BIFF Movie #17 Zero Theorem

This movie which I saw at the Brisbane International Film Festival has only just been released into cinemas, 6 months later!  So I think it timely to catch up on the review of this film.

This film is the latest from director Terry Gilliam.  Who?  Actually you know him.  Not just a member of the legendary Monty Python troupe, he has directed many movies which cross fun with deep thinking - from The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus to Brazil to 12 Monkeys to Tideland (OK that one wasn't actually fun, just sad) to Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas to The Brothers Grimm.  This one is no different.  Quirky, bizarre, full of big ideas and concepts, underlined with humour.

The Zero Theorem is set in a near future world and centres on the character Qohen Leth (played by Christoph Waltz in another mesmerising performance) who is some type of computer programmer working for "Management".  Qohen is a bit of a weird loner type to begin with, living in a bizarre home within an old church.  I'm just going to jump out for a second here and say that the production design on this film is amazing, there is so much detail to take in that you can't grasp it all on the first sitting.  But it definitely throws you into another world.  Qohen seems a little dissatisfied with his existence when is assigned to work on the hardest problem ever created "The Zero Theorem".  Which is to say that he has to try to solve a conundrum that seems to be centred around working out the meaning of life.

Qohen starts on the task where he is supervised by Joby (David Thewlis weirding out) and has regular holographic counselling sessions with Dr Shrink-Rom (Tilda Swinton).  As it proves more difficult than anyone thought, Qohen soon becomes obsessed with finding the answer, to the point where it takes over his life and he can't do anything else.  The Management try to distract him with a youthful offsider Bob (Lucas Hedges) and seemingly coincidental meetings with Bainsley (Melanie Thierry) who is a sex worker who has her own theories on life.  The more Qohen seems to be on the verge of discovering that there is no "Meaning of Life" and life is pointless, the more life comes at him and tries to give him the message that you just have to live it rather than obsess with meaning.  But can he cope with it?

The performance by Christoph Waltz in this movie is excellent - it's total commitment.  And Melanie Thierry is a total breakout and will have big things ahead of her.  However I think the messages in the movie are a bit obvious and ultimately it doesn't pack the 1-2 punch it needs to make it a great movie that people will be talking about.  It's entertaining while it's on but ultimately it doesn't find a way to connect to the audience.  Worthwhile if you like things that are a bit off-the-wall but it's not going to make any "Top 10 Movie" lists.

BIFF Movie #8 - OXV: The Manual

After the very disappointing A Touch of Sin, I was looking forward to OXV: The Manual which promised to be a very unique Australian film.  And so it was, an absolutely fascinating and intelligent little movie that puts a nice spin on the 'alternative future' sub-genre of science fiction film.  The emphasis here is very much on philosophy.

The film opens up in a school with young children lining up to get their report cards for the year.  We meet Marie, a young girl with an obviously high 'score', perfect and yet lacking in empathy.  We also meet Zak, who has a low 'score' but is a lovely and likeable boy.  Zak likes Marie, but she knows they can't spend any time together due to being in a different 'class'.  However, her curiousity is aroused and she decides to experiment with spending a minute with Zak each year.   At first you have no real idea what is happening, but it doesn't take long for it to become apparent.  The movie is set in one of those 'not quite now, not quite the world we live in' type settings where you can't really pinpoint the date or city.  There are lots of British accents but it's not Britain.  There are deliberate 70s props in an otherwise modern setting with mobile phones but you know it's the future.  And it's a future where society is split up not according to wealth or IQ, but luck.  We now have a way to test how lucky or unlucky different people are, and if lucky people interact with unlucky people, something bad happens to the unlucky person.  So contact is limited to that one minute per year or people in your own luck class.

The movie is based around Zak and his friend Theo's attempts to find a way to beat the 'luck' issue so that Zak can be with Marie.  Ongoing experiments eventually yield a system that they believe works - that the energy field which causes the bad luck can be neutralised by saying a series of three letter words.  The scene where Zak tries this on Marie as a grown up is fantastic, and Marie quickly falls into a happy relationship with Zak.  That is until they discover that there is a downside to the system - it actually seems that the use of the words can force the person to do whatever you want with no free will.  So does Marie love Zak or does Marie love Zak because he told her to love him?  Is there such a thing as free will?  How does this power even work and what are the implications for society which has been organised this way for so long?

The third act of the movie explores these themes in great detail and throws in a tension building storyline about the secret organisation that knows about the system and tries to keep it from being revealed publicly, imprisoning Zak and Marie and their fellow scientists until they can find a way to undo what they've done.  This builds into a highly enjoyable climax which I can't reveal without giving away the mystery.  It is an absolute delight of an ending though.

A Q&A with the director Darren Paul Fisher afterwards (this was the Australian premiere of this Aussie/British production) revealed the depth of thought that has gone into this storyline and the details that you may have missed in the movie (for example the fact that each class of luck (high, low, medium) wear different colour ties in their school uniforms) which now make me hungry for a couple of repeat viewings so I can take it all in.  It's obviously been a passion project for the director but it's one that with the right word of mouth, could pay off when the film is eventually released in Australia.  I know I for one will be going back to see it again and would recommend that anyone who likes to ponder the meaning of life and free will would be well entertained by this film.  Clever, funny and endearing!

BIFF Movie #7 - A Touch of Sin

This is a difficult movie to review (especially now so long after attending BIFF) so I'll keep it short.  This movie is actually four short stories woven into one larger movie, with no real connection between them and even the underlying theme is barely felt.  The movie is set in modern day China and from the blurb read in the Film Festival guide it was trying to deal with a sense of alienation and the struggle of the underclass against pointless lives, erupting in random violence.  However, just because you feel annoyed at the repetitiveness of your work or bosses or the big company you work for, or your lover who won't leave their husband, or your inability to keep and hold a job, that doesn't excuse the violence portrayed here which are largely senseless murders.  The movie was too long, slow and could not keep up the drama which was set up quite well in the first story but drifts into nothingness as the film progresses.  I walked out feeling like it was a waste of a movie ticket as I got nothing out of the film at all.

BIFF Triumphant Thursday - Prince Avalanche and Rigor Mortis

The second Thursday of BIFF was a triumph of good choices after a couple of disappointments earlier in the week and weekend.

Movie #11 was Prince Avalanche.  A small indie movie which seems to be the best Wes Anderson movie that Wes Anderson never made.  Paul Rudd plays an uptight middle aged guy called Alvin who has taken on a contract to fix roads ruined by large fires in the woods of Texas in 1988.  It's a lonely life camping out in the wilderness overnight and painting lines/fixing posts by day.  He takes on his girlfriend's oddball younger brother Lance (Emile Hirsche from Speed Racer/Into the Wild) for company and to help with the work.

This movie is really S-L-O-W but charming and beautiful.  There are some amazing shots of the natural environment and some really contemplative scenes as Alvin is the type of guy who can just be comfortable on his own out in the middle of nowhere enjoying his hobbies.  This leads to the occasional clash with Lance, who like many young people these days cannot handle doing nothing.  He ventures back into town at the weekends to party and the discussions with Alvin about this are gently comedic.

Gentle, slow moving and odd but charming would be the best way to describe this.  One for fans of director David Gordon Green's "All the Real Girls" not his slacker comedies "Your Highness" or "Pineapple Express".

