Becoming Cousteau

Rated: MBecoming Cousteau

Directed by: Liz Garbus

Produced by: Liz Garbus, Dan Cogan, Mridu Chandra, Evan Hayes

Written by: Mark Monroe & Pax Wasserman

Executive Producers: Julie Gaither, Carolyn Bernstein, Ryan Harrington.

Becoming Cousteau is an inspiring documentary about the man who showed the world what lies below the surface of the sea.

With eyes staring through goggles, Captain Cousteau is quoted, ‘Diving under water is the greatest distraction.’

On land we’re constantly fighting gravity.

When asked what it’s like under the surface, he replies, ‘It’s fantastic.  Imagine having no weight.’

In the beginning it was his curiosity that led him to dive deeper under water, to a place where he could dream.

When Germany invaded France in WWII he was able to forget what was happening on land.  He was able to escape into another world.  Where, for a time, he envisaged people living under the water.

The documentary is a linear biography of Cousteau’s life, from 1935 as a pilot for the Navy, to the end of his life in 1997.  His life an evolution from an underwater explorer to inventor, film maker, philosopher, husband and father to environmentalist.

Universally respected as a scientist and explorer, his voice opened people’s eyes to the beauty of the underwater world, and the danger of losing it.

Through newspaper articles and interviews, footage from Cousteau’s many films, including Oscar Best Documentary winner and winner of the Palme d’Or award, The Silent World (1956), Cousteau showed the world life under the sea and even made an impression on Picasso who was amazed by the unexpected colours and held onto a piece of coral given to him by Cousteau until he died.

Thoughts written in journals are read of Cousteau’s experiences while sailing the seas on the explorer vessel, The Calypso.

Cousteau invents the Aqualung out of necessity, technology that allows him to dive deeper into the depths.  And seeing more, discovering more he wants to take a camera with him so invents a case, so he can film underwater.

Inventor turned film maker, he created 52 TV shows as he satisfied his curiosity to explore the ocean.

His notebook was his camera.

The documentary paints a picture of a truly amazing and brave man.  Yet there’s balance in the telling with the risk of diving further than before requiring, ‘a strong head and cold heart.’

He admits his curiosity ruling his life while he neglected his family.

And with the discovery of the sea in distress from all the pollution, there’re years of pessimism and grief for the passing of his son, Philippe.

Like the black and white film made bright with splashes of fluorescent colour, the film brightens with hope – The Cousteau Society still strong today in its efforts to conserve the environment.

But I don’t think the intention of the documentary is to share a message of conservation, although this was important to Cousteau in the later years of his life.  The feeling is more a biography of a man whose curiosity led to fascination to then love and the want to protect.

Mental As Everything

Featuring: Damon Smith, Adam CoadMental as Everything

Music: Damon Smith, Adam Coad, Barney McCall

Creator: Damon Smith

Producer: Matthew Briggs

Mental as Everything is a documentary that uses a quirky combination of animation, original music and lyrics and direct to camera discussion to tell the story of two musicians who provide mutual support and understanding for each other’s mental health conditions.

Even from the very first scene, it is obvious that it hasn’t been easy for Damon Smith and Adam Coad to share so much of themselves with the camera. This becomes clear when Damon introduces himself: ‘On the screen there is Damon Smith and that is me and this is my voice talking about myself while you watch me on the screen’. Immediately followed by, ‘This is awkward.’ And to double down on his point the word ‘Awkward’ appears in bright yellow letters against a black screen.

At first, Damon’s introduction does appear self-conscious and awkward, but it points up an interesting motif woven through the documentary. Damon is identifying himself as both an onscreen character and someone existing somewhere off screen giving voice and motivation to his onscreen likeness. This sense of duality is one of the things I found so fascinating about Damon and Adam’s story.

In some of the animations and in the lyrics of their songs Damon and Adam personify their conditions, with Adam describing panic attacks as lying in wait behind bushes while Damon poignantly refers to his Obsessive Compulsive Disorder as an, ‘Outlandish Centralised Dictatorship’. This duality is a way, I think, to separate themselves from their conditions and give some critical distance to their inner torment.

