looking at superheroes - myth, pop culture, ideology...

Sunday, June 25, 2006

lost souls on ninemsn, the sydney film festival and a superhero for a day

I came across this and was moved: Idaho girl becomes superhero for a day.

Logging out of Hotmail. I saw in the news headlines something about Peter Pan's Wendy being Pornographic. It was destined to happen, sooner or later. The controversy over Alan Moore's Lost Souls has reached Australia. God bless that man.

I've been working my way through Sandman: Brief Lives.

Tomorrow I have a rest day. (Sleep and movies and sleep again). After that its back into writing beekeeper and pre-production. Should write tomorrow. Probably will.

Went to the Dendy Awards at the Sydney Film Festival yesterday. They were all great movies. I loved Stranded, with Emma Lung and Emily Browning. Deserves every award it gets, and the director should make a feature film. There was a short film, 'Fish', that was great too. Short, simple, effective. The mangled, grotesque fish and the maggot-ed arm were great in the intimate character drama.

Coffee is great.

I'm trying to develop some thoughts into an idea into a short film for next semester. In an absent minded way (Beekeeper is being shot soon), its coming together. Superhero, of course. I like the image of a Superhero in the 1950s, smoking in a television advertisement. Superman in the 40s vs. Superman today vs. Superman tomorrow. Same character, changing social ideologies. Anyway. Thats not even an idea yet. Its an image.

I'll do a quick wrap up of the films I saw at the Sydney Film Festival.
Note: Le Cercle Rouge and Le Samourai were sold out. I doubt if I will ever see them. If I see them before the year's end, its been a damn good year.

An Inconvinient Truth: Frightening, powerful and intelligent. Al Gore does a speech about how fucked up the world is, how no one wants to change anything, and how a lot of polar bears are going to drown if there is no ice. (10/10)
Little Miss Sunshine: Tragically funny. Great ensemble drama in a well written comedy about a fucked up family, fucked up car, fucked up contest, fucked up dreams in a fucked up world. There is so much joy in it though. Will probably be the best comedy of this year... (10/10)
Pusher 3: Really want to see Pusher 1 and 2 now. This 'day in the life' film of a minor drug lord was really interesting. The kind of violence that hostel should have been, but wasn't. It had a dogme-esque feel to it. Great acting. (9/10)
Gravehopping: Off beat, quiet, random. About the strangeness, tragedy and joy of life. Loved it. (10/10)
CRAZY: French Canadian movie about a teen in the 70s coming to terms with his sexuality. Mythic storytelling! Ziggy Stardust as Christ! Interesting moments. Last third drifted off a bit... Worth checking out. (8/10)
The War Within: Pushy, poorly written and acted. Interesting concept, but I didn't like it. Had some good moments, but overall... 9/11 told from a terrorists POV. American indie filmmakers pretending to feel what a terrorist feels, from within a Western paradigm. Come on. (4/10)

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