MIFF - My picks. Where I snob-out.

The Melbourne International Film Festival is almost upon us. Last year, I didn't see Inglourious Basterds and regretted it, because it turned out to be the best movie of the year. Yes. I mean that.

So I'm making a concerted effort to get involved this time, and that includes making a shortlist of movies I want to see. Monetary and time constraints will probably mean I wont get to see them all, but at least I have a goal!

There are of course other movies on the program that I would like to see that I haven't included here, but I've left them out because they're high-profile (read: American) enough to probably get a mainstream release later (at least on DVD). I'm talking about ones like The Kids Are All Right, Chloe, The Ghost Writer (well, actually I don't watch Polanski any more, but it'll get a wider release), The Killer Inside Me, The Messenger, Please Give, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, Welcome To The Rileys, and Australia's The Wedding Party etc...Of course there are a couple of US entries that I can't wait for, and they're included.

You'll also notice there aren't any from particular programs, like the Neighborhood Watch series, or the Night Shift, Animation or States of Dissent series. It's a taste thing. I'm a little heavier on the Docs - I love documentaries. Anyway here's my basic list, some of these I've heard great things about already, some of them just caught my eye and seem super interesting. Have I missed anything?What would you recommend?

Lebanon

Heard great things, it won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. Some have called it an anti-war film, and while I'm not sure if I believe they exist, it feels like we might be in a different movement of war films.

The Special Relationship

This was originally made by HBO to be a TV movie, but recently HBO announced it would release it as a cinema feature. It is a sequel of sorts to Stephen Frears's The Queen (2006), but this time it's directed by Richard Loncraine. I'll be seeing it for Michael Sheen's wonderfully subtle portrayal of Tony Blair.

I Love You, Phillip Morris

What is happening with this movie?! It has been speculated that its cinema release in the US keeps getting pushed back due to graphic gay sex scenes. But I've heard great things, and I'm a big fan of 'Dramatic Jim Carrey.'

Rejoice & Shout

I'm a sucker for music documentaries, and there is a great lot of them at this year's MIFF (Backbeat), but when that music is the blues, well, wild horses couldn't drag me away.

Red Hill

If there's one thing True Blood has taught us, apart from proving it's impossible to have too many hot guys in one cast and there is no sex scene too absurd for TV, it's that Vinnie from Home and Away can not only act but can pull off complex and compelling characters. Good on ya Vinnie! I like the visual look of this film, debut filmmaker Patrick Hughes is clearly inspired by Tarantino and Ozpolitation movies, and that's fine by me.

Catfish

One I came across in my browsing, this sort of doco is right up my ally. It's a personal journey, about social networking, and apparently has a shocking twist. Yes please.

La Danse: The Paris Opera Ballet

My movie tastes might not be particularly girlie, but I turn into a complete giggly girlie puddle when I see anything ballet. Tutus! Tragedy! Hair nets! Anorexia! Ahem.

Brotherhood

Danish gay neo-Nazis? I'm SO THERE.

Innerspace *

MIFF is doing a Joe Dante retrospective, and that's a genius move. While The 'Burbs and Gremlins 1 & 2 are great too, I just can't go past childhood favorite Innerspace, where Dennis Quaid is shrunk and injected into the ass of Martin Short. MARTIN SHORT! **

The Genius and the Boys

In what is perhaps the most obvious title in the whole festival, this is about an academic prodigy who turns out to be a pedo. Again: SO THERE.

Winter's Bone

Forget the other US indies at MIFF, this is the movie I'm hearing the most amazing things about. The lead performance by young Jennifer Lawrence is apparently revolutionary.

My Joy

It's about contemporary Russia. 'Nuff said.

Petropolis: Aerial Perspectives on the Alberta Tar Sands

An aerial look at the second biggest oil reserve in the world, in northern Canada. Fascinating.

* Oh noes, I can't make the screening of Innerspace (I'll be in Perth that weekend), so I'll probably see The 'Burbs instead.

** Trust me, click that link.

Brief thoughts on The Wire: Season 1

So I've finally watched the first season of the critically acclaimed, proudly low-key HBO crime drama The Wire, which ran from 2002-2008. It is an excellent show, very well made, very compelling and, yes, very deep. I enjoyed it. I especially appreciated that the creators of the show seem to understand that narrative strength lies in characters.

However, it is a crime drama, and its unavoidable adherence to genre conventions meant it didn't quite reach the depths of other standout dramas of the past decade (The Sopranos, Six Feet Under, Mad Men, Breaking Bad, Deadwood, Big Love*). I understand what creator David Simon is doing - presenting a rich depiction of contemporary life via a crime drama. However, when the strongest aspects of a program are the characters, narrative arc and wider subtext of certain concepts, it's a shame we have to be presented with the requisite genre devices - the piece by piece puzzle-solving played out from various angles, the lawyer-talk, the flak-jackets. Indeed, all of these are done well, most of the time do not feel gratuitous, and all serve a greater purpose than JUST to show us the procedure. For instance, character development plays out in these scenes (one that comes to mind is the darkly hilarious scene in episode 4, when the detectives Moreland and McNulty, above, recreate a murder scene saying only the word 'fuck' or a colorful variant). It's just... the writing and acting are so good, I wished it moved a little further away from convention, presented less of the "CSI" stuff and more of the "this is what it's like in Baltimore, and these are the people who live there" stuff. Because that was the really genre-breaking stuff.

You could say the criticism is a little unfair.  I'm having a go at a show precisely because it is too good for its genre.  Maybe a better angle to take is this: "Hey! You! Yes, I'm talking to YOU, Law and Order, CSI, NCIS, and all of your many spin-offs. Yeah, WTF? The Wire just pwned all of your asses!" Yes, The Wire really does set a new standard for crime drama, and that is no mean feat.

I will check out season 2, maybe it will lessen its reliance on convention and really soar as pure, solid Drama, capitalisation intended.

* I realise an argument could be made that some of those programs are in specific genres - Mad Men and Deadwood are period-pieces, The Sopranos is a gangster show, and the other three are essentially family-dramas - but those shows all try, quite explicitly, to move away from conventions of genre, it is what has made them so critically acclaimed. When I think of those shows, I think of just pure 'Drama.' I really struggle to put them in a genre because, really, none of them are faithful to the usual narratives or devices.

UPDATE (12 May 2010): I attempted season 2 of The Wire, but for whatever reason didn't get past the first episode. This show expects a lot from it's viewers, and I suspect I  was not in the right frame of mind for a slow-burn opening episode. I will attempt again, when I'm feeling curious. Perhaps once Breaking Bad season 3 ends.