Let Me In, a film by Matt Reeves, with Chloe Moretz, Kodi Smit-McPhee

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Let Me In, a film by Matt Reeves, with Chloe Moretz, Kodi Smit-McPhee

15 October 2010

Let Me In, trailer, is American director Matt Reeves’ take of the 2008 Swedish film Let the Right One In (Låt den rätte komma in), about a lonely twelve year old boy who befriends a vampire girl of apparently the same age, after she moves in next door.

Let Me In is the latest in a line of Hollywood remakes of European films. It follows on from the likes of this year’s Neil LaBute version of the 2007 British made Death at a Funeral, or David Fincher’s upcoming interpretation of The Millennium Trilogy book series. This includes a re-rendering of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, which is slated for release in late 2011.

Twelve year old Owen (Kodi Smit-McPhee) lives with his separated mother (Cara Buono) in the New Mexico town of Los Alamos, but has few friends. Life at school isn’t much fun either, he is often the target of taunts and assaults from a group of older bullies. But Owen finds some solace playing puzzle games, or drifting in and out of an imaginary world in his mind.

He is intrigued by the arrival of a girl, Abby (Chloe Moretz), who seems to be his age, and a man who appears to be her father (Richard Jenkins), in the apartment next door. But Abby has a few quirks Owen can’t make sense of, such as walking around barefoot in the snow. Or the ability to quietly appear, without warning, where ever he is.

While Abby tells Owen on their first meeting they cannot be friends, they nonetheless become close. Meanwhile the town is the grip of a macabre series of murders, which has local police detective (Elias Koteas) thinking a satanic ritual killer is on the loose.

As the murders become more frequent, and begin occurring ever closer to his home though, Owen begins to realise Abby is no normal twelve year old girl. In fact he begins to suspect she might be involved. But does he report her, the only friend he has ever had, or does he instead help her?

The prospect of a remake of any reasonably highly regarded film is enough to strike dread into the minds of many film-goers, something Reeves was acutely aware of, but here, in the director of Cloverfield, is a safe pair of hands. While I haven’t seen the Swedish original, there’s little to fault.

Perhaps there have been a few teen vampire romance films too many recently, but Reeves strikes the right balance between suspense and action, horror and romance/friendship. There are plenty of moments that make Let Me In feel like another sort of story all together.

Originally published Friday 15 October 2010.

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.

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.

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.

The Waiting City, a film by Claire McCarthy, with Radha Mitchell, Joel Edgerton

12 July 2010

The Waiting City, trailer, the second full length feature of Sydney and Los Angeles based Australian filmmaker Claire McCarthy, has the distinction of being the first Australian produced movie to be filmed entirely in India. The story recounts the experiences of Fiona Simmons (Radha Mitchell), and husband Ben (Joel Edgerton), who travel to the city of Kolkata to adopt a baby girl.

While outwardly happy, the couple are as different as chalk and cheese. The “always on” Fiona continues working on client cases — through her mobile phone and laptop — as if she never left the office. This is in sharp contrast to the laid back, somewhat aimless Ben, who easily strikes up rapport with the locals through his music.

The adoption process, which the couple expect to be a mere formality — they only booked their Kolkata hotel for two weeks after all — turns out to be far more daunting than anticipated. Instead Fiona and Ben find themselves confronted by a rigid, and manual bureaucratic system, replete with delays and hold-ups, that are unexpected and unexplained.

Despite the reservations of others, particularly Krishna (Samrat Chakrabarti), a hotel worker with a direct manner whom they befriend, there is no doubt Ben and Fiona are eagerly awaiting the finalisation of the adoption process. The want nothing more than to take Lakshmi, their adoptive daughter, home to Australia.

But Ben’s chance meeting with the younger Scarlett (Isabel Lucas), a fellow musician from Australia, brings to light the first hint of trouble in his marriage with Fiona. This leads to a series of rifts between the two, which at one point sees the pair staying in separate hotels.

