MURDERBALL
8/10
Great documentary – a film about a wheelchair rugby doesn’t sound like something I ought to enjoy, given my somewhat lacking excitement over sport generally, but this was really fantastic. The doco was very well put together and included a lot of personal history of the players we saw. Great editing and appropriate soundtrack kept your attention. Don’t miss this if you get the chance to see it.

THE BIG SWINDLE
7/10
Well, it was a nice change to have a South Korean cop/baddie film that didn’t involve the random inclusion of several non-sensical plot points in the last half that leave you wondering what the hell is going on. This was a South Korean ‘Ocean’s Eleven’-eqsque heist film that did pretty well. Ultimately, I felt they were chasing the hollywood look and feel a little too much and didn’t quite succeed in achieving it. Watchable.

3 – IRON
8/10
Yes, another brilliant film! This was done by Kim Ki-duk, who gave us ‘Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter… and Spring’ last year… (A film I wanted to see but which I didn’t make it to). It’s hard to describe this, other than to say don’t miss this one if you get the chance. It reminded me a little bit of ‘In the Mood For Love’ in terms of pace and feel. I liked it so much, I decided not to go to my last session for the festival so that I knew I’d finish on a high. Mesmerising.

HAIR HIGH
8/10
Brilliant animated feature by Bill Plympton. I think this is the first thing I’ve seen by him, and I really enjoyed it – it’s an American High School Prom story about love, using impressive angles and distortions to represent scenes. Great way to start the second last day of MIFF

P.S.
8/10
Another good ‘un. Ever since seeing Laura Linney in ‘You Can Count on Me’, I’ve been hooked on her. YCCOM is one of my all-time favourite films, btw, so if you havent seen it, check it out. Topher (That 70s show guy) also put in a good performance. Anyway this story had interesting characters and while things appear to have all worked out for the main characters a little easier than they probably would in real life I found the film entertaining and definitely worth the time.

DIRT
7/10
A documentary about southern folk who race stock cars on a dirt speedway. As can be expected half of them are missing teeth, one can’t read, and more than a reasonable number of people have concerns with a woman driving in the competition. It’s worth a watch I guess, but really, we know there’s a lot of rednecks in Texas, and laughing at them only lasts so long. It was also quite similar to another MIFF film I saw last year about smash up derby racers. Wait for it on TV.

PARADISE NOW
7/10
An important film that tries to give a perspective on suicide bombers. I didn’t really enjoy it that much because I just can’t grasp how people can have so much faith in their religions that they really believe that killing themselves and taking others with them is a way forward. This film does try to point this out as well, but all in all, it’s frustrating to see how people (on both sides) are living in poverty and/or fear because of this. So, yes, this is an important film and reasonably unbiased film, which is well made and well acted, but don’t expect to walk out feeling good afterwards.

A somewhat disappointing day at the festival.

ROLLING FAMILY
6.5/10
A story about how an extended Argentinian family all pile into a campervan and go on a road journey to a relative’s wedding. I dunno, I like Argentinian films mostly from what I’ve seen, but this was a little too slow-paced for me, and the characters didn’t gel – I don’t feel like there was enough development of who they were in order to become emotionally involved with their various highs/lows. It was quite nicely shot though. Ultimately, it felt a little like taking a long car journey – not much happened. Dan, who sat next to me claimed that this was a good film, yet he slept through half of it, so I’m unsure how he can judge…

THE EDUCATION OF SHELBY KNOX
7/10
This documentary was interesting in that it was done over a few years, and focussed on a girl in a small Texan town, who was raised by two republican christians, has taken a vow through her youth church group not to have sex until she’s married, but in the meantime seems to question her religion, her parents value system, and tries to push for sex education in schools, representation of gay rights amongst youth, and is a self proclaimed democrat. I suppose 15-17 year old questioning the beliefs they were raised with is nothing particularly new, but I thought that she had a lot of guts to do what she did where she is. I also think she’s a little confused (which is fair enough) and perhaps, as suggested by her competitive rival, did hunt for the limelight a bit more than issues at points. I also reckon her parents were pretty ace too – given that you could tell they had difficulties accepting that homosexuality exists, they still supported their daughter. Worth a watch if it comes on TV.

A DIRTY SHAME
6.5/10
I’ve seen some but not vast amounts of John Waters’ films, and the last I did see was Serial Mom, which I thought was great and worth a repeated viewing or two. I understand that his films are puerile, but I really wasn’t sure what the point of this zombie-like film was. Was it meant to introduce me to the world of fetishes out there? Was it meant to shock and offend? I don’t know – probably both. Overall it had some amusing moments, but there wasn’t enough substance to pull off a full length film in my opinion…

5 X 2
6.5/10
Hmm. How to start. Well, this film is filled with unlikeable characters/couples who treat each other quite poorly. Really, in a story about five different phases in a relationship, you’d like to think that deceit/mistrust/insensitity/etc wasn’t prevalent at every phase… Or maybe that’s the point – that their relationship was doomed from the start. Anyway, call me traditional or a romantic or something, but in five phases of a relationship, I’d like there to be some pure warmth and happiness and not have it laced with bad. If seeing films that show the negative of relationships is you thing, check it out. I’d have preferred a more balanced representation personally.

CHILDSTAR
7.5/10
A Canadian film about how a 12 year old actor comes to term with the fact that he’s growing out of his star phase (at least in children’s roles). Was very well acted and enjoyable.

ENRON: THE SMARTEST GUYS IN THE ROOM
6/10
I’d certainly recommend seeing this if it comes on TV. As a cinema release though, I’m not rating it very highly. It was a very dry documentary about how the corporation screwed the little guy and laughed their asses off doing so. There’s enough documentaries out there which paint corporations badly, and I’m not sure that this one was needed – it told the story, but didn’t do so in a particularly entertaining way. I don’t think this is such a bad thing for a documentary, but some more entertainment would’ve been appreciated for a cinema experience.

PIXAR PRESENTS… ONE MAN BAND
8/10
Yeah – a real highlight of the festival. Two Pixar people came and chatted about Pixar, what goes on there, the steps involved in the creation of a short film, and showed us the film twice (the first time being the Australain Premiere). There was a Q&A, and at the end we all got a golden coin at the end too (which will make sense once you’ve seen the short, which is basically about two one-man-band players who are vying to win a gold coin from a little girl with their performance). Most excellent!

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.