Nostalgia. Not for certain time, but for a certain kind of film making. J.J.Abrams has been criticized for making films very much like the “old” Steven Spielberg films, but I think that’s silly – those were very good films.

The premise is simple enough, a group of kids in a small town is shooting a film as part of a project then something happens – a train crash. The military becomes involved, mysterious events unfold, people start to go missing, and it all builds up predictably towards the climactic end sequences where all is revealed. Throw in an unlikely, and wounded hero, a little bit of teen-love, and some snappy dialogue and you’ve got yourself a movie. And loud noises, DON’T FORGET LOUD NOISES!

Although formulaic in almost every way imaginable, the predictability does not take away from the enjoyment of the film. Many other films bring all the right elements together, but still somehow don’t “work”, they don’t suspend the audience’s disbelief, and often fail to make that emotional connection that ties viewers to the characters in the film. This film works, and it works well.

In many ways it most closely resembled E.T. and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Since Star Trek, Abrams seems to have developed a liking for using lens-flare in many of his shots and this has become part of his signature style (something I’m sure his director of photography is annoyed about). He has also become quite proficient at using sudden, surprising, entries of “things” into the shot (along with loud noises) to jolt the viewer out of the comfort zone.

As mentioned before, the story is quite predictable, yet you still sit through the movie craving every new detail that dots the line from A to B. The film-within-a-film, is also used very effectively, not only as a plot device, but also to foreshadow the larger film itself. It is also worth waiting around during the end credits, as the film project the kids were working on (shot on Super 8 film, hence the name) is shown in its entirety.

Elle Fanning and Joel Courtney do a stellar job in the lead roles, and the supporting roles are also well-cast. In particular because none of the supporting actors, especially the adults, overshadow the kids. Towards the end, as all the loose ends are being tied up, some of the “resolutions” seem a little contrived. One also has to spend a significant part of the film getting over the minor technical detail of a small pickup truck derailing a train (although, for what it’s worth, the derailing scene is spectacular if overblown¹). There are also other minor factual errors which you wouldn’t notice, the appearance of a Sony Walkman (before its time) and the mention of a Rubik’s cube (also before its time) and these don’t detract at all from the watchability of the film.

Overall, a predictable yet exciting, spectacular, and emotionally-involving film experience. I give it four stars out of five.

The Original

The film is a refreshingly original take on the vampire genre. Oskar is a 12-year-old boy who is a “difficult” child. He’s a little anti-social, and is the preferred punching bag for a group of local bullies. He lives with his mother in a small apartment block when an old man and a young girl (presumably his daughter) move in next door. The plot revolves around the experiences of the boy over the course of a few weeks during which he becomes friends with Eli, the girl who is also 12, more or less. He gets bullied, Eli solves a Rubik’s cube, he stands up to the bullies, and a few of the town’s residents die under mysterious circumstances along the way. At some point, Oskar falls in love with Eli and then discovers that she is a vampire, and that she has been 12 for quite some time. The bullying escalates, the killing escalates, and the love escalates, all coming to a crunch at the end. Formulaic, yet magnificently executed.

A thriller, and a horror story this may be, but it is mostly a love story and a very good one at that. A very pure, slightly awkward, and innocent love between two children is very well portrayed by the two leads. Lina Leandersson deserves especially high praise for her role as Eli, an extremely complex character. The production of the film itself is sound, with snappy dialogue and that slightly creepy ambiance, essential to all good films of the vampire genre. The screenplay was, in fact, written by the author of the original book and from what I’ve heard (I have yet to read the book, but it’s on my to-do list, right after “learning Swedish”) much has been cut out, but it preserves the essential essence of what the story is about.

The film is rated R is most countries, but that’s because it’s so raw. It doesn’t shy away from being slightly uncomfortable at times, and it certainly doesn’t shy away from being creepy (c’mon, it’s a film about a 12-year-old vampire). It is gory in sections, but not overly so. In fact, the “gore” factor is used very sparingly, and to good effect. The pace is good, and what little action there is, is very believable. I was never really aware of the Swedish film industry prior to this, but everything in this movie “clicks”. I would recommend it to anyone, and was surprised to learn that it wasn’t Sweden’s entry for the best foreign language film in the Academy awards of 2009. I would recommend this film to anyone.

The female leads in the original (left) and remake (right)

The Remake

You’re in for a surprise, because this is actually really good. Fans of the original film, myself included, cringed when we heard that there was going to be a Hollywood remake. Hollywood remakes of good foreign language films are rarely any good, and most are unwatchable. This one is different. Matt Reeves deserves many hugs from everybody for his exceptional treatment of the remake. He pretty much stuck to the old saying of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”.

The remake is almost exactly the same as the original. It is spooky how similar they made the two films. The story is (almost) exactly the same, most of the scenes are exactly the same, right down to the pacing of the line delivery. Some of the scenes even followed the shot sequences from the original (yes, I’m a movie nerd and I remember these things). There were very few changes, and as a result, the essence of the original film was largely preserved.

A few complaints: In parts where the dialogue was modified, it was amended. Amended to explain things more. You know how a joke isn’t funny if you have to explain it? Well, horror films that are supposed to be shrouded in an air of mystery begin to lose that air if you just keep explaining things away. Similarly with some of the visuals. The filmmakers did well to mimic many of the shots from the original, but in the instances where they didn’t, they showed more, again diminishing the creepy, mysterious ambiance somewhat (this is especially true for the final “showdown” scene, which was MUCH better in the original). I am just nitpicking a little bit here, if you hadn’t seen the original film, you probably wouldn’t notice these little missteps. There is also a small amount of CGI in some of the “attack” scenes, which I thought was not only unnecessary, but poorly executed.

Certain things were added to modify the story which initially annoyed me. I won’t write what they are, because many of them will spoil key parts of the film, but upon reflection these modifications really weren’t so bad. One of them even causes the overall story of the film’s universe (i.e. stuff that happened before and after the events of the film) to change significantly, but really… it doesn’t take away from the overall experience of the movie. For those who haven’t read the book or seen the original, these modifications wouldn’t even register.

The actors who play the leads were fantastic. They needed to be, to be able to fill the shoes of those who played in the original version. My only real complaint is that they both look a little too healthy and wholesome. Chloe Morentz you will recognize from Kick Ass, and 500 Days of Summer, and she really is an exceptional talent, but she’s also just a little bit too good-looking to give off that creepy, awkward vibe that instills a slight level of discomfort in the viewer. Still, she deserves an award for this role, and if there was a category for “Best Hollywood remake for a foreign language film” then Let Me In would have it in the bag.

Shot for shot, the remake mimics the original very well

So there, I begrudgingly admit that this is not just a good remake, but a very good one, and certainly a very watchable film in its own right. I do prefer the original, even though I have to read subtitles for the whole thing. Sometimes I feel that they should have just dubbed the original and re-released it in the US. The slight modifications that were made take some of the edge off the film, which is a pity because it really had a chance to be truly great as there is something to be said for Hollywood production values. It did however serve the purpose of bringing this wonderful story to a wider audience while also showcasing the talents of two very good child actors.

Both films are definitely worth seeing. Watch Let Me In first, then Let The Right One In (why did they change the name, SERIOUSLY!?). If you only watch one, make it the Swedish one. This is not a horror film, but a love story disguised as one, and a very good one at that. I wish more people made films like this.

The original Tron was released in 1982. I had barely been born at the time. I first watched it on TV, when I was a young and impressionable boy and I remember enjoying it. I recently re-watched the original to refresh my memory  when the sequel/remake came out. It turns out that this wasn’t necessary as the new film, while ostensibly a sequel, is understandable by anyone who hasn’t seen the original. Or at least, its level of understandability is not affected much by whether or not one has seen the original. The plot is essentially exactly the same making this film a sequel and a remake all at the same time. In fact it is surprising how little has changed in 28 years. There is one significant difference though – the new film is not quite as good.

The special effects have certainly improved. The way the movie is set up gives cgi directors the perfect excuse to showcase their art. In addition to this, the new film makes use of 3D glasses which adds yet another dimension (quite literally) to the film. The implementation of 3D was actually quite well-handled because the film makers didn’t use it all the time. Scenes in the “real world” were shot and displayed in 2D while those in the computer world were in 3D. The transition was also quite well-handled and the feeling it gave the viewer was reminiscent of the scene in The Matrix where Keanu Reeves’ character first wakes up from the Matrix and things are slightly confused.

