THE WHISTLEBLOWER - film

The woman next to me said it best when the film finished... "That was amazing. Horrific, but amazing."

I went to see it on a whim. In fact, having asked the the Palace Cinemas tweeter if their tight arse night was Tuesday & getting an unsolicited recommendation, I abandoned my plans to see The Help or Jane Eyre and took their suggestion to see The Whistleblower. I'm not usually so easily swayed but the time and location suited and hey, I'm a lazy realist.

It can be a great way to go into a film; with virtually no expectations. You might not be blown away, but you can't really be disappointed. But the good news is that I was blown away. It's fantastic. It reminded me a bit of the film Precious, in that it's harrowing to watch but that you could recognise that it was an amazing story, well told.

The story is about human trafficking, which I didn't know before I saw it. It's not for the faint hearted. The graphic reality of what life is like for these young women was shown in quite some detail. It's based on a true story which just made every plot twist and turn more compelling. I was drawn in, desperate to know what happened with each plot development. The whole audience was captured. Everyone instinctively looked away when terribly graphic things happened and everyone gasped when the story took a surprise turn. The creators of this film had us in the palm of their hand. Go and see it.

PS. One of my pet hates was committed by one lone ranger in the cinema at the end of the film… clapping! I don’t know why, but it drives me crazy. If you’re at a premiere and the director and cast are in the room, sure, show them your appreciation but when you’re with the blue-rinse set at Rivoli (Melbourne), give it a rest.

BEAUTY AND THE GEEK - television

I’ve found a way to feel great about myself. It’s cheap and really easy to do. Want to know what it is?

Of course you do.

Well, set aside an hour from 8.30pm on Thursday night to watch ‘Beauty and the Geek’ on Channel 7.

The male geeks are generally loveable characters, whose social ineptitude will make you want to take them under your wing (and/or just give them a big pash) and tell them that they’re great people who deserve to be in happy, loving relationships. Cue warm, fuzzy feeling.

The female beauties are perhaps a bit less charming, but no less entertaining. Last week’s trivia question ‘What kind of animal is a koala?’ was answered by one beauty with ‘A placenta?’. Cue uproarious laughter. 

When the intellectual shortcomings of the beauties is starting to look goofy and loveable (and it will), remind yourself of their likely motivation for going on the show – a gig in Zoo Weekly. For the geeks, it’s a noble mission – to find love. Or in some cases, more like lurrrrve...

In a new innovation for the show this season, they’ve introduced a female geek and a male beauty. Watching the female geek have a little meltdown last week when she was asked to chat to strangers (a task clearly very foreign and uncomfortable for her) genuinely made me shed a tear (and wonder why the hell she’d signed up for the show). But it was a compelling, can’t-look-but-can’t-look-away moment.

And the male beauty, what’s he like? He’s orange. Desperately, hideously orange. But he did run to the aid of the female geek in her hour of need, so he can’t be all bad.

At the end of the show, you will feel like a genius and you will have had belly laughs to boot. That’s a great return on an hour in front of the box these days. 

CRAZY STUPID LOVE - film

Loving Steve Carell and Julianne Moore felt like a good start. That and the generally positive reviews I’d seen. But ‘Crazy Stupid Love’ fell a little flat for me. Not a write-off, just not the gem I’d hoped. It’s certainly not the first film to be built on an implausible premise but the idea that the very hot Jacob (Ryan Gosling) would take a 40-something whinging stranger (Carell) under his wing was a bit hard to take. I wasn’t alone in feeling a bit let down. In the session I attended, two couples and one other person left about half way through the film and didn’t return.

But if you can suspend reality there’s some good laughs to be had and at least one genuinely surprising moment. Don’t want to ruin a plot surprise but will say there was some great casting of relatives.

An audible whimper from the audience when Gosling removed his shirt did make me giggle (that body’s certainly whimper-worthy) but appreciation for him went beyond the body. And the face. He had a great chemistry with Carell and Emma Stone, who stars as Hannah, the woman who gets under his womaniser skin.

Too high expectations coupled with some douche bag audience behaviour (OTT pashing and answering a phone call were stand-outs) soured my experience with this one a little, but still worth the $18 I reckon.