Movie #12 was Rigor Mortis.  Our supernatural horror movie faith is restored after the disastrous mess of "Sapi" earlier in the week.  A Hong Kong film paying tribute to Chinese TV series "Mr Vampire" in Japanese style.  Way cool!  You don't need to be familiar with the Chinese show to appreciate this film at all though.  This is one we will be chasing up to own on DVD for it's dark and cool visuals married with an almost steampunk setting reminiscent of Guillermo del Toro.

The film opens with retired actor Sui Ho moving into an abandoned apartment in a scary looking apartment block, following the separation from his wife and young son.  Depressed, he tries to take his own life, but is saved at the last minute by Yau (a Taoist priest who is trying to retire from vampire hunting) who senses that depression is not the only reason - Ho has been possessed by the evil spirits of two girls who previously died in the apartment.  Ho recovers and meets the various residents of his apartment building who gather in Yau's excellent food hall.  Auntie May the seamstress lives with her beloved husband Uncle Tung, the building caretaker Yin seems unperturbed by spooky events,  Kau is a mysterious healer who may dabble in the Black Arts,  and weird Feung is a seemingly crazy lady hanging around outside Ho's apartment with her albino son.  There are also some ghostly residents.

While spooky from the get-go, events escalate when Tung meets with an accident and May cannot handle losing her lifelong husband.  She works with Kau to bring Tung back to life, but his renewed self is not the expected outcome and it puts all the residents of the building in grave danger.  Ho and Yau must band together with Kau to stop a major bloodbath from the now vampiric Tung and the aforementioned evil spirits.

The movie is well plotted, well acted, and the visuals are quite stunning.  The graphic violence, body horror and suicide scenes will disturb sensitive viewers but if you can handle it, this is a really cool film with a bit of a headscratcher of an ending that will keep you thinking.

BIFF Movie # 6 - The Congress

This is quite a difficult movie to review, especially so far after the fact.  But "The Congress" was so good it's not hard to throw my mind back to it.  The Congress is a real mind-bender of a film, definitely one for those with more adventurous tastes in movies and you need to be prepared that half the movie has been done in animation rather than live action.

The Congress starts off as a very sharp satire of the Hollywood movie industry.  It stars Robin Wright (who most will know as the beautiful Buttercup in "The Princess Bride" but she has had an on and off hit and miss acting career over time which is quite relevant to this movie) and it's important to know she was also a producer on this film.  Robin here plays Robin Wright, an actress in her mid 40s who still looks beautiful but given her age and poor career choices doesn't have many prospects for film roles from here on.  She is approached by the head of fictional movie studio 'Miramount' to sign a contract for a new concept whereby she is scanned, digitalised and owned by the studio to use in any movies or any way the studio deems appropriate for the rest of time.  The real actress must retire and never act again.  The studio boss (played well by Danny Huston) uses some very sharp personal criticism to goad Robin into signing the contract for a cheap price.  The debate about whether to sign between Robin, her agent Al (played by Harvey Keitel) and her children, a son with a serious medical condition (Kodi Smit-McPhee) and a precocious teen daughter (Sami Gayle) is interesting and raises many valid points about the current Hollywood system and our general fame obsessed culture.  This takes up about the first third of the movie.

The next phase takes place when Robin agrees to the contract and gets scanned - an extremely powerful extended scene between Robin and Harvey Keitel.  Then an indeterminate period of time has passed and an older Robin is driving to a town where she has been invited to appear at "The Congress".  To enter she must take a pill that converts her into animated form in an animated world, and this is where the film a huge leap which you may or may not be able to follow.  Robin is ostensibly being feted but decides to use the platform to criticise Miramount, which sets off a chain reaction of events weird and wonderful.  You definitely find yourself wondering "is this all a dream" before a scene towards the end starts to clarify what is really happening, so stick with it.

While this film doesn't necessarily make a whole lot of sense plot wise, it is a visual treat and a very smart commentary on our current pop culture obsessions versus what is really important in life.  Totally original and a lot of fun if you are willing to take a bit of a risk.

BIFF Dud Movies - Movie #5 and Movie #10

When you see 20+ movies in 10 days each year, based on a few words printed in the guide, you are bound to see some bad movies here and there.  Each year I have had 1 or 2 duds, although last year was either of a higher quality or I chose better.  This year, I've had 2 duds, so below I cover them so you don't have to go through the same pain.

Movie # 5 - The Act of Killing
The Act of Killing is a documentary which explores the mindset of a group of men who were known as "executioners" during the Indonesian purge of communists in 1965 and 1966 following a military overthrow of the government.  The doco follows 3 of these people in particular, all of whom are extremely proud of their role in abducting and killing up to thousands of people who were, or more importantly were deemed to be, communists and a danger to the new ruling power.  An absolutely shocking chapter of world history that is probably largely unknown and in my opinion, deserved much better treatment than this film gives it.

I hated this movie, while I was watching it and every time I have thought of it since.  I cannot understand how this has won "audience favourite" prizes at other film festivals and has such a good rating on IMDB and so many good reviews.  It is not only morally objectionable (the perpetrators were so proud of their killing techniques and quantities without being able to explain why so the filmmakers decide to allow them to re-enact the killings for the cameras in any way that they choose - which results in truly offensive scenes performed by people with no remorse for their victims) but it is extremely poorly constructed.  The film takes up almost 3 hours when anyone with any film editing skills could have cut that down to around 2 hours or less - so many boring, unnecessary scenes are included that add nothing but exasperation for the viewer.  There is no focus and we follow random people at random times with no direction at all.

I suspect that the reason for all the prizes is the fact that the process seems to have ended with one of the key perpetrators coming to regret his actions and really understand the depth of the horrors he perpetrated, particularly after acting as a victim in one of the many annoying "movies" the participants create.  It also sheds a little light on the ridiculousness of these paramilitary groups that have so much power in Indonesia (which might have made a better subject matter).  This is a great outcome but unfortunately it is not going to bring any justice to the victims, and in fact I believe that several of the other perpetrators simply had their egos stroked even more and really enjoyed reminiscing about the murder of thousands of innocent people that they justify as "doing what we were told and what was right".  They seem to have no conscience at all.  I just found it all morally sickening, especially given that the filmmakers can't have known that any of the subjects would actually "reform" their views.  Don't be fooled by all the prizes.

Movie #10 - Sapi
Last night produced our second unexpected dud.  Billed as a "supernatural thriller", the description of this Phillipines movie turned out to be only 50% right.  The movie covered some supernatural events, but had 0% thrills.  It sounded promising and started alright, as we watch two journalism crews from 2 rival news stations as they roam the city of Manila looking for exciting stories to cover to boost their ratings in the wake of major storms and floods.  Apparently there have been reports of "mass possessions" with people experiencing demonic possession.  Crew A gets to a house in time to record footage of a possessed middle aged school teacher, who is soon cured in the lamest exorcism ever put to film.  Crew B arrive a bit later and get some interviews but no possession footage.  It seems we are going to get some good commentary on whether the media is making the news or filming the news and how much manipulation goes on.  But all that really falls by the wayside after a camera man working freelance for Crew A and B gives Crew B the footage from Crew A.  Crew B's station unknowingly airs the footage uncut first, which upsets the formerly possessed lady and seems to result in some "demonic" activity following Crew B around.