Unfortunately the makers of this film dedicated too many resources to making the film look cool. It does look very cool, but one can’t help thinking that more effort could have been spent on better dialogue, more character development, and possibly an original plot, or at least one that wasn’t exactly the same as in the previous film. There are plenty of textual references and small-scale sight gags which remind older viewers of the original film. Indeed there are many references to the original, although it would have been nice (and friends of mine who are fans of the original also agree) to see more of the character Tron, who sadly only makes a few fleeting appearances.

The strongest thread linking this film with the original is, of course, Jeff Bridges. It is also with Jeff Bridges that one of the few original ideas of this film is manifested – there are two of him. One is a clone computer program who he created in his own image (and who doesn’t age) to assist him in building the perfect system, and the other is an “old” (current) version of himself. In Jeff Bridge’s computer clone is probably also the best “special effect” of the whole film, and that is the recreation of a young Jeff Bridges.

Jeff Bridges in the Original Tron, and his old and new self from the more recent film

It is no secret to anyone who I’ve spoken to about this film that I feel that Bridges carries the whole film. If Jeff Bridges wasn’t in the film, I don’t think I would have bothered watching it. The main guy, I forget his name, has laughably poor screen presence although some better direction and writing certainly would have helped. It was just difficult to take him seriously after he is sucked into the computer program, and then first sees his father, who he hasn’t seen for 20 years and believed dead, and displays only the slightest hint of an emotional reaction.

The token female role this time is played by Olivia Wilde, who I admit is the other reason I went to see this film. She is quite pleasing to the eye, make no mistake, but a great deal more should have been done with her. She has screen presence, and isn’t devoid of acting skill. She was however somewhat lacking in good lines throughout this film and her character’s lack of character did not make up for how well she wore her tight-fitting outfit. The “look” they gave her was also strongly reminiscent of Leeloo from Luc Besson’s masterpiece The Fifth Element. Milla Jovovich fortunately had a lot more acting to do in that film. In short, don’t watch this film just to see Olivia Wilde look hot, you should watch an episode of House instead.

Also look out for Cilian Murphy who plays the role of Ed Dillinger’s son in the new film (it would have been nice to see more of his character, but sadly that all fell into a plot hole). Another notable cameo appearance is from Steven Lisberger, the writer/director/producer of the original Tron movie, making a brief appearance as a bartender. One wonders why they didn’t ask him to play a more significant role in the remake. Instead, the direction of this film was entrusted to Joseph Kosinski who has never before directed a feature film, and the main writing credits go to two people whose names I cannot recall (and don’t wish to) who have only ever written for TV series’. Sure, there have been many first-time directors who did very well (such as Hugh Hudson on Chariots of Fire) but why they would do this on the 20-year-sequel to one of the largest cult film franchises in history is beyond me.

Plot holes abound, there is no MCP, and the light bikes don’t do 90 degree turns anymore. Olivia Wilde is hot, but not that hot, the CGI is cool, but not that cool, and the 3D is not enough to lift the flat mood and texture of the film into “watchable” territory. Jeff Bridges carries the film that I didn’t expect much from, and got even less. Even the subtle references to the old film aren’t that great (check out the posters). If you get to see it for free, or very cheaply on a night when you’re really bored and there’s no curling on TV, then see it. Otherwise… you’re better off renting the original and being amused by 1982′s idea of cutting-edge special effects.

The poster from the 1982 and 2010 films side by side for comparison.

Speaking of checking the news, some observant readers will have noticed that I did not mention any news applications in my previous reviews. With my old phone, I only had the New York Times application on my phone, and I wasn’t a frequent user of it, preferring to read the newspaper on my laptop. As you can see above, I’ve expanded the number of news apps on my phone. I’m not often a huge fan of newspapers… if you’ve ever really known about something, then read about it in a newspaper, you’ll know that they often get a lot of things wrong. Science writing in all but the largest, most well-funded newspapers is generally appalling, and most opinion writers don’t have very well-formed (or even well-written or funny) opinions.

Newspapers are, however, good for news. When stuff happens… this is where you find out about it. Finding out about it through the internet is quick, easy, and convenient. Having eight different internet news services to check ensures a reasonable spread and that as little as possible gets missed. As for the quality of their iphone apps, the range is huge. My favourite is the BBC app. It is easy to navigate, customizable, and everything works well.

The categories are organized in rows which can be “slid” to reveal more stories – very elegant

The CNN app is like all the others, just a list of top stories. Changing categories is buried in the menus.
Also worthy of mention is the Reuters app. The news section is like the other news apps in that it is a simple row of “top stories”. Of particular note though, are the markets and stocks section as well as the exchange rate section. The markets section allows you to not only look up where an index happens to be, and how much it shifted in the past day/week/month, but it features interactive charts which can be scrolled, panned, and zoomed to your heart’s content. The reuters app also features one of the most intuitive and user-friendly exchange rate finders I’ve come across (with up-to-the-minute exchange rates, of course).

Bottom of the list in terms of implementation of their app is Al Jazeera, whose app is nothing more than a glorified web browser with the Al Jazeera website as its homepage. Lucky for them, their news coverage, in particular of the conflicts in the middle east, is very good.

Evernote

I’ve been looking for a good note-taking app for a very long time. Those who knew me in high school know that I used to carry a little notepad with me everywhere I went in case I ever had a good idea. This was eventually replaced by various Palm PDA products, then a Moleskine notebook, and most recently, I’ve been using the plain old notepad on the iphone. (I still haven’t had a good idea, but we live in hope). Evernote combines everything – notepad, voice memo, and you can also make notes with pictures. Your notes are tagged with your location thanks to GPS, and your notes are all searchable.

…and as if that wasn’t enough to convince you that this app was worth getting, it even comes with an icon of an elephant, and everyone knows that elephants are cool.

Momento

Apart from being one of my favourite Christopher Nolan films, Momento is also my favourite diary app. Always there on your phone to record memorable moments, you can tag your entries with your location, the names of people mentioned, and even attach photos to them. It also offers passcode security to open the app, so you don’t have to worry about people flicking through your personal diary whenever you lend them your phone. All that I suppose is expected of a diary application, but I have until now struggled to find an app which brings them all together in such a user friendly way.

Another interesting addition to what you’d normally expect out of a diary is that it can import your tweets, facebook stati, as well as last.fm activity. This all goes towards giving an effective snapshot of the particular time you’re looking back on. In fact, it somehow managed to import my facebook stati all the way back to August 2008. Tagging people can get interesting over time, because you can look up your tags and see just who ends up getting tagged a lot.

So far, I’ve made at least one entry every day. Something I’ve found, is that since my phone is the first thing I reach for whenever I wake up (before my glasses!) I have been using this as a “dream diary”, jotting down what I’ve been dreaming about before I forget. Like I said before… looking back to see who’s been tagged a lot is very interesting.

iXpenselt

Budgeting is not one of my strong points, so it’s a good thing that I have an app that helps me do it. Apart from being a combined notepad and calculator which helps you keep track of your inflows and outflows from day to day, it has a “reporting” function which constructs a summary, some bar charts and (and this was my favourite) a pie chart showing a breakdown of which categories consumed what portion of your budget. Those who know me will not be surprised at what the following pie chart looks like.

iRail

I recently purchased a 10-day eurail pass so that I could travel more cheaply by train across Europe. When one purchases a eurail pass, it comes with a booklet with train timetables in it. LOTS of train timetables. Convenient as this is, you still have to figure out connections and routing yourself, and if you’re not very familiar with the European rail network, and need to make a long trip which is not serviced by a direct route (or if you’re traveling in or out of a not-major train station), then it can be fiddly and time-consuming to look up. The iRail application does it for you. With a very simple interface, you can get from just about anywhere to anywhere else in Europe. It will tell you how long it will take, how many stops, where they are, and it will give you various options.

Just for fun, I searched for a journey starting in Paris, and ending in Vladivostok. Turns out the train leaves tomorrow (Tuesday 5th October 2010) at 6pm and arrives at midnight in a little over a week.

boy am I glad they give you a sleeping car on the 6-day-train from Moscow to Vladivostok… I see it this way – it’s a week of comparatively cheap accommodation.

(notice how all the stops in Germany already have platform numbers assigned)

Light-O-Matic

Those readers who have gone backpacking will know what I’m talking about when I say that your phone’s most common use in a youth hostel is as a light (not for cigarettes). With the advent of smartphones with maps and GPS (and entire travel guidebooks stored in them) this has probably changed a little, but I’m sure many of you have wondered about somehow being able to use the small LED-flash on the phone’s camera as a torch. I know I have.

