ADAM KAMIEN

Todd Goldstein. Photo: Ben Weinstein

AFTER a strong finish to the 2010 season, it is clear that Todd Goldstein is part of new coach Brad Scott’s plans for the Kangaroos this year.

The 201-centimetre ruckman has featured heavily in North Melbourne Football Club’s eye-catching pre-season so far, including a gutsy win against reigning AFL premiers Geelong in the first round of he NAB Cup and a promising NAB Challenge win against the 2008 champion Hawthorn.

Goldstein’s form leading up to North Melbourne’s round one clash against Port Adelaide on March 28 has been solid, with the 22-year-old staking his claim to a spot in the side’s best 22.

“I don’t think I’ve really been this confident in myself before,” Goldstein told The AJN.

“I’m just hoping to cement a spot, get more confident and try to put consistent performances together. I didn’t do that in the first half of last year and that’s what kept me in and out of the side.”

A third-round pick for North Melbourne in 2006 National Draft, Goldstein played 13 senior games in 2009, including the last seven of the season. His breakout performance came against Melbourne in round 19, when the talented big man booted five goals, as well as taking 17 possessions, 17 hit outs and seven marks.

“I know that when I get do get picked that I can perform to the level that’s required. In the first few games I wasn’t really sure whether I deserved it or not, but once you start playing you get a bit more consistent and it really does make the difference.”

But with one of the most inexperienced lists in the AFL, Goldstein’s role at the club has expanded to include mentoring. In his fourth year at the club, Goldstein says he enjoys passing on some of the benefits of hi experience in the system.

“This is my fourth year now and third full pre-season so you do learn a lot in the first few years. If you look at the club we’ve got 32 players who have been drafted in the last four years, so we’ve got a lot of young blokes. I’m still seen as part of that young group, but you definitely pass on your experience to some of the boys and try to help them survive the rigours of AFL footy. It does get pretty hard and does become a bit of a grind if you’re not able to cope with it.”

ADAM KAMIEN

George Clooney stars in The Men who Stare at Goats.

GEORGE Clooney’s latest film, The Men Who Stare at Goats, is based on the non-fiction novel of the same name by influential Jewish Gonzo journalist-cum-author John Ronson.

Ronson spent years researching the US military’s attempts to harness paranormal and psychic powers for use in battle and inspired a documentary series.

The Men Who Stare at Goats is a screwball comedy played out by an all-star cast including Clooney, Jeff Bridges, Kevin Spacey and Ewan McGregor.

Small-town newspaper reporter Bob Wilton (McGregor) goes to Iraq to prove a point to his wife, who left him for his editor. Waiting for clearance in Kuwait, he meets Lyn Cassady (Clooney), a retired army man who claims he was part of the First Earth Battalion, an outfit which experimented with psychic and paranormal warfare.

Through flashback and voiceover, it is revealed that the leader of the group is Vietnam veteran Bill Django, a hippy looking for meaning in a vision that came to him after he was shot on a tour of duty.
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Christoph Waltz in Inglourious Basterds.

ADAM KAMIEN

JEWISH films and filmmakers were largely overlooked at the 2010 Academy Awards, with frontrunners Inglourious Basterds and Up In The Air taking home just one Oscar from 14 nominations between them.

The night was billed as a shootout between James Cameron’s Avatar – the highest grossing film of all time – and Kathryn Bigelow’s Iraq War action film Hurt Locker. But Cameron’s epic was taken to the cleaners by his ex-wife as Bigelow became the first female director to win the Best Director award.

It was one of six wins for the hit movie, including Best Film and Best Original Screenplay. Avatar managed just three awards, with no wins in any of the major categories.

Austrian actor Christoph Waltz took out the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role as the “Jew Hunter” Colonel Hans Landa in Inglourious Basterds, but it was the only win from eight nominations for the film about a group of Jewish soldiers who brutalise Nazis in occupied France.

It was a red-letter night for Jewish producer Fisher Stevens, whose film The Cove won in the Best Documentary Feature category. The film exposed the wholesale slaughter of dolphins at a Japanese cove in Taiji.
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Mat Sherwin in action.

ADAM KAMIEN

MATT Sherwin is in the top handful of club cyclists in Victoria. He has consistently been at the peak of the A-grade competition in recent years, and is a walk-up start at any club in the state.

So his choice to saddle up for the fledgling Maccabi Cycling Club (MCC) is remarkable.

His decision wasn’t based on the standard of cyclists at the Maccabi club -– there are few riders that can go with him –- nor was it a choice based on prestige or resources.

MCC is a club on the move. It is one of the fastest-growing Maccabi clubs and while it has been developing exponentially since its inception late last year -– thanks to an explosion in the sport’s popularity among Melbourne Jews –- it is still very much in its infancy.

In fact, Sherwin’s motivation for choosing Maccabi isn’t really based on competition at all.

“Cycling offers so much more than a competitive element,” Sherwin told The AJN.
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Brad Pitt in Inglourious Basterds

ADAM KAMIEN

THE Academy Awards will be announced in Hollywood on Sunday, March 7 (Monday afternoon Australian time) and as always there are plenty of movies with Jewish filmmakers or themes in the running.

