Day 2 of the Blue Mountains Film Festival started with me waking up to the sight of a whole lot of snow, as seen by the photo I included in yesterday’s recap. Even though I have lived in relatively cold places my whole life (cold as in Australian cold) I had never seen anything like it. After a few hours trudging around looking for some pants to replace the jeans stupidly left in Canberra and an internet cafe, I was more than ready for some relaxing, and some warmth. A pretty cool place to find both was the Cafe Cinema, being run as part of the festival at Cafe 88 in Katoomba.

The view from the Cafe Cinema. Look at the size of that beer – It’s as big as a mountain!

The Cafe Cinema is a great concept. It is a really nice place to while away a few hours, especially given the fact they sell both coffee and beer, so all bases are covered. Another major advantage is that it gives the opportunities for more shorts to get a screening at the festival and as such it is a vehicle for some local, and more inexperienced filmmakers to get their work seen. As one of the films that showed while I was there was quite long (50 odd minutes) I did not get the chance to see the entire program. Generally speaking the films are of a somewhat lesser standard than those showing in the main program, but definitely interesting and worth a watch. Captured is the story of a war photographer that after a tense start becomes rather melodramatic. It does a have a cool little tic in the shooting style though. The photographer taking a shot causes the action to freeze frame in black and white, a genuine ‘photo’ if you will. The other film I saw was High Ambitions on Abu Dablam. The film chronicles an expedition to summit the titular Himalayan mountain. It was a very apt film given the conditions that were raging outside and the sheer beauty of the Himalayan scenery allows the film to get by. It probably could have been a little shorter, but does finish on a high (literally I guess) as the final push to the summit is the film’s most interesting part.

The night’s short film screening kicked off with what I think was the pick of the music video category over the first two nights. 5 Minutes From Now, a track by hip hop artist King Brown, not only has the best music track, but also a really sharply made clip to go with it. The clip is excellent, a blend of city life and performance footage with really up-tempo editing to match the track. Also some really nice use of black and white as well as split screens which looked amazing without being too distracting. This was one of my favourite films of the night. The first big crowd pleaser of the night was a Boo, a comedy about an elderly couple who get kicks out of scaring each other by pretending to be dead. The film was really well shot and got massive laughs from many in the crowd, though I must admit it was not my favourite comedy of the festival.

Of all the categories thus far, animation is probably the one that has impressed the most. Even those with narratives that are a little unpolished, each and every one of them looks really incredible, with a nice mix of artistic styles. So it was with the Nathan Jones’ effort Outhouse, a tale of two toilet rolls. This was a fun little film, with a cool script and the best animated toilet rolls I’ve seen. Another real crowd pleaser last night was Cockatoo, a film which I also really loved. After impressing last night with her directorial and dual acting role effort Am I Okay, Matilda Brown was again really good onscreen in this Matthew Jenkin directed film. As the film opens, it is a little ambiguous as to whether it is going to take the comedic or dramatic route. Eventually it goes for laughs, but not the cheap kind – I think that this is definitely the best comedic script that the festival has seen over the first two nights. The film nailed the balance between heartfelt and big laughs and as such probably managed to be the biggest success in terms of marrying artistic quality with audience reaction so far.

Last night’s program was quite heavy on comedy actually. The Future, directed by Venetia Taylor, starts from a very cool idea, with one character (who has just accepted a marriage proposal) saying “I wish I could see the future”. And she does, right there and then in the restaurant. The film stays focused on its good premise and managed to be really quite a funny conversational style comedy. When the next film, animation The Deadliest Game fired up, I nerded out more than a little. A combination of animation & live action as well as melding a pastiche of old adventure films with sci-fi – count me in! I was really disappointed then when the film fell really flat. It did look amazing and really original, but the script was not able to back that up. The final film of the night did not have that issue though. I have already said that all the animated films have looked amazing so far, but I struggle to convey just how great The Missing Key looked. In all seriousness, if the next multi million dollar budget Disney flick came out looking like this film, I would be impressed. The old school animation design is really good, and there is a delightful attention to detail as well, with lots of jokes going on in the background. The basically wordless narrative is really well drawn out, and it finishes with a rousing concert sequence as well. Along with Cockatoo, this film was the highlight of the night for me.

