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Global Metal
(USA)
Following on from his excellent Metal: A Headbanger's Journey, anthropologist metalhead, Sam Dunn, examines how heavy metal music has contributed to globalisation. Um... okay. It sounds a bit high-brow for the metal crowd but what it all boils down to is that metal tends to go hand in hand with social freedom and cultural globalisation. Make of that what you will - perhaps it's the ultimate expression of artistic freedom or maybe the final anarchic butt**** of decent society pre-empting the impending apocalypse (the Norwegians would probably prefer the latter).

The film begins with Sepultura in Brazil and works its way through China, Indonesia, India, Japan and finally Iran where metal is outlawed and is only available via MP3 downloads. Dunn puts this point to a visibly uncomfortable Lars Ulrich, much to the delight of the audience. (Apparently he's fine with it… or so he says.)

By far the most interesting segment is that shot in Japan who must surely be the most courteous, cheerful metal fans in the world. It's a country where schoolgirl headbangers fiercely gesticulate the devil horns before collapsing into a fit of sweetness and giggles; a country sporting metal-inspired anime such as Death Panda.

Ultimately Global Metal is not as interesting as its predecessor but it's always hard to beat an origin story. Nevertheless, like its forebear, the film is informative and there's still plenty to enjoy for metal fans and non-fans alike.
Stuart Jamieson
   

A Complete History of My Sexual Failures
(United Kingdom)
Documentary filmmaker Chris Waitt has a problem, no make that a number of problems. His main problem however and the one this film is built around, is the fact that every one of his previous girlfriends has dumped him. So in true gorilla doco style, he goes out and tries to interview all of them to find out what went wrong.

This film starts crazy and then escalates to a absurd level of self-revealing detail. His past relationships with women have been almost exclusively in the train wreck category and as such even if you wanted to look away, you can’t. It’s all either brave filmmaking or out of control chaos and the final decision of which, is up to you, the viewer. It’s never less than funny while being as confrontational as almost any gross out comedy that has come before it. This one is definitely not for prudes.
Rob Hudson

Showing again Thu 7 Aug 5:00:PM, The Regent
   

Not Quite Hollywood
(Australia)
It's not just the Italians that did it. It's not just black American filmmakers who did it. And it's not just the Japanese and Koreans who do it. Us Aussies used to have an exploitation ‘genre’ film industry as well. Due to the pioneering efforts of the late Don Chipp in the 1970's (and some political lobbying from a young David Stratton who was the director of the Sydney Film Festival at the time), censorship restrictions were relaxed on films and a new ‘R’ certificate was introduced. This newfound artistic freedom was exploited by the film industry resulting in a slew of movies flaunting softcore sex, nudity and violence. Retrospectively coined ‘Ozploitation’ by the director of this documentary, Mark Hartley, and subsequently adopted by Quentin Tarantino (who contributes heavily to this film), the genre thrived until the mid 1980's when pompous film financing bureaucrats decided that it was more appropriate for Aussie film makers to make ‘important’ films. It's not all doom and gloom, however, the ‘genre’ film is currently undergoing a minor renaissance thanks to the success of the likes of SAW (albeit funded on American dollars) and Wolf Creek.

For fans of the genre, Not Quite Hollywood is a wet dream come true as it features just about every tit, arse and severed limb featured in the films it reveres. It opens with a great credit sequence consisting of a montage of iconic Ozploitation images set to a driving Oz Rock soundtrack (Rose Tattoo's We Can't be Beaten, if I remember correctly). It features just about every important player this side of the grave - sadly some of the pivotal personalities have since passed away, most notably Tim Burstall and Richard Franklin (to whom this film is dedicated) - the list of contributors includes Quentin Tarantino, Jamie Lee Curtis, Dennis Hopper, George Miller, Lynda Stoner, Barry Humphreys, George Lazenby, Greg McLean, Brian Trenchard-Smith, Antony Ginnane, Fred Schepisi, Roger Ward and the list goes on and on and on. Covering every avenue of the genre from sex comedies to horror to action flicks, the film chronicles the forgotten guilty pleasures of Australia's golden age of cinema. It's a monumental achievement and an important Australian historical document.
Stuart Jamieson

Showing again Wed 6 Aug 2:30:PM, Australian Cinematheque, GoMA
   

Alvin Purple
(Australia)
Before Confessions Of A Window Cleaner there was Alvin Purple the waterbed salesman only too happy to demonstrate his product. Tim Burstall's 1973 seminal sex comedy would influence comedies for years to come, from the aforementioned Confessions... to Jean-Pierre Jeunet's Delicatessen, though it has clearly been influenced itself somewhat by Luke Rhinehart's The Dice Man.

