We are used to seeing bloody crime scenes on our film and TV screens, but its normal for the camera to leave the messy crime scene with the protagonists. Do you ever think about who cleans up the blood and guts afterwards? Sunshine Cleaning takes a different approach, ignoring "who done it?" and concentrating on "who is going to clean this mess up?". It is the story of two sisters who set themselves up in the business of cleaning up murder, suicide and other gory situations.
The story centres on Rose Lorkowski, the older sister, a solo mother and domestic cleaner whose evenings are unevenly divided between real estate night classes and motel rooms with her married, policeman, boyfriend. Its this boyfriend who suggest going into the business of cleaning up crime scenes and an invite to an old school friend's up-market baby shower that motivates Rose to "make something of herself".
Act II is the comedy act as the two sisters set up their business and learn on the job, but as time ticked on I started to wonder if the main plot line was going any further, as things became predictable and repetative. There is not enough substance in the younger sister's slow moving and completely independent sub-plot to sustain the rest of the film. By the final act, I re-classified Sunshine Cleaning from a redemption comedy to a slacker film. One where the writer and director compete with the protagonists for the slacker label. The same can't be said for the actors, Amy Adams is very effective as Rose, a solo mother who whose dreams and enthusiasm exceed her ability to achieve them. She is backed up by Alan Arkin as her gullible yet scheming father and Clifton Collins Jr. as the laconic wholesaler. I wanted to like this film but unfortunately Sunshine Cleaning wastes a clever premise and good cast by being unsure of what story it is trying to tell and how it should tell it.
Ian's rating 1.5/5 Anne's rating 3/5
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Monday, August 22, 2011
Incendies
Incendies was one of the two films I was disappointed to miss during the Film Festival. Luckily I got to see it at the Brooklyn Penthouse four days later. In summary, if I had seen it during the festival I would have classed it as the best film of the festival.
Incendies is an adaptation of Wajdi Mouawad's play about twins (brother and sister) who have to unravel the mysteries of their dead mother's life. Often plays adapted into movies give away their origins by having a small cast, a limit number of locations, very little action and depend on dialogue to move the plot forward. But unlike many adaptations of plays this one hides its roots very well.
Twins Jeanne and Simon Marwan have opposing ideas on whether their mother was crazy. At the reading of her will Simon begins to think that his mother's Notary and long time employer, Jean Lebel, is equally crazy. Simon wants to embrace his North American upbringing and forget his Lebanese heritage (and associated baggage that created the crazy mother who brought him up). The will includes 3 odd requests from his mother. While Simon washes his hands of his mother, Jeanne takes on the mission set by their mother and flies to Lebanon.
Phrase book in hand Jeanne tries to track down mum's family. The film flashes back from time to time into their mother's recent and distant past. So we find out the back story slightly ahead of Jeanne. Jeanne and her mother, Nawal, look similar and so it pays to concentrate to verify whether the young woman is Jeanne or Nawal in flashback. That the young Nawal was involved in a war generally gives it away. Eventually Jean Lebel brings the reluctant Simon to join Jeanne in Lebanon to wrap up the mission and make sure they are both on hand when the final secret is revealed.
This is a mystery story that starts very slowly, but gradually the pace picks up as you (and the twins) get to know more of the back story and find out that they didn't know their mum at all. Eventually the mystery unfolds to a suitably dramatic climax. At the end you realise that the Quebecois Notary knew a lot more than he originally let on.
While Canada is mentioned a lot in the film, Lebanon is not mentioned once, but what other Arab country has a power struggle and civil war between Muslims and Christians? Where French is commonly spoken, there a powerful enemy to the south and Palestinian refugees? What is the taboo about mentioning Lebanon (or Israel for that matter)? Is the idea to make the war, the politics and the atrocities more abstract by not mentioning their location? But given that the Muslim versus Christian conflict is openly discussed, this is not an abstract civil war but clearly one where religion is used to identify factions. My guess is that they were trying to avoid upsetting some people, by in effect saying "you may think this is Lebanon and those planes are from Israel but we refuse to confirm or deny that". That said they don't flinch from the horrors of war and what passes for 'peace' in Lebanon.
Incendies is sometimes translated as Scorched.
Ian's rating 5/5
Incendies is an adaptation of Wajdi Mouawad's play about twins (brother and sister) who have to unravel the mysteries of their dead mother's life. Often plays adapted into movies give away their origins by having a small cast, a limit number of locations, very little action and depend on dialogue to move the plot forward. But unlike many adaptations of plays this one hides its roots very well.
