The Angel's Share

One of The Angel's Share's claims to fame is that it's directed by Ken Loach, who is famous for gritty films with kitchen sink realism. There's a chance that grit and realism might not be what you're looking for in your evening's entertainment and so this might put you off and I do hope this isn't the case. Like Looking for Eric, (a film we both loved, also directed by Ken Loach),  The Angel's Share mixes grit with humour and charm and a slightly fanciful feel-good story.

Our story is set in Glasgow and features Robbie, a slight but good-looking troubled youth with a pregnant girlfriend who narrowly avoids going to jail at the opening of the film.He leads a somewhat desperate existence, plagued by beatings from some life-long rivals and his girlfriend's relatives who are less than keen on  the relationship. He's sentenced to community service and so makes the acquaintance of Harry the supervisor and Rhino, Albert and Mo, who are similarly troubled youths.

Harry gives Robbie a ride to the hospital when his son is born and then takes him home for a celebratory whisky afterwards. Robbie's appreciation of the subtleties of whisky inspire Harry to take him (and in fact the rest of the community service crew) to a  distillery and later to a formal whisky tasting. Robbie comes up with a cunning plan to steal some of a very rare single malt from an isolated distillery and  sell it to solve his financial woes. He conscripts Rhino, Albert and Mo to help him and the next part of the film is reminiscent of a Famous Five adventure with Scottish accents - it only lacks Timmy the dog. This is not a criticism - this is all rollicking good fun although the jolly life-affirming stuff is tempered with doses of violence.

You'll have to concentrate to make sure you catch all the dialogue which is delivered with broad Scottish accents and you'll have to be comfortable with plenty of four letter words but it's all worthwhile and the happy ending is most satisfactory

Anne's rating 4.5/5 Ian's rating 4/5

Killer Joe

Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Killer Joe might not quite merit stylish (unless you find Texas trailer trash stylish), but it certainly qualifies on both cynical attitude and sexual motivations. Killer Joe also qualifies in terms of its plot about people forced into desperate situations, making decisions that put them onto the wrong side of the law and trying to find their own way out of the predicament.

Chis Smith is the sort of guy who is in debt to a drug dealer, has had his stash stolen and wakes everyone in the middle of the night to tell them about his plan to hire a hit man to kill his mother for the insurance money. Things go down hill from there as Chris enlists Ansel, his reluctant but equally dim witted father to help him. You would think a cop that is smart enough to moonlight as a hit man would run a mile once he caught a sniff of this penniless, incompetent duo; but Joe Cooper catches sight of Chris's apparently naive sister Dotty and his lust for the cute teenager sucks him into the Smith family intrigues. In complete contrast to Dotty's sexual innocence is Sharla, Chris and Dotty's stepmother, who is the voice of reason in this dysfunctional family but has her own secrets and schemes.

Juno Temple as Dotty

I seem to be watching a lot of films featuring bad cops lately, last week's Rampart, last year's Coup de torchon, Elite Squad: The Enemy Within, Point Blank and 2010's The Killer Inside Me. Joe Cooper tops the list as the most blatantly and melodramatically evil cop. His immaculate clothes and patronising smarter-than-thou attitude belies the fact that he is as venal and feral as the trailer trash he is caught up with. Any misplaced admiration you may have had for him is undercut by the climatic fried chicken dinner scene, which includes violence and humiliation that polarised the critics. It is not the most violent scene in the film but it has a visceral shock value that is enhanced because it doesn't particularly seem necessary to the plot.

Despite its low rent locations Killer Joe is stylishly filmed, especially the night scenes. Matthew McConaughey (who also played the district attorney in last week's Bernie) plays Joe Cooper with oily charm and Juno Temple is disturbing as the enigmatic woman-child Dotty.

Ian's rating 4/5

Killer Joe was preceded by New Zealand short film Hitch Hike, about a young man hitch hiking the roads around Huntly looking for his birth mother - where there only seems to be one car.

