Climax

Rated: MA15+Climax

Directed by: Gaspar Noe

Screenplay by: Gaspar Noe

Produced by: Edouard Weil, Vincent Maraal, Brahim Chioua

Choreography: Nina Mc Neely

Starring: Sofia Boutella, Romain Guillermic, Souheila Yacoub, Kiddy Smily, Clude Gajan Maull, Giselle Palmer, Taylor Kastle, Thea Carla Shøtt, Sharleen Temple, Lea Vlamos, Alaia Alsafir, Kendall Mugler, Lakdhar Dridi, Adrien Sissoko, Mamadou Bathily, Alou Sidibe, Ashley Biscette, Mounia Nassangar, Tiphanie Au, Sarah Belala, Alexandre Moreau, Naab, Strouss Serpent, Vince Galliot Cumant.

A spectacular sensor experience that slowly becomes a disturbing endurance.

‘1996, it was just last night’ – director, Gaspar Noe.

Climax is a horror set to dance music from the 90s where everyone goes insane on very, very bad acid.

This is a film based on a real news story from France.

Daft Punk had just released their first record.  And you could still smoke on the dancefloor.

A troupe of dances finish a rehearsal choregraphed by Selva (Sofia Boutella); DJ Daddy (Kiddy Smile) keeping up the tunes while the dances decompress and party.

We’re brought into this amazing space of dancing and music, with most of the characters made up from the best dances director Gaspar Noe and doll line producer Serge Catoire could find in France (and those who could travel to France): waackers, krumpers, a group of electro dancers and a contortionist (Strauss Serpent) for that extra bizarre movement.

And we watch as the dances drink spiked sangria.

And we watch as each of the characters go insane.

There’s a fascinating introduction to each of the dancers with their audition tapes shown on video so we get this psychological profile before they’re all, well, fu*ked.  So we see who they are normally and how they might react to the LSD: horny, confused, hysterical, paranoid, self-harming, murderous.

And the way the dancers were shown speaking to the camera, the dance-moves shot from above; the spinning…  I was completely absorbed from the opening scene.

But really, prepare yourself, there’s cutting, incest, burning and basically people completely losing it, all in this abandoned school with the music always playing.

I was reminded of scenes from Event Horizon (1997) depicting the crew in space when they went literally through hell.

But Climax is based on real and relatable people.

I was into the film.  Then it became an endurance.  It just kept on getting more and more confronting.

People left during the media screening.

For me, if there was just a shocking end to the crescendo (a climax!), I would have gotten into the film more.  But the timeline was kept linear, showing the decline into madness with each step given its due…  Lower and lower until the camera barely lifted from the polished concrete floor reflecting the animalistic grunting and f*cking and blood.

Climax will definitely evoke a response.

It certainly shocked me sideways.

Music:

TROIS GYMNOPEDIES (ERIK SATIE) by GARY NUMAN  SOLIDIT by CHRIS CARTER  SUPERNATURE by CERRONE  BORN TO BE ALIVE by PATRICK HERNANDEZ  PUMP UP THE VOLUME by M/A/R/R/S  FRENCH KISS by LIL LOUIS  SUPERIOR RACE and TECHNIC 1200 by DOPPLEREFFEKT  DICKMATIZED by KIDDY SMILE  SANGRIA and WHAT TO DO by THOMAS BANGALTER  VOICES by NEON  THE ART OF STALKING by SUBURBAN KNIGHTS  ROLLIN’ & SCRATCHIN’ by DAFT PUNK  WINDOWLICKER by APHEX TWIN  ELECTRON by WILD PLANET  TAINTED LOVE / WHERE DID OUR LOVE GO by SOFT CELL  UTOPIA ME GIORGIO by GIORGIO MORODER  ANGIE by THE ROLLING STONES  MAD by COSEY FANNI TUTTI and COH.

Creed II

Rated: MCreed II

Directed by: Steven Caple Jr

Story by: Sascha Penn, Cheo Hodari Coker

Screenplay by: Juel Taylor, Sylvester Stallone

Produced by: Irwin Winkler, Charles Winkler, William Chartoff, David Winkler, Kevin King-Templeton, Sylvester Stallone

Starring: Michael B. Jordan, Tessa Thompson, Sylvester Stallone, Florian ‘Big Nasty’ Munteanu, Dolph Lundgren, Phylicia Rashad.

‘Don’t do this.’

‘I ain’t gotta choice.’

‘That’s the same thing your father said and he died right here in my hands.’

Two sons: each unbeatable on their home soil, each bearing the scars of a mortal wound, each with a score to settle.

