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

Fight Club — The first rule of Fight Club is don’t talk about Fight Club! But I will. Fight Club has been on my (long) list of “great movies that came out ages ago but for some reason I didn’t see when they were new”. I must have been busy at the time. A colleague has been nagging me about it, and I’d heard from various trusted sources that it was very good, so when I saw it on special at JB Hifi last week for $13, I bought it.

What can I say; superb stuff, an examination of a side of the male psyche not often seen in a supposedly civilised society. I have to admit, I didn’t see the twist at the end coming. Not sure about the end bit with the gun though. Still, there’s a lot in this film, and I might have to watch it again to take some more of it in.

The Station Agent — A train spotter with dwarfism… and he’s probably the most normal character in it. I found the attitudes of some of the passers-by towards him a little strange, and at odds to the way I’ve seen people react to short people. But a very enjoyable film; quite amusing in parts, thankfully bereft of Hollywood stars, but with quirky dialogue, and engaging characters. A slightly abrupt ending I thought, but well worth while.

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou — I found this much funnier than the previous Wes Anderson films I’ve seen (Royal Tenenbaums and Rushmore). This was freakin’ hilarious. I want to see it again.

RoboRally — Not a movie, a board game. I’ve heard about this for ages, and finally got to play it on Saturday. Great fun for a group, as you program robots to race around a board filled with obstacles.

A Series of Unfortunate Events — This was a paradox worthy of the appearance of Doctor Who’s reapers: Jim Carey in one of his rubbery face roles, yet not annoying. Who’d have thought? Nothing deep, but funny and suspenseful (well, a little) in the right places and totally fantastic set design. This turned out to be a most enjoyable film, though I still can’t figure out why a banker was left in charge of the welfare of three orphans. And is Lemony Snicket a real name? Roll on the (many) sequels.

I’ve been trying to remember what the DVD was that we watched last Friday night. And I can’t. Not at all. I think it was okay, nothing exceedingly good or bad, but I just can’t remember what it was.

Ah, I’ve been reminded that it was Garden State. A very amusing film, possibly filled with a few too many quick appearances from town weirdos who don’t really push the story along.

Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. I used to like Jay and Silent Bob, and rejoiced when it was first announced they would have their own movie. But now I’ve finally seen it… well, either I’ve matured or they are best seen in small doses, ‘cos I didn’t think this was up to much at all. The pokes at Hollywood and the Internet were fun, but most of the rest of it… dull.

Bangarra’s “Boomerang”. I booked early and got us some excellent seats. For me some of the messages were very clear (such as the portrayals of some of the ills of indigenous people such as domestic violence and alcoholism), while other parts needed some guidance from the programme. But all in all, great stuff, powerful imagery, and a terrific performance.

These are my five all-time favourite movies ever as at 8:05am, 13th June 2005. Subject to change. In alphabetical order.

American Beauty — superb observations on suburban life, from the author of Six Feet Under.

The Life of Brian — quite possibly the funniest movie ever.

O Brother! Where Art Thou? — comedy, drama, stunning photography and old timey music.

Pulp Fiction — It was the different-perspectives out-of-order story-telling and superb dialogue got me.

WarGames — there’s not many movies that have changed my life, but this is one of them.

Sideways — a kind of coming-of-age road movie, but for the 40-somethings. Best viewed with a bottle of wine, I found myself thankful I hadn’t turned into that much of a wine wanker. Some great acting, plenty of laughs, and a touch of drama too. Very enjoyable.

Review: The End of Suburbia. I saw this at a PTUA screening to about 60 people a week or two ago. A fascinating film about the consequences of the forthcoming shortages of oil and natural gas.

The film is North American-centric (as you can tell from the subtitle “Oil Depletion and the Collapse of the American Dream”), and so the problems of natural gas running out and its extensive use in electricity generation in there, don’t apply to us, so we’re not in as deep doo-doo in that department. (Though of course our electricity generation is filthy.) But we’re pretty much in the same creek in regards to the peaking and subsequent decline of oil production.

Suburban low densities and form aren’t quite as bad in Australia as in the US, but there are definite similarities. I liked the comment that new suburbs are named after the natural features that they destroy.

The film paints what I think of as an alarmist view of things. I suppose it’s trying to get people’s attention, but I find it hard to believe that the car/oil industry, with its billions of dollars of resources, will just roll over and let itself self-destruct. Will it fight back, and find some other way of making its profits? Not sure.

The conclusion of the film seems to see urban design as the main solution to lessening the impact of these coming shortages, almost assuming that many people could live and work almost entirely within their own suburban neighbourhood. Thus it skirts over issues such as public transport, which I think is a shortcoming — even with advanced telecommunications, people will still want to travel within their cities for work and play, and they won’t be able to do it all by walking or cycling.

A very interesting film though, which raises some important questions about the future of western cities.