Showing posts with label Cut Print Review. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cut Print Review. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
A year ago today I was at Cannes, France, for my first day of work at the Cannes Film Festival for Cut Print Review (now Moviedex).
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| Getting used to the press area in the Palais |
I was bombarded with a week’s worth of media info in my assigned locker already as I arrived at the start of week two.
What followed was a day of confusion as I got my bearings; the realisation that an hour wasn’t sufficient time to get into the hottest of screenings killed me (I missed The Artist which would haunt me until finally seeing it on a trip to Melbourne in March - 10 months later).
But the next week for me would ultimately be full of films, frenzied writing, meeting some awesome people and soaking up a bit of the French Riviera lifestyle, which I'll show you more of in an upcoming post because the region's one of my favourites anywhere.
I kept a blog for Cut Print Review at the time, posted on here so you could see the craziness of what I managed to squeeze out of the week. One of my life’s best experiences, confirming for me once more that journalism was what I wanted to pursue. Have also noted that this year's festival started today. Le sigh.
So to enter the mind of a crazed professional journalist-to-be at the world's biggest festival if you so dare...Festival de Cannes: day one
Cannes Classics: Le Sauvage (1975)
Cannes Classics: Le voyage dans la lune
Festival de Cannes: day two
Festival de Cannes: days three-four
Festival de Cannes: five-seven
Here come the Cannes reviews
Almost the end of the road
Last lot of Cannes stuff - promise!
It never stopped being crazy.
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| Constant pleas for invites to red carpet events |
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| Catherine Deneuve: beautiful in real life |
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| After these I discovered Monoprix sold TimTams. Good times. |
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| Overlooking Boulevard de la Croisette from an Aussie film industry do I managed to (invitedly) sneak into |
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| The red carpet's pretty grand... |
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| Yes, I sat in on Ryan Gosling talking about Drive. Swoon. |
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| Closing night party: just like the movies |
Saturday, January 28, 2012
After joining as a university student and being lucky enough to represent them for part of Festival de Cannes 2011, my time as a senior contributor for Cut Print Review has come to an end after three years.
A large part of that comes down to my move and a new role that emerged as part of it.
The opportunity that came up some seven or so weeks ago to be the Daily Liberal's film reviewer, and since I've returned to a favourable routine of a film a week.
I've decided to let everyone in on my reviews as they're published in print so you can expect my new release look-in every Saturday, just in time for any pending decision on a weekend movie.
Read on, and please feel free to return the favour with your opinion!
A
Few Best Men (MA)
Australian comedy in cinema hasn’t been
overly memorable in recent years, something that doesn’t reflect our country’s
light-hearted nature. What we’re about seems to be a difficult thing to capture
because of our unique, laidback perspective on things.
This film has gone in a totally different
direction to tackle that issue, which somehow makes perfect sense. Many are
fans of the wry humour of the Brits and with our colonial connection it seems
interesting that we haven’t really gone down this road before.
And what better way to do it than going
straight to the top? The writer of both the English and American Death at a Funeral films has teamed up
with the director of The Adventures of
Priscilla: Queen of the Desert to bring an Australian-English mix of, well,
everything.
It seems like the ideal combination, both
Dean Craig and Stephan Elliott respectively having been hugely successful with
those particular efforts. They certainly have not held back in this instance,
pouring every comical subplot possible into the space of 96 minutes.
English David (Xavier Samuel) meets
Australian Mia (Laura Brent) on holiday and falling completely in love, decides
to marry her. With his three best mates he makes the trip from London to NSW’s
Blue Mountains for his big day, which in the space of 24 hours goes from bad to
worse, and then some.
David finds surprises from the moment he
steps off the plane, with best men Graham (Kevin Bishop), Tom (Kris Marshall)
and Luke (Tim Draxl) finding trouble very easily and not knowing how to handle
it. But it’s not restricted to one particular party.
