Well, that ends another year at the Melbourne International Film Festival, and it was an excellent one. I can’t wait to see what happens next year with a new executive director at the helm. Let’s hope that they can organise a festival lounge where the beer company sponsoring it doesn’t charge more for a bottle of beer that you’d pay at fancy city restaurants.

Anyway, overall, the film were fantastic. Here’s my favourites of the ones I saw. If you have the opportunity, check them out on the big screen!

Documentaries;
– BLACK GOLD
– AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH
– JONESTOWN: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF PEOPLES TEMPLE
– LOUDQUIETLOUD: A FILM ABOUT THE PIXIES
– THIS FILM IS NOT YET RATED

English Language;
– NO. 2
– OPAL DREAM
– RATS & CATS
– A SCANNER DARKLY
– THANK YOU FOR SMOKING
– TWELVE AND HOLDING

Subtitled;
– C.R.A.Z.Y.
– FEARLESS
– GRBAVICA
– LINDA LINDA LINDA
– SONHOS DE PEIXE
– TOUGH ENOUGH

Seeya next year at MIFF 2007! 🙂 If you’d like to get in touch, drop me a line.

SONHOS DE PEIXE
8/10
Great film set in a Brazlian fishing village. It’s about a guy who’s got an itch for a girl in town, and how he goes about trying to win her attention. Aside from her not taking a big interest in him for himself, he also has to compete with a friend who’s got a job driving beach buggies for tourists and is also taking an interest in her. This was a slow film in a good way. It was one to savour and wasn’t boring. Great shots underwater and really dragged you in. See it if you can.

THIS FILM IS NOT YET RATED
7.5/10
Good documentary about the MPAA (who decides how to rate films in the US). Pretty well laid out, explaining the history of the MPAA, the meanings of the ratings that exist there, and the problems that exist with the way the ratings system works in the USA. Highlight of the film was the part when he has to submit the documentary about the MPAA to the MPAA for ratings… It was entertaining and enjoyable, but it did tend to feel a tad one-sided, in the same way that Super Size Me and Michael Moore docos are – i.e., they’re probably fighting for the ‘right’ side, but aren’t necessarily presenting an unbiased opinion. Hopefully SBS will show this one on TV, as it’s worth checking out, but I’m unsure if I’d spend the money to see it at the cinema.

Better late than never…

NO. 2
8/10
Loved this film. It’s about a Fijiian grandmother who calls upon her family (particularly her grandchildren) to gather at the family home and have a feast. The film is about the different family members, how they relate and the love they have for each other despite their differences. Several amusing moments in this comedy/drama and I highly recommend it. Possibly deserving higher than 8/10…

BROTHERS OF THE HEAD
4/10
This film was watchable, but I really have to wonder why it got made and how it managed to make it to actually being filmed. It’s a feel-bad mockumentary about two brothers, conjoined twins (i.e., siamese twins) who are taken from a remote house in the middle of nowhere where they live with their father and sister to be groomed into 70s glam-rock stars. The technical achievements are worth mentioning – it’s very well filmed with plenty of different feels used, depending on whether we’re watching ‘found footage’ from the 70s made by a ‘documentarian’, or the snippets of the unfinished ‘film’ that was based on their story. Remember though, this isn’t a documentary. So, you have scenes of a documentary and a film based on the ‘reality’ of that ‘documentary’ all within this film. Ultimately I felt little sympathy for the characters, some of the slightly interested subplots were left unfinished, and it just wasn’t that interesting. Avoid it, and watch Spinal Tap or Hedwig and the Angry Inch if you want a rock mockumentary.

DETOUR DE FRANCE
6.5/10
A little disappointing for me. The writeup was promising and the fact both sessions (including today’s at 3pm on a weekday) sold out made me expect more. It was a somehwat entertaining look at the 2005 Tour De France, as viewed by 2.5 australian journalists (the .5 for the guy who was there for the fun of it rather than as a professional journalist). I didn’t like that I walked out without having a better understanding of how the Tour actually works. And even more, the bogan/ocka/lout behaviour of the drunkard ‘journo’ left me cringing at what the international community must think Australians are like…

EVERY OTHER WEEK
7/10
Somewhat entertaining film about the twists and turns of the relationships between a bunch of people in various stages of divorce. It wasn’t bad, and some of the several ‘interruptions’ for a mock commercial were great. Others we less so and interrupted the story. Towards the end, the film lost steam and direction and turned into a bit of a mess in my opinion.

JONESTOWN: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF PEOPLES TEMPLE
7.5/10
Pretty good documentary about what happened leading up to the Jonestown Massacre. While I had certainly heard of it, I realised that I wasn’t aware of several of the facts and events surrounding the massacre/mass suicide of nearly 1,000 people. Very interesting to see the interviews with survivors, and there was a reasonable amount of original footage that helped give a visual/audio key to the events. But, certainly not a feel-good film…