A treat of a day:
- My only sci-fi movie from the festival (there don’t seem to be that many of them around these days), Moon (directed and conceived by Duncan Jones) is low-key drama about an astronaut seemingly going mad. The plot and direction contain a few jarring missteps, and the resolution was mediocre, but what saved the film was spot-on acting by a favourite of mine, Sam Rockwell. 3 stars.
- Mystery surrounded the plot of The Cove, directed by Louie Psihoyos, a documentary about a Japanese dolphin cove. It turns out to be brilliantly conceived and directed, and the denouement could increase the number of vegetarians in the world. 4 stars.
- It seems filmmaker Astra Taylor likes filmic explorations of philosophy. Examined Life comprises strolls with philosophers and in theory it could work well. A packed cinema suggested many hoped it would be. But only Peter Singer is able to explicate his thoughts without the stultifying jargon philosophers seem driven to use, and the entire hour and a half was miserably boring. 1 star.
2 Comments
Zizek looks eccentrically entertaining, at least.
Shame it was such a bore. Narrow casting, perhaps…
Yes, Zizek cut an interesting figure. And his two arguments I did agree with, and even sympathized with, to some extent.