Revelation Film Festival 2026

Revelation Film Festival 2026 - Wrap up

So that's Rev for another year. I made it to eight films and it was far from a stellar collection, but I think I made the wrong choice to start with - Bulk, when I could have waited an hour and watched Rosebush Pruning, which looked better in hindsight. Anyhoo, live and learn, I guess. Here are the films I saw in viewing order:

Bulk ★

Boy, this was hard to get through. More pleased with itself than it had any right to be. Sam Riley and Alexandra Maria Lara are together again (after the vastly superior Control) with Noah Taylor wafting around too. Writer/director Ben Wheatley has had a roller-coaster of a career so far, but this must be one of the nadirs.

There are elements of Team America: World Police, Eraserhead and model work reminiscent of Ray Harryhausen, but the overripe dialogue, annoying performances, and sheer boredom all serve to give this a whiff of a pretentious student film (past experience verified). Avoid.

Penny Lane is Dead ★★★

There is a lot of blood in this mean-spirited and brutal Ozploitation flick but it's redeemed by a feminist angle and fun performances, especially from Steve Le Marquand, Bailey Spalding, Sophia Wright-Mendelsohn (yep, daughter of Mendo), and Tahlee Fereday.

Writer/director Mia Kate Russell packs it with nice 80s Australiana, especially the dialogue and Fereday's panel van. It didn't really say anything, though, and the killings got less meaningful as the film progressed, in that I found one or two to be purely for the splatter, the titillation. And my read on the ending is super bleak but maybe that's just my interpretation. Other Aussie films like The Boys, and Birdeater seem to be touchstones, though other films were mentioned in the somewhat chaotic Q&A at the end of the film.

Closure ★★★

Here's a sombre Polish documentary about a father's search for his lost teenage son. In May 2023, Krzysztof Dyminski left home and was last seen by CCTV on a bridge over the Vistula River. He hasn't been seen since. Did he commit suicide or just run away from home?

Writer/director Michal Marczak follows the father, Daniel as he scours the river with GPS, underwater cameras, mapping technology, all the gear that he can utilise. The film certainly is a kick in the guts, but also has something to say about letting go, searching for some form of closure, even finding happiness amidst all the gloom. It's slightly overlong, needs a bit of river time trimmed off it, and the maudlin tone is hard going but as a view of how grief can become an obsession, it has its place.

Hen ★★

Director and co-writer (with Zsofia Ruttkay), Gyorgy Palfi brings us this odd, chicken's eye view of the world. After a good start, it loses its way. It's too cloying and there's too much anthropomorphism - the hen learns that live chicks also hatch from eggs via a cartoon on TV. Hmmm.

Here's another Rev film that could have been shorter, in fact, it would have been more compact and welcome if it were a short, say 15 minutes long, instead of over 90 minutes! The involvement of the humans (smugglers, restauranteurs, etc.) serves to somehow improve and diminish the film at the same time. The tone suffers as soon as the humans get involved. Is it a breezy farm-yard comedy? But what about all the dead refugees? Is it a commentary on displacement? Then please explain the poultry porn. If you're looking for an animal's view on the world, Jerzy Skolimowski's Eo will sate you better.

The Best Summer ★★★½

This is a patched together 'found footage' doco from backstage (and sidestage?) at the Summersault festival in Australia in the mid 90s, plus a tour of South East Asia after. Director Tamra Davis went along with hubby at the time, Mike D from the Beastie Boys, and shot loads of tapes - interviews, gig footage, the odd travelogue shot here and there.

It suffers from mildly repetitive questioning, and thoroughly ropey handicam footage, but it brings back some nice nostalgia for those who were around at the time. Acts include Beastie Boys, Sonic Youth, Foo Fighters, Beck, Pavement, Bikini Kill, Rancid, The Amps. Highlights include Dave Grohl on guest vocals for Sabotage, and Sonic performing 100%. Fun for the 90s kids out there. What I wouldn't do for a version of this covering The Big Day Outs of the 90s, though. Incredible line-ups.

Super Nature ★★½

This is a well-meaning collection of short snippets of nature from around the world, shot on super 8 film. It seems to be the brainchild of Ed Sayers, a bloke whose concern for the planet is admirable. Unfortunately, this doco is overlong and meandering, albeit with some nice amateur shots, and the grain is lovely to look at.

The filmmakers could, and should, have cut the dozens of participants down to about 8 (in keeping with the theme), and really dug deep into these chosen folk and their stories of how nature affects them. A missed opportunity.