This app is relatively simple, and does what you’d expect. It also has a very nifty “safety mode” (not to be confused with the “safety dance”) for emergencies, where you can type text into a box, then it can translate that text into morse code and signal it using the LED light. Who needs walkie-talkies when you’ve got a morse-code translator? (ok, I realize it’s on a phone)

Hipstamatic

They say the best camera is the one you have with you. I often tote around a very chunky Nikon D700, but sometimes I can’t be bothered. I don’t like being “that guy” at parties carrying a huge camera around (it only seems to be acceptable practice when the party’s attendees are all photographers). For parties where carrying such a large camera was inappropriate, I used to carry my point-and-shoot around, tethered to my wristwatch, which worked moderately well during the Vancouver Olympics’ afterparty, but was still a bit of a burden. Finally the iphone seems to have a fairly decent camera in it. It even comes with a flash. It even comes with a ton of processing power that is totally useless for a small 4 megapixel camera… unless… you’re into lomography.

Pick your lens, pick a flash, pick out some film… then shoot. This application basically simulates the effect of the diverse variety of unusual and low-tech cameras used in lomography. The results are interesting, and often quite amusing.

And once you’ve taken your photo, you can review it, then do what everyone obviously wants to do with their artsy photos, and that is share them with their friends. The app offers a number of way to accomplish this.

And… just in case you’re crazy like me, and aren’t sure about what film, lens and flash combinations work best, I’ve included a chart in which I combine every different lens type with each different kind of flash. (click the images for larger versions, the first row is without flash).

(if anyone would like the full-sized version of this, (a 25 megabyte png file) I can email them). The next chart shows the combinations of film with or without flash, and using the first kind of lens from the above chart.

Oh… and in other news, after agonizing over whether to use this, or that photograph for my laptop skin, I have found a use for the photo that I didn’t use – as my iPhone lock screen. The higher screen resolution really does do it justice.

My New iPhone

About two weeks ago, I received a long-awaited package in the mail – my new iPhone 4. My previous phone was the original iPhone, purchased in September 2007 about two months after its initial release, and before it was available outside of the US. Of course, I didn’t know any of this at the time, and simply bought the phone because I’d heard good things about it, and I happened to be in the 5th Avenue Apple store on my first day in New York buying a new laptop computer. While my shock and awe at first switching on this iPhone will never compare to that memorable first time, when I was an iPhone virgin, popping my iphone cherry, it was still pretty special. The most obvious difference is the new screen, which has an impressively high resolution – not quite high enough for me not to be able to distinguish individual pixels, but almost.

The second most obvious difference is that it takes micro-sim cards, rather than mini-sim cards (which are the standard on all mobile phones. This is a much smaller problem than it seems, because the chip itself is actually the same size, only the plastic surrounding it is smaller. A pair of scissors and a nail file later, my new iPhone was ready for action. Another welcome addition was the inclusion of an orientation-lock function which can be accessed by double-tapping the home button, making bedtime (read: sideways) iPhone reading just that much easier and thus making my already busy and hectic life a little more bearable.¹

In actual everyday use, the device is much faster than the original iPhone as it has a faster processor as well as more RAM. In addition, the model I ordered has 32gb of storage space, while my old phone only had 4. While my old phone was only really useful for checking emails, browsing the web (slowly), and playing the occasional song or game, the new phone has the capacity to do so much more. As a result, I’ve been installing and testing a whole bunch of apps, and here are some of my favourites. Click on the headings to be taken to the website of the app.

Align of Sight

This may go down as one of the coolest apps ever. The intent of the app is for cameramen to be able to align their cameras in an exact manner. In particular, it allows the user to take a shot, record everything to do with that shot position-wise, so that the shot can be repeated later. As a photographer who occasionally dabbles in motion in addition to still photography, this is a very useful app. However, in being able to do all those things, the makers of this app have created a very powerful tool which can be used for many other things. It is a GPS, a spirit-level, and a compass all in one. In one foul swoop, this app has pretty much replaced three apps that I used quite frequently. The screenshots speak for themselves:

Sleep Cycle

This is one of the applications that existed on my old iPhone. The idea is easy enough – it tells you how well you sleep. It does this by using the accelerometer built into the phone. When you need to sleep well (like, say, if you’re a professional athlete training for the olympics), you need to first have useful feedback about how well you’re actually sleeping. This app provides that information in the form of a handy sleep-graph. It is also supposed to wake you up at a “convenient” time as far as where you are in your sleep cycle is concerned, but that isn’t really what I use it for.

The more time you spend in the “Deep Sleep” region of the graph, the better you are sleeping. This way you can look for patterns in your sleeping behaviour over many sleeps. For example, you may be partially woken up every night at 3am because your heater makes a funny noise and that could be causing you to sleep poorly for the rest of the night. Without a sleep graph, you would never have known. I used to wear a heart rate monitor to bed once or twice a week to figure out the same things and, while it was interesting to learn that my heart rate hovered at around 40bpm while I was in deep sleep, this is better mostly because it isn’t as uncomfortable, allowing you to monitor your sleep every night.

Undercover

Ever had a phone stolen? How about a computer?² Well, the purpose of this application is simple enough – to locate a lost or stolen iPhone, iPad, or MacBook. It’s pretty simple really, if your phone is stolen, you log in to the website (where you’ve registered previously) and report your phone stolen. The device gets pinged, and you are well on your way to finding it.

(it's actually about 50m off...)

Convertabot

There are a multitude of unit converter programs out there, but this one has stuck with me. Converting units is simple enough, but designing an intuitive, user-friendly interface is sometime difficult, and convertabot does very well. What also impresses me about this unit converter is the number of units from which one can choose. For example I can convert nautical miles to angstroms, smoots, or even light-minutes…

World Weather

Just as there are a multitude of unit converter apps out there, there are a plethora of weather applications available for the iPhone. I like world weather because it doesn’t tell me more than I really want to know. Of course, what I want to know, and what anyone else wants to know are not necessarily the same, or similar, which probably explains why there are a plethora of different weather applications available. (if you’re wondering about what information I’m interested in, there’s a weather box towards the top-right corner of this website). At first glance, it tells you the essentials – temperature and windspeed (actually the most obvious first thing is the sun or lack thereof, which is fine for me because I usually check this when I’m still in bed and the curtains are drawn). Then with one tap, you get all the other stuff. If you’re not bored of the weather by this point, you can rotate your phone to see a 6-day forecast…

First three days of the six day forecast:

Shazam

Don’t you hate it when you hear a song in an elevator and don’t know what it’s called?³  I used to try remembering an unusual section of the lyrics, then google the text later in between double inverted-commas. This doesn’t always work though, because the lyrics aren’t always very clear or distinct (try googling something like “I miss you”, and you’ll see what I mean). Sometimes a song won’t have lyrics in a language you understand (like Juanes’ “La Camisa Negra”), and sometimes there won’t be words at all (most of Enigma’s “Return to Innocence”). Shazam is an application that can listen to a small section of the song, and identify it… which is pretty darn nifty if you ask me.

Red Laser

The icon says it all – this is a bar code scanner. You would be surprised how much fun you can have with this. Walk up to your favourite hemorrhoids cream at the supermarket, hold up your iPhone, and the camera scans the barcode.⁴ Then it searches the internet for various sellers and prices so you can see if your local Aldi (or Woolworths, Tescos, or Wal-Mart) is ripping you off, and by how much. Then you know exactly what to say when you finally get around to writing that angry letter to the manager about price gouging.

Lonely Planet Guides

This might sound strange, but I’m not actually much of a guidebook person. I’ve used guidebooks before – Nick’s Mexico lonely planet saved us from being ripped off by a taxi driver within an hour of landing in Mexico City, and my Footprint South American guide pretty much got me through my 5-month odyssey, but I generally like to just talk to locals and do non-touristy things. That said, the iPhone lonely planet guides are actually very useful. They provide a lot of background information you wouldn’t ordinarily learn and they also now have very useful and useable maps which, when paired to an iPhone with GPS, can save you a lot of time and stress if you’re sightseeing on a tight schedule. The information in the electronic guides is not quite as comprehensive as in the books, but they also cost a lot less, and take up less space, and weight in your baggage.

Also… and I’m not sure why, but I like reading through lonely planet guides of places I’ve lived in (Melbourne, New York, Hong Kong etc.)

