Month: May 2018

My Friend Dahmer

Rated: MMy Friend Dahmer

Written & Directed by: Marc Meyers

Based on the book ‘My Friend Dahmer’ by: Derf Backderf

Produced by: Jody Girgenti, p.g.a., Marc Meyers, p.g.a., Adam Goldworm, p.g.a., Michael Merlob, Milan Chakraborty

Starring: Ross Lynch, Anne Heche, Dallas Roberts, Alex Wolff, Tommy Nelson, Vincent Kartheiser, Harrison Holzer and Miles Robbins.

 

Based on the true story of serial killer, Jeffrey Dahmer, My Friend Dahmer is a tense and creepy examination of Dahmer’s life before he became a murderer.

Reminiscent of the tone used in J. D. Salinger’s, ‘The Catcher in the Rye’ there’s a constant tension with signs of Dahmer’s compulsions apparent in his obsession of collecting road-kill to then soak in acid to collect the bones: external behaviour symptomatic of his increasingly disturbed mind.

Based on Derf Backderf’s critically acclaimed 2012 graphic novel, Derf writes from personal experience after attending high school with Dahmer.  Before finding out about Dahmer’s confession, Derf (his character in the movie played by Alex Wolff) considered his high school experience to be like everyone else’s.

Film writer and director, Marc Meyers asks, ‘What are those forces in one’s life that sculpt and define us? How do we become who we become? Why does one teenager find promise and his friend, meanwhile, enters adulthood broken?’

This isn’t a violent or gory film, but a character study of suspense.

Following Dahmer (Ross Lynch) through senior-high, pre-1978, the audience is shown the typical teen struggles as the isolated, unusual Dahmer is adopted by a group of boys who find his antics hilarious.

Surrounded by girls ‘aggressively’ out of their league, team-Dahmer create a high-school legend as Dahmer throws epileptic-type fits in class, in the hallway; random moments that disturb and amuse. And the antics of making Dahmer their mascot is genuinely funny, in an adolescent kind of way.

That’s what’s so unsettling about the film: the ordinary nature of kids in school being typical.

Everyone grew up with a kid like Dahmer.  But what was it that turned a kid-made-famous in school by chucking fits for attention, all for the entertainment of his new mates, into a serial killer, ultimately confessing to the murder of seventeen men and boys?

Meyer’s focusses on the characters, allowing the story to speak without flash, without overt violence like blurring the image of a gutted dog, the impression enough to evoke the heart-rending response.

This isn’t a true-crime investigation with detectives and interviews, instead, the depths of Dahmer are explored showing his struggle to connect, showing there’s wit and humour buried beneath the cold exterior.

You can see the tipping of his compulsions versus his want to be with friends changing depending on the difficulties he faces at home with his mother’s mental illness (outstanding performance of Joyce Dahmer by Anne Heche) and his parents divorcing.

His father, Lionel Dahmer (Dallas Roberts) tries to understand the bizarre behaviour of his kid, to make the effort to encourage change like buying Dahmer a set of weights to get him out of the road-kill death hut and to maybe meet a girl.

And you can see Dahmer trying yet failing to fight against his needs.

This kid is twisted and it’s difficult yet fascinating to watch.

There’s a curiousity out there, to watch the makings of a serial killer.  But this isn’t one of those sensationalised dramatic thrills.

My Friend Dahmer is more of a quiet observation made all the more disturbing through a setting of the ordinary.

 

 

Gringo

Rated: MA15+GRINGO

Directed by: Nash Edgerton

Written by: Anthony Tambakis

Produced by: Rebecca Yeldham

Director of Photography: Edu Grau

Starring: David Oyelowo, Charlize Theron, Joel Edgerton, Thandie Newton, Yul Vazquez, Sharlto Copley, Amanda Seyfried.  

 Filmed on location in Mexico City, Veracruz, Tulum, Chicago and Los Angeles.

The Edgerton Brothers have reunited to make a film about the majesty that is people’s comeuppance.