Toe to toe, the two couldn’t be more different.

The challenger, Viktor Drago (Florian ‘Big Nasty’ Munteanu), is a man with absolutely nothing but his towering physique and the will to ‘break’ his opponents.

Thirty years earlier, Viktor’s family was left fractured and demoralised following a grudge match between his father, Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren), and Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone).

Growing up in the Ukraine, Viktor has spent his whole life preparing to avenge his family’s honour. Looming over his American rival Adonis Creed (Michael B. Jordan), Drago presents a brooding mountain of raw-boned muscle with nothing to lose.

Significantly shorter with a much lighter frame, Creed has everything to lose, as his trainer and mentor Rocky Balboa points out. Despite a loving mother (Phylicia Rashad), his adoring partner Bianca (Tessa Thompson) and a comfortable existence, Creed grew up without his father and he risks exposing his baby daughter to the same fate if he agrees to meet Viktor Drago in the ring.

While dedicated buffs may find some of the action slightly implausible—even on the movie poster Creed has dropped his guard on the left and is telegraphing his right, leaving himself open (if that makes perfect sense, you might need to suspend your disbelief)—for the rest of us the movie delivers an immersive experience.

Even on set, a sense of danger was present, with director (Steven Caple Jr) describing the choreography of the action as ‘a hardcore musical’. A single misstep and a real punch would have impacted on real flesh, and all of the blows in the slow motion sequences between Drago and Creed were real: ‘Florian said it was only fifty per cent, but it felt like ah a car crash.’ Even the camera operator, Mike Heathcote took a few hits as Florian was stepping up to the lens to simulate the fight from Creed’s point of view.

More than any other, even Clint Eastwood’s harrowing 2004 Million Dollar Baby, this movie brought home to me how primal that space inside the ring actually is. Even with all of the rules, the referees, the high pants and the gloves, in those three minutes between the bells, two men are locked in a struggle not only for the integrity of their vital organs but, ultimately, for their own consciousness.

With so much at stake, the question Balboa poses to Creed before he steps into the ring is: Why are you doing it?

At once he is asking Creed to seek out that nub of grit in his core, at the same time as he asks him whether he should even be stepping into the ring at all.

Haunted by Apollo Creed’s death, the ambivalence in Balboa’s question lends depth to the drama and the feeling is echoed by Bianca when she asks Creed as he lurches around the ring after winning the World Heavyweight Championship, ‘Do you know what’s happening?’

Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch

Rated: GThe Grinch

Directed by: Scott Mosier, Yarrow Cheney

Based on the Book: ‘How the Grinch Stole Christmas’ by Dr. Seuss 1957

Screenplay by: Michael LeSieur, Tommy Swerdlow

Produced by: Chris Meledandri, p.g.a, Janet Healy, p.g.a

Starring: Benedict Cumberbatch, Rashida Jones, Kenan Thompson, Cameron Seely with Angela Lansbury and Pharrell Williams.

Based on the Dr. Seuss book (1957) ‘How the Grinch Stole Christmas’, The Grinch modernises a classic tale of a self-isolating grump (Grinch’s voice-over by Benedict Cumberbatch) who hates Christmas because he can’t stand all the bright light and exuberant joy – three times as much joy called for this year by the major of Whoville.

All Grinchie (so named by the super-friendly neighbour Bricklebaum (Kenan Thompson)) feels when he sees all that joy is pain.

Being chased by over-enthusiastic carollers in town while having to re-stock the cupboards after emotional over-eating… during Christmas week… does not help matters.

What Grinch wants is quiet and isolation in his abode on Mt. Crumpet, with his constant companion Max; the dog able to read his moods from annoyed to really annoyed while making his morning coffee.

So when Grinch sees the size of the giant Christmas tree, where all the Who Folk of Whoville will sing carols – it’s too much.

Christmas has to be cancelled.

And the way to stop Christmas is to dress up like Santa, abduct a tubby reindeer, Fred who looks like he ate the other seven reindeers (hilarious), steal a sleigh from a roof-top and burglarise everyone’s house taking all the presents.

That’ll make him feel better.  He thinks, until he meets little Cindy-Lou (Cameron Seely) who only wants to help her overworked mum.  Cindy-Lou doesn’t want presents, she only wants to feel the joy.

It’s all very sweet.  And the classic nature of The Grinch, the cantankerous meanness of the green, pot-bellied critter is even funnier when alongside the over-joyous Whos while Max and Fred (the orange-haired reindeer) are all the more adorable alongside the grumpy Grinch.

Everyone loves to see a Grinch turn good.  It warms the heart.

