# Off-topic Rants

Exit, a Swedish film directed by Peter Lindmark, is probably one of the most thrilling and exciting films I’ve seen at MIFF so far. Thomas is a successful venture capitalist, with a beautiful wife and daughter, and a high-flying business that is making a tonne of cash. Everything is travelling along perfectly until on the eve of closing a lucrative financial deal, his business partner, close friend and mentor, Wihelm is killed and Thomas is framed for his murder. A mix between the Bourne series and The Fugitive, this is an simmering, multi-layered thriller, jam-packed with complex plots, unexpected twists and turns, and non-stop action. The cast in this film is fantastic. Mads Mikkelsen, who plays Thomas, carries with him all the signature traits of a hero, and yet, you always have the feeling that he’s not the good guy he may seem. This is probably due to his previous roles in movies such as Casino Royale, but he has the degree of danger in his eye, that always makes you wonder if you’re batting for the right person. The villains in this film are also brilliant, and actually remind me of some of the corporate criminals in the Bond series. Overall, this is a great movie that honestly keeps you at the end of your seat. There are some very hard to watch moments – such as one involving an air-compressed nail gun as a torture device – but it’s not overly gory. Thomas is forced to rely only on his wits to protect himself and his family, and I think that’s what makes this film so great. All the pressure is on his shoulders, so he has to do some amazing things to ensure his family lives to see another day.

Walking into the theatre, I really didn’t know what to expect from this film. Featuring in the “Forbidden Pleasures” section of the festival, I was sure that I was going to get a fair bit of nudity and adult themes. Hell, to be perfectly honest, I was even expecting to see a fair bit of soft-core porn. Well, with that in mind, this film didn’t disappoint. There was a lot of nudity, adult themes, and soft-core porn – although in some cases it was pushing its “soft” classification. This is a bizarre, yet extremely entertaining film about a trusting French director who is trying to make a film exploring all aspects of female pleasure. While he amazingly finds actresses to star in his movie (although many people do refuse), what he gets in return is more than just naughty acts caught on celluloid, rather a very complicated multi-way relationship. If you don’t like watching young, very desirable, girls playing with themselves under the table of a fancy restaurant, this film is not for you. If you’re not attracted by beautifully filmed sapphic lovers in a hotel corridor, this film is not for you either. But this film is honestly not just an excuse for showing off a lot of breasts and lesbian love scenes. It’s a dark and intense tale examining how we can become completely blinded by our passions instead of using our head and the advice received from our trusted friends. In the case of this film, the director chooses to ignore the wise words from his loving wife and dead grandmother, and the consequences are ghastly. Right throughout the film there is a lot of strange voiceovers, with dialogue such as “their blue desert is only a circle ringed by hell”. There is also several characters that hide in the shadows; athletic female angels, who describe themselves as “not angels anymore, but not witches yet either”, looking over the events that unfold. To be honest, I’m not exactly sure what to make of this film. It’s seriously weird. But it’s very interesting to watch. The director is basically moulding and manipulating these girls, to make his movie come to life, despite claiming that he only has the very best intentions. It’s going to be one of those films that you’re either going to love or hate – I don’t think there is any middle ground. Personally, I found this film really unique, and I’ll admit, having a lot of beautiful women making love to each other didn’t hurt, but there was more to this film than just that.

This film is a snapshot into a lives of several young people holed up in a small town called Falkenberg. It’s not a traditional narrative – but more a mood piece, trying to capture what it’s like growing up in that seemingly boring environment, and how these people deal with crossing over from adolescence to adulthood. This is a very slow and almost observatory film, with lots of shots of scenery, and people just hanging about. It tries to evoke emotion, not through dialogue, but more beautiful images of mundane things. It does have one tragic scene, which adds some more energy to the film, but for the most part, this is just a very measured and leisurely film about growing up.

Fast Lane is a suburb Australian short film about a boy who returns home from a party one night clammy and pale. His mum knows that something is wrong, but Ash doesn’t want to reveal that he may have killed someone by throwing a rock onto a busy freeway. This is an excellent moving story about the relationship between two young teenage boys, and how they deal with growing up and what happens when they egg each other on to do stupid things. The acting is terrific, both by the two boys and by Ash’s mother. This is a really moving short film with a satisfying ending.

