Burning Man, a film by Jonathan Teplitzky, with Matthew Goode, Bojana Novakovic

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Burning Man, a film by Jonathan Teplitzky, with Matthew Goode, Bojana Novakovic

21 November 2011

Burning Man, trailer, a comedy drama, is the third feature of Sydney based Australian film director Jonathan Teplitzky (Better Than Sex, Gettin’ Square). Set in present day Sydney, Burning Man is partly autobiographical, based on Teplitzky’s own experiences, and explores personal loss and grief.

Tom (Matthew Goode) is a man who seems to have it all. He is a successful chef who owns a highly regarded restaurant at the iconic Bondi Beach. He is married to the beautiful Sarah (Bojana Novakovic), and lives in a cottage in a leafy city fringe suburb, which the couple share with their eight year old son, Oscar (Jack Heanly).

Tom leads a leads a tightly scheduled, chaotic, life. He’s impatient, impulsive, hot-headed, and often obnoxious. But after tragedy strikes, Tom’s life veers off the rails spectacularly, leaving him trying to put the pieces back together, and come to terms with what has happened.

In his heartbreak he seeks solace through a succession of liaisons with sex workers, women he meets randomly, and even mothers of Oscar’s friends, if he can manage it. And while friends and family including Karen (Essie Davis), and Brian (Anthony Hayes), try to help, Tom remains inconsolable.

Tom becomes ever more self-absorbed as he recalls earlier and happier days. His puzzled son, meanwhile, wonders why they live in motels instead of at home, which Tom quite abruptly sold. Not helping are unsettling illusions of fire and flame that Tom sees with disturbing regularity.

Burning Man throws audiences in the deep end with a racing opening sequence that stitches together various of the film’s key scenes. While I have no problem with non-linear narratives, L’appartement and Mulholland Drive, for instance, are great instances of the form, here the result is confusing and disorientating.

While Burning Man disparate threads eventually find a place, and even if there is a certain intrigue in trying to work out their significance, it’s at the cost of what could have been an effecting exposé into an almost destructive trauma. Solid performances, and striking camera work, especially a time-lapse like car crash scene, are however pluses.

Originally published on Monday 21 November 2011.

Something that really cooks: Michael J Fox replays Johnny B. Goode

17 November 2011

Michael J. Fox who played Marty McFly in Back To The Future, recently re-performed Chuck Berry’s 1958 hit Johnny B. Goode at A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To Cure Parkinson, an annual event staged by his foundation that supports research into Parkinson’s disease.

Fox’s, or rather McFly’s, rendition of Johnny B. Goode at the Enchantment under the sea dance in 1955, is one of the (fictitious) historical events I’d like to witness. It’d also be an opportunity to be a dance floor innovator/early adopter, by showing 1950’s dance-goers a whole new way to trip the light fantastic.

Originally published Thursday 17 November 2011

Margaret and David, At the Movies, Hayden Orpheum, Sydney, 2011

4 November 2011

Last Wednesday night, 2 November 2011, Margaret Pomeranz and David Stratton, two of Australia’s best known film critics, spoke at the Hayden Orpheum Picture Palace, in the Sydney suburb of Cremorne. The special event was part of celebrations marking the twenty-fifth anniversary of their working partnership.

Usually referred to as Margaret and David, the pair presented The Movie Show on SBS Television from 1986 until 2004, and since then At the Movies, on the ABC.

Their association with film isn’t restricted to television work though. Stratton writes reviews for The Australian newspaper, and lectures in film history at the University of Sydney. Pomeranz, meanwhile, is known for her work with anti-censorship lobby, Watch on Censorship.

I’ve seen both at various film events in recent years. I saw Pomeranz speak with Stephen Frears, director of Tamara Drewe, earlier this year. Stratton, whom I occasionally see at some of the preview screenings I go to, interviewed Keir Dullea and Gary Lockwood, who starred in 2001: A Space Odyssey, in September 2006, also at the Hayden.

