Get Low, a film by Aaron Schneider, with Robert Duvall, Sissy Spacek
3 June 2011
Get Low, trailer, a comedy drama, is the debut feature of American cinematographer turned film director Aaron Schneider. Collaborating with Chris Provenzano and C. Gaby Mitchell, who wrote the screenplay, Get Low explores the intriguing notion of attending your own funeral, as a living, rather than dead, participant.
Set in the late 1930’s, Get Low is based in part on the life of Felix Breazeale, or Uncle Bush as some called him, a man living in Tennessee. In 1938 Breazeale arranged a funeral party for himself — while still alive — to which eight to twelve thousand people attended.
Felix Bush (Robert Duvall) has lived alone in a cabin he built deep in the woods of Tennessee for most of his adult life. His self-imposed exile is the result of an unfortunate incident some forty years earlier. He is also the subject of all sorts of gossip, and his few visits to a nearby town, by horse drawn cart no less, attract plenty of, usually unwelcome, attention.
He never married, and has no family, but after hearing that an old acquaintance died, begins to reassess his guilt ridden past. He realises the only way to obtain redemption for his part in a long past transgression is to seek forgiveness before he eventually dies. Forgiveness of the divine kind however won’t cut it, he needs it from elsewhere.
He soon decides a funeral party, with him in attendance while still alive, is the best way to make this happen, and enlists the services of local undertaker, shifty Frank Quinn (Bill Murray), and his assistant Buddy (Lucas Black). While an unusual request, Frank is happy to accommodate Felix, given business has been on the quiet side recently.
In the course of preparations for the party, which include a radio interview, Felix is reunited with Mattie Darrow (Sissy Spacek), an old flame, who has returned to the area following the death of her husband. As Mattie learns more about Felix, and his bizarre funeral party, she realises she is linked to the event from which Felix desperately seeks absolution.
Get Low has the feel of a whodunit, as the story of what has been bothering Felix for so long slowly unfurls. It also features top notch portrayals by a host of veteran actors, especially Duval and Spacek. Murray meanwhile puts in his best performance in a long time, one with a little life, rather than his more usual dead-pan style.
A few people have been critical of the film’s ending. They feel it lacks punch or resolution. While the conclusion may be a touch otherworldly, perhaps they are not happy with the way the story unfolds gradually, reserving Felix’s confession until the finale, and the big reveal. What’s wrong with that?
Originally published Friday 3 June 2011.
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Aaron Schneider, Bill Murray, film, legacy, Robert Duvall, Sissy Spacek
Sugar and soy ruins perfectly good coffee say Sydney baristas
25 May 2011
Sydney baristas are increasingly calling the shots when it comes to brewing what they consider to be ideal coffee, by refusing to accommodate requests to add sugar, use skim (low fat) or soy milks, and decaffeinated coffee, or make brews “extra hot”, a dictate some customers describe as excessive:
Bar Italia in Leichardt is famous for its “No soy, no skim” stand. Customers have been known to storm out of Barefoot Coffee Traders in Manly which won’t do decaf or large cups. Kafenio Cafe in Cronulla declares: “No skim or babycinos … Don’t even ask!” “The guy behind the coffee machine … reminded me of the Soup Nazi off Seinfeld, but it wasn’t funny … get over the delicate genius syndrome,” said one Kafenio customer on online restaurant guide Eatability. Said another: “The barista refused three separate times to make the coffee that was ordered. If this was a hard order I would have understood but nowhere else [finds] a double shot 3/4 latte hard.”
Maybe the majority of coffee shop customers want full cream milk and caffeine brews, but the stance sounds harsh to me. What of the people with lactose intolerance? As for refusing to serve babycinos, that doesn’t seem too family-friendly to me.
Originally published Wednesday 25 May 2011.
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A short history of the letter J the alphabets last member
14 April 2011
While sitting in the tenth place in the English alphabet, the letter J, which split off from the letter I, was actually the last addition to the writing system.
“J” is a bit of a late bloomer; after all, it was the last letter added to the alphabet. It is no coincidence that i and j stand side by side — they actually started out as the same character. The letter j began as a swash, a typographical embellishment for the already existing i. With the introduction of lowercase letters to the Roman numeric system, j was commonly used to denote the conclusion of a series of one’s – as in “xiij” for the number 13.
Originally published Thursday 14 April 2011.
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A certain type of screw head in time saves almost 29
15 December 2010

The more common, well-known, Flat and Phillips screw heads are just two of some 28 varieties of screw drive type… you may therefore need to expand the range of screwdrivers you own in case you encounter any of the not so common sorts. Image via Apartment Therapy.
Originally published Wednesday 15 December 2010.
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Illustration by Eric Slager, the muppets go minimal
6 December 2010
Since I can’t get enough of minimal design and illustration… graphic designer Eric Slager’s Minimalist Muppets illustration series.
No Cookie Monster then?
(Thanks Jessica)
Originally published Monday 6 December 2010.
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design, illustration, legacy, minimalism, muppets
The ghost stations of East Berlin by video train
6 December 2010
After the German cities of West Berlin and East Berlin were completely partitioned following the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961, accessing one side of the city from the other — was at first — pretty much out of the question for all but a small number of people.
