Woody Allen’s Whatever Works
by Larry David plays a slight variation on his Curb Your Enthusiasm incarnation, spouting some of the most articulate rants on humanity in Woody Allen’s new comedy. I enjoyed last year’s Vicky Cristina Barcelona, but this is definitely better. It’s a spectacularly executed comedy farce, with the action constantly escalating along the way, adhering to the old comedy formula of putting the characters through hell for big laughs. Boris Yellnikoff, played by David, attempts and fails to kill himself. This leads to him marrying a young girl, and while the plot spirals into absurdity, it’s so much fun, there’s no point caring. The sweet ending wraps everything into a nice, neat and sweat package. While I’m usually a fan of gritty reality, sometimes it’s refreshing to experience a ‘happily ever after’.
Tagged: Curb Your Enthusiasm, Larry David, Whatever Works trailer, Woody Allen
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Also by XAVIER TOBY
Valentino: The Last Emperor — Fashion documentary
A documentary about one of the world’s most famous fashion designers? Hmm. Not a film I’d ever choose to see, but sometimes we do what we don’t want to in order to make friends happy. It’s called compromise apparently, and the experience reminded me that any material, if well structured and presented, can make a decent film. The filmmakers follow the over-tanned Valentino Garavani and his long-term lover and business partner Giancarlo Giammetti. Read more
Black Dynamite blaxploitation movie trailer
One very angry and unstoppable man wages war against drugs and malt liquor. A take-off of the old blaxploitation films, this is parody at its best, with many knowing nods to camera and hilarious moments involving clichés taken to their extremes. There’s the Asian kung-fu master, pimps and orphans hooked on heroin. It all begins with Black Dynamite being spurned on his quest for blood after his brother’s brutal murder, and then pushed further for the love of a good woman. There are hoes and guns, along with catchphrases and great one-liners. See it.
Defamation documentary trailer
Does Israel use the Holocaust as an excuse for their continued issues with the Palestine people? According to this film, yes. Are people who criticise Israel’s foreign policy often unfairly labelled anti-Semitic? Again, yes according to this brilliant documentary made by an Israeli-Jew. Instead of passing judgment himself, filmmaker Yoav Shamir is smart enough to put himself and his camera in the right places, surrounded by the right people, and let the people damn themselves. Read more
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Paul Chatem’s works are almost like folk pieces done on found materials. Using gear-shaped pieces of wood, bits of metal, old cuckoo clocks, and a faded palette, Chatem creates paintings that look like the decaying remnants of a shuttered amusement park.
While I’m definitely not into the whole Lord of the Rings thing, I’m convinced Tolkien stole his inspiration from Göreme, in Turkey’s central Cappadocia region. After a mammoth volcanic eruption around 2,000 years ago, the landscape eroded to form a series of valleys, filled with peculiar, phallic-shaped tufts that the locals call ‘fairy chimneys’. Early Christians hollowed out the tufts and turned them into houses, churches and monasteries. These days, most of them are still in use and a few have been converted into cute hotels and hostels. If you’re not too claustrophobic, I’d highly recommend doing the hobbit thing and spending a night in one.
These antler pendants are hand-crafted, made in sterling silver, and brought to you by the talented kids at Fuzz Design. They are revolutionizing the way we view hunting and taxidermy: it just got a whole lot more fashionable! Why not wear a piece of reindeer around your neck this Christmas?
Many moons ago, when my hair was longer and my eyes were wider, I played guitar in a Sydney rock band. Over a period of several years, the four members in the group went from relative normality to the very personification of imagined rock glory. Read more
Oh man! Now I’ve seen it all. An entire blog dedicated to cupcakes, those perfect little bundles of sweet, sweet goodness. Hell, my mouth is watering just looking at them. What will they think of next? A blog about pretzels? Ha! Oh, wait a minute. Damn!
Oh, ok, so now I’ve seen it all. Or perhaps, in this case, I’m not seeing enough. Japanese game shows are so much fun. Seriously.
New Mexico group, Alaska in Winter’s The Homeless And The Hummingbirds is a stunningly beautiful, slowburning song, featuring Beirut’s Zach Condon on trumpet.
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Scanners’ new single Salvation
I love this track by London based rock group, Scanners, which is off their latest album, Submarine. Having toured with acts such as The Horrors, The Wedding Present, The Charlatans, Electric Six, and Juliette & The Licks, Scanners could well blow up in 2010. Figuratively speaking, not literally. No, that wouldn’t be fun.
Karen Caldicott’s clay head models
British born, New York-based model maker Karen Caldicott has been making clay heads for all major US publications over the last decade. Read more
Creative advertising packaging
Despite the intentions of many, it’s not so often that advertising — as an industry — truly thinks outside the box. Yet, when executed well, clever eye-catching advertising actually works. It does. As these examples will attest to. Read more
With the recession still biting, it may be time to whip out the glue and the cardboard and make your next pair of cool kicks. Don’t know how they’d manage in the rain though? Read more
Hong Kong-based illustrator Man-Tsun draws dark and beautiful painterly images that look like they are straight off a high-end Japanese animated film. Read more
Thanks to Sony Australia, four Lost At E Minor readers will win personal audio prizes, including the new 8GB Walkman S series video MP3 player and the MDRXB500 Extra Bass headphones. Read more
Golden Half is one of the world’s most popular toy cameras. It’s compact in size and each click of the shutter uses half of the standard 135mm frame. This means a 36-exposure roll of film will return around 72 images. It’s available for US$100. Read more
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