La Mirada Film Festival at ACMI

The La Mirada film festival begins next month running from April 1st - 11th.
The line-up looks interesting with a number of new releases plus a special guest programmer in the form of Pedro Almodovor (one of my favourite directors).

So don't miss out, the link is below to all programming information.

http://www.lamirada.org.au/

Film Festival's Galore!!

The annual French film festival is currently being held at the Kino, Palace Balwyn, Cinema Como and The Westgarth cinema in Melbourne. The festival finishes on March 21st, so don't miss out!
A number of great films are being shown and look out for my movierevue of "Korkoro". This film follows the lives of a group of gypsy's in France during World War II and the friend's and foe's that they meet along the way...... filled with brilliant music it forces you to run through the full gamut of emotions, ranging from laughter to tears.
http://www.frenchfilmfestival.org/sessions/melbourne.aspx

The Indian film festival has also commenced screening at the Cinema Nova in Carlton.
This festival runs until March 17th and details for the program are below:
http://www.iff2010.com/

The Melbourne Queer film festival also begins on March 17th and later in the year we have the Melbourne International film festival to look forward too.
http://www.mqff.com.au/
 http://www.melbournefilmfestival.com.au/

Shutter Island

Another film by the great Martin Scorsese and presented in the film noir style of the 1940's. We have Leonardo DiCaprio starring in this film as the "troubled" detective plagued by vision's of his wife and what we are led to believe is his tragic past, where his wife was burnt in their apartment. As the film unravels we begin to realise things aren't quite as they seem! An excellent support cast has Ben Kingsley acting as the chief psychologist at the mental institute on Shutter Island along with other notable actors such Mark Ruffalo, the lovely Patricia Clarkson playing a missing patient, Michelle Williams as the dead wife and Emily Mortimer in a smaller role than I am used to seeing her play in.

The story comes together nicely towards the end and we are given clues along the way as to whether Leonardo's reality is as all it seems!

The Men who Stare at Goats.

Another flick starring George Clooney as a retired "Jedi" army intelligence fighter along with the marvelous (and Academy Award winning..) Jeff Bridges. Kevin Spacey also has a small part as Jeff Bridges nemesis in the film and Ewan McGregor supports George Clooney as the journalist who is here to uncover the story of the "Jedi" program. 

 With this "All Star Cast" you would expect be the recipients of a real treat but this film was lacking to a certain degree. The humor of George Clooney's character practising his "cloud-bursting" skills and slamming into the only tree stump amidst a massive expanse of desert is one of the few slap-stick moments that were cause for a laugh out loud moment although the movie trailer seemed to promise more.

The film traces back the history of the experimental "Jedi" program championed by Jeff Bridges and show's his path to enlightenment and then eventual downfall and removal from the army. George Clooney a former "Star" Jedi student of Jeff Bridges is on a personal quest to rediscover the "Jedi" army operations. We follow George and Ewan on their journey to discover this secret operation and are provided with few laughs along the way.

I had high hopes for this film with it's great cast of actors but it didn't deliver as I expected it to. It still provides an entertaining night out but not of the rollicking kind.