LA PREMIERE
25/12//19
JOJO RABBIT NEW
website
RATE: 10/10
Taika Vaitichi is a truly unique director, he started with low-budget comedies (“Hunt for Savages”, “Real Ghouls”) and continued with the film for the cinematic universe “Marvel” (Tor: Ragnarok). But his best work today is Jojo Rabbit. The film was not screened in Russia, the studio did not name the reasons. After reading the plot you can guess what kind of detail scared away the Russian distributors. The film has already received a mountain of nominations and awards, it has six Oscar nominations, 3 technical (best work of the production designer; best costumes; best editing) and the other 3 more significant (Best film; Best supporting actress (Scarlett Johansson); Best adapted script), and at the last Golden Globe the film had 2 nominations (Best film (comedy or musical); Best Actor (comedy or musical) (Roman Griffin Davis)). The film also took the main prize at the Toronto Film Festival. Taika Waititi himself also acted as an actor in this film, playing an imaginary Hitler, and the aforementioned Scarlett Johansson and the scorching Sam Rockwell starred in the film.
The picture takes the viewer to Nazi Germany at the final stage of the Second World War. A 10-year-old boy Johannes Jojo Betzler (Roman Griffin Davis) lives in this setting. Jojo is a convinced Nazi, he believes in the Reich’s covenants and even has his own Hitler (Taika Waititi ) but only in the form of an imaginary friend. But the life of a young Nazi turns upside down when he discovers that his mother (Scarlett Johansson) is hiding a Jewish girl. Jojo believes that Jews are evil, and is trying hard to solve this "problem", but gradually communicating with a Jewish girl, he changes his views.
The film is a tough anti-war satire, for moments you can laugh to tears, this is mainly the first hour of the film, but the second is sometimes so heartbreaking that it comes up to your throat, the horrors of war through the eyes of a naive child who has undergone total propaganda sometimes put a lot of pressure on emotions.
The spectator, as if on some kind of a roller coaster, is subjected to completely different emotions: laughter, fear, tension and sadness. All the characters are spelled out vividly and they are all remembered, well shaped, greatly presented. The character of Sam Rockwell is especially well spelled out: you feel not connected with him at first in no way but in the end you almost cry over him. The main feature of this film is the imaginary Adolf Hitler of course. The local Hitler is comical and does not try to resemble the well-known dictator, probably 90% of the humor in the film comes from him. Jojo, the main character: you believe him, you sympathize him, you like his mother and his Jewish girl. There is a great phrase said in the film by Jojo: “Fuck off, Hitler!” - it sounded like the anthem of this picture indeed.
The nomination for an Oscar for installation is absolutely deserved: it is harmonious here, no questions - everything is done at the highest level.
The actors did a great job: the main discovery was the young actor Roman Griffin Davi, who played the main role of Jojo. This was his debut role and I'm not sure that he will even surpass it once, I don’t remember when such a young actor SO plausibly and perfectly performed his job, it is very pleasant that they paid attention to him and even nominated him for the Golden Globe. All the other actors are also in their places including Sam Rockwell who in recent years has become a sought-after actor. Plus do not forget Scarlett Johansson who has already been nominated for an Oscar for this role.
The camera man also tried his best: the film was shot very nicely.
Germany of the times passed is shown very clearly and without any falsehood: costumes, apartments-hung with propaganda posters and the same posters throughout the city - all this accurately conveys that moment of history.
The soundtrack only boasts David Bowie's song “Heroes”.
Jojo's Rabbit is one of the best films O saw in 2020 so far.
website
RATE: 10/10
Taika Vaitichi is a truly unique director, he started with low-budget comedies (“Hunt for Savages”, “Real Ghouls”) and continued with the film for the cinematic universe “Marvel” (Tor: Ragnarok). But his best work today is Jojo Rabbit. The film was not screened in Russia, the studio did not name the reasons. After reading the plot you can guess what kind of detail scared away the Russian distributors. The film has already received a mountain of nominations and awards, it has six Oscar nominations, 3 technical (best work of the production designer; best costumes; best editing) and the other 3 more significant (Best film; Best supporting actress (Scarlett Johansson); Best adapted script), and at the last Golden Globe the film had 2 nominations (Best film (comedy or musical); Best Actor (comedy or musical) (Roman Griffin Davis)). The film also took the main prize at the Toronto Film Festival. Taika Waititi himself also acted as an actor in this film, playing an imaginary Hitler, and the aforementioned Scarlett Johansson and the scorching Sam Rockwell starred in the film.
The picture takes the viewer to Nazi Germany at the final stage of the Second World War. A 10-year-old boy Johannes Jojo Betzler (Roman Griffin Davis) lives in this setting. Jojo is a convinced Nazi, he believes in the Reich’s covenants and even has his own Hitler (Taika Waititi ) but only in the form of an imaginary friend. But the life of a young Nazi turns upside down when he discovers that his mother (Scarlett Johansson) is hiding a Jewish girl. Jojo believes that Jews are evil, and is trying hard to solve this "problem", but gradually communicating with a Jewish girl, he changes his views.
The film is a tough anti-war satire, for moments you can laugh to tears, this is mainly the first hour of the film, but the second is sometimes so heartbreaking that it comes up to your throat, the horrors of war through the eyes of a naive child who has undergone total propaganda sometimes put a lot of pressure on emotions.
The spectator, as if on some kind of a roller coaster, is subjected to completely different emotions: laughter, fear, tension and sadness. All the characters are spelled out vividly and they are all remembered, well shaped, greatly presented. The character of Sam Rockwell is especially well spelled out: you feel not connected with him at first in no way but in the end you almost cry over him. The main feature of this film is the imaginary Adolf Hitler of course. The local Hitler is comical and does not try to resemble the well-known dictator, probably 90% of the humor in the film comes from him. Jojo, the main character: you believe him, you sympathize him, you like his mother and his Jewish girl. There is a great phrase said in the film by Jojo: “Fuck off, Hitler!” - it sounded like the anthem of this picture indeed.
The nomination for an Oscar for installation is absolutely deserved: it is harmonious here, no questions - everything is done at the highest level.
The actors did a great job: the main discovery was the young actor Roman Griffin Davi, who played the main role of Jojo. This was his debut role and I'm not sure that he will even surpass it once, I don’t remember when such a young actor SO plausibly and perfectly performed his job, it is very pleasant that they paid attention to him and even nominated him for the Golden Globe. All the other actors are also in their places including Sam Rockwell who in recent years has become a sought-after actor. Plus do not forget Scarlett Johansson who has already been nominated for an Oscar for this role.
The camera man also tried his best: the film was shot very nicely.
Germany of the times passed is shown very clearly and without any falsehood: costumes, apartments-hung with propaganda posters and the same posters throughout the city - all this accurately conveys that moment of history.
The soundtrack only boasts David Bowie's song “Heroes”.
Jojo's Rabbit is one of the best films O saw in 2020 so far.
SEBERG NEW
website
RATE: 8/10
It is a rather ungrateful job to defend Seberg film which is completely unimaginable for the cinematography. Of course, such "a movie on the go", or even without looking, one could easily call "a Wikipedia film adaptation" as it was done in the first place with "Bohemian Rhapsody" or “Willpower”, or in general, with those films where the directing is not visible and the idea is sort of "understandable" at first glance. And yet, in this neat, so-called "costume film-biography", there is the eternally relevant truth, albeit in the form of a rally chant, for which it was necessary to recall this tragic fate of an actress.
Actress Gene Seberg whose role was very symbolically taken by Stuart is a symbolic face for the whole new French wave, that same famous Belmondo girl from Godard's “In The Last Breath”. She starred in other great pictures: Otto Preminger (“St. John” about Joan of Arc, this is her debut film, and “Hello, sadness!”), Claude Chabrol (“Demarcation Line” and “The Road to Corinth”). Even Romain Gary, who is better known as a writer (he had a very unbridled film “Birds Fly to Die in Peru”). Today SEberg would have starred with Catherine Deneuve as an Honored Artist of the Fifth Republic in acting skits like "The Truth" by Hirokazu Koreeda. If only she still was alive.
This story began for Seberg in America, where she went on to star in the wake of popularity after “In The Breath” in late 60s. Having met by chance Hakim Jamal (Anthony Maki), the head of the radical left "Black Panther", the activists who was fighting for the rights of African Americans, she falls in love with his burning eyes. One should have a lot of directorial courage in order for Kristen Stewart to put a rather frank (for the mainstream) scene of passionate interracial sex as the first plot point in the film with the new fem-icon. Having flown away from the French husband, in fact Romain Gary, she finds something that the bohemian spouse did not have in a fierce black activist. And this is all despite the fact that Hakim was married to Dorothy Jamal (Zazi Bitts).
It would seem that this whole situation should have remained a personal affair of each of the participants in a love conflict. But the (KG)gebist doesn’t doze off: the FBI conducted illegal, in fact unconstitutional surveillance of African-American movements, heating up the already controversial situation in the US society, which was very conservative at that time (the fact that Jamal was shot dead in 1973 already says a lot). Allegedly, among the ugly racist sexist abusers in suits (one of them is played by Vince Vaughn) who worked on listening to Seberg with Jamal, there was one conscious, conscientious hero: his role went to Jack O’Connell.
However the most important figure in this plot which is not so well-known to the wide audience is, of course, not the special services but Seberg herself with whom Kristen Stewart is amazingly correlated. The actress became famous thanks to the very sexist Twilight; then she moved to the league of "large festival artists" (Sils-Maria), but she was not afraid unlike many highly paid American artists (yes, people are still afraid of this), to come out as a bisexual. It is a bit similar to the Frenchwoman in appearance (and even with a short haircut - even more so French) but not pedaling this similarity but on the contrary: playing it traditionally restrained and in the most modest way, Stuart in the image of Seberg is the main of the few finds of the picture. She is simply superb in this role!
The Seberg film follows its heroine who was trying to be honest with herself. She does not betray any radicalism in herself, she does not refer to the classic films of those years, on the contrary, she leads to obvious thoughts about the toxicity of the celebrity institute, about the inadmissibility of interference in the lives of strangers. At the end political activism is not there to explain to humanity complex theories about the structure of the universe. People do not spare themselves, they do not rush to the embrasures, they do not go to rallies, endure police arbitrariness in order to remind society of seemingly commonplace truths: elections should be free; private life is a private matter of everyone. The desire of the state and special services to ensure the safety of the population in fact often implies paranoid surveillance which, again, violates the inviolable right to privacy. And Seberg’s biography in the neat (maybe even too much) interpretation of the director, Benedict Andrews (this is his only second film after "Una") seems to be just such a seemingly straightforward but symbolic for our time, for an era that actually has not changed at all.
website
RATE: 8/10
It is a rather ungrateful job to defend Seberg film which is completely unimaginable for the cinematography. Of course, such "a movie on the go", or even without looking, one could easily call "a Wikipedia film adaptation" as it was done in the first place with "Bohemian Rhapsody" or “Willpower”, or in general, with those films where the directing is not visible and the idea is sort of "understandable" at first glance. And yet, in this neat, so-called "costume film-biography", there is the eternally relevant truth, albeit in the form of a rally chant, for which it was necessary to recall this tragic fate of an actress.
Actress Gene Seberg whose role was very symbolically taken by Stuart is a symbolic face for the whole new French wave, that same famous Belmondo girl from Godard's “In The Last Breath”. She starred in other great pictures: Otto Preminger (“St. John” about Joan of Arc, this is her debut film, and “Hello, sadness!”), Claude Chabrol (“Demarcation Line” and “The Road to Corinth”). Even Romain Gary, who is better known as a writer (he had a very unbridled film “Birds Fly to Die in Peru”). Today SEberg would have starred with Catherine Deneuve as an Honored Artist of the Fifth Republic in acting skits like "The Truth" by Hirokazu Koreeda. If only she still was alive.
This story began for Seberg in America, where she went on to star in the wake of popularity after “In The Breath” in late 60s. Having met by chance Hakim Jamal (Anthony Maki), the head of the radical left "Black Panther", the activists who was fighting for the rights of African Americans, she falls in love with his burning eyes. One should have a lot of directorial courage in order for Kristen Stewart to put a rather frank (for the mainstream) scene of passionate interracial sex as the first plot point in the film with the new fem-icon. Having flown away from the French husband, in fact Romain Gary, she finds something that the bohemian spouse did not have in a fierce black activist. And this is all despite the fact that Hakim was married to Dorothy Jamal (Zazi Bitts).
It would seem that this whole situation should have remained a personal affair of each of the participants in a love conflict. But the (KG)gebist doesn’t doze off: the FBI conducted illegal, in fact unconstitutional surveillance of African-American movements, heating up the already controversial situation in the US society, which was very conservative at that time (the fact that Jamal was shot dead in 1973 already says a lot). Allegedly, among the ugly racist sexist abusers in suits (one of them is played by Vince Vaughn) who worked on listening to Seberg with Jamal, there was one conscious, conscientious hero: his role went to Jack O’Connell.
However the most important figure in this plot which is not so well-known to the wide audience is, of course, not the special services but Seberg herself with whom Kristen Stewart is amazingly correlated. The actress became famous thanks to the very sexist Twilight; then she moved to the league of "large festival artists" (Sils-Maria), but she was not afraid unlike many highly paid American artists (yes, people are still afraid of this), to come out as a bisexual. It is a bit similar to the Frenchwoman in appearance (and even with a short haircut - even more so French) but not pedaling this similarity but on the contrary: playing it traditionally restrained and in the most modest way, Stuart in the image of Seberg is the main of the few finds of the picture. She is simply superb in this role!
The Seberg film follows its heroine who was trying to be honest with herself. She does not betray any radicalism in herself, she does not refer to the classic films of those years, on the contrary, she leads to obvious thoughts about the toxicity of the celebrity institute, about the inadmissibility of interference in the lives of strangers. At the end political activism is not there to explain to humanity complex theories about the structure of the universe. People do not spare themselves, they do not rush to the embrasures, they do not go to rallies, endure police arbitrariness in order to remind society of seemingly commonplace truths: elections should be free; private life is a private matter of everyone. The desire of the state and special services to ensure the safety of the population in fact often implies paranoid surveillance which, again, violates the inviolable right to privacy. And Seberg’s biography in the neat (maybe even too much) interpretation of the director, Benedict Andrews (this is his only second film after "Una") seems to be just such a seemingly straightforward but symbolic for our time, for an era that actually has not changed at all.
DOLITTLE NEW
website
review by Olga Kirk
Cast
Robert Downey Jr. as Dr. John Dolittle
Antonio Banderas as King Rassouli
Jessie Buckley as Queen Victoria
Michael Sheen as Dr. Blair Müdfly
Jim Broadbent as Lord Thomas Badgley
Harry Collett as Tommy Stubbins
Emma Thompson as Polynesia (voice)
Rami Malek as Chee-Chee (voice)
John Cena as Yoshi (voice)
Kumail Nanjiani as Plimpton (voice)
Octavia Spencer as Dab-Dab (voice)
Tom Holland as Jip (voice)
Craig Robinson as Fleming (voice)
Ralph Fiennes as Barry (voice)
Selena Gomez as Betsy (voice)
Marion Cotillard as Tutu (voice)
Carmen Ejogo as Regine (voice)
Director
Stephen Gaghan
The new film cunningly runs through previous years from Dolittle's life - a brief history of his relationship with his wife is shown in the form of illustrations. When the drawings disappear from the screen, a reclusive doctor appears who could not cope with the death of a loved one. Dolittle lives in a closed estate, where only animals make up his company. He has a great time playing chess with mice, until two uninvited guests come to his house. This is a girl who asks the doctor to save the Queen of England from death, and a boy who suddenly expressed a desire to become a student of Dolittle.
When an unknown disease becomes a threat to the life of the young queen, Dr. Doolittle has to leave his shelter and embark on an incredible journey to the mythical island. In search of medicine for the queen, he fights with merciless enemies, meets outlandish creatures and will is forced to show remarkable courage and ingenuity.
Here, children's characters are smiling, looking almost directly at the camera, the danger does not seem mortal, and all kinds of obstacles are transformed into fun. As expected, every animal Dolittle communicates with has its own character, which causes jokes and laughter.
Dolittle performed by Robert Downey Jr. in his manner of behavior sometimes resembles Jack Sparrow. Surrounded by animals, the actor acquires somewhat comical habits, probably trying to convey Dolittle's eccentric character. On the screen, Michael Sheen becomes his caricatured opponent, playing the role of an ardent hater and a royal dirty trick. Another negative character appearing for a short time in the film is played by Antonio Banderas. Almost all of them are malicious and understandable to small viewers.
The film, though naive, is good for watching with children.
website
review by Olga Kirk
Cast
Robert Downey Jr. as Dr. John Dolittle
Antonio Banderas as King Rassouli
Jessie Buckley as Queen Victoria
Michael Sheen as Dr. Blair Müdfly
Jim Broadbent as Lord Thomas Badgley
Harry Collett as Tommy Stubbins
Emma Thompson as Polynesia (voice)
Rami Malek as Chee-Chee (voice)
John Cena as Yoshi (voice)
Kumail Nanjiani as Plimpton (voice)
Octavia Spencer as Dab-Dab (voice)
Tom Holland as Jip (voice)
Craig Robinson as Fleming (voice)
Ralph Fiennes as Barry (voice)
Selena Gomez as Betsy (voice)
Marion Cotillard as Tutu (voice)
Carmen Ejogo as Regine (voice)
Director
Stephen Gaghan
The new film cunningly runs through previous years from Dolittle's life - a brief history of his relationship with his wife is shown in the form of illustrations. When the drawings disappear from the screen, a reclusive doctor appears who could not cope with the death of a loved one. Dolittle lives in a closed estate, where only animals make up his company. He has a great time playing chess with mice, until two uninvited guests come to his house. This is a girl who asks the doctor to save the Queen of England from death, and a boy who suddenly expressed a desire to become a student of Dolittle.
