Like, toadally dude
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
A little 3D documentary about cane toads has already hoped its way into Australian cult status.
Below: Were-toad.
As a general rule, when your film gets selected into the Sundance Film Festival and Oscar-winning filmmaker Michael Moore is speaking your praises, it's a success. For veteran Australian filmmaker Mark Lewis, it's success he's still having trouble grasping.
``You know, I nearly dropped dead,'' says Lewis.
``Michael Moore came up to us after the Sundance screening and was saying things to the press like it's the `first great cult film of the decade.''
The praise kept coming for Lewis' Cane Toads: The Conquest - a 3D documentary about the cane toads introduction to Australia. The day after the film screened to 1300 people at Sundance earlier this year, Lewis received a phone call from eccentric German filmmaker Werner Herzog (Grizzly Man, Rescue Dawn).
``He called me up the next day and was waxing lyrical about the film and saying things like `wonderful, wonderful, wonderful' in his typical accent,'' says Lewis.
``He said the strange thing is, you're laughing and laughing so hard during the film that you forget what you're laughing about.
``It was amazing to get that kind of feedback from other filmmakers, especially ones that I respect. They were very generous.''
Lewis has worked in the Australian film industry for over 23 years as a writer, director and producer and his 1988 debut film was also a documentary on cane toads. He says he has spent decades ``wondering about and looking at the issue'' and Canetoads: The Conquest addresses some of the key questions.
``How did it get across the country and at the same time become ingrained as part of our culture?,'' he asks.
``These are extraordinary questions I hoped we've answered.
``The overriding thing is you can't control them, so by default have we have to learn to live with them or cohabit with them.''
Cane Toads: The Conquest was the first 3D film shot in Australia and Lewis (above) says taking the unusual approach of shooting a documentary in 3D has helped ``immerse the audience in the world of the toad.'' But Lewis says the highlight of the film was the array of unusual characters and experts he found to interview.
``We threw the net wide for people who have an understanding of the toad,'' he says.
``I see it as an honour when people ask if the characters are fictional because they are truly larger than life.
``From the people who had Buffy, a giant cane toad sculpture, to Kevin from Bloomsbury who creates beautiful art from taxidermy toads . . .they were all interesting.''
Cane Toads: The Conquest 3D is out today.
Read more...
As a general rule, when your film gets selected into the Sundance Film Festival and Oscar-winning filmmaker Michael Moore is speaking your praises, it's a success. For veteran Australian filmmaker Mark Lewis, it's success he's still having trouble grasping.``You know, I nearly dropped dead,'' says Lewis.
``Michael Moore came up to us after the Sundance screening and was saying things to the press like it's the `first great cult film of the decade.''
The praise kept coming for Lewis' Cane Toads: The Conquest - a 3D documentary about the cane toads introduction to Australia. The day after the film screened to 1300 people at Sundance earlier this year, Lewis received a phone call from eccentric German filmmaker Werner Herzog (Grizzly Man, Rescue Dawn).
``He called me up the next day and was waxing lyrical about the film and saying things like `wonderful, wonderful, wonderful' in his typical accent,'' says Lewis.
``He said the strange thing is, you're laughing and laughing so hard during the film that you forget what you're laughing about.
``It was amazing to get that kind of feedback from other filmmakers, especially ones that I respect. They were very generous.''
Lewis has worked in the Australian film industry for over 23 years as a writer, director and producer and his 1988 debut film was also a documentary on cane toads. He says he has spent decades ``wondering about and looking at the issue'' and Canetoads: The Conquest addresses some of the key questions.
``How did it get across the country and at the same time become ingrained as part of our culture?,'' he asks.
``These are extraordinary questions I hoped we've answered.
``The overriding thing is you can't control them, so by default have we have to learn to live with them or cohabit with them.''
Cane Toads: The Conquest was the first 3D film shot in Australia and Lewis (above) says taking the unusual approach of shooting a documentary in 3D has helped ``immerse the audience in the world of the toad.'' But Lewis says the highlight of the film was the array of unusual characters and experts he found to interview.``We threw the net wide for people who have an understanding of the toad,'' he says.
``I see it as an honour when people ask if the characters are fictional because they are truly larger than life.
``From the people who had Buffy, a giant cane toad sculpture, to Kevin from Bloomsbury who creates beautiful art from taxidermy toads . . .they were all interesting.''
Cane Toads: The Conquest 3D is out today.
Why not start with arguably the best? Based on Stephen King’s short story, this is cinematic storytelling at its finest. There’s not much I can say about The Shawshank Redemption that hasn’t already been said. Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman are unforgettable, almost equally as memorable as one of film’s greatest scenes – Andy standing free and liberated in the pouring rain. Magic.
This was the second of two stellar prison movies involving Tim Robbins released over a two year period, with everyone’s favourite strawberry blonde behind the camera as director, producer and writer his time. Based on Sister Helen Prejean’s book of the same name, Susan Sarandon plays the nun who becomes the unlikely friend to a convicted killer on death row (Sean Penn) and the victims’ families. An intelligent, eye-opening look at the death penalty, Sarandon won the best actress Oscar for her turn as the sassy and compassionate Prejean. In a testament to how deluded the Academy is, Penn lost out to Tom Hanks as a doofus in Forrest Gump.
This is the only Michael Bay film I like. Period. As a general rule I tend to hate Bayhem – kill me if I think films need more than explosions and penis metaphors – but I actually enjoyed this. From Nic Cage doing his good guy-in-a-bad-situation shtick to the overly dramatic action scenes, this is a guilty popcorn pleasure. Sean Connery is also pretty awesome as a gnarly Scottish super-con. The Rock is the film that really kick-started Cage’s 90s action movie reign (which seems about implausible as the biological weapons in the film) given his reputation as a hardcore method and character actor. 