Favourite Albums of 2014 (So Far)

Top Soundtrack Albums

Nebraska - Mark Orton and Tin Hat Trio

The Grand Budapest Hotel - Alexandre Desplat

Only Lovers Left Alive -SQURL

10. Salad Days - Mac Demarco  

9. G I R L - Pharrell Williams 

8. Sunbathing Animal - Parquet Courts

7. I Never Learn - Lykke Li

6. Atlas - Real Estate

5. Pinata - Freddie Gibbs and Madlib

4. It's Album Time - Todd Terje

3. Lost in the Dream - The War on Drugs

2. Benji - Sun Kil Moon

1. To Be Kind - Swans

Sydney Film Festival Diary Days 9-12

During the final four days of the Sydney Film Festival the fatigue began to kick in, but, at the same time, the films got even better. With some of my most anticipated still to see – Winter Sleep, The Rover, The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Him, Snowpiercer and What We Do In the Shadows – there was no time to feel tired.

Fellow Graffiti With Punctuation writer Cam Williams came to stay with us for the final three days of the festival, which was fantastic. There were some out of town visitors I would have liked to see more of, but I was so glad we got to spend as much time socializing and chatting about films as we did. The films are great, but even better are the new friendships you build.

On Friday we shook up the venues, seeing Double Play at Dendy Opera Quays and then traveling to Newtown to see The Rover outside of the festival environment. The rest of the sessions were split between the State Theatre and Event Cinemas. Saturday commenced with the 3+ hours Winter Sleep, and by the third film that day, The Tale of Princess Kaguya, I was in dire need of a hot, comforting meal. On Sunday, we ended up swapping out of our 10am session of Timbuktu for a 3pm session of Of Horses and Men, which was a good decision. I was sad to miss the Cannes Competition entry but Of Horses and Men was fantastic, and it meant a bit of a sleep in before the awesome Snowpiercer and to ensure I had enough energy for the Closing Night film, What We Do In the Shadows. During the ceremony the Sydney Film Prize was awarded to the Dardenne Brothers’ Two Days, One Night, which along with Snowpiercer and Boyhood ended up standing out from the group, personally.

A couple of comical things – we tried several times to get Gelato Messina at the Sydney Film Festival Hub but we were always either too early or too late. There was a pop-up Title Store in the Hub too, which was essentially a ‘Best of Title’. We resisted the urge to enter every time we visited the Hub out of fear of temptation. Who knows what is going to be happening next year, but I hope to fit in more of the talks, panels and events. This year I prioritized the films, and considering I was also working full time, something had to give.

For an overview of everything I watched on the final four days continue reading at Graffiti With Punctuation.

New Releases 19/06/14

In cinemas this week: 22 Jump Street, How To Train Your Dragon 2, The Two Faces of January, Frank, Galore, Gabrielle and Ernest and Celestine. 

22 Jump Street - After making their way through high school (twice), big changes are in store for officers Schmidt (Jonah Hill) and Jenko (Channing Tatum) when they go deep undercover at a local college. But when Jenko meets a kindred spirit on the football team, and Schmidt infiltrates the bohemian art major scene, they begin to question their partnership. Now they don't have to just crack the case - they have to figure out if they can have a mature relationship. If these two overgrown adolescents can grow from freshmen into real men, college might be the best thing that ever happened to them. Review by Blake is Batman, Graffiti With Punctuation.

How To Train Your Dragon 2 - DreamWorks Animation returns to the world of dragons and Vikings in this sequel to their successful 2010 outing How to Train Your Dragon. The original film followed the exploits of a Viking chief's son, who must capture a dragon in order to mark his passage into manhood and prove his worthiness to the tribe. Review by Sam McCosh, An Online Universe.

The Two Faces of January - Suspense thriller starring Academy Award nominee Viggo Mortensen, Golden Globe nominee and Cannes Best Actress winner Kirsten Dunst and Oscar Isaac. It is based on the novel of the same name by Patricia Highsmith (The Talented Mr. Ripley, Strangers on a Train), and adapted by Academy Award nominee Hossein Amini (Drive, The Wings of the Dove). The film is Amini's directorial debut. In 1962, a well-heeled couple (Mortensen and Dunst) come to know an American expatriate acting as an Athens tour guide (Isaac). But an incident at the couple's hotel puts all three in danger and creates a precarious interdependence between them. A tense and dangerous battle of wits between the two men leads them from Greece to Turkey, and to a dramatic finale played out in the back alleys of Istanbul's Grand Bazaar. 

