Shaun the Sheep, mark 2 (ha, ha, like marking a sheep, although, I don’t know wether (ha, ha) everyone will appreciate the farming humour) finds the familiar mob of Shaun and mates: baby sheep, Timmy, Nuts the cock-eyed eccentric and of course, double the size, super-round tub of fun, Shirley, up to mischief on Mossy Bottom Farm and still under the watchful eye of ever vigilant farm dog, Bitzer.
The clay, stop-motion characters (on average, two seconds of animation produced, per animator, per day) never gets old; the woolly tails and gappy-toothed characters always able to make their feelings known without uttering a single intelligible word.
Here in, Farmageddon, a new character is introduced to the world of Shaun, Lu-La.
Lu-La may look like a purple and pink dog, but those ears glow and have special powers. Alien powers.
With UFO sightings comes Believers. And with Believers flocking (I just can’t seem to help myself) to Mossingham, comes the opportunity to make money.
Full of the usual antics that we’ve come to expect from the franchise, Shaun the Sheep 2 has that same humour with the added dimension of space. In other words, G-rated humour that had my nephews in hysterics – think, nasty bull accidently getting beamed up into a spaceship, looking aggressively unhappy.
And I admit, I was tickled about Farmer walking around in a jumper, woolly socks and bright red y-fronts.
After 150 episodes of the TV show, one TV special and, now, two feature- length movies, Shaun is still a lot of fun, here his world expanded with 70 sets making Faramageddon the biggest undertaking to date.
Due for release during the school holidays, this is a film you can take young kids without being a painful experience for the adults.
Produced by: Sam Mendes, p.g.a., Pippa Harris, p.g.a., Jayne-Ann Tenggren, p.g.a., Callum McDougall, p.g.a., Brian Oliver
Executive Producers: Jeb Brody, Oleg Petrov, Ignacio Salazar-Simpson, Ricardo Marco Budé
Starring: George MacKay, Dean-Charles Chapman, Mark Strong, Andrew Scott, Richard Madden, Claire Duburcq with Colin Firth and Benedict Cumberbatch.
A tense, end-of-seat drama about mateship and the moments in the machine of war that gives a solider back his humanity.
April 6, 1917 is when two young British soldiers, Lance Corporal Schofield (George MacKay) and Lance Corporal Blake (Dean-Charles Chapman) are handed the task of saving sixteen-hundred lives.
Thinking the Germans have cut and run, Colonel Mackenzie (Benedict Cumberbatch) plans to give chase, to make a real difference in this bloody war, without realising the retreat is a trap – a strategy to lure the soldiers to certain death. One of those men, Blakes own brother.
This is a high-stakes drama that rides on the suspense rather than confronting with the gore of war. This is about mateship and family and the drive to help even when exhaustion is so deep you could drown just to rest.
1917 is a linear story that follows the conversation of the two mates as they take the task of the near impossible, across No Man’s Land, through the trenchers of the enemy, behind enemy lines, through a countryside not their own.
It’s a contrast of rotting dead bodies and wildflowers as we follow the young men, as they meet fellow soldiers on their mission, as they battle through traps and trip wires and giant rats.
The tension runs high because the film follows the story of the two soldiers closely so no one knows what comes next.
‘Sometimes, men just want to fight,’ warns General Erinmore (Colin Firth), the man sending them on their mission.
The only thing that matters is getting that message to Mackenzie.
A lot has to be said about the soundtrack here, a low vibrating drone creating that just below the surface feeling something bad is about to happen.
I jumped, that tension breaking with a shot or unexpected fall – you know that bad thing that happens. Not the super bad or expected, but the papercut or trip. That blip in life that catches you unaware. It’s kinda like that, but in a war, the consequences of a slip equals death.
I’m not a fan of war movies because it all gets a bit too real, too confronting. And there were moments here that stirred that anger. But this isn’t gory, it’s more about the suspense and characters, the young men fighting to make sense of where they are and where they’re being ordered to go. And making sense of it in the little things: giving a hand to get a truck out of a bog, to hand over a bottle to another because he knows he’s going to need it more. That’s how to make sense of it. By understanding the little things.
It’s been a busy year taking on another part-time job (because we all know movie reviewing doesn’t pay the bills, but it sure is fun) so a fair chunk of posted reviews are from contributors, notably, the wonderful, Lisa Roberts.
Top of Lisa’s list this year features the Spanish psychological mystery starring Javier Bardem and Penélope Cruz, Everybody Knows (Todos Lo Saben).
