Category: Drama

Ben Is Back

Rated: MBen Is Back

Directed and Written by: Peter Hedges

Produced by: Peter Hedges, Nina Jacobson, Teddy Schwarzman, Brad Simpson

Starring: Julia Roberts, Lucas Hedges, Courtney B. Vance, Kathryn Newton, Rachel Bay Jones, David Zaldivar, Alexandra Park, Mia Fowler, Jakari Fraser.

It’s Christmas time.  Ivy (Kathryn Newton) is singing in the church choir while her mother, Holly (Julia Roberts) looks on with her two youngest from her second marriage, Lacey (Mia Fowler) and Liam (Jakari Fraser).

The snow is falling as Ben (Lucas Hedges) crunches across the yard towards the house.

He knows no one is home.

Ben is back

This is a film about addiction.  About the hold it takes and the effect on family and a mother who refuses to give up on her son.

Sounds dramatic, right?

I went into the cinema expecting a traumatic, family drama to unfold with Julia Roberts as the mother weeping and screaming the whole way through…

But there’s restraint from director (and writer) Peter Hedges, allowing the writing to tell the story without the need for over-acting – the story made more emotive because of the quiet telling.

It feels like the film is about someone Hedges knows; a brave move casting his son, Lucas Hedges as the son in the film, learning to live with all his actions as an addict, returning home to try again as he struggles to share his need.

Lucas is perfect for this role.

There’s something so genuine in his manner.  I first saw him in his role as Jared (a young man trapped in a re-education program, Love In Action (LIA) to be cured of his homosexuality) in Boy Erased.

He’s brought the same believability here: the charisma, the cunning, the pain.

And Julia Roberts nailed her role as his mother, knowing she’ll never stop trying, never let go.

It’s a sad and heavy tale as Ben takes his mother to re-visit his past as a junkie; the danger and humiliation endured to feed his addiction.   There’s insight into the pain and grip the drug takes on a person and cost of all those who love them.

I’m not saying I overly enjoyed watching this film, but I’m impressed by the way this film was shown.  Without getting slapped in the face, we get to see the sadistic nature of addiction and the consequences on a family that feels very like any other normal family.

We’re also shown the view from the addict – the initial want to share the experience because they think they’ve found a truth worth sharing.  People become addicts for a reason.

The film doesn’t demonise the user, it’s more about understanding.

‘When you get shaky, go to a meeting,’

There’s a lot of debate currently about harm-minimisation, with the recent deaths over New Year at music festivals because of drug over-dose.  It’s easy to say yes, I think that legal drug-testing onsite to see the ingredients is a good idea.  I personally think it would make the dealers sell a far more pure product.  But the reminder of the addictive nature of drugs shown in this films demonstrates the ripple of catastrophic consequences addiction has on the user, families and communities.

Holding a pack with the brown heroin showing through, Ben’s mother, Holly personalises the substance by saying, ‘You monster’.

And that’s what the film manages to achieve, a personalisation of addiction.

https://youtu.be/eV384La_Q9Q

The Mule

Rated: MThe Mule

Directed by: Clint Eastwood

Screenplay by: Nick Schenk

Based on: “The Sinaloa Cartel’s 90-Year-Old Drug Mule” by Sam Dolnick

Produced by: Clint Eastwood, Tim Moore, Kristina Rivera, Jessica Meier, Dan Friedkin, Bradley Thomas

Starring: Clint Eastwood, Bradley Cooper, Laurence Fishburne, Michael Peña, Dianne Wiest, Andy Garcia.

More than anything, The Mule is a character-driven film, revolving around the audacity of ninety-year-old Earl Stone (Clint Eastwood – himself now 88 years-old) getting away with transporting millions of dollars of drugs loaded into the back of his pick-up for a cartel: ‘Maybe you enjoyed living in the moment a little too much.  That’s why you’re working for us,’ one of the bosses tells him.

Based on an article published in the New Yorker “The Sinaloa Cartel’s 90-Year-Old Drug Mule” by Sam Dolnick, Earl is doing well in 2005.  He’s a horticulturist winning trophies.  He’s missing his daughter’s wedding.  This is his life.

Fast forward twelve years and his business has fallen apart, like his marriage.  His daughter hasn’t spoken to him since he missed her wedding.

This is his life.

He’s broke.

So when he gets an opportunity to get out on the road again and get paid envelopes filled with cash at the other end, it’s easy money.