When an unknown disease becomes a threat to the life of the young queen, Dr. Doolittle has to leave his shelter and embark on an incredible journey to the mythical island. In search of medicine for the queen, he fights with merciless enemies, meets outlandish creatures and will is forced to show remarkable courage and ingenuity.
Here, children's characters are smiling, looking almost directly at the camera, the danger does not seem mortal, and all kinds of obstacles are transformed into fun. As expected, every animal Dolittle communicates with has its own character, which causes jokes and laughter.
Dolittle performed by Robert Downey Jr. in his manner of behavior sometimes resembles Jack Sparrow. Surrounded by animals, the actor acquires somewhat comical habits, probably trying to convey Dolittle's eccentric character. On the screen, Michael Sheen becomes his caricatured opponent, playing the role of an ardent hater and a royal dirty trick. Another negative character appearing for a short time in the film is played by Antonio Banderas. Almost all of them are malicious and understandable to small viewers.
The film, though naive, is good for watching with children.
BOMBSHELL NEW
website
review by Anthony Wayne
If you are wondering whether to check out new film Bombshell – it will only take a quick glimpse of the poster for you to find 3 BIG reasons. CHARLIZE THERON, NICOLE KIDMAN, MARGOT ROBBIE. I wouldn’t blame you if you wanted to stop reading now and go book your tickets, as the cast alone was certainly enough to get me excited to see this film. And let me tell you, these three do not disappoint. Three outstanding lead performances, all delivered with such depth and realism. I am not surprised both Theron and Robbie have earned Oscar nominations.
The film is a revealing look inside the most powerful and controversial media empire, and the story of the women who brought down the infamous man who created it. The story is based upon the true accounts of the female Fox News executives who set out to expose CEO Roger Ailes (John Lithgow) for sexual harassment. Commencing with Gretchen Carlson (Nicole Kidman) who initially opens the lawsuit against Ailes after being sacked from the network, we then follow the conflicted Megyn Kelly (Charlize Theron) as she weighs in on whether to come forward with her own experiences.
It is fictional character Kayla (Margot Robbie) a young and ambitious producer at the network who steals the show in the most powerful scene. In it, Kayla gets an opportunity to audition for Ailes in a private meeting. Kayla is thrilled at the meeting, knowing that Ailes has the power to make her career. The scene takes a turn and your heart breaks as Kayla is subjected by Ailes and made to twirl under his justification that ‘it’s a visual medium’. Ailes breathes heavily as he looks on as Kayla finally complies with his commands to hike up the hem of her dress. I felt my stomach knot up, and I watched in disbelief. What struck me was the discomfort I felt from seeing the women facing these situations. You really sympathise for these women, all of them.
Just as the clever title alludes to, Bombshell is explosive, an eye-opening account of how these women are harassed in the workplace, and their bravery for standing up against it. A raw and sophisticated film on an important issue.
website
review by Anthony Wayne
If you are wondering whether to check out new film Bombshell – it will only take a quick glimpse of the poster for you to find 3 BIG reasons. CHARLIZE THERON, NICOLE KIDMAN, MARGOT ROBBIE. I wouldn’t blame you if you wanted to stop reading now and go book your tickets, as the cast alone was certainly enough to get me excited to see this film. And let me tell you, these three do not disappoint. Three outstanding lead performances, all delivered with such depth and realism. I am not surprised both Theron and Robbie have earned Oscar nominations.
The film is a revealing look inside the most powerful and controversial media empire, and the story of the women who brought down the infamous man who created it. The story is based upon the true accounts of the female Fox News executives who set out to expose CEO Roger Ailes (John Lithgow) for sexual harassment. Commencing with Gretchen Carlson (Nicole Kidman) who initially opens the lawsuit against Ailes after being sacked from the network, we then follow the conflicted Megyn Kelly (Charlize Theron) as she weighs in on whether to come forward with her own experiences.
It is fictional character Kayla (Margot Robbie) a young and ambitious producer at the network who steals the show in the most powerful scene. In it, Kayla gets an opportunity to audition for Ailes in a private meeting. Kayla is thrilled at the meeting, knowing that Ailes has the power to make her career. The scene takes a turn and your heart breaks as Kayla is subjected by Ailes and made to twirl under his justification that ‘it’s a visual medium’. Ailes breathes heavily as he looks on as Kayla finally complies with his commands to hike up the hem of her dress. I felt my stomach knot up, and I watched in disbelief. What struck me was the discomfort I felt from seeing the women facing these situations. You really sympathise for these women, all of them.
Just as the clever title alludes to, Bombshell is explosive, an eye-opening account of how these women are harassed in the workplace, and their bravery for standing up against it. A raw and sophisticated film on an important issue.
THE GOOD LIAR NEW
website
RATE: 7/10
Oh what a disappointment!
I was expecting to see something amazing concidering the strong cast but what a miserable realization of the great potential of the cast and the story itself!
How was that possible? Very predictable thought it started very well and the present was shown very well although the past travelling was a bit clumsy to say the least...
... and more: how did quite a good director Bill Condon having such actors in the crew in this "criminal drama/ thriller" called Good Liar with such “heavyweights” as Helen Mirren and Ian McKellen - how could he make such a gray and inexpressive movie?.. No idea! But... they did not shine!
Maybe it’s in the script, I have no idea what did not work to be honest. I don’t know. The acting was expectedly magnificent but even this was not enough to save the film. It was overall very, very sad.
The film simply had to become a masterpiece IMHO. Who is the liar here now? A mactor , an actress or a director who tricked us all with th egreat trailer and lire us to the cinemas and see the movie. Disappointment 100%.
I can recommend A Good Liar only for those of you who love and fan Helen Mirren and Ian McKellen. I do so I enjoyed the acting not the interpretation of the story.
7/10 for me for the masters.
website
RATE: 7/10
Oh what a disappointment!
I was expecting to see something amazing concidering the strong cast but what a miserable realization of the great potential of the cast and the story itself!
How was that possible? Very predictable thought it started very well and the present was shown very well although the past travelling was a bit clumsy to say the least...
... and more: how did quite a good director Bill Condon having such actors in the crew in this "criminal drama/ thriller" called Good Liar with such “heavyweights” as Helen Mirren and Ian McKellen - how could he make such a gray and inexpressive movie?.. No idea! But... they did not shine!
Maybe it’s in the script, I have no idea what did not work to be honest. I don’t know. The acting was expectedly magnificent but even this was not enough to save the film. It was overall very, very sad.
The film simply had to become a masterpiece IMHO. Who is the liar here now? A mactor , an actress or a director who tricked us all with th egreat trailer and lire us to the cinemas and see the movie. Disappointment 100%.
I can recommend A Good Liar only for those of you who love and fan Helen Mirren and Ian McKellen. I do so I enjoyed the acting not the interpretation of the story.
7/10 for me for the masters.
A BOY CALLED SAILBOAT NEW
website
RATE: 9/10
While I watched the film and caught myself talking to myself: "hm..." ... "hm".... "HM!!!..." not in surprise as I could not decide if the film was excellent or it had some "gaps". I smirked and I smirked again. What a naive movie I thought... but at the same time it worked. The plot is simple but I can not retell it even if I could. Just think this: a little boy named Sailboat found a guitar or rather not even a guitar but most likely a modern-day instrument looking like ukulele, which is smaller than a guitar. So, he found a guitar and composed at the request of his dying grandmother a song that everyone loved so much they had tears in their eyes!
The trick basically is ... hm... there are various little things that you will like: the characters, the surroundings, the actions and the deeds... but you will never hear the song. Not even once!
The house in which the protagonists live: the kid, Sailboat himself and his parents is worth a lot for you to see. It is a house that is supported by a stick and it is cracking from each breeze passing by... It is simply falling apart but it stands like the life of the people living in it... Happily I would say as they love each other. “Sailboat, have you checked the stick yet?” - we here often in the movie.
Why the kid is called Sailboat - this is not the right question to ask. There are way too many questions and answers are not coming as that SONG!!! I will not talk, no speech from me! This is a separate mini-story that fits into the big picture. The boy’s parents are also very charismatic characters: his dad looks like a body builder and hm... of a very formidable kind but he is so very kind . You expect him o hit people but on the contrary - he portrays lots of love. So looks are not important. Sailboat's mom is nice, plump, kind and rounded and she probably smells on meatballs as this is all she cooks for the family and their guests. It is not clear who works and where. They are simple people and really love their Sailboat. Dad picks him up from school and mum cooks meatballs endlessly. Just one mad house that stands on the support of one lousy and almost eaten by termites stick.
Well, as I mentioned or not mentioned before, the most important thing in this story is the song that the boy has written. A wonderful song composed by a boy! A wonderful song! The filmmakers intrigued us all with this song. The fact is that when the Sailboat performs it for the first time or rehearses for village and later to his grandma we still do not hear it! Instead of a song we hear a sound reminiscent of the one we hear live when we muffle the swearing words on TV. Do you know I mean?
What for god sake can a little boy can compose and sing that make people cry and change their lives? Of course the guitar is a very romantic instrument and there are very good, excellent songs written that are taken by the soul... hm... but... they are not performed by children!
At the very end I suddenly realized that the meaning is not in the song itself or rather not in the song's lyrics or music but in the boy's performance. The meaning of the film is much simpler. I will express it this way: believe in yourself, in your dream, be who you are and then you do not need to invent anything, everything in your life will be fine and will fall in the right way - just be honest with what you are after in life, truly after and your life will work.
It is such a simple movie and it carries a deep philosophical meaning and it fills you up. This is not a comedy although I was laughing out loud. There is a very good and solid humor but it is not for everybody to understand and like I believe. For me for example the situation with the stick taking place over and over again that supported was ridiculous but funny as life is in many cases. It is funny when it is repetitive. The stage here belongs to the boy who performs so organically! But this film is not created for children however I would show this film to my grandsons and granddaughters of 5 and up! You can say this film is a small parable about a boy with a guitar and you would be right. His guitar is the knowledge we have in our hands to operate with our lives and make the life work. He did with his brilliantly well so did the movie creators!
I recommend this film highly but immediately warn you that many will not appreciate it. It is not an art house movie nor it is your ordinary film . You need to appreciate life and its values in order to deeply understand what is hidden behind each episode and what messages you perceive on a higher level. I liked it although I would say may be it will not make it my favorite film of the month... or may be it would... hm... 9/10 from me!
website
RATE: 9/10
While I watched the film and caught myself talking to myself: "hm..." ... "hm".... "HM!!!..." not in surprise as I could not decide if the film was excellent or it had some "gaps". I smirked and I smirked again. What a naive movie I thought... but at the same time it worked. The plot is simple but I can not retell it even if I could. Just think this: a little boy named Sailboat found a guitar or rather not even a guitar but most likely a modern-day instrument looking like ukulele, which is smaller than a guitar. So, he found a guitar and composed at the request of his dying grandmother a song that everyone loved so much they had tears in their eyes!
The trick basically is ... hm... there are various little things that you will like: the characters, the surroundings, the actions and the deeds... but you will never hear the song. Not even once!
The house in which the protagonists live: the kid, Sailboat himself and his parents is worth a lot for you to see. It is a house that is supported by a stick and it is cracking from each breeze passing by... It is simply falling apart but it stands like the life of the people living in it... Happily I would say as they love each other. “Sailboat, have you checked the stick yet?” - we here often in the movie.
Why the kid is called Sailboat - this is not the right question to ask. There are way too many questions and answers are not coming as that SONG!!! I will not talk, no speech from me! This is a separate mini-story that fits into the big picture. The boy’s parents are also very charismatic characters: his dad looks like a body builder and hm... of a very formidable kind but he is so very kind . You expect him o hit people but on the contrary - he portrays lots of love. So looks are not important. Sailboat's mom is nice, plump, kind and rounded and she probably smells on meatballs as this is all she cooks for the family and their guests. It is not clear who works and where. They are simple people and really love their Sailboat. Dad picks him up from school and mum cooks meatballs endlessly. Just one mad house that stands on the support of one lousy and almost eaten by termites stick.
Well, as I mentioned or not mentioned before, the most important thing in this story is the song that the boy has written. A wonderful song composed by a boy! A wonderful song! The filmmakers intrigued us all with this song. The fact is that when the Sailboat performs it for the first time or rehearses for village and later to his grandma we still do not hear it! Instead of a song we hear a sound reminiscent of the one we hear live when we muffle the swearing words on TV. Do you know I mean?
What for god sake can a little boy can compose and sing that make people cry and change their lives? Of course the guitar is a very romantic instrument and there are very good, excellent songs written that are taken by the soul... hm... but... they are not performed by children!
At the very end I suddenly realized that the meaning is not in the song itself or rather not in the song's lyrics or music but in the boy's performance. The meaning of the film is much simpler. I will express it this way: believe in yourself, in your dream, be who you are and then you do not need to invent anything, everything in your life will be fine and will fall in the right way - just be honest with what you are after in life, truly after and your life will work.
It is such a simple movie and it carries a deep philosophical meaning and it fills you up. This is not a comedy although I was laughing out loud. There is a very good and solid humor but it is not for everybody to understand and like I believe. For me for example the situation with the stick taking place over and over again that supported was ridiculous but funny as life is in many cases. It is funny when it is repetitive. The stage here belongs to the boy who performs so organically! But this film is not created for children however I would show this film to my grandsons and granddaughters of 5 and up! You can say this film is a small parable about a boy with a guitar and you would be right. His guitar is the knowledge we have in our hands to operate with our lives and make the life work. He did with his brilliantly well so did the movie creators!
I recommend this film highly but immediately warn you that many will not appreciate it. It is not an art house movie nor it is your ordinary film . You need to appreciate life and its values in order to deeply understand what is hidden behind each episode and what messages you perceive on a higher level. I liked it although I would say may be it will not make it my favorite film of the month... or may be it would... hm... 9/10 from me!
THE TRUTH NEW
website
RATE: 8.10
One of the main stars of French cinema over the past half century, Catherine Deneuve, turned 76 years old. Film The Truth turns out to be the most unusual in the program of the Venetian Film Festival competition where it was screened first time. The combination of the film director, Hirokazu Koreeda and the French actress, Catherine Deneuve looks more than strange. For the time being Hirokazu was considered to be marginal but now he is world wide recognized Japanese talent, a master of elegant metaphysical constructions with a few sentimental family dramas in his amazing portfolio... well now it is our French grand lady who has been known from her youth to play provocative roles, to the extend of ruining her image, however, like all big stars, everyone is equally captured. We see now two figures in front of us, extremely authoritative in the world of cinematography, nevertheless they belong to completely different galaxies, so their alliance looks rather mysterious.
As for the director's victory at the festival, we have to admit that the victory would be impossible if he would never have had such a casting rank at his disposal: in addition to Deneuve there was Juliette Binoche and Ethan Hawke in the picture. Meanwhile, The Truth work started back in 2002 when Koreeda wrote the play underlying the script. In 2004 he discussed the idea of a joint film with Binoche and made a creative proposal to Deneuve three years after. Hawke appeared in this project after the Koreeda's Golden Palm.
The film was announced under the title "The Truth About Catherine" which sheds additional light on the situation. The heroine was eventually renamed from Faience but still, the personal character of the role is obvious: despite the fact that there is enough fiction around her name. Deneuve is considered to be one of the smartest actresses who can build her career from scratch. It is well know that once she sent a letter to Louis Bunuel and persuaded her to take her for Tristan. Years later, in the same way she got the role of Lars von Trier in Dancing in the Dark. We do not have evidence but it is reasonable to assume that in this case it was not without her initiative but the interests were still mutual. Later Koreeda has called his film "Love Letter to Catherine Deneuve". Precedents of this kind have already happened with Asian authors: Hon San Su and Briante Mendoza shot Isabelle Huppert, and Abbas Kiarostami has done Juliette Binoche... and yet this is a special case when it is almost impossible to separate the actress from the character and completely establish the authorship of certain decisions.
The plot of The Truth focuses on the relationship between the mother, a French movie superstar (Deneuve) and her not-so-successful screenwriting daughter (Binoche), who lives overseas with her American husband, a second-rate actor who is prone to alcohol abuse (Hawke). This is first foreign film of Koreeda that was entirely shot in Paris. It seems to be a mystery pattern of daughter-mother relationship not only for French but also Swedish, Spanish and American cinema. Inevitably there is Bergman with his "Autumn Sonata", "All About Eve", and "Sunset Boulevard" are classic films about actresses in crisis or at their career and personal sunset. It is a postmodern variation on the theme “everything about my mother” - and first of all "High Heels" by Almodovar.
But first of all the film splays around the artistic myth associated with the personality and biography of Deneuve herself. When she says on behalf of her heroine that Hitchcock was about to shoot her and they had a meeting on this topic, but the horror king soon died, this was true: Deneuve almost became one of the favorite Hitchcock blondes. In another episode Fabienne notes that many big stars like Michelle Morgan, Daniel Darje, Simone Signoret, Greta Garbo had the name and surname began with the same letter. As soon as the interlocutor tries to give an example to Brigitte Bardot, Fabienne makes a skeptical grimace. Everyone knows that Bardot and Deneuve competed both on the screen and in life, both being the "creatures" of the director Roger Vadim while Bardot played in the movie Clouseau, also called La Vérité translated in some languages as The Truth.
In his picture Koreeda touches another very delicate, even risky, topic. There is another rival actress in her life. Talented and vulnerable, she stepped out of the race and died because Fabienne was stronger. There is one much trickier: she slept with the director and he preferred her to Sarah, giving Fabienne the opportunity to play his crown role. This is an actual commentary on the topic that is being discussed today in connection with the demarches of Hollywood and European actresses who have become (or supposedly become) victims of producers or directors who have abused male and social power on them. As you know, Catherine Deneuve is restrained about the latest feminist initiatives and Koreeda's film comments on this topic with obvious irony.
