Movie Scene of the Day: Best in Show

Currently I am in the midst of a battle of wills with my right leg – I would like to remain upright and walk like a normal person, but my right leg seems determined to make me fall on my face at every opportunity.  Only this week, my ankle decided to trip over nothing and I did a spectacular stack in the middle of street.  Thank god no one was around.  Otherwise the world would have seen me walking much like Catherine O’Hara in Best in Show:

Best faceplant in a movie ever!!

The Song; The Memory: "Starlight" by Muse

It's funny how songs can take you on a journey into your past.  One tiny snippet will instantly transport you through time and space until you are 17 years old again trying to tape the song off the radio, madly writing down the lyrics so you will be able to accurately sing them next time you are in your car.  Or was that just me...

Every single time I hear the song Starlight by Muse, I am instantly on the E2 Bus in London on my way to work.  I've always been a bit of a Muse fan, and that summer in London I basically only had one CD to play on my old school walkman.  So Muse (and particularly Starlight) was a bit overplayed.  It's five years later and I recently heard the song in the trailer for the movie Crazy, Stupid, Love - and once again I am on that bus, two seats from the front, dying of heat exhaustion (stupid summer heatwave) and pressing repeat over and over again.

Which songs are particularly effective in inducing a flashback for you guys? 

Gig Guide: Music soothes the savage beast

This past weekend was the very awesome Splendour in the Grass festival in my old stomping grounds of Queensland. Since I no longer live in the Sunshine State and also did not possess eighty five million dollars to afford tickets to go to the festival, I have been partaking in a number of sideshows the bands have been kindly doing throughout the rest of Australia. Last week it was The Kills (Alison Mosshart, my girl crush on you remains strong) and this week I'm off to see my old faves Gomez.

Growing up in a small town in QLD didn't really give me many opportunities to see live music. Or have good taste in music really. In fact until I was 13 and discovered Triple J, my shameful musical jaunts included a John Farnham concert with my Mum (I'm still scarred for life at the ladies throwing underpants at him), and a teeny-boppery outing to see Aussie one hit wonder girl-band Girlfriend.

But in the last 10 years I have managed to see a number of very cool bands, and have used my increasingly useful barge-arse skills to gain prime front-of-stage positions at festivals and gigs alike. My default New Year's resolution is to see as many bands as I possibly can.

These are just a few of my memorable gigs:

Muse - Livid Festival 2000

One of many times I've seen Muse live, cough seven times, this one holds a special place mostly because it was the first time I saw them. At this stage they were a fairly unknown group touring on their first album, playing a side stage at the now defunct Livid Festival, while bigger groups Green Day and No Doubt had the masses gathered around the main stages. And while I've seen them play much bigger and better - even with their rather pretentious last couple of albums - Muse sure have always known how to put on a show.

Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros - 2011

Yeah, so I'm fairly certain I somehow joined a cult after seeing this gig. Lead vocalist Alex (he of the Charles Manson slash Jesus looks) came down into the crowd during the encore and then got half the audience on the stage and the rest of us sitting on the floor while he led us all in a Kumbaya styled rendition of one of their songs. Afterwards when everyone was going up to give him high-fives and hugs, I found myself going forward as well until I realised that I wasn't actually at a cultist revival meeting.

The Swell Season - 2009

What a voice Glen Hansard has!! A big fan of The Swell Season after watching the movie Once, I was blown away by their live concert. When there is just a man and his guitar (with no amplification) filling a huge cavernous theatre with his big voice on the song Say It to Me Now, it's simply something special to behold.

The Dead Weather - 2010

My one and only chance to see the legend of Jack White in concert (sob, I never got to see The White Stripes). Coupled with the mesmerising Alison Mosshart, these two just oozed charisma and awesomeness.

Reading Festival - 2006

My big festival outing while I lived in the UK, memorable for a number of reasons:  

• Another Muse show under my belt
• The beginning of my love affair with The Yeah Yeah Yeahs (Karen O, with her knee high converse sneakers with flames going up the sides, OWNED that stage)
• Almost dying of claustrophobia in a very enthusiastic Arctic Monkeys crowd (who scarily knew every single word to ALL of their songs)
• A full can of something indeterminable being thrown at my head (I choose to remember it as being beer).

How about the rest of you? What have been some of your favourite live music experiences?

Pop Culture Smackdown!! The Battle of the Superhero Movie Trailer

It's that time of year again. The Blockbuster season is almost upon us. And this year is no different from any other - prepare yourself people - we are about to be inundated with a shitload of superhero movies.

