Caught by the Fuzz

Last week I was lucky enough to interview Shaun of the Dead director Edgar Wright about his new film Hot Fuzz, once again starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. Wright delightfully describes the film as an Agatha Christie set piece as if directed by Brian DePalma. The interview will appear in the next issue of Filmink.

Smokin' on the radio

For those readers in the Sydney area I'll be making my regular appearance on Eastside 89.7 FM's Cinemascape show. This Friday at 17:30 I'll be reviewing Joe Carnahan's Smokin' Aces. With an amazing cast, the director of Narc manages to channel the spirit of Guy Ritchie into an entertaining, if derivative, thriller that desperately wants to emulate Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels but doesn't quite make it. Tune in to hear my thoughts.

Kenny DVD review

When you think of that tried and tested comedy genre the mockumentary, most will think of Ricky Gervais’ and Stephen Merchant’s The Office or the cinematic work of Christopher Guest like Best in Show and The Mighty Wind. Well now there is a new pretender to the throne so to speak. The low budget, toilet obsessed box office smash has hit the DVD market running and Madman Entertainment’s excellent DVD is the perfect way to pay Kenny and his friends a visit. Telling the story of Kenny, a toilet operative, the film is a non stop barrage of filthy, yet well executed, toilet humour and beautifully judged characters. An uplifting story of the Aussie battler making a better life for himself; Kenny breaks the shackles of his family and his work colleagues when he travels to a toilet convention in the States.

A family affair, the film is written, directed and performed by the Jacobson brothers, Clayton and Shane with added input by their father Ronald. Shane takes the title role of Kenny and gives an amazing winning performance. His dialogue is beautifully judged despite the lowbrow subject matter. Ronald almost steals the picture as Kenny’s grumpy old dad. In fact the crews inexperience only comes to the fore during the films final third when Kenny leaves Australia. The fish out of water aspects are funny and you desperately want Kenny to get together with his newfound friend but the whole section suffers from pacing problems that are only rectified when he returns to Australia to deal with the toilets at the Melbourne Cup. That’s probably slighty harsh as Kenny is a fabulous little comedy and an outstanding artistic and commercial success for the first time filmmakers. It’s a very Australian comedy and all the better for it. Highly recommended.

Madman have out together a wonderful DVD package including a fantastic selection of extras. You get 11 deleted scenes, an audio commentary by director Clayton Jacobson and Kenny and the original theatrical trailer. They also throw in the Kenny Toilet Quote Companion to sweeten the deal. It’s a 16 page booklet full of all your favourite quotes from the film, Kenny's toilet tips and philosophies from the 'Dalai-Lama of Waste Management'

Available from www.madman.com.au

Billy Crystal

Yesterday I had the great pleasure of attending the Australian national press conference of 700 Sundays, the new one man show by Billy Crystal. The When Harry Met Sally star was in fine form as he fielded questions from the press joking about his age, “the damn internet has got it wrong'!" His long lasting relationship with his wife, “we see other people. Let's just say Hugh Jackman and I are pretty close,'' and Jewish culture “700 Saturdays? You fly for 15 hours and you find the one Jew who says `Hey, why not 700 Saturdays?' Why not 700 Thursdays, you know, come on, Thursdays I close the store early to get ready for Fridays. Unbelievable.'' He brought a smile to even the most cynical of journalist's face.

Lucky Miles

On February 22nd I'll be travelling to South Australia to attend the world premiere of Michael James Rowland's debut feature Lucky Miles, the opening film of The Adelaide International Film Festival. Produced by Blink Films; the film tells the tale of 3 men lost in the Australian desert, it's a black comedy about difference, distance and dud maps. For information on the festival check out www.adelaidefilmfestival.org.

For those of you listening to Eastside 89.7 FM last week you would have heard me review Christopher Guest's For Your Consideration. Not a bad effort but when compared to Best in Show the film has to be called a disapointment. A shame; when I interviewed Parker Posey last year she certainly built up my anticpation but unfortunately For Your Consideration isn't worth considering.

Morricone Conducts Morricone DVD review

Having seen the maestro perform at London's Royal Albert Hall a few years back it was with great excitement when I opened up a package from Umbrella Entertainment containing a copy of Morricone Conducts Morricone and I'm happy to announce the disc doesn't disappoint. To be honest though how could it when the great man has some of the greatest soundtracks of all time up his sleeve.

