Talk to Me <img src="https://img.icons8.com/ios-glyphs/20/000000/star--v1.png"/><img src="https://img.icons8.com/ios-glyphs/20/000000/star--v1.png"/><img src="https://img.icons8.com/ios-glyphs/20/000000/star--v1.png"/><img src="https://img.icons8.com/ios-glyphs/20/000000/star--v1.png"/>

Talk to Me

This might be the scariest thing to come out of Adelaide since Wayne Weidemann. It's directed by brothers, Danny and Michael Phillipou, who apparently gained some fame and notoriety via a YouTube channel called RackaRacka, which sounds like it was a bogan version of Jackass.

Talk to Me is a stylishly unsettling possession genre flick, with a couple of great performances attached. Future star, Sophie Wilde plays Mia, a final year high-school student still struggling with the death of her mother two years ago. Bored one night (remember, it's Adelaide), she tags along with her friend, Jade (Alexandra Jensen) and younger brother, Riley (Joe Bird) to a house party where a couple of twats are hosting a séance/possession event.

Mia gets involved but the 'rules' state the spirits can only be inside the living body for 90 seconds, else the fuckers might want to stay. Righto, parameters set then. The film really gets going when Riley appears to be channelling Mia's mum for a moment, followed by someone (something?) more sinister that tips him over the time limit. This scene amped up the shock levels and was pretty uncomfortable viewing.

For the Aussies who see this, I reckon the mundanity of the setting and the familiarity of the accents (not to mention a nearly roadkill kangaroo) bring an element of reality to an otherwise ridiculous story. Like any good horror film, the spooky shit is just cover for the real story, in this case Mia's inability to move on from the sudden absence of her mum. The title, ostensibly the imperative given when holding the creepy embalmed hand, probably has more to do with Mia's reluctance to speak with those left alive, especially her father.

Talk to Me has a lot to recommend. Miranda Otto has a great role as Jade and Riley's mother, it opens with a cracking party scene that ends with a bang, and the climax is tense and not at all easy to predict. If surprisingly sharp, teenage horror is your bag, this won't disappoint.

Talk to Me opens July 27th at Luna, Palace and other assorted cinemas.

See also:

You might have noticed that I'm not the biggest horror film fan, with some notable exceptions, so it's a bit tricky to pick others films akin to this. Obvious ideas would be William Friedkin's The Exorcist (1973) and Stanley Kubrick's The Shining (1980), due to the possession angle but I'm thinking the modern horror wave would be slightly more comparable. If only I'd seen The Insidiously Conjured Witch Nun Annabelle.

Comments

Case 137

Here's a police procedural drama from the Alliance Francais French Film Festival with a minor key change. Case 137 is based on true events from 2018 during the Gilets jaunes (Yellow Vest) protests in Paris. The case (or dossier in the version originale) involves a young lad who was shot in the head with an LBD riot gun (basically rubber bullets) and then left on the street. He survived, but with life changing injuries. The IGPN internal affairs department are brought in to investigate. Léa Drucker takes the lead as Stéphanie, a single mum dealing with resentment from her ex-husband, his new girlfriend, and most other members of the force, who believe the cops should look after their own and not 'police the police'. Her teenage son is also concerned that everyone he talks to hates 'les flics'. There's a slight hitch in the case when it's discovered that the injured guy and his family come from Saint-Dizier, also Stéphanie's home town. Director, Dominik M...

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...

Arco (Me) (Kid)

This is the first feature length film from French writer/director Ugo Bienvenu. It tells the story of futuristic kid, Arco, voiced by Juliano Crue Valdi in the English dub, and Oscar Tresanini in the French original - here I'll explain that I saw the preview of this with the English voice cast, so I'll mention them from now, unless I spy a notable Frenchy. Anyway, Arco is too young to fly to the past like his family do, but like any young ding-a-ling, he decides to chance his arm, and ends up in 2075. This is a more recognisable future for us than Arco's time, as we see climate change writ large on society. In this time-zone, Arco meets Iris (Margot Ringard Oldra) and her domestic robot, Mikki (voiced by a strange combination of Iris's parents, Natalie Portman and Mark Ruffalo). Iris wants to help Arco return to his time, but they're thwarted by a missing jewel that he needs in order to travel, as well as a trio of bumbling goons (Will Ferrell, Andy Samberg and Flea...

The Rivals of Amziah King

This final film at the Lotterywest Film Season for the Perth Festival is a surprising gem. It combines a great musical opening scene with a fine entrance from Matthew McConaughey. Writer/director Andrew Patterson knows who he's got on his hands here. McConaughey has fun with this role of Amziah King, his first real starring part since The Gentleman in 2019, and in fairness, the film probably wouldn't have been made without him. The story goes thus: a honey maker (or beekeeper, apiarist, professor of bees, call him what you will) is coopted into helping the police identify a stolen batch of honey barrels. After a frankly incredible (in the good sense of the word) honey heating procedure that goes off the rails, Amziah finds himself at cafe, where he bumps into Kateri, a young woman who used to foster with him when she was a kid. A star is unearthed here in Angelina LookingGlass (what a name!), in her debut film role, and the rest of the cast is fittingly grubby and grungy. Kur...