The conflict is in the fact that this all involuntarily associates with the real rivals of Catherine Deneuve: Jeanne Moreau and Romy Schneider. The first one, like fictional Sarah in the film had a hoarse voice, the second tragically passed away. Add now more to this cocktail of rumors: Deneuve's sister (real name - Dorleac), Francoise died on the take-off at the age of 25. In fact, the relationship of the two sisters was not poisoned by a shadow of jealousy: they easily shared success and admired each other. Moreover, their films "Disgust" and "Dead End", "Cherbourg's Umbrellas" and "Tender Skin" competed at festivals and in the critics' assessments. In the "new wave" system of values Catherine Deneuve with her classic "monolithic" type was more relevant than Francoise Dorleac with her nervous variability and uncertainty.
Francois Truffaut who survived a brief romance with Francoise prophesied a great future for her and promised to shoot her every six years, jokingly appointing her dates in 1970, 1976 and 1982. Francoise will die in a car accident in 1967. Instead another Mademoiselle Dorleac, Catherine Deneuve will come to see Truffaut. She would arrive at almost appointed hours. She would play with Truffaut in the films "The Mississippi Siren" (1969) and "The Last Subway" (1980). Catherine inherited the roles and admirers of her deceased sister but the tragedy cast a shadow of bitterness on the joint films of Deneuve and Truffaut and even on their romance which began shortly after the death of Francoise and ended in a painful rupture.
It is not surprising that The Truth partially reproduces the real and the legendary situations. It is amazing how they are interpreted in the film. There is a "double lenses" effect: one comes from a purely French tradition the other from a transformed Japanese one.
If this "lenses vision" was only French at best there would have been a stinging comedy in the spirit of Francois Ozon who bravely beat the mythology of national actresses in “8 Women” or something like “Near Paradise” by Tony Marshall - some melodramas with a cinephilic bias or an essay on the image of Catherine Deneuve and her place in world cinema.
In the film Deneuve with an ostentatious sense of humor oversights the overturns of her own myths. Of course her heroine as befits a diva is selfish and a bit of a "bitch" (barely seeing her, the young granddaughter immediately begins to suspect that her grandmother is a witch). However nothing is infernal. In the film Koreeda does not confirm in any way his tendency to any light mysticism and Deneuve does everything to present his heroine as earthly as possible without any romantic flair and a halo of that cold mystery. She does not deny anything: she walks in a vulgar leopard print coats, does not hide any suspenders or defects of an overly overweight figure and she is ready to flirt with her son-in-law; she loves to sit alone in a nearby Chinese restaurant most of all. She can be funny but never miserable. The unquenchable brilliance of her beautiful and sometimes angry and mocking eyes puts any journalist, admirer or hangman in their place. Fabienne still reigns on the set of the next film. It is a dubious cosmic melodrama where mother and daughter also appear; the flight into space becomes a perfect recipe for old age and death (to never die).
Ethan Hawke introduces a jovial American note into the fresh world of a peri-French party. Juliette Binoche slightly stylized as Chiara Mastroianni (a real life daughter of Deneuve), tactfully keeps in the shadow of the Queen. Her heroine, Lumir lives with a feeling of dislike, jealousy and resentment for a selfish mother - an incorrigible lyceum who continues to play maliciously and recklessly in life as well as on the stage set. Emotions come to the surface when Fabienne’s memoir under the provocative title “The Truth” comes out of print. We will never know the truth, we will confine to live in half-truth or if you like in a post-truth - the same way we use to confine to it in the other areas of life.
When the plot of the film was announced there was a question raised: will Koreeda have enough knowledge of European realities? It was all food, everything was in order with this and the director settled the French capital very naturally. He even found in its pacifying suburban landscapes the resemblance to his native Japan. Koreeda stays also very close to the genre of elegiac family drama with Chekhov's intelligent subtexts and the images of the "family nest" in fact as a metaphor for a real "humane prison".
It is very difficult to say how significant this art work will be in the career of Koreeda who is at his artistic peak in the world fame and if this particular film will have any positive waves of consequences. In the final credit, Catherine Deneuve while under the gun of Eric Gauthier’s camera, accompanied by the music of Alexei Aigi walks endlessly along the alley with her companion and friend: a cute little dog. The star returns to where she came from - to outer space. It seems, to be the last truth devoid of any tragic pathos.
website
RATE: 8.10
One of the main stars of French cinema over the past half century, Catherine Deneuve, turned 76 years old. Film The Truth turns out to be the most unusual in the program of the Venetian Film Festival competition where it was screened first time. The combination of the film director, Hirokazu Koreeda and the French actress, Catherine Deneuve looks more than strange. For the time being Hirokazu was considered to be marginal but now he is world wide recognized Japanese talent, a master of elegant metaphysical constructions with a few sentimental family dramas in his amazing portfolio... well now it is our French grand lady who has been known from her youth to play provocative roles, to the extend of ruining her image, however, like all big stars, everyone is equally captured. We see now two figures in front of us, extremely authoritative in the world of cinematography, nevertheless they belong to completely different galaxies, so their alliance looks rather mysterious.
As for the director's victory at the festival, we have to admit that the victory would be impossible if he would never have had such a casting rank at his disposal: in addition to Deneuve there was Juliette Binoche and Ethan Hawke in the picture. Meanwhile, The Truth work started back in 2002 when Koreeda wrote the play underlying the script. In 2004 he discussed the idea of a joint film with Binoche and made a creative proposal to Deneuve three years after. Hawke appeared in this project after the Koreeda's Golden Palm.
The film was announced under the title "The Truth About Catherine" which sheds additional light on the situation. The heroine was eventually renamed from Faience but still, the personal character of the role is obvious: despite the fact that there is enough fiction around her name. Deneuve is considered to be one of the smartest actresses who can build her career from scratch. It is well know that once she sent a letter to Louis Bunuel and persuaded her to take her for Tristan. Years later, in the same way she got the role of Lars von Trier in Dancing in the Dark. We do not have evidence but it is reasonable to assume that in this case it was not without her initiative but the interests were still mutual. Later Koreeda has called his film "Love Letter to Catherine Deneuve". Precedents of this kind have already happened with Asian authors: Hon San Su and Briante Mendoza shot Isabelle Huppert, and Abbas Kiarostami has done Juliette Binoche... and yet this is a special case when it is almost impossible to separate the actress from the character and completely establish the authorship of certain decisions.
The plot of The Truth focuses on the relationship between the mother, a French movie superstar (Deneuve) and her not-so-successful screenwriting daughter (Binoche), who lives overseas with her American husband, a second-rate actor who is prone to alcohol abuse (Hawke). This is first foreign film of Koreeda that was entirely shot in Paris. It seems to be a mystery pattern of daughter-mother relationship not only for French but also Swedish, Spanish and American cinema. Inevitably there is Bergman with his "Autumn Sonata", "All About Eve", and "Sunset Boulevard" are classic films about actresses in crisis or at their career and personal sunset. It is a postmodern variation on the theme “everything about my mother” - and first of all "High Heels" by Almodovar.
But first of all the film splays around the artistic myth associated with the personality and biography of Deneuve herself. When she says on behalf of her heroine that Hitchcock was about to shoot her and they had a meeting on this topic, but the horror king soon died, this was true: Deneuve almost became one of the favorite Hitchcock blondes. In another episode Fabienne notes that many big stars like Michelle Morgan, Daniel Darje, Simone Signoret, Greta Garbo had the name and surname began with the same letter. As soon as the interlocutor tries to give an example to Brigitte Bardot, Fabienne makes a skeptical grimace. Everyone knows that Bardot and Deneuve competed both on the screen and in life, both being the "creatures" of the director Roger Vadim while Bardot played in the movie Clouseau, also called La Vérité translated in some languages as The Truth.
In his picture Koreeda touches another very delicate, even risky, topic. There is another rival actress in her life. Talented and vulnerable, she stepped out of the race and died because Fabienne was stronger. There is one much trickier: she slept with the director and he preferred her to Sarah, giving Fabienne the opportunity to play his crown role. This is an actual commentary on the topic that is being discussed today in connection with the demarches of Hollywood and European actresses who have become (or supposedly become) victims of producers or directors who have abused male and social power on them. As you know, Catherine Deneuve is restrained about the latest feminist initiatives and Koreeda's film comments on this topic with obvious irony.
The conflict is in the fact that this all involuntarily associates with the real rivals of Catherine Deneuve: Jeanne Moreau and Romy Schneider. The first one, like fictional Sarah in the film had a hoarse voice, the second tragically passed away. Add now more to this cocktail of rumors: Deneuve's sister (real name - Dorleac), Francoise died on the take-off at the age of 25. In fact, the relationship of the two sisters was not poisoned by a shadow of jealousy: they easily shared success and admired each other. Moreover, their films "Disgust" and "Dead End", "Cherbourg's Umbrellas" and "Tender Skin" competed at festivals and in the critics' assessments. In the "new wave" system of values Catherine Deneuve with her classic "monolithic" type was more relevant than Francoise Dorleac with her nervous variability and uncertainty.
Francois Truffaut who survived a brief romance with Francoise prophesied a great future for her and promised to shoot her every six years, jokingly appointing her dates in 1970, 1976 and 1982. Francoise will die in a car accident in 1967. Instead another Mademoiselle Dorleac, Catherine Deneuve will come to see Truffaut. She would arrive at almost appointed hours. She would play with Truffaut in the films "The Mississippi Siren" (1969) and "The Last Subway" (1980). Catherine inherited the roles and admirers of her deceased sister but the tragedy cast a shadow of bitterness on the joint films of Deneuve and Truffaut and even on their romance which began shortly after the death of Francoise and ended in a painful rupture.
It is not surprising that The Truth partially reproduces the real and the legendary situations. It is amazing how they are interpreted in the film. There is a "double lenses" effect: one comes from a purely French tradition the other from a transformed Japanese one.
If this "lenses vision" was only French at best there would have been a stinging comedy in the spirit of Francois Ozon who bravely beat the mythology of national actresses in “8 Women” or something like “Near Paradise” by Tony Marshall - some melodramas with a cinephilic bias or an essay on the image of Catherine Deneuve and her place in world cinema.
In the film Deneuve with an ostentatious sense of humor oversights the overturns of her own myths. Of course her heroine as befits a diva is selfish and a bit of a "bitch" (barely seeing her, the young granddaughter immediately begins to suspect that her grandmother is a witch). However nothing is infernal. In the film Koreeda does not confirm in any way his tendency to any light mysticism and Deneuve does everything to present his heroine as earthly as possible without any romantic flair and a halo of that cold mystery. She does not deny anything: she walks in a vulgar leopard print coats, does not hide any suspenders or defects of an overly overweight figure and she is ready to flirt with her son-in-law; she loves to sit alone in a nearby Chinese restaurant most of all. She can be funny but never miserable. The unquenchable brilliance of her beautiful and sometimes angry and mocking eyes puts any journalist, admirer or hangman in their place. Fabienne still reigns on the set of the next film. It is a dubious cosmic melodrama where mother and daughter also appear; the flight into space becomes a perfect recipe for old age and death (to never die).
Ethan Hawke introduces a jovial American note into the fresh world of a peri-French party. Juliette Binoche slightly stylized as Chiara Mastroianni (a real life daughter of Deneuve), tactfully keeps in the shadow of the Queen. Her heroine, Lumir lives with a feeling of dislike, jealousy and resentment for a selfish mother - an incorrigible lyceum who continues to play maliciously and recklessly in life as well as on the stage set. Emotions come to the surface when Fabienne’s memoir under the provocative title “The Truth” comes out of print. We will never know the truth, we will confine to live in half-truth or if you like in a post-truth - the same way we use to confine to it in the other areas of life.
When the plot of the film was announced there was a question raised: will Koreeda have enough knowledge of European realities? It was all food, everything was in order with this and the director settled the French capital very naturally. He even found in its pacifying suburban landscapes the resemblance to his native Japan. Koreeda stays also very close to the genre of elegiac family drama with Chekhov's intelligent subtexts and the images of the "family nest" in fact as a metaphor for a real "humane prison".
It is very difficult to say how significant this art work will be in the career of Koreeda who is at his artistic peak in the world fame and if this particular film will have any positive waves of consequences. In the final credit, Catherine Deneuve while under the gun of Eric Gauthier’s camera, accompanied by the music of Alexei Aigi walks endlessly along the alley with her companion and friend: a cute little dog. The star returns to where she came from - to outer space. It seems, to be the last truth devoid of any tragic pathos.
review by Alex First at MAPT
The Truth (PG) – 107 minutes – by Alex First
There’s a great deal of warmth and good humour in filmmaker Kore-eda Hirokazu’s
(who won the Palme d’Or at Cannes for Shoplifters) wry new dramedy The Truth.
It is his first film abroad in a language not his own and he worked with a totally French crew.
It also marks the first time beloved Academy Award nominees Catherine Deneuve and Juliette Binoche have featured alongside one another.
They star as a celebrated actress and her estranged daughter.
Fabienne (Deneuve) and Lumir (Binoche) have a prickly relationship.
Fabienne is a larger-than-life, now ageing, French cinema icon.
She’s had more affairs than hot dinners and she was hardly the mother figure Lumir would have liked while growing up.
Lumir, a screenwriter, lives in New York with her struggling actor husband Hank (Ethan Hawke) and their inquisitive young daughter Charlotte (Clémentine Grenier).
When Fabienne publishes her memoir the trio heads to Paris for the occasion.
It comes as no surprise to Lumir that everything in her grand childhood home still revolves around her mother.
As she begins to read Fabienne’s book – which mother promised to send her, but somehow didn’t get around to – it becomes clear the tome is riddled with omissions, lies and embellishments.
Those concern both Lumir and Fabienne’s relationship with the great artistic rival of her past, Sarah Mondavan, who is no longer with us.
Not surprisingly, Fabienne in painted in a far more favourable light than is true.
Mind you, she has no time for explanations or small talk.
She’s preparing for her next film, a science-fiction drama, where she is cast in a small role alongside a rising new talent (Manon Clavel) who is touted as “the next Sarah Mondavan”.
However, Fabienne is not at the top of her game anymore.
Still, she is always on show and feels she has a reputation and standing to uphold.
She is uncomfortable playing second fiddle and being outshone by another star on the rise.
There is no doubt Manon reminds Fabienne of her former rival, who – incidentally – Lumir was close to.
Although Manon is charming and agreeable, Fabienne hardly affords her the same sentiments in return and tries to find every excuse concerning the worth of the script and her inability to live up to expectations.
Separately, Fabienne plays a joyful cat and mouse game with her granddaughter, who is led to believe she is a witch and can turn humans into animals, if she so chooses.
A case in point is a turtle who bears the name of Fabienne’s former husband, her daughter’s father.
The script is witty and joyful, the performances a standout, led by Deneuve in her best role in years, which she assumes with a twinkle in her eyes.
Deneuve revels in being the centre of attention – a leading actress playing an actress ... just perfect.
Binoche, too, is nuanced as daughter, wife and mother, carrying hurt and anger from her past, but also a spirit of forgiveness.
I loved the frequent visits to the movie set and the film within a film scenes involving three generations of actress.
The question must be asked: what is fact and what is fiction?
The film has a laconic style.
Manon Clavel is particularly evocative as the young actress with a big future – the consummate professional.
Ethan Hawke is given a bit of a thankless role as a fish out of water but handles it skilfully, recognising he is the third wheel.
I also liked Clémentine Grenier as his daughter, more than a little precocious and clearly blessed with the acting gene.
Kore-eda Hirokazu has lovingly crafted a gentle, delicious celebration of family dynamics put to the test.
You could reasonably argue that not a great deal happens, but the beauty comes from the interactions.
Rated PG, The Truth scores a 7½ out of 10.
There’s a great deal of warmth and good humour in filmmaker Kore-eda Hirokazu’s
(who won the Palme d’Or at Cannes for Shoplifters) wry new dramedy The Truth.
It is his first film abroad in a language not his own and he worked with a totally French crew.
It also marks the first time beloved Academy Award nominees Catherine Deneuve and Juliette Binoche have featured alongside one another.
They star as a celebrated actress and her estranged daughter.
Fabienne (Deneuve) and Lumir (Binoche) have a prickly relationship.
Fabienne is a larger-than-life, now ageing, French cinema icon.
She’s had more affairs than hot dinners and she was hardly the mother figure Lumir would have liked while growing up.
Lumir, a screenwriter, lives in New York with her struggling actor husband Hank (Ethan Hawke) and their inquisitive young daughter Charlotte (Clémentine Grenier).
When Fabienne publishes her memoir the trio heads to Paris for the occasion.
It comes as no surprise to Lumir that everything in her grand childhood home still revolves around her mother.
As she begins to read Fabienne’s book – which mother promised to send her, but somehow didn’t get around to – it becomes clear the tome is riddled with omissions, lies and embellishments.
Those concern both Lumir and Fabienne’s relationship with the great artistic rival of her past, Sarah Mondavan, who is no longer with us.
Not surprisingly, Fabienne in painted in a far more favourable light than is true.
Mind you, she has no time for explanations or small talk.
She’s preparing for her next film, a science-fiction drama, where she is cast in a small role alongside a rising new talent (Manon Clavel) who is touted as “the next Sarah Mondavan”.
However, Fabienne is not at the top of her game anymore.
Still, she is always on show and feels she has a reputation and standing to uphold.
She is uncomfortable playing second fiddle and being outshone by another star on the rise.
There is no doubt Manon reminds Fabienne of her former rival, who – incidentally – Lumir was close to.
Although Manon is charming and agreeable, Fabienne hardly affords her the same sentiments in return and tries to find every excuse concerning the worth of the script and her inability to live up to expectations.
Separately, Fabienne plays a joyful cat and mouse game with her granddaughter, who is led to believe she is a witch and can turn humans into animals, if she so chooses.
A case in point is a turtle who bears the name of Fabienne’s former husband, her daughter’s father.
The script is witty and joyful, the performances a standout, led by Deneuve in her best role in years, which she assumes with a twinkle in her eyes.