The "demonic" activity in this movie is laughable and in my book barely registers as ghostly let alone a demon.  We get a few doors slamming shut, some bad dreams (which none of them seem to actually take any notice of whatsoever or have any ramifications), a bit of scary whispering.  Any time there seems to be some kind of tension building, it finishes with a ridiculous scene which evaporates the mood and leaves you wondering what is going on.  There is just so little logic to the construction of the movie and the script that you can't take it seriously.  There is no tension or frights.  And there is no resolution.  Possibly because it had no budget and no special effects at all.

This is just an out and out bad movie which has failed to make any point.  Disappointing that this has come from director Brillante ma Mendoza who has had several popular movies at the film festival in past years.  This is definitely not going to sit in the Top 10.  And it doesn't even fall into the "so bad it's good" category as there is just nothing to enjoy.

BIFF Movie # 4 - Bethlehem and Movie # 9 - must-see The Square

Each year at the Film Festival I try to avoid the comedies and the American and English movies, and some of the Australian movies if I know they'll get a release anyway.  Instead I use the limited time and tickets to head towards the low budget horror flicks, Asian cinema and particularly Middle Eastern cinema.  The goal here is pretty simple - try to find out more about what is happening in the world around me, from the perspective of those who are there and have something to say.  Despite the rise of social media as a way of getting the stories out to the rest of the world, it still takes a fair bit of effort to really understand what is going on in some of these places and I must say I don't really make the time to do it regularly.  So the Film Festival is one way that I can gain a deeper understanding.  Two films so far this festival have achieved that to different degrees.

One of those choices I made for that reason was to see "Bethlehem".  Not a religious movie at all, it is set in Palestine and looks at how the Israeli Secret Service is activating people in Palestine to spy for them to try to stop further acts of terrorism.  The trouble is that there is still so much division between the Israelis, Jews, Arabs and more radical Islamic groups.  Even though there is a Palestinian National Authority which rules the West Bank, the Hamas group has taken the Gaza Strip and continue to fight both the Isrealis and their 'own' people in the PNA. 

The movie sets up with establishing the relationship between Israeli Secret Service agent Razi and young Palestinian teen Sanfur.  Sanfur has become a 'collaborator' in jealousy of his older brother Ibrahim who is a leader of the Martyr's Brigade which is undertaking suicide bombings in Jerusalem.  Razi has been getting close to Sanfur in an attempt to gather intelligence on Ibrahim who they are trying to shut down but he has gone into hiding.  Ibrahim is planning something big when the film opens but Sanfur doesn't know much....or does he?  Razi discovers through other agents that Sanfur has been transferring money for Ibrahim and lying to Razi.  This is a blow but he determines to use it to flush out Ibrahim while trying to protect Sanfur with whom Razi has become too close.  Events then begin to accelerate and the stakes increase and Sanfur begins to be torn apart by the pressure of hiding his spy activity and helping his brother and making his father proud of him.

The thing about Bethlehem is that it is a very well written, authentic film with a lot of tension and strong acting.  But it keeps the focus in very tight on these characters and therefore you don't really get a solid understanding of the political factors and the motivations behind either side.  So it didn't really achieve my goal of understanding the conflict but it did give me a feel for what day to day life must be like in these areas where there is so much violence and conflict.  It is a great film and the ending is absolutely devastating - in the screening I attended on Friday night, the film ended and the screen went black and there was an audible "oh" from the audience which signified to me that most had not expected it could end that way.  No Hollywood happy endings with things wrapped up neatly here at BIFF!  Bit like real life!

The second choice I made for this reason was to see "The Square".  The Square is a documentary unlike the fictional Bethlehem.  This film was amazing and deserves to be more widely seen than it was and than it will be.  It is screening again this Sunday 24 November 2013 at 12pm so if you are interested in this sort of thing, I'd recommend you get along.

The film follows the events surrounding the revolution in Egypt which occurred in 2011 when the people of Egypt decided they had 'had enough' of the military regime ruling Egypt.  Egypt had been under "Emergency Law" since 1967 (apart from a small period in the 80s) and under the rule of Hosni Mubarak since 1981 - an unprecedented 30 year reign with no end in sight as he was grooming his son to take over when he was ready to retire.  The issues that people were angry about included the lack of free elections, no free speech, police brutality (secret police regularly arresting and beating anyone who spoke out), corruption of the government and army, economic conditions such as low wages, and just the emergency law conditions in general. 

In early 2011, a series of mainly peaceful protests began which we see first-hand through a camera crew following an intelligent young revolutionist, a well respected Egyptian actor, a singer who became the voice of the revolution, a girl seeking more rights for women amongst other justice issues, and a man who is a member of the Muslim Brotherhood religious group.  This mixed group of friends are well involved and we see fascinating footage of them gathering more people to their cause and how they use unity across different religions (Christian, Jew, Muslim) and political views as their tool of protest.  The action all takes place in and around Cairo's Tahrir Square which often hosted millions of protestors.  While largely peaceful, there were several violent clashes which look to have been escalated by the armed forces to using live ammunition on the people.  In the first revolution, at least 846 people were killed and more than 6000 injured.   In February 2011 they got their way and Mubarak stepped down, appointing the Supreme Council of Armed Forces to run the country for six months.  However, our revolutionaries notice that nothing has really changed despite the announcement of a free election in June 2012, and so the protests start up again, at first peacefully and again becoming more violent as the days drag on.  The problem is that there will only be 2 parties in the election - the military who had effectively already been ruling (badly) and the new party started by the Muslim Brotherhood.  Not much of a choice.

The acquittal of Mubarak from charges arising from being complicit in the murder of the original protestors starts a new protest and an interim government is appointed until the elections.  The election brings the Muslim Brotherhood into power in both the parliament and as the President of the country. The problem is that the Muslim Brotherhood has some fairly strong views on religion and with only 51% of the vote, they are far from having the support of all people.  In time, nothing has really changed, there is no new constitution, no raising of the emergency law and in fact, the leader Mohamed Morsi votes himself extensive new powers and makes himself virtually a new Pharoah.  This stirs the protestors again, who gather regularly to call for the removal of Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood and installation of real democracy.  In July 2013, Morsi is removed in a coup and a civilian installed as interim president.  However, to this day the military still effectively rule and not much has changed, and in fact there are more issues due to the pro-Morsi groups who continue to protest and fight against the other revolutionaries to reinstate Morsi to power.  Violence against the people continues by the army and by each other.

As you can see from the above, there are a lot of big issues in Egypt and although the main events did make the news here, before seeing this doco I had no idea how frequent the protests were (on an almost daily basis over weeks and months, and in 4 main blocks) and what they involved.  The injection of the Muslim Brotherhood into the previously secular protest movement certainly seemed to derail it quite a bit without improving the situation markedly.  What amazed me were the scenes were citizens were arguing with the protestors about why they didn't need to protest because everything was fine.  Clearly everything was not fine when you see the shocking footage of the armed forces firing on unarmed (apart from a few rocks) citizens or driving over them in tanks and vans.  Yes, there is some footage in here that some will not be able to tolerate and certainly made me gasp out loud at how brutal it was.