Earl fought in Korea.  Guns don’t scare him.  The cartel guys don’t scare him.  He’s a cranky, politically incorrect old codger who gets friendly with the cartel guys while he gets richer.

It’s a great role for Eastwood – quirky and certain, brave and a pain in the arse.  His character evolves as his family becomes more of a focus in his life, so there’s the family drama here as well.

And there’s some big names in supporting roles, Brad Cooper as DEA Agent Colin Bates when meeting Earl over coffee likes him, telling him, ‘you’ve lived so long you’ve lost your filter’.  There’s Michael Peña as fellow DEA Agent, Laurence Fishburne heads up the DEA and there’s Andy Garcia as the cartel King Pin – but all these big names are all in support of the legend that is Clint Eastwood, lead role and director.

I would have liked more of the criminal element, making more of the star-studded cast, but it’s really about the entertainment of the character, Earl, and his ability to get away with his crime as a drug mule because who’s going to believe a ninety-year-old gringo’s shifting drugs for a cartel?

The Mule is more drama than thriller (some-what disappointingly) but there’s some good humour here, delivered by one of the greats.

Let The Sunshine In

Directed by: Claire DenisLet The Sunshine In

Screenplay Written by: Claire Denis & Christine Angot

Produced by: Olivier Delbosc

Starring: Juliette Binoche, Xavier Beauvois, Philippe Katerine, Josiane Balasko, Sandrine Dumas, Nicolas Duvauchelle, Alex Descas, Laurent Grevill, Bruno Podalydés, Paul Blain, Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi, Gérard Depardieu.

I wrote my thesis on, A Lover’s Discourse – Fragments (Ronald Barthes (1977)), using Hemingway’s writing in, The Garden of Eden (1986), Across the River and into the Trees (1950) and also his short fiction piece, Hills Like White Elephants (1927) as an illustration of Ronald Barthes theory:

That love cannot be expressed through language, that love is expressed through the ‘nothing’ that is not language, that it is the actions and gifts given because of love that signpost to the reader that the characters in the story are in love, or conversely, not in love.  Because of the nature of writing love, I have utilized Hemingway’s writing as a basis for Barthes’ theory – it is Hemingway that writes love and it is Barthes that writes of love.

Let the Sunshine In was originally based on the Discourse then evolved into a screenplay written by Claire Denis (also director) & Christine Angot where Isabelle (Juliette Binoche) falls in love, only to have her heart broken, to love again… and again…

Divorced and the mother of a ten-year-old daughter, we only see briefly as a face behind the window of a car pulling away, Isabelle mirroring the outline of her hand on the other side of the glass.  The love of her child is not what this film’s about.  This is a series of moments as Isabelle opens a dialogue with the men she means to love and all the complications and baggage finding love at an older age brings.

She’s not old; she’s not young.

Isabelle laments to a friend that she feels her love life is behind her.  The impossibility of each relationship revealing itself in complicated exchanges, each trying to find a way towards or away from the other.

The camera pans back and forth from the cheating husband who bluntly describes his extraordinary wife he will never leave, to the realisation on Isabelle’s face when she can’t find a way back to the love with this man after his blatant denial – no matter how charming he finds her.

We’ve all been there, the wondering of how much to give, how much to take.  For love.

Here, we see the pulling apart of feelings that are there, or not.  And the language, the limit of language as the lovers try to get past all the talk to find the physical connection.  And then, to keep it.

It’s a complicated film that manages to avoid melodrama, replacing physical expressed emotion with words.

I wonder how much was lost in the translation from French to the English subtitles, yet Barthes’ Discourse is what’s being translated with the depth of meaning still conveyed.

Putting love into words is a difficult conversation.

The expertise and experience of Juliette Binoche shines here.  I couldn’t imagine another actress portraying the vulnerability of Isabelle, the willingness to follow the reasoning behind the emotions from the other.  A heavy burden but a successful one.  Like reading a play because it’s all about the dialogue and the tears and expression and never-ending search for love.

Let the sunshine In isn’t a love story, nor a drama; it’s not sad.  It’s a lover’s discourse.

