It’s not every day that an absolutely pitch-perfect film comes along, but right now GOLD, directed by Anthony Hayes definitely fits that description.

In a bleak future not far from now, a man, known as ‘Man One’ (Zach Efron) travels from the North to an outpost in order to catch a ride to a place known as The Compound.

Seeking work at The Compound, he brings with him a small flier that proclaims ‘In just four months you’ll be a changed man’. His ride to The Compound is a hard-bitten drifter (Anthony Hayes, who also directed and co-wrote the script). When their vehicle breaks down thanks in part to Man One turning the air conditioning too high, they stumble on the find of a lifetime: a gigantic gold nugget. So large is the nugget that they will need to source an excavator… which means someone needs to stay behind to protect their new-found riches.

Thus, it is up to Man One to stand guard, all while battling the unrelenting elements, ravenous packs of wild dogs, thirst, hunger and potential interlopers.

Given that Efron is the sole character on screen for a large majority of the film, it’s vital for the audience to connect with his character. Thankfully, he provides an absolutely masterful and nuanced performance that makes the viewer feel so immersed in the film that you forget there is a separation between the film and the viewer.

It’s as if we are enduring this right with him.

Given that there’s also sparse dialogue during these times (and sometimes no dialogue at all), it’s up to Efron’s ability as an actor to keep us invested in the story and his character. Thankfully this is something he does exceptionally well. Even subtle use of props or a certain look is used effectively. You will feel the heat, be swarmed by the flies, and feel the desperation of the situation to its fullest.

GOLD is also an immersive visual feast.

Muted colour adds to the feeling of hot, desperate heat and deprivation, with the only relief coming at dusk. It’s during the dusk we see cooler tones, a more gentle-looking rolling of clouds providing a respite from the dirt, heat and grime of the day. The night, however, is a different story. In one particularly effective scene, Man One is beseiged by a pack of dogs that is not seen on screen, forcing him to flail a self-fashioned fire torch around in order to ascertain the dangers around him.

The sound of hungry howling chills to the bone. Some of the establishing shots have a bit of a Tarkovsky feel to them, reminiscent of STALKER in the ability to capture beauty in deprivation.

In a way the gold nugget is a character in itself. This bright, glittering inanimate object winks almost alluringly out of the hot, dry dirt. It has no idea of the importance that humans put upon it, all while being crawled upon by scorpions, lashed by sandstorms and watched over by Man One. Is it the siren calling the sailor to his death, or will it prove to be salvation?

An absolute masterclass in filmmaking, the tight, tense script by Anthony Hayes and Polly Smyth needs no extraneous flourishes. It is gritty and unrelenting material that wraps its hands around the audience’s throat and doesn’t let go until the final jaw-dropping scene.

The post GOLD (Madman Films – 2022) Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Recently, MOZA have shared their new single ‘Gold’ along with its accompanying video.

The new single will be supported by an east coast tour including a single launch party in their hometown of Sydney.

‘Gold’ sees MOZA (aka Cam Nacson and Toby Chew Lee) delve into the role friendships have on personality and life. “We wrote GOLD in a time of a lot of change, mainly within our core group of friends,” says MOZA about the song. “Some of our best mates moving to different countries and taking new jobs and it really got us thinking about the role relationships play in our personalities. We all have different versions of ourselves that come out around different people.

GOLD is about how the people we love the most bring out our favourite version of ourselves, the version we love most, the version we’re most proud of, the best version. We wanted that to be reflected in a really honest way in our music video and Director Madeline King and Cinematographer Miller Best absolutely nailed it.”

Madeline King explains, “Cam & Toby wanted the video to portray the self-exploration of a young man trapped in his mundane existence from which he escapes by embracing his true self. The video explores themes of self-doubt, male depression and liberation against the backdrop of a stereotypical male role of small town mechanic.”

MOZA’s recent bass-heavy release ‘Keep Up’ was touted as ‘another strong step in their career to becoming heavily recognised producers’ by Pilerats. Their late 2016 track ‘Empty Streets’, a collaboration with Kota Banks, has now clocked up over 14 million streams on Spotify. In addition to their own releases MOZA have a talent for songwriting and canny pop sensibilities that have led to writing and producing credits on tracks with Paige IV & Tina Arena to name a few. They’ve featured on Just a Gent’s single “You’ll Never Know” as well as singles by Kilter, LFRESH the LION, Maxx Baer and Axel Boy.

