#29 Movie - Moneyball

What is the perfect movie for a quiet Saturday night? We chose Moneyball.  It turned out to be a fine choice - calm, high quality, engaging and interesting.  And not a lot of baseball.

Moneyball is based on a true story.  The story of a former ball player, Billy Beane, who never quite lived up to his potential and ends up as the General Manager of a top level baseball team.   Billy is struggling with the economics of the game - his team, the Oakland Athletics, has around $40 million to spend compared to the over $100 million of the big teams such as the New York Yankees.  With so much less money, Billy can't attract the top-flight talent and the team hasn't been able to win a championship.  With 3 of their best players recruited by other teams for the following season, the team loses the elimination series and misses out again.  Setting up for the following year, Billy discovers an underling for the opposing team (played by Jonah Hill) who seems to have a lot of influence.  He's not even a baseball player or expert, he's an economics graduate with a talent for statistical analysis and predictions.  Billy and Peter team up to try a new method of putting together a team within their budget and we get to follow the results.

This movie really doesn't have a lot to do with baseball.  It's about a number of things in my opinion.  About a man trying to leave a legacy behind.  About the struggle of trying to change a system from within.  About how we value people.  And having the courage to do what you believe is right.  Sounds corny right?  But somehow they manage to make it very un-corny.  I think the credit for this can largely be placed at the feet of one Brad Pitt.  He has matured, and it suits him.  He plays this character perfectly and you really want him to achieve his goal.  Jonah Hill provides great support by barely acting, just being there and not trying to be funny at all.  And there's absolutely no gross-out.

Everything about this movie is quality.  The acting is good (even with a lot of non-acting baseball people in the scouting and playing scenes), the script and dialogue better, the ending unexpected.  There is quite a bit of humour laced in and it's smart stuff.  Although there is a lot of statistics, it's not boring even though it was totally over my head.  There are some great insights into the real game, I had no idea that there are so MANY games played in a season.  No wonder these guys don't last very long!

Don't dismiss Moneyball as a sports film or a cliched sports film.  It is so not a sports film in the traditional sense.  It's a gentle drama with a touch of humour and a couple of sporting moments, which is about sticking it to the man and changing the game for good.

Everything Rolls On

The Hollywood machine rolls on indefinitely so this week we again have a large number of new movies.  The Twilight movie took over $12,000,000 in its first week but (unsurprisingly to me who knew it would be the weakest link in the series) it is still below the 3rd movie's opening figures.  It seems you all took my lead and went to see something else!

This week you have choices of the new George Clooney/Ryan Gosling political thriller "The Ides of March" which explores the machinations of the party behind a politician campaigning to be the presidential candidate.  If that's too much beefcake and thinking for you, how about "The Inbetweeners Movie" which follows four average, spotty teens as they leave high school and go on a party trip to a Greek island.  If you know the TV show, which is one of the funniest shows around at the moment, then I'm sure you'll already be planning to see the movie extension.

Prefer a sword and sandals epic mixed with Greek mythology?  Go for "Immortals" which is showing in 3D, from the producers of "300".  Zeus and Theseus both appeared in Clash of the Titans a year back but who cares if you want to see a bit of bloody sword battle and sweaty men yelling at each other?  Micky Rourke as King Hyperion?  Weird...

For the arthouse lovers there is "Ages of Love" which appears to be an Italian ensemble rom-com starring Robert de Niro and Monica Belluci.  Palace are promoting this as a big hit at the Italian Film Festival a few months back.  Also "Bill Cunningham New York" which is a documentary on the guy who fills his New York Times pages with photographs of people's fashion on the streets of New York.  He still rides a bike around taking snaps at the age of about 80 years old!

For all our Dads, they might like the movie "Codgers" which is showing only at the Regal Twin at Graceville.  It's an Aussie film based on the stage play about five old Aussie codgers who meet at the gym each week for a chinwag and good laugh.  Here's a link to the website:
http://www.codgersthemovie.com/

Another Aussie movie only showing at the Schonell Theatre at UQ is "X".  This played at the BIFF and is based around a prostitute in Sydney who is retiring and has only one night left on the job.  She meets a young girl who is hoping to get through her first night on the job.  However it is one hell of a night after they accidentally witness a murder and go on the run.

There really is something for everyone right there!  Hopefully I will have some new reviews for you shortly, life has just been a little bit crazy of late.

