Juice: the new cli-fi novel by Australian author Tim Winton

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Juice: the new cli-fi novel by Australian author Tim Winton

2 October 2024

Juice is the latest novel by Australian author Tim Winton, which was published yesterday. From this synopsis, Juice sounds like it blends elements of the Max Mad saga, with Winton’s own environmental and climate change concerns:

Two fugitives, a man and a child, drive all night across a stony desert. As dawn breaks, they roll into an abandoned mine site. From the vehicle they survey a forsaken place – middens of twisted iron, rusty wire, piles of sun-baked trash. They’re exhausted, traumatised, desperate now. But as a refuge, this is the most promising place they’ve seen. The child peers at the field of desolation. The man thinks to himself, this could work.

Problem is, they’re not alone.

So begins a searing, propulsive journey through a life whose central challenge is not simply a matter of survival, but of how to maintain human decency as everyone around you falls ever further into barbarism.

I heard Winton speak about six-and-a-half years ago at the Sydney premiere of Breath, a film based on his 2009, Miles Franklin award winning, novel of the same name. The feature was directed by, and starred, Australian actor Simon Baker, also present that evening.

Winton was one of the screenwriters of the Breath film adaptation. That’s a smart move, get the author of the book being adapted, to co-write the screenplay. Where possible of course. Quite a number of Winton’s books have been made into movies, so it seems like there’s a good chance Juice will follow suit.

Vale British actor Maggie Smith, Harry Potter, A Room with a View, star

30 September 2024

I’m pretty sure the 1984 film, A Room with a View, made by James Ivory and Ismail Merchant, was my introduction to the work of British stage and screen actor Maggie Smith, who died last week, aged 89. I’d been trying to read the 1908 novel of the same name, by E.M. Forster, but was struggling, as I seem to with the classics. It was then I found out about the film adaptation.

In it, Smith played the role of Charlotte Bartlett, who was chaperon to her younger cousin, Lucy Honeychurch, portrayed by Helena Bonham Carter, during a visit to Italy. Smith and Bonham Carter would go on to work together again in the some of the Harry Potter films.

As a screen actor, Smith was not only an amazing talent, she was also prolific, featuring in over eighty films, so there’s a good chance you’ve seen her in at least one movie. Some of her credits include A Private Function, Romeo.Juliet, Richard III, Gosford Park, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Quartet, The Lady in the Van, and 2019’s Downton Abbey.

Going back to A Room with a View though, and I may not be popular for saying this, but here I think is an instance of the film easily being better than the book.

Accidentally Wes Anderson exhibition now on in Melbourne

20 September 2024

Photography exuding the aesthetic of American filmmaker Wes Anderson, is on show in Australia at the Accidentally Wes Anderson exhibition, in Melbourne, until early November 2024.

“Accidentally Wes Anderson: The Exhibition” is a journey through more than 200 of the most beautiful, idiosyncratic, and interesting places on Earth — all seemingly plucked from the whimsical world of Wes Anderson. 10 themed areas provide you a personal passport to visual inspiration and adventure with amazing photography and immersive moments throughout.

Surely a treat for Wes Anderson fans, and an excuse (for some of us) to visit the southern capital.

RELATED CONTENT

film, photography, Wes Anderson

Apollo 13: Survival, a Netflix documentary

18 September 2024

Apollo 13: Survival, a Netflix produced documentary, trailer, recounts the story of what was meant to be the third Apollo crewed landing on the Moon, in 1970. An exploding oxygen tank in the body of the command module craft, on-route to the Moon, however spelt the end of the landing attempt.

Instead the flight became a desperate race against time to return the Apollo astronauts to Earth before they ran out of oxygen and fuel.

The Apollo 13 flight transcript is well worth listening to. Note how calmly Jack Swigert, followed a few seconds later by Jim Lovell speak, when informing mission controllers on Earth of the situation. “Houston, we’ve had a problem.” Sounds more like someone saying they’ve missed the bus and will be ten minutes late for work.

American filmmaker Ron Howard’s 1995 docudrama, Apollo 13, starring Tom Hanks, Bill Paxton, and Kevin Bacon, is also an excellent recounting of the story.

RELATED CONTENT

documentary, film, history

Milk & Serial, a found footage horror film by Curry Barker

10 September 2024

I’m no fan of horror movies, though I’ve sat through a few. The Birds, Psycho, The Changeling, Ghost Story, Triangle, Autopsy, to name ~~a few~~ most of them.

I might make another exception though for Milk & Serial, a one hour long “found footage” horror film, directed by Curry Barker — who also wrote the screenplay, and has a lead role — that critics have been raving about. If you’re tired of Hollywood doing the same thing over and over again, then Milk & Serial, which you can watch on YouTube here, might just be what you’re looking for.

It seems it is perfectly possible to make original* films, that tell great stories, in this case horror titles, without the need to remake the same old films again and again.

* I know there’s a few “found footage” titles out there, but I think Milk & Serial tells its own story.

A short film shot on the iPhone 15 Pro Max, with no lens, filter, or AI

3 September 2024

Well, I’m sure pretty no AI is involved.

