# Off-topic Rants

This is a film about a Korean-born girl struggling through life with her mother in America – although, to be honest, I didn’t realise it was set in the US till after the movie! It explores the relationship between Aimie, and her only real friend, Tran. At first it seems Tran is looking to have a relationship with Aimie, but she’s not interested. But then it seems that Aimie has fallen in love with Tran, but he is more interested in another Korean girl. With no one to turn to, Aimie finds comfort in the memory of her father, whom she no longer has contact with. This is again, a really slow paced film, with an almost documentary feel to it. I didn’t really connect with the main characters, which meant I didn’t really care what happened to them. The photography and sound was very bland and boring, which suited the story. Overall, I found this movie a bit of a drag. I also hated the first scene, when Aimie gave Tran a “homemade” tattoo as I have a real phobia of needles.

This is a documentary that follows a colourful construction crew over two years as they work on Mexico City’s Periferico Freeway, in an effort to cope with the ever expanding traffic. It shows the struggles and daily travails of building a freeway without the machinery expected in modern day construction. It has some fantastic tales and viewpoints from some very unique and out of the ordinary workers. Although it offers a great insight into these peoples world, you have to be really awake and concentrating to appreciate this film. Unfortunately I watched it when I was tired, and almost fell asleep in a few places. Not because it was boring, quite the opposite! It’s truly fascinating hearing these people’s views and beliefs. But if you’re not in the right frame of mind, the film can easily wash over you, as it’s not overly action packed – although there are several moments of excitement. This film makes you laugh, makes you think and appreciate the little things in life. After watching this film, you’ll find it hard to abuse the so-called “lazy” road workers in the future! It has some fantastic helicopter shots, and some lovely time lapse photography. I think I really need to watch this film again to really appreciate all it has to offer. But my general opinion is: it’s a great film.

This is a strange collection of different stories, and funny sequences. It begins with a story of a wedding party that waits in suspense for the bride and groom. It then tells the story of a shy young girl (and her turkey) who travel to visit her sick mother in hospital in an attempt to convince the doctors to operate. Changing directions again, it then tells the story of two children who are born on the same day in the same city, but have no possibility of getting to know each other. As the film rolls on, more seemingly random stories are told. This is a really hard film to get your head around, as it just seems to be a collection of ideas thrown together. I can’t say I’m the biggest fan.

Without being bias, as Rhys is one of my teachers at Uni, this is truly a fantastic short film. It tells the story of Nouria, as she deals with trying to keep a family together after the death of her mother. Her father won’t get out of bed, and she is left to look after her younger brother. The acting in this film is fantastic and extremely moving, despite the fact that all of the cast are young. Even the dog did a great job. The look of the film is beautiful, and portrays and paints a very accurate picture of outer city Melbourne suburbs. I especially loved the colour and tone of the film, with its grey/gold feel. It adds another layer of authenticity to the movie. The soundtrack was terrific, very clean and natural. This is one of the features missing from a lot of Australian shorts; no one seems to pay attention to sound. The music score was also very appropriate, and helped add to the overall mode of the film. It’s basically a film about love, as the film explores the relationship between Nouria, and her new boyfriend. I have only good things to say about this film, even the titles looked great.

This is a fascinating documentary about Sue, a woman who has devoted her whole life and energy to professional wrestling. Her house is covered in wresting photos and memorabilia; she has hundreds of hours of wresting footage on tape, and has travelled to the USA on several occasions just to see wrestling. What makes this film so captivating is that Sue is genuinely a really unique and completely wrestling obsessed person! Wrestling is what she lives for. Spaning over ten years, this film gives a great insight into Sue’s world and her travels. But it also explores Sue’s personal life, which adds to the emotion of the film. The editing of this film is fantastic, mixing interviews, with video diaries, archive footage and plenty of wrestling shots. I’m really impressed that so many hours of film can be compressed into such a well rounded 52 minute film. Overall, a great documentary!

This is a contemporary fable on the butterfly effect, the stress of apartment living and the challenges of modern policing. I wasn’t a fan of this animation as I found it technically poor, and lacking of a good storyline.

This film is basically exactly the same look and feel of “Funny Ha Ha” made two year before by the same team. Having seen “Funny Ha Ha” just a few days before this one, I’m not sure I was ready to watch this one just yet. However, despite that, I still enjoyed it, although I did wish it would speed up. It’s basically a story about a young man who moves to a new town to pursue his music career as an indie rock musician. He spends a lot of time with one of his closest friends and his girlfriend, and grows more and more attracted to this woman. Like “Funny Ha Ha”, this film basically just shows everyday life, and everyday conversations, including the long pauses. It relies on honesty and simple humility to communicate its charms. Although I quite liked this film, as the characters grew on me more and more towards the end, I found “Funny Ha Ha” to be more entertaining as I really loved the girl in it. However, she does make an appearance in this film, playing much the same character. In fact, this is basically just a clone of “Funny Ha Ha”, telling a different story, and changing the main character from a female to a male. Well worth watching, just be aware that it’s slow and precise. At the end of the day, nothing really happens.

This is a film about a kickboxing coach and his son’s struggle with life after losing their wife/mother and daughter/sister in a car crash two years previous. The father is a well respected and highly regarded kickboxing teacher, but his career is put in jeopardy after he hits his son in front of guests and students at a birthday barbeque, after his son makes a peculiar attempt for his father’s attention. As father and son separate, the film explores the two coming to turns with the past, of love and of what the future holds. As a viewer, I could quite easily connect with the characters and feel their pain and frustration. The look of the film was quite beautiful, with some lovely colourful scenes. I also loved some of the more modern sections of the soundtrack. There are even a few small laughs scattered throughout the movie.

I’m a really big fan of this movie. Set in Coober Pedy, a young girl called Kellyanne, spends all her time playing with her two make-believe friends Pobby and Dingan. She is completely adamant that these two people exist, which is driving her mother, father and older brother completely crazy. When Kellyanne’s Dad takes her two imaginary friends mining with him one night, he forgets to bring them home, which completely devastates the young girl. Kellyanne starts getting really sick, presumably due to the emotional stress caused by no longer having her two friends by her side. The family have no option but to search for the unseeable people, which indirectly, turns the whole town against them. But, all thanks to a brother’s love and devotion, things turn dramatically at the end, after a serious of very gripping circumstances. I felt that the acting in this film was really fantastic, especially as the two central characters were children. Although it was a very typical Australian film, I felt that the storyline was really strong, and it had a lot of unpredictable twists and turns. Visually, the film was stunning, with some great shots of a very mundane, yet matchless location. The soundtrack was perfect, and the musical score was really good. But the story is what made the film stand out from a crowd of other Aussie films. It had a really innocent feel to it. It was full of action and suspense; it made you laugh, and it was also very sad and moving at times. Overall, I was really impressed with this film. I know some people have complained that the young girl’s acting was poor, and she looked way to sick at the end of the film, but I doubt these people have had experience with unorthodox young children. I felt this film was very real.

This is a film about a foreign couple who move to a Sydney beachside apartment to start a new life. However, their expectations and experiences of Australian urban life create a conflict between them. The characters in the film were great; very real. The story was good and kept you interested. The production values were good, with nice clean sound and fairly good looking camera work. Overall, this is a very nice short film.