A Punter's View of MIFF

I'm not a film critic. I'm no sort of film expert. I don't know very much about very much.

But I like movies. And, if you live in Melbourne and you like the flickers, MIFF is where it's at. Three weeks, hundreds of films and an endless supply of mints. That's right, I like my mints too. So if you hear a mint tin rattling while you're sitting in the dark at MIFF, good chance that's me.

Anyway, the following are my thoughts on what I'm catching this year, as I catch them...

WHITEY: UNITED STATES OF AMERICA vs JAMES J. BULGER

Rates:  *  *  1/2

James 'Whitey' Bulger was a hoodlum who cut a swathe through Boston for five decades, terrorising his enemies and turning himself into an underworld celebrity. On the run for the last 15 years of his spree, the FBI listed him as public enemy # 2, immediately behind Osama Bin Laden. In a sphere where notoriety is synonymous with success, he made it right to the top.

But when he was finally caught in 2012, Whitey had a surprise in store for his captors; he claimed that high level law enforcement officers had protected him from prosecution for years, pretending he was an informant so they could use him in a variety of corrupt schemes. These allegations get an airing as Whitey goes on trial for murder, triggering some very strange behaviour from the District Attorney's office. A cover up in the middle of a high profile murder trial is so audacious as to seem utterly absurd, but the film makers have a lot of evidence to indicate this is exactly what happened.

Whitey opens with a truly bravura moment - one of the gangsters victims recounts being attacked by him - but after this remarkable start, the film soon settles into a well worn, overly familiar groove. The corruption that the film makers sniff out is interesting, and undoubtedly in the public interest, but their recounting of it is pedestrian. Worse, by focusing the film so narrowly, we miss the opportunity to get a greater sense of this nefarious individual, his life and influence. 

This film may appeal more to an audience already familiar with the basics of the Whitey story, but in any other context it seems too slight to sustain a full feature. Not without its merits, but disappointing overall.

BLIND

Rates:  *  *  * 

Having suddenly lost her sight to a degenerative illness, middle aged, middle class school teacher Ingrid (Ellen Dorrit Petersen) has retreated from the world. Cocooned in the apartment she shares with her workaholic husband Morten (Henrik Rafaelsen), frustrated and bored, she finds escape by concocting an elaborate, internal fantasy. In this, she imagines a lonely young single mother, Elin (Vera Vitali), also struggling as her sight fails, starting an affair with Morten after they meet in an internet chat room. Slowly, the two stories start to converge as it is revealed both 'reality' and 'fantasy' contain elements of each other, and that Ingrid is not a very reliable witness.

This chilly, carefully constructed Norwegian drama has an elaborate facade, but a somewhat plodding narrative. While it is easy to feel for Ingrid, her reserved nature, and difficulty expressing herself outside of her day dreaming, makes her a hard character to fully invest in. Sporting a much livelier character, Elin's parallel plotline proves much more satisfying, aided enormously by a wonderful, heartbreaking performance from Vitali. The game way she tackles all of the obstacles life puts in front of her stands in stark contrast to Ingrid's reticence, which I suppose is the point, but this can't help but make one strand more interesting than the other.

Writer/Director Eskil Vogt has some fun wrong footing the audience, and there are some great lightbulb moments, which probably explains the (mostly) rave reviews this has received. But while there are some fine elements here, this mostly feels like a collection of good ideas that don't quite translate into a fully fledged movie.

FISH & CAT

Rates:  *  *  *

In an isolated, rural part of Iran, a group of university students converge on a lake for a relaxing weekend of camping and kite fighting. But on the property next door, strange things are afoot; menacing Babak (Babak Karimi) and his two offsiders run mysterious errands in the forest, and seem to have designs on the campers themselves...

The set up for Fish & Cat suggests a classic teen camp slasher flick but, while there are elements of this, what this movie delivers is something far stranger. For starters, the entire film is shot in one continuous take, which writer/director Shahram Mokri employs as a device to mess with the audience's sense of time and space. The character's walk carefully constructed paths that loop back on themselves, the camera shifting from one character to the other as they intersect, which dislocates the narrative and allows the action to be depicted from multiple points of view.

Which doesn't really give a sense of it. 

The techniques at use in this film probably defy concise explanation, beyond stating that they are unique, and have an almost hypnotic effect. And the first half of Fish & Cat, where the looping structure is established and a sense of dread is palpable, is very strong and completely absorbing. But this gives way to an overly talky second half, where the tension ebbs away and the repetitive nature of the film becomes tiresome. At 137 minutes, ultimately we get just too much of a good thing.

Still, the film makers clever touches mean there is a lot to enjoy here, particularly for punters who think they've seen it all.

NE ME QUITTE PAS

Rates:  *  *  *  *  1/2

Marcel and Bob are long standing friends on the edge of society. Living in a small village in rural Belgium, they pass their days in slow motion; chatting, walking in the forest and drinking vast quantities of rum. Marcel's wife leaves him for another man, Bob tentatively tries to reconnect with his twenty something son... and they both drink vast quantities of rum. 

And that's about it.

It's obvious from the above that plot is not the key element in this subtle, beautifully observed character study, a film made even more remarkable for being a documentary. Although how the film makers - Sabine Lubbe Bakker and Niels van Koeverden - found their subjects is anyone's guess. At first glance there is nothing remarkable, nor even very interesting, about this average pair of Joe Nobody's.

