Archives 54: An Extraordinary Jackass, Kellis Milkshake Explained, Best of 2003, Best of 2004, Rules of Attraction review, Capturing the Friedmans, the Fog of War, Clover Moore’s Triumph
BEST OF 2004
The list is in and bound to start controversy over the often unusual choices for the top 10 films. Rushed to loyal AV readers in draft form, some future additions will include more analysis on the best album. The music list is limited to best and worst album of 2004. The Worst Album of 2004 has a detailed analysis of what made it so worthy of praise.
TOP 20 FILMS
1. Elephant - This masterful film, from director Gus Van Sant, is the equivalent of an elegy on Bowling for
Columbine. Shot and Paced very differently from
mainstream films, the film challenges the viewer to listen and watch, something
that didn't happen before the massacres (as Marolyn
Manson coherently said in Bowling for Columbine). SEE
2. (tie) Kill Bill Vol
2 and Spiderman 2
While not as explosive as part 1, Tarantino is still at the top of his game,
giving the film its substance and emotional centre with this film. Spiderman 2
meanwhile was the perfect super hero film. Superior to the first Spiderman,
here we have our hero at his best, completely vulnerable completely human yet
taking on the huge burden and responsibility of super heroism. I would go so
far as to say that Spiderman 2 is the best Super hero film I've seen since
Superman.
4. Team
This movie knows that satire and the gutter go hand in hand. Revolutionary use
of puppets and unbelievably funny sequences that sends up with equal force the
rabid right wingers and the 'do gooders' (rather
hilariously), this film is the ultimate in political incorrectness. Send ups of
screen actors as FAGs veer dangerously close to
homophobia, but as with Eminem, how can something
with so much homo overtones be homophobic? Plus, it's too enjoyable a film to
ponder that. Don't miss the opening sequence as it sums up American Foreign
Policy under the Bush administration.
5. Farenheit 9/11
Incindiary but not enough to alter the course of the
election, this movie should not be underestimated. It marked the true turn in
people being able to stand up and give another point of view. It is not
un-American to speak out against the war and against Bush. It is un-American
not to. Unfortunately, the Republicans did a brilliant job at assassinating
this movie, focussing on 2 seconds of footage showing
Farenheit 9/11 has also been important for
documentaries. Why? Because documentaries are never objective - Michael Moore
takes it to its logical conclusion - like the Daily Telegraph of Documentary
Makers, he gives liberals a hope that they can be just as powerful emotionally
as the rabid conservatives who dominate our news media.
6. Camp
This is a great film. Not because it is original. Not
because it redefines cinema. Not because the story is ground breaking. It's a
straight forward - nay - run of the mill story, but executed magnificently by
an unknown but hugely talented cast. The story follows a group of young
students with one common love - musicals. Their hero is Sodenheim
and they can think of nothing better than spending the summer at musical camp.
The sing a long in the bus on the way to the camp says it all. You follow the
lives and loves of the bruised gay Michael, the straight golden haired Vlad, the insecure Ellen, the jaw wired shut Jenna and the
explosive theatrical relationship between Fritzi and
Jill. And then you have the washed up has been camp counsellor
Bert Hanley whose cynicism fails to rub off on the children. Some of the songs
in this film are excellent. The opening song sets the scene, and viewers of
Australian Idol will recognise Jenna's song
"here's who I am" sung by Jenna. No wonder outsiders love musical
theatre - a celebration of acceptance and high drama. SEE
7. The Notebook
This was hands down the "beautiful film" of
2004. Beautifully shot to the point of cliche, the
Notebook transcends its melodramatic storyline. The movie contains every single
convention of the romance film (birds flying in slow mo over a river, the rich
girl/poor boy love story, the love scene on the beach), yet I couldn't believe
what was happening to me, the ultimate cynic - I completely fell for it. And it
wasn't only me. A whole cinema of cynics (the laughter over the opening credits
with birds in slow mo) was transformed into a cinema full of sobbing girls - in
fact, I have never seen a cinema have such a turn. The
reason? The performances of Ryan Gosling and Rachel
McAdams. Ryan Gosling should have been nominated for an Oscar in THE
BELIEVER and in this film he proves why charisma and screen presence can turn a
potentially crap movie into a winner. Rachel McAdams as the conflicted rich
girl plays her part perfectly and has put in 2 good performances this year (see
Mean Girls).
8. A very long engagement
No self-serving critic would put this movie after The Notebook. Having said that, this movie from the director of AMELIE continues
his winning ways, with breathtaking mise en scene and
an even more breathtaking love story between the two protagonists. An
epic in the sense that the English Patient never was, this movie has great
battle scenes, moments of genuine heart break and a few of the most beautiful
flash backs and romantic courtships put on film.
9. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Jim Carrey does a turn as good as Adam Sandler did in
Punch Drunk Love. This movie about a man who sets out to erase his memory of
his girlfriend is a mind bender that works beautifully. It is also very well
shot despite its hand-held feel. Kate Winslet
delivers another amazing performance - this time as Jim Carrey's girl friend.
10. Motorcycle Diaries
While my picturing of Che Guevera
will forever be altered by a scene (i won't mention
it) in Raspberry Reich, this movie follows the great road trip undertaken by Che and his best mate through
11.
Here is a small independent film that won me over. Again, it's not one of those
'look how clever i am for writing this' film. It
follows the story of a man who learns his mother has died. Having taken valium
since he was 10, he decides to stop taking the drug. Returning home after an 8
year absence as an actor, he reconnects with his life and all that flows from
that. This is a charming small film, written by Zach Braf,
who also stars in it. His performance is great and his transformation is played
perfectly.
