Take Your Time: Olafur Eliasson

Take Your Time: Olafur Eliasson (3.5/5)

Museum of Contemparory Art, Sydney

December 2009

Quietly stimulating exhibition that cleverly plays on colour and space. A remarkable range of formats from paintings of colour wheels to a walk through kaleidoscope, walk-in crystals of steel and a waterfall. Eliasson’s work has a beguiling simplicity that on reflection gives rewarding pause for thought.

The Damned United

The Damned United (3.5/5)
Dendy, Circular Quay, Sydney
December 2009

(Director: Tom Hooper, Cast: Michael Sheen, Jim Broadbent, Colm Meaney, Timothy Spall)

Focused on Brian Clough’s 44 day succession of Don Revie as Leeds United manager, with flashbacks to Clough’s early years as a manager, “United” takes no prisoners and tells it not quite as it was, with no excuses for Revie’s brutal football or Clough’s opinionated self-confidence. Tightly scripted and well cast, having grown-up in this period (and though not a football fan) I readily identified with the film, though others may find less in this film.