DRIVE

This was pretty much as badass as everyone said it was going to be. My favorite shots didn't necessarily involve driving or violence, mostly just close-ups of Carey Mulligan.

BEIJINGERS

I was in Beijing last week for work, and met up with some former students I taught back at USC film school 5 years ago (I was a graduate teaching assistant at the time; they were all undergrads).

It was nice to see these kids all grown-up, living the expat lifestyle and working on all sorts of cool projects in Beijing (freelance writing, self-financed documentaries, self-financed shorts). It's actually quite inspiring compared to what a lot of graduate film students end up doing after grad school, understandable when you consider that the average age of a grad student finishing film school is probably around 30 years old (an age where you probably want to start making some money and settling down), compared to 22 for your average undergrad.

I can't say I wasn't envious. I long for my youth.

SUBMARINE

Pretty sweet. Maybe a little too quirky.

WALKING STILL

A nice movie to watch on the eve of the Mid-Autumn Festival - Koreeda's Walking Still.

GOLDEN HORSE FILM ACADEMY

I'm going to be one of the instructors for Hou Hsiao Hsien's Golden Horse Film Academy this November. It's a pretty cool program (now in its third year) for aspiring filmmakers from Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia, to come to Taipei for a few weeks and make short films. Should be fun.

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