film: ‘w.’

i didn’t expect to think much of oliver stone’s w.

i’d heard a lot of reviews say that it was a film that couldn’t decide what it was – spoof? political statement?

what it is, is almost straight biography. it’s not oliver stone’s fault that george w. bush’s life has been a tragicomedy that comes off laughable some of the time.

if i had doubts about the film’s point they were dispelled with the last shot of the film – w lost in the outfield, looking like a deer caught in headlights, trapped, clueless, surrounded by bad people.

spot on.

josh brolin puts on a masterclass. kudos to the makeup folks, but good makeup is nothing without an actor inhabiting the character. brolin nails bush’s public persona, and makes his private one totally believable. what a terrific craftsman he’s become. no country for old men to this? awesome.

richard dreyfuss as dick cheney is just chilling. the scene in the situation room where he declaims on the importance of iraq and iran? scary stuff, brilliantly delivered.

the only protrayal that didn’t work for me was thandie newton’s condi rice. not sure why. perhaps she made her a little bit too prissy. i may be a bit harsh.

all in all, well done oliver stone. it’s no platoon, but then, there’s nothing noble about a quivering bush.

in a word: SURPRISING.

film: ‘last chance harvey’

sometimes you just have to lie back and let a couple of old pros have their wicked way with you. such is the situation with last chance harvey.

director joel hopkins has very little experience, but let’s face it, he didn’t need a scrap for this. my blind old dog could have directed this.

emma thompson and dustin hoffman, with a dose or two of kathy baker, stalwart of american sitdrams, and eileen atkins, who’s been in every brit series since z cars, thrown in, and who needs a director?

thompson and hoffman just carry it along, all effortless dialogue and chemistry and timing and nuance.

there’s no suggestion they phoned it in, however. they’re just that good, and that well-practiced in the gentle art of middle aged romance.

lovely, mindless, skilful, small smile-inducing viewing.

in a word: ACCOMPLISHED.

something’s queer

here’s my weekly column in the gold coast bulletin:

TOMORROW, August 1, is many things to many people.

For a start, it’s pay-day. Thank God.

For anyone of Swiss descent, it’s your national day. Happy Switzerland Day for tomorrow, Roger Federer.

For people of the Baha’i faith, it is the Feast of Perfection. Don’t get it wrong, now.

For the ancestors of the maternal side of my family it is Yorkshire Day. Knowing my relatives they’ll be off to the Stadium of Light to watch Sunderland get thrashed again. Or they would be if it was football season. They’ll probably go anyway, just for the pies.

For me and my ilk it also happens to be the National Day of Action for Same-Sex Marriage.

Now, don’t go running off, all you lovely straight people. This isn’t going to be a rant.

Although I could point out a recent Galaxy poll showed 60 per cent of Australians support same-sex marriage. And that among young people that rockets up to 74 per cent.

But I digress.

What I really want to talk about is the Gold Coast and the National Day of Action, because it highlights a rather uniquely GC phenomenon.

The NDA consists of a series of protests around the country in all the capital cities and many regional centres.

Lismore has one — contact Sean Rich on 02 6622 1555 for details.

I’m heading up to Brisbane to take part in that city’s protest at Queen’s Park from 1pm.

Why am I going to Brisbane and not taking part in the Gold Coast’s National Day of Action event?

Because the Gold Coast, sixth largest city in Australia — soon to be the fifth largest if the population forecasters are any judge — isn’t, as far as I can find out, holding a National Day of Action event.

The population of the Gold Coast is currently hovering somewhere between 550,000 and 600,000.

That means, if the city follows the trend of just about every city on the planet, with the exception of gay-heavy San Francisco and Sydney, that between 25,000 and 60,000 Gold Coast residents are either gay or lesbian. And yet it appears to be an almost invisible group of people.

Now, assuming for a moment I am not, in fact, the only queer in town, where exactly is the Gold Coast gay and lesbian community?

I’ve lived here almost 21 years. Admittedly I’m not one for the nightclubs, but I’m not exactly a recluse. Nor, you might have noticed, am I in the closet.

And yet I’ve never managed to find an enclave of ‘family’ here on the Coast.

