THOROUGHLY MIFFED - PART VI: TEN FILMS TALL AND BULLETPROOF

Previously, on THOROUGHLY MIFFED...

THE RETROSPECTIVES:
9. WR: MYSTERIES OF THE ORGANISM
8. DEAD END DRIVE-IN
7. SPIDER BABY (DIRECTOR'S CUT)
6. JACK'S WIFE
5. TURKEY SHOOT
4. FOX AND HIS FRIENDS
3. KNIGHTRIDERS
2. ROADGAMES
1. MAD MAX 2: THE ROAD WARRIOR

THE COUNTDOWN FROM 50 to 11:
50. WORDS OF ADVICE: WILLIAM S BURROUGHS ON THE ROAD
49. ETOILE VIOLETTE (short)
48. INSIDE
47. DONKEY PUNCH
46. GOMORRAH
45. MODS
44. 40X15: 40 YEARS OF THE DIRECTORS' FORTNIGHT
43. MIFF FOOTY SHORTS
42. LITTLE DEATHS
41. THE PLEASURE OF BEING ROBBED

40. IDIOTS AND ANGELS
39. DEAD ON: THE LIFE & CINEMA OF GEORGE A ROMERO
38. REVERSE SHOT - REBELLION OF THE FILMMAKERS
37. ACCELERATOR PROGRAM 1 (shorts)
36. SURVEILLANCE
35. IN SEARCH OF A MIDNIGHT KISS
34. ASHES OF TIME REDUX
33. NIGHTWATCHING
32. SUKIYAKI WESTERN DJANGO
31. ACCELERATED FICTION SHORTS

30. WENDY AND LUCY
29. CELEBRITY: DOMENICK DUNNE
28. BRANDO
27. REDACTED
26. LET THE RIGHT ONE IN
25. OLD FISH
24. BEST MIFF SHORTS
23. LA ANTENA
22. SEVEN DAYS SUNDAY
21. DIARY OF THE DEAD

20. TRIANGLE
19. WEST 32ND
18. THE GUITAR
17. ROCK 'N ROLL NERD
16. ACOLYTES
15. MAN ON WIRE
14. LIONEL
13. GONZO - THE LIFE & WORK OF HUNTER S THOMPSON
12. CALIFORNIA DREAMIN' (ENDLESS)
11. JESUS CHRIST SAVIOUR

...and, now that you're all caught up... Ladies and gentlemen, I give you...


THE TOP TEN:

10. ENCOUNTERS AT THE END OF THE WORLD
In another of the embarrassing gaps in my life as a film buff, I'd never actually seen a Werner Herzog picture; not GRIZZLY MAN, or the Kinski fever dreams, nothing. After my friend Lee went ape over Herzog's last two MIFF-screeners, WILD BLUE YONDER and RESCUE DAWN, I thought this might be a good place to start, and I wasn't disappointed. It wasn't a foregone conclusion: I found it a bit slow to launch, and a little heavy on the scientific gear early on (never a draw for me), but once he starts focusing on the people rather than their professional purpose, the film gets interesting, entertaining... and finishes up mesmerising. Springing from a longtime interest in Antarctica, Herzog decided to fly to the icy continent and apply his eye for behavioural nuance and eccentricity to how society works at what is, literally, the end of the Earth. What he finds there are heavy-machinery-driving philosophers, gay penguins, volcanologists, suicidal penguins, and a grown woman who can fit in a small suitcase. Among others. Herzog shoots and narrates with his hilariously dry German wit, which would be almost condescending if we didn't know already that he, too, is a near-certifiable eccentric. These are his people. He's critical of some of the more commercial developments of these outpost stations, and while he may poke a little gentle fun at the people who live there, you get the strong impression he feels a kinship to these outsiders of society, who've sought a form of peace and satisfaction in the furthest place possible from, well, anywhere. Then, once we've wandered this world, Herzog's camera goes beneath it, into the sub-sub-zero waters beneath the ice, down amongst glacial structures which will make your eyes explode at their stunning, truly otherworldly beauty. This underwater footage is awesomely, breathtakingly, powerfully gorgeous, and utterly hypnotic in its natural splendour, reminding us that, just when we think we've seen every corner of this wonderful planet before, there's always further wonder to discover -- and further evidence that it's worth striving to save.

9. ROMAN POLANSKI: WANTED AND DESIRED
You've heard it all a thousand times -- famed director shtupps a minor and flees the US before he can be prisoned -- but this documentary is the first time we've gotten the chance to really listen. While never excusing Polanski his sexual misdeed, Marina Zenovich's documentary shows -- with present-day interviews from all sides of the case: both prosecution and defense lawyers, the victim, both friends and foes -- how a controversial case played out to conclusion time and again in the courts, only to be resurrected time and again and turned into a trial by media. One thing I didn't know about the case: Polanski actually took his medicine. He served the time the court originally recommended, in a genuine, military-style correctional psychiatric facility -- we're not talking the Betty Ford Center here -- but upon release, the media kept pushing and pushing the judge (an overly media-savvy type, and they knew it) beyond the point of everyone else involved with the case -- and that includes the victim's family. Like all such matters, nothing is as cut and dried as it seems, with almost every angle of the case, from the guilty to the innocent, subject to serious question. Riveting stuff, surprisingly level-headed and even-handed, and let me tell you something: if I was in Polanski's shoes, I would've fled the country when he did, too. Serving judicial punishment is part of your societal contract as a human being... serving as a sacrificial lamb for a hungry, venal media is quite another thing entirely.

8. THE WACKNESS
Jonathan Levine's somewhat autobiographical drama about a teenage dope dealer's summer of awakening in mid-90s NYC arrives with much hype and many awards, some of which are deserved, some, well, not. (It left with one too: it won the MIFF Audience prize for Best Feature Film.) It's a flashy little film, in terms of pace, dialogue, situations and eccentric performances, but isn't nearly as brilliant and revelatory as it thinks it is. It is undeniably entertaining, however, most notably due to the presence of Sir Ben Kingsley as a distinctly odd man-child of a psychiatrist, who rampantly steals every scene he's in and, ultimately, the movie. The film's other standouts are Josh Peck, as our protagonist, who trades marijuana to his psychiatrist (Kingsley) for sessions, and Olivia Thirlby (last seen in JUNO) as Kingsley's step-daughter... and the girl Peck falls for. Thirlby is fantastic, she's not only spunky but has this huge sharp New York charm going for her... Okay, I'm gonna say something that'll sound outrageous, but bear with me. I'm not building hype, or saying they're the same, or have the same range, or making any predictions, I'm just saying exactly what the words state: I think Thirlby's got a little Kate Hepburn in her. There, I said it. Just that smart mouth, stylish look and certain insouciance emblematic of those on the East Coast island. Either way, she's one to watch for, as is Peck, and they both bounce off Kingsley beautifully. THE WACKNESS won't change your life and doesn't have the indie snap anywhere near the level of, say, JUNO, but it will show you a good time.

7. ANVIL! THE STORY OF ANVIL
Okay, I have to confess something here. By all accounts, this is a real documentary and Anvil are a real band... but I'm still not sure if I buy it. It's all a little too perfect: two lifelong friends in a SPINAL TAP-esque metal band sliding into their early fifties, writing songs since their teens, now bickering amongst themselves, working crappy day jobs and wondering how much further they can push this "for the music", and the bass player's name is Robb Reiner for chrissakes (one more B than required, sure, but you get the picture). But, I'm assured they're real, and their story is real, so I approached it as such. And, as shown by director Sacha Gervasi, it's hilarious, horrifying, heavenly stuff. The catalyst for the story is this: they haven't recorded an album in years, over a decade since they did so under truly professional conditions, and are at the one-last-shot end of their rope. But when a rabid fan from Eastern Europe -- where Anvil apparently have a following -- offers them a chance to tour the continent, could it all change...? It sounds like a cliche, but this really takes you on an emotional rollercoaster, equal parts absurdly funny, tragic and poignant; I have to confess, of the 59 films I saw at MIFF this year, this was one of only two which made me shed a tear. A balls-out terrific film.

