The cultural capital of Australia, Melbourne is inarguably the premiere location for film fans down under (no matter what anyone from Sydney tells you). These weekly posts will take you beyond the multiplex and highlight the Top 5 movie alternatives worth checking out each week.
1. Cine-Sideshow Presents: Miami Connection (The Shadow Electric)
Made in 1987 but only recently discovered by B-movie loving audiences in the United States, Miami Connection, from the mind of Taekwondo master Y.K. Kim, tells the story of “Dragon Sound”, a five man synth rock group on a mission to rid the streets of drugs. And also, ninjas. One critic recently wrote that “Miami Connection is so bad it makes Tommy Wiseau’s The Room look like Wild Strawberries“. What more do you need to hear? (Monday, March 11, sundown)
2. MQFF Opening Night: Gayby (ACMI)
Will the recent, appalling decision by the Australian Classification Board to ban Travis Mathew’s gay drama I Want Your Love, it has become all the more vital to support LGBT cinema in Australia. The Melbourne Queer Film Festival (where Mathew’s film was meant to screen), runs from from Thursday 14 until Sunday 24, and kicks off with Jonathan Lisecki’s Gayby, a comedy about a gay man convinced by his female best friend to help her conceive a child the old fashioned way. (Thursday, March 14, 7:30pm)
3. Bonnie & Clyde (The Shadow Electric)
Be it 1932, 1967 0r 2013, audiences remain eternally fascinated with outlaws and the violence they commit. Arthur Penn’s Bonnie & Clyde may be more than forty-five years old, but has lost none of its insight, humour or tragic dramatic power. (Friday, March 8, sundown)
4. The Matrix (Rooftop Cinema)
The glowing lights of the city seen from the top of Melbourne’s Rooftop Bar & Cinema should form a perfect backdrop for this eye-popping, mind-bending sci-fi actioner. Truly one of the coolest movies ever made. (Tuesday, March 12, 9:30pm)
5. Pulp Fiction (The Astor)
A film that gets better with each viewing, Quentin Tarantino’s sophmore directorial effort remains one of the most quintessential films of the 1990s. If you haven’t seen it, you should have, and if you have seen it, you should see it again. (Wednesday, March 13, 7:30pm)
