Movie-fest

In between his law studies and my book-making, Best Beloved and I decided to use our fortnightly child-free weekend (the Albatross does manage a steady routine these days) to use up the dregs of some movie passes that have been hanging around, as well as visiting the ANU film group. So we've watched a few movies.

First came the ANU film group, where we saw Garden State. I was quite curious about it, having missed it when it first came out, but also having caught a bit of the kerfuffle about Zach Braff and Margaret Pomeranz (you have to scroll down this link a bit). It was good, but I came out thinking merely 'good first try', rather than 'wow'.

Especially when I compared it to Vera Drake, which we saw on Saturday at Electric Shadows. Now that was a beautifully written, well-crafted movie. I found myself really enjoying Mike Leigh's subtlety. He'd bring in a theme, echo it a bit, but not labour the point so that he revealed a lot with just a little bit of information. I loved the point at which he stopped the narrative, resisting the temptation to show Vera's release, really bringing it across that nothing in this woman's life or family would ever truly be the same again, for better or worse. I felt quite solemn for the rest of the day.

Sunday, by complete contrast, was spent jumping and twitching in front of Constantine. Now there's a weird one. We were intrigued by the shorts, as both of us like a bit of religious conspiracy theory (I'm more of a fiction-fan, having read a few Dan Brown 'thrillers', to Best Beloved's scorn. He's into the real-life versions, like cults & gurus etc). I really liked Constantine, mainly because I like graphic novels, and had read very similar sort of things. BB hasn't much experience of this genre, and found it highly entertaining. we both came out a bit shell-shocked and a touch confused by bits of the plot that had been wizzed past us so fast that we never got back to them. I loved the artwork, and of course I adored Tilda Swinton, whom I had a crush on for many years. I must say it's also a great 2-hour anti-smoking campaign. I don't think I'll ever have ever a party smoke again. We saw a morning session, and came out of the cinema to Belconnen Mall in full Easter-shopping-on-a-Sunday mode, which was just as weird as the movie, to be honest.

Then today, to cap off a good movie-fest, I got a letter from the Australian Film Institute containing two complimentary passes to preview Enduring Love, which is based on the Ian McEwen novel of the same name. We'd seen the shorts over the weekend, and earmarked it as something we'd wanted to see, and I'd totally forgotten that the AFI had offered these tickets to their members last week by email. I always say yes, whether I know what the film is or not, so now we're very happy. Something good (and cheap!) to do next weekend! Hooray!