Dreamquil ★★★

Elizabeth Banks and John C. Reilly star in this wry, rather than hilarious, story about the virtual world of the future where the Marvel comics-style Life Model Decoys become a very real concept. Alex Prager, helming her first feature, gives us a bit of David Lynch via Jeunet & Caro, with a smidge of Don't Worry Darling and Kazuo Ishiguro's Klara and the Sun thrown in (soon to be a Taika Waititi film).

The performances are pitched right (Reilly plays a straight bat all innings) and the film looks slightly off colour, like the balance is just off. The whole film is made to feel like a non-frightening nightmare, one that might wake you up, not screaming, but maybe feeling like you had the wrong cheese before bed. Oh, and it's good to see Juliette Lewis in a minor Nurse Ratchet style role. A curious flick.

Hex ★★★★

This is a brilliant documentary about the all-female Norwegian black metal band, Witch Club Satan, and their attempts to break into the Scandi metal scene. It's nominally framed as a court case, with witnesses giving 'evidence' about the worth of the women, potentially trying them as witches. All fun and games. Aside from this unorthodox structure, we see the three musos, Nikoline, Victoria and Johanna, writing and jamming, playing gigs, including the famous Roskilde in Denmark, and just going about their lives.

There are important scenes with each band member and their parents, specifically taking about the role of feminism in the metal scene. Plus an incredible album launch - the witches lying topless in coffins, having their blood (and others') taken and used to create a painting of them, which is then nonchalantly taken home on the subway.

This is Maja Holand's first directing job (after many credits as a cinematographer) and she has provided us with a fascinating look at the alter egos of the three women and how these 'witches' help or even define them. The whole film rests on the personalities of Nikoline, Victoria and Johanna, and luckily, they've got charisma in spades. "Phil, we pray for your ethical recovery" is a joyous line in context. Check this film out, it's one of the year's best.

And that's your lot, chums. An average year, all choices considered, redeemed by one amazing doco to finish the fest. Roll on 2027.

Comments

Nosferatu

The best looking film of the year, this has a gorgeous array of visuals that elicited a number of quiet 'wows' and intakes of breath from yours truly. Big praise to cinematographer Jarin Blaschke, production designer Craig Lathrop, art director Robert Cowper, set decorator Beatrice Brentnerova, and of course, director Robert Eggers for getting this crew together - he seems to use a lot of the same folk for his films, and fair enough, when this is the final product. Eggers has adapted the script from Henrik Galeen's original for F. W. Murnau's 1922 film, itself none too subtly ripped off from Bram Stoker's novel, Dracula . This is Eggers' fourth feature after The Witch , The Lighthouse , and The Northman and while I haven't yet seen the first two, I didn't care much for The Northman , typically wondrous images aside. He flirts with the pomposity that affected his previous film but here it matches the gothic tones and source text, that is until Aaron Tayl...

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...

Supergirl

This new superhero flick from the DCU is an incel's nightmare. Following on from James Gunn's Superman of last year, Craig Gillespie takes the director's reins for this spin-off, Supergirl . Quick deviation - partway through, there's a clever aside about how Kara gets the 'girl' label, while her cousin Kal-El can use 'man'. Starting as it means to go on. Before we actually see the lead, we open with the motivating event of a family slaughter by the face-studded Krem of the Yellow Hills (Matthias Schoenaerts), sending young Ruthye (Eve Ridley) off on a revenge quest, which eventually drags in Kara Kor-El (Milly Alcock). Kara is on a week-long birthday bender, making sure to stay in red sun systems so that her powers don't work and the booze does. This is significant for the showstopping transformation yet to come on an interplanetary bus. Look, the film itself is fine, nothing new in the storyline structure (Andrew from The Curb notes that 'the ...

The Last Resort

This preview for the Nordic Film Festival is a proper drama for grown-ups, directed and co-written by Maria Sødahl, that poses some curly questions. It's about a middle class Danish couple on holiday with their young daughters in the Canary Islands. Interestingly, the Danish title is Paradis , which carries a bit more irony than its English title. Mikkel (Esben Smed) and Louise (Danica Curcic) are a typically 'normal' couple from northern Europe, enjoying their island holiday when they run down a bloke while driving at night. He turns out to be Ahmed (Aziz Çapkurt), a refugee from Afghanistan, and his leg is pretty munted. Trying to do the right thing, they take him to hospital and leave him with some cash, and crucially, their resort room and phone numbers. This minor act of kindness, and no little guilt, sets in motion a slow building series of events that fucks with the couple's holiday, and relationship in a wider sense. The resurfacing of Ahmed is clearly signpost...