On another level, Adam describes his mind as a seedy bar filled with sketchy characters, each more heinous than the next. While, at the same time, he acknowledges that, ‘Nothing is broken on the outside.’ On the outside, Damon and Adam are two very likeable and easy going mates and it is hard to fathom that they each have such a Sisyphean struggle going on inside themselves.

In giving this window onto their inner worlds, it is Damon and Adam’s intention to de-stigmatise their conditions, but their documentary is also filled with interesting snippets along the way, such as bananas being natural beta blockers that inhibit some of the physical effects of anxiety and as well as attempting to gently debunk some of the misconceptions that still cling.

When someone who likes to be clean and organised humble brags, ‘OMG! I’m so OCD,’ its not OCD that they are boasting about. For Damon having OCD is torture. One of his compulsions requires him to fulfill a ritual where he puts on and removes his socks seven times, and he must repeat the ritual until it has been executed to the implacable standards of the dictator within, otherwise there will be a ‘hellish outcome’. The humble bragger is actually referring to a much less cruel condition, Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder.

Mental as Everything is a sensitive documentary that deals with its subject matter in a creative and insightful way, and Damon and Adam’s music adds to the appeal. A band with a double bass in their line-up is likely to produce an interesting sound and this one with its double bass, piano and drums, original music and lyrics certainly does that.

Alien On Stage

Directed by: Danielle Kummer & Lucy HarveyAlien On Stage

Cinematography: Danielle Kummer

Produced by: Danielle Kummer, Lucy Harvey

Executive Producer: Adam F. Goldberg

Featuring: Dave Mitchell (director, Paranoid Dramatics), Luc Hayward (writer, sound, costume design), Raymond Hayward (set designer), Peter Lawford (creature designer, special effects artist), Amie Wells (crew costume design).

Cast of Play: Jason Hill (Captain Dallas), Lydia Hayward (Lieutenant Ripley), Jacqui Roe (Science Officer Ash), Susan Baird (Ash Stunt Double), Carolyn White (Lambert), John Elliot (Brett), Mike Rustici (Parker), Scott Douglas (Kane/Xenomorph) and Penny Thorne (Voice of Mother).

‘Anything can happen on the night.’

Every year around Christmas across Britain, amateur dramatics groups put on a pantomime to raise money for charity.

Dorset dramatics group, Paranoid Dramatics have previously put on a crowd pleasing show about Robin Hood.  But this time director, Dave Mitchell wants to try something different.  Something close to his heart and his family’s, who’s obsession with the film, Alien is shown with great pride.

This time, he wants, Alien on Stage.

The actors: local Dorset bus drivers.

Adam, manager at the bus depot says in an interview that he’s seen the movie Alien, but ‘can’t imagine how you convert that into a stage drama.’

And that just adds to the comedy of the show.

This is one of those feel good doco’s about everyday people doing something extraordinary while having a good laugh.

Everyone pitches in.

It’s great excuse for a catchup and gossip – eating together, drinking together (instead of learning their lines).  And in the end that’s what makes the film such a joy to watch.  To see the backstage shenanigans; to get to know the people.

There’s Karl, the stage manager: ‘the director is my dad.’

Dave the director is ex-army and admits, ‘I can be blunt.’

There’s Lydia his partner also part of the team as, Ripley.

And Granddad Ray as set designer.

All the work is from scratch with the script adaptation written by Luc Hayward who was told he’d never see his work on stage (unless he considered moving to L.A.).

Then there’s Jacqui (Ash on stage) – her drama teacher the only one who ever gave her a chance, who stood by her when her head teacher said she’d fail every exam at school.  All Jacqui wants to do is act.  Even if it’s for free.

All the cast and crew want to be there.  They want to do the work.

But then only twenty people turn up to watch the show.

It’s all disappointment then shrugged off with a smile.

Then the incredible happens when film makers Danielle Kummer & Lucy Harvey make contact (ha, ha), wanting to make this documentary.  To film the journey as the, Alien On Stage production gets a one night show in London.  At the Leicester Square Theatre.

The nerves.  The excitement.

The trying to learn the lines.

This is a cast that doesn’t take themselves too seriously.  And that’s part of the charm.

Just like the film Alien, it’s like two worlds colliding (well, the folk from Dorset a welcome visit, not eaten alive, even though they might feel it’s a distinct possibility) as the amateur theatre group gets thrust into the spotlight of the elite theatre district of London.

