# Off-topic Rants

An insurance investigator is brought in to scrutinise a car accident in which a notorious scam artist has been allegedly burnt to a crisp. But as he digs deeper into the events leading up into the incident, the more complex everything becomes. It explores good versus evil; con artist versus insurance companies (both as unethical as each other). Although I like some elements of this movie, overall I wasn’t that impressed. Julia Stiles, Peter Coyote and the little boy who played Thor, were fantastic. Although they were really the “bad guys”, I felt for them. However, for one reason or another, I just didn’t seem to connect with the main character, played by Forest Whitaker. Maybe I just didn’t like his character? Maybe I just didn’t like the fact that he worked for an evil bean counting insurance company? I’m not sure. I did however like the tone and look of the film – very bleak, barren, isolated and dark. I’m not sure about whether I liked the story or not. It offered plenty of twists and turns, but at times seemed a little unrealistic. It has plenty of action and suspense, which keeps it exciting. The music was also very powerful but didn’t always complement the images on screen. Well worth watching, although I have a gut feeling it’s missing something.

This is a great little animation about Fumi and her cursed foot. After surviving a lighting strike, a hippopotamus attack and bank vaults falling on her foot, Fumi discovers a way of using her curse as a powerful tool to help others. This is a cute little animation that proves that cute little characters getting hurt really is good comedy!

This is a cute little film about a mother and her intellectually handicapped son, who visit a remote regional train station, so that they can sit around and watch the express trains zoom by. Despite the boring story line, the photography is amazing, with beautiful shots of the lush forest landscapes. This film has a lot of fantastic dolly and crane shots. The soundtrack is also subtle yet very effective.

I really loved this short film. It’s basically about a society that has the ability to fly, and yet, everyone is locked down by gravitation boots. One day, a simple man’s ungratifying humdrum routine is broken when a bird invades his workplace, inspiring him to escape his dull life. The look of the film is very simple and monotonous. No fancy special effects and no psychedelic colours. And yet, that is what makes this film so special. The soundtrack is also fantastic. I especially like the sounds on the gravitation boots hitting the ground. Although it’s a simple story, with simple production elements, it’s a very effective film that keeps you hooked from start to finish.

This is a really nice animation about a grieving insect collector (with a light bulb for a head) and his search for understanding love and life. The look of this film is really fantastic, although the storyline is a bit too out there for me.

This is a broad documentary that explains the history of Korean Cinema. It tells the story of the countries cinematic history and shows interviews of artists who express their concerns, fears and aspirations. The production values were fairly average (with some really amateur sound), but the content was quite interesting for me, as I know very little about Korean Cinema. Worth watching, but it could have been made so much better.

Although, I love the idea of this movie (documenting a group of people who mess with electronics to make “cool” sound effects), the filmmakers just didn’t pull it off. The quality of the footage was poor, as was the sound. I also really hated the animations/title sequence that was used. This is a great example where a good idea has been ruined by poor production values.

This is a really eye opening and interesting documentary about a man called Troy Davies, an intense and passionate artist. He’s an anarchist with a vibrant and colourful life as a man, a women, performer, and musician, owner of a fashion label, a prostitute, and a person living with AIDS. He’s basically just a really amazing, and slightly insane person, who comes up great on film!

This is a unique documentary that gives a detailed insight into the life of an extremely colourful and gutsy Australian design innovator and artist, Florence Broadhurst. She was found murdered in her wallpaper design studio in 1977, a crime which is still unsolved. This film explores Florence’s life, leading up to this tragic event. Using a mixture of visually stunning real interviews, stylised drama re-enactments, wonderful computer graphics, Monty Python-style animation, incredible archival footage and interviews, this is a truly vibrant and intriguing film. As Florence eventually gained her local fame by designing wallpaper, this film makes use of this fact, and every shot has the same vivid, multi-coloured and flamboyant feel as her designs. It took me a while to work out whether this movie was fiction or fact (despite the fact it was label as a documentary), as the opening voiceover was that of someone who was apparently dead. But once I got my head around what I was actually watching, I slowly got hooked. Although Florence’s life was very interesting – she was such a powerful and determined women – it was the overall look of the film that I respected the most. The mixture of so many different styles and mediums was amazing. I really loved some of the animations in the film as they really made me laugh. Overall, it was a relatively slow paced film, that was a little hard to follow at first, but as the time paced and the story progressed, it developed into a stunning work of art. For a film based around wallpaper, I guess it was fairly exciting in contrast!

This is a very well made New Zealand short film about a young woman who stumbles across a man that has hung himself just outside of the campsite she is staying at. Completely overwhelmed, she visits a young male friend who is also camping at the same site. In the safety of his tent, he shares a story of his past, which puts the girls own feelings sharply into focus. Like the New Zealand short, “Nature’s Way”, the production values of this short are truly fantastic. The images and sounds perfectly capture the beautiful New Zealand landscape. It’s kind of depressing however, that both these shorts focus on death. I didn’t really like the concept, after watching the complete film, however it was very captivating and the acting was very impressive. Overall, this was a nice short film.