latest notices
QPIX STUDENTS ARE TROPFEST FINALISTS
Graduates of QPIX’s 2011 Diploma of Production course have won their way into the finals of TROPFEST, the world’s largest short film festival, with their student production PHOTOBOOTH. Set in the Afghanistan conflict, PHOTOBOOTH is one of a sequence of...
'Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu' Out February 10
(Nationwide)
Over The Fence Comedy Film Deadline
(Nationwide)
Rottofest 2012: Call For Entries Now Open!
(Nationwide)
latest news
Geoffrey Rush Joins Tropfest
The acclaimed actor and newly-crowned Australian of the Year, Geoffrey Rush, will be a key player in 2012’s Tropfest activities.
Naomi Watts To Play Princess Diana
The Aussie actress is set to play the people’s princess in an upcoming film that chronicles the final two years of Diana’s life.
Sullivan Stapleton Signs On To ‘300’ Prequel
The Aussie actor has beat out the competition to land a role in the upcoming blockbuster.
James Cameron Loses Long Time Australian Collaborators
Producer Andrew Wight and cinematographer Mike deGruy lose their lives in a helicopter crash.
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Funny Scarred People
FILMINK's resident blogger Yumi Stynes checks out the latest in the film world.
My friend and compadre, Chit Chat, from nineties band Machine Gun Fellatio, once told me that it's lucky emotional scars aren't visible because it would take all the fun out of watching porn. Girls with inflated boobs and devastating emotional scars have long been the staple of the adult film industry. That means it is all the more interesting when one of them crosses over into mainstream film or TV acting. It's hard to ascertain whether their performances are jarring because they are no longer surrounded by the similarly scarred or is it because they carry with them the taint of their pasts?
Watching porn stars acting in regular films is kind of like opening up a parallel universe of What Ifs? where their childhoods are miraculously Vitamin E'ed away and they can get on with being beautiful and compelling without enduring athletic sex with guys who didn't make it past year 9 at school.
Sasha Grey is the star of the new Steven Soderbergh film The Girlfriend Experience. She started working in the adult film industry shortly after turning 18 and has been described by the New York Times as "distinguished both by the extremity of what she is willing to do and an unusual degree of intellectual seriousness about doing it."
The Girlfriend Experience stars Sasha Grey as a prostitute who offers more than just sex: she provides the whole girlfriend experience. You need someone to listen? She can. You need someone to take out for dinner and then sex? She does conversation.
It's a great stunt to cast a porn star in the role - but sadly, not a great film. Grey is flat and dead-eyed. Maybe that's the character. Maybe it's those scars.
I was somewhat scarred by sitting with my children through the truly terrible Adam Sandler film Bedtime Stories - which was truly terrible in the same way that Logies ceremonies are truly boring or this year's Australian Idol singers are truly lame. Bedtime Stories was so truly terrible I vowed to never again sit through another Adam Sandler film. This was a vow I quickly broke because he stars in the new Judd Apatow comedy Funny People.
Judd Apatow, in case you don't know, is funny. He's the guy behind The 40 Year Old Virgin, Knocked Up and the truly genius cult TV show Freaks and Geeks. The lesser-known story is that Judd used to live with Adam Sandler back when they were young and still hungry, and have remained friends since. The character of George Simmons, a jaded and selfish film comedian, was created specifically with Sandler in mind (- I choose to interpret this casting as a roundabout apology for Bedtime Stories and a celebration of the vastly superior Happy Gilmore, ie., I like your old stuff better than your new stuff). In supporting roles are the almost indistinguishable Seth Rogen (the skinnier, older one) and Jonah Hill (from Superbad). Apatow even has the good sense to cast our own Eric Bana in a minor but manly role.
What can I say? The film is good but it's like two good films pasted together. The first half is perfect in terms of pitch, pace and scripting. The second half is like a blowsy, long-winded round-up of the final act in a romantic comedy. Separately: not so bad. Together? A bit of a mess. There is fun to be had nonetheless.