching it, it's just that I'm starved of live TV, particularly live comedy. The problem is, I watch it and I always think that it doesn't quite work, they haven't quite nailed the format. Here's my top 5 ways to improve 'Rove'.

1. Get rid of the people hanging around on the couch.
This always makes me feel awkward, they just sit there doing nothing apart from occasionally offering a witty remark. It's like being at a party and knowing that off in the corner, out of your field of vision is some dude not talking to anyone, pretending to text someone. It's awkward. In the case of 'Rove', it's also a waste of talent. They could surely get these guys doing something, perhaps they could even be backstage in the green room with the occasional cross. They need a defined role.

2. Get rid of Rove's monologue at the start of the show.
There are already a lot of news based joke segments in the show with 'Petespace' and the 'News Desk' stuff. This means there's a bit of an overlap in content and style, covering a lot of familiar ground. Of the three, the monologue is perhaps the weakest and we already see a lot of Rove in the show. I would make the opening either more creative or more classic, perhaps a Letterman style voice-over guy could introduce Rove.

3. Bring back 'Roving With Rove'.
Or something similar. Rove is at his best when he is interacting with the average joe. His best stuff on the show comes when he is naturally just talking to the audience and bouncing off them. Similarly, 'Roving With Rove' allowed Rove to be naturally funny and really instilled in the audience the qualities that make him so likeable. It also takes him out of the studio environment, giving the show a a real sense of freshness.

4. More sketches and written bits.
'News Desk' is by far the best thing on the show. Similarly, 'Kevin Rudd P.M.' is usually worth a few laughs. They need to do more stuff in the show that allows the writers to write jokes. This stuff feels tighter than the casual banter between Rove, Pete and co. For instance, the scripted sketch with Rove and wrestler Jeff Jarrett a few weeks ago worked great.

5. Bring back Ryan Shelton.
For me, Ryan Shelton's segments on 'Rove' were some recent Australian comedy highlights. Sure, they didn't always work and they were obviously heavily influenced by Armando Iannucci's stuff, but the main thing was that these sketches provided a new and different comedy voice on 'Rove'. 'Rove' needs more of this kind of thing, it needs to provide a voice for young, fresh comedians to come through. It's the kind of format that really lends itself well to sketches, even brief ones that lead into other segments.

So that's my top 5 ways to improve 'Rove' for now. 'Rove' isn't bad, it's just with the lack of live comedy on Australian TV at the moment, I reckon what we have should be as good as possible.

2009-09-15T21:20:00.000-07:00

Bit of a busy week again. Dinner last night was good fun, eating Chinese food with some of the usual suspects. Most enjoyable. No time for homework though and mid-semester break next week is very welcome. Sometimes I feel like there's too much noise going on, like bees buzzing around my head. Makes it hard to focus.

'Glue' (2006) directed by Alexis Dos Santos

An engaging film about teens living in a small Argentinan town. It's stylistically very interesting, the use of camera and light is what makes this film great to watch. The mostly improvised performances from young actors are a highlight too. Worth watching.

2009-09-12T23:39:00.000-07:00

'Funny People' (2009) directed by Judd Apatow

Pretty good movie. It's not really a comedy so much as a drama with some quirky characters and that Apatow sensibility. It does have funny moments but a lot of those come from when the stand up comic characters are telling jokes as part of their routines. Overall, I really enjoyed the film although the last thirty minutes or so (particularly the scenes with Eric Bana) felt overlong and a bit messy. Up until then though, the movie really held my intention and was thoroughly entertaining. The relationship between the two main characters played by Adam Sandler and Seth Rogen was engaging and the film played around with some really interesting themes.

2009-09-11T19:57:00.000-07:00

The weather has changed and it's making me feel uneasy. Warm and windy, something is surely afoot. This week was kinda busy. I played soccer twice and got hit in the face by some dude's elbow, prompting a swollen and bruised lip. (You should have seen his elbow though). Had to do my documentary pitch on Friday, I was pretty nervous but it seemed to go over ok. Also, some boring classes meant that I got back into drawing, something I haven't done in a while. I drew a whole bunch of stuff including a jet-ski, a giraffe and a range of animal hybrids.