It’s been a long time coming for legendary actress Lauren Bacall, who has received an honourary Oscar after close to 70 years in show business. The former wife of Humphrey Bogart and star of such iconic films as How to Marry a Millionaire, The Big Sleep and The Mirror Has Two Faces, Bacall is still acting at 85.

Quentin Tarantino’s revenge fantasy about a group of Jewish soldiers that brutalise Nazis in occupied Paris, Inglourious Basterds, has eight nominations including best film, while Jewish director Jason Reitman’s Up In the Air received six nominations.

Christoph Waltz’s role as the nefarious Jew Hunter in Inglorious Basterds has earned him a nomination for Best Supporting Actor, while Jewish actress Maggie Gyllenhaal is up for Best Supporting Actress for her role opposite Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart.
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Michael Klinger in action. Photo: Courtesy Adelaide Advertiser

ADAM KAMIEN

SOUTH Australian batsman Michael Klinger has been named the State Player of the Year for the second consecutive year.

Won the award at the Allan Border Medal presentation at Melbourne’s Crown Palladium on Monday night.

The 29-year-old won the award at the Allan Border Medal presentation at Melbourne’s Crown Palladium last week where he finished with 36 votes, seven clear of his closest rival Chris Rogers on 29, with former teammate at the Bushrangers Brad Hodge two further back on 28.

Klinger has enjoyed a sparkling season to date, and is the second leading run-getter in the Sheffield Shield.

“I made a big effort after last season to back it up again and not be a one-year wonder and that was one of my determinations this season. And so far, so good,” Klinger told The AJN.

But it was a tumultuous start to the season, with Klinger dropped for the Redbacks’ first limited overs game and scoring a first-ball duck on his return.
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A scene from the animated film, Fantastic Mr Fox.

FILM REVIEW: FANTASTIC MR FOX
REVIEWED BY ADAM KAMIEN

CHILDREN’S books seem to be the new comics in Hollywood at the moment. Where The Wild Things Are, Horton Hears a Who, Coraline and The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe have all been released during the past few years and Tim Burton is having a crack at Alice In Wonderland, due for release later this year.

To say that Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr Fox is the best of the bunch is to grossly understate the matter.

While it is well known that Fantastic Mr Fox author Roald Dahl was no great friend of the Jews -– he is reported to have said “There’s a trait in the Jewish character that does provoke animosity” – his children’s novels are universally loved.

And all the elements of Dahl’s 1970 novel are present in Anderson’s lovingly re-created stop-motion feature. It is magical, irreverent, darkly funny and affecting in the same way as the book, but make no mistake, this is a wholly original work.
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Brad Pitt (right) as Lt Aldo Raine in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds about Jewish Nazi hunters. Photo: Francois Duhamel

ADAM KAMIEN

THERE are a host of Jews in line for Oscars when nominations for the 2010 Academy Awards were announced on Wednesday.

Four of the 10 films nominated for best picture have Jewish themes or filmmakers, with Inglourious Basterds, Up In The Air, An Education and A Serious Man all getting selected.

Maggie Gyllenhaal is in the running for her first Academy Award, after being nominated in the Best Actress in a Supporting Role category for her part in the acclaimed drama Crazy Heart.

Inglourious Basterds, Quentin Tarantino’s revenge fantasy about a group of Jewish soldiers that brutalise Nazis, leads the Jewish charge with eight nominations overall, including Best Original Screenplay and Best Director.

Up In The Air, helmed by Jewish director Jason Reitman, garnered six nominations, including best direction and original screenplay.
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Sean Berman with his trophy after his Australian Open junior final. Photo: Peter Haskin

ADAM KAMIEN AT MELBOURNE PARK

JEWISH tennis player Sean Berman has fallen at the final hurdle, losing the final of the Australia Open Junior Boys’ Singles competition to 14th seed Brazilian Tiago Fernandes 7-5, 6-3 on January 30.

There were few easy points in the hard-fought contest, and the 17-year-old had his chances, but managed to convert just two of a possible nine break points.

Berman, who was unseeded in the tournament, went for his shots, but it was Fernandes who had the better of the big moments.

Berman started brightly, breaking Fernandes in the opening game of the first set and consolidating with an easy service game.

The Brazilian overcame a nervous start to break back in the fourth game to level the scores and get the set back on serve.

It was Fernandes that made the breakthrough, coming back from 40-0 down to break Berman in the 12th game and take the set.
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Sean Berman with his trophy after his Australian Open junior final. Photo: Peter Haskin

ADAM KAMIEN AT MELBOURNE PARK

JEWISH tennis player Sean Berman has fallen at the final hurdle, losing the final of the Australia Open Junior Boys’ Singles competition to 14th seed Brazilian Tiago Fernandes 7-5, 6-3 on January 30.

There were few easy points in the hard-fought contest, and the 17-year-old had his chances, but managed to convert just two of a possible nine break points.

Berman, who was unseeded in the tournament, went for his shots, but it was Fernandes who had the better of the big moments.

Berman started brightly, breaking Fernandes in the opening game of the first set and consolidating with an easy service game.

The Brazilian overcame a nervous start to break back in the fourth game to level the scores and get the set back on serve.
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