BurntFilm

The Festival Guide is out and it’s time to start trawling through the 500+ films for the ones you want to see. It’s no easy feat. That little paragraph can rarely give a film any justice and gives few hints on whether on not the film is actually any good. Well I’ve trawled through the guide and heard all the buzz and here are my top 5 most anticipated films of the 2008 Melbourne International Film Festival.

5. The Wackness

Well, it’s finally happened. The ’90’s are now officially retro. Looks like 14 years is enough time to go past to look back and laugh at what was fashionable in 1994, and when you throw in a coming of age story about a depressed, virgin pot-dealer’s first love you have a movie. This went great guns at Sundance and has been getting great buzz ever since.

4. The Wave

This German film is the one on the list I know the least about. Supposedly based on a true story (well based on a book that’s based on a true story…) The Wave tells the story about an experiment that a history teacher does on his class so they can better understand how the Nazi party took over Germany. Of course it gets out of control.

This is on here because I have a thing for teacher movies, and this is one that isn’t about a white girl who changes the lives of the kids from the wrong side of the tracks…

3. Diary of the Dead

I’m a zombie fan. It’s my favourite type of genre movie and with the resurgence of zombie fims, there’s been a lot to enjoy. Of course, most of these films owe a lot to director George A. Romero. With Romero being a special guest to the festival this year there’s lots to be excited about, from Q&A’s, retrospectives, and a doco on Romero himself.

Diary of the Dead is the latest zombie movie from Romero, bringing zombies to the Cloverfield style of film-making. Although it has been diminishing returns from Romero ever since the excellent original Dawn of the Dead, I still have to see his new film, because hey, zombies!

2. My Winnipeg

No film festival would be complete without some crazy black and white non-narrative experiment. Guy Maddin’s new film My Winnipeg has him going to his home town and subletting his old apartment for one month and hiring actors to recreate moments from his childhood. It could be a lyrical masterpiece or self-indulgent dreck, but that’s the fun of a film festival, isn’t it?

1. Son of Rambow

After getting rave reviews from film festivals all of last year I was starting to wonder whether we would be seeing this movie at all. Part “Be Kind, Rewind”, add a dollop of adolescence and you have the very English “Son Of Rambow”, a movie about a couple of kids making their own Rambo tribute film. All the elements are here for a good time, making it my most anticipated film of the fest.

Honorable Mentions:

Those that just missed the cut.

Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired
Dead On: The Life and Cinema of George A. Romero
Not Quite Hollywood
Funny Games
The Order of Myths
A Complete History of My Sexual Failures

This post is tagged film, list, MIFF, MIFF08, Review, video