'Inland Empire' (2006) directed by David Lynch

This film is difficult to critique because it's difficult to categorise. It wasn't badly made, I think the director achieved what he set out to do. It's just that it wasn't a particularly enjoyable or rewarding experience watching it. I suppose it is what it is; part art film, part fragmented narrative feature. It's just that I didn't feel that I gained much from watching it, I found it overlong, interesting at times but quite boring overall. The story wasn't particularly engaging or accessible but then, I'm not sure it was meant to be. My reaction to it was that it was an arduous and ultimately dissatisfying experience. It was like when someone tells you about their dream from the night before and they're really excited about it but to you it's still a step removed and dull. It was like that, but for three hours.

2009-09-09T01:14:00.000-07:00

A long day at work although I got my essay done. Woo. Haven't written an essay in a while but seemed to get back in the groove ok. Got some new albums to spin. Paul Dempsey - 'Everything Is True', The xx - 'xx' and Radiohead - 'Amnesiac (Collector's Edition)'. 'Amnesiac' is one of my favourite albums of all time. The collector's edition is pretty cool, lots of b-sides and live tracks.

'Ratatouille' (2007) directed by Brad Bird and Jan Pinkava

The animation in this is really impressive, it's just very enjoyable to watch. I did find the story a little hit and miss though because in parts it seemed to have a lot of depth but other parts not so much. For instance, some characters are just stereotypes, they seem to be "bad guys" for the sake of being "bad guys", which is kinda unusual for a Pixar film. Also, I did find it a little hard to get into a story about rats and food. For some reason also, when the rats are walking on two legs, they're much more watchable than when scurrying about on four.

2009-09-07T01:12:00.001-07:00

This morning I got up at 5am. Strangely, 5am felt like a good time to wake up. It made the day feel more open and ultimately more satisfying. Perhaps I should try it again sometime. Oh, the reason I was up so early was because I was a runner on a film shoot today for a music video. It was a long day but also a great experience. I mainly did a bit of traffic control, carrying of stuff and driving to fetch things like lunch and a new hard drive. This weekend was pretty good. Saturday night I went out with the boys. It was one of the few occasions post-Europe that the five of us Euro-trip guys have been out together. It was a cool night. I've been really enjoying watching season 6 of 'Curb Your Enthusiasm' on DVD as well. Watched a movie too.

'Ponyo' (2008) directed by Hayao Miyazaki

I really like Miyazaki's films. I love the simplicity and quirkiness in the style of animation. This one was great, very cute and entertaining. It was probably aimed at a much younger audience than some of Miyazaki's other films but that didn't really matter, it still had an intriguing enough story and the hand drawn animation really is quite amazing.

2009-09-04T21:51:00.000-07:00

This week felt like it went for a year. Hey, remember that time, last year? That was Monday. Oh. On Monday, class finished real early. So then I had all this time to kill. I went to the city, ate some Japanese food by myself. It's strange eating in a restaurant by yourself. I read my book. Then I had a coffee. Then I went to South Melbourne where I wandered around and then met Anthony and consumed some pints of beer. Home late (for a Monday). It was good to catch Ant though, it had been a while. Then Tuesday and Wednesday happened and then on Thursday night I went to see Ben Folds at the Palais. It was great. Missy Higgins came out and played some drums and sang a bit too. Folds played a couple of new songs which were particularly ace and 'Bitches Ain't Shit' went off. Friday I was meant to pitch a doco idea but time ran out so I didn't.

'The Thin Blue Line' (1988) directed by Errol Morris

Pretty interesting documentary about a murder case. The story unfolds very much like a courtroom drama, told through interviews and re-enactments. It's quite engrossing as the narrative moves closer and closer to the startling truth.