The best thing about this film is that it depicts both the personal and the bigger picture successfully.  You get a good understanding of what has happened to date, with the personal impact to make you really care about it.  I just wish there were some solutions or some way to help.  All I can do for now is reflect on what a lucky country this is and how we need to continue to ensure that we maintain our democracy and freedom of speech so that this never happens to us.  Maybe if more people watched this (along with perfect doco partners "The Reluctant Revolutionary" which portrayed the so-called Arab Spring from Yemen's point of view, and "Mugabe vs the White African" which shows what non-free elections will do to a country with a terrible dictator in power).  Essential viewing.

BIFF Movie # 3 - Almost Human

Almost Human is a cracking little horror comedy with what must be one of the lowest budgets ever.  The film was made on the credit cards of the writers and producers but don't let that stop you from enjoying this creepy little film if you're a fan of gore/slasher films/alien abduction.

The film starts with the protagonist, Seth, driving in a very distracted scared manner to his friend Mark's house.  Strange noises and lights are following him.  When he arrives we discover that a third friend has disappeared, "sucked up by a blue light into the sky" according to Seth.  The weird noises and lights flickering on and off continue until a very loud ear piercing scream is heard, and Mark is hypnotised and walking out into the yard.  Seth and Mark's wife Jen see him get sucked up by the blue light also.  Cut to 2 years later, where a series of news reports fill us in on what has happened with Seth and Jen not remembering exactly what has happened but they have lost contact with each other.  Seth gets nose bleeds and nightmares, but Jen has moved on and got a new fiancée and seems fine.

The action starts when a news report states that flickering lights were seen the night before which are identical to the ones from 2 years ago.  Seth has a bad feeling about this and what is about to happen.  He tries to warn Jen but she doesn't want to hear it.  Next thing we are following some hunters in the forest and what do you know, they stumble across a naked, goo covered Mark shivering.  They go to his aid, but apparently he doesn't need it....Mark looks like Mark but in reality is now an alien intent on killing anyone he comes across.  That's not giving anything away either, as all this happens in the first 20 minutes.  It's what happens next that forms the bulk of the movie, as Mark tries to get back to his great love Jen and start colonising earth.

Despite the acting being of a fairly low standard due to inexperienced actors, this is more than made up for by the special effects which are pretty damn good.  As a killing machine, Mark is almost 100% effective but not in any rush, which helps build suspense.  He also uses a good selection of weapons.  The splatter is used regularly and mainly on camera, and there is also a fair bit of 'goo' involved which my friend P said it was funny that I said "ewww" for that and not for the blood flying around.  I can't help that I find blood splatter funny! As I've said in previous BIFF reviews, I'm pretty desensitised to that stuff.

If you can get hold of it and you're a bit of a gore hound, I'd say this is worth spending about $10 on.  It's super fun, avoids the typical Hollywood neat ending and never really explains anything, just takes you on the ride.

The BIFF is harder this year

Well we are on Day 5 of the BIFF and I'm 7 movies into it and finding it hard to keep up with the blogging and letting you know what's good and what's bad.  Here is a quick summary of the Festival until I can get a breather which should be tomorrow, as I have another 2 movies today.

1. The new ticketing system SUCKS so get there early
This year they have decided to use Ticketek as the method of buying tickets, and it is terrible.  If buying tickets at the cinema, you should probably plan to get there up to 30 or 45 minutes earlier than the start time, as the ticketing system is plagued with problems (passes must be linked to a Ticketek account, you can't see how many tickets you have left on a pass, you have to use all your 'evening' tickets on a pass before you can redeem your free daytime movies, the staff can't understand the codes to sort out problems that arise with the free daytime movies) and it is also really slow.  I've seen lots of people waiting in line 5 minutes before a movie and by the time they get their tickets, the movie has already started.  I've also seen some people standing at the counter flipping through the guide trying to decide what tickets to buy while people in line behind them who know what they want slowly start to boil over.  Be prepared people and don't hog the counter.  I've stepped aside a few times when buying advance tickets to let people buying for a movie starting soon go ahead of me.

2. The Congress was amazing but has already finished
Sorry folks but the best film I've seen so far has already completed it's second screening last night.  The Congress is worth searching out on DVD if you like mind-bending movies which satirise Hollywood, blend eye-popping animation and live action and leave you thinking "wow" even though you have no idea what it was really about.

3. Watch the trailer to decide rather than using the Guide
The program guide can be misleading and can make things sound better than they really are, and awards from other festivals don't mean it will be good.  An example is the guide saying that "The Act of Killing" is 'the documentary of the festival season' whereas I found it horrible and annoying and a waste of almost 3 hours.  How this won an audience favourite prize at the Berlin Film Festival I don't know.  There isn't another showing to take warning against, but my advice would be to try to watch the trailer to get a feel for movies before you go see them.  The BIFF team this year seem to have obtained a trailer for every film and set up a Youtube channel to screen them, which is a great way to see if you might like something.  Pity I didn't do it before yesterday's waste of time.

4. Allow for movies to start/finish late
If you are thinking of going to back to back movies, allow enough time to get to your second movie and build in somewhere between 10 and 30 minutes for it to be late.  If you don't think you'll make the second one, you will have to cut one of those movies out.   Most movies start on time, but not all.  Sometimes the film reel has literally not arrived from overseas on time, and other times I have no idea why they start 10 minutes late (my theory is they are trying to sell more tickets before starting due to the aforementioned queue problems).  Last night we missed the first 5-10 minutes of our second film due to the first one running late.  This problem can be compounded if you have to walk between different cinemas - allow yourself plenty of time.

So far I've enjoyed Almost Human (gory horror movie fans should see this low budget comedy), The Congress, Spirit of '45 and Bethlehem.  A Touch of Sin was ok but slow, same goes for Outrage Beyond.  The Art of Killing was terrible.  Today there are 2 movies which I have high hopes for: Oxv: the Manual and The Square.  If you have a spare afternoon, it's well worth getting along to something but follow my tips above!

BIFF Movie # 2 - The Spirit of '45

I have a confession to make.  I am a super nerd.  What, you hadn't guessed that from all the gushing reviews of superhero movies and the fact that I take time off work each year and spend my holidays watching multiple movies per day rather than sunning myself on a beach?  Well if you hadn't already worked it out, I'm confessing it now after having it confirmed last night when I enjoyed "The Spirit of  '45" so much.  A documentary based on how England rebuilt the country and economy after World War 2, and what happened since.  This film will have another showing this week so if you like the sound of it, look it up and get along.

The drawcard for those not into economics and politics could be the fact that this is directed by the British director Ken Loach, who may not be well known here but is renowned in film circles for his 'social realism' style of movie making.  Which is appropriate, because the doco is concerned with the social impacts of real events around the end of the war and it is clear that the filmmaker is a socialist.

The message is all important in this documentary, which has kind of copied the Michael Moore approach where you take your view of an issue and then just put stuff on the screen which backs that up and don't worry about interviewing anyone with a different opinion at all.  Now I can say that and still say I liked the movie ok? The message here is "socialism works, unfettered capitalism doesn't" which is why I, a nerd with an Economics degree, found it really interesting. 