The growing discord between Ben and Fiona gradually results in the reopening of old wounds, and the uncovering of a long held secret. Their marital woes come to a head during a trip to Bhopal, Lakshmi’s birth place, leaving the couple questioning whether they should even be together, let alone adopting a child.

McCarthy is in no hurry to tell her story allowing us to take in the enthralling destinations that are Kolkata and the other places Ben and Fiona visit. Mitchell, who blends seamlessly into her role as the hopeful mother-to-be, together with the ever versatile Edgerton, put in stand out performances.

Visually, The Waiting City is a delight to watch, thanks to the work of cinematographer Denson Baker, whose soft, hazy camera work beautifully renders the locations. His use of close shots meanwhile, projects the bewilderment and turmoil first time travellers to unfamiliar places experience.

The Waiting City is more than a journey to exotic lands though, it is one of self discovery and coming to understand what you really want from life. To adapt a line from a well known quote, perhaps the best way to find yourself is to lose yourself first.

Update: I recently interviewed director Claire McCarthy about the making of The Waiting City.

Originally published Monday 12 July 2010, with subsequent revisions, updates to lapsed URLs, etc.

We made it back to the future, but in a parallel universe

9 July 2010

If you’re a dyed-in-the-wool Back to the Future fan I hope you weren’t taken in by the claim that last Monday, 5 July, was “Future Day”. That being the day Marty McFly and Doc Brown arrived in the future when they travelled forward in time during 1989’s Back to the Future Part II.

The arrival of the time travellers from 1985 last Monday may not have been all bad though, had it have happened. In the twenty-five years since the release of Back to the Future, and only five years out from 2015 — the setting for much of Back to the Future Part II — we still have ground to make up in terms of matching some of the advances in technology seen in the movie trilogy.

So far we’re still lagging in the development of:

Flying cars (actually they exist, but are far from in everyday use)
Hoverboards
Time travel

We have however made advances in other areas, with the advent of:

The World Wide Web
Smart phones
High Definition TV (if that’s much of innovation really, considering we’ve had low-def TVs for years)

There’s still another five years to go though, perhaps by then we’ll at least have hoverboards that are able to match what we can do with skateboards today.

Originally published Friday 9 July 2010, with subsequent revisions, updates to lapsed URLs, etc.

Q&A with Claire McCarthy director of The Waiting City

30 June 2010

Fiona (Radha Mitchell), and Ben (Joel Edgerton) sit together on a bench, in a scene from The Waiting City, a film by Claire McCarthy. Fiona has curly hair and is wearing a blue top, while Ben has short hair and a serious expression, ans is dressed in a light-colored shirt. Behind them, a white cross adorns the wall.

Australian director Claire McCarthy’s latest film The Waiting City is a portrayal of an Australian couple Ben (Joel Edgerton), and Fiona (Radha Mitchell), who travel to Kolkata, India, to collect a baby they have adopted. But delays in finalising the process, together with the disorientation of an unknown city and unfamiliar culture, begin to take a strain on their marriage.

The Waiting City has the distinction of being the first Australian made movie to be filmed entirely in India. Recently Claire McCarthy (Instagram page) took some time out to answer a few of my questions about the making of her new film.

Q: To what degree did your experiences of living in India, and working in orphanages there, have in inspiring the film?

A: A great deal of the film is based on real life situations, friends and interview subjects although it is most certainly a work of fiction. The film is an amalgam of many formative experiences in my life.

Beginning with working in the slums of Kolkata with Mother Teresa’s nuns with my amazing sister Helena and at a turning point shooting a music video on the sweltering banks of the Ganges with my husband-to-be Denson Baker ACS as a test run for the real film, The Waiting City in many ways is an expression of many of my loves; of people, music, food, culture and importantly, of the city of Kolkata.

The documentary I made (called Sisters) also undeniably became a jumping off point for research and development of the fiction screenplay of The Waiting City and gave me insight into the people behind adoption as well as the people and city of Calcutta. I have gleaned so much inspiration from so many very remarkable and inspiring people who have allowed me to interview them and have shared their stories with me.