And for something different, see Nicole Kidman in the gritty crime thriller, Destroyer, or the recent release of French historical-romance, Portrait of a Lady on Fire.
Unfortunately, I was unwell around Halloween (yep, one of those years) so I missed some of the horror-thrillers, Joker being the film I regret missing the most…
I finally got to, Once Upon A Time In Hollywood deserving a special mention; a divisive film but one I enjoyed because Tarantino is just such a good writer (or re-writer of history in this case): clever and strangely uplifting, Once Upon A Time is like righting a wrong provoking a deep satisfaction and excuse to enjoy some gratuitous violence and in that sense, a classic Tarantino.
Which leads me to my reviewed, Top 10 for 2019.
I love a good thriller, but I’m finding my taste in movies requires levels, a journey.
Well, my top rating of Hellboy may not reflect this new sophistication – I still love some blood and guts with fantasy and a wry sense of humour.
But some of the family animation out there is mind blowing, as is the foreign film selection released this year, many rating 4-stars with Bong Joon-Ho’s, Parasite making my number one release.
And let’s not forget the indie films, the stand-out for me this year from legendary film maker and star, Jim Cummings: Thunder Road.
Set entirely in the room housing the workspaces for those answering and directing the urgent calls incoming, the film focuses on the mysterious Asgar as he shows the classic signs of burn-out.
This is a tense psychological thriller as we’re taken down a dark road of murder, fear and the frustration of being on the end of the phone trying to get to the person on the other side.
The animation of this adventure-packed film is stunning; the burst of colours and detail of waterfalls and at the antics of Toothless in his attempt to woo the beautiful Light Fury hilarious and delightful.
Superficially, this is a western, a classic tale of two bad guys going after a man who’s found the secret to finding gold. But underneath all the killing and gold fever is a delicate tale of humanity.
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.
I’m still reeling from those fight scenes that somehow managed to tap into that fight response fuelling the experience with adrenaline. It’s just relentless, the hit after hit, I could feel the force as I laughed and cringed and grinned through all the blood and violence because it’s so hardcore it’s funny. On purpose.
A poignant tale of all the darkness and light in life – sad and happy and true.
Antonio Banderas won the Cannes 2019 Best Actor Award for his performance here. And I can see why with his humble sincerity a warmth felt through the screen.
The overriding feeling I got from this film was grateful: life can be cruel, but it can also be kind.
A film that starts off one way, then evolves into something else so the film’s like a journey into a way of thinking or a thought that creeps up. Brilliant.
SPECIAL MENTIONS if you’re still looking for something to watch, try this 4-star list:
Is it the ‘Lady’s’ portrait that is on fire or does the title allude to a portrait of a ‘Lady’ who is on fire? Inscribed within the very title is a hint of the subtleties and ambiguities that characterise this deeply intimate romance, winner of the ‘Best Screenplay’ at the Cannes Film Festival.
And from this point on, the enigmas only proliferate.
In the opening scene, a hand clasping a stick of willow charcoal hesitantly traces a black line across the page while the model/tutor posing in front of the class instructs her students and, at the same time, indirectly urges the viewer to, ‘Take the time to look at me.’
Much in the way that an artist will strive to render three dimensional form on a two dimensional surface, noticing the minutiae of form and the way the model’s limbs and torso are affected by the quirks of perspective and the play of light, so too the viewer is invited into a more intense and quiet world where gesture and symbol take on a deeper meaning and sounds emerging from the stillness— waves slapping against a wooden hull, keys jangling, the scratch of charcoal on paper—take on their own musicality.
It is 1760 and Marianne (Noémie Merlant) is travelling to an isolated chateau perched atop a cliff on the Brittany coast to fulfil a commission. She is to paint a wedding portrait for Héloïse (Adèle Haenel), but the work must remain a secret. Her subject, freshly graduated from life in a convent, is clinging on to her first and last moments of freedom before she is offered up for marriage to an Italian nobleman she has yet to meet, and the only way for Héloïse to resist is to prevent her portrait from coming into existence.
While Héloïse has already forbidden one artist to continue painting her, she doesn’t suspect that her new companion may have her own agenda. Not only is Marianne compelled to work in the few moments of daylight she can snatch away from her time with Héloïse, she must also reassemble Héloïse in her memory from the fragmented glances she manages to steal as the two roam the grasslands surrounding the estate and the rugged shoreline below.