6. SOMERS TOWN
I've never seen any films from director Shane Meadows, responsible for last year's acclaimed MIFF closing film THIS IS ENGLAND, among others, so I decided to check out this sharp, charming and stunningly economical (72 minutes long!) look at a friendship between two mismatched boys in the eponymous rough & tumble English suburb. Meadows brings back his ENGLAND star Thomas Turgoose to play Tommo, a teenager who we first meet on a train trip from another town, ostensibly having fled his home. Tommo has a touch of the opportunistic con artist in him, but is otherwise an ingratiating kid who'll talk to anybody and go anywhere to escape his solitary life and find fun. Upon arrival in Somers Town, he meets Marek, a softly-spoken Polish immigrant living with his construction worker father, and they bond over a shared interest in French waitress Marie, whom they're both smitten with. This is largely simple storytelling, essentially following these lads as they get into rather harmless (though occasionally criminal) mischief and learn to grow up a little, but shot in starkly glorious black and white, with three extremely winning leads and Meadows' eye for behaviour and grip on reality makes it all the more involving and heartfelt. The film never wastes a second, the ending has a beautiful ambiguity to it, and its slim running time makes you wish more films could pack compelling relationships, atmospheric surrounds and a sweet, well-rounded story into 72 minutes. On the strength of this, I'll be checking out Meadows' back catalogue, sharpish.

5. MY WINNIPEG
Discovery. This is why we buffs love MIFF. You go in wanting to see something you haven't seen before, sample the works of acclaimed/cult filmmakers you know only by reputation, or revel in the culture of other nations. Seeing so many films, I barely had time to register, but upon reflection I discovered a lot at MIFF 2008: Tim Minchin, Werner Herzog, Shane Meadows, how much I really loved George A Romero, how much I really don't like modern French cinema... and joining this list, with a bullet, is Canadian eccentric Guy Maddin. My pals on The Bazura Project fell in love with this seemingly free-associative maniac at different junctures: Lee with last year's BRAND UPON THE BRAIN! and Shannon with Maddin's short THE HEART OF THE WORLD, which he considers the best short film he's ever seen. If you're not familiar with Maddin's work, he's across a trio of all-conquering obsessions: silent cinema, ice hockey and his hometown of Winnipeg, Canada. His style could possibly be described as David Lynch-meets-Georges Melies-meets-The Coens-meets-F W Murnau-meets... ah, forget it. As I found after seeing MY WINNIPEG, his extremely-pseudo-documentary valentine to his home, Guy Maddin's style is undeniably... Maddinesque. While his influences are far, wide and recognisable, the man isn't like anyone else. Some people consider this a documentary, but I wouldn't: it's more an adaptation of memory into unhinged feature form. The opening was a little rocky, and after the first 5-10 minutes, my hackles rose... it felt pretentious, arty, overly obscure, and had me thinking, "What the hell have I gotten myself into?" Now, if you find yourself in this situation: for god's sake, STAY. Just as quickly, the film hooks you into its worldview and you're being treated to one of the most hilarious, original, bollocks-bustingly brilliant films you've seen in many an age. The anecdotes he brings up about Winnipeg, and the spins he puts on them, are so nuttily surreal, you'll be begging to know how much is fact or fiction. Maddin will never tell, of course, although one gets the sense that, to him, this is exactly how it all happened. And his silent film-style title cards, which barge into scenes at comically explosive moments, are a scream. If you find yourself moaning about the lack of originality in cinema these days, track this down immediately.

4. SON OF RAMBOW
This brilliantly affectionate memoir of childhood, early 1980s England, movies, making movies and making mischief comes to us from writer-director Garth Jennings and producer Nick Goldsmith, otherwise known as music video/commercial auteurs Hammer and Tongs. The opening credits sequence is fabulous, instantly setting up the world and providing the perfect introduction to our protagonists, smart, polite, sheltered Brethren kid Will (Bill Milner) and boisterous, scheming, cheeky misfit Lee (Will Poulter). The two meet outside the school principal's office with Lee bullying Will into being a "stuntman" (read: human crash test dummy) for his film, which he's shooting with his older brother's video camera, normally used for taping films off cinema screens and pirating them. This leads to Will, a kid possessed with a big imagination but never allowed to watch TV, seeing a copy of FIRST BLOOD. He becomes obsessed with it and hatches a great idea for a film... While threatening to tip the cute-o-meter at times, it never goes overboard, due to the genuine affection the filmmakers have for their characters and their setting (apparently based loosely on Jennings' experiences as a kid), the pure energy and DIY spirit the film maintains at all times (and a flat-out brilliant homage to Truffaut's DAY FOR NIGHT) and the fantastic performances from Milner and, particularly, Poulter as the kids. SPACED fans will welcome the sight of Jessica Stevenson/Hynes (credited under her maiden name here) playing Will's strict Brethren worshipping mother, and she's terrific. SON OF RAMBOW is a rare family-skewing comedy: it's sweet without condescension, satirical without animosity and entertaining without reservation. See it.

3. TRUMBO
To explore the life screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, the most famed member of the "Hollywood Ten" (for those who don't know: during the 1950s a group of ten writers, producers and directors were blacklisted from the industry for the mere suspicion of attending Communist information meetings, and not dobbing in other possible attendees, during the witchhunt-style senate committee hearings run by the odious Senator Joseph McCarthy, and lost their careers and livelihoods for the sake of nothing but rampant government paranoia. Now, back to the show...), his son, playwright Christopher Trumbo, came up with a novel idea: he wrote a play which consisted of a clutch of actors reading, in character, his father's letters. It's a novel idea because Trumbo the younger knew better to stand back and give full vent to his dad's greatest weapon: his beautiful, magnificent words. This film documentary adaptation, gracefully directed by Peter Askin, assembles some of America's most talented actors (Liam Neeson, David Strathairn, Nathan Lane, Paul Giamatti, Michael Douglas, Brian Dennehy, Josh Lucas and even Joan Allen, among others) to perform the letters, interspersed with fond accounts from Trumbo's family members, friends and co-workers (such as Kirk Douglas and Dustin Hoffman). It's a simple yet classy and undeniably powerful tribute to a compassionate, funny and flat-out brilliant man; his letters (and archive footage of the man himself) show his astounding command of the English language -- with phrasing and wordplay matched by few, if any, American screenwriters this side of Aaron Sorkin -- as well as his utter honesty and humanity, making the senseless tragedy of the blacklist, and what it did to Trumbo and his friends, so much more heartbreaking. It's beautifully shot, skillfully edited and wonderfully acted; when it's not evoking genuine poignancy, it's being laugh-out-loud funny (hearing Nathan Lane reading Trumbo's letter to his son Christopher concerning the fine art of masturbation is one of the greatest things I've seen and heard this year) and always entertaining. Upon leaving this film, my friend Tim stated he wouldn't have a problem if it went for another two hours, and I couldn't agree more.