But as the film progresses, the largely unobtrusive camera teases out hidden elements of each man's character, and reveals much about the wider society they live in. There are no great climaxes, no obvious life lessons and only a little melodrama, and yet the film only gets more engrossing, the longer it goes. Much as the main characters themselves tackle their lives, the pleasure of this movie is in many small details, and shared moments. 

A highly unusual film, with profound depths.

WHITE GOD

Rates:  *  *  *  *  1/2

Lili (Zsofia Psotta) has two fairly lousy parents; separated, her mother is off to Australia for three months with her lover, dumping her at short notice on her taciturn, emotionally withered father Daniel (Sandor Zsoter). Conflict arrives immediately in the shape of Lili's dog, a lovable mutt called Hagen, who Daniel can't stand. After one tense day, Daniel abandons Hagen on a curbside, unwittingly reproducing the act that had brought Lili to him, and making an enemy of his daughter.

But Hagen is a resourceful pooch, and makes out surprisingly well on his own; he quickly falls in with a large group of other abandoned dogs and they roam the backstreets of Budapest, scratching up a bit to eat and getting into mischief. Their adventures take a dark turn as Hagen is dragged into an underground dog fighting ring, then abandoned in a nightmarish shelter. Faced with a grim end, Hagen triggers an uprising among the other abused animals, and they turn the tables on their tormentors in a surreal and thrilling fashion.

That all of White God  serves as a fairly straightforward metaphor for what oppressors everywhere do to the oppressed, in no way detracts from the simple power of the concept. And director Kornel Mundruczo engineers ample opportunities to reinforce his message, with different variations on the same theme; parents mistreating their children, bullies mistreating gypsies, society picking on cross breed dogs. The hopeful part is the uprising bit, and the clear lesson from history that the mistreated will only tolerate what is done to them for so long.

The presentation of these ideas takes the viewer on a wide ranging journey; from the hypnotic stillness of the opening sequence to the dynamic chaos at the end. In a remarkable performance, Psotta provides a central plank binding the narrative, and much is communicated about what is happening by the fluctuating expressions on her young face. Budapest too, provides a handsome backdrop and has been ravishingly photographed.

Bold, bizarre and stylish, White God is undoubtedly one of the most original, and thought provoking, films of the year.

VIRUNGA

Rates:  *  *  *  *

Established in 1925, Virunga National Park was Africa's first National Park and was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Area in 1979. Pride of the park is a population of mountain gorillas - exceedingly fragile and increasingly rare - but a wide variety of rare flora and fauna make the park their home.

Virunga is also dead centre in one of the world's trouble spots; armed militia, leftover from the Congolese and Rwandan civil wars, operate with impunity, refugees from both conflicts roam the area, and poor people of all descriptions prey on the park's animals, poaching them for black market trophies.

This earnest, frequently soaring, documentary seeks to highlight these differing influences on the park, the positive and negative, by focusing on a dedicated group of people striving to protect it. On the frontlines are the park's rangers, who go out on patrol armed to the teeth, never knowing when violent conflict will erupt (at one point, the film mentions that 130 rangers have been killed in active duty). While in the background, a hard working French journalist (Melanie Gouby) tries to uncover the corrupt efforts of British firm SOCO to mine for oil within the park's boundaries (an action prohibited by Congolese law).

While both narrative strands hit their mark, it is the ranger's that is the most compelling; many have remarkable back stories and the relationship they have built with Virunga's gorilla population is incredible to see. Some of the gorilla's simply see these men as their parents, and their playfulness and need for affection is entirely captivating. The backstory is more straightforward - corporate corruption is, sadly, no longer shocking - but the case against the multinational is well made.

A fine, well crafted documentary that sheds light on a neglected corner of the world. Find out more.

GERMAN CONCENTRATION CAMP FACTUAL SURVEY

Rates:  *  *  *  *

The naked prisoners would be looking up at the showers from which no water spouted, or perhaps at the floor wondering why there were no drains. It took some moments for the gas to have much effect. But soon the inmates became aware that it was issuing from the perforations in the vents. It was then that they usually panicked, crowding away from the pipes and finally stampeding towards the huge metal door where they piled up in one blue, clammy, blood-spattered pyramid, clawing and mauling each other even in death.

 - William L. Shirer, 'The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich'.

The holocaust is one of the most terrible events from all of human history, and one of the most extensively covered. I always wonder, just how all of the thousands of words and countless movies about this tragedy could ever hope to convey such an event. The terror, the loss, the suffering; all available mediums seem somehow inadequate, regardless of how potent they may be (and the excerpt above is from a chapter on the Final Solution, which is undoubtedly the most horrifying thing I've ever read). 

Nevertheless, it is important to remember, and in this vein comes this powerful, thoroughly shocking documentary. Filmed in 1945 as the Allies liberated camps across Germany, the footage was originally deemed too disturbing for a wide audience, particularly as America and England shifted their focus to fighting communism (in which fight they hoped to enlist as much of Germany as possible). 