Twins Jeanne and Simon Marwan have opposing ideas on whether their mother was crazy. At the reading of her will Simon begins to think that his mother's Notary and long time employer, Jean Lebel, is equally crazy. Simon wants to embrace his North American upbringing and forget his Lebanese heritage (and associated baggage that created the crazy mother who brought him up). The will includes 3 odd requests from his mother. While Simon washes his hands of his mother, Jeanne takes on the mission set by their mother and flies to Lebanon.
Phrase book in hand Jeanne tries to track down mum's family. The film flashes back from time to time into their mother's recent and distant past. So we find out the back story slightly ahead of Jeanne. Jeanne and her mother, Nawal, look similar and so it pays to concentrate to verify whether the young woman is Jeanne or Nawal in flashback. That the young Nawal was involved in a war generally gives it away. Eventually Jean Lebel brings the reluctant Simon to join Jeanne in Lebanon to wrap up the mission and make sure they are both on hand when the final secret is revealed.
This is a mystery story that starts very slowly, but gradually the pace picks up as you (and the twins) get to know more of the back story and find out that they didn't know their mum at all. Eventually the mystery unfolds to a suitably dramatic climax. At the end you realise that the Quebecois Notary knew a lot more than he originally let on.
While Canada is mentioned a lot in the film, Lebanon is not mentioned once, but what other Arab country has a power struggle and civil war between Muslims and Christians? Where French is commonly spoken, there a powerful enemy to the south and Palestinian refugees? What is the taboo about mentioning Lebanon (or Israel for that matter)? Is the idea to make the war, the politics and the atrocities more abstract by not mentioning their location? But given that the Muslim versus Christian conflict is openly discussed, this is not an abstract civil war but clearly one where religion is used to identify factions. My guess is that they were trying to avoid upsetting some people, by in effect saying "you may think this is Lebanon and those planes are from Israel but we refuse to confirm or deny that". That said they don't flinch from the horrors of war and what passes for 'peace' in Lebanon.
Incendies is sometimes translated as Scorched.
Ian's rating 5/5
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Award Ceremony NZ International Film Festival 2011
This year we saw about 40 feature films and 8 shorts between us. I was disappointed at missing out on seeing Incendies and Sleeping Beauty, but Bill Gosden et al jam far too many films into 16 days. The Festival really needs to be stretched over four weeks. For me this year's Film Festival was the year of slacker movies, French films and thrillers.
I shall put my ten-cents worth in italics - Anne
Best Film
I can't decide on a best film and rank three films (all thrillers) as equhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifally good:
- The Man from Nowhere - Tarantino's flair for stylish violence meets Spielberg flair for pathos and humour.
- Point Blank - Underground, overground, on the run in Paris.
- Viva Riva! - Où est Riva? Everyone wants a piece of this man.
I didn't see many thrillers (which was probably unfortunate, given Ian's ratings) but I think The Trip deserves best film with The First Grader as runner up.
Nominations:
- Cave of Forgotten Dreams 3D - Werner Herzog, an acquired taste?
- Hot Coffee - Hoodwinking the public about frivolous lawsuit.
- Guilty Pleasures - Mills and Boon, the inside story.
- Sons of Perdition - The down side of polygamy.
- Project Nim - Chimps belong with chimps.
- Tabloid - How not to date a Mormon.
- Windfall - How not to introduce wind energy.
- Page One: Inside the NY Times - Will journalism be missed?
- Moving - From South Korea to Christchurch.
My award would go to Hot Coffee
Best Drama
Nominations:
- Weekend - A gay romance.
- The Forgiveness of Blood - Home detention Albanian style.
- Submarine - Dysfunctional in Wales.
- Tomboy - Laure is Mikael today.
- Footnote - The Professors Schkolnik, father and son.
- She Monkeys - "Sexually power play and small-town emotional austerity".
- Love Like Poison - Girl comes of age.
- Terri - The picked-on kid.
- Meek's Cutoff - Does the guide know the way?
- The First Grader - 84 year old Kenyan, Maruge, takes the government at its word when it promises free education for all.
- Taxi Driver - Being driven mad by New York.
For me The First Grader was way out in front.
Best Comedy
Nominations:
- Let the Bullets Fly - A Chinese shaggy dog story.
- Happy, Happy - Misbehaving in the snow.
- Romantics Anonymous - The emotionally challenged find ... each other.
- The Salt of Life - The power of women over men.
- The Trip - Two comedians, one car.
- Nothing to Declare - Franco-Belgian customs.
- The Women on the 6th Floor - Finding out how the other half live.
