Land of Mine

Land of Mine dramatises a little-known slice of post-World War 2 history -  German POWs were assigned to clearing mines from the Danish Coast in 1945. This has a sort of poetic justice since it was the German Army that laid the mines if the first place, but if Land of Mine has anything to teach us, it's that war is generally unjust and that it brutalises both sides.

The small group of POWs in Land of Mine are only teenagers and they are scared of their job, and scared of their Danish sergeant. They're billeted on a farm on an achingly beautiful stretch of coast with white sand and turquoise water. The woman farmer is being paid by the Danish Army to feed the troops, but she just pockets the money. So the boys are hungry and the work is dangerous but on the other hand they're outdoors,the weather is ok and they're not being shot at.

 It's hard to explain why a film about clearing mines from Danish beaches is my favourite of the festival so far and why you should see it, especially since a significant number of people do get blown up. I think it's the contrast of youth and and beauty (both the landscape and the soldiers) and age and brutality. And the paradox of the sergeant bawling his charges out for minor misdemeanors (such as apologising) one minute and playing football with them on the beach in another. I can't promise you a happy ending exactly but let's say there are enough acts of human kindness to leave you with a sense of hope.

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

High-Rise

Dr Robert Laing (Tom Hiddleston) moves into his 25th floor apartment as a successful man on the way up in life. Three months later he is barbecuing a dog on the balcony. High-Rise attempts to explain this by telling us that our physical environment (the apartment building in this case) affects our behaviour, which in turn determines the structure of our society. This doesn't quite ring true as everyone has arrived in the building with a clearly recognisable place in the British class system, and the building just amplifies that class system to a ridiculous extent. It is like an adult version of Lord of the Flies. As one of the characters puts it: "What has happened when someone can fall from the 39th floor and not a single policeman turns up. Where are the sirens?" ABBA's SOS plays a prominent part in the sound track.

High-Rise is a visual riot of a film, with the apartment building in question surrounded by a sea of 1970s British cars. The building in question is post-war brutalist in and out, though some apartment dwellers have managed to recreate other interiors to try and disguise where they are living.

High-Rise has enough components (interesting premise and characters, amazing visuals, good actors, a risk taking director and a political message) to deliver a great film but it doesn't achieve its potential. Instead of an overarching plot there is an overarching idea and bunch of little sub-plots. Instead we get a surreal mishmash with recognisable bits of the 1970s presented in a (bad) dream like fashion.

Ian's rating 2.5/5

Theeb

Theeb is a Bedouin boy growing up in the small world of his clan, isolated from elsewhere by desert.

One night two strangers arrive at the camp, a British officer and his Arab guide.  They seek help to find a specific well on the old pilgrim route to Mecca. In accordance with Bedouin courtesy, Theeb's elder brother is assigned to guide the strangers and Theeb tags along. This gives the boy a ring side seat to a small and deadly drama on the fringe of General Allenby's campaign against the Ottoman Empire during World War I and the Arab Revolt.

Seeing the conflict from the point of view of an accidentally involved little boy gives a naive detached view of this aspect of the Great War, that shows the war as a foreign thing (from a Bedouin perspective) and also a glimpse into the perhaps greater changes to the Bedouin economy brought about by modern technology.

This film has been described as a Bedouin western, and given the desert vistas and the gun fight you can see why. But this is very much a child's view of a world he doesn't understand.

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

Equity

Equity is a Wall-Street Drama with men in sharp suits and women in tight black outfits and high heels.Anna Gunn (who I know and love from Breaking Bad) plays an investment banker named Naomi, She manages Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) which involves finding institutional investors for privately held companies that are about to list on the stock exchange in order to guarantee a healthy initial share price. She's a very driven character who is under a slight cloud because the most recent of her IPOs didn't go very well. Her lover (Michael) works in a different part of the same bank, and he mingles socially with hedge-fund high flyers who are always looking for the next tit-bit of insider information.

The film is about the latest IPO, for a social media company called Cachet, Naomi and her underpaid and slightly resentful assistant Erin secure the contract and jet-set about the place looking for investors. Meanwhile, back in New York  Samantha (an old friend of Naomi's who works for the district attorney's office investigating white collar crime) is trying to dig dirt on Naomi's lover and a disaffected Cachet employee is trying to cause some trouble for the company's reputation.

So the action is all very tense and all very Wall Street. There lots of cab-catching, cocktail drinking, meetings in flash offices and watching graphs on computer screens. There's bossing people about and fishing for information. There's betrayal and undermining and each woman ( or man) is out for her or himself.