New movies - Alternatives to Twilight

Well my prediction from last week that Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 1 would rampage across all the screens and kick out most movies did not quite come true, but it is certainly dominating.  However, there are a number of alternatives with Moneyball, Contagion, I Don't Know How She Does It, The Debt, In Time, Drive and Paranormal Activity 3 still have a lot of sessions.  New movie choices include We Need to Talk about Kevin (family drama starring Tilda Swinton as a mother whose relationship with her son has broken down) and The Burning Man (Aussie production about a British chef living and working in Sydney and his troubled past and relationships with various women). 

Lots of docos out this week too.  The Tall Man is a documentary on the Cameron Doomadgee death in custody case from Palm Island a few years ago.  Tabloid is showing at Dendy exclusively, which is a documentary about a fomer Miss Wyoming who became obsessed with a Mormon missionary and was charged with abduction and imprisonment.  She was apparently a very weird individual.  I'm not doing it justice I'm sure, maybe research it a bit if you might be interested - the director Errol Morris is well known for entertaining documentaries apparently.  This is Not a Film is an Iranian documentary about a filmmaker banned by his Government from making movies because of his criticism of the state, this doco follows his time imprisoned in his own home (this movie's footage was smuggled out of Iran in a cake so it could be released!).  This is showing at Dendy too but it may just be previews, there might be more sessions next week.  Would be quite fascinating.  There is also The First Grader, which I'm unsure if it is actually a documentary or a drama based on a true story, of an 84 year old Kenyan man who decides to go to school to learn to read and write.  What makes this worthy of a film is the fact that he used to be a freedom fighter and went through the Mau Mau uprising, and this causes controversy when the media and public learn he is mixing with primar school children.

And finally, Submarine is back on our screens at the Schonell Theatre at UQ.  I might get to see it this time!

So there are plenty of choices if you know what else is out there, you don't have to sit through Bella marrying Edward, going on honeymoon, having apparently M rated sex, getting pregnant and sulking through the difficult pregnancy.  There you go, I've summarised the whole movie for you right there.  All the action happens in the second half of the book, which some bozo decided would be a second movie rather than just filming the book as one movie.  Actually I probably should be thanking them, as now I get to skip the boring bits and just go see the second film for the more interesting ending.

BIFF Wrap Up - 17 movies in 10 days!

It's now Monday and my BIFF adventure is over for another year.  I closed out the 10 days with two movies yesterday, both of which continued the strong quality for this year.

Movie #16 was "Policeman" which was an Israeli film that the guide said was going to explore the tensions in Israel between the elite anti-terrorism cops and the wealthy young rebels committing terrorist acts within their own state.  However I didn't really feel that it did explore those tensions very well - the movie was essentially two halves, the first following the police but not really getting into why they do what they do, and the second following the young Jewish terrorists which at least did cover their motivations.  When the two come together, the expected happens.  I think it could have been a lot more political but what was on screen was still very interesting and compelling.  The struggles that these terrorists were fighting against are obviously no different from events going on in many parts of the world - very similar to the "Occupy..." protests, which makes it easier to sympathise, but still their actions are criminal and they leave the police very little option.

Movie #17 to cap off this big week was the crazy "Trollhunter" from Norway.  This was a parody of those movies featuring handheld, self-filmed first person experience of monsters or scary events. Such as Cloverfield or Blair Witch.  I can't really explain very well how it was a parody, but it was very funny and it did have a knowing gleam in its eye the whole time.  A group of college kids filming a doco on bear hunters find a more interesting subject in a mysterious individual who disappears into the forest at night and sleeps all day, with a truck covered in bear claw marks.  When they start following him, they accidentally become embroiled in troll hunting.  In this movie, trolls are very real and very scary creatures which the Norwegian government is trying to hide the existence of from the citizens.  Hans is the government's main weapon in this fight, going out at night to neutralize trolls who have stepped out of their normal territory.  This movie was just out and out fun and cool, with the troll mythology being something fresh in a world oversaturated by vampires, werewolves and zombies.  If this comes out, definitely check it out!

So at the end of 10 days and 19 movies (I saw 2 others outside the film festival) I can honestly say I don't have square eyes and I never got sick of it.  The quality this year was very high and there were so many others I could have seen without budget constraints and if I could clone myself to be in two places at once.  I didn't see anything that I didn't like this year, everything was either good, great or awesome!  My top 3 movies would have been Comic-Con, Medianeras and Manborg.  One of the things I also enjoyed was spotting the same people over and over again in the audience, so that I knew I'm not so crazy, there are others who take a week off to sit in a darkened cinema and be surprised over and over. See you next year film buffs!

