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.