- A Cat in Paris - Is Dino Zoé's cat or Nico's cat?
- The Guard - The Irish Garda and CIA "work together".
- Troll Hunter - The Norwegian Blair Witch Project.
- Love Story - Woman on subway with cake.
I loved Romantics Anonymous but The Trip has to be best comedy as well as best film.
Best Thriller
Nominations:
- Point Blank - Run Samuel Run.
- Elite Squad: The Enemy Within - What happens if you kill all the baddies in town?
- The Guard - Not a recruitment advert for the Irish police.
- Viva Riva! - A hot time Kinshasa.
- The Man from Nowhere - Don't mess with the mild mannered pawnbroker.
- A Cat in Paris - Will Zoé escape the evil Victor Costa?
French Film
In order from best to worst:
- Point Blank - Underground, overground, on the run in Paris.
- Romantics Anonymous - The emotionally challenged find ... each other.
- Nothing to Declare - Franco-Belgian customs.
- The Women on the 6th Floor - Finding out how the other half live.
- A Cat in Paris - Is Dino Zoé's cat or Nico's cat?
- Tomboy - Laure is Mikael today.
- Love Like Poison - Girl comes of age.
- Le Havre - An unrealistic film.
I thought Romantics Anonymous and Nothing to Declare were equally good.
Slacker Movies
A slacker is someone who tries their best not to work. In slacker movies not much happens. The film that gave its name to the genre was Richard Linklater's 1991 film Slacker. But filmakers were making slacker movies before the term was coined. This year we saw an extra-ordinary number of these films (and I am too slack to pick the best, or worst):
- Terri - Kids go to school.
- Submarine - Dysfunctional in Wales.
- Taxi Driver - Martin Scorsese and Robert DeNiro's 1970's slacker movie.
- The Innkeepers - Slacker ghost hunters get scared.
- The Salt of Life - Slacker looks for love.
- She Monkeys - Girly power-play.
- Love Like Poison - A girl's summer hols.
- Happy, Happy - Misbehaving in the snow.
- Meek's Cutoff - Mucking about in Oregon.
.........Yawn.....
Odds and ends
- A Cat in Paris - The animation.
- Space Battleship Yamato - The sci-fi film.
- 13 Assassins - The samurai movie.
- Love Story - Mockumentary love story.
- Troll Hunter - Mockumentary horror/comedy.
- The Innkeepers - The ghost story.
- Le Havre - Somewhat strange.
- The Last Circus - Incredibly strange.
Disappointments
- Cave of Forgotten Dreams 3D - Werner Herzog gets distracted.
- Le Havre - Doesn't know what it is.
- The Last Circus - Not quite comedy or horror or serious.
- She Monkeys - Silent teenage mind games.
Best Actors
In order:
- Brendan Gleeson (Sgt Gerry Boyle) in The Guard
- Robert DeNiro (Travis Bickle) in Taxi Driver
- Agnes Kittelsen (Kaja) in Happy, Happy
- Hoji Fortuna (César) in Viva Riva!
- Manie Malone (Nora) in Viva Riva!
Best Child Actors
In order:
- Zoé Héran (Laure/Michaël) in Tomboy
- Kim Sae-ron (So-mi) in The Man from Nowhere
- Camille Gigot and Jean-Charles Deval (Bertrand and Olivier Joubert) in The Women on the 6th Floor
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Troll Hunter
One of the offerings in the incredibly strange section of the film festival programme, Troll Hunter is a Norwegian mockumentary. It claims to be footage shot by 3 now missing college students who stumble upon a real-life troll hunter, who is a government employee whose raison d'etre is to keep the Norwegian populace from finding out trolls really exist. At first the Troll Hunter is very hostile and tries to shake the plucky students off his trail but he warms to them and they end up accompanying him all over Norway and encountering many different types of Troll.
It should be no surprise that Troll Hunter is very silly but it was a bit disappointing that it wasn't in the least frightening. I enjoyed the trolls themselves which were impressively large and very noisy and I enjoyed the liberal use of troll "facts" all delivered absolutely straight - that they turn to stone in bright light, that they can smell the blood of Christians, that gestation takes years, and that a string of power pylons is in fact an electric fence to keep the trolls out. I especially liked the government official creating large artificial bear paw-prints in the forest to cover up troll activity. However, it did drag a bit at times, and didn't even come vaguely close to being believable.
Anne's rating 2.5/5 Ian's rating 3/5
Sunday, August 14, 2011
Viva Riva!