Mary, Queen of Scots

Rated: MA15+Mary Queen of Scots

Directed by: Josie Rourke

Written by: Beau Willimon

Based on the Book, “Queen of Scots: The True Life of Mary Stuart” by John Guy

Produced by: Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Debra Hayward

Starring: Saoirse Ronan, Margot Robbie, Jack Lowden, Joe Alwyn, Gemma Chan, Martin Compston, Ismael Cordova, Brendan Coyle, Ian Hart, Adrian Lester, James McArdle, with David Tennant, and Guy Pearce.

In the same vein of Elizabeth (1998) staring Golden Globe winner for Best Actress, Cate Blanchett, Mary, Queen of Scots is an intricate film of politics, love, betrayal, stupidity and power.

This is Josie Rouke’s directional debut, her success here, the ability to show the rivalry and complicated relationship between the two half-sisters: Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth.

Mary returns home from France, married at 16 only to become a widow at 18, to return as Queen of Scotland with rightful claim to England, the power in her blood as a Stuart.  A power she has to continually fight for against the male dominated world of 1587.  Where women are condemned as evil, especially returning as Catholic in a land whose foundations rest on the Church of Scotland.

Elizabeth also struggles in a male dominated world.

As a Protestant, Queen Elizabeth has forsaken the ties of the Catholic Church, renouncing the Papas, yet, she struggles to renounce her sister.

And the careful confrontation and manoeuvring for power between the two fiery sisters is fascinating to watch.

We get the intrigue of House of Cards but set in the ‘resplendent’ (as Queen Elizabeth is described by her constant companion and lover Robert Dudley (Joe Alwyn)) rolling lands of Scotland and England to jewels sparkling in candle-lit rooms filled with gentle women and plotting aristocracy, where Elizabeth acknowledges the treachery of men and her necessity to become one in order to remain on the throne.

There’s a lot to unpack, being one of those epic films; but the way the film is shown with Mary speaking to the audience, watching herself at times, telling her tale.  And the symbolism of Elizabeth burning an intricate quilled portrait of red poppies, her obsessive creating of red flowers flowing across the floor like blood from her empty womb hold the attention, to be absorbed into the tragedy and intrigue of the story.

There’s so much attention to detail here, portraying Mary in a different light to the general condemnation of history; the tragedy of being sentenced to death by beheading, ordered by her half-sister, Elizabeth – her reputation, based on unfounded rumours and lies spread by her own Council of sexual depravity and betrayal.  A reputation that has followed Mary into the ages.

The film, based on the detailed historical book, “Queen of Scots: The True Life of Mary Stuart” written by John Guy shows there’s so much more to be told about this powerful woman.

‘There’s a time for wisdom, love.  And there’s a time for strength,’ Mary tells her half-brother, a statement backed by a cold, icy stare shown so well by Saoirse Ronan.

And Margot Robbie shows a continued depth and maturity as an actress in her role of Queen Elizabeth.

Not quite capturing the embodiment of the steal and soft that Cate Blanchett managed to bring to Queen Elizabeth, there’s strong performances here, the success of the film not only an interesting story, but the careful balance between the two powerful protagonists of Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth: where only a queen could understand the burden of ruling a kingdom while remaining each other’s greatest threat.

Second Act

Rated: MSecond Act

Directed by: Peter Segal

Screenplay by: Justin Zackham and Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas

Produced by: Jennifer Lopez, Benny Medina, Justin Zackham and Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas

Starring: Jennifer Lopez, Milo Ventimiglia, Leah Remini, Vanessa Hudgens, Treat Williams, Annaleigh Ashford.

While Jennifer Lopez, the mega-successful singer, dancer and actor has made dozens of movies, only a handful are actually what could be classified as rom-coms, yet she has become synonymous with those kinds of roles.

The trailer for Lopez’ latest outing, Second Act, gives the impression that Jennifer, playing an assistant store manager called Maya, is starring in a light-hearted romantic comedy about a local girl making good.

So it was a surprise to watch this movie unfold and discover that it wasn’t really a comedy at all, more an often reflective exploration of a woman turning 40, who wonders, is this all there is? And why is life experience not valued as highly as a university degree?

Sure, there are some comical moments, mainly due to Lopez’ playful interaction with her bestie Joan, played by Leah Remini in a role that Joan Cusack used to play with ease. There are a few scenes where Lopez’ character Maya is mistakenly supposed to have talents that lead to humorous outcomes. There is also a gently wry sub-plot involving a dorky chemist at the corporation where Maya becomes a highly-paid consultant, and her eccentric assistant who has an extreme fear of heights.

But these light-hearted moments are not the focus of the plot.

