MAN ABOUT TOWN

I was planning to see the 10.15am session of Clint Eastwood's Invictus at the Kino today, but being unable to tear myself away from the forums at Gallifrey Base , I left the house too late to make it to the cinema in time. Instead I went on a gentle walk through East Melbourne and back home to Fitzroy, where I have plenty of work to be doing, so I don't feel too bad about missing the film. Hopefully I'll catch a session later today at the Nova instead. We'll see. It's not a film I'm desperate to see, mind you - if it was on my 'must see' list I would have caught it several weeks ago, when it was first released - but nonetheless I'm interested in checking it out, having been moved to tears by the trailer. Yep, that's how much of a softie I am - a cleverly edited trailer can have me wiping away tears. Then again, I've always cried easily. Beautiful things, sad things, dramatic climaxes, they all get the waterworks going. Not that I'm compl...

Via Life, Doctor Who & Combom comes this BBC promo pic of the 11th Doctor (Matt Smith) and companion Amy Pond (Karen Gillan), which suggests that trailers and teasers for Season Five of my favourite TV show can't be far off!

The last couple of weeks have been a real mixed bag, entertainment-wise. There have been a couple of apparently excellent local theatre productions, Lloyd Beckman, Beekeeper and Acts of Deceit , both at La Mama and neither of which I've seen yet (a situation I hope to rectify by the time the weekend rolls around); whereas the films I have seen have been at marked extremes of the quality spectrum. Precious: Based on the novel 'Push' by Sapphire A harrowing film about redemption, Precious is the story of an obese, illiterate African-American teenager who is pregnant to her own father for the second time; whose mother belittles and beats her; but who refuses to let life grind her down. Despite all the shit life has thrown at her, Precious finds the strength to turn her life around, thanks in part to an inspiring teacher at her new alternative school. As I wrote in a detailed review over at Arts Hub a couple of weeks ago: There have been many films about inspiring teachers an...