Geek of Oz

Director Steven Soderbergh is partially responsible for my love of cinema. His 1998 film Out of Sight was the first film I had seen that I actually bothered to find out who had made it, I was mesmerised by the film and wanted more. I went on to watch many of his films and to date I’m still happily going through his filmography. His style lit a fire inside me that still burns brightly. I was quite saddened when Mr Soderbergh recently announced that he would be retiring from film making to pursue other artistic endeavours. His last offering is Behind the Candelabra is a peek into the extravagant lifestyle of the legendary Liberace. 

Occasionally I walk out of a film wondering who the intended audience was. I appreciate that there are certain niche markets and that not every film has to have a broad appeal. But sometimes I come across a film that is so acidic and obtuse that I honestly can’t believe it exists. Only God Forgives, the latest offering from Nicholas Winding Refn, is a darkly disturbing, often offensively violent experience which edges closer to an art installation rather than a cinematic journey. I can admire this film it on a technical basis but I wouldn’t go as far as to say I enjoyed it.

With the advent of the 24-hour news cycle putting increased pressure on media organisations to focus on quick-turnaround content, the importance of documentary filmmakers has never been greater. With his latest film, We Steal Secrets: The Story of Wikileaks, Alex Gibney presents a master class in investigative storytelling, as he tracks the rise and fall (well, stall at least) of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. 

The year is 2001: Limp Bizkit is wowing people with lyrics that don’t make a lick of sense, Starbucks is marching over Australia like it’s Poland and two plucky up-starts have just graced the screen in a blatant rip-off of Point Break. Little did we know then that twelve years later, The Fast and The Furious would have spawned five sequels (with at least two more in the pipeline) and amassed a devoted base of  followers. 

For the most part I try to watch films with an open mind and no expectations. But when I first heard that Baz Luhrmann would be directing The Great Gatsby I instantly knew that I wouldn’t enjoy it. I know that sounds narrow-minded but I’ve never warmed to his style of storytelling – like a comedian that I never found funny. I just don’t care for his flashy sequences and manic camera techniques. I found The Great Gatsby to be a bloated, self-indulgent and hollow film.

The Call could be easily be mistaken for a straight-to-DVD late 90s film due to its generic look and feel. After perusing director Brad Anderson’s ( The Machinist ) filmography I wasn’t surprised to see that the majority of his work has been in the wonderful world of television. His latest effort feels like an extended episode of a nondescript police television show. Halle Berry stars as veteran 911 Operator Jordan Turner who is forced to face her demons as a call goes horribly wrong when a young girl is kidnapped by a potential serial killer. By no means a perfect film, The Call delivers enough thrills and takes enough chances to warrant a watch. 

From what I can gather, American students see spring break as an opportunity to ditch their text books, morals and clothing and hit the nearest beach, basically converting it into Sodom and/or Gomorrah.   Spring break is so popular that it’s spawned an entire industry of film makers following drunken almost-women around as they debase themselves. Spring Breakers , the latest film by provocateur Harmony Korine ( Trash Humpers, Gummo ), follows four friends who risk everything just to join the party, but ultimately each getting far more than they bargained for. Korine skewers the spring break dream with a bitingly cynical look at a generation of lost souls all searching for their meaningless fifteen minutes of fame. 

Olympus Has Fallen is best described as irresponsible trash. In the spirit of full disclosure I hated this film for a multitude of reasons. As I sit and write this, images are flashing over televisions and websites showing the destruction caused by crudely made bombs in Boston. In a post 9/11 world, terrorism is a real and frightening part of our lives. I clearly remember sitting with my family watching the horror unfold in New York as the Twin Towers came crashing down. It’s imagery that will be forever burned into my mind. So when I go into a film which promises bloodshed and mass destruction revolving around a terrorist act in an urban setting, forgive me if I’m slightly cynical and apprehensive.   

