elliott saw it first

French director Alexandre Aja first made waves with European horror film 'High Tension', a beautifully and brutally crafted slasher masterpiece starring Cecile De France as a young woman forced to save her friend from the grips of a diabolical midnight intruder. Since his directorial debut, Aja then went on to terrifying English speaking audiences with his controversial remake of 70's terror flick 'The Hills Have Eyes' and has just finished filming the horrific ghost story 'Mirrors' with Keifer Sutherland. Love him or hate him, it is impossible to deny that when it comes to delivering scares, Aja manages to do so in a way that feels much fresher and innovative than the base material itself. Maybe it's something in the blood, I don't know, but European cinema knows what it's doing when injecting fear into film.

Amongst this impressive triple threat lineup of horror heavyweights, Aja wrote a little film called 'P2'. The story is simple, Angela (Rachel Nichols) is a young corporate climber working late one night on Christmas eve alone in her building, with the exception of Thomas (American Beauty's Wes Bentley) the quiet and seemingly harmless security officer. Aja proves once again, that a simple concept can be the perfect stage for a compelling character piece and plays on the fears and paranoia that can come from a world of surveillance. In 'P2' Big Brother is watching, and Big Brother likes what he sees. As the piece plays out, Angela finds herself trapped within the building and at the mercy of Thomas. All he seems to want for Christmas is her and after inviting her to a meal which she declines she soon wakes up within his office, chained to a table, in a candlelit dinner date for two.

Wes Bentley was creepy enough in American Beauty, but P2 utilizes Bentley's intense stare and childlike innocence creating a psychologically fascinating villain for our heroin to match wits with. Aja turns the carpark, a familiar environment that we all encounter in our daily lives, into a warzone for our two leads to battle it out within. Directed by Franck Khalfoun (who actually appeared in High Tension as 'Jimmy' the illfated gas station attendant) under the close supervision of Alexandre, P2 is esentially a psychologically thrilling cat and mouse game taking place within a metropolitan wasteland.

It is a little gory. When Thomas offers Angela the chance to prove 'she is not a slut' to a fellow coworker who sexually harrassed her at the christmas party, things get a little bloody. However, Aja knows that the bloodshed in a good horror film should always be secondary to the mental horror and paranoia inflicted on it's audience as a result of good story telling and a finely crafted atmosphere. All in all, P2 is another example of what to expect from the new french face of horror and serves as a how-to-guide for delivering sophisticated scares on screen.

The late enigmatic actor, Heath Ledger, will posthumously receive the prestigious Chauvel Award for 2008. The announcement was made this morning by Queensland Arts Minister Rod Welford today at the public launch for the Brisbane International Film Festival (which administers the award) on Queen Street Mall. It was granted in recognition of Ledger's "for his contribution to the Australian film industry."

I just had it in a dark room full of strangers and I have to say; it was pretty good....



Last night, my roommate Sherryn and I went along to see Sex and The City on the big screen, a film I was understandably a little nervous about. Not because I have any apprehension to spending time with some of televisions most ground breaking and loveable female characters, quite the opposite. The series did a good job of wrapping things up at the end of its sixth season. It left it's characters to continue their lives without an audience, but not without giving us all hope that they were going to be just fine almost immortalizing them in the minds of fans. When you decide to open that floodgate back up, all sorts of problems can arise.

Sex and The City begins with sweeping shots of the city scape, and incorporates scenes from the television series in a bizarre, almost Spiderman 3-esque, opening title sequence. The music blares and the characters are thrown at us in a way that seems almost unnatural, it is all just so over the top. My nerves had not been calmed yet. Translation onto the big screen is a difficult task, and it has to be handled very carefully. At first the film feels almost like a caricature of the series, almost resembling a parody with the characters and locations all seeming unnaturally buffed and shiny. With an over the top score and similar theatrics, it almost feels like Disney's Sex and The City.

It is incredibly Hollywood, while the HBO series was not and it takes a little while before you can recognise the characters through their big budget, million dollar makeovers and realise that it is still them. It's not just the four actresses sitting a room together, impersonating the icons that the made the show so popular to milk the chick flick cash cow, even though it does feel this way at first.

It's a little hard to spoil the movie for you, but if you have somehow avoided the trailers, promotions, word of mouth, the media circus and other reviews…. Get over it. It's the Sex and The City movie, not the new M Night Shamalan. They don't all realize they are actually dead in the end or from another planet, so chill out. Nothing I say could shock you that much. The film follows Carrie Bradshaw as she spends the duration of the film running around in RIDICULOUS outfits, having her heart broken and lusting over a walk in wardrobe. Seriously, did I mention that some of the outfits are ridiculous? Like…. 'just shut up and smile, the costume designer promises she isn't pissing her pants' ridiculous. I will give props to Sarah Jessica Parker who always manage to wear the sideshow-esque get ups as nobody else could, even if nobody else would.