One group unaffected — to a degree — by the separation of the city were West Berlin train commuters who used a small number of underground services whose lines crossed into parts of East Berlin, as they travelled from one area of West Berlin to another.
While trains still ran through East Berlin, they did not stop at stations on the eastern side of the border. Many of these stations closed during the period the city was divided by the wall were dubbed “ghost stations”, and were usually heavily guarded by East German troops.
The YouTube video, above, contains footage filmed from the driver’s compartments of West Berlin trains as they passed through a couple of East Berlin’s ghost stations.
Update: unfortunately the original YouTube video has been taken down as a result of a copyright claim.
Originally published Monday 6 December 2010.
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The Social Network, a film dramatisation of the founding of Facebook, by David Fincher
29 October 2010

A scene from The Social Network, a film by David Fincher.
The Social Network (trailer), directed by David Fincher, is based on Ben Mezrich’s book The Accidental Billionaires, which he penned with the help of Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield), one of the co-founders of social network Facebook, who later fell out with CEO Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg).
Bookended between numerous litigation sessions in lawyers’ offices, The Social Network pieces together the early days of Facebook through a series of flashbacks. The story focuses mainly on the roles of Zuckerberg and Saverin in creating the network, and how they dealt with raising money and profile, while fending off people claiming they had stolen the Facebook idea from them.
After his girlfriend, Erica Albright (Rooney Mara), ends their relationship, Zuckerberg, a technically brilliant but emotionally cold Harvard University computer science student, hastily builds Facemash. It’s a hot-or-not style website that compares female Harvard students with each other. Zuckerberg sources the photos Facemash needs by effortlessly hacking the databases of Harvard’s colleges.
Although Facemash is quickly shut down, word of Zuckerberg’s programming and hacking skills spread, and he’s soon approached by twins, and fellow students, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss (both played by Armie Hammer). They have an idea for an exclusive Friendster/MySpace clone, but want to restrict membership to only those with Harvard email addresses.
They ask Zuckerberg to help, but after agreeing he instead creates the first version of Facebook, then called The Facebook. His friend and roommate, Saverin, puts up one thousand dollars to cover web hosting in return for a thirty percent share in the venture, and role of CFO.
The Facebook proves a hit with Harvard students, and other universities in the US and Britain are soon admitted to the fold. Meanwhile Napster founder Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake) hears about The Facebook and arranges hefty financial funding for Zuckerberg. Saverin however sees Parker as a threat to his influence, which quickly becomes a source of tension between him and Zuckerberg.
Any dramatisation about an organisation as ubiquitous as Facebook is certain to be of interest to a large number of people. Unlike many highly anticipated films that might play on the hype surrounding their subject matter though, The Social Network does not create false expectations.
Facebook made clear before the film’s release that neither they, nor Zuckerberg, had any involvement in the production of The Social Network. And while Zuckerberg does not present as a villain per se, his portrayal by Eisenberg is far from flattering.
Facebook has certainly had a controversial history (are stories of the early days of Friendster and MySpace anywhere near as colourful?) and it seems every other week brings news of another alleged privacy breach, or a new court action of some sort. Is it therefore a portent of things to come that the final scene plays out in a lawyer’s office?
Originally published Friday 29 October 2010.
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Disgrace, a film by Steve Jacobs, with John Malkovich, Jessica Haines
15 September 2010
Disgrace, trailer, is the second feature of filmmaker Steve Jacobs, who collaborated with his wife, Anna Maria Monticelli — who wrote the screenplay — to adapt Australian and South African author J.M. Coetzee’s 1999 novel of the same name.
Set in present day South Africa, mostly in Cape Town, and a remote farm on the Eastern Cape, Disgrace is — at times — a disturbing and confronting insight to the changing political and social dynamics of post-apartheid South Africa.
David Lurie (John Malkovich) is a middle-aged divorced white South African professor, who tutors poetry to less than enthused students at a Cape Town university. He is a self-indulgent, often blasé man, who seems to have no social life, and whose only friend is Soraya (Natalie Becker), a prostitute he sees regularly.
A chance encounter with one of his students, Melanie (Antoinette Engel), elsewhere on the campus, leads to an affair after he invites her out for a drink. The relationship however raises the ire of another student, Sidney (Antonio Fisher), and is soon brought to the attention of the university’s administrators, who duly dismiss David.
Yet it all seems like water off a duck’s back to David. Leaving Cape Town, he travels to his daughter, Lucy’s (Jessica Haines) isolated farm. He is surprised to learn she has split from her partner, another woman, and aside from Petrus (Eriq Ebouaney), a nearby neighbour, now lives alone.
After returning from a walk one afternoon David and Lucy are brutally attacked outside her house. David suffers burns after being dowsed with methylated spirits and set alight, while Lucy is raped. But it is the aftermath of the attack that leaves David especially displaced.
Petrus for instance, while concerned and sympathetic, otherwise seems little perturbed, and even Lucy, despite her ordeal, refuses to press charges even after learning who the attackers are. It seems she would much rather keep the peace than risk upsetting her neighbours.
