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Film Reviews

‘Son of a Lion’ - let’s hope it is still in theatres for the school hols.

Monday, 25 August 2008 03:02
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School holidays are not far away so I am hopping that older primary age kids  (ones who can read sub-titles) will be given an opportunity to see this film in a theatre.  Even though the outcome is somewhat predictable (I won’t spoil the fun by telling you more) it is very suited to a young audience and wouldn’t you rather have your children seeing something illuminating than that rather MORE predictable ‘Hellboy 2????  Anyway, this is a closeup view (and NOT a doco) of a gun-making town in the far north of Pakistan in the Pashtun area.  Fortunately, ‘Son of a Lion’ is doing well in the theatres at this point and will, no doubt, be given a stay of execution.  The good thing about this film is that it is not overtly Australian (the label being something that turns people off for some reason) although its creator, Benjamin Gilmour, a paramedic with a camera and a script (ish!), is a local boy.  I think you need to turn a deaf ear to the people who whinge about the amateur acting and the ad-libbing and the fact that the ending is a mite too happy.  Somehow I don’t think that ending IS altogether happy anyway.

It is such an insight into this small, exotic town of people who wear different clothes, shoot off their weapons for any reason, risk bullets to scrounge a piece of metal and try to make music in amidst the chaos.

Highly recommended for any child who can read subtitles and their parents and adult friends.

 

‘Redbelt’ is very David Mamet

Wednesday, 20 August 2008 03:02
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As always with Mamet’s work, there is a lot to like and an almost equal proportion of stuff that just fizzles.  In ‘Redbelt’ we have his typically slow start and for what seems to be ages, we watch as Mike Terry (martial arts expert beautifully played by English actor Chiwetel Ejiofor) coaches his policeman pal in the pure art of combat.  His frustrated Brazilian wife, struggling to make ends meet, looks on and in a stroke of fate, a lawyer with major issues of grief and depression crashes her car and shoots out the window of the studio.  These elements lead to some dramatic resolution and the story spins out from there into one of fight fixing and the stealing of intellectual copyright and Mamet does this in very interesting ways.  Tim Allen, as the spoiled rotten film star who manipulates his situation and meeting with Mike Terry, is terrific and shows that at the heart of this lightweight comic lies a very convincing actor.

Angles on combat sport films have been almost all done to death and this one has twists within that save it from total boredom.  But the final conflicts in it (between Terry and the Brazilian fighter, and Terry and his wife) are just too beyond the pale to ‘do’ as a true passage along which to take this story.  It just doesn’t hang together.
While the plot ultimately fizzles out with rather silly developments and a final scene that is truly annoying, the film has some good dialogue and is well worth a look but perhaps as a stage play it could have been even more effective.
Opened last week in Australia on general release and certainly the acting in it, of Emily Mortimer and Chiwetel  Ejiofor in particular, is worth the price of admission.

 

‘You, the Living’, Roy Andersson’s Sellers-esque comedy is hilarious!

Friday, 08 August 2008 03:09
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Traditionally, film has always had its moments of being hijacked by the wacky and zany and the result has been both hilarious, intriguing and somewhat disturbing.  Think of anything involving Chaplin, Sellers, Tati, Campion (’Sweetie’ 1989) or, more recently, ‘Big Fish’ (Tim Burton, 2003) and perhaps all the Burton films and you get the picture: you need to step, unbiased, into the world that has been mapped out for you by the director and his/her team.

Therefore, I intend to tell you as little about ‘You, the Living’ as I can except to let you know that the ending is the most frightening payoff I have ever seen twisting what, hitherto, has been a collection of vignettes involving extravagantly crazy or banal people, filmed as one master shot, and all in a drained, beige-coloured world.  Somehow, these characters are woven together, perhaps in their shared concern at the end, but there is no contrived cross-plot tying them to each other’s story so just sit back and look at the detail in each setup rather than really trying to follow the story.

We are fortunate here in Melbourne to have many fine arthouse cinemas supporting films such as this one and so it will be released on 24th August and  here’s hoping that this Swedish masterpiece of observational comedy will pull in the audience that it deserves so that Andersson can continue his work, somewhat financially let down by the excellent ‘Songs From the Second Floor’.

The film is worth seeing if only for the ‘tablecloth trick’ scene and the  following courtroom drama.  But then also, the wallet scene in the restaurant is a real dig at brash dealmakers as well.  The ironic comedy of Andersson is so much of a cautionary tale that this probably should be seen by secondary school students (especially the fat-chick-screwing scene… let’s deal with this obesity crisis by presenting  frightening images in the style of those anti-smoking cigarette packet warnings prevalent in Hong Kong!)