Harold (David Oyelowo) works for his mate from university, Richard (Joel Edgerton), at a company that uses a formula to create marijuana in tablet form, Cannabax: manufactured in Mexico (while waiting on those not-quite-legal laws to turn in favour); the American firm residing in Chicago.

Harold’s a nice guy; he has that ‘underdog thing’ going for him. 

His mate Richard and partner in business (and sometimes pleasure), Elaine (Charlize Theron) – not so much.

So, when Harold’s sent to Mexico, this time joined by the two dubious partners, they don’t think twice about leaving Sanchez (Hernán Mendoza) the manager of the Mexican lab, to deal with the train of destruction when they decide they don’t need to sell product to The Black Panther cartel anymore.  And when Harold gets knocked off his rails in their wake, instead of paying a 5 million ransom for his release, Richard sends his mercenary-turned-humanitarian brother Mitch (Sharlto Copleyit) to extract him from a situation involving kidnapping, torture and the dreaded question of which is the Beatles best album.

Classic Edgerton, characters are thrown into life or death situations, some their own doing, others thrown under the bus because everyone’s expendable, particularly the nice one’s who, ‘never grew a pair’.

It’s hard not to have high expectations after the previous collaboration of the Edgerton Brothers to create award winning, The Square (2008).  

Nash Edgerton also edited and produced a recommendation of mine, The Magician (2005) – a edgy and dark humoured mockumentary about an ex-army contract killer filmed in Melbourne, see, Nat’s ‘If you haven’t watched you’re in for a treat’ list.

Here, the usual Edgerton authenticity is given way to create a classier film, although, I wouldn’t call Charlize Theron’s character, Elaine classy with details like her red lipstick always left on the rim of a glass; her cut-throat business acumen where anything can be done to get the right decision doesn’t equal classy, but she sure is smooth.

And seeing Joel Edgerton as an equally smooth talking genuine A. hole was a point of difference to his previous roles: usually the muscle, sometimes with heart but always down-to-earth.

It’s the adorable Nigerian, Harold, lost in Mexico that keeps the movie pulling along (with some added funny moments), and it does feel like pulling to get all the characters in place, like the rock guitarist drug mule Miles (Harry Treadaway) and his aptly named girlfriend, Sunny (Amanda Seyfried); and Harold’s wife, Bonnie (Thandie Newton) chewing through money while cheating… 

Gringo does get there, eventually.

To get the satisfaction of seeing the end result, time is needed to dig through the layers of character giving a different feel to the usual action thriller. 

But like Harold, the story rises making Gringo a worthwhile journey.

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In Times of Fading Light

Rated: 18+In Times Of Fading Light

Directed by: Matti Geschonneck

Screenplay by: Wolfgang Kohlhaase (based on the novel by Eugen Ruge)

Produced by: Oliver Berben, Sarah Kirkegaard, Dieter Salzmann

Starring: Bruno Ganz, Alexander Fehling, Sylvester Groth, Pit Bukowski, Evgenia Dodina, Stephan Grossmann.

Based on the semi-autobiographical 2011 novel of the same name by Eugen Ruge, and screening as part of the 2018 German Film Festival, In Times of Fading Light concerns several generations of an East German Communist family gathering to celebrate the 90th birthday of Wilhelm Powileit (Bruno Ganz), a staunch supporter of the Communist Party who is also about to receive a medal in recognition of a lifetime of service to the Party.

The action takes place over one day in 1989 in East Berlin, not long before officials opened the Berlin Wall for the first time in 28 years (its demolition officially began on 13 June 1990 and finished in 1992). In addition to family and friends, there are also some Communist Party officials present, but they quickly leave once rumours start to reach them of people defecting to the West (but whether the officials are joining the stampede or trying to stop it isn’t clear).

My knowledge of the sudden building and eventual destruction of the Berlin Wall is sketchy at best, nor was it particularly enhanced by the way this film unfolds, given its setting mainly within a family home and with the focus on an old man’s stubborn adherence to a political ideology that is being threatened by change.

