Watch - DVDs, Movies, TV Shows
WATCH is TwoThousand's guide to movies in Sydney. While we focus on art-house and independent releases, we never shun our secret pop-culture pleasures. WATCH also has its fingers on the pulse of film-festivals and specially programmed events and we give tickets away every week. We have also been known to organise special preview screenings, which we always chicken out of introducing on the microphone before the previews start playing.
Brothers
"Sounds Biblical," was my initial summary of this domestic melodrama. Kinda - its characters are more like figures in a parable than individual human beings. But Jim Sheridan's powerful, intimate remake of the 2004 Danish original offers little salvation. Bleak, uncertain, Brothers is a fable that's lost its moral.
The Thing with Two Heads
The fool who said two wrongs don't make a right obviously ain't never seen The Thing with Two Heads. Take two seriously unfunny things, such as racism and irreversible medical mistakes. Combine them. Add a bitchin' bongo rock soundtrack. Shake and bake and there you have cult comedy genius.
Like many dying rich people, the bigoted white protagonist has arranged to have his head transplanted on another body before he shuffles off.
Alice In Wonderland
So many people must say to Tim Burton, "You should totally make a movie out of [insert colourful, absurdist text with childlike hero]!" Well, Alice In Wonderland is a very good impression of a Tim Burton film. The CGI-heavy product design looks an absolute treat, and Burton has fun with 3D technology, especially in the ‘down-the-rabbit-hole' scene.
The Men Who Stare At Goats
This shaggy comedy is very loosely based on an incredible true story: the US Army's secret elite squad of Jedi-like psychic warriors. It's pretty much an excuse for Oscar-nominated actors to clown about like doofuses. Actually, I've always preferred George Clooney's wild-eyed slapstick (Burn After Reading, O Brother Where Art Thou?) to his suave or serious roles.
A Single Man
Fashion designer Tom Ford's directorial debut is high modernism at its most mannered and hallucinatory. Perhaps Ford means to express the increasingly unreal quality of life for a man who's decided to die. But secretly, I think he's just wallowing in aesthetics. That scene with the topless tennis players is a bit much.
French Film Festival
Ah the French Film Festival. Automatically there's a high bar right? After all France is considered the birthplace of cinema, not just of stripy shirts and carbs.
This year's festival pulls out the big guns as well, including one of the most anticipated biopics of the year: Gainsbourg - all about ol' Mr Fistful of Gitaines himself.
Crazy Heart
Crazy Heart feels a little like The Big Lebowski meets The Wrestler. Like Darren Aronofsky's film, it quietly, impressionistically follows a broken-down former star: country singer-songwriter Bad Blake (Jeff Bridges). Alcoholic and estranged from his family, he's scraping a living touring dismal dives, ducking out mid-song for a spew.
Random Entries:
Subscribe to our e-newsletter for weekly updates and exclusive stuff:
Browse our guide to Sydney by interest
Sydney Events Calendar
Select a date to see what's on in Sydney
Browse our guide to Sydney by keyword
Browse our guide to Sydney by weekly issue
Working