The Gift

What a terrific talent is the Australian Joel Edgerton. He is the writer, director and co-producer of the 'The Gift'. He acts in the film as well. And what a good film it is.

A couple has relocated to California and whilst shopping for household items the husband (Jason Bateman) is approached by a former schoolmate who he seems to scarcely remember. Unexpectedly the former schoolmate (Edgerton) sends the couple a housewarming gift which sets off a series of increasingly unnerving events.

This is a slow burn thriller with well disguised twists and turns.
★★★★

Ride and Fourplay

Darlinghurst Theatre Company

'Ride and Fourplay' is a double bill of plays by Jane Bodie.

In the first play a couple awakes in a bed one morning naked and strangers to each other. Neither can recall the evening just passed nor how they came to be in bed together. The ensuing conversation takes them on a journey of self discovery.

The second play is also a journey of self discovery this time of two men and two women with interlocking connections. This piece is performed on a completely bare stage with no props. The cast engages in conversation with each mostly speaking directly to the audience.

Two interesting works, the second play is the more satisfying with its clearer resolutions.

★★★

Bridge

Tonight, 39.70%, 11/12

Streets of Kings Cross

Springfield Avenue

Orwell Street, Metro Minerva and artist

Bridge

Tonight 59.50%, 2/10

Life

In 1955 an ambitious freelance photographer Dennis Stock (Robert Pattinson) spent time with a largely unknown young actor James Dean (Dane DeHaan) who he believed was destined for stardom and fame. The photos he captured of Dean were published in Life magazine later acquiring almost as iconic a status as that of their by then deceased subject.

'Life' is a rather languid retelling of those months in which Stock and Dean, each for their own self interest, tolerated the experience to further their personal and career ambitions.

★★1/2

This is Opera

I'm really enjoying 'This is Opera' screening in Australia on the Foxtel Arts channel. The host, Ramon Gener, is a real live wire full of energy and enthusiasm who has the most interesting ways of demonstrating the points he wants to make about the operas he highlights. In the latest episode, for example, he used the introduction of overhead serving in tennis by 1920s champion Bill Tilden to illustrate the dramatic impact on opera of the introduction of bel canto singing.

It doesn't hurt the series that Gener is a bit of looker.

Gener switches, with apparent ease, between his native Spanish to interviewing in Italian, French, German and (I think) Portuguese. He hosts the program in a rapid fire English but I have to admit I watch the series with closed captions switched on primarily because his pronunciation of my language is at times curious.

None the less, I look forward to viewing the show each week.

High Society

Hayes Theatre Company

It is the eve of Tracey Lord's second marriage and her first husband turns up to throw a proverbial spanner into the celebrations. The wealthy Lord family is a hotbed of extramarital activity which attracts the attention of reporters from a gossip magazine.

This is the setting for 'High Society', a 1950s musical based on the 1940s play and movie 'The Philadelphia Story'. The musical benefits from a sparkling score by Cole Porter and what I imagine to be the pick of the snappy dialogue from the original work.

The Hayes Theatre Company production I'm told has received middling reviews but we thoroughly enjoyed tonight's performance in front an enthusiastic capacity house (the auditorium only holds 120 people) a significant proportion of whom were recognisable local performers.

Our concerns about the quality of the singing we might hear (based from hearing several promotional excerpts on radio and television ahead of the season) proved baseless.
★★★★

Reach for the sky

Vancouver apparently has the second most expensive real estate property in the world. Second only to  Hong Kong with my home city of Sydney supposedly in third place.

Much of the property in Vancouver is in high rise towers. This is a typical of what we saw in July.

Bridge

Tonight, 41.80%, 11/13

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl

The 'me' of 'Me and Earl and the Dying Girl' is a high school student (Thomas Mann) who is trying to navigate those difficult years by melding with every clique without drawing any attention to himself. His one true friend is Earl (RJ Cyler) with whom he makes their own home versions of classic movies. His carefully crafted strategy begins to unravel when under instruction from his mother he befriends a dying girl at the school (Olivia Cooke).