One of the things the film is trying to tell us is that no woman is an island. You can work hard, and make sure never to talk about your work to the wrong person, and keep all your passwords secure but because you don't work by yourself your co-worker failing to do all those things can cause you a big problem. And so can your customer not liking your manner or your clothes.Clothes did seem quite important. It struck me that on Wall Street men definitely get to wear the more comfortable clothes and that perhaps the next drama needs to feature someone who is both ugly and badly dressed

It was interesting seeing a drama of this kind where most of the major characters were women.   I felt we were being asked to look at the personal cost of this kind of career for women in a way we wouldn't have been asked if the major characters were men.

Equity is as much about the people as it is about the plot, so the viewer has to like the human interest angle. And since the human interest and human interaction is done really well, it's a pretty good watch,

Anne's rating 3.5/5

Looking for Grace

Grace is a teenager, who steals $13 000 from her parents' safe and runs away from home, leaving a note saying "sorry Mum"  Looking for Grace tells this not-very-complicated story from  five different viewpoints - those of Grace herself, her Mum Denise, her Dad Dan, retired detective Tom and a  truck driver called Bruce.

The description in the film festival programme suggests the film is about her parents enlisting the services of a retired detective and following clues to find their daughter but this credits the film with a great deal more plot than it actually has. Rather than relating the solving of a mystery, Looking for Grace is more an empathetic look at five  individuals. who have somewhat dysfunctional relationships.The writer/director (who was at the screening we went to) said the film has " a very Australian sensibility" and that it would be interesting to see whether New Zealand audiences warmed to it. I'm not sure what very Australian sensibility she meant but I'm guessing that she was referring to the not-very- demonstrative and not-very-communicative nature of the interpersonal relationships.All the characters had major secrets that their nearest and dearest didn't know about - an extra-marital affair, a child from a previous relationship, a business that wasn't financially viable to name just some. The characters, their flaws and their relationships  are conveyed sympathetically and humourously and they're pretty likeable but the film lacks much of a plot and much of a point so it's ultimately frustrating. And we never do find out why Grace's note says "sorry Mum" The trailer is a quick version of the film without the frustrating element.

Anne's rating 2.5/5 Ian's rating 3/5

A War

A Danish military outpost gets involved in the local community, as does the Taliban, things get messy and people die. Like Tobias Lindholm’s previous film A Highjacking he keeps parallel story lines running and interlacing, using international phone calls filmed from both ends. One story line in familiar territory (Denmark) and the other in exotic territory (in this case Afghanistan).

While focusing in close on the banalities of his character's lives Tobias Lindholm gets us to identify with people even if their situations are completely foreign to us. This tight focusing on particular characters also clearly divides the cast (and the world) into us and them. He then jerks the curtain aside to expose our own prejudices.

I didn't find this film as tense or as interesting as A Highjacking. The domestic life in Denmark was boring and the message of the film was hammered home with the subtlety of a hammer blow. Who are the NATO soldiers in Afghanistan actually fighting for? Does it work? Who are they trying to protect? What, if anything, is the life of an Afghan civilian worth? But the film was well acted and the characters believable, even if the message is one of despair.

Ian's rating 3/5 Anne's rating 2.5/5

Another Country

David Gulpilil is one of Australia's most famous actors, and certainly its most famous indigenous one. He's the voice of Another Country and while he didn't write the script by himself , the politics and the viewpoint is his. Molly Reynolds and Rolf de Heer  who co-wrote the script and directed and produced the film are so familiar with how he thinks that they were able to convey it easily.

Another Country documents life in David's home town, Ramingining, not just for the sake of documenting but because it epitomises what's wrong with aboriginal communities in Australia and what's wrong with the government's management of the people that live there. It's miles from anywhere and as David says, there are no jobs and there's nothing to do.

One of the bests aspects of the film was the summaries of the differences in culture and ways of thinking between "white mans" and black fellas" culture. For example, he says that rubbish is a foreign concept to indigenous Australians - it's not on their radar and they don't know how to deal with it. Historically, everything they had came from the bush and that's where it all went back to. So a broken spear or a worn out mat was just left in the bush, and since it is all biodegradable, there isn't a problem.

He doesn't offer complete solutions but does think there needs to be consultation between the Australian Government and aboriginal communities. And the results of the consultation shouldn't just be viewed with white values and white eyes. For example, paying white builders to come and build houses may be quicker and more efficient, but it makes the locals feels worthless and doesn't take advantage of one of their great resources,  which is time.

As is often the case after watching a documentary I felt a mixture of hope and sadness. It would be good if it were compulsory viewing for all Australian members of parliament.