BIFF Update #6

Woah, been so busy the days of my holiday have flown by and I've missed updating for a few days.  I saw two movies on Friday.  "Medianeras" was a rather excellent rom-com from Argentina, with two quirky but relateable leads who you knew would be perfect for each other if they could just get out of their apartments and meet each other somehow.  A fantastic commentary on modern society where we could just live on the internet if we choose to, but still we do need human interaction.  I loved this movie's structure, characters, script and scenery (I did get a lot of looks at Buenos Aires in this one) and I reckon it is ripe for a Hollywood remake.  The lead actress had a touch of Anne Hathaway and I could just see her in the role in any remake, then I'd put Jesse Eisenberg in as the male lead as a nice spin from playing Mark Zuckerburg (being the prisoner of an online society rather than the creator of the internet prison in The Social Network). Loved this one.

Second movie was "Cairo 678" which was a fictional account of women's issues in modern Egyptian society.  Although fictional you could tell it was based on very real issues even if the exact events were not true.  It was a real eye-opener too.  Although the city of Cairo appeared fairly modernised, and people are allowed to get divorced, it seems that women were still second-class citizens when it came to a culture of sexual harrassment.  The movie seemed to indicate that men harrassing women (either verbally, by pressing against them on buses, grabbing them on the street and assault) was a very common thing, but also more disturbingly that it was never reported because it was shameful to the woman and her family.  The scandal to her family would be so deep that nobody ever had the courage to press charges.  So is it common because the men are just pigs or because they know they can get away with it?  This movie dealt with a trio of women trying to confront what happens in different ways and how societal change can occur.  It ended up with the first court case against a man for sexual harrassment which was successful, resulting in Egypt soon passing laws to criminalise sexual assault.  I don't know what year this was set in but if it was pretty recent, it is pretty disturbing to think this was happening until only recently.  I thought the movie was a bit controversial because towards the end, one of the females who has taken action against the harrassers speaks against the other women coming forward, saying that their immodest dress, Westernised hair and makeup etc was encouraging the men in their actions and that they should take some responsibility.  I found this to be a pretty shocking point of view (the old "they asked for it" argument that still gets trotted out from time to time) but at least it was condemned on screen as the type of old fashioned thinking that was contributing to what was happening to the women.  But then the same character that condemned it cut her hair and started wearing wraps over her clothes! Dammit!  Well I guess it was just a movie and at least there was some progress made by the end.

Saturday and a prior engagement meant I had to skip the Tribal Trivia Night and Horror Movie Marathon.  Would love to hear how that was and if people stayed awake - the two later movies during the wee hours were not the fastest paced movies I've ever seen, although still pretty good.  But I did make it to the movie "Another Earth" which was a US film and could see a small release here so I won't give too much away.  I enjoyed this a lot and could liken it a bit to the movie "Moon" in that it used a very low-tech sci-fi setting but was primarily a character drama.  A young girl hoping to become an astrophysicist is about to go to uni when she decides to drive home drunk from a party.  Listening to the radio she hears about the exciting discovery of a new planet which is similar to Earth and could sustain life. Gazing out the window to see the new planet, she loses focus on the road and hits a car, resulting in the man going into a coma and the pregnant wife and young son being killed.  After 4 years in prison, the girl is released and tries to begin a normal life but she is intrigued by the discovery that Earth 2 is populated by people who are the mirror image of ourselves, entering a competition to go on a spaceship bound for Earth 2.  She also goes to apologise to the man whose life she destroyed, but she loses her nerve and ends up becoming friends with him (without him knowing who she is).  What happens from here I won't say but it is a beautifully shot story of redemption mixed in with a bit of philosophical stuff about whether there are other "us"s and what we would say to ourselves if we met our other?

Two more movies today to wrap up this year's BIFF for me.  Israel's "Policeman" and Norway's "Trollhunter".  Trollhunter (3pm) in particular has a bit of hype as it is a bit of a parody of the "first person hand-held camera monster movies" such as Cloverfield and Blair Witch Project.  I think this is going to get a release in Australia so I will review it afterwards.

