MIFF and footy

30 movies watched (film festivals really up those numbers)
2 books / 2 graphic novels read
2 mooncakes eaten (and the festival is still 2 weeks out!)
8 Xi’an soldiers seen up close and personally (only 7992 left to see in China)

The time I’ve been waiting for has finally arrived! The Melbourne International Film Festival is an epic 18 day festival with 300+ movies. Frankly, it’s kind of too long but I’ll take it since I got to see 20 movies, my personal record. It’s one of the oldest film festivals in the world (est. 1952). San Francisco Intl. Film Festival is the oldest in th States (est. 1957).

Melbourne Central theater is one of the bigger venues
I got to meet Duke the Astor cat too!
The Capitol was such a lovely venue.

The audiences were SO nice and emotive. I’ve found that Aussie audiences are rather conserved, and mostly very silent–even in super fun movies like John Wick 3. I miss Oakland crowds for movies like that or horror flicks. I’m so glad that the film festival crowds were more lively.

Because you’re here, I’m gonna give you the breakdown of all 20 movies I watched. This festival takes heavily from Cannes, with a few nuggets from Sundance and SWSX. Here goes!

Cold Case Hammarskjöld (US/Denmark) – Mads Brügger is a quirky fellow and makes a fascinating documentary. It pulls you in and goes places you’d not expect with humor and investigative journalism.
The Dead Don’t Die (US) – This was a great one to watch with a sold out crowd. Zombies, Bill Murray and Adam Driver? I’m in. I liked where they went with it too.
The Peanut Butter Falcon (US) – Sweet and earnest but not outstanding. I like that Shia LaBeouf makes different choices in his projects though. Wish more people did that.
Young Ahmed (Belgium/France) – Interesting and relevant topic of youth extremism but it didn’t get deep enough for me.
Brittany Runs a Marathon (US) – This is the only movie that’s ever made it want to start running (and that’s … something I don’t do). Jillian Bell does a great job covering what you know happens but much more about mental and physical walls we all suffer from. Touching and funny and maybe 20 mins too long. Still recommend!
Alice (Australia/France) – This was one of my favorites. SXSW Grand Jury prize winner for a reason. It’s a small movie production-wise, but it felt bigger than that. Emilie Piponnier was such perfect casting. Issues of empowerment, sex work, and gender imbalance are handled so nicely. Great movie.
The Souvenir (UK) – One paper this still is appealing (Tilda Swinton working with her daughter; Scorcese executive producing, etc.) but I totally didn’t like it. It’s been polarizing elsewhere too but I found it frustrating. Ugh. Yea, that’s a pass from me.
Midnight Family (Mexico) – Crazy fascinating documentary on a tight-knit family operating a private ambulance in the bustling metropolis that is Mexico City. Questions of morality and survival combined with a truly endearing family and very much life-and-death situations make this superb. Please find this!
Extra Ordinary (Belgium/Ireland) – This was lots of fun. Horror comedy, but much heavier on the comedy. Maeve Higgins (whom I’d only ever heard of in this episode of Everything Is Alive) was such a charming lead. Loved the dry and simultaneously occasionally more slapstick humor. I had a blast watching this.
Frankie (France/Portugal) – Solid but a slower pace and rather muted performances all across the board. Lovely to see Portugal again and the delicacies of family strains and relationships were well-portrayed.
Matthias & Maxime (Canada) – Xavier Dolan isn’t someone I knew of before this and he was great in this. Both leads were superb and I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. The tight knit group of friends was superbly written (the dialogue was so good) and a bit of the camera work was too experimental for my tastes but it was only in bits, thankfully. I still think about this movie now.
First Love (UK/Japan) – SO much fun. I don’t love gore but Takashi Miike (100+ films made!) is a master. Yakuza, Chinese gangs, ghosts, and a love story yet I followed it all and had a blast the entire time. Funny to boot! He did 13 Assassins too, which I also loved.
Okko’s Inn (Japan) – Sweet Ghibli alum made animated movie. A very Japanese story, and sweet but not exceptional. Made me hungry, as all Japanese food animation does.
I Lost My Body (France) – Such an amazing animated film. What only the French can achieve so easily–macabre yet charming. Innovative as I haven’t seen animation in ages and I loved the characters. It should be on Netflix shortly!
Skin (US) – Jamie Bell is great, per usual, but is it horrible to say it’s a run-of-the-mill White supremacy story? Didn’t love all the other cast and it’s a powerful true story, but it was just fine.
One Child Nation (US/China) – Intriguing documentary that goes far deeper into China’s one child policy than I’d ever gone. Fascinating work and I enjoyed it a bunch. Amazon got it so it should be streaming soon.
Portrait of a Lady on Fire (France) – Beautiful period piece. On the slower side but a lovely movie.
Animals (Ireland/Australia) – Powerful drama with a great job by both leads. Adulthood approaching ardent party besties and all the life choices that comes along with that process.
Martha: A Picture Story (US/Australia) – Charming documentary on graffiti photographer Martha Cooper. It’s really about how she looked at the things others ignored and saw the beauty (and continues to) in the nooks and crannies of society. In the Q&A the director said *every* interview request she made was a solid YES, which never happens in documentaries. She’s well loved by all that know her and it was evident in the movie. Lovely film.
Honeyland (North Macedonia) – Magical documentary that is so interesting you consider the events were staged (they weren’t). Like a good documentary, it truly gives a window into a world I didn’t know existed and all without narration. Stunning shots too.