If you don't know any French then well before the end of Congolese thriller Viva Riva!, you'll figure out that "Où est Riva?" means "Where is Riva?"
Recently returned to petrol starved Kinshasa from Angola with a fist-full of US dollars and a truck load of petrol, Riva is a popular guy. He wants to go out and party while waiting for the petrol price to peak, so he can make a killing. But his big spending, womanising behaviour is attracting attention. Soon his dapper ex-boss, César, arrives from Angola asking "Où est Riva?" and local crime boss Azor is asking the same question. César is cool, calm and ruthless in his mission to recover his truck load of petrol whereas Azor is a more standard issue African "big man", who is angry and jealous that his seductive girlfriend Nora has been flirting with Riva.
The film divides its time almost equally between Riva, Nora and "The Commandant" a female army officer blackmailed by César to hunt down Riva. The two women are the most interesting characters. The sultry Nora is the shiniest thing in Kinshasa, but is little more than Azor's play thing, but that doesn't stop her going after what she wants with little more than her beauty. The Commandant is a more tricky character, it seems that her main weapons are not her military position or gun but her contacts around the city. She helps under the duress of blackmail which means no-one trusts her.
The finale is suitably climatic and more pessimistic than Hollywood would make it. The message delivered by Viva Riva! is a bleak one, that money is poison, and it contaminates everyone it touches.
Sub-Saharan African cities usually turn up in films as colourful backdrops for short sequences, so it is refreshing to see Kinshasa and its population being the centre of the action rather than the backdrop. Even the outsiders (César and his two henchmen) are only slightly foreign. Kinshasa is portrayed as a chaotic, dirty city, corrupted at all levels where the electricity is intermittent (but the cell phone system works OK). While the actors and the problem of petrol shortage are African, the style of film making is European.
As you might expect some American critics are concerned about the nudity and sex. More seriously some critics consider Viva Riva! to be an exploitation film, but I wonder if they comment equally on the exploitation that is common place in Hollywood films and TV.
Ian's rating 5/5
A Cat in Paris
I can't let a Film Festival go by without at least one animated movie. This year it is A Cat in Paris. There weren't many kids in the Saturday morning session, which is a pity as this film is very much at a kids level (though like all the best kids books there is also stuff at an adult level). The style of drawing is a cross between childish and Picasso, which could have been annoying but grew on me, especially the care taken over animating Dino the cat.
The story is simple; Dino has two homes. During the day he is Zoé's cat and at night he is Nico's cat. Zoé is the young daughter of Jeanne is the Paris Police Commissioner, whereas Nico is a successful cat burglar. Zoé hasn't talked since her dad was killed by crime boss Victor Costa. Nico and Dino clash with Costa and his gang drawing Zoé and her mother into a chase across the roofs of Paris. It all ends happily of course though some pesky kids might ask awkward questions about why Jeanne didn't arrest Nico.
Perhaps the kids went to the dubbed version so they wouldn't have to read the sub-titles - I guess younger kids could have trouble reading sub-titles fast enough.
Ian's rating 3/5 Anne's rating 3.5/5
The story is simple; Dino has two homes. During the day he is Zoé's cat and at night he is Nico's cat. Zoé is the young daughter of Jeanne is the Paris Police Commissioner, whereas Nico is a successful cat burglar. Zoé hasn't talked since her dad was killed by crime boss Victor Costa. Nico and Dino clash with Costa and his gang drawing Zoé and her mother into a chase across the roofs of Paris. It all ends happily of course though some pesky kids might ask awkward questions about why Jeanne didn't arrest Nico.
Perhaps the kids went to the dubbed version so they wouldn't have to read the sub-titles - I guess younger kids could have trouble reading sub-titles fast enough.
Ian's rating 3/5 Anne's rating 3.5/5
The Guard
The 2011 International Film Festival seems to be the year of thrillers. The Guard is the Irish contribution to the genre this year. The twist is that it is also a comedy. Don Cheadle plays straight man and by-the-book FBI agent to Brendan Gleeson's irreverent, unorthodox Irish village cop. They end up working on the same international drug smuggling case after a dead gangster shows up in Irish Garda's village.
Brendan Gleeson delivers his lines so perfectly that, like the hapless FBI agent, the audience is left in doubt whether to take some of Sergeant Boyle's statements as his sincere opinion or not. Don Cheadle is very much second fiddle as this is Gleeson's film.
Nothing is taken seriously in this film (except by Don Cheadle's character). Not only easy targets like the Americans and British, but also the Irish themselves, the IRA and the Police are fair game. It comes with gangster philosophy that takes over where In Bruges left off. If you liked that film then you'll like this one too.