Anne's rating 3/5.

The Diary of a Teenage Girl

The Punisher, Sin City, The Rocketeer, Superman and The Diary of a Teenage Girl are all movies made from comics (or graphic novels).

Unlike the others which are about larger-than-life characters, The Diary of a Teenage Girl is about a fairly ordinary school girl living with her solo mum in 1970s San Francisco. Minnie is somewhat neurotic about her appearance and lack of sex-life. Left alone with her mother's boyfriend, she takes advantage of the situation to loose her virginity. Being set in 1970s San Francisco, drugs are a big feature of the film and Minnie experiments with drugs as much as she does with sex.

The narration of the film is done through the device of Minnie's audio diary, recorded on cassette tape. Some of the scene transitions are done using the cartoons that Minnie draws, which echo the origins of the film as a graphic novel, and also the drug culture of the time.

Bel Powley and Alexander Skarsgård are effective as teenage girl and adult lover, with the power in the relationship shifting back and forth between them. The setting in the 1970s feels partly familiar and partly foreign -- emphasising that things have changed a lot both in technology but also socially in the last 40 years. It is a stark contrast to the paranoia parenting of the 21st century.

Ian's rating 4/5

Sicario

Kate Macer (Emily Blunt) works in a police hostage rescue team in an Arizona border town. The film starts with her and a SWAT team attacking a house to rescue some non-existent hostages. But they do find a lot of dead bodies, which they think are killings ordered by a Mexican drug lord. Afterwards she is invited to join a CIA led team that is fighting the drug war at a higher level.

The team, which is mostly composed of Delta Force soldiers, take Kate on their operations including a trip to a very hostile and dangerous Mexico. She is treated as baggage by the guys, especially by Matt Graver (Josh Brolin) who recruited her and the mysterious Alejandro Gillick (Benicio del Toro). She wonders why she was asked to join.

The action is shot in pseudo-realistic way rather than the typical Hollywood action (no leaping cars, no hordes of baddies being mown down with ease). Though there is a very high useful coincidence / "cavalry showing up just in time" quotient.

This isn't a film about a female cop morphing into a crack bad-ass anti-drug gang vigilante. Rather she has trouble coping with what the guys take in their stride. Kate represents us -- law abiding middle class people, who can't hope to fight those bad Mexicans and need the guys who go beyond the law to fight the bad guys for us.

While the film has a dark edge to it. I think it enjoyed itself too much taking a Donald Trump attitude to Mexico, to take it seriously as a critique of the war on drugs There is a parallel secondary story that shows Mexican women and children as innocents, but it feels like an after thought.

Anne thought it felt like the pilot to a TV series and I see on Wikipedia that there is talk of a sequel.

Ian's rating 3/5

The Brand New Testament

The Brand New Testament is billed as a surrealist film, which should have put me off it. I have found surrealist films polarising, I love them or am very bored and confused by them. Mostly the latter.

God is alive and well and living in an apartment in Brussels with his wife and daughter, Éa. He controls events that happen (those events outside human control) with his PC from a filing cabinet lined room. To his daughter's frustration there is no door between the apartment and the world outside. Éa is keen to escape the apartment and her father's corporal punishment like her her better known older brother JC. Once she does escape she sets out to recruit six disciples and leave behind a written account of their adventures together, hence the name of the film.

Knowledge of Christianity is probably a disadvantage when it comes to watching this film. Apart from the concept that a child could confuse an overbearing parent with an adult's explanation of an omnipotent God, plus some pop culture ideas on God's responsibility for what is wrong with the world, it doesn't pay to try and dig too deeply into the premise behind this film. Just enjoy this quirky film about a girl's rebellion against her dad and her surreal adventure with a bunch of more or less abnormal people and a gorilla.

Ian's rating 3.5/5

Turbo Kid

While Turbo Kid is a Canadian film it is set in an anonymous semi-industrial, post-apocalyptic wasteland. A world were people live off the refuse of the the twentieth century, water is scarce and control of the water supply is the source of power.

Turbo Kid has its roots in an era when BMX bikes were cool and comics were read by kids, and not by middle aged men. Our hero is a young scavenger. An orphan who dreams of rescuing a girl in the manner of his favourite comic book hero. When he finally meets a girl (overly friendly and enthusiastic, pink haired Apple) he is nonplussed, but Apple's kidnap by Zeus's henchmen spurs him into action. He is reluctantly assisted by an itinerant arm-wrestling champion.

