Gosh I loved this.
Made in Sydney by Australian actor and now director, Josh Lawson, this film is charming, funny, poignant and unpredictable.
It follows a bunch of couples in suburbia whose stories are largely independent though they do intertwine a little. For those unaware, 'the little death' is a euphemism for orgasm, so the film does declare it's hand in the sense that the stories do all carry a sexual element. For example one couple, unbeknownst to the bloke, deal with the woman's case of dacryphilia - being aroused by her partner's crying. The lengths she goes to to facilitate this are quite extraordinary! This couple is played by Kate Box and Patrick Brammall who you may recognise as
Cleaver Greene's assistant from Rake and loveable Leo from Offspring
respectively. The whole thing is full of familiar faces from Australian TV and film productions though, such as Lawson himself, Lisa McCune, Kim Gyngell, Bojana Novakovic and Damon Herriman who is a favourite of mine since his fantastic performance in the TV series Laid.
One of the stories featured towards the end of the film, almost completely isolated from the others, is positively delightful. Monica works for a video call translation service and Sam calls, wanting her to translate a a call from him to a phone sex line. All you need to know is that it's funny, romantic and the two actors knock it out of the ball park.
Regular readers might know that I don't dig it when films are too long so I'm also very happy to report that this is a very disciplined 97 minutes. Didn't think to look at my watch once!
Definitely recommend this. Go and see it!
Trailer here.
I took my 11 and nine year old nieces to see this animated kids' film figuring that as the target market, what they think of it is more important than what I think of it.
It's based on a children's book called Here Be Monsters! and the Boxtrolls themselves are, well, trolls who wear boxes. Yeah, it's a bit odd but I guess similar to Shrek in that regard.
To summarize, they both said (after being urged to be honest) they liked it and both said they found it funny. Miss nine gave special mention to the guy who dressed up and sang like a woman for bringing the lolz. From what I observed, for both my nieces and every other kid in the cinema, the funniest part was actually when someone plummeted to the ground and face-planted. Kids do love their slapstick humor!
From my adult-watching-kids-film perspective, I thought it was perfectly pleasant but not likely to take off like, say, Frozen or Toy Story did.
This 3.5 star review in the Daily Telegraph will give you a bit more on the plot etc.
Trailer here.
Opens this Thursday 18 September.
I was especially keen to include a picture with this blog as I think it tells a good portion of the story all by itself.Think, hot babes dancing and not much more.
The fifth film in the 'Step Up' franchise, the director of this one is best known for directing music videos. Like the picture, that tells you a lot.
In keeping with the 'Step Up' flicks before it I gather, this is all about dancing. Forget about the plot - it's as flimsy as Joe Hockey's understanding of how poor people live. If you want a strong script and solid plot and character development, this is definitely not for you.
But the makers of this film know who their audience is and have appealed to them beautifully. At the preview I attended with a surprisingly eclectic crowd, a handful of people event clapped at the end. If you don't care too much about plot and are just happy to watch amazingly talented dancers strut their stuff, then I reckon you'll love this.
I think three stars is probably more generous than I'd be but I agree with what this critic from The Independent in the UK has to say about this film otherwise.
Trailer here. In cinemas from Thursday 11 September.
This film is unique, that's for sure. It tracks the life of a boy called Mason from age 6 to 18 and rather than aging him with makeup or CGI or using multiple actors, this movie was filmed over 12 years for 3 or 4 days at a time capturing multiple moments in his life. It's a 'coming of age' story but not like any I've seen before. His parents are played by Patricia Arquette and Ethan Hawke and they are both fantastic in this.
It also felt unusual to me in the sense that there's no crescendo to the story, no big drama that it's all been building to. It's just a bunch of moments, some of which do feel more significant than others, that in total make a charming story but for me, not an amazing one.
That said, I do need to tell you that this film has had many four and five star reviews. For example, four stars here from theguardian.com and five stars here from the New York Times.
