Film Shapes

  Right, that was a fun four days. I'm going to run through the nine films I saw with some brief notes and a rating on each. Here goes. My Rembrandt   This documentary is a bit of a love letter to Rembrandt with the makings of a controversy bubbling underneath. The director, Oeke Hoogendijk, introduces us to Jan Six (pictured left) and his possible new discovery of a hitherto unknown Rembrandt. The story flicks around various eccentric collectors and it all looks fantastic but the film could have been a bit more focussed on the central issue - namely the veracity of the 'new' painting. For more on this film, see the longer review here . Desert One  This documentary, by esteemed filmmaker Barbara Kopple, tells the story of the failed attempt to rescue American hostages from the U.S. embassy in Tehran after the Iranian revolution in 1979. There are some good moments here (notably interviews with U.S. President Jimmy Carter and his Vice-President, Walter Mond...

This was the 7th film I saw at Revelation and it's a pretty amazing story. I reckon it shows Desert One how to take a balanced view of a historical event (but more of that later). The plan is to do a summary blog and pod of the festival in the coming days but for now, here's a full size review of The Jump . The story of Simas Kudirka plays out like a made for TV, cold war potboiler and would be hard to believe if it wasn’t historical fact. In November 1970, Kudirka, a Lithuanian sailor on a Soviet fishing boat, jumped onto a U.S. Coast Guard vessel while crew members of the two ships were conducting high level fishing discussions. Claiming asylum, Kudirka was initially hidden by the American crew, until orders came to hand him back to the Soviets. And this is only the beginning of the story. After Simas is returned to his vessel, his fate unknown to the West, word gets out and protests spark up throughout the U.S. These are led by the Lithuanian-American diaspora, who maintain...

This is one of six films I've seen so far at the Revelation Film Festival; four Thursday and two today, Friday. Yesterday was a hard slog, with the quality fluctuating between films but I'd say this was (just) the pick of them. I'm planning on a summary for the rest of the films I see (some animation tomorrow and three more films on Sunday). Anyway, carry on. My Rembrandt is a fascinating documentary about the first discovery of a painting from the Dutch master in decades. The director, Oeke Hoogendijk, has form in this field. Her films The New Rijksmuseum and Marten & Oopjen: Portrait of a Marriage deal with Dutch art in general, the latter film delving deeper into one thread from My Rembrandt. And here’s where the film suffers – the central storyline involving art dealer Jan Six and his ‘new’ find is shunted to the margins at times, the film showing us the admittedly beautiful Scottish landholding of the Duke of Buccleuch or the glitzy world of American collector, ...

The 23rd Revelation Film Festival runs from Thursday 10th to Sunday 13th Dec and there are some tasty looking films on offer. They mostly screen at the Luna in Leederville with some down in Freo at Luna on SX, and a couple at the Windsor in Nedlands. The Backlot in West Perth and Johnny Ma Studios in Maylands have a few things on the Saturday. The complete schedule can been found on the Revelation website (link above). I'm filling my card with some interesting looking features and docos, as well as an outing to the (FREE) Family Animation Explosion!, which is on at 10:30 every morning of the fest. It should be mentioned that all screenings are COVID restricted this year, so it's going to be a case of 'first in, first served'. It has taken me a fecking long time to choose which ones to see, but that's part of the fun of something like this. There are really too many to talk about here but especially notable films include locally (WA) produced, An Ideal Host and a 1...

In this dismal year of pandemic lockdowns and social polarisation it's a nice surprise when something catches you off guard. In this case, that thing is the film Misbehaviour . I wasn't sure what to expect, I only knew who was in it and that it was set at the Miss World contest of 1970. This is one of those recent historical dramas that the Brits do so well - I'm thinking of little gems like Brassed Off or Made in Dagenham or Pride. They seem to have a knack of telling these important stories with a light, almost flippant touch, without leaning too far into the mawkishness that often blights their US counterparts. I think Misbehaviour would sit comfortably on the '20th Century, British-set, historical drama' shelf. If shelves were a going concern these days. The film actually covers a lot of ground. Let me briefly explain the story. The Miss World contest of 1970 was the touch paper for the nascent Women's Liberation Movement in England. The film focuses on w...