Do not miss this film and maybe later go and buy a copy on DVD or download for your collection.  A real classic of the future.

Opens August 24th at the Nova and is a DEFINITE MUST SEE!

 

African drumming features at premiere of The Visitor at Palace Westgarth! Fun night!

Friday, 08 August 2008 03:05
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African drumming and dance comes alive for THE VISITOR at Palace Westgarth

To celebrate the opening night of THE VISITOR – the soulful new from Tom McCarthy (The Station Agent) – Palace Westgarth (89 High St Northcote) is holding an African Drumming and Dance night on Thursday August 14. Join us at 7.00pm for a once-only performance of contemporary African tribal soul from OUAGA (pronounced Wa-Ga), Melbourne’s leading African drumming group. Ouaga fuses beautiful West African rhythms with flute, saxophone and didgeridoo to create a unique contemporary sound.

The Visitor tells the moving story of Walter Vale (Richard Jenkins – from TVs Six Feet Under), a 62-year-old academic who is virtually sleepwalking through life. Having lost his passion for teaching and writing, he fills the void by unsuccessfully trying to learn to play classical piano. On a trip to New York, he is surprised to find a young couple has taken residence in his Manhattan apartment. Victims of a real estate scam, Tarek (Haaz Sleiman), a Syrian man, and Zainab (Danai Gurira) his Senegalese girlfriend, have nowhere to go. Reluctantly, Walter agrees to allow the couple to stay in the apartment, and, touched by his kindness, Tarek, a talented musician, insists on teaching the aging academic to play the African drum. The instrument’s exuberant rhythms revitalize Walter’s faltering spirit and bring him a new friendship and new life which is suddenly threatened when Tarek is taken into detention as an illegal immigrant.

“..a heartfelt human drama that sneaks up and floors you” – Rolling Stone

The Visitor stars at Palace Westgarth from Thursday August 14

 

'The Visitor' - the Professor learns to march to a different beat.

Tuesday, 29 July 2008 08:53
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‘Six Feet Under’ was memorable telly for its writing, story and its actors and Richard Jenkins was top of that cast list, underplaying his role of the father and establishing it as a thoroughly believable situation. In a stroke of brilliance, Writer/Director Thomas McCarthy casts Jenkins as Professor Walter Vale whose life is changed by some unexpected encounters. Vale is an amazing character, at once a dishonest malingerer and a precise and clever man and it is as he is trying to avoid the latter by skipping an engagement to deliver a paper in New York that he reclaims his empty apartment after a long and sad absence. But it is not empty. In a typically New York scam, his flat has been noted as empty and rented to a young couple, illegal immigrants, both of whom are refugees without the sympathetic status. This couple, a young Syrian man and his Senegalese girlfriend, apologetic, moves out and begins the search for alternative accommodation. This, of course, is impossible and Walter, on impulse, and perhaps in the shadow of his late wife’s benevolence, runs after them and invites them to stay until they can find somewhere to stay.

Impressively, there’s a parable at the heart of ‘The Visitor’ and it is allowed to speak for itself without any histrionics or effects from director or cast. The serious messages within its simple story deal with the question of refugees and immigration, the loved and the unloved and the imbalance of the modern world. There’s a charming, yet somewhat unbelievable love story

Parallels have been made likening Professor Vale to Dennis Quaid’s character in the much inferior ‘Smart People’ yet this is not so. Vale is kind and not boorish, heart-broken and shell-like following the death of his wife many years in the past. He lives alone in a lovely house near the university. He leaves his beautifully furnished apartment empty in New York. He is obviously wealthy. But it leads to nothing.

Tarik Khalil (Haaz Sleiman), a traditional drummer and his girlfriend, Zainab (Danai Jekesai Gurira), a jewellery maker, play their roles with dignity and the result is quite heart-rending.
When Tarik’s widowed mother Mouna (Hiam Abbas), comes to New York to find her son who has not responded to her phone calls, she enters Vale’s life in an extraordinary way.

This small film has huge heart and will leave you with much food for thought. The anger that Vale eventually feels will spill over into the audience.

This film is the Satrean ideal – the committed art-work.

Yes, it has some flaws, particularly in dealing with the relationship between Vale and Mouna, but these are forgivable in the light of what is a strong and brave ending.

The Visitor is in theatres from August 14th and is definitely a film for our troubled era.

 
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