The ensemble cast is composed of a number of apparently distinguished European stage and film actors, but not being familiar with any of them, and not understanding German, I relied on the subtitles to help navigate my way through the murky political and historical waters. This tended to distance me from becoming too engaged with the characters and their interactions, but there was enough significant information gradually revealed to keep me from losing interest.

The film benefitted from good production design and was effectively photographed to capture Eastern Germany in the late 1980s, with the home kitted out in what would have been the typical furnishings of the time, and with everyone appropriately costumed in keeping with their frugal lifestyles.

A drawback for me was that the film tended to be rather stage-bound, particularly in the earlier scenes, as if lifted from a Chekov play with people trapped within a defined space and uttering their lines with a sense of revealing lots of ‘Important Things’. As the day progressed, this stage-like aspect lessened, or perhaps it was because the audience became caught up more in the unfolding drama and relationships of the various relatives and friends whose convivial smiles started to freeze and crack as secrets and long-buried grievances seeped to the surface.

Bruno Ganz as the focus of the celebratory gathering was aged effectively with make-up, and was convincing as a firm believer in a political ideal who struggled to maintain his faith as others around him surrendered to the inevitable passing of a particular time in Germany’s history. The old wooden table loaded with celebratory food and the patina of many earlier gatherings represented a set of values and its eventual fate served as a metaphor for inescapable change and how not everyone can accept that change even when faced with incontrovertible proof.

If you enjoy period drama in a foreign language, with characters in no particular hurry to reveal their secrets, you may find this offering to your liking.

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Life of the Party

Rated: MLife of the Party

Director: Ben Falcone

Writers: Ben Falcone, Melissa McCarthy

Starring: Melissa McCarthy, Molly Gordon, Gillian Jacobs, Luke Benward, Debby Ryan

When I agreed to review Life of the Party, I experienced a moment of panic. What if there is nothing good to say about it, could I really pan my first movie?

A quick look at the other reviews on the net and the responses were decidedly mixed. A longer look at the trailer and I didn’t think I would be able to keep my inner snark under control either, but by the end of the movie I was left scratching my head. This movie should not have worked.

When she is callously dumped by her husband, Deanna (Melissa McCarthy) returns to university to complete the final year of her degree at the same college her daughter (Molly Gordon) is attending. For most of us, Maddie’s situation would be unthinkably excruciating but, in this instance, Maddie’s mother is adopted by her daughter’s inner circle and given full entrée into the party scene.

With only the briefest hesitation, Deanna, now known as Dee Dee or Dee Rock, embarks upon a wildly inappropriate and utterly delicious romance with one of the most gorgeous guys in school.

As a fish out of water tale, the storyline is far from unusual as a basis for comedy. Luckily the writers have twisted the dial on this premise, subtly but significantly playing with and delicately subverting all the usual clichés.

Contrary to my earlier fears, this movie was not designed as a morality tale. It is not about the struggle to be accepted and, despite the big close-ups trained on Deanna, the comedy does not revolve around the lead character’s journey of self-discovery as a mature age student. Rather, the humour turns on the well-meaning attempts by the supporting characters to help Deanna adjust to her new reality. Help meaning unfettered mischief and lashings of bad behaviour. With this help, Deanna not only achieves her independence, but her motley bunch of helpers also finds their own mojo.

As usual, the cool girls are the villains, but only minor ones. Nonetheless, there are some sweet moments of shadenfreude when Jennifer (Debby Ryan) is spurned in favour of her frumpy rival. The major villain of the piece is the grownup counterpart of the cool girls, the image-obsessed, home-wrecking, husband stealing realtor, and the payback for this particular villain is deviously delicious.

With a thoughtful screenplay, some of the most piquant humour is in the smaller details: Deanna landing a punch square in the centre of her wedding photo, Helen (Gillian Jacobs) snipping a hank of Jennifer’s hair during a lecture as payback for her bitchiness, and the bride holding forth on the groom’s ‘kerbside appeal’ in the middle of their wedding ceremony.