This year there are no less than 5 superhero movies coming our way. But which ones should we be watching? We all know how these things go - the story either follows a normal guy or gal who has some kind of life-changing event and decides to use the opportunity to kick ass and take names, or it's an alien/mutant creature who by some contrived reason is the only person who can save the world. Most of them are derived from comic book lore and have an army of devout fans slaving over their every detail on the internet.

Considering that I have never read any of the source material, have limited prior knowledge to most of these stories and am basing my judgement solely on the trailers released for each of them, I present to you my uneducated guess at which ones look to be worth your time and money.

Which superhero trailer will prevail?

Thor

Director:  Kenneth Branagh

Cast:  Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston, Anthony Hopkins, Rene Russo, Stellan Skarsgard, Kat Dennings, Ray Stevenson, Idris Elba, Clark Gregg.

Part of the Marvel Universe, you might recognise Thor from the post-credit teaser in Iron Man 2.  In fact Thor is part of whole universe of superhero movies that tie into next year's event film The Avengers.  In this particular movie, we get the origin story of the warrior Thor, whose reckless actions on his home planet reignite an ancient war and get him cast down to Earth to live amongst us disgusting humans.  He, of course, then has to save us from the evil aliens.

Harry Potter and the Enthusiastic Fandom

A very important chapter in my life will soon be drawing to a close. Those of you who know me well will be thinking, 'whatever, you're turning 30. Blah blah blah". But I couldn't care less about that. Thirty smerty. Who cares? Ever since I read a horoscope that told me that my 30s were going to be awesome - I've been waiting with bated breath. No, I am much more upset about another significant event. My decade long love affair with all things Harry Potter is drawing to a close. With the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 this week, and Part 2 in July next year, the nerdtastic behaviour I have revelled in and tortured my friends with shall be no more.

I still remember the day I realised that maybe I was just a little bit obsessed with this series. The 23rd of June, 2003. Two days after the release of the Order of the Phoenix. After a friend had given me the first Harry Potter book for Christmas one year, I'd gone and bought the next three and quickly devoured them. Carrying them around with me constantly, I couldn't put them down. I knew that I loved these books and thought they were fantastic, but I was yet unaware of this strange, powerful influence JK Rowling's words would have over my common sense.

In the days leading up to the release of Order of the Phoenix, I laughed at all the fans lining up. Who would line up just to get a book? I could wait thanks... I lasted two days. The Monday after the book had been released, I was starting to get antsy about wanting to read it. What was going to happen next? Voldemort had just come back. Cedric had just been killed. Shit had gone down. How could I possibly wait to find out what had happened? How could I stand to have that knowledge out there in the universe and not be aware of it myself!! So sneaking out of work five minutes early, I sped to the local shopping centre, determined that I just had to find a copy of the book. And of course I couldn't find one. Two stores were sold out before I found a horribly over-priced adult cover version. Which obviously I had to buy - desperate to have any kind of version of the book.

As I was walking out of the shopping centre, a horrible, stupid tucked away bookstore appeared out of nowhere completely packed to the roof full of the kids cover at half the price. GAH!! Not fair. I left slightly pissed I'd missed out on a bargain, but happy to be able to read the book. And what a glorious night of reading to 2am it was. The next day, with about half of the book to go, work was ridiculously tedious. I just wanted to go home and read. So I did. I chucked a sickie, drove back to the shopping centre, got a refund for the book I'd half read, went to the secret cheap bookstore, bought my half-price kids cover version, drove home and finished the book.



My next holiday destination

 Clearly this is the moment I cracked. And ever since I've been an unapologetic Potter-file. Every time a book or movie is released, in the weeks leading up I become a ridiculous ball of energy. A fine layer of excitement permeates the air. I'm on the internet almost constantly checking for all the latest updates. But with the movies coming to an end and with my imminent adult style birthday approaching, one can't help but think that the coincidence of these two events is a sign to finally let go and grow up. And I'm going to use this opportunity to finally admit to all my Harry Potter nerdiness. A therapeutic confessional outpouring if you will.

››  I own five Harry Potter action figures. Three of which are Ron dolls. I must point out that I only bought myself ONE of these - the talking Ron doll (complete with iconic catchphrases such as "Who are you and what have you done with Hermione Granger?").

››  Whilst lining up for the Goblet of Fire movie, I may have knocked over a small child in my haste to get into the theatre.

››  The Harry Potter websites http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/, http://www.mugglenet.com/, and http://www.snitchseeker.com/ are bookmarked on my computer and I check them fairly regularly.

››  I postponed my move from Australia to London by two days, because I had originally planned it for the day the Half Blood Prince book came out and there was no way I wasn't locking myself in my room and finishing the book that day!

