Friday, August 25, 2006
Snakes on a Plane
I just saw SNAKES ON A PLANE... it rocked!! Well, my expectations were adequately low and I was determined to get my $13 worth. But I think, in years to come, it will be considered a staple of the b-movie canon, beside PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE and MANOS HANDS OF FATE, as a benchmark film for the genre. Of course, it needs to be seen with a good crowd, plenty of popcorn and ones expectations considerably lowered (usually with the help of drugs and/or alcohol!!)
United 93
Simply, superb cinema... one of the best of the year. A must see.
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
A Round Tuit
As is usual for me, I started writing reviews of festival films I saw, with the intent of blogging them all.
I have other things of interest begging my attention and now that it's past history I can't really be arsed... maybe next year...
Suffice it to say that this year's festival was the best I have ever seen.
Highlights:
THE HOST
KEANE
SCIENCE OF SLEEP
BRICK
Lowlights:
THE THREE BURIALS OF MELQUADIES ESTRADA
THE PASSENGER
SNAKES ON A PLANE opens tomorrow!! I can't wait...
(If you live in Chch, email me if you wanna come along.)
I have other things of interest begging my attention and now that it's past history I can't really be arsed... maybe next year...
Suffice it to say that this year's festival was the best I have ever seen.
Highlights:
THE HOST
KEANE
SCIENCE OF SLEEP
BRICK
Lowlights:
THE THREE BURIALS OF MELQUADIES ESTRADA
THE PASSENGER
SNAKES ON A PLANE opens tomorrow!! I can't wait...
(If you live in Chch, email me if you wanna come along.)
Sunday, August 20, 2006
The Host
Friday, August 18, 2006
C.R.A.Z.Y
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada
Drawing Restraint 9
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
The Waimate Conspiracy
Monday, August 14, 2006
No More Heroes
Sunday, August 13, 2006
Jonestown: The Life & Death of Peoples Temple
Saturday, August 12, 2006
Science of Sleep
Friday, August 11, 2006
A Scanner Darkly
Brick
Factotum
Wednesday, August 09, 2006
The Passenger
loudQUIETloud: A Film About The Pixies
Who Killed The Electric Car?
Tuesday, August 08, 2006
Dave Chappelle's Block Party
Monday, August 07, 2006
Keane
.0.jpg)
As the film opens we meet Edward Keane (Damian Lewis) wandering around a subway desperately searching for his daughter who may or may not have gone missing at this very station over a year ago. He comes across as desperate, passionate, crazed and ever-so-slightly psychotic as he pleads with any and all that he comes acorss to help in the search for his missing child. It slowly begins to dwan on us that there is actually more to this guy than meets the eye and we are soon drawn into a tightly wound character drama with moments of sheer tension that would make Hitchcock proud.The whole film is shot ultra-real, with the central protagonist almost always centre of frame (indeed, some shots look like they may have been achieved with the camera attached to Lewis himself) which gives the film its unnerving sense of claustraphobia that never lets up.
Lewis' performance in this film is so intensely real that we are treated to a character that is completely rounded and relatable. It would seem he has been given free-reign by the directors to explore the character to its fullest potential and then given situations to react to. His performance never slips and this is what makes the film so watchable.
The twists and turns of the plot are so well calculated that it seems the place where the true narrative is happening is inside the audiences heads. Indeed many scenes never seem to go where expected, as if director Lodge Kerrigan has crawled inside our psychies and tapped into our collective expectations. He does this to such an extent that when the film ends we are left almost abandoned at the completely abrupt ending and left to examine our own attitudes towards the potential situation. This is complete mind-fuck cinema of the highest order.
Beautiful charcters, brilliant acting, amazing direction, unparalelled tension. This is dark, dense, stunning, difficult cinema that should not be missed.
TRAILER
TRAILER
Saturday, August 05, 2006
Tristram Shandy: A Cock & Bull Story
Steve Coogan plays Steve Coogan portraying Tristram Shandy AND Tristram's father in this very funny, mind-warping adaptation of the quite unfilmable book.The book itself is a series of footnotes, digressions and ramblings of a somewhat unfocussed mind. The director, Michael Winterbottom and Coogan have chosen to do the same thing with the movie, which means the finished product we get is a mostly behind-the-scenes expose on the creation of the filming of the book. This may sound completely off-the-mark in relating page to the stage, but here it works remarkably well to both great comedic effect and some genuine pathos and is still remarkably true to the source material.