Life of the Party is a movie that shouldn’t be funny but somehow it is. If the rest of the audience were not laughing right along with me, I might have believed that I had suddenly lost all of my critical faculties. As it is, this fluffy haired comedy succeeds in what it sets out to do: turning ‘lemonade into the full lemon’.

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Tully

Rated: MTully

Directed by:  Jason Reitman

Produced by: Jason Blumenfeld, Jason Cloth, Diablo Cody

Written by: Diablo Cody

Starring:  Charlize Theron, Mackenzie Davis, Ron Livingston.

When I first watched the trailer for Tully, I was horrified. True story. My first impression being that I was headed for a film dealing with all that’s wrong with childbearing. My suspicion was that with such a beginning, there was only one way it could end. An ode to motherhood.

Now, here is the thing. Of all people this film could have been assigned to, I was the less qualified for the job for I am childless and proud to be so. But if there is something I enjoy more than a challenge is to be proven wrong.

Tully is much more than a mother’s journey to cope with the unexpected. It is an ode, yes, but to the individuals lying within and how society looks down upon them in the face of struggle. Brave, spirited women risking their bodies, their careers, their whole lives to bear the next generation. Unrecognised, underrated, unknown.

This film reunites director Jason Reitman, writer Diablo Cody and star Charlize Theron, all of whom previously collaborated on Young Adult (2011), and has been referred to as Juno’s sequel. Probably because both these films portray pregnancy with a realistic yet magical insight.

Tully has been subject to some controversy surrounding its depiction of postnatal (or postpartum) depression and other mental illness. Those that take issue with the portrayal of these subjects do so because the conditions are never specifically named and because they feel that there isn’t enough treatment shown on-screen. Those that champion the film feel that it is more accurate for not naming the condition, since postnatal (or postpartum) depression is severely under-diagnosed, and that the film actually does a service by causing debate about these under-discussed topics.

Charlize Theron gained 50 pounds for the role. She adhered to an excessive diet of junk food, processed foods, In n Out Burger, and milkshakes. Theron would eat macaroni and cheese at 2 a.m. to help keep on the weight. Theron said that her youngest child had mistaken her for being pregnant, given the extensive weight gain, and that it took a year and a half for her to be able to shed the weight.

For me, the moral of the story is that I was dead-wrong. If there is something I learnt watching Tully is that motherhood is not a blessing nor a curse. It is an adventure of the self between who we are and who we could become. If we dare.

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Midnight Oil 1984

Rated: MMidnight Oil 1984

Writer, Director:  Ray Argall

Producers:  Rachel Argall, Ray Argall

Starring :  Peter Garrett, Rob Hirst, Jim Moginie, Andrew James, Martin Rotsey, and Peter Gifford.

 

In 1984 as Australia faced the turmoil and uncertainty of political conflicts, systemic poverty, mega powers flexing their nuclear muscle, and the home-grown unwashable stain of a nation’s refusal to acknowledge the legacy of racism towards its indigenous culture – Midnight Oil embarked on a national tour of their album Red Sails in the Sunset and unified a nationwide voice of protest with their music.

Ray Argall’s documentary, Midnight Oil 1984 gives candid unseen angles and film footage of Midnight Oil at the height of galvanising social change through their music that hit the top of Australian and International music charts. Argall’s lens muscles into the action of sardine packed audiences – the audiences packed because of entrepreneurial self-promotion – in sweaty pub venues with no air conditioning and walls and ceilings dripping with honey thick sweat.

Argyll’s lens dips into the wide mouthed stares of audiences, witnessing social change at the windmill circling arms of a 6’4 gyrating maniac lead singer, as he unifies them together in songs of protest.

I too stood like a stunned possum in headlights the first time I saw Peter Garrett live in the 80’s with Midnight Oil, at New Zealand’s, Sweetwater’s Music Festival – where they played alongside UB40, Psychedelic Furs, Toots and the Maytals and others – I too gaped, at what I thought was a gyrating maniac.