2. [REC]
Ohhhh yeah. Every year, MIFF manages to pull one genuine kick-arse horror flick out of the bag, and as good as those from past years have been -- SEVERANCE, THE DESCENT, WOLF CREEK, HAUTE TENSION, et al -- few have kicked my arse quite this hard. You see, the Spanish scarefest [REC] is the film I felt THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT should've been, and am both shocked and gratified that it took someone nine whole years to get around to making it. The setup is simple, then I shall say nothing else: A TV reporter and her cameraman are doing a puff piece on night shift at a fire station. It's all mundane until a routine call sends them to an apartment building, where a peculiar virus has broken out and anything resembling routine is blown to hell... This is 79 wonderfully brisk, visceral minutes of OH MY GOD!!! All sound and vision is recorded through the lens and mic of the lensman's news camera, and this device is used near-perfectly (there are one or two quick moments where the conceit is briefly betrayed, but it's blink-and-you'll-miss-it stuff) as the tension is expertly piled on and on and on by my new writer-directors-to-watch Jaume Balaguero and Paco Plaza (co-written with Luis Berdejo), building up to some of the most brilliant reveals you'll ever see. While it may not sport the most original concept, it simply succeeds where many horror films have failed: it remains tight and tense at all times, none of the characters are arseholes for the sake of the plot, everyone acts and reacts logically as can be under the circumstances (okay, save for one scene), and -- I can't stress this enough -- it gets the "verite" device dead right. Please, whatever you do, see this with a crowd, somewhere dark, with big picture and sound cranked up loud. It's made to be immersed in, to feel as real as possible, and unlike the cinematic con job that was BLAIR WITCH, it wouldn't dare rip you off... The filmmakers are having waaaaay too much fun scaring your pants off to dream of it. THE most purely fun cinematic experience of MIFF 2008.


...and now, my favourite film of MIFF 2008 is... (was there ever a doubt?).....................


1. NOT QUITE HOLLYWOOD
Of all the films I saw at MIFF 2008, this was the one which had the most effect on me, which pulled open my irises, which made me alive to possibilities. Because -- make no mistake -- NOT QUITE HOLLYWOOD could well be the catalyst which changes the Australian film industry for the next few decades. I sincerely believe it has that kind of power. But more on that later... I flipped when I heard this film was being made, when I heard it was MIFF's Opening Night film, when I saw the pumped-up, grab-thou-by-thy-nuts trailer... So, naturally, despite my best efforts to dial down my expectations and keep a lid on my enthusiasm, you can ascertain my reaction to seeing the final product. Mark Hartley's documentary, make no mistake, is a brilliant piece of work. It's everything a documentary should be: fast, absorbing, thrillingly alive, full of killer anecdotes from both key players and those most influenced or enthusiastic, snappily edited to a scorching soundtrack and, most of all, absolutely evocative of the period, the subject and the excitement which fueled it all. (How many documentaries demand repeat viewings??) Hartley knows why we should be interested, and shows us in grand style, but the heart of his film is a call to arms: it may ostensibly be a valentine to devil-may-care cinematic rogues making rough randy and ready exploitation flicks in this brown, wide, crazy country, but it's really showing us the heart, blood, piss and vinegar that once powered the Australian film industry, which we've since lost, and asking the simple question: Isn't it time for Ozploitation, version 2.0? And we return to my earlier point, which is, this film is designed to work on two levels: as a memoir for those who were there, who dug it or derided it the first time around, and as a mission statement for up-and-coming Aussie filmmakers who have longed to make wild, violent, fast, furious, nutty-as-fuck genre pictures in their home country, to craft widescreen terrors or titillation spoken in their own accent. I could go on about everything that glitters in this flick -- the wonderfully animated opening credits sequence backed by explosions and Rose Tattoo's "We Can't Be Beaten"; Quentin Tarantino's genuinely massive enthusiasm for and startling knowledge of Aussie genre cinema, even the most obscure titles, not to mention his terrific observations; Brian Trenchard-Smith's horror stories surrounding the making of THE MAN FROM HONG KONG; the forever curmudgeonly Bob Ellis disparaging everything in sight; and so much more -- but I think this film's ultimate worth will be as a call to revolution, to inject Australian low-budget cinema with the visceral genre-driven charge it's been so sadly missing for nigh on two decades. Mr Hartley, I thank you, I agree wholeheartedly and I'm signing the hell up. [cue Russian revolution choral music here] For the rest of you non-filmmaker audiences, just see it: it's brilliant, bawdy, bold, boisterous and bloody funny.


Well, it's been an epic journey, but hopefully an enjoyable one to read. If I have one hope in all this, one dream... it's my sincere hope I haven't bored you all shitless.

Thanks for reading, tell your friends, and farewell to thee, spanish ladies.


Music swells, fade to black, cue credits...


THE END.


"THE SLIGHTLY ILLUMINATED KNIGHT WILL RETURN IN MIFF 2009"

THOROUGHLY MIFFED - PART V: AT LONG LAST LOVE

Not much farther to go now... and bring yer shades: things get a little sunnier from here on in!

20th - TRIANGLE

The plan is simple, yet complex: one of Hong Kong's most famed action directors (let's call him Tsui Hark) concocts a heist picture, directing the first half hour... only to hand it over to another, equally legendary action auteur (say, Ringo Lam) who does the same for the next half hour, going to town, contriving all sorts of problems... which are to be solved by action legend #3 (played here by Johnnie To) in the last half hour. With the players are set, the game is afoot. Will they pull it off? Well, first, I have an embarrassing admission: I missed the first 17 minutes of this film, so I may not be the best judge, given I missed the crucial setup. However, the fact that I not only made head nor tail out of what followed, but really enjoyed it, can only work in the picture's favour, right? I've noticed since that this roundtable exercise in old-school HK action mayhem had a lukewarm reception from the fanbase, but I enjoyed the hell out of it for the exact same reason most of these people didn't: it's a total throwback to early 1990s HK action cinema, when Lam and Tsui were busting it up and emptying billions of bullets upon the screens of cult movie devotees like yours truly, before the American studios ripped everything off. It seemed to me, other than the introduction of mobile phones, TRIANGLE makes absolutely no attempt to be a 21st century heist film. I've been saddened by the gradual decline of Hong Kong action cinema, crushed by the raging cinematic storm from South Korea. Maybe I'm not seeing the right flicks, but since the INFERNAL AFFAIRS trilogy wrapped up, nothing to come out of HK has excited me. But let me be abundantly clear: TRIANGLE isn't the saviour -- there's way too many characters and not everything holds together -- but rather, a valentine. A jolt to remind me why I fell in love with Hong Kong genre cinema, way back in '93 (yes, I had to discover them all on SBS TV and thus arrived later than all you hardcore HK buffs, fuck you), and for that I'm eternally grateful to Tsui, Lam and To, once and forever masters of their domain. Now if only they'd pried John Woo from Hollywood complacency to join them... sigh.

19th - WEST 32ND

Ever wondered what John "Harold" Cho of HAROLD & KUMAR, ETC (lazy referencing, I know, but much better than calling him John "Mom I Love To Fuck" Cho) would be like as the lead in a US/South Korean crime drama? Well, wonder no more: catch yourself some WEST 32ND! Seriously, he's very good here, playing an ambitious New York lawyer doing some pro bono work, for a Korean immigrant family whose son has been accused of killing a Koreatown nightclub owner. While he feels some duty to his heritage -- not to mention the boy's very attractive older sister -- he really has a feeling this case might make him partner of his firm. Finding out the truth means getting to Mike, the leader of the kid's gang, who may or may not have put him up to it. Plunged into the criminal underbelly of NY's Koreatown, John (he's also called that in the film) finds himself in exploring a side of his culture completely alien to him, and finds in Mike an unexpectedly kindred spirit. Directed and co-written by Korean-American Michael Kang, the film is slick, fast, pretty and always engaging, and doesn't waste one of its economical 86 minutes. Sure, it's not without cliches, but the unique Koreatown setting, the terrific performances and Kang's focus on character elevate it somewhat. The ending seemed strange to me at first, but upon reflection I found it actually wrapped up rather smartly, and darkly, which is always a nice bonus. A tight, effective little flick.