Coogan is brilliant as ever, and here gives us a beautifully rounded performance as the three main characters. His performance captured for me the diversions, indiscretions and minutae involved in any production. He seemed to let his guard down in the scenes with his on-screen wife (Kelly Macdonald) and infant child. Coogan proves, once again, his genius both as a comic and serious actor.
As supporting lead in the film Rob Brydon shines as himself playing Capt. Toby Shandy and is the perfrct foil to Coogan. Their arguments are beautifully timed and it is clear they both had a ball on set improvising these.
In fact the whole cast look like they are having a blast making this and not being to worried about letting their personalities out "warts and all" - I suspect Winterbottom may have let cameras roll freely on several scenes long after they were supposedly finished to achieve much of the sponenaity evidenced here.
Winterbottom holds this film together well, and brings himself back up to speed after last year's terrible 9 SONGS. He paces the film at a pitch tht is always one step ahead of the viewer, but never alienating and always with his tongue planted firmly in his cheek.
Very funny, intelligent and well shot. I look forward to the myriad of Special Features that the film hinted at, that will open up an even wider world for both the film itself and give the book a whole new readership it so richly deserves.
TRAILER
Shortbus
Touted in the film fest programme as one of the hottest films in the world today, direct from an amazing reception at Cannes, SHORTBUS certainly delivers the goods. Smart, sexy, witty and very, very New York post-post-9/11.The opening five minutes of the film decide the audience. A surging collage of sex in all its forms: a straight couple fornicating on every concieveable surface in their house; a dominatrix with an attitude being mentally dominated by her client; a gay guy attempting to auto-fellate himself, while his obsessive neighbour watches voueristically. This scene seems to be calculated to sort the conservatives from the liberals in the audience early on, but the sheer good humour and carefree raunchiness of it all keeps even the most prudish glued to their seats.
What unfolds is a brilliant story of how these characters lives collide in a NY sex club where all of their desires and anguish are played out to the full. It is all beautifully linked together by some vibrantly observed animation of the New York cityscape by John Bair.
It's not all about great laughs in this film either. A well constructed scenario about New Yorkers surviving the post-9/11 maelstrom is given a minor acknowledgement and characters are constructed around their various sexual hang-ups. In lesser hands, the second of these would usually come across as angsty over-indulgence, but director John Cameron Mitchell gives us a cast of whole credible characters, free of pretension and open to the possibilities of change.
The film ends with a fantastic feeling of carnival, albeit slightly jaded, that is evidenced by a joyous scene of revelry and fornication that frees the characters from their self-imposed sexual restrictions, leaving the audience on the same high when they leave the theatre.
Festivals around the world have had quite a tough time getting explicit works like this screened. The New Zealand International Festival has in the past had as its bugbear Mr David Lane of the Society for the Protection of Community Standards, who has seen it fit to cause a lot of noise over various films of "objectionable" nature in the past. This film stands proudly head and shoulders above any of those that have gone before in its depiction of sex on screen and it was almost disapointing to find out that Mr Lane was out of the country during the festival. If he had been in the country, I'm sure some noise would have been made as SHORTBUS simply goes well beyond anything the European sex-films of the past few years ever would or could.
Excellent filmmaking, watchable performances and very very sexy. The porn film has come of age.
Festivals around the world have had quite a tough time getting explicit works like this screened. The New Zealand International Festival has in the past had as its bugbear Mr David Lane of the Society for the Protection of Community Standards, who has seen it fit to cause a lot of noise over various films of "objectionable" nature in the past. This film stands proudly head and shoulders above any of those that have gone before in its depiction of sex on screen and it was almost disapointing to find out that Mr Lane was out of the country during the festival. If he had been in the country, I'm sure some noise would have been made as SHORTBUS simply goes well beyond anything the European sex-films of the past few years ever would or could.
Excellent filmmaking, watchable performances and very very sexy. The porn film has come of age.
Friday, August 04, 2006
Matthew Barney: No Restraint
Matt Barney, creator of the visually stunning CREMASTER series, documents the making of his latest work DRAWING RESTRAINT 9 (screening later in the festival) aborad the whaling ship Nissin Maru, made over something like a week with his celebrity wife (and soundtrack contributor) Bjork.Barney always creates strong, yet perplexing images, but if you go into this documentary expecting an explanation of his themes or metaphors you will be sadly disapointed. Instead this is an examination of the construction of this particular work - the actualising of giant vaseline sculptures, some intricate prosthetic work, and the evolution of the "Drawing Restraint" series.