BIFF Update # 5

Only 1 movie yesterday, a very light relaxing day all up.  The movie was "Penumbra", a perplexing thriller with a last minute supernatural element.  Being set in Buenos Aires, I was hoping to see some of this city but the action completely occurred within an apartment building and on the street outside.  A young and fiesty Spanish lawyer is in town for business and is trying to rent out an apartment she and her sister have inherited from their parents.  When the agent is running late, Margarita heads upstairs, only to find the agent waiting for her at the door. Or so she thinks.... From the get go, you realise that something is not right with the "agent" and the suspicious behaviour builds up slowly, creating a lot of tension because you only find out what is happening as Margarita does.  I would describe this as a slow burn thriller, as you are constantly worried about what the strangers arriving at the apartment are going to do but you have no real clue about what's happening.  Never boring (and I didn't feel sleepy once depite the almost 10:30pm start time - nothing ever runs on time with the BIFF{my only real complaint about the festival}) it had a strange power to draw you in, because really Margarita was quite an unpleasant individual and yet I still feared for what was coming.  The ending left me pretty mystified and I hoped there would be an after credits explanation, but there wasn't.  Chatting to a guy that walked out at the same time as me though revealed his theory which proved far more satisfactory than what I was thinking, so I came home feeling good that I knew what had happened.  And relieved it was not a "boo" scary movie so I could feel comfortable walking to the car and letting myself in at home..... The events also took place during the day of a solar eclipse, which explains the name of the film which I googled today to discover its meaning is that part of the shadow where the light is partially blocked, but interestingly it also has a meaning in legal terminology of being a "grey area".  The ending certainly was a grey area for me so it was well named!  The funny thing about this movie was also the atrocious English subtitling and misspelling of words, hopefully it gets better treatment if it is ever released on DVD here.

Two more movies today - "Medianeras" what is hopefully going to be a gentle romantic comedy again set in Buenos Aires, and I think I might get to see a bit more of it this time.  And then Cairo678 which will be an eye opener on Egyptian culture and women's struggle there to overcome sexual harrassment.  Another interesting day ahead, possibly ending tonight with a repeat viewing of Bridesmaids on DVD which I think has been the funniest movie this year.

What's New 10 November

OK guys, if there are any movies you've been meaning to see for a few weeks, you better get along in the next 6 days because next Thursday sees the release of Breaking Dawn, the next Twilight movie, and I expect this is going to monopolise screens and see the end of any smaller films still hanging around.

This week sees the release of several new movies.  Moneyball is the new film starring Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill, about a struggling baseball team who decide to try a completely different style of putting a team together.  Based around a true story, the management team decide to "shock, horror" build a team based on actual performance statistics, rather than reputation, money and sponsorship.  This looks like it could be an interesting sports movie that is not based on the old sports movie cliche of the big triumphant finale to redeem the washed up, former star athlete.

Fighting Fear is a new doco on surfing mates from Sydney who get in a bit of trouble until the redemptive power of the ocean puts them back on track.  Early reports say it is a bit of a retread of the same territory, but no "Bra Boys".

The Debt is a new drama/thriller centred around a trio of Mossad agents (Israel's top spy agency) who are the toast of Israel for their Nazi-hunting exploits in Germany in the 1960s.  The movie explores the current day, and flashes back to the past to cover the lead up to and execution of their crazy mission.  High quality acting talent in this one - Helen Mirren, Tom Wilkinson and Ciaran Hinds as the present day versions and Sam Worthington (Aussie boys are doing well at the moment), Martins Csokas and Jessica Chastain as the younger versions.  But were they truly heroes?  You will have to see to find out.

Revheads will be pleased to see the movie "Fastest" which is a documentary covering the MotoGP season of 2010 and a bit of 2011.  This is the latest from the guy who did "Faster" a few years ago and also "The Tornado, the Doctor and the Kentucky Kid" all covering similar ground of the elite motorcycling championship in the world.  Even if you're not a follower of the MotoGP regularly, this movie will be interesting for the insight into the 2009 reigning champ Valentino Rossi's struggle against the new young superstars and the problems he's experienced in 2011 on switching to Ducati (which would only get worse as the season continued which is not covered here but could be a fascinating future topic).   This movie is only showing at cinemas for 4 days starting today, so get in quick as there are limited sessions.

Santa's Apprentice is a new animated kids flick that is an Aussie/French co-production.  A story of a young boy recruited to be the next Santa, this should have some fun in picking the Aussie actors voicing the characters.  No 3D or slick Pixar styles, this is probably worth a look if you have young kids and are looking to hype them up early for Christmas.  Strange release date!

Courageous is showing in selected suburban cinemas.  I can't find out much about this, whether it's a documentary or a fictional movie but it centres around firefighters who have to reevaluate what's important after a family tragedy.  Made by a US Christian production company this might be a bit sugary and might feature God a bit.

My guess would be that any movie that only has 1-3 showings per day in your movie listings is likely to go to make screens for Twilight, so this weekend may be your last chance to see those at the cinema.  Have a fun weekend everyone!

BIFF Update #4

The last 2 days at BIFF have been a cinematic world tour.  Started in Venzuela, then to France, then to China and then Spain.  That would be quite a funky trip if it was real!

The Venezuelan entry, "The Zero Hour" was a kinetic crime drama about a thuggish hitman taking over a hospital and forcing the staff to help a pregnant woman who's been shot, when all the doctors in the country are on strike.  Quite a few twists in the tale and a poignant message that it's never too late to change.