And after twenty-five years they certainly have much to say about the film industry, both in Australia and overseas. Not all of their thoughts are positive though. Both feel the rise of multiplexes have drained the movie going experience of its charm, something I agree with. That point comes into clear focus, particularly, at a place like the Hayden, which is certainly no multiplex.

Both were also critical of the work of many directors in France, Italy, and the United States, previously influential centres of filmmaking. Stratton went so far as to suggest a correlation between a society’s lack of imagination and its decline. However they had much praise for the work of Eastern filmmakers, particularly those in Japan, Korea, and China.

It’s difficult to ignore the contribution Pomeranz and Stratton have made, individually and collectively, to the Australian film industry, to say nothing of forging a successful professional partnership for so long. Despite this, I am often baffled by the ratings they accord to some of the films they review.

In my opinion, some decidedly poor efforts have received high-praise. On other occasions, their individual ratings of a film are at odds with each other. One, say, awards a film four stars (out of five), while the other offers two stars. Still, when it comes to film, it is, as Stratton says, all a matter of taste. It should be noted I still read the transcripts of their show each week regardless of my qualms.

Rounding out the evening was a preview screening of Tomas Alfredson’s new film Tinker Sailor Soldier Spy, which is scheduled for release in Australia in January 2012. This is something I will write more about at another time.

Originally published Friday 4 November 2011, with subsequent revisions, updates to lapsed URLs, etc.

Caught Inside, a film by Adam Blaiklock, with Ben Oxenbould, Daisy Betts

10 October 2011

Still from Caught Inside, a film by Adam Blaiklock.

Caught Inside, trailer, a psychological thriller, is the debut feature of Australian film director Adam Blaiklock, who co-wrote the screenplay with Matt Tomaszewski and Joe Velikovsky. The film, which won the Audience Award at the Sydney Film Festival in 2010, is presently screening in limited release in Australian cinemas.

Set in Bali, and the seas off Indonesia, Caught Inside follows a group of long-time friends who sail to a remote island for twelve days. Drinking and fishing are on the agenda, along with surfing at a little known location called “the butchery”, named for the spectacular surfing waves in the vicinity.

While usually a boys only getaway, Toobs (Simon Lyndon) contravenes the long standing no girls tradition by bring girlfriend Alex (Leeanna Walsman), and her friend Sam (Daisy Betts), along. While the girls don’t much bother Bobby (Sam Lyndon), and youngster Grom (Harry Cook), Bull (Ben Oxenbould), does not feel the same way.

Nonetheless the group sets sail with Skipper Joe (Peter Phelps) at the helm, and after a night of partying Bull begins to warm to the girls, particularly the single Sam. A story about a certain video featuring her that went viral online further piques Bull’s interest, but his efforts to win her attention are thwarted by Bobby, who has caught Sam’s eye.

Upon reaching the supposedly secret surfing spot, the group is surprised to find a lone European surfer residing on the nearby secluded island, who worse still, appears to have claimed “the butchery” as his. This act of “trespass” enrages Bull, who is also becoming increasingly agitated by the amount of time Bobby and Sam are spending together.

After Bull boils over, Skipper Joe leaves him on the island alone overnight to cool down. Bull, convinced Sam likes him over Bobby, returns to the yacht in the darkness, which is moored some distance off shore, and is determined that nothing, or no one, will stand between the two of them.

At first glance, Caught Inside seems to tread familiar ground, whereby a group of people, cut off somehow from the outside world, find themselves contending with a violent psychopath. But Caught Inside sets itself apart from similar stories, by not quite going the way that might be expected.

Indeed Caught Inside pushes against the weight of its run-of-the-mill expectations to advantage, generating an unsettling foreboding and suspense. Solid performances, especially from Ben Oxenbould, and striking cinematography, which includes some impressive, if disquieting, underwater shots, further buoy the story.

