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
Size Matters
Yumi checks out the new local comedy, 'I Love You Too' and talks Aussie music in movies
Short-statured actor Peter Dinklage became a favourite of mine after he appeared as grumpy and misunderstood warrior-dwarf Trumpkin in Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. Not one to let size get in the way of a good performance, he made every acting moment count, eating up the screen with his soulful eyes and innate intelligence.
He appears now as Charlie, a supporting character in the new Australian film I Love You Too. The comedy is another vehicle for actor Brendan Cowell who very recently we saw onscreen for almost the entire duration of Beneath Hill 60. Cowell is a lovesick but hopeless Jim, a man chronically unable to utter the words "I love you" and who forms an unlikely friendship with Charlie. Charlie knows a lot about love having lost a cherished wife and secretly composed a profound letter of love to a mysterious Francesca - a letter which may be able to help Jim win back his beloved Alice.
There's something not completely right about this film, which seems to strive to occupy a place somewhere between The Castle and the TV show The D-Generation. The humour is strained and the characters have the uncomfortable ‘Aussie caricature' feeling about them so common to local films. But if you go into the cinema with an open heart, there is a lot to like. Comedian Peter Helliar, who also wrote and co-produced the film, gives a surprisingly nuanced performance as Blake, the best mate of Jim's who finds himself in danger of being usurped when Charlie arrives. It's not a brilliant movie, but I found myself relieved to be able to laugh at home-grown gags.
Oh, and the soundtrack is pretty awesome. Nick Cave in any song increases its coolness by a significant amount and the song they use in I Love You Too is one of his best.
Great Australian music abounds in the new Geena Davis film Accidents Happen - including tracks from highly acclaimed Townsville band The Middle East, another by Empire of the Sun and a new song composed just for the film by Luke Steele solo called, of course, Accidents Happen.
The film itself is a little confused. Geena Davis's mother character Gloria Conway is meant to have pithy lines like, "I swear to God, if shit were brains, that kid would eat his head for dinner!" and "If that's the doctor, tell him I want my uterus back!" It's meant to be funny but gets a little wearying and by film's end, you're really starting to suspect that despite the fact that she looks a lot like Geena Davis, this Gloria Conway character is mean.