12. Finding Neverland
Johnny Depp comes up with another winning performance
in Finding Neverland, a magical story about the
author of Peter Pan transforming the lives of a family and finding the
inspiration for Peter Pan. Kate Winslet as the mother
of fatherless boys, is as usual, a stand out in her
role.
13. 15
A film from
14. Meet the Fockers
Better than the original, this movie is embarrassingly
funny as Gaylord Focker continues to go from one
disaster to another, this time at the hands of his own family, played
exceptionally by Dustin Hoffman and Barbara Streisand. The underlying truths behind each overdrawn character only adds to the
effectiveness of the comedy.
15. Anchorman
If you haven't watched it, get it out on DVD. This is
a very funny movie with one of the best movie quotes of the year.
16. Shaun of the Dead
An intelligent Zombie flick - Shaun of the Dead is
deceptively clever, from its Soundtrack to the way the plot unfolds. I'm no
Zombie movie expert, but our resident Zombie movie expert had nothing but
praise for this one.
17. In
A must see movie, this was largely overlooked by
the movie going public. I don't know why. With deep links to E.T., this film
follows the fortunes of a poor family who come into contact with a mysterious
black man in their apartment block. A magical and moving
film.
18. Mean Girls
Another teen film about wanting to fit in with the
'in' crowd. Over-exaggerated but again, very truthful.
Great performances.
19. The Fog of War
Errol Morris continues to produce top quality work. This movie came out just at
the right time - focussing on the Vietnam War, the parralels between what happened there and what's happening
in
20. The Passion of Christ
It is as it was. One of the most violent and bloody
films ever released, the Christian groups calling for censorship of violence on
screen were strangely silent.
Honourable Mentions:
* Supersize me
The film that shook up Maccas is an indigtment on junk food - but then again, who would really
eat maccas every day? That's not the point of the
film though.
* Starsky and Hutch
Highly enjoyable and broad comedy.
* Walk on Water
* Saved
A parody on the religious right, this movie is pretty
ordinary in terms of its plot structure and unbelievable ending, but there are
some great scenes in this movie and the love affair between macauley
culkin's character and the resident out-sider was brilliantly acted.
* I, robot
A surprisingly good action movie - surprising because
the trailer looked so ordinary.
* The Terminal
A small film with lots of humour.
People will hate this film, but I'm biased - I love Spielberg.
* The Bourne Supremacy
Great for the action sequences.
* The Butterfly Effect
Embarrassing to say that I liked this film?
* Merci Docteur Rey
(Thank You Doctor Rey)
BEST TEEN FILM
Camp - See above and below reviews
Mean Girls - See above review
Saved - See above review
BEST "BEAUTIFUL FILM
The Notebook
A very long Engagement
BEST "QUEER" FILM
Merci Docteur Rey (Thank
You Doctor Rey)
A film about a young (gay) man who gets caught up in a convoluted murder
mystery plot in the style of some of the great European murder mysteries. There
are great performances by a very over the top Diane Wiest
and Jerry Hall together with a wallpaper performance by Stanislas
Merhar as Thomas Beaumont. There's a lot going on in
this film and it is the type of movie that would probably result in a benefit
upon a second viewing.
Walk on Water
Atom Egoyan followed up his brilliant first film with
Walk on Water, following the lives of a homophobic Israeli Secret Service Hitman, a liberal gay Israeli and his (the liberal
Israeli's) sister.
Latter Days
Delves into the
Die Mommy Die
This is a movie that John Waters would make - making
fun of those horrible melodramas with the most appalling dialogue by virtually
copying it. A drag queen plays the title role of a house wife who can no longer
take her husband and kills him. Do not see this film if you're after a great
story or acting. The film falls away after a while as it runs into the problem
of a lot of comedy films - grasping for jokes in a feature length movie and
therefore repeating the same joke to death.
Raspberry Reich
This is as close to pornography as you'll ever see in
a feature film. Bruce La Bruce, the maker of some of the wierdest
sh*t in the world, has come up with what some people
will call an 'excuse for porn'. Following the "story" of a woman, who
decides to start her own counter revolution by kidnapping the son of a wealthy
bank owner, this film is actually a very good critique of the way terrorists
are glorified. After a prolonged and explicit sex scene in which she takes
having sex with her boyfriend to the open space of a lift, she decides to get
her boyfriend to sleep with the other man in the house as she decides that
'homosexuality' will help keep them all faithful to the revolutionary cause as
homosexuality does not figure in the bourgeoisie equation. The explanations
here are laughable and the movie just does not make sense - but perhaps that is
the point - terrorism does not make sense. And some of the dialogue sounds like
regurgitations of tracts of stuff you learn in a basic philosophy degree (and I
think this is the director's jibe at some of the self important European
Directors who also dredge up tracts of crap dialogue).
Troy
The AV's chief critic does not know where to start on this one?
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MOVIES NOT SEEN which may influence outcome:
Napoleon dynamite, million dollar babies, i heart huckabees (not fully), before sunset, de-lovely, metallica - some kind of monster, Vera Drake, Sideways, the
Undertow, bad education, Aviator, Hotel Rwanda, Ray, the Merchant of Venice
----------------------
BEST
ALBUM of 2004
FRANZ FERDINAND
Review Coming Soon
WORST ALBUM of 2004
JOSH GROBAN
This is a classic album of epic proportions produced
by the legendary David Foster spanning three languages, a symphony orchestra
led by shrieking string sections as the music swells and at least 1 key change
in almost every song.
Key Changes
Just look at the first track Oceono.
