Burning Man

this is a great movie. One of the best portrayals I have seen of a man experiencing loss and grief. The burn he is acting and the way it is expressed is portrayed in a realistic way. Men can grieve in the arms of others and to the soft well intentioned actions and ministrations of those around them. I find most men do work through the issues with space to brew and rage, talk is important but space to work it out is better.Sitting on the kitchen floor with a bottle of red wine at 2 in the morning nutting it out with someone who cares is where the healing starts. A real visceral portrayal...thank God the only therapist in sight was an ex-shag. The redemption of this guys sad state is due to something greater then himself, his son and the need to carry on. OK, there are a few tears to be had.

"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 – 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 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.....

Burning Man is a different film that goes the route not taken. It is works in the same manner of films similar to Memento. It requires the audience to invest into the film and with the effect of constantly solving a complicated life puzzle. It is an unique experience that will stay in your memory for a good while. It is a essentially at its core a film about dealing with loss, moving on, grieve, the love of your life, cancer and the aftermath of a tragedy. It is what you call a smart film that let the audience work it out for themselves. The film also constantly uses sex as a symbol, motif, and metaphor and to depict the passion with the relationships. Shot in the backdrop of Bondi Beach in Sydney, the location is almost unrecognisable and the cinematography is mostly excellent. Although the film is shot and edited in a creative manner, meaning that nothing happens coherent and the director is clearly playing with time and memory, it is exactly this aspect that the film fails to connect with the audience and ultimately feel for the characters deep involved in their respective situations. Still, for an Australian film, these is an admirable effort and along with a wonderful yet conflicted performance from British import Matthew Goode and the screen stealing beauty in Bojana Novakovic. Although I have not since any of director Jonathan Teplitzky's previous works, with Burning Man, one can only say that this man is filled with potential.

All in all, The Burning Man is not a film for everyone; it can be am torture to sit through and also rewarding at the same time. In essence it is very much an independent film, but for what it is worth, The Burning Man is a fine effort and deserves some much needed credit for the Australian Film Industry…

Neo rates it 7/10

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