I’m not looking for a date, by the way — just a feeling of belonging.

It’s not just me. A few weeks ago a colleague came to me on behalf of a friend of hers, a lesbian, who has lived in town a while and is becoming increasingly depressed because she feels isolated from any sense of community. Did I know where the gay community was hiding?

Sadly, I had to reply in the negative.

I hope there’s someone reading this who can disabuse me and fill me in on the secret.

Until then I have to settle for the realisation that the Gold Coast is not quite the sophisticated grown-up city it would like to think it is. Because for whatever reason, the gay community here — and there is one, somewhere — clearly doesn’t feel safe enough to be visible.

And in the meantime I’ll get my activist freak on up in BrisVegas, where at least the gays feel safe enough to stick their heads up above the ramparts in the name of a good cause.

odd day … but a minor victory

strange sort of day. started quiet, and then got bizarrely hectic thanks to the mind-blowingly stupid decision by karmichael hunt to (a) swap football codes and (b) commit the best years of his athletic life to a team that is, frankly, going to get shellacked for at least the next five years.

but, hey, that’s karmichael hunt’s problem.

then in the middle of all that i got told i was doing a great job, then got a bollocking, and then got told i was shit-hot all from the same person in the space of about 90 minutes. he was right each time of course, but nevertheless my head was spinning.

and then i had a win. a minor one to be sure, but a win nevertheless.

see, there are many things that can be said about rupert murdoch, but one thing i think is fair – he doesn’t lavish a world of luxury upon his employees, at least not the ones at the gold coast bulletin.

for several years now we have been subjected to the horrors of one-ply toilet paper. yes, i know it’s a tacky topic, but these things have to be said.

we all got used to it. as you do. more important things to think about, frankly, and it did the job. just.

but over the past week things just got out of hand.

i’m sitting there quietly one day last week, when i pull a length of TP off the roll, and not only does it tear just coming off the spool, but when i hold it up, the paper is so thin it has holes in it. holes.

and it’s so delicate a fabric that i could actually read the newspaper through it.

well, it was a bridge too far, for me.

i tore off a strip, stapled it to a suggestion slip, wrote the words ‘THE THINNER YOU MAKE IT, THE MORE I WILL USE’ and dropped the whole thing into the suggestion box.

then on monday afternoon, at the conclusion of a very serious editorial meeting involving all The Important People, there was a last call for comments.

‘yes,’ i said. ‘can we have some decent toilet paper, please? something that doesn’t dissolve on contact.’

i was scorned. laughed at. dare i say it, i was poo-poohed.

but today, ladies and gentlemen, every roll of loo paper in the building was replaced – not with a better brand of one-ply. oh no.

two-ply. let me say that again. TWO-PLY.

and people say activism on the gold coast is dead.

good news! UNICEF have offered me a job

no, really. and i didn’t even have to apply! isn’t word of mouth awesome?! it’s only part-time but the guy who wrote to offer me the job says the money is … ‘a lot’ … doesn’t that sound great?

all i have to do is help this guy transfer money from the US using my bank account. i take out 10% commission and voila! i get rich doing nothing. i just need to send this guy my name and bank account details. awesome!

and it’s UNICEF so i must be helping the little starving kiddies in africa, right?

seriously, are there still people in the world stupid and naive enough to fall for this shit?

dilbert speaks truth, as ever

when you work for a newspaper, this applies to both the development of new websites and toilet paper. only a fellow murdoch employee will know what i mean.

noh8 campaign

check out the awesome line-up of gorgeous celebs saying no to Prop 8 via adam bouska’s fantastic photography. hundreds of them! all airbrushed within an inch of their life, but who cares, they look fabulous. lisa ling (below) is just the latest. give the page time to load.

lolcat

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

lovin’ it

McDonald’s Versus: Making of… from BranitVFX on Vimeo.

i love dorothy snarker, but i love katharine hepburn more

found at dorothysurrenders.blogspot.com

ladies – and i’m talking to the lady-loving ladies here – if that doesn’t get your juices flowing, then, frankly, i’m at a loss what to do for ya.