KISSED BY WINTER
7.5/10
A swedish film, which I am pretty sure starred one of the actors from ‘Kopps’, which was a good film from miff a couple of years ago. This film was interesting in that it showed how people can jump to conclusions and not necessarily be right as they allow personal feelings to cloud their judgement. Was a fairly straightforward and not terribly long film, but was certainly worth the time of day.

CZECH DREAM
7.5/10
A documentary which was made by two film students in the Czech Republic. They filmed a giant prank, which was to lure the general public into believing that a new ‘hypermart’ was opening, when it wasn’t at all. They went so far as to have image consultants dress them up, hired relevant people to design logos, brochures, tv advertisements, billboards, etc. They did have an aim to the prank though, which became obvious through the film. It was interesting to see the reaction of those at the grand opening that were fooled, seeing reactions from anger to amusement. I’d like to think that I’d be one of the amused in that situation, but in reality, I’d probably be one of the bitter ones.

ANIMATION SHORTS 1
7.5/10
Hard to give a proper ranking on this since some shorts were better than others. Overall, worth parking in a seat for, even if it was one of the crappy ones in Greater Union… My favourites of the lot were Pinata (cute one about a donkey pinata), Appeal (slightly gross one about how a girl loses weight, while her cat gains it), His Passionate Bride (quick and sassy), Spooky Doll Kids (freaking awesome, this should be a series), The Twelve Months (nicely animated) and The Mysterious Geographical Explorations of Jasper Morello (mind-blowingly amazing animation). Well, that’s a majority of the films, so yes, a very good selection.

SCREAMING MASTERPIECE

I fell asleep through a lot of this, but in a good way :-). I really like bands like Sigur Ros and Mum (and Bjork too), so this documentary about Icelandic music was right down my alley. I often listen to SR and Mum when I go to sleep at night, so I suspect that this music-heavy documentary might have triggered my mind into a relaxed enough state to snooze. Anyway, the parts I did see were great, so If I had to give it a score it’d be closer to 10 than to zero. There was another band in the doco called Bang Gang which sounded really good too, so I’ll be trying to get a CD by them ASAP. Luckily their latest one is available locally through shock records.

DEAD MAN’S SHOES
8/10
I really liked this film, though it might not really deserve an 8/10 perhaps – maybe a 7.8/10… I think what did it for me was one of the actors, Paddy Considine, who I loved as the father in ‘In America’ at MIFF a couple of years ago. Anyway, this film isn’t overly complex or anything – it’s a tale of revenge, executed (pun intended) by the brother of mentally retarded man who was regularly picked on by the local thugs in a small UK town. Think Kill Bill, but about three hours shorter maybe. Okay, not really, but definitely worth checking out. I hope this one gets a wider release here.

A quick post to mentioned Leo’s MIFF blog. He’s a guy I’ve seen every year at the festival, and his taste in films is pretty similar to mine. A random web search this morning uncovered his blog and so I’ve added a link to it on the left hand side of the page here – be sure to check it out for some useful comments about the films he’s seen at MIFF this year!

UNO
7/10
I had fairly high hopes for this film after seeing ‘Hawaii, Oslo’, and then noticing that one of the actors (who was also Johnny Vang in the film of that name a year or two at MIFF, and which I really enjoyed) wrote and directed this one. I was a little disappointed. There wasn’t anything particularly bad about the film, and it was certainly watchable, but it wasn’t really my style I guess. It’s about a guy who works in a gym that is dealing in steroids. He tries to do the right thing by people generally, but sometimes he needs to prioritise the needs of one ove another causing conflict. A somewhat depressing film.

WHAT ALICE FOUND
6.5/10
This year’s MIFF seems to have an unofficial theme of being the year of the promiscuous teen. This film is a cautionary tale of why you shouldn’t use your middle finger on a highway. Or, something. It was an okay, but not great tale of a girl who is a little lost and what happens when she’s rescued by a couple of good samaritans who happens to be pimp/whore/husband/wife. Some of the acting was pretty awful, but it was cool to hear an American accent rarely found in film – the teenage girl was from massachusetts where they pronounce ‘car’ like ‘kah’. (reminds me of the simpsons episode where the cook is forced to ‘say chowdah!’. Missable.

LOOK BOTH WAYS
7.5/10
An Australian film that was better than I expected – I thought it would be all about a train wreck and how the survivors found new meaning in their lives. There was a train wreck, but it didnt directly relate to any of the main characters, all of who had their own issues to deal with. It was a nice film, set in a Sydney suburb, was well paced and different enough to recommend, with short animated sequences interspersed throughout. Ultimately while I liked it, it didn’t change my life enough for me to consider it a must-see film. But, it’s certainly worth a look.