Onto France, where the movie "See How they Fall" was being screened as part of the Cannes' Critic's Week sidebar of BIFF.  This was introduced by an actual French critic who selects the movies for the Critic's Week section.  The interesting part of this was that the 5 or 6 critics responsible for selecting the movies to show, they watch about 900 movies in the 3-4 months before the festival!!  If they all had to watch all the movies, that would be 10 a day!!!  But I don't think they all watch them all, the guy who was there last night was responsible for Australian, New Zealand and Asia.  So he probably watches about 5 movies a day for several months....

The movie was quite good, it was the debut feature by Jacques Audiard, who is well known for the movie "A Prophet" which was released last year to great critical acclaim.  According to the film critic it is a new style for French filmmaking and I have to say it was a new spin on film noir from what I've seen.  I thought it was a fairly straight take on a mystery/revenge thriller, but then towards the end I realised that the storytelling had been completely non-linear and then the ending threw up another curveball.  Good acting all round kept this on track but it didn't totally blow my mind. Will have to rent A Prophet and see what the fuss is about.

Today I was accompanied by Ben to China for the Fantastic Fest entry "Revenge: A Love Story".  It's good to have someone to discuss the movies with aftewards!  The guide had said that this was a pretty violent movie and I came out and said to Ben "It wasn't really THAT violent" but he quickly disagreed and reminded me of a few things.  We agreed it was fairly violent but it was more of an emotionally violent thing than graphic gory violence.  I am a little concerned though that I've been desensitised to violence with all the crazy movies we watch...... will think about that a bit more.

The movie was another that cut up the storytelling so you didn't quite know where you were in the series of events.  This made it more enjoyable than if they'd just showed the start of the events and then the guy getting revenge on all the people who'd wronged him.  I really liked how it was told as it made me switch alliances from thinking "this guy's a total monster" to "this guy is justified" but then again the movie was trying to make a point about forgiveness being superior revenge.  Which is probably right, but hard in some circumstances.

Last but not least was "Cronos", another selection from the Cannes Critic's Week.  This was the debut for Guillermo del Toro as a director that I've been meaning to chase down for some time, as Hellboy and Pan's Labyrinth are two of my favourite films.  He's been a bit quiet of late, focusing on producing, and had gone out of my mind a little bit, but he's rocketed back to #1 with this movie.   It's a combo of Spanish and English language as he has done in some of his movies, and it has a lot of his trademark elements: mechanical bibs and bobs, brave little girls, little bit of humour, Ron Perlman.

A 16th century alchemist creates a device which can grant the user eternal life, which comes to light in modern times in a statue in the antiques shop of Jesus Gris, an older man who looks after his young granddaughter since her parents are not around (never explained).  When a wealthy businessman searching for the device sends his nephew (Perlman) to purchase the statue, the three get tangled up in the quest.  Jesus has accidentally used the device and his immortality comes with some unpleasant side effects.

The movie was fairly slow paced but quite intriguing and a great alternative on the typical vampire mythology.  Spotting all the Guillermo elements was fun and he definitely had a good grip on his style from the very beginning.

So I have now seen 12 movies since Friday, of many different styles and origins, but I'm still not sick of it. There are now 5 to go for the rest of the week until Sunday and I don't see myself getting sick of it. Every one has been entertaining even if it hasn't been totally amazing.  But I've seen some pretty amazing things too and fingers crossed there is more amazement ahead.

#28 Movie - Midnight in Paris

Today was a day off from the film festival so I thought, what better way to spend the day than going to see a movie?  Ha ha I'm probably going to regret that by next Sunday... It was my mum's day off so I thought we would go and see Midnight in Paris, the latest Woody Allen movie.

The best way to describe this movie would probably be either "delightful" or "best advertisement for Paris since Paris Je Taime was released".  The entire movie is just beautifully shot and casts a soft, romantic light on the city of love.  I really, really wanted to go there after seeing the first 3 minutes, and the rest of the movie did nothing to dissuade me.

Owen Wilson is the character that Woody would've played in his younger days.  A writer whose original novel is suffering from a lack of inspiration while he spends time on his work as a hired Hollywood hack, pumping out scripts for blockbuster movies.  His fiancee is beautiful and smart but from the get go you realise these two don't have much in common and you wonder why Gil continues with the relationship, but he seems incapable of seeing the reality of the situation.  He just seems to be a bit lost.  Tagging along with her parents on a trip to Paris, Gil is keen to avoid the stereotypical sightseeing (and the disapproving parents in law) and explore the nostalgia and find his muse.  But Ines' agenda is very different and eventually Gil gets away on his own.  This triggers a strange occurrence whereby Gil magically travels back in time to the 1920s at the stroke of midnight.  Here he miraculously meets his literary and artistic heroes and finally begins to enjoy himself.