Despite having similarities with Working Girl, where the heroine learns to add a veneer of polish to her outward appearance, while her street smarts give her the advantage she needs to succeed, this film relies on a deliberate lie that inadvertently gets Maya the requisite foot in the door of a successful corporation. She may have been employed based on information that severely exaggerates her accomplishments, but once there it is her intelligence and business acumen that sees her score victories and her star start to rise, despite opposition from different men (and some women) who seem threatened by her business knowledge and innovative ideas.

But Maya is harbouring a secret from her past, one that inhibits her and leaves her feeling unworthy of success in her current life, so that she doesn’t readily embrace the opportunities that Fate has suddenly thrown her way. The movie takes a sudden turn down an unexpected path that I didn’t see coming, and that adds even more layers of suspense and interest.

Of course, in any movie with a heroine who has down-to-earth girlfriends, you’d expect there to be some romantic ups and downs. Maya’s boyfriend of five years, Trey (played by Milo Ventimiglia, shuttling from coast to coast across America while working on this film and the TV series This Is Us) seems too good to be true. He also wants something from the relationship that Maya is too conflicted to provide (and can’t tell him her reasons). So their issues provide an undercurrent of tension as her professional star rises.

One scene shows Maya jogging (ostensibly for exercise), yet I got the impression she was running from her demons as well, often dwelling on past mistakes and waiting for the moment she will be exposed. This angle gave the film a slightly less predictable plot arc whilst also imbuing the interaction between characters with unexpected depth, but without ever really leaving the audience in doubt of the eventual outcome. The film, despite not being a normal rom-com, is entertaining, briskly directed, with a fabulous wardrobe for Ms Lopez, effective use of locations and a hummable soundtrack, as well as a supporting cast that ably assists with fleshing out the action.

According to director Peter Segal, Second Act is ‘about second chances, reinvention and not giving up’.

According to Lopez, who was also a producer on this film, the mantra is ‘the only thing stopping you is you’, a lesson her character learns and accepts, just in time for her own particular brand of happy ending.

The Children Act

Rated: MThe Children Act

Directed by: Richard Eyre

Produced by: Duncan Kenworthy

Screenplay based on his Novel by: Ian McEwan

Starring: Emma Thompson, Stanley Tucci, Fionn Whitehead, Ben Chaplin, Jason Watkins, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Anthony Calf, Rosie Cavaliero, Eileen Walsh, Nicholas Jones and Rupert Vansittart.

The Children Act is based on the novel written by Ian Ewan – he also writes the screenplay stating he started writing after spending time with ‘a handful of judges’ who were ‘Talking shop’.

A Sir Alan Ward (an appeal court judge) left the table to consult a bound volume of his own judgments to settle a disagreement.  Ian found himself with the book, reading the judgments and finding the cases written like short stories; those involved captured in broad strokes; the dilemma written with sympathy for the ones who inevitably lose.

Several years later, The Children Act was written.

The film opens with the sound of a gentle heartbeat, blood reaching through arteries like the branches of trees the film revolving around a case where a seventeen-year-old Jehovah Witness’ boy, Adam (Fionn Whitehead) who has leukemia, refuses a blood transfusion because of his faith.

To the Jehovah Witness, the soul, like life itself, lives in the blood, therefore, it belongs to God.  To allow another person’s blood or soul enter his veins would be blasphemous.

The hospital moves to force the transfusion under the instruction of The Children Act, 1989:

“When a court determines any question with respect to … the upbringing of a child … the child’s welfare shall be the court’s paramount consideration.”

The case lands on the desk of eminent High Court judge Fiona Maye (Emma Thompson), who now childless and struggling in the relationship with her husband Jack (Stanley Tucci) because of her commitment to her career, finds her emotions breaking through her usual cold rational as she decides the fate of Adam’s life – to allow him to die for his faith, or force him to live at the cost of his beliefs.

She decides to hear from Adam himself, to see that he understands the painful death that awaits at the refusal of the transfusion.

A highly unusual circumstance, she sits by his hospital bed and ends up singing with him as he plays his guitar.

This is a practical, concise and highly intelligent woman who has sworn not to allow her emotion to enter her decision-making process – all very believable from the performance of Emma Thompson.  Her place is to make decisions based on law not morals.

All the while imagining her husband having an affair, writing a text, ‘Having fun?’ Then having to delete when work and making life-and-death decisions for other people and their families once again become the priority.