That’s day two all wrapped up. Tonight’s day three festivities will see the finalist short film screenings, which promises to be an excellent line-up of flicks, followed by the Yowie awards presentation.

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Last night saw the first night of screenings at this year’s Blue Mountains Film Festival. The screenings take place at Scenic World in Katoomba, and it is truly an incredible spot. The screen is backed by a drop off into a view of the iconic valleys of the Blue Mountains. The view on the night was made all the better by the flashes of lightning that occasionally illuminated the backdrop behind the films that were screening.

It was against this backdrop that the audience were treated to 12 films, from music videos, to zombie love stories and plenty in between. iMan kicked things off, a slick and rather humourous music video. Though I must admit that I struggle to recall what the song even sounded like, so dominant were the visuals.  The first of the short films proper was the excellently titled How Many Doctors Does it Take to Change a Lightbulb, which featured popular Australian television actor Rob Carlton. The film was one of, if not the, audience hit, with abundant laughs ringing out. There is no doubting that there were some funny moments, but the film did veer into the obvious a little for me.

One of my favourite films of the first night was Cocked Up a very short, short animation about a rooster who has a rather too large bucks night and misses his wedding. The film was snappy, delightfully absurd and looked utterly incredible. The computer animation was really unique looking and brought a lot of life to the film. Cocked Up was followed by another of my favourites from the night – A Tale of Obsession, a dark tale with a really excellent script from writer-director  Dave Wade. It starts with an awesome opening credits sequence, and continues into a tale of teen lust, love and obsession. This is the really well shot story of “the hottest virgin on campus” – the gun bloke on the footy team, and the young woman who yearns for him. And what a payoff! I definitely did not see that coming.

Length is an interesting issue when watching short films. One thing I noticed during the first night’s films was that the ones I enjoyed the most were those which did not overstay their welcome. An excellent example of this was Jack and Lily. This cool little love story captured that moment where girls go from an annoyance, to something worth investing time in. It was a really nice little tale, and best of all it told it’s story and left it at that. It was really nicely shot and realised that as a short film it had to hit it’s high note and then get out of there. A film which divided opinion on the night was the story of a girl and her teddy bear, entitled Albert and Juliet. Personally I really liked the film, which was based on a great premise. A teenager, living in a broken home, relies on the friendship of her teddy bear to get by, in the face of abuse by her alcoholic mother and peers who bully her. I thought this was an actually quite intense film, which despite overdoing the ‘shakycam’, engaged throughout. It was another film with an excellent ending, this time a rather crushing one.

Am I Okay was directed by Matilda Brown and stars Matilda Brown and Matilda Brown. It is a very interesting comment on contemporary life, with a patient talking to a therapist played by the same actor. The script muses on one’s place in the world, and a woman’s existential crises. The existential crisis that our modern world in many ways necessitates. Really quite ambitious for a short film and a fantastic, sharp script too. The night closed with another crowd pleaser (gasps count as crowd pleasing yeah?) as zombie love took place in Rotting Hill. The film was short and bloody, featuring some quite exceptional special effects. And once you have seen it, you will never see the iconic spaghetti scene from The Fox and the Hound quote the same way again.

Two more nights of short films and a day of features are still to come at this year’s festival so there is plenty to look forward to. Check out the view that greeted me from the window of my hotel room as I awakened this morning. This is what I trudged out in to find an internet cafe to share this update with you guys. I’m off back to the hotel for a warming whiskey.

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Worth Watching:

• Bully (2011), Lee Hirsch – An intense and powerful cautionary tale. I don’t have kids, but I think this is a must see. Especially if your kid is an alpha male bullying prick. Or just as importantly, if your kid just does not realise the power of their words. A very well made and put together doco with an important message.

