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…

BLACK GOLD
7/10
Pretty good documentary on why we should all be buying fair trade coffee. And, giving yet another reason why we shouldn’t drink Starbucks (other than the fact that their coffee sucks and they put good independent cafes out of business). From now on, whenever I order coffee, I’m going to ask if they have fair trade and choose it if they do. If enough people just ask for it, perhaps the cafes that don’t use fair trade coffee will consider offering it.

PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION
7.5/10
This was an enjoyable film by Robert Altman. Its about a radio show that ran for around 30 years, featuring the host doing monologues interspersed with live musical performances. Spent a lot of the film trying to work out where I’d seen the woman in the white coat before (and at the very end realised it was the love interest of Miles in Electric Dreams). Highlight of the film for me was Dusty and Lefty’s song of bad jokes.

MUTUAL APPRECIATION
3/10
Crap. Sorry, I don’t care if he’s America’s Indie Darling or whatever – you’d think that all the crappiness of his first film (see comments on ‘Funny Ha Ha’ below) would be cleaned up and improved for his second. But no, it’s got all that made Funny Ha Ha bad, but is even less interesting. Audible groans were heard amongst the audience as this film progressed. Avoid.

NORDIC SHORTS
7/10
Shorts. Some were good (Bawke, Roswell Enterprises, The Last Farm, It’s My Turn Now) and some were okay. None awful.

I’m a bit tired so these one’ll be short (yes, even shorter than usual).

C.R.A.Z.Y.
9/10
Great flick, following the life of a guy who’s a member of a typical family with their quirks and oddities. See it. ASAP.

I FOR INDIA
7/10
Interesting documentary about an Indian man who moved to the UK in the 1960s and communicated with home through film and audio tape. The recordings are used to show life in the UK for an Indian family as well as life in India.

LOUDQUIETLOUD: A FILM ABOUT THE PIXIES
8/10
Possibly the best band documentary I’ve seen. How badly do I want to listen to Pixies again right now? Very. This was produced by Kelley Deal and I suspect that meant that the filmmaker was able to get some great candid snapshots of life on the road with the Pixies during their 2004 reunion tour. If you’re a fan of the band, you must try and see this film.

A SOAP
6/10
This was an okay film about a woman who leaves her doctor boyfriend after deciding her life with him was boring. She moves into a new apartment building above a cross-dresser who is awaiting his confirmation that he can have a sex change operation. Well shot, but lordy lordy lordy that main character shat me up the wall. Very hard to like her given her constant indecisiveness and the way it affected the people around her.

THE WAY I SPENT THE END OF THE WORLD
5/10
One of the biggest problems with sub-titled films is that if you are getting a little tired and rest your eyes for a minute, you end up missing important lines of script that are displayed on the screen. I did this a few times in this film, and therefore the score may be lower than it deserves to be. This was a story about the last days of Romania under communist dictatorship in 1989 particularly focussing on a rebellious school girl who is trying her best to survice in a regime that doesn’t suit. Didn’t do a lot for me, but if it’s your kind of thing and you can stay awake, it might be worth it.

OPAL DREAM
8/10
Yep, another great aussie film! How unreal is that? This one stars Vince Colosimo, Jaqueline McKenzie and a couple of great little kids. It’s about a family who lives in Coober Peey, the Opal Capital Of The World. Vince plays a miner/prospector who runs into some trouble while playing along with his daughter’s emotional outcry after losing her imaginary friends Pobby and Dingan. It’s a feel-good type flick that was financed by the UK Film Council – hopefully more films like this won’t need overseas funding in future.

BUBBLE
7/10
Acting was either very understated, or extremely poor. This low budget film was directed by Steven Soderbergh who has done some films that I’ve quite liked; Insomnia, The Daytrippers, Solaris (2002). He’s also done some I’m not as big a fan of; Traffic, Out of Sight, Ocean’s Twelve. Anyway, this story revolves around the relationship (as friends) between two factory workers living in a somewhat depressing American town who make dolls, and how things change when a new girl starts at the factory. It was certainly watchable, and interesting enough too, but the acting just seemed so wooden to me that it distracted me a little. A quirky little film that will be worth your effort when cheap enough on DVD rental.