Painstakingly re-assembled in the last decade by an expert team at London's Imperial War Museum, the finished product is an imperfect movie, but a telling historical document. There are scenes and images in this that will remain indelibly burned into your memory, and may haunt your dreams. The subject matter seems particularly pertinent, as other MIFF films (and the nightly news) remind us of ongoing conflicts around the world, where different groups of people find any excuse to do terrible things to each other. 

A disturbing indictment of the worst of human nature, and something well worth reflecting on.

HOUSEBOUND

Rates:  *  *  *  *

When a two-bit robbery goes amiss, rebellious Kylie (Morgana O'Reilly) finds herself sentenced to eight months house arrest with her long estranged mother. Tedium ensues; Kylie spends empty days in front of the teev, broken only by the rekindling of some long standing arguments.

Only... Kylie's mother lives in a big, creepy old house. And there are some weird noises from the far corners late at night. And Kylie's mother soon says, 'I'm not the only one who used to think this house is haunted!'

From this well worn, haunted house template springs this uproarious horror film, which neatly balances scares and plot twists with a wicked sense of humour. The first half is all sharp set up, as the characters and the creepiness are established, but the film really cuts loose in the run home, as the reveal behind all the shenanigans breaks in several unexpected directions at once. Nothing is as it seems, but everything maintains its own loopy logic, making for a story that is giddy fun but still makes sense.

The film is anchored by O'Reilly, cute and fiesty in equal measure, and she is well served by two great supporting players; Glen Paul Waru, hilarious as a security guard who fancies himself an amateur ghost buster, and especially Rima Te Wiata, flat out fabulous as Kylie's verbose, eccentric mother. 

Ultimately, the film works better as a comedy than a straight out horror flick, but both elements are well served. A deadpan comic treat.

A HARD DAY

Rates:  *  *  *  1/2

Korean homicide detective Go Geon-Soo (Lee Sun-Kyun) is having a hard day that would've tested The Beatles flippant resolve; his wife has divorced him, his mother has passed away, internal affairs have found something incriminating in his desk and he's been caught drink driving. Oh yeah, and he ran over and killed a pedestrian while driving home. His increasingly frenetic efforts to extricate himself from these jams brings him into conflict with Detective Chang-min, a hard ass who moonlights as an underworld crime kingpin.

Fast, funny and engaging, A Hard Day (originally titled Take It To The End) is reminiscent of classic genre fare like Lethal Weapon and Bad Boys, but distinguishes itself with a very warped sense of humour. Black comedy abounds in the unfolding action (witness the Python-esque demise of one of Soo's colleagues), topped with mordant digs at the hierarchical nature of Korean society.

A Hard Day knows exactly what it is, and delivers within those parameters, making for an entertaining 90 minutes. Beware the US remake, undoubtedly being hatched in some studio think tank as I write.

THE INFINITE MAN

Rates:  *  *  *  1/2

Dean (Josh McConville) is a nerdy bloke who takes his fiesty girlfriend Lana (Hannah Marshall) to the world's most unappealing hotel for their anniversary.

Dean (Josh McConville) is a technology genius who invents a time machine and then travels back in time to woo his long suffering girlfriend, Lana (Hannah Marshall), back.

Dean (Josh McConville) is an emotional wreck who has never recovered from being dumped by his girlfriend, Lana (Hannah Marshall), for another man.

Dean (Josh McConville) is an incurable romantic who spends a year in the company of his girlfriend Lana (Hannah Marshall), as they discover the depth of their feelings for each other.

Dean (Josh McConville) stands at the centre of a maelstrom of time paradoxes, largely of his own devising, but to give away any more of the plot would be to do the film a disservice. For this clever, low budget Australian flick contains a lot of surprises, and many nifty twists, as it uncoils. First time director Hugh Sullivan makes terrific use of his limited resources and is well served by his cast; McConville and Marshall, both veteran TV actors, deliver likable turns and show plenty of chemistry, while Alex Dimitrades is hilarious in a supporting role as Lana's terminally dense ex.

While the film starts to run out of steam in the final third, this is mostly a very successful exercise in modestly aimed film making. Hopefully a pointer for bigger things for all involved.

THE DIRTIES

Rates: * * * * 1/2

You've met Matt and Owen before; the picked on kids, the bullied, the outcasts, the oddballs. Talented, smart and funny, their abilities are almost totally unrecognised in a high school culture focused on popularity and sporting prowess. This dorky duo cope by leaning on each other, and taking pleasure in a self created alternative world filled with classic movies, cult TV shows and self deprecating black humour.

Both are also sustained, to varying degrees, by elaborate revenge fantasies about taking down their tormentors, the Dirties of the title. Although Matt is the more obsessed of the two; Owen really just wants to fit in, and maybe sneak a date with his dream girl classmate. As the boys drift apart, Matt's last grip on grounded reality begins to slip...

That you can see where The Dirties is headed (broadly) in no way detracts from the overall impact of this dynamic, debate inducing movie. Multi talented Matt Johnson  drives the project; writing, directing, editing, producing and starring and shines in all areas, although his indelible performance as the manic main character leaves the deepest impression. Matt's rapid fire dialogue and ludicrous ideas are funny, stupid and brilliant, all at once.

We've seen high school shooting movies before, but never quite like this. The film mines the high school misfit territory for uproarious comedy and then, at a well judged moment, shifts the tone into something much darker. A lot of ideas are percolating behind the narrative, and no little social commentary. Provocative and thrilling.