2009-08-29T21:39:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-08-24T06:35:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-08-22T18:38:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-08-18T18:33:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-08-16T16:39:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-08-14T18:58:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-08-12T00:40:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-08-10T00:12:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-08-08T19:20:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-08-06T21:41:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-08-02T07:13:00.001-07:00

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.

2009-07-28T07:21:00.000-07:00

It's getting a bit late.

'Balibo' (2009) directed by Robert Connolly

This film tells the powerful and confronting story of the Indonesian invasion of East Timor in 1975. It focuses on the killing of five Australian journalists by following a sixth Australian journalist who is investigating their disappearance. The film is beautifully shot and the story is very carefully structured as the film builds momentum and tension steadily. The structure of the film dealt with two different time frames, separated by three weeks. I found it an interesting choice to structure the film in this dual narrative way because perhaps due to this fact, I felt less engaged with the characters of the five journalists. This was because much of their story was told as though their fate had already happened, given that the primary world of the film is set three weeks after the events that lead to their deaths. Much of the scenes involving the journalists had a kind of flashback or memory-like quality, the image itself seemed more grainy, the colour more saturated. This perhaps made the action in these scenes feel less immediate and the inherent tension and danger one step removed.

'Adventureland' (2009) directed by Greg Mottola

An immensely enjoyable coming of age/teen romance story about a guy who works at a theme park over summer. The main strength of this film is the writing which is incredibly subtle and doesn't aim for cheap laughs. Also, the entire cast is excellent and everyone in the film seems to really add something extra to each scene. The male and female leads have great chemistry, their scenes together are very strong and give the film a real emotional weight. There are definitely funny and quirky moments too but they all seem to drive the plot forward. The main thing is that it doesn't feel like there are any superfluous moments in the film designed just for laughs. Instead the laughs are generally character based and serve to develop the characters further.

2009-07-26T06:05:00.000-07:00

'Deep Water' (2006) directed by Louise Osmond and Jerry Rothwell

This is a fascinating documentary about amateur sailor Donald Crowhurst who, in 1968, set out to win the first solo non-stop round the world yacht race. This film builds tension and drama very effectively as the story behind this man is slowly revealed piece by piece. This is a story told largely through the use of interviews and stock footage from the time. Perhaps most interestingly, footage is also used that was shot by Crowhurst himself while engaged in the race. Through this, the film is able to explore Crowhurst's complex psychological state, delving into the immense stress and fear that he faced and the horrible situation that he found himself in. It makes for compelling viewing and it's an incredible story that is expertly told in this documentary.

'In The Loop' (2009) directed by Armando Iannucci

Transferring the world of the television series 'The Thick Of It' onto the big screen, this film is a subtle but hilarious take on international politics. This is a brilliantly written film with very snappy dialogue and some of the most creative swearing you'll ever hear in a movie. It's very cleverly executed with plot points that layer upon themselves, conjuring up numerous twists and changes in direction. Seemingly minor domestic events soon become large scale international affairs as the actions of characters on different sides of the planet are shown to be intrinsically linked. It definitely keeps the audience on their toes as the direction of the film's plot is likely to change quite suddenly, yet the film always feels very satisfying. The acting is brilliant, in particular Peter Capaldi, who reprises his role as the delightfully aggressive and foul-mouthed Malcolm Tucker.

2009-07-24T22:47:00.000-07:00

'Drag Me To Hell' (2009) directed by Sam Raimi

This is such an outrageously fun movie, it's the film equivalent of a really good theme park ghost train. Harking back to Raimi's earlier work, this film is full of great scares and really illustrates that Raimi is a master of the horror genre. It's got all the necessary elements; a gypsy witch, a soul-eating demon straight from the depths of hell and all manner of ghosts, ghouls and a more than adequate amount of gruesome bodily fluids. While keeping you on the edge of the seat, this film also has a really sharp sense of humour and doesn't take itself too seriously at all. It has some hilariously quotable lines and the twist ending, while being signposted early, is still delivered in such a way that it really hits you.