Within the first verse there's a slight key change. And some three years after
Lisa Gerard's music became fashionable and unfashionable within the year (cf Gladiator music). In a year where even the key change
became unfashionable on Australian Idol, Groban
delivers in spades.
Progression
From Oceano, the music
progresses from love song to love song. Foster again orchestrates to his Disney
best, including the famous seventh jump followed by the note after it. The
music is so familiar it often plagiarises his earlier
work. "My confession" incorporates the use of Spanish style guitars.
Solo violins are used, Irish instruments are employed in the classic track of
the album - but it's all highly spine-tingling manipulative pap.
Lyrically Flighty
And let's not forget about the words. The songs in English. Here are some highlights:
"You are the air that I breathe
You're the groubd beneath my
feet
When did I stop believing?" KEY CHANGE
From - MY CONFESSION
"Like the sound of silence calling
I hear your voice and suddenly i'm falling"
From - WHEN YOU SAY YOU LOVE ME
"Wash away the thoughts inside
That keep my mind away from you
No moe love and no more pride
And thoughts are all I have to do"
From - REMEMBER WHEN IT RAINED
Then there's the theme of flying which gives the album metaphorical unity (just
in case you didn't get enough unity with the constant key changes at the same
point in every song and the similar/familiar orchestrations")
"There are times I wear I feel like I can fly" [When you say you
love me]
"I let you go/I let you fly" [broken vow]
"You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains" [you raise me up]
You Raise Me Up
The ultimate David Foster arrangement (and penultimate song on the album) once
the Titanic/O Danny Boy styling opening is out of the way, this is Groban at his spine tingling best and bound to be performed
at countless weddings/funerals/Church services/End of year school
services/Farewells to teachers who have been at schools for 50 years.
Lyrically ambiguous (and believe me, this is the only ambiguity in the album)
enough to be about God or about a girl friend or boy friend or wife or husband
or dog or a teacher or any thing or being that helps you when you're down, this
song combines all the elements that make this album what it is.
Starting with the basic simple chords on the piano with minor orchestration
accompanying, Groban sings the first verse with the
orchestra swelling to a key change at the end of it before that ridiculous
Titanic/Danny Boy violin comes back in.
The second verse is the chorus ("You raise me up, so I can stand on
mountains/You raise me up, to walk on stormy seas/I am strong, when I am on
your shoulderes/You raise me up... to more than I can
be") and it all dies down until the classic moment. At the end of the
second verse, the orchestra finishes up on a very soft note in the same key as
the beginning of the second verse.
Then suddenly, Groban repeats the second verse -
starting the "You raise me up" by himself a full tone higher - doing
the key change all by himself, with a faux gospel choir backing him up
repeating the words in an extraordinarily stirring echo.
He repeats the chorus yet again and the amazing thing is that just before the
repeat, the orchestra goes to do a key change but somehow it stays in the same
key - an amazing piece of restraint from Mr Foster.
The third repeat of the chorus is a quieter affair and generally dies down to a
piano ending. A classic effort replete with familiar lyrics
and tune (coming dangerously close to quoting O Danny Boy in parts).
BEST TELEVISION
ANGELS IN
The best miniseries on television for years, this amazing series has the most
astonishing performances from Al Pacino, Meryl Streep (in multiple roles),
Justin Kirk, Ben Shenkman, Mary Louise Parker,
Jeffrey Wright, Patrick Wilson and Emma Thompson. The movie has no real
surprises in terms of educating an audience - most people are familiar with the
scope of what happened during the AIDS epidemic, but the performances carry the
show to amazing heights.
Following multiple stories which intersect, the direction and story are
brilliant, being a look at the darker side to the Reagan years - the AIDS
epidemic. In a year where Reagan died it was nice to get something other than
the glorious platitudes that were broadcase all over
the news.
FULL REVIEW COMING SOON
ANTHONY CALLEA SINGS THE PRAYER on AUSTRALIAN IDOL
The dimunitive "secretive" star of the
show guaranteed himself a spot in the final (and u know someone's made it when
there's 'speculation' in the Sydney Star Observer followed by reams of articles
on the story) some 5 weeks before the final with a performance that has been
unequalled in terms of impact in the entire two series of Australian Idol. This
year's winners and finalist shows that the judges did a horrible job of picking
the best talent in
WESTERN WORLD IN TURMOIL
FOLLOWING TSUNAMI
Countries Scramble to Have biggest death toll
1 January 2005
"The nightclub was hosting a 'foam party' featuring a 'live pool'. The
water running to the pool was not turned off and this resulted in a minor
flooding of the dance floor. Patrons were then dancing on the floor, their feet
flicking up the water particles. These particles mixed
with foam rose to the ceiling, interfering with the wiring. Unfortunately there
was a live and open wire in the roof which sparked and set forth the
catastrophic fire.
"It is obvious to me that this is Tsunami related, as the original theme
of the party, "walk on fire", was hastily changed by management as a
Tsunami related fundraiser. And anyway, for all we know, given that the sign
outside the club burnt with the club, the name of the club could have been
'tsunami' which of course would further prove the basis of our claim."
The addition of the 176 argentinian
lives has infuriated the Australian Government, which today upped the ante by
increasing its "grave fears" toll from the previously revised
downwards 500 to the original 3000.
The
"we cannot rule out deaths in Baghdad among American troops are NOT
tsunami related and just like we could not rule out that Saddam did NOT have
nuclear weapons, it clearly means that he did and so it is clear the American
deaths ARE Tsunami related."
