MIFF Day 17
This would have to be my spottiest MIFF ever. Three days skipped, yesterday for my aunt's 60th. Happy birthday Aunty Ali! MIFF is 60 too. :)
BEN LEE: CATCH MY DISEASE
12 years in the making, this is a remarkably complete document about the life and times of Ben Lee, famously described by Bernard Fanning as a "precocious little c#nt". That quote is put in the context of Ben beating Powderfinger to a number one spot on the charts, but there's no denying he provoked it. He speaks freely about the awful headspace of having fans scream in adoration while having fairly low self-esteem and the things it did to him. He also talks about wanting to tackle the cultural cringe/tall poppy syndrome of Australia, where nobody seems comfortable with success. It's very much a warts and all documentary, and Ben is amazingly self-aware and articulate about himself and the environment he moves through. It doesn't dig into why he and Claire Danes broke up, but it does look at what the did to him as a person, his move to India and getting a guru, etc. In the end, it serves to give a deeper understanding to a kid who liked to shitstir and then grew up. I found I thought better of him after watching it, which suggests it's a very successful documentary.
ANOTHER EARTH
A girl, Rhoda, is driving while listening to the radio. It announces that an Earth-like planet has just been discovered and if you look up you can see it. She looks and dreams, and crashes into another car. A child and a woman are killed, and a man is put into a coma. Four years later, Rhoda is released from prison and gets a job as a cleaner at a high school. She tracks down John, the man whose family she killed, and goes to apologise. But she loses her nerve, and pretends to be from a cleaning service instead. He lets her in and she cleans the house. The rest of the story is paint by numbers, his life gets back on track as she brings order to his house, they fall in love, and then finally she confesses and he kicks her out, devastated for a second time. The difference with this story is that they discover the Earth-like planet is actually a parallel Earth, and everyone on Earth 2 is a parallel version of the person Earth 1. So maybe, on that other Earth, things didn't work out the same way, and maybe that offers a way to undo some of the damage of the past. It's not exactly mind-blowingly original science fiction, but its aware of that fact and is simply an interesting story told without pretension or any sense of self-importance. It's a bit of a disappointment given some of the hype that surrounded it, but taken on its own merits its a solid little film that doesn't fully exploit its material but is still enjoyable to watch.
JIRO DREAMS OF SUSHI
My final film of the festival, and a fitting one given I've been more or less disappointed overall with the standard of films this year. This is a great film about one man's pursuit of perfection. Jiro Ono is the oldest man to be awarded 3 Michelin stars, and also for the smallest restaurant. It only seats 10, doesn't even have a bathroom on site, but you need to book a month in advance to get in. Jiro speaks candidly about his belief in innovation, and also in repetition. His son Yoshikazu points out that they don't do anything particularly extraordinary, but they bring focus to their task to make their sushi the best it can be, and they don't accept anything less. It's a tough environment to work in, one of the apprentices speaks of learning how to make Egg Sushi, and having his first 200 or so attempts rejected. But once he nails it, the satisfaction is enormous. The dedication to craft, the enormous effort and the unwillingness to accept anything less than the best, that is what makes Jiro and those he trains stand out. The shadow he casts is long, and his sons Yoshikazu and Takashi (who runs his own restaurant), while equally as skilled, must deal with the fact that they will never measure up to their father in the eyes of customers. Though interestingly, it's revealed that it was Yoshikazu who prepared the sushi that garnered the restaurant its 3 Michelin stars. In a festival where I've become somewhat cranky at the lack of care, craft or innovation on display in a few too many of the films I saw, this hymn to the pursuit of perfection was the antidote I needed. A lovely way to close out the festival.
BEN LEE: CATCH MY DISEASE
12 years in the making, this is a remarkably complete document about the life and times of Ben Lee, famously described by Bernard Fanning as a "precocious little c#nt". That quote is put in the context of Ben beating Powderfinger to a number one spot on the charts, but there's no denying he provoked it. He speaks freely about the awful headspace of having fans scream in adoration while having fairly low self-esteem and the things it did to him. He also talks about wanting to tackle the cultural cringe/tall poppy syndrome of Australia, where nobody seems comfortable with success. It's very much a warts and all documentary, and Ben is amazingly self-aware and articulate about himself and the environment he moves through. It doesn't dig into why he and Claire Danes broke up, but it does look at what the did to him as a person, his move to India and getting a guru, etc. In the end, it serves to give a deeper understanding to a kid who liked to shitstir and then grew up. I found I thought better of him after watching it, which suggests it's a very successful documentary.
ANOTHER EARTH
A girl, Rhoda, is driving while listening to the radio. It announces that an Earth-like planet has just been discovered and if you look up you can see it. She looks and dreams, and crashes into another car. A child and a woman are killed, and a man is put into a coma. Four years later, Rhoda is released from prison and gets a job as a cleaner at a high school. She tracks down John, the man whose family she killed, and goes to apologise. But she loses her nerve, and pretends to be from a cleaning service instead. He lets her in and she cleans the house. The rest of the story is paint by numbers, his life gets back on track as she brings order to his house, they fall in love, and then finally she confesses and he kicks her out, devastated for a second time. The difference with this story is that they discover the Earth-like planet is actually a parallel Earth, and everyone on Earth 2 is a parallel version of the person Earth 1. So maybe, on that other Earth, things didn't work out the same way, and maybe that offers a way to undo some of the damage of the past. It's not exactly mind-blowingly original science fiction, but its aware of that fact and is simply an interesting story told without pretension or any sense of self-importance. It's a bit of a disappointment given some of the hype that surrounded it, but taken on its own merits its a solid little film that doesn't fully exploit its material but is still enjoyable to watch.
JIRO DREAMS OF SUSHI
My final film of the festival, and a fitting one given I've been more or less disappointed overall with the standard of films this year. This is a great film about one man's pursuit of perfection. Jiro Ono is the oldest man to be awarded 3 Michelin stars, and also for the smallest restaurant. It only seats 10, doesn't even have a bathroom on site, but you need to book a month in advance to get in. Jiro speaks candidly about his belief in innovation, and also in repetition. His son Yoshikazu points out that they don't do anything particularly extraordinary, but they bring focus to their task to make their sushi the best it can be, and they don't accept anything less. It's a tough environment to work in, one of the apprentices speaks of learning how to make Egg Sushi, and having his first 200 or so attempts rejected. But once he nails it, the satisfaction is enormous. The dedication to craft, the enormous effort and the unwillingness to accept anything less than the best, that is what makes Jiro and those he trains stand out. The shadow he casts is long, and his sons Yoshikazu and Takashi (who runs his own restaurant), while equally as skilled, must deal with the fact that they will never measure up to their father in the eyes of customers. Though interestingly, it's revealed that it was Yoshikazu who prepared the sushi that garnered the restaurant its 3 Michelin stars. In a festival where I've become somewhat cranky at the lack of care, craft or innovation on display in a few too many of the films I saw, this hymn to the pursuit of perfection was the antidote I needed. A lovely way to close out the festival.
posted by Andrew Lee at 10:47 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home