Deneuve revels in being the centre of attention – a leading actress playing an actress ... just perfect.
Binoche, too, is nuanced as daughter, wife and mother, carrying hurt and anger from her past, but also a spirit of forgiveness.
I loved the frequent visits to the movie set and the film within a film scenes involving three generations of actress.
The question must be asked: what is fact and what is fiction?
The film has a laconic style.
Manon Clavel is particularly evocative as the young actress with a big future – the consummate professional.
Ethan Hawke is given a bit of a thankless role as a fish out of water but handles it skilfully, recognising he is the third wheel.
I also liked Clémentine Grenier as his daughter, more than a little precocious and clearly blessed with the acting gene.
Kore-eda Hirokazu has lovingly crafted a gentle, delicious celebration of family dynamics put to the test.
You could reasonably argue that not a great deal happens, but the beauty comes from the interactions.
Rated PG, The Truth scores a 7½ out of 10.
A SHAUN THE SHEEP MOVIE: FARMAGEDDON NEW
BEST MOVIE OF THE MONTH
website
website
RATE: 10/10
Something strange is happening in the little country town. One very mysterious guest is arriving from outer space from the far away planet located in a different galaxy.
A very naughty young alien, Lu-La's spaceship loses control and lands close by to the farm where Shaun and his herd live. The sheep get very excited as the alien can do the things they have never seen before.
Shaun decides to make friends with Lu-La and help him to find his way home. Less Shaun knows that the security agents are hunting this spaceship for days now. The agents follow the alien and Shaun to find out the secrets of unknown civilization.
This is basically the story.
It was a long-awaited adventure sequel for the famous Shaun. Shaun looks like a center of the most unusual and funniest adventures.
They should succeed in their operation to return Lu-La home and well... you tell me. I highly recommend to see this animation in particular. It was the funniest film I have seen in the last two years. The humor is very intelligent. Add to this the quality of the detailed animation is very high so you will be enjoying it with your kids forgetting your age indeed.
BEST MOVIE OF THE MONTH
website
website
RATE: 10/10
Something strange is happening in the little country town. One very mysterious guest is arriving from outer space from the far away planet located in a different galaxy.
A very naughty young alien, Lu-La's spaceship loses control and lands close by to the farm where Shaun and his herd live. The sheep get very excited as the alien can do the things they have never seen before.
Shaun decides to make friends with Lu-La and help him to find his way home. Less Shaun knows that the security agents are hunting this spaceship for days now. The agents follow the alien and Shaun to find out the secrets of unknown civilization.
This is basically the story.
It was a long-awaited adventure sequel for the famous Shaun. Shaun looks like a center of the most unusual and funniest adventures.
They should succeed in their operation to return Lu-La home and well... you tell me. I highly recommend to see this animation in particular. It was the funniest film I have seen in the last two years. The humor is very intelligent. Add to this the quality of the detailed animation is very high so you will be enjoying it with your kids forgetting your age indeed.
review by Alex First at MAPT
A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon (G) – 87 minutes – by Alex First
Shaun the Sheep (2015) was one of the funniest animations – in fact movies per se – that I have seen, so I was mighty keen to see the sequel.
It has a lot in it to satisfy children, but not so much adults – as the first one did.
Set in the quiet township of Mossingham, Farmageddon has an alien invasion storyline.
In fact, we are talking about one alien (and a child at that) … who ended up on Earth by mistake.
That impish and adorable creature called Lu-La crash-lands near Mossy Bottom Farm, home to Shaun the Sheep.
It is there that he crosses paths with Shaun, who continues to drive long-suffering sheepdog Bitzer crazy with his clever hijinks.
In reality, Lu-La – who has a few tricks up his sleeve, including moving objects through the air – is just keen to be reunited with his mother and father.
But that proves far from straightforward as an alien hunting government agency, spearheaded by the formidable Agent Red and her bunch of hapless, hazmat-suited goons, is hot on his tail.
Mind you, she too has an alien back story that plays out during the course of the picture ... and brings a measure of pathos to the piece.
So does the emotional connection between Shaun the Sheep and Lu-La, and – believe it or not – the farmyard dog.
Not a word is spoken, but there are lots of sounds mimicking speech.
Lu-La has a photographic memory allowing him to mimic others’ utterances – a nice touch.
I also liked the characterisation of the farmer’s attempt to cash in – literally – on the public’s alien appetite, which involves a swish new harvester.
Farmageddon has a few choice one liners and scenes, but is nowhere near as amusing or as clever as the first instalment.
Part of that could be due to the fact that there is a new team – constituting a writer and directors – involved.
Of course, the characters are those created by Nick Park, who was also responsible for the story in Shaun the Sheep.
But the first feature was written and directed by Mark Burton and Richard Starzak, while Farmageddon is helmed by Will Becher and Richard Phelan, with scripting by Jon Brown.
It remains cute though and is a satisfying enough kids’ film (as distinct from a family movie).
Rated G, it scores a 6 out of 10.
Shaun the Sheep (2015) was one of the funniest animations – in fact movies per se – that I have seen, so I was mighty keen to see the sequel.
It has a lot in it to satisfy children, but not so much adults – as the first one did.
Set in the quiet township of Mossingham, Farmageddon has an alien invasion storyline.
In fact, we are talking about one alien (and a child at that) … who ended up on Earth by mistake.
That impish and adorable creature called Lu-La crash-lands near Mossy Bottom Farm, home to Shaun the Sheep.
It is there that he crosses paths with Shaun, who continues to drive long-suffering sheepdog Bitzer crazy with his clever hijinks.
In reality, Lu-La – who has a few tricks up his sleeve, including moving objects through the air – is just keen to be reunited with his mother and father.
But that proves far from straightforward as an alien hunting government agency, spearheaded by the formidable Agent Red and her bunch of hapless, hazmat-suited goons, is hot on his tail.
Mind you, she too has an alien back story that plays out during the course of the picture ... and brings a measure of pathos to the piece.
So does the emotional connection between Shaun the Sheep and Lu-La, and – believe it or not – the farmyard dog.
Not a word is spoken, but there are lots of sounds mimicking speech.
Lu-La has a photographic memory allowing him to mimic others’ utterances – a nice touch.
I also liked the characterisation of the farmer’s attempt to cash in – literally – on the public’s alien appetite, which involves a swish new harvester.
Farmageddon has a few choice one liners and scenes, but is nowhere near as amusing or as clever as the first instalment.
Part of that could be due to the fact that there is a new team – constituting a writer and directors – involved.
Of course, the characters are those created by Nick Park, who was also responsible for the story in Shaun the Sheep.
But the first feature was written and directed by Mark Burton and Richard Starzak, while Farmageddon is helmed by Will Becher and Richard Phelan, with scripting by Jon Brown.
It remains cute though and is a satisfying enough kids’ film (as distinct from a family movie).
Rated G, it scores a 6 out of 10.
CATS
website
review by Sam Bell
In 1939 T. S. Eliot wrote a collection of poetry called Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats. Nearly 50 years later in 1981 Andrew Lloyd Webber managed to tie this whimsical anthology together with a thin and questionable plot combined with some of the best music and costumes Broadway had ever seen. Now 38 years later, that musical is getting a film adaption that tries even harder to force a plot into existence and look as pretty as possible; at the expense of all else. A goal, that if they had succeeded, may have even been enough to save the film. Reality is rarely so kind, however.
While no one can deny that director Tom Hooper was able to obtain some serious talent, pulling in Hollywood heavyweights like Judi Dench, Ian McKellen and Idris Elba, the script that Hooper and Lee Hall wrote for the film gives the actors so little to work with that even they end up looking like bad parodies of themselves. Combined with what was done to the iconic music of the play, shortened run times, absent pieces, invented inserts, and arbitrary cutaways, even the musical giants dragged into this mess, such as Jason Derulo, Taylor Swift, Jennifer Hudson, James Corden, and Rebel Wilson were made a mockery of. My own personal thoughts about Taylor swift aside, I can respect the song written for this production, (Beautiful ghosts) as an exceptional song, but its inclusion doesn’t take away from what was removed.
All these factors together with the (rightfully) controversial aesthetic of the film. Mean that while this film clearly had a budget that could any non-Disney producer nervous. It doesn’t end up with anything that actually looks good. It’s striking certainly, but in the way a defaced print of the Mona Lisa is striking. It draws your attention and makes you look closer in order to work out exactly what the situation is, but it doesn’t make you happy to see it and it certainly doesn’t inspire a second viewing.
To give credit where it is due thou, Cats does possess one saving grace that may yet secure its place in pop culture has something other than a burning train wreck. The dancing. As anyone who has seen In the Heights or Hamilton can tell you, Andy Blankenbuehler is one hell of a choreographer. With classically trained Ballet stars such as Francesca Hayward, Steven McRae, Robert Fairchild and Eric Underwood working alongside new-age dancers such as Les Twins and others. Blankenbuehler makes use of all their unique skills and puts them all on display one after the other. If nothing else, this film stands a wonderful showcase of dance styles and techniques.
Alas, Cats is not a dance theatre performance, it is a live-action adaption. Here we reach the sliding scale of success vs relevancy. As a performance showcase, it is quite good. As a musical film, it is alright. As a theatrical film debuting alongside Star Wars, it is bland and forgettable at best. As an adaption of Andrew Lloyd Webbers Broadway masterpiece, it is an insult and worthy of a public apology to all those unfortunate fans unlucky enough to have bought tickets.
website
review by Sam Bell
In 1939 T. S. Eliot wrote a collection of poetry called Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats. Nearly 50 years later in 1981 Andrew Lloyd Webber managed to tie this whimsical anthology together with a thin and questionable plot combined with some of the best music and costumes Broadway had ever seen. Now 38 years later, that musical is getting a film adaption that tries even harder to force a plot into existence and look as pretty as possible; at the expense of all else. A goal, that if they had succeeded, may have even been enough to save the film. Reality is rarely so kind, however.
While no one can deny that director Tom Hooper was able to obtain some serious talent, pulling in Hollywood heavyweights like Judi Dench, Ian McKellen and Idris Elba, the script that Hooper and Lee Hall wrote for the film gives the actors so little to work with that even they end up looking like bad parodies of themselves. Combined with what was done to the iconic music of the play, shortened run times, absent pieces, invented inserts, and arbitrary cutaways, even the musical giants dragged into this mess, such as Jason Derulo, Taylor Swift, Jennifer Hudson, James Corden, and Rebel Wilson were made a mockery of. My own personal thoughts about Taylor swift aside, I can respect the song written for this production, (Beautiful ghosts) as an exceptional song, but its inclusion doesn’t take away from what was removed.
All these factors together with the (rightfully) controversial aesthetic of the film. Mean that while this film clearly had a budget that could any non-Disney producer nervous. It doesn’t end up with anything that actually looks good. It’s striking certainly, but in the way a defaced print of the Mona Lisa is striking. It draws your attention and makes you look closer in order to work out exactly what the situation is, but it doesn’t make you happy to see it and it certainly doesn’t inspire a second viewing.
To give credit where it is due thou, Cats does possess one saving grace that may yet secure its place in pop culture has something other than a burning train wreck. The dancing. As anyone who has seen In the Heights or Hamilton can tell you, Andy Blankenbuehler is one hell of a choreographer. With classically trained Ballet stars such as Francesca Hayward, Steven McRae, Robert Fairchild and Eric Underwood working alongside new-age dancers such as Les Twins and others. Blankenbuehler makes use of all their unique skills and puts them all on display one after the other. If nothing else, this film stands a wonderful showcase of dance styles and techniques.
Alas, Cats is not a dance theatre performance, it is a live-action adaption. Here we reach the sliding scale of success vs relevancy. As a performance showcase, it is quite good. As a musical film, it is alright. As a theatrical film debuting alongside Star Wars, it is bland and forgettable at best. As an adaption of Andrew Lloyd Webbers Broadway masterpiece, it is an insult and worthy of a public apology to all those unfortunate fans unlucky enough to have bought tickets.
THE GENTLEMEN
website
review by Katherine Kelly
The Gentlemen
Produced and directed by Guy Ritchie of Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels fame, The Gentlemen is a convoluted, fast-moving crime comedy with many layers.
With a star-studded cast including Matthew McConaughey, Hugh Grant, Michelle Dockery Charlie Farrell and Henry Golding, The Gentleman tracks the story of Mickey Pearson, who is keen to divest himself of his “vocation” a multi-million-dollar Marijuana production business. With the possibility of legalisation of the weed in the UK, it might be the time for Mickey to turn his hand to something else. Something to keep his seemingly “expensive” wife (Michelle Dockery) content and on his side.
Word about Mickey’s plans circulates rapidly, enacting a world of plots, elaborate schemes, stealth and blackmail as “competitors” attempt a variety of “coups”.
Katherine Kelly
website
review by Katherine Kelly
The Gentlemen
Produced and directed by Guy Ritchie of Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels fame, The Gentlemen is a convoluted, fast-moving crime comedy with many layers.
With a star-studded cast including Matthew McConaughey, Hugh Grant, Michelle Dockery Charlie Farrell and Henry Golding, The Gentleman tracks the story of Mickey Pearson, who is keen to divest himself of his “vocation” a multi-million-dollar Marijuana production business. With the possibility of legalisation of the weed in the UK, it might be the time for Mickey to turn his hand to something else. Something to keep his seemingly “expensive” wife (Michelle Dockery) content and on his side.
Word about Mickey’s plans circulates rapidly, enacting a world of plots, elaborate schemes, stealth and blackmail as “competitors” attempt a variety of “coups”.
Katherine Kelly
THE IDEAL PALACE
website
review by Katherine Kelly
Ideal Palace – Le Palais Ideal
Hauterives
A film by Nils Taverner
Screenplay:
Laurent Bertoni
Fanny Desmares
Nils Tavernier
Starring:
Jacques Gamblin Le facteur Joseph-Ferdinand Cheval
Laetitia Casta Philomène Cheval
In French with English subtitles.
Set in beautiful scenery around Hauterives in Southern France with pristine waterways and muted landscapes, this film tracks the true story of Joseph Ferdinand Cheval, the village (Jacques Gamblin) postman who spent 33 years (1879-1913) constructing “an ideal palace” for Alice (Zelie Rixhon) his daughter. His interest in nature, temples and palaces in Asia spawned a dream to construct a “palace”. This dream materialised after he stumbled over an unusually shaped rock during one of his ten-hour delivery rounds. With the use of rocks and other materials he collected and limestone, he painstakingly constructed an amazing edifice representing the mythologies and beliefs of many countries which dwelt in his imagination as he never travelled abroad.
The film paints Cheval’s life through poignant scenes with his wife Philomene (Laetitia Casta), daughter Alice and later Cyrille (Louka PetitTaborelli), a son from his previous Marriage to Rosalie (Melanie Baxter-Jones).
Prior to viewing this movie, I had never heard of this tenacious person – who spent “10,000 days, 93,000 hours, 33 years of ordeals” constructing what is now a cultural landmark. It is indeed a tourist attraction which induces me to board the next plane to France.
Katherine Kelly
website
review by Katherine Kelly
Ideal Palace – Le Palais Ideal
Hauterives
A film by Nils Taverner
Screenplay:
Laurent Bertoni
Fanny Desmares
Nils Tavernier
Starring:
Jacques Gamblin Le facteur Joseph-Ferdinand Cheval
Laetitia Casta Philomène Cheval
In French with English subtitles.
Set in beautiful scenery around Hauterives in Southern France with pristine waterways and muted landscapes, this film tracks the true story of Joseph Ferdinand Cheval, the village (Jacques Gamblin) postman who spent 33 years (1879-1913) constructing “an ideal palace” for Alice (Zelie Rixhon) his daughter. His interest in nature, temples and palaces in Asia spawned a dream to construct a “palace”. This dream materialised after he stumbled over an unusually shaped rock during one of his ten-hour delivery rounds. With the use of rocks and other materials he collected and limestone, he painstakingly constructed an amazing edifice representing the mythologies and beliefs of many countries which dwelt in his imagination as he never travelled abroad.
The film paints Cheval’s life through poignant scenes with his wife Philomene (Laetitia Casta), daughter Alice and later Cyrille (Louka PetitTaborelli), a son from his previous Marriage to Rosalie (Melanie Baxter-Jones).
Prior to viewing this movie, I had never heard of this tenacious person – who spent “10,000 days, 93,000 hours, 33 years of ordeals” constructing what is now a cultural landmark. It is indeed a tourist attraction which induces me to board the next plane to France.
Katherine Kelly
BLACK CHRISTMAS
website
review by Jeanette Russell
Black Christmas is a film that's genre is suspense mystery and horror. I was suitably on tenterhooks with bated breath , myself at times. With some scary heart starting moments I felt, this movie does the job as a thriller.
Sophia Takal directed the movie and in tandem with April Wolfe did the screenplay. This one is a remake of Black Christmas made, in 1974. On this occasion, the movie is released by Universal Pictures.
As the story begins Hawthorne College is slowing, for the holiday season. One by one, sorority sisters, are being targeted, and another has been slain. It seems there is a underground cult of men, responsible for the murder, and subsequent threats. Our main heroine, Reilly, played by Imogen Poots, in the picture, discovers these conspirators.
She is a marked women, then herself along with her counterparts, in the story, who are banding together to get to the bottom of what's happening. At the same time, these very brave, strong and thoughtful young women, are keeping each other alive and safe. Aleyse Shannon portrays Kris. The actors do believable and very watchable performance.
Quite the cliff hanger / thriller. Worth the watch, especially for, horror fans, I feel. It has an M rating. Appreciate the opportunity to review it.
website
review by Jeanette Russell
Black Christmas is a film that's genre is suspense mystery and horror. I was suitably on tenterhooks with bated breath , myself at times. With some scary heart starting moments I felt, this movie does the job as a thriller.
Sophia Takal directed the movie and in tandem with April Wolfe did the screenplay. This one is a remake of Black Christmas made, in 1974. On this occasion, the movie is released by Universal Pictures.