This growing of age story with its mix of live and animated images is enjoyable in a whimsical way. Some of the home movie parodies are delightful.
★★★1/2

Bridge

Tonight, 38.10%, 9/9

The Archibald

The Archibald Prize is a very Sydney event. Awarded every year it is a Portraiture competition 'preferentially of some man or woman distinguished in arts, letters, science or politics painted by any artist resident in Australasia'. The winning portrait is often universally panned by the general public and has at times been the subject of legal protest.

I can't recall a year when I agreed with the judges' verdict but then what do I know about art? As the hoary old response goes, I know what I like. Usually I don't like their winner.

As always the winning portrait attracts plenty of attention. This year's winner mysteriously entitled Judo house pt 6 (the white bird) is a portrait of controversial Barrister Charles Waterstreet. I couldn't get a clear view of the accompanying narrative which may (not?) have thrown light on the title.

Nigel Milsom's 'Judo house pt 6 (the white bird)'

I preferred Jessica le Clerc's portrait of painter David Hart;

Jessica le Clerc's 'Living inside of stories'

And I also preferred Edmund Zu's portrait of Edmund Capon;

Tianli Zu's 'Edmund, your Twomblys are behind you'

Then again I can't resist a nude - not that I'm suggesting it as the winner. One panel of five of Marcus Wills' 'El cabeceo' which celebrates the long marriage of a couple, both doctors, showing both of them dressed and naked.

Barangaroo

We visited Barangaroo Park today. Opened in the past couple of weeks, the Park is located at the northern end of the under construction Barangaroo precinct.

New towers (I believe three apartment towers) are under construction at the southern end of the precinct and have reached the forty story mark; still rising. James Packer's hotel and casino for the super rich is yet to commence construction but I guess it will be built in the space between the apartment towers and the Park.

Plenty of people were strolling through the Park under splendid Spring sunshine.

Barangaroo Park; towers in the distance

All important water views

Tier upon tier

Eye of the Beholder

('Eye of the beholder' Credit: Wrenne Evans)

Humour, like beauty, surely is in the eye (ear/mind?) of the beholder.

Speaking to Cs by phone he told me about a comedy television show he was watching. The Canadian show features a man who secretly films his own aunt being confronted by an actor who deliberately antagonises her by his actions and words. The aunt, having a caustic nature, reacts in ways that Cs finds hilarious.

It didn't sound hilarious to me. If the show had been fictional I might have thought the idea to be humorous.  A sort of 'Candid Camera' which generally was good natured in the situations it secretly placed people. However the idea of someone secretly filming their own relative to generate an antagonised reaction sounded cruel to me.

The Present

(Sydney Theatre Company)

Outgoing Artistic Director of the Sydney Theatre Company Andrew Upton has taken a little known Anton Chekhov play 'Platonov' and created "The Present'.

Set in Russia in the mid 1990s and starring Upton's spouse Cate Blanchett the play is set around the fortieth birthday party of the widow of a feared General. The partygoers include past lovers and would be lovers some with hidden self interested intentions.

The play passes through three moods. Summer lethargy is followed by a style of farce and the final third is a moody surrealism.

Some entertaining moments for me but apparently more so for others in the audience judging by the rapturous curtain call reception.
★★★

Bridge

Tonight, 47.90%, 10/14

Sunset

Holding the Man

Based on a memoir by Timothy Conigrave who fell in love with a star player in his school's football team and whose relationship post school days ultimately saw both contract HIV and based also on a play of the same name, the title 'Holding the Man' is a play on words being both a football term and a reference to the relationship.

The film version is a frank and harrowing depiction of the relationship. Conigrave and his partner John Caleo were about ten years younger than myself and their experience growing up gay at a time when homosexual activity was illegal in Australia and the sexual orientation mostly had to be concealed even from family and friends strikes a strong chord of memories of my own adolescence and early adulthood.

I would like to think that this impressive film would help those who even in these times think of homosexuality as a lifestyle choice rather than an innate characteristic reconsider their attitudes but I suspect that will not be the case.
★★★★

Ricki and The Flash

Meryl Streep is an ageing band singer working in a supermarket to earn a basic living who is drawn back to her estranged remarried ex-husband and their three adult children when their daughter's marriage fails.

The trailer for 'Ricki and The Flash' suggested to me that this is a comedy but the film is very much a drama with some humorous moments. It seems to have been created as a vehicle for Streep to strut her stuff as a rocker and add to her collection of movie characters. There are a series of musical numbers most of which add little to progress the plot and frankly most characters are not well delineated.