Renowned for bringing huge energy, live instruments and all of the lights to create emotional and mesmerising live shows, MOZA have supported high-profile acts Paces, Kilter, Touch Sensitive, Running Touch, Just A Gent, Hayden James, L-FRESH the LION and performed at Wonderland Warehouse Project curated by Alison Wonderland.

MOZA will support the release of ‘Gold’ with a single launch tomorrow night at The Chippo Hotel in Chippendale, Sydney plus live shows across the country.

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Intel delivers industry-leading innovations and creates new experiences across its portfolio products. Today, Intel unveils the all-new Intel Pentium Silver and Intel Celeron processors.

The new Intel Pentium Silver and Intel Celeron processors are based on Intel’s architecture codenamed Gemini Lake, and are engineered for a great balance of performance and connectivity for the things people do every day – working on office documents and spreadsheets, browsing online, enjoying favorite shows and movies, and editing photos – with great battery life. And it can all be performed on a range of devices at an amazing value. Pentium Silver will deliver 58 percent faster productivity performance compared with a similar 4-year-old PC.

The Pentium brand also adds a new extension after offering a range of processor performance for years. To help differentiate processor performance levels and make it easier for consumers to decide which device is best for them, Intel is introducing new brand levels: Intel Pentium Silver and Intel Pentium Gold. Intel Pentium Silver processors – launching today and based on the Gemini Lake architecture – represent the cost-optimized option in the Intel Pentium processor family. Intel Pentium Gold processors – which are already in market based on the Kaby Lake architecture – represent the highest-performing Pentium processors available.

It is clearer than ever that fast and reliable connectivity is critical.

For the first time on any PC platform, Intel will offer Gigabit Wi-Fi capability for ultra-fast connectivity with all-new Intel Pentium Silver and Intel Celeron processors. Using the industry standard of 2×2 802.11AC with 160MHz channels, users now have the capability for extremely fast networking performance that delivers download speeds up to two times faster compared with systems using 802.11AC, 12 times faster compared with systems using 802.11 BGN, and even faster than a wired Gigabit Ethernet connection. Ultimately, this translates to Intel Gigabit Wi-Fi providing a blazing fast connection that allows users to enjoy devices uninterrupted – faster content streaming, collaborating with ease, faster web browsing and even downloading large files like HD movies in a flash.

Additionally, Intel Pentium Silver and Intel Celeron-based systems will be able to handle the latest in enhanced media for a great experience streaming content from popular sites like YouTube and Netflix. Understanding that people aren’t watching content in perfectly lit rooms, Intel is also delivering for the first time a display technology called Local Adaptive Contrast Enhancement (LACE) to the value space. This technology is designed to help people clearly see the screen outdoors in glare and bright light. All of this comes with hardware-enabled security for a faster and safer online experience that people expect from Intel products.

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Currently playing sold out shows across the nation of Australia, there’s more great news for Dean Lewis with both his current single ‘Lose My Mind’ officially going GOLD and his hit single ‘Waves’ hitting TRIPLE PLATINUM status today.

Selling out shows in Fremantle, Perth, Geelong, Newcastle and two shows in Melbourne, Dean heads to New South Wales & Queensland next week for the final dates of his ‘Lose My Mind’ Australian National Tour, with only limited tickets left at these remaining shows. 

‘Lose My Mind’ has become a crowd live favourite as shown here at his recent appearance at Spilt Milk Festival in front 5,000 people.

Dean was nominated for an ARIA Award for Breakthrough Artist, Best Pop Release, Best Video and Apple Best Song of the Year for ‘Waves’ which has hit over 67 million streams and 13 million video views worldwide. Dean’s debut EP Same Kind of Different released in May 2017 continues to reach the masses with 93 million streams globally.

Last week the singer- songwriter released Same Kind Of Different (Acoustic) EP. Recorded in London and Sydney throughout the year, it features acoustic reworkings of his original songs from his debut EP of the same name.

The six track EP includes new stripped back renditions of ‘Waves’, ‘Lose My Mind’, ‘Chemicals’, ‘Let Go’ and ‘Need You Now’ with an additional guitar acoustic of his hit song ‘Waves’. On YouTube, videos for the acoustic versions of Waves, Lose My Mind, Need You Now and Waves (Guitar Acoustic) have already surpassed 7.3 million streams combined.

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