Father Geek here along with Latauro and his latest installment of his regular report from the land before time... or would that be after time... I always get it mixed up... guess it depends on which way the wind's blowing...
You don’t throw away a whole life just ’cause he’s banged up a little.
AICN-DOWNUNDER
Okay, has everyone gone on early Christmas holiday? There ain’t no news anywhere! Well, no Australian-related news. Well, not much.
Anyway, I’m putting the thumbscrews on the spies to try and get some premium info pronto – and they’re doing their best – but in the meantime, here’s the usual rundown with a couple of reviews.
And congratulations to the AICN chatroom’s Australian chatter Papa_WereSmurf (and his girlfriend, who I suppose we’ll call Mama_WereSmurf for now) on the birth of their first child. Unfortunately, anonymous requests to name the child “Latauro” have been sadly rebuffed.
NEWS
* Australian writer/director Paul Cox will begin the local leg of production on THE HUMAN TOUCH. The film, which is about “the intimate and sensual lives of four main protagonists”, has already shot two weeks in France. The film stars Jaqueline McKenzie, Chris Haywood, Aaron Blabey, Rebecca Frith and Aden Young, who are five actors. So there’s probably a fifth character in there somewhere.
* Garth Franklin (www.darkhorizons.com/news.htm) is reporting the news that “Farscape” will likely shoot four-to-six episodes in Sydney, wrapping up the series. This confirms what many suspected when I printed the rumour many weeks back that “Firefly” would be shooting. Obviously, the scooper was confusing the two series. I was waiting for confirmation before printing the correction, and there it is. (BTW, it’s not confirmation that the series will definitely shoot, it’s confirmation that the initial rumour was about “Farscape” and not “Firefly”. Phew! Just headed off a dozen emails at the pass!)
AWARDS AND FESTIVALS
INSIDE FILM AWARDS
The People’s Choice Awards of Australian cinema was held this past Wednesday night in Sydney. Winners included JAPANESE STORY (taking Best Picture, Best Director for Sue Brooks, Best Cinematography for Ian Baker and Best Actress for Toni Collette), GETTING’ SQUARE (with Best Actor for David Wenhem, Best Screenplay for Chris Nyst, Best Editing for Ken Sallows), NED KELLY (with Best Production Design for Steven Jones-Evans) and CRACKERJACK (with, er, Best Box Office Achievement). Also recognised was the legendary Jill Bilcock, who took out the Living Legend IF award. The big gongs will come next Friday with the Australian Film Institute Awards.
76TH ACADEMY AWARDS
The Australian flick that’s been sweeping awards left and right has been nominated for an Oscar nomination. That is, it’s been short-listed as one of eight semi-finalists in the Short Film Animation category. Though it’ll depend on what it’s up against, I’d say there’s a good chance you’ll see writer/director Adam Elliot on the podium come next February 29th.
BOX OFFICE
Well, the box office remained fairly predictable. SEABISCUIT took out ninth place on previews alone, whilst HOLES flopped directly into tenth with almost a non-existent marketing campaign.
This week's Winning Flicks Be...
- 1. MATRIX REVOLUTIONS
- 2. INTOLERABLE CRUELTY
- 3. RUNAWAY JURY
- 4. KILL BILL VOL 1
- 5. CALENDER GIRLS
RELEASED THIS WEEK
Ridley expands running time as aliens expand chest cavities, Australian cinema finally attempts the “little battler takes on big government” plotline, Jane Campion becomes the next Australian to get Meg Ryan’s kit off, the Dude hire Spider-man to ride his horse, and Patricia Hitchcock’s lawyers ask small children if they can spell “copyright”.
Annnnd the NEW views are...
- ALIEN: THE DIRECTOR’S CUT
- THE HONOURABLE WALLY NORMAN
- IN THE CUT
- SEABISCUIT
- SPELLBOUND
REVIEWS
SEABISCUIT
Gary Ross is a filmmaker who will always get a ticket price out of me. I enjoyed the hell out of PLEASANTVILLE, and even if the symbolism did get a bit heavy-handed towards the end, I never found it to be overwhelming. And I know that’s a minority view, but I don’t mind saccharine, so long as it’s portioned out in reasonable measurements.
For Australian readers, SEABISCUIT in the American version of PHAR LAP. Only the horse is smaller. And the film has prettier cinematography. The film is narrated in a newsreel-style fashion, and I was reminded of PHONE BOOTH. The opening of PHONE BOOTH has a voice over that I initially found irritating, but soon grew used to. It was because it reminded me of TWILIGHT ZONE, and so the expectations of a quick, fast-paced, high-concept thriller were seeded. Same with DOWN WITH LOVE. Actually, DOWN WITH LOVE is probably a better example. By using the style of the time period in which the film is set, there’s a sort-of dual layering going on. It’s an extra dimension designed to draw us in and make us forget we’re watching a film. Problem is, it’s a double-edged sword. By using the tools in such a self-conscious way, the audience becomes aware of their existence.