Disgrace is a glimpse into many of the changes currently taking place in South Africa. For example we see ownership of Lucy’s farm transition from her control, to that of Petrus and his family. In a reversal of roles, Lucy ends up as his tenant, having previously been the land owner.
Disgrace is also the story of David coming to terms with, and taking responsibility for, the wrong doing he has caused. For a time he is adamant that those who attacked him and his daughter be brought to justice, despite – at first – having no interest in making amends for his transgressions.
Originally published Wednesday 15 September 2010.
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The Kids are All Right, a film by Lisa Cholodenko, with Julianne Moore, Annette Bening
30 August 2010
The Kids are All Right, trailer, sees director Lisa Cholodenko take a leaf from her own life. She became pregnant and gave birth to a son by a sperm donor several years ago, in this story of a family with two mothers but no father, living in Los Angeles.
Same sex couple Nic (Annette Bening), and Jules (Julianne Moore), have both had a child each, through artificial insemination, with sperm from the same donor. Nic had a daughter Joni (Mia Wasikowska), now eighteen, while Jules had a son, Laser (Josh Hutcherson), now fifteen.
Laser has wanted to find his biological father for some time — but being too young — cannot do so himself. Instead he asks Joni, who is preparing for college, to call the sperm bank as a final favour before leaving home. While fearful of hurting her mothers’ feelings, Joni reluctantly agrees.
This eventually leads to a meeting with their “father”, Paul (Mark Ruffalo). Although in his late thirties, Paul remains something of a larrikin. He owns a restaurant and market garden, but has drifted from job to job, and seems to have a preference for dating women in their mid-twenties.
Despite an awkward initial meeting, the three nonetheless establish a connection and decide to stay in touch. Paul soon meets Nic and Jules, and gradually becomes more involved with the family. At first he offers a counterbalance to the highly controlling Nic, and the sometimes aimless Jules.
While Paul is mostly well intentioned, he spends ever more time with Joni and Laser, and later Jules, as he sees an opportunity to become part of the family he never had. But his constant presence soon gives rise to tensions within the family, that at one point threatens to tear it apart.
The Kids are All Right is perfectly balanced comedy drama, something Bening and Moore — who wear their roles like gloves — can largely take credit for. The fact this family is headed up by two women, two mothers, lesbians at that, barely seems to make a difference.
So — for want of a better term — family-like do they appear, that nothing looks or feels the least bit out of place here, they have the same arguments and foibles as any other family. But The Kids are All Right does not seek to make commentary on gay marriages or partnerships.
Instead what is on display is a family experiencing a series of upheavals as a result of the children not only growing towards adulthood and independence, but also meeting their biological father, and the changes in family and personal dynamics those events occasion.
Originally published Monday 30 August 2010.
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The Nothing Men, a film by Mark Fitzpatrick, with Colin Friels, David Field
13 August 2010
The Nothing Men, trailer, (NSFW: profanities) is the first feature of Australian director and screenwriter Mark Fitzpatrick. Set mainly on the floor of a Sydney factory that is about to close, six bored men bide their time, as they are forced to wait two weeks for their redundancy payments.
Despite the fact there is no actual work to do, and the men have started to become a tad irritated with each other, their final weeks of literally sitting around haven’t been too bad. After all, very few companies effectively pay their staff to spend the day drinking and playing cards.
News that a worker, David Field (David Snedden), from head office is to join them for their final fortnight however unsettles the foreman, Jack Simpson (Colin Friels). David spent the week prior at another company site where a dozen workers were abruptly sacked, losing their severance payments in the process. Jack thinks he smells a rat.
David, who on first acquaintance seems normal enough, is though, as a draftsman, an odd placement for a factory workshop. When he starts making what he claims are private phone calls behind closed doors in the office, and seemingly going home during the day for personal reasons, everyone soon becomes unsettled.
The men fear David is a spy sent from head office to find excuses to sack them, so the company won’t have to pay out their redundancy money. Accordingly, they reluctantly agree to dispense with the beer and card games, and sit tight for the duration, while also keeping their distance from him.
David does manage to befriend Wesley Timms (Martin Dingle-Wall), the quieter, more studious, of the six, who is also a fellow chess player, and invites him back to his place for a game one evening. While there, Wesley makes a disturbing discovery, and also learns, unbeknownst to David, that they are linked by a past tragedy.
Anyone who has been in a situation similar to that facing the soon to be retrenched men, will understand how uncertainty, innuendo, and gossip, can combine to create fear and mistrust.
Compound that with the prospect that much anticipated redundancy payments are at risk, and the situation can quickly become insufferable. Are the fears of the factory workers justified though, or are they perhaps over reacting? The Nothing Men shows just how suddenly the seed of an idea — whether based in fact, or not — can get out of hand.
While equal parts drama and thriller, The Nothing Men is let down by several plot inconsistencies. There are also a number of red-herrings, intended to build up mystery around David that are just a tad too contrived, and at odds with the rest of the story. Still, the audience is left guessing as to what will happen, right up to the final frame.
Originally published Friday 13 August 2010.
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