18th - THE GUITAR

This tale of a young woman, stricken with throat cancer, who emerges from the worst day of her life -- she loses her job, breaks up with her boyfriend, and is informed she has a month to live -- hell bent on living her life to the fullest by loading up on credit cards and buying all the comforts she always wanted but could never have. This feature directorial debut for Amy Redford (daughter of you-know-who) is an occasionally implausible, feather-light fable on one hand, and a fantastic showcase for star Saffron Burrows on the other. Mainly due to Burrows' winning, almost childlike performance, the film is an entertaining, genuinely sweet tale with some intriguing stuff going on under the surface, as Burrows' character breaks taboos at the same speed she acquires objects. Redford doesn't quite nail the tone all the way through, as the film very much starts in a place of reality, then switches sharply to something more like, well, a movie. Interestingly, the picture feels very much like an extended student film, with some scenes running a little too long, a general lack of polish in regard to editing and storytelling, even its emphasis on one character and (mostly) one location. This cuts both ways, however, providing a slight hinderance yet adding to its charm. It's great to see a movie using Burrows this well -- the girl really can act -- and being a film with a woman front and centre that rarely surrenders to "woman's movie" cliches. Charming stuff.

17th - ROCK 'N ROLL NERD

Before MIFF, I knew just three things about Tim Minchin: his name, his deranged glare (seen from posters around the city during the Melbourne Comedy Festival) and the fact his comedy was musical in nature. In addition to what I knew, I had also heard he was pretty great, so I thought this rise-and-rise documentary might provide an excellent introduction to the man. Once I heard the opening verse to his song ROCK 'N ROLL NERD, and found it seemed to be describing me, I knew I would be rewarded; you can bet your last dollar when Minchin comes back to town, I'm buying a ticket. This documentary has the fortunate grace to be made by a friend of the comedian, Rhian Skirving, who has captured that rare beast: a star rising from the ground up. The film literally begins with handycam footage of Minchin playing a tiny Melbourne venue, followed by candid footage of him at home, planning the embryonic stages of his career, and goes from there. As the film follows Minchin performing his first Melbourne Comedy Festival show to the high-pressure stakes of the Edinburgh Festival and back again for his highly anticipated follow-up, you would think the film would grow sycophantic and cloying, but it's remarkably even-handed. Skirving just sits back, following Minichin with his camera through all moods -- even when the subject grows annoyed -- highs and lows and captures some amazing moments. Ever wondered what it would be like to be a comedy festival sensation and be courted by promoters and agents? You'll find it all here, in absorbing detail. In addition to the narrative, there's plenty of concert footage to illustrate what all the fuss is about. One particular sequence, which details the genesis, development and first performance of the sophomore show's signature song, SO F**KING ROCK, is balls-out brilliant, and I guarantee the song will be bouncing around your head when you leave the theatre. A treat for both Minchin fans or, like me, those new to his charms, this is a riveting fly-on-the-wall experience.

16th - ACOLYTES

I, for one, am excited that Australian filmmakers and -- more significantly -- Australian funding bodies are rediscovering a taste for genre films. We have such a rich and varied history in them (as evidenced in a certain docu which ranks very highly on this list... there's a spoiler!) it's a real shame when we all but give them away, as what occurred during the 1990s. But thanks to WOLF CREEK's success, "Ozploitation" is starting to enter what may be its second coming. ACOLYTES is very much a thriller with audiences in mind, from its lurid serial killer plot to its slam-bam sound design, which jolts you out of your seat more than once. Basically, three teenagers live in fear of a local bully until they discover they share their suburb with a serial killer, and... well, I'm not going to divulge any more. Only to say that all performances are top notch, especially from Joel Edgerton, as the very suburban slayer, and an unrecognisable Michael Dorman (ironically, the man who replaced Edgerton on SECRET LIFE... I always knew he had a performance like this in him) as the bully. Director Jon Hewitt, who has previously directed edgy, ultra-low-budget guerilla genre works, does a nice job of building suspense and keeping his first big(ger)-budget picture slick, tight and active and, like all the Aussie films I saw at this year's fest, it's gorgeously shot and all technical work is top-drawer. The script -- where most Australian films go wrong -- for this one (by Queenslanders Shane Krause and Shayne Armstrong, with Hewitt) is better than most; while it utilises its fair share of cliches, it manages to turn a good many of them on their head. It isn't going to make anyone rethink the genre, but it's smart, entertaining and nicely done, and for an Australian thriller, that's a huge tick.

15th - MAN ON WIRE

By 1974, French professional tightrope walker/nutcase Philippe Petit had already successfully completed wire walks over the Notre Dame cathedral and the Sydney Harbour Bridge -- unsanctioned and totally illegal, of course -- so he was naturally looking for his next challenge, but this one had to be huge, legend-etching stuff. While flipping through a magazine in a doctor's office, he innocuously found his muse: the still-under-construction Twin Towers in New York City. Soon to become the world's tallest buildings, they provided the tightrope Everest Petit craved. This vibrant, hugely entertaining documentary is the tale of how Petit did it, step by agonising step, much of it told in gregarious style by the likeable Petit himself, as well as his revolving door of accomplices. Termed at the time "the artistic crime of the century", the operation is scoped, planned and executed like a heist, and director James Marsh makes the brilliant choice to treat it as such, with camera angles, music and amusing reveals of interview subjects -- even branding them with OCEAN'S ELEVEN-like nicknames -- with the flavour of a Jules Dassin flick. I won't say any more, except to urge you to see it; it's one of the most purely fun documentaries you'll ever see, an absolute popcorn doc.

14th - LIONEL

A authoritative, affectionate, and affecting, documentary about legendary Aboriginal boxer Lionel Rose, the man who became the first Aboriginal Australian to win a world boxing title. While he may be a household name to boxing enthusiasts and Aussies over 30, most people tend to forget what a towering figure he was here in the 1960s. Forthright, boyishly charming, self-effacing, terrific with the media and even better with his fists in the ring, Rose was a flat-out superstar in this country, winning Australian of the Year and even recording a Number 1 hit single! Upon returning from his bantamweight title fight against Harada in Japan, he was greeted by over 100,000 people on the steps of Melbourne Town Hall. This beautifully crafted film shows us all this, his gradual fall -- weight problems derailing a ill-fated comeback, battles with drinking, losing his winnings, and being convicted of a stupidly small-time burglary -- and subsequent rebirth as an elder statesman of the indigenous community, as director Eddie Martin employs an arsenal of virtually every surviving scrap of archive and news footage, as well as some beautifully shot present-day interviews and intimate segments of the man relaxing with family and alone. What's really striking about this documentary, besides the thoroughness of it, is that it just oozes class and love, yet doesn't sugar-coat its subject. It's like a documentary made by your best friend, who will show the world why you mean so much to them, yet won't shirk from showing your difficult or dark side... but all delivered with the affection and sensitivity of someone who'd lie in traffic for you. (I believe Martin is quite close to the Roses personally.) A riveting, warmly funny, occasionally tragic and ultimately enriching portrait of the first 60 years of one of this country's greatest athletes.

13th - GONZO: THE LIFE AND WORK OF HUNTER S. THOMPSON

In what is fast becoming to be a yearly tradition, MIFF rolls out yet another documentary about the late, great maestro of Gonzo, Hunter S. Thompson. Not that I'm complaining; I could seriously watch this dude for hours, he's just so incredibly brilliant, funny, perceptive, loose and, of course, batshit bananas crazy. This time, it's recently Oscar-anointed documentary filmmaker Alex Gibney (TAXI TO THE DARK SIDE) whose lens is trained on the subject, and he directs with great pace, style and verve, and really makes a film out of it. While showing us plenty of archive footage we've seen before -- notably in last year's excellent MIFF-screened docu BUY THE TICKET, TAKE THE RIDE: HUNTER THOMPSON ON FILM... there's only so much vision to go around, I guess -- this film makes an effort to focus on events of Thompson's life I knew little about but mere lip service; namely, his vehement support for 1972 Democratic Presidential candidate George McGovern, and Thompson's own campaign for Sheriff of his adopted hometown of Woody Creek, Colorado. Narrated by Hunter's screen alter ego Johnny Depp, featuring vox pops of varying (mostly ace) insight from everyone from childhood friends to Depp and Sean Penn, and put together with panache, Gibney's film is a document every bit as entertaining as its subject, even if it isn't quite the definitive record it strives to be.

