I have mixed feelings about Carlos. I mean, I enjoyed it – it was split into three two-hour parts, so I had two perfectly good chances to walk out if I didn’t – but it had a strange structure for a movie, presumably because they wanted to stick as closely to history as they could. […]
Category Archives: Uncategorized
2010 Film Festival, Day 13
Thursday, July 29, 2010
My first movie wa GasLand, a rather depressing documentary about drilling for natural gas in the US. One of the key points is that the main reason things have reached such a state is that Dick Cheney, as Vice President, managed to get natural gas companies exempted from a variety of acts that would have […]
2010 Film Festival, Day 12
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Tuesday did not start auspiciously. I had done a lot less of yesterday’s review than I thought, so I didn’t manage to do the second and third read-through that I prefer, to limit how much of an idiot I appear (like leaving in a whole lot of question-marks where I had intended to go back […]
2010 Film Festival, Day 11
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Monday started at the Paramount, and the enjoyable Waste Land. This film was about those who make a living by picking out recyclables from one of the world’s biggest, fastest-growing garbage dumps (Rio de Janeiro’s Jardim Gramacho), and the Brazilian artist Vik Muniz, who went there to work with these people and produce artworks from […]
2010 Film Festival, Day 10
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
I keenly resent paying for parking during the weekend, but I ended up parting with $6 to park near Te Papa for Howl. (I could claim that I was trying to make some post-modern point about the mundanity of the bourgeoisie in the face of Art, but no, I’m just cheap about parking.) My knowledge […]
2010 Film Festival, Day 9
Monday, July 26, 2010
The first movie was Babies at the Embassy with Jenni and C. It was the documentary equivalent of a light romantic comedy – they didn’t show anything hard, tragic, or grim. It was just four babies, in four different countries, being adorable and loved. That’s not to say it was content-free, but I suspect that […]
2010 Film Festival, Day 8
Saturday, July 24, 2010
After a pretty disappointing ham and cheese croissant from Clarkes, I started the day with I Wanna Be Boss at the City Gallery, an hour-long documentary about the pressure that Chinese students undergo in their last year at school. This is the year that determines which university they can get into, if any, and is […]
2010 Film Festival, Day 7
Friday, July 23, 2010
My movie-watching day got off to a somewhat surreal start. I was worried that I was going to arrive late to Extraordinary Stories, but I got there quarter of an hour early; unfortunately, no-one mentioned that it was in the Paramount Bergman rather than the Paramount when I bought the ticket, so I ended up […]
2010 Film Festival, Day 6
Thursday, July 22, 2010
I wish I knew why I keep going to documentaries on modern artists. I mean, my feelings toward modern art are similar to my feelings towards trees – they’re all right, and I recognise some species, but I have no real interest in learning to appreciate them properly. That said, most of the documentaries are […]
2010 Film Festival, Day 5
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
After finishing off yesterday’s write-up (and faffing about a bit), I had to dash for the bus; but my luck with public transport held, and I was only a minute or so late for Love, Lust and Lies, the latest instalment of a 44 year documentary. This project wasn’t started with the same systematic intent […]