Michael Clayton

I just came back from the movies with Steph & Simon and we saw a film that is better than good.
In fact, it just about restored my faith in major release cinema. It is written for adults, it is mature, understated, intelligent and tautly suspenseful. A tale of morality which far outshines everything else in this genre.


George Clooney plays Michael Clayton, a lawyer in a firm who has a niche area of expertise, he is the specialist who comes in to cleanup in a manner of speak. He is like Harvey Keitel in Pulp Fiction, the 'cleaner' who comes in do the dirty work and make problems in law disappear.



Clayton cleans up client's messes, handling anything from hit-and-runs, to damaging stories in the press.

A major agrochemical client, U North, is in the verge of a settlement when its top litigator Arthur Edens has an apparent breakdown and tries to sabotage the entire case. Clayton is sent for damage control and what ensues is the most exhilarating 2hrs in the cinema for me as the complex story unfolds.

I won't reveal too much, only to give it my nod of approval and a 10/10 score.


On another food related review, we had dinner at an awesome Korean restaurant in the city before the movie.
It is the Oriental Spoon on 254 LaTrobe St, Melbourne.

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We had sizzling hotplates of Beef, Squid, and Seafood Bulgogi; Hot and Spicy soup; Korean Chicken Ginseng Soup; and all these were accompanied with heaps of lovely side dishes, kimchi and rice. For around $23 per head for 5 of us, it was good food at a fantastic value.

Next time though, I'll be more adventurous and get everyone to order the DIY barbecue sets where I saw people cook mountains of meat and vegetables on a massive hotplate to be shared around the table.

I love the MIFF

The MIFF stands for the Melbourne International Film Festival just in case any of the filthy minded amongst you started snickering at the abbreviation.

So it begins, 19 days of films from the 4 corners of the world. So many great films and so little time and even less cash to afford to see all that I want to see!

I had my grand kick off at the festival on Saturday with a tasty documentary: The War Tapes

Edited down from over a thousand hours of footage, this film follows 3 US National Guard soldiers doing their tour of Iraq from an amazing first person perspective, showing us viewers a side of the war that we don't get to see after passing through the media censors.

More from a soldiers point of view, this film explores the soldier's mentality and tracks them before, during and after the war and how the sights and terrors they seen would somehow irreparably affect some of them for the rest of their lives.


Andy rates this: 4/5



The second offering I saw on Sunday was a tasty piece from Israel: Jellyfish

This film weaves a web over 4 different characters through Tel Aviv who are touched by loneliness. Its six degrees of separation which doesn't exactly make much sense until halfway through the show where the simplicity and brilliance of the story flows through. Its a whimsical exploration of existential angst

We need more films like these that explores and celebrates the nuances of life, giving you a warm fuzzy feeling leaving the theatre.

Andy rates this: 5/5

The Lives of Others

First up before I launch into a review of the movie I saw last night, I have something to bitch about.

Why the hell do movie theatres bother with putting the first row of seats so close to the big screen?

The monetary returns from the poor bastards sitting in the front row won't adequately cover the impending class action law suit filed by patrons in the front suffering from broken necks and cock-eyed'ness after sitting in an agonising position for 2 hours.

Allow me to demonstrate: Exhibit A - the layout of last night's theatre

The art house theatre was free seating so first come best served. We really shouldn't have stopped for choc-top ice cream cones at the foyer, those time crucial moments could have been strategically used to secure better seats.
Steph and me were practically squirming in our seats trying to sit lower and crane our necks up with the screen 2 metres away with a vertical height of 3 metres. After the film I momentarily lost circulation to the peripherals and the right side of my body.

On another note, The Lives of Others was a sublime film. Written by relatively new screenwriter Florian Henkel von Donnersmarc, its weaves a multi layered tapestry over the greys and yellows of the GDR (German Democratic Republic). Set in1984, 5 years before the fall of the Berlin wall, the film centres upon Dreyman, the pre-eminent playwright of East Germany. Under suspicion of pro West German activity, the Stasi (Secret Police) listened in to his every move and word in the apartment he shares with his live-in girlfriend. Its almost scary to see how efficient the Stasi were in tapping his entire house with wires and setting up a control center to monitor and record everything that goes on in the house.

Although it starts off painting a sterile and bleak picture, this film plants the seeds at the beginning which grow and bear strange and wondrous fruit with each character developing in rich and unexpected twists. The film treats the viewer with the right amount of intelligence, and it really passes through your brain first before it hits your heart.