SUFF

Sydney Underground Film Festival: One on One (South Korea, 2015)

Oh you like Korean cinema? Me too! You like violent Korean cinema? Yes please, me too! Have you seen any of Kim Ki-Duk‘s films? Me neither. When I read that he had directed 20 features and had received the Cannes Lion a couple of years back, I felt like I might be missing out on…

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Sydney Underground Film Festival: Reality (France, 2014)

If Quentin Dupieux can make Rubber, a film about a tyre work, then I figured that this one that is about a person was bound to be gold. People are way more interesting than tyres! He really did make a film about a tyre (I’m not being weird… he is) and I’ve been told it’s great. But…

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Sydney Underground Film Festival Review: Heaven Knows What (USA, 2014)

There is a moment in Heaven Knows What when a mobile phone is thrown up into the night sky and a surreal sparkle of fireworks cracks and fizzles from the point at which the phone disappears. This is the only moment of beauty and relief that the film offers. The rest of the time, it’s…

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Sydney Underground Film Festival Review: Yakuza Apocalypse (Japan, 2015)

Director Takashi Miike is a workaholic, with 98 credits to his name on IMDb since 1991. A genre master, he has a devoted fan base; a group to which I admit I don’t belong, not because I’m not a fan, but simply because I’ve only seen one other of his films, Ace Attorney (2012), which…

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Sydney Underground Film Festival: Alvin’s Harmonious World of Opposites (Australia/Indonesia, 2015)

Directed by music video and commercials director Platon Theodoris, Alvin’s Harmonious World of Opposites is a bizarre mix of comedy, drama, road movie and magical realism. Theodoris was inspired by a regular drop-in meditation class at a Buddhist Centre, an obsessive-collective partner Fritjof Capra’s book The Tao of Physics and his intense provocateur father. Made…

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Sydney Underground Film Festival Review: Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution (USA, 2015)

In the early 1960’s a movement was beginning to grow amongst the African-Americans in the United States. It began in the south led by Martin Luther King Jr with a pacifist push but soon a group emerged in the west coastal city of Oakland (near San Francisco), founded by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale came…

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Sydney Underground Film Festival Review: Thought Crimes: The Case Of The Cannibal Cop (USA, 2015)

Where do you draw the line between fantasy and reality? When does thinking about committing a crime become a crime? Can we be convicted just because our Google searches were for suspicious or potentially dangerous things? These are just some of the questions posed by the chilling documentary titled Thought Crimes: The Case of the…

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Sydney Underground Film Festival Review: Peace Officer (USA, 2015)

Peace Officer is one scary film and it’s not even a horror movie. This documentary is a timely and important one about the militarisation of police in the United States. It’s a fascinating, informative and balanced look at a complex subject and one that manages to hit all of the right notes. The story focuses…

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Sydney Underground Film Festival Review: Jesus Town USA (2015)

In a small town in America’s Bible belt, Christianity and tradition reign supreme. For the past 88 years a community in the Holy City of the Wichitas have staged an Easter passion play/pageant that once saw audiences number the tens of thousands. Jesus Town USA is a documentary that is warm and sweet-enough but can…

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Sydney Underground Film Festival Review: Call Me Lucky (USA, 2015)

Call Me Lucky is a fascinating and compelling portrait of one of the most memorable and significant voices in comedy that you’ve never heard of. However, once you hear Barry Crimmins declaration – “I’d like to overthrow the government of the United States, and I’d like to close the Catholic Church” – it’s hard to…

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