What’s really incredible about this three minute video, made by Faruk Korkmaz, is that it was filmed entirely by a device, a smartphone, many of us carry in our pockets.

The narration is fitting also. It comes from a speech given by Canadian-American actor and comedian Jim Carrey, for the 2014 graduating class at Maharishi International University. This excerpt seems somehow as relevant today as it was ten years ago:

So many of us choose our path out of fear disguised as practicality. What we really want seems impossibly out of reach and ridiculous to expect. So we never dare to ask the universe for it. I’m saying I’m the proof that you can ask the universe for it.

Talking of short films shot on iPhones, take another look at Float, made by Aundre Larrow, about three years ago.

The Zone of Interest, a film by Jonathan Glazer, with Christian Friedel, Sandra Huller

19 August 2024

The Zone of Interest, trailer, the 2023 film by British director Jonathan Glazer (Sexy Beast, Under the Skin), explores a slightly different aspect of the World War II Holocaust, which resulted in the deaths of six million European Jews at the hands of the Nazis.

Rudolf Höss (Christian Friedel), the commandant of Auschwitz, a Nazi concentration camp where over one million Jews were murdered, lives with his family in a house situated right beside one of the camp’s walls. With his wife Hedwig, (Sandra Hüller), the couple attempt to create what they consider to be a “normal” life for their young children.

Hedwig audaciously describes the house, and landscaped gardens, which she designed, as “paradise”, despite its proximity to the concentration camp. The family home is anything but paradise, however. The atrocities unfolding at Auschwitz may go unseen, but they do not go unheard.

There is seldom any let up in the cries of terror, the gun fire, nor the grinding of heavy metallic doors and gates constantly opening and closing. The sounds of furnaces burning, and trains ominously coming and going, are never ending. The family house may be comfortable, but discord and unease hangs heavily in the air. The Höss’ new born baby is frequently unsettled and crying, while their pet dog is almost always restless and agitated.

Paradise is the name Höss and his wife give to their denial of the horrors taking place on the other side of the wall. The Zone of Interest is a confronting and disturbing study of their dismissal. But there are cracks in the façade. Höss desperately seeks a transfer away from Auschwitz, while Hedwig pines to return to Italy, where the family once holidayed. Because try as both might, there is no turning away from the evil both know is taking place.

I Was a Simple Man, a film by Christopher Makoto Yogi, with Steve Iwamoto

8 August 2024

Made in 2021, I Was a Simple Man, trailer, is the third feature of American writer and filmmaker Christopher Makoto Yogi, who also wrote the screenplay. Masao Matsuyoshi (Steve Iwamoto), an elderly man who has spent most of his life in Hawaii, is terminally ill, and has months to live. As he nears death, he looks back on his life, often with regret.

Recollections of his late wife Grace (Constance Wu), his estranged daughter Kati (Chanel Akiko Hirai), whom he left in the care of other family members, and grandson Gavin (Kanoa Goo), who both live elsewhere, dominate his troubled thoughts. As David Ehrlich, writing for Indie Wire, notes: just because people don’t stay behind doesn’t mean they ever leave.

This is a story that will require the patience of some viewers, as it meanders back and forth through time, and ethereal, earthy locations, on the Hawaiian island of Oahu. The finale, though muted, is poignant. We really die alone, perhaps as we (really) lived. But you die with yourself.

My Old Ass, a film by Megan Park, with Maisy Stella, Aubrey Plaza

26 July 2024

Canadian actor and director Megan Park’s latest feature, My Old Ass, trailer, would be a sure bet to win movie title of the year, should such an award exist.

Otherwise, My Old Ass is on my want-to-see movie list because of the time-travel-like, older-self goes back in time to see their younger-self, and dispense some surely sage advice, plot. But there are no time machines, or flying DeLoreans, to be found here. Movement through time is occasioned by entirely different means:

A mushroom trip brings free-spirited Elliott [Maisy Stella] face-to-face with her 39-year-old self [Aubrey Plaza]. But when Elliott’s “old ass” delivers warnings to her younger self, Elliott realizes she has to rethink everything about her family, life, and love.

My Old Ass looks to be at least Plaza’s second role in a time-travel-like story, after 2012’s Safety Not Guaranteed, directed by Colin Trevorrow. The soundtrack also aptly includes Perth based Australian act Tame Impala’s 2012 hit, Feels Like We Only Go Backwards.

My Old Ass opens in Australian cinemas on Thursday 26 September 2024. If you’re able to move through time though, you may be able to see it sooner…

Meryl Streep, Emily Blunt, return for Devil Wears Prada sequel

12 July 2024

Well, this will be something. A sequel is in the works for The Devil Wears Prada. By the time it is released, assuming production starts sooner rather than later, the follow-up will pick-up almost twenty-years after events of the original film. That’s a long time in the fashion world.

So far, Meryl Streep — as Miranda Priestly — and Emily Blunt — as Emily Charlton — have indicated interest in reprising their roles, but Anne Hathaway remains unsure about returning as Andy Sachs. An early outline of the storyline suggests Priestly will face off against a now successful Charlton.

We can only wait to see how Sachs fits into that dynamic, should Hathaway decide to be involved.

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