Warning - the below does contain a bit of a spoiler about the ending of this movie so don't read any further if you don't want to know.  If you like gentle, mature comedies or are a Woody Allen fan, you should see this movie.

Once this gets going, the whole thing is just delightful.  Working out who the icons are (and who they're played by!) is fun and the music, costumes and scenery just all blend into a magical whole.  For me though the best part was the underlying message of the movie, which is something I've been musing on a little bit of late (see earlier posts on nostalgia).  We all look back fondly on the past, and a lot of the time there can be a tendency to think that "things were better back then" or wish that you were still living a certain type of life.  But if we actually did go back and live in that time or space, it probably wouldn't live up to the fantasy.  The theory of this movie is that it is because life itself is unsatisfactory, so we would rather live in any other time where we feel more comfortable or satisfied.  But if we can realise this, we really are better off in the present time and making the most of where we are now.  I really agree with this, I liked it and I recommend it.

BIFF Update #3 - Fantastic Fantastic Fest

Sunday: Day 3 of BIFF and I was going for movie no 6 & 7.  Movie no 6 was the lengthily titled "Drive in Delirium Presents: Trailerpalooza and 50 Best Kills".  And the greatest thing about this movie was that it actually felt like I was seeing heaps of movies.  Trailerpalooza was an incredible 75 minutes of trailers for some of the weirdest, crappest or mondo bizarro cult movies of all time, sandwiched between a fabulous introduction from the drive-in (including instructions for the drive in and an ad for the snack bar) and an intermission complete with craptastic ad for Export Cola.  The movies covered ranged from exploitation flicks to bad home-made sci-fi to giant creature movies to drug warning movies, but nothing past about 1983.  It was surprising to see some big Hollywood stars of yesteryear slumming it in these low budget movies - I'm particularly keen to find Dean Martin and Ann Margret's super spy flick Murderer's Row (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060728/).  Titles I'm keen to catch up on include The Jezabels, Trog, Slumber Party Massacre and Mega Force (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084316/).  Titles I'm keen to never, ever see include Sadomania (the trailer for this was truly awful, sexist and ridiculous), The Big Cube, and Chastity (Cher as a dropout chick who according to the voiceover is "an experience").

Following this was 50 Best Kills.  Put together by Lars Nilson, the guy behind Fantastic Fest in the US which has created a mini-program for this year's festival, it was basically 25 minutes of the best death scenes, or at least the ones that Lars isn't sick of yet after 100 Best Kills became an annual institution at his festival.  This started off with the fantastic scene from Meet Joe Black (which we definitely watched more than once on slow mo when we saw this movie) and then went through what I counted as 41 different movies, containing what Lars counted as 55 different deaths.  Most of these deaths were either weird or brutal or gross and it was a lot of fun revisiting some old faves and seeing some new ones.  Lars was on the mic giving a running commentary on the movie titles and a few funny asides, so I don't know how this going to come across when they screen this again later in the week at the pop-up drive in at Hamilton, as this and the audience participation (cheers, laughs) really made the experience.  He didn't include one of my favourites, the lawnmower death in Braindead, but hey, they didn't show a lot of really great ones and ultimately it's just personal taste.  Lot of laughs in this for those with a twisted sense of humour.

I followed up the trashfest with Canadian supernatural thriller The Corridor, also from Fantastic Fest.  This one followed a group of friends who head out to a deserted cabin in the woods after one of their number (Tyler) has recovered from a mental breakdown over the death of his mother.  He also attacked said friends with a knife at the same time, so their consent to go to a remote cabin with the guy seems a little weird at first.  But they are all trying to mend fences and get their lives back on track, so why not?  It's not long before Tyler comes across something supernatural in the frozen woods near the cabin and a wild ride begins.  I'll not say more because this one could make it over here, but it was quite chilling and definitely one of those "was that real or just in the mind" kind of movies.  If anyone was there last night and has a theory, please come and post a comment (no spoilers if possible - maybe message me instead), as I'm keen to see what other people thought. 

It certainly created a very effective chilling atmosphere, because I had to keep looking over my shoulder while walking by myself to the car afterwards as it was an especially cool, windy evening in the city.  I don't know why I always do something to scare myself after seeing a scary movie (The Silent House followed by camping last year) but I had to drop into work afterwards and boy I never knew an office building could be so creepy and make so many strange noises late at night.  Silly me!  Unfortunately the next screening of this is as part of the horror/genre movie marathon next Saturday night at Tribal, showing at 4:30am, so most people probably won't see it, but if you can last all night (or get up really really early), it is worth seeing.

