ENTERTAINMENT
STARS
WOOF! HAPPY EASTERN NEW YEAR OF THE JUSTICELOVING EARTH DOG, IN WHICH SOCIAL ISSUES, COMPASSIONATE CONCERNS AND ECOLOGICAL NECESSITIES HEAD THE AGENDA…
ARIES: The canine quadruped’s inflexible sense of right and wrong can definitely lead to clashes – sounding familiar? But maintaining top-dog position’s wearing, and with emotional fulfilment more available this year than others, you might find yourself spending less time barking and guarding, more lolling about relaxing…
LIBRA: Traditional keeper of the peace, the Dog is said to correspond to Western astrology’s Libra, bringing equal measures of happiness and dissent. With this year’s people seeing in for/against, right/wrong, black or white terms, you’ll have your work cut out presenting grey as an attractive option. According to Chinese folklore, it takes a dog, or a Dog Year, to sort friends from enemies.
TAURUS: In the Chinese Dog Year human concerns are more important than material benefits. Disturbing news for you comfort-lovers? Not necessarily. Being involved in public justice projects or making heartwarming contributions to people in need might bring a surprising amount of satisfaction – but why not check that out for yourselves?
SCORPIO: The Dog is fiercely faithful and absolutely committed, which suits Scorpio loyalty requirements. Plus this year of the idealistic woofer is a time of crusading for causes and reforms so you’ll be in your element, campaigning with revolutionary zeal for human rights and the plight of the underdog against political hypocrisy and corporate pretence.
GEMINI: This year doesn’t favour excess spending or careless investments. Moderation, yes. Speculation, no. Its Dog days could see you heavenly Twins taking on a stronger social conscience and higher community profile. Livening up neighbourhood meetings and charity fundraisers, finding a new integrity, a finer appreciation of karmic repercussions, a new world view. CANCER: Every dog has its day and the year of the furry four-footed one traditionally brings peace and harmony in the home. If you can resist the impulse to snap and nip over minor niggles, this could be a time of blissful domestic serenity. Plus you can pass off your passion for never throwing anything away as eco-awareness. LEO: In the year of the noble Dog, spontaneous acts of charity are on the cards as you large-hearted Lions take a stronger stand against unfairness and inequities. This year is doggedly against wasteful extravagance though, so better start recycling the Moet corks to one of those funds that support environmental education. VIRGO: This year’s greatest drawback for you Mercurians is that the concerned canine’s an awful worrywart, and his alertness to possible trouble lurking round every corner can escalate Virgo anxiety levels. The trick is rather than constantly thinking Beware! to just be aware – especially of taking on the world’s problems. The Virgo/ Dog Year cross produced Mother Teresa.
SAGITTARIUS: If this year finds you getting on your high horse, as of course it will, you’ll get the best results from teaching rather than preaching. The Year of the Earth Dog’s altruistic influence offers you the opportunity to show how frankness, when tempered with consideration, sensitivity, thoughtfulness and compassion, needn’t be offensive. CAPRICORN: In business the Yang Earth Dog Year is traditionally cautious, favouring ethical investments and modest returns, with less concern than usual for personal gain. Its year prizes the qualities of plain talking, unpretentiousness and taking responsibilities seriously (areas where Capricorns excel), and promises higher-than-usual community interaction. AQUARUS: Water-pourers are one of the signs most comfortable in the year of egalitarian, humanitarian Hound in which controversial issues are aired, and unconventional methods more likely to be accepted. Wind energy, cars running on used chip oil, photonpowered mobiles, biodegradable buildings – yeah baby, bring it on. It’s your kinda year.
CINEMA REVIEWS BY JOHN CAMPBELL
TAD THE EXPLORER AND THE SECRET OF KING MIDAS
When the world outside your window gets a bit too real for comfort, and you know that neither Hugh Jackman as PT Barnum nor the slugfest of pyjama cricket on TV will lift your spirits, a dose of big-screen animation can never go astray. Being a Spanish production, this one veers a little bit off-centre, for it begins with an innocent guide being weighed down and thrown overboard to drown in the broiling briny. It then cuts to Tad, a construction worker on a US highrise, who is reading Herodotus (!). I don’t recall the ‘father of history’ getting a mention in any Pixar cartoon, but it’s perfectly appropriate, as the adventure that follows turns into a hectic chase to find the remains of King Midas, the legendary figure whose touch turned everything to gold. In keeping with our role-reversal times, the archaeologist leading the way is a young woman, Sara, brainy and brave, but a spunkette too – cinema can’t abandon stereotypes entirely. In fact, during the dramatic climax, she (a female Indiana Jones) is initially dressed in a tight red singlet and tiny, up-to-her-bum cutdown jeans that, without any opportunity for a wardrobe change, turn into long tights as the end nears. Be that as
it may, the plot is smart, without being too convoluted for kids, and includes a series of gorgeous illustrations of Grenada’s Alhambra and Cappadocia in Turkey, albeit through a sanitised, Orientalist’s eye (flicks such as this will hopefully encourage inquisitive minds to be curious about such cultures and want to experience them at firsthand). Footfall and incidental sounds, fire and water, stone and fabric have never been so truly recreated as they are in today’s sophisticated animation and with digital cleverness has come an equally detailed observation of character – a love triangle here is a mid-story diversion – but, more than anything, this movie pushes the value of right and wrong, unhindered by spineless relativism, to its proper conclusion. Love conquers all.
SWEET COUNTRY Having received poison-pen letters for bagging Samson and Delilah (2009), I approached Warwick Thornton’s new film with trepidation – nobody wants to be branded a redneck by those who really care. This time out Thornton has nailed it with a gut-wrenching account of white Australia’s prejudice and cruelty towards the Indigenous owners of the land while at no point allowing diatribe to overwhelm story. Set in the red-earth outback following WWI, it begins with the blackfella Sam Kelly (Hamilton Morris) sitting outdoors before a magistrate after being locked up by the local copper (Bryan Brown) for shooting a whitefella, the station manager Harry March (Ewen Leslie). The bloody events that led to that moment are then traced step by step. Sam has been egregiously wronged (as have all his mob), but Thornton manages to find in his heart an explanation, if not an excuse, for March’s hateful behaviour, attributing it to the psychological damage that was done to him on the Western Front. His neighbour Mick Kennedy (Thomas M Wright), however, and the boozers at the pub are portrayed as the racists who built our nation and, to some extent, still run it. Notwithstanding the gritty performances of Brown, Sam Neill, Matt Day and the cast of professional actors, the movie belongs to Morris, Gibson John, the two boys who play Philomac, through whose eyes the killing is seen, Tremayne and Trevon Doolan, and Natassia Gorey Furber as Sam’s wife Lizzie. The relentlessness of circumstance and blind fate provoke anger then fury in
the viewer as Sam is hounded by his vengeful ‘masters’, but for mine the most heartbreaking scene comes when Lizzie is called to give her evidence – I can’t remember being so moved and made so painfully aware of the devastation we have brought to the ‘sweet country’. It feels throughout like it’s taking place in the nineteenth rather than the twentieth century, but the cinematography (Thornton and Dylan River) is beautiful and the script is as tight as a nut. Provocative, tragic and discomfiting – a must see.
PISCES: This year could shift Fish focus from first person singular to wider survival issues of group, community, planet, and in your case, galaxy. Unlike the fast and furious Rooster Year, it’s slower and more supportive, with spiritual wellbeing within reach if you can be grateful for whatever comes – and goes.
36 February 14, 2018 The Byron Shire Echo
Byron Shire Echo archives: www.echo.net.au/byron-echo