Stehanie Daley is the most thought provoking and mesmerising film I’ve seen in a long while, and is surely one to bring up alot of discussion. The film takes a powerful look at the topics that spark so many debates between pro-life and pro- choice, yet beautifully and hauntingly focuses more on how choices affect people, rather than religious or political aspects. This is what I loved about the film- both Tilda Swinton’s and Amber Tamblyns complexity in their performances. This film really delves into and explores the terror of motherhood , failing relationships and ignorance. It is brilliantly directed, written and acted. I highly recommend it.

Ok .. we slipped this out yesterday, on the first of August. We’ve been busy all right? If you didn’t get it emailed to you, you can read all the goodness here.

By way of introduction, Mike Ross is one of our valued APPLEBOX members and most knowledgeable doco watcher! He has kindly offered to review ‘Zeigeist’ for us, and so here are his thoughts.

REVIEWER: Michael Clunies-Ross
ZEITGEIST: THE MOVIE, 2007
Writer/Director Peter Joseph.

Here’s a movie that will either knock your socks off, bore you to death with its length, generate extreme paranoia-turning you into a mad conspiracy nut, or it will just confuse the hell out of you and lead to hours of pointless web research and possible alcoholism.

Zeitgeist is a German expression meaning ‘the spirit of the age.’ The film aims to shock and scare viewers about the bastard political climate we all live in. If you liked the Manchurian Candidate, or are a bit of a conspiracy theorist, then this is right up your ally. It is not a light Sunday viewing, and a bad choice if you have guests over or feel like relaxing with a laugh. In fact, it might make you cry. That is, if you believe it all.

There are three parts to the film. The first focuses on religion and tries to shock, scare and enlighten you about the true story behind the bible. Jesus, stars and Horus’ black all-seeing eye (like the one in Lord of the Rings) are the main focus in part one. To any Christian or person who is slightly religious, part one is basically a slap in the face with a cold steak. You can take it seriously, or with a grain of salt. It made me want to buy a telescope.

Part two focuses on 9/11, terrorists who can’t fly planes, Bush, JFK and a whole bunch of other conspiracies that might make you feel a little queezy.

Part three is called Don’t Mind the Men Behind the Curtain, which describes a bunch of nasty banksters, chiefly JP Morgan, Rockefeller and Rothschild of the Federal Reserve who control the money system and therefore, everything. I always thought Rockefeller was just an old-school musician.

Zeitgeist won the 2008 Artvist Documentary Film Award and seems to have captured a lot of interest in many countries. I say have few drinks to help you watch this film, which can leave a bit of a chip on the shoulder. It tries to end optimistically and send a message that you can actually do something to prevent a horrible New World Order, but probably not.

Hello all, I just realised it’s been a long while since my last blog. And I felt the need to get something off my chest, and what better way than here. I love rediscovering old movies and remembering how much I loved them, or not sometimes. You know, when you watch something from your childhood, remember thinking it was the best piece of cinema ever made, and then realising it must have been a special ‘Home Alone’ phase and the movies aren’t the blockbuster hits you remember them to be? (No offence if you love them!)

Well, now it’s time for a GOOD memory jolt… I just watched ‘Heat’ recently, and remembered it’s one of the best Cops and Robbers movie I’ve ever seen. Honestly. One of the best. Now I understand this isn’t everyone’s genre of choice, but if you’re remotely interested in a nearly three hour tension filled epic (with a few great action scenes to break it up), then please, do it. The main two characters, and the actors who play them, are amazing and make the film worth watching for them alone. Goodie: Al Pacino. Baddie: Robert De Niro. And that’s just the beginning. The cast in this blew me away, and I was able to have a little chuckle at some of the choices too - Tone Loc springs to mind. Some more examples: Val Kilmer, a young Natalie Portman, John Voight, Tom Sizemore (Saving Private Ryan, Pearl Harbour, True Romance), Diane Venora (Romeo + Juliet), Amy Brennerman (Grey’s Anatomy, Judging Amy), Ashley Judd, Hank Azaria, Henry Rollins, Tone Loc, and a lot of other actors that upon seeing them, I thought “oh, that’s the guy from… pretty much every movie I’ve ever seen.” Lots of those.

I won’t go into the plot much, well, at all actually… I’d be here a while. One quirk of the film which I found a little amusing, was the fact it was made in 1995. Nothing funny about that alone, I know, but when you see the ‘latest’ fashions, phones, cars etc that, in their day were the coolest things yet, it’s fun to have a laugh about how times change. But, enough of that, it’s a serious (and seriously amazing) flick.

Cops and Robbers… done extremely well. Hope you give it a shot, maybe when you’ve racked up $9 in other rentals and it’s then only a dollar for you (when you take advantage of the 3 for $10 deal we have running).