Where to now for supporting action on climate change?

The Lowy Institute has released the findings of its latest annual public opinion poll from  a representative (cross section) opinion survey of 1,002 Australian adults conducted in Australia between 30 March and 14 April 2011. The latest data is from the seventh annual Lowy Poll. Of particular note is the findings on climate change opinion which is showing a level of 'fatigue' for the issue and falling support:
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Climate change
A large majority (75%) of Australians say the Federal government has done a poor job addressing climate change, with 39% saying it has done a very poor job. Support for taking tough action to address climate change continues to erode. The foreign policy goal of tackling climate change is considered very important by only 46% of Australians, down seven percentage points from last year and down 29 points from 2007. Support for the most aggressive form of action to address global warming slipped five points from last year, with 41% saying global warming is a serious and pressing problem and  that we should begin taking steps now even if this involves significant costs.
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The Lowy Poll reinforces the reality that endless debate leading to little resolution or positive action loses public support.

Sydney Film Festival - Film Review - The Guard

Still shot from 'The Guard" Brendan Gleeson as Sgt Gerry Boyle

Billed as one of the hottest tickets at the 2011 US Sundance Festival (it was the Opener for the Festival), this film has been described as a "wickedly funny action-packed" story and is filled with the best of Irish black humour. The plot focusses on Sergeant Gerry Boyle (Brendan Gleeson) of the Irish Garda (Irish Police) who works as the sole Guard member in a sleepy coastal town. He operates according to his own rules and his network of contacts (his personal hobbies include escorts dressed in police uniform and the occasional consumption of confiscated illegal substances). His eccentric sense of order is severely disturbed by the arrival of an overly-enthusiastic young new colleague, the terminal illness of his foul-mouthed mother and the arrival in town of FBI agent Wendell Everett (Don Cheadle), investigatiing an international drug ring which leads to Boyle's town. The witty script of this film plays on different cultural behaviours of the Irish, Americans and Brits, expertly handles the conventions of the unlikely-buddy movie and provides a black satire of the Irish Garda, the criminal underworld, the IRA (the local IRA representative wears a cowboy hat and drives a VW beetle) and the American FBI. Apart from a generous use of the 'F' word in the dialogue, this is an enjoyable  black comedy with an action-packed and surprisingly moving finale.

Sydney Film Festival - Film Review - Take Shelter

Michael Shannon in "Take Shelter"

Curtis LaForche (Michael Shannon) is a working man living in small-town Ohio with his beautiful wife Samantha (Jessica Chastain) and their young, hearing-impaired daughter. However his otherwise peaceful existence is interupted by recurring dreams of an ominous storm which become increasingly vivid and lead him to fear for both his sanity and the safety of his family. Despite seeking medical assistance and counselling therapy, his anxieties continue to build and his outward behaviour becomes progressively stranger to his wife, his friends and workmates and then the hallucinations start to invade his waking life with terrifying consequences. Curtis is unable to tell whether he is experiencing deranged visions as part of a mental health breakdown or terrifying premonitions of something far greater.  David Wingo's brooding foreboding score and the storyline allude to the possible origins of Curtis's psychic malady - impending ecological disaster, economic uncertainty or a family mental health trait. The surprise for all is placed in the last scene of the film. Matched by some careful and judicious special effects, the film is almost a longer version of an episode of  'The Twilight Zone'. The main problem with the storyline is the excessive amount of time spent defining the lead character's psychological state based on his dreams and the actual impact scene which is the last two minutes of the film. 

Sydney Film Festival - Film Review - Norwegian Wood

Rinko Kikuchi and Kenichi Matsuyama in Norwegian Wood

Vietnamese director Tran Anh Hung presents a visually impacting adaptation of Haruki Murakami's lyrical bestselling and often quite depressing novel. The story is set in the late-60s when Tokyo universities were rife with political unrest and Watanabe (Kenichi Matsuyama) is the central character as a student whose deepening relationship with the emotionally fragile and increasing mentally unstable Naoko (Rinko Kikuchi of Babel fame) strenuously tests his character and commitment. Naoko is haunted by the spectre of a past suicide and her emotional and then geographical withdrawal brings a sadness and melancholy to the film. Contrasting her existence in a mountain mental health retreat with the expanding world of college life, Watanabe's loyalty and own isolation is further tested by his womanising friend and dilettante Nagasawa (Tetsuji Tamayama) and the enchanting and strikingly independent Midori (Kiko Mizuhara). The multiple themes of awakening, loss and melancholy permeat throughout the film and the darkness of suicide is never far from the consciousness. The Beatles song from which the film derives its name is perfectly strengthened by an evocative score from Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead which matched with the careful imagery of rich cinematography conveys the emotional levels of the scenes.

Sydney Film Festival - Film Review - Elite Squad: The Enemy Within

Wagner Moura in "Elite Squad: The Enemy Within"

Returning to the big screen is the sequel to José Padilha's Elite Squad (the controversial 2008 Berlin Film Festival-winner) and this story is no less a roller-coaster and high-octane feature film than its predecessor. The film is also a nail-biting standalone thriller drawn straight from the headline news in Rio de Janeiro and Brazil in general. In the story more than a decade has passed since Colonel Nascimento (Wagner Moura) has been promoted from captain of BOPE - the rabid military police who shoot first and don't have any questions - to Chief of Rio's intelligence bureau, part of a political manoeuvre to sideline his hard-line efforts to combat the drug cartels. His ex-wife is now remarried to ambitious human rights advocate Fraga who is elected as a state Legislator, and his relationship with his teenage son is under stress. In a narrative that reflects the TV series The Wire, the professional and personal changes in the life of Colonel Nascimento broaden the perspective and horizon of the original film, shifting the focus from the drug wars in the favelas to police vice and political corruption at the highest levels. This film is just as relentlessly paced as its' predecessor and dramatically even richer explaining why it is the highest grossing film ever in Brazil.

