Gabriel
Drug addicted angels prostituting themselves, alcoholic angels, angels who work in soup kitchens, all trapped in purgatory. They had been sent down, or fallen, in an effort to bring back the light and save souls, but have failed. Gabriel is then the last hope of the light. Fairly standard action fare and despite a few twists, the ending is predictable. For a low budget Australian film though, Gabriel is an amazing achievement with enough surprises and inventive devices to make it worthwhile viewing. It’s a great reminder that you don’t need millions to make a decent action flick. Giving angels and demons guns and having them blow each other away looks cool, and the contact lenses used to show spirituality are freaky enough to be memorable. The city itself is then deliciously dark, wet and dirty. For once, this is an Australian film not obsessed with being Australian — a fine piece of escapist, fun but, ultimately, disposable cinema that keeps you engrossed for the duration, while leaving little for you to think about afterwards.
Tagged: Australian movies
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Samson and Delilah, an Australian movie
This is not an enjoyable film, but it is excellent. Immediately after watching Samson and Delilah, I thought it was awful. Exactly because I thought it was awful, a week later I’m convinced it’s brilliant. There are many different types of films. Some are immensely entertaining, but immediately forgettable. Like Avatar. Others stick with you, no matter how much you wish they wouldn’t, because they show you a truth about the world that you wish wasn’t so spot on. Samson and Delilah is based around the real-life experiences of director Warwick Thornton and present a part of Australia that most people, myself included, suspected existed, but really wish it didn’t. Now, what the hell do we do about it?
Balibo: Australian documentary about East Timor
For a small country so close to Australia, so many of us know way too little about East Timor. Balibo makes it clear that the small nation was invaded by the Indonesians over thirty years ago, while Australia let it happen. This well paced, passionately acted portrayal of the events centres around the death of five young Australian journalists. Experienced Australian journalist Roger East tries to find out what happened to them, with the help of Jose Ramos Horta, who is still a pertinent figure in East Timorese politics. Anthony Lapaglia gives a spirited performance as East, who at one point comments, “Thousand of little brown people die; nobody back home (in Australia) is going to care. But five Australian journalists are killed and that’s front page news.” Which helps explain why their deaths were kept covered up for three decades. [read about more Australian pop culture at The Colour]
Also by XAVIER TOBY
Australian movie A Few Best Men
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I wish there were a lot more of the types of films made by Lars von Trier. Each is very different but still distinctly von Trier, and each is superb. Melancholia is the follow up to the wonderfully confronting Antichrist. This is all about the end of the world, and told with an honesty and pacing that is probably much closer to the actual end of the world than all the Hollywood crap would have you believe. Read more
We Need To Talk About Kevin: based on Lionel Shriver’s novel
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If you have a Twitter feed that focuses on cool pop cultural things and you’d like to swap Tweets with Lost At E Minor and other like-minded Twitterers, drop us a note (with Tweet Swap in the title). We have a system in place and we’d like to have you in on it! [illustration by Brad Fitzpatrick]
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