As the story begins Hawthorne College is slowing, for the holiday season. One by one, sorority sisters, are being targeted, and another has been slain. It seems there is a underground cult of men, responsible for the murder, and subsequent threats. Our main heroine, Reilly, played by Imogen Poots, in the picture, discovers these conspirators.
She is a marked women, then herself along with her counterparts, in the story, who are banding together to get to the bottom of what's happening. At the same time, these very brave, strong and thoughtful young women, are keeping each other alive and safe. Aleyse Shannon portrays Kris. The actors do believable and very watchable performance.
Quite the cliff hanger / thriller. Worth the watch, especially for, horror fans, I feel. It has an M rating. Appreciate the opportunity to review it.
MARIANNE AND LEONARD
website
review by Vellu Khanna
Marianne & Leonard
A very entertaining documentary of the elusive romance between Leonard Cohen, poet, novelist, singer, and that of Marianne Ihlen, a Norwegian girl whom he had met while vacationing in the island of Hydra in Greece in 1960, tripping on acid and sipping on wine, and discovering each other's inner being.
We see the topsy-turvy ride that the relationship takes through the years, edging from the struggling song-writer who've had to leave Hydra in order to pursue his dreams, arriving thence at New York, right on to the path of Freedom Movements that Marianne undertook in London, and many other tangential events that have a capacity to cause these two lovers to part ways.
The director, Nick Broomfield, is relentless in the telling of the truth of this tale. Estrangement is but one of the facades, but the audience is made aware of the underlying bond between Leonard and Marianne, which came to a close when both were on their deathbeds.
A remarkable study of the Canadian singer, and what he considered to be his 'everlasting muse'.
website
review by Vellu Khanna
Marianne & Leonard
A very entertaining documentary of the elusive romance between Leonard Cohen, poet, novelist, singer, and that of Marianne Ihlen, a Norwegian girl whom he had met while vacationing in the island of Hydra in Greece in 1960, tripping on acid and sipping on wine, and discovering each other's inner being.
We see the topsy-turvy ride that the relationship takes through the years, edging from the struggling song-writer who've had to leave Hydra in order to pursue his dreams, arriving thence at New York, right on to the path of Freedom Movements that Marianne undertook in London, and many other tangential events that have a capacity to cause these two lovers to part ways.
The director, Nick Broomfield, is relentless in the telling of the truth of this tale. Estrangement is but one of the facades, but the audience is made aware of the underlying bond between Leonard and Marianne, which came to a close when both were on their deathbeds.
A remarkable study of the Canadian singer, and what he considered to be his 'everlasting muse'.
FINKE: THERE AND BACK
website
review by Vellu Khanna
Finke: There And Back
A rush of adrenaline. A pump of the accelerator. And the track - five hundred kilometres in the desert off the outskirts of Finke, near Alice Springs.
This is a documentary-stylised movie on the annual motorcycle racing in northern Australia, where six hundred riders from around the country compete in a two-day race in the most harshest of conditions, where dust and all manner of physical devilry lie in wait.
Narrated by the renowned Eric Bana, the movie exposes us to the riders who are both favourites and who are underdogs, as well as those who are back to finish a race that they started ten years ago. The undercurrent emotion that arises is that of pure awe to the commitment of the riders in this behemoth of a race.
A well-directed movie that every Australian should watch, paying tribute in itself to a daredevil sport that only a few dare to partake.
website
review by Vellu Khanna
Finke: There And Back
A rush of adrenaline. A pump of the accelerator. And the track - five hundred kilometres in the desert off the outskirts of Finke, near Alice Springs.
This is a documentary-stylised movie on the annual motorcycle racing in northern Australia, where six hundred riders from around the country compete in a two-day race in the most harshest of conditions, where dust and all manner of physical devilry lie in wait.
Narrated by the renowned Eric Bana, the movie exposes us to the riders who are both favourites and who are underdogs, as well as those who are back to finish a race that they started ten years ago. The undercurrent emotion that arises is that of pure awe to the commitment of the riders in this behemoth of a race.
A well-directed movie that every Australian should watch, paying tribute in itself to a daredevil sport that only a few dare to partake.
KNIVES OUT
website
review by Max Lyons
Director: Rian Johnson.
Starring:
Daniel Craig,
Ana de Armas,
Jamie Lee Curtis,
Christopher Plummer,
Michael Shannon,
Toni Collette,
Jaeden Martell,
Lakeith Stanfield,
Don Johnson,
Katherine Langford,
Riki Lindhome.
Genre:
Comedy,
Crime,
Drama,
Mystery,
Thriller.
Rating: M.
Running time: 130 Minutes.
Film Review:
By Maxwell M. Lyons
Knives Out takes the stereotypical Agatha Christie who-done-it murder mystery and flip it on its head. Following the presumed suicide of bestselling mystery novelist Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer) the night of his 85th birthday party, further investigation into the circumstances appears to reveal a far more telling narrative of events, with every single familial relative of the late author a potential suspect, in addition to his nurse Marta (Ana de Armas), one of few relatable characters among the dysfunctional bunch.
Leading the investigation is the cryptic yet ever-so charismatic private investigator Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig), the self-decreed “last of the gentleman sleuths” who speaks with a near-flawless Southern drawl; an impressive feat for the acutely British Craig. Accompanying him is an all-star cast making up the late Harlan’s extended family, including his children (Jamie Lee Curtis & Michael Shannon), relatives (Don Johnson & Toni Collette), and grandchildren (Chris Evans, Katherine Langford, & Jaeden Martell). Then there’s Marta, the only suspect seemingly unwilling to indulge in subterfuge for the sake of retaining personal clout, no benignity spared — there is a rather large inheritance at stake after all. Consequently, Blanc forms an immediate connection with Marta, though it remains unclear whether this stems from trust, intrigue, or suspicion, only complicated further by her constant disquiet nature, adding to the accusatory ambiguity of her character. She also possesses a rather unique peculiarity, unable to lie without immediate visceral reaction (she throws up); at first, a seemingly all-too-convenient act, though thankfully one not overused to the extent it be classified a MacGuffin, placed strategically throughout the story such as to add an extra layer of uncertainty to the suspiciously overt narrative.
As the investigation proceeds, each recollection of the fatal night’s prior events presents with an accompanying flashback, allowing for a fresh albeit subjective perspective morsel that progressively reveals the larger mystery. What separates Knives Out from its derived genre, however, is its method of delivery, seemingly showing its hand before a greater charade can be established. As a viewer you know there has to be more to the mystery than it present, yet the narrative presents so brazenly as to create dissonance from one’s own self-doubt.
In the end, Knives Out was an absolute pleasure to enjoy. Though narratively unorthodox, the film will have you on the edge of your seat enthralled by the mystery it allures. The acting, cinematography, and sound design are all immaculate in their own right, all with a touch of subtle social commentary to add to its relish. Knives Out is a thrilling ride from start to finish and one that never dulls even once the culprit emerges. Highly Recommended!
will be released in cinemas Australia-wide on November 28, 2019.
website
review by Max Lyons
Director: Rian Johnson.
Starring:
Daniel Craig,
Ana de Armas,
Jamie Lee Curtis,
Christopher Plummer,
Michael Shannon,
Toni Collette,
Jaeden Martell,
Lakeith Stanfield,
Don Johnson,
Katherine Langford,
Riki Lindhome.
Genre:
Comedy,
Crime,
Drama,
Mystery,
Thriller.
Rating: M.
Running time: 130 Minutes.
Film Review:
By Maxwell M. Lyons
Knives Out takes the stereotypical Agatha Christie who-done-it murder mystery and flip it on its head. Following the presumed suicide of bestselling mystery novelist Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer) the night of his 85th birthday party, further investigation into the circumstances appears to reveal a far more telling narrative of events, with every single familial relative of the late author a potential suspect, in addition to his nurse Marta (Ana de Armas), one of few relatable characters among the dysfunctional bunch.
Leading the investigation is the cryptic yet ever-so charismatic private investigator Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig), the self-decreed “last of the gentleman sleuths” who speaks with a near-flawless Southern drawl; an impressive feat for the acutely British Craig. Accompanying him is an all-star cast making up the late Harlan’s extended family, including his children (Jamie Lee Curtis & Michael Shannon), relatives (Don Johnson & Toni Collette), and grandchildren (Chris Evans, Katherine Langford, & Jaeden Martell). Then there’s Marta, the only suspect seemingly unwilling to indulge in subterfuge for the sake of retaining personal clout, no benignity spared — there is a rather large inheritance at stake after all. Consequently, Blanc forms an immediate connection with Marta, though it remains unclear whether this stems from trust, intrigue, or suspicion, only complicated further by her constant disquiet nature, adding to the accusatory ambiguity of her character. She also possesses a rather unique peculiarity, unable to lie without immediate visceral reaction (she throws up); at first, a seemingly all-too-convenient act, though thankfully one not overused to the extent it be classified a MacGuffin, placed strategically throughout the story such as to add an extra layer of uncertainty to the suspiciously overt narrative.
As the investigation proceeds, each recollection of the fatal night’s prior events presents with an accompanying flashback, allowing for a fresh albeit subjective perspective morsel that progressively reveals the larger mystery. What separates Knives Out from its derived genre, however, is its method of delivery, seemingly showing its hand before a greater charade can be established. As a viewer you know there has to be more to the mystery than it present, yet the narrative presents so brazenly as to create dissonance from one’s own self-doubt.
In the end, Knives Out was an absolute pleasure to enjoy. Though narratively unorthodox, the film will have you on the edge of your seat enthralled by the mystery it allures. The acting, cinematography, and sound design are all immaculate in their own right, all with a touch of subtle social commentary to add to its relish. Knives Out is a thrilling ride from start to finish and one that never dulls even once the culprit emerges. Highly Recommended!
will be released in cinemas Australia-wide on November 28, 2019.
1917
website
review by Vellu Khanna
1917
Just when you'd think that the retelling of a tale of the First World War would most likely arouse subdued feelings of death and despair in an era long forgotten, Universal Pictures have brought us a picturesque adventure of the ordeal that stems around a single word - electric!
The 2-hour film acclimatises the viewer to a narrative that is truly engaging right from the title scene, where two subalterns of the British Army are prescribed to a clandestine mission, treading some distance away right onto the German frontier. Not unexpectedly, they discover a world of challenges and obscurities along the way, to which a dampened heart sings a melancholic note. And to top it all off, the entire movie was made to emulate a single, lengthy shot!
Sam Mendes (the director of the movie) spared no expense in the culminating of the historical accuracies of WW1 - battle engagements, materials and uniform that had been issued to both British and German belligerents, and even the layout of the terrain that the protagonists traversed to reach their target. Sam Mendes sheds light as to why the British Prime Minister David Lloyd George deemed it to be 'the war to end all wars'.
This is a movie that is undoubtedly to surge well and through the Christmas season, right onto welcoming the New Year. Do take your family in for this wonderful cinematic treat, and brace yourself for, alas, electric!
website
review by Vellu Khanna
1917
Just when you'd think that the retelling of a tale of the First World War would most likely arouse subdued feelings of death and despair in an era long forgotten, Universal Pictures have brought us a picturesque adventure of the ordeal that stems around a single word - electric!
The 2-hour film acclimatises the viewer to a narrative that is truly engaging right from the title scene, where two subalterns of the British Army are prescribed to a clandestine mission, treading some distance away right onto the German frontier. Not unexpectedly, they discover a world of challenges and obscurities along the way, to which a dampened heart sings a melancholic note. And to top it all off, the entire movie was made to emulate a single, lengthy shot!
Sam Mendes (the director of the movie) spared no expense in the culminating of the historical accuracies of WW1 - battle engagements, materials and uniform that had been issued to both British and German belligerents, and even the layout of the terrain that the protagonists traversed to reach their target. Sam Mendes sheds light as to why the British Prime Minister David Lloyd George deemed it to be 'the war to end all wars'.
This is a movie that is undoubtedly to surge well and through the Christmas season, right onto welcoming the New Year. Do take your family in for this wonderful cinematic treat, and brace yourself for, alas, electric!
JUDY AND PUNCH
website
RATE: 10/10
Judy and Punch is a historical drama about husband and wife, two professional puppeteers, who ran very successful shows in the past and stop at the village next to the sea where they decide to rejuvenate the program and cheer up the villagers.
We say in Russia if the husbands beats his wife it means he loves her. Who said it? Was that person who wrote that line ever beaten? Doe she know that it is actually very painful not only mentally and emotionally but physically.
But it is not just about the domestic violence in the family. It is far beyond it. It is about the violence in general in any art form and what it can project on us, the people who observe the art. The violence on the stage of puppet theater is highly supported by Judy's husband, Punch.
As I mentioned before the action takes place in the village next to the sea where the villagers love going to the theater and watch Punch (Damon Herriman) enjoying his super-ego on stage while Judy (Mia Wasikowska), a taleted puppeteers supports him in all his deeds. The union seems to work, well almost work: they have a child and well... almost as Punch apart from his show-off and narcissistic character who speaks with his reflection in the mirror has another "beautiful" habit: drinking. With drinking there are lots f other issues coming alone as it would be perfect if one habit would come with no consequences than we would all drink and smoke to the end of days. When Punch is drunk he gets more violent and more irresponsible, he looses his head over women of "light" and frivolous behavior and he tends to forget where he left his child. With bad habits come bad problems.
In his show Punch uses a stick to punch everyone he meets: a girl on the street, a man who is just on his way and even a devil itself. It turns out that he is no better at home with his wife. Yelling start to turn into using hands.. Hands using turns into using objects. One day the unspoken happens and he beats her to [almost] death. Judy wakes up in the company of strange people , mainly women who live in the forest. Judy gets cured slowly and the more she feels well the more her feelings grow of abhorrence towards Punch. .Judy's revenge is unavoidable... More to her own pain she remembers that her husband "accidentally" kills her child.
While Judy learns how to master her own feasts, Punch himself goes through quite a binge journey and even gets himself a new "wife". Life is no better with the new wife though: the violence continues in the family.
The little village lives at the same time its full of lawless and anarchic believes life, where common and sometimes very stupid laws of one villager decide the faith of many "heretics" and "witches" around. The law that is not governed properly and objectively means no laws. There is no established power; here, each resident individually represents power and the one with more physical power and less brain usually wins. In addition to the absolutely gorgeous historical surroundings, the film shows an imaginary city that is drown in the river of fear, superstitions, callousness and rudeness of the rules of the crowd. It is an allegorical historical tale with lots of black humor that is mixed up with the story with unpredictable turns and twists. Here, in the village everyone obeys the laws of the crowd. At first, puppeteers cannot put up with what is happening around. However, the longer they stayed in this place, the more Judy was seized by the power of anarchy.
Judy;s life, saved by Dr. Goodtime (Gillian Jones) turns into the most interesting discovery of Self. After her cure Judy forgets the past and builds her future instead of winging on what is gone forever. She learns quickly and her teaches are the best in feminist movement and protection women from violent men.
In the director's chair was the Australian actress Mirra Folk whose debut in full glory.was a total success IMHO.
Damon Herriman and Mia Wasikowska are superb to say the least so are the other cast members. Mia Wasikovska is amazing everywhere she goes )my personal view as I adore this actress) and I love love love her: she rides Valiant (Kryal Castle owner Phillip Leitch ) magnificently well as if she knew the gorgeous stallion for ages. The main actors together looked great, they created not only the show for the villagers but for us as well. There will be lots of hidden messages in the film when you watch it: please watch very attentively as you will see them only if full attention is paid. The director is super talented to hide so much in one film! And... my favorite character was of course the puppy Tobby who was stealing sausages from Punch (and well, paid with his life for that!!).
I loved the film and the messages it carries!.
The film was first shown in the Sundance competition at the beginning of the year, after which it traveled through several more festival before reaching the main screens.
The case takes place in the 19th century, but it seems that the feminist agenda is never complete. Another man - another Punch.How many of them should we see in life? How to stop the violence and abuse of women physically, mentally and emotionally?
It was an extravagant and absurd spectacle in it s full magnificence shown to us. I recommend to watch it 100$. I would give the film 8/10 but added one point for Mia, Tobby and Valiant.
website
RATE: 10/10
Judy and Punch is a historical drama about husband and wife, two professional puppeteers, who ran very successful shows in the past and stop at the village next to the sea where they decide to rejuvenate the program and cheer up the villagers.
We say in Russia if the husbands beats his wife it means he loves her. Who said it? Was that person who wrote that line ever beaten? Doe she know that it is actually very painful not only mentally and emotionally but physically.
But it is not just about the domestic violence in the family. It is far beyond it. It is about the violence in general in any art form and what it can project on us, the people who observe the art. The violence on the stage of puppet theater is highly supported by Judy's husband, Punch.
As I mentioned before the action takes place in the village next to the sea where the villagers love going to the theater and watch Punch (Damon Herriman) enjoying his super-ego on stage while Judy (Mia Wasikowska), a taleted puppeteers supports him in all his deeds. The union seems to work, well almost work: they have a child and well... almost as Punch apart from his show-off and narcissistic character who speaks with his reflection in the mirror has another "beautiful" habit: drinking. With drinking there are lots f other issues coming alone as it would be perfect if one habit would come with no consequences than we would all drink and smoke to the end of days. When Punch is drunk he gets more violent and more irresponsible, he looses his head over women of "light" and frivolous behavior and he tends to forget where he left his child. With bad habits come bad problems.
In his show Punch uses a stick to punch everyone he meets: a girl on the street, a man who is just on his way and even a devil itself. It turns out that he is no better at home with his wife. Yelling start to turn into using hands.. Hands using turns into using objects. One day the unspoken happens and he beats her to [almost] death. Judy wakes up in the company of strange people , mainly women who live in the forest. Judy gets cured slowly and the more she feels well the more her feelings grow of abhorrence towards Punch. .Judy's revenge is unavoidable... More to her own pain she remembers that her husband "accidentally" kills her child.