BOYHOOD

Rates: * * * * 1/2

Six year old Mason (Ellar Coltrane)  inhabits a very familiar domestic world. His parents are separated, his mother (Patrica Arquette) struggling to balance parental duties alongside her other responsibilities, his slacker dad (Ethan Hawke) popping up from time to time in his black GTO. Mason goes to school, hangs out with his friends, fights with his sister (Lorelei Linklater, the director's daughter) plays computer games, puzzles over the behaviour of the adults around him and slowly, slowly starts to grow up. In three hours, 12 years and the main character's boyhood pass, leaving him poised on the verge of adulthood by film's end.

Filmed in installments over a dozen years, director Richard Linklater's remarkable new film is a one of kind take on the classic coming of age tale. With deft segue ways between the yearly sections (effectively a collection of short movies, edited together) we watch the characters physically age and emotionally mature. While Mason's development is at the forefront, all of the main characters take us on a journey; trying new things, surviving reversals, reflecting on what has happened to them. The sense of time passing is palpable and each character's mini story believable and engaging. The four principals all shine; with two terrific performances from newcomers Coltrane and Linklater well matched with the work of Arquette and Hawke, who both have their best roles in ages.

While the film's epic length finally begins to tell towards the end (there is, perhaps, one emotional climax too many), this is undoubtedly one of the years best films and may well be this versatile director's masterpiece. A film with a lot of depth and resonance, and much re-watch value. Brilliant.

CHEATIN'

Rates: * * * *

Ella is a rare, ethereal beauty; Jake a brawny, handsome hulk. When an errant dodgem car pitches these two together they (quite literally) fly into each others arms and fly away, their lives joined and transformed into a endless, passionate embrace. Morning coffee becomes a joyous dance, love making an operatic rhapsody.

Trouble enters this happy picture when Jake suspects Ella of adultery. His woe soon gives way to anger, manifested in an epic spree of womanising, the cheatin' of the title. Ella's attempts to right the ship take in a lot of tears, a contract killer and an underground magician called The Great Merto. All works out in the end, although nothing that happens en route is at all predictable.

Bill Plympton is a legendary, one man animation studio and his latest effort bears all of his trademarks; his hand drawn images have a rough, sketchy beauty and his flights of fancy dazzle on the big screen. His grand, over-the-top approach seems excessively broad at first, but beneath the splash of the presentation beats a heart of true emotional resonance. Jake and Ella are unreal creations, but their joy and sorrow become entirely tangible, and more engaging as the film progresses. You can't help but will them back towards each other, as the film moves to its conclusion.

A surprising, funny and inventive film, the work of a true artist.

PARTICLE FEVER

Rates: * * * *

Buried beneath the border between Switzerland and France, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the one of the largest and most complex things ever built by our species; 27 kilometres long, 25 years in construction, the product of 10 000 scientists and engineers producing hundreds of thousands of individually crafted parts. The scale of this remarkable project is bigger than putting a man on the moon, and has been compared to building the pyramids. The stakes are high, as some of the planets best minds hope the LHC may be able to unlock the fundamental mysteries of science; the origin and fate of the universe, the nature of matter, why everything around us is like it is.

This assured documentary takes us inside the LHC, starting with a light touch (but thrilling) general history of particle science, before focusing on some of the genius' who will put the machine to use. It's probably to be expected that the featured scientists are a little eccentric, but this doesn't detract from the goofy pleasure of spending time with them; a staff hip hop band that raps about the big bang, two physicists from Princeton who understand everything in their field but can't work out a simple piece of public art. The last stage of the movie captures the moment the LHC is finally turned on - something the more hysterical press had warned may cause Armageddon - which stands as a time capsule for this historic moment.

While the presentation of Particle Fever is straightforward, it is very well put together and is particularly successful in breaking complex ideas down into digestible portions. The subject matter is fascinating and the sense of standing at an important moment, on the verge of great discovery, is perfectly captured. Rich food for thought.

PREDESTINATION

Rates: * *

Boston 1975: In a parallel dimension, a lone wolf psycho terrorises the city with a series of seemingly random bombings, killing thousands. In dogged, if inept, pursuit is Temporal Agent Miles (Ethan Hawke), a hard bitten film noir cop with a time travelling violin case. Crossing his path at a key moment is John Doe (Sarah Snook), a tough minded misfit with a bizarre backstory.

And really, the violin case is just the beginning, as this loopy film sheds any semblance of credibility in the opening minute and, in place of this, substitutes an endless bombardment of silly characters, scenes and dialogue. Suffice to say that the thumbnail sketch of the plot above gives the merest hint of what is to come, as space travel, gender reassignment, manifest destiny, true love, time paradoxes and the nature of good and evil are all given a dizzy spin.

Through it all, Hawke does a good job of keeping his character on an earnest middle course, although I was less taken with co-lead Snook's turn than others have been ('brilliant' is the early word from elsewhere). Snook's character goes on a long, emotive, wildly improbable journey, and this sums up how I found her performance; captivating at times, unconvincing at others, uneven overall. She certainly tries hard, as do the creative duo behind the film; Brisbane writer/directors Michael and Peter Spierig (identical twin brothers) throw everything they've got at this, some of which works, a lot of which doesn't. There's no shortage of enthusiasm though, and it's hard to be too tough on a movie where the principle villain is given a name like 'Fizzle Bomber.'