Goblet of Fire premiere in Leicester Square, London

››  And probably my most hilarious Harry Potter indulgence - I went to the World Premiere of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire in London. Lining up in the rain for 8 hours with thousands and thousands of other Potter fans just to get a glimpse of the stars of the movie - all the while trying to stand upright as I was being pushed about in the moshpit of excited fans screaming for Daniel Radcliffe ("Oh my god. He's so cute!!"). It was a completely ridiculous day and I don't think I'll ever be doing that again, but god it was hilarious! Never again will I be able to randomly talk to the people next to me about the characters and stories in Harry Potter as if they were real. And for those of you who came with me - I did NOT make you come. I casually mentioned I was going to go and you willingly chose to come along with me!

Aww. Who am I kidding? I'll never let Harry Potter go. NEVER! And if anyone wants to buy me a present for my birthday, I'm open to accepting all forms of Harry Potter Lego.

Not quite prime time: The return of Team Coco

It's a big week for Australian television. And no, it's not Eddie and his IQ Test or the over-hyped Packed to the Rafters funeral (Did someone actually die in real life? No? Then move on people and stop putting it on the front page of the paper). No I'm talking about one of the funniest people on the planet finally back where he belongs - on the air. YAY!! Conan O'Brien is back on TV. And the best part - Channel Nine is doing Australia a favour and playing his talk show on free-to-air channel Gem Tuesdays to Fridays at 11:30pm.

For those not aware of the late night talk show war in January this year, Conan had taken over the famed Tonight Show only for the bigwigs at NBC to try a ratings shuffle and push Conan back a timeslot and reinstate former host Jay Leno in his stead. Conan refused and one of the funniest weeks of talk show history ensued. Instead of the latest political gaffes or Tiger Woods sex jokes, the target was late night itself with potshots at NBC and Leno. Those hilarious news peeps in Taiwan succinctly summed up the situation thusly.

Luckily for us all, Conan was able to get his own show on basic cable channel TBS and it debuted this week in the US and is being fast-tracked to Australian shores on Gem (god bless digital TV).

I've been a big fan of Conan's for years, having been lucky enough to have awesome parents with pay television so I could watch his Late Night talk show on the Comedy Channel. And a few years ago I managed to score tickets to be an audience member for Late Night with Conan O'Brien when I visited New York with fellow everythingpopulariswrong.net blogger Amy. I don't think either of us have ever laughed as hard as we did watching the intro package of all of Conan's best-ofs as we waited in the audience for the show to start taping. He's such a random, gangly ridiculous nerd - and I love it!

Talk shows or variety shows can be a tricky format. So much relies on the host being able to engage the audience, engage the guests, and just generally be hilarious whilst doing so. Australian attempts always seem too eager. Rove always tried hard, often hitting the mark, but more often than not the format felt forced and there was an awkwardness that was obvious to the audience. And don't even get me started on the mess that is Daryl Somers and Hey Hey! Out of the predominant American shows Leno panders to the audience too much and Letterman always seems above it all, treating his guests and the audience with a thinly veiled sheen of contempt.

For me, Conan has always hit the mark. Yeah, there are off nights and off guests, but when you run a show 5 nights a week, that's pretty good odds. For example his first show started off strong (with a hilarious intro package of Conan playing up his move from NBC complete with a cameo from Don Draper himself and a very apt reference to The Godfather), but unengaging guests Seth Rogan and Lea Michele were probably not the best to be starting out with. Luckily Jack White was there in all his awesome glory to rock out with Conan and his band to round out the show. All in all, I'm excited to see Conan back on TV and I'm looking forward to more of his kooky hilarity.

Here are some of my favourite Conan clips from the past:

1)  Conan goes apple-picking with Mr T

2)  Triumph the Insult Comic Dog goes to the premiere of Attack of the Clones

3)  Conan hosts the 2006 Emmys

4)  Conan has fun riffing with various guests

And one of the funniest things I've ever seen on television

5)  Conan goes behind-the-scenes with an 1860s re-enactment baseball team.

Top 7 TV Opening Credits

Every TV show has opening credits – some are flashy, some are entertaining and most are downright boring. Watching the new Aussie comedy/drama Offspring the other week (which I am enjoying by the way), I was struck by how much I didn’t like their opening credit sequence. As a cutesy bubble-pop song plays, the main actors jerkily spin in a myriad of poses as if they are characters seen through a viewfinder. The whole thing just seemed a bit too twee. To me, a good opening credit sequence is one that does more than just slap-bang a few clips of the show together with a current pop music fave – it’s a gilded invitation to join the show’s universe. It’s one where no matter how many episodes I watch in a row while DVD marathoning the show – I will always watch the opening credits.