The family are also something to handle, a
powerful unit that perhaps provides a good satirical look at those who are
considered to be elitists in this country. For David, it’s a case of everything
that goes wrong does, one thing after another. What happens on the buck’s night
definitely does not stay there, as a touch of influence from films like The Hangover sets the course for what
David’s friends make of the big event.
It comes across as a blend of a few
sub-genres seen in cinema over the last five years, taking from the
aforementioned film as well as Craig’s Funeral,
and reminiscent of producer Judd Apatow’s fare (think Pineapple Express). It holds onto the recently popular buddy theme,
while chucking in a bit of ‘bromance’ which is a particularly entertaining
element between Graham and drug dealer Ray (Steve Le Marquand).
Enjoyable for the masses, this is a decent
effort to bring a mix of Australian and English comedy together. While odd that
Adelaide’s Twilight star Samuel plays
the lead Englishman, he does an understated job of it. Marshall, so lovable in Love Actually, reprises some of his role
from that film as Tom, but Bishop as Graham has the most interesting character
to work with as the butt of the gang’s jokes.
It’s on the Australian side where the
expectation doesn’t necessarily hold up. The cast is noteworthy - Le Marquand
and Rebel Wilson as Mia’s sister Daphne easily deserving more screen time than they
get, but Olivia Newton-John is over the top as mother-in-law Barbara, and not
necessarily in a good way.
While only with a few key plot points,
there’s so much drama around them that it’s hard to believe they could possibly
endure any more. It’s a surprise Mia is still there halfway through the film
(and that’s not giving anything away) because you wouldn’t blame her if she did
a runner.
There are crude moments, but not in the
vein of the graphic scenes audiences are becoming used to, and there are definitely
laughs. Although lacklustre in its ending with said laughs wearing thin, it’s a
good effort on the path of reshaping Australian comedy for the early part of
this century.
Rating:
3/5
*As published in the Daily Liberal (Dubbo), Western Advocate (Bathurst), Parkes Champion Post and Midstate Observer (Orange) from Saturday 28/1/2012
Friday, December 16, 2011
Considering putting my LinkedIn job description as Journalist/Film Critic...
0 comments Posted by Katina at 7:15 PMBecause THAT'S how excited I am about this. I've written about films for 5 years now, taking in studies and my contributions to Cut Print Review - but the past week's events have conjured what I think is just sheer luck.
I volunteered to fill in as film reviewer for the Daily Liberal over the summer break after our regular movie guy applied for stress leave ahead of his New Year holidays, right? I figured that's something my editor shouldn't have to worry about filling for the period. Plus I wanted to have a crack at newspaper reviews. Which I realised did have a slightly different structure to what I had become used to.
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| Tomorrow's edition with my latest review |
My first review was New Year's Eve last week (average, 2.5/5)... I found out two nights later that said movie guy had actually resigned. I mention something to my editor about Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol yesterday and he turns to me and says "So it looks like you'll have the full-time job." Although under unfortunate circumstances I end up being offered the gig.
I am now proud to say I'm the film critic of the Central West - my reviews carry to the Western Advocate in Bathurst and Central Western Daily in Orange. Woah.
I do admit, I felt more in place writing this week's review - I knew more about how I wanted to structure what I was saying, and I knew to find a picture too for the sub-editors too!
Then something that totally rocked my world.
My editor knows I've written for CPR (although not the Cannes part) and I'm really into film. Today I asked whether he needed a draft printout like everything else we submit, and he just said no because he trusted that it would be fine. Double woah. That's made me feel pretty confident I'm on the right track with my (general writing and) filmic analyses - which I value perhaps more than anything else I write at this point in time.
So with this week's major new release, I accepted my own mission. Having never seen all three of the previous films I watched MI1 on Tuesday and 2/3 in a double on Wednesday. While part of this purpose was to do mini-reviews as a breakout piece [subsequently not published for lack of space :( ], I didn't want to go in blind. And what FUN the series is! While 2 and 3 aren't as strong, there's still certain elements that stick out - namely the character development which always works in its favour. And while it's a shame to see Tom Cruise now that much older-looking, he still has this role down. But the first one's still the best, that really took me by surprise.