It was a super fun festival. Venues are nice and central to town and I appreciate a ticketed festival too (vs. a pass where you can hop into movies but may have to line up to get into things). Australia is far away so I get how there weren’t a ton of Q&As but that’s the bit I really love. I managed to get into a few and I loved those movies even more after hearing from the filmmakers. I miss that connection and it’s one of my favorite parts of other festivals.

This was a great theater with changing lights
Martha Cooper at her Q&A.

Mike and Eric visited during the festival too, so we got to hang out like we did back at Cal. Loved getting to spend time with them and to show them around Melbourne. So much fancy brunch and tasty coffees!

Eric having his first Aussie meat pie!
Coffee flight at St Ali
Extra Ordinary with the boys!
I’ve known these guys for 18 years now!
So many tasty brunches
Look another one at the same cafe!

We went to wine country too, just an hour away. We got to see a mob of kangaroos that live in the vineyards. It was adorable to me, but kind of sucks for the winemakers. They’re quite pesky and in low-rain years the roos can really ravage the grapes (their kangaroo arms are exactly grape height).

Checked another thing off my Aussie bucket list: attending a footy game! Aussie Rules Football is a fast-paced, frenetic game. I loved the oval field. Makes every seat great without those odd corners! It’s a super wide field too, and the play spreads all over.

The MCG is a gorgeous venue and we scored great weather too!

Ball resembles rugby, but with different rules. The egg shape ball made for lots of funky bounces so tons of changes in possession. No pads or body armor at all–so similar to rugby there, but there’s bounces, kicks and hand balls (basically punching it to pass). Goals switch each quarter (20 mins long) and none of those irritating NFL TV timeouts so the action is at a nice pace. A clean catch “a mark” can even happen while using another player’s body as a spring board, sometimes with players jumping off other people’s shoulders! They’re crazy athletes.

I didn’t see many fouls at all, as everything seemed game but I guess you can only tackle from the shoulder to the knee, so that’s good to know.

Got to watch the game at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, or the MCG. It’s the most famous stadium in Australia and the final (ala their Superbowl) is played there each year, no matter the teams. That night’s game had a ~70K crowd, and they were loud! So glad to catch a game at the ‘G! It turned out to be the last game of their regular season, then it’s a bye week then playoffs begin.

But really, it’s the food I came to report on. Meat pies! Hot jam donuts! Of course, there were fancy espresso machines too, so I had a nice soy latte there too. Good ol’ reliable Melbourne. Let’s see how many movies I can see next week! 😉