12th - CALIFORNIA DREAMIN' (ENDLESS)

Firstly, I have to say, I take small issue with the "Endless" tag placed upon this work. The film has been labeled such as its Romanian director/co-writer, Christian Nemescu, was killed in a car accident before he got a chance to finish his edit, so it is allegedly being released to the world in the exact state the film's producers found it after he died. My issue is, it didn't feel endless to me... in any way. Essentially an extended battle of wits between an American Military Colonel (Armand Assante, who's fabulous) and an equally hardheaded station master, as the US Army are carrying NATO supplies on a train passing through Romania to Kosovo (this is set in the early 1990s), and need to get there ASAP. But they don't have the proper papers, which rubs the somewhat tyrannical station master, Doiaru, the wrong way, and no amount of "just get it done" phone missives from the US Army, or the Romanian government for that matter, can budge him. While this all plays out, many of the American soldiers and the local girls have one thing on their minds... particularly Assante's number one soldier and Doiaru's fiesty daughter, which certainly throws a spanner in the works. There's so much socio-political subtext going on in this film, nicely bubbling under the surface at all times, it spun me out a little, to the point where I wasn't sure I was absorbing as much as I should. The ending is highly satisfactory, and it's followed by a tiny little coda which works in a very ambiguous European way. For those expecting a long, dry, sombre, seemingly "endless" Romanian film weighed down by political subtext and the doom and gloom of war, prepare to be disappointed! This a film with a lot on its mind, but nothing more present than audiences. It's eminently watchable, shot and edited with effortless skill and, yes, frequently funny, even sexy! I hope Numescu is resting in peace, and if this is a harbinger of what was to come from this young man, then we're all the poorer for his absence.

11th - JESUS CHRIST SAVIOUR

Damn, this was fun to watch, even if at times it resembled a major disaster, somewhere between a ten car pile-up and a bridge collapse... take your pick. This isn't a documentary, it's a concert film, with some title cards from 2008 added, so here's the lowdown: In 1971, German actor Klaus Kinski, he of the uncomfortably intense mad-eyed stare and ever-shortening fuse, and tormentor of Herzog, performs a self-penned monologue at Berlin's Deutchlandhalle about the Messiah, called JESUS CHRIST SAVIOUR. Starting off by narrating around the events then switching to first person, Kinski is so into this it's very, very funny. But what's even funnier, and conversely, sadder and weirder, is the moment sections of the crowd start turning on him (particularly when some of seem to have attended precisely for this purpose) and, Kinski being Kinski, the actor can't resist the temptation just to yell comebacks and threats to these rogue elements, even while preaching his revisionist gospel in the third person (keep in mind, the "third person" is one Jesus H. Christ, esq.). Kinski is magnetically mad -- you've never heard the word of Christ until it's been screamed at you by an unhinged German -- the crowd are, by degrees, funny and annoying and watching Kinski walk off, start again from the beginning, walk off, and repeat over and over again, is an unwitting joke which packs an awesome punchline. The energy in the hall is born straight of late-60s unrest and the kids in the audience seem to carry a deep resentment of Kinski's financial status. Absorbing, highly entertaining stuff.

Oh my stars and garters, as Dr H McCoy used to say!! Have we reached my Top 10 Films of MIFF 2008????

That's right, ladies and germs, watch this space in a few days and we'll spank this puppy, wrap this sucker up and ride it all the way to Vegas. You know what I'm talkin' about? Oh. You don't? Hmm. Okay... you know where to meet me, I'll show you, you follow my lead.

It's the TOP 10 and IT'S COMING!!!*

(*and rest assured, no-one is happier about this than me!)

TSIK

THOROUGHLY MIFFED - PART IV: THE ROARING TWENTIES

When I made the decision to review every film I saw at MIFF this year, I can only conclude that a very Australian mindset captured me, because a stiff shot of "She'll be right, mate" can be the only reason an otherwise sane person would battle through reviews to 59 freaking movies. Last two years, I saw and reviewed 21 and 27 pictures respectively, and they'd been a breeze! How hard could this be, really? It's only more than those two combined, right? *cue deadpan look to camera*

Lunacy. Fucking lunacy. And I'm in too deep now, and have no choice but to forge ahead... Thankfully, the films are gradually improving. Without further faffing about:

30th - WENDY AND LUCY

A small, sparse, well-executed, 'meat & potatoes' American independent film about an indigent young woman (Michelle Williams) traveling the country with her dog, Lucy, on her way to Alaska to find work and freedom. We find her on the day her little life unravels; down to her last dollar, her car breaks down, she gets arrested for shoplifting and loses her dog. Light on for story, sure, but story is never the point for these kinds of films, it's all about mood, reality and capturing a slice of life, all of which this film actually does pretty well. Williams is terrific, the film is shot and edited with extreme subtlety and Wendy's actions and interactions all have the ring of truth, and at a slim 80 minutes, doesn't outstay its welcome. WENDY AND LUCY won't set anyone's seat alight, and it's nothing we haven't seen before, but in terms of its modest aspirations -- a snapshot of a woman staring her life in the face as it falls apart around her -- it succeeds beautifully.

29th - CELEBRITY: DOMENICK DUNNE

An Australian-made documentary taking us through the high and low life of famed Los AngelesVanity Fair columnist Dunne, this is a snappy little effort. Kept humming along by the now-81-year-old subject's willingness to share, his very much intact sense of humour and talent for observation, and the circus of events and personalities involved -- plus some damn good vox pops from such reliable luminaries as Robert Evans and Dunne's actor-producer son Griffin -- the film is constantly engaging. If anything, it threatens to drown in its own L.A.-ness, its sense of self-importance, the feeling that Los Angeles is the centre of the universe. The dreadful revelation which changed the course of Dunne's life -- his daughter being murdered at just 23 -- and the metamorphosis it triggered in him, from celebrity gadfly and budding Fitzgerald to professional celebrity court reporter, adds some much-needed gravity to proceedings. Overall, a colourful, entertaining docu about a colourful, entertaining man.

28th - BRANDO

Befitting the man, this is a mammoth (165 minute) record of the life and times of the Actor Who Changed Everything, particularly in terms of American screen acting. Produced by the Turner Classic Movies (TCM) network, this is a fairly loving portrait, as you'd expect, chock full of entertaining interviews with many who knew, loved, worked with or were influenced by him, and incredibly light on criticism or objectivity. Nobody wants a character assassination, but a deeper look into his later-life eccentricities and anguish would've provided a touch more edge. It does provide a terrific illustration of what impact Brando's arrival had on Hollywood and, most crucially, his fellow actors, and packed with terrific anecdotes. It's always entertaining, but very much a made-for-cable-TV affair, and overlong by about half an hour. Sometimes the line between exhaustive and exhausting can be incredibly slender, and BRANDO isn't always on the right side.