Some of the magic is obviously lost in translation, the thrill of seeing a full 200 piece orchestra and choir performing classics from movies like The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, Once Upon a Time in The West and The Mission, in the flesh cannot replicated, no matter how good the sound system but Morricone Conducts Morricone makes a valiant stab at it. The camera work is a bit static at times and the use of stills is formulaic at best but if you close your eyes and let the aural majesty of Morricone's music weave its magic, you simply just can't go wrong. The fact that he plays passages from my favourite soundtrack of all time Once Upon a Time in America probably makes me slightly biased but this disc is highly recommended, in fact the only real downside is the lack of any music from Danger: Diabolik

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to you all. Well 2007 has already been a busy year, here's the latest publications that have featured my work.

The last two issues of Shivers magazine, issues #130 and #131, have featured my previews of The Ferryman and The Disturbed respectively. Future issues of the magazine will feature my interviews with director Greg McLean on Rogue and actor John Rhys Davies on The Ferryman.

Issue #5 of Smoke & Mirrors will feature my interview with Bruce Woloshyn, the visual effects supervisor on Night at the Museum and the most recent Film Review magazine includes my interview with A Clockwork Orange star Malcolm McDowell. As always I have also been conducting my regular vox pops interviews for Film Review in Sydney; the latest being The Queen outside The Dendy Opera Quays. The fabulous Cinema Retro magazine will also feature my large feature on the making of Danger: Diabolik in the next issue.

Finally I have recently been invited to be a member of The Sydney Film Festival. It's a tremendous honour and I very much look forward to working with the festival in the future.

The Queen

For those in the Sydney area I'll be reviewing Stephen Frears excellent film The Queen this Friday at 17:30 on Eastside 89.7 FM's Cinemascape Show. The show will also feature reviews of Babel and Marie Antoinette.

Open Season

Tune in to Eastside 89.7 FM today at 17.30 to hear me appear on Cinemascape. This week you'll hear reviews of Casino Royale and A Scanner Darkly as well as my thoughts on the latest computer animated feature Open Season, released just in time for Christmas.

The Black Dahlia

As a huge Brian DePalma fan it with trepidation that I approached reviewing The Black Dahlia. His extraodinary output in the 70s and early 80s including Carrie, Dressed to Kill, Blow Out, Scarface and The Phatom of the Paradise was always going to be hard to live up. Unfortunately The Black Dhalia, despite being based on an James Elroy novel and starring the gorgeous Scarlett Johansson, is terrible, falling in line with DePalma's recent disasters like Mission to Mars. To hear the rest of my thoughts on the film please tune in to Cinemascape this Friday at 17:30 on Eastside 89.7 FM.

In Print

Its about time I gave you an update of where I've been in print; the latest issue of Smoke & Mirrors features my interview with Cinesite's Matt Johnson discussing his work on Omen 666 and V for Vendetta.

The last couple of issues of Shivers have featured my work; Issue #129 concluded my set report from Stephen King's Nightmares & Dreamscapes and Issue #130 includes my interview with producers Matt Metcalf and Alan Davies discussing the making of The Ferryman.

Finally the December issue of Film Review includes my vox pop report on what Sydneysiders thought of the wonderful Little Miss Sunshine.

I also recently interviewed director Gregory Read about his recent Australian thriller Like Minds starring Toni Collette and Richard Roxburgh.

Shortbus on the radio

I'll be reviewing John Cameron Mitchell's controversial Shortbus this Friday on Eastside 89.7 FM's Cinemascape show this Friday at 17:30 for those in the Sydney area. As a huge fan of Hedwig and the Angry Inch I was intrigued what Mitchell would do next but I don't think anyone could have been prepared for Shortbus. An ensemble cast play a group of New Yorkers who converge on an underground club called Shortbus; a place where there are no boundaries and sex, drugs and art is for everybody. Among those we meet are Sofia, a sex therapist who has never had an orgasm, James and Jamie, a gay couple who bring in an additional partner to save their relationship and Severin, a deeply confused dominatrix. The depiction of sex is incredibly graphic. In the first five minute almost every taboo known to mainstream cinema has been broken in explicit detail. What separates Shortbus from a regular porn film, however, is the human spirit on display. You grow to love the characters; the sex becomes secondary to the relationships between the characters and NYC. Shortbus is a brave, post 9/11, look at the sexual morays of a city that is only just beginning to recover from such a traumatic event. Highly recommended for the open minded, a word of caution for the easily offended....you will be!.