Bernie

Bernie is an incredible tale, which actually took place in small-town Texas in the 1990's, Bernie Tiede was the assistant funeral director in Carthage, Texas and, by all accounts was a particularly nice guy- considerate, generous and friendly. He was good at his job and good with people, especially with older women. He was a good singer and very involved with the commuunity.  In his thirties he became the live-in companion of a rich widow in her late seventies named, Marjorie Nugent,  who was almost universally described by Carthage residents as "mean".

Marjorie and Bernie travelled the world in considerable style and Majorie gave Bernie power ofattorney over her affairs. Power of attorney was the upside, the downside was that Majorie was difficult, demanding and kept Bernie on a very short leash. One day in 1996 Bernie shot Majorie, presumably out of frustration, and put her body in the deep freeze, and he wasn't found out for nine whole months. Once he was found out, very few of the residents of Carthage thought he'd actually done it, and if they did think he'd done it they didn't think he should go to jail.

Bernie the movie is cleverly structured.The re-enactment of the story is interspersed with talking heads interviews with real-life Carthage residents and with Matthew McConaughey playing the District Attorney Danny Buck. These interviews give a kind of gossipy flavour to an already incredible and gossip-worthy story which helps build the atmosphere of the film. Jack Black's great acting as Bernie helps build it further.

On one level, this is an amazing story which was well worth telling in its own right. On another level there is a whole raft of philosophical and moral questions to occupy your mind further. Is murder ok if you're provoked? Should really nice guys go to jail? If God can forgive murderers, should we do that too? Was Bernie a scheming gold-digger or did he just have a really bad day?

Once you've watched Bernie you'll feel like you need to pick your jaw up off the floor but you'll also feel like you got to know a bunch of Texans and that you've thought about some things you don't usually think about. Well worth the effort.

Anne's rating:: 4/5. Ian's Rating: 5/5

Winter Nomads

Quick now, what does transhumance mean? If you don't know you almost certainly didn't watch Winter Nomads. This documentary follows two shepherds, three donkeys, four or five dogs and 800 sheep across Switzerland one winter. The older shepherd, Pascal, is passing on his knowledge to newbie, Carole. Both are strong willed; he is a verbally abusive teacher (perhaps more used to training dogs than people) and she is a recalcitrant pupil. The animals too are interesting characters. From the puppy who is as cute as advertised in the Film Festival program. A sheep, later named Marilyn, who decided she wanted to become a bellwether, so Carol bought it a bell and collar and taught it to lead. The donkeys who hate mud and become concerned when one of their number falls down.

Transhumance is a tradition that seems very out of place in a modern industrial country. They herd the sheep with one person feeding treats (bread) to the bellwethers at the front and the other near the back of the flock to watch for stragglers. Their tent and other gear are carried on the donkeys. Despite this being an old tradition it seems to have only recently passed into Swiss hands. When Pascal learnt the trade 32 years ago all the shepherds were Italian and the shepherd who taught him spoke no French. Now Pascal fears with increasing urbanisation moving sheep on foot across country will become too difficult and the tradition will die with his generation.

This gentle documentary doesn't try to preach. While Carol is in a supermarket buying food for xmas dinner we hear an advert for NZ lamb, but no comment is made. On another night some friends arrive out of the dark and the four of them eat fondue cooked over a camp fire by moonlight and discuss why Carol decided to try this way of life so different from her previous office job.

Ian's rating 3.5/5

Anne thinks I should have given a definition of transhumance, but I'll let Wikipedia do it for me.

Sightseers

Anyone who has watched an episode of Top Gear will know about the evils of caravans, and of course Mr Bean is an object lesson in the dangers of the socially awkward. Dial down the social awkwardness to slightly lower than Ricky Gervais in The Office and you have Tina and Chris. Chris owns the caravan and is keen to get some alone time with his new girlfriend and see the sights of Yorkshire. Tina is excited to have a boyfriend and grasp at the chance to escape from her suffocating mother. Chris is not only interested in trams and innovative caravans, he has a low tolerance for loutish behaviour and snobbery. Tina becomes suspicious of the coincidental deaths that follow them and keen to impress her boyfriend joins in the killing spree. Such one-upmanship is not healthy for the bystanders and eventually takes its toll on the happy couple to a sound track dominated by Tainted Love.