The incongruent adds that extra layer of wry humour which gives the documentary, as described by the filmaker Lucy Harvey, a touch of magic.

Kummer and Harvey follow all those involved in the project, replicating that square green font on computer screen (keeping in mind that Alienesque vibe), as the days count down to the big show.

It’s a behind the scenes documentary made up of interviews, rehearsals and Alien Cam – footage shot from the perspective of the Alien / Xenomorph while up on stage.

But any animation or finesse made by the documentary crew is background to the team that is, Alien on Stage.

I smiled through the entire film, seeing the genuine excitement and joy and so much laughter as the cast and crew pulled together to put on the best show they possibly could.

It’s absolutely nerve-racking.

‘My legs don’t work,’ says Lydia, just before walking on stage.

‘I’m going for a cigarette,’ says director Dave.

This is a lighthearted good fun documentary that delivers.  I’m still grinning.

Top Movies To Stream Now – Free To Air or Subscription

GoMovieReviewsNow we’ve finally got a road map of when Melbournians are allowed back in the cinemas, we can look forward to the… 7th of November.  Which is still a long way off.  So, here’s a list of four star + movies available for streaming while we wait get back to the big screen:

Movie
PreviewReviewWhere To Watch
John Wick 3 PreviewReview ★★★★☆ (4.3/5)Foxtel / Prime
You Were Never Really Here PreviewReview ★★★★★Shudder /
BeamaFilm
Deerskin PreviewReview ★★★★1/2Stan /
BeamaFilm
Parasite PreviewReview ★★★★1/2Stan
RomaPreviewReview ★★★★★Netflix
Good TimePreviewReview ★★★★☆ (4.2/5)Netflix
SicarioPreviewReview ★★★★★Netflix
Miss Sloane PreviewReview ★★★★☆ (4.6/5)Stan
Wind RiverPreviewReview ★★★★☆ (4.2/5)Stan
American AnimalsPreviewReview ★★★★☆ (4.2/5)SBS
Get Out PreviewFoxtel
Triple 9PreviewReview ★★★★1/2Netflix
Marina Abramovi: The Artist Is Present PreviewBeamaFilm
Blade Runner 2049 Preview Review ★★★★☆ (4.3/5)Netflix
Mountain PreviewReview ★★★★★Stan
ArrivalPreviewReview ★★★★1/2Netflix
Hunt For the WilderpeoplePreviewReview ★★★★☆ (4.2/5)SBS
Clouds of Sils Maria Preview Review ★★★★BeamaFilm
20,000 Days on EarthPreviewBeamaFilm
Whiplash PreviewPrime /
Foxtel
The GuardPreviewStan
Constantine PreviewStan
The Page Turner PreviewBeamaFilm
It Follows PreviewFoxtel /
Shudder
Cabin in the Woods PreviewStan
The Royal Tenenbaums PreviewDisney+
The Ghost Writer PreviewStan

Disclosure

Rated: MA15+Disclosure

Written and Directed by: Michael Bentham

Starring: Geraldine Hakewill, Matilda Ridgway, Mark Leonard Winter and Tom Wren.

‘There are two sides to every story, and then there is the truth.’ – Anon.

Disclosure is a complex, layered and thought-provoking film, where the perspective of each character shows a different version of their truth.

That’s the narrative of the film: four parents trying to come to an understanding when Emily (Matilda Ridgway) and Danny Bowman’s (Mark Leonard Winter) four-year-old daughter, Natasha describes sexual abuse from Ethan: the nine-year-old son of Bek (Geraldine Hakewill) and Joel Chalmers (Tom Wren).

Bek refuses to believe her son capable of such an act.

And Emily is distraught that such an act has happened to her daughter.

Do they go to Child Protection?

Do they seek counselling for their children?

What decision will do the least damage to their kids?

Set in the house and backyard of the Bowmans, the film is made of silence between the dialogue, between the parents trying to behave as adults while they fall apart.

At first the film shows fractures in the façade: the politician, an MP currently under the watchful eye of police protection with his immaculate wife dressed for a fund raiser.  A family doing the best for the community.