27th - REDACTED

Despite all the hate heaped on top of the guy, I always find Brian De Palma an interesting figure among American film directors. Capable of true genre greatness (CARRIE, SCARFACE, THE UNTOUCHABLES and MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE... and I'm ashamed to say I haven't seen many of his 1970s flicks like SISTERS, THE FURY or OBSESSION), highly entertaining camp nuttiness (PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE, RAISING CAIN) and the odd intelligent exploration of society's big questions (GREETINGS, CASUALTIES OF WAR) -- as well as, yes, many misfires -- De Palma has had one of the more varied (and variable) careers of his contemporaries, so I'm always intrigued by what he'll do next. REDACTED, indeed, is something different again, caught somewhere between CASUALTIES and his avant-garde beginnings -- if in experimental spirit rather than content. A comment on today's proliferation of mixed media messages and how their subjectivity further compromises the truth rather than propagates it, it tells the story of the rape and murder of an Iraqi girl and her family by American peacekeeping soldiers through video blogs, a fictional documentary, news footage, CCTV, taped military psychology sessions and so forth. It sounds like a mess, but it actually gels together rather well, progressing in a surprisingly linear fashion. The actors do a great job being as real as possible and blending into the background... but De Palma, as writer more than director, lets the dog run off the leash in the final quarter, as his characters start saying and doing things that feel more like the actions of movie characters than the flesh-and-blood archetypes they were previously. Added to that, the movie traverses well-well-worn territory, and when the 90 minutes is done, you're left with the feeling that, while told in an interesting and innovative way (some may say "gimmicky"), it hasn't told us anything new or shown anything particularly enlightening. Still, it's well executed and, while not to everyone's taste, is quite good as a piece of preaching-to-the-converted antiwar polemic.

26th - LET THE RIGHT ONE IN

Oskar is twelve, slight, sickly, lives in a freezing Swedish commission flat with his mother and gets bullied at school. One reason for the latter is his interest in the macabre, which gets him labeled a freak of sorts. However... this interest is very much piqued when the new girl next door (also twelve... and then some...) turns out to be a vampire. Elegantly shot, leisurely paced and bursting with terrific ideas, this is one of those films that's A-L-M-O-S-T there, but not quite. Unfortunately, it's also bursting with too many extraneous plotlines which take up slabs of valuable screen time and distract from the intriguing central dynamic. However, I'm always up for any new or unexpected twists on the Vampire genre, and on this count, the picture delivers. Oh, and the second-to-last-scene is killer.

25th - OLD FISH

An aging policeman working and living in the slums of China is kept around by the force almost as a monument; his fellow cops call him "Old Fish" and treat him with a mixture of respect and amusement. But the old man has one edge over his more technologically advanced fellow officers: after the war, he specialised in disarming land mines left by the Japanese, and by default has become their resident explosives expert. So when a rash of home-made explosive devices pop up at dilapidated housing flats across town, Old Fish is The Man. Some incredible suspense is created as we watch this old fella -- he'd be pushing 60 -- struggling to stay his hands and slow his heart as he takes apart device after device, as his slightly smug colleagues can only watch in fear. Director Gao Qunshu ratchets up the tension beautifully, and creates an evocative portrait of the grimy, desolate slums not so far from China's urban centre -- I'm sure this isn't a place the Chinese authorities would want foreigners to see. However, after you've seen Old Fish disarm the first four bombs, it becomes clear the filmmakers don't have much more up their sleeve (there is an interesting suspicion that Old Fish may be planting them himself, but this idea is quickly discarded) and the action eventually becomes monotonous, padding out the film to an overlong 113 minutes, and it's a little hard to swallow this force don't have a single officer trained in explosives. It eventually builds to a nice ending, which leaves you wondering how much more fulfilling the film could've been with some judicious second-half editing.

24th - BEST MIFF SHORTS

Thankfully, a remarkably subdued and decidedly not cringe-inducing award session preceded a selection of six of the award winners.

First was JOHN AND KAREN, a cute English animation about an awkward, all-too-human conversation between a polar bear (John) and a penguin (Karen). Amusing anthropomorphic antics, but hardly stunning or gutbusting... as good as it was, it's hard to believe this was the best animated film on offer.

Secondly was the ambitious, attractive, but massively dull HELL'S GATES, based upon the cannibalistic exploits of 1790s Australian convict Alexander Pierce and his increasingly starving fellow escapees. With such effort put into evoking the period (on an incredibly low budget apparently, kudos) and building mood, this had the potential to be genuinely fearsome, but goes nowhere and unforgivably ends up a thunderous bore. Unfortunately, at 21 minutes, it was also the longest short on offer, not helping its cause.

Then came 296 SMITH STREET, which agonisingly evokes a day in the life of Ahmed, a Collingwood (or is that Fitzroy?) pawnbroker and his customers: occasionally ingratiating, often agitated, and always on a knife's edge. Shot in black and white yet bleeding realism, sometimes amusing and increasingly nerve-wracking, considering the clientele are always a heartbeat away from violence, this was one of the best for mine.

Just as great was Irish short NEW BOY, a simple yet punchy and painfully real story (based on a short story by Roddy Doyle) of an African boy's first day at school after emigrating to Ireland. Nervous, affecting and ultimately funny, this is beautifully done.

Next up was the Aussie JERRYCAN, fresh of winning the top short film prize at Cannes. It's a spunky, beautifully shot film, with a really strong sense of place, about two kids in a country town trying to stave off perennial boredom and find something to amuse themselves, eventually coming across the titular petrol-filled item... naturally, explosive hijinks ensue.

Finally, there was the actual grand prize winner, the Danish short DENNIS. Living with his domineering mother, Dennis is a hulking bodybuilder who exists in a state of abject loneliness. He calls up a girl from the gym for a date and, to his surprise, she accepts. However, the painfully shy big guy finds that's only half the battle as the date goes in an unexpected direction. By turns amusing and painful, this is a nicely told little tale.

In some way or another, all six displayed the possibilities of the short film format to positive effect, much more than the utter dreck Tropfest routinely serves up year after year.

23rd - LA ANTENA (aka THE AERIAL)

A visually stunning homage to silent German expressionist cinema, or a family film co-directed by Guy Maddin and David Lynch: take your pick, as either description can be applied to -- yet not fully explain -- this odd little fantasy concoction from Argentinian cinematographer-turned-director Esteban Sapir. Set in a world where no-one can speak aloud, but can project visible words (like subtitles) into the air, where a nefarious media magnate named Mr. TV -- the man who stole their voices in the first place -- controls all television and music output, even much of the food the silenced citizens eat. This isn't enough for him, though: he wants to steal their words, too. Enter a recently sacked network employee and his daughter, and the only two people in town with voices (a torch singer without a face known only as “The Voice” and her son, born without eyes), as they discover Mr TV’s plan and plot to stop him. Charming at times, downright bizarre at others, this is one of the more inventive films I’ve ever seen, and although it has that fuzzy, soft-light look shared by such all-CGI films as SKY CAPTAIN AND THE WORLD OF TOMORROW, it is stunning to look at. Plot-wise, it takes a while to get going, but it is so unique and frankly whacked-out you can’t help but be hooked.

22nd - SEVEN DAYS SUNDAY

The winner of this year's Jekyll and Hyde Award. The story of two disaffected youths, living in the slums of Leipzig, who spend their days staving off boredom by drinking stolen booze, chatting up local girls and, for one of them anyway, mugging the odd passer-by. In minute detail, we watch these two go through their day and into the night; one of the guys fancies a girl, the other one contrives to get off with her just for something to do, there's a misunderstanding, they end up at the most boring-arse party in the history of humanity... and all the while your eyes are glazing over, realising that, no, nothing is actually going to happen. At a slim 79 minutes, you wouldn't think the film would have a chance to grow boring, but there I was, at the 40 minute mark, falling asleep, peering at the clock on my phone and actually contemplating leaving... something I never, ever consider, let alone do. It was that bad. Suddenly, one of the boys tells the other, "I want to kill somebody"... and the movie turns on its head in every conceivable way. We can only watch helplessly as these two stalk the streets, waiting for some poor unsuspecting bloke to murder for their own pointless gratification. It's horrible, agonising stuff, and merely watching their disaffected behaviour enraged me. What's more, when the killer is caught, he makes no attempt to hide what he's done, almost as if he's disconnected from the world. The actor who plays him, Ludwig Trepte, perfects the bottomless, permanently blank stare of a youth who is both utterly unrepentant and completely uncomprehending of the tragedy he has wrought. As the main characters -- including the girl -- all struggle to deal with the aftermath, the film takes on a genuinely sad tone and it just shatters your soul. Amazingly, yet tellingly, this was the film school graduation film for its writer-director Niels Laupert, who promises big things on the back of this. Notable for being one of the few films at the festival to really get a strong emotional reaction out of me, I was left wondering what might have been, had the entire film been that good.