President George W Bush added further weight to the argument by saying from his
Texas Ranch:
"Our creationist scientists and those engaged in the war on pornography
have showed me the evidence, and I think there is a clear link between the
disturbance below the ocean off the coast of
Judith Reisman a renowned academic and critic of the
influence of Kinsey's work on the modern world, has also chimed in, saying Bush
was "110% correct" while blaming the "Kinsean
Morals" infiltrating third world countries and "tainting" their
lives as the cause of the Tsunami:
"More and more of these people, seeing the filth of kinsensian
morality have directly caused the tectonic shifts that caused the earthquake.
It is clear from the evidence that the increase in anal sex throughout the
region results in more pressure on the earth's core and Kinsey is responsible
for this!"
The above moves by the various countries to increase their
Tsunami dead has resulted in swift and direct indignation across
Shortly after that press conference, the Chinese Government officially added
the 250,000 lives lost in the deadly 1976 quakes to the Tsunami toll, stating
that they are "part of the one event. In the general scheme of the
existence of the universe, 30 years is like 1 second."
In response to countries scurrying to lift their death figures, the European
Union hastily arranged a Tsunami Death Toll summit. Among initiatives for which
European Union leaders tentatively approved involved a resolution to accept
neo-nazi propoganda (the
first time such propoganda has been accepted since
the rise of the extreme right wing in the mid 1990s) that Jewish people were
NOT killed in the holocaust but moved to the coast of
"Not even the americans and chinese
combined can compete with us on tolls if we can shift just half the jews killed in the holocaust into
the Tsunami Death Tally! It's an odious task I know, but can we afford to let
the Americans have sovereignty even over a death toll we rightly have the lead
in? They'll stop at nothing to win, and we must show them in a united way that
we will not take this lying down - unless lying down means 'dead as a result of
the Tsunami' "
It is not expected that the wave of death upgrades from the western world will
recede until the Tsunami coverage is no longer the top news story - given that
it has been a week since the Tsunami struck and the coverage is still intense,
experts believe the ultimate victor will have to have steely resolve to win the
battle.
ELEPHANT
A Modern Masterpiece
reviewed 27/03/2004 -
this review is based on one screening. Some ideas may change with more detailed
view of film.
Gus Van Sant takes the poeticism of his previous film
My Own Private Idaho and couples it with the breadth and timing of Gerry
and makes an astonishing cinematic meditation on the Columbine massacres. It's
the sister film to Bowling for Columbine - which was more like an
evangelical dissertation on the massacres.
You just cannot overstate the power of this movie. Elephant follows a few
minutes of a day (and the night before) in the life of students at a high
school on the day of the massacre - though with clever interplay of time, we
get multiple points of view of the same day, increasing
our focus as the film progresses.
Elephant is the opposite of any
I still think however that despite the detachment, the movie does make some
very brief social points which people can read into as to the state of mind of
the killers.
1. Violent Video Games and the Free Availability of Guns
One of the killers play a violent video game the night
before the massacres. A first person game which consists of shooting humans is
exaggerated by Van Sant because that's all there is
in the game - it's not like most first person games I've seen. The boys also
order military style weapons via the mail.
2. Nazi Propoganda
The television is showing a history channel style story on the Nazi regime,
including excerpts of Triumph of the Will. Van Sant
has a particular penchant for linking the Nazi's to modern events - Finding
Forrester does the same.
3. Sexuality
What is particularly interesting in this film is that
Van Sant sets up a class discussing about how you can
tell if someone is gay. No one in the film disparages gay people. But just
before the killing, the two killers kiss in the shower. One of them says:
"I've never kissed anyone before." God only knows how an audience
will react to that - is it read as an innocent scene exposing the vulnerability
of the boys and their loneliness thus dignifying them, or are they just gay
Nazi loving gun nuts? In any case, the two aren't phased by what they've done
in the subsequent scenes and like much of the film, we can only hazard to guess
if it is Van Sant's intention that there is a
bundling of identity confusion, bullying at school and the violent culture
around them that sets the killers on their course. Their ride to the school is
also excruciatingly real - as screenwriter, Van Sant
was masterful in keeping them completely silent.
This is a film that should be watched in all American schools and by all
parents. Its satisfaction comes in the overwhelming sense that there is no
satisfaction. However, cinematically, the movie is beautiful - I would dare say
that its cinematography was as beautiful than any of
the Oscar nominees. Shot on the cheap, there are some really beautiful scenes
accentuated by the use of strong primary colours and
scenes that Van Sant just lets flesh out - it is this
editing (or lack thereof) which is so refreshing. Van Sant lets the camera stay on a scene for just that bit
longer, allowing us to actually WATCH and hear what's going on. He
leaves a camera in position without cutting for minutes at a time. David Lean
would be proud. He has some sensational tracking shots. Stanley Kubrick would be proud (Eric also plays Beethoven). He cuts
in and out of time with supreme mastery filling the audience with more dread at
each turn. Most of all, he plays on the audience's expectation of what is going
to happen next (and this happens right from the beginning of the film).
Van Sant's use of music and the sonic space is also
exceptional and the acting is outstanding. Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata and Fur
Elise permeate the space, while the sound in the film features conversations
that take place outside the space of the film. I have to say as a side bar that
when the killer is practicing Fur Elise on the piano, it is a pitch perfect
example of how it is done. The sonic space mirrors the visual space in terms of
building this picture from snippets of dialogue. While the lingering
cinematography forces us to watch more carefully, the use of sound makes us want to get every bit of dialogue in, even as they inter
lap and even as the person filmed isn't always the person talking. Van Sant seems to have taken the bit out of the Marilyn Manson
book when he said: "I would listen to them. It's something nobody ever
did." The audience, even though it's too late in the movie, is now
noticing the warning signs, it's seeing things that
are as obvious as an elephant in front of them. Many people will come out of
this film thinking they've missed the point or that there was no point. In the
context of the killings how could you ever expect to have a neatly arranged
explanation? Wouldn't that be the ultimate insult?