Thanks Fantastic Fest for a good weekend of movies.  I still have their Penumbra (Thursday 10pm) and Revenge: A Love Story (Wed 4pm or Sat 12 4pm) to go so I'm really looking forward to those.

BIFF Update #2 - Homemade Craziness

Day 2 began with a bang in "Let the Bullets Fly" even though I didn't see the expected martial arts.  A very entertaining Chinese western set in the early 20s where a bandit, wannabe governor and gangster play a very dangerous game to find out who will rule over Goose Town.  The speed at which the dialogue flew (subtitled) and the amount of double- and triple-crossing going on meant that I really had to concentrate on the subtitles to keep up with what was happening.  And I must admit at times I was thinking "what just happened" while trying to keep with the next ploy.  But it was quite funny and entertaining and Chow Yun Fat put in a great turn as a deliciously sly gangster warlord.

The evening brought two home-made treasures which really put a smile on my face.  Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same, for me, did not quite live up to the awesomeness of it's title.  It was good and there were a lot of giggles but I'm just not sure what the point of it was - any larger meaning was lost on me.  However, it was a great example of what a person with an idea and some craptastic special effects can do and for that I applaud them.

Manborg really puts the "home" in homemade.  Imagine what would happen if you and a couple of your mates decided to make a movie about a half man-half cyborg in the future battling evil Nazi vampires to kill the leader who has literally brought hell to earth.  Shot on video, the effects were a great mix of drawing some electric rays over the action, stopmotion and turning the sound effects up really loud.  Think something more primitive than Tron crossed with 80s action/robot movies.  It was really really funny and corny.  I really loved this.  It has another screening so go check it out.

The evening for me was a celebration of a little bit of ingenuity and big ideas, placed onto a much bigger stage than the creators probably ever dreamed would be possible.  Sure, it was ridiculous and you could see the cracks, but boy I admire anyone who can make their own versions of what they see on the big screen, and make it funny, endearing entertainment.  Kudos to you guys!  And Fantastic Fest for giving them exposure and bringing it to Brisbane.

BIFF Update #1 - Geekiness/Craziness

Oh dear.  The bar for this year's BIFF has been set very high following my first day of movies - how can the rest of the week top Friday, day 1?

If you have ever been a comic book fan or sci-fi TV show geek, I strongly suggest you check out the documentary "Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan's Hope" either at the next screening (Sunday 13 November 12pm) or if it ever comes out here at the cinema or on DVD.  The latest doco by Morgan Spurlock (Supersize Me) is a brilliant encapsulation of the different "tribes" who attend the annual geekfest in San Diego.  It was wonderful to see the "talking heads" including such luminaries from my teenage comic reading years as Frank Miller, Todd McFarlane, Stan Lee and movie geeks like Kevin Smith, Joss Whedon and Eli Roth.  This was intercut with footage following five different individuals over the 3 day festival - 2 amateur comic book artists trying to get their portfolios reviewed by their heroes and maybe a job, a girl who designs costumes based on video games who wants to appear in the annual masquerade parade, a comic book salesman lamenting the slow death of physical book reading, and a young geek couple where the guy wants to propose to his girlfriend at the Kevin Smith panel.  Plus footage from the floor and snippets with other attendees.  This movie was really really funny and sweet and it has definitely made me want to go out and buy more comic books!

We then followed up the geekiness with some utter craziness in the form of midnight movie Helldriver.  The film's director, Yoshihiro Nishimura, was in attendance to introduce his movie, which he described as we were going to be on a rollercoaster.  I wouldn't quite describe it that way as there wasn't much in the way of a storyline, it was more just all out crazy fight scenes with a few slow bits in between to let you catch your breath.  The film is about a young girl whose mother and uncle are completely mad and torture and kill her father.  After which time the mother is hit with a meteorite which tears a hole through her chest, which doesn't stop her as she rips the heart out of her daughter to place inside her chest, after which she is devoured by some kind of alien presence which shoots out an ash cloud that infects the citizens of Japan and turns them into zombies.  A wall goes up to contain the infected and the battle betwee humans and zombies begins, with the daughter alive and looking for vengeance with her heart replaced by some kind of chainsaw engine with a wicked chainsaw sword.  A massively bloody, all out wacky and funny adventure then explodes across the screen.