More fun on the radio

I'll be on Eastide FM's Cinemascape show reviewing Roberto Benigni's The Tiger and the Snow this Friday at 17:30. Tune in if you can.

Last Tuesday I also discussed film criticism and in particluar The Complete Stanley Kubrick by David Hugnes and The Time Out Guide to the 1001 Films To Change Your Life on Eastside FM's Between the Covers book review show.

Happy Friday the 13th

To celebrate the fact that today is indeed Friday the 13th here’s my review of the horror classic from www.cinephilia.net.au. Keep checking the site for my cult film and DVD reviews.

In 1957 at Camp Crystal Lake a young boy had been drowned as uninterested counsellors ignore his cries. In 1958 two teenagers are brutally slain, in 1962 fire causes the camp to be closed. In 1979 the camp is re-opened but soon the counsellors are being killed one by one by a mysterious killer. As they fight for their lives and try to save the children in their care, it becomes a battle of the strong to see who will walk out of “Camp Blood” alive.

Director Sean. S. Cunnningham had already made a name for himself working with Wes Craven on Last House on the Left. Following the success of John Carpenter’s Halloween he saw that the horror genre was the next big thing and looked for a name for his project that would strike terror into the audiences. Friday the 13th was the unlikely moniker but on its release the film became a box office sensation. Carpenter may have done it first in the US but Friday the 13th was the film that put the body count movie on the map. The film spawned a multitude of sequels; some great, such as Friday the 13th Part 4: The Final Chapter, and some frankly awful, Friday the 13th Part 8: Jason Takes Manhattan being one such. All had one thing in common, the psychotic Jason Vorhees wielding an axe and killing as many sex-crazed teenagers as possible. All that is, except one, the original.

Looking past the blood, gore and sex and the original Friday the 13th is a good little movie. Yes, watching it now the plot seems hackneyed but back in 1980 this was inspired stuff. One tends to forget that the villain of the piece the first time around was Jason’s mum, distraught at the general malaise that the modern day teenager had fallen into. The summer camp tutors were more interested in sex than saving her son from drowning so she revenged her child by murdering any young couple intent on getting frisky.

Cunningham and the writer Victor Miller may well be trying to make a statement there but you can’t help but think all they were really trying to do is scare the living daylights out of the viewer.Cunningham directs with style, cranking up the tension at every opportunity. He is ably assisted by make-up legend Tom Savini, fresh from his work on George. A. Romero’s Dawn of the Dead, and Henry Manfredini, whose score became the blueprint for every slasher movie made in the 80s. So many of the films shock moments became synonymous with the genre that many ignore what an important part Mario Bava’s Twitch of the Death Nerve played in the conception of Friday the 13th and its sequels, especially, Part 2. Plagiarism aside, however, these films are everything that was great about the 80s horror film and you even get to see a young Kevin Bacon with an arrow through his neck! How could you refuse?

Paris, Texas DVD review

Travis (Harry Dean Stanton) a lone figure walks out of the desert into a bar and collapses. All memories of his previous life have seemingly gone so it’s up to his brother Walt (Dean Stockwell) to help Travis piece together the flashbacks of his fractured life and discover why this loner left his wife Jane (Natasha Kinski) and child.

Paris, Texas marks the career best for many of the cast and crew. Director Wim Wenders may have flown high with Wings of Desire but Paris, Texas shows a director at the height of his powers. Never before or since has his grasp of the frailty of the human spirit and fragility of life been so emotively portrayed.

He is helped immensely by his two leads; Harry Dead Stanton was wonderful in Alex Cox’s Repoman and David Lynch’s Wild at Heart and who can forget him as Molly Ringwold’s father in Pretty in Pink but in Paris, Texas he plays a man at the edge of a precipice. No one can be unmoved as Travis slowly and painfully unravels the mystery of his forgotten life. Natasha Kinski by 1984 had appeared in Roman Polanski’s Tess to press hysteria and bared all in Hammer Film’s To The Devil a Daughter and Paul Schrader’s Cat People. Here she displays a warmth and sensual vulnerability as Jane, the object of Travis’ torment.