Originally published Monday 10 October 2011

An equation that goes looking for love in all the optimal places

6 October 2011

We know money can’t buy love, but can an equation help you find it… or are some things best left to chance? Whatever, Michael Trick has devised a formula:

Despite these handicaps, if you know how many candidates there are, there is a simple rule to maximize the chance of finding the best mate: sample the first K candidates without selecting any of them, and then take the first subsequent candidate who is the best of all you have seen. K depends on N, the total number of candidates you will see. As N gets big, K moves toward 1/e times N, where e is 2.71… So sample 36.9% of the candidates, then take the first candidate who is the best you have seen. This gives a 36.9% chance of ending up with Ms (in my case) Right.

Originally published Thursday 6 October 2011, with subsequent revisions, updates to lapsed URLs, etc.

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legacy, mathematics

From the inside looking out, the anatomy of a box office flop

2 September 2011

Sean Hood, screenplay co-writer of recently released — and less than spectacularly received — Conan the Barbarian, describes how a movie that flops feels from the point of view of its producers.

By about 9 PM it’s clear when your “candidate” has lost by a startlingly wide margin, more than you or even the most pessimistic political observers could have predicted. With a movie its much the same: trade magazines like Variety and Hollywood Reporter call the weekend winners and losers based on projections. That’s when the reality of the loss sinks in, and you don’t sleep the rest of the night.

What a horrid feeling. But do read Hood’s full article, there’s hope in there amongst the despair.

Originally published Friday 2 September 2011.

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film, film production, legacy

Someone out there knows who Adelaide’s ‘Somerton Man’ is

22 August 2011

The “Mystery of the Somerton Man”, or “The Taman Shud Case”, where the body of an unidentified male was found on Somerton beach, near Adelaide, capital of South Australia, in December 1948, remains one of Australia’s most perplexing unsolved “missing persons” cases.

Was the dead man, who became known as “Somerton Man”, the victim of an elaborate murder plot, or did he take his own life? Why is it that no one was able to positively identify him, despite extensive publicity given to the case at the time? What is to be made of his apparent association with an Adelaide nurse, and rumours of links to espionage groups?

The police had brought in another expert, John Cleland, emeritus professor of pathology at the University of Adelaide, to re-examine the corpse and the dead man’s possessions. In April, four months after the discovery of the body, Cleland’s search produced a final piece of evidence — one that would prove to be the most baffling of all. Cleland discovered a small pocket sewn into the waistband of the dead man\’s trousers. Previous examiners had missed it, and several accounts of the case have referred to it as a “secret pocket,” but it seems to have been intended to hold a fob watch. Inside, tightly rolled, was a minute scrap of paper, which, opened up, proved to contain two words, typeset in an elaborate printed script. The phrase read “Tamám Shud.”

Efforts to solve the mystery remain on-going, which includes determining the man’s identity, and what exactly occasioned his death, are being lead by a University of Adelaide team. More information about the case can be found on Wikipedia.

UPDATE: researchers believe they have identified the dead man.

Originally published Monday 22 August 2011.

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Australia, crime, history, legacy

Trigger, a film by Bruce McDonald, with Tracy Wright, Molly Parker

16 August 2011

Trigger (trailer), a comedy drama, is the latest feature of Canadian film director Bruce McDonald (The Tracey Fragments, Pontypool). The story traces the reunion of two indie-rockers, Kat (Molly Parker), a bass player and vocalist, and Vic (the late Tracy Wright), who once performed together in a two-piece band called Trigger.

Trigger, which premiered in Australia at the Canadian Film Festival in Sydney on Wednesday, 10 August, 2011, picks up the story of the two band members ten years after their acrimonious on-stage split. They have accepted an invitation to perform at a Women in Rock tribute show taking place in Toronto, their hometown.

Kat has since relocated to Los Angeles where she works in marketing, but often travels to Toronto for work. The two have arranged to meet for dinner in the restaurant of the five-star hotel where Kat is staying. Vic however is less than impressed with the extravagant setting of their first face-to-face meeting since the band broke up.

While past tensions quickly surface, it isn’t long before some traces of their earlier, close if turbulent, friendship comes to light. While Vic is happy to go along to the tribute show, she is not so willing to perform, even though Kat promised organisers they would. The show however soon rouses happy memories of their on-stage hey-day.