These are a few of my favourites:

Mad Men

An awesome homage to Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo, Mad Men’s opening credits are almost dreamlike – the slow, languid pace of the businessman falling surrounded by skyscrapers with reflections of period advertising posters and billboards.  We can all relate to those dreams of falling which are meant to express our suppressed anxieties, our feelings of being out of control and overwhelmed.  This is what Mad Men is all about – that loss of control and identity – and in a decade where everything about the world was changing.   Plus they can’t go wrong with a final image of dreamy Jon Hamm’s shoulders casually slung across the back of a couch can they!

True Blood

Definitely the best set of credits for a currently running program; True Blood’s have even been nominated for an Emmy.  Created by Digital Kitchen, the production studio also responsible for the awesome credits for Six Feet Under and Dexter, True Blood’s opening sequence is steeped in Deep South imagery and plays around with the contradictory ideas of innocence and menace that go hand in hand with the themes of the show.  The whole thing really just leaves you with a feeling that things just ain’t right – sex, violence, horror, life, and death all wrapped into one.  And those maggots!  Shudder!

The iPod Files: Heavy Rotation (Vampire Weekend)

I’ve been very confused lately. I just don’t understand how this has happened. How in the hell have I never listened to any of Vampire Weekend’s music until this last month? What on earth have I been listening to for the last two years?

My friend Erin and I have been on a bit of a concert kick this year. A sort of unofficial New Year’s resolution to see as many bands live this year as we possibly can – 2010: The Year of the Gig. Before we were off to see another great band, The Temper Trap, we were filling our evening with vodka and pizza and listening to music and Erin had put on some Vampire Weekend. Well damn! I love when you listen to something for the first time and it just fills you with this complete sense of joy and energy. So much fun! I knew she’d been a fan for a while and even had seen them live when they toured this year, but I had no idea what their sound was. I think in retrospect that I’d always been dismissive as I’d heard their name and thought they were some Twilight heavy emo-styled band. And now all I feel is a super case of jealousy. For if ever there was a band that is meant to be seen live – that is Vampire Weekend!

Formed by four fairly preppy-indie guys from Columbia University, Vampire Weekend’s music invokes old-school Paul Simon albums mixed with Afro-pop stylings. Their songs almost go hand-in-hand with Simon’s Graceland album. I’m not the most musically literate person on the planet, but if a song is catchy, has a great hook and crisp melodies, I’m sold. And Vampire Weekend fills that quota: fun, playful, and smart enough to pull it all off with aplomb.

Personal faves from their two albums, the self-titled Vampire Weekend (2008) and their latest Contra (2010), include M79, Walcott, Mansard Roof, Horchata and Holiday. There’s something about a cello solo in the middle of a song that is just fantastic!

Both albums are on heavy rotation on my iPod at the moment and I cannot recommend them highly enough. Their music simply makes me want to dance and spin – I may or may not have already freaked out a few people as I’ve walked home skipping and singing along to myself. I can’t wait until summer so I can listen to their albums as they really should be – out in the sunshine with a nice refreshing glass of Pimms in my hand.

I dare you to listen to Walcott and not want to dance!

This movie made me want to die: Enter the Void

Movies are meant to provoke a response in us. Whether it be laughter, joy, fear, anger or sorrow – we as the audience are meant to be engaged. I’m not sure if this was the intention of the makers of the film Enter the Void, but after sitting through almost three hours of their movie, I seriously was ready to end it all.

What a load of crap! I have never had such an adverse reaction to a film. I felt so angry and frustrated, and quite frankly, somewhat visually raped. Even writing this post, I still feel quite worked up. I’ve seen my fair share of violent films, but the obsessive emphasis on sex and drugs -- to the point that I felt utterly bludgeoned by both -- made the film virtually unwatchable. And don’t even get me started on the relentless torture of the f@#king tracking shots used.

To give you some context of why I ended up seeing such a movie, I should say that normally I’m a fairly spoiler prone gal. I watch a lot of trailers online, I stalk movie magazines and websites and I consequently have a fairly healthy understanding of what movies I go to see are about. Breaking all my normal conventions, I went to see Enter the Void at the Melbourne International Film Festival based purely on the description of the movie on the website.

“A wild, hallucinatory mindf@#k for adults… defies cinema convention in every way.” – Screen International.

Great, I thought. I love a good mind@#k of a movie. Some of my favourite movies defy convention. Bring me a Charlie Kauffman or Christopher Nolan movie over a stock standard Jennifer Lopez rom-com any day.