This is probably on of the greatest documentaries I’ve ever had the pleasure of watching. What’s even better is that it’s Australian! It’s the story of Norma Khouri, the author of a best-selling book, Forbidden Love. After the book sold millions right around the globe, and Norma achieved fame and fortune, people started to do a bit of research, and came to the conclusion that the book was fiction – not fact as originally thought. As the filmmaker digs deeper, Norma isn’t the Jordanian virgin on the run from Islamic extremists, she makes out to be. She under investigation from the FBI, has a husband with supposed connections to the mafia, three children, and a whole lot of lies relating to her book. This film is really exciting. It starts off all “Norma is a hero”. It builds her up as some kind of angel. But then, all of a sudden, it shows another side of the story. Her opposition are given room to argue. It’s soon shown that not much in her book is truthful. In fact, a lot of the so-called facts are blatant lies. The filmmaker then goes on a journey to try and uncover the truth. They travel to Jordon with Norma, in an attempt to clear her name, but just end up digging up more dirt. This is a really entertaining documentary, with tremendous production values. Visually, the film is pristine, with great interview backdrops, and vivid locations. The audio design is fantastic, with appropriate music, crystal clear interviews, and some killer and appropriate sound effects. The graphics are very nice – I really love the “smoking title card”; the text looks fantastic. I also feel the filmmakers made a very honest film. They showed all sides and angles of the story, and basically let the audience decide what’s what. I can’t fault this film – it’s absolutely perfect!

This film has a very strange beginning in retrospect. It opens with a comedy performer getting lost in the backstage maze of corridors, as he tries to find the stage door. I have absolutely no idea what relevance this has to anything. The comedian eventually finds the stage, and performs his work to a very unsatisfied crowd. After his show he tries to chat up a young women at the bar – but is quickly rejected. On his drive home, he drives past her, and tries again – but still no dice. In frustration he starts masturbating, and runs off the road. His car is stuck in a ditch, so he gets a ride off two men, who are on their way home from a bar opening. As they drive along, the driver doesn’t see the same women running in the middle of the road until the last minute, quickly turns and runs off the road, and down through the forest. The car gets jammed between two trees. No one is hurt – but they’re stuck. The windows are bullet proof, so they can’t smash them. This is a hilarious film about three men, stuck in a car. After several days with no help in sight, a young boy discovers them – but instead of helping, he treats them as a science experiment. Despite the fact that it’s a fairly unbelievable concept, it’s surprisingly realistic, and incredibly funny. Trapped together, they are forced to share unwanted intimacies, and do some pretty disgusting things just to survive. I really enjoyed this movie. It was fairly simple (most of it was filmed in a stationary car), but incredibly effective. The only complaint I have, is that the ending was slightly sudden – with no real resolution. However, it didn’t really matter. This was a really simple idea, shot incredibly well with a great cast, and fantastic script fully of genuinely funny moments.

This is without a doubt, my favourite film of the festival so far. It tells the story of William, an aspiring actor, who meets and falls quickly and madly in love with Sara, a seductive singer/songwriter, just a few days before his 21st birthday. William convinces Sara to come away with him to Mexico, while he works on a feature film. During their time away, William becomes completely and utterly devoted and obsessed with Sara. They are both caught up in the giddy flutter of young love. However, Sara goes home early, and by the time William gets back to the women of his dreams, she has decided that the relationship is over. William is devastated. His perfect world comes quickly crashing to a halt. Having never experienced the pain of love and heartbreak, he takes things a little hard (well, really hard), and ends up fleeing home to Texas in search for answers. Yearning for someone to love him the way he loved Sara, William’s journey to his birthplace forces him to come to terms with his own past. This is a coming of age tale of first love and heartbreak, but it’s also the story of a wounded young boy searching for a father he never knew. I guess what made this film so special for me, was that it felt so real. As someone that’s in the same age bracket as the characters in this film, I can honestly relate to them and recognised a lot of the emotional patterns they went through. Everything in this film felt so authentic and close to home. William’s tragic descent into desperation and despair, and his increasingly chaotic and manic behaviour, although slightly scary, felt perfectly understandable, and although the scenes were he left messages on Sara’s answering machine were extremely uncomfortable to watch – you could understand why William was leaving them, even though you knew he shouldn’t be. From the beginning of this film, you knew where everything was heading. The reality is that all of this stuff happens on a day to day basis. Young lovers are constantly going through these exact same scenarios. This is what made this film so interesting to me. I could relate to it, and although I didn’t necessarily learn from it – it was nice to know that this kind of situation is normal, and is all part of growing up. The acting in this film was phenomenal. Mark Webber, who played William, and Catalina Sandino Moreno, who played Sara, has an amazing chemistry in this film. When they fall in love – you honestly believe that the actors are in love. When they break up, the tears and frustration are so real, that you completely forget you are watching a fictional film. The soundtrack in this film was also a highlight. It really complimented the emotion of the scenes, in much the same way as in films such as Garden State. Visually, the film looks absolutely beautiful, with a very country USA tone to the images. As I said, this is by far my favourite film of the festival thus far.