So here's the review close-up-ish if you can read it :D
If you've seen it - do you agree? Disagree? Always appreciate the feedback!
Friday, December 09, 2011
Ok, went overboard with the title there didn't I? But I was ON A FILM SET today and it kicked arse! A new Australian film The Front, set in France in WWI, is being filmed on the outskirts of Wongarbon, a village 15 minutes away from Dubbo. I've been following the audition process through the past two months and now they're finally in action!
I was lucky enough to talk to director Johan Earl while he was in makeup, and the morale on set was high after six days of long shooting. Other filming in Sydney has been completed so this is getting to the end of the production road, and he was rather pleased with how it was going. Look out for the goss on Monday online for Daily Liberal and transcripts with Earl and Dubbo actress/film set lender Sarah Mawbey on Cut Print Review soon!
Great way to end the week... but I want to know who else has been on a film set? Anyone?
Sunday, December 13, 2009
As well as TINAB, I'm completing a summer list and have gotten a few things ticked off. Receipts from as early as 2003 have been cleaned out, but more importantly the missing pieces of my Cut Print Review collage have been slotted in. My photo of the day shows my wall feature with all the films I've reviewed/opinionated(!) on since I started writing for the site about 15 months ago:,+CPR+collage.JPG)
To other tasks, and after a really slack three days I decided to make use of my bus trip to work and do another entry. This one really intrigued me and I wasn't sure whether I'd fill the page with my answers. But as per usual with these things, I was struggling for room. Page 192 was about 'a parallel universe'; what would my world be like if everything was the opposite of what it is now?...
***
Instead of a mum, dad and brother I'd have a dad, mum and sister. I would be a PR graduate rather than a journalist. I would loathe movies and TV. If hospitality's the opposite of retail then that's what I'd be working in. I'd have a long-term boyfriend. Both my grandpas would've seen me grow up and graduate. Overseas trips would be the norm. I wouldn't have tears welling up while writing this. Wouldn't be writing this on the bus either (like I was supposed to). I'd be the youngest child. All my closest friends would be male. I would be male. Does this mean I'd be a version of my brother? I'd rarely go to concerts. I'd hate Kylie, Gyroscope, etc. My playing sport of choice would be AFL or (gasp) netball. I wouldn't have loving, hilarious friends. I'd hate Facebook and Twitter. I'd have hated uni. I'd be Italian or American - depends on what you view as opposite. Wouldn't have woken up with cramps in my legs this morning. Really wouldn't like hanging out with the family. I'd be the youngest of my cousins, and the same gender as most. Other things I won't mention here. I wouldn't have an interesting life. Because I do have an interesting life.***
Yesterday's (Day 12) 21st ended up being a good night. However, it must be noted as the first I'd managed to experience so far with a stripper show (unbeknownst to the lad in front of family :/ ). It was really something. Below are Penny and Jana during the show. Impressed? Hm. Awkward? Just a little:
,+Kads%27+party.JPG)
Today ended up having a series of known events but with random consquences. Had to go to church... turns out Croydon has a new priest flown in from Melbourne with plans to shake things up to get the young people back in. More English (very handy), no candles at the front (gasp!) and the guts to shut the old ladies up. There was an outraged lady screaming outside after and it was intense. Afterwards, one of my 2nd cousins (he's 2) would hardly let go of my legs and proceed to dribble all over my jeans. Ew. And then I had my Fresh Xmas BBQ, where there was a good amount of cricket and for some, rowboat rides in the lake. Today's photo is of Meg supposedly having enough (but really trying to push their boat over the completely shallow part). At least there's no chance of drowning!
,+Fresh+Xmas+BBQ.JPG)
There is interest in completing a group task tomorrow night... oh how that would balance out my tasks to date!
COUNT:
Pages in progress: 62
Pages completed: 1, 8-9, 7, 88, 124, 192
Pages completed by others: 7 (Spratt, 1-12-09)
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