As she works at her task Marianne reflects, ‘One must study the ear, even if it is covered.’ With this observation, Marianne does not simply refer to the way that memory and imagination must work together to reconstruct that which is hidden, or the way the folds and whorls of the ear set up a visual rhythm that recalls its function, she also draws our attention to the ear as a motif, with its form a labyrinth at the entrance to a lightless tunnel.
Like the layers Marianne builds up on her canvas—from the initial cartoon marked out in charcoal, through the abstract daubs of paint where features roughly blocked in glow whitely against the raw umber imprimatura, to that moment when a likeness appears as if from a veil of smoke—that first guarded friendship between the artist and her subject forms its own layers, eventually building into a connection that will draw them both through an emotional and philosophical labyrinth to that lightless tunnel at its heart.
Based on:Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot, the musical “Cats” by Andrew Lloyd Webber
Produced by: Debra Hayward, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Tom Hooper
Starring: James Corden, Judi Dench, Jason Derulo, Idris Elba, Jennifer Hudson, Ian McKellen, Taylor Swift, Rebel Wilson and introducing Francesca Hayward.
‘It’s party time, with your permission, of course.’
With dark streets lit by the neon signs of, The Egyptian and, The Rising Sun, cats prowl the streets…
Based on the multi award winning musical (including seven Tony Awards), Cats, I expected a lot of, well, cats singing.
That is the nature of the beast, so to speak.
What I wonder is how to write a review about a musical when I really can’t stand the things.
And I have to say the movie got so bad, it was kinda good. Sometimes.
Take Skimbleshanks (Steven McRae) the Railway Cat. He had nothing else in the story except being a tap dancing, ginger cat that lives on the railways. It still tickles me because it was just so bad.
But, I love that ginger Railway Cat!
Weird, right?!
The whole movie is just a little bit weird. But basically, Victoria (Francesca Hayward) gets dumped by her owner in the streets and suddenly, all the street cats start singing about being a Jellicle cat and how one cat gets chosen by Old Deuteronomy (Judi Dench) for another life at the annual Jellicle Ball.
With a few, I mean a FEW, jokes thrown in like, Cat got your tongue; and other jokes in the same bad dad joke arena, the film is all about singing and dancing. To the point the question was asked, ‘Who is Deuteronomy?’
And I thought, No doubt they’ll sing about it… Guess what, they sang about it.
I couldn’t wait for the film to be over so I could cleanse my brain with a crime thriller of some description.
Then, either because I got used to the painfulness, accepting the cat reality, or, the movie got a little better, I found myself moved by the beautiful sweet voice of Victoria. And I could visualise some of those beautiful ghosts (from some of the more famous songs fans will be well aware of).
But most of the time, I was scratching my head (influenced by that cat scratching behaviour, no doubt), wondering, why?
Screenplay by: Blaise Hemingway, Greg Erb and Jason Oremland
Story by: Lino DiSalvo
Produced by: Aton Soumache, Dimitri Rassam, Moritz Borman, Alexis Vonarb, Axel Von Maydell, Timothy Burrill and Bing Wu
Starring: Anya Taylor-Joy, Jim Gaffigan, Gabriel Bateman, Adam Lambert, Kenan Thompson, Meghan Trainor and Daniel Radcliffe.
‘I’ll be the girl I used to be.’
Marla (Anya Taylor-Joy) has her whole life in front of her and expresses this enthusiasm to explore the world by singing with her little brother, Charlie (Gabriel Bateman).
Oh yeah, Playmobil The Movie, is a musical (see the score by musician Heitor Pereira (Despicable Me trilogy, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, The Smurfs movies, Minions, Smallfoot, Angry Birds Movie 2 and original songs, co-written by Anne Preven).
Then the film takes a dark turn when tragedy strikes the brother and sister.
Fast forward four years later and Marla no longer has her fresh, wide-eyed view of the world, her little brother accusing her of not knowing how to have fun.
It’s all a bit cringe-worthy until the duo fall into the Playmobil world where the characters turn into live-action Playmobil figurines.
Finding themselves in an action-adventure with car chases and villains and dinosaurs, all the Playmobil® toys that have been around since 1974 come to life as brother and sister fight alongside Vikings and a suave James Bond. So the film’s about finding the excitement and zest for life they both lost when Marla had to become sister and parent.
