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.
search the site
newsletter
Enter your email address below to receive the weekly Filmink newsletter
High Five!
Yumi gives us the rundown on the new Liam Neeson thriller, why we should give Miley Cyrus' new flick a chance and predicts the new Dreamworks pic will be a hit with the kids
German director Oliver Hirschbiegel is a cool cat.
In 2004 at the age of 47 he suddenly became an international directing hotshot on the strength of his acclaimed feature Downfall. Never mind that he'd already accumulated more than two decades worth of directing experience (including 5 episodes of Inspector Rex - which must be to German directors what Neighbours is to Australian actors); the crossover appeal of his story of Hitler's last days was enough to deliver him the bloated budget and emaciated stars required to assemble the stinker that was The Invasion - a rip-off of The Invasion of the Body Snatchers starring Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig.
No matter, he has dusted himself off and given us an economical, clever and thoughtful new film called Five Minutes of Heaven. It's a story based on true events that occurred in 1975 in Northern Ireland, when 17-year-old Protestant Alistair Little shot and killed Catholic Jimmy Griffin in front of his younger brother Joe.
Joe grows up with permanent emotional scars from witnessing the murder of his big brother and fantasises about a revenge killing that might not bring him absolution but will at least deliver five minutes of heaven.
Baritone-voiced widower Liam Neeson stars as the smooth and wealthy adult Alistair. TV character actor James Nesbitt (Murphy's Law, Cold Feet) relishes his role as the tormented adult Joe Griffin.
The first third of Five Minutes of Heaven is fantastically tense - Hirschbiegel depicts innocuous Irish minutiae in such a way that the threat seems to emanate from the very air. Terrific filmmaking.
The action shifts to 33 years later, when a classy reality TV show (this bit is not based on real life, obviously), arranges a meeting between Alistair and Joe, hoping to capture the moment of reconciliation and forgiveness. What unfolds veers into different territory you may have been led to expect. The second half of the film is very different from the first but wonderful and redemptive. For an Irish story with a German director, this is highly accomplished filmmaking and recommended.
Another film I'm recommending for the Twilight crowd is the new Miley Cyrus vehicle The Last Song. The two films are worth comparing because they're both exercises in male longing and deferred desire that seem to particularly appeal to teenage girls but don't discriminate too much; also attracting mums, hip gays and anyone else who likes a good love yarn. Aussie hunk Liam Hemsworth is the guy and if you've thought Miley's appeal was a bit dubious, give her a crack because even though she's unusual looking ("she's got a face like a smashed crab" said one critic at my screening), she has great charisma and does a pretty good job in The Last Song.
Finally, I want to talk about a film from Dreamworks that I can recommend with great enthusiasm! My kids loved How to Train Your Dragon, I loved it, and it's going to be massive.
It tells a fairly predictable story: A hapless and thoroughly disrespected underdog kid, Hiccup (voiced by Jay Baruchel from Knocked Up, Tropic Thunder) is the skinniest non-conformist in his village of courageous and muscled Viking dragon-slayers. He fancies a tough but sweet Viking girl, Astrid (voiced by America Ferrera) but most of all he craves approval from his alpha-male Dad, Stoick (Gerard Butler).
The beauty is in the telling of the story, which is thrilling, emotional and at times, devastating. Hiccup discovers that the dragons which terrorise his village are, like him, chronically misunderstood as he befriends one very special dragon, Toothless.
I have to warn you: There was a moment in the cinema when a few kids under five years all started crying and one of mine started wailing in distress and sucking furiously on her thumb - but the story pulls through, and so will the kids. Highly recommended.