Sightseers follows a simple recipe of humour and shock. Unfortunately there is only enough good material for a 50-60 minutes film (or TV drama). So by the end of 95 minutes the shocks were wearing a bit thin and the gaps between jokes were getting tedious. That said Chris voiced everyone's darkest desire when he whined "I just want to be feared and respected. Is that too much to ask?".

Ian's rating 2/5 Anne's rating 2/5

Sightseers was preceded by a short film called Bear about a woman who wakes up on her birthday and thinks her boyfriend has forgotten it and she heads out on her mountain bike. Meanwhile her boyfriend has planned a surprise picnic, which doesn't go as planned. The ending would seem more realistic if the film was set in a country with bears rather than Australia!

I Wish

I've heard, anecdotally,  that children with separated parents long for Mum and Dad to get back together. Certainly that's what Koichi, the star of I wish, wants. He and his Mum have moved in with his grandparents in Kagoshima while his little brother Ryu lives with Dad in Hakata. Conversely, the last thing Ryu wants is for his parents to reunite - he really hated them fighting. Ryu and Koichi maintain their relationship by cellphone, umprompted by adults,  which seems remarkably successful.

The big news of the moment in Kagoshima is that the bullet train is about to run from there. Koichi hears that when two bullet trains pass for the first time, the energy generated will cause wishes to come true. So he hatches a plan to be in place for the vital moment.

In good school project style the plan is worked out in detail - where the passing will happen, how to get there, how much the train fare will be. Koichi and a couple of friends work it all out and go all out to find the money at their end, and Ryu does the same at the other end.

I wish is a pretty refreshing watch. It's seen from the kids' viewpoint and their scheming goes ahead with very little adult interference, though adults are conscripted as needed and  prove remarkably helpful. Each of the eight children involved has a unique wish and you get a definite sense of the things that each child struggles with in day-to-day life. It's a little slow moving but is a generally good-humoured and entertaining watch.

My rating 3.5/5

Rampart

Dave Brown (played by Woody Harrelson) smokes so many cigarettes in this film it is a wonder he does not die of lung cancer half way through. Officer Dave Brown is a dirty cop from a police station with a bad reputation at a time (1999) when the LAPD itself had a rep. The film centres around Dave, in fact the camera is rarely off him. The plot is simple Dave is caught on video beating a guy mercilessly and the authorities want to be seen to be cleaning up the LAPD by getting rid of Dave quickly and publicly. Dave, who sees police work as doing societies dirty work, decides not to go quietly and to tough it out. As pressure mounts from the authorities and his family he descends into drugs and other bad behaviour. It feels like only his two daughters and his ability to effortlessly get women to sleep with him that prevents him going postal.

May be I'm jealous, but Dave's sex life seems the least believable part of this character.  He lives with both his ex-wives who are sisters (and still has sex with both of them) and his daughters (half sisters and cousins). He also has no trouble picking up women in bars for casual sex.  This sounds more like the 1970s than 1999.

The lurid colours, non-standard camera angles, choppy editing and the remorseless self justification of unusual moral ideas reminded me of both Taxi Driver and Apocalypse Now. But I am unconvinced that Rampart adds anything more than another dirty cop and some quotes to Hollywood culture.

Ian's rating 2/5

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

Writing a review of a famous 1950s  movie with an even more famous star makes me a bit nervous - what is there to say that hasn't been said before? And is watching such a movie the cinematic equivalent of eating lamingtons - not something I should be promoting because it's brightly coloured,  not intellectually nourishing and it perpetuates stereotypes?

In case you haven't seen this movie (and I hadn't) or read any reviews,  I shall feel the fear and review it anyway.