When Adam survives, when his life is more important than his dignity, he chases the only one who understands: the woman who decided to save his life.

This is a film about the characters who are making serious decisions all day, every day.  Emma Thompson shows clarity of mind when making a judgment in court balanced against the confusion and overflow of hurt when her husband explains his unhappiness in their marriage: ‘Do you remember the last time we made love?’ he asks.

‘No idea!’ she states while pouring over the arguments for and against the separation of conjoined twins.

Then we see this fascinating case of Adam playout in court, from the medical side to the point of view of his parents, to the clear mind of a judge entangled in emotion from her personal life, to still be able to make concise decisions; the consequences of her decision shown in this strange and precocious boy who lives.  Who wants to know more about the life he feels he owes to her.

The film asks the question – if you save a life, are you responsible for that life?

Not in the court of law.

The Children Act is a quietly emotive film that gives a deeper understanding of those stories we’ve all read in the papers.

It’s a thought-provoking film about how the court has more power over life than religion.  And the cost it takes from those who make the judgment and the ones who have to live with a decision not their own.

Roma

Rated: MA15+Roma

Directed and Written by: Alfonso Cuarón

Cinematography: Alfonso Cuarón

Produced by: Nicolás Celis, Alfonso Cuarón

Starring: Yalitza Aparicio, Marina de Tavira, Fernando Grediaga, Jorge Antonio Guerrero, Marco Graf, Daniela Demesa, Carlos Peralta, Nancy Garcia, Diego Di Cort and Verónica Garcia.

The 75th Venice International Film Festival, Golden Lion winner

Based on the semi-autobiographical upbringing of writer and Academy Award winning director Alfonso Cuarón (Children of Men (2006); Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2010); Gravity (2013)) in Mexico during the 1970s, Roma feels like a legacy left as a gift that we all get to share.

It’s not often I see a film that speaks to the heart of things with perfect balance; a sigh at the end because there’s a kind of sadness it’s finishing but also a happy sigh because it all feels complete.

From the opening scene, Roma slows everything down with the flow and splash of water used for cleaning the concrete squares of a courtyard with the reflected image of an aeroplane flying overhead.

Here, we’re introduced to the family: wife, Sofia (Marina de Tavira) and husband Antonio (Fernando Grediaga) and the children, Paco (Carlos Peralta), Pepe (Marco Graf), Sofi (Daniela Demesa), grandma Teresa (Veronica Garcia).  And the two nannies, Adela (Nancy Garcia Garcia) and Chloe (Yalitza Aparicio).   But really, the two young nannies are part of the family.  As is the ever-pooing on the courtyard squares, Borras the dog.  And the galaxy car that fits into the courtyard-come-garage by a mere centimetre each side…

I love the humour of the film, mounted heads of previous pet dogs included.

And the love and tragedy of the characters is perfectly captured in black and white moments so although a quiet film about life and family, I was mesmerised by a story shown by an observer with a particularly knowing eye; from the heart of a wise and old soul like young Pepe talking to Chloe about his past life as a pilot, ‘back when I was old’.

The film is just full of wonderful treats like the hills that look like they have skirts and the rubbing of vinegar on sunburnt shoulders so the children smell like salads.

We’re shown this deeply personal story of a family that managers to subtly open a door on the rarity of life captured that goes deeper than an emotional level.  There something spiritual here as Chloe is shown with the love of a young boy who sees her soul so clearly.

Even with the tragedy of heart break, there’s strength; even through earthquakes and government seizing land, the Indigenous population living in slums, and fathers leaving their children, there’s an ever evolving resilience where keeping close helps get through all the scary; where scenes of baby bottles amongst the wine and ashtrays are a sign of the times and forest fires alight on New Year’s Eve: there’s always the slow drone of an aeroplane overhead.

I loved this film, the quiet, the sad, the love, the beauty, the simplicity of people living their lives shown with amusement and a rare honesty that fills you up.  Now that’s film making.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fp_i7cnOgbQ

Boy Erased

Rated: MA15+Boy Erased

Directed and Written by: Joel Edgerton

Based on the Novel by: Garrard Conley

Produced by: Steve Golin, Kerry Kohansky-Roberts, Joel Edgerton

Starring: Lucas Hedges, Nicole Kidman, Russell Crowe, Joel Edgerton, Cherry Jones, Michael “Flea” Balzary, Xavier Dolan, Troye Sivan, Joe Alwyn, Emily Hinkler, Jesse LaTourette, David Joseph Craig, Théodore Pellerin, Madelyn Cline and Britton Sear.