Ian's rating 4/5 Anne's rating 3.5/5
Brendan Gleeson delivers his lines so perfectly that, like the hapless FBI agent, the audience is left in doubt whether to take some of Sergeant Boyle's statements as his sincere opinion or not. Don Cheadle is very much second fiddle as this is Gleeson's film.
Nothing is taken seriously in this film (except by Don Cheadle's character). Not only easy targets like the Americans and British, but also the Irish themselves, the IRA and the Police are fair game. It comes with gangster philosophy that takes over where In Bruges left off. If you liked that film then you'll like this one too.
Ian's rating 4/5 Anne's rating 3.5/5
Footnote
There are lots of topics worthy of a movie - father/son relationships, moral dilemmas, academic rivalry and Asperger's syndrome but few movies deal with all of these at once. Footnote does. It's hard to try and describe the plot succinctly, but I shall try.
Footnote centres around the two Professors Schkolnik - the Father (Eliezer) and Son (Uriel) who both work in the Talmudic Studies Department at the Hebrew University. Eliezer is a philologist whose life's work on translations of the Talmud was gazumped by just before publication by a Professor Grossman's rival publication. Eliezer exhibits signs of Asperger's syndrome - he has walked the same route to work every day for the last forty years, always works with industrial ear protection and has an impressive scrapbook collection and a permanent frown. Uriel is much more involved in teaching and networking and is a more sociable and communicative guy.
One day, Eliezer gets a phone call to say that he has been awarded the Israel Prize - remarkable not just because it's Israel's highest honour but because he has been nominated every year for the last twenty years and never won, and because Professor Grossman is the chairman of the judging committee.
Next, Uriel gets a phone call from Professor Grossman summonsing him to a secret meeting at the University. The meeting is the Israel Prize judging committee and they tell him he's there because he has been nominated for the Israel Prize and that the phone call to his father was a mistake. They want Uriel to be the one to break the news to his father, which is, of course, an appalling prospect This meeting is the comic centrepiece of the film - about 8 mostly elderly academics packed into a tiny office (the door can't be opened without someone getting up) discussing a highly emotive topic. Initially Uriel agrees to tell his Father but later persuades the committee to award this prize to his father anyway. Grossman agrees but only if Uriel writes the judges citation.
And therein lies the problem. Eliezer is a wordsmith, and he recognizes his son's style. He's already had his suspicions raised by the very long time the letter confirming his prize took to arrive. The great lengths that his son has gone to to preserve his dignity and his feelings are to no avail. And of course being inhibited in the communication department, they're never going to discuss it.
Footnote is, at times, almost excruciating to watch. It has elements of a detective story, like Name of the Rose, so you get quite involved. At times, its very funny. Given how much the people next to me were laughing, it's probably funnier if you are more familiar with Israel that I am. It certainly makes you reflect on the merits of trying to spare someone's feelings, whether they'd be grateful if they knew and whether they'd reciprocate if they were in the same position. And you can reflect on how relatives aren't always easy to love.
Anne's rating 3/5
Saturday, August 13, 2011
Moving
Going to Moving on Wednesday afternoon was an impulse move to help use up Ian's second 10 trip ticket. It featured a Korean Immigrant couple, Jung and Lee whose two Korean restaurants are in what's now the red zone in Central Christchurch. Unlike most of the television you've seen about victims of the Christchurch earthquake, the focus wasn't really on the impact that the earthquake had had, because the back story was so much more incredible.
Moving alternates between filming Jung and Lee talking and footage of the red zone post earthquake. The earthquake footage is sombre with falling leaves and bulldozers methodically demolishing buildings.
Jung and Lee had lived and worked in New Zealand prior to immigrating. A failed business venture in Korea meant that when they finally immigrated they had almost no money. And so they recount how by a colossal amount of hard work and determination and a timely loan from a fellow Korean immigrant they haul themselves away from the poverty line and into relative prosperity. And then the February earthquake struck, but they are not too downcast by this particular adversity because it doesn't seem all that dreadful compared to what they've been through.
You couldn't help but like Jung and Lee because they were so hard-working and had a complete lack of self pity. They admitted to being depressed by their circumstances early on. And there was the insight that it wasn't all bad working so had because there's not that much to do in New Zealand "Of course you can play golf, but not every day"
Moving wasn't really like watching a film, it was more like actually meeting some pretty interesting and likeable people, who told you an incredible amount about themselves in a short space of time. The only downside was that to listen to the same people talk for 90 minutes with only short interruptions for earthquake footage required rather more concentration than I'm used to.
