A collection of thoughts, musings, reviews, tidbits on life, languages, travel, blah blah blah
Whiplash tells the story of an ambitious young jazz drummer, Neiman (Miles Teller), who attends the exclusive and fictional Shaffer Conservatory in New York. Neiman idolises Buddy Rich and has grand aspirations which begin to become actualised when he catches the eye of jazz instructor, Fletcher (JK Simmons). Fletcher is a vicious, ruthless and manipulative … Continue reading Review: Whiplash (2014)
The Sámi are the indigenous people of Lappland, or Säpmi, in Northern Europe whose traditional languages are part of the Uralic language family (together with Finnish, Estonian and Hungarian). The majority of Sami Blood, Sameblod in Swedish, takes place during the 1930s in Northern Sweden at the height of scientific racism, ie, eugenics. We are … Continue reading Review: Sami Blood (2016)
There is a special niche within German cinema (as well as within art, literature and music) dedicated solely to the city of Berlin. Berlin; Berlin; Berlin: a paragon of unbridled decadence and unfettered expression. This film is an amalgamation of every gritty, grimy and grotesque Berlin cliché compressed into the shell of a glitzy, generic … Continue reading Review: Fucking Berlin (2016)
Like Meet the Fockers, the film follows the standard trope-ridden narrative: Boy meets girl, they fall in love and then have to meet the other's parents. One of their families turns out to be incredibly difficult to please; the rest of movie centers on one half of the couple attempting to win over the parents and family of the other half. Blah blah blah. Happy ending.
Heavy Trip (Finnish: Hevi Reissu) is a Finnish road trip comedy flick about a metal band given the opportunity to play at a festival in Norway.
The Lure (Polish: Córki dancingu – "The Daughters of Dance Party") is a Polish adaptation of The Little Mermaid in the form of a horror musical which mostly takes place in a strip club in the '80s.
Cate Shortland is one of Australia's finest filmmakers, and all three of her films feature young female protagonists forced to fend for themselves whilst dealing with unfortunate circumstances as they proceed on a psychological, sexual and moral journey towards adulthood.
Green Bear 