Gourmet Restaurants

Anyone who has been paying any attention to this website will know that there are three things that I love to do with my time – traveling and eating good food.⁵ I haven’t yet gotten around to downloading all the Michelin guides available for the iPhone (for some unknown reason, they’re not available in my local itunes store) but this gourmet restaurant guide is a good start. For each region of the world, they have chosen seven of the best restaurants they can find. They claim to have worked with a group of well-traveled food editors, and it seems like they really have. In the regions with which I am familiar, they have chosen roughly the same restaurants that I would have chosen. The page for each restaurant contains a short description, along with contact details like address, website, and telephone number, as well as useful tips like “The Fat Duck only accepts bookings by telephone up to two months in advance of the desired date”.⁶ How useful this app actually is remains to be seen, as most of the restaurants listed require bookings months in advance.

Games

Now finally we come to games. Obviously, I have all the well-known and popular games, such as Angry Birds, Stick Wars, Doodle Jump, Bubble Free (where my high score is a staggering 337), Oregon Trail, and Flight Control, but I thought I’d include some of the lesser-known games which I have also spent a lot of time… er… testing.⁷

Auditorium

Auditorium is a game I first came across before iPhones existed (I think). The concept is simple enough – a stream of stuff flows across the screen. You are given some things with which to direct the stuff at little squares that look like graphic equalizer bars. Ok, that was an uncharacteristically awful description, but play the demo on the website and you’ll know what I mean. I was asked by a friend to recommend a game for procrastination purposes, and being as I am, an expert in the arts of procrastination, I directed my friend to the website where I then learned that the iPhone version had been recently released. The majority of my solo train trips in Holland were spent playing this game. It is challenging and rewarding, not only because it is challenging, but also because the game is aesthetically beautiful; observe:

iGo Free

Go is an ancient board game with origins in China. Earliest records date to the Zhou dynasty, but it is likely that the game is much older. The game is rich in strategy despite having very simple rules. I prefer go to chess because games are generally quicker, and because go can be played in a smaller board if a faster game is desired. Another interesting point about go is that computers are very bad at it. It took a computer until 1997 to beat Gary Kasparov, while a computer has not yet managed to come close to beating even an intermediate-level go player.⁸ The fact that the number of possible go games exceeds the number of atoms in the known universe may have something to do with this. They say that playing board games reduces the risk of Alzheimer’s disease, so this one’s for my health.

The free version of this game allows you a maximum of five games per day (I play about that many in a week), so if you’re a go nutcase you might want to invest in the full version.

Age of Curling

Did you really think I wouldn’t have a curling game on my iPhone? After trying out a few different curling games, this was, by a long way, the best of them. In terms of simulating the actual game of curling, this game does a very good job. You decide how much you’re going to spin the thing, then you adjust the weight of your delivery, then you throw your rock. The graphics give a realistic account of what it is actually like to follow the stone down the ice as it approaches the house, and you can vigorously rub your iPhone’s screen to simulate sweeping. The AI is decent, but not brilliant, and I am by no means an experienced curler, but when you are able to deliver a stone as consistently as the game allows you to, it is difficult not to win as long as you have even the most elementary smattering of curling strategy know-how.⁹ A full 8-end game takes about a third the amount of time that it does in real life, and it obviously lacks the social aspect of the game, but it’s a fun distraction while waiting at the airport.

and finally, a screenshot of my lovely background image:

Footnotes

A Spinning Top

Inception is a great movie, and one that really must be seen. Christopher Nolan delights moviegoers once again with a summer blockbuster that is sure to have everyone talking. This sci-fi heist movie is held together by great performances by the leads which tie in the resolution of emotional issues with strong dialogue and themes which constantly call into question the nature of reality itself. As much as the opening lines of this review seem clichéd, this is an unusual movie in that it truly does deliver on those promises.

Like the last epic blockbuster to grace the silver screen – Avatar, this film was almost a decade in the making. While James Cameron certainly had the kind of bankable reputation in Hollywood that would have allowed him to make Avatar whenever he wanted, he chose to wait until the technology was up to the task. Christopher Nolan’s setback was that he lacked the requisite reputation to convince a studio to give him the kind of funding that a movie like this really deserves. So, in the last ten years, he made Memento, Insomnia, Batman Begins, The Prestige, and The Dark Knight. To borrow a well-used line, he had me at Memento (to any who haven’t seen it, it comes highly recommended). All the films except insomnia were also written by him or by the team of him and his brother. His remarkable and meteoric rise gave him the ability to bring us The Dark Knight, a true cinematic masterpiece (and, in my opinion, still his finest work), and the commercial success of The Dark Knight has allowed him to bring us Inception.

I will aim this article towards those who have not seen it, and will try not to give too much away. I may pen a later article packed with spoilers in which I will attempt to start some kind of discussion about the film, aimed at moviegoers who have already seen it.

I was fortunate enough to see it both in a regular cinema and at IMAX within a few days of each other. First a technical note – there is little to be gained by seeing this film in IMAX. With the Dark Knight, certain scenes were shot in IMAX format so for those scenes, you really noticed it. In Inception, no scenes were shot in IMAX format, although some were shot in 65mm (rather than the regular 35mm anamorphic standard). However, if you live in a part of the world where the quality of the seats in an IMAX cinema is significantly better than in a regular one, then perhaps it is worth it, as the film runs for 2:28 minutes which is a long time to be sitting in a seat. Something else unusual that I noticed is that, in Hong Kong at least, there were no previews and very few ads shown before the start of the movie, so it started very close to the stated start-time. Most people (myself included) are used to anywhere from 10-20 minutes to pass between the start time on your ticket until the time that the movie actually begins. This may not apply anywhere else in the world, but if you’re reading this and live in Hong Kong – don’t be late. Despite the length, from a plot perspective, this is a very dense film, especially at the start and at the end. Missing the first 5 minutes can completely change how you perceive the movie.

The pace never seems frantic though. It is sometimes difficult to keep up with what is happening and it pays to pay attention to the small details in every scene. Having seen it twice, I can say that I picked up a lot of things on my second viewing that I hadn’t noticed on my first. Those familiar with Nolan’s older work, in particular Memento and The Prestige, will know that Nolan, being a student of English Literature, loves to play with narrative structure. This film is no different, although instead of the usual tools of flashback, and cutting between parallel storylines with different characters, he plays with the perception of the passage of time in the dream state.

Indeed the perception of reality is at the very center of this work. We ask ourselves “what would it be like if we could share dreams?”. There are hints of the Matrix here with characters interacting in a constructed reality, but in Inception that reality is constructed on the fly, by participants in the dream, out of a combination of their conscious and subconscious minds. One of the dreamers constructs the world, while the others populate it with their subconscious. The implications of this are many and varied, but as a heist movie the aspect which is explored is stealing information through the subconscious, because how can you guard against something over which you have no conscious control? As the title suggests, this particular story arc takes it one step further and explores the possibility of inception – planting the seed for an idea rather than stealing one.

The man hired for this job is Dominic Cobb, played by Leonardo DiCaprio who does very well in this role. His character’s interaction with their new “architect” Ariadne, played by Ellen Paige, lends the plot an emotional backbone that draws the audience in and makes us care in what would otherwise be just another silly action film. At times the supporting cast seem only there to advance to plot and I would have liked to see a greater degree of character development for them. However, I suspect that it is likely that that character development existed at some point but had to be cut out due to time constraints. In any case, each of the cast members brings something to the table, especially with veterans Michael Cain and Marion Cotillard keeping it real. Marion especially brings exactly the kind of chilling, haunting quality to her character, befitting of the role she plays as DiCaprio’s character’s wife’s projection in his subconscious.

The acting is very good. Notable among the cast are Ellen Page and Joseph Gordon-Levitt who in this film make the transition into mature adult actors. Not that they weren’t before, but they had always played less-mature, less-serious roles. Page of course best known for her role as Juno in Juno and Gordon-Levitt whose last significant role was 500 Days of Summer, which was decent until it was shot in the foot with an awful ending, and who we thought would forever struggle to shake off his identity as Tommy from the TV series 3rd Rock From the Sun. An actor normally thought of as a teen/chick flick type is graduated to the role of right hand man to the lead, and action hero giving a strong performance of a strong character who incidentally will now be remembered for “winning” one of the coolest fight scenes ever to take place in a hotel corridor.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt in a hotel corridor

In true Christopher Nolan style, the layers of narrative slowly build throughout the film and eventually crash towards their inevitable climax. The plot never feels terribly tired or predictable, and although the action sequences could be criticized for being slightly on the fantastic side of reality, since it all takes place in a dream, it is difficult to be able to pin down a technical fault with that. Perhaps the naming of Ellen Page’s character “Ariadne” was a little bit over-the-top as she not only builds the labyrinth world of the dreams, but also helps DiCaprio’s character out of his own labyrinth (although thankfully there was no appearance of a Minotaur).

