MIFF Day 16
Another festival ends, a bit more controversial than normal, what with the Chinese protesting non-stop and trying to hack the website, etc. And to think that originally people were worried about Ken Loach pulling his film because Israel sponsored the festival this year. Still, overall, I think this wasn't as great as some years. Overall the majority of films were okay, but nothing brilliant. There's been a few good ones, but there hasn't been that jaw-dropping moment that's happened occasionally in past festivals. Still, it was a good bunch of films and I had a good time. On to my thoughts on the final four:
Bran Nu Dae
An very enjoyable, silly and raucous musical about an Aboriginal youth sent to a church school to become a priest. He runs away, and most of the film follows his journey back home to Broome. The film is full of great songs, clever and infectious humour, and a generally silly air that's really fun. The Aussie films this year have been pretty much all good, it's nice to see the industry picking up a bit. And especially good to see that MIFF has been co-funding the best ones, like this and The Loved Ones.
Nak
A fairly throwaway CG kids film about a group of spirits who band together to save a small boy from the clutches of a group of evil spirits bent on world domination. The character designs are good, but about halfway through it turns into a giant action sequence where the spirits gain or lose powers with no rhyme or reason. There's some great Sadako jokes for Ring fans, but overall it was a disappointing hour and a half.
A Town Called Panic
But the disappointment was short lived. This lo-fi stop motion is bugnuts crazy and completely awesome. A group of toy figures are used as the characters in the story. Cowboy and Indian live with Horse in a house, Horse is in love with the local music teacher, another Horse, while a Farmer and his Wife live across the way and send their animal to the music school. After Cowboy and Indian destroy their house, Horse and they rebuild, but the walls keep getting stolen. When they investigate, some creatures who live underwater turn out to have been sneaking out of the pond and stealing them. It's random, weird and competely my kind of humour. There's no way to guess what will happen next, simply because it just keeps inventing weirder and weirder plot twists. I'm gonna buy the DVD as soon as Madman release it. Apparently there's a TV series as well, I wanna check it out.
Mother
Bong Joon-Ho leapt onto the scene with Memories of Murder, a striking serial killer film based on real events. It had a dark sense of humour running throughout the tense thriller that really worked. Then he made The Host, which again had a dark sense of humour running through a quite original monster movie. Now with Mother, he's done a noir thriller, as an over-protective mother tries to prove her mentally retarded son innocent of a murder the police have stitched him up for. Kim Hye Ja is incredible as the obsessed mother, determined to do anything to prove her son innocent. I picked the "twist" pretty early on, but that doesn't in any way diminish the film. It's just as funny as his previous films, and just as intricate and well cast. The actors are all great, and the red-herrings are really well handled. Definitely one of the highlights of the festival, and a great film to end another year of MIFF.
Bran Nu Dae
An very enjoyable, silly and raucous musical about an Aboriginal youth sent to a church school to become a priest. He runs away, and most of the film follows his journey back home to Broome. The film is full of great songs, clever and infectious humour, and a generally silly air that's really fun. The Aussie films this year have been pretty much all good, it's nice to see the industry picking up a bit. And especially good to see that MIFF has been co-funding the best ones, like this and The Loved Ones.
Nak
A fairly throwaway CG kids film about a group of spirits who band together to save a small boy from the clutches of a group of evil spirits bent on world domination. The character designs are good, but about halfway through it turns into a giant action sequence where the spirits gain or lose powers with no rhyme or reason. There's some great Sadako jokes for Ring fans, but overall it was a disappointing hour and a half.
A Town Called Panic
But the disappointment was short lived. This lo-fi stop motion is bugnuts crazy and completely awesome. A group of toy figures are used as the characters in the story. Cowboy and Indian live with Horse in a house, Horse is in love with the local music teacher, another Horse, while a Farmer and his Wife live across the way and send their animal to the music school. After Cowboy and Indian destroy their house, Horse and they rebuild, but the walls keep getting stolen. When they investigate, some creatures who live underwater turn out to have been sneaking out of the pond and stealing them. It's random, weird and competely my kind of humour. There's no way to guess what will happen next, simply because it just keeps inventing weirder and weirder plot twists. I'm gonna buy the DVD as soon as Madman release it. Apparently there's a TV series as well, I wanna check it out.
Mother
Bong Joon-Ho leapt onto the scene with Memories of Murder, a striking serial killer film based on real events. It had a dark sense of humour running throughout the tense thriller that really worked. Then he made The Host, which again had a dark sense of humour running through a quite original monster movie. Now with Mother, he's done a noir thriller, as an over-protective mother tries to prove her mentally retarded son innocent of a murder the police have stitched him up for. Kim Hye Ja is incredible as the obsessed mother, determined to do anything to prove her son innocent. I picked the "twist" pretty early on, but that doesn't in any way diminish the film. It's just as funny as his previous films, and just as intricate and well cast. The actors are all great, and the red-herrings are really well handled. Definitely one of the highlights of the festival, and a great film to end another year of MIFF.
posted by Andrew Lee at 11:14 PM
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