The animation from ON Animation Montreal (Julien Bocabeille (How to Train Your Dragon 1 and 2, Puss in Boots, Rise of the Guardians, The Croods, Mr. Peabody and Sherman, Kung Fu Panda 2 and 3, Penguins of Madagascar and The Boss Baby)) is well put together using the stiff toys then adding movement and life with materials like cloth, and there were moments of fun with villain, Emperor Maximus (Adam Lambert) sitting behind a buff body painted on one side of his chariot.
But this is a film directed at a young audience so there wasn’t much for me to enjoy except some fun changes in genre along the way.
Story by: Matt Lieberman, Erica Rivinoja, Conrad Vermon
Based on Characters by: Charles Addams
Produced by: Gail Berman, Alex Schwartz
Starring: Oscar Isaac, Charlize Theron, Chloe Grace Moretz, Finn Wolfhard, Nick Kroll with Better Midler and Allison Janney.
The Addams Family has always been about the dark and creepy; the humour based on the inversion of what is horror and terrible, think spiders being unleashed from under Morticia’s (Charlize Theron) dress to weave together a spider bridge to cross a bottomless pit… Now that’s Addams Family normal. While all that’s sweet and rosy is awful and intolerable, is normal – see spider bridge mentioned above.
Morticia cuts the rose flower leaving the theory stem. That’s how she likes it. Morticia carries a pose of thorny stems as she walks down the aisle to marry her one true love, Gomez Addams (Oscar Issac), ‘To be joined in the damning void of matrimony’. To marry in their homeland before the villagers chase away the scary couple, along with their monstrous guests and bridal party. They must make their way to a safer place where they can be themselves, somewhere to raise a family, somewhere like the state hospital for the criminally insane. In New Jersey. Perfect.
#MeetTheAddams is the tagline for this new animated version, the movie the origins of the Addams, taking the story back to the beginning, to introduce the family once again with the familiar characters captured like Uncle Fester (Nick Kroll), delightful with his, ‘I think I can see my house from here. No, that’s a women’s prison.’
And the children, the memorable murderous Wednesday (Chloe Grace Moretz) and demolition, forever-trying-to-outsmart-and-kill-his-father, Pugsley (Finn Wolfhard).
The film becomes the lead-up to Pugsley’s thirteenth birthday, to complete the Sabre Mazurka in front of all the cousins and monstrous family. To become a man.
There’s more to this film than the inversion of what’s horror and what’s nice, there’s also assimilation and the fight against always having to be the same. Wednesday becomes friends with a normal: Parker (Elsie Fisher). And shows her rebellion by wearing, OMG, a pink unicorn hairclip.
So, yeah, there’s that inversion again. But there’s also acceptance of the individual. I like that in a movie.
Add ‘plastic’ woman, Margaux (Allison Janney) trying to re-model the abode, the casa Addams insane asylum, and you’ve got fun times and a good watch with the kids without being too childish or too adult.
Hell, it’s worth a watch just to see Lurch (Conrad Vernon) done-up like a Christmas tree.
Produced by: Ram Bergman, p.g.a., Rian Johnson, p.g.a.
Starring: Daniel Craig, Chris Evans, Ana de Armas, Jamie Lee Curtis, Don Johnson, Michael Shannon, Don Johnson, Toni Collette, LaKeith Stanfield, Katherine Langford, Jaeden Martell, Noah Segan, Edi Patterson, Riki Lindhome, and Christopher Plummer.
Knives Out is a classic who-done-it that begins with the drama of violins playing as chasing dogs run from the rising gothic structure that houses the Thrombey family.
I love a movie that begins with dogs, this one with a wry hint of humour that continues as private investigator Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) investigates the mysterious suicide of famous multi-millionaire author, Harlan Thrombey after celebrating his 85th birthday.
Made like a familiar murder mystery, think, Murder She Wrote (a nod given as the mother of nurse Marta (Ana de Armas) watches transfixed in Spanish) or an adaptation of one of Agatha Christie’s novels, there’re the usual suspects, here a family, eldest daughter and self-made, Linda Drysdale, married to Richard Drysdale bearing trust-fund brat who refuses to grow up, Ransom (Chris Evans), along with Walt (Michael Shannon), the son who looks after the publishing business with no real work of his own… Then there’s widower and daughter-in-law, Joni (Toni Collette) and college-kid, Meg (Katherine Langford), living off hand-outs while hiding their dirty deeds. And let’s not forget grandson Jacob, the politically ambitious kid who spends too much time in the bathroom, probably masturbating to Nazi propaganda.
Then there’s nurse Martha. She’s the one who always beats Harlan at playing Go.