Sydney Film Festival - Film Review - Even the Rain

Garcia Bernal and Luis Tosar in 'Even the Rain'

A juxtaposition of past and present social equity issues in Bolivia are explored in 'Even the Rain'.  García Bernal is film director Sebastian who, along with his business hard-nosed producer Costa (Luis Tosar), sets out to make a revisionist drama about the Spanish conquest of the Americas. Costa has decided to film in Bolivia, because it's the cheapest place in South America.  Local man, Daniel, straight from the poorest suburbs, is cast as the Taíno chieftain who led a rebellion against the Spaniards. Unbeknownst to the director and producer, Daniel is leading his community's demonstrations against the government's decision to privatise water. Government officials are seen as dismissive of the claims by the urban poor. As the film production gets underway, the two stories - the 1512 rebellion and the twenty-first-century riots converge from their parrallel lines and underscoring the impact of colonialism on the New World and the continuing exploitation of its resources by outsiders, even if it's just a water company from a neighbouring South American country. Producer Costa is confronted by the social realities he finds in Bolivia finding a sympathy and respect for the Daniel's efforts to lead and protect his community. This is a well scripted (Paul Laverty is writer) multi-layered film-within-a-film and directed by Icíar Bollaín.

Sydney Film Festival - Film Review - Cedar Rapids

Ed Helms (The Hangover, The Office) is Tim Lippe, an insurance salesman sent to replace a colleague (who died in somewhat scandalous circumstances) at an annual insurance industry conference in Cedar Rapids -  metropolis of the Midwest. Tim's colour is brown - he wears it, he works for BrownStar Insurance and he has never left his hometown of Brown River, Wisconsin. His teetotaller view of the world gets turned upside down as he is challenged by the debauched shenanigans of his roommate Dean Zielger (John C Reilly in animated form) and Ronald Wilkes (The Wire's Isiah Whitlock Jr) and the attentions of Joan (Anne Heche) all of whom are conference veterans. To make matters worse, he is tasked by his boss with trying to retain his company's coveted two diamond industry award for another year but in the process discovers its only a question of greasing the right hands with some incentive to ensure the award comes his way. An amusing Saturday afternoon matinee film which provides the laughs but doesn't need many neurons to follow. 

Sydney Film Festival - Film Review - The Greatest Movie Ever Sold

Morgan Spurlock (pictured) the documentary film maker who made the fast food industry and McDonalds in particular squirm (Super Size Me) returns with a fascinating documentary that exposes the lucrative and ubiquitous business of product placement, advertising and brand promotion in the film industry.  Spurlock uses the financing of his film to use the very same mechanisms he sets out to critique by seeking product placement opportunities to finance the production and literally starts 'living the brand' as each product company signs up.  As with Spurlock the film is  audacious and smart but whom is really spoofing whom ? Spurlock succeeds in demonstrating how to get the corporate sponsorship but in the process ends up promoting these very same products. Spurlock also seeks advice and design help and becomes a brand himself in the process.The documentary succeeds in raising the bigger question - what limits are there with commercial pitching in movies  ? A must see for all those who wonder where the marketing boundaries really lie.

Sydney Film Festival 2011 - Sleeping Beauty - Film Review

Still Shot: Emily Browning in  'Sleeping Beauty"

The Sydney Film Festival is on again. One of the more PR promoted films is reviewed below...

The plot is described as an "unsettling erotic fairytale" and the film was selected for Official Competition at the Cannes Film Festival. But what was the all hype about with this film ? Emily Browning plays Lucy, a university student working numerous self-effacing jobs such as waitressing, after-hours office support and generally the jobs students do. Described in character as ".. socially isolated from her housemates and fellow students..." Lucy displays little genuine interest in them, skips her rent and spends her limited free time ministering to the peculiar desires of her morbidly depressed and apparently best 'friend' Birdmann (played by Ewen Leslie and of whom we learn almost nothing even after he apparently commits suicide). Her strong-willed drift towards recreational drug indulgent oblivion is anchored only by her need for money so she signs up with an exclusive silver service lingerie club run by the elegant but unexplained Clara (Rachael Blake), whose poise and controlling demeanor is a stark contrast with the almost monosyllabic, vacuous Lucy.

The film lacks a strong story line, effective storytelling dialogue and drifts almost aimlesslessy along its length punctuated by regular nude scenes of Lucy (Emily Browning), almost gratuitious and irrelevent in their frequency. The film actually has no ending but concludes at a dramatic scene, so the audience is left with nothing in terms of character and plot resolution or even a sense of options. A fairytale story this is not. Lucy as a central character is someone for whom the audience can find little sympathy. Narcissistic, solely inwardly focussed and living a deceptive existence she represesents in one way everything which is attributed to Generation Y.