Burning Man

"Burning Man" is one movie which can be tagged under Art-house. Stories about grieving men ain't that novel nowadays, yet Burning Man slaps at the very thought of giving us yet another clichéd piece, this one with all its brilliance is indeed refreshing a watch for the story it deals with.

The drama which unfolds in reverse chronological order - just like in "memento" - goes deep into the lives of the characters, all shown so roughly with incoherent fragments from the story that we feel like watching digged out incidents from the protagonist's memory. It did irk me at first, and i really had to be patient to get the hang of it. Its awfully slow at times that you would start hating it or, the worse, might stop watching it just like my cousin :D - I hate to stall in between. After I finished watching the movie, was amazed by the simplicity of the plot, which was fed to the viewer in a rather unconventional but powerful manner.

The pain the characters go through was brilliantly acted and shot. With some absorbing performances - my first Mathew Goode movie and am already a fan - amazing locale and soulful background score, this drama easily gets into my top Art-House Movies list - stressing on the term "Art house", for it might not be enjoyable outing for all. A good watch for serious movie buffs. 7/10

BURNING MAN is possibly the shiniest wildest and most dazzling new Australian film this year. Absolutely modern in tone and emphatically heartless this is the jigsaw-puzzle depiction of one very confident handsome man imploding and emotionally fracturing. I could suggest it is emotional Inception requiring 2 viewings to slot it all together. However you might not want to because, as gorgeous a leading man as he is, and as sexually magnetic as every woman he meets finds him, and as slick as the film making clearly is, he is not a very nice person for 108 of the 109 minutes on screen. BURNING MAN is a heterosexual version of Matthew Goode's own recent film A SINGLE MAN which won an Oscar last year for someone else. Set in Bondi Sydney this chef with a lonely egg beater and a bewildered son gets mangled in a car crash to jiggle himself through his life flashing by long enough for us to know he actually fell in love (hence kid) ... perfect performances, confusing casing and in need of an edit, BURNING MAN is terrific and annoying all at once. Great film making and aggravatingly modern. Imagine Jamie Oliver played by Tom Hardy. Hump on the hotplate, anyone? wanna watch? All that and more.... then there's the wanking scene.....

Initially I was dazzled. I didn't mind that I was being toyed with, because watching this brilliant piece of manufactured cinema-conjuring was exciting. I was always aware that I was watching a clever movie, rather than being immersed in an emotional experience. But once I'd worked out what was going on and who was who I become tired of the repetitive backwards/forwards structure, and the lack of anything to say, apart from the fact that the smarty-pants hero finds grieving a tough call. The central character - played with about three expressions by Matthew Goode - suffers a tragedy and tries to cope by behaving like an adolescent on a bender, which, I assume, is supposed to be endearing, but is mostly tedious and repetitive. He and his beloved wife are well suited, as she is equally pleased with herself. Their son, the only character I really cared about is worth watching; as is Essie Davis, as his aunt. There are a few touching moments, but they are far outweighed by scenes that you've seen before, in better and worse dramas on TV and in other movies, and even already in this film... on and on and on with no progression. The Script Editors should re-train. This would make a terrific short; unfortunately it's a long.

Burning Man – CATCH IT (A-) The Australian BURNING MAN is a reckless, sexy, funny, moving and ultimately life-affirming story of Tom (Matthew Goode), a British chef in a Bondi restaurant, who seems to have decided there are no longer any rules he needs to obey. The movie follows Tom's life as he descends into darkness and fragments of a different story begin to emerge. It shows different kind of women in Tom's life who are trying to put him back together. Burning man is a beautiful movie about love, lose, anger and grief. Jonathan Teplitzky has chosen a beautiful story and presented in a beautiful slightly reverse chronological manner. There are various moments in the movie which will simply leave you speechless. The movie is fragments of short scenes, which sometimes is really hard to compile in head in chronological manner. The Grey shades into Matthew Goode's character allowed him to act tremendously well. It won't be wrong to say that "Burning Man" is Matthew Goode's best and sexiest performance till date. Bojana Novakovic is stunningly beautiful. Her performance as sickening women unwilling to die is simply amazing. Essie Davis is impressive. Rachel Griffiths and Jack Heanly are fine. Burning man is amazing Australian movie which leaves a strong impact once it's over. The cinematography and color combination in scenes are simply brilliant. The movie has everything except its little too long, more than 2hrs. still its worth watching and Highly recommended.

Burning man tells a story about coping with loss and fighting inner demons. Although the topic might not be appealing to everyone, the authors chose an approach that might alienate a lot of possible viewers. Here i mean the non-linear storytelling and characters potentially seen as egoistic.

There were no surprises in Matthew Goode delivering an exquisite performance. The treat of the movie is Bojana Novakovic. Virtually unknown, or only if you've seen obscure movies such as Skinning (2010), was at every moment on par with Matthew Goode.

I was unsure whether the main character's struggle has been coping with grief or his own descending into madness. Either way, this wasn't a light topic to handle and might add to aversion of some viewers.