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The Lost City of Melbourne (2022)
A documentary that doesn't know what it wants to
It starts out interesting. Lots about 19th century architecture and construction. Then ends up as a one sided vitriolic agenda driven blitz. Wheres the objective outlook. These types of documentaries are so spineless and dull; even when you support the narrative. Theirs nothing illuminative shown, just a bunch of conservationists bemoaning what's lost. At least have some coldplay to accompany the film if your trying to shamelessly pull on the heartstrings.
I come away from this with more questions than answers. Theres no real deep dive into the names and people behind some of the locations. Just still shots and sad lamentations. Occasionally they get indignant and angry. Nothing about the forces behind whats driving the modern demolitions and changes to our architecture. Nothing about our future plans. No alternatives. The movie drones by the end, hitting the same emotional marks and crescendos of every one of these wake up docos do as it wraps up.
Family Guy: You Can't Handle the Booth (2019)
Not a huge family guy fan but really liked this episode
Ive watched every king of the hill and american dad episode 10 or so times. Ive seen most family guy episodes and have slowly been making my way through them all.
Most episodes I am semi entertained. Like most shows some are brilliant and some fall flat. I enjoyed this one considerably and decided to imdb it expecting it to be one of the higher eps. Suprised to see it so low, I thought it was so creative and funny.
Like most nerds I listened to plenty of dvd commentarys growing up. I was in fit of giggles when they would pause and it would keep going back to the episode which goes from normal family guy ep to woefully bad with the ballister storyline.
If the writers read this just know someone who doesn't find your show that great, but is bored enough to watch it now I really enjoyed what you did here.
Joe Frank: Somewhere Out There (2018)
Didn't enjoy it as much as i wanted to
I'm a huge joe frank fan. I drive around in melbourne australia with a joe frank bumper sticker hoping one day someone will say hey i love joe frank too and we will spend the next few hours in a pub talking about our favourite stories.
I had high hopes for this. I saw it playing out two different ways: An introductory doco for those with no knowledge of joe. Or a detailed biography of joe's life. The film was a mix of both, a luke warmish introduction with those close to him disclosing little facets of his life here and there. I didn't feel like I knew anything more about Joe after watching it. It was more about how his wife and friends felt about him.
His peers such as david cross and ira glass paying tribute was good. The best parts of the film were when they just played joe snippets. I much preferred the radiolab tribute to him, was a better balance and let segments of Joe's work play out longer. I would have been happy for a 2 hour celebration of his work, adding actors and scenery to accompany the audio.
This was always going to be a difficult project, how to represent a man and his works that transcend visual medium. I do want to add that even though my review isn't painting a stellar picture I'm still grateful for the feature.
La tortue rouge (2016)
Best Ghibli film.
How wonderful it is to praise something with authenticity. With great pleasure I walked out of The Red Turtle, the latest Studio Ghibli production. The film is a serious contender to Spirited Away atop the Ghibli hierarchy and is unique within the revered studio as the first, and so far only, international collaboration.
The director is Michael Dudok de Wit, who at a spritely 63 has created his first feature length film, after being personally asked to do so by Hayao Miyazaki. The now retired legendary director made the request after seeing de Wit's short animation Father and Daughter, which subsequently won the 2001 Oscar for best short film. The result of that request, with over a decade's effort of production, is the dialogue-less The Red Turtle. If this film remains de Wit's only feature it will be enough to pronounce him a genius of cinema.
The film opens on a nameless male protagonist in the midst of a violent grey storm with no context as to how he ended up there. He later wakes dazed and alone on an island of no small proportions. Exploring his habitat he finds a small lagoon with fresh water contained within a condensed bamboo forest. Alone and stranded his cries of frustration are answered only by the sounds of crashing surf and rustling trees. A small chorus of curious crabs spy upon the unusual intruder, punctuating the movie with moments of humour.The Red Turtle poster
At night the colour dims to shades of grey under moonlight. The film blends the nameless man's dreams with reality and supplies clues to his past. He is haunted by thoughts of escape, in one instance running along a nonexistent pier, later the mirage of an orchestra. In the day he spends his time building rafts to escape, but with every attempt he is thwarted by an unknown oceanic presence destroying his rafts from below. After several attempts he discovers his tormentor to be the Red Turtle the film is named after. Acting upon his rage and frustration the man commits a terrible vengeance, flipping the gigantic beast onto its shell rendering it inert, in danger of a slow death.
At this point the film, which had been a simple yet beautiful sequence of animation, transforms into a spiritual fable that would not look out of place collected within a Hans Christian Anderson anthology. This unique story co-written by Pascale Ferran has a, pardon-the-cliche timelessness quality. It really does. This could have been a story told by Homer or Charlie Kaufman. The character is seized by a metanoia and the film transitions into a deep exploration of humanity, family, forgiveness, loss, fulfillment and love. Without giving away the chimerical plot, the anonymous man discovers an enigmatic woman on the island and the two begin a mysterious and at times deeply moving courtship. The Adam and Eve parable results in a son for the two of them.
The animation style of the feature is not pure Ghibli but does encapsulate styles the studio is known for - small details of nature whose inclusion amplifies fleeting moments of a visual symphony. This can be as small as a seal sliding into water, enveloped satisfyingly, leaving only a ripple of concentric circles. The expressions of the characters are distinctly un-eastern however. In fact the faces and expressions are purposely uncomplicated within highly detailed backgrounds. This unconventional choice combined with very few close shots gives a blank canvas for a viewer to impose an emotional Rorschach upon the characters.
This is an enriching complete film with a depth of beauty and themes for any viewer to extrapolate from. Each frame is a colorful tapestry of art woven together to create scenes of rich emotion, at times possessing an ethereal fantastical quality. The film is highly allegorical encapsulating humanity and life, asking very big questions within a framework of one man's unusual journey.
The ending, just like many aspects of the film, can be interpreted numerous ways. In either case it is devastatingly beautiful and melancholic. In case this write-up hasn't been emphatic enough- this is a sublime piece of cinema which should not be missed.