The premise

Tomorrow, When the War Began (trailer) is Australian filmmaker Stuart Beattie’s film adaptation of the book of the same name by Victorian author, John Marsden, a writer of young adult fiction.

“Tomorrow, When the War Began” is the first of Marsden’s seven book series, called the “Tomorrow series”, some of which are slated to become sequel films, and explores the scenario of an invasion of the resource rich Australian continent, a fear that, according to a recent poll, lurks in the minds of many Australians.

The play

The story opens as 17 year old Ellie Linton (Caitlin Stasey) and her closest friend, Corrie Mackenzie (Rachel Hurd-Wood), decide to organise an Australia Day weekend camping trip to mark the end of the summer school holidays. Her father allows her to go on condition the camping party be made up of eight people.

After he instead settles on seven, they gather together five school friends, Kevin Holmes (Lincoln Lewis), Homer Yannos (Deniz Akdeniz) the local troublemaker, Fiona Maxwell (Phoebe Tonkin), a rich “city” girl, Lee Takkam (Chris Pang), and the religious Robyn Mathers (Ashleigh Cummings).

They duly have an enjoyable few days at an isolated camping spot they find, but are puzzled by several large squadrons of aircraft they see flying overhead one night. On returning home they discover the power is off, telephones, both landline and mobile aren’t working, and – most alarmingly – that everyone has vanished.

As they cautiously begin to investigate, and piece together what has happened, they find the town’s inhabitants have been rounded up and are being held captive at the local showground, by unknown troops. A radio broadcast informs them an army of unspecified origin, calling itself “the coalition”, has invaded most of the country.

A nearby deep water port is one of three points Australia wide that “the coalition” is using to unload troops and supplies, and the group realises they need to destroy a local bridge that the invaders are making heavy use of. Knowing they may all lose their lives in the process, they nonetheless prepare an attack plan.

The wrap

“Tomorrow, When the War Began” is both a highly regarded novel and a great premise for a war action slash coming of age film. Marsden’s young characters all have issues and insecurities they are grappling with, something not unusual for a group of people their age.

The problem onscreen though is the disproportionate focus on these issues given the gravity of the situation confronting the group… aren’t they meant to be thwarting an invasion after all?

For instance an interlude which sees two characters discuss relationship hangups – which may have lightened the mood at any other time – is well out of place in the midst of one of the group’s sorties, so far out of place it is more of a distraction than anything else.

“Tomorrow, When the War Began” has many people making comparisons to 1984’s Red Dawn which portrayed a fictitious Soviet invasion of the US, though the scenario stands in its own right down under. And while there are a number of tense scenes, there is little of the hard going of other such tales of doom and gloom.

The Places In Between, an exhibition featuring the work of 17 emerging and established Australian artists, opened at the HSBC Centre, 580 George Street, downtown Sydney, last night.

Curated by aMBUSH Gallery, in association with wearetheimagemakers, exhibiting artists include Apeseven, Beastman, Ben Frost, Bennet, Bridge Stehli, Drewfunk, Ears, Jumbo, Max Berry, Meggs, Mini Graff, Numskull, Phibbs, Roach, Sam Smith, Shannon Crees and Yok.

The show, which is open daily, runs until 30 September at the HSBC Centre. I’ve posted more photos from last night’s event on my Flickr page.

The next edition of the Oxford English Dictionary (or OED), dubbed OED 3, may not be printed, and could only be available in electronic format.

A team of 80 lexicographers has been working on the third edition of the OED – known as OED3 – for the past 21 years. The dictionary’s owner, Oxford University Press (OUP), said the impact of the internet means OED3 will probably appear only in electronic form. The most recent OED has existed online for more than a decade, where it receives two million hits a month from subscribers who pay an annual fee of £240.

It’s interesting to learn that people are prepared pay £240 (about A$410 or US$370) for an annual subscription for a dictionary though.

Up to a third of teenagers would be prepared to unfriend, or remove their parents from their friends list, on Facebook as a result of what they consider to be excessive interference in their social networking activities.

Teens are twice as likely to “unfriend” their mothers than their fathers, said Regina Lewis, consumer advisor of AOL, the US internet company which partnered with Nielsen for the study. One out of five parents said they have asked their child to “unfriend” someone because they were not comfortable with the connection. In one out of two instances, parents objected to inappropriate content on the person’s Facebook page.

Paul Shaw, letter designer, design historian, and teacher, who created the “top 100 typefaces of all time” list in 1998, has produced an addition, the top ten typefaces of the decade from 2000 to 2010.

As before, it is not a list of my favorite typefaces, nor is it a list of the most popular typefaces. Instead, it is a list of typefaces that have been “important” for one reason or another. However, I am not going to provide my reasons.

Morten Just has drawn up a flow chart to help you decide which possessions you should keep, and those that you should dispose of, if say you are moving house, or just feel like doing away with things you no longer need.

View the large version of the flow chart here.

The Disappearance of Alice Creed (see the trailer here) is the debut feature of British writer-director J Blakeson.

Two ex-cons, Danny (Martin Compston), and Vic (Eddie Marsan), plan and stage the kidnapping of a young woman, Alice Creed (Gemma Arterton). The daughter of a rich businessman, the two kidnappers think they’ll have it made after her family pays the ransom they demand for her safe release.

What the two don’t count on is Alice’s determination to resist their efforts to use her to their advantage. A battle of wills ensues, revealing cracks in the resolve of Danny and Vic, and as the deadline for the exchange approaches, all three find themselves pitting their wits against each other in a desperate bid for survival.

“The Disappearance of Alice Creed” opens in Australian cinemas on Thursday, 9 September, 2010, and thanks to the people at Icon Film Distribution I have five double passes to giveaway.

To go the draw for a double pass, valid from Thursday, 9 September, 2010 until the end of the film’s Australian theatrical season, please send me an email with “Alice Creed” in the subject line.

I will post the passes to winners early next week. One entry per person please (sorry, you must be residing in Australia to take part).

Heavy drinkers tend to outlive non-drinkers according to some new research. Despite the health risks associated with a high alcohol intake, heavy drinkers may benefit from the socialising that accompanies drinking. Non-drinkers also miss out on the stress reducing benefits of a drink or two, which can compound stress-related disorders.

Even though heavy drinking is associated with higher risk for cirrhosis and several types of cancer (particularly cancers in the mouth and esophagus), heavy drinkers are less likely to die than people who have never drunk. One important reason is that alcohol lubricates so many social interactions, and social interactions are vital for maintaining mental and physical health.

If anonymity fosters creativity online, how about in other arenas? Melbourne based Australian band, TISM, an acronym for “This Is Serious Mum”, were active from the early 1980s through to the mid-2000s, and wrote and played a satirically charged blend of alternative rock/dance songs.

The members successfully managed to conceal their identities through out most of this period by adopting pseudonyms such as Ron Hitler-Barassi, Eugene de la Hot-Croix Bun, and Les Miserables, and wearing costumes or balaclavas, during shows and other public appearances.

They released six albums and four EPs between 1986 and 2004, with their 1995 album, “Machiavelli and the Four Seasons”, going gold. Three of its tracks were also voted into triple j’s Hottest 100 – two of them making the top ten – for the same year.

The band last performed in 2004, and although there is no talk of another album, or any shows, they declare themselves to be on an indefinite hiatus, rather than disbanded.

Some things to consider before having that ashes-blend record made… five life regrets of terminally ill people.