Frank - A comedy about a young wannabe musician, Jon, who discovers he's bitten off more than he can chew when he joins a band of eccentric pop musicians led by the mysterious and enigmatic Frank and his terrifying sidekick, Clara. Frank's uniqueness lies in the fact that he makes music purely for the joy of creating and because he wears a giant fake head. After a rocky start, Jon ingratiates himself with the band, and they retreat to a cabin in the woods to record an album. As his influence waxes, creative tensions mount and the band's entire raison d'être is called into question. Review by Nick Brodie, Graffiti With Punctuation.

Galore - At 17, love is as big as life is immense. It's a sweltering summer before the final year of school and Billie and Laura share every secret except for Billie's biggest secret - she's crazy in love and sleeping with Laura's boyfriend Danny. When Billie's social worker mum takes in Isaac, a troubled teenager looking to get his life straight, the delicate balance of the three friends' lives is disrupted. As bushfires threaten the edge of their suburbs and they immerse themselves in the swirl of parties, possible love and the intensity of sex and desire, the world of the four teenagers is changed forever as their secrets are revealed and their lives, friendships and loves are thrown into chaos. 

Gabrielle - The musically gifted but developmentally challenged Gabrielle lives in a group home with four other adults who have similar disabilities. Like all young women, Gabrielle wants her independence, but of course her situation is exceptional. When she falls in love with a similarly challenged young man in her choir, she discovers that both the families and the social workers are alarmed; can these two handle an adult relationship? Then Gabrielle's beloved and supportive sister confesses that she is going to move to India, and Gabrielle's world is truly in danger of falling apart. With stubborn courage and a real zest for life, Gabrielle prevails against all odds to win her freedom.  

Ernest and Celestine - Deep below snowy, cobblestone streets, tucked away in networks of winding subterranean tunnels, lives a civilization of hardworking mice, terrified of the bears who live above ground. Unlike her fellow mice, Celestine is an artist and a dreamer - and when she nearly ends up as breakfast for ursine troubadour Ernest, the two form an unlikely bond. But it isn't long before their friendship is put on trial by their respective bear-fearing and mice-eating communities. Fresh from standing ovations at Cannes and Toronto Ernest and Celestine joyfully leaps across genres and influences to capture the kinetic, limitless possibilities of animated storytelling. Like a gorgeous watercolor painting brought to life, a constantly shifting pastel color palette bursts and drips across the screen, while wonderful storytelling and brilliant comic timing draw up influences as varied as Buster Keaton, Bugs Bunny and the outlaw romanticism of Bonnie and Clyde. Bringing it all together is the on-screen chemistry between the two lead characters - a flowing, tender and playful rapport that will put a smile on your face and make your heart glow. Based on the classic Belgian book series by Gabrielle Vincent, Ernest and Celestine is winner of the Cesar Award for Best Animated Feature and numerous festival prizes.

Weekly Recommendation: A big week. I want to see all of these, but it is unlikely I will find the time. 22 Jump Street has been receiving very strong reviews, and most claim it to be better than the first film. Frank was one of the most buzzed about films from Sundance, and Sydney Film Festival reviews have been full of praise. If there was ever a film I desired a sequel to, it is How To Train Your Dragon. While I understand that it is much darker than the predecessor, I can't miss it. All of these films are going to be worth a look, but it all depends on their accessibility.   

2014 Sydney Film Festival Awards

Huge congratulations to the Dardenne Brothers' Two Days, One Night, winner of the Sydney Film Festival Prize and Festival Director Nashen Moodley for programming another fantastic festival.

To wrap it all up, here are some personal awards I’d like to honour some of the very best with:

Best Feature Film: Mommy

Runner/s Up: What We Do In the Shadows, Tom at the Farm and Snowpiercer

Best Documentary: The Possibilities Are Endless

Runner/s Up: Jodorowsky's Dune and 20,000 Days on Earth

Best Debut Feature: Ned Benson, The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby (Him and Her)

Runner/s Up: Iain Forsythe and Jane Pollard, 20,000 Days on Earth

Best Actor: Brendon Gleeson, Calvary

Runner/s Up: Antoine Olivier-Pinon, Mommy and Jack O'Connell, Starred Up

Best Actress: Anne Dorval, Mommy

Runner/s Up: Marion Cotillard, Two Days, One Night and Jessica Chastain, The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Her.