Beware the Fizzle Bomber! I'm hoping to see that on the poster, when this comes to the multiplex.

Review: The Great Beauty

Rome is the city of echoes, the city of illusions, the city of yearning.

                                         - Giotto Di Dondone (1266 - 1337)

Rates:  *  *  *  *  1/2

Jep Gambardella (Toni Servillo) has reached a milestone; he's just turned 65. To celebrate he throws a lavish, rooftop party, an act very much in keeping with his character. Jep is garrulous, verbose, a bon vivant and something of a scoundrel, the sort of character that defies simple adjectives. 

He's also a Roman, in that he has lived most of his life in the eternal city and has been shaped, and even defined, by it. Rome is depicted here as a city rich in culture; of food, language, art, conversation and history, all things close to Jep's guarded heart. 

Arriving in Rome in his early twenties, Jep quickly established himself as an author, publishing a classic work of melancholy romantic fiction. And then, just as quickly, abandoned serious literature live it up, making good money through journalism but devoting most of his energy to carousing. As he puts it, 'I didn't just want to live the high life, I wanted to be the king of the high life.'

A post he attained early and maintained, through four decades.

Now, with the end much closer than the beginning, Jep takes stock. While still drinking, dancing, talking, arguing and loving his way through an endless series of short days and long nights, he also finds moments to ponder the meaning of it all. Away from the crowds and the bustle, he walks along the Rhone, goes to art galleries, seeks out old friends, thinks about things long forgotten.

Jep is a restless man, easily distracted, contrary and contentious. And this episodic film is designed to reflect his character.

It's no surprise to learn that Jep never married and never seriously considered settling down. While this is presented initially as a lifestyle choice, it is subsequently revealed as also a bare necessity; he is a difficult person to be close to, and occasionally turns on even members of his closest circle with brute savagery.

But he can also be warm and generous, evidenced by the gentle relationship he strikes up with a middle aged stripper. And the romantic streak alluded to in his long ago first novel still surfaces, particularly when he reflects on the girl, now deceased, who inspired him to write it. These feelings, it seems, were subsumed, but never entirely repressed.

Ultimately though, Jep seems most at home with his own company; wandering the streets, absorbing the wonders that life has to offer. And these are many and varied. While the film has an almost elegiac tone at times, it also delivers marvels; a giraffe standing in an abandoned piazza, a flock of storks on a balcony at dawn, a famous art gallery explored by candlelight.

Jep ends his odyssey thinking about death, knowing his own isn't much further away. He reflects via voice over, 'This is how it always ends, with death. But first there was life, hidden beneath the blah, blah, blah...' It's a cryptic ending, to a film wide open to interpretation; is he saying that as his life was full, his death becomes insignificant? Or just the opposite, that the commotion of his life really just disguised the emptiness that he now has to face. 

One of the pleasures of this brilliant film will be puzzling over questions like these, for some years to come.

Italian director Paolo Sorrentino scored two years ago with This Must Be the Place, a quirky road movie featuring Sean Penn as reclusive musician known only as Cheyenne. And there are a number of associations between this earlier film and The Great Beauty; both are composed of a series of vignettes, instead of a conventional plot, and both centre on characters conducting a review of their lives.

Both Cheyenne and Jep are seekers; the former for his estranged father who he hasn't seen for many years, the latter for a connection of any sort that cuts through his cynicism and stirs his emotions. But while the characters share similarities, Sorrentino has also diverged and matured in his approach, now offering a film that is deeply linked to some of the great works of Italian cinema. There is much here that is indebted to Fellini and Minnelli, among many other masters.

There is also humour, amidst the reflections and pathos, some of it surprisingly broad. Sorrentino takes particular aim at the contemporary art world, where Jep works as a critic, and depicts the film's artists as a pack of shallow, pretentious charlatans, more concerned with maintaining their image than producing anything enduring. And there are also pointed potshots at organised religion, gender politics and Gen Y. While most of this is funny, some is just plain silly, or simply over-exaggerated, and so provides some of the film's few week spots.

Mostly though, this is an intoxicating, enchanting mix. A film that switches emotional modes rapidly and then nails them, one after the other. The funny parts are (mostly) funny, the thought provoking elements make you think, the silent stretches of contemplation are simply stunning.

Tying the disparate elements together is Servillo, a veteran actor who has always worked at home. His performance here is charismatic, charming, abrasive and always surprising. You keep waiting, expectantly, to see what the actor and the film throw up for you next, and you are rarely disappointed. There is so much going on here on different levels that it's really quite difficult to describe in a few paragraphs.

So we'll abandon that project right now, and end by saying that this is a film that is for anyone who has ever been interested in anything, who has ever loved, and who has ever had doubts. Which is a clumsy way of saying it has a universal message. Very highly recommended.

Movie Stars That Had Early Career Bit Parts on TV

Starting out, most actors will take any sort of assignment. Commercials, info-mercials, dinner theatre, whatever. For an up and comer then, a small part in a popular TV show is a comparatively prestigious gig, bringing with it immediate exposure to a large audience. These early credits are then often forgotten, if and when the actor makes it to the big time.