Elephant is a movie that should have been Oscar nominated. Thankfully, the
This scene is played out on a number of occasions. The still is demonstrative of the exceptional film style captured in the cinematography with limited resources. John is wearing yellow which is reflected off the painting opposite (yellow is quite a dominant colour in this film). The bookish girl running on her way to the library after gym lesson is wearing a primary red colour which is littered throughout the mise en scene (danger/blood) - in this still alone there's red in the background painting and on Eli's shirt. Eli, the well mannered and pleasant photographer wears the brown - a most ordinary colour which you find in the corridor, on the rails and also in the painting. The foreboding black jacket finds its mirror in the painting as well. The corridors and the tracking shots throughout the film, give it this Kubrickian (i.e. The Shining) sense of something creepy and disconcerting.
Another still from the film. Again we see the use of primary reds and yellows and of course the black. Another interesting point is that some characters look up.
CAMP
Reviewed 28 February 2004
Camp tells the story of a group of teens who are obsessed with musical theatre and spend their summer in a musical boot camp. We're talking Sondheim musicals and people who would consider Burt Bacharach the classical music of pop. I haven't done any further research on this film, but if this young cast is the real thing and able to sing as well as act and dance, it's a very impressive effort to see. But they're so obsessed that when Sondheim himself arrives in a cameo, the reaction of the kids is as though he was a Beatle. That moment doesn't strike the audience as particularly false - by that stage we realise how far gone they are.
A full review will be coming soon (I missed at least the first five minutes),
but the main character is Vladimir, a 'player' who, for a person with a
musicals sort of obsession, is actually 'straight'. He tells his friend Michael
that he has his own psychological problems behind his facade of normality, in
the form of an ADD or depressive mental type illness which is cured by the
taking of a daily pill. The ambiguity emanating from
THE FOG OF WAR
Has this critic ever been disappointed by an Errol Morris film? They're
about as familiar as a Woody Allen film with their definitive style and Philip
Glass scores. The Fog of War is based on interviews with Robert McNamara,
secretary of defence for the Kennedy and Johnson
administrations. It is backed up with meticulously researched snippets from
white house tapes and show for example that the administrations knew how messed
up
CLOVER
The Labor Party's shameful attempt to take control of the City of Sydney by amalgamating the predominately Labor Council of South Sydney into the City was thwarted when Clover Moore, the only person who can outpoll Labor in South Sydney, joined the election campaign for Lord Mayor 3 weeks ago. Labor reverted to advertising on Radio - including on Nova FM - in a desperate attempt to say Clover couldn't manage her duties as an MP and her duties as Lord Mayor. That is as ludicrous as saying the Minister for Education cannot manage his duties as Minister and Local Member. In Clover's case, most of her constituents are in the new giant city.
Clover
But in this election, gay issues had nothing to do with her resounding victory - her victory was far broader and more impressive than writing it off on a staunchly supportive minority of voters. The electorate realised that with a State Government in control of the city council, developers would run rampant and such projects as Frank Lowy's proposed "towers on Centrepoint tower" with massive underground car park would have been given the green light with no hassles. The Labor Party has received up to 5 million dollars in political donations from developers since coming to power.
Clover
CAPTURING THE FRIEDMANS
What happens when your "typical" middle class family gets
embroiled in pedophilia hysteria of witch burning proportions when there is
some truth in the claims? All hell breaks loose. Arnold Friedman, loving father
and husband, has a huge stash of child pornography. The vice squad cottons onto
him and he's arrested. When they figure out he runs a school from home teaching
computers, they go door knocking to all these homes and kids begin admitting to
being raped, assaulted and threatened by this man AND his 18 year old son Jesse.
The truth of course is not so simple. While
Like Elephant - it's so good to have a movie that makes you feel uncomfortable,
that plays with your emotions, with your gut feelings about these humans. I
don't think there would've been a film if it was just
Oscars 2004: The link: See how wrong we got it
KELLIS' MILKSHAKE EXPLAINED
Not many people who are serious music lovers would admit to liking this song.
How could you really? Well, we at the AV have got our classical music
specialist to look into why it's such a good track:
THE
The Neptunes continue their single handed revolution
of popular music. All decent tracks on the Timberlake album has
the musical fingerprints of the
MULTI TEXTURED
Just listen to the opening electronic bass chords - a sensational combination
of tonality - sometimes in broken arpeggios that are musically sound, at other
times completely atonal yet all of them end on the same two notes which precurse and predict when Kellis
sings "la la" at the end of the chorus.
It's the sort of electronica you would expect in
trance or at least more of the hardcore dance. But those two notes of the base
are the integral theme to the song's success and are essential to the reason
why it is so catchy.
The second level is the simple, derbake (lebanese drums) like ostinato drumming.
The third level is the triangle like "ting" that comes on. In the
equally sensational video clip, this is represented by the service bell on the
counter. Pharrell meticulously places the
"tings" throughout the song (notice the pattern) and it is this small
factor that further adds to the song's ability to focus the attention of the
listener in case they're going to tune out.
Notice too that when the electronica stops at a few
places, sample sounds of a milkshake being slurped or prepared are also played.
The fifth layer is ofcourse the impeccable delivery
by Kellis, who manages to make music out of the
rather ambiguous backing in certain parts.
