The Platform review

I haven’t watched so many movies but The Platform is probably my favourite release this year

The film follows Goreng as he makes sense of a "Vertical Self-Management Centre,” a kind of prison built into a tower where inmates are randomly assigned to floors for 30-day periods. 

A distinctive feature of the setting is a sort of dumb-waiter that delivers meals from a kitchen at the top, with each floor having limited access to food as it descends.

Inmates at the top get first pick, while those at the bottom either starve or resort to desperate means to survive.

Described as “social science fiction” this film is a lot of things. 

Horror elements sit within a theatrical setting that ultimately reveals itself as a metaphor for trickle-down economics.

8/10 

Why are they called a mortgage broker?

The Host review

This monster movie breaks convention early on by showing the creature in broad daylight

Wikipedia says 'The Host' was inspired by a local article about a deformed fish with an S-shaped spine caught in the Han River; and an incident in 2000, when a mortician working for the U.S. military reported he was ordered to dump a large amount of formaldehyde down a drain.

"Because of its themes, which can be seen as critical of the United States, the film was lauded by North Korean authorities, a rarity for a South Korean blockbuster film"!

There are few scares and little gore, because the real monsters are people and from the opening scene you learn they're often American doctors.

The film includes many characteristics of Bong Joon-Ho movies, such as slapstick in unlikely moments, as well as a dark turn in the second half.

A couple of chase scenes in 'The Host' could be drafts for those in his later film 'Okja' (which benefits from having a much bigger scope in the storytelling) but this film is remarkable for what they've achieved with a small-ish budget.

7/10 

My year in 60 seconds

Mother review

A mother seeking to save her son from prison offers great motivation for the main character in this film

Bong Joon-ho's ‘Parasite’ brought him wider attention (as well as Academy Awards) and I've found his earlier films interesting for the same focus on class struggle, as well as subversive characters.

There's a Hitchcock influence in ‘Mother’ but, where Alfred was constrained by the Hays Production Code, Bong has opportunity to really challenge an audience's expectations.

The first half of this film is kinda goofy and then the investigation into the case starts to explore darker territory.

8/10

Colossal review

Pitched as 'Godzilla' meets 'Lost In Translation' this is a film that links a small town in Canada with Seoul, South Korea

Watched this last night and, while it's not awesome, it's interesting for being an entertaining mash of genres.

I'll try not to spoil the surprises but you can tell from the trailer that it's a monster movie with comedy, possibly romantic comedy and Anne Hathaway is a good comic actor.

The male characters aren't very well developed, which is a shame because I think it's the audience that would benefit from the serious theme that's developed in the film.

My family seemed to think it was "alright" but, a bit like the Godzilla movies that prompted me to think about geopolitics, I think this film does a good job of putting a thoughtful theme into an entertaining package.

7/10 

How to make fermented chilis

Cold hands warm heart

 

At the aMBUSH Gallery

You can see my poster at the aMBUSH Gallery in the top left corner of this photo by Martin Ollman

Visualised data

Paths of 800 unmanned bicycles being pushed until they fall over

Halloween goatse

 

Moon Burn

The Rambo Connection

Dunno, I had an idea it'd be funny to replace the rainbow in the famous song from the Muppets

Addressing Field Naturalists

Jo and I spoke with the Murrumbidgee Field Naturalists about the development of Red Earth Ecology

Closing soon

Last chance to see my exhibition Soundscapes at Wagga Wagga Art Gallery this weekend

Come explore remixed landscapes and hear music from public spaces across the Riverina through audiovisual snapshots using my unconventional recording techniques.

500 million years in the making

Political representation

The other week I ended up at Jacqui Lambie's website and asked her to not support the proposal to ban mobile phones in immigration detention centres

Yesterday her website published a detailed summary of the responses, and it's great to see this step toward direct political representation.

I've written to many politicians and mostly get no reply. 

Anyway, it's heartening to see someone swayed, particularly in light of the decision by NSW's (so-called) Independent Planning Commission to allow Santos's Narrabri gas field project after receiving 23,000 submissions against it.

According my mother, Bernard Collaery recently addressed a rally of his supporters to say that if our descendants learn of what is transpiring in the closed court [where he’s currently defending himself] that they are going to be "godsmacked" when they realise who is running this country.

David Lynch has a right to children

For family movie night this week I picked Mulholland Drive (2001) 

I expected they were going to hate it. 

So it was a surprise when they all seemed to enjoy it and we spent some time discussing what it might mean. 

The other surprise was when my younger kids started laughing during this scene, saying "I want to see your manager"!

Bad love in the Riverina

Sharing another of the Wiradjuri stories recorded by Bill Gammage and discussing how the moral is similar to a famous story written by Shakespeare

Zoom is a threat to patriarchy

Okay, so the title of this post is kinda joking but seemed like good clickbait to lead into some observations

I've been late to using Zoom, the telecommunications software that's become popular as Covid-19 has disrupted a variety of social settings.

Last night I joined a communications circle and it was interesting to hear many of those attending saying how Zoom surprised them in overcoming the absence of a physical space.

I resisted Zoom for a long time but am now beginning to see that it has some benefits, although it wasn't a great substitute for actually attending a life-drawing class.

So there are two things that I've been thinking about with Zoom and how they both level the metaphoric playing field in terms of changing social interactions.

The first is that it forces people to listen to each other.

I haven't seen a Zoom argument yet, but wonder whether it's possible to shout down someone you disagree with?

The second is that laptop speakers and mobile phones are terrible for those deep, masculine voices which would normally evoke authority and promote physical dominance.

Thinking about these two observations led to some amusement for me in thinking that Zoom might have a bigger impact on society than decades of equal opportunity policies.

I've heard some observations from women over the years that they'll be in a meeting and put forward an idea, only to find there's no response until a male in the room says the same idea.

It makes me wonder if Zoom can change this phenomena.

And that Zoom life-drawing class, it did get me drawing -- so maybe it worked?