The film hits a few darks points, a heartbroken Carrie Bradshaw unable to pull herself by her Monolo straps with a witty one liner or insightful analogy is a sight to be seen. American Idol contestant Jennifer Hudson also appears as Carrie's likeable yet somewhat unnecessary assistant. Kim Catrall is fantastic (as always) as Samantha, even if the toned down environment of the big screen keeps her a tad more demure than we are used to. Sex and The City does what fans want it to do, all while giving us some truly tear-jerking moments. It is a celebration of friendship, sex and love, but don't worry…. If all that emotion gets a little too much for you, you're probably only two minutes away from another montage of fashion frolic.

How funny. The movie fanatic, a website which has a focus on young, emerging actors, quoted from my film blog. they have a feature on Tom Sturridge in their hotlist section and they quote my review of Like Minds.

there has long been rhetoric around the role of CCTV in perpetuating 'the gaze.'


red road is a surveillance thriller. jackie (played by kate dickie) operates a section of CCTV cameras in inner-city glasgow (which encompasses the notorious red road flats). she meticulously washes over her monitors, casting a watchful and caring eye over her section of the city. but when a man from her past, clyde (played by tony curran), appears on her screen the game changes.

red road is the debut film of oscar-winning short-film director andrea arnold. it makes up part one of the advanced party concept; the dogme-style film initiative of lone scherfig and anders thomas jensen of zentropa that sees three emerging directors develop scripts around the same group of characters. the red road expands:

Advance Party involves three directors developing scripts around the same group of characters. The films take place in Scotland but apart from that the writers are free to place the characters anywhere according to geography, social setting or ethnic background. The characters back-stories can be expanded, family relations can be created between them, they can be given habits good or bad, and secondary characters can be added if it is proper for the individual film. All of the characters must appear in all of the films. The various parts will be cast with the same actors in the same parts in all of the films.

red road showing at blue room cinebar
see the film's official website

the home song stories has a simple idea behind it: the pursuit of a place to call home. But that can be a hard task when you are the 11-year-old son (Tom played by Joel Lok) of an unstable migrant mother (Rose played by Joan Chen) who is terrified of her waning looks and cannot read or write.

rose abandons her life as a hong kong nightclub singer to marry bill (steven vidler), an australian serviceman, and move to australia in search of a new land full of promise for her children. but when she gets here, the 1970s australian socio-cultural climate is foreign and uninviting. she feels trapped financially and linguistically, and latches on to whatever elements of home she can.

The family moves home (and state) more times than Rose finds a new lover. But when she meets Joe, a chef in a Chinese restaurant, she starts a love affair that will ultimately send a rift through the family unit.

Based on the life of the director, Tony Ayres, the film is touching and very real: it is a story of displacement, depression and disaster with a beam of hope and humanity buried somewhere beneath it.

the home song stories comes out at Dendy exclusively on Thursday 23 August.
see the film's official website
see my abridged review in FourThousand

If a little bit of voyeurism simulates your filmic-desires, BIFF 07 stamps you into the front row of two gigs you would kill to get tickets to: Joy Division and Nirvana.

Control is a sleek black and white biopic of the life and times of Joy Division lead Ian Curtis. Come with Ian into the fear, paranoia, illness and depression that eventually leads to his untimely demise. Anton Corbijn’s film is not only moving but beautifully shot, definitely the best film about Joy Division since 24 Hour Party People.

And for a bit more music-fandom voyeurism get along to Kurt Cobain About a Son; a detailed look at the life of the late Nirvana front man. Told by Cobain in interview with renowned music journo Michael Azerrad, About a Son is as intimate as a soft touch and as bright as the paparazzi bulbs.

Control screens friday august 3 at 9.30pm at palace centro. about a son screens thursday august 9 at 2pm and saturday aug 11 at 12pm also at palace centro.

The Video Slam video is completed! The film, 5 smiles was produced by 5 teams of cross-discipline artists/filmmakers over 48 hours with both creative commons licensed content from the web and content shot on location in and around the Melbourne CBD. 5 smiles is an exploration of the themes of tolerance, inclusion, diversity, freedom of expression and association, and access to knowledge and wisdom. View the film below:



5 smiles contains 110 attributed cc licensed items! the full film is available under an Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 Australia licence. To find out more about the project, see the Video Slam website

not sure what this is about? then find out
see the video slam webpage
see the video slam blog

Well I have just finished copying out the credit roll of cc content in the final film. 110 CC licensed works in 10 minutes! Crazy!!

Totally forgot that I am speaking on a panel about the project after the screening.

not sure what this is about? then find out
see the video slam webpage
see the video slam blog