And then there’s the two journalists, award winning documentary on the horizon, a book waiting to be published.

Intelligent.  Adults.  Friends.

Surely they can come to an understanding.

But as the conversation continues, the cicadas fill those awkward silences as the fractures widen into cracks.

‘My daughter has a name,’ says Danny.

While Joel the MP asks for reason as he’s about to launch a campaign: Strong families.  Safe children.

The complexities underneath the words are slowly revealed.

The characters drive the film as the environment of the house in the suburbs, filmed in the Dandenong’s, surrounded by trees is deceiving in its simplicity; as the parents sit by the pool, a spider dancing across the water, as shadows move underneath.

The setting is used to show the emotional tone of shock.  The distress of even talking about a son abusing a friend’s daughter leaking through the surface adults hold firmly in place: would you like a drink?  Snacks are arranged.  All those rituals of social engagement are slowly worn away as the parents attempt to process what may or may not have happened with their children.  And the consequences.

This is a tough topic to portray in a film, writer and director, Michael Bentham using the slowing down of movement, the drawing away of the camera to show denial; the shadows across a face to represent barely controlled anger, a spider web stepping the process of thought from one layer to another.

The very idea of sex and kids and porn and what’s OK for adults and how that can influence the behaviour of a child, to dealing with allegations from another child is like a minefield.  The difficulty of figuring the right way to handle the situation without losing your mind as a parent is navigated through dark corridors, beyond the surface into unexpected deep layers to where the characters hold their own truth.

I didn’t expect the depth of this film.

And the dialogue and delivery is strong.

But not always hitting the mark.

And although the slow motion was used well, the scenes with slow motion and missing frames (like a stop frame technique) feels cheap and makes me think of some re-enactment of a crime story on the news.

Having said that, if you’re in the mood for a quiet thought-provoker, the way the complexity of character is revealed makes, Disclosure a riveting watch.

The Ice Road

Rated: MThe Ice Road

Directed and Written by: Jonathan Hensleigh

Director of Photography: Tom Stern

Produced by: Al Corley, Bart Rosenblatt, Eugene Musso, Shivani Rawat, Lee Nelson, David Tish

Starring: Liam Neeson, Laurence J. Fishburne III, Marcus Thomas, Amber Midthunder, Benjamin Walker, Matt McCoy, Holt McCallany, Martin Sensmeier, Matt Salinger.

Hauling heavy loads over ice is what truckers call an ice road, meaning, a suicide mission.

So much can go wrong.

And does in this action drama with Liam Neeson behind the wheel as Mike: a trucker with a one punch knockout.

He’s a trucker always getting fired looking out for his veteran brother, Gurty (Marcus Thomas) suffering from aphasia: ‘I am the only one who can understand what he is saying, and he’s a brilliant mechanic, but he does not like taking orders,’ says Neeson about his character.

After a methane pocket causes an explosion at a diamond mine, miners are trapped with a thirty-hour window until their oxygen runs out.  The only way to get drilling wellheads to free the men is to haul by truck, over an ice-road closed for the season.

Goldenrod (Laurence J. Fishburne III) is called in to get the job done.

The only way Goldenrod can see a truck making it through to the miners is by sending three trucks, in the hope one will make it through to the miners.

It’s a strategy of tactical redundancy.

Fired from yet another job, the Irish, tooth-pick in mouth trucker, Mike decides the risk is worth the reward – enough cash to put towards his own rig.  He takes one truck.

In the second is Goldenrod himself.

In the third is Tantoo (Amber Midthunder), just bailed from jail after protesting against all of North America for taking her ancestors land.

Each take a rig with two-hundred thousand on the table to share, or to go to whoever makes it to the other side, along with Insurance man, Varnay (Benjamin Walker) there to protect his company’s investment.  And Gurty’s pet rat.

The fuse is lit.

And there literally is a fuse burning to ignite dynamite at one point.  It’s that kind of movie.

With winches and d bolts and petrol in diesel tanks as sabotage.  The action’s relentless.  And by the end overdone with choppy editing to cut down the problem solving montages to speed up the action, along with splicing to another scene that worked most of the time but by the end left gaping holes.  Like, how did the rig go from full speed to idling in a second?

And why isn’t that guy with the broken leg screaming his head off?