Clearly this was my first misstep. Actually that’s a lie. The title of the movie really should have been my first clue of what I was in for.

The plot of the film itself is rather unremarkable. Oscar and Linda, two Americans, whose parents were killed in a car crash when they were kids -- an accident that they witnessed -- have been finally reunited in Japan. Unfortunately, Oscar is a drug addict and dealer and Linda a (pretty crap) stripper. Oscar is sleeping with his friend Alex's mother, and when Alex finds out, he arranges to get Oscar killed by the police in a raid at a club.

For the first 45 minutes or so, the camera is from Oscar’s point of view – as if the camera were lodged on his neck instead of his head. Although a fairly clichéd approach (and it certainly doesn’t help that the guy who plays Oscar is not a particularly good actor), this half of the movie was relatively engaging. Or perhaps I’m remembering it too fondly in comparison to the agony, misery, woe (and every other possible descriptor) that came afterwards. For after Oscar dies, we continue to follow him, but now everything is seen from above as if from the POV of Oscar’s dead spirit.

And what complete torture! Instead of cutting from one scene that the dead Oscar is observing to the next, the camera dives in and out of lights before flying over buildings in endless tracking shots before settling in the next location. This happens at least 20 or 30 times in the second half of the film, to the point that I was ready to scream. This whole section of the movie went for an hour and fifteen minutes!! I know. I counted. The slow ass pacing coupled with the relentless strobe light effects, boring storyline and dull pulsating soundtrack make this sequence absolute agony. Every time the camera dived into yet another light, I was begging that the movie be over soon. The multitude of endings in Lord of the Rings: Return of the King now seems tame in comparison.

The whole thing culminates in a ridiculous sequence where virtually every character in the film is having sex (quite graphically) in a Love Hotel -- even poor Oscar, now via the visual perspective of a friend, consummating his unspoken but clearly obvious incestuous desires for his sister. I guess we were meant to take away some kind of life-affirmation from this, but it all seemed too farcical for its own good.

Many reviews I have read since watching Enter the Void claim that while the movie is designed to make you uncomfortable, that’s not the point -- the point is the filmmaking. I’m all for a movie pushing the boundaries. Many movies can be excruciating to watch and yet still be fantastic. But when the movie is unapologetically thin drivel and claims that it is filmmaking art by hiding behind a cloak of pretentiousness – then I have some issues! Pace, Plot, Style – these things make filmmaking. Not a half dozen gimmicky shots that could pass as avant-garde.

If only I’d had the foresight to know that I should have walked out after the first hour.

Coming Soon: 5 must-see movies on a screen near you

I am addicted to watching movie trailers. My friends always joke about this time we were going to the movies, and I may or may not have been driving slightly over the speed limit just so I could get there in time to see all the trailers. And now I have the internet enabling my addiction by having trailers up as soon as they are released. It’s a vicious circle. 

Here’s just a few I’m excited about.

The Social Network

Director: David Fincher

Writer: Aaron Sorkin

Cast: Jesse Eisenberg, Justin Timberlake, Andrew Garfield, Rashida Jones

With Facebook recently reaching its 500 millionth user, and founder Mark Zuckerberg becoming the youngest billionaire in history – now comes the story of how the whole crazy thing began. 

Pop Culture Smackdown!! The Battle for the Boy Who Lived

So much of popular culture these days is recycled. Books are made into movies; movies are remade into newer movies; then the updated movies end up having four sequels before someone decides to turn the whole concept into a TV show and then write a novelisation based on the TV series.

Are there any original ideas left? With all these differing versions of the same thing, I’m throwing down the gauntlet and declaring a Pop Culture Smackdown!!

Which version is better? Who will ultimately prevail? 

  

In today’s bout we have the cultural juggernaut that is Harry Potter. In the red corner – the book series that started it all; in the blue corner – the world-wide multi-million dollar movie franchise.

The problem in translating book to film is that you have to deal with those that loved the book, and baulk at the thought of any changes. Nobody wants to incur the wrath of those that will potentially come and watch the adaptation, but sometimes changing things is necessary, especially for a new medium where sub-plots vie for attention and the moviemakers have to also think about pleasing the audience ignorant of the book. Unfortunately for fans these differences can make or break their enjoyment. What many fans consider to be key scenes in the books are sometimes marginalised or completely ignored in the film.

With the movies finally coming to an end (if you haven’t already watched the trailer for The Deathly Hallows – DO IT!!) it’s time to finally declare a winner in the actualisation of JK Rowling’s Wizarding World. Do the movies live up to the hype of the book series?? Or do they surpass the expectations of the millions of rabid fans?