‘Say it, I am using sex and homosexuality to fill a God-shaped hole in my life.  Say it!’ demands Victor Sykes (Joel Edgerton) head therapist of a conversion program.

It’s a mantra he uses to cure the ‘afflicted’ and confused brought to Love In Action (LIA) to be cured of their homosexuality; a program Jared (Lucas Hedges) finds himself trapped in after admitting his homosexuality in a world built on Christian values: his Christian mother Nancy (Nicole Kidman) and his father, Marsahll Eamons (Russell Crowe) a Baptist pastor.

There are a lot of LBGTQAI films around (recently, ‘The Miseducation of Cameron Post’ and ‘Disobedience’), and I admit, I groaned at reviewing another drama that didn’t hold my interest – Australia has just been through a referendum to make gay marriage legal; the topic, shall I say, has been well discussed.

But I also admit to my ignorance, the bubble I inhabit where I don’t have to confront my Christian parents with an admission I know they would struggle to accept.

Director, screenwriter and actor, Joel Edgerton read Gerrard Conley’s memoir, ‘Boy Erased: A Memoir of Identity, Faith and Family’ in what felt like seconds; relating more to the concept of feeling trapped than the confession of homosexuality.

And this view brings a different tone to the film – the suffocation and trauma of good people doing bad because of misunderstanding rather than politics or even religious perspective.

Boy Erased is more the unveiling of psychological trauma experienced by innocent, good kids who are genuinely confused (or not) about their sexuality; who are willing to go into a program, for the sake of their parents and family, that tells them God won’t love them if they’re gay (and think about it, bringing a group of conflicted young people together to stop them being gay?  Talk about forbidden fruit!).

So when church and family, the foundation of your upbringing tells you you’re sick and wrong, the psychological damage is soul destroying.

Instead of being hit over the head with a, for want of a better metaphor, good versus evil (the evil being the religious, anti-gay) there’s a more complicated dynamic shown here, shown from the perspective of a son who wants to do the right thing, and parents who love their God and their son.

There are very different roles for some big names in film here – Nicole Kidman as the bleached, rhinestone encrusted pastor’s wife, the pastor himself played by Russell Crowe: a powerfully conflicted man whose faith tells him to disown his son, yet a loving man who continues to try to understand.  Love is love is easy to say until it’s your own.  Jared’s father admits to his struggle to accept and his disappointment of never having biological grandchildren.

Joel Edgerton plays the surprisingly believable charismatic lead counsellor – who would have thought the Aussie larrikin had the cult leader in him?!

And the restraint shown by young Jared is endearing.  I can’t think of another term because he managed to strike a maternal chord.

Edgerton has handled this complicated suffering that exists quietly yet extensively in the world with delicate sensitivity, allowing the integrity of Jared to continue to echo beyond his novel, and perhaps even this film.

Donbass

Rated: MDonbass

Directed by: Sergei Loznitsa

Script by: Sergei Loznitsa

Produced by: Heino Deckert

Starring: Tamara Yatsenko, Liudmila Smorodina, Olesya Zhurakovskaya, Boris Kamorzin, Sergei Russkin, Petro Panchuk, Irina Plesnyaeva, Zhanna Lubgane, Vadim Dobuvsky, Alexander Zamurayev, Gerogy Deliev, Valeriu, Andriuta, Konstantin Itunin, Valery Antoniuk, Nina Antonova, Natalia Buzko, Sergei Kolesov, Svetlana Kolesova, Sergei Smeyan.

Donbass, named because of the region in Eastern Ukraine where the film begins and ends, isn’t a typical war film.

This is a confusing and absurd film of moments during a war between the Ukraine regular army made up of volunteers and the separatist gangs supported by Russian troops.

The focus is on the ground amongst the people living their everyday lives in a world of chaos with chapters showing bombs dropped while laughing on the phone, waiting in the car in line at yet another check point.  And a raucous wedding filled with congratulatory soldiers with code-names like Lumber Jack and Coupon.

It’s a disturbing mix of footage shot in freezing weather and underground bunkers where civilians are forced to live without water, heat and a working toilet – like people from the ‘stone age’.

