The Twilight Report

I finally got around to watching On the Beach (as I promised in March). It was a lot better than I expected it to be, the characters were compelling but I knew the story already and the conclusion of the film is depressing. I thought they over used the tune Waltzing Matilda. I was concerned about this back in March when I heard them use the tune in the NPR broadcast about radiation as a bogeyman throughout the history of film. I've always had a morbid interest in post-apocalyptic fiction, The Last Sunset computer game series that I wrote in high school was itself a post-apocalyptic story. I think such stories tell us more about how we see ourselves that it does about what the end of the world would actually look like. The US TV series Jericho and the UK series Survivors portray groups of people after their respective apocalypses hanging firmly on to their pre-apocalyptic values in a world where ethics and morals have been set aside by virtually everyone else. This conceit dispelled the suspension of disbelieve for me personally, but I still enjoyed aspects of both shows. The novel The Road (never saw the film) seemed more plausible to me, but it is still very much about maintaining morals. I don't think people would want to read a book or watch a film in which post-apocalyptic was treated more rigorously. On the Beach is different because everyone dies in the end, everyone in the world, and the story is more about how individuals and society deals with this inevitable fact. The radiation is coming from the north, and it hits Melbourne last. People do not run for the south and become refugees. They are stoic. I think this reflects the novel's author Nevil Shute's personal world view, more than reality.

Today really felt like shorts weather. Yay for spring! I was in the parking lot down at Wyoming shops today of all places and I felt better than I have in months just because it was so warm. So awesome to feel so alive! I am excited about the approach of beach weather.

$5 got me a once-again-working tyre and for $60 I replaced the ink cartridge in the printer (well more like $30, but I also got a B&W one), which I think I already had a replacement for in a drawer somewhere. These things would be much easier to find if they were on the floor where I can see them.

Also excited because 30 Rock is back on iTunes. I am pretty sure it is on TV here somewhere, but I am also pretty sure it isn't on Aunty which means commercials which I hate. Why does everything have to be about selling stuff? It seems like they can't even sell me something without trying to sell me something else now a days. Like the other day I noticed someone had an iPhone so I asked how she liked it. She said it was wonderful, except for the phone part (it drops calls apparently). Remember when we used to get phones primarily for... well the phone component? Apple has done this really amazing job of making us focus on things that aren't really important. That would make Steve Jobs a wonderful President don't you think?

Brendan Fraser was awful in that Dragon Emperor movie. He was terrible in the first two but he managed to set a new low. The start of that movie so wanted to be Indy 4, which is weird because it was the least cool movie from the series (though still so much better than any of the Mummy movies).

Wanted was pretty bad too, but it was the Russian version which sort of made it interesting. All of the writing was pretty much in English except for the stuff that was important and you were supposed to read, which was in Russian. The audio was English though, so it must have come from a source that was subtitled, although said subtitles had unfortunately been stripped. Cyrillic on the bottom of the screen is the only thing that would have saved it. Seriously. Why do I watch terrible movies? Still, I can't complain for the price of admission on either count.

Watched Oyster Farmer (imdb). I love this style of Australian filmmaking (Hollywood seems so tired to me sometimes). Had a similar feel in some respects to Lantana and Jindabyne. Oyster Farmer was set on the Hawskebury River, and featured local background colour including bell birds and trains of the Newcastle line which takes me up to Gosford.

On the commentary tracks of The Chaser, they are always talking about how people in Melbourne love it when they go to film there because they get to see places around where they live on TV. I think they must be right, because one of the things I like about the group is that they are almost always pulling stunts around Sydney in places that I recognize. At least part of the appeal to Australian films, for me, is seeing home through another person’s lens.

Thinking about Babel, which as mentioned in the previous post I saw yesterday. I’m not giving anything away by saying that the story is divided into three largely unrelated stories. The connection between the stories is tenuous, but they drive each other. The central characters for two of the stories have been nominated for best supporting actress: Adriana Barraza for her character Amelia in Mexico, and Rinko Kikuchi for her character Chieko in Japan. I wonder how unusual it is for a picture to receive two nominations in the same category like that. Anyway, the nominations, and the award if it follows, would be well deserved for either. Kikuchi (26) delivers a particularly believable performance of a deaf teenager.

It makes me wonder though, why “supporting” and not “starring”? It seems mainly because they aren’t Brad Pitt or Cate Blanchet, who received top billing. Their performances were good, but not brilliant by any stretch of the imagination. It seems to me the Mexican and Japanese stories are just as important, and much more interesting than the Moroccan (American centric) story. Making the American and Australian actors the stars and the supporting actress nominations for the non-native English speakers reinforces the belligerent Ugly Americanism of Pitt’s character, who sees the world revolving around himself.

Tonight, I took the train into the city and saw Macbeth. It is a modernization, where the players are Melbourne gang members. It was the most innovative production of Macbeth I think I've ever seen. I have never, for example, seen Macbeth seduced quite so literally by the weird sisters. Good stuff, but bloody. If you like Shakespeare and you don't mind a little blood and guts, you'll be missing out if you don't see it.