Month: April 2021

Land

Rated: MLand

Directed by: Robin Wright

Written by: Jesse Chatham and Erin Digman

Produced by: Allyn Stewart, Lora Kennedy, Leah Holzer and Peter Saraf

Starring: Robin Wright, Demián Bichir and Kim Dickens.

“What are you feeling?”

Land is a quiet film, with only the call of coyotes, the crickets, the birds, water flowing.  Then there’s the strings in the soundtrack, the only music, that rise and fall.

The film follows Edee (Robin Wright) as she leaves the city following a road that turns from asphalt to gravel to turn into a dirt road that leads further into the mountains.

She doesn’t want to be around people anymore.

The flashbacks to the past show Edee asking her sister (Kim Dickens), Why am I still here?

There are flashes of a little boy and a man, her son and husband.  And you know they’re gone.

Edee organises herself, she cleans up her cabin. There’s a river. She fishes.  She remembers.

But in the quiet she slowly falls apart as the land freezes into winter – as she realises she doesn’t know how to survive.  Doesn’t know if she wants to survive, until she’s found and slowly brought back to life by a local hunter, Miguel Borras (Demián Bichir).

This isn’t a love story.

Land is a story about friendship.

This is a story about grief.

And there’s a genuine honesty in the telling.

Robin Wright plays the main character and directs – she brings a softness and strength to the story that invites the audience to feel it all along with Edee.

And Miguel as the one with the big heart that helps her just because she’s in his path is honest in his kindness.

It feels so rare, the selflessness, the reaching out, the understanding.

There’s nothing forced, just the space and quiet to recover.

I was looking forward to seeing nature on the big screen, yet the land of burnt skies, icicles dripping and the wind flowing through a tree standing on a rocky outcrop were a backdrop to the depth of Edee’s loss, subtle and powerful, as she focuses on surviving, to see the little things – to really take notice.

I basically had tears running from the beginning of this film.  So calm and kind in the telling.

A deeply moving film.

Twist

Rated: MTwist

Directed by: Martin Owen

Produced by: Ben Grass, Jason Maza, Noel Clarke and Matthew Williams

Starring: Raff Law, Sir Michael Caine, Lena Heady, Rita Ora, Franz Drameh, Sophie Simnett, David Walliams, Jason Maza and Noel Clarke.

Loosely based on the classic Dickens’ novel, Oliver Twist, we have an older version of Oliver introducing the film as a story with, ‘No singing, no danc’n, and definitively no happy end’n.’

Twist is a fast-paced, modern day heist movie featuring orphans more the twenty-year old variety, in other words, old enough to drink.

The main character, Twist (Raff Law – yes, that’s Jude Law’s son and looks the spit of him) is described as an extreme graffiti artist – getting up high on buildings so more people can see his work.

He’s also a freerunner, the camera angles following front, above, a helmet cam looking forwards as he runs and jumps and… twists (tee, hee, couldn’t help myself).

Twist says, ‘I was better on my own’.

But then he meets Red (Sophie Simnett).

She’s a freerunner too.

And belongs to people.  To Fagin (Sir Michael Caine) who says thieving is surviving.

And to Fagin’s main crew, Batsey (Franz Drameh) and Dodge (Rita Ora); it’s like the family Twist thinks he doesn’t need but discovers he wants, ‘A family that eats together stays together,’ says Fagin.

Maybe Twist doesn’t want to be alone anymore.

And soon gets entangles in the next Big Job, only to discover there’s another player, Sikes (Lena Heady (Game Of Thrones)).  She doesn’t play nice.

There’s some fun moments here – who doesn’t like watching the trickery of freerunning?!  And some surprising violence.

The splice of music into the soundtrack from the radio or the jukebox was clever.

But sometimes it felt a bit trying, those light-hearted throwaway lines and inconceivable moments like landing in a carriage awaiting a bride and groom from a jump a good few stories above.

None of the jokes hit the mark.

And if you’re going to have the arrogance of strong-willed, baby-gangsters, some of that humour has to land otherwise it  just feels like they’re being brats.

That required optimism and I’m-immortal overtones dragged on some of the cooler ideas of art imitating life (there’s a nice piece that warms the heart), but the film twists the concept into a space that becomes unbelievably optimistic.

And that’s OK.  Because the film is directed at a younger audience.

Entertaining and although we all need some hope at the moment, Twist was a bit twee for my taste.

Mortal Kombat

Rated: R

Directed by: Simon McQuoid

Produced by: James Wan

Starring: Hiroyuki Sanada, Tadanobu Asano, Jessica McNamee, Josh Lawson, Joe Taslim, Ludi Lin, Chin Han and Mehcad Brooks.

Death is just another portal.

The Tournament is coming.  Where worlds send warriors who have unlocked their arcana, their power of the soul, to fight.