Marilyn Monroe ( Lorelei) and Jane Russell ( Dorothy) play show girls who go on a boat trip to Paris to go shopping. Marilyn is engaged to a rich heir whose father is suspicious that she is only in the relationship it for the money. He sends a private detective on the voyage to look for evidence of impropriety.The US Olympic team is also on board, as is an elderly diamond mine owner. The girls make the most of the social opportunities, the detective gets some incriminating material and there are assorted mix-ups and high jinks but eventually Lorelei gets her rich man and Dorothy gets the detective.

Jane Russell and Marilyn Monroe

 This is a film based on a musical so the music and dance numbers are a big feature The dancing is not as good as a Fred Astaire and Ginger Roger's move but there's plenty of shoulder wiggling good fun..It's not all Jane and Marilyn in sexy frocks -  the (male) US Olympic team doing acrobatics in flesh-coloured shorts is just as memorable. The costumes are fantastic and the stars are beautiful. The film is visually stunning - technicolor in every sense and enough bright pink and bright red to dazzle you completely. The dialogue is funny and it's clear from the outset that this is not a film to be taken seriously. I'm taking a stand and saying that watching "Gentlemen prefer Blondes" could actually be good for you - genuinely escapist entertainment with non-anorexic women looking completely fabulous  and stupidity evenly distributed between the sexes.

My rating: 4/5

Barbara

These days it seems that every year there is a new German film about life in East Germany. This year it is Barbara. Barbara is a doctor under surveillance after being released from jail and being sent to work in a small town hospital in the middle of nowhere on the Baltic coast. She has no intention of staying put in her new environment and tries to avoid entanglement with her neighbours and co-workers (who might be working for the Stasi anyway). We all know how badly that is going to work out in a small town; and her boss tells her that straight away. Not only does her standoffish behaviour, her urban chic and taste for West German cigarettes attract attention from her co-workers, her skills and compassion as a doctor do too.

Gradually her burning desire to escape the night visits and body searches by the Stasi and flee to West Germany is undermined by her dedication to two of her young patients and the attentions of her ever-so-nice boss. Unlike The Lives of Others where I was convinced all the way through that things were going to turn out all right in end, Barbara kept an element of doubt right to the end. I think this is because the characters aren't black and white. Barbara, her nice boss, the sadistic Stasi officer, the West German visitors and their local "girlfriends" are all humans that have been corrupted by "the system" in one way or another, and leaving East Germany means leaving other people behind.

I'm sure someone can read something into German film makers current obsession with East Germany just as someone can read something into Hollywood's current obsession with comic book superheroes. But if the product of this German obsession is more films as good as this one then let's have more obsession.

Ian's rating 4/5

A few other recent films about East Germany

• The Lives of Others - won an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
• The Tunnel - based on a true story
• Peaceful Times - fear of the West and nostalgia for the East
• Good bye, Lenin! -  a nostalgic comedy (I'm not sure why goodbye is two words in this title)
• Go for Zucker - a comedy about West versus East through a Jewish lens

The Minister

Note to self - I must read the Film Festival program more carefully. Phrases like "existential fever of random self-perpetuation" and "transcends the satire or critique of any similar UK or US political thriller" in the description should warn me that the film is likely to go over my head. As I watched The Minister I found myself mentally groping around for a plot or some humour or a message from the film maker. There is a story in the sense that it shows the day-to-day life of a French cabinet minister and his underlings, but I could not say that there was a plot in the sense that the story took the characters from point A to point B for reason C. Perhaps that is the point. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose. Or in this case just having the power to change things does not mean you can change what you want.

That said The Minister (or L’Exercice de l’État) is dramatic, mostly frenetic and very well acted, but it is not a thriller. Things that seem trivial in one scene become a crisis in the next. The relationships between people can't be taken for granted. There are memorable set piece scenes such as the minister dancing around the office holding his much shorter (bald and not so pleased) right hand man off the ground. The opening dream scene is almost worth the price of admission by itself, in fact the rest of the film is almost an anti-climax by comparison.

It is also an object lesson on why I don't own a cell phone.