Fairfax reviewer Sandra Hall gave it three stars which is more in keeping with my personal opinion of the film. There's a lot to love - it's unique, Arquette and Hawke shine beautifully and there's something compelling about the rawness of the story. As an average (unsophisticated & boganic, some might argue) viewer though, for me it didn't live up to the expectations that came with the knock-out reviews. And at 2 hours and 45 minutes, it was just too damn long. (Or as Leigh Paatsch from News Ltd said in an otherwise positive review "At a running time of close to 3 hours, Boyhood can be messy, unfocussed and too tedious for words. Just like life.")
If you see this one, please do let me know what you think of it! And if any of you are super keen to read more about the film and the discussion around the amazing reviews it's been getting, this piece from The Independent UK is interesting: 'Boyhood gets perfect score on Metacritic but is it really the perfect movie?'
Trailer here.
* Pic at top courtesy of a clever artist at Palace Westgarth
As I was watching this 'mockumentary' about four housemate vampires, I was thinking 'this is one of the strangest movies I've ever seen' and by the time it had finished I think it had cemented it's place as THE strangest movie I've ever seen.
It was made in New Zealand by Jermaine Clement, who many will know and love from TV show 'Flight of the Conchords', and Taika Waititi. It's strange but bloody (pardon the pun!... They're vampires! Get it? Oh, nevermind...) funny!
There's something quite mundane and 'human' about much of the way they live, arguing over doing the dishes and the like. Their interactions with humans are all pretty funny and for me, it's even funnier simply because of their New Zealand accents - the funniest accent of them all. The absurdity of it all is the joy of it.
There's a scene where they encounter a 'werewolf' pack, whose head honcho is played by NZ actor & comic Rhys Darby, and I laughed so hard I thought I might choke. Happily the rest of the cinema was cacking themselves too so it went unnoticed.
If you can escape and enjoy this madness for what it is, there's a lot to love. I laughed and laughed and that's a big tick from me. Oh, and bonus points for a mention of a Bedazzler.
Read about it in The Hollywood Reporter, who reviewed it following it's appearance at Sundance.
Trailer here.
" An exceptional one-man show for Tom Hardy, this ingeniously executed study in cinematic minimalism has depth, beauty and poise." - Variety Magazine
"Part of the brilliance of this utterly brilliant film by Steven Knight ... is the way it turns mundanity in modernity." - Sydney Morning Herald.
You know that feeling you get sometimes, where you feel like you're swimming against the tide of public opinion? (For me it's always when people rave about the ABC TV show 'The Time Of Our Lives'... Really?! Everyone loves that terrible show?!...)
Well I feel a bit like that about this film 'Locke'. The reviews are almost universally positive. Really positive. And yet I didn't really enjoy it. If I'm honest, I looked at my watch numerous times and the film only runs for a tiny 84 minutes! I was a bit bored.
The entire film is set in a car with Tom Hardy, the sole occupant, driving and making many phone calls. He's taking a long car journey to be with a woman he barely knows who is having his baby, the product of a one night stand. En route, he not only has to call his wife and confess but also has to continue to organise a large scale, high profile building project.
I have a handful of friends who enjoy more highbrow movies and they might like this but to be blunt, I think if I recommended it to people who don't get to the movies very often, they'd be wishing they hadn't bothered paying for a babysitter.
Trailer here.
This film is quite lovely. Touching enough to make my dear friend cry five times*. I'm a pretty light touch when it comes to crying (think, Kleenex commercials, montages of athletes excelling at the Olympics set to Eva Cassidy's Fields of Gold** etc) but I confess this one didn't get to me in that way. It is lovely but ultimately a bit cheesy and predictable.
It's about an Indian family who head to Europe for a better life and wind up opening a restaurant in a quiet village in the south of France. Their lively restaurant is opposite an uptight French restaurant ran by an uptight French lady, played by Helen Mirren. Things of course get off to a rocky start but lead to a very happy conclusion.
So if you like a happy crowd-pleaser (certainly skews female but perhaps not entirely a chick flick) you could definitely give this a go but if you like your stories surprising or challenging, this probably won't satisfy you.
This review from Variety gives a great outline of the story and echoes my feelings about the film, if you're keen to know more.
Trailer here.
* She is emotionally unstable on account of usually running on about 2 hours sleep
** If you think that's a strangely specific example, well... umm... yep...