While Judy learns how to master her own feasts, Punch himself goes through quite a binge journey and even gets himself a new "wife". Life is no better with the new wife though: the violence continues in the family.
The little village lives at the same time its full of lawless and anarchic believes life, where common and sometimes very stupid laws of one villager decide the faith of many "heretics" and "witches" around. The law that is not governed properly and objectively means no laws. There is no established power; here, each resident individually represents power and the one with more physical power and less brain usually wins. In addition to the absolutely gorgeous historical surroundings, the film shows an imaginary city that is drown in the river of fear, superstitions, callousness and rudeness of the rules of the crowd. It is an allegorical historical tale with lots of black humor that is mixed up with the story with unpredictable turns and twists. Here, in the village everyone obeys the laws of the crowd. At first, puppeteers cannot put up with what is happening around. However, the longer they stayed in this place, the more Judy was seized by the power of anarchy.
Judy;s life, saved by Dr. Goodtime (Gillian Jones) turns into the most interesting discovery of Self. After her cure Judy forgets the past and builds her future instead of winging on what is gone forever. She learns quickly and her teaches are the best in feminist movement and protection women from violent men.
In the director's chair was the Australian actress Mirra Folk whose debut in full glory.was a total success IMHO.
Damon Herriman and Mia Wasikowska are superb to say the least so are the other cast members. Mia Wasikovska is amazing everywhere she goes )my personal view as I adore this actress) and I love love love her: she rides Valiant (Kryal Castle owner Phillip Leitch ) magnificently well as if she knew the gorgeous stallion for ages. The main actors together looked great, they created not only the show for the villagers but for us as well. There will be lots of hidden messages in the film when you watch it: please watch very attentively as you will see them only if full attention is paid. The director is super talented to hide so much in one film! And... my favorite character was of course the puppy Tobby who was stealing sausages from Punch (and well, paid with his life for that!!).
I loved the film and the messages it carries!.
The film was first shown in the Sundance competition at the beginning of the year, after which it traveled through several more festival before reaching the main screens.
The case takes place in the 19th century, but it seems that the feminist agenda is never complete. Another man - another Punch.How many of them should we see in life? How to stop the violence and abuse of women physically, mentally and emotionally?
It was an extravagant and absurd spectacle in it s full magnificence shown to us. I recommend to watch it 100$. I would give the film 8/10 but added one point for Mia, Tobby and Valiant.
review by Alex First at MAPT
Judy & Punch (MA) – 106 minutes – by Alex First
It is the mid 17th century in a tiny town called Seaside (nowhere near the sea).
Worn out and ruined by poverty and neglect, the lives of the townsfolk have spiralled into violence, mob rule and God-fearing hysteria, which includes witch stonings.
Among the chaos, a glimmer of artistry remains in the form of Punch and Judy’s marionette puppet theatre.
The charismatic Punch (Damon Herriman) and his talented puppeteering wife Judy (Mia Wasikowska) try to use their show to reach greater heights.
That is a sentiment pushed by Punch and accepted by Judy, who also looks after their baby.
She is clearly the superior puppeteer and has the skill and dexterity of a great artist, but it is Punch who owns the limelight.
A narcissist with a dangerous penchant for the bottle, his ambition and egomania are the antithesis of her gentle, practical nature.
What starts out with promise ends in tragedy and then there’s the issue of retribution.
Judy & Punch is a liquorice all sorts picture that fails to excite.
By that I am saying it is various parts a comedy, a drama, a pantomime and a fantasy and is not satisfying in any of its guises.
It consistently fails to strike the right tone.
It is badly written and directed by Mirrah Foulkes.
The score exacerbated the problems.
The whole thing looks awfully stage managed – from the sets to the costumes – and I simply didn’t buy into it.
The best things about it were twofold.
The careful manipulation of puppets by husband and wife at the very beginning whet my appetite nicely. That was clever.
Then, the black and white footage of kids in bygone days enjoying a real Punch and Judy show – during the final credits – was priceless. I refer there to the expressions on the littlies’ faces.
In between we are fed dross.
Mind you, Mia Wasikowska is strong in the lead and Damon Herriman has his moments.
The basic premise is sound, but its execution is clunky, heavy handed and totally unbelievable.
I didn’t appreciate the lightweight treatment of the subject matter either.
In fact, I just wanted to fast forward through to the end and exit the cinema.
I was frustrated and bored by large tracts of it.
The sad part is that I am sure there is a decent film to be made from the basic source material. It is just that this isn’t it.
Rated MA, Judy & Punch scores a 5 out of 10.
It is the mid 17th century in a tiny town called Seaside (nowhere near the sea).
Worn out and ruined by poverty and neglect, the lives of the townsfolk have spiralled into violence, mob rule and God-fearing hysteria, which includes witch stonings.
Among the chaos, a glimmer of artistry remains in the form of Punch and Judy’s marionette puppet theatre.
The charismatic Punch (Damon Herriman) and his talented puppeteering wife Judy (Mia Wasikowska) try to use their show to reach greater heights.
That is a sentiment pushed by Punch and accepted by Judy, who also looks after their baby.
She is clearly the superior puppeteer and has the skill and dexterity of a great artist, but it is Punch who owns the limelight.
A narcissist with a dangerous penchant for the bottle, his ambition and egomania are the antithesis of her gentle, practical nature.
What starts out with promise ends in tragedy and then there’s the issue of retribution.
Judy & Punch is a liquorice all sorts picture that fails to excite.
By that I am saying it is various parts a comedy, a drama, a pantomime and a fantasy and is not satisfying in any of its guises.
It consistently fails to strike the right tone.
It is badly written and directed by Mirrah Foulkes.
The score exacerbated the problems.
The whole thing looks awfully stage managed – from the sets to the costumes – and I simply didn’t buy into it.
The best things about it were twofold.
The careful manipulation of puppets by husband and wife at the very beginning whet my appetite nicely. That was clever.
Then, the black and white footage of kids in bygone days enjoying a real Punch and Judy show – during the final credits – was priceless. I refer there to the expressions on the littlies’ faces.
In between we are fed dross.
Mind you, Mia Wasikowska is strong in the lead and Damon Herriman has his moments.
The basic premise is sound, but its execution is clunky, heavy handed and totally unbelievable.
I didn’t appreciate the lightweight treatment of the subject matter either.
In fact, I just wanted to fast forward through to the end and exit the cinema.
I was frustrated and bored by large tracts of it.
The sad part is that I am sure there is a decent film to be made from the basic source material. It is just that this isn’t it.
Rated MA, Judy & Punch scores a 5 out of 10.
NTL: HANSARD
website
review by Katherine Kelly
Hansard – written by Simon Woods
Starring Alex Jennings and Lindsay Duncan
Directed by Simon Godwin
Distributed by Sharmill films www.sharmillfilms.com.au
Produced from National Theatre Live – nt.live.com
Broadcast live from National Theatre London
Now showing a Cinema Nova
380 Lygon Street Carlton
Set in May 1988, Hansard is a live broadcast of a play performed at the National Theatre London. Thatcher’s Conservative party is in power and currently debating Section 28 of the Local Government Act (LGA), aimed at restricting Local government bodies from promoting homosexuality. A short documentary film prior to the screening of the play provided footage of that period with protests staged by the LGTBI people of the day.
“My God she is still alive” exclaims Robin Hesketh (Alex Jennings) on greeting his wife Diana (Lindsay Duncan) on his weekly return to their Cotswold home. We learn that Robin is a Junior Minister in the Thatcher Government and Diana is severely hungover and complaining that a fox has been destroying their former pristine garden. Amidst a homely domestic setting, the couple commence some light sparring. With politically disparate views they disagree on the issues of the time: Section 28 of the LGA, de-conservation of the green belt to facilitate a dual carriageway, privileged lives of Thatcher’s cabinet ministers, the Falklands, and coal miners.
The sparring descends into an extremely dark place where the couple are forced to face and combat their demons.
The performances of Alex Jennings and Lindsay Duncan are superb in depicting this challenging period in British political history.
I thoroughly recommend this film.
Katherine Kelly
website
review by Katherine Kelly
Hansard – written by Simon Woods
Starring Alex Jennings and Lindsay Duncan
Directed by Simon Godwin
Distributed by Sharmill films www.sharmillfilms.com.au
Produced from National Theatre Live – nt.live.com
Broadcast live from National Theatre London
Now showing a Cinema Nova
380 Lygon Street Carlton
Set in May 1988, Hansard is a live broadcast of a play performed at the National Theatre London. Thatcher’s Conservative party is in power and currently debating Section 28 of the Local Government Act (LGA), aimed at restricting Local government bodies from promoting homosexuality. A short documentary film prior to the screening of the play provided footage of that period with protests staged by the LGTBI people of the day.
“My God she is still alive” exclaims Robin Hesketh (Alex Jennings) on greeting his wife Diana (Lindsay Duncan) on his weekly return to their Cotswold home. We learn that Robin is a Junior Minister in the Thatcher Government and Diana is severely hungover and complaining that a fox has been destroying their former pristine garden. Amidst a homely domestic setting, the couple commence some light sparring. With politically disparate views they disagree on the issues of the time: Section 28 of the LGA, de-conservation of the green belt to facilitate a dual carriageway, privileged lives of Thatcher’s cabinet ministers, the Falklands, and coal miners.
The sparring descends into an extremely dark place where the couple are forced to face and combat their demons.
The performances of Alex Jennings and Lindsay Duncan are superb in depicting this challenging period in British political history.
I thoroughly recommend this film.
Katherine Kelly
SORRY, WE MISSED YOU
FILM TO PAY ATTENTION TO
website
RATE: 8/10
Ken Loach’s new film does not seem to promise anything new: filmed in the usual, semi-television style (for this director) with abundance of medium plans, the delivery form is simple, even trivial as much as possible, but it is absorbed by the viewer very easily and without those "Hollywood cliches". The got a powerful impact, almost like a boxer's knockout from this film.
Despite the burden and the array of disasters of the life of one ordinary people shown on the screen, the audience giggled, laughed and sneered. I tried to calm down and cover my disturbance after this film, convincing myself that this is not the "usual" situation the couple went through but I could not. It was way too realistic to be even taken not as a documentary... It was close to a documentary. Bery much close.
Sorry, We Missed You hits the target without exchanging trifles and sentimentality. It is one honest panorama of the social security of one common proletarian family, its ordeals in the circles of bourgeois hell, an open clash with a ruthless boss, the logic of social Darwinism, the willingness to work even harder - all of this was submitted by the creators of the picture without revolutionary rhetorics and a call for barricades and fights, but the very development of the film suggests that such an existence degrades human dignity.
Loach and Laverty show how the laws of the market and competition, which liberals like to pray to, destroy the family and how family and social problems in the film intertwine creating a Gordian knot that cannot be untied by any reforms. Like Dreiser’s novels, Loach and Laverty’s films are inexorable in their logic, in their every detail that works for the design: even a short walk down the street to school demonstrates that these streets in poor areas of London are not cleaned and clogged with garbage. The myth of "Western social well-being" is destroyed and shattered. Well, gentlemen-liberals, have we not read Balzac and Zola, Dreiser and Jack London? Didn't we watch Rosie and Costa Gavras? Do not take us for fools please!
Sorry, We Missed You is a simple story of a parcel delivery man, gradually getting bogged down in troubles, his wife who works in the social services and cares for the disabled and the elderly and their two children who can hardly bear the failures of their parents. Gradually, the problems of this poor family are growing like a snowball bringing a climax behind a climax, exacerbating the nervous situation inside the house where the family lives and checking the strength of family ties. Loach, with his more than half a century working in film and television, impeccably chooses characters from a simple hard worker to a ruthless businessman. His actors are the performers with unimpressed faces (often not-professionals) who work better than famous stars.
The only way out of the social impasse is when the forces are clearly unequal for the enemy has everything, and the workers have nothing (for Loach and Laverti) is solidarity: inside the family and overall: universal. There should be mutual assistance. The revolution is not coming soon, and whether it will even happen and lead to anything worthwhile other than the redistribution of power and property, this is no longer a question. Therefore, while it is not there, we must somehow get over it, survive and endure. Despite the gloomy ending, the characters of the film do it and find their way to live.
Loach, who is already 83 witnessed the social regression he tells us about. Therefore, he knows what he is talking about when he shows how people work in the 21st century, 14 hours a day. That means all the achievements of the proletariat of many centuries was cancelled by the work of f"cking "globalisation" and "new Barbarism". We all went though his too - we all worked for 16-20 hours a day. No payments, no extras, no bonuses, just work. What kind of security, what kind of legal state, what kind of civil society is there, in the West? Where are those sacred cows of liberalism we can talk about? It is all a political myth, the ideological bluff of bourgeois ideologues and capitalism, and Loach and Laverty understand this well.
It is one of Loach’s best film: , there is no call for an ax, h is not a Marxist fanatic, but he is a sober director who can see reality as it is and empathize with ordinary people. Where else if not in Loach’s films do you hear cockney characters speaking proletarian slang? Therefore, his films are not just true, they are authentic with no mockery about human suffering. If you did not live there you would not know...
FILM TO PAY ATTENTION TO
website
RATE: 8/10
Ken Loach’s new film does not seem to promise anything new: filmed in the usual, semi-television style (for this director) with abundance of medium plans, the delivery form is simple, even trivial as much as possible, but it is absorbed by the viewer very easily and without those "Hollywood cliches". The got a powerful impact, almost like a boxer's knockout from this film.
Despite the burden and the array of disasters of the life of one ordinary people shown on the screen, the audience giggled, laughed and sneered. I tried to calm down and cover my disturbance after this film, convincing myself that this is not the "usual" situation the couple went through but I could not. It was way too realistic to be even taken not as a documentary... It was close to a documentary. Bery much close.
Sorry, We Missed You hits the target without exchanging trifles and sentimentality. It is one honest panorama of the social security of one common proletarian family, its ordeals in the circles of bourgeois hell, an open clash with a ruthless boss, the logic of social Darwinism, the willingness to work even harder - all of this was submitted by the creators of the picture without revolutionary rhetorics and a call for barricades and fights, but the very development of the film suggests that such an existence degrades human dignity.
Loach and Laverty show how the laws of the market and competition, which liberals like to pray to, destroy the family and how family and social problems in the film intertwine creating a Gordian knot that cannot be untied by any reforms. Like Dreiser’s novels, Loach and Laverty’s films are inexorable in their logic, in their every detail that works for the design: even a short walk down the street to school demonstrates that these streets in poor areas of London are not cleaned and clogged with garbage. The myth of "Western social well-being" is destroyed and shattered. Well, gentlemen-liberals, have we not read Balzac and Zola, Dreiser and Jack London? Didn't we watch Rosie and Costa Gavras? Do not take us for fools please!
Sorry, We Missed You is a simple story of a parcel delivery man, gradually getting bogged down in troubles, his wife who works in the social services and cares for the disabled and the elderly and their two children who can hardly bear the failures of their parents. Gradually, the problems of this poor family are growing like a snowball bringing a climax behind a climax, exacerbating the nervous situation inside the house where the family lives and checking the strength of family ties. Loach, with his more than half a century working in film and television, impeccably chooses characters from a simple hard worker to a ruthless businessman. His actors are the performers with unimpressed faces (often not-professionals) who work better than famous stars.
The only way out of the social impasse is when the forces are clearly unequal for the enemy has everything, and the workers have nothing (for Loach and Laverti) is solidarity: inside the family and overall: universal. There should be mutual assistance. The revolution is not coming soon, and whether it will even happen and lead to anything worthwhile other than the redistribution of power and property, this is no longer a question. Therefore, while it is not there, we must somehow get over it, survive and endure. Despite the gloomy ending, the characters of the film do it and find their way to live.
Loach, who is already 83 witnessed the social regression he tells us about. Therefore, he knows what he is talking about when he shows how people work in the 21st century, 14 hours a day. That means all the achievements of the proletariat of many centuries was cancelled by the work of f"cking "globalisation" and "new Barbarism". We all went though his too - we all worked for 16-20 hours a day. No payments, no extras, no bonuses, just work. What kind of security, what kind of legal state, what kind of civil society is there, in the West? Where are those sacred cows of liberalism we can talk about? It is all a political myth, the ideological bluff of bourgeois ideologues and capitalism, and Loach and Laverty understand this well.
It is one of Loach’s best film: , there is no call for an ax, h is not a Marxist fanatic, but he is a sober director who can see reality as it is and empathize with ordinary people. Where else if not in Loach’s films do you hear cockney characters speaking proletarian slang? Therefore, his films are not just true, they are authentic with no mockery about human suffering. If you did not live there you would not know...
review by Alex First at MAPT
Sorry We Missed You (MA) – 101 minutes – by Alex First
Gritty realism at its ugly best. That’s Ken Loach’s latest working class, slice of life film.
As painful as it is to watch the struggles of the family at the centre of it, it is another beauty.
It is a story about decent folk who get a bad deal in life, which keeps on delivering.
You can’t but help feel for what they are going through.
While there is a strong bond between them, they are struggling.
Father Ricky Turner (Kris Hitchen) has held a number of jobs but is looking forward to working for himself as a parcel delivery driver, contracting to a large company.
But first he has to find the not inconsiderable sum to buy a van.
That entails selling the car his wife Abby (Debbie Honeywood) uses for her job caring for a series of elderly and infirm patients.
Caring and compassionate, henceforth she will do so by catching the bus.
He is immediately beholden to the firm, working 14-hour days, with constant deadlines to meet.
Any days he wants off he needs to find a replacement driver, otherwise he will be fined.
His boss is a particularly hard arsed individual who isn’t willing to accept any personal excuses.
He is proud of the fact that his depot is the standout in the business’ operations.
The couple has two children – Seb (Rhys Stone), a 16-year-old who is acting up, skipping school and going tagging with his mates instead – and Lisa Jane (Katie Proctor), a sensitive, whip smart 11-year-old.