Directed by Naomi Kawase, The Mourning Forest is a visually and emotionally beautiful film about a young lady called Machiko, who works at a retirement home nearby a vast forest. Shigeki, a retiree at the home forms a strong connection with Machiko, as she reminds him greatly of his deceased wife. Although the relationship starts off badly – Machiko gets struck down by Shigeki after she tries touches one of his possessions, which she shouldn’t have – the two quickly become attached to one another, as they play games in the fields. Despite the fact that there is a huge age difference between the two, they have a common love for childish games such as hide and seek. When Machiko takes Shigeki on a drive in the country as a birthday present, things don’t exactly go to plan when the car gets stuck in a ditch. Shigeki runs off, as the two continue a more serious version of hide and seek in the forest. During their time under the canopy of trees, they learn a lot more about themselves and each other.

This is a very low budget independent film – but in the best possible way. Full of blood and guts – this is a film, split into three parts by three different filmmakers, about a mysterious signal that gets sent out around an American city, taking over every electronic device, and wreaking psychological pandemonium. All of a sudden, the signal turns normal people into homicidal maniacs. Amongst all the mayhem is a woman that is cheating on her husband. As people are killing each other left, right and centre, a three way relationship is battling out till the death. I’m not normally a fan of horror films – nor am I a fan of blood in any shape or form. However, this is a really entertaining film. It starts off looking as if it’s going to be absolutely terrifying. I was honestly thinking that I was going to freak out catching the train home alone late at night. However, as the movie progressed, the gore factor rose, but with it, so did the humour. The horrific events that took place, where just so outrageous and surreal, that you couldn’t help but laugh. Maybe it was laughing in fear – but it was laughing never-the-less. This wasn’t your traditional zombie comedy, nor was it an apocalyptic horror film – it was in a league of its own. The special effects were crud – but effective. There were plenty of moments that made you jump – and lots of movements where I was forced to look away in disgust. Overall, this was an entertaining film. I didn’t leave the theatre looking over my shoulder, which was a good thing. The film messed around with time as well, turning back on itself, and also played around with what is real, and what is in the mind. I don’t think I’d watch it again any time soon – but I’m glad I’ve seen it once.

This is an extremely entertaining and obviously no-budget mockumentary about a fictional land rights claim in the town of Waimate, New Zealand. The Maori locals have been fighting for decades to regain their land, which they believe they were forcefully removed from in a bloody battle back in 1866. Unfortunately, when they take their views to the courtroom, they have no evidence to back them up, and their court claim is rejected. However, they decided to appeal the decision after they find a supposed 138 year old cannonball buried in a paddock, which they believe confirms their case. Just when they think they’ve finally got everything sorted, the cannonball goes missing, and they are forced to come up with some new evidence. This film is basically a war between the Maori locals and an evil farmer who currently has ownership of the land and isn’t afraid to do anything he can to make sure it stays under his name. All of this action, including interviews with other locals is captured by Dave, a documentary filmmaker, who takes you along this hilarious journey. This film is a mixture between Kenny and The Castle. Every single character is completely eccentric, and tremendously funny. The Maori people will do everything in their power to try and get their land back – even if it means breaking all the rules. The production values of this film are horrible – it’s very much a no-budget documentary, shot on a handycam – but the people and the script are so perfect, that it really doesn’t matter. This film treats a normally controversial topic with a very new and very funny angle. Although there are some moments in the movie which are painful to watch (simply because the characters are so nutty – kind of like The Office), most of the time you simply can’t look away and stop laughing. Overall, this is a pretty good movie considering – although I’m sure with a slightly bigger budget, some more jokes and funny moments could have been thrown in.