★★1/2

Metro systems of the world

This post is for Andrew.

Which subway system is the largest: New York, Beijing or Shanghai?

Taken from this article.

Last days of Autumn

This morning

Egg on face; hard boiled or scrambled?

Some of my regular followers know (or guessed) the career I had before retirement. It was not that far different from functions which fall within what is now rather unfortunately called Australian Border Force. However my work and the organisation that I worked for had a very different emphasis from the current 'control' focussed entity.

Today the ABF issued a press release about activities it plans for the city of Melbourne over the weekend. I can just imagine what thought went into the press release; all gung ho and macho in intent. They've ended up with egg on their faces with social media in particular pillorying this venture into fascism and Orwellian behaviour.

Immigration Minister, Prime Minister and ABF Commissioner

Goodness what a shocking Government we have at present and how appalling - perhaps under Ministerial direction - has our Public Service become.

UPDATE: Only hours after the announcement comes another. Police cancel plans for Border Force to check people's visas in Melbourne CBD, citing public concern. What a surprise!

Mirror, mirror, on the wall...

A friend is undertaking a course in Design and has unilaterally offered her thoughts on ways of improving the design of my apartment.

All from the goodness of her heart of course and nothing to do with improving or rehearsing assignments for which she might be marked later. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge. Actually I don't mind playing along because she has some interesting suggestions and my apartment could benefit from some design improvement.

Today we looked over mirrors, cushions, lamps etc.

Friend is somewhat taken with this mirror for my apartment;

but I have a preference for this;

No decisions yet - and no rush to redecorate either.

Bridge

Tonight, 42.70%, 11/14

On the harbour

Cocktails and mobiles to the ready

At the Icebergs Club today

All mod cons

Seen on the beach at Manly Cove today, beachgoers with a teepee protecting a laptop.

On the waterfront

Departing Darling Harbour by ferry today

Trainwreck

A female journalist, leading a promiscuous life of one night stands, is sent to interview a mild sports doctor and begins to sense unprecedented monogamous thoughts.

This is my first exposure to actor and writer Amy Schumer. She is an 'in your face' performer and raw in manner but I like what I see. Her gender switching behaviour is pointed and clever and she comes across as open minded and tolerant.

'Trainwreck' may follow a predictable romantic comedy arc but it does so in an entertaining way. Tilda Swinton is delightfully unrecognisable in a key supporting role and I once again I've rather taken a shine to Bill Hader.
★★★★

Bridge

Tonight, 47.90%, 11/14

Bridge

Tonight, 43.80%, 10/14

Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation

I've only just noticed that what is really rogue about 'Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation' and the earlier movies in the 'Mission: Impossible' franchise is the placement of the colon. It makes no sense to me. Surely the colon should follow the word 'impossible'?

Anyway Tom Cruise is back performing impossible stunts and escaping from impossible situations under implausible and often impossible circumstances. The plot revolves around identity and for much of its considerable length the 'goodies' and the 'baddies' are skilfully disguised leaving the audience guessing.

Despite the obvious nonsense of many of the situations, the film is mostly entertaining and very slick.
★★★1/2

Seventeen

(Belvoir St Theatre)

In Belvoir Street Theatre's current offering 'Seventeen' five actors, all aged in their seventies portray seventeen year old students celebrating in a park at night, their final day of schooling. Joy at leaving school behind turns quickly to reflective thoughts of their past relationships and the unknown future.

It is an interesting device to have mature, experienced adults take on the role of teenagers still finding their way into adulthood but the results are a little mixed. The dialogue often seemed to be at odds with the age of the characters and the body language of the performers seemed to range variously from primary age to adulthood.
★★1/2

More lunch in winter

Another lunch, another wintery day, another waterside location (Manly Cove) and another delightful view. This time the venue is the Manly Sailing Club.

Last Cab to Darwin

An ageing taxi driver has a painful terminal disease and on hearing of a doctor in the northern city of Darwin practising euthenasia he decides to make the long drive from his home town of Broken Hill to  put an end to his suffering.

Michael Caton brings the right mix of gravitas and wry humour to the lead role and has strong support from Ningali Lawford and Mark Coles Smith but the casting of Jacki Weaver seems a rare mis-step in her recent career; she does not seem suited to the role of the doctor.

