And Now For This...

… I am a tiny bit heartbroken

I am a tiny bit heartbroken, as if such a thing can be done by degrees. As if you can be only slightly dead, half flying, kind of in love.

More accurately, I am heart-scratched and heart-dented, or heart-cracked and leaking, but not quite drowning, not just yet. I have taken a good punch, and all the love has been knocked out of me, even though I am desperately trying to suck it all back in. I might be a little more hurt than I realise, but for now I’m just dazed.

My heart might break more with the swelling, until it is wholly incomplete.

… International Horror Aesthetics

Hollywood is never shy of a remake, especially when they’re supposedly guaranteed a hit due to the original “overseas” film proving a box office success in their domestic market. But of course, the popularity of a film is often very specific to its country of origin, particularly when dealing with an emotional genre, as emotional cues are informed by the society and cultural in which we grow up in. In these sorts of films, it is not the “what”, but the “how” of the presentation that is important.

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Very excited to be picked up by ReelGood to talk in depth about film and cinema. Hopefully be posting opinions every fortnight, but the rest of their stuff is also quite interesting.

… Too Late

They fell in love too late to be in love.

Their bodies realised it much earlier, but they mistook the explosion in their hearts for a better-than-average one elswhere.

And hate, and fear, and jealousy, and confusion were allowed to creep in when they weren’t guarding against it, because they didn’t know it was there.

It could’ve been something, they never said, because they didn’t know it was there.

They would’ve made the most of it, if they had known it was there.

… Save Your Legs - Good Advice For Screen Australia

It’s common – too common, if you ask me – for audiences to walk out of a theatre and boldly declare “that film sucked”. Budding film critics like these usually don’t need to go into any more detail to justify their position, as audiences tend to be able to agree on the actual quality of a production, regardless of its subjective appeal. Think of the difference as saying “I don’t like Woody Allen’s acting, because he’s always kind of annoying and weird” compared to “I don’t think Kristen Stewart can act, because she evidently can’t act”.

So in assessing a film, particularly “bad” films, it’s always important to make note of what it actually does wrong, not just what you think is wrong with it.

Read the rest of my article over at Top Shelf Magazine.

She offered me the bed or the couch, and I wondered aloud whether she would stay in the bed if I was in there too. Of course she would, you idiot, it’s too comfortable to give up.

Cues like that tend to smack you clear in the hindsight, but at the time, it seemed like a valid excuse.

I remember desperately wanting to put my arm around her waist. When I confessed as much to her later, she said, quite matter of factly “well why didn’t you?”. As if, since it happened eventually, inevitably, as she was implying, it could’ve happened earlier.

But I couldn’t be sure then, still can’t be sure now, whether she was just readjusting her position, as sleepers are want to do, or whether she was trying to elicit a response from me. Not to galvanise, I think, but to goad me into doing something.

I sometimes wonder whether I wasted a night. And not just that night itself, but, had everything been moved forward, our last few hours together might have involved something more.

Hindsight shows the past in greater clarity, but even knowing how you should’ve acted, the lost futures are just as clouded as the still possible ones.

… Gals

Standing there looking up at the porch where her friends were dancing, she realised she couldn’t leave them. Not now, not ever.

They were currently doing very little to endear themselves - dancing with a distinct lack of coordination, singing out of tune, spilling drinks - but they had been there in the past, when she needed them the most, and they would be there for her in the future, when times like that came again.

She had always know this, of course. But in looking for reasons not to go, it was the things she already knew that she needed to be reminded she’d miss.

… Interview: Julia and the Deep Sea Sirens

How much of the artist is in the music?

It’s a difficult question to answer when speaking with Julia Johnson, headline of the 8 piece Canberra based band Julia and the Deep Sea Sirens. She is chirpy, whimsical and relaxed – a demeanour which almost completely undermines her haunting and sorrowful vocal work on the band’s sophomore release, Family Pets.

But in listening to her explanation of the album’s second single, Adeleine, some insight into the contrasts that composite Julia can be seen. The song itself is an upbeat, banjo driven affair, with a swelling, three part harmony chorus. However, listen close, and things aren’t as perky as they seem.

Read my full interview over at Top Shelf Magazine.

… Review: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Push The Sky Away

In response to achieving their first No.1 album in Australia, Nick Cave of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds said simply that he knew they were producing good music, this is just the first time Australian’s have responded to it.

This review exists only to elaborate on Mr Cave’s totally correct statement, lest its succinct-ness be misinterpreted as arrogance on the singer’s behalf. Push The Sky Away is typical Bad Seeds, not differentiating itself from the Nick Cave formula so much that it should have achieved this unprecedented success.

Read my full review over at SYN.