It’s a different genre from director and writer, Rian Johnson, his previous work, Looper (2012) (if you haven’t watched this action / sci-fi yet, you’re in for a treat) and more recently, Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017) (one of the best to date, in my opinion) epic journeys that start in one place and finish somewhere completely different.
Instead of a journey, Knives Out is one of those stop situations where the characters are held in one place. So it’s all about the details of the setting, the entrance of house-keeper, Fran (Edi Patterson – also fantastic in the series, Righteous Gemstones) captured in the angle of a mirror, the trick window, the books and figurines and paintings that catch the eye while looking for clues. And the dialogue takes the mind in different directions, away from the central investigation as the family discusses racism or not being racist while handing nurse Martha a dirty dish to be put away.
So yes, it’s a murder mystery with clues dropped for the sharp observer as private investigator, Blanc pieces together the real story of the patriarch’s death, but it’s the wry humour and the distraction I enjoyed:
Martha answers her mobile, ‘Hi Walt.’
‘Hi Martha. It’s Walt.’
‘Hm.’
There’s a stellar cast here, although, I’ve got to say Daniel Craig’s southern drawl as Blanc dragged for me – brat Ransom even highlighting the annoying accent.
I wonder if it’s because I’m so used to Craig as Bond these days, with that British accent?
Evans was the highlight for me. And Jamie Lee Curtis as the dry eldest, self-important daughter. And Toni Collette perfected the quiet desperation of the self-help guru relying on hand-outs, hence the quiet desperation.
So, there’s quality here and attention to detail.
Some of the humour missed the mark, see above: the southern drawl.
L S Lowry was a British artist (b. 1887, d. 1976) renowned for painting urban landscapes featuring textile mills, factory chimneys and other scenes from Pendlebury in Lancashire, where he lived and worked for more than 40 years.
The song, Pictures of Matchstick Men, by Status Quo (1968), refers to Lowry’s slightly abstract, impressionistic style of painting. Other than that reference, I wasn’t at all familiar with the artist or his work, so had no idea what ground the movie might cover.
From this perspective, the film engaged me and kept me wondering how it would end, although it was in no hurry to get there.
Rather than being an exploration of their entire lives, the film deals mainly with the years 1934 until 1939, when son Laurence Stephen Lowry (Timothy Spall) is his mother’s sole carer, while also holding down a full-time job as a rent collector, like his father before him, and painting in the attic studio most nights after she has retired to sleep.
The father died earlier and left them in debt, so their existence is restricted, although they can afford an unseen maid to do light cleaning.
Lowry is on the cusp of becoming known as an artist, so perhaps the choice of such a compressed timeframe helps show what he had to overcome in order to become recognised.
I wondered before I saw the film why it was called Mrs Lowry & Son, since the son was the one who became a famous artist. But after several minutes in her company it is clear that, despite being bedridden, the mother (Vanessa Redgrave) is the dominant person in the relationship, while his devotion to her is harder to fathom.
Perhaps by dealing with this small period in time the film depicted the essentials: his mother as the only person he really wanted to connect with, the frustration that she could not see what he could, but that he determined to balance his duty to her and his passion for painting as they were equally important.
According to biographical accounts, Lowry’s mother was controlling, couldn’t abide failure, and disliked living in an industrial, working class suburb, when she had been raised in elegance and luxury.
She considered her son’s choice of painting subjects to be ugly and a constant reminder of how far down they had fallen in society. It’s only when we see these two people in flashbacks, with her an elegant, straight-backed young woman skilfully playing the piano, or him as a young child in a sailor suit entranced to be in her company at the beach, that you can appreciate the dynamics that were established so long ago and are too entrenched now to be changed.
This filmed version of a play is very much stage-bound, and quite often stilted in the way it is photographed and acted. The only moments of lightness come from Lowry’s walks when he plays innocent games with the local children who delight in his company.
Both actors deliver their lines carefully and a bit woodenly, as though at a formal dinner party.
Not a lot happens for much of the time, just little scenes of him walking around town observing people and buildings, where he gets his inspiration, or at home upstairs in her bedroom, with her holding court from her bed while he balances his dinner on his lap, giving her updates on what is happening outside, or discussing their neighbours. But her constantly critical edicts on his lack of success, his wasted time painting, and her utter lack of appreciation for all his sacrifices to ensure she has a comfortable if slightly shabby home, food, company and safety, make her a very unlikable person.