Anne's rating 2.5/5
Moving alternates between filming Jung and Lee talking and footage of the red zone post earthquake. The earthquake footage is sombre with falling leaves and bulldozers methodically demolishing buildings.
Jung and Lee had lived and worked in New Zealand prior to immigrating. A failed business venture in Korea meant that when they finally immigrated they had almost no money. And so they recount how by a colossal amount of hard work and determination and a timely loan from a fellow Korean immigrant they haul themselves away from the poverty line and into relative prosperity. And then the February earthquake struck, but they are not too downcast by this particular adversity because it doesn't seem all that dreadful compared to what they've been through.
You couldn't help but like Jung and Lee because they were so hard-working and had a complete lack of self pity. They admitted to being depressed by their circumstances early on. And there was the insight that it wasn't all bad working so had because there's not that much to do in New Zealand "Of course you can play golf, but not every day"
Moving wasn't really like watching a film, it was more like actually meeting some pretty interesting and likeable people, who told you an incredible amount about themselves in a short space of time. The only downside was that to listen to the same people talk for 90 minutes with only short interruptions for earthquake footage required rather more concentration than I'm used to.
Anne's rating 2.5/5
Elite Squad: The Enemy Within
Elite Squad: The Enemy Within is the most successful film in Brazilian history (beating Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands made in 1976). It is a sequel to Elite Squad. Both the Elite Squad films are semi-fictional accounts of the Special Police Operations Battalion (BOPE) of the Military Police of Rio de Janeiro State. (Unlike NZ, Brazil has parallel Military and Civil Police forces both report to State Governors). The BOPE has a controversial reputation for shoot first policies and targeting of slum dwellers in Rio de Janeiro, and one has to wonder about a police unit with a skull on its badge.
While Elite Squad: The Enemy Within is a sequel, it is also self contained and I didn't feel I was missing anything, given that I hadn't seen the earlier film.
Elite Squad: The Enemy Within focuses on Lt. Colonel Roberto Nascimento the BOPE commander whose wife has left him and is now married to his arch enemy, left wing academic Diogo Fraga who heads a Human Rights organisation. These two men have opposite views on solving Rio's crime problems. Nascimmento's views are challenged as he gradually realises that the BOPE is being used by corrupt police and state politicians to replace the drug gangs in the slums with their own henchmen.
The action scenes are exciting and well handled and while there are a number of interesting characters (a great shock-jock TV presenter, various police inside and outside the BOPE, Nascimento's ex-wife, son and son's girlfriend) they don't get enough screen time, as the camera stays on Nascimento. In fact the major fault with the film in my mind is the excessive use of voice over narration to explain things and tell the story. I think the director could have let the action and dialogue tell the story, rather than rely on narration.
What may appeal to Brazilians is that the film clearly lays out the Catch-22 situation that authorities in Rio face as they try to police the city. There is no simple answer that works.
Ian's rating 3/5
Homegrown: Drama
Homegrown: Drama is a group of New Zealand short films (though 2 were made overseas).
I've ordered these from best to worst in my opinion.
3 Hours
Set in Baghdad, but filmed in Jordan (everyone's favourite stand-in for Iraq), using Iraqi refugees as actors, this was the best of the short films. It is based on real events when unidentified militants killed some children in a mixed Shia-Sunni neighbourhood sparking off a 3 hour gun battle between neighbours who blamed each other for the killings. The heat of the moment reactions and miss-identifications are realistically portrayed in a 14 minute film.
Darryn Exists
Unpublished novelists are subjects of fun. As are romance novelists. Penelope is both. Will she find love? Surreal in places, but no more than it should be.
Hauraki
In a drive across the Hauraki plains a carsick girl provokes a very Kiwi argument between her mother and a farmer's wife. There is a happy ending.
With My Little Eye
Mother, daughter and a man that might be her father go away for a weekend somewhere in Australia. Daughter averts a rape.
Elaine Rides Again
An odd little film about an anxious, religious mother who is concerned about her daughter and boyfriend. Cakes are used a punctuation.
Monifa
A simple film about a young African refugee girl in suburban New Zealand trying to cope with memories and a loud boy.
No bicycle helmets were worn in the making of these films.
I've ordered these from best to worst in my opinion.
3 Hours
Set in Baghdad, but filmed in Jordan (everyone's favourite stand-in for Iraq), using Iraqi refugees as actors, this was the best of the short films. It is based on real events when unidentified militants killed some children in a mixed Shia-Sunni neighbourhood sparking off a 3 hour gun battle between neighbours who blamed each other for the killings. The heat of the moment reactions and miss-identifications are realistically portrayed in a 14 minute film.
