AUSTRALIAN cinema has always been something of an enigma to ‘outsiders’. It’s ostensibly a cool moniker but the industry’s unique product has sometimes served to isolate it from international audiences who just can’t seem to grasp the rhythm.
My Antipodean status has left me vulnerable to umpteen lines of questioning over whether Muriel’s Wedding was a comedy, why Priscilla Queen of the Desert doesn’t have a funny ending and why Lantana doesn’t really have an ending.
There are no answers to these questions: Australian films move to their own pace and are often unwilling to contort to the constricts of genre, which is why the best of them are capable of grasping some incredible emotional complexities.
Little Fish is a gripping little tale of a former drug addict (Cate Blanchett) whose life is a daily battle to steer clear of the ubiquitously junk in Sydney’s suburbs of ‘little Saigon’. The cast harnesses the best of Australian talent – Hugo Weaving, Noni Hazelhurst and Sam Neil – to produce a suspense-filled story of trials and errors, with Weaving’s performance as the fallen Rugby hero a standout effort.
Enrique Iglesias – Insomniac (2007)
IT IS the hallmark of a mediocre singer to release a ‘genre-less’ album that hovers haplessly in all the middling areas of contemporary popular music – RnB/rap/pop/etc – 12 years into your career. In my opinion, if you haven’t found direction in a decade, you never will.
The spin doctors will tell you that Insomniac’s ‘diversity’ means it ‘defies classification’ but that’s a cop-out statement, slapped on to excuse a lack of direction that ultimately pulls the album apart at the seams.
Besides that, the musical domain of genre is strictly reserved for musical geniuses and the incredibly talented (see: Radiohead, Beck Hanson).
Iglesias is at his (ahem) best when he sticks to whipped-cream pop: light, fluffy and especially appealing to 14-year-olds. This could be interchanged with any one of his previous seven releases and it wouldn’t really make a difference. This will please many fans, but don’t go looking for any revelations. Features bonus tracks in Spanish to prove that he’s universally boring in any language.
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