The theory put forward by all involved is that England would never have recovered from the great depression and overcome the malaise that could have occurred after World War 2 was won, had the people not elected the Labour Government which had a strong socialist policy and passed many laws to nationalise many industries and sectors for the greater good.  The employment, healthcare and housing this provided definitely looked to have been beneficial and the film spends a long time focusing on the "5 pillars" that were the key to England's revitalisation, and how the elderly folk they interviewed felt about it.  A short amount of time is spent at the end looking at how the structures created then began to be dismantled in the Thatcher era and continue to have been since, and links the decline of socialist policy with a decline in British society in general - rising unemployment, drug and crime problems, poor health etc.  Whether this is due to the privatisation of key industries and sectors in England or just a general symptom of the current global economy structure

Loach has constructed this documentary in a fairly basic style, which combines archival footage of people living and working in England from the 1930s to today with footage of political leaders of the time, intercut with current interviews from various folk reminiscing about the times.  The 'talking heads' are half ordinary people who lived through the time (or their parents/grandparents did) and half experts on the particular topic at hand, but nobody famous.  This ensures you are not distracted from the message.  The ordinary folk included have been well chosen, as it's just like hearing your grandpa talk about the olden days, and their memories and the smiles or tears they bring to their eyes give the documentary some heart and some humour.  Without them it would have been exceedingly dry.  With them, it's fascinating stuff for those with fairly liberal views of economics.

The only downsides to this movie were the inclusion of subtitles (everyone was speaking English and not hard to understand!) and to my mind, a lack of statistics and numbers.  I understand the focus was not on that, but I was fascinated by how the British Government had the money to undertake all the spending that is shown in the film, and where that came from.  This is not explored.  So, a little unbalanced and it definitely won't be everyone's cup of tea (get it?) but fascinating stuff and it may be quite instructional given the governments that most of the world are living under at the present time.

BIFF Movie # 1 - Outrage Beyond

Opening my account of BIFF 2013 was the new film from legendary Japanese director and actor 'Beat' Takeshi Kitano.  He is probably best known in Australia for acting as the teacher in "Battle Royale" but also for his earlier yakuza films such as "Boiling Point" and "Violent Cop".  He has explored different genres over the years but returned to the yakuza subject matter in the 2010 movie "Outrage".  This movie is the sequel to that, although I had no idea that it was a sequel to anything beforehand or while watching it (thanks IMDB).  The BIFF guide did not mention the film was a sequel and I think looking back now, it might have been pretty handy to have seen the first film.  Although this film made total sense on its own when I didn't know there was a previous movie, as it did mention past events, I think seeing both would deepen and enhance the appreciation of the second movie. 

As I understand it, Outrage Beyond starts immediately after events in the first film which from my reading seemed to concern rival Yakuza clans the Sanno, Otomo and Hannabishi.  There is a new head of the Sanno family and new young upstart 'executives' whose plans for changing the operation and making more money than ever are unsettling the old guard.  The Hannabishi have a pact not to start a war with the Sanno.  And the Otomo family is no more, with Otomo himself (played by Beat Takeshi) not appearing in the first few chapters of this movie but eventually being revealed to be in prison.  But a nosy, possibly corrupt cop seems determined to stir things up again by plotting and setting people against each other while trying to remain 'neutral'.  Will he succeed and what are his motives?

Anyone expecting full blown violent yakuza action from the get go could be disappointed with this, as it takes quite a while to set up all the characters and the conflict between them.  However, the final third of the movie does suddenly explode into gun battles, stabbings and torture although not as in your face gory as you may expect.  There is some very clever use of sound in these scenes.  The action is all pretty easy to follow but it does require some concentration in the dramatic scenes to remember who is who when a lot of them involve Japanese men of a similar age in similar black suits yelling at each other in non-descript offices and boardrooms. 

I enjoyed the themes of the film in relation to honour, forgiveness, brotherhood and the changing of the guard within the yakuza ranks.  This last item provides most of the few humourous moments.  However I have to say I didn't totally love it the way I have loved most of his other films I've seen.  This I put down partially to the very strange character of cop Kataoka and I think just to not having seen the first film so you are always playing a bit of catch up.  However it does work as a stand alone movie with all previous slights and betrayals explained.  For those who like serious Yakuza films rather than over the top Japanese craziness, you would enjoy this film.

 It's showing again this Friday 15 November at 9pm.

2012 BIFF Follow Up - movie releases

For those of you who followed my adventures at BIFF (Brisbane International Film Festival) in November last year, I'm pleased to share with you that a lot of the big or good movies from the festival are now available for you to see.

Flipping through Bigpond Movies at my brother's house the other day, I realised how many of the BIFF films are now out, sadly skipping our cinemas but at least they are available in Australia.  In previous years, many films have never become available so I've never seen some of them again.  Here is what you can now enjoy (refer back to my BIFF reviews in November if you need a review although I didn't actually see all of these):

1. The Queen of Versailles (GFC doco)
2. Robot and Frank (on Bigpond Movies)
3. Miss Bala (out on DVD)
4. God Bless America (available to buy on DVD)
5. No (drama based on final stages of Pinochet's dictatorship) - in selected cinemas now
6. The Man with the Iron Fists (available on DVD)
7. American Mary (out on DVD)
8. Sound of my Voice (out on DVD)
9. Liberal Arts (out on DVD)

Sadly still no sign of scary movie Sinister at this stage.

BIFF 2012 Wrap Up

Phew, what a busy couple of weeks I've had with BIFF, followed by a rock and roll odyssey lasting 2 weeks and then realising it's almost Christmas and I better get shopping!  I've only now had time to digest the BIFF experience and provide a summary.

Between the 12th and the 25th of November, I ended up seeing 23 movies in total.  And there wasn't a really bad one in the bunch, I picked pretty well again.  Before we look at my Top 5, here is what won the Audience Vote during the festival (for non-BIFF goers, you get to vote on a scale of 1-5 after each movie by ripping a little voting slip and handing it in).  It seems they've heard my previous criticism and the results are based on the percentage of 'love it' votes because some of these movies had extremely small audiences but still made the Top 10.  That's what it should be about, the amount that the people who saw it liked it, not how many people were free to attend at that time.

Showtime Movie Channels Top 10:

1. The Hunt
2. Mission to Lars
3. The Field of Magic
4. The Central Park Five
5. Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel
6. Amour
7. Waziz
8. No
9. Thy Womb
10. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Close but no cigar went to Coral Rekindling Venus, Show me the Magic, Miami Connection, Ai WeiWei's Never Sorry, The Queen of Versailles, Marina Abramovic: The Artist is Present (shown on TV this week!), Ernest & Celestine.

Alright, that's what everyone else loved, what about me?  My Top 5 was:

1. God Bless America (US).  If I don't get this for Christmas, I'll be ordering it off Amazon on Boxing Day!

2. Mission to Lars (UK - also #2 above) -  I think we all agreed this was a heartwarming charmer.

3. Sinister (US).  Almost scared the pants off me.  I love having my pants scared off!

4. The Reluctant Revolutionary (Yemen/Irish production).  Shocking, inspiring, eye-opening and very real.

5. Sons of Norway (Norway). Funny, touching coming of age tale mixed with punk rebellion.

I would also rate Miami Connection close to the Top 5 for pure stupidity and hilarity, and also Maniac was a strong contender for just pure originality in an overstuffed slasher genre.

If you get a chance to see any of these movies, I suggest that you take that chance.  There's a whole world out there around us and BIFF is a great way to see what is happening in places you would normally never see or read about without great difficulty.  Even if you wouldn't watch them over and over again, these movies are a great experience to have.  Let me guide you next year! 