  It's not every day you have the chance to see a film about French farmers, in fact, the last I can remember was probably Manon des Sources from 1986 - though, after miniscule research, it seems there have been a few docos recently;  Modern Life (2008) and After Winter, Spring (2015). In the Name of the Land starts with a hopeful father to son transition of the family farm, Les Grands Bois, and slowly, but perhaps predictably, descends into creeping ruination.  Guillame Canet plays Pierre Jarjeau and he's almost unrecognisable for most of the film, as he's been balded up to appear older. Once you get past this prosthetic (?) his performance is pretty gripping. Veerle Baetens is his wife Claire, dealing with the shit going on around her with a calming power, She's great in this, as is Rufus, that old stalwart of Jeunet and Caro films past, as the arsehole father, Jacques, who is the real villain of the piece for my money. The film was directed and co-written by Edou...

Summerland is a romantic drama from Jessica Swale set on the English coast during World War 2. Gemma Arterton plays a cantankerous young writer, who investigates myths and superstitions. A young lad is billeted to stay at her cottage during the blitz (unbeknownst to her) and herein begins the drama. The central phenomenon in the film is a commonly occurring sighting known as the Fata Morgana , a kind of mirage where people have claimed to have seen castles, cities, all sorts of junk, usually from a coastline. Arterton's character, Alice, is looking into these mirages when Frank, un-irritatingly played by Lucas Bond, comes to stay. The title refers to the pagan idea of the afterlife - The Summerland. Alice's scientific, logical approach to life chafes slightly against Frank's childish beliefs but the film doesn't make any grand statements. Rather it seems to suggest that seeing things (or believing things) is a personal choice and this needn't interfere with other s...

This is the sequel to the original Borat film from 2006, devised by and starring Sacha Baron Cohen. It's streaming on Amazon Prime Video as there were some issues getting it out in cinemas before the US election, mainly due to closed theatres - in the US and around the world. I won't say much here, only that it's great fun to see this character again, with his stupid voice and gangly physical comedy. Maria Bakalova as Tutar, Borat's daughter, is a find. She's game for the same kind of awkward, uncomfortable scenes that Cohen revels in. There are key moments throughout, involving knowns (Giuliani) and unknowns (Jeanise Jones) but sometimes it's the small touches that come off the best. How Borat and Tutar respond to a bag that covers a dress may be my favourite part of the film. See also: Of course, the original Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2006), directed by Larry Charles, and another very funny Cohen crea...

  Caught this classic at the Girls' School Cinema in East Perth recently and I'd forgotten how good it was. It's a touch under 3 hours but even sitting on a weird beanbag thing, trying to make the most of the bottomless popcorn (I don't even really like popcorn but it was part of the prize), didn't detract from the fun of Sergio Leone's madness. Like most spaghetti westerns, this was filmed with the actors speaking their own languages - Spanish, Italian and English - with voice actors dubbing over in post. Apparently, even the three leads had to do their own dubbing as the whole film was shot without sound.  Speaking of the leads, the film starts in reverse -  Eli Wallach, as Tuco, is introduced first, then Lee Van Cleef, as Sentenza (or Angel Eyes), and finally Clint Eastwood, as Blondie (or The Man With No Name); so The Ugly, the Bad and the Good . Van Cleef gives good nasty and Eastwood is laconically funny but Wallach is the star for my money. He has all the...

