“In the war against terrorists, forget about morality.” The Act of Killing and The Gatekeepers have a lot in common. The Gatekeepers doesn’t have the surreal style of Oppenheimer’s film. Its presentation is traditional: talking heads, stock footage, computer animation. The titular “gatekeepers” are six ex-leaders of the Israeli intelligence agency Shin Bet; men who…
This isn’t so much a review of Where the Wild Things Are as a justification of a theory. The theory? That the film, Jonze’s third, is at its core a tale of the erosion of the notion of “home” from a child’s perspective. Max, its prepubescent protagonist, finds the tendrils of adulthood encroaching upon him.…
You probably knew someone like Llewyn Davis. Perhaps they have a semi-popular electro blog. Maybe instead they were in a hardcore band in the ‘80s who supported Black Flag that one time. Or in a post-punk group that never quite hit it big. They’re talented, but not as talented as they think they are. They…
The Killing is designed to be confusing. Stanley Kubrick’s third feature concerns a crew of two-bit crooks who plan and execute a heist on a racing track. Their scheme is convoluted enough – six people needing to be in the right place at the right time doing the wrong thing – and is further complicated…
Pieta is more fun to write about than it is to watch. This is a film with an abundance of ideas, all executed with a preponderance of dense symbolism tangled within grim, disturbing imagery that distracts, rather than complements its themes. It’s not a pleasant viewing experience, sodden with violence and sordid sexual themes. There’s…
Blood Meridian is a fitting title for Cormac McCarthy’s brutal anti-western. The book is heavy with blood, thick streams of the arterial liquid pooling and coagulating at its dark heart. McCarthy wields words like a surgeon’s blade, finding spare beauty in unforgiving landscapes lit by blue flashes of lightning or unforgiving men unleashing violence for…
Theodore Twombly (Joaquin Phoenix) writes letters. Perhaps “writes” is the wrong word; he dictates letters to his computer, which then “handwrites” them for him. He writes letters for couples, for friends, for absent children. Theodore is very good at his job; his letters are poetic, funny and seemingly heartfelt. He reads a letter he’s written…
Woody Allen’s third feature film, Bananas, finds the famously neurotic comedian playing Fielding Mellish, a hapless product tester who ends up becoming the president of a small Latin American nation … all because he wanted to impress his radical girlfriend. How exactly did he get to that position? Well – who cares? It’s hardly the…
I didn’t write about music all that much in 2013, but I did set aside a bit of time to listen to music, so I thought I’d share the albums that I most enjoyed last year. Honourable mentions go to Future of the Left – How to Stop Your Brain in an Accident, which just…
There was something volcanic about Future of the Left’s show last night. The sweltering heat in a tightly packed crowd and the smell of bushfire smoke in the air contributed, but the fierce, white-hot rock that erupted from the stage was the main factor. The band channelled something primitive, Andy Falkous straddling the stage like…
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