He looked like someone had rented his body for the weekend, an alien perhaps or a rogue angel on a vacay down under in New Zealand, an alien or angel, who in their haste to jump in the body, had lost the manual and now had no clue how to steer the 6’4 convulsing kinetic frame that was Midnight Oil’s charismatic and out-of-this-world, lead singer, Peter Garrett.

Director Ray Argall’s, Midnight Oil 1984, delivers up a powerful moving snapshot, of a time when one of Australia’s greatest rock bands, collided with Australian politics and delivered the voice of the common people to a world stage.

Intimate backstage scenes permissible through Argyll’s lens reveal a very unrock and roll off stage lifestyle – hot tea beverages are sipped between sets, yogic stretching by Garrett on the floor of a minimalist and functional dressing room – not a band rider in site; kilometer-upon-kilometer-long jogging tracks for Drummer Rob Hirst, as he gets body ready for his marathon on stage drumming performances. His drum kit nailed to the floor at every performance.

The band’s reputation was built on intense live performances, where they leapt on to stage and tore the places apart with their energy and the political rage of their lyrics.

Newspaper archives and recent band member interviews offer welcome backstory and give insights to the meteoric and controversial ascension of Peter Garrett into the political arena.

The legacy of Midnight Oil with their fight songs, social conscience and their unique stage presence chiseled the landscape of Australian rock history and changed a nation with what they bought to the stage.

Enigmatic and indefinable, for me Garrett vibrates with the stage presence of a rogue angel, and once seen he changes you for having looked and stared. Fellow band member, Drummer Rob Hirst, and Garrett’s friend of 45-years agrees, that whatever it is that Garrett does on stage, it cannot be called dancing, but whatever it is, it works.

Outside In

Directed by:  Lynn SheltonOutside In

Produced by: Duplass Brothers (Jay and Mark)

Written By: Jay Duplass, Lynn Shelton

Starring: Edie Falco, Jay Duplass and Kaitlyn Dever.

Jay Duplass and Lynn Shelton have created a story that goes straight to the heart and soul.

Outside In is a film about human flaws and how mistakes from the past affect our future.

After twenty years behind bars, Chris (Jay Duplass) attempts to readjust to small town life. But nothing is what it used to be. Life has moved on and we follow his struggle as he tries to catch up and find his place.

Carol (Edie Falco) is Chris’ beacon of light. Someone he desperately holds onto in a strange world he no longer recognises.

Chris’ advances on Carol transform their need for human connection into something deeper. Their relationship becoming their raison d’être.

The melancholic scenery of Granite Falls and the adverse elements, rain and fog, throughout the film set the mood of the story.

A particular scene left a lingering impression on me, when Chris finds his collection of cassettes and VHS videos in the garage. For I didn’t see the meaningless objects he left behind but a heartbreaking analogy. That of a man unable to fit in our ever-connected yet dehumanised world.

Lynn Shelton is a director and actress, known for Humpday (2009), Laggies (2014) and Your Sister’s Sister (2011).

Jay Duplass (along with his brother, Mark Duplass) first made a name for himself writing and directing several award-winning short films. His first feature film was the Sundance 2005 breakout hit “The Puffy Chair,” which went on to win the Audience Award at SXSW and receive two Independent Spirit Award nominations.

Mark Duplass is an actor and producer, known for, Safety Not Guaranteed (2012), Creep (2014) and, The One I Love (2014).

Fresh, clean and uncomplicated. Outside In made to the Official Selection of the Toronto International Festival in 2017 and won the Vision Award at the Sun Valley Film Festival in 2018. Other nominations include the Game Changer Award at SXSW Festival and the Dragon Award at Goteborg Festival.

Outside In is part of the Contemporary Selection of the American Essentials Film Festival among other interesting independent films such as Kodachrome and Pet Names.

Most of the titles are Australian premieres drawn from Toronto, Sundance, Rotterdam and SXSW, some of the most prestigious independent film festivals.

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