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🍷 When the apps call you out for visiting a lot of bars. I’m on holidays so 🤷🏻‍♂️

A screenshot of the Swarm app that says “Bar fly. That’s 10 different bars in the last month. Today, this sticker. Tomorrow… well… probably another bar. You thirsty little bar fly.”
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🍿 MIFF number 11 was All Shall Be Well (2024) ★★★½

A rectangular image with a review of the movie All Shall Be Well (2024). The movie poster is on the left and the review on the right side. Across the bottom is a rating of Poor Okay Good Great with Good selected. The review reads: The simple living of life by the older lesbian couple, Pat and Angie, is done in a lovely understated way at the start but ends with the death of Pat early in the film. With only Pat’s name on the deed to their apartment and no will, Angie suddenly experiences the legal and cultural barriers to same sex unions in Hong Kong. With Pat’s family inheriting the apartment, I wanted to dislike them for pushing Angie out of her home but it’s wrapped up in the context of the complex cultural and family traditions at play in Asian families. The film balances the selfishness of Pat’s family against Angie’s community of other lesbian couples, who provide the much needed emotional support to her, in a quiet but telling way.
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🎥 About to see my last two movies at the film festival. I think 18 was a good number spaced out across the 12 days. I’m reaching movie fatigue.

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🍿 MIFF number 10 was a wonderful look at Japanese listening cafes in A Century in Sound (2024) ★★★★

A rectangular image with a review of the movie A Century in Sound (2024). The movie poster is on the left and the review on the right side. Across the bottom is a rating of Poor Okay Good Great with Great selected. The review reads: The first three of a limited six part series exploring Japanese listening cafes/bars, with classical, Jazz and J-Rock covered. The episodes show the commitment to the listening experience, with the classical cafe no longer serving food so the noise didn’t distract from the music. The owners have spent a lifetime (or in the case of the classical one nearly 100 years by multiple generations of the family) building their record collections and personalising the audio equipment and even making their own speakers to suit the space. Each episode covers a part of Japanese history from the 1930s to the ‘90s through personal reflections of the owners and visitors, their passion for the music clearly evident. The storytelling with the music background was so intimate and almost reverent, you wanted to be in the bar sharing a drink with the owner.
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🍿 MIFF number nine was the wonderful Māori led feminist film We Were Dangerous (2024) ★★★★★

A rectangular image with a review of the movie We Were Dangerous (2024). The movie poster is on the left and the review on the right side. Across the bottom is a rating of Poor Okay Good Great with Great selected. The review reads: Coming in at 80 minutes this debut from Māori director Josephine Stewart-Te Whiu wastes no time in showing the white people know what’s best for you approach to colonisation, packaged with religious hypocrisy, will stumble when it meets teenage resilience and strong women. A perfect balance between the serious and the laughs in the unique way the kiwis blend them, with gorgeous cinematography and a superb cast.
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🍿 My eighth MIFF film was Rumours (2024) ★★½

A rectangular image with a review of the movie Rumours (2024). The movie poster is on the left and the review on the right side. Across the bottom is a rating of Poor Okay Good Great with Okay selected. The review reads: Aiming for satire, with the leaders of the G7 coming together to draft a communique before being cut off from the world. It mainly hits it thanks to some of the absurd scenes and the calibre of the cast as much as anything. Cate Blanchett channeling Angela Merkel and Charles Dance playing the US president with an English accent as they stumble through the woods looking for help; encountering a giant brain and masturbating bog people that literally explode. At two hours it would have benefited from some tighter editing. Something to catch on streaming rather than a cinema outing.
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🍿 My seventh MIFF film was Universal Language (2024) ★★★★

A rectangular image with a review of the movie Universal Language (2024). The movie poster is on the left and the review on the right side. Across the bottom is a rating of Poor Okay Good Great with Great selected. The review reads: The ‘80s Iranian cinema influences are strong with the framing of the beige dull brutalist buildings giving a Wes Anderson vibe. Wonderfully absurd in places, the offbeat humour of the first half dropped off in the last third. The different story threads came together at the end but the final part just seemed a tonal shift away from the rest.
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🍺 Moved on from writing to trying some craft beers. A Bentspoke Barley Griffin Pale Ale (ACT) followed by a Garage Project Golden Path Session Hazy IPA (Vic). Preferred the pale ale to the IPA.

A beer glass sitting on a bar, shelves full of whisky bottles in the background. Part of the menu is in front of the glass displaying the name “Boilermaker House”.A beer glass sitting on a bar, shelves full of whisky bottles in the background. Part of the menu is in front of the glass displaying the name “Boilermaker House”.

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✍️ Sitting in Victoria State Library doing some writing because why not. Love the environment.

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🍿 My sixth MIFF film was Les Fantômes or Ghost Trail (2024) ★★★½

A rectangular image with a review of the movie Les Fantômes (Ghost Trail) (2024). The movie poster is on the left and the review on the right side. Across the bottom is a rating of Poor Okay Good Great with Good selected. The review reads: Hamid is a Syrian exile, having lost his wife and young daughter. The underlying narrative is a hunt for a war criminal by the small group he is part of. A relatively straightforward cat and mouse chase, the film builds its tension by showing the impact the torture, the unresolved grief at losing his family as well as worry for his mother left behind is having on Hamid. The film wavers a little in the middle and the build up of tension just sort of disappears at the end but reaches a satisfying conclusion.