Flickerfest 2014: Short Film Tour

I have never been one to spare the time (or have it at all) to check out film festivals, with this only the second I've attended in my life (the first was the Sydney Film Festival that visited Grafton a month or two ago).
It is not often I check out films such as these, with most of my forte only being those with a widespread release.
With Flickerfest, it is an opportunity to see film produced at its most basic.
No multi-million dollar budgets, usually no multi-million dollar personalities, no reality-bending visual effects.
This showed film at its rawest, fuelled only by a burning passion to share a story and hopefully entertain those who watch along the way.
Flickerfest is a short film festival in its 23rd year, but visited Grafton for the first time.

We Keep On Dancing

Director: Jessica Barclay Lawton, Writer: Rhys Mitchell, Producer: Jessica Barclay Lawton & Rhys Mitchell, Running Time: 8:30 min, Year: 2013, Country: Australia

The firstto screen on the night, We Keep On Dancing was a great little piece set entirely within a mechanic's garage. A man named Alan (William Gluth) brings his beloved but smoky Beetle into the garage requests assistance from the mechanics. After being told it was too costly to repair and he'd be better off disposing of it, Alan reminisces about his late wife, and unexpectantly touches the sensitive side of Danny the Mechanic (John Brumpton) which forces the mechanic into action, but not necessarily how you think.

This is a great little film. It took me a little bit to get into, but once I was in I was hooked. Alan is in his own little world as he shares his story, and draws the audience in as easily as he draws Danny and the rest of the workshop's mechanics. The last few numbers were some of the funniest of the night. 

Vote Yes

Director: Nick Waterman, Writer: Nick Waterman, Producer: Melissa Beauford, Running Time: 11 min, Year: 2013, Country: Australia

Set on May 27, 1967, Vote Yes is a look at the day Australia held a referrendum on Aboriginal rights. We spend most of the film following Susan (Mirrah Foulkes), a married mother-of-two, and Elizabeth (Miranda Tapsell), an indigenous girl I can only describe as their helper (servant? nanny?). Elizabeth is keen to have her say, and despite not knowing if she's legally allowed to vote, Susan is open to taking her to the polls, even if it means getting offside with seemingly racist husband Howard (Nathan Page).

I enjoyed this little piece. It's one of the more serious social topics to be tackled by the films screened on the night, with Indigenous recognition in the Australian Constitution still lacking (the film was also accompanied by several ads saying "vote yes" and "recognise"). It is simple - what major films could have done looking at a whole community, Waterman uses the family home to an even better effect. 

In The Air

Director: Kimberley West, Producer: Jodie Bell, Writer: Dot West, Running Time: 13:06 mins, Year: 2012, Country: Australia
In The Air is a romantic comedy about feisty camp cook Sue, a jealous, impulsive woman who just wants her man. Chris wants a peaceful, uncomplicated life and finds solace with the seductive voice on radio every night. This sends Sue into a tailspin and eventually sabotages her own attempts at love. Her final attempt gets her kicked out of camp and out of his life, but not necessarily for good. (Synopsis mainly from Flickerfest).
In The Air is a great little film that I think ran too far. The interactions between Sue and Chris at the camp told so much of what we needed to know that later scenes seemed to be too long or unneeded. For instance, the talk between Sue and the radio host felt so unnecessarily long it took away from overall product. That said, the advice she gives Sue is a major turning point in her character, sending up an unforgettable ending. It just could have been tighter for mine,

The Fence

Director: Lucy Gaffy, Writer: Lucy Gaffy, Producer: Lyn Norfor, Kiki Dillon, Running Time: 16 min, Year: 2013, Country: Australia

Set in 1992, The Fence tells the tale of Cambodian refugee Virak (Kenneth Moraleda) who has been living in the Villawood Refugee Hostel with his daughter waiting for his application for asylum to be processed. He is saving money so he can afford to bring his wife to Australia, but the day he is promoted at his job a fence is erected around the hostel...