And the attention to detail, the artwork of scenes like the light maze and the inventions of Grinch including the extenda-legs; Max turning in his dog matt just that one more time like real dogs do; The Grinch trucking around in sandals over socks; and the little stubby legs of Cindy-Lou as she prepares to leave for the north pole to find Santa in four winter jackets really keeps up the cuteness and fun of the film.

It took me a while to get absorbed into the Christmas world and spirit, but I couldn’t help some laugh-out-loud moments with the screaming goat – Benedict Cumberbatch as The Grinch noting the goat as nothing but ‘strange’ – capturing that sense of humour that I find ticklish.

The Grinch is a classic made with a wave of magic from the Illumination CEO Chris Meledandri who also adapted Horton Hears a Who! (2008) and The Lorax (2012), the success here in those added details so the kids will be entertained by the fun of the story, the light twinkling, the not-so-quiet antics of Fred (who my nephew found hilarious!), while the adults will appreciate the extra effort of getting the wonder of the story as realistic as if it was a film about people: that crotchety old Grandpa, or grumpy Aunty that just needs an extra hug at Christmas-time.

Robin Hood

Rated: MRobin Hood

Directed by: Otto Bathurst

Screenplay by: Ben Chandler and David James Kelly

Story by: Ben Chandler

Produced by: Jennifer Davisson, Leonardo DiCaprio

Starring: Taron Egerton, Jamie Foxx, Ben Mendelsohn, Eve Hewson, Jamie Dornan, Tim Minchin, F. Murray Abraham.

The name ‘Robin Hood’ usually conjures up images of medieval villages awash in mud, a lushly green forest, oppressed and poorly dressed peasants, an evilly sneering villain (Sheriff of Nottingham), an heroic yet elusive outlaw (former lord of the manor) and his motley band of merry men, often wearing green hose to blend into the forest where they hide out between raiding the rich to give to the poor.

My favourite version is The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), with a rousing score provided by Erich Wolfgang Korngold and everyone wearing gorgeous costumes in rich jewel colours. I also have a soft spot for Prince of Thieves (1991), but only because of Alan Rickman as the ruthless, Christmas-cancelling Sheriff of Nottingham.

The latest iteration of the famous legend combines medieval grittiness with contemporary adventure, aiming to drag the famous tale firmly into the 21st century, whether the legend sits here comfortably or not. It’s an enjoyable, rollicking adventure that has beautiful production values, impressive sets, nail-biting chase scenes, convincing acting and a pleasing mixture of drama and some comedy (mainly provided by Tim Minchin’s Friar Tuck who carefully balances his allegiances to both Robin and the Sheriff of Nottingham).

Director Otto Bathurst said of his approach to this film that ‘it is not about being remotely historically accurate or being faithful to previous versions.’ This much is true.

Taron Egerton (Kingsman, Rocket Man), who plays a disillusioned Robin of Locksley returning from the holy wars overseas, concurs, saying that, ‘there is nothing period or traditional about this movie, because it’s not the Robin Hood we’ve all seen before.’ Definitely not. I kept waiting for the assembling of the merry band who follow Robin, but instead there is a smaller group comprising a dewy-eyed Marian (Eve Hewson), Friar Tuck and Will Scarlet (Jamie Dornan sporting his natural Irish accent), with Little John being played as a vengeful Moor. (Jamie Foxx relishes almost every line with a manic grin.)

Things have changed since Robin went off to fight in the Crusades, with Marian having moved on, and the Sheriff of Nottingham oppressing the poor with steely-eyed determination as they slave in his dire mines. I’m not a big fan of Ben Mendelsohn as a villain (see Ready Player One or Rogue One: A Star Wars Story) but here he is more subdued, and is given a grim backstory that makes his current course of villainy understandable if not acceptable.

For the most part the film focusses on the bromance between Robin and John, the latter of whom mentors Robin in the fine art of archery and thievery, interspersed with technically exhilarating horse and wagon chases (I hope no horses were at risk during all this) and lots of close-up fights featuring a staggering variety of bows and arrows.

For the most part I was able to put aside my expectations of this film not following more closely in the established world and time of the legend, and just view it as another adventure movie.

There were some jarring moments (notably the lavish party in the Sheriff’s stronghold which seemed to have escaped from a Great Gatsby film) so that the director’s desire to create a look that is ‘modern Medieval… yet still grounded in its own gritty reality’ was not entirely successful.

But it was a lot better than I was expecting, so if you like adventure films with heroes, villains and a (mostly) believable world, you could do worse than watch this one.

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.

