Goodnight and Good Luck — A dramatised version of the campaign against Joe McCarthy by 50’s CBS programme See It Now, but with so many modern parallels in today’s climate of terrorism, fundamentalism, secrecy and censorship. Beautifully shot, and compelling. My eyes didn’t waver from the screen for the full 90 minutes.

On a couple of related notes:

George Clooney says he didn’t actually write the blog entry in the Huffington Post “I am a Liberal. There, I said it!”, but that he does stand by the statements in it, which were compiled from two separate interviews. He takes a potshot at the (US) Democrats: Just look at the way so many Democrats caved in the run up to the war. In 2003, a lot of us were saying, where is the link between Saddam and bin Laden? What does Iraq have to do with 9/11? We knew it was bullshit. Which is why it drives me crazy to hear all these Democrats saying, “We were misled.” It makes me want to shout, “Fuck you, you weren’t misled. You were afraid of being called unpatriotic.”

Ever wondered what the media won’t talk about? Sure, some of it’s media barons directing from on-high, but there’s also D-Notices. The D-Notice system lists the topics they shouldn’t report on. Theoretically it’s a voluntary system.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory — OMG, it’s Johnny Depp playing Michael Jackson playing Willy Wonka. Deep Roy (who 30 years ago played Mr Sin in Doctor Who — The Talons of Weng-Chiang) must have worked hard on this, playing all the Oompa Loompahs. All in all, enjoyable, and thankfully the spectre of the old version of the movie didn’t hang too much of a shadow over it.

Tropfest 2006 finalists (DVD free with The Age a few weeks ago) — a lot of great short films. One or two I didn’t quite understand fully, but most very good. My faves included Last Stop, Carmichael and Shane (a father talks about the benefits of favouritism of one twin over the other — this one won), terrific animation in Carnivore Reflux. Geek prize goes to Glitch.

It’s been almost two years since we went looking unsuccessfully for Mulholland Drive on DVD. Kept looking for it during that time, but no luck, apart from one aged looking VHS copy spotted recently.

Finally though, a copy turned up on DVD. Oh, the anticipation.

By about midway through, I was beginning to wonder what the fuss was about, and starting to get suspicious that in David Lynch terms, this was not another Twin Peaks (which I loved), but rather more in the Eraserhead mould (which I loathed).

Now, I don’t mind things being all mixed up, and some confusion ensuing. I don’t mind having to think about what’s happening, rather than having it all spelt out for me. But with a movie that long, there has to be a reasonable pay-off for the time invested. I’m sorry, but “it was all a dream” is not a reasonable pay-off for two and a half hours of plodding narrative.

Oh, it was beautifully shot and acted, no doubt. But the words “prentious claptrap” don’t seem amiss here. I feel ripped off (and I didn’t even pay for the rental).

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire — Good stuff. I’m not sure if I agree with the other reviews saying it’s the best HP movie ever, but I really enjoyed it. It’s not really worthy of the M15+ rating the OFLC gave it. Had to chuckle at the (probably unintentional) Doctor Who references: the TARDIS-like tent, and some guy morphing into David Tennant…

Narnia: the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe — Also very enjoyable, and not just because we saw it in Gold Class on a stinking hot day. Interesting that they included the Professor, even though the first book hasn’t been made. Some might moan about the Christian allusions, but it wasn’t preachy. Reminded me a lot of LOTR, but that’s what happens when you film fantasy battle scenes in New Zealand. Looking forward to the next one. Don’t leave when the credits start to roll.

According to The Independent, next year there’ll be a spin-off series from Doctor Who, called Torchwood. It’ll be more adult, described as “The X-Files meets This Life” and will star John Barrowman as “Captain” Jack Harkness, part of a team investigating alien activity on Earth.

• BBC announcement
• BBC has registered torchwood.org.uk

Three Dollars — It was an okay movie. Perhaps a bit close to the bone for me; I’ve seen some of those issues come up in the dim dark past of my life. I was watching out for various Melbourne locations… a few shots of Fed Square, and Flinders Street — where two Bad Things are shown happening on (shudder) platform 13. It had its good points, such as time spent with the tramps, which I found interesting. But the movie is so long it drags on a bit, and sadly fails my “Would I watch it again?” test.

Chicken parma, Metropolitan Hotel, North Melbourne — How could one resist a meal touted as “Fat arse chook parma”? I certainly couldn’t. And yes, it was huge. A fellow diner commented that no part of a chicken is that big, and the waiter agreed. Perhaps it was really turkey parma, or ostrich parma? It was pretty tasty, too. Sadly, the connoisseurs at superparma.com haven’t found this one, but they have recently awarded the crown for best parma to the nearby Leveson Hotel, also in North Melbourne. Still, this one must get full marks for size… I’ll point them to it. $16 well spent.

Million Dollar Baby — Another of Hollywood’s best, most thought-provoking movies from Clint Eastwood. What starts as a reasonably straightforward, but far from mindless, engaging drama, then takes an almighty twist as the characters agonise over what is an important and topical issue. A great film, marred only by way-too-obvious advertising for Everlast.

Over on Geekrant, I’ve been re-living my past geek-glory writing computer games.

Robots — This had its amusing moments. It didn’t suck. But it fails my “if it were the only thing playing on a long plane flight, would I watch it?” test. It wasn’t engaging. It wasn’t interesting. I felt little sympathy for the characters. It felt like a poor man’s Monsters Inc. Uninspired.

Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Were Rabbit — There was so much detail, and so many references to pick up on (but not so they got in the way of the story). One review I read suggested it was too long, but it didn’t seem that way to me. Very funny stuff, had the cinema audience laughing out loud right the way through. Stick around for the credits; the bit at the end is worth it.

Look Both Ways: A man walks in front of a train and is killed, an all-too common event these days. The story follows the events in the weekend afterwards, for the victim’s girlfriend, a witness, a journalist, a photographer, their editor, and the train driver. It reminded me a lot of Lantana, seeing that one tragic event, then following their lives as they dealt with it and other things. Great use of animation, great acting — including the near-silent performances of the girlfriend, the train driver and his son. Definitely the best new film I’ve seen this year. Go see it.

• Official site
• Filmmaker’s blog