The inspiration for this story is personal, researched, observed and imagined.

Q: The Waiting City was filmed entirely in India, and accordingly we see nothing of the life of Ben and Fiona in Australia. Why was that?

A: My intention was to allow Fiona and Ben’s history to gradually bubble up to the surface through their experiences in India. This felt like a more elegant solution to expose the characters, and us the audience, to the world of India and that in doing so force them to question their lives and choices about themselves and their relationship.

Q: Aside from your past association with Kolkata, why did you choose to make this city the main setting for the story?

A: The personal connection I had with Kolkata was a big factor in setting the film in this city. It was crucial that the film had a unique rhythm, texture, colour palette and sense of exoticism that we as a Western audience had never seen before. Kolkata is a perfect for this as it has such a unique look and feel and so many contrasting locations and settings.

It was important that through the journey into this city that the main characters would be forced out of their comfort zones to be truly present experiencing each other and the city. The film is really inspired by the beauty, textures and unique rhythms of the city of Kolkata.

As another character in the film too Kolkata forces our main characters to really think about their projections and judgements and to look at their own lives back in Australia from a different vantage point. So it was an aesthetic, strategic, emotional and personal reason to shoot in the city of Kolkata.

Q: What for you was the biggest challenge in filming completely on an overseas location?

A: It was crucial to me that the team became like a family in the making of The Waiting City. We never wanted to be considered a ‘foreign’ film as such and were resistant to the idea of just coming into India and taking over the town. We wanted the film to be a collaborative process with a blending of ideas and resources.

This was one of the biggest challenges of the film; finding the time to ensure the creative process was not lost under the freight train of production pressures. The film is a very fine example of high level planning, collaboration and cultural exchange between incredible Australian and Indian creatives and technicians.

Q: Adoption is a key part of the story, were there any thoughts you wished to convey here, especially on the adoption of children from developing nations?

A: As a filmmaker it’s not my intention to be for or against adoption, it’s more to raise questions about what it means to take a child away from their culture and whether or not bringing them to another culture is a good or a bad thing. In the work I did in orphanages and the research I did about adoption, the one consistent factor I found was the protracted waiting period to receive a child.

Over and above the adoption process itself, the possibilities interested me of what might happen to a couple whilst they were waiting to receive their child.

So I began to look at that emotional stranglehold for both the parents and the child, which was of primary interest to me as a filmmaker over and above the adoption process itself. I started to consider that in waiting for a child a couple would inevitably be pulled in so many different directions and vulnerabilities would be exposed within their relationship.

So in the film the adoption process forces the relationship of the couple under a microscope and causes them to address other issues as well: motherhood, fertility, mortality, gender politics, different expressions of families and journeys to parenthood, spirituality and desire.

Thanks Claire.

Update: some behind the scenes video footage of The Waiting City just to hand.

Originally published Wednesday 30 June 2010, with subsequent revisions, updates to lapsed URLs, etc.

Flip from left to right when driving from Hong Kong to China

16 June 2010

A proposal by Dutch designers, NL architects, could result in the construction of a far from ordinary bridge roadway connecting Hong Kong to the Chinese mainland, which would include artificial islands serving as car parks and bus stations.

Under the proposal, a “flipper” would be incorporated along the connecting roadway, allowing Hong Kong motorists – who drive on the left – to switch safely and effortlessly to the right, the side Chinese drivers use, and vice versa.

Originally published Wednesday 16 June 2010.

An online revenue model for independent content producers

12 April 2010

Independent online publishers, content producers, and bloggers, who are looking for a way to earn an income, or make money online, could do worse than take a few cues from Daring Fireball, the website of John Gruber, who lives and breathes all things Apple.

Daring Fireball serves over two million page views, and generates an estimated revenue of US$15-20,000 each month, making Gruber’s methods well worth scrutinising. Let’s find out how we, as independent content producers, can do likewise.