Average Joe, Alvin Purple (Graeme Blundell), tries to get ahead as his undercover talents are continuously being taken advantage of by predacious females. Double entendres fly everywhere and, despite the vintage of the jokes, most of them stick. The film goes off the rails towards the end with an overlong courtroom sequence, a totally superfluous car chase scene and a skydiving sequence but it draws to a nicely appropriate (and amusing) conclusion.

Good solid bawdy entertainment.
Stuart Jamieson
   
Diary Of The Dead
(USA)
I'm a little ashamed to admit it but prior to this film I hadn't seen a Romero zombie flick. But given the widespread reverence for the man and his movies, I think it's fair to say that this is not his best work (at least I hope so).

Diary Of The Dead is highly derivative, it's clearly a response to the reality-TV generation and with its kid-with-a-video-camera-recording-how-the-shit-went-down it is almost a carbon copy of Cloverfield. The only imaginative bits are the odd innovative zombie kill.

The film is loosely cloaked in a morality lesson about film makers and journalists standing about filming the carnage when they could be putting the camera down and lending a hand to the victim but the film is too piss-takey to be affective as a horror let alone a social commentary. Some of the dialogue is truly awful: "It used to be us against us. Now it's us against them; except 'they' are us!" God save us!

The films final thesis likens our barbaric treatment of zombies to that of minority groups; commenting on how easily we turn on each other, prosecuting those we don't understand. "Are we worth saving?", it asks.

Who cares? I just wanted a scary zombie flick.
Stuart Jamieson

Showing again Sun 10 Aug 9:30:PM, Palace Centro Cinemas
   
Funny Games
(USA/France)
I haven't been this shaken by a movie since Takashi Miike's Audition and Michael Haneke's Funny Games (remade from his own 1997 film) is supremely superior to that. It is difficult explain how utterly terrifying this film is as the story is so simple. That it achieves this with so little violence (and what there is, is mostly implied) is a major achievement. It is to the credit of Haneke's direction and the superlative performances from the entire cast (which includes Tim Roth, Naomi Watts and Michael Pitt) that the humiliation and mere threat of violence as it is depicted here is so unbearably unsettling. The film is not for the feint hearted and is clearly not for every audience but for those who love their psychological horror, this is one to get the heart racing (I spent the whole picture listening to the pulse pounding in my chest).

I've deliberately avoided giving any synopsis whatsoever as to do so will rob the film of some of its impact. It's best to go into this completely blind for maximum effect. In any case, as a horror fan I cannot recommend this highly enough.

P.S. It's also worth noting that the short film, Jerry Can, which played with this feature, is also very good. If Shane Meadows were an Aussie, perhaps this is the sort of film he would make. Definitely worth a look if the chance arises.
Stuart Jamieson

Showing again Sun 10 Aug 4:10:PM, The Regent
   
Patrick
(Australia)
The next entry in the festival's Ozploitation programme, 1978's Patrick has the misfortune to follow directly after the outstanding Funny Games session and it pales significantly by comparison. Patrick (Robert Thompson) is a comatose patient whose only sentient response is the ability to spit… that is until he develops psychokinetic abilities. Experimented upon by the slightly sinister Dr Roget (the late Sir Robert Helpmann) he develops a crush on his sympathetic nurse (Susan Penhaligan) and it's not long before he's using his supernatural abilities to intimidate his rivals in romance and the hospital staff who exploit him.

As a psychological thriller, this is a fairly average one. The script, at times, is perplexingly illogical and the shocks are largely ineffectual with the exception of its one final money shot.
Stuart Jamieson
   
Tokyo Gore Police
(Japan)
This splatter cheapie from Japan is firm Z-grade schlock that evokes the extreme anime from the 1990's (Wicked City, in particular, comes to mind). Starring the ‘kiri kiri kiri’ chick from Audition, Eihi Shiina (who flew in from Japan to present the film), the film takes close to an hour to really kick into gear with the bizarre fetish brothel scene, a sequence which includes a hooker with amputated nipples and a croc vagina! But generally it's all pretty naff stuff with cheap makeup effects, scant plot and very little dialogue (which is probably a blessing). If you're in the mood for this kind of silliness then all's well, otherwise...
Stuart Jamieson

Showing again Tue 5 Aug 9:30:PM, Palace Centro Cinemas
   

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