Whilst the subject matter of 'Last Cab to Darwin' is on the surface a depressing topic and the portrayal of Indigenous Australians at times borders on stereotype the film traverses some uplifting material.
★★★1/2

Bridge

Tonight, 39.80%, 9/10

Lunch in winter

A wintery day and not many out and about but still a venue with a great outlook, the North Bondi RSL Club.

Bridge

Tonight, 49.70%, 8/14

What do we do? We Fly!*

(*From 'Do I Hear A Waltz', Lyrics by Stehpen Sondheim, Music by Richard Rodgers)

Flying Business Class can be heady but not all aspects of it are necessarily glamorous. Waiting in the Business Class Lounge of Air Canada in Vancouver recently for our return flight to Sydney we were confronted with two options for a hot meal.

And here they are.

Click on both photos to enlarge for a full sense of the quality of the offerings.

Looking at the food I was immediately reminded of the typically brilliant Sondheim lyrics;

The shiny stuff is tomatoes,
The salad lies in a group,
The curly stuff is potatoes,
The stuff that moves is soup.
Anything that is white is sweet,
Anything that is brown is meat,
Anything that is gray -- don't eat.

If you have a spare 3 minutes and 26 seconds play the full tune in the following recording. It is dated but it is still fun.



Here are the lyrics in full. I love them!

WHAT DO WE DO?  WE FLY!

Lloyd tells me, "Never go by plane."
I tell Lloyd,"Flying is insane."
We agree -- we would rather die.
We see a brochure, and sign for a tour
And what do we do?  We fly!

It starts the minute you check in
Departure time is at noon,
A cup of tea and a schnecken,
And -- quick! -- it's leaving soon.
One o-clock and you're at the gate,
Two o-clock and the flight's delayed,
When you finally leave it's eight,
And what do we do?  We fly!

I hate planes, sitting three abreast.
I hate planes, never get a rest.
I hate planes (I hate...
Ev'ry single one.)
The crossing was rough --
Which wasn't enough,
The fun hadn't yet begun.

The seat was throwing my back out,
But there I was with a book,
When suddenly there's a black out,
And everywhere I look
Is a close-up of Doris Day,
Ninety minutes of Doris Day,
There was nothing to do but pray,
And how do we go?  We fly!

I hate planes, most of all the sound.
I hate planes, even on the ground.
Can't stand planes (I hate...
Even more than those....)
The kids in aisle
Surrounding you while
Their parents pretend to doze.

The kid I noticed the first was
The one who stood on my feet.
The kid I hated the worst was
The one who kicked my seat.
There was one in the left who bit,
There was one in the right who spit,
There was one in the back I hit.
But what did we do?  We flew!

I hate planes.  Never can adapt.
I hate planes.  Always feel I'm trapped.
Can't stand planes (I hate...
most of all, the chow.)
To know what is what
Is difficult, but
I think I've discovered how.

The shiny stuff is tomatoes,
The salad lies in a group,
The curly stuff is potatoes,
The stuff that moves is soup.
Anything that is white is sweet,
Anything that is brown is meat,
Anything that is gray -- don't eat.
But what do we do?  We fly!

You're zooming up like a comet
Your ears are starting to ring,
Your neighbors starting to vomit,
There's ice along the wing.
As you wait for your palms to dry
You can see your whole life flash by,
And they tell you it's fun to fly --

Your chance to survive is so remote,
You're far better off to cut your throat.
But who has the time to take a boat?
What do we do?  We fly! 

Mr Holmes

Sherlock Holmes is in his nineties and his memory is fading. His offsider Dr Watson has died years earlier and Holmes is ruing that he can't fully recall his last case which prompted his self imposed exile to a quiet corner of rural England. The young son of his housekeeper provides the inspiration Holmes needs to tie up the loose ends of his life.

The ageing 'Mr Holmes' is beautifully portrayed by Ian McKellen and the film is a gentle work with subtle humour and irony. However, it does proceed at a glacial pace constricted as it is by having a lead character approaching his centenary. I have to admit I nodded off at several stages yet I doubt that I missed very much.

★★★1/2

All that glitters

Three levels of shopping mall