The Good Boy

This English/Polish co-production is not to be confused with Good Boy , a dog-based horror film, even though in most regions the definite article is removed - it seems only Australia and the UK have it as The Good Boy . To muddy the waters more, in some areas, including the US, Brazil and the Netherlands, it's called Heel , something you might say to a dog. Anyway, I'll call it THE Good Boy because that's how it's being sold here. It's directed by a Polish guy called Jan Komasa, who's done some features in Poland, and written by first time writer Bartek Bartosik, alongside slightly more established Naqqash Khalid. They've concocted a genre pic that flirts with horror, winks at black comedy and straight up propositions psychological dependency drama. At the beginning of the film, young scally Tommy (Anson Boon) is a hateable twat, acting 'the big I am' on a night out, drug-fucked and aggro with everyone, until he sets off on his own for more action. ...

The Christophers

The title of the film refers to a series of paintings started by Julian Sklar in the 90s but left unfinished for reasons made clear later. Sklar, as played by Ian McKellen, is eccentric and irascible, and seems to be a blend of famous British painters, Francis Bacon and Lucien Freud. As Sklar is getting on in years, his grown children hatch a plan to have the paintings 'completed' for sale, with, or preferably without, their father's knowledge. For this undertaking they must enlist renowned art restorer (and dab hand forger), Lori Butler, an old acquaintance from art college. The premise is fine, but unfortunately, as created by Steven Soderbergh (director) and Ed Solomon (writer), it doesn't have any legs. Paradoxically, the best bits are probably also part of the reason it falters. McKellen is superb as the lovelorn painter, artistically blocked and emotionally bitter. His pithy, acerbic dialogue is great and he gives the performance full welly, but the actual storyli...

The Captive

Screening at the Spanish and Latin American Film Festival , Alejandro Amenabar's first film since 2019 is a mildly controversial take on the 5-year captivity of legendary Spanish author, Miguel de Cervantes. We begin the film as Cervantes is led into a dusty courtyard in Algiers, along with many other kidnappees. Before he can be sold as a slave, or sliced up for insubordination, he presents a letter from the Spanish court, signalling that perhaps it's better he be kept as a hostage for ransom. The film takes a bit of time to get rolling from here but when it does it settles into a clever mix of melodrama and weighty ideas. Cervantes, with his weak left arm acting like an acting crutch, slowly becomes the cheerleader of the prisoners, writing his stories in the air, only stopping when he temporarily runs light on material. The story takes a hurdle when the Bey, a high-ranking provincial governor (Alessandro Borghi) overhears the stories told in the courtyard and summons Cerv...

Head-On

I saw this confronting 2004 drama at the German Film Festival as part of a retrospective of Fatih Akin films. Unfortunately, there was only one screening in Perth, there might be extra shows in other cities. Akin's a great stylist, authentic and functional, and his films are informed by his cultural standing as a German-Turkish writer/director. In this film, a rough looking bloke called Cahit (Birol Ünel) smashes his car - head-on - into a wall after a heavy night on the turps. While getting treatment, he meets Sibel (Sibel Kekilli), a young woman who recognises his shared dual nationality status. She's looking for a 'Turkish' guy to marry, so her parents will get off her back. Initially sceptical and aggressively dismissive, Cahit realises Sibel is dangerously desperate, so he agrees to the sham marriage. There's an early bump in the road when Cahit kicks Sibel out on their wedding night for asking about his dead wife. Soon enough though, things settle into a room...

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 ...

Franz: Becoming Kafka

In this fractured, somewhat unconventional biopic, various characters take on the role of narrator, breaking the fourth wall within the story. As curious as the method of delivery here is, the bones of the film itself still function to paint the picture of one of the 20th century's most lauded writers. We witness Kafka's less than perfect childhood with unloving father and powerless mother; his possible spectrum hovering; his near-crippling insecurities; his tricky relationships with women; and eventually the illness that brought on his early death. Director Agnieszka Holland is still firing at 77 years old, she's quite happy to lean towards experimentation and, along with her co-writer, Marek Epstein, she imbues the film with a surrealism similar to Kafka's work. Aside from the 'to camera' narration, the timeline jumps around, even bringing in elements of 21st century Kafka tourism with French, Japanese and American tour guides, who may or may not be on the lev...

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