21st - DIARY OF THE DEAD

The catalyst for this year's welcome retrospective, George A Romero's newest film is, like his other DEAD films, a rumination on a social theme. This time, like De Palma's REDACTED, it focuses on the YouTube generation, the proliferation of personal cameras and the need to film everything: is this the pursuit of truth, or mere exploitation? What's more, if you shoot a disaster and don't help, are you in some way complicit? Romero goes some way to answering these questions, but often it's at the expense of any kind of interesting character work, as the young filmmakers at the heart of this story -- we find them making a low-budget horror movie when the zombie outbreak occurs -- are as uninspiring as any in the filmmaker's entire oeuvre. Making up for this shortfall somewhat are some highly effective zombie scenes (considering the film's relatively low $2 million budget -- and Romero DID invent the genre, after all), a hilarious encounter with a surprisingly hardy Amish fellow (the film's highlight), and the director's trademark swipes at the modern human condition. Even when they're flogging their theme over and over to the point of exhaustion, Romero and his editor keep things moving along at a fine pace, and throw the characters some interesting curveballs along the way. Not as effective as NIGHT, DAWN or even LAND OF THE DEAD, DIARY still does enough well to not embarrass the franchise, and in this age of dull, brainless studio horror remakes, it's nice to have guys like Romero out there, still proving time and again that the genre is worth a damn.

Next up: we get to the good stuff... the back end of my TOP 20 OF MIFF '08! Come join me, if you've got the stamina. I dare ya.

TSIK

THOROUGHLY MIFFED - PART III: THE NQR BRIGADE

Just before we hook into the countdown: I'd like to share a few thoughts with the viewing public since the last blog:

- Go see THE BANK JOB. It's slick, charming, unpredictable and terrific fun.

- After canning DONKEY PUNCH, I checked out its IMDB page and saw that the first review was merely titled "Donkey Pish", which cracked me up. If I were a Scot, that totally would've been my review.

- Are there any more horror films of the 1970s and 80s to remake? I really think they got everybody. Even clunkers like MY BLOODY VALENTINE and MOTHER'S DAY are getting a re-run. Are there really that few new ideas out there? Studios can't claim "brand recognition" on this stuff with a straight face, can they? Wait a minute: I haven't heard anything about a HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME remake...*

*Expect an announcement from Fox Atomic in the coming weeks.

Now, back to the MIFF Madness: these are the noble failures, or the straight sixes -- films which achieved small goals and nothing more -- or the Ritalin-popping ADHD cases, which couldn't quite keep focused enough to deliver on their intentions 100%... starting with:

40th - IDIOTS AND ANGELS (& short HOT DOG)

I've never seen any of Bill Plympton's stuff before, but I'm aware of his status as a big name in animation, and know enough about his work to spot it at ten paces. The synopsis of IDIOTS AND ANGELS -- a horrible, deeply misanthropic man who suddenly sprouts angel wings, which work against his base nature by forcing him to do good deeds -- struck me as intriguing, so I thought it might make an ideal introduction. I'm still not sure if this proved correct, as the program was something of a mixed bag.

Before the feature was a funny Plympton short called HOT DOG, about a puppy whose obsession with joining the Fire Department often gets the better of him. While it may sounds like a fun idea for a Pixar short, it's got a little more of an adult tinge to it. Not heart-stopping brilliance by any stretch, but it is quite entertaining.

By contrast, IDIOTS AND ANGELS contains some fantastic ideas and truly inspired visuals, but shows an unfortunate tendency toward going around in circles. It's got a lot to say about the world we live in today, about man's inhumanity to man, commercial opportunism, taking the low way out even when the high way is the easier option and so forth; even flirting with being a superhero tale at times. It wanders off the reservation somewhere between the second and third acts, however, making all sorts of weird digressions that subtract from the film's narrative thrust and creating a bit of cinematic dead air. There's enough good stuff here to be engaging, and I'm sure Plympton's fans will eat it up, but -- even though it's only 80 minutes long -- it could do with some trimming.

39th - DEAD ON: THE LIFE AND CINEMA OF GEORGE A. ROMERO

I've always been a big fan of Romero's work, so I was looking forward to this documentary in a big way. Now, to be fair, we were warned that this was a "work in progress" -- and, boy, they weren't kidding. Director Rusty Nails rounds up a startling array of Romero's friends and collaborators, as well as seemingly unlimited access to Romero himself, to shed fascinating insight into (and shower much affection upon) the big man and his methods, and thankfully looks at his entire career, not only focusing on his DEAD movies, but giving decent air time to lesser-known flicks like THE CRAZIES, JACK'S WIFE and KNIGHTRIDERS. So what's the problem? It's staggeringly badly shot and lit (the guy can't learn how to compose a damn frame?), ineptly edited (an opening credits montage, which should be no more than a minute long, goes on for four minutes!) and, at 127 minutes, goes on forever. Let's hope Nails hires a decent editor to hammer (oh ZING!) his labour of love into shape, at which point I'd love nothing more than to see it again and be forced to eat this rating.

38th - REVERSE SHOT: REBELLION OF THE FILMMAKERS

In the early 1970s, a seemingly never-ending cabal of German filmmakers -- among them, Werner Herzog, Wim Wenders and the iconoclastic Rainer Werner Fassbinder -- formed their own socialist-style film production and distribution company, Filmverlag Der Autoren, to make movies which reflected modern Germany warts and all, then pump any profit into achieving total independence. A noble goal, inevitably doomed by the standard personality clashes, money issues and conflicting visions of direction which plague such ventures. It's a fairly standard rise-fall-fragmentation story, and the extremely dry treatment it's given here does it few favours. What's more, there are so many names being thrown around, and even less anyone but the most fervent German film buffs would recognise, that it's tough to remember who's who. Jolts of energy are provided by interviews with the always amusing Herzog, jovial filmmaker Laurens Straub (the docu's co-director, with Domenik Wessely), and archival footage of the magnetic, hilariously egomaniacal Fassbinder. A potential motivational tool for filmmakers, otherwise recommended for film historians only.