The other stars of the film are Ry Cooder’s slide guitar and the eye of cinematographer Robby Muller. The soundtrack Cooder creates is wonderful and perfectly compliments the mood and tone of the visuals whilst creating an independent character of its own. Many will know his work from The Buena Vista Social Club but he has also supplied soundtracks to such diverse films as Walter Hills Southern Comfort and Mike Nichols’ Primary Colours. Muller’s exceptional camerawork gives the arid desert landscapes an otherworldly quality perfectly suiting the films hypnotic power.

Not to be missed on any count; this deeply moving and haunting account of a shattered life will leave no one unaffected. Madman Films have sweetend the deal even further with a nice collection of deleted scenes and footage of Wenders and Kinski at Cannes. An informative running commentary by Wenders rounds off an essential purchase.

DVD available from Madman Films

Little Miss Sunshine on the radio

Next Friday 13th at 5:30pm on Eastside FM 89.7's Cinemascape Show I'll be reviewing one of my favourite films of the year; Jonathan Dayton and Valarie Faris' wonderful comedy Little Miss Sunshine. I urge each and everyone of you to see this film as soon as it opens. You won't regret it.

Greg McLean talks killer crocodiles

Last night I interviewed director Greg McLean about Wolf Creek, his new movie Rogue and his thoughts on the state of the Australian film industry, in particular the recent spate of low budget horror films. Mclean revealed himself to be a huge fan of Alien and Jaws so the thought of a giant crocodile rampaging through Australia's Northern Territory just gets better and better. The interview will appear in Shivers magazine and will form part of my Antipodean horror film article in Dazed & Confused next year.

Back to School

Here are the details of the film symposium I will be taking part in this Friday at the University of Sydney. I will a member of the film forum discussion panel at 12:10pm.

Eternal Sunshine of the Academic Mind:
Film, Faith, Culture and the University.

A one day symposium on current trends in
Film study and film teaching

Supported by the Religion, Literature and the Arts Society And Studies in Religion
University of Sydney

9.00AM - 5.30PM
22 September 2006
Woolley Common Room

Call for papers: research on film, culture, religion and pedagogy are welcome, please submit your abstract to Chris Hartney by 31 August at (hartney@arts.usyd.edu.au) Studies in Religion, Woolley A20, University of Sydney, NSW 2006.
- Registration Cost: $35/$20 (inc. lunch, morning/afternoon tea, notes etc)

Latest News

Last night I spent a splendid few hours chatting away with Doug Turner and Stacey Edmonds; the creative force behind the forthcoming I Know How Many Runs You Scored Last Summer. We were also joined by the films lead Jai Koutrae. Check out the trailer at http://www.therunsmovie.com/. My interviews will feature in Shivers and an Aussie horror special that will appear early next year in the newly launched Australian version of Dazed & Confused. My interview with Malcolm McDowell will be appearing in issue 2 of the magazine hitting newstands soon.

In other news the second part of my on set report on Stephen King's Nightmares & Dreamscapes features in issue #129 of Shivers magazine. Last week I also had the great pleasure of interviewing John Rhys Davies about the forthcoming The Ferryman. The consumate professional, he was an absolute delight to talk to. I look forward to sharing our discussions in the pages of Shivers early next year.

Next week I'll be taking part in the University of Sydney's Film Symposium. I'll be appearing on a panel with Jamie Leonarder from the Mu Mesons archive and SBS's At the Movies show to discuss religion in film. The film forum takes place on Friday 22nd September.

On a final note I've finally sercomed to the dreaded MySpace so check me out on www.myspace.com/davemichaelbrown. Its probably the only way I can pretend that Ennio Morricone is my friend.

Cinemascape

This Friday at 17:30 I'll once again be appearing on Sydney's Eastside FM 89.7's Cinemascape show. Unfortunately this time around I'll be reviewing Mike Binder's Man About Town starring the woeful Ben Affleck.