The special effects are well done in that they aren’t particularly intrusive. They also don’t look particularly “unreal” as effects shots tend to be in films these days (really Michael Bay, a robot climbing a pyramid?). This is no small feat considering that the dream worlds, by definition, had to be unreal yet believable. The difference really is between taking something that is obviously not real; like rows of abandoned apartment blocks collapsing into the sea in the way that glaciers calve, and then making it real as opposed to taking something that in principle could be real; like a plane crash, or shark, and making it look like it was faked.

It’s difficult to do anything other than recommend the film, and it is difficult to write too much about what makes the film great without spoiling too much of the story. So I will simply say that you should see it. Don’t forget to pee before entering the cinema, don’t sit in the front few rows (a lot of deliberately shaky camera work is used and those susceptible to motion sickness may feel ill), and be prepared in your mind to absorb a lot of detail and dialogue in a short space of time. While I still believe that Nolan’s best work is the Dark Knight, and while it is still only August, I will say that I believe strongly that this will be the year’s best film. Will it get an academy award? Who the hell knows – I didn’t think the Hurt Locker was that great a film (and the Academy needs to learn how their own voting system works), and the Academy and I often have our disagreements (not that ANYBODY gives a hoot).

As a frequent lucid dreamer myself, I should warn others in a similar way that the realism of the portrayal of lucid dreaming may scare you, especially the way in which unexpected elements of your subconscious often make intrusions. Also, if you are in the midst of an existential crisis which is severe enough to cause panic attacks, then I would highly recommend that you let that episode pass before seeing this film. Like Nolan’s other works, this film has that rare ability to entertain in very conventional ways, while also being challenging to the viewer, and quite original in it’s concept and vision. I give it five stars out of five.

Blurring the line between Food and Art

Barely twenty days after my sublime experience at the famed Fat Duck restaurant I returned to the rarefied climes of Michelin 3-star dining with my skating coach and team manager to one of only two 3-star-rated restaurants in all of the Netherlands – De Librije. De Librije is located in a building that used to house a monastery in Zwolle, which is fortunately quite close to Heerenveen (where I currently live). One of us had never dined in a restaurant which had received any Michelin stars, let alone three, while another had dined here once before. I was in the interesting position of having dined at six 3-star restaurants in the past, making De Librije my seventh. With the memory of the Fat Duck still firmly in my mind, as well as the knowledge of its formidable reputation as one of the very best even among Michelin 3-stars, I was almost afraid that this experience would somehow “let me down”. It didn’t, not at all in fact.

It certainly wasn’t experimental on the level that the Fat Duck was. Each dish was not a chemistry experiment, and there was no liquid nitrogen. (there was dry ice though). In many ways, this restaurant was much more “old-school” and in that sense was more similar an experience to Gordon Ramsay’s restaurant. Diners are greeted with a barrage of “appetizing” courses on being seated, and after a few of these, they are finally greeted with the menu. The menu basically gives the choice between four, six, and eight “main” courses depending on one’s hunger level. Naturally, since I was part of the group, and since the others were taking a very “we’re here, we might as well try everything” attitude, we went for the maximum, and I was well-pleased.

Dry ice and Eel

Zwolle, despite its current inland location, actually used to be a coastal city (everything to the north and west of the city is reclaimed from the sea). I’m not sure if it was the chef’s intention of reminding us of this fact, but there was a lot of seafood on the menu. In the picture above, was an interesting dish consisting of eel, and… eel. One was a cold preparation while the other was hot. In addition, the hot version was served in a bowl with vents for steamy, dry-ice assisted, liquorice-infused smoke to add to the sensual experience of consuming this food. Throughout the meal, our minds’ expectations of the aesthetic of what food *should* look like was continually tested. It was remarked once “it doesn’t look particularly appetizing, but so far everything has tasted incredible, so I’m going to try it”.

Looks can be deceiving

At the end of the day, it isn’t about looks, but is about how the food tastes. This food tasted good. “Good” doesn’t really do it justice actually. The execution of all the dishes was perfect, and the tools of the trade were mostly the same – creams, consommés, foams, extracts, mousses, and so on. An interesting addition which I had not seen previously, was the use of flowers. As can be seen in the title image, flower petals were used extensively in some of the dishes. Perhaps it was a way of signing the dishes as “Dutch” and distinguishing them somehow. I must say that the flowers actually tasted quite nice, and I’ll think twice before I call another dutchie a “tulip muncher”. Still, despite the old-school methodology, the dishes themselves were still innovative and unique. The dish from the title image was one of my favourites being built around the very simple concept of small Dutch shrimps and shrimp sauce, and adding other stuff… like flower petals. Underneath the dish, there was another dish which was made up mostly of garden vegetables (mostly grown in their own garden) which was a refreshing way to end a dish which was made up of very strong savoury tastes and textures. (stacking the dishes on top of one another was also a clever way to control the order in which you consumed the food)

The Lobster Dish

All in all, it was another exceptional food experience. It was so exceptional, in fact, that it made all three of us late for our next scheduled appointments. It was so exceptional, in fact, that none of us really cared. Curiously, it is almost impossible to get a booking here for dinner, yet the lunch service is surprisingly empty on most weekdays (those crazy Dutch). The meal is identical. This is very much like Tetsuya’s was in Sydney, except that I still needed almost a full month’s advance notice to even book lunch there. What I’m basically trying to say is that this may be the most accessible 3-star Michelin experience in the world. I know of no other Michelin 3-star where you can walk-in and expect to be seated. The service is also quite exceptional, which, while expected of 3-star establishments, is slightly unusual for the Dutch, who are almost famous for slowness of their restaurant service. As for the standard of the food, I would rate it very highly. How highly? I would rate it just above Gordon Ramsay’s restaurant (but that is probably because I have a thing for seafood, if you’re not as crazy about seafood as I am, then it might fall just behind Gordo’s in the ranking), but below Per Se and the Fat Duck… placing it very near the top of a very short list – Highly recommended, and I’m definitely storing the number in my phonebook.

A feast for all the senses...

Heston Blumenthal is a chef well known amongst those who are into fine dining. His restaurant “The Fat Duck” has won numerous awards including three Michelin Stars, and Restaurant of the Year. When I say “Restaurant of the Year”, I don’t just mean restaurant of the year in Bray, Berkshire, or even all of the UK. This is a ranking that rates the most highly-regarded restaurants in the world. In this list, it has consistently placed highly, often coming second, and this year slipping to third with the remarkable rise of København restaurant “Noma“. Also often placing highly on this list are Per Se, Tetsuya’s, and Jean Georges, all restaurants that have been mentioned somewhere on this site.

I made the journey with the same two friends who I visited Gordon Ramsay’s restaurant with about nine months ago, and while they spent the intervening time getting engaged, I was getting hungry. In the context of timing, the visit was well-placed. I had recently returned from New York (a foodie’s wonder-city) to Heerenveen where I had very nearly cried when presented with the “provided dinner” (a.k.a. boarding house slop) that our building insists on serving to us. Unsurprisingly, I am taking every opportunity possible to escape and the Fat Duck came to the rescue in a timely manner.

mist from dry ice

To describe Heston Blumenthal’s creation as a “restaurant” and the dinner service as “food” is to sell it quite short. The restaurant is a theater, and the meal is an experience, an adventure even. Someone recently asked me what constitutes “good food”. I responded that truly good food must be an experience which encompasses as many of the senses as possible in a cohesive and immersive (and presumably pleasurable) way. Each scene in Blumenthal’s play on food was distinct, and beautiful in its own way, with many different and varied characters making an appearance, and almost (but not quite) to the point of distracting it from the primary objective – the food.

