Month: September 2019

Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark

Rated: MScary Stories To Tell In The Dark

Directed by: André Øvredal

Written by: Dan Hageman & Kevin Hageman

Screen story by: Guillermo Del Toro and Patrick Melton & Marcus Dunstan

Based on the series by: Alvin Schwartz

Produced by: Guillermo Del Toro, p.g.a., Sean Daniel, p.g.a., Jason F. Brown, p.g.a., J. Miles Dale, p.g.a., Elizabeth Grave, p.g.a.

Executive Producers: Peter Luo, Joshua Long, Roberto Grande

Starring: Zoe Colletti, Michael Garza, Gabriel Rush, Austin Abrams, Dean Norris, Gil Bellows, and Lorraine Toussaint.

“Sarah Bellows, tell us a story.”

Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark pieces together the fabled fiction of Alvin Schwartz (who wrote the series), where screen story writer Guillermo Del Toro (along with Patrick Melton & Marcus Dunstan) hang the film on the idea that: “Stories can hurt, and stories can heal”.

Set in 1968 where, ‘If it’s in the newspaper it has to be right,’ but really there’s a lot wrong, like the Vietnam War and the fact Stella’s (Zoe Colletti) mum has left her with her dad (Dean Norris); Stella’s only friends in the world, Chuck (Austin Abrams) and Auggie (Gabriel Rush).

But having buddies makes life easier to live until they decide to show new-kid-in-town Ramón (Michael Garza) the Mill Valley haunted house. On Halloween.

The story of the haunted house being the young daughter, Sarah Bellows was a child killer.  That she killed the children of Mill Valley who listened to her scary stories on the other side of the wall of her locked room.

Her family hid Sarah away because they said there was something very wrong with Sarah.

So when Stella finds Sarah’s book of scary stories in the haunted house, she thinks it’s a good idea to take it home to read.  She’s a writer too.

Then new stories start appearing in the book.  New scary stories like, ‘Who took my toe?’.  It’s worse than it sounds.  Particularly when the stories start coming true.

Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark feels like one of those coming-of-age movies but really, it’s a scare-fest with body parts that come to life and bugs crawling out of empty eye-sockets.

The monsters are impressive with director, André Øvredal not holding back on the nightmarish imagery, while adding subtle details like the skin chewed around Stella’s fingernail.

I was absorbed and surprised as monsters came to life in cornfields and glaring red-lit corridors… But then the film became a crusade.

The story still holds and hey, it had to go somewhere; but I just couldn’t put myself into the shoes of Stella because there didn’t seem to be any fight or build to the strength of her character.  How did this kid suddenly get to be so strong?

Ad Astra

Rated: MAd Astra

Directed by: James Gray

Written by: James Gray & Ethan Gross

Produced by: Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, p.g.a., Jeremy Kleiner, p.g.a., James Gray, p.g.a., Anthony Katagas, p.g.a., Rodrigo Teixeira, p.g.a., Arnon Milchan

Starring: Brad Pitt, Tommy Lee Jones, Ruth Negga, Liv Tyler, and Donald Sutherland.

‘I will not be vulnerable,’ says Roy McBride (Brad Pitt) in a monologue that threads the story of the film together; it’s a voice that measures the thought processing behind those blue eyes with green specks.  A thought-process hidden, because the person Roy shows to others is a performance, ‘my eye always on the exit.’

Set in the near future, Ad Astra is a mystery set in space, the story based in commercialised space travel to the moon, to rockets that blast toward the human inhabitants of Mars, to go further, for Roy to reach Neptune in search of his father who began the Lima Project thirty years before; his father’s purpose: to find evidence of extra-terrestrial life.

Instead of science fiction and the practicalities of space travel or even the exploration of physics to understand human existence, Ad Astra, at its heart, is a drama.

There was plenty of opportunity to get technical, but the film skips over the science behind the impending disaster from outer space so the story jumps while the movement in space is slow and calculated.