Best Supporting Actress: Suzanne Clement, Mommy

Runner/s Up: Demet Akbag, Winter Sleep, Viola Davis, The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Her

Best Supporting Actor: Jemaine Clement, What We Do In The Shadows

Runner/s Up: Ethan Hawke, Boyhood, Pierre-Yves Cardinal, Tom at the Farm

Best Director: Xavier Dolan, Mommy and Tom at the Farm

Runner/s Up: Joon-Ho Bong, Snowpiercer, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, Two Days One Night

Best Screenplay: John Michael McDonagh, Calvary

Runner/s Up: Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Winter Sleep and Ned Benson, The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Her

Best Cinematography: Mommy

Runner/s Up: Winter Sleep and Black Coal, Thin Ice

Best Editing: Boyhood

Runner/s Up: 20,000 Days on Earth, Snowpiercer

Best Score: Tom at the Farm

  

Runner/s Up: What We Do In The Shadows, Snowpiercer

Weirdest Film (In a Good Way): Of Horses and Men and Snowpiercer *tie*

Best Scene: 'A vision of the future' in Mommy, 'a colleague full of regret' in Two Days, One Night and 'packing the apartment' in The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Him.

Final Rankings:

Top 10: Mommy, What We Do in the Shadows, The Possibilities Are Endless, Tom at the Farm, Snowpiercer, Two Days, One Night, Boyhood, Jodorowsky's Dune, The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Her and Winter Sleep.

Sydney Film Festival Public Poll

Well, the Sydney Film Festival is over for another year, and many of us have consumed huge volumes of films over the last twelve days. Some extraordinary. Some not. I don’t know about you but the films for me were consistently of a high quality. Mid-way through the festival I had an idea of how to cumulatively evaluate all of the films that screened and find out what the best-received films were from a large consensus of film buffs.

A few years ago Mathieu Ravier, artistic programmer of the Sydney Film Festival Hub and founder of The Festivalists, asked critics who visited the festival to list each film they watched and give each one a star rating. This was then collated into a spreadsheet, and each film received an average rating. I thought I would do a similar thing this year, but open it up to anybody and everybody.

It doesn’t matter if you saw five films, or fifty films, if you wish to be involved in this, please email me (andrew.buckle22@gmail.com) a list of every film you saw at the festival (this can include pre-screeners too) and give the film a star rating (0.5 – 5). Alternatively, if you have a Letterboxd account and have rated and listed the films, send me a link to this and I will draw the data myself.

I hope to have at least 50 people, and 100 films, involved to make it worthwhile, so please share this idea around and encourage others to contribute. 

The deadline is 6pm on Sunday 22^nd June, and I intend to reveal the spreadsheet that evening.

Sydney Film Festival Diary Days 5-8

As I enter the final third of this year’s Sydney Film Festival, still with a loaded schedule, here are some of the films I watched on Days 5-8.

Jodorowsky’s Dune (Frank Pavich)

Alejandro Jodorowsky and his assembly of creative geniuses/spiritual warriors reflect on the most ambitious film never made. After blowing audience’s minds and broadening the boundaries of the possibilities of filmmaking with El Topo and The Holy Mountain, AJ became obsessed with adapting Frank Herbert’s sci-fi bible, Dune. His unbridled ambition, a god-like desire to ‘change the world’ through art, involved a longer long-take than Orson Welles ‘A Touch of Evil’, forcing his son through years of combat training in prep for a role, the casting of Salvador Dali and Mick Jagger, and incorporating the music of Pink Floyd. His version, in 1975, involved a brutal multi-amputation and themes as grand as the Cosmos. Would it have changed the world if he pulled it off? Maybe. He certainly possessed the passion, and the madness, to do it.