The Fat Duck is one of two restaurants in the world (the other being El Bulli in Spain) that practices what is known as “molecular gastronomy”. All this means is that the process of “cooking” a meal is taken to another level. The ingredients are treated more as parts of an intricate chemistry set. Our appetizing palette cleanser was a case in point. Green tea, lime, and a bit of vodka. Normal so far? Now make it into a foam. Weirded out yet? Now take that foam, and dunk it into a tub of liquid nitrogen to create a frozen foam ball. When brought into contact with a human mouth, after a split second of my-tongue-is-stuck-to-the-freezer sensation, this frozen ball explodes in an icy inferno of refreshing limey green tea goodness. Only the outer shell is really frozen, everything inside is mostly gassy allowing it to travel up to your nose and enhance the flavor sensations experienced by your tongue, with subtle smells experienced by your nose. As an amusing side effect, I also puffed smoke through my nose during my initial bite, indicating a tendency for me to bring my sense of smell to bear when sampling new food.

Roast foie gras - staple food for the gourmand

You know a dish is interesting if it has truffles in it and they’re NOT the main thing that stands out about the dish. The truffle toast was merely there to keep the “Jelly of Quail, Crayfish Cream” company. A piece of chicken liver parfait cunningly disguised as ice cream (I’m not kidding) rested upon a carefully layered concoction consisting of crayfish cream on the surface, jelly of quail in the middle, and pea puree at the bottom. The combination was an interesting one, and quite overpowering. The preparation of the jelly caused it to dissolve in your mouth and “sneak” up towards your nostrils in a manner similar to wasabi, except instead of a mustardy kick, this one came with a cool, refreshing assault on my sense of smell.

Alice in Wonderland was written by Lewis Carroll, a pot-smoking mathematician from Cambridge. Even he would never have dreamed of Blumenthal’s take on “turtle soup”. We were presented with what looked like pocket watches (actually, they looked more like chocolate coins with a chain attached) which we were instructed to dip into some hot water and stir. Rather like dipping a watch in a cup of tea – OOOOOOOooooohhhhhhh!!!! The watch promptly dissolved and turned our hot water into turtle soup with gold leaf, which we then poured into our bowls filled with jiggly stuff. Taste-wise, this was less spectacular than the other courses, but it gets full marks for artistic impression.

Food as Art

The sense of theatre never waned. Our next dish, presumably a fish dish (we were able to guess from the cutlery provided to us) first came to us in the form of a large shell from one side of which protruded ipod headphones. The “Sound of the Sea” dish adds sound to the palette of senses touched with what is ostensibly simply a plate of food. Well first of all, it wasn’t really on a plate, it was served on a pane of glass suspended above a box of sand. The chefs had gone to great pains to make the whole experience reminiscent of a day at the beach – something that struck us, as Australians, at the heart of our psyches. There was “sand”, and bits of seaweed, and fish. Of course, this was unlike any beach I had ever been to (even in Australia), because I could eat the sand, and it tasted good. Of course it did, it was made of dried, powdered baby eel…

Even the foam tasted good

Though I was sad to finish that course, and its complex yet strongly themed combination of tastes, smells (and sounds), our next course was also (mostly) seafood. I wouldn’t have picked it just by looking at the dish, but it was salmon, one of my favorite fish. Keeping it company on the plate were bits of grapefruit mixed with olive oil (no, really, it worked!) with asparagus, vanilla mayonnaise, and fish eggs. Strange a combination as this was, it was beautiful. The liquorice that the salmon was poached in was, thankfully, not overpowering. In fact, I wouldn’t even call it an aftertaste… more like, an afterthought.

would you believe... salmon poached in liquorice?

Something that struck me, was that the dishes were all stunningly well executed. Of course, you expect that at a restaurant of this caliber, but it is often too easy to get distracted by the exotic ingredients and preparation methods (liquid nitrogen? really?) and forget about the simple things. The salmon is a case in point, it was perfectly cooked and just a little rare on the inside allowing it to be juicy and the bring out the very best of the salmon flavor.

Black Forest Gateau

Throughout the meal, whenever each new dish was presented, there always seemed a bit of a danger that it would be too gimmicky, and that there wasn’t enough emphasis placed on how it actually would taste. Every time, I would cautiously bite into whatever it was, and be relieved. Some of the dishes are a little bit intense, or overwhelming with regards to the taste. In fact, it was the simpler dishes (like the snail porridge) that were regarded as the best. The desserts especially were awe-inspiring in that they were simple, or that their complexity was not overt but much more subtle. The black forest gateau for example was topped with a cherry… except that it wasn’t a cherry, but was simply made to look like one and tasted like one, except stronger (I must sound insane right about now). The telltale sign was that the stem was not a real cherry stem in that it did not attach to the cherry in the way that a stem should.

Whiskey Gums

Anyone who has ever accompanied me on a long train trip will know that I’m a big fan of wine gums. The Fat Duck takes this concept a step further with Whiskey Gums. Then they take it a step even further by making whiskey gums that are distinctive to different scotch-producing regions. Tasting these different flavor sensations and the way that some of them were smoky, while others tickled your tongue was a nice way to wind down.

Bray, Berkshire is a short drive from Maidenhead train station which is a non-trivial (about ten pound) train trip from Paddington train station in London. Apparently “small villages are big” in England… according to Joan, who I think meant to say that putting things like this in small villages instead of more obvious and convenient places (like central London) is fashionable these days. Nearly an hour of traveling each way almost demands a good reason for the trip (nevermind the 200 euro 8-hour train transit from Heerenveen, the Netherlands to London St Pancras station). Was it worth it? Yes.

Wax-sealed envelope containing our menus

The verdict? Heston is a name I have only ever encountered as a last name, as in Charlton Heston. Mr Blumenthal uses it as a first name. His name however is not the first and last name you need to know in the restauranting business. Although the circumstances of my trip to Per Se by Thomas Keller were not typical, thereby making the comparison slightly unfair, the New York Restaurant retains its place at the top of my own restaurant ranking, despite every other professional published restaurant ranking list disagreeing with me. The approaches are very different, and in a paradoxical way reflect different American and British approaches to food. Per Se is situated on the 4th floor of the Time Warner building overlooking Columbus Circle and Central Park, while Fat Duck is in Bray, Berkshire… a town that I would struggle to find on a map (and we struggled to find the restaurant for a few minutes, despite being dropped off within 10 meters of it!).

But in the end, it is about the food, and both… in fact all of my Michelin 3-star experiences are extraordinarily exemplary examples of fine dining, and the very best food that I have ever eaten (and I’ve eaten a LOT of food). I would rank it above Gordon Ramsay’s restaurant, although that was not a unanimous assessment of my dining group. I rate innovation and strong tastes delivered to the palette in varied ways very highly. I can definitely see what all the fuss is about regarding the molecular gastronomy, and the copious use of unusual techniques and ingredient combinations definitely adds to the experience more than it detracts. But when you’ve stripped all of that away, gotten rid of all the distraction, and focus on the food, you’ve still got one of the very best restaurants in the world. Not my top pick, but very close to it.

A relatively unknown animated feature from Ireland rocketed into the limelight with an academy award nomination for best animated feature. Although ultimately losing out to Pixar’s “Up”, it is the author’s opinion that this film should have won that particular award. All the elements of plot, visuals, music, and character development come together in this brilliantly complete movie experience. Aspiring film makers should take note because this isn’t just a wonderful example of an animated film, but a brilliant film full stop. It is an exemplary example of what a film should be, and that is a vehicle to tell a story.

The story is about a book – the Book of Kells, which is considered an Irish national treasure. Set in the 800s against the backdrop of viking raids it follows the story of a young monk in the abbey of Kells where his uncle, the abbot, is coordinating the building of a very large wall around the town to defend from the vikings. During the course of the story, Kells is visited by brother Aidan, a master illuminator who is part-way through his book, the book of Iona, named for the island he previously fled after it was overrun by vikings. The young monk takes an interest in illustration and the book, and in the process must journey into the forest where he encounters fear as well as a helpful spirit.

Aisling shows Brendan around her forest

The film is paced well from start to finish, and the characters (with their lovely irish accents) captivate the audience’s interest from the get-go. The real crowning glory of this film however, is the visual style. The animation is hand-drawn rather than computer generated, and reflects the desire of the film makers for life to imitate art (or art to imitate art) for one of the features of the book of Kells itself is it’s arresting illustrations and unique visual style. As such, every frame of this film is a wonder to behold as it very well reflects the visual style of the book of Kells, all the way down to the finest details and motifs. The unique visual experience immerses the audience in the universe of the film and suspends disbelief far better than most films of recent memory.

