latest notices
Greening Screen
Following on from Metro Screen's The Greener Screen event we would like to say: When preparing your next project, we ask that you consider how you can work to make your production greener. This does not have to be an...
This Life Explored
(NSW)
Lester Bostock Metro Screen Patron
(NSW)
Controversial Joaquin Phoenix Film to Release in Australia
Sydney, Melbourne, Perth(Nationwide)
latest news
AFTRS Opens its Doors on Open Day
Australia’s premier film, television and radio school is set to hold its opening days in Sydney and Melbourne over the coming days...
Working for Change
We speak to award-winning Aussie filmmaker, Genevieve Clay, about her role in the first ever Live & Love Short Film Competition.
Different Focus
The Focus on Ability Festival recently wrapped for its second year and we spoke to the festival’s founder and this year’s winner.
Kick Starting Talent
M2 Entertainment (M2E) has relaunched as a film finance and production company which aims to nurture emerging and established talent.
search the site
newsletter
Enter your email address below to receive the weekly Filmink newsletter
Boxing Day Bonanza and Brittany Murphy
Lots of movies coming out on Boxing Day, and poor Brittany Murphy...
There are two main talking points in the new Sherlock Holmes movie. One is Robert Downey Jr's amazing shirtless torso in a slow-motion fight scene. 44 year-old Downey manages to prove that some men really are like children: they improve with age. The other astonishing scene is a slow-motion explosion scene so audaciously good that the movie completely drops out after it. No matter. I'm curious about whether actor Andy Garcia (The Untouchables) has noticed that Mark Strong, playing the villain Lord Blackwood, has completely stolen his look. Weird! Never have two actors looked so similar. (Or not since Tobey Maguire and Topher Grace last hung out anyway.) It's also great to see Jude Law reimagined as a flawed sidekick. Giving the British playboy actor a break from leading-man roles was a genius idea because he seems to have been set free to play and have fun while also competing furiously against the charismatic Robert Downey Jr for maximum acting chops. It's fun. With Sherlock Holmes, director Guy Ritchie may finally be able to kick the tag "The Artist Formerly Married to Madonna". Another actor who was always better in support roles than leading ones is the sadly demised Brittany Murphy! She specialised in cute, little girl characters and first came to our attention as a chubby, bubbly ‘Tai' in Clueless. Her recent career got a bit B-grade but she has 3 films in post-production and you can still hear her voice work in the animated comedy series King of the Hill. My Favourite Brittany Murphy Movies - Top 5: Clueless 8 Mile The Dead Girl Freeway Sin City Did You Hear About the Morgans? is a new romantic comedy about an estranged married couple who have to go into witness protection after one of Sarah Jessica Parker's clients is pushed off a balcony. Yawn! Okay, so it's utterly predictable and mostly charmless but I must confess to finding (the usually insufferable) Hugh Grant, as the cheating husband, quite adept in this role at wringing a small chuckle from the stupidest lines. SJP, perhaps taking a break from looking like she's about to exclaim "Because I'm worth it!" actually looks kinda frumpy and her hair needs a conditioning treatment. Do you care about the Morgans? Not one bit. A good movie for a doona day at home. You'll care more for Susie Salmon, the main character in The Lovely Bones. Played radiantly by Saoirse Ronan (the creepy little girl in Atonement), she's the 14 year-old star of the story. It's clear from the start of the film (and the book, by Alice Sebold), that Susie has been killed and she's narrating the story from Heaven. This knowledge doesn't exonerate you from sickening dread as the story edges closer to her inexorable murder. Kiwi director Peter Jackson said that he wanted to make this a film teenagers could go and see - considering, I believe, his own daughters as potential viewers - and his touch is delicate and considerate and he makes great effort to respectfully depict the thoughts and fantasies of a teenage girl. A lot of the greenscreen scenes (studio-shot content where the background is later superimposed using computers) are lunky and plastic, unfortunately, but there are really great, goosebump moments in The Lovely Bones.