But this ‘bull run’ about ice-truckers who can stop for nothing and no-one has the constant underlying suspense of the trucks always on the verge of cracking through the ice and sinking.

As Tantoo coolly explains to Varnay the insurance guy:

Movement causes waves so if you drive too fast, there’s too much movement.  The ice cracks.  In you go.

Too slow, the ice breaks under the weight of the rig.  In you go.

I actually yelled a few times.

The whole idea of ice-truckers is exciting to watch.

Writer and director Jonathan Hensleigh didn’t want to shoot a VFX film: “I wanted real background – the ice road, the mountain driving sequences, I wanted it all to look real.”

And seeing the rigs driven across the ice is the best part of the film.

Pairing back the action and filling the gaps so the editing wasn’t so choppy would have built on that suspense of driving those 18-wheeler rigs across ice.  With one problem after another needing to be solved, it was all a bit unbelievable by the end.

But as action movies go, Neeson always managers to pull it off.  And the storyline had enough going for it with a few twists and well-placed punches from, ‘kiss my Irish arse,’ Mike that made, The Ice Road, worth a watch.

The Suicide Squad

Rated: MA15+The Suicide Squad

Directed and Written by: James Gunn

Produced by: Charles Roven, Peter Safran

Starring: Margot Robbie, Idris Elba, Joel Kinnaman, John Cena, Viola Davis, Jai Courtney, Michael Rooker, Flula Borg, David Dastmalchian and Taika Waititi.

‘Is that rat waving at me?’

The opening scene sees the death of a pretty yellow bird.

Birds feature a lot in, The Suicide Squad mark II.

To the extent I was wondering by the end – what’s with the birds?!  Is it because they represent freedom?  Could be something in that, the squad been given a chance at freedom, etc.

Like the first film, potential members of Task Force X are found languishing in Belle Reve: the prison with the highest mortality rate in America.

Languishing until Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) offers them a deal they can’t refuse: 10 years off their sentence in hell.  Or for those not tempted by the reduced sentence, the promise not to incarcerate a ten-year-old daughter (Storm Reid) that would more than likely mean death.

Sent on another impossible bloody mission, this time to the jungle of Corto Maltese, there’s the same antics from characters such as Captain Boomerang (Michael Rooker) with a whole new cast of villains with unique skills like: Peacemaker (John Cena) who loves to walk around in his y-fronts, Bloodsport (Idris Elba) who really does not get along with Peacemaker, King Shark (Sylvester Stallone)  – apparently a god who now has a taste for human and amongst other new characters, Polka-Dot (David Dastmalchian): the man has issues.  With leader Colonel Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman) back to direct the chaos.

The film has the same foundation as the first instalment, a squad of anti-heroes sent on a covert mission by the government – but way more extreme.

There’s still that manic fun tone, with the likes of Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) shooting her way to freedom with a demented smile, but I don’t remember the first instalment being so brutal.

Not that nasty is necessarily a bad thing.

I’m a big fan of gallows humour, and there were a lot of funny moments that tickled, sometimes unexpectedly like seeing the back view of Milton (Julio Cesar Ruiz), the bus driver, as he runs after the squad to ‘help out’ in his shorts and Crocs.

And making light of a trained rat, friend of Ratcatcher 2 (Daniela Melchior), 2 because the first Ratcatcher was her father (Taika Waititi, yep Taika’s in it!):

‘Is that rat waving at me?

‘It appears it is’

…’Why?’

But sometimes the humour was just that bit too off-kilter – see above about the birds.

It was about 50/50 for me.  But when the humour hit, it tickled A LOT.

The narrative goes back and forth in time, highlighted by the inclusion of text in scene – leaves falling to write, ‘Now’.

There’s more clever with relief from the blood and guts when blood’s replaced with an explosion of flowers.

And that blending of scene continues with music played in the bus becoming the soundtrack, the, Pixies track, ‘Hey’ backing the squad as they walk into their next suicide mission.  Gold.

The attention to detail is impressive as director James Gunn pushes the boundaries so the humour’s darker, the violence more bloody, with an added extra tilt towards the demented.

Tending towards horror and comedy rather than action, there’s a lot of entertainment here but brace yourself, it gets twisted.