One reviewer said she was right up there with monster mothers such as Joan Crawford in Mommy Dearest or Piper Laurie in Carrie, and she is easily as awful as them, if not worse.
He tries to cheer her up and she says, ‘I haven’t been cheerful since 1898’.
It’s almost as though she enjoys being bitter and grumpy, and by constantly belittling her son ensures he’ll never have the confidence to leave her. This is especially evident when he receives an offer to show some of his work at a London gallery, and she manages to suck all the joy out of this prospect.
Apparently if she is unhappy, he must be so, too.
For a film depicting a struggling artist yearning to be recognised, not a lot of time is spent showing him painting in his attic studio or seeing more than just a few of his paintings from that period. This is frustrating if you want to see what he spends so many of his evenings immersing himself in, after he declares to his mother how his art is an obsession, how he sees beauty all around and must capture it somehow.
There are a few glimpses of his work, including the story behind the portrait of an unusual woman he saw on a bus, or a landscape featuring sailing boats, which turns out to be a treasured memory of a time he and his mother spent together at a beach during his childhood.
This is a very slowly paced film, in no hurry to get anywhere, and not given to deeper explorations of its characters’ motivations.
It will probably appeal more to an older audience accustomed to a slow burn rather than a bright rush. But I was engaged throughout, and inspired enough afterwards to research Lowry’s works, which I found fascinating in their deceptive simplicity.
Lowry once said that he was “a man who paints, nothing more, nothing less”, and this film doesn’t challenge that claim.
Produced by: Rachel Clements, Isaac Elliot, Meredith Garlick, Trisha Morton-Thomas
Narrated by: Eric Bana
Director of Photography: Clair Mathon
Featuring: Isaac Elliot, Scruff Hamill, David Walsh, Daymon Stokie , Luke Hayes, Toby Price.
‘Fast as all hell, rough as hell and dangerous as all hell.’
If that sounds like your idea of fun, you might want to head up to Alice Springs on the Queen’s Birthday long weekend for the Finke Desert Race.
Each year 15,000 spectators and 500+ riders turn up for the Northern Territory’s biggest annual event.
It’s a two hour dash through the scrub to the Finke Hotel, 230 kilometres through the heart of Australia, and for the riders, ‘It’s like holding onto the edge of a cliff for two hours’.
While the car and bike events each crown a King of the Desert, the dirt bikes are the glamour event. Theirs is the raw confrontation with one of the most challenging off-road events in one of the most remote places in the world.
Part of the allure is that a dark horse can come up from behind and steal the crown.
With race favourite Toby Price forced to compete in the four wheel drive section due to injury, the field for this year is wide open. As Finke is raced on corrected time, and each rider sets off individually, the race leader will not necessarily be the winner.
Behind the scenes there are high stakes for these potential dark horses in their ubiquitous trucker caps, with the film honing in to tell the stories of six competitors from a field of nearly 600.
Yamaha hasn’t taken out the race in 9 years and local boy Daymon Stokie, despite a broken hand, hopes to steal the crown from fellow local and KTM rival David Walsh.
Scruff Hamill has driven up from Sydney to race a 1970s’ bike he’s restored himself, while Isaac Elliot will attempt the race on a bike with special modifications. A decade earlier he fell during the race and, while it rendered him paraplegic, it didn’t dilute the Finke fever running through his veins.
Every year there are gut-wrenching stories. Who will take the crown this year? The desert will decide.
Breathtakingly beautiful, ‘The desert is an all-powerful force that looms over every rider,’ and stunning cinematography, using aerial and ground-level views, even bike-cam, captures the inscrutable beauty of this ancient world, while glimpses of the night sky are awe-inspiring.
As Eric Bana’s voiceover intones, ‘It’s God’s country, it’s like nowhere else’.
With its clouds of dust, drifts of red sand, relentless heat, dangerous curves and infamous whoops (like the corrugations on dirt track, only bigger—much bigger) the Finke is intense. It is very much a confrontation with human fragility. According to emergency services, just about every bone in the human body has been broken somewhere along the track. As one rider very perceptively commented: ‘The hardest part of the course is the four inches between your ears.’
The Finke has changed since it began with a group of larrikins in the 70s. According to one ex-rider, ‘It’s a bit different now; it’s a bit serious.’ But some things haven’t changed. There are still plenty of ways to put yourself on the ground. Hard. Even if you’re not in the race, you can ride the 44 gallon drum hooked up to bungie ropes. It’s the Finke version of a mechanical bull.