So although there’s a disturbing beauty to the tense moments of guns fired from space rovers and visually stunning scenes of a reflection of darkness across the orange visor of a helmet that looks like a faceless being, I felt like the story was missing the factual backbone to hold up the idea of the mysterious father figure who has dedicated his life to science and space exploration.

Ad Astra is not a journey into space but for Roy to find his way back to humanity.

The story circles around to give some satisfaction, to be able to, Let go.

And there’s so much going for the film with the build of tension with the low vibrating soundtrack of a siren; with those crime thriller moments set in space with the slow danger of being in an environment with toxic air, without gravity – in a place no other living Being has ever been found.

But for me, those amazing moments of suspense combined with the beauty of space on the big screen would have been so much more astounding if the story dug just a bit deeper into the physics of the environment – that would have made the film more believable while adding that extra layer to the drama of the story.

Still, an interesting change in pace that adds a mysterious twist to the thriller genre.

Halston

Rated: MHalston

Directed by: Frédéric Tcheng

Produced by: Frédéric Tcheng

Starring: Roy Halston Frowick, Liza Minnelli, Joel Schumacher, Elsa Peretti, Tavi Gevinson.

Jackie Kennedy was surrounded. Everyone else was dressed in fur when Jackie appeared in her cloth coat and iconic pill-box hat designed by Halston for JFK’s presidential inauguration in 1961.

‘That was a day that changed fashion in America.’

Throughout the 1970s Halston was possibly the America’s most influential designer, before mysteriously disappearing from view in the ’80s.

In an attempt to piece together the life of this quintessentially American designer, a lone researcher paws through the few remaining snippets and artefacts in a basement archive when the documentary opens.

As she sifts through the meagre remnants the researcher turns to the camera and says: ‘They bought his name, sold off his work for pennies on the dollar; they took his studio and erased 250 tapes’. At the same time she coyly refuses to reveal her own name.

For a country bent on taking over the world with Coca Cola and culture, this radical erasure of an artist from the cultural pantheon is tantamount to treason. What was it about Halston that could have elicited such a dire response?

As the nameless researcher asks, ‘Whatever happened to Halston?’

That is certainly one of the questions begging an answer about this boy from the Midwest who began his career as custom milliner to New York’s wealthy elite at Bergdorf Goodman.

Early on though, the question being asked was, ‘Was Halston at Truman Capote’s Black and White Ball?’ It was the event of the year for the rich the social and the beautiful, and Halston was not invited. Or was he? ‘He must have been there.’ Since it was a masked ball, no-one could be absolutely certain, but he definitely went to the ball in one sense: his masks and hats covered virtually every face and head of the attendees.

When he launched his own fashion label in 1968, Halston’s creations were designed to ‘honour the body’. Cut on the bias, the fabric moved and flowed and spiralled around the figure. Famed for cutting from a single piece of cloth, Halston’s patterns were not unlike abstract art, ‘Design reduced to its common denominators’. His elegant simplicity, an antidote to the exuberance of the ’60s.

All the society ladies were there for Halston’s first outing as a fashion designer, and before each model stepped onto the catwalk, he leant in and whispered: ‘Don’t forget, you’re the best.’

Almost overnight Halston was a sensation, but he loved to be controversial: from dressing Iman for her first runway event to staging a show as a happening, where the models sang and played guitar and clarinet.

That show was not so well received.

Fortunately Halston had other strategies.

Realising the boost that celebrities could give his name, he was the first to bring in movie stars, with Liza Minnelli enlisted for his overseas debut. With no time for rehearsals, ‘the event was directed more like a musical’. The Palace of Versailles was in uproar. ‘It was fashion in your face and it was modern.’ Halston’s name was on the international map.

‘Whatever happened to Halston?’ With his career captured in a rich cache archival footage, you will have your answer by the time the credits roll, but you may still find yourself asking: what is in a name?