Become a member of a private advertising network

Daring Fireball is part of The Deck, a private ad network created by Jim Coudal. Collectively, member websites have a very large audience made up mainly of creative, web and design professionals.

Members, who are admitted by invitation only, are required to display an image 120 by 90 pixels in size, and cannot carry any other forms of advertising on their website.

When you consider that 26 advertisers pay US$7900 per month, to advertise across 43 member sites though, the return, even allowing for The Deck’s cut, is going be very worthwhile.

Sell weekly sponsorship slots on your RSS feed

Gruber estimates that in excess of 150,000 readers (though the actual number is probably far higher) subscribe to Daring Fireball’s RSS feed, and this level of interest has allowed him to offer exclusive weekly sponsorship at US$3,500 a slot.

Do the maths there, that’s an income of US14,000 every four weeks, not bad at all for a one person operation.

A number of other high profile bloggers have attempted to monetise their RSS feeds, many of whom incidentally are members of “The Deck”, though very few have emulated Daring Fireball’s success.

A recent discussion with Jason Kottke on The Pipeline, Dan Benjamin’s online radio show, both conceded that Gruber is one the few people to make RSS feed sponsorship work.

Sell merchandise and website memberships

Daring Fireball offers readers the chance to become members for a cost of US$19 annually.

While membership isn’t worth much in itself though, aside from gaining access to a separate RSS feed which apparently includes a few extra items not published to the main feed, it is really a way for supporters of the site to make a contribution should they wish to.

T-shirts are also sold, they are usually made available once a year, and with a purchase comes an automatic one year membership.

The income from t-shirt sales and memberships, while handy, would be far less than that generated by “The Deck” membership and RSS sponsorships though.

Leverage your online profile to earn income offline

Someone with the high profile of John Gruber could probably do well on the speaking and appearance circuit, so there are definitely opportunities in that regard.

Don’t charge your readers a cent to access your website

Despite publishing one of the most highly regarded news and information resources of all things Apple and Mac, Daring Fireball does not charge the casual reader anything to visit the site.

Sure, the super-motivated can take out a US$19 annual membership, or buy a t-shirt, but there is no compulsion whatsoever to do so.

I want a piece of the action, what do I do next?

Who wouldn’t want to be an independent online content producer earning in the region of $20,000 a month? I’d happily settle for a quarter of that amount.

Without telling you how to go about it, I can say that there are two important things you need to do, and that both require inordinate amounts of time and effort.

One is always to work on boosting your profile (marketing and promotion), the other is producing quality, useful, content.

While nowhere near the traffic levels of Daring Fireball, it’s my thought that an independent online publisher could make a reasonable, self supporting, income from around 30,000 unique visitors a day.

At least it’s a nice round number to aim for.

Originally published Monday 12 April 2010.

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How to make your own green tea… matcha cappuccinos

23 March 2010

A green tea cappuccino, that’s a new one for me, and I had the chance to try one of these beverages while out road tripping last week. I jotted down a few notes while our host prepared the drinks, so should you wish to indulge, here’s the recipe.

You certainly don’t need a coffee-making machine to whip up a green tea cappuccino. A kettle, tea cups, a mixing jug or cup, and a cordless hand-held milk frother, will do the trick, along with:

Near boiled water
Warmed, but not excessively hot, milk
Matcha green tea powder

And now to brew:

Place two heaped dessert spoons of green tea powder per tea cup into the mixing jug
Pour a third of a cup of near, but not fully, boiling water, per tea cup, into the mixing jug
Blend the tea powder and water for a minute until foam forms on top of the mixture with the milk frother
Pour an equal measure of the mixture into each tea cup
Pour the warmed milk to the mixing jug and froth
Add the frothed milk to the tea cups
Serve and enjoy

If like me, you’re a big drinker of both green tea and cappuccinos, you may find the green tea cappuccino takes some getting used to. Worth it though.

Update: a video of the brewing process (thanks to the ever vigilant Coffee Girl).

Originally published Tuesday 23 March 2010, with subsequent revisions, updates to lapsed URLs, etc.

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