Here are 5 Hollywood stars who took an early bow on the small screen:

TIM ROBBINS

Fremmer in Moonlighting

When I was in primary school, this romantic-comedy-detective show was my favourite thing on TV, although it's nowadays best remembered as the vehicle that set Bruce Willis on the road to mega stardom. But it also provided an early career moment for another young actor. In the first episode of Season 1, Gunfight at the So-So Corral, the first character onscreen is Fremmer, a young wannabe hitman played by a fluffy haired, 27 year old Tim Robbins. Something of a TV veteran, there were bit parts in The Love Boat and Hill Street Blues before Moonlighting came along, Robbins tackles his part with gusto and his role here is memorably... goofy. His fight with an aging, top shelf hitman is a masterpiece of unintentionally silly slapstick, and the look on his face as he tries to get away is gormless enough to have come out of The Hudsucker Proxy. You can watch it here.

JENNIFER LAWRENCE

Mascot in Monk

Oscar winner, arthouse darling and tentpole franchise mainstay, Jennifer Lawrence is the girl that can do no wrong. With legions of fans and a queue of well credentialed directors lining up to sing her praises, it's almost hard to believe that her first credit on IMDB dates only from 2006. And, even more astounding, is such a minor part that her character doesn't even have a name! Who could treat J-Law in such a way? Unthinkable!! But there it is; in this episode from Season 5 of Tony Shalhoub's quirky detective series, Mr Monk and The Big Game, the girl wonder dons a bear suit and jumps around on the sidelines of a high school basketball game, before briefly pulling her head off to talk to the coach. Will wonders never cease? The scene is here.

BEN STILLER

Fast Eddie Felcher in Miami Vice

For me, Ben Stiller seems like such a product of the 90's that it's sometimes difficult to imagine his existence prior to Reality Bites. And yet, here he is in one of the previous decades most iconic shows, giving a high octane speed rap to a white suited Detective Crockett in Miami Vice. But, in this, Stiller definitely wasn't alone, as MV gave an early credit to a staggering number of Hollywood's biggest names, including Julia Roberts, Bruce Willis, Liam Neeson and (very hard to imagine)... Helena Bonham Carter? Find a full list of the Vice's prominent guest stars here, and Stiller's motor-mouthed effort here.

EMMA STONE

Cynthia McAllister on Medium

And now for something... a bit icky. Rising star Emma Stone has made a name for herself playing a series of smart, hip, sassy young women in popular movies like Easy A and The Amazing Spider Man. But her first prominent role was on TV in the suburban psychic drama Medium, playing an altogether different sort of character. She even had a different name; born Emily Stone, she decided to take a stage name as the Screen Actor's Guild already had someone with this handle. She initially chose Riley Stone, which is how she is credited on Medium, before settling on Emma, a nickname her mother had for her when she was a child. As for the ickiness? Riley Stone plays Cynthia McAllister, a troubled young woman who has been bullied into an incestuous relationship with her father, a disturbing plot that you can get a snapshot of here.

HARRISON FORD

Beach Patrol Cop in The Mod Squad

As a movie star, Harrison Ford has been in some of the biggest, most successful films ever made. And, before that, he served a lengthy apprenticeship playing bit parts in B movies and TV serials, of varying quality. One of the bigger TV shows he was in (a list that includes Ironside, Gunsmoke and Kung Fu), he played a cop in the very first episode of this time capsule action drama, a role so tiny that he wasn't even credited. But there he is: Han Solo, Indiana Jones, Deckard, learning his chops on the beach patrol. And while I couldn't find an actual clip of this moment from the show, for a giddy Harrison Ford experience check out his even earlier cameo in The Great Escape here.

Australia's Forgotten Oscar Winners

Australia has had some great success at The Oscars in recent years. And our winners have been lionised such that they are probably familiar to nearly everyone; Rusty and Cate and Shiney McShine and Crazy Mel (before he went crazy).

Less well known then the recent victors are some Oscar winning Australians from years past. For this country has produced winners going back decades, a number of whom were recognised for their work on some of the most famous movies in the history of cinema. 

Here are five Oscar winning Aussies, now slightly overlooked:

ROBERT KRASKER

Best Cinematography - 1950

The Third Man

Born in Perth in 1913, Krasker moved to Europe as a teenager to study art and worked initially as a stills photographer in Dresden and Paris. Moving to London in the late 30's, Krasker took a job at Korda Studios and soon moved into cinematography. Influenced by both film noir and German expressionism, which he had been exposed to on the continent, Krasker established a name for himself with moody, starkly contrasted imagery. His movie career followed an established path; work on B pictures like The Thief of Baghdad (1940) leading to more prestigious assignments, like Olivier's Henry V (1944). He put himself at the forefront of his field with brilliant work on David Lean's Brief Encounter, generally considered one of the finest British movies ever made, although Krasker would clash with the director over the shooting of certain scenes. His work was held in such regard though, that he was Carol Read's first choice to shoot The Third Man, and this became Krasker's signature work. His imaginative lighting and inventive camera angles are a notable feature of the film, and he was rightly recognised at the Academy Awards in 1950. Krasker subsequently moved to Hollywood and lensed a number of other high profile movies, before retiring in 1965.

