If I’d seen this US documentary at the start of my MIFF journey, I suspect I may have given it a more positive review. On my second last day of the festival and slightly tired after 60+ films, I found the topic interesting but the storytelling technique overly dramatic and over-padded. It’s about the Stuxnet virus that turned up a few years back and its origin has been traced to US/Israeli intelligence, developed as a weapon to damage Iran’s nuclear enrichment factories. It’s worth a watch though if you can catch it on television someday. Continue reading
Gosh this movie sounded good. The synopsis used words like ‘breathtaking’, ‘existential odyssey’, ‘abstract allegory’ and ‘a political version of a Beckett play.’ It really wasn’t any of those things though it has an interesting topic and some nice moments. It is a film in two distinct parts: we see Nero, a teen of Mexican origin who grew up in LA but was deported with his parents, trying to cross the border back to the US. In LA he meets up with his brother but not before being picked up by the police for looking too Mexican in a wealthy area of Beverley Hills. Nero’s plan is to be a ‘Greencard soldier’ where he can join the US military in exchange for a Greencard. 
This film was likened to 
My second VR experience was a sobering one. This time I was ushered into a room with a circle of chairs and settled in with nine other people. We are kitted up with our goggles and headphones and then all of a sudden, I am in a solitary confinement cell. Bed, toilet, shelf, door, blank painted walls, a heavy door with a clouded window. As I move my gaze around the room, objects light up and fragments of audio interviews of people talking about their experiences play. 
Too bleak for me. Beautiful black and white but claustrophobically grim, this Mexican drama centres on two ageing prostitutes who struggle to make enough money to live. They are exploited by everyone and do the same to others in order to survive. The only true connection seems to be the friendship, or perhaps commonality, between them. 
I wanted to really like this movie. It’s Australian, it has a young cast, it’s quirky and has a great sense of style. It’s set beautifully in the 70s; the fashions and decor making me want to go out there and redecorate. It starts off with an oddball lightness and a great sense of colour and framing but then veers into darker territory and seems to lose its way. I was left unsure as to which demographic the film is aimed at and how authentically it explores the anxieties of contemporary teens. 
MIFF has ‘night shift’ screenings around 11pm on Fridays and Saturdays and tonight I went to my first one. I had booked to see Baskin, a Turkish high-gore horror, but lost my nerve and swapped for the only other screening, Killing Ground. It’s an Australian thriller that will make many a city person afraid to go camping in the bush. 
I don’t want to put people off this film. It’s actually a pretty good, solid family film and I think it will be well-liked. Just look at that photo – quirky outfits, cute kids and Viggo Mortensen. It starts out well. We see Viggo (Ben) and his six children living in the forest, almost completely self-sufficient. They hunt, climb, make their own clothes, read and discuss world issues at a sophisticated level and follow the rigorous training regime of their father. We soon discover that their mother is not there, she is ‘sick’ in hospital, and this is the first sign that not all is well in their world. 
Aaagh. I think this movie is well-made crap but I’m not sure. Okay, I need to admit my bias. It is directed by Paul Verhoeven who also directed Starship Troopers, the favourite film of a person very dear to me who I won’t name to save him embarrassment although anyone who knows him well will know who I’m talking about. And I think Starship Troopers is a heap of well-made misogynist crap. But believe me, I went into this movie with high (though slightly nervous) hopes. 
Not a MIFF film. I took a detour at ACMI this morning as I waited for my first film session of the day and watched Del Kathryn Barton’s sumptuous animation of Oscar Wilde’s short story, The Nightingale and the Rose. 