It is a great pity that this film did not receive a very wide cinematic release, but such is the plight of very small studios. It certainly deserves a wider release as it is entertaining in a way that even a small child can understand, yet does not fall into the trap of dumbing-down the content in order that it may be more easily classified as a “kids movie” (although the promotional material does seem aimed that way). A number of smaller cinemas are still playing it in the US. With any luck, the added publicity that an academy award nomination brings will ensure that it gets a good DVD release, but until then, there’s always the internet.

Watch this film! It’s only 75 minutes of your life, and you’ll love it.

Watch the trailer below:

Neill Blomkamps District 9 is edgy and brilliant

The readers of my website who have been following for a long time will know that I have written the occasional film review. In truth, I review a shockingly small percentage of the films that I watch. Part of the reason for this is because I often can’t be bothered, but the main reason is because I don’t want this website to become a movie reviews site, or to become known as one. That may seem strange, but this website is very much my public “face” on the internet, and while I am very much into movies, I don’t strongly identify with being known primarily as a film critic. In truth, I’m not particularly enamored with being known as a speed skater, preferring “mathematician”, “scientist”, or even “photographer”. (I also answer to “shit stirrer”, and “THAT guy”)

Recently though, I’ve been getting back into the business of watching a lot of films. In my youth, I was a very frequent patron of a local video rental store and I have easily seen over a thousand films, most of them very bad. These days, with the advent of the internet and torrenting, it has become increasingly easy to watch whatever films one chooses. I also fly a lot and boredom on long-haul flights combined with increasingly convenient entertainment systems has further increased my movie-watching opportunities. On the subject of technological advances, it has become increasingly cheap and easy to get into the business of making films. That’s right, I’m getting into film making. It has long been on the cards for there to be a TV show or documentary made about the Australian speed skating team, and the extraordinary story of its formation and progress, now punctuated by Sophie Muir’s participation in the Olympic Winter Games.

One of my mini-philosophies on life is that, if you ever want to be good at anything, there are two things that you must do: (1) observe as many examples of people who are good at doing that thing, and their work, and (2) practice as much as possible. I think that is the key to my success at still photography, that I spend a lot of time just looking at really good photos and thinking about them, and also that I just get out there and take a lot of photos (in the last 12 months, I’ve taken well over 60,000 photos).

So, as part of my preparation for constructing the documentary on the Australian Speed Skating team, I’ve assigned myself several bits of homework. First of all, I’ve begun making short videos (the training video, Josh’s introduction, and Sophie’s Pep Talk are examples). Second of all, I’ve been watching all the nominees for this year’s academy award for best picture (and then some). I’m a very opinionated and snobbish movie watcher preferring Lawrence of Arabia over Titanic any day, and one should keep this in mind when reading my reviews about the films and my opinions on their chances at the best picture award. But first, the nominees:

Avatar

James Cameron’s 3D epic is not a bad film, not at all. It is noteworthy for many reasons: first and foremost, it is in 3D. Unlike other offerings requiring polarizing glasses, the 3D-ness of Avatar was very well done. It wasn’t gimmicky, and after you got over the initial excitement of watching a movie in 3D, you mostly forgot about it and it really just enhanced the medium rather than becoming a distraction. I imagine that the first moviegoers watching films in color back in the 30s had a similar experience. There is no doubt in my mind that this is the future of film although we may not see widespread adoption for quite some time. The commercial success of Avatar, however, is very encouraging as it was undoubtedly a very costly production, and almost certainly recouped its costs.

Once you strip away all the technical wizardry, what are you left with? A well-paced plot with a fairly simple story, wrapped in a handful of deeper questions about the value of modernity, technology, and spiritualism in a post-colonial world. Filled with clichés, it is almost as if Cameron is making a mockery of the genre. “Unobtainium” is the classic MacGuffin and it is only actually seen once in the film’s entire 162 minutes. Visually, many scenes are strongly reminiscent of older Hayao Miyazaki films. The floating islands remind me of Laputa, and the tree of souls and its surrounds look a lot like scenes from Princess Mononoke. The writing and dialogue in general is sound but nothing special. In fact, it reminds me of action films from 15-20 years ago which, back then, would have been considered very bland, but in the context of the current crop of nearly-unwatchable action films (like 2012) which take bad dialogue and writing to whole new levels, it is a breath of fresh air.

The characters are not particularly complex, nor do they really need to be. Stephen Lang’s performance as head of security is quite strong, but is borderline overkill, especially towards the end where the energy of the film escalates and his behavior becomes frenzied. Michelle Rodriguez also played her character well and kept it very “real” in a surreal environment. Sam Worthington’s accent changes annoyingly throughout the film, but his performance was otherwise decent. He certainly didn’t mess it up, but an actor with a greater screen presence may have been able to add more substantially to the role.

Certainly a contender for best cinematography, and best editing, it is not best picture material. It is almost a certainty for best special effects even though it is up against two very strong nominees in Star Trek, as well as District 9 (both blend their special effects into the film more subtly). The academy and I haven’t always agreed though, so Avatar could well win best picture, even though I don’t believe to be good enough to even deserve a nomination.

The Blind Side

This is good old fashioned storytelling in film form. This is a formulaic story about a disadvantaged and talented sporting youth being adopted by a wealthy family. It is based on a true story, and focuses on the human struggle above all else, and that is its strength. The struggle is a mighty one, and the story is real, giving the movie an emotional weight that many sporting movies find difficult to find.

Sandra Bullock plays a very good WASP and carries the narrative of the film. Having only seen one of the other nominees for best actress, it is difficult to say whether she will get the nod, but she takes on the role well and with a maturity that I didn’t expect.

As for best picture, I doubt it will win. There’s just not enough there. If Bullock had pulled out a performance on the level of Jack Nicholson’s in One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, then that alone could have pushed this into the hunt. While engaging, it didn’t feel urgent enough. While touching, it just wasn’t moving enough. It is an outside, but highly unlikely contender.

District 9

Neill Blomkamp was discovered by Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson and he does a stellar job with this edgy and brilliant piece. Curiously, he did not receive a nomination for best director, but his is, in my opinion, the strongest contender for the title this year.

Based very loosely on the infamous district 13 in Johannesburg, this film is ostensibly about a large number of alien refugees who have to be dealt with by a sinister, privatized “Multinational United” corporation. It is a poignant statement about racism, segregation, and privatization. The best thing about it all, is that it doesn’t actually state any of these things to make that statement, instead, relying on the story to reveal those things to us. The character development and transformation of Wikus van der Merwe takes us through this gritty film at a brisk pace from the start all the way through to its conclusion.

It is similar in many ways to the 1988 film Alien Nation, although the situation of the aliens in this case is slightly different, as is the overall motivation behind them. Towards the end of the film, the tone changes slightly and it becomes more of an action shoot-out, which is disappointing. Nevertheless, it remains engaging and riveting throughout, and was a surprise commercial success despite no big-name actors and very little publicity. It is also up for the best screenplay based on previous material (a short film, directed by Blomkamp called Alive in Joburg) and definitely has the quality to win that as well. Being of the Sci-fi genre, it wouldn’t surprise me if it didn’t win best picture, but I certainly hope that it does.

An Education

Based on the Lynn Barber memoir, An Education is a coming of age story about Jenny, a young school girl from London’s outer suburbs with aspirations to go to Oxford, set sometime in the early 1960s. She begins seeing Dave, an older man who opens her eyes to the grown-up world. The story is simple enough, and the narrative follows the slow revelation of the life of David and his best friend Danny. Danny’s ditzy girlfriend is sometimes a little too ditzy, almost to the point of being jarring, on hearing that Jenny hadn’t done well on a latin test in school, she remarked “Someone told me that in about 50 years, no-one will speak Latin, probably… not even Latin people”.

Other than that constant comic relief threatening to burst the bubble of disbelief, the characters are textured and believable. Alfred Molina is great as Jenny’s father, and Emma Thompson makes a wonderful albeit brief appearance as the principal of Jenny’s school. Carey Mulligan gives a great performance as the main protagonist and the overall coming together of the elements of writing, editing, acting, and cinematography progresses very well and seamlessly throughout the film.

Though thought-provoking in light of what was to come later (e.g. feminism) and the issues that are dealt with, are carried well by the character development. We are encouraged to sympathize with Jenny, and we are drawn into the story which is engaging and well constructed… that is, until the last 10 minutes or so. For some inexplicable reason the whole film seems to fall apart just towards the end, and feels very weak towards the finish. It feels almost as if the film makers stopped trying, and that is a pity. Until then, An Education is a very strong contender for best picture, but due to the lack of punch in the ending, I’m fairly confident that it won’t emerge victorious. Mulligan though, is an outside chance for best actress.