Old

Rated: MOld

Directed by: M. Night Shyamalan

Written by: M. Night Shyamalan

Based on the Graphic Novel: ‘Sandcastle’ by Pierre Oscar Lévy and Frederik Peeters

Produced by: M. Night Shyamalan, Ashwin Rajan, Marc Bienstock

Starring: Gael García Bernal, Vicky Krieps, Rufus Sewell, Ken Leung, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Abbey Lee, Aaron Pierre, Kathleen Chalfant, Alexa Swinton, Nolan River, Kylie Begley, Embeth Davidtz, Eliza Scanlen, Alex Wolff, Emun Elliott, Thomasin McKenzie.

I wasn’t overly impressed with the trailer for, Old: people going to a beach and getting old.  Quickly.

But being a Shyamalan film, there’s always going to be more to the story.

Based on the graphic novel, Sandcastle the idea of people stranded on a beach, rapidly aging, gave Shyamalan the foundation of the film.

I don’t know whether it’s because I haven’t been to the beach, heard the waves or being greeted at a resort with a cocktail for a while (supposed to be in Magnetic Island right now but currently in lockdown, grrr) – the scenery added another dimension: the water always flowing, keeping time.

The Capa family arrive via a private bus to resort, Anamica.

There’s the sound of birds and cicadas: the sound of the tropics.

The daughter, Maddox (Alexa Swinton) is singing.

‘I can’t wait to hear it when you’re older,’ says Prisca (Vicky Krieps) about her daughter’s voice, mother of Maddox and young son Trent (Nolan River).

Some of the hints are heavy handed.

Yet the family dynamic with husband, Guy (Gael García Bernal) and Prisca’s relationship being played out in front of their children; and their young son hanging out with his new friend, Idlib (Kailen Jude) son of the resort manager: ‘What’s your name and occupation,’ the two boys ask the resort guests.  It’s the sort of thing kids do when they’re free and happy on holidays.  And a great way to introduce the main characters.

It’s all very watchable.

Like an easy listening radio station.  It’s easy watching.

But there’s always hints of what’s to come.

A guest has an epileptic seizure at breakfast.  But she’s OK.

Parents keep secrets from their kids.

There’re buzzards flying overhead.

Given an invitation to a private beach, it’s made very clear it’s a secret.  Just for the Capa family.  But then other guests get on board the bus.

They’re driven through the jungle.

Just walk through a cave and you’re there.

The cave opens-up onto a pristine beach, surrounded by rocky cliffs.

A lone man sits in the distance.

The kids find buried cutlery and dolls in the sand.

There’s no phone reception.

Then the children on the beach begin to change.

‘Something is going on with time on this beach.’

I expected the build to be boring.  But there’s enough mystery going on with the characters inside the main storyline to allow pace.

The timing is important in the film because the whole story’s about time.

Old isn’t edge-of-your-seat action or thriller, but suspense handled well.

The kids particularly at the start of the film ease the story in nicely.

I like Vicky Krieps (Phantom Thread) as the mum.

The casting all round was well done, the change of the young kids to the older characters believable.

Except the glaring change in eye colour for one character (not giving anything away), from blue to brown when she gets older a jolt out of a tenuous suspended reality.  I don’t know whether I missed something or a genuine oversight?  But it felt like swapping out an actor in a soap opera and everyone pretending it’s the same character.  The change threw me.

Yet even after this stretch the film was still better than expected with good pacing making the mystery overall, an intriguing watch.

Gunpowder Milkshake

Rated: MA 15+Gunpowder Milkshake

Directed by: Navot Papushado

Screenplay by: Navot Papushado, Ehud Lavski

Producers: Andrew Rona, p.g.a. Alex Heineman, p.g.a

Starring: Karen Gillan, Lena Headey, Chloe Coleman, Paul Giamatti, Carla Gugino, Michelle Yeoh, Angela
Bassett.

Gunpowder Milkshake opens to the sounds of a thunderstorm as lone assassin Sam (Karen Gillan) is
completing a hit in her target’s apartment. A rhythmic thudding draws her attention so she turns toward the door. Behind it is a small militia with all guns drawn and pointed at her.

