Film Shapes

Well, that brings an end to a fantastic edition of the Revelation Perth International Film Festival . I managed fewer films than I'd hoped due to a rough cold, but still got to see nine (plus one at the Programme Launch back in May). Spoilt for choice this year - I'll briefly run through my least to most liked: The Primevals   ★ ½ The story behind this film is more interesting than the film itself. Devised in the 70s, with principal photography done in Romania and Italy in 1994, it was finally released in 2023. A bonkers story about Yetis being genetically modified by lizard aliens (I think), this feels like a Ray Harryhausen stop-motion film from the 60s. It's really a vehicle for David Allen's puppet mastery, the bloke has some serious visual effects cred, but he doesn't cut it as a writer/director. I guess if it can produce a line like this -  "The eyes of a dying giraffe can change a man." - then it can't be all bad. Hundreds of Beavers   ★ ★ ½ Ver...

This was a fun nerve jangler, not quite up to par with the first two. Placing the action over a day or two in one location - it's basically Escape from New York: Alien Edition - neatly encapsulates the fear. The early bombing of the bridges traps the water-shy invaders on the island, the aim being to evacuated citizens from the ports. Fine idea, though the devil is in the detail. We know from the other films in the series that these lumpen-footed Skeksis, with Rubik's football heads can't see but can hear incredibly well. Sound is obviously very important here. One nicely done exodus scene with a growing cacophony of humanity brings about the inevitable bloody chaos.  The leads, Lupita Nyong'o as Samira and Joseph Quinn as Eric, are very good at selling us the horror, panic and resignation of the situation. Djimon Hounsou reprises (PREprises?) his role from the second film. And there's a nonplussed cat that will get the animal lovers meowing (it's a pretty cleve...

A dodgy title doesn't mean the quality of the film itself has to follow suit. Sadly though, this is the case here, with Jeff Nichols' bog-standard, diet-Scorsese effort. The story is based on a coffee table book about bikies in the USA, put together by Danny Lyon, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Nichols. It follows three main protagonists - Jodie Comer's garrulous Kathy; Austin Butler's dull Benny; and Tom Hardy's intense Johnny - as they witness the expansion of the motorcycle gangs of the 60s and early 70s.  The film plays with ideas of obsession, loyalty and redundancy but the lack of direction or energy is a concern. It reminded me of Goodfellas, but without the gravitas, with Comer in the Lorraine Bracco role and Butler as a mono-syllabic Ray Liotta. To stretch the comparison, I guess Hardy must be De Niro. Honestly, Hardy's the best thing about the film. He inhabits characters, and much has been made of his voices, but it's not just that. Physic...

This film was shown at the Revelation Film Festival programme launch for 2024. It's a Turkish legal drama that leaves a lot unsaid, unexplained, with plenty of scope for interpretation. Tülin Özen plays Canan, a lawyer tasked with defending a guy on a murder charge, Musa (Ogulcan Arman Uslu). At the same time, she is dealing with the slow demise of her old mother, hospitalised in a coma.  The minutiae of life in this small Turkish town is fascinating. There's one simple, prosaic scene where Canan stops by a chemist to buy a razor so Musa can shave for the hearing. The shopkeeper asks what kind, she tells him she doesn't know, he selects for her, then explains that she can't use her debit card for that amount, so she buys some pretzel sticks. Completely normal, yet for some reason, I've remembered this scene weeks later. Maybe it's the unusualness of seeing a Turkish store on screen, but I think the on-point pacing of the film has a lot to do with it. Another odd...

It's Rev time again! The Revelation Perth International Film Festival - 27th edition - runs from July 3 to 14 at the Luna cinemas (Leederville and Fremantle), The Backlot cinema , WA Museum Boola Bardip and even Scitech . There are heaps of goodies to glue eyes to screens and bums to seats. Here are some that jumped out at me: Kim's Video - a doco about an iconic New York video store Tenement - a creepy looking Cambodian family drama The Primevals - Yetis, aliens, that's all I need to know The Man I Left Behind - a doco about Canadian photojournalist, Larry Towell Hesitation Wound - a Turkish legal drama (already seen, review to follow) Kid Snow - Kalgoorlie-shot boxing drama The Parallax View - 50 year anniversary of this political thriller There are also a bunch of music documentaries, a Rev specialty - Born Innocent: The Red Kross Story , Mogwai: If the Stars had a Sound , I Should Have Been Dead Years Ago , and see below... We had a chat with Suzanne Worner, G...