Rambo: Last Blood

Rated: R18+Rambo: Last Blood

Directed by: Adrian Grunberg

Screenplay by: Matthew Cirulnick & Sylvester Stallone

Story by: Sylvester Stallone

Based on: The Character Created by: David Morrell

Produced by: Avi Lerner, Kevin King Templeton, Yariv Lerner, Les Weldon

Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Paz Vega, Sergio Peris-Mencheta, Adrianna Barraza, Yvette Monreal, Genie Kim aka Yenah Han, Joaquin Cosio, and Oscar Jaenada.

Rambo: Last Blood isn’t the past coming back to haunt – although Rambo is now suffering from severe PTSD – this final instalment (the sixth in the series) is more a classic revenge film with lots of blood and guts and yes, there’s a broken bone through the skin moment for all those fans who remember, First Blood.  A moment I’ll never forget from way back in 1982.

Here, we have the opening on a big storm, a big man, on a big horse.  It doesn’t take long to realise there’s going to be some kitschy moments in this action flick; the dramatic moments highlighted by the over-emotive soundtrack (to make up for the drama completely missing the mark, again and again).  It never works.

And when there’s a, ‘Hey mister – thanks,’ in the first ten minutes, there’s always cause for concern.

Yet, Last Blood wasn’t all bad.

Coming home to the ranch we have Maria (Adriana Barraza) – the grandmother of sweet-but-growing-up and Rambo’s niece, Gabrielle (Yvette Monreal) – who gives the tone of the film some warmth with gems like, ‘You’re not in the war anymore.  Only in your head.’

And the travelling to Mexico changes the pace of the film where Rambo meets some super bad-ass guys leading to hammer wielding Rambo action that sits up and gets the adrenaline running through the old fella’s veins again.

Sylvester returning as John Rambo looks more monster than man, the visage used as a mask while he’s ‘just trying to keep a lid on it,’ the ‘it’ his soul-destroying rage.

‘You like digging and you’re a little crazy,’ says his niece but really adopted daughter, Gabrielle.  She gets it.

Instead of heading into cheesy territory, the film gets bloody with some dark nasty moments involving forced prostitution and drugs and of course, revenge.

It’s all just so serious, Rambo is so serious that there’s moments I just had to laugh to relieve the tension.  But it wasn’t even tension, more that Rambo was acting traumatised but not quite hitting the right tone.

So, some of the film worked with some surprising action.  And some of the dramatic didn’t, ultimately leaving a feeling of the film being self-indulgent.

Dora And The Lost City Of Gold

Rated: PGDora And The Lost City Of Gold

Directed by: James Bobin

Story by: Tom Wheeler and Nicholas Stoller

Screenplay by: Nicholas Stoller and Matthew Robinson

Produced by: Kristin Burr p. g. a.

Executive Produced by: Julia Pistor, Eugenio Derbez, John G. Scotti

Starring: Isabela Moner, Eugenio Derbez, Michael Peña, Eva Longoria, Adriana Barraza, Temuera Morrison, Jeff Wahlberg, Nicholas Coombe, Madeleine Madden, and Danny Trejo.

A good fun peppy adventure teen-movie.

It’s hard not to at least have come across Dora the Explorer at some stage – I remember waking up with a self-inflicted sore head on Boxing Day or Christmas morning to a painfully cheery voice as a young nephew watched an excited Dora exclaiming Spanish words on TV.

So, I wondered what a movie adaptation would make of a little girl teaching Spanish – can you say, Dora The Explorer not the cartoon version but human?

Yet the film immediately charms by referencing Dora’s teaching behaviour with Dora’s parents (Michael Peña and Eva Longoria) looking around confused, trying to figure out who Dora is actually speaking to – ‘She’ll grow out of it.’ Says archaeologist, professor dad (Michael Peña hilarious in this role).

So I felt the adaptation had something going for it if the writers have turned the film into a meta conversation while having at laugh at itself.

And Isabela Moner as Dora was well-cast as the warm-hearted teen who has learnt everything she knows about life from the jungle.