The Outworld has won the last nine tournaments against Earthrealm, and is set to win the tenth by any means, giving them domination over the Universe.

Sub-Zero (Joe Taslim), a Cryomancer, is determined to end the bloodline of Hanzo Hasashi (Hiroyuki Sanada ) – dating back to Japan 1617, where Hanzo is seen living his day-to-day life with his family.  He says to his wife, ‘I am grateful and blessed to be with you.’

He’s a good guy.

Sent to hell.

His family left frozen amongst the flowers.

The film shifts to modern times, a jolt to MMA fighter Cole Young (Lewis Tan) getting a pep talk from his coach before walking into the cage.

He carries a mark he doesn’t understand.  A mark making him an Earthrealm champion.

He’s also a family man, about to take a beating.

I braced myself for the cheesy asides and family drama while Cole dodges Sub-Zero, Cole unaware of his heritage dating back to that fateful day in Japan where a baby is somehow overlooked and survives (how was this overlooked, I wondered at the time?).

But while Outworld’s Emperor, Shang Tsung sends his warriors to take down Earth’s champions before the high stakes battle even begins, the film introduces a pleasant (well, maybe pleasant isn’t the right word) surprise: chained-up rogue mercenary, Kano (Josh Lawson).  An Aussie meat-head that immediately disarms with comments like, ‘You don’t have the mongrel in you.’  And, ‘No skin off my sack.’ Ha, ha!

I wasn’t expecting crude humour in this video game inspired action fantasy, and was thankful for the risk, lightening the mood, adding to the already entertaining bloody action-packed fights.

Then the film got a little more serious with the good versus evil, or Earthworld versus the Outworlders as Cole finds the temple of Lord Raiden to train, to find his arcana.

Mortal Kombat is an entertaining action movie with good effects: frozen swords and triple, quadruple kicks and getting sawed in half and arms-frozen-off action.

Good on the big screen that gets bloody, with a splash of humour – while entertained in the cinema watching, immediately forgotten – I have to blame some of my distraction on the hellish (ha, ha, excuse the pun, those fans of Scorpion) – day.

There’s a few holes in the story that got me wondering about the why (fans of the video game franchise will notice nods to the game and get more out of the storyline).  But there’re enough surprises, laughs and satisfying wins to make Mortal Kombat (the movie) a good entertainer.

Wishlist

Directed by: Álvaro Díaz LorenzoWishlist

Produced by: Álvaro Díaz Lorenzo

Starring: Victoria Abril, María León, Silvia Alonzo

It’s time for the curtains to open on the Australian premiere of Wishlist: La Lista De Los Deseos, the off the wall comedy headlining the 2021 Spanish Film Festival.

When Eva (María León), a twenty something vet, and Carmen (Victoria Abril), a woman in her early middle age, develop a strong bond during a series of chemotherapy sessions, it lays the groundwork for a madcap road trip heading south from Seville to Morocco via Cadiz while the women await the results of their treatment. Joining them is Eva’s best friend Mar (Silvia Alonzo), a teacher nursing a broken heart and feeling utterly disillusioned by love following the breakup of a long term relationship.

In the opening scene, the trio have managed to land themselves behind bars and the police are at a loss as to how to handle them. It’s the culmination of the women’s time away. ‘A week to fit an entire life into,’ with each ticking off, ‘The three things they always wished they could do and couldn’t,’ from their communal chalkboard. Although, for all three to be locked up together, it did require some ingenuity and a nicely timed dropping of undies. The two strapping officers in charge of the arrest thought they had things under control. They had no idea.

In its advance billing, Wishlist has been frequently compared with the 1990’s hit movie, Thelma and Louise and, while both films feature women resolutely staring down their fate, in some ways, this film is more a mirror image of the earlier one. Thelma and Louise are two friends taking some time away to party as they set out on a fishing trip together. What begins as a light hearted excursion soon descends into darkness as the pair find themselves trapped in the grimy underbelly of small town America.

On the other hand, the women in Wishlist, already facing a dark reality, decide to retaliate. Each feels that they have nothing to lose, so there is absolutely no filter on their behaviour. And that means mayhem. Do not be the one to cross these wayward women and definitely do not steal their parking spot if they happen to be holding a container of chocolate milk. Unless a decent splash of chocolate is the one thing that has missing from your attire. That was Mar’s gleeful contribution to the ‘Me Too!’ movement.

For me, Wishlist is more akin to Pedro Almodovar’s runaway success of the early 90s, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown with its fast pace and delightfully absurd humour.  While this film at its core takes on a tough subject and doesn’t underplay the experience, it handles it with warmth and lashings of misbehaviour.

By the time the end credits were rolling the audience were applauding and I had the feeling that the last 103 minutes of my time was very well spent. Not in spite of the subject matter, but because of the sensitive but utterly mischievous way it had been presented.

