lightning strikes twice

Starring Don Cheadle, Sandra Bullock, Matt Dillon and others

I took nothing away from this film. It felt heavy handed and overly contrived, almost like it had been dumbed down for the audience. When I watch a film that has been dumbed down, I prefer it to be overt and not be patronising. Anyway, it was a clunky investigation of racism in the United States today. It starts and ends with a car crash, and in between investigates what happens when people racial preconceptions take over. I think the theme was there is no such thing as a clear cut issue when it comes to the complexities of our lives, but it was delivered with such overarching melodrama, I couldn’t stand to think about it much.

Someone on IMDB compared it to Magnolia, but in my opinion where Magnolia was subtle and poignant, Crash was big and stupid. It felt like someone said “lets make a serious movie for the lowest common denominator, and we’ll have to make everything very obvious in case they don’t get it”.

4/10

I went to the Sydney Writers Festival yesterday, at the ungodly hour of 9am on a Saturday morning (and Friday night was a late one).  The talk was by Tim Harford, who has written a book called “The Undercover Economist”, which from what I gather is not unlike Freakonomics in that it dissects everyday life under the microscope of economic investigation.

Tim Harford was an engaging and entertaining speaker, but his talk lacked anything to make it more than dinner table conversation.  It wasn’t particularly profound to learn that the economy is very complex, that there are some brands with identical products that are intentionally marketed and sold at a different price level, and that there are some tactics more likely to work in the dating world than others.  Generally though it was an interesting way to spend a rainy Saturday morning.  I dare say I’ll visit the festival again next year.

by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner

Freakonomics has “no unifying theme”, instead it investigates some loosely connected but interesting areas of everyday life.  These investigations yield results that often defy conventional wisdom – but with a weight of economic evidence behind them, its pretty difficult to deny them.  Topics that Levitt and Dubner cover include cheating by Sumos and Teachers, the rise and fall of crime rates in America, and how parenting is less important than most would ever guess.

The most entertaining section is on peoples names.  I can’t imagine how someone could name their kid “OrangeJello”, “LemonJello”, “Winner”, “Loser” or “Shithead”, but it has been done!  Read the book to find out how it affected their lives!

Overall, quite a light read, not especially profound but interesting nonetheless.

directed by David LaChapelle

An interesting documentary on a street culture peculiar to Los Angeles, where dancing has become an outlet to rival sports and gangs.  I actually spent the first fifteen minutes of the film thinking that it may have been a hoax… because the clowns with their facepaint in the streets seemed to strange to be believable.  Anyway, the kids in this film are really trying to do something positive, which is fantastic, but it also has this weird American feel to it, where it’s not enough just to do good, but you also have to do it better than anyone else.  In the end this left me feeling just a little strange.  But nonetheless, the “krumping” and “stripping” is pretty amazing.  The highlight is the very LaChapelle photo shoot type scene with the filtered ultra blue sky and the sweat soaked dancers.

7/10

Starring heaps of great actors who I don’t know the names of, and Tom Cruise.

This is a great movie. There is just so much feeling in it, it covers all age groups, and it is very emotionally involving.  I watched it a couple of weeks ago, so I’m a little hazy on the details, but its also given me enough time to digest it and determine that the main theme is that the actions and appearances of someone form the way they will be judged by others, but actually give only the smallest glimpse of the person.  Peel back the outer layers and you may find someone completely different (or you may just find more of the same.)

Tom Cruise is actually fantastic in this film.  He does a great job as a cult leader like figure who has whole other levels of emotion that he has covered up with his outer facade.

8/10

Sort of standard American indie coming of age film… you know, with the whole quirky quirky thing happening.  But it works pretty well (its way, way way better than that horrible film Garden State for instance).  Basically, as with all coming of age films, Justin is a kid trying to figure out where he fits in.  He goes through a whole wad of different approaches to his life, and the film ends with him having had a pretty good crack at it with some mildly entertaining outcomes.

6/10

starring Ewen McGregor and Naomi Watts

Ostensibly, this is the story of Henry Latham and his depressive and suicidal thoughts.  Ewen is his psychiatrist, with Naomi as his girlfriend.  Ewen gets drawn into Henry’s world, and starts to doubt his own reality.
Visually stunning film with a compelling and strange storyline (that all makes sense in the end). Styling of the people and the sets was all as close to perfect as I can imagine.  The cinematography was great, and the story transfixing.  Rates up with Gattaca and Pi as one of my favourite films.
8/10