Tagged: review

Fell – Review

Yet another film that I really wanted to like. It is visually really beautiful and mostly set in old-growth natural forests somewhere in Australia. The sound is also spectacular, particularly the sad cries of giant falling trees. The acting too is good, but it really needs more of a story-line and some well-written dialogue to carry it along.

It none too subtly reminds us of the tragic loss of our old-growth forests to wood-chipping and it is also about grief, loss, self-indulgence, fatherhood and a path towards vengeance. Much of the film is spent along that same path and I liked the first couple of times the director seemed to set up a situation in which vengeance may have been had and then pulls away from it. Eventually though, it became repetitive. We’d already learned enough about both lead characters and something else needed to happen, if only to maintain our interest in the story. That has been more than adequately demonstrated in at least three other films that I’ve seen in this festival. This film, however, just became a bit self-indulgent.

Not enough dialogue or story. 3/5

 

The Two Faces of January – Review


This film is billed as a thriller and it is set in early 1960s Greece and Crete. I’m not really sure it is that thrilling, but it is an old fashioned drama adapted from a Patricia Highsmith novel. It is very Patricia Highsmith: lots of greedy people ripping each other off, people enjoying excess (or at least trying to) and perfectly attired actors all over the place. Maybe that is the key problem with this movie: it tries too hard to be perfect and everyone is always almost clinically dressed in beautiful clothes regardless of whether they’ve slept rough, been fighting or have just fallen over drunk as a jug.

Kirsten Dunst plays Kirsten Dunst as Viggo Mortensen’s partner and whilst Oscar Isaac looks convincing in his role I still cannot forgive him for starring in one of the most boring films of all time (Inside Llewyn Davis).

From fairly early on you realise that Viggo’s reckless character is going to get caught and you don’t need to be Sherlock Holmes to figure out that this will probably happen just before the end of the film. You just keep wondering whether he will get caught before he dies of throat or liver cancer. Poor Viggo must have smoked at least 90 cigarettes and drunk three or four bottles of whisky in just under 100 minutes.

It is nevertheless an entertaining story that does maintain your attention. Towards the end there is also an excellent realistic foot chase scene in which the heavy-smoking and hard-drinking Viggo thankfully does not suddenly become an Olympic gymnast and athlete, as is the case in so many other films.

Good. 3.5/5

Black Coal, Thin Ice – Review


Set in a contemporary northern industrial province of China, this award winning film is an entertaining and intriguing detective mystery. Our hero Zhang Zili played by Liao Fan starts the film as a police detective, but he is injured in a clumsy fire fight in which two of his colleagues are killed and is retired from the force on health grounds. Some years later as a recovering(?) alcoholic he sets about solving the mystery and avenging the grisly death of another close police colleague. It all makes for a dark and gritty drama, but there is much more to this film as the director Diao Yinan cites the Coen Brothers as one of his influences. I don’t think I’ve given away the ending and it is well worth the journey.

I loved a lot about this film. There are quite a few scenes that are introduced with an almost abstract image on which the camera dwells for a while before panning away to give it context and two of those scenes involve coal and ice. The key characters are beautifully developed as very real and flawed people, portrayed by skilled actors. And Diao Yinan uses a lot of comedy to add life and reality to the story, especially with the lead character Zhang. He has a number of scenes that border on slapstick, again relating to the constant presence of ice as the film scenes all seem to be set in the winter months. Towards the end, there is a police chase on foot that resembles the Keystone Cops (for me at least).

The film also echoes those gritty black and white detective dramas from the 1950s and 1960s, well before the complexities of crime scene investigators and high-tech surveillance systems, and I liked that too. The final scene is just wonderful.

Well done Diao Yinan! 4.5/5

 

 

The Captive – Review

Atom Egoyan’s The Captive is a psychological thriller about pedophilia, kidnappers and voyeurs who are given great advantages today through technology. It is also about how the families of the victims are subjected to terrible stress, and how they too become victims; family units sometimes collapsing under the pressures. Set mostly in white Canadian winters near Niagara Falls, the eight-year story is framed against a beautiful but stark landscape that only serves to highlight the personal stories.

Initially, the film is a little hard to follow as they shuffle back and forth in time setting up the background to the kidnapping and the leading characters. Eventually it all falls into place and we see good performances from Ryan Reynolds (the father), Rosario Dawson and Scott Speedman (cops), Peyton Kennedy and Alexia Fast as the young and then older victim, and Kevin Durand as the creepy pedophile/kidnapper. The best of the lot, however, was the wonderful Mireille Enos as the mother. I loved her in the US version of The Killing and she is superb in The Captive. She could give lessons to most award winning “celebrity” actors.

The film has a clear conclusion, something that is almost rare these days and something that I for one appreciate.

Not edge of seat stuff, but a story well told. 4/5

 

JOE – Review

JOE proves that you don’t need to shoot a dwarf to succeed in a violent drama. Perhaps shooting a dwarf is the new jumping a shark?

It is set in the US South and it is very Southern-gothic. Joe, played perfectly by Nicholas Cage, has a violent past, but he is trying hard to make a straight go of it without losing his honour. He soon meets 15 year old Gary Jones who is looking for work for himself and his drunken old dad – played brilliantly by non-professional actor Gary Poulter. I know it sounds a little odd, but I think Tye Sheridan brings a little of Billy Elliot into Gary’s character and he does it really well.

Poverty and desperation are woven throughout this film. It is disturbing to see people still living like this, even in so-called developed countries like the US, but it is probably pretty close to the truth. It is a pretty dark film, but I liked that not all hope was lost.