Supernova

Rated: M

Directed and Written by: Harry Macqueen

Produced by: Emily Morgan and Tristan Goligher

Starring: Colin Firth, Stanley Tucci, Pippa Heywood, Peter Macqueen, Nina Marlin.

Birds chitter and chirp and early morning sunlight filters in, glancing across two bodies tangled up in their doona and in each other, as they slumber on in their golden cocoon.

If earthly bliss could be captured, this moment might be it.

Of course, this being fiction we know it cannot last.

Actually, there has been a degree of misdirection, so this scene does not really mean exactly what it appears to mean.

Despite what some may fear, this film is far from maudlin. The script is well thought out and subtle, and the performances by Colin Firth as Sam and Stanley Tucci as Tusker are tender and nuanced.

Sam, a concert pianist, and Tusker, a novelist, are embarking on one last road trip in their campervan before Tusker becomes too incapacitated by the early onset dementia he was diagnosed with two years earlier.

The pair plan to wend their way through the countryside of northern England, stopping off wherever they may find themselves, for their first night a supermarket car park, until they reach Sam’s childhood home and his sister, Lily (Pippa Haywood), who now lives there with her husband Clive (Peter Macqueen) and their young daughter (Nina Marlin). From thence, the couple hope to travel on to the concert venue where Sam is to stage what he expects to be both his comeback performance and his swansong.

While Tusker is doing all in his power to ensure that Sam remains closely connected to his career and to the people who care about him, the trip is his idea, Sam, after much soul searching, realises that he is prepared to sacrifice everything to spend whatever time he can with Tusker.

Woven through their banter and everyday bickering and hinted at in the intent behind their gestures, the deep feeling that the couple share is delicately evoked.

Although the country lanes the couple travel along are verdant and lovely, many of the film’s deeper encounters occur at night as Tusker shares his fascination with the cosmos, first with Sam on a sleepless night as they seek out the Milky Way together and then with his niece Charlotte as they lie on the grass staring up at the stars. In some ways, Sam and Tusker’s journey could be seen as a dark night of the soul.

While the title Supernova is clearly related, its meaning was not immediately obvious to me. So, I began by looking at the way a supernova is defined: an unusually bright star that suddenly lights up the sky, even though the star itself no longer exists. It has already exploded. When translated into film the reciprocal moment is quietly devastating. Lily, attempting to persuade Tusker to accept Sam’s help, says, ‘You’re still Tusker. You’re still the guy he fell in love with’.

Tusker replies, ‘No. I’m not.  I just look like him.’

How to maintain their relationship and their love in the face of this unthinkable reality forms the crux of the couple’s dilemma and the scaffolding for a beautifully wrought and haunting film.

Voyagers

Rated: MA15+Voyagers

Directed and Written by: Neil Burger

Produced by: Basil Twanyk, Neil Burger, Brendon Boyea

Starring: Tye Sheridan, Lily-Rose Depp, Fionn Whitehead, Chante Adams, Isaac Hempstead Wright, Viveik Kalra, Archie Madekwe, Quintessa Swindell, Madison Hu and Colin Farell.

“I’m scared.”  “Of what?”  “I don’t know”.

It’s 2063.

Life on Earth is deteriorating with ongoing drought and famine.

The only hope for humanity is light-years away – two generations away.

Where populating a new world means creating a class of humans that can tolerate living in close quarters, without sunlight or interaction with any other humans except the thirty crew sent into space.  And Richard (Colin Farrell).

Richard has educated and raised the crew destined to live on the spaceship, HUMANTUS.

If he goes with them, he can at least try to protect them.

“Protect us from what?”

Voyagers is about that scary idea of what is truly human nature.  Without rules, it’s the rule of the jungle (or space?).

So what happens to a group of teenagers when their chemical restraint is lifted?

What happens when impulse takes over, never having learned to control all those basic human desires and drives to survive?

I admit to being in a cynical mood walking into this film, and the intended message of enlightenment because of all those extra layers of grey matter eventually making sense over the kill or be killed instinct had the potential of feeling like an overdone premise.

Having said that, it was interesting to watch the handling of that survival instinct from writer and director, Neil Burger (Limitless, The Illusionist), as the crew dealt with overwhelming hormones AKA getting high on life, and the drive to kill those hitting on your girl or for any slight.

It’s tense with flashes of overriding emotion depicted in montages of screaming and flesh rising in goosebumps to tunnels of blue light and the soundtrack of silence rising with disjointed strings.

It’s a theme that creates an innate fear of seeing what we are capable of, but without overdoing the horror of humans, while keeping up the intensity with a few jumps as this group of young adults figure out what it means to function as a social group.

Timely with the current generation growing up with the threat of climate change and pandemic.  Strange times.

And although I feel like I’ve seen the idea of unpacking human nature played out many times before, such as adaptation, Lord of the Flies, well, think any coming-of-age movie, there’s enough suspense to keep, Voyagers interesting.

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