While most people (whether they love it or hate it) always recall the lyrics,
the reason for the song's catchiness is not necessarily the way they're
delivered but the staggering ingenious simplicity of construction. It's like
what makes "Singing in the Rain" such a masterpiece - it's not just
the melody, it's that little introduction bit before that gives it that extra
spring in its step. The
Kellis Milkshake is undoubtedly the best pop song of
the year after Hey Ya.
BEST FILMS of 2003
1. LORD OF THE RINGS: RETURN OF THE KING: A sensational final film. Gripping in full, a true epic with time to have proper closure. Some of the finest editing of fighting you will ever see, the middle one hour and a half is perfection on film. What will we do next year now that there is no more?
2. KILL BILL VOL 1: The thrill of going to the movies is sitting through a film so kinetic and cinematic that you are left with your mouth gaped open. That was my reaction watching this film. I can now imagine how it would have been like seeing Raging Bull in a cinema or Taxi Driver. This movie is an instant classic as far as I'm concerned and all bodes well for the next installment.
3. PUNCH DRUNK LOVE: One of my favourite love stories. Some might call it quirky, but at its heart, when true love is found in the film, it's just poetic and believable. This is my favourite Paul Thomas Anderson movie.
4. RULES OF ATTRACTION: Another movie about love - see a full review below, written just after the film's release in 2003. This is one of the great films of the year. The direction is superb and the opening is one of the most creative. The music's interaction with the film is equally brilliant. Outstanding performances by all the leads.
5. JACKASS: THE MOVIE: Makes a mockery of what "gross out" cinema is, makes a mockery of cinema itself, and in the process becomes cinematic in itself. I defy anyone not to be moved by this film-making. See review below.
6. AMERICAN SPLENDOR: Are we getting tired of this whole "let's mix reality and fictional space" together? Obviously not. American Splendor has a lot more to offer than that, strangely enough, another quirky love story ensues (three of the top six are love stories at heart). It's the perfect way to tell the story of this great comic book actor, mixing in all different forms of media and media style to pull it off.
7. THE PIANIST: Adrian Brodey deserved his Oscar for this performance. Sensational. The conflicted pragmatist, growing increasingly weak and showing the mental anguish without reverting to overacting, this was another excellent holocaust movie. Roman Polanski's film was a knockout and while the movie doesn't hit you like Spielberg's Schindler's List - it is more a critic/cynic's movie in that it doesn't go for the tear jerker while being brutally real since Polanski lived the holocaust.
8. GANGS OF
9.
10. SPELLBOUND and COLD MOUNTAIN: Spellbound is a highly
enjoyable documentary about kids and spelling bees. A really
insightful doco which shines because of the children
in it.
11. THE CRIMES OF FATHER AMARO: A disturbing look at the priesthood
and corruption in
12. WHALE RIDER: I'm embarrassed to say I loved this film. The actress in it puts in one of the most confident performances by a child actor for a long while. She makes what could've been a heavy handed corny film, something special.
13.CITY OF
14.PIRATES OF THE CARIBEAN: THE CURSE OF THE
BLACK PEARL: Johnny Depp is a knockout as the
campiest pirate known to man. It's this campiness
that unexpectedly elevates this movie from just another action movie - his
portrayal of the seriously warped genius pirate makes it justifiably one of the
most entertaining films of 2003. Its
15. FINDING NEMO: The box office king of 2003 (until LOTR of course), this Pixar film raised the bar yet again. As with many of Pixar's films, touching and funny.
16. 8 MILE: Eminem can act and carry a
motion picture. Impressive. Gives people some genuine
insight into the talent and process of making rap. The carpe diem theme song
from this movie is pure
17. BUFFALO SOLDIERS: The real
18. RAISING VICTOR VARGAS: This film should be higher up. One of the finer comedies of 2003, this feature is entertaining and spot on in its depiction of the sex obsessed teenagers and their grandmother. It reminded me of leb families.
19. JAPANESE STORY: Toni Collette is a legend. I thought I'd fall asleep through this one, but her acting and the excellent photography is worth the watch.
20. NICHOLAS NICKLEBY: A sweet little film, with the main actor from Billy Elliot playing a slightly disabled/sick child and ex-uk-queer as folker playing the lead character of the honourable man who seeks to find the world and support his mother after their father dies broke. The boys' honourableness can get to people though - so be warned.
20. THE HULK: Ang Lee got too much flack for this movie which was an amazing twist on the action genre, being a meditation on family and love rather than kinetic unreasoned action.
BEST COMEDIES outside top 20
ELF: Will Farrell is a legend. He turns this film to magic.
RODGER DODGER: A cynical view of the dating world with more than a ring of truth to it.
TWO WEEKS NOTICE: A nice enough film from Hugh Grant and Sandra
Bullock which manages to have as a subtext, a homage
to S11 and
BEST TEEN FILM
RULES OF ATTRACTION: Some intelligence was put into the college flick with this one.
FINAL DESTINATION 2: Again pulls off the most ridiculous pranks. Not as wildly original and comic as the first one, but still lots of fun.
BEAUTIFUL FILM
NICHOLAS NICKLEBY: Dickens brings out the best in directors wanting to make a go of the beautiful film.
QUEER FILM
LOTR: Yet again wins hands down. OK, so it portrays how friendship between males should be, but really, those hobbits take things one step too far and the undying love of frodo and his mate are just slight examples. Legolas' relationship with the hairy bearded dude is very bent too.
RULES OF ATTRACTION: For obvious reasons.
YOSSI & JAGGER: Seen at the Sydney Film Festival, this is a love story set in the army barracks of an Israeli border patrol. Well photographed, if there is any criticism, it's slightly heavy handed and spells out its symbolism a bit too much but it's a genuine film.
