🍿 MIFF number 10 was a wonderful look at Japanese listening cafes in A Century in Sound (2024) ★★★★

A rectangular image with a review of the movie A Century in Sound (2024). The movie poster is on the left and the review on the right side. Across the bottom is a rating of Poor Okay Good Great with Great selected. The review reads: The first three of a limited six part series exploring Japanese listening cafes/bars, with classical, Jazz and J-Rock covered. The episodes show the commitment to the listening experience, with the classical cafe no longer serving food so the noise didn’t distract from the music. The owners have spent a lifetime (or in the case of the classical one nearly 100 years by multiple generations of the family) building their record collections and personalising the audio equipment and even making their own speakers to suit the space. Each episode covers a part of Japanese history from the 1930s to the ‘90s through personal reflections of the owners and visitors, their passion for the music clearly evident. The storytelling with the music background was so intimate and almost reverent, you wanted to be in the bar sharing a drink with the owner.

🍿 MIFF number nine was the wonderful Māori led feminist film We Were Dangerous (2024) ★★★★★

A rectangular image with a review of the movie We Were Dangerous (2024). The movie poster is on the left and the review on the right side. Across the bottom is a rating of Poor Okay Good Great with Great selected. The review reads: Coming in at 80 minutes this debut from Māori director Josephine Stewart-Te Whiu wastes no time in showing the white people know what’s best for you approach to colonisation, packaged with religious hypocrisy, will stumble when it meets teenage resilience and strong women. A perfect balance between the serious and the laughs in the unique way the kiwis blend them, with gorgeous cinematography and a superb cast.

🍿 My eighth MIFF film was Rumours (2024) ★★½

A rectangular image with a review of the movie Rumours (2024). The movie poster is on the left and the review on the right side. Across the bottom is a rating of Poor Okay Good Great with Okay selected. The review reads: Aiming for satire, with the leaders of the G7 coming together to draft a communique before being cut off from the world. It mainly hits it thanks to some of the absurd scenes and the calibre of the cast as much as anything. Cate Blanchett channeling Angela Merkel and Charles Dance playing the US president with an English accent as they stumble through the woods looking for help; encountering a giant brain and masturbating bog people that literally explode. At two hours it would have benefited from some tighter editing. Something to catch on streaming rather than a cinema outing.

🍿 My seventh MIFF film was Universal Language (2024) ★★★★

A rectangular image with a review of the movie Universal Language (2024). The movie poster is on the left and the review on the right side. Across the bottom is a rating of Poor Okay Good Great with Great selected. The review reads: The ‘80s Iranian cinema influences are strong with the framing of the beige dull brutalist buildings giving a Wes Anderson vibe. Wonderfully absurd in places, the offbeat humour of the first half dropped off in the last third. The different story threads came together at the end but the final part just seemed a tonal shift away from the rest.

🍿 My sixth MIFF film was Les Fantômes or Ghost Trail (2024) ★★★½

A rectangular image with a review of the movie Les Fantômes (Ghost Trail) (2024). The movie poster is on the left and the review on the right side. Across the bottom is a rating of Poor Okay Good Great with Good selected. The review reads: Hamid is a Syrian exile, having lost his wife and young daughter. The underlying narrative is a hunt for a war criminal by the small group he is part of. A relatively straightforward cat and mouse chase, the film builds its tension by showing the impact the torture, the unresolved grief at losing his family as well as worry for his mother left behind is having on Hamid. The film wavers a little in the middle and the build up of tension just sort of disappears at the end but reaches a satisfying conclusion.

🍿 My fifth MIFF film was Ghost Cat Anzu (2024) ★★★

A rectangular image with a review of the movie Ghost Cat Anzu (2024). The movie poster is on the left and the review on the right side. Across the bottom is a rating of Poor Okay Good Great with Good selected. The review reads: A manga adaptation, this anime has the titular ghost cat being a bit of a deadbeat, talking rubbish, being sarcastic, farting; all while dispensing wisdom and helping a young girl deal with loss and sorrow. It offers some commentary on debt and gambling while showing how friendships are important. The animation style is quite visually appealing and I enjoyed this as a change of pace.

🍿 My fourth MIFF film was Timestalker (2024) ★★★½

A rectangular image with a review of the movie Timestalker (2024). The movie poster is on the left and the review on the right side. Across the bottom is a rating of Poor Okay Good Great with Good selected. The review reads: A quirky black comedy with Agnes reincarnated through history, repeating the mistake of thinking she is in love with Alex. A fatal attraction hundreds of years in the making. A great bit of fun, with Nick Frost as her spurned beast of a husband seeking retribution across the years. It did feel like a series of skits rather than a cohesive whole as Agnes slowly learns romantic obsession can be tedious and unfulfilling.

🍿 My third MIFF film was Grand Tour ★★

A rectangular image with a review of the movie Grand Tour (2024). The movie poster is on the left and the review on the right side. Across the bottom is a rating of Poor Okay Good Great with Okay selected. The review reads: Filmed in black and white, in 1917 Molly chases her fiancée Edward across Asia after he gets cold feet. A mix of current day and past, with a storytale narrator, Molly’s part of the story has more interest than Edward’s. While a visually appealing travelogue, the lack of dialogue and the mash of past and present just didn’t click with me.

🍿 My second MIFF film was Brief History of a Family (2024) ★★★½

A rectangular image with a review of the movie Brief History of a Family (2024). The movie poster is on the left and the review on the right side. Across the bottom is a rating of Poor Okay Good Great with Good selected. The review reads: Lots of reviews have mentioned the similarity with Saltburn and Parasite and they weren’t wrong. The motives of Yan Shuo as the new friend ingratiating himself into the family aren’t entirely clear and build up to an unexpected ending. A great score underpins this commentary on the former one child policy.

🍿 My first Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) viewing was Viet and Nam (2024) ★★½

Gorgeously shot on 16mm film, a queer romance set in 2001 with two young miners exploring their secret relationship while Nam prepares to leave Vietnam for a better life. A parallel story of the search for the grave of Nam’s soldier father shows the continued impact of the war 25 years later. A slow burn with a non linear timeline, more about mood than plot.