Last BIFF Film Review - The ABCs of Death

Closing night of BIFF and one of the last films screened is 'The ABCs of Death'.  Not actually a movie, but 26 short films all run together with only one thing in common - death.  The creators of this film took 26 directors from around the world, many working in the horror genre, and allocated them one letter of the alphabet, a $5,000 budget and a maximum running time of 4 minutes.  That letter had to represent a method of killing someone, but the director had complete creative freedom of how to choose and film their segment.

The result of this little experiment was for me, a little too bizarre.  Some were obvious, some were extremely tenuously linked to their letter, some were artsy fartsy (O is for Orgasm), some were blah, and some were just extremely weird (F is for Fart).  This movie is not for the faint hearted and will at some stage offend you.  If you haven't been offended up to the letter Y, don't worry, you will be offended by the letter Z, which was directed by our mate Hiro Nishimura (last year's 'Helldriver', 'Tokyo Gore Police') and is completely crazy.  You won't ever have seen anything like this.  Whether you want to or not I think will depend on your mood - my overall vibe was that I didn't like it very much. It was too disjointed, the death methods were not traditional or scary enough for my liking, and the directors are not well known enough to be able to successfully play 'guess the director' before the end credits roll (with two exceptions - we spotted the Metalocalypse guys fingerprints on their segment and Nishimura of course).  I preferred last year's Film Festival entry "50 Best Kills" which was a mash up of the 50 best death scenes, commentated by Lars Nilsson of the Alama Drafthouse Cinemas in the US.  Much more fun!

If you are interested to know what the 26 chosen letters are, please scroll down and I've listed them below.  Not the best closing to a Film Festival that I've had, but an experience.

Apocalypse
Directed by Nacho Vigalondo.

Bigfoot
Directed by Adrian Garcia Bogliano.

Cycle
Directed by Ernesto Diaz Espinoza.

Dogfight
Directed by Marcel Sarmiento.

Exterminate
Directed by Angela Bettis.

Fart
Directed by Noburo Iguchi.

Gravity
Directed by Andrew Traucki.

Hydro-Electric Diffusion
Directed by Thomas Cappelen Malling.

Ingrown
Directed by Jorge Michel Grau.

Jidai-Geki
Directed by Yudai Yamaguchi.

Klutz
Directed by Anders Morgenthaler.

Libido
Directed by Timo Tjahjanto.

Miscarriage
Directed by Ti West.

Nuptials
Directed by Banjong Pisanthanakun.

Orgasm
Directed by Bruno Forzani, Helene Cattet.

Pressure
Directed by Simon Rumley.

Quack
Directed by Adam Wingard, Simon Barrett.

Removed
Directed by Srdjan Spasojevic.

Speed
Directed by Jake West.

Toilet
Directed by Lee Hardcastle.

Unearthed
Directed by Ben Wheatley.

Vagitus
Directed by Kaare Andrews.

WTF!
Directed by Jon Schnepp.

XXL
Directed by Xavier Gens.

Youngbuck
Directed by Jason Eisener.

Zetsumetsu
Directed by Yoshihiro Nishimura.

The Queen of Versailles - A Riches to Rags tale

Movie #22 of the Brisbane International Film festival and #3 of the day after a very fast walk back up to Palace Barracks from the Tribal Cinema, was "The Queen of Versailles".  This was a fascinating documentary which actually won the BIFFDocs prize on offer for best documentary at the festival.  And I can see why.  I was totally prepared to hate the people in this movie and find them obnoxious, but I only hated them part of the time.  The other part I felt some sympathy.  The filmmakers did a good job.

This documentary was filmed over a number of years, following the extremely wealthy David Siegel (who made his fortune selling time-share resorts in the US) and his wife Jacqueline who "worked her way up from nothing" and their 8 kids (7 biological, 1 niece adopted).  Initially the documentary was following their quest to build the largest private residence in the US, named Versailles.  What they continually called their dream home, the rest of us would call complete and utter obnoxiousness and wasteage.  The home was to have something like 70 bedrooms, 30 bathrooms and kitchens, private theatre, bowling alley, grand ballroom, swimming pools, staff accommodation etc etc etc.  plus ridiculous decoration and spending on marble, Edwardian furniture and the like.  When it was finished, the home was estimated that it would be worth $100 million.  And this was being built while they lived in an already ridiculous mansion.  So yeah, I'm feeling the urge to laugh at them and hate them right now.  But then something happens.  The movie mainly follows Jacqui and despite her seemingly extravagant lifestyle she seems to be quite a normal and likeable person who only pulls out the designer duds for big parties (although the boob implants are on show constantly no matter what the scenario) and I find myself thinking 'she's not as bad as she seems'.  Surprise #1.

The 'Riches to Rags' part of the story comes when the Global Financial Crisis hits during construction of Versailles and right after their company has built the biggest tower in Las Vegas with a wad of borrowed funds.  With the banks suddenly not wanting to lend money and particularly to sub-prime borrowers, the Siegels get into trouble.  They are not allowed to sell any more time share in the Vegas building, they have to make a lot of staff redundant from the business, they can barely afford the repayments on the building and their home, and now they can't borrow any more funds to finish their dream home.  Boo hoo.  But completely fascinating.  Now we get a glimpse of what happens when the wealthy realise that it's all on paper and isn't going to feed and clothe the children.  And this is where it gets difficult because you see these people who should be struggling, but their life still seems pretty good.  Jacqui spends up so big on Christmas and they still try to have these big parties, but then you discover that she has not actually been told the extent of their financial problems and if she'd known she wouldn't have done it.  Surprise #2.  She also sends some money to help out an old school friend whose house is being foreclosed upon by the bank. Surprise #3.  David though becomes a grumpy old man and starts to alienate his family while he concentrates on trying to find a solution to their issues as the GFC drags on.  His own daughter seems very insightful when she says that it's like he doesn't even love Jacqui, she's more of a 'trophy' wife for the good times.  You wonder why she stays with this much older man who treats her like crap.  This makes me feel even more sympathy for her - surprise #4.   However, their dogged pursuit of their goal to either keep Versailles, sell it unfinished for $70m or finished for $100m, and David and his son's insistence that the banks are the bad guys here (which they are but they're not the only ones - earlier he was bragging about how much money he made off suckers who buy his product) brings me back to contempt again.

This was pretty interesting stuff, particularly for anyone like me who works in the finance area and has an understanding of what it was about.  You won't get any financial analysis here though, it's a story about people with more money than sense and taste, right to the end.  Fascinating stuff and highly worth seeking out.

BIFF Movie 21 - American Mary

Movie #2 on the final Sunday of BIFF was "American Mary".  This was billed as a horror but in reality was more just a macabre drama that I found a little weird.  Directed by the sisters who gave us "Ginger Snaps", it follows a young medical student who inadvertently becomes involved in the underground body modification scene, initially to make money but then her motivations for performing some bizarre surgical procedures become questionable. And therein lies the problem.  We never actually find out what is behind this young girl who at first appears quite normal but is then able to perform some fairly unspeakable acts with seemingly little emotion or regret. 