I think Joe succeeded where The Rover failed terribly. 4/5

Eastern Boys – Review

The film begins with a gang of Eastern European boys working Gare du Nord train station in Paris. It looks as though they’re hustling and involved in petty theft, maybe even more. One of the boys is cruised by very determined middle aged man who eventually invites him home, a day later. That turns into a really threatening home invasion by the whole gang who steal virtually every possession he has that they think they can sell on. The gang are led by “Boss” who is played superbly by Daniil Vorobyov. His threatening character looms large over almost the entire film even though he only appears at the beginning and end of it.

Daniel is the older man, realistically played by Olivier Rabourdin and after the home invasion he is visited by the sheepish boy he cruised, Marek (whom we later learn is really Rouslan) played by Kirill Emelyanov. Marek feels guilty about the invasion and whilst his first visits with Daniel are all about sex for money, the pair develop a friendship and eventually love grows, but probably not as you would have thought. This obviously causes tension between Marek and the gang and that comes to a head towards the end of the film.

The film deals thoughtfully with both gay male sexuality and the Eastern European immigration issues that seem familiar in many large European cities.

Eastern Boys certainly leaves the usual multiplex material for dead. 4/5

Human Capital – Review

Human Capital is set in a large city in Italy. It tells the story behind the accidental death of a poor cyclist riding home from work one night (with lights). The story telling of the events surrounding the accident is done in four chapters. We see three different perspectives: a father, a mother, and a daughter/girlfriend before the final chapter when all comes together and the truth is revealed.

I liked the use of the different perspectives as it demonstrated how we all jump to conclusions and blame without all the facts. The cast were great in all the main roles too. All were completely believable and the men seemed very Italian.

At the conclusion of the film I think we feel sorry for the person who was at fault in the death of the cyclist. There is probably also some residual sympathy for the families being torn apart as we search for the truth. All that, however, presents me with the main problem that I have with this film. As a cyclist, I think it could have benefited from a chapter giving us the perspective of either the cyclist or his family. They are the real victims in this story, but we see and hear very little of them. I think that would have added much more weight to the story, but maybe I am just biased.

Keep cycling. 3.5/5

The Rover – Review

Another film that I really wanted to like but couldn’t.

Bleak. Much desert. Guy Pearce embarks on a quest to regain his Holden Conform-odore in a “post-Collapse” world (not further defined). He shoots a dwarf and sundry other individuals. Meanwhile, Robert Pattinson practices mumbling, mostly inaudibly, in an unrecognisable and inconsistent accent. No jokes. Ends in a cluster-fuck.

Pretty terrible. 2/5

In Order of Disappearance – Review

This violent action comedy from Norway is very well done. It lasts for almost two hours, but there are no flat spots and it moves along at a great pace. It really is laugh-out-loud funny.

The violence begins with the assassination by over-dose of an innocent young man who is a colleague of another soon-to-be-a-casualty who steals some drugs from a Norwegian drug lord (The Count). This soon leads to Nils, the father of the young man, embarking on a long path to avenge his son’s death. Fortunately the movie keeps a running scoreboard marking each death as they mount up steadily as a result of the father’s actions and a war that develops between the Norwegian and Serbian drug lords.

One of the best laughs comes from the kidnapped young son of The Count who asks his kidnapper Nils whether he has heard of Stockholm Syndrome as Nils reads him a bed-time story.

The cast is brilliant and it is a very tightly written script that delivers almost a laugh a minute along with some terrific visual gags. If you need  a good laugh and don’t mind some violence, it is a must-see film.

My score: 4/5

Calvary – Review

I know that it is a big call this early in the Sydney Film Festival, but Calvary by writer-director John Michael McDonagh has made the whole festival worthwhile for me. I think it is faultless and a model for other film makers in terms of story-telling, entertainment, brilliant script writing and character development. It deals with the role of the Catholic church in child abuse in Ireland (and many other places), but the writer-director very skilfully weaves the tale together through the life of a good priest played by the amazing Brendon Gleeson as he tends to his village flock under the threat of death from a victim of child abuse.

I also enjoyed the writer-director’s previous film The Guard, but I think this is even better as it deals with such a terrible  aspect of church history, whilst reminding us of the good that is done by individuals within the church itself.

The script writing doesn’t avoid or trivialise any of the serious matters the film covers, but very effectively manages to recognise them and then pepper the story-telling with some wonderful conversational humour. It is a black comedy, but there are enough laughs to keep it truly entertaining and it is not so black a story that we are left without hope. I must also confess to loving the Irish accent of the brilliant cast as they seem to enjoy demonstrating John Michael McDonagh’s obvious love of language. One of the best lines for me was when Brendan Gleeson’s lead character drunkenly abuses his colleague (Father Leary, played by David Wilmot), saying that he lacks integrity and should be an accountant in an insurance firm. The is also an hilarious dialogue about those who join armies in peace time and whether a desire to murder someone should be seen to be as useful as an engineering degree.

In addition to all of this, the camera treats us to some stunning visuals  of the Irish coast and Benbulbin to give us a true sense of place, and the musical score adds a further important dimension and mood to the film.

Film makers like John Michael McDonagh keep us coming back to the cinema. I stayed for his Q&A and two things he said stayed with me. Firstly he said that as a film maker he was committed to entertaining his audience. I think some other film-makers in this Festival could benefit from his advice. He writes to entertain and his method of story-telling leaves most others in the dust. Secondly, in response to a question he stated that it is foolish to refer to actors being “brave” in taking certain film roles, or for writers to take a “brave” perspective in dealing with subjects like child abuse. He said that was simply rubbish and that brave people are those who run into burning buildings to rescue others.

My score: 5/5, I really could find no faults at all.