Gav’s Blog – Gavin Hudson’s Blog

I’ve just finished watching a Lars and the Real Girl – a film that I suppose falls under the category “feel good” even if these are the sorts of films that tend to make you feel a bit sad at times!

I’d never heard of the film before, but I can see why it only narrowly missed out on an Oscar for best screenplay to Juno.  (And so do others, apparently!) It’s a real good film with some charmingly delightful characters, and led by a strangely enigmatic Ryan Gosling playing the eponymous Lars.  I won’t tell you much about the film’s plot (I find that knowing nothing about a film before I go and see it definitely enhances the enjoyment – don’t you?) but essentially Lars is a small town guy, so painfully shy that he won’t even go to his brothers’ house next door for dinner.  Things gradually change, but I love the way that the town rally around Lars to help him and Bianca out – it’s really quite touching and made me feel like a bit of a softie!

I enjoyed it, and so will you! Probably.  I give it 4.5 out of five, which is pretty good for me.  It’s probably a 4 out of five, but I’m in a good mood and I really liked it today, so there we go.  Not out yet, but only a tenner from the US.

I’m not a softie by the way, I went to the rugby today and spent the rest of the afternoon drinking beer and eating a fab sunday roast (with Apple and Date crumble!) in the Superb Cricketers Arms near the SCG.  Highly recommended if you’re in the Surry Hills/Anzac parade area, and perfectly situated for a pre- or post-match schooner.  Oh, and doing childish tricks trying to get nice ladies to show off their boobies.  People are gullible, eh?

Right, well I went to watch the Dark Knight last week at the IMAX in Sydney.  Rather neatly, as I’m living in the future compared to most of the world I got to see it before it was released in Europe or the USA, on the day of its release here.  Even the hoardes of god-bothering locusts in the festival of the young and deluded couldn’t put a dampner on things.  I’ve never been a real fan of Batman and his ilk (not since the good old Adam West Batman days, anyway, though I sem to think Batman was the first 12 rated film in the UK? Am I right?) but this was a top film and well worth splashing out $50 for me and Annika to go and see it.  I think she only wanted to go for the hot boys in it, but there we are. (Her words).

You’ll hear a lot of people say that Heath Ledger steals the show as the deliciously psychotic Joker, well, I suppose that’s true to 99% of people who will see this film.  He’s really excellent and credible as a proper baddie, I’ve not knowingly seen any of his other films (and I don’t suppose I’ll see many more!) but if this film is to be his cinematic epitaph – it’s certainly a goodie.  I love the part where he makes the pencil disappear – he’s just brilliantly unhinged and mental.

But the real star for me was the IMAX cinemaphotography.  Filming in IMAX is a logistical nightmare – huge film, really heavy cameras and all sorts of issues.  Seeing the Hong Kong sequences and the skyscrapers in a screen 8 stories high was just breath-taking.  It really was one of the best moments I’ve seen at the cinema when the first real IMAX shots rolled by.  I think the new Batman was the first full-length feature film to be shot at least partially in IMAX – it’s not 3d, but the scope and depth of the lense means you see all sorts of things twinkling away in the distance (combined with amazing close-ups) that you wouldn’t see in a normal cinema.  If you are going to see The Dark Knight, splash out a bit extra and go and see it in IMAX, it’s well worth the extra money £12 or whatever you have to pay.

I’m going to give it a 4.5/5 too – it could well be a 5/5 film, but I think I might have been swayed by the IMAX, it could equally only have been worth 4/5 and my judgement has been equally blurred.  Who knows?!

OK, well that’s 750 words now, so that will do I think! Have a good week y’all – and let me know what you think if you’ve seen either of the above.