Nishimura is a writer, director and special effects makeup artist extraordinaire.  He directed the totally crazy likes of Tokyo Gore Police (a favourite of ours from the festival a few years back) and was involved with the effects or co-directing for Machine Girl, Vampire Girl vs Frankenstein Girl, Mutant Girls Squad.  All of his movies feature strong, warrior like women, and buckets of blood and gore.  There was a Q&A session with the director after the movie which we stayed for, and he was a very funny guy.  My question was "The actors in your movies get sprayed with blood including in their mouths, is the blood made from something really delicious?".  He seemed to like my question but the answer was it is just water and food colouring, as he likes maximum spray he doesn't like it too thick like in other movies that use a syrupy mixture.  He said they went through 4 tonnes of blood on this movie (in a 2 week shooting schedule!) and we could definitely see how.  He also said the actresses faces became stained by the mixture and that the whites of their eyeballs became redder as the movie shoot progressed from the food colouring.  Crazy stuff!  He also revealed that his next movie is going to be a kids movie - don't think I'll be taking my nephew to see that somehow.

This one doesn't have another screening at the festival, but is likely to be released on DVD and Bluray in Australia in the near future as there seems to be a bit of a market for these movies - all of the ones I've mentioned above are available in Australia I think.  So keep an eye out for this if you like totally OTT nutty blood soaked Japanese horror.

Today I will have 3 movies - Chow Yun Fat doing his best martial arts/comedy thing in Let the Bullets Fly (which has a special offer today to buy tickets for $12.50 if you quote the promotional code "BIFF11" when buying your ticket online), Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same, and Manborg.  I'm on my own for these three, so if you have nothing better to do tonight - get along to these for a dose of craziness.

Life Outside the BIFF

Sorry for being so lax and not posting what movies were out last week, I've been too busy poring over my BIFF guide.  But there's a lot happening outside the BIFF as well, so here is a wrap up of what's come out at the cinemas the last two Thursdays for those of you not venturing to the film festival:

I Don't Know How She Does It - some (bound to be) tosh about Sarah Jessica Parker being a superwoman juggling kids, career and husband.  Might have been a tad more interesting had the character not been some super high earning executive who can afford a personal assistant, nanny and amazing wardrobe and was more like a real supermum who does it on her own (there's plenty of 'em).

In Time - some (bound to be) tosh about Justin Timberlake being a poor bloke in a world where everyone has their remaining time on earth written on their arm, and time can either be earned through working or bought by the rich. JT gets a crazy idea to "steal" time from the rich.  Shame, as the guy behind this movie did the quite good "Gattaca" but the word on this universally seems to be "great idea wasted".

Anonymous - some (bound to be) tosh - oh damn, I think I've run out of movies that are bound to be tosh already.  This is a movie of the conspiracy theory that Shakespeare was a fake and all of his plays were written by another author who never got the credit.  Starring Rhys Ifans and some hot new talent, this could be good period drama and debauchery.

Warrior - the Oscars campaigns are beginning already for this movie, starring you beaut Aussie bloke Joel Edgerton and talented Brit Tom Hardy as two estranged American (!) brothers who end up having to fight each other in the final of an MMA (mixed martial arts) tournament.  Probably a bit TOO much MMA in this one to get me along, but others will probably love the mix of action and family drama.  Go Joel, we love ya mate.

Don't be Afraid of the Dark - new chiller that should have been released for Halloween but didn't quite make it.  This looks to be an enjoyable spin on the "possessed house" storyline, produced by Guillermo del Toro who loved the original (yes it's a remake but at least the original was obscure enough that we can ignore that fact) and directed by a newcomer who happens to be a friend of a friend of mine.  So get along and support this Aussie made production starring Guy Pearce and Katie Holmes.

Drive - A lot of hype over this one, starring Ryan Gosling as "The Driver".  The Driver is a Hollywood stunt driver by day, getaway driver for crooks by night.  When he mets his lovely young neighbour (Carey Mulligan) he gets involved in her business with her loser husband.  Don't go expecting a huge action movie, this is more of a character driven drama.

Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer - inoffensive tweeny stuff.

Our Idiot Brother - more family dysfunction with Paul Rudd as a "loser" hippie dude who starts off a bunch of family trouble after getting busted selling pot to a cop in uniform.  He takes turns staying with his mother and each of his 3 sisters (Elizabeth Banks, Emily Mortimer and Ben's fave Zooey Deschanel) while the film slowly turns the tables on who is the most dysfunctional.  Could be the year's smartest comedy?

Autoluminescent - a documentary about the Australian musician Rowland S Howard, the lesser known member of Aussie band The Birthday Party (compared to Nick Cave) who sadly passed away this year.  One for the indie and goth kids.

Phew - I won't leave it 2 weeks again!  If you see anything good in this batch, let me know as my mission over the next week is to see 16 movies at the film fest, but I can always be tempted by a good movie!