Amidst all the grand, heavyweight American films rolling out for the Oscar period, here is this little gem of a family drama which is quite possibly the sleeper hit of the season.
Set during the imminent wedding ceremony of one sister in a family, the drama reveals itself through the still-troubled second sister (Anne Hathaway, in a career highlight performance), who is fresh out of drug rehabilitation. The plot immediately conjures memories of two recent films; 'Margot At The Wedding', and 'I've Loved You So Long'. Both of these were good movies, however 'Rachel Getting Married' is a far more rounded and satisfying package. This is not to suggest that the film neatly ties all threads together; one does not exit the cinema with a sense of 'all's well that ends well'.
Director Jonathan Demme is definitely back to great form here. Initially sceptical, the hand-held documentary-style coverage quite quickly blends into the story wonderfully. It was also wonderful to see a multi-racial family all celebrating together. And, whilst the African-American groom-to-be - and his side of the family - didn't play a prominent part in the characterisation, you could undeniably hear and feel their presence in the vibrant and diverse music which ingratiates itself into the weekend celebrations.
In equal parts emotional as it is heart-warming, it is for this reason that I believe 'Rachel Getting Married' is a welcome counterpart to the 2006 film 'Little Miss Sunshine'.
'Rachel Getting Married' was released in 2009, and is screening in cinemas nationally.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
[My First Published Article About Film] Yay!
One of my goals for 2008 was to be writing for some kind of film publication before the year was out. I had this pipe dream of being able to swing myself a press pass for the 2009 Cannes Film Festival... hey, everyone is allowed to dream big right? I looked at a number of actual print magazines and such, of which the lefty global monthly 'New Internationalist' seemed the ideal fit for me. I sent them a couple of emails, but the time obviously wasn't right for me to be contributing for such an esteemed publication. Towards the end of the year, I did a big email-out to a variety of online culture publications. I did not get any replies. On NYE I reflected back on the year and was a bit disappointed that I hadn't achieved this goal. The next morning I woke up to find an email reply from one of the culture websites I had expressed an interest in writing for - "you are a great writer, and we would love you to contribute for us". Needless to say, I was pretty happy, and smiled to myself, 'better late than never'.
The website is www.twoflatwhites.com and they exist to provide up and coming Australian writers and artists a platform from which to express their opinions. As such, the content is specifically focused on Australian culture (film, music, fashion, art, and food).
Whatever I would chose to write about, it had to be something to do with the Australian film industry. This was a bit of a concern to me, as I had previously turned my nose up to the majority of Australian films. I am not sure why this was. But I later discovered that I was certainly not alone in this attitude. Throughout the month of January, I rented about 7 Australian DVDs each week. Much to my surprise (and joy!), I began to realise that the general ethos of Australian films contained everything that I love about cinema - just really good quality social realism movies. I watched about 25 DVDs in January, of which the following just completely blew me away: 'Lantana', 'Romulus, My Father', 'Walking On Water', '2:37', 'Beneath Clouds', and 'Somersault'. All of these were released in the last decade.
I was now starting to get a feel for Australian films. So.. what to write about? I knew that I wanted my first piece to be a bit broader than simply a film review. I remembered a quote from UK comedian Ricky Gervais, writer/star of 'The Office' and 'Extras', where he said that "it's always helpful to write about what you know." Well, I knew that no less than 3 months ago I was of the opinion that Australian cinema couldn't possibly stand up against European films. And I knew that I wasn't alone in this opinion. And I now knew that this was not the case, and that this apathy towards our film industry was a problem that needs to be addressed. Therefore, I decided to write my first article about just that - my perspective of the state of the Australian film industry. I sent it through to 'TwoFlatWhites', and they were really happy with it and are looking forward to further contributions. It feels good to once again have something of a ball rolling, so I'm pretty inspired now to get back to regularly writing about cinema.
Here is my article - I hope it may encourage you to check out some more Australian movies, if you are not already doing so!
The website is www.twoflatwhites.com and they exist to provide up and coming Australian writers and artists a platform from which to express their opinions. As such, the content is specifically focused on Australian culture (film, music, fashion, art, and food).
Whatever I would chose to write about, it had to be something to do with the Australian film industry. This was a bit of a concern to me, as I had previously turned my nose up to the majority of Australian films. I am not sure why this was. But I later discovered that I was certainly not alone in this attitude. Throughout the month of January, I rented about 7 Australian DVDs each week. Much to my surprise (and joy!), I began to realise that the general ethos of Australian films contained everything that I love about cinema - just really good quality social realism movies. I watched about 25 DVDs in January, of which the following just completely blew me away: 'Lantana', 'Romulus, My Father', 'Walking On Water', '2:37', 'Beneath Clouds', and 'Somersault'. All of these were released in the last decade.
I was now starting to get a feel for Australian films. So.. what to write about? I knew that I wanted my first piece to be a bit broader than simply a film review. I remembered a quote from UK comedian Ricky Gervais, writer/star of 'The Office' and 'Extras', where he said that "it's always helpful to write about what you know." Well, I knew that no less than 3 months ago I was of the opinion that Australian cinema couldn't possibly stand up against European films. And I knew that I wasn't alone in this opinion. And I now knew that this was not the case, and that this apathy towards our film industry was a problem that needs to be addressed. Therefore, I decided to write my first article about just that - my perspective of the state of the Australian film industry. I sent it through to 'TwoFlatWhites', and they were really happy with it and are looking forward to further contributions. It feels good to once again have something of a ball rolling, so I'm pretty inspired now to get back to regularly writing about cinema.
Here is my article - I hope it may encourage you to check out some more Australian movies, if you are not already doing so!
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