I recall watching the Identity Thief trailer and thinking that it would be a complete waste of time. That was until I saw that Seth Gordon was the director. Whilst his only films to date have been Four Holidays and Horrible Bosses, he is responsible for one of my favourite documentaries, The King of Kong. Identity thief has enough moments of real emotion to elevate it above the typical slap stick fare the trailer hinted at, without it being terribly remarkable. Jason Bateman plays Sandy Patterson, a mild-mannered guy who is the victim of career fraudster Diana, played by Melissa McCarthy. Sandy’s life starts to unravel. His cards are rejected, he’s arrested, fired from his amazing new job and, worse still, the police are unable to do anything about it, unless Sandy can get Diana to confess her crimes. Sandy takes matters into his own hands and travels cross-country to confront Diana. This fated meeting leads to each character learning more about themselves than they coul...

Director Mike Newell ( Four Weddings and a Funeral, Donnie Brasco and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire ) drags Great Expectations back on to the big screen, resulting in yet another film which would have worked better as a television series. Charles Dickens’s classic tale has been adapted for film and television countless times, the most recent being the 2011 television series starring Ray Winstone and Gillian Anderson, which begs the question: did it needed to be done again so soon? Quite frankly, I don’t think it did. This attempt lacked both originality and ingenuity, serving up stock-standard period piece drama we’ve seen way too many times before. Great Expectations was a bowl of watery consommé when I wanted a hearty stew.

Maybe it’s his own fault … maybe it is Hollywood’s … but somewhere along the way I suspect we’ve all had a hand the in the spectacle that is Arnold Schwarzenegger’s career. The moment we let a man in front of a camera because he could lift heavy things, chase ladies and eat baby chickens for breakfast, we were in trouble. Arnold Schwarzenegger is living proof that Hollywood can make a star out of anyone. His latest film, The Last Stand shows that he can still make a schlocky cringe-worthy film. The former Californian Governor plays Sheriff Ray Owens, forced to protect his town from a notorious Mexican Cartel boss, Gabriel Cortez (Eduardo Noriega), who is on the run after escaping custody.

Anna Karenina, the latest film by Joe Wright, is a visually provocative production which brings new and interesting ideas to the screen, but is ultimately cold and unfulfilling. Based upon the Tolstoy classic, Anna Karenina is set in late 19th-century Russian High society. Anna (Kiera Knightly) who is the loving wife of Karenin (Jude Law) has a torrid affair with a much younger Calvary officer, Count Vronsky (Aaron Taylor-Johnson). The affair sends ripples through the upper echelons of the social and political communities of the time.

Director Robert Zemeckis ( Back to the Future, Contact, Polar Express,   Cast Away ) returns to live action films after ten years’ experimentation with motion capture technology. He touches down with Flight , starring Denzel Washington, Kelly Reilly, Don Cheadle and Bruce Greenwood. It’s the story of a pilot who heroically saves a plane from crashing, but then has to face the subsequent investigation into the incident, as well as confront some personal demons. Simply put, this is a film about alcoholism. Denzel Washington plays Whip Whitaker, a veteran pilot and functioning alcoholic, who has spent the best part of his life skilfully masking his addictions. The very first scene of the film really sets the tone for what’s to come. Whip wakes up in the company of a birthday-suited beautiful woman, takes a call from his angry ex-wife, swigs from a corona, smokes a cigarette and does a considerable line of cocaine. They may as well have used a big neon flashing sign that reads: “...

Celeste and Jesse Forever, the latest film by Lee Toland Krieger, looks at what happens when a married couple separates but attempts to stay best friends. We’ve all had that conversation with an ex-partner at some stage with varying results. Whilst straddling comedy and drama, it’s an interesting perspective on modern relationships and the pressures of life. The film stars Andy Samberg as Jesse and Rashida Jones as Celeste. This is also the writing debut for Jones, who penned the screenplay. The two have a great chemistry on screen. The film continues the recent trend of having a quirky funny male partnered with a glamorous woman (for example Forgetting Sarah Marshall, The Break Up or Knocked Up ). Whilst I don’t have a problem with this, I just feel that films can lose a sense of realism if we don’t believe that these people could be an actual couple. The men are allowed to be average looking while the women are required to be super models. In fairness the film took longer than ...

Loud electric guitar, disconcerting puppets and a rather impressive pants bulge can only mean one thing – the 80's classic film Labyrinth , which returned to the big screen last night as part of Cremorne Hayden Orpheum Theatre’s ‘I Love Retro’ series. It’s hard to beat watching a film so steeped in nostalgia when you’re in a cinema with six hundred fans all eagerly waiting to applaud each iconic moment.