Revelation Film Festival 2020 - Wrap up (plus podcast summary)

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 Mondale) and the animation is pretty good. The issues I had are more to do with the way Kopple glorifies the cock-up and vilifies almost anyone not in a U.S. forces uniform. It also got fairly boring, which should have been easy to avoid with such a gripping real life tale.

iHuman

There's a lot to recommend in this doco about the future of AI. It starts with Jürgen Schmidhuber, an absolute bellend who is supposed to be the 'father of modern AI' and jumps about to other talking head geniuses expounding on the possibilities of where the world is heading. Some highlights (?) include the Chinese cities that use massive levels of surveillance and Project Maven, Google's hush-hush military connection. The visual effects are brilliant, as is the moment when a data analyst talks about managing our lives in the 'post-privacy age'.

The Trouble with Being Born

This is the film that was booed in Berlin and banned in Melbourne but I struggled to find why people would be so agitated by it. It's the story of an android built to replace a lost daughter, and the film leaves so much out that it's almost anti-exposition. It has some scenes that are slightly questionable (suggestive posing, erotic moaning) but these are handled in a sensitive, even otherworldly way. It's a film choc-filled with grief and loneliness, sewn together with mysterious time shifts and odd people and places. It's how I imagine Spielberg's AI would have turned out were it any good.

Atlantis

Well, this was a hard slog. Ukraine have won a war with Russia but things are still bleak, and this film revels in the misery, in theme AND form. Most of the shots are locked off wides with vehicles or people appearing in the foreground and then departing. Some of these feel like they go on for north of ten minutes, but surely that can't be. I wonder if it's the film I've seen with the fewest cuts. It reminded me of Nuri Bilge Ceylan's Once Upon a Time in Anatolia, but that film had more style and humour and it took me along with it. This one seemed to challenge the viewer to enjoy it. There's one scene of a mortician reporting on a corpse that was mind-numbing. Strangely, I'm glad I saw Atlantis.

Crock of Gold: A Few Rounds with Shane MacGowan

This is a great documentary on the life of legendary Pogue's singer/songwriter, Shane MacGowan. As more of an appreciator than a fan, I wasn't really super-psyched to see it, but it's one of the best of its kind. It's edited like a fairground ride with found footage, film from MacGowan's youth, TV spots, live gigs, even clips of old films (I noticed James Mason in Odd Man Out in there) and different styles of animation. Director Julian Temple is very much at home with this stuff. MacGowan is just past 60 but he's seen better days and, sure, it's a cautionary tale of the effects of booze and drugs but it also celebrates MacGowan and his Irish heritage. For the 'few rounds', he's joined by his wife Victoria, Pogue's biographer, Ann Scanlon, Johnny Depp and former Sinn Fin President, Gerry Adams.

The Jump ★★★½

Here's a well-tuned doco about a Lithuanian sailor in the Soviet fishing fleet and his attempt to defect one day in November 1970. The film's success is primarily down to the central character of Simas Kudirka - he's an extremely watchable old geezer, who has clearly been through a lot of shit, yet still manages to be positive. The director, Giedre Kickyte, has balanced his film well (a lesson to Desert One) by finding nuance in all parties, even the KGB interrogator. For a more detailed write-up, check this out.

[Here's where I ran into trouble patching in the star ratings, hence the change in style☺]

Collective ★★★★

What an excellent film. A nightclub fire in Bucharest kicks off a spiral of deceit and malignant corruption. We begin by hearing that, though the number of immediate deaths was terrible, many other young people died in the days and weeks following, due to bacteria filled hospitals. The way the dominoes fall here is astounding and the structure is just as good as the story. It plays out like a 70s political thriller from Alan J. Pakula. The film switches focus around half way through, from a no-nonsense journalist to the new Minister for Health and both these guys find the levels of ingrained villainy disheartening. Their final moments on screen are proper kicks in the bread basket. Highly recommended.

Archive ★★★★

Going in not knowing too much about this film was a good idea. It's pretty much a two-hander, an AI designer and his prototype, alone in a high security facility. The themes of grief, loss & loneliness aren't too heavy handed and hints of a war, maybe intergalactic (?), keep things obtuse. A kind of deadline from the corporation for the AI fella (Theo James) lends a degree of peril to proceedings. I don't want to say too much here, only that there are rubbings of Metropolis, Ghost in the Shell, Moon and a Nicole Kidman film that would be a giveaway if I mentioned it. First time director Gavin Rothery nails this one. Catch it if you get a chance.