This is director and scriptwriter, Sergei Loznitsa’s fourth feature film.  He describes Donbass as a fiction based on true events, quoting Varlam Shalamov in his short story, PAIN: it’s a film that’s, ‘a distorted reflection in a curved mirror of the underground world’.

And it’s a cold world with a constant undercurrent of threat.

One chapter shows a German journalist who’s pulled from a vehicle at a check point for questioning – the soldiers happy to have found a ‘fascist’: even if you don’t think of yourself as a fascist, your grandfather certainly was.

Only for them to all get bombed anyway.

I wouldn’t say the film was overly violent, but the violence shown is disturbing because it all seems so senseless.

I spent a lot of the time watching the film in confusion, trying to figure out who was on what side.

The civilians shown to be just as confused, one scene showing a middle-aged woman talking to a volunteer captured and tied to a pole with, ‘Extermination Squad Volunteer’ taped to his chest, asking when the bus will arrive… and how she can’t walk as far as she used to…

Then to see the man inevitably get almost based to death isn’t really my style of entertainment.

I get the statement made here – the degradation of people living amongst the senselessness of war; but I found the viewing extremely dry, confusing and absurd.

Which was the point, I grant, but it was just so depressing l was left with a sense of incongruity and bitterness.

A Star Is Born

Rated: MA Star Is Born

Directed by: Bradley Cooper

Screenplay by: Eric Roth, Bradley Cooper and Will Fetters

Based on the 1954 Screenplay by: Moss Bart and the 1976 Screenplay by John Gregory Dunne and Joan Didion and Frank Peirson

Based on a Story by: William Wellman and Robert Carson

Produced by: Bill Gerber, p. g. a., Jon Peters, Bradley Cooper, p. g. a., Todd Phillips, Lynette Howell Taylor, p. g. a.

Starring: Lady Gaga, Bradley Cooper Sam Elliott, Andrew Dice Clay, Rafi Gavron, Anthony Ramos, Dave Cahppelle.

A Star Is Born is one of those country love stories because with real love comes the real tragedy of watching a star rise despite people telling her she’s ugly and the mega-star musician suffering addiction and tinnitus while losing the sense of who he is.

Add music, good music, and you’ve got more just a love story.

I didn’t go into the film expecting to like the music so much.  I’m a ‘No pop no style, I strictly roots’, kinda gal.

But all the singing was recorded live and most of the songs original and written for the film – no miming, just the real voice so you can feel it coming through the screen.

And with the opening scene of Jack (Bradley Cooper) singing “Black Eyes” with band, ‘Luckas Nelson & Promise of the Real’ I was hooked.

Sure, Jack was blitzed, but he could still sing a good tune.

Cut to Ally (Lady Gaga), a waitress, heeled boots under a toilet stall, pacing, breaking up with a ridiculous boyfriend – ‘fucking men!’ to her getting ready for a gig singing in a drag bar where you bring your own boobs – with pasted fine-line eyebrows, lying back on a bar, her voice slipping over the French as she sings “La Vie En Rose” (Louiguy and Edith Piaf) – there’s goosebumps when their eyes meet – they’re soul mates.

The music is used to compliment the story because it’s all about seeing these two together on screen: first time director Bradley Cooper with first time feature film actress Stefani, AKA Lady Gaga.

What a combination: Cooper as Jack with that soulful look off-setting the sometimes-awkward Lady Gaga as Ally, only to be used for added authenticity because we’re all a bit awkward sometimes. And yet, really, she’s not.  Ally just is.

It’s amazing how much I feel like I know this character now.  And how I’m relating to this superstar so well – she’s funny, genuine and wow, can she sing.

But it’s the two of them together that really makes the film.  I don’t think Ally would have been as believable without Cooper as Jack.  And Lady Gaga’s voice lifts the film above the usual country love song.

I was so thankful this wasn’t a musical or music video.

A Star Is Born is a well-balanced film with the authentic music matching the love story so when the music got poppy, the story got sad, to go full circle back to the earthy music again to compliment the end of the story.

Even when there could have been a cheesy moment between older brother Bobby (Sam Elliot) and younger brother Jack, all the feeling was captured in a look from Bobby while backing the car away – everything shown in that one look.

There’s drama here, and it’s a tear-jerker (damn it! I hate getting teary in the cinema), as we’re shown the life-behind-the-curtain of the talented songwriter finding her voice in the musician who sees her as clearly as she sees him.

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