Probably the most emotion-charged film for me. Virak and his fellow refugees are an honest, hard-working group who want to do just that - work. Moraleda's performance communicated the internal struggle he faced brilliantly. You can read how Virak struggles to cope with the changing environment, as the fence is erected, concreted into the ground, and is finally topped with barbed wire. One scene towards the end is gut wrenching, as Virak almost gives up hope. Must-watch from Lucy Gaffy who did a great job as writer/director.

N.B: Villawood Refugee Hostel is now known as Villawood Immigration Detention Centre.

Tango Underpants

Director: Miranda Edmonds & Khrob Edmonds, Writer: John Collee, Producer: Tania Chambers, Stephen Van Mil & Miranda Edmonds, Running Time: 13:40 min, Year: 2013, Country: Australia 

One of the funniest of the night, Tango Underpants proved a hit with the audience. Set in Argentina, it follows the daily struggle of young Australian backpaper Carolyn (Emma Booth), who set off on an adventure after a bad breakup. There she discovers the wonder of the tango dance, but also the importance of the right underwear.

A simple idea based around the perception of your clothes reflecting your personality or state of mind. Carolyn has several pairs of plain, ugly underpants in her suitcase, and is hesitant to engage while wearing them (shown by her refusing to dance). One day she chances upon a store for a new dress and picks up more ugly, boring underpants, but shopkeeper Lina (Mirta Busnelli) refuses, eventually (and hilariously) pushing her to purchase a new and "more exciting" new pair. It sounds bizarre and my words don't do it justice, but Miranda and Khrob Edmonds and John Collee show it perfectly on screen. 

The Gift

Director: Lloyd Harvey & Spencer Harvey, Writer: Lloyd Harvey & Spencer Harvey, Producer: Lloyd Harvey & Spencer Harvey, Running Time: 15:45 min, Year: 2013, Country: Australia

Grace is forced to face her own sexuality and the strain on her marriage when her son Charlie, who has Cerebral Palsy, asks to lose his virginity for his birthday. We meet the family on the night of Charlie’s birthday as Grace prepares the gift to arrive (synopsis from Flickerfest website).

I didn't necessarily like The Gift. It may have been because it took me so far out of my comfort zone and shoved this issue in my face with no escape but I can't be sure. And that is frustrating, because it is shot brilliantly, it's written even better, and I can't fault the performance. 

It asks serious questions of what is right and wrong, and brings into question the way we perceive and judge others based on profession. Here, Charlie's conservative mother Grace (Anne Tennay) tells sex worker Susan (Hannah Marshall) straight out she doesn't believe in what she does as a job, and is shocked to learn that Susan is married. 

Having thought about it even more I think the only problem is it went for under 16 minutes - I wish The Gift was much longer and had the time to seriously flesh out these ideas. 

Woody

Director: Stuart Bowen, Writer: Stuart Bowen, Producer: Jodi Matterson, Running Time: 10 min, Year: 2013, Country: Australia

I put Woody last as it was the best of the night. Woody is a black-and-white animated film based on our main character Woody, who has dreamt of playing the piano since he was a child but can't because he has wooden paddles for hands. 

The setting, the music, the evolution of the story - everything is perfect and that is a credit to Bowen. Similar to The Gift, I wish I could learn more of Woody and follow his adventures even though this short has a very clear conclusion. The idea, but moreso the presentation, is so simple yet effective you can't help but emotionally connect with this character who is literally nothing more than sculptered wood. Must watch.