Ian's rating 2/5

How to Meet Girls from a Distance

Toby

 Meet Toby. He's our lead character and he hasn't had much luck with girls. Indeed, trying to date a girl who turned out to be a lesbian and  already in a relationship actually resulted in physical injury. As a result he tries to do a bit of research before asking a girl out, and this is one of the themes of the film - how much research is prudent and how much is just plain creepy?

As our film commences, Toby's Mum has paid for him to have some sessions with a dating coach, Carl Stewart. Carl is what you'd get if you crossed Rhys Darby with Tim Balme and has to be seen to be believed and is probably a reason in his own right to see this movie. Carl puts Toby under some pressure to go on dates, starting with Carl's own receptionist and that date goes particularly badly. Fortunately Toby  has comes across a girl he actually  wants to date, so puts in some research and discovers she already has a boyfriend. Undeterred, he sets to work to undermine her existing relationship so he can ask her out. You'll need to go and watch to find out what happens, but the path to true love doesn't run smoothly.

As you may have gathered by now, this film is a comedy and it has elements of farce. It's quite sweet but also slightly uncomfortable - and part of this is how close you feel to the characters and the setting. Toby is a bit of wierdo but only a little bit. In many ways, he's just a perfectly nice chap. And since this film is shot in Wellington he seems like someone you might meet out and about.

We were at the world premiere of How to Meet Girls from a Distance on Sunday afternoon, which was sold out. Since large numbers of the cast and their friends and families were in attendance and the Paramount  doesn't seat that many (especially since they've just got new seats which take up more room than the old ones) this doesn't really say all that much about how popular this movie will be ultimately. 

I'd say that if you like your romantic comedies formulaic then you won't like this one. But if you like them a bit quirky and you have some fondness for the underdog and the faintly ludicrous then you should enjoy it thoroughly.

Anne's rating: 3.5/5, Ian's rating: 3/5

The Last Dogs of Winter

A good documentary takes you someplace else, introduces you to someone new or gives you something new to think about after you've had your attention occupied for ninety minutes or so. The last dogs of winter does all three. It was made by Wellingtonian Costa Botes who has done a variety of good stuff, including short film I'm quite fond of, Stalin's Sickle.

The someplace else in this film is Churchill, Manitoba which is famous for being the Polar Bear Capital of the World. I'd like to go Polar Bear spotting one day, so this is one reason why I went. The someone(s) new are Qimmiq (Eskimo Dogs) about which I knew nothing at all,  and about the man (Brian Ladoon) who, almost single-handedly, has brought the species back from the edge of extinction. He's aided in the quest by a New Zealander, Caleb Ross,  who brought Brian and the dogs to Costa Botes' attention and caused the film to be made.

The new stuff to think about is the logistics and the politics of bringing a domesticated species back from extinction when the species really has to live outside but has to be managed by people and can't be left to run free. Tricky stuff. You get plenty of opinion on the matter from the people interviewed in the film. You also get great footage of both dogs and bears who both have oodles of furry animal charm, and a landscape that couldn't be more different from Wellington.

My rating: 4/5.

Moonrise Kingdom

You could classify Moonrise Kingdom as a romantic comedy but perhaps love story is a more accurate description. It certainly has story-book elements like an over-the-top narrator who is separate to the action and fancifully dressed, and a heroine who lives in a house whose rooms don't seem to have doors, like a doll-house.

Suzy and Sam

This is a love-story between twelve-year-olds. He (Sam) is a bespectacled state ward who's attending a scout summer camp on an island in New England. She (Suzy) is the slightly difficult oldest daughter of unusual parents who reside on the island in the multi-storey dollhouse. Having hatched a plan by mail (this story is set in 1965), they run away , which could alternatively be described as going camping together without permission. He brings a backpack containing sensible stuff like cookware and a tent and she brings her pet cat,   a portable record player and a suitcase containing half a dozen books.