A FEW SPOILERS IN PODCAST!

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The Running Man

This is Edgar Wright's ninth feature, just a smidge over 20 years since his reputation-making second film, Shaun of the Dead . The older folk reading this might remember the Arnie original from 1987, directed by Starsky himself, Paul Michael Glaser. I vaguely recall that film being silly and comically violent, one of a slew of Schwarzenegger pulp films of the era. This remake aims for similar stylings, but with a more po-faced, less ludicrous feel. The premise goes that Ben Richards (Glen Powell) needs money to ensure his child gets the proper medicine for her unnamed illness. He's lost his job due to 'insubordination', but really he's just a top bloke looking out for his co-workers. After promising his wife Sheila (Jayme Lawson) that he won't try out for the near-suicidal game show The Running Man, he applies for other shows on the sinister Network, and gets selected anyway. Of course, or no movie. The scenes in this part of the film are probably the most succ...

The Quiet Girl

This is a great film, especially in the way that it manages to create something interesting out of a reasonably mundane synopsis. A young girl is sent away to a relative's house for the summer where she is treated better than at home. Sounds like it could have a bit of Rohmer-style youthful awakenings? Or maybe some gritty Loach-ian societal comment? Even perhaps a revenge tinged 'fear the youth' theme? Well, it's none of the above, and more power to its style. The Quiet Girl herself (Cáit) is a newcomer, Catherine Clinch, and she was apparently found via an Irish language school call out. She's incredible - meek, direct, no airs nor graces whatsoever, with a clear-eyed awkwardness. She's almost like a little female Bowie in The Quiet Girl Who Fell to Earth (no, not a film but I thought I'd italicise anyway). There are orbiting performances that complement her perfectly. Carrie Crowley and Andrew Bennet play Eibhlín and Seán Cinnsealach, the couple who tak...

The Fantastic Four: First Steps

A few years ago, we hit the S.S.P. (Superhero Saturation Point). And the best way for studios to arrest, or even maybe reverse, the law of diminishing returns is to JUST GIVE IT A FUCKING REST. There's enough residual goodwill in the fan base to guarantee profits....for now. But, as Malcolm Gladwell said, there must be a tipping point. So into this cinematic avalanche slips The Fantastic Four: First Steps , the first film of Phase Six and the thirty seventh overall! It's quite dull for the first 30 minutes, setting up the characters, ensuring the audience understands we're on a slightly different Earth (828), and a different time as well. It only gets going when the Silver Surfer (Julia Garner) appears and promises everyone death by devouring. She's not going to eat them, she works for a massive space turd called Galactus, played by Finchy himself, Ralph Ineson. He'll do the devouring. Here's the thing - this film is a perfectly serviceable entry, not brilliant,...

Predator: Badlands

So without me really noticing, this franchise has reached NINE films (if you include the two Alien vs Predator crossovers). The last three have been directed (or co-directed) by Dan Trachtenberg, who's also helmed an episode each of the TV shows Black Mirror and The Boys . I've got to say, carry on lad, because this is probably the best Predator film I've seen (let me revisit the Arnie one before I remove that 'probably'). This film starts as a revenge quest that soon morphs into a discourse on dysfunctional families and finding your groove in life. All wrapped up in a gnarly, bloody sci-fi romp. I say blood, in actual fact, none of it is human blood, all characters being either alien or synthetic humanoid. That in itself is one of the film's credits - none of the protagonists are human, and the nominal lead is usually a villain. Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi) is from the Yautja race, the original 'ugly mother-fucker' Predator. The preamble n...

One Battle After Another

Before this film, Paul Thomas Anderson had at least one certifiable classic on his CV in There Will Be Blood . Now, make that two. In saying this, most of his films range from good to brilliant. This is his second adaptation of a Thomas Pynchon novel (after the uneven but interesting Inherent Vice ) and it looks at the lives of modern American revolutionaries, notably members of French 75. The group are apparently named after a WWI weapon, and then a cocktail, both of which have something of a kick. Leonardo DiCaprio plays Bob, The Rocket Man, who makes the ordnance for the group and is in a relationship with fellow revolutionary, Perfidia (Teyana Taylor). A combination of a run-in with Sean Penn's Colonel Steven Lockjaw, and a rash killing of a security guard triggers more interest in the group, and so a roundup begins. Perfidia is caught, then forced to name names before doing a runner. But not before she has a daughter with Bob, whom he is left to raise on the run. After this f...