Mary is a promising but struggling uni student who seems to have no family other than a grandma who lives in a foreign country.  With debts piling up and very few options, Mary decides to take a job at a gentlemen's club but during the 'interview' she is called upon to do some highly illegal surgery to save a guy the owner has tortured a little too far.  A big wad of cash persuades her too easily although there is a scene of her reacting afterwards.  With some extremely alternative people tracking her down to do some cosmetic surgeries, Mary at first says no but the even bigger wads of cash persuade her.  After attending a surgeon's party where she is drugged and raped by her lecturer, Mary kinda goes over the edge into an icy cold world where she gets her revenge.   Within a few minutes she becomes well known on the internet as the queen of body mod surgeries and quits her medical degree.  While you can completely understand her wanting to get revenge on this disgusting person, the script has her doing some pretty despicable things in anyone's book and also gaining a bit of an ego, swanning around in designer gear and wielding her cutting tools like a maniac against anyone who crosses her.

The dark vibe was pretty cool but I felt the movie to be flawed.  Mary's lack of emotion at certain times is never explained, it makes it difficult to empathise with what would normally be a very sympathetic character, the ending is unsatisfying and overall I just felt the construction was weird.  The relationship between Mary and the club owner is bizarre and a lot of things just don't come across as natural.  The biggest cross for me though is how the directors cut away from a lot of the gorier parts of the film which might otherwise have saved this and given it a bigger impact.  Afterwards I heard a few people saying that the film was 'too mainstream' but I would have to disagree - this explores some pretty strange places to me.

Movie #20 The Reluctant Revolutionary

The last day of the film festival has come.  The first of two documentaries I would see today is The Reluctant Revolutionary.  This is a fantastic and confronting piece of filmmaking, taking a first-hand look at the popular uprising in Yemen in 2011.

Irish documentary maker Sean McAlister is in Yemen making a documentary about falling tourism which is contributing to Yemen being one of the poorest countries in the Arab world.  Bordering Saudi Arabia and Oman and having an Al-Qaeda presence in some regions, a spate of kidnappings of tourists has really dented the industry.  We see things from the perspective of guide Kais who has seen his world collapse as economic problems and flagging tourist numbers forced him to give up the hotel he managed and now bookings for trips are at an all time low.  His wife has a baby on the way and is thinking about leaving him if he can't find a way to provide for his family.  This provides a sympathetic emotional base on which Sean McAlister then builds a personal insight into the Yemeni revolution through the eyes of Kais and himself.  Extending his stay in Yemen as a tourist, McAlister manages to remain and film the events from the inside even after foreign journalists are removed from the country, although it becomes touch and go whether he can stay towards the end.

The fascinating part of this documentary is that Kais begins as a supporter of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, but as events unfold he slowly becomes a support of the revolution protests and wants the President out of power.  Nothing in his situation has changed for better or worse, but interaction with the protestors and seeing what occurs in the protest camp leads him to believe that change is needed.

The confronting part of this documentary is the first-hand footage of the protest camps and the events of February and March 2011.  Although Saleh, who has been in power in Yemen for 33 years, had been elected democratically in 2006, there was a growing movement that felt he should hand over that power due to economic problems, corruption and unemployment.  Happening simultaneously with the Egyptian uprising against Mubarak, the Yemeni revolution was based around peaceful protest calling for a peaceful hand over of power, new elections and a new constitution.  While initially peaceful, the Government eventually tries to disassemble the protest camp which leads to rising anger among the people.  On March 18, the Government fired on protestors who held no weapons and killed 52 people, including children.  Although you do not see this directly, McAlister's camera does capture the gunshots in the distance and does go into the makeshift hospital that is set up for the victims, which shows unedited footage of gunshot victims.  I'll never forget what one doctor says to the camera when Sean asks if he should stop filming: "Your camera and your eye is the best thing to show the world what is happening in Yemen.  Use your brain camera, your eye, to show what is happening here.  The government is shooting to kill, they are not shooting to stop protestors - these wounds are all in the head, neck, chest and shoulders."

I got goosebumps all over my body seeing the sheer size and determination of these protestors to prevail, even if it means giving their lives for a better world for their families.  I felt sick watching the footage of injured people, many still very young.  I felt like I had just had a slap in the face despite there being some moments of humour in Kais' observations of Yemen society.  We have no real problems in this country compared to many others and more people should see this to appreciate the freedom we have here.

The post-script:  After the events of March 18 captured so shockingly here, it still took 7 months before Saleh agreed to a power-transfer deal in November where power went to the vice-president temporarily and Saleh would quit the presidency by Feb 2012, in exchange for immunity from prosecution for any crimes committee while in power.  Although the people did not agree with this deal, it was enacted.  In February 2012, an election was held with 65% turnout.  Abd Rabbuh Mansur al-Hadi took the oath of office in Yemen's parliament on 25 February 2012.

Post-script 2: The protestors are not 100% guilt free as might be implied by the film.  Although everything you see in the film is peaceful protest and pushing for dialogue, there were elements of the uprising that were violent.  On 23 May, a day after Saleh refused to sign the transition agreement, Sheikh Sadiq al-Ahmar, the head of the Hashid tribal federation, one of the most powerful tribes in the country, declared support for the opposition and his armed supporters came into conflict with loyalist security forces in the capital Sana'a.  Heavy street fighting ensued, which included artillery and mortar shelling. Saleh and several others were injured and at least five people were killed by a 3 June bombing of the presidential compound when an explosion ripped through a mosque used by high-level government officials for prayer services.

What this all proves is that the so called 'Arab Spring' is a highly complex issue but one that it is difficult to argue against, particularly after the horrible events in Egypt and Syria.  This one is a real eye-opener.

BIFF Scary Saturday

Second last day of the festival and I've got two late night movies lined up.

First up is Sinister. This is a scary movie, in the best traditional style of using a dark house, effective sound and a sense of foreboding to scare yourself.  The movie stars Ethan Hawke as Ellison Oswalt, a man who writes those true crime novels which detail the how, who and why of real life crimes.  After a couple of flops he is chasing another big hit bestseller and thinks he's found the best chance after a family is murdered in their back yard and the youngest daughter is still missing.  Struggling financially and refusing to take a normal job, Ellison sees an opportunity to gain unique inspiration when the murder house goes on the market for a steal.  Not telling his wife and two young children about the fact they are moving into the murder house seems like a pretty bad idea.  And so it proves to be....

Almost from the first day that he sets up his home office and begins researching for the book, Ellison is drawn into the mysterious events after finding a box of home movies filmed on Super 8.  The movies are from different time periods and turn out to be much more than they first appear - they contain many clues to what is really going on.  But how did the movies get in the attic in the first place?  Who filmed them?  Why do creepy things keep happening?

I strongly recommend this movie if you like scary movies with a slight supernatural element.  I was truly creeped out in some scenes, to the point where I was squirming in my seat every time Ellison put on one of those movies (or it put itself on).  All the usual scary movie tropes are used in this film, but they are done really effectively to build tension and send a chill down your spine.  And if you don't believe me, take it from the girl 2 rows down who kissed her boyfriend, got up and left, not to return, after about 40 minutes.  This movie should be coming out at the cinema soon and I suggest you slot it into your schedule as it should be seen in a dark cinema.

Second movie tonight was Inbred which was promising to be a funny, gory splatterfest.  Instead what we got was a bit of a shocker.  Four young juvenile delinquents are taken to a secluded cottage in a small English village with two social workers for a bit of time away from society.  Unfortunately, escaping from a gang of THE most inbred, hillbilly, maniacal weirdos that inhabit the village proves a little too much of a team building activity for this bunch of misfits.

