Mark's blog about the 2005 Melbourne International Film Festival.Thursday, August 04, 2005
CHILDSTAR
7.5/10
A Canadian film about how a 12 year old actor comes to term with the fact that he's growing out of his star phase (at least in children's roles). Was very well acted and enjoyable.
ENRON: THE SMARTEST GUYS IN THE ROOM
6/10
I'd certainly recommend seeing this if it comes on TV. As a cinema release though, I'm not rating it very highly. It was a very dry documentary about how the corporation screwed the little guy and laughed their asses off doing so. There's enough documentaries out there which paint corporations badly, and I'm not sure that this one was needed - it told the story, but didn't do so in a particularly entertaining way. I don't think this is such a bad thing for a documentary, but some more entertainment would've been appreciated for a cinema experience.
PIXAR PRESENTS... ONE MAN BAND
8/10
Yeah - a real highlight of the festival. Two Pixar people came and chatted about Pixar, what goes on there, the steps involved in the creation of a short film, and showed us the film twice (the first time being the Australain Premiere). There was a Q&A, and at the end we all got a golden coin at the end too (which will make sense once you've seen the short, which is basically about two one-man-band players who are vying to win a gold coin from a little girl with their performance). Most excellent!
7.5/10
A Canadian film about how a 12 year old actor comes to term with the fact that he's growing out of his star phase (at least in children's roles). Was very well acted and enjoyable.
ENRON: THE SMARTEST GUYS IN THE ROOM
6/10
I'd certainly recommend seeing this if it comes on TV. As a cinema release though, I'm not rating it very highly. It was a very dry documentary about how the corporation screwed the little guy and laughed their asses off doing so. There's enough documentaries out there which paint corporations badly, and I'm not sure that this one was needed - it told the story, but didn't do so in a particularly entertaining way. I don't think this is such a bad thing for a documentary, but some more entertainment would've been appreciated for a cinema experience.
PIXAR PRESENTS... ONE MAN BAND
8/10
Yeah - a real highlight of the festival. Two Pixar people came and chatted about Pixar, what goes on there, the steps involved in the creation of a short film, and showed us the film twice (the first time being the Australain Premiere). There was a Q&A, and at the end we all got a golden coin at the end too (which will make sense once you've seen the short, which is basically about two one-man-band players who are vying to win a gold coin from a little girl with their performance). Most excellent!