Liam Neeson has had quite an interesting career, hasn't he? The bloke's nearly 70 and in the last 12 years, he's peppered his CV with (mostly) meathead action fare. Yet early on he drifted more towards worthy or political dramas. Consider these disparate titles: The Mission, The Commuter, A Prayer for the Dying, A Walk Among the Tombstones, Schindler's List, The Grey, Rob Roy, Taken, Michael Collins, Taken 2 . I could go on. If Matthew McConaughey has had his 'McConaissance', what do we call Neeson's latter-day path? A Neetrogression? Nah. Neeterioration? Hmmm. Maybe a simple Neescent? Let's go with that. [Copyright Oct 2020]. The thing is, he's a fine actor and a really likeable screen presence. So what's with all the dreck? The above reads kind of like I'm trying to fill a word count. This is possibly due to the puddle that is Honest Thief . When I say puddle, I guess I mean it's shallow enough to be annoying but not so deep that your d...

Baby Done is a film I had my suspicions about going in but it actually surprised me with its odd Kiwi charm and no little humour. This is a maternity comedy/drama from New Zealand, directed by Curtis Vowell (only one other feature to his name) and written by Sophie Henderson (who has a similarly light CV as a writer). But Henderson specifically has to take the bulk of the credit here for splashing a bit of life into this genre and dealing out some great lines and set-ups. The leads, Rose Matafeo and Matthew Lewis (Auckland is a long way from Hogwarts), bounce off each other perfectly well, each having a few golden moments to shine. The tension comes from the fact that Zoe (Matafeo) doesn't really want a baby and would prefer to go to Canada for the International Tree Climbing Championship (yep, apparently it's a thing), yet Tim (Lewis) is super chuffed and ready to settle down. The low key feel to the film is a strong point. If I mention piss, vomit, attempted threesome shagg...

With Fincher's first feature in 6 years, Mank , due soon, I figured I'd do a top ten of his other films. Conveniently, he's only made ten features, on top of dozens of music 'videos', as well as some TV and a few shorts. But let's focus on the films. 10. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) Where to start? Well, let me say that  Benjy is the only Fincher film I hated. Full of heart-felt whimsy attempting depth, it misses just about every mark. This is trite bollocks with very little to raise it, save from the unimpeachable Cate Blanchett. Take her out of it and you're left with a certified steamer. 9. The Game (1997) Not a bad film, and made with some late 90s panache, but it just didn't elevate for me. Not much wrong with the cast, Douglas and Penn are usually watchable at worst. There are the requisite reversals and rug-pulls but maybe that's part of the problem - too much of this malarkey? 8. Alien³ (1992) I don...

Got along to an advance screening of  The Translators  at the Luna in Leederville a few nights ago. It's a mystery set in the world of literary publishing and the story takes a little getting the old bonce around. Broadly, a group of nine translators are seconded to a high security bunker to translate the third book in a massively popular series, Daedalus, written by the reclusive Oscar Brach (strangely subtitled as 'Bach'). Pretty soon, it's found that 10 pages have somehow been smuggled out to the Internet, setting off a series of events that land the publisher Eric Angstrom, among others, in shtuck.  Angstrom is played by the hawk-nosed yet serpentine, Lambert Wilson, who has a swathe of shite films to his credit ( Babylon A.D. , anyone?). This is the best film I've seen him in, but I'm certainly not a Wilson completist, so there must be other passable works. Some of the translators are reasonably well known, especially in their home 'markets'. Olga K...

After more than two years of postponed release dates, The New Mutants finally arrives in cinemas. Re-shoots, schedule clashes with other films, Disney's purchase of 20th Century Fox and covid-related cinema closures all contributed to the limbo the film found itself in. So was the wait worth it? I'd say sure. It's no world beater but it has a neatly contained story with some creepy elements (mainly down to the work of DOP, Peter Deming, whose first feature was Evil Dead 2 ) and nicely pitched performances. Let's have a roll call of these younglings, then. The first credit (though not the protagonist) is Maisie Williams as Rahne Sinclair [WOLFSBANE]. Anya Taylor-Joy plays Illyana Rasputin [MAGIK]. The real lead is Blu Hunt, who plays Danielle Moonstar [MIRAGE]. Charlie Heaton plays Sam Guthrie [CANNONBALL] and Henry Zaga plays Roberto da Costa [SUNSPOT]. And aside from Alice Braga as their doctor/monitor, that's about it for the cast. They all bounce off each oth...