First of the day was a short film made up of clips submitted by Australians to Youtube for a project documenting the many experiences of an Aussie Summer. The first word I wrote in my notebook was "dreadful". The premise, as we know because this film precedes Life in a Day, is not exactly original, but the chosen sequence of clips are sometimes beautiful and poignant, sometimes amusing, sometimes amazing, often times a sad portrait of the decay of youth in this country. Obviously a portrait of Summer needs some partying and drinking, but as the clips show, some people, actually a lot of people, take partying too far. The repetition of certain clips indicates that there was a lack of material to work with, although without knowing what was submitted, it is hard to know what was omitted and I absolutely hated the product. It may not necessarily have been a case of misguided creative choices, but I can only judge what I see.
Life in a Day was the exact opposite. The filmmakers had over 4000 hours of content to work with and the result was awe-inspiring. The clips were submitted to Youtube by users from all over the world, displaying events from their day on July 24th last year, so it was only fitting that the premiere screening in Australia be played on July 24th 2011. The film was beautiful, brutally honest, often times scary, heart breaking, and sometimes disgusting. Shocking, hopeful, funny, amazing, truly a unique view of the world. If you want to see just how varied, how individual and how amazing this world truly is then see this film. It is absolutely incredible how much happens around the world in one day and some of the characters that appeared throughout were incredible. I loved it.
The Solitude of Prime Numbers started off well as a portrait of two emotionally scarred characters who through a series of misguided events become entwined in each others madness and just spun out of control. Little secrets about their past are revealed slowly throughout and the film jumps between the future and various moments in the future. The film got a little better as it went on and then just plateaued and then lost it all together. Once the major reveal occurred the film became a bleak portrait of two brutally flawed people who see nothing in their lives to cling to but their sadness, solitude and each other. I have seen films that better handle manic depression and in-distinguished mental illness so this didn't fly with me. I don't like being really depressed after watching a film.
13 Assassins was great fun, a perfect Samurai film if ever I saw one. Complete with a tyrannical, sadistic, murderous young lord who is threatening the peace that has been reached in Japan, it is up to a group of real Samurai to stop this bastard where he stands, for as he is the brother of the Shogun he is politically protected by the Samurai who believe that the Samurai's job is to protect the lord, not the people. A group of 13 are assembled and a plot is set in motion. Great action sequences, inventive ways to illuminate anonymous henchmen, dramatic, funny, pure evil bad guys, truly honourable good guys and a wonderful ending. The fight scene was epic and an absolute classic. I was put off at first because I could not read the subtitles due to a very tall man sitting in front of me and Greater Union 3 being the worst cinema ever, but I thoroughly enjoyed this film and would definitely watch it again.
Pick of the day
Life in a Day was just too good for words and left me with such an overwhelming feeling of joy and awe and sadness and "what am i doing with my life"ness that I couldn't help but keep thinking of it all day.
Surprise of the Day
13 Assassins, I'm not a huge Asian movie buff and I haven't seen too many Samurai films but I absolutely fell in love with the genre after seeing this one.
Film total so far
15
No comments:
Post a Comment