# Off-topic Rants

This is a really, really boring film that shows a group of people aimlessly walking around a theatre, and eventually watching a section of an equally boring film. But, despite the fact that the images on the screen put you to sleep, the soundtrack and music is truly amazing. The attention to detail is just incredible. You really just need to watch this film with your eyes closed, which admittedly, I did for most of the film. It really is some of the most sophisticated and complex uses of sound I’ve ever heard in a film. It reminded me much like the first Alien movie.

This is a fantastic film about an actor aboard a sailing ship that becomes shipwrecked on a deserted island. Phillippe de Nohan and the ships dog are the only survivors. However, they gather everything from the destroyed ship leaving him with plenty of provisions, supplies and a large collection of theatre bits and pieces. After a while, he starts to lose his grip with reality. But before he goes completely and utterly bonkers, he befriends a native islander he names Friday. This film explores the relationship between the man, the dog and the native. I love the main character in this film. You can certainly relate to him, which is a little bit scary. The dog in this film is also truly entertaining and plays just as big a role. As Phillippe starts to hone in on his primal instincts, at times the dog seems more civilised than the human. The soundtrack is fantastic, but what really makes this film special is the cinematography. The colours and look of the images are constantly changing. A lot of the scenes are quite surreal, others greyscale with hints of bold colours. It just looks amazing. I’m a huge fan of this film.

This is a short film made up of local children’s drawings turned into animations and local adults voice over’s, that tell the tale of living in Landsborough. Although it offered some laughs, this concept has been done to death (using kid’s drawings and adult voices), so it didn’t really grab me. Although it was slightly entertaining, it was nothing special.

This is a depressing film about an affable man, who is left to look after his three young children, as well as trying to keep up his demanding taxi driving work, when his wife runs off with another man for several months. When she returns, he is kicked out of his home as the couple fight for the terms of the children’s living arrangements. When an insane neighbour kills his daughter’s new pet, the man, who is hopelessly drunk at the time, unintentionally kills the neighbour in a fit of rage. Sent to jail, the film then explores the relationship between the now divorced husband and wife. Although I quite liked this movie, with its bleak locations, and convincing characters, its not easy viewing, as this poor mans life just falls apart in front of your eyes. You really feel for him as the director just continually picks him up and drops him. This film is very real, and very painful, but well worth watching. At the end though, you just feel sad and depressed.

I’ll start off by saying I wasn’t really a fan of this movie. I just couldn’t be bothered trying to keep up with it – I just found it boring. It’s basically a film about an ex-criminal who receives a strange commission from an illegal organisation to produce a documentary about decolonisation. I guess I just found this movie to be too old fashion, with its cool tone (verging on stagnant) and vintage soundtrack. I couldn’t relate or connect with the characters, nor did I care about any of them. I found the story too slow and it seemed to go off on random directions. I didn’t like the voice over narration either. Basically, I just didn’t like the movie at all.

This is a really intriguing film about a father and son living in a remote snowing location. The son is doing some kind of weird experiment, burying rabbits in the snow. Despite the fact the footage originated from film, the quality was quite average and really grainy. The sound was fine; perfect realism. The story was interesting, although I still feel like I missed the point.

This is very powerful Australian short film that gives a brief insight into the life of a seemingly depressed and troubled teenager in a typical suburban setting. Visually it’s most impressive, despite the obvious low budget, with some fantastic night footage. I’m a big fan of the use of red light to highlight the freeways and party scenes. The soundtrack was great; I especially liked the sound used in the party scene, when the main character starts to drift off into another world. The music was really nice as well. I’m a big fan of the punchy acoustic steel string guitar sound. Overall, I was really impressed with the film.

This is basically just twelve minutes of black and white grainy footage, of a group of boats catching giant tuna using a large net. It was more of an observational piece, but I just found it boring.

This may well be my favourite film so far! I have never seen such a fantastic audience reaction and participation, as I have with this film. It starts with an US Army officer, who orders the dumping of litres of nasty looking chemicals into the sink, which consequentially, runs out into the main river of Seoul, in South Korea. Somehow, the mixture of chemicals creates a mutant creature, which emerges six years later, and wreaks havoc in the city. The creature kills many people, and grabs a young girl, which it takes to its lair in the sewer tunnels. Her family, sure that she’s still alive, set out to bring her back home, while the US Army quarantine the river, claiming the creature is host to a horrific virus. This is a truly exciting and thrilling film, which is also extremely funny and very, very random. The special effects are fantastic, but what makes this film so special is that you seriously have no idea where the story is headed. What will start of as an emotional, and sad scene, will end up being a hilarious tongue-in-cheek fight sequence. One minute the monster is killing people, the next, some crazy doctor is drilling through the protagonists head! I have no idea what to make of this movie. I feel as if I missed a really important political or social message that was hidden behind the confusing, yet remarkable storyline. This film really has everything. It will make you jump out of your skin, it will make you cry, and for most of the film, it will make your cheeks hurt with laughter. This is a really unique film, that will, no question about it, become a cult classic. It’s a kind of a bit like a South Korean version of Shaun of the Dead, with a mutant monster instead of zombies. Very random – very funny! Like I said, it’s probably my favourite film so far of MIFF 2006.

This is a quite powerful short film about an elderly man who has lost his wife, and is about to loose his farm, independence and his dignity. In desperation, he finds a way to keep it all. The look of this film is quite beautiful, set in a wonderful remote snow covered landscape by the ocean. But, although the main character does a fantastic job, and you really do feel his pain, his actions and the story in general is very predicable. However, it doesn’t really matter. Predicable or not, the film gets it point across and brings a tear to your eye.