Best Films of 2011 to 2020 - End of Decade Report

I realised a few weeks ago that I've been doing the Film Shapes blog since 2011. This got me thinking that it might be a doddle to put together an aggregation of the top tens of each year, a kind of 'best of the decade' list. Not such an easy task. I've had to stretch a mooted ten out to twenty and the order has been troubling me for some days. As it turns out, all these films were actually made between 2011 and 2020, otherwise titles like Inception may have snuck in. Anyway, I'll leave you with this for now and bugger the consequences. 20. Slow West (2015) An odd, melodic Western, directed by John Maclean (of The Beta Band), this has young Scot, Kodi Smitt-McPhee crossing the perilous US west, helped or hindered along the way by their excellencies Michael Fassbender and Ben Mendelsohn. As the title suggests, it's slow-paced but that's what sets it apart from other films of its ilk. Come to think of it, this is a pretty lonely ilk. 19. Bohemian Rhap sody ...

Guardians of the Galaxy

As the picture above suggests, Guardians of the Galaxy is a bit reminiscent of such films as Seven Samurai (and its remake, The Magnificent Seven ) and The Dirty Dozen . An unlikely bunch of misfits come together to fight something or somebody. Hatred and tension within the group leads to respect and friendship. Victory is achieved, albeit at some loss. This is not to undersell Guardians, though. It's a fun film with many things to like about it. It reminded me of Firefly and Serenity , especially the costumes and the design of the spaceships and planet vistas - the giant floating skull of 'Knowhere' is a stand-out. It's also a nice coincidence that Nathan Fillion (Mal in Firefly ) has a pretty funny cameo. Most of the humour in Guardians works. Not too esoteric (though I missed the joke about 'baby gravy') or American focussed, even the 1980s cultural references fit the lead character's situation. The lines are played straight and Chris Pratt h...

The Goya Murders

The machinations of the serial killer have long been fertile ground for filmmakers but the quality of the final product can vary greatly. For every Zodiac or Se7en there’s one like this. The Goya Murders (or El Asesino de los Caprichos ) starts with a reasonably sound premise – a killer is poisoning his (usually well off) victims and recreating scenes from Goya prints as deathly exhibits. Imagine the murders scenes in Se7en but with less gore and more artistry. Investigating these are Madrid detectives, Carmen Cobos and Eva González, played by Maribal Verdú and Aura Garrido, and though the actors are fine, they have the writing to overcome. Their characters are broadly painted, there’s not a lot of light and shade here. Carmen immediately takes against her younger partner for no apparent reason. Eva is a fun-loving, karaoke singing, happy mother-of-two, while Carmen drinks from a hip flask and drives erratically. At one point a fellow officer tells Carmen that her ‘bad cop’ routine ...

The Monkey

What's this then? Modern horror, I guess. Or just another addition to the relatively recent spate of animal-titled films: The Lobster , The Crow , The Whale , Pig , Lamb , First Cow , Black Dog , Red Dog , Dog Man , Monkey Man , Wolf Man , Cuckoo , Cocaine Bear , and Hundreds of Beavers . Whatever the reason for its existence, this Stephen King adaptation is a curious beast. Osgood Perkins (son of old Norman Bates himself, Anthony Perkins) writes and directs here. He also has a pretty funny cameo. The story starts with a bloke in a pilot's uniform (Adam Scott) trying to sell a windup drumming monkey toy (DON'T CALL IT A TOY!!). A bloody event occurs, not for the last time in the movie. Cut to 1999 where we meet Hal Shelburn and his twin, Bill (both played by Christian Convery), who live with their mother, Lois (an in-form Tatiana Maslany). The pilot of the opening scene is the dad/hubby who has done a runner, leaving the cursed monkey for the lads to find (though, to b...

The Sparks Brothers

Here we have Edgar Wright's first stab at documentary film making, and it's something of a departure from his style. The chuckles are there but he seems to have gone for a reasonably risk-free structure - lots of talking heads, ups and downs of the subject, a chronology of their career and some pretty good music (a given for a music doco, I'd guess). The subjects are Ron and Russell Mael of the band Sparks, admittedly unknown to me (aside from one song that was on the Kick-Ass soundtrack - This Town Ain't Big Enough for Both of Us). One of the taglines is 'Your favourite band's favourite band' and the folk that front up to wax lyrical about Sparks are fairly glittery. You have Beck, some of Duran, Duran, Flea from Chili Peppers, Bernard Butler from Suede, Alex Kapranos from Franz Ferdinand, some of New Order, Roddy Bottum from Faith No More, Mike Myers, Weird Al Yankovic, Jason Schwartzman, Neil Gaiman, Giorgio Moroder, Adam Buxton, Mark Gatiss, bloody hel...

French Top Twenty

Across the channel now. I'd planned to do a top ten but so many belters would miss out if that were the format. So here are my favourite twenty French films. Again, ordering was extremely tough. 20. Buffet froid (Bertrand Blier - 1979) Proper bonkers this is. Depardieu when he was a powerhouse, compared to just a house. I remember watching this with my face all screwed up, thinking "Can they even make films like this?" but loving it all the same. 19. Baxter (Jerome Boivin - 1989) Another odd'un. Narrated by Baxter himself, a malevolent or maybe just dog-like bull terrier, this film follows his efforts to find a suitable home. Co-written by Jacques Audiard, who will appear later in this list. 18. Entre les murs [The Class] (Laurent Cantet - 2008) A great slice of Parisian life, almost a documentary as it's based on the experiences of Francois Begaudeau, who wrote the novel, co-wrote the film AND bloody well starred in it and al...

Film Shapes

Search This Blog