ORRY KELLY

Best Costume Design - 1951, 1957 & 1959

An American in Paris

Les Girls

Some Like it Hot

Costume designer Orry-Kelly (born Orry George Kelly) is Australia's most successful Oscar winner, earning three statuettes in the 1950's. The son of a tailor from Kiama, New South Wales, Orry-Kelly studied art in Sydney before moving to New York in the 1920's to pursue an acting career. There he shared an apartment with another up and comer, Archie Leach (AKA Cary Grant), while taking odd jobs to make ends meet. He painted murals and did some casual costume work on Broadway, which lead to a job offer in Hollywood. Moving to LA in 1932, Orry-Kelly soon realised his talents lay specifically in costumes and he became an in-demand designer, working for all the major studios. Working prolifically, his work is featured in some of the best known films of the era, including; Casablanca, Oklahoma! and The Maltese Falcon, and he would end with an amazing 263 film credits. But it was some of his most flamboyant work that earned him his Oscars, and the engagingly silly drag costumes of Some Like It Hot are probably his most enduring contribution to film history. A witty, acerbic man, and an outrageous drunk, Orry-Kelly appears to have lived a melancholy life outside of the studio system, and he died of alcoholism in his sixties. His pall bearers included both Grant and Billy Wilder. Gillian Armstrong is reportedly working on a documentary of his life, which may include the rumour that he and Grant were occasional lovers, as well as friends. 

JOHN FARROW

Best Adapted Screenplay - 1956

Around the World in 80 Days

John Farrow's eventful life began in Sydney in 1904, as the son of a dressmaker and tailor. A restless youth, Farrow joined the merchant marine as a teenager and traveled the Pacific. After a chance meeting with pioneering film producer Robert J. Flaherty, Farrow took an interest in cinema and moved to California in 1927, hoping to get work in the industry. He did odd jobs at the fledgling film studios and began writing, and by the 1930's had established himself as a solid, mid tier screenwriter. He expanded into directing and racked up a number of B picture credits in the lead up to World War II. In 1936 he married actress Maureen O'Sullivan and they had four children together, one of whom, Mia Farrow, would become more famous than either of her parents. He joined the Navy and saw active duty during the war, then returned to Hollywood and made a series of successful war pictures. But his career declined in the 1950's, and he was largely back to assigned screen writing work when he won a surprise Oscar for co-writing Around the World in 80 Days, generally considered one of the less distinguished films to taste Oscar success. Farrow often expressed a desire to work in the Australian film industry but, apart from producing some Australian documentaries, this idea was never realised. He died of a heart attack in Beverly Hills, aged only 58.

JOHN TRUSCOTT

Best Costume Design & Best Art Direction - 1968

Camelot

Melbourne born John Truscott achieved a rare double Oscar win in 1968 for his work on the period film Camelot, garnering recognition for his art direction and costumes. Truscott was an acclaimed costume and set designer from the theatre, with a long history of working on large and small stage productions in Australia. His well received work on a theatrical production of Camelot in 1963 lead to an invitation to Hollywood to work on the film adaptation, which makes his subsequent Oscar success, on his first film, even more remarkable. Although the acclaim for his film work was not universal (film critic Leonard Maltin called Camelot's production design 'cheap'). Truscott's film career was short lived; having worked on the big budget musical western Paint Your Wagon he drifted back to theatre, although he did not return to Australia till 1978. On his return, Truscott worked on a number of projects, including designing the Melbourne Arts Centre's interior and serving as creative director of Brisbane's World Expo in 1988. He passed away in 1993.

PETER ALLEN

Best Original Song - 1981

Arthur's Theme (The Best You Can Do)

Australia has only produced one nominee in the best song category, and so one winner, and who else could this be but Peter Allen, one of the great music populists. The song came from the successful romantic comedy Arthur, starring Dudley Moore as a spoilt, alcoholic millionaire and Lisa Minelli as the blue collar girl who takes his fancy. Arthur's Theme was largely written by Christopher Cross, who sings the song, in collaboration with Burt Bacharach and Carol Bayer Sayer (Bacharach's long time writing partner). But Allen, Minelli's ex husband, also contributed enough material to get a song writing credit and, ultimately, an Oscar. The song's famous refrain, 'If you get caught between the moon and New York City' is reportedly Allen's, from an unproduced song he wrote for himself some years before. The song's video is here  (you know you want to).

Review: The Wind Rises

Rates:  *  *  *

Film makers are an obsessive bunch. Which makes sense; there are a thousand and one details that go into the making of every film, so being a bit OCD is probably an evolutionary advantage. Similarly, film makers are often drawn to stories about other obsessive people, real or imaginary. This is undoubtedly because they see in these committed characters a reflection of themselves and their own desires.

And so it is with The Wind Rises, venerable Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki's latest, and reportedly final, feature.

Jiro Horikoshi is a small boy born in a provincial town just after the dawn of the 20th century. His childhood is entirely disarming; Jiro goes to a basic school, helps his parents with the many chores around their semi-rural property and dotes on his younger sister. Important character traits are established early. Jiro has a strong sense of morality, demonstrated when he defends a weaker boy from a group of bullies, and his generally calm demenaour conceals a burning passion: Jiro is obsessed with flight.