While reacquainting themselves with former associates, both come to the doleful realisation that they cannot reclaim their old lives. This is brought home by the fact friends have moved on, become older, more conservative, and are even driving hybrid vehicles, surely a contravention of the hard living, hard playing, rock ethos.

Despite having been apart Kat and Vic learn they have had a number of similar experiences, including having dealt with substance abuse issues, which both seem to have overcome. But just as the two are beginning to warm to each other again, Vic then learns that there is just a little more to the tribute show than meets the eye…

Trigger is a slice-of-life drama featuring just two central characters, and covers a only small period of time, in much the same way as Richard Linklater’s Before Sunset and Before Sunrise films, and plays out over the course of a single night. This however gives Kat and Vic plenty of time to try and make sense of their post-band lives.

Trigger isn’t all introspection though, and features a stirring performance reminiscent of the band during its peak, plus flashback glimpses of the friendship of Kat and Vic in earlier days. This is a story that anyone who has had the dream, or once lived the dream, and now finds life to be a little quieter, will be all too familiar with.

Originally published Tuesday 16 August 2011.

Jaloux, a film by Patrick Demers with Sophie Cadieux, Maxime Denommee

11 August 2011

Jaloux, trailer (French language), a drama thriller, is the debut feature of Montreal director Patrick Demers, who wrote the screenplay, which was largely improvised during filming, in conjunction with its three stars, Sophie Cadieux who plays Marianne, Maxime Denommée as Thomas, and Benoît Gouin as the neighbour of Thomas’ uncle.

Marianne and Thomas have been together eight years but boredom has begun to stifle their relationship. Thomas believes a weekend away at his uncle’s remote forest cabin, near Mandeville, in Quebec, will help them rediscover each other. Jaloux premiered in Australia at the 6th Canadian Film Festival in Sydney on Tuesday, 9 August, 2011.

To say Marianne and Thomas’ relationship is in strife would be an understatement. A fierce argument, which turns into a tussle, as they approach his uncle Michel’s (Daniel Gadouas) cabin, results in their car running off the gravel road into a ditch. Neither is hurt however, and they complete the trip to the nearby cabin on foot.

On reaching the cabin they are surprised to find Michel’s neighbour, Ben, has prepared a meal for them. Ben had however been expecting Michel and his girlfriend Helene (Marie-France Lambert), but after learning that Thomas is his nephew, and having taken a shine to Marianne, instead invites the couple to share the meal with him.

After a night’s heavy drinking Marianne and Thomas wake the next morning, having slept in separate parts of the house, with little memory of the evening before. Deciding a swim will help clear their heads, they wander down to the nearby lake, only to meet Ben again, much to Thomas’ annoyance, who happens to be out rowing his boat.

Not happy with the way Marianne is taking to Ben, Thomas instead decides to find a mechanic to repair their car. On his way into the local town though he, by chance, meets a cousin who he hasn’t seen in years. It is only then that Thomas comes to realise that the man claiming to be his uncle’s neighbour is in fact someone else altogether…

Jaloux is a slow burning thriller that is underscored by a simmering unease that threatens to boil over at any minute. This tension is accentuated by flashbacks and memories that may be from the night before, the week before, or possibly even months or years earlier.

But what here is real, imagined, or fantasy? While the storyline is relatively simple, what Jaloux lacks in narrative it makes up for in drama and suspense, as jealousy, lies, deceit, and guilt compound. Clichés bountiful in a story of this nature are refreshingly absent, leaving the viewer uncertain as to what exactly will happen next.

Originally published Thursday 11 August 2011.

Fade to grey: as we get older we stop dreaming in technicolour

12 July 2011

We tend to stop dreaming in colour as we age, according to a study which surveyed a group of people in 1993, and then again in 2009.

In both surveys, approximately 80% of subjects younger than 30 years of age experienced color in their dreams, but the percentage decreased with age and fell to approximately 20% by the age of 60. The frequency of dreaming in color increased from 1993 to 2009 only for respondents in their 20s, 30s, and 40s. We speculate that color TV may play a role in the generational difference observed.

Originally published Tuesday 12 July 2011.

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legacy, psychology

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