One of the most fascinating things about this film is how the mammoth blueprint for this film, which was never green-lit, had a thumbprint on many later sci-fi epics (including Star Wars, 1977). The epic story-boarded screenplay and concept art is animatedly brought to life, and piece-by-piece we come to see the big picture as it was envisioned. We hear from critics, colleagues and fellow filmmakers (like Nicolas Winding Refn), but you cling to every word from the crazy 84-year-old. He’s a real marvel. His frustration at never being able to realize his dream has been bottled up inside all these years, and he exorcises all of those feelings here. He takes great pleasure in telling the stories of how he found the team to make that dream a reality, and can’t hide the pleasure he felt when he first realized Lynch’s version was a failure. With real insight into the creative process, this is a cinematic, briskly paced and thoroughly entertaining documentary about one of the industry’s eccentric geniuses. ★★★★

Continue reading at Graffiti With Punctuation.

New Releases 12/06/14

In cinemas this week: The Rover, Blended, Good Vibrations, Face of Love. 

The Rover - David Michod's highly anticipated follow-up to ANIMAL KINGDOM, is set in a world 10 years following the collapse of society. The rule of the law has disintegrated and life is cheap. The film follows hardened loner Eric (Pearce) as he travels the desolate towns and roads of the outback. When a gang of thieves steals his car they leave behind a wounded Rey (Pattinson) in their wake. Forcing Rey to help track the gang, Eric will go to any lengths to take back the one thing that still matters to him. Michod also wrote the film based on a story he conceived with Joel Edgerton. Review by Blake Howard, Graffiti With Punctuation.

Blended - After a disastrous blind date, single parents Lauren and Jim agree on only one thing: they never want to see each other again. But when they each sign up separately for a fabulous family vacation with their kids, they are all stuck sharing a suite at a luxurious African safari resort for a week in "Blended," the third comedy collaboration between stars Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore.

Good Vibrations - Directors Lisa Barros D'Sa and Glenn Leyburn team to tell the true story of Terri Hooley, the rebellious Belfast music lover who launched his own record label, dubbed "Good Vibrations," in the 1970s, and quickly emerged as a key figure in the Irish capitol's thriving underground punk scene.

The Face of Love - The story of a widow named Nikki (Annette Bening) who, several years after the loss of her husband Garrett, meets a man named Tom (Ed Harris) who looks exactly like her deceased husband. Suddenly, a flood of old feelings rush back to her: she's met the love of her life. Again. The film is a romantic story filled with humor, surprise, and reflections on the mystery of love surrounding us. Bening and Harris star, with an important supporting turn from Robin Williams as Nikki's confidante and would-be lover. 

Weekly Recommendation: Very much looking forward to The Rover. Released while SFF is in full swing. Catching it Friday night. Good Vibrations has decent reviews and looks interesting. A bit of a nothing week, though. 

Sydney Film Festival Diary Days 1-4

The craziest 12 days of the year commenced last Wednesday evening with the Opening Night screening of the 2014 Sydney Film Festival with 20,000 Days on Earth. Writing this, I am on the morning of Day 6 and pretty tired, but everything has been worth it. I have seen some excellent films so far, and I am sure many more to come.

The SFF Hub is where you want to be in-between films. It has it all going on. Mingle for a drink and a chat at the Graffiti With Punctuation hosted Film Club, enjoy a live Podcast recording, interact with live presentations or see how the AFCA critics hold up to scrutiny in a Q&A Death-match. With our visiting out-of-town friends we have, on two occasions, been reluctantly ushered out of the Hub at ten to midnight.

While the diversity of films is obviously the drawcard of the Sydney Film Festival I find that it is the people you meet that are the most rewarding. I checked off a few of my out-of-town Twitter friends this time around, and caught up with those I had hadn’t seen in some time. I had someone recognise me and tap me on the shoulder, and we had a lengthy conversation (and several more since) about the films we have seen. Sam and I met a lady in the line for Boyhood who turned out to be volunteering at the festival. The next day, there she was, controlling the lines. No festival is without a mad dash between sessions. Yesterday we had ten minutes to make it between Event Cinemas George Street and the State Threatre. Pretty wild.

But, what have I seen so far? I wish I could have written more about these films, but I hope these brief opinions will prove interesting and even inspire you to catch the second session of a film if there is still one to screen.

Continue reading at Graffiti With Punctuation.