Transcendence

There's only one problem with Transcendence: everything.
Okay that's not completely true, but it was tough finding positives after seeing it earlier this week.
I think the biggest thing for me was the film would have been a lot more effective if it was made 15-20 years ago. The fact they even name-drop the Y2k thing reinforces that point.
I am ragging on the film a bit but it is a complete shame - I had such great expectation of Transcendence and it failed reach anywhere near the heights I hoped.
The idea of technology becoming self-aware and a threat to human society is one that deserves to be explored a whole lot more in film. It's one of my favourite scinece fiction themes, which leaves an even more bitter taste in my mouth.
Johnny Depp stars as Dr. Will Caster, one of the world's foremost researchers of Artificial Intelligence who is working to create a machine that can develop independent thought and the full range of human emotion. After delivering a keynote presentation, he is shot by anti-technology extremists with a poisoned bullet that will eventually kill him. Caster's wife Evelyn (Rebecca Hall) and best friend Max Waters (Paul Bettany) work out how to upload his consciousness to the machine - or transcend. It does more harm than good, with his thirst for greater knowledge posing a deadly threat to human civilisation.
The idea is great but the execution is off. Maybe it was because I wasn't feeling too great, but I struggled to get through it.
Morgan Freeman is solid as always as Joesph Tagger who struggles to deal with the consequences of Caster's transcendence, and I still struggle to see Cillian Murphy (Agent Buchanan) as a "good guy" because he is so good as a bad guy. Murphy does put in a good performance but I feel he is miscast.

The Lego Movie

EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS FILM IS AWESOME.

Sorry I had to get that off my chest but, much like the title song, The Lego Movie is awesome in every way.

Even if it is a 100-minute advertisement for Lego, it is another contender for one of the best films of the year.
I'd been looking forward to The Lego Movie ever since it was first advertised, and I'm glad to say it didn't disappoint.
The story was great, the screenplay was outstanding - everything was awesome.
In the vein of 90s Disney films, The Lego Movie was done in a way that was not only a wild adventure for kids, but a hilarious nostalgia-fuelled ride for parents too.
The story is a simple one: a prophecy dictates a "special" will save the Lego universe from eternal stasis by the tyrant Lord Business (Will Ferrell). Emmett (Chris Pratt), a regular construction worker, is mistakenly believed to be that "special", and is recruited to join the quest to stop Lord Business!
An amazing cast features in this classic, with Pratt, Ferrell, Liam Neeson, Will Arnett, Elizabeth Banks, Alison Brie, Morgan Freeman all lending their voices to various major characters. For mine, its Liam Neeson who is the standout as Good Cop/Bad Cop. His parts are utterly hilarious, and even though Pratt, Ferrell and Banks (Lucy) enjoy most of the air time, Neeson's Good Cop/Bad Cop scenes are filled with laughs. He's the perfect "villain", even if he is the secondary antagonist (behind President Business).
It's such a fun movie and you're bound to leave the theatre with a smile and an "Everything is Awesome" earworm.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

I saw this film the week it came out and have no idea why it took me so long to write about it.
Bluntly, it's one of my favourite movies for 2014 and quite possibly the best in the entire Marvel series.
The Winter Soldier continues the story of Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) as he becomes more comfortable being Captain America.
There isn't too much I'm going to say about this film as it's been a while since I've seen it, but it's one I definitely seeing again, and would advise to watch multiple times.
As someone unfamiliar with the comics it is the first time I've learned of the Winter Soldier, and I have to say I'm a super fan of Sebastian Stan's character. The story arc including the rise of Hydra is an interesting one to me - it seems so early to bring in the super villainous corporation. In saying that, it is the second wave of the Avengers series of films and they won't be around forever, but I felt as if the seeds of Hydra could have been planted here and developed in the third wave.
In any case, Anthony and Joe Russo make this film push all the right buttons.
There is nothing I can point to as being bad - it's really one of the most complete films I've seen.
Samuel L Jackson has a bigger part in this film as Nick Fury, taking a central role in the story's development where Samuel L. goes all Samuel L. on Hydra operatives. Robert Redford is great in his scenes as Alexander Pierce, while Anthony Mackie's Sam Wilson continues his growth in the series as we see Falcon for the first time.
But I have to tip my hat to Scarlett Johansson, who is stunning as Natasha Romanoff. This film further showed why Johansson will not have her own film exploring Black Widow's origin, as it (and The Avengers) have developed enough of her character so far. It adds to the mysterious past Black Widow seems to have, and I am completely comfortable with the way they are developing the legend of Black Widow by revealing crumbs of information with each chapter. I imagine they'll do the same with Jeremy Renner's Hawkeye who appeared in The Avengers.
I'm more curious to see what they do next with not only Black Widow, but other characters in the Marvel Universe in the build up to The Avengers: Age of Ultron which is slated for a 2015 release.