Later, when she is tucked up at home watching TV and casually stitching a flesh wound on her own arm, Sam receives a call summoning her to meet with Nathan (Paul Giamatti), her handler and front man for a shadowy cabal called The Firm.

She’s in trouble.

‘It was supposed to be a low profile gig, not a massacre.’

She has killed the wrong man and The Firm wants to cut her loose, leaving her unprotected.

One of the attackers Sam dispatched was the son of an influential crime figure that The Firm wants onside. When his henchmen find her, Jim McAlester (Ralph Ineson) has vowed, ‘to do terrible things’ to her.

There is only one place left for Sam to turn. The Library. A front and an armoury for a nest of female assassins.

Filmed in Berlin, director Navot Papushado’s city has that otherworldly, Dark City-esque sense of a city forever in darkness lit with glowing neon, a city we recognise but can’t quite identify.

In this parallel reality the violence is so extreme, so gratuitous and so utterly over-the-top that it has a cartoon quality, but it’s the crazily inventive and completely goofy situations that arise from the action that set this movie apart.

If Sam is to leave the Dental Surgery she uses as a makeshift hospital, she must fight her way out of an ambush with both of her arms paralysed.

For their side, the faceless men in black suits, The Firm’s board members and McAlester’s mafia-style crime family both represent rigidly hierarchical organisations. ‘They make all the rules and change them when it suits their needs’, always assured of their ability to muster overwhelming force.

When McAlester’s man Virgil (Adam Nagaitis) yells out, ‘You think you have a chance here? I’ve got an army!’ He means it. His boss has sent a bus full of men to take Sam down.

Sheltering from the gunfire behind the library’s check in desk with her mother (Lena Headey), Sam counters, ‘I’ve got my mum’.

Sam’s retort is pitch perfect and it beautifully encapsulates so much of the nuance in the movie. Not only does it acknowledge the fact of Sam’s dearly longed for relationship with her estranged mother in this desperate moment and the ferocity of her mother, she is a formidable ally, but also the way that the movie unobtrusively values the traditionally feminine arts such as sewing alongside gun slinging and close-quarters combat.

Never underestimate a librarian, or the emancipating qualities of good book. The women are kickass in this movie, taking it up to the men on their own terms, even while they have quietly created pockets of resistance that function beneath their notice and an ingenious method to hide their weapons.

This movie is just plain fun to watch.

The County (Héraðið)

Rated:The County

Directed and Written by: Grimur Hakonarson

Starring: Ardís Hrönn Egilsdottir, Sveinn Ólafur Gunnarsson, Hinrik Olafsson, borsteinn Bachmann.

Icelandic with English subtitles

The Co-op grocery store.
The back-stop of the community.

In true farming fashion, Inga (Ardís Hrönn Egilsdottir) pulls a calf from a cow’s womb.
The calf looks up. Healthy.
Inga sits back, proud.

This is a woman who takes pride in her work. Not pride, exactly. Appreciation, of the everyday.

Her husband, Reynir (Hinrik Olafsson) snuggles close to her as Inga works in bed on her laptop, writing.

Seems like an ordinary life – a farm in The County, surrounded by snow on heather; there’s tractors and drinking while watching the game.

Then it starts.

First with a man from the Co-op bailing up a painter for buying his paint from elsewhere.

Then Inga wonders why they can’t buy fertilizer cheaper from a different distributor.

Why should the Co-op decide where they purchase their goods?

Why?

Because the Co-op will take the land from under the farmers if there’s debt.

And how do farmers get out of debt when they’re forced to pay more from the Co-Op?

They can’t.

It’s what Inga calls, ‘The Co-op mafia.’

And she’s not afraid to post articles about it.

The County is a slow burn drama (not really a comedy) that follows Inga as she uncovers the wrong that so many others in the community turn a blind eye to because of the hold one company can have when they’re the only option.

But there’s more to the story then a bent company.

This is a slow tear tracing a cheek as the snow falls.

This is about grief. And letting go.

I like the message here and seeing the strength of character – a woman standing up for what’s right; to free herself.

Quiet in the telling, this is a countryside drama without any thrills, just a good quality character study without flash because Inga wouldn’t need it.

Better to see the truth.

Subscribe to GoMovieReviews
Enter your email address for notification of new reviews - it's free!

 

Subscribe!