• Community Season 2 (2010), Dan Harmon – As good as, if not better than season 1. There is more comedic depth to the relationships now – the increasing exclusion of Chevy Chase’s Pierce, the continuing love affair of Troy and Abed and the ongoing will they, won’t they between Winger and most of the ladies on the show. A cameo by Betty White and lots of screen time for Ken Jeong’s Chang all add to the fun. As clever and funny as television gets, for me at least.

• Total Recall (2012), Len Wiseman – This is nothing special, but I mainly enjoyed it. I like the two contrasting worlds which were created. The grimness of the colony vs the overlording United Federation of Britain. There were a few very cool nods to the original, the rebooted security screening scene in particular. But like so many other films, it fades badly in the second half. Ok enough, but don’t rush out to catch it.

• The Rum Diary (2011), Bruce Robinson – Captures much of the spirit of Hunter S. Thompson’s book and is able to trim away characters without ruining the narrative. Johnny Depp is very good, not giving us the caricature of himself that he has churned out all too often lately. As a study of a struggling writer, the film is actually more successful than the book. Quite funny at times, but it is disappointing that toward the end it gains a very sentimental edge which is definitely not in the novel. A very weird final 15 minutes doesn’t stop this being a fun film with a distinctive attitude.

Hunter S. Thompson – The warped genuis who wrote the book Rum Diary”

• Moonrise Kingdom (2012), Wes Anderson – A very Wes Andersony film from Wes Anderson. The man has shtick and it is very enjoyable here. This is a light story of first love and the battles it faces, driven by very good performances. The young leads make an extremely young love feel real, tangible & a little dangerous, just like the real thing. Ed Norton & Bruce Willis are the pick of the adult performances. The pastiche style does mean that the film is, intentionally I think, a little shallow. Their could be more heart here.

• The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2012), John Madden – A bunch of pensioners seek to escape the dreariness of old age in Britain by emigrating to India. A stellar cast with Judy Dench, Tom Wilkinson and Bill Nighy being the best out of an incredibly good lot. So much better than I was expecting. A couple of really interesting characters and turns out to be quite a surprising film. I still find Dev Patel an annoying presence, but even he grew on me as this went along. A really enjoyable look at the intersection of two cultures.

• Arriety (2010) Hiromasa Yonebayashi – This Studio Ghibli film looks simply amazing. So much effort and care has gone into the miniature world that the tiny people populate and it is fantastic to see our regular world through totally different eyes. There is a delightfully languid pace in comparison to Western animated films and Arriety is a really cool, adventurous heroine. My only slight criticism is that it does pander to some Disney-esque tastes late in the piece. But overall, an awesome effort.

• Looper (2012) Rian Johnson – A very good film. Joseph Gordon-Levitt playing a younger version of Bruce Willis turns out as awesome as that sounds. The design of the whole thing is brilliant, it is an imaginative juxtaposition of old and new – Kansas farmhouses side by side with hover bikes. Unlike so many time travel flicks, the simple core story is well controlled. Thought the ramifications of it all due make your brain hurt a bit eventually. It also veers a little too much into The Shining territory toward the end, but an utterly brilliant conclusion ensures it ends on a high note.

Not Worth Watching:

• Love (2011), William Eubank –  The preview for this came out of nowhere and blew me away. But after an awesome, Civil War set start, it peters out. Much of the narrative concerns a man lost in space with no contact with the outside work for 6 years. Which is apt because that’s how interminable this film is. Nothing happens. Some will try to convince you that it is making points about connection, isolation and the cyclical nature of history. But no one of this is there, cause nothing happens.

• Riders of Destiny (1933), Robert N. Bradbury – This is a real B Western. Mainly just cause the acting in it is truly abysmal. Already a little of Wayne’s aura is shining through, but very little else is worth remembering. Although the plot involving water rights is somewhat amusing given the current political debate here in Australia about exactly the same thing. There is a memorable chase scene involving a horse drawn water tanker too. But the concerning disregard for animal welfare of the horses in the film and the fact it is just so wooden throughout make this one you can do without. Although if not, here it is:

If you only have time to watch one Bully

Avoid at all costs Love

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