But it’s time for Dora to find friends her own age (and species); it’s time, for Dora to move to the city and start High School.

This is a film aimed at a younger audience as peppy Dora fights to be herself while also trying to fit in.

But it’s a kid movie made with sophistication, with montages of polaroids depicting Dora’s journey as a cut-out aeroplane moves across a map, the film reverting from live people to cartoon characters, the continued self-referencing – ‘Let’s make a song out of it!’.  And the soundtrack was pretty cool as well.

What I really liked about the film is how the teen-learning-life-lessons turns into an adventure movie.

It took a while to get going, my nephew telling it how it is asking, ‘Why is she called Dora The Explorer if she’s not exploring?”

Then, the search for Parapatas (The Lost City Of Gold) heats up.

So instead of trying too hard with the jokes (that didn’t always hit the mark, for me, anyway), there’s more clever and adventure while solving ‘jungle puzzles’ and making friends, flipping the film from teen, to cute (see Mr Boots, so obviously an animated puppet, yet still very entertaining), to cartoon Dora, to full action adventure – mind altering spores included.

So the film brings the adults on-side while keeping the kids entertained with the rest of it.

I’m not saying the film was mind blowing, but in the end, I had some fun watching this one.

Bangla

Rated: MBangla

Directed by: Phaim Bhuiyan

Screenplay by: Phaim Bhuiyan, Picciarelli Vanessa

Produced by: Domenico Procacci, Annamaria Morelli

Starring: Carlotta Antonelli, Phaim Bhuiyan, Nasima Akhter

Winner of the Nastro d’Argento for Best Comedy 2019

Winner of Best First Feature, Golden Globes Italy, 2019

Italian and Bengali with English subtitles

The national language, Bengali, is the only official language of Bangladesh according to the third article of the Constitution of Bangladesh.

Phaim (Phaim Bhuiyan) is a twenty-two-year old born in Italy but his parents are still expecting him to behave like a Bangledeshi Muslim meaning: no pork, no alcohol and no sex before marriage.

So while perving at underwear adverts and trying not to look but really looking at a couple pashing on the bus, all he can do is ask, how much punishment is he in for by just thinking about getting it on before marriage?

When he meets the wild and beautiful blue-haired Asia (Carlotta Antonelli), what’s he supposed to do when kissing Asia feels like a compulsion?  Like resisting is fighting against gravity?

Yeah, OK, sounds a bit familiar, the culture clash and expected romance…But director and star, Phaim Bhuiyan has gotten the tone just right with this Italian rom-com.

Rather than dwelling on the obvious, Bangla is more about the conversations Phaim has with himself and the camera.

We also get funny moments as the film addresses Phaim living in Rome in the multiethnic Torpignattara neighbourhood, as he works as a museum steward and playing in a band.  The band, of course, playing Bangledeshi favourites.

When discussing the idea of going out with an Italian girl, his mate tells him, ‘Italian girls smell like pork.’

But in the end that feeling Phaim has means, ‘You’re in love.’

‘Cool.’

The straight-forward dialogue of Phaim and Asia when they first meet is classic.

The back-and-forth and instant connection between the two transends the two cultures because of its simplicity.

And it’s sweet seeing the two, arm-in-arm, Phaim edging away until hitting a tree because no matter how attracted he is to this Italian girl, he can’t do anything about it.

But she tries.  While he tries not to.  It works.

And the tone of the film has a lot to do with not just the writing but the spot-on editing and cut from shot to scene with Phiam firmly in control of the film without being selfish with it.

I liked it.  More than I thought I would.

More cool and sweet than romantic and funny – a classic Italian film for release as part of the Lavazza Italian Film Festival 2019.