Suddenly, despite the tireless efforts of both husband and wife they and the family unit are under more pressure than ever.
Their lives are imploding before our very eyes and we are powerless to do anything to help.
I say that because we build an affinity for the players and their plight.
That’s in large part due to Loach’s direction, but first and foremost the penmanship of his usual collaborator, screenwriter Paul Laverty.
That is to take nothing away from the intrinsic value in the performances.
Hitchen makes a good fist of it as the stoic but struggling father, while there is a fortitude and decency in Honeywood’s role as mother.
Proctor shines as the daughter who feels everything and longs for harmony.
Stone is – for the most part – aloof and brooding as the wayward son.
One of the strongest showings comes from Ross Brewster as the unsympathetic boss Gavin Maloney.
I describe Sorry We Missed You as a “perspective” film insofar as it makes you thankful for what you have and for not having been dealt a similarly stacked deck.
Rated M, it scores an 8 out of 10.
Gritty realism at its ugly best. That’s Ken Loach’s latest working class, slice of life film.
As painful as it is to watch the struggles of the family at the centre of it, it is another beauty.
It is a story about decent folk who get a bad deal in life, which keeps on delivering.
You can’t but help feel for what they are going through.
While there is a strong bond between them, they are struggling.
Father Ricky Turner (Kris Hitchen) has held a number of jobs but is looking forward to working for himself as a parcel delivery driver, contracting to a large company.
But first he has to find the not inconsiderable sum to buy a van.
That entails selling the car his wife Abby (Debbie Honeywood) uses for her job caring for a series of elderly and infirm patients.
Caring and compassionate, henceforth she will do so by catching the bus.
He is immediately beholden to the firm, working 14-hour days, with constant deadlines to meet.
Any days he wants off he needs to find a replacement driver, otherwise he will be fined.
His boss is a particularly hard arsed individual who isn’t willing to accept any personal excuses.
He is proud of the fact that his depot is the standout in the business’ operations.
The couple has two children – Seb (Rhys Stone), a 16-year-old who is acting up, skipping school and going tagging with his mates instead – and Lisa Jane (Katie Proctor), a sensitive, whip smart 11-year-old.
Suddenly, despite the tireless efforts of both husband and wife they and the family unit are under more pressure than ever.
Their lives are imploding before our very eyes and we are powerless to do anything to help.
I say that because we build an affinity for the players and their plight.
That’s in large part due to Loach’s direction, but first and foremost the penmanship of his usual collaborator, screenwriter Paul Laverty.
That is to take nothing away from the intrinsic value in the performances.
Hitchen makes a good fist of it as the stoic but struggling father, while there is a fortitude and decency in Honeywood’s role as mother.
Proctor shines as the daughter who feels everything and longs for harmony.
Stone is – for the most part – aloof and brooding as the wayward son.
One of the strongest showings comes from Ross Brewster as the unsympathetic boss Gavin Maloney.
I describe Sorry We Missed You as a “perspective” film insofar as it makes you thankful for what you have and for not having been dealt a similarly stacked deck.
Rated M, it scores an 8 out of 10.
THE BIGGEST LITTLE FARM
FILM TO PAY ATTENTION TO
website
RATE: 10/10
When the barking of their beloved dog Todd leads to eviction from a tiny apartment in Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, John and Molly Chester make a choice: they dare to leave the city for 200 acres on the foothills of Ventura County, naively trying to build one of the most unique farms of its kind in complete coexistence with by nature based on the investments from their friends and friends of friends who also believe in their amazing dream. However, the land they have chosen is completely depleted of nutrients and suffers from severe droughts. They are very lucky to get another friend on board who understands a lot in sustainable farming and they follow his advises step by step... The film tells about eight years of the couple's hard work and their stunning idealism, the story that is very knowledgeable and wise. When they try to create the utopia that they seek and they plant 10,000 fruit trees and more than 200 different crops they believe the world is perfect well... until one disaster comes after another and with the death of their friend who was helping them all these years they still do not loose their hopes.. Apart from all plant varieties they add animals of all kinds, including an unforgettable pig named Emma and her best friend, Fat Rooster.
It seems to me that I agree with Alice's words and "Mother Nature has never been so inspiring”. Alice Waters herself is a celebrated chef and also, in a way, mother of the US biodiversity movement. Documentary director John Chester with his wife Molly and dog Todd are the heroes in my eyes. I can not even imagine how much work they do to make it all work at this farm. People hardly can manage their own smallest gardens on the backyards. The important condition of such sustainable farming is to faithfully follow the principles of ecological agriculture, the essence of which is explained to the viewer in detail by the film characters.
John, becoming a farmer, does not cease to be a film director. He turned his farming odyssey of 8 years into a breathtaking movie that became a hit of American documentary film festivals (and a series of short films about animals from his farm, shot in parallel, received several Emmy awards). There are idyllic shootings of nature, and the drama of the struggle with badlands and impudent coyotes, and captivating optimism of people who are confident that they are doing the right thing. If you use gastronomic comparisons, then The Biggest Small Farm is a healthy food for both the mind and the heart. You will enjoy it 100% in you are into conscious living on this planet!
FILM TO PAY ATTENTION TO
website
RATE: 10/10
When the barking of their beloved dog Todd leads to eviction from a tiny apartment in Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, John and Molly Chester make a choice: they dare to leave the city for 200 acres on the foothills of Ventura County, naively trying to build one of the most unique farms of its kind in complete coexistence with by nature based on the investments from their friends and friends of friends who also believe in their amazing dream. However, the land they have chosen is completely depleted of nutrients and suffers from severe droughts. They are very lucky to get another friend on board who understands a lot in sustainable farming and they follow his advises step by step... The film tells about eight years of the couple's hard work and their stunning idealism, the story that is very knowledgeable and wise. When they try to create the utopia that they seek and they plant 10,000 fruit trees and more than 200 different crops they believe the world is perfect well... until one disaster comes after another and with the death of their friend who was helping them all these years they still do not loose their hopes.. Apart from all plant varieties they add animals of all kinds, including an unforgettable pig named Emma and her best friend, Fat Rooster.
It seems to me that I agree with Alice's words and "Mother Nature has never been so inspiring”. Alice Waters herself is a celebrated chef and also, in a way, mother of the US biodiversity movement. Documentary director John Chester with his wife Molly and dog Todd are the heroes in my eyes. I can not even imagine how much work they do to make it all work at this farm. People hardly can manage their own smallest gardens on the backyards. The important condition of such sustainable farming is to faithfully follow the principles of ecological agriculture, the essence of which is explained to the viewer in detail by the film characters.
John, becoming a farmer, does not cease to be a film director. He turned his farming odyssey of 8 years into a breathtaking movie that became a hit of American documentary film festivals (and a series of short films about animals from his farm, shot in parallel, received several Emmy awards). There are idyllic shootings of nature, and the drama of the struggle with badlands and impudent coyotes, and captivating optimism of people who are confident that they are doing the right thing. If you use gastronomic comparisons, then The Biggest Small Farm is a healthy food for both the mind and the heart. You will enjoy it 100% in you are into conscious living on this planet!
review by Alex First at MAPT
The Biggest Little Farm (PG) – 91 minutes – by Alex First
Farming and idealism. They hardly go hand in hand.
And yet that is precisely what a young US couple – John and Molly Chester – was looking to create by getting back to traditional farming principles to coexist with nature.
She was a foodie, who knew the value of good, wholesome, tasty produce.
He was a cameraman and knew how passionate she was about the subject.
But they had no money for a total upheaval of their lifestyle.
And then the motivation came from a most unlikely source.
While doing a story on a facility operated by a good Samaritan housing 200 dogs that was about to be closed permanently, he couldn’t help himself and adopted a beautiful black hound named Todd.
John and Molly were living in a tiny LA apartment and the dog they got barked all day when they were away.
Eventually they received an eviction notice.
It was then that the pair shared their desire to create a sustainable farm with their friends and family, with a view to finding financing for their venture.
Whilst they were laughed at, the connections worked and they found the investors they were looking for.
Then the really hard work began for the rundown farm they ended up on (200 acres in the foothills of Ventura County) had dirt all around it that was so hard that it felt like bitumen.
This extremely well made doco takes us through just what the pair went through over the next seven years.
Every step forward was met by another backwards.
Drought, fire, driving rain and pests were their constant bedfellows.
Early on they connected with a champion of sustainable farming and he helped guide them.
Persistence in the face of adversity and diversity were the keys.
When it came to the latter, it was a case of variety in the produce they planted, the animals they housed and the wildlife they attracted.
But the first step was cultivating the arid land, devoid of nutrients.
This is quite some tale, the moral of which is “where there is a will, there is a way”.
John and Molly provided work opportunities to people from around the world who had a passion to match their own.
The cinematography is breathtaking, the narrative arc compelling, driven by John’s observations in a film he directed.
In fact, he – and four fellow cinematographers – were shooting 365 days a year for nearly eight years.
The doco also features some colourful and engaging animation by Jason Carpenter.
The Biggest Little Farm is a feel-good story about a couple that are living out their dream.
Rated PG, it scores an 8 out of 10.
Farming and idealism. They hardly go hand in hand.
And yet that is precisely what a young US couple – John and Molly Chester – was looking to create by getting back to traditional farming principles to coexist with nature.
She was a foodie, who knew the value of good, wholesome, tasty produce.
He was a cameraman and knew how passionate she was about the subject.
But they had no money for a total upheaval of their lifestyle.
And then the motivation came from a most unlikely source.
While doing a story on a facility operated by a good Samaritan housing 200 dogs that was about to be closed permanently, he couldn’t help himself and adopted a beautiful black hound named Todd.
John and Molly were living in a tiny LA apartment and the dog they got barked all day when they were away.
Eventually they received an eviction notice.
It was then that the pair shared their desire to create a sustainable farm with their friends and family, with a view to finding financing for their venture.
Whilst they were laughed at, the connections worked and they found the investors they were looking for.
Then the really hard work began for the rundown farm they ended up on (200 acres in the foothills of Ventura County) had dirt all around it that was so hard that it felt like bitumen.
This extremely well made doco takes us through just what the pair went through over the next seven years.
Every step forward was met by another backwards.
Drought, fire, driving rain and pests were their constant bedfellows.
Early on they connected with a champion of sustainable farming and he helped guide them.
Persistence in the face of adversity and diversity were the keys.
When it came to the latter, it was a case of variety in the produce they planted, the animals they housed and the wildlife they attracted.
But the first step was cultivating the arid land, devoid of nutrients.
This is quite some tale, the moral of which is “where there is a will, there is a way”.
John and Molly provided work opportunities to people from around the world who had a passion to match their own.
The cinematography is breathtaking, the narrative arc compelling, driven by John’s observations in a film he directed.
In fact, he – and four fellow cinematographers – were shooting 365 days a year for nearly eight years.
The doco also features some colourful and engaging animation by Jason Carpenter.
The Biggest Little Farm is a feel-good story about a couple that are living out their dream.
Rated PG, it scores an 8 out of 10.
THE ADDAMS FAMILY
website
review by Olga Kirk
The Addams Family
Directors: Greg Tiernan, Conrad Vernon
Stars: Oscar Isaac, Charlize Theron, Chloe Grace Moretz
The Addams family moves to a faraway suburb where the family can live their odd lives for 13 years. The daughter of local reality show host from "Perfect and Pink" town exacerbates conflict between the families.
Dad Gomez (Oscar Isaac) loves long walks in inclement weather. Mom Morticia (Sharlize Theron) believes that black is the brightest. The cemetery is the children’s favorite playground. Grandmother (Bette Midler) drinks a couple drops of poison before going to bed. Do you still think your relatives are weird? Meet the Addams family.
What may seem strange to ordinary people is commonplace for the Addams family. It is on this that the main humor of the picture is built. The difference in views on the rules of behavior, entertainment, ways of learning and life in general - the film jokes about everything. And I must admit that it does this quite successfully. Yes, at the end of the humor did not fit into the general atmosphere of what was happening and rather interfered with the denouement, however, in general, the creators managed to create perhaps the most extraordinary comedy cartoon in recent years.
However, the jokes still managed to focus on contemporary problems of society. The film joked about herding feelings, dependence on social networks and life in "pink glasses". But the main problem was the impossibility of reconciling with other ideals that differ from the generally accepted different opinions just because it is different from their own.
The film was embellished with a pleasant and cheerful soundtrack, which will easily sit in the head of the viewer.
What is the cartoon about? That there is nothing worse than being part of a herd. The fact that all people are different and it does not matter how and what the other person does. Everyone should have a freedom of choice. The choice to be yourself. Isn't that perfect?
website
review by Olga Kirk
The Addams Family
Directors: Greg Tiernan, Conrad Vernon
Stars: Oscar Isaac, Charlize Theron, Chloe Grace Moretz
The Addams family moves to a faraway suburb where the family can live their odd lives for 13 years. The daughter of local reality show host from "Perfect and Pink" town exacerbates conflict between the families.
Dad Gomez (Oscar Isaac) loves long walks in inclement weather. Mom Morticia (Sharlize Theron) believes that black is the brightest. The cemetery is the children’s favorite playground. Grandmother (Bette Midler) drinks a couple drops of poison before going to bed. Do you still think your relatives are weird? Meet the Addams family.
What may seem strange to ordinary people is commonplace for the Addams family. It is on this that the main humor of the picture is built. The difference in views on the rules of behavior, entertainment, ways of learning and life in general - the film jokes about everything. And I must admit that it does this quite successfully. Yes, at the end of the humor did not fit into the general atmosphere of what was happening and rather interfered with the denouement, however, in general, the creators managed to create perhaps the most extraordinary comedy cartoon in recent years.
However, the jokes still managed to focus on contemporary problems of society. The film joked about herding feelings, dependence on social networks and life in "pink glasses". But the main problem was the impossibility of reconciling with other ideals that differ from the generally accepted different opinions just because it is different from their own.
The film was embellished with a pleasant and cheerful soundtrack, which will easily sit in the head of the viewer.
What is the cartoon about? That there is nothing worse than being part of a herd. The fact that all people are different and it does not matter how and what the other person does. Everyone should have a freedom of choice. The choice to be yourself. Isn't that perfect?
PLAYMOBIL
website
review by Evie Skliar (12 years old)
Playmobil has a great message, the message was never give up on your dreams ,even if something bad has happened. I believe that there was too much drama, and it did not make a lot of sense. Everything you need to know happened at the start and spoiled the rest of the movie. The movie was quite predictable. There was a good choice of camera angles, but some of the scenes made me feel dizzy. Throughout the movie there was too much happening at the same time. This movie was a mix of Wally, Dora The Explorer and the LEGO Movie. In one of the parts there was a random dance which did not make sense to me and did not fit in to the movie. There were too many songs throughout the movie. In one scene they were jumping into a trash can but they copied that scene from a Show. The background music kept saying Rex Dasher which got a bit annoying. There was a large animal and somehow they got wings but the wings were 20 times smaller than the actual character, which made no sense and was not realistic [yes the movie was an animation but still made no sense.] The story was telling the viewers how some poor romans were killed back in the day. It is a bad example for little children because one of the characters kidnapped people from there family’s and killed them for entertainment. There was way too much romance for a G rated movie. In my opinion the movie should have been rated PG not G. At the end a certain character did a something not on porpoise and I think that movie is leading to a part 2. In conclusion this is not the best choice for a kid’s movie. This movie was not the best movie I have ever seen but it had a good story line
website
review by Evie Skliar (12 years old)
Playmobil has a great message, the message was never give up on your dreams ,even if something bad has happened. I believe that there was too much drama, and it did not make a lot of sense. Everything you need to know happened at the start and spoiled the rest of the movie. The movie was quite predictable. There was a good choice of camera angles, but some of the scenes made me feel dizzy. Throughout the movie there was too much happening at the same time. This movie was a mix of Wally, Dora The Explorer and the LEGO Movie. In one of the parts there was a random dance which did not make sense to me and did not fit in to the movie. There were too many songs throughout the movie. In one scene they were jumping into a trash can but they copied that scene from a Show. The background music kept saying Rex Dasher which got a bit annoying. There was a large animal and somehow they got wings but the wings were 20 times smaller than the actual character, which made no sense and was not realistic [yes the movie was an animation but still made no sense.] The story was telling the viewers how some poor romans were killed back in the day. It is a bad example for little children because one of the characters kidnapped people from there family’s and killed them for entertainment. There was way too much romance for a G rated movie. In my opinion the movie should have been rated PG not G. At the end a certain character did a something not on porpoise and I think that movie is leading to a part 2. In conclusion this is not the best choice for a kid’s movie. This movie was not the best movie I have ever seen but it had a good story line
review by Guna Segar
I went to see Playmobil movie with my 3 year old. The time went quickly, movie was dynamic with lots of adventures. The fact that it could hold my 3 year old attention for one and a half hours was also a good sign. Before the movie I watched a trailer and honestly was not too excited to go see it just purely from the trailer. But the movie was much better and I truly enjoyed it. I liked the education aspect of seeing different cultures / lands- Vikings, American Western, Pirates, Ancient Rome, etc... There was not too much violence. The jokes were not too funny too, but I didn’t mind. The Rex Dasher secret agent was my favourite and the funniest character. After I watched the movie, I found out that his voice was Daniel Radcliffe’s. I think they should have promoted it more - maybe even in the trailer. I loved the integration of live actors and cartoon, similar like LEGO movie and raising emotional connection / family value awareness importance between older sister and a younger brother. And lesson to believe in yourself than anything is possible. My 3 year old boy loved the unicorns the best in the movie and he didn’t like the bad guys (as expected). He did find it funny by laughing loud at some fight scenes. Overall good times at the cinema with my little boy watching this adventurous movie.