THE RULES OF ATTRACTION
Rules of Attraction is the most creative teen film
I've seen in a long while. It is in equal turns profound and hilarious,
bristling with deep meaning even as the film's characters spout off post-modern
dialogue. That's not to say that this movie is first and foremost a satiric comedy
with brilliantly executed subtle and not-so subtle humour,
and being a satire, it is saying something about the way the world is heading.
The way humans relate to each other, the way they search for love, the
increasing detachment of emotion from relationships - this movie has it all.
And it is also - thanks be God - a true cinematic
experience. It has a unique film style, it actually infuses colour
with meaning rather than just have it there for continuity. The film's action
is impeccably edited to maximise the contrast between
comic and tragic affect, sometimes at the same time. The soundtrack is the
ultimate irony but it also hints that at the very core of this film is the
search not for sex, excessive drugs or fun, but love. And that's why this movie
is so rich. It helps that the book this movie is adapted on is written by
American Psycho's Brett Easton Ellis.
The film begins at its end (as we discover at the end of the film) in THE END
OF THE WORLD party at the
LAUREN
Lauren is in her own sort of disinterested way an attractive girl for what is
going to be the night she loses her virginity. Her short brown copped hair
gives her the air of someone devoid of femininity, but because she is a virgin
she is what you would in the traditional sense define as the ultimate in female
purity. That she loses her virginity at 'the end of the world party' in a most
disgusting way, gives us a hint of how this movie tends to the nihilistic and the
destruction of the sacred. Lauren is told that she resembles silent film
actress Clara Bow, and at certain points in this movie, we see characters
watching silent/black and white films. This whole introduction to Lauren takes
on far more resonance at the end of the film and with multiple viewings of the
film.
PAUL
"My life lacks forward momentum"
Sometimes Paul doesn't know what shit comes out of his mouth. If what happens
to Lauren is the ultimate in nihilism, Paul's dialogue is the embodiment of detachment
from the world. Paul is a mainly gay boy who has his eye on another person we
later learn is Sean Bateman. Paul's story arc is perhaps the most eventful of
all three, and the actor playing him relishes every moment of the role. It's
often small gestures that elevate a work from a mere acting job to something
special - and you know Paul's character is going to be played with impeccable
comic and dramatic timing with his contemptuous dismissive laugh to the boy
opposite him who says "e makes the fluids in your spine go backwards."
Paul then takes up someone he thinks is gay to his room, where he proceeds to
pop some e, 'feel nothing' and then crack onto the boy. The boy goes crazy and
spits on him (in a mirroring of the vomit on Lauren). Just as you think that
the movie is heading completely nihilistic, Paul changes tack and says:
"Everything is pre-ordained", nothing has to do with luck.
SEAN
Sean Bateman, brother of Patrick Bateman (a fact not made obvious except in a
few jokey references in the film) is an emotional
vampire. He can't remember the last time he had sex sober and tonight he is
particularly battered. He takes home a girl he might have had sex with earlier
in the term and tells her his name is Peter. This deceit is the sort of deceit you
expect from Sean throughout the film. You wonder whether even his internal
monologues are truthful. You wonder if he knows himself who he is or what he
wants. It is appropriate that while Lauren and Paul seem to have nihilistic
tendencies because of external forces, Sean is internally narcissistic, and his
actions throughout the film indicate that his "search" in this film
is perhaps the saddest of the lot - because he is who he is and he might not be
able to do anything about it. Therefore the term an "emotional
vampire" is appropriate, perhaps the only truth he ever mutters (or can
ever know) - and the duality of his character is exemplified by the mise-en-scene in the film. In one scene later in the movie
(when he is smoking dope with Paul), the beer is called
THE INTERTWINING LIVES & LOVE
It is the idea of love here that is most surprising
about a film so obsessed with the lack of it in these sort of campuses.
1) Sean thinks he loves Lauren - of course, it's probably more the idea of
love, as there seems nothing genuine about Sean's character. If his character
is not enough of a clue of that, there's the aborted suicide, the fake blood,
and more impressively, the snow tear (towards the end of the film) which proves
the high level of artifice to Sean's character. Even his delivery of 'you
never know anyone' is pitch perfect artifice - a word for word vampirism of
Lauren's earlier spiel. And again, this is what's so essentially brilliant
about Van Der Beek's
playing of Sean - the audience is empathetic because he lets them know him, and
how can you ever hate someone when they cannot escape who they are?
2) Paul is deeply in love with Sean - this is exemplified in the scene where
Paul is in the back of the bus and his voice over sounds like teenage angst:
"I love you Sean Bateman". The audience laughs at this not
because it's a boy saying it, but because the sincerity seems so out of place.
Interestingly, Sean's monologue reveals the contrast in psychology when Sean
thinks about sex with Lauren and then says: "I'm hungry" (also think
of this seminal quote in relation to Paul's opening "vampire" soliloquoy)
3) Lauren is also in love - in love with Kip Pardue's
character, and also in her schwing moment with
Sean. Her virginity is in this context, something which will stay until she is
ready to express her love. Indeed, we know from the very beginning of the film
that love will completely skip her, and a nihilism and expression of all her
fears about sex will be fulfilled.
The movie is like the kids themselves, it just cannot handle love. The end
result is disappointment and violence. The love of the girl that kills herself
is an example. But somehow you get the feeling that the movie doesn't judge
love as a bad thing - only that the individuals to varying degrees of
selfishness are unable to love truly. And it is this spoilt selfishness at the
heart of the rot behind the lives of the characters. As Lauren says at the end
of the film "it doesn't really matter to people like us." She
has gotten to the root of the problem of rich kids with too much spare time -
but it would be a mistake for us to think it only applies to them. The death of
love is selfishness and Rules of Attraction is a warning to us that if economic
power 'trickles down' to the lives of the ordinary people, so too do the Rules
of Attraction and Love in a world as seemingly remote as that of Lauren, Paul
and Sean.