As a person, Barney seems quite grounded next to his rather outlandish work and the those film seems to enjoy this contradiction, and looks quite deeply into his early home life, growing up as quite a "normal" football plying adolescent.
While providing some interesting insights into the man and his world, I found myself quite often wandering mentally from this document as there was really not enough meat on the bones of this film to engage. I was expecting a whole lot more.
Thursday, August 03, 2006
International Film Festival
Am getting rather excited about the upcoming film festival, which opens tonight. I am going to see about twenty films over the next two weeks and my retinas will be near fried by the end of it all. (Not going to the opening night film tonight however, as Ken Loach bores me to tears.)
This year's is one of the strongest programmes I have witnessed in many a moon - it's always a smaller programme down here than that which screens in Auckland or Wellington - but I am confident that the cream of the crop is coming down here this year.
At this stage I am going to see:
A SCANNER DARKLY
BRICK
DAVE CHAPPELLE'S BLOCK PARTY
DRAWING RESTRAINT 9
FACTOTUM
THE HOST
JONESTOWN: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF PEOPLES TEMPLE
KEANE
loudQUIETloud: A FILM ABOUT THE PIXIES
MATTHEW BARNEY: NO RESTRAINT
NO MORE HEROES
THE PASSENGER
THE SCIENCE OF SLEEP
SHORTBUS
THE THREE BURIALS OF MELQUIADES ESTRADA
TRISTRAM SHANDY: A COCK & BULL STORY
THE WAIMATE CONSPIRACY (World Premiere of a local film!!)
WHO KILLED THE ELECTRIC CAR?
And that's just what I have tickets already booked for!!! I may go and see others in my spare time as my wallet, sanity and retinas allow.
Will post my thoughts on films seen here when I have the time and/or inclination.
(More of the festival can be found HERE)
This year's is one of the strongest programmes I have witnessed in many a moon - it's always a smaller programme down here than that which screens in Auckland or Wellington - but I am confident that the cream of the crop is coming down here this year.
At this stage I am going to see:
A SCANNER DARKLY
BRICK
DAVE CHAPPELLE'S BLOCK PARTY
DRAWING RESTRAINT 9
FACTOTUM
THE HOST
JONESTOWN: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF PEOPLES TEMPLE
KEANE
loudQUIETloud: A FILM ABOUT THE PIXIES
MATTHEW BARNEY: NO RESTRAINT
NO MORE HEROES
THE PASSENGER
THE SCIENCE OF SLEEP
SHORTBUS
THE THREE BURIALS OF MELQUIADES ESTRADA
TRISTRAM SHANDY: A COCK & BULL STORY
THE WAIMATE CONSPIRACY (World Premiere of a local film!!)
WHO KILLED THE ELECTRIC CAR?
And that's just what I have tickets already booked for!!! I may go and see others in my spare time as my wallet, sanity and retinas allow.
Will post my thoughts on films seen here when I have the time and/or inclination.
(More of the festival can be found HERE)
Current Book To Hand (A Blog Game)
"Yep, junk it. Do whatever you'd like. You don't really expect me to pay twice the amount of the car just to have it fixed, do you?"
"Well, now wait a minute, that was for a full warranty," he backpeadled. "I can do a limited warranty repair job for two hundred and fifty."
"Junk the car," I repeated emotionlessly. I wasn't acting, mind you, I was dead serious.
From: "If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B-Movie Actor" by Bruce Campbell
The Game:
1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the next 3 sentences on your blog along with these instructions.
5. Don't you dare dig for that "cool" or "intellectual" book in your closet! I know you were thinking about it! Just pick up whatever is closest.
"Well, now wait a minute, that was for a full warranty," he backpeadled. "I can do a limited warranty repair job for two hundred and fifty."
"Junk the car," I repeated emotionlessly. I wasn't acting, mind you, I was dead serious.
From: "If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B-Movie Actor" by Bruce Campbell
The Game:
1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the next 3 sentences on your blog along with these instructions.
5. Don't you dare dig for that "cool" or "intellectual" book in your closet! I know you were thinking about it! Just pick up whatever is closest.