I Used To Be Normal: A Boyband Fangirl Story

Rated: PGI Used To Be Normal: A Boyband Fangirl Story

Directed by: Jessica Leski

Produced by: Jessica Leski, Rita Walsh

Featuring: Elif Cam, Sadia, Dara Donelly, Susan Bower.

Designed as a glimpse into a teenage girl’s sparkly, heart-studded, secret diary, this engaging documentary opens with black and white footage of girls who have flocked en masse for the smallest glimpse of The Beatles during their 1964 world tour. Like some curious kind of behaviour that David Attenborough might explain in a nature program, this knot of screaming, crying, hair-tearing, swooning girls is a phenomenon that had begun to sweep the globe, leaving many a parent and those not caught up in the frenzy utterly bemused.

But. Who are these girls and what has become of them?

In this cross-continental exploration, these questions are addressed through the lives of four very different women, from Susan Bower an Australian television producer, one of the original fangirls captured in the archival footage of the Beatles tour, to Elif Cam, a schoolgirl living in Long Island, New York whose obsession with One Direction has paralleled the five years it has taken the filmmakers to produce their own labour of love.

According to Elif, when One Direction perform ‘It’s like they’re singing to me, “You’re beautiful”.’ And, what young girl could resist a really cute boy looking deeply into her eyes and whispering her all of her heart’s desires, even before she is really aware she has them? While, Dara the more technically-minded Australian brand strategist couldn’t resist the allure of, ‘Five guys in the rain dancing in slow motion’.

Analysing her own longstanding and unshakeable attachment, Dara sets out a chart on an office-grade whiteboard to examine ‘Boyband Basics’.  There’s: ‘The mysterious one, the cute one, the sensible dad/older brother, the sexy one—shirt off—and the forgotten one.’ And, there are definitely, ‘No girlfriends, no brothers and no beards.’

In some quarters, boybands are seen as manufactured, manipulative and relatively unskilled. Given that only one boy in the band might even be able to play the guitar, it can be social suicide for the girls to reveal their secret passion. But, that is precisely the allure. It’s about the perfect boy. And, in a boyband, there’s a boy to match the dreams of every girl.

For Elif, the girl on a video that went viral when she cried uncontrollably at the thought of seeing One Direction, ‘They’re not even like human beings. Nobody can be that perfect’. And, it seems that for all of the girls, the most perfect thing about the perfect boy is that he is unattainable.

At a time in their lives when girls are starting to feel the first flutterings of interest in boys, when their emotions are wayward with wild crushes galore, and at a time when real boys ‘are jerks’, boybands offer unconditional love. They sing of love and tantalise with hints of sex, but it is never overt. They are the boys who will never break your heart.

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald

Rated: MFantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald

Directed by: David Yates

Screenplay by: J. K. Rowling

Produced by: David Heyman, J. K. Rowling, Steve Kloves and Lionel Wigram

Starring: Eddie Redmayne, Katherine Waterston, Dan Fogler, Alison Sudol, Ezra Miller, Zoë Kravitz, Callum Turner, Claudia Kim, William Nadylam, Kevin Guthrie, Carmen Ejogo, Poppy Corby-Tuech, with Jude Law and Johnny Depp.

The second of five in the Fantastic Beasts series, The Crimes of Grindelwald continues in the days before Harry Potter, back to the 1920s following Magizoologist Newt (Eddie Redmayne) and his beasts (his book now published) and the powerful dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald (Johnny Depp), who was captured in the previous instalment (Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them) and is now held by the MACUSA (Magical Congress of the United States of America).

After six months it’s time to bring the dark wizard to court to face his crimes but during the transfer, Grindelwald explodes onto the screen, making his escape.  His mission to gather the pure bloods, to take back their freedom, for wizards to be who they really are, to rule the world and dominate the remaining No-Maj.

Grindelwald explains he doesn’t plan to kill all the No-Maj, ‘The beasts of burden will always be necessary’.

He’s mean but he makes an argument that some wizards find hard to resist.  They don’t want to hide in the shadows any longer.  They want to rule the world.

The running theme through-out the film is, It’s time to pick a side.

Which is difficult for Newt as he states, ‘I don’t pick sides.’

Professor Albus Dumbledore (Jude Law), unable to fight Grindelwald for mysterious reasons revealed in the film, calls upon Newt to find Credence Barebone (Ezra Miller), the Obscurial (a born wizard whose powers were suppressed to the point of becoming an Obscurus, a parasitical force deadly to its host, usually at a very young age) introduced in the first film.