They are pursued by the scout troop and the first time they're discovered there's a battle involving bows and arrows and scissors and they escape. The second time they're camping on the beach and the search party includes Suzy's parents, the island's only cop  and the scout master, all of whom are larger than life characters. In one of my favourite scenes, one of the adult lifts the tent and 2 young people in their underwear are revealed to the adults and an entire scout troop.

As a result of Sam's misdemeanours, his foster parents refuse to have him back which means the naughty boys home is probably the next destination for him and Suzy is taken home in disgrace. Luckily, this is not the end. The Scout troop comes to the rescue and reunites the couple and a mad-cap day ensues with a wedding, a lightning strike, a big storm, and a lady from Social Services arriving on the island. Like any good story it all turns out well in the end, but you'll have to go and watch to see how that pans out.

There's lots to like in this film. All the actors (adults and children) are great, and endearing for the most part. Suzy's parents often communicate by megaphone since they're often on different floors. Sam and Suzy don't fight. The scout master wakes up one morning to find ALL  his scouts missing. Sam and Suzy dance on the beach in their undies. It looks pretty and since all the action takes place over a couple of days it's fast-paced. And it's novel - when was the last time you saw a love story between twelve-year-olds?

Anne's rating 4/5 Ian's rating 4/5

The Cabin in the Woods

Do you think horror films are overly formulaic? Perhaps something like:

(es+u+cs+t)²+s+(tl+f)/2 +(a+dr+fs)/n + sin x - 1?

Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard seem to think so. In The Cabin in the Woods they follow the basic rules of US horror films - five college students (the hunk, the sexy blonde, the cute quieter brunette, the scholar and the pothead - looking suspiciously like Shaggy from Scooby-Doo) spend a weekend in cabin in the woods against the advice of a cranky old local man. Naturally they wake up something evil that shortens their life expectancy. There is no surprise in the order of their demise.

Fran Kranz as Marty

"It was the pioneer days; people had
to make their own interrogation rooms.
Out of cornmeal."

But luckily there is another side to The Cabin in the Woods, an exploration of why horror film plots have so many common elements. It pulls aside the curtain and shows us the strings and levers that maneuvour pretty young things into silly life shortening behaviours. This takes the film into an X-files / H. P. Lovecraft direction that works best if you don't read the plot spoilers on Wikipedia etc.

The inspiration for Marty?

While The Cabin in the Woods is not the first horror film to deconstruct the genre (see Scream or Tucker and Dale vs Evil), this is the one that will appeal to Joss Whedon fans. It has his trademark high production values, spunky petite actresses and most importantly quotable lines and references to other films. Plenty for the fanatics to look for and tweet about over multiple watchings.

Anna Hutchison works her butt off in her short lived role that steals the limelight until her demise. Once she has gone Kristen Connolly (as Dana) is intended to carry the cabin story for the rest of the film but she doesn't quite match up to other feisty heroines in the genre. Fran Kranz as Marty supports her with some of the best lines in the film, which is lucky as the other two guys are almost interchangeable, but he is hampered by his light entertainment role.

The final act starts when Dana and Marty take the elevator down to Peter Jackson territory and CGI threatens to take over from dialogue and acting. This is a bit of a pity because snappy dialogue is a feature of this film. But if you like lots of monsters and gore then this will be your favourite part.

The other stand-out actor is Richard Jenkins as an unflapable, super capable, middle manager in the parallel story. Richard's face is far more familiar than his name in countless supporting roles as someone's sad-eyed dad or co-worker (Six Feet Under, Burn after Reading). Lurking in the background is Amy Acker looking perky but lacking opportunities to shine.

Anne complained that The Cabin in the Woods wasn't funny enough. I thought that the pacing was wrong. Too much plot given away too soon, and not enough character development for us to care about who if anyone survived. The climatic scene went on too long. A hand reaching out of mirror to strangle someone is shocking but the end of the world -- not so much. But I'm sure Joss Whedon fans will be too busy trying to pick up on all the references and memorise the best lines to notice the defects.

Ian 3.5/5 Anne 2.5/5

Sunshine Cleaning

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