Oldboy (2003)

No, not the US remake - this is the original South Korean Oldboy.
And boy is it good.
I first heard about Oldboy on The Film Podcast, and the way they raved about it made it a must see.
I'm glad to say they were Bang. On. The. Money... In a big way.
This movie is excellent.
It's one of the best "you screwed my life over, now I'm going to find and kill you" revenge movies I've ever seen.
Min-sik Choi stars as Dae-su Oh, who is kidnapped at the start of the film and imprisoned for 15 years for apparently no reason. While imprisoned, he finds out his daughter has been killed and somehow he is the prime suspect.
Fifteen years to the day since his kidnapping, Dae-su Oh is released from captivity, and driven by revenge, embarks on a mission of finding out who did this to him and why. And after spending much of those 15 years training himself to fight, you know he's going to kick some serious arse on the outside.
I'm not going any further into the plot because it's a film you have to see.
The Film Podcast crew hit the nail on the head regarding at least two memorable scenes.
The first: Dae-su Oh going into a restaurant and asking to eat something alive. The chef, Mi-do (Hye-jeong Kang), whacks an octopus in front of him and he promptly, you know, eats it. I don't know if it was seeing the octopus moving, the fact I had just served myself fish and chips or a combination of the two, but I could've been physically ill for quite a while afterwards.
The other scene is the hammer fight scene. The long take sees Dae-su Oh, armed only with a hammer and his awesome fighting skills, take on a whole bunch of bad guys in a corridor. And it is awesome.
Stick around as the twist at the end of the film is worth waiting around for (it took me by surprise though it probably shouldn't have), and you will be rewarded with having seen one of the best revenge/action films in world cinema.

Bad Neighbours (Neighbors)

I really didn’t expect Bad Neighbours to be any good when I caught it on Friday night.

Starring Seth Rogen and Zac Efron as a married father and frat boy respectively, I had the preconception the movie would be full of unfunny jokes, a ridiculous amount of nudity and an endless supply of drugs.

They succeeded in ticking two of those boxes, with Bad Neighbours turning out to be one of the funniest movies I’ve watched.

This film is off the chain.

The perfect setup sees Rogen and Australian actress Rose Byrne as married couple Mac and Kelly Radner, who are raising their infant daughter in a quiet neighbourhood. Their next door neighbour suddenly moves out one day, and after a small period of anticipation, discover the new occupants are one of their worst nightmares.

Teddy Saunders (Efron), Pete (Dave Franco), Scoonie (Christopher Mintz-Plasse, or McLovin from Superbad as he’s more widely recognised) are just three of the college kids who are part of Delta Psi, a fraternity house known for their amazingly wild parties.

The rest of the film is focuses on the Radners attempting to continue their lives as per normal, but a lack of peace causes them to do all they can to get their new neighbours evicted.

I found myself laughing for most of the movie – and not just the “ha ha it’s Seth Rogen doing drugs and being crazy” laugh, I mean I was bursting at the seams. The lengths the warring neighbours go to to drive the other out aren’t original (apart from the Delta Psi crew “relocating” the Radner’s car airbags – that was amazing), the way they are presented is simply brilliant.

Lisa Kudrow has a small but brilliant role as Carol, with Ike Barinholtz and Ali Cobrin hilarious as divorced couple Jimmy and Whitney who the Radner’s turn to for help.

For me the winning performances (apart from the gags) are from the Delta Psi crew. I’ve avoided many Efron films because he was “that guy from High School Musical”, but this has made me want to check out his other recent roles. Franco continues to be great in everything he does, Mintz-Plasse is all class while Jerrod Carmichael (Garf) and Craig Roberts (Assjuice) deliver some side-splitting scenes.

Lastly the soundtrack is freakin sweet. There’s quite a bit of dubstep and doof-doof that sets the parties alive and feeling the cinemas subwoofers struggle made me feel like I was there.

Watch it in a cinema as I’m not convinced it will be as awesome on the small screen.

Note: Released as "Bad Neighbours" in the UK and Australia and "Neighbours" everywhere else.