Dumbledore knows Credence is in Paris looking for his birth mother, to find the love he desperately needs and to find his place in the world.  He needs to be found before the silver-tongued charm of Grindelwald captures his power to wield against humanity.

We see the return of Queenie (Alison Sudol) who just wants to love the No-Maj Jacob (Dan Fogler).  Tina (Katherine Waterston) returns to the MACUSA as an Auror after reading the news Newt is engaged to his old flame Leta Lestrange (Zoë Kravitz), a misprint in the gossip pages when she’s in fact engaged to his older brother Theseus (Callum Turner) – awkward!

There’s more development of characters in this instalment with some complicated entanglements as each fight for the cause, or not.

But Dumbledore knows no matter what, Newt will do what is right.

We travel from America to London to Paris, back to Hogwarts, where we see echoes of familiar characters in their younger years.

And now, in this second instalment, we start to solve some mysteries like how the Maledictus named Nagini (Claudia Kim) (now Credence’s companion) becomes the giant snake.

Rowling clarifies, “A Maledictus is someone who carries a blood curse that, over time, turns them into a beast.  They can’t stop it, they can’t turn back.  They will lose themselves…they will become the beast with everything that implies.”

And there are other, ‘Aha’ moments that I admit are starting to draw me in.

Director David Yates and screenplay writer J. K. Rowling have reunited along with the creative team so the tone and look of the film is the same with explosive moments and the amazing effects of cavernous spaces and intricate pieces falling into place and locks turning and statues moving, the bright colours of circus and blue fire to the wonderful beasts including the mischievous Niffler who now has a litter of babies.

Although I adored the critters in the first instalment, I wasn’t as drawn into the story of the film as it was more setting the foundation for the series.

Here, we see more of the mystery revealed.

I’m finding the Fantastic Beasts series more about what comes next, what piece of the puzzle is going to make that character into who they eventually become.  And slowly, I can see the story coming together.

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.

Fahrenheit 11/9

Rated: MFahrenheit 11/9

Directed by: Michael Moore

Written by: Michael Moore

Produced by: Carl Deal, Meghan O’Hara, Michael Moore

Starring: Michael Moore and a host of sympathisers and suspects.

No one is safe and nothing is sacred, at least nothing that the big end of town wants to sweep under the carpet when Michael Moore throws back the rug to expose the outrageous chicanery that gets them what they want.

With a Michael Moore documentary you can expect to be appalled by the issues at stake and riveted by the oblique angles from which they are viewed. In this instance, Moore’s thought provoking compilation of theatre, confrontation and shenanigans charts the alternative history of Donald Trump’s rise to the presidency, and beyond. If anyone in America could be described as Trump’s arch-nemesis, it would most likely be Moore. Where the one with extravagant comb-over and the unusually long necktie famously evades questions, his shaggy nemesis in the baseball cap is equally invested in finding the answers. Even if those findings might not be the ones you expect.

While I have been continually gobsmacked by the audacious commentary aimed at the Trump administration, so much has already been said and written that I had wondered whether I might be in line for a lengthy rehash. Not so. From the opening scenes, the little voice in my mind kept asking in a stunned whisper, ‘Can he really say that?’ And that was before one word had even been uttered. The choice of music implied something that words could not say (at least, not without being sued or locked up).

Just when I thought I knew everything there was to know about Trump’s ascendancy—social media, Russian interference, the ill-timed FBI investigation—there was one factor that we had all overlooked. According to Moore’s deep investigative research, Gwen Stefanie was responsible for the Trump phenomenon.

Even so, Trump’s Stefani inspired tilt for office was merely the prelude, with Moore zeroing in on Trump’s plan to run the country as a business. In 2010, Rick Snyder, former chairman of Gateway Computers, had already delivered a full-dress rehearsal in the state of Michigan when he was elected governor. Invoking a state of emergency, Snyder privatised the public services in the city of Flint. With capitalism and unbridled greed running amok, the result was a water crisis that has decimated the city’s economy and poisoned its citizens. As Moore notes, ‘No terrorist organisation has figured out how to poison an entire American city’.

Flint alone would be a resounding indictment on the state of things in America today, but Moore takes aim at a constellation of culprits. Democrats, Republicans, the United States Electoral College, even the general public are implicated. Moore spares no one when he asks:

How the #*!@*# did it happen?

America has long proclaimed itself to be the champion of democracy, but Moore’s wide-ranging think piece reveals an America sleepwalking toward the destruction of the American dream (not the one with the house and two cars), but the dream of a ‘one person one vote’ democracy. For many Americans it is still only an aspiration and whatever freedoms they have won are in imminent peril.

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