This movie is just bad and weird.  The person who has thought up the concepts for the manner of death (of both the city folk and the few inbred hillbillies they manage to take out) and the bizarro 'theatre' that the locals attend, is obviously a pretty twisted individual.  I don't normally mind weird or gory but for me this just didn't gel and it was hampered by some pretty poor acting all round.  The hillbillies are a cruel bunch of freaks and the city kids are a cruel bunch of misfits and the biggest problem is that I didn't feel sympathy for any of them so I really didn't care who lived or who died.  My recommendation: Avoid.

BIFF Magic Night

Thursday was a magical movie night.  First up tonight I attended the world premiere of the documentary 'Show me the Magic' which profiles legendary Australian cinematographer Donald McAlpine.  In attendance was Mr McAlpine, his wife and Jack Thompson, a friend of Don's and patron of APSA.  Plus the director and producers of the doco.

Don McAlpine started his career in Australia quite late in the piece after being a teacher and then filing news reports for the ABC.  He worked on early Australian classics Breaker Morant, Don's Party and My Brilliant Career, which provided a springboard to Hollywood where he worked with director Paul Mazursky quite a bit.  He has a varied resume, never making the same type of film.  He's done action, comedy, Predator, drama and musicals.  I think his work on Baz Luhrman's Romeo and Juliet is particularly good and seeing some clips from the making of that movie makes me want to watch it again.  The movie did a good job of showing what a cinematographer actually does, which is basically lighting and framing the scenes to make it look just right on the screen - dark when you want it dark, light when you want it light, and each actor framed perfectly.  It was also an interesting look at his life, illustrating the saying 'behind every good man is a great worman' quite well, as his wife proves to be a funny, feisty lady who gave up her own teaching career to be with her husband as he travelled the world so that they could hold their marriage together and he could follow his dream.  Not that I advocate that, just that it obviously works well for them.

I had to miss the Don McAlpine Q&A session to speed over to Palace Centro to see 'Following'.  A very good introduction from the 'first films' programmer indicated to us that this first film from director Christopher Nolan (Batman Begins trilogy, The Prestige, Inception) was filmed on an extremely low budget, in between the 9 to 5 jobs of the director, actors and crew, using natural light and minimal sets.  We were thus prepared for what followed, which despite the low budget and low lighting in places still managed to be a complex neo-noir drama.  An interesting concept (a burglar with a motive beyond just stealing stuff, he seems to enjoy messing with the heads of the victims more) with a twist in the tail long before that was trendy, and telling the story out of time but still keeping you guessing.  It's an impressive debut even though not the most thrilling movie we've watched.  However, you can definitely see where he built on the ideas in this film for Memento, his second film which was a really big step up from this one.  'Following' is due to be released on DVD for the first time in the near future, so if you're curious to see where this excellent director got his start, check it out.

BIFF Friday - Best movie of 2012!

Today I realised I was over half way.  Not in days, but in movies seen off my list.  Because it's only been 1 or 2 per day so far, it hasn't seemed like a lot.  Someone asked if I was sick of it yet, I said "no way!"  And that is a good thing, because tonight I saw the best movie I've seen at the festival so far, and one of the best movies I've seen this year!

Movie # 16 today was 'Django', another spaghetti western directed by Sergio Corbucci (who also directed 'The Mercenary' which I saw earlier this week).  This was made in 1966 and introduced the character of Django, who proved very popular and spawned a series of sequels and imitators using the character named Django.  Django you see is a bit of an anti-hero, a man with a heart grown cold following the (implied) killing of the woman he loved and who will basically do anything for adventure and gold.  It's a very similar character to the one in 'The Mercenary' and since they are both played by Franco Nero, I couldn't help but compare the two.  I found 'The Mercernary' to be funnier and more fun, whereas 'Django' is a much more bleak film in theme and setting.

A lone stranger walks into a mud splattered, rain soaked ghost town in southern California, dragging a coffin and holding a girl he's rescued from bandits.  The only place in town that is open is a bar/brothel which has survived by servicing the rival gangs of the Mexicans who have crossed the border to formulate plans for a revolution against the army in Mexico, and a nasty gang of racist Californians who wear red hoods and scarves (KKK beginnings?).  Returning the girl is likely to bring trouble from both gangs, and the scene is set for a showdown.  Django doesn't seem afraid though, and when you see what he has in that coffin, you'll know why.  What follows is a tale of cold hearted killing, double crossing and revenge.  At the time, the violence was regarded as being quite brutal and while it would be fairly tame these days, some scenes were a bit uncomfortable.  Django is a pretty cool character but I found it a little too bleak to be enjoyable and probably preferred 'The Mercenary' of the two selections.

Friday night and movie #17 rolled around and one with a bit of anticipation based on the description alone.  'God Bless America' did not disappoint, I would rate this as one of the best movies I've seen so far this year.  This is a movie which dares to say what we are all thinking - that the world is going to hell in a handbasket, with the death of manners, kindness to our fellow human beings, and common decency.

'God Bless America' is an extremely dark comedy that will appeal to anyone who has thought that American culture is leading to a dumbing down in society and destroying the values of a civilised culture.  Obsession with fame, reality TV, talking head TV shows, self-centredness, stupidity and misguided patriotism are some of the chief culprits and targets of this incredibly black comedy.  Frank is a man who has been pushed down, by the divorce from his wife who has moved on with a younger man, the disaffection of his daughter, being terminated from his job over a ridiculous harrassment claim and finding out he has an inoperable brain tumour.  An intelligent man who values being nice above everything, he despairs over the vapidity and stupidity he sees all around him at home (the opening scene where he takes spectacularly bloody revenge on his annoying neighbours in a dream shocks you from the outset so that what follows doesn't seem quite so bad), at work and on TV and the radio.  He's been pushed a tad too far by this recent bad news and snaps when he sees a whiny teen pricess on TV having a tantrum about her parents buying her the 'wrong car' for her sweet 16th.  Taking out his gun, he decides to take out Chloe to rid the world of this nasty girl who values all the wrong qualities.  A classmate of Chloe's witnesses the incident and is delighted with the outcome as she too sees many things wrong with a world that looks up to people like Chloe.  Stopping Frank from killing himself, Roxy convinces him to make this an ongoing concern and take her along for the ride.

What follows is an insanely violent but hilarious road trip as the perfectly matched pair of killers try to pick the ultimate victims to get their point across, but their motives are continually misunderstood by the media.  The climax at the finale of the fake pop star show American Superstarz is an absolutely scathing attack on both the makers and participants of these shows that set people up for ridicule as well as stardom. 

We found ourselves agreeing with so much of this movie (although mental note, I have to stop giving high fives or else Frank and Roxy would be after me) and saying 'it's so true' a lot.  Their discussions about their next potential victims cover a wide range of behaviour on the annoying scale but it is satisfying to see that they reserve their ire for those who really deserve to die.  I won't give too much away though on that front.

This movie is excellent, balancing the extreme violence with a lot of laughs and never having the perpetrators violate their own (twisted) code of conduct - there is no inappropriate relationship a la Natural Born Killers here.  In fact, despite the similarities in storyline I did not think of NBK at all while watching this.  It's much more concerned with righting the world's wrongs, just in the wrong way.  I loved this movie.  I highly recommend it.  It's on again tonight at the Film Festival at 6:30pm.