From an early age, he has fantastical dreams about taking to the air in a home made aircraft. In one of these he meets Caproni, a famed Italian aircraft engineer. While the young Jiro would like to be a pilot, he already knows this dream is cursed; his acute myopia will always keep the pilots seat out of reach. But he is impressed with Caproni and his high minded talk about aircraft being 'beautiful dreams,' and resolves to be an aircraft designer instead.

In the first of several jumps forward in time, the film then moves to find Jiro as a young man, returning to university in Tokyo by train. En route he meets Naoko, a cute young woman he immediately feels a sense of connection with.

As their train arrives in the city, a devastating earthquake strikes (the real life disaster of 1923) and a city wide fire erupts in the ensuing chaos. Jiro helps Naoko find her way home, and the director produces one of the most stunning sequences of his long career. The quake, and its aftermath, is realistically, but flamboyantly depicted, with the harrowing drama of the moment sitting alongside some surrealistic touches (the way the railway track leaps in the air and the earth literally roars before it shakes). It's a stunning sequence, serving as a bridge between the imaginative content of the director's earlier films and the more realistic tone adopted here.

Back at university, Jiro has grown into a pleasant but soberly committed young man, almost entirely dedicated to his aeronautic studies. His head is always in a book, or bent over his drafting table, and his designs are iconoclastic. In rare moments of levity, he sees plane parts everywhere he looks, whether watching birds flying past, or eating mackerel for dinner and remarking that the bones would make perfect wing struts.

Another jump forward finds Jiro working for Mitsubishi, now trying to turn his ideas into reality. Japanese industry is depicted as outdated and backward and Jiro, and the companies other young designers, constantly hit their head on the ceiling imposed by the use of wood and canvas, as opposed to metal. They all laugh at the fact that their experimental planes are taken to the test airfield by bullock, but they laugh through gritted teeth. Progress is slow, Jiro frustrated.

A chance encounter then allows him to rekindle his association with Naoko, who has grown into a delicate and sickly woman. Their friendship soon blossoms into romance and leads Jiro to the one great question posed by the direction of his life; as Naoko becomes sicker, will he choose her or his work? In a move so selfish it could only be true, he tries to avoid this decision altogether, marrying Naoko and installing her in his manager's house, so he can see her for a few minutes at the end of his 18 hour workdays. His wife's condition rapidly deteriorates.

But Jiro does, at least, make some progress with his designs, coming up with a radical new prototype that finally seems to match the vision in his head. Although, when it comes, even this is something of a Pyrrhic victory. The military has always been Mitsubishi's main customer and as the 1930's crest and begin their slide towards a world war, it is obvious that Jiro's planes are going play a key part. Ultimately, his design would become the Zero fighter, one of the war's most famous instruments and star of many film adaptations of the attack on Pearl Harbour.

This seems to point the way to the film's conclusion; a single minded dreamer forced to face the negative consequences of his good work. But, disappointingly, the film decides to dodge this and retreats, tamely, to fantasy again for its conclusion. Jiro's wife does die - fittingly while he's at the airfield - and he dreams a final dream of finding her again, watched over by Caproni, who compliments him on his plane design. Nodding at a passing version of the Zero, Jiro remarks, 'None of them ever came back,' which is an elegant summation, if not dramatically satisfying.

With The Wind Rises, Miyazaki has decided on a coda that is entirely at odds with the rest of his filmography. There are no forest spirits, animal demons, talking cats or enchanted bathhouses here. And, for a while, it seems as though he has hit the jackpot, that his beautiful dream of a stylishly animated bio-pic about a difficult man is to be brilliantly realised. The opening hour of the movie, charting Jiro's childhood, arrival in the city and fledgling career is wonderfully captivating.

But, unfortunately, the longer the film progresses, the more it sheds this initial sheen.

Jiro's quest becomes repetitive and, after a time, tiresome. He keeps having great design ideas, only to have them flail when he tries to build them, a repeated series of events that slowly loses its charm. And there are some odd elements to the story, which take up screen time without adding very much. Chief among these is a grey eyed German entertainer who befriends Jiro, and offers him snatches of cryptic advice.

The film's main, non-aeroplaney element, the doomed love affair, struggles to offer what it needs to, in order to balance the story. The adult Naoko is so frail, right from the time Jiro finds her again, that their interaction is mostly kept to holding hands in bed. Naoko is barely able to function and is so obviously ill fated that there is no dramatic tension regarding the outcome. She is clearly going to die young, and it is also blatant that her husband will largely ignore her beforehand.

But the film's main problem is the ending, which comes across as a copout. You could make the argument that this isn't a war film, rather a study of obsessive tendencies, but my feeling is that Jiro needed to be confronted with the horrors that he contributed to. This is provocative, but a necessary counterweight to the film's overall theme, which appears to indicate that artists must be free from normal behavioural constraints in order to achieve their ends. While you can make this argument, one logical conclusion is that artistic tunnel vision can produce some pretty unpleasant consequences, which it clearly does here. It would have been interesting to see what Jiro finally made of it all, his contributions as an engineer and a man, viewed from a broader perspective.

The Wind Rises is a visually arresting, but only fitfully successful, movie. Miyazaki deserves credit for following his own heart and ending his career as he wanted, its just a shame that the results are so uneven. Making a lengthy biopic as an animated feature is a bold play and, as Jiro's story demonstrates, bold plays often end unsatisfactorily.