Darryn Exists
Unpublished novelists are subjects of fun. As are romance novelists. Penelope is both. Will she find love? Surreal in places, but no more than it should be.
Hauraki
In a drive across the Hauraki plains a carsick girl provokes a very Kiwi argument between her mother and a farmer's wife. There is a happy ending.
With My Little Eye
Mother, daughter and a man that might be her father go away for a weekend somewhere in Australia. Daughter averts a rape.
Elaine Rides Again
An odd little film about an anxious, religious mother who is concerned about her daughter and boyfriend. Cakes are used a punctuation.
Monifa
A simple film about a young African refugee girl in suburban New Zealand trying to cope with memories and a loud boy.
No bicycle helmets were worn in the making of these films.
Terri
Terri the movie is named after its hero - Terri the teenage oddball, who is overweight and often wears pajamas to school. He's the object of low-level ridicule. He lives with his Uncle, who is an only marginally functional care-giver, who appears to be addicted to prescription drugs. Often its Terri who is doing the caregiving which means he's often late to school.
The other major character in the movie is the Assistant Principal at Terri's school. He's called Mr Fitzgerald and he keeps a kindly eye on the oddball and behaviourally-challenged pupils, partly because its his job, but partly because he was (is?) an oddball himself. These pupils get a weekly interview with Mr F, and so we get to know them and him quite well. Mr F is played by John C Reilly, who also starred in Cyrus
Terri befriends two other "problem" students - Chad, who pulls his own hair out and Heather, who almost got suspended for (arguably unwilling) participation in sexual activity in Home Economics class. Their interaction with each other and Mr F is funny and heartwarming but ultimately not that much happens.
Terri felt like the opening episode of a TV series - it did some exposition and we got to know and like everyone and now we're looking forward to the next episode and finding out what happens. Sadly, there is no more - its a film and not a TV series - and so despite great acting and great characters it was somewhat unsatisfying.
Anne's rating 2.5/5
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Love Like Poison
The Film Festival has a music section which could have included Love Like Poison. For much of the film it is not clear what Love Like Poison is about, but there is beautiful singing to enjoy while you are trying to figure it out. The church figures big in Anna's life so we get the congregation singing like a professional choir with and without the organ. We also get an altar boy wooing Anna with a love song.
First-time director Katell Quillévéré likes to make her audience work by constructing a film of short disconnected sequences, that we have to make sense of. Anna is home from boarding school and preparing for confirmation. Her father has left home for another woman, leaving her mother distraught. Her local friend is leaving the village, so she finds herself spending time with three very different people: an earnest young priest, her jazz record playing bedridden grandfather and the infatuated altar boy.
Once you get used to the disconnected sequences and the aimless lack of story telling you can relax and enjoy this coming-of-age film which doesn't shrink from an octogenarian sex drive and a mother's jealousy of her teenage daughter's body. There is also the bonus of nice music and rural France.
Ian's rating 3/5
First-time director Katell Quillévéré likes to make her audience work by constructing a film of short disconnected sequences, that we have to make sense of. Anna is home from boarding school and preparing for confirmation. Her father has left home for another woman, leaving her mother distraught. Her local friend is leaving the village, so she finds herself spending time with three very different people: an earnest young priest, her jazz record playing bedridden grandfather and the infatuated altar boy.
Once you get used to the disconnected sequences and the aimless lack of story telling you can relax and enjoy this coming-of-age film which doesn't shrink from an octogenarian sex drive and a mother's jealousy of her teenage daughter's body. There is also the bonus of nice music and rural France.
Ian's rating 3/5
Windfall
At first glance Windfall is about the evils of wind farms. While all sorts of evils are pointed out (the noise, the flicker of shadows through house and car windows, ice being flung from the blades in winter, the killing of bats, the interference with TV transmission and the need to back them up with another generating source) the main problems dealt with in Windfall are man made.
There are no regulations on wind energy at either the federal level or the state level in New York state and it is left to each town to come up with their own regulations or not. On top of that most of the funding to build windfarms come from the subsidies and tax breaks from the state and federal governments. There is also a wierd accelerated depreciation system that allows a new owner to start depreciating the wind farm all over again. This encourages wind farms to be bought and sold at short intervals.
