under $20

HOT: Australia’s Top 100: Competition Session 3, St Kilda Film Festival, Palace George Cinemas, 135 Fitzroy St, St Kilda

May 28, 2009 ⋅ Post a comment

Another diverse collection of drama, action, animation and documentary short films. All interesting but overall not as strong as some of the films in Session 2. Of note was the cute plasticised animated style used in Mutt, a story about a farmer, his cow and his dog who just wants to play fetch, and the [...]

HOT: Australia’s Top 100: Competition Session 2, St Kilda Film Festival, Palace George Cinemas, 135 Fitzroy St, St Kilda

May 28, 2009 ⋅ Post a comment

My pick from the five films on show in competition session 2 was the elegiac Trampoline. The story was about a little girl, a silent social outcast who harbours a dream to fly. Through her tentative friendship with the new kid at school, who also doesn’t quite fit in, she discovers that she really can [...]

HOT: Armed & Dangerous, St Kilda Film Festival, Palace George Cinemas, 135 Fitzroy St, St Kilda

May 28, 2009 ⋅ Post a comment

Thanks to my MIFF membership, I won a mid-week pass to the St Kilda Film Festival, which allowed me to delve into a veritable smorgasbord of short films over two days. Unbeknownst to me initially, the first session I chose to attended was a schools session of twelve short films made by various secondary schools [...]

HOT: My Year Without Sex, Classic Cinema, 9 Gordon St, Elsternwick

May 26, 2009 ⋅ Post a comment

Wow. In all my blogging history, I’ve never received such angry comments as those received in response to my NOT for Samson and Delilah. But if I’m going to open up HOT or NOT to anonymous commentators, then I know I have to be ready to receive (and post) dissenting views. Hey, even the Cannes [...]

HOT: Action School of Yoga, 1st floor, 275 Smith St, Collingwood

May 25, 2009 ⋅ 2 comments

Continued unemployment means that my diary is starting to become more and more akin to that of my retired parents. So Monday, Tuesday, Thursday = yoga. Luckily for me, Action School of Yoga is based only a short walk away from my house. The single room has high ceilings, a large window looking out over [...]

HOT: Carmen, Kino Cinemas, 45 Collins St, Melbourne

May 10, 2009 ⋅ Post a comment

In my fabulous former life, I was able to attend many opera performances at my all-time-favourite London landmark, the Royal Opera House. However, I’m now a million miles away from Covent Garden, so I can only get my dose of world-class opera via World Opera and Ballet. Initially, I was uncertain as to how much [...]

NOT: Tenderness, Kino Cinema, 45 Collins St, Melbourne

May 8, 2009 ⋅ Post a comment

Tenderness explores the different possible tenets of tenderness, as played out by a cast of isolated, disturbed characters whose lives intersect briefly. There is Detective Cristofuoro (Russell Crowe), a cop whose wife is in hospital, and his loving care for her wellbeing is how we’d consider the usual conception of tenderness. He is trailing the [...]

HOT: Closed for Winter, Cinema Nova, 380 Lygon St, Carlton

May 6, 2009 ⋅ Post a comment

Closed for Winter is a story is told from the eyes of Elise Silverton (Natalie Imbruglia), who has grown up in the shadow of a childhood family tragedy. It affects the way she interacts with her stiff, closed-off mother (Deborah Kennedy), her boring but caring boyfriend (Daniel Frederiksen) and she trudges through her life as [...]

HOT: The Audition, Cinema Nova, 380 Lygon St, Carlton 3053

April 26, 2009 ⋅ Post a comment

While in London, I really gained an appreciation for the opera – so I was excited to hear that Cinema Nova were screening The Audition, a behind-the-scenes documentary about New York’s Met Opera auditions. The story follows a group of hopeful young opera singers as they prepare for the grand final – a chance to [...]

HOT: Shark Fin House, 131 Little Bourke St, Melbourne

April 26, 2009 ⋅ Post a comment

Trust me – the best yum cha in Melbourne is from Shark Fin House. Don’t get it confused with Shark Fin Inn, also on Little Bourke – they’re in the same group of restaurants, but House is superior. You’ll be able to work out which is which, as House always has a line of eager [...]