37th - ACCELERATOR PROGRAM 1

The Melbourne International Film Festival introduced the Accelerator program to support emerging Australian and New Zealand -- now joined by Irish and Singaporean -- short filmmakers, giving them a platform to be seen at a major festival and preparing them for feature filmmaking. The fruits of this year's program, however, suggests the current nature of Australian films may not change in a hurry: highly technically accomplished films with incredibly dull content -- or, at least, relatively dull treatment of interesting themes (or even the other way round) -- at their core. Anthony Chen's thunderously dull, one-note observational piece HAZE looks at a pair of Singaporean teenagers losing their virginity while playing hooky; Aaron Wilson's AHMAD'S GARDEN is a lush, spare, yet strangely unfulfilling tale of a man doing what he can to make life in a detention centre bearable (cute ending though); THIS IS HER, from NZ director Katie Wolfe, is a cuckolded woman's quirky look at her failed marriage and the bitch who stole her husband away, with amusing flashbacks and juxtapositions; John Alsop's HE. SHE. IT. is a lighter-than-air Aussie short about the efforts of a jaded, soon-to-retire schoolteacher (Steve Abbott, otherwise known to fans of Good News Week as "The Sandman") to bring an outcast teenage boy and girl together; THE SKY IS ALWAYS BEAUTIFUL, from Jeremy Cumpston, is a limp and ultimately pointless exercise concerning a bitter taxi driver, a depressed prostitute and a concerned young girl; Dustin Feneley's HAWKER, another mood piece of little consequence about the relentlessly crap life of a door-to-door salesman, boosted only by an excellent central performance from Melbourne actor Syd Brisbane; and my favourite, the shortest, sharpest and funniest of the bunch, Kiwi director Jason Stutter's CAREFUL WITH THAT AXE, a 2 minute gaspfest about a very small boy's fascination with his dad's axe and woodchopping, with a killer climax -- the least self-important here and, therefore, the most fun!

36th - SURVEILLANCE

After a hiatus of 15 years, Jennifer Lynch, daughter of David you-know-who, returns to the director's chair with a fairly standard psychological thriller enlivened by some odd and over-the-top touches -- although, it must be said, not as balls-out weird as one may expect. Namely, the performances of Bill Pullman and Julia Ormond investigating a roadside bloodbath, which may or may not have been initiated by two very creepy redneck cops (Kent Harper and Third Rock From The Sun's French Stewart!), and some wild twists you'll probably see coming from some distance away. If taken too seriously, this will really rub you the wrong way, but have fun with it, enjoy the scenery chewing and you'll have some fun. A fairly minor work which suggests Lynch is slowly dipping her toe back into the pool after the unmitigated disaster of her debut, BOXING HELENA.

35th - IN SEARCH OF A MIDNIGHT KISS

In a nutshell? This is your bog-standard, next-to-no-budget, snappily sardonic, independent black-and-white New York rom-com... except, it's set in Los Angeles. This minor wrinkle doesn't make much of a difference, if any, but I get the feeling this flick isn't out to redefine its genre, rather it's just looking to make for a nice, fun night out... and on that level, it works. For the most part. Once our hero gets caught masturbating over internet porn -- upon which he's photoshopped the head of his housemate's girlfriend -- he thinks it might be time to hook up, so, with New Year's Eve approaching, he places a "misanthrope seeks misanthrope" ad on an internet dating site. Meeting with said misanthrope goes strangely, but well, and soon they're wandering around LA on NYE falling in and out of various stages of apathy/like/dislike/love/hate, until midnight falls and... well, you know. You've been here before, but I'm a big lover of black & white, there are some genuinely funny quips and asides, and writer-director Alex Holdridge has a good sense of what kind of film he's making and to keep it moving. Forgettable? Sure. Fun? You bet.

34th - ASHES OF TIME REDUX

I was frankly shocked to hear that Wong Kar-Wai, Hong Kong's chronicler of too-cool-for-school tortured lovers, had written and directed an historical martial arts film in the early 1990s. So, being familiar with his work, I tried to imagine how it would play out: it'd probably substitute his usual blasts of urban neon for vibrant feudal cloths, and ultimately focus upon ancient warriors more obsessed with lost or unrequited loves than slaying scores of bandits. Turns out I wasn't far from the truth: the story concerns a killer-for-hire living a reclusive life (nursing the pain of a lost love, natch) in the middle of the desert, as a jaded, self-proclaimed "solver of problems". As various characters cross his path, he proves rubbish at this, solving nothing and often trying to convince each of them to solve the others' for him. It's a visually beautiful film, pregnant with sorrow and mourning, but it's just as often confusing and the battle scenes are shot and cut with little care for coherence. Naturally, the film succeeds best when Kar-Wai plays to his forehand; namely, sad-eyed jilted lovers wandering a wasteland, searching to fill an unquenchable vacuum of the soul.

33rd - NIGHTWATCHING

Peter Greenaway lends his lush, eccentric eye to Rembrandt and, specifically, the creation of his work The Night Watch. Very theatrical in tone, with every scene shot in the idiom of a Rembrandt painting, it's visually spectacular to behold. Equally eye-catching is his casting of Martin Freeman (Tim from Gervais' The Office, or Arthur Dent from HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE) as Rembrandt -- what seems monumentally unlikely is possibly the most successful aspect of the picture, as Freeman is fantastic, imbuing Rembrandt with an everyman charm and, dare I say it, lust for life which immediately puts us in his corner. However, the film is way too leisurely paced for its own good, and tacks on a terribly extraneous, largely insignificant plotline onto the end of the film, padding an already lengthy film by another 20 minutes. The picture works best when it's focused on the artwork; Greenaway works like a detective, drawing historical theory and artistic instinct to analyse what the Dutch Master poured into his masterwork from every angle, and it's dazzling to watch him lay it all out. Overall, while it may have lost me from time to time, it's a mostly intriguing, and always attractive, film.

32nd - SUKIYAKI WESTERN DJANGO

Anyone familiar with the work of Japanese cult auteur Takashi Miike won't need me to tell them he's insane, and this spaghetti western mash-up does nothing to prove otherwise. Opening with the first scene in an extended cameo from another certain American cult auteur (surname starts with T, ends with "arantino"), speaking near-gibberish against a deliberately fake-looking painted matte background, before bursting into an improbable gunfight, you know you've booked a two hour ticket to whackjob country... The plot, such as it is, kicks off like A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS, with a crack gunman wandering into town between two warring gangs, and finding them both vying for his services. The legends of how these gangs came to be, how they conduct themselves, and the shenanigans which occur henceforth are pure Miike, meaning it's a total paradox: visually spectacular yet often (intentionally) ramshackle, stunningly original yet rather derivative, and philosophical yet utterly, deeply, profoundly nonsensical. Awful and brilliant in equal measure -- often in the same scene! -- SUKIYAKI WESTERN DJANGO is, without a doubt, like no other spaghetti western you'll ever see. Yet, like every spaghetti western you've ever seen. Hell, it's Miike! Got it? Good.

31st - ACCELERATED FICTION SHORTS

The Accelerator program strikes back, with shorts directed by former Accelerator alumni, who obviously didn't grasp the whole "prepare them for feature filmmaking" part of the brief. I only saw the first three of the six shorts on offer, but I think I saw the best of the bunch. The first, DIRECTIONS, was not it. The story of a childlike man who befriends a wonky shopping trolley and takes it (or does it take him?) on an adventure attempts to be Keatonesque in its feats of near-silent physical comedy whimsy, but somebody needed to tell director Kasimir Burgess that hiring an actor who just looks funny ain't a done deal: they need to actually be able to, y'know, do physical comedy. One can only imagine how cool this could've been in the hands of, say, a Frank Woodley. The second short, Erin White's FOUR, is a colourful comedy of swinging neighbours in 1970s Australia and the unlikely union they form. It has an awesome 70s look -- where did they find all those wallpapers and fittings??? If nothing else, the film is a marvel of production design -- and the story, initially a parade of cliches, really deepens and grows on you; it's a cool little film. Thirdly, and most triumphantly (as Bill and Ted would say), is THE FUNK, a black-and-white, semi-animated (with digital live-action stills) visual stunner about a man who wakes up in the titular mood and just can't shake it, and can only watch from within as it begins to dominate his life. It's a beautiful, weird, sad story told with stunning economy and unique vision and, to top it all off, is narrated by the ever-excellent Jacek Koman. THE FUNK is one of those rare shorts which demands to be seen, early and often.

Next: more imperfect gems (of sorts) and we get closer to the good stuff... seeya soon!

TSIK