Friday night, one movie and I was home by 9.30. Was supposed to be in Newtown much, much earlier but all city trains were stopped due to a fatality at Granville. While I am saddened at the loss of life, I am also concerned that it could bring most of the trains to a standstill. It took around half an hour to move one station from Town Hall to Central, at which point I got off and got a taxi to my car. The advantage of living in the inner west is taxis aren’t too expensive but it’s not something I’d want to do too often. 

Friday night’s movie was the world premier of an Australian SF movie, called Otherlife (Australia). This was really good and they made it work, and even seemed to have a reasonable budget. Interestingly some of the bits I’ve read about it note that it actually had a very low budget. The basic idea is the development of a software based chemical that messes with the chemicals in your head, launching you into a virtual experience that feels totally real and lasts for hours, while only seconds pass in the real world. Throw into that a sub-plot around funding and you have a decent thriller in the making. There were sections of the movie I was unsure whether they were real or virtual/imagined; there was just enough of a suggestion that I was on the edge of “I don’t know”. Cleverly done and good SF.