Carey Mulligan in school uniform, getting wet at the side of a road with a cello

The Hurt Locker

As war movies go, this one’s pretty good. Following the story of several members of the bomb squad in Iraq, it captures the tension of the life and death situation well. It is technically a superb movie and could well pick up cinematography, editing, sound editing, and sound mixing, all of which it was nominated for. Unfortunately, as a complete film, I feel it falls short just slightly, but director Kathryn Bigelow (best known for Point Break, who is also nominated for best director along with ex-husband James Cameron) should be very happy with the film.

The film is an extended character study of Sgt William James, played by Jeremy Renner (and played very well I might add). A bomb specialist who seems to delight in the high-tension, high-risk situation of having to disarm the myriad of improvised explosives that the Iraqu insurgents dream up. The tension is very well-captured indeed, although I feel that the overall narrative lets the film down in that it is very episodic. The story moves from one set piece to another with only the faintest of segues. Each set piece is, individually at least, a wonderfully constructed piece of work (I especially liked the one where they get pinned down by a sniper for a whole afternoon), but there isn’t enough of a common thread to unite them all.

If, however, you can ignore the lack of narrative “glue” in this film, it is quite enjoyable and very well-paced. It is gritty in the way that the opening scene from Saving Private Ryan, or most of Black Hawk Down is, and cleverly avoids the realm of the political by focusing on an individual story through his tour of duty. I also have a great respect for the movie because it doesn’t fall into common hollywood traps like “you can’t kill a main character”. This film, just like the war, is indiscriminate about who gets knocked off. It may, despite its deficiencies, win best picture, though I doubt it. Much more likely to win the more technical awards, and is a decent chance for best director.

Inglorious Basterds

This is also one of my more liked films among the nominees. Quentin Tarantino directs a not-quite-historic period-ish film about Nazi-occupied France during the war. Clearly a talented director (and one of my favorites from a stylistic point of view) Tarantino’s films have always seemed a bit incomplete, or perhaps not-quite well-rounded would be a better way to describe what I’m thinking. In any case, Inglorious Basterds is his first very “Complete” film.

A story told quite simply, it is the characters and their development which drive the plot. Engaging dialogue, and charismatic characters keep the viewer glued to the screen throughout its 158 minutes. Unusual for a big hollywood film, a large portion of this dialogue takes place in French and German and is accompanied by subtitles. If you pay careful attention to the subtitles, you will notice that they occasionally (and intentionally) don’t translate what is being said, for example “oui” in French is sometimes subtitled “oui”. This, along with many other subtle signs throughout the film indicate Tarantino’s propensity to quietly mock the film making establishment.

Christopher Waltz, who playes Colonel Hans Landa (the “Jew Hunter”) gives an exceptional performance (speaking four languages quite fluently during the course of the film), and is rightly nominated for the award for best supporting actor. Overall, I wouldn’t mind seeing this one grab the best picture award, although I have a sneaking suspicion that it won’t. Still, a thoroughly enjoyable film, and enjoyable by a very wide demographic owing to the combination of Tarantino’s stylistic action sequences, as well as the more subtle in-jokes about the film industry peppered throughout.

Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire

A moving drama about the car-crash life of poverty and teen pregnancy in modern society (with a bit of incest and sexual abuse thrown in for good measure). Precious traces the story of Precious, an illiterate, overweight teen who is pregnant with her second child by her own father. You would struggle to start out worse in life, but this story is more about hope than anything else, and is ultimately uplifting.

Mo’Nique, who plays Precious’ abusive mother, gives an inspired performance and is my pick for best supporting actress. Even Mariah Carey makes an appearance, and thankfully actually does alright in the role of Ms Weiss (she also doesn’t look anything like she normally does, which helps the suspension of disbelief – and disbelief is what you invariably feel when you see her name on a cast list). In fact, the director, Lee Daniels, deserves a lot of credit for keeping this film together, because with subject material like this, it is all too easy to descend into melodrama and cliches. Instead, the film is gritty, real, and quite confronting.

The editing also deserves a mention, although at times it does seem to “try too hard” and overdo things just a little. Although the film doesn’t have any significant dead-moments where the momentum stops carrying, it also sometimes fails to connect with the audience. Perhaps it is my fault for not being culturally sensitive enough, although having occasionally lived briefly in Harlem (where the film is based) I doubt this is the case. A good movie, not a feel-good movie, and also not a best-picture.

A Serious Man

This was very enjoyable to watch. The Coen brothers do awkward, strange comedy very well, and this is no exception. A very cleverly-written piece about a man whose life is slowly disintegrating around him. The narrative flows almost like a piece of classical music, with central themes and recurring elements popping up and being repeated and reinforced as the story develops, giving the viewer a sense of an impending climax.

Larry Gopnik is a physics professor, and he leads a very happy life with a wife and two kids. He doesn’t really “do” anything, and that is one of the central recurring themes. There is also another interesting recurring theme concerning duality and uncertainty. There are many forks in the story which are almost-but-not-quite revealed (and some that are) but this lack of narrative closure doesn’t detract from the plot. In fact, it is used to enhance it.

A very clever film, and perhaps a little too clever for its own good. Many viewers will find the lack of closure in its various sub-plots confusing and ultimately unsatisfying (blame the current environment of brain-dead instant gratification movies like the unwatchable 2012). It should be a leading contender for the best screenplay written directly for screen category, but I doubt it will win best picture. I wouldn’t mind if it did though.

Up

Up is an unusual story about an explorer who sets out to accomplish the unfinished quest of traveling to “paradise falls” which, in many ways is an exact movie-universe replica of Angel Falls in Canaima, Venezuela (which I happen to have visited once). Of course, not everything goes according to plan, and a boy scout of sorts ends up an accidental passenger on this voyage, which takes place in a house suspended by thousands of balloons and propelled by sails (which doesn’t make sense if you know anything about sailing, but whatever).

Many have been raving about Up, calling it the best Pixar film ever. I disagree, feeling that honour still belongs to Wall-e (the first 50 minutes of it anyway). This film is worth it for the first 10 minutes and the last 5, for reasons that I won’t go into because it would spoil the film but anyone who has seen the film should know what I’m talking about. The rest of the film lacks the emotional gravitas that the bookends at the beginning and the end carry. I think part of the reason I didn’t enjoy the film as much as others is because I failed to connect or sympathize in any way with the character of the kid-boy scout who I found distracting and annoying (which is ironic, because as a child, I was very much like that).

That being said, this is not a bad movie at all. It is entertaining, and deals with (albeit at quite a superficial level) weighty issues like old age, parental neglect, and hero worship. Out of all the pixar movies, this is the one I would most categorize as a “kids film” while most of the others are quite mature films dressed up as kids films. I don’t believe Up is a serious contender for best picture, but should win the best animated feature category.

Up in the Air

Ryan Bingham (played by George Clooney) has the unenviable job of being a man who is hired by other companies to fire people. For this he spends over 300 days of the year on the road, flying from place to place across the US’ extensive air travel network. This film depicts the story of what happens when a “new kid” arrives in the company and changes their practices, effectively grounding him when he is just short of a lifelong goal – a million frequent flyer miles (myself, I am probably just short of 300,000, but those are from much longer, and less frequent trips).

Based on a book, the dialogue is snappy and it is the characters who ultimately bring this story to life. Clooney, along with Vera Farmiga, and Anna Kendrick are all nominated for acting awards and rightly so. Kendrick especially gives a great performance as the young naïve new kid who comes to face the human realities of what it means to actually fire people (apparently she’s in the Twilight series of movies, which seems like a waste of acting talent really). I was not particularly impressed by Clooney’s performance, although his reaction to certain plot twists is very well carried-out. I don’t believe he has a chance in the best actor award being up against the likes of Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker) and Morgan Freeman (Invictus).

A fun and very competently executed film. It loses a bit of momentum just towards the end of the second act, but that is mostly to prepare the audience for the third. Kendrick, being very attractive (how else do you get cast for a Twilight movie?) is sometimes distracting in this sense, although it is a welcome reprieve from what is otherwise a very dialogue-driven and cerebral film. I wouldn’t pick it for best picture, but it is a film that I would have no trouble recommending.

George Clooney fires someone while Kendrick looks on