My series on the 19th Raindance Film Festival has now come to an end. In the past couple of weeks I’ve brought you 23 movie reviews and 3 interviews, over on Twitter I’ve had some great discussions with directors and fellow movie-goers….
State of Emergency
14 October 2011 by Leave a Comment
I’m not a big fan of horror films. I’m not averse to them, they just don’t scare me that much and I tend to get frustrated by the idiocy of the characters. That may be one of the reasons I enjoyed Scream so much – it had decent scares and knew that the victims were morons…
The Fifth Commandment (El Quinto Mandamiento)
14 October 2011 by Leave a Comment
There’s a great exchange in the very first episode of the The West Wing where Toby argues with a Christian fundamentalist about the order of the Ten Commandments. As President Bartlet points out later in the scene the first commandment is “I am the Lord your God, you shall have no other gods before me”…
Scenes of a Crime
13 October 2011 by Leave a Comment
In the past few weeks the case of Troy Davis has brought the issue of miscarriages of justice in the American legal system to the front of public consciousness. People are appalled that an apparently innocent man could be sentenced to death against the evidence available…
War Games
13 October 2011 by 2 Comments
No matter how peace-loving and gentle we are as individuals there’s nothing that appeals to our primal instincts like a good bit of violence against our fellow man. For the vast majority of us a shoot-em-up video game helps to release all of that negative energy. Occasionally a game of laserquest or paintballing excursion will bring out our inner SAS officer…
The Wedding Party
13 October 2011 by Leave a Comment
A few years ago a little Australian film involving a sham marriage came along. Muriel’s Wedding was a huge international hit and brought the brilliant Toni Collette to the world’s attention. Fast forward sixteen years …
Holy Rollers
11 October 2011 by Leave a Comment
I’m not a religious person but I do get a little tired of the cliched representations of people of faith in films and TV. If you’re Muslim, you’re a terrorist; if you’re Jewish, you’re the weedy, perpetual victim and if you’re Christian…
No Return (Sin retorno)
12 October 2011 by Leave a Comment
The strands at Raindance Film Festival in 2011 were all based on the region of origin of the movies shown, but there were other connecting themes that linked films across the official strands. One which particularly appealed to me was the exploration of justice, guilt and punishment….
Forget Paris
12 October 2011 by Leave a Comment
There’s something immensely irritating about people who are much younger than ourselves who are talented and accomplished. Jealousy is so ugly but there’s no other emotion available when faced with twenty-three year old Christopher Presswell, writer and director of the fantastically warped romantic comedy, Forget Paris …
The Ballad of Des and Mo
11 October 2011 by Leave a Comment
One of the great things about attending Raindance this year has been the opportunity to interact with a number of film-makers. Interviews and Q&A sessions with directors offer new perspectives on the films and help to create a deeper understanding of the effort that went into making the movies…