FROM UP ON POPPY HILL [REVIEW]

Posted on September 25, 2012 by H D Thompson

Miyazaki father and son work together to make the latest Studio Ghibli film, with Goro Miyazaki directing Hayao’s screenplay and it’s an interesting partnership considering the troubles the two had on Goro’s first feature, Tales From Earthsea.

A teenage schoolgirl, Yumi, works tirelessly to support her family after her sailor father went missing at sea in the Korean War. Her mother is off working in America and she resides in her family house with her grandmother, younger sister and brother, and some boarders. She is the buttress of the family and keeps the house running smoothly. Her determination and love of her father is evident in her morning flag raising ritual – some flag signals he taught her before he left. At school Yumi joins a band of schoolboys in a fight to keep their beloved clubhouse (a beautiful old building very worn down over time and now housing the many clubs – astrology, philosophy, newspaper etc) from the wrecking ball of local government, and here is where she meets Shun, and the romance aspect of the story begins. Continue reading →

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FREEPLAY INDEPENDENT GAMES FESTIVAL

Posted on September 18, 2012 by Elizabeth Flux

If you are in Fed square this Wednesday and find yourself surrounded by shifty seeming characters working in teams to steal secrets and undermine each other, you don’t need to be either alert or alarmed – chances are that you are just in the middle of Spies by Night, a part of the Freeplay independent games festival program.

Freeplay has been running since 2004, and has gained a progressively larger following each year. To find out more about what to expect and the thinking behind it all, we spoke to Ben McKenzie, host of Dungeon Crawl, Can’t Stop the Serenity Melbourne 2012, and the production manager for this year’s festival.

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DAMSELS IN DISTRESS [REVIEW]

Posted on September 11, 2012 by Elizabeth Flux

Lily (Analeigh Tipton) is a new girl at Seven Oaks college, a university where “an atmosphere of male barbarism still dominates”. On her first day she is taken under the wing of a well established, self-assured group of girls determined to do good and help the depressed. Led by the vague, well-intentioned and almost uncomfortably up-front Violet (Greta Gerwig) the group runs a suicide prevention centre whose philosophy is based around tap dance and free doughnuts.

Damsels in Distress treads in familiar territory – but it does it in fifties heels and with a generous helping of the awkwardly blunt. For the first five minutes my mind was racing with comparisons: Clueless, Mean Girls, every college movie ever. Heather (Carrie MacLemore) is essentially my-breasts-can-tell-when-it’s-raining Karen slightly grown up. However the further in to the film you get, the further it veers off the expected course.

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YOUR SISTER’S SISTER [REVIEW]

Posted on September 7, 2012 by H D Thompson

The term romantic comedy sends such shivers through me (akin to gross-out words like secretion, swab or exercise) it’s easy to dismiss a film based almost entirely on this description – current theatrical competition for ‘romantic’ ‘comedy’ is Hope Springs, an embarrassing waste of very talented people. Luckily for little independent film Your
Sister’s Sister, it is crafted by smart people with next to no money but whale-penis-sized talent so the end product is refreshing, memorable and worthwhile.

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MOONRISE KINGDOM [REVIEW]

Posted on September 3, 2012 by H D Thompson

Let me make something clear from the start – I love adventure. In whatever form any sense of adventure is a winning ticket to my heart. I feel like Wes Anderson knows this and made this film for me, and in turn anyone else with the same adoration. I know some people are truly anti-Wes (too hip, too kitsch, way too self-aware), but I adore him and this film summed up everything I wanted when I was a child and still want now. There is adventure, longing, a touch of drama and love in its truest and most awkward form.

What kind of bird…are you?

Set in 1965, it tells the story of a young outcast orphan scout boy who meets and falls instantly in love with a young girl. They make plans to run away and with his scout skills, they cross their island home and set up camp in a haven they baptise Moonrise Kingdom. They are pursued by the relentless Scout leader and troupe in tail, the local law enforcement and the girl’s parents. Each character has its own story to tell, even the smallest – there are no superfluous souls.

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