It’s not that I, personally, have a problem with this technique. I quite enjoy the nostalgia factor being given a glossy finish. No, the reason I’m harping on about it is because of Moby. There’s a terrific sequence that uses his song “Everloving”, and it’s clearly one that Ross was itching to do. One of those sequences that directs itself in your head when you’re listening to music. And it’s very well-directed. It does what all good sequences-put-to-music should do, which is bring the most out of the music and the most out of the vision so the result is greater than the sum of its parts. But it didn’t feel like the 1930s.
The acting is, of course, superb. What else do you expect with a cast like that? From the minor supporting characters (fans of “West Wing” will note that Tobey Maguire’s parents are played by Mary Marsh and Agent Butterfield... well, I thought it was cool when I figured out who they were), to the main cast, it’s impressive to watch actors make the most our of character that are, on occasion, underwritten and overly-sentimental.
But my biggest problem with it – and the reason why I’ve argued it won’t be a big Oscar contender come next year – is with the protagonist. I have no idea who the protagonist is. There are five main characters in the story, and each is given equal weight: Red Pollard (Maguire), Charles Howard (Bridges), Tom Smith (Cooper), the horse itself, and Depression-era America. And yet it’s not an ensemble piece. It’s not designed that way.
This may be seen as nitpicking on my part, but I felt the emotional core of the film was absent. The heart wasn’t there. The other limbs were: we had an emotional brain, and emotional liver, the kidneys, lungs and even a small intestinal track. But I felt robbed of that vital centre that the film is meant to hang itself off.
It’s sounding like I didn’t like the film, but I did. I thought it was an interesting story told with impressive flair. It’s because everything was so well put-together that the minor flaws (which, in the grand scheme, aren’t all that minor) were so apparent.
MYSTIC RIVER
I don’t know what to say about this film. I’ve been sitting here staring at the screen for about fifteen minutes (and, intermittently, at international news items on the TV), and I’m not sure where to begin.
The Man With No Name does some amazing direction, as well as some amazing music composition. Brian Helgeland’s screenplay is beautifully-constructed, and the cast is phenomenal. So what is there left to say? Not a lot. So I’ll expand on those points.
You’ll be seeing nominations next year for both Sean Penn and Tim Robbins, and Penn will walk away with a win. His performance is well worth it, but it’ll also serve as the standard sorry-we-didn’t-award-you-for-the-other-film nod. But I digress. Both Penn and Robbins manage to bring out a Greek tragedy quality to their characters. Kevin Bacon is solid as always; it’s good to see Laurence Fishburne stretching his acting muscles a bit after MATRIX; and there’s something really cool about seeing Marcia Gay Harden and Laura Linney on-screen together, two actresses I’ve always considered similar in talent and equally underrated.
But there are moments that elevate it far beyond the typical murder mystery, or the typical us-working-class-men-gotta-stick-together dramas that resort to cliché time and time again. The final scene, without words and delivered only with looks, is chilling. Frightening. Adds a completely new dimension to what we’ve seen. In fact, it almost comes out of the blue. The message we thought we were going to get turns out to be something completely different, and the film is better for it.
The only complaint I have is the crime itself. We’re given everything we need to figure it out, and it’s handled with impeccable balance. But the motive itself... it’s so random. I don’t want to give it away, but for those who have seen it: the person who committed the crime, don’t you think they’d have perfect reason for doing so? Why was the raison d’etre what it was? There’s no point in talking about if I’m not going to go all spoilerish, but it was a simple thing that could have been changed without affecting anything else.
But it’s a minor complaint. It’s tough to get straight-up dramas made these days (or does it just seem like that?), and it’s even tougher to make them well. If you want to see a director, screenwriter and a group of actors at the top of their game, see this film ASAP.
NEXT WEEK
- Don Roos to direct the triumph-against-adversary film WAR ADMIRAL, named for the working class horse that beat the odds and raced against its evil rival “Seabiscuit”
- Brian Grazer to producer the exciting and instructional biopic based upon the life story of the inventor of rear-window defoggers in DEMYSTIFYING DEMISTIFYING
- In an effort to procure more ancillary profits, the producers of HARRY POTTER grant permission for the production of porn flick DOBBY DOES DALLAS
Peace out,
Latauro
downunder@aintitcoolmail.com
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