I went to see Playmobil movie with my 3 year old. The time went quickly, movie was dynamic with lots of adventures. The fact that it could hold my 3 year old attention for one and a half hours was also a good sign. Before the movie I watched a trailer and honestly was not too excited to go see it just purely from the trailer. But the movie was much better and I truly enjoyed it. I liked the education aspect of seeing different cultures / lands- Vikings, American Western, Pirates, Ancient Rome, etc... There was not too much violence. The jokes were not too funny too, but I didn’t mind. The Rex Dasher secret agent was my favourite and the funniest character. After I watched the movie, I found out that his voice was Daniel Radcliffe’s. I think they should have promoted it more - maybe even in the trailer. I loved the integration of live actors and cartoon, similar like LEGO movie and raising emotional connection / family value awareness importance between older sister and a younger brother. And lesson to believe in yourself than anything is possible. My 3 year old boy loved the unicorns the best in the movie and he didn’t like the bad guys (as expected). He did find it funny by laughing loud at some fight scenes. Overall good times at the cinema with my little boy watching this adventurous movie.
MRS LOWRY AND SON
website
review by Jeanette Russell
L S Lowry was a painter, who painted various works of art, that depicted life including industrialist , seaside, and mill scenes, in England. Portraits, even a fight, and cricket match, were other facets captured by Lowry. In the film Mrs Lowry & son, the audience has a view into his relationship with his ailing mother. " Crowds can be the loneliest of places " he tells his mother, about one of his famous pieces. He proceeds to paint these scenes of existence, and the human state. He describes himself " I'm a man who paints, nothing more nothing less"
Mrs Lowry can be a handful keeping Laurie on his toes. She does not seem to be a fan of his works, as a rule. When however the neighbour Mrs Stan hope comes to visit, mother is happy with a seaside picture, sailing boats, that her neighbour has appreciated.
Laurie is a dedicated carer, patient and thoughtful. He is played by Timothy Spall. His portrayal is exceptional. Vanessa Redgrave's character is Elizabeth Lowry, and she does a stellar job, during her performance, very believable and real. Adrian Noble directs the movie, which is produced by Debbie Gray.
During the story, set in the "1930s", we see many of Lowry's works come to life. as he tries to describe to his cantankerous mum what his art means to him. As well as, what he sees in, and feels about, his craft. Elizabeth doesn't often want to acknowledge him, his talent, or his feeling, vulnerable side.
A sometimes emotional, expressive, and sensitive show. An interesting record of the life and times of this brilliant, popular, notable, and deep man, who was L. S Lowry. Thank you for the opportunity to view it.
website
review by Jeanette Russell
L S Lowry was a painter, who painted various works of art, that depicted life including industrialist , seaside, and mill scenes, in England. Portraits, even a fight, and cricket match, were other facets captured by Lowry. In the film Mrs Lowry & son, the audience has a view into his relationship with his ailing mother. " Crowds can be the loneliest of places " he tells his mother, about one of his famous pieces. He proceeds to paint these scenes of existence, and the human state. He describes himself " I'm a man who paints, nothing more nothing less"
Mrs Lowry can be a handful keeping Laurie on his toes. She does not seem to be a fan of his works, as a rule. When however the neighbour Mrs Stan hope comes to visit, mother is happy with a seaside picture, sailing boats, that her neighbour has appreciated.
Laurie is a dedicated carer, patient and thoughtful. He is played by Timothy Spall. His portrayal is exceptional. Vanessa Redgrave's character is Elizabeth Lowry, and she does a stellar job, during her performance, very believable and real. Adrian Noble directs the movie, which is produced by Debbie Gray.
During the story, set in the "1930s", we see many of Lowry's works come to life. as he tries to describe to his cantankerous mum what his art means to him. As well as, what he sees in, and feels about, his craft. Elizabeth doesn't often want to acknowledge him, his talent, or his feeling, vulnerable side.
A sometimes emotional, expressive, and sensitive show. An interesting record of the life and times of this brilliant, popular, notable, and deep man, who was L. S Lowry. Thank you for the opportunity to view it.
PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE
website
review by Vellu Khann
Portrait Of A Lady On Fire
Tuning to the discovery of our innermost desires is something that we all struggle with in the contemporary world. However, one would scarcely imagine that this would be a similar struggle for a couple of French women a century before.
Portrait Of A Lady On Fire is a feature-film with brilliant story-telling of a romantic shade, as we see a young lady who is about to get married and the people surrounding her on an island of the French Colonies. And she dares on to tread on forbidden realms with the matters of the heart, a feeble soul who is engulfed in flames.
With the focal point of just a handful of characters, the director had been able to bring out the nuances of human emotions that we all experience, though seldom voice out to the world. The hues of the movie is captured excellently. Though we may feel that they are continually recycled, it does actually stem into the everyday living of regular folk, and the audience would undoubtedly feel the connection to the characters.
website
review by Vellu Khann
Portrait Of A Lady On Fire
Tuning to the discovery of our innermost desires is something that we all struggle with in the contemporary world. However, one would scarcely imagine that this would be a similar struggle for a couple of French women a century before.
Portrait Of A Lady On Fire is a feature-film with brilliant story-telling of a romantic shade, as we see a young lady who is about to get married and the people surrounding her on an island of the French Colonies. And she dares on to tread on forbidden realms with the matters of the heart, a feeble soul who is engulfed in flames.
With the focal point of just a handful of characters, the director had been able to bring out the nuances of human emotions that we all experience, though seldom voice out to the world. The hues of the movie is captured excellently. Though we may feel that they are continually recycled, it does actually stem into the everyday living of regular folk, and the audience would undoubtedly feel the connection to the characters.
AILO'S JOURNEY
website
RATE: 9/10
This is one breathtaking documentary about the life of a deer
We find ourselves wandering around Lapland to see the the struggle for the survival of a small wild reindeer. He is so graceful and so fragile standing up carefully on his four legs he makes us thinking about our own lives and the world around us. He is vulnerable facing the threats that entwine around the first year of his life.
This is a true story that will of course make you wonder who it was all filmed so beautifully and so well... It is the story of the young reindeer awakening in the world of wildlife, in the heart of the majestic landscapes of Lapland.
You will walk out of the theater as if you have visited the other planet... Indeed - gorgeous film you can watch with your family.
website
RATE: 9/10
This is one breathtaking documentary about the life of a deer
We find ourselves wandering around Lapland to see the the struggle for the survival of a small wild reindeer. He is so graceful and so fragile standing up carefully on his four legs he makes us thinking about our own lives and the world around us. He is vulnerable facing the threats that entwine around the first year of his life.
This is a true story that will of course make you wonder who it was all filmed so beautifully and so well... It is the story of the young reindeer awakening in the world of wildlife, in the heart of the majestic landscapes of Lapland.
You will walk out of the theater as if you have visited the other planet... Indeed - gorgeous film you can watch with your family.
BY THE GRACE OF GOD
website
RATE: 8/10
Francois Ozon made a film about Catholic pedophile priests
It was one of the first filmsshown at the Berlin Film Festival in the competition program. Grace of God is the film by the French director Francois Ozon. The picture is based on the real story of the Catholic priest Bernard Prein from Lyon who was accused of molesting minor parishioners in 2017 (by his own admission, there were 13 of them, witnesses reported 70 victims). It is the film certainly important for the history and worthy of the Berlinale award.
The first epithet that comes to mind when talking about Francois Ozon’s film By the Grace of God has nothing to do with his artistic qualities: this is the word 'important'. The champion of the European art mainstream, "the chameleon" director, who tried in his career, it seems, all genres and intonations, managed to once again surprise his usual audience. He shot a picture based on the events that are not just real, but happening right now - and he did it so professionally, thoroughly and dryly that it was absolutely impossible to guess the author of Krysyatnik, Basseyn, Angel and Franz in this particular movie. By the grace of God is a necessary film as well. It is good that it appeared.
We are talking about an old and respected priest from Lyon, Father Bernard Prein, who was accused of pedophilia several years ago: he broke the lives of dozens of boys whom he had been molested while they were at vacations in the scout camps. Some of them grew up and ventured to talk about it out loud. It began with Alexander Guerin - a successful business man, a Catholic believer, a happy family man and a very good father of three children. Once having learned that Preyna was still working with children, he could not stand it and spoke out. Soon the other victims joined his voice, in particular, Francois Debord, who founded a special association for Prein’s victims and a website on which their testimonies were posted in deatils. The matter reached the trial which is still ongoing. Preina was taken into custody and the verdict will be issued on March 7. The decision of the court and its regulators are waiting. The most interested party in this decision is the influential Cardinal of Lyon Barbarin, who long ago knew about Prein's crimes but hid them from the world and let him continue his Ggod's "evil deeds".
Thus the film of Ozone is intended to become the decisive argument. It is not legal, but more ethical and emotional. In the public debate about Catholic pedophile priests it is a must to see movie to educate yourself what you believe it in the fist place and in the second place: how to raise your own children. This is the film's highest value in my opinion.
By the grace of God was conceived as a documentary picture. Ozone carefully studied the matter, met and talked with the victims of Prein. Guerin gave him his correspondence with the church authorities. Ozone with his permission inserted letters in the script. The writings sound like a narrator's voiceover. Everything here is extremely correct and very close to reality: real names and facts are all kept as they are. There are no concessions to artistic conventions. Most of all the picture resembles a decent mini-series in three parts. They seem a bit log in my own opinion though. First part is basically the story of Guerin (the favorite of Ozone's, the noble Melville Pupo) is told. Then the baton goes to Deborah (the cheerful and healthy Denis Menouche) and, finally, to the nervous intellectual epileptic Emmanuel (Swann Arlo). There are wives, children, partners and parents of the victims shown as well, everyone is so supportive of each other as they can.
It s hard not to re-act to such film!
The nobility of the intentions of the director who has lost all his playfulness, love of stylizations and shifters, postmodern courage, impudence and wit, is in direct connection with the chosen topic. There’s nothing to joke around here however one involuntarily recalls the Bad Education made not so long ago by Pedro Almodovar - a movie on the same topic, but not in an example more refined and complex. Time is running fast, standards are changing. Ozone is no longer guided by the European tradition of author's cinema, but by the "journalistic style" with so called "In the Spotlight" - a wonderful Oscar-winning film of 2015, the name of the director of which few remember offhand (this is Tom McCarthy). So that no one doubts, one of the scenery of the Ozone painting on the wall is a poster of American drama.
The paradox is that in the theory of Grace of God - it could turn out to be a unique statement on an extremely interesting topic: about male fragility, which radical feminists adore making fun of. The first name of the project was Crying Man but ultimately, the intimate part was obscured by the social part. Ozone carefully hid his directorial fragility, so touchingly noticeable in the previous film, “The Double Lover” but there is nothing personal here of course.
website
RATE: 8/10
Francois Ozon made a film about Catholic pedophile priests
It was one of the first filmsshown at the Berlin Film Festival in the competition program. Grace of God is the film by the French director Francois Ozon. The picture is based on the real story of the Catholic priest Bernard Prein from Lyon who was accused of molesting minor parishioners in 2017 (by his own admission, there were 13 of them, witnesses reported 70 victims). It is the film certainly important for the history and worthy of the Berlinale award.
The first epithet that comes to mind when talking about Francois Ozon’s film By the Grace of God has nothing to do with his artistic qualities: this is the word 'important'. The champion of the European art mainstream, "the chameleon" director, who tried in his career, it seems, all genres and intonations, managed to once again surprise his usual audience. He shot a picture based on the events that are not just real, but happening right now - and he did it so professionally, thoroughly and dryly that it was absolutely impossible to guess the author of Krysyatnik, Basseyn, Angel and Franz in this particular movie. By the grace of God is a necessary film as well. It is good that it appeared.
We are talking about an old and respected priest from Lyon, Father Bernard Prein, who was accused of pedophilia several years ago: he broke the lives of dozens of boys whom he had been molested while they were at vacations in the scout camps. Some of them grew up and ventured to talk about it out loud. It began with Alexander Guerin - a successful business man, a Catholic believer, a happy family man and a very good father of three children. Once having learned that Preyna was still working with children, he could not stand it and spoke out. Soon the other victims joined his voice, in particular, Francois Debord, who founded a special association for Prein’s victims and a website on which their testimonies were posted in deatils. The matter reached the trial which is still ongoing. Preina was taken into custody and the verdict will be issued on March 7. The decision of the court and its regulators are waiting. The most interested party in this decision is the influential Cardinal of Lyon Barbarin, who long ago knew about Prein's crimes but hid them from the world and let him continue his Ggod's "evil deeds".
Thus the film of Ozone is intended to become the decisive argument. It is not legal, but more ethical and emotional. In the public debate about Catholic pedophile priests it is a must to see movie to educate yourself what you believe it in the fist place and in the second place: how to raise your own children. This is the film's highest value in my opinion.
By the grace of God was conceived as a documentary picture. Ozone carefully studied the matter, met and talked with the victims of Prein. Guerin gave him his correspondence with the church authorities. Ozone with his permission inserted letters in the script. The writings sound like a narrator's voiceover. Everything here is extremely correct and very close to reality: real names and facts are all kept as they are. There are no concessions to artistic conventions. Most of all the picture resembles a decent mini-series in three parts. They seem a bit log in my own opinion though. First part is basically the story of Guerin (the favorite of Ozone's, the noble Melville Pupo) is told. Then the baton goes to Deborah (the cheerful and healthy Denis Menouche) and, finally, to the nervous intellectual epileptic Emmanuel (Swann Arlo). There are wives, children, partners and parents of the victims shown as well, everyone is so supportive of each other as they can.
It s hard not to re-act to such film!
The nobility of the intentions of the director who has lost all his playfulness, love of stylizations and shifters, postmodern courage, impudence and wit, is in direct connection with the chosen topic. There’s nothing to joke around here however one involuntarily recalls the Bad Education made not so long ago by Pedro Almodovar - a movie on the same topic, but not in an example more refined and complex. Time is running fast, standards are changing. Ozone is no longer guided by the European tradition of author's cinema, but by the "journalistic style" with so called "In the Spotlight" - a wonderful Oscar-winning film of 2015, the name of the director of which few remember offhand (this is Tom McCarthy). So that no one doubts, one of the scenery of the Ozone painting on the wall is a poster of American drama.
The paradox is that in the theory of Grace of God - it could turn out to be a unique statement on an extremely interesting topic: about male fragility, which radical feminists adore making fun of. The first name of the project was Crying Man but ultimately, the intimate part was obscured by the social part. Ozone carefully hid his directorial fragility, so touchingly noticeable in the previous film, “The Double Lover” but there is nothing personal here of course.
review by Alex First at MAPT
By the Grace of God (M) – 137 minutes – by Alex First
The church has a lot to answer for ... and to continue to answer for.
By the Grace of God concerns the devastating impact of child sexual abuse on its victims and victims’ families.
It unfolds like a horror story as the sufferers, most of whom have maintained their silence for decades, come forward ... many reluctantly at first.
Once the doors are prized open, the film unfolds through the snowball effect of that.
At first it is the story of a 40-year-old good Catholic banker – Alexandre (Melvil Poupaud) – with a nice home, a loving wife and five children who has carried the burden of his dark secret since he was in primary school.
With two of his boys about to undertake confirmation, he seeks answers about why the church didn’t do more to protect him and others like him.
More than that, why the priest at the centre of the allegations was protected and still works with children today.
He has face-to-face meetings with the man of the cloth who preyed upon him, Father Preynat (Bernard Verley) – who acknowledges what he did was wrong – and his superior, Cardinal Barbarin (François Marthouret).
.
Still, the church is slow to take action, specifically to defrock Father Preynat.
Working against Alexandre holding the priest to account in a court of law is the 20-year statute of limitations.
That’s when Alexandre goes searching and that leads to a 33-year-old man whose life has been ruined by Father Preynat’s sick sexual perversion.
Further, another married family man – François (Denis Ménochet) – comes forward and starts an organisation to unearth still more cases and to hold Father Preynat and those in the church who hid his dirty secret to account.
As you can imagine, it is all tawdry stuff done to boys as young as eight, who previously thought the world of the priest.
By the Grace of God is an all too common story of persistence and sleuthing to uncover the truth, involving the church, the clergy and the police.
For all the revelations, you are left with the uncomfortable knowledge that the church hasn’t done anywhere near enough ... that transparency and accountability is still severely lacking.
It is a brilliant, intelligent, heavily dialogue-driven script written by François Ozon (Swimming Pool), who also directs.
It presents as all too real, with credibility in every word spoken by an outstanding cast.
I quickly bought into the characterisations because they had authenticity about them.
Those affected are all different – rich, poor, educated, not so much, old school, conservative, passionate and so on.
Some parents (in this film … and, I dare say, in real life) simply want the past to stay in the past, but the vast majority demand justice.
This is a subject that won’t go away any time soon – and nor should it.
Hopefully films like this will serve to embolden others who, too, have been exploited by those in positions of authority.
Rated M, By the Grace of God scores a 8 to 8½ out of 10.
The church has a lot to answer for ... and to continue to answer for.
By the Grace of God concerns the devastating impact of child sexual abuse on its victims and victims’ families.
It unfolds like a horror story as the sufferers, most of whom have maintained their silence for decades, come forward ... many reluctantly at first.
Once the doors are prized open, the film unfolds through the snowball effect of that.
At first it is the story of a 40-year-old good Catholic banker – Alexandre (Melvil Poupaud) – with a nice home, a loving wife and five children who has carried the burden of his dark secret since he was in primary school.
With two of his boys about to undertake confirmation, he seeks answers about why the church didn’t do more to protect him and others like him.
More than that, why the priest at the centre of the allegations was protected and still works with children today.
He has face-to-face meetings with the man of the cloth who preyed upon him, Father Preynat (Bernard Verley) – who acknowledges what he did was wrong – and his superior, Cardinal Barbarin (François Marthouret).
.
Still, the church is slow to take action, specifically to defrock Father Preynat.
Working against Alexandre holding the priest to account in a court of law is the 20-year statute of limitations.
That’s when Alexandre goes searching and that leads to a 33-year-old man whose life has been ruined by Father Preynat’s sick sexual perversion.
Further, another married family man – François (Denis