The Long Walk

I had a bit of time to spare while the car was getting a service so I decided to visit the Greater Union Morley cinemas one last time (it closed a few days after I saw this). I think this was the first cinema I went to when I came back from Japan in 2016 and sadly, it hadn't had a touch up since then, possibly not for a long time before either. Fingers crossed for a brand spanking new cinema complex one day. Anyway, the film I saw was The Long Walk , and it's a bit of an oddity. It's based on a Stephen King (writing as Richard Bachman) book from 1979. King seems to have a thing for these dystopian 'last one standing' stories (see also The Running Man , an Arnie adaptation was made in 1987, and Edgar Wright has a new version up his sleeve, opening soon). Director Francis Lawrence returns to the theme of his Hunger Games films, riffing on Battle Royale , but also, many of these types of films where characters get picked off one by one, from Alien to Monty Python an...

Nouvelle Vague

This opening screening of the Perth Festival's Lotterywest Film season is a cinephile's delight. It documents the production of Jean-Luc Godard's seminal feature debut, À Bout de Souffle (or Breathless ). The title refers to the New Wave of French film from the beginning of the 1960s, which railed against the tired, old ways of film-making. Nouvelle Vague actually looks like it was shot on film, it's riddled with scratch marks, there's are many big black dots indicating the end of the reel, and of course, it's in black and white. The director, Richard Linklater, is obviously a huge fan of Breathless . This is a lovingly made, breezy film, that isn't terribly hard-hitting or deep, but is a fine background to one of the classics. The casting is excellent, specifically the Jeans; Godard, Seberg and Belmondo, played by Guillaume Marbeck, Zoey Deutch and Aubry Dullin respectively. They all look the part and turn in performances just the right side of parody....

Hard Truths

It's been six years since Mike Leigh stepped behind the camera for the disappointing Peterloo but this film is a return to tip top form. In fact, by my reckoning, that 2018 historical record was his only career misstep. And in Naked , Secrets and Lies and Happy-Go-Lucky , he has written and directed some of the very best British films of all time. Hard Truths reunites him with one of the stars of Secrets and Lies , Marianne Jean-Baptiste. She plays Pansy, an angry, fearful misery guts who can't help but annoy her family (and members of the public) with her constant, nasty invective. At first, her moaning is quite funny until the realisation that this woman is suffering takes hold. Pansy is married to plumber Curtley (David Webber) and they have a son in his early 20s, Moses (Tuwaine Barrett) who doesn't say much and stays in his room playing flight simulator games. Both these guys deal with Pansy in their own way, in quiet despondency. Her only real friend is her sister,...

Sicilian Letters

This Italian Film Festival offering is a post-mafia story from writer/director pair, Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza. Ex-school principal and local politician, Catello (Toni Servillo) is released from prison in the early 2000s, only to be co-opted by the Italian Secret Service to help apprehend the last Cosa Nostra boss still at large, Matteo Messina Denaro (Elio Germano). Catello is the perfect patsy. He was a good friend of Denaro's father, Don Gaetano, who made Catello the Godfather to young Matteo. I should mention this is based loosely on the life of Denaro, though it's at pains to acknowledge that much of this story is fabricated (a title card reads "Loosely inspired by real events, though the film's characters are the fruits of the authors' imagination.") In this chunk of Denaro's life on the run, Catello is tasked with writing letters to the fugitive, via a bespoke butcher-based post office. Initially, Denaro is moved by Catello's prose a...

Splitsville

This is the second film I've seen in a row where two blokes wrote the film and also starred in it ( see previous review ). This time round the two blokes are Michael Angelo Covino (also directing) and Kyle Marvin. The coup was signing Dakota Johnson and Adria Arjona to play the wives, Julie and Ashley. On the face of it, it's hard to believe that these women would be with these two spuds, but the script allows for a suspension of disbelief. Marvin plays Carey, just over a year into marriage with Ashley (Arjona). On the way to a waterfront weekend with Paul and Julie (Covino and Johnson), Ashley explains that she wants a divorce. The trigger may have had something to do with them being part of a road accident death, a darkly amusing opening scene. Carey leaves the car in a panic and eventually finds his way to the beach house. Distraught, he decides to wallow with his friends until a discretion threatens to blow apart the relationship. To be clear, Julie and Paul's open rela...

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