#ItalianFF

Good Boys

Rated: MA15+Good Boys

Directed by: Gene Stupnitsky

Written by: Lee Eisenberg & Gene Stupnitsky

Produced by: Lee Eisenberg, p.ga, Evan Goldberg, p. g. a., Seth Rogen, p.g.a., James Weaver, p.g.a

Executive Producers: Josh Fagen, Brady Fujikawa, John Powers Middleton

Starring: Jacob Tremblay, Keith L Williams, Brady Noon, Molly Gordon, Lil Rel Howery, Midori Francis and Will Forte.

‘Beanbag boys for life.’

That’s how it is when you’re twelve.

There are tears flowing while dancing to, ‘Walking on Sunshine’ – yep, remember the enthusiasm in music class before it got embarrassing?

And Sunday cycling?

And when your mum’s your best friend??

When Max (Jacob Tremblay) gets invited by the cool kids to a kissing party, or course he’s not going without his mates, Thor (Brady Noon) and Lucas (Keith L. Williams): Beanbag Boys, for, Life!

But they don’t know how to kiss either.

So what do they do?

First, they decide it’s a good idea to type ‘PORN’ into a computer.  Then decide it’s a better idea to spy on the nympho (meaning she has sex on land and the sea) next door with Max’s dad’s (Will Forte) precious, ‘Never-to-be-touched-because-it’s-not-a-toy.  It’s for work’ – drone.

Only for the drone to inevitably be destroyed.  Leading the boys on an adventure taking them further from home than they’ve ever been: miles.

The humour in Good Boys feels surprisingly like new territory.

It’s a comedy with some coming-of-age stuff that’s mostly about approaching teen kids’ interpretation of the adult world.  Or misinterpretation.

That’s what makes the film so sweet and funny and good.  It shows the innocence of kids growing up that somehow feels new.

Writing duo, Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky, state, ‘we felt like we could find kids in this age group to say outrageous things…and that could make people lean forward a bit […] The idea of an R-rated movie starring children just made us laugh.”

So the comedy is based on seeing kids cuss and misinterpret adult stuff like anal beads, sex swings and proving you’re hard by sipping beer:

One sip, you already feel it;

Two sips, you’re tough;

If you sip four, you’ve broken the record.  You’re an alcoholic.  Cool.

It all seems so silly written down.  But seeing the kids say and do and misinterpret over and over again is hilarious because they’re so earnest.

The film really captures how kids are at that age.

Funnily enough, I drank a beer pre-screening of course prompting that dreaded, absolutely necessary toilet run.  What I noticed on the way back to my seat was the smiles on everyone’s faces in the audience.

This isn’t a film that gets heavy or tries to convey any message.  It’s just a funny comedy with some clever jokes played with sincerity from some well-cast kids: good fun.

Abominable

Rated: GAbominable

Written and Directed by: Jill Culton

Produced by: Suzanne Buirgy

Producer: Peilin Chou

Executive Producers: Tim Johnson, Frank Zhu, Li Ruigang

Starring: Chloe Bennet, Tenzing Norgay Trainor, Albert Tsai, Eddie Izzard, Sarah Paulson, Tsai Chin, Michelle Wong.

Yi (Chloe Bennet) lives in an apartment in a busy Chinese city with her mum and grandma.

She keeps herself busy; too busy to play with her neighbour, all braces and squeaky-voiced, Peng (Albert Tsai), and Jin (Tenzing Norgay Trainor) who is typically teen self-obsessed.

Because if she stops for a moment, then she’ll remember her dad is gone.

The only time Yi allows herself to remember her dad is when playing violin.  And that’s when she meets Everest – up on the rooftop where the yeti is hiding from the people who had captured him and kept him in a cage.

On the run from the bug-eyed and rich explorer Burnish (Eddie Izzard) and zoologist Dr. Zara (Sarah Paulson), the trio decide to take Everest back home.  Back to the Himalayas.  And so the adventure begins.

The DreamWorks Animation team have outdone themselves, the trailer for Abominable not translating just how majestic the film is on the big screen.  There were so many times I said, ‘Amazing’ and ‘Wow’ from watching the trio of kids and yeti ride a wave of yellow blossoms to see raindrops fall to the earth to unfurl into flowers.  And not just a few times, the film is just one wonderful moment after another.