COMEDY AND SIGNS
The Rules of Attraction however is not all so serious.
There is much comedy in the film. It's sometimes subtle, sometimes overt. The
scene where Sean confronts an addict shooting up through his foot is quite
funny and sets up what is a series of signs associated with Sean's character.
Sean takes a book from the room - he later takes a whole bunch of CDs from
Paul's room. His vampirism isn't only emotional. The funniest scenes however
involve Paul's character. After doing some Yoga to relax, he has a cigarette.
He also has his own problems when his preparations for what
he thinks is a date with Sean (including a comic sequence of him
deciding what to dress) is interrupted by a friend who has over-dosed. Paul's
detachment and annoyance is part of the comedy with his hysterical friends
providing the counterpart. Among the more overt comedy is when Paul goes to
meet his mother at a hotel, and his gay friend from his past (and son of his
mother's best friend) Richard comes over. All hell breaks loose. Firstly, Paul
and Richard's mothers are drug addicts themselves and are shown to be
completely unable to convincingly pass judgement on
their sons (the end of the scene where Paul allows his mum to have another
drink adds to the sympathy with which he is portrayed). Richard and Paul also
do a dance on bed sequence in underwear to George Michael's FAITH. I don't
know, but is this some sort of twisted parody on all those kids
films that interrupt the films with a music/dance sequence (ref. home alone)?
Just another point on signs - look carefully at the film, there are lots of
messages embedded into the mise en scene. We have the
counterpoint of green and yellow and we also have the great dual screen scene
where Sean and Lauren meet, the sign in the background a part of the 'search'.
CONCLUSION
The Rules of Attraction is an excellent addition and counterpoint to a lot of
the teen films that have flooded us in recent years. There's a level of
analysis here that the teen films do allude to but don't delve into. But it's
never too serious for it not to be an entertaining and beautifully shot piece
of cinema. The writer of Pulp Fiction has shown himself to be a more than
competent director, producing one of the best films of the year so far.
Reviewed: March 2003
AN EXTRAORDINARY JACKASS
Jackass is an extraordinary achievement in cinema because it would strike most
people who regularly go to the movies as "un-cinematic". This is so
bizarre when the same people talk glowingly about films that are fiction but
portray "the realism of the situation so well." Jackass is really documentary anyway, and there is really no cinematic
pretension by the film makers. But Jackass IS cinematic. Like the Lumiere Bros were cinematic. Many people note that Gummo is not cinematic. To my dying regret, I never saw
that film in a theatre (because it wasn't released here). Gummo
is a cinematic classic. Jackass is cinematic because it attempts to break
cinemas conventions. Admittedly, the producers couldn't help themselves and
added funny visual humour to the stunts. In the scene
where genitalia is being subjected to electric shock,
you'll notice a picture in the background which mirrors our feelings.
Similarly, when Johnny Knoxville does the skateboard on the stairs stunt,
there's a billboard in the background that adds to the scene. It's small touches like these that remind you that some of
the most brilliantly creative people are behind Jackass - particularly, Spike Jonze (director of Being John Malkovich
and Adaptation).
LINK TO PINK FLAMINGOS
John Waters' classic film, Pink Flamingos is simply the most trashy, disgusting
feature fiction film ever made, and is an interesting sister film to Jackass.
This 1972 film features a drag queen eating real dog shit, a man with blue hair
exposing himself in public with sausages or pieces of meat attached to his
penis, an incestuous scene featuring the drag queen and her son, a scene
involving the son and chickens during sexual intercourse with a lady and so on.
Pink Flamingos can be read as a parody of Jackass 30 years before it's out of
cinema. Jackass' attempts to contain the most outrageous
stunts (including the drinking of a urine snow cone) is exactly the same
plot as the 1972 film. But what is similar about Pink Flamingos is that it
undermines narrative and human experience by mocking it. It mocks depictions of
the human family in film by having such a "loving" but psychotic
family (Jerry Springer couldn't compete with this). It mocks fetishes by having
a 69 foot fetish scene. It sends up porn convention. None of the scenes of
nudity are erotic as they are debased and freak-showish
- a man at one point of the film does a talking trick with his arse-hole. Jackass also has scenes of nudity, the
subjecting of the body to pain undermines the narcissism in advertising and
lots of film (party boy's strip shows would have to be an example of this), it
mocks more extreme fetishes by giving the body electric shock in genital areas,
a man inserts a car into his arse,
and so on. Again, none of these scenes come off as erotic or homo-erotic but at
the same time because they expose the body to these things that may be done in
secret or as part of a fetish.
In the documentary DOGTOWN and Z BOYS, the journalist who noted the pioneering
skateboarder's re-working of their built world said that by skateboarding on
concrete and in public places, they were creating a new meaning for that place
that was never envisioned by the architect. While Jackass destroys a lot of
film convention and meaning, just like Pink Flamingos, it also CREATES a new
vocabulary by infusing into ordinary objects, some extraordinary and sadistic
stunt.
Reviewed July 2003.
Addendum. In a recent interview, John Waters, director of Pink Flamingos had this to say:
Q. Do you think there's anyone out there doing anything like that today? Anything that trashy?
A. Well I think the spirit of trash lives on in people like Johnny Knoxville and the Jackass boys. I mean Jackass is everything that Pink Flamingos was and I think it's so great that it has a straight boy showing male nudity for other straight guys. It's great! And it's really radical.
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