The action in this film is accompanied by BMX chases, fantastic improvised weapons, gore and fountains of blood. Some of the violence is not for the squeamish, even though it is intended to be funny.

Michael Ironside plays evil Zeus with relish, channeling the best of B-movie and James Bond villain sadism, revenge and gloating, surrounded by his BMX riding henchmen (and woman). As the man with his hand on the tap, he supplies water and sadistic entertainment to the local population. As each of his henchmen are bumped off Zeus and The Kid are brought closer and closer to face each other in the final denouement.

Turbo Kid doesn't take itself seriously. It is out to entertain us as if it were the love child of Spielberg and Tarantino.


Ian's rating 4/5 Anne's rating 3.5/5

Inherent Vice

Inherent Vice is a long, drug addled, shaggy dog story of an investigation by a Los Angeles PI, on behalf of his ex-girlfriend. While there is an almost constant female voice over the plot is not easy to follow and in fact I'm not convinced that it does make sense. Afterwards, given the ubiquitous drug use in the film, I wondered if the narrator was reliable.

The setting is the early 1970s (probably during Nixon's 1972 election campaign) and the film captures that time stylishly and makes it look very exotic when viewed from 2015.

There are a few (too few) well executed comic scenes linked together by a kaleidoscope of sub plots. In fact by the end it seems like the whole story is a series of almost unrelated sub plots linked together by one or two major characters. If there was a point, I missed it.

Some other reviewers suggest watching this film multiple times but I'm unlike to invest the time to verify this -- the trailer is worth seeing though (4 stars for that).

Ian's rating 2/5, Anne's rating 1/5

The Invitation

Have you ever been the only person in the group who can see what is blatantly obvious? They can't all be stupid, therefore they must be deliberately ignoring it - right?

Will and his new girlfriend attend a party given by his ex- and her new man. It is obvious to Will that this isn't just a dinner party, there is something sinister going on. Each time he raises his concerns they are casually refuted by the hosts or by subsequent events. Obviously Will hasn't fully recovered from collapse of his previous relationship. How will the hosts and other guests react to his increasingly erratic and irrational behaviour? Luckily this group of friends are keen to make this evening a success despite Will.

The Invitation takes place in one evening (supplemented by Will's flashbacks) and, apart from the opening scene, in one location. None of the cast are Hollywood A-listers but they largely play their parts well. My guess is that the budget for this film was low and mainly spent on script writing and rehearsing rather than special effects and exotic locations.

This is a simple and effective thriller with a long slow entree of red herrings, preceded by a little road kill. Just before we die of hunger waiting for it, the main course arrives. It is a hearty, simple dish with a Guyanese influence. Served with dash and full choice of weaponry to deal with it. Nothing subtle here. There is no dessert, just a quick coffee to follow and no left overs for dinner the next day.

Ian's rating 2.5/5

The Misfits

The Misfits has all (or at least a lot) of the characteristics of a traditional Hollywood movie - made by one of the big studios (MGM), filmed not that far from Hollywood with some great western scenery, and featuring some very famous and good-looking stars. It has extra cachet because it's the last movie starring either Marilyn Monroe or Clarke Gable.

Viewed in the twenty-first century we can boggle at the drunk driving, the lingering shots on Marilyn's bottom, the animal cruelty and men who'll suggest a relationship shortly after meeting a woman for the first time. And yet the process of two people who are attracted to each other trying to work out how to assimilate and adapt to each other's opinions and lifestyle is a pretty timeless one, and it's what gives the movie its heart and makes it worth watching fifty years later. That, and the fact it's lovely to look at.

The Misfits is maybe a little too prosaic to be called romantic, but it is a love story nonetheless.

Anne's rating 3/5. Ian's rating 3/5.

Our Little Sister

It was off to the Embassy yesterday for the first festival film of the year. Our little sister is a pleasant family drama. Three twenty-something sisters attending their estranged father's funeral meet the fourteen-year-old half-sister they didn't know they had. The three of them thought their father was "useless" whereas their half sister Suzo was much more attached to her father than to her mother.Their mother left when they were in their teens, so they're used to sticking together. They suggest Suzo comes to live with them in the house they inherited.

Suzo moves towns to move in with them and the film covers the year following the move.We the audience get to know the sisters, their routines and the flavour of their lives and relationships.We think about the influence of your upbringing and your position in the family on how you turn out as a person. 

The film has some the same flavour as Like Father Like Son  which is probably because they're made by the same director, something I've discovered since I watched it.The characters are very likeable, so it's an easy watch. The scenery is pretty and so are the actresses, but seeing it on the big screen isn't really vital.

Anne's rating : 3/5