It’s the detail and captured behaviour in those details of even the small characters that delights – ‘You just darted Dave!’ from a gun-for-hire; and the grandmother captured so well with her constant, ‘that’s what I say’.

And there’s an intricate story here about family and grief but also about the magic of nature where, ‘It’s amazing how small you feel, just looking up.’

Where there are those who appreciate nature and those who want to cut it down and take it home.

‘I own that yeti,’ says the brutish Burnish.

And the yeti, Everest was not abominable but adorable with his underbite and puppy-like behaviour.

I love that furry critter!

And so did my nephews who enjoyed the film just as much as I did; one asking if I was OK at one point because I was a little teary with the sweetness of it all.  I even got a hug.

Funny and sweet and beautifully realised, Abominable is a real treat.

Downton Abbey

Rated: PGDownton Abbey

Directed by: Michael Engler

Written by: Julian Fellowes

Produced by: Gareth Neame, Julian Fellowes, Liz Trubridge

Co-Produced by: Mark Hubbard

Executive Produced by: Nigel Marchant, Brian Percival

Starring: Maggie Smith, Michelle Dockery, Laura Carmichael, Imelda Staunton,Tuppence Middleton, Joanne Froggatt, Allen Leech, Jim Carter.

It’s 1927, the roaring twenties. English-style. The Charleston is an underground dance craze and the plots and schemes are swirling, above and below stairs.

Beginning with the nib of a fountain pen as it traces a loop in glossy, black ink, the opening scene follows the byzantine logistics of a royal missive. With the precision of finely-tuned clockwork, the envelope then travels from steam train to a maze of narrow backstairs corridors before it is finally placed on a silver tray and delivered to Lord Grantham (Hugh Bonneville) as he ambles down to breakfast with his favourite retriever in tow.

The king wishes to visit, even though the upstairs coterie are harbouring an Irish republican in their midst. Worse, Lord Grantham  looks set to miss out on his inheritance and Violet Crawley, the imperious and incorrigible Dowager Countess (Maggie Smith), is not prepared to stand for it. Above stairs the scene is set.

Below stairs, apart from a few minor skirmishes, all is humming along nicely. The Downton staff are thrilled to be showing off their domestic skills to the royal couple; that is, until the king’s personal valets, the king’s chef Monsieur Courbet  (Philippe Spall) and the ‘terribly scary’ royal butler (David Haig) arrive to take over the household duties and steal their moment of glory.

Although deeply miffed at the royal interlopers, the Downton staff are sufficiently cowed to stand aside. That is, until scheming pair Anna Bates (Joanne Froggatt) and her husband (Brendan Coyle ) hatch a plot: ‘We’ll meet in the wine cellar.’ Over the protests of the butler (Jim Carter), ‘it’s ‘treason’, the household staff agree to fight back, and, in so doing, find themselves rather perversely staging a minor revolution in order to perform their own cooking and waiting duties.

From the clatter of new millennium machinery to the dinging and tinkling of bells on shop counters, we are subtly drawn in to a world in transition. Not only from an era where handcrafted workmanship is giving way to the age of the machine, but to a time where the old certainties and the precisely ordered clockwork society that king and queen represent are being almost invisibly eroded from beneath. Not only are the staff getting uppity, but the women are more openly standing up to the men. Although, in the world of Downton Abbey, they’ve been arranging affairs all along.

Not that Downton Abbey sets out to deliver any type of lesson, unless that lesson be in the art of Machiavellian intrigue. Rather, the experience is a heady cocktail of tomfoolery and power moves. While some may find the setup lengthy, aficionados will appreciate the clever dialogue, the exquisite costumes, the sense of romance that perfumes the air and the devious minds at work.

When the credits rolled on opening night, the entire theatre offered up a round of applause. And that is something that doesn’t happen very often.

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