2009-07-23T00:30:00.000-07:00

A couple more films in the last twenty-four hours.

'Fanboys' (2008) directed by Kyle Newman

Set in 1998, this film is about a group of 'Star Wars' fans who travel across the USA to break into Skywalker Ranch to steal a rough cut of 'The Phantom Menace' before it's release. It's essentially another road trip movie featuring a group of young adult males although refreshingly, unlike most recent films of the genre, this film isn't totally preoccupied with sex. This film is quite sweet really, highlighting the friendships between the main characters, who are all united by their common love of 'Star Wars'. The film works because the relationships in the film seem very grounded in reality and although the film is full of 'Star Wars' references, the characters aren't portrayed as stereotypical nerds. The film celebrates it's main characters rather than making fun of them. It's an entertaining film that hits all the right notes, it's funny enough, well written and full of great cameos.

'Don't Look Back' (1967) directed by D.A. Pennebaker

A pretty interesting documentary about Bob Dylan. Basically D.A. Pennebaker followed Dylan around with a camera for three weeks while he toured England and this film is the result of that footage. The film captures just a small segment of a period in the life of Bob Dylan. It's an interesting glimpse at the artist although I always felt as though it was nothing more than a glimpse and that much is left to the viewer's interpretation. It's a film of sketches, disjointed scenes and broad brush strokes of an enigmatic character. It's full of amusing exchanges and intriguing conversations as well as featuring numerous clips from performances. Interestingly, there is very little authorial intrusion in this film, instead D.A. Pennebaker lets the footage tell the story. This gives the film a compelling fly-on-the-wall quality.

2009-07-22T06:52:00.000-07:00

Sipping a vodka and orange juice currently. This blog is encouraging me to watch more movies and write more and that's gotta be a good thing, surely.

'Midnight Cowboy' (1969) directed by John Schlesinger

What a movie. A thoroughly entertaining performance from Jon Voight from the very beginning of the film and then, as the film progresses, Dustin Hoffman just about manages to eclipse Jon Voight. This is a great pairing of actors, the chemistry between them is often hilarious and touching, culminating in a dramatic and climactic point at the end of the film that really encapsulates their bond. This is excellent storytelling, so much happens in this film, it is at sometimes brutally dark and other times very light and comical, all with a strong emphasis on character. There are very experimental camera techniques used too but you watch this film for Hoffman and Voight whose performances had me transfixed.

2009-07-21T01:33:00.000-07:00

Thought I'd better start some movie blog to keep track of the movies I've been seeing and to keep up my writing. I'm not really writing reviews, just sketches or thoughts or whatnot or whatever.

'The Girlfriend Experience' (2009) directed by Steven Soderbergh

Quite a flat, subdued film about the day to day life of a high class call girl (Sasha Grey). It employs a variety of storytelling techniques, a stilted voiceover, an interview with a journalist, sketches of meetings with clients and a distorted non-linear timeline. It's a highly stylistic and experimental film which features seemingly improvised performances that are quite subtle. Overall though, I found that it was a little difficult to engage with the main character. Just as she maintained a wall between herself and her clients in the film, so too did it feel as though there was a wall between her and the audience of the film. She seemed more a figure of intrigue rather than a fully fleshed out personality. Having said that, this is still worth a look.

'George Washington' (2000) directed by David Gordon Green

A stunning film. Just really strong moments and interesting, unique characters, the kind that you don't really see in movies. The film centres around a small town and the characters in it, chiefly a group of kids. The acting is incredibly focussed, particularly from the child actors and the dialogue feels very realistic and natural while simultaneously being very poignant. Tragedy and moments of complex emotion are treated with a lot of subtlety while remaining incredibly resonant. It is also a beautifully shot film, the use of colour and the way that each shot is framed gives it a really cohesive style.