Windfall focuses on the small dairy farming town of Meredith in New York state (pop. 1500), as an example of how the process works in that part of America. The windfarm companies don't make public anouncements or talk to the town council, they approach individuals and get them to sign non-disclosure agreements before any deal is discussed. The individuals chosen are those with significan land holdings and either an important position in town or possible financial issues. So the town supervisor (equivalent of our mayor) and other on the town council and its planning board are among those approached. This approach stymies, or taints the creation of town regulations. The documentary also notes how the more affluent nearby towns aren't approached.
Given that many of those who oppose the windfarm are self confessed green retirees from New York city I began to wonder if this was a case of NIMBYism. But it seems like these were the ones that were suspicious enough to ask questions, and with the time to research wind turbines. Everyone in the town, regardless of side of the debate they were on, agreed that the wind farm debate was the most divisive thing to hit Meredith. The film climaxed with the election for town council.
Windfall is an object lesson in how corporations behave when governments give them handouts and tax breaks and how they behave in a regulation free environment. It is a strong argument why the Resource Management Act should not be weakened and illustrates how government handouts and tax breaks distort business decision making. Ultimately it is an argument against lopsided negotiations between individuals and corporations especially when those decisions affect neighbours.
Ian's rating 3/5
On 16 August 2011 Kathryn Ryan's Nine to Noon radio program (podcast available) covered a documentary called Gasland about the lack of regulation of the American natural gas industry and the process of fracking (hydraulic fracturing). In NZ there is fracking going on in Taranaki and Canterbury.
There are no regulations on wind energy at either the federal level or the state level in New York state and it is left to each town to come up with their own regulations or not. On top of that most of the funding to build windfarms come from the subsidies and tax breaks from the state and federal governments. There is also a wierd accelerated depreciation system that allows a new owner to start depreciating the wind farm all over again. This encourages wind farms to be bought and sold at short intervals.
Windfall focuses on the small dairy farming town of Meredith in New York state (pop. 1500), as an example of how the process works in that part of America. The windfarm companies don't make public anouncements or talk to the town council, they approach individuals and get them to sign non-disclosure agreements before any deal is discussed. The individuals chosen are those with significan land holdings and either an important position in town or possible financial issues. So the town supervisor (equivalent of our mayor) and other on the town council and its planning board are among those approached. This approach stymies, or taints the creation of town regulations. The documentary also notes how the more affluent nearby towns aren't approached.
Given that many of those who oppose the windfarm are self confessed green retirees from New York city I began to wonder if this was a case of NIMBYism. But it seems like these were the ones that were suspicious enough to ask questions, and with the time to research wind turbines. Everyone in the town, regardless of side of the debate they were on, agreed that the wind farm debate was the most divisive thing to hit Meredith. The film climaxed with the election for town council.
Windfall is an object lesson in how corporations behave when governments give them handouts and tax breaks and how they behave in a regulation free environment. It is a strong argument why the Resource Management Act should not be weakened and illustrates how government handouts and tax breaks distort business decision making. Ultimately it is an argument against lopsided negotiations between individuals and corporations especially when those decisions affect neighbours.
Ian's rating 3/5
On 16 August 2011 Kathryn Ryan's Nine to Noon radio program (podcast available) covered a documentary called Gasland about the lack of regulation of the American natural gas industry and the process of fracking (hydraulic fracturing). In NZ there is fracking going on in Taranaki and Canterbury.
Point Blank
Be warned, Hollywood will remake Point Blank and people will tell you that you should have seen the original French version. The premise is simple enough: a wanted man is in hospital, people want him out before he can talk to the cops so they kidnap a trainee nurse's wife and blackmail him into smuggling the man out of hospital.
The presentation of the story is signalled by the opening scene of a wounded man running. Pain and speed are two of the main themes in this thriller. The gangsters, the police and our hero, Samuel, race through Paris day and night, above and below ground, mostly on foot. Almost all the surviving players are wounded by the end of the film. Point Blank is also characterised by sudden plot twists that come at you out of nowhere and throw your conceptions of what is happening out the window. It is an edge of your seat thriller that doesn't let up until the final scene.
Like most thrillers there are a couple of spots where implausible things happen but the pace of the film is so fast that you'll forget instantly what they were. It is nice to see the cops using nothing more sophisticated than cellphones and close-circuit TV. One thing Hollywood won't be able to reproduce is the gritty, unattractive looking French cops. As Hugo points out when Samuel asks:
Why can't I be the cop?Samuel is the centre of this film. He is no superhero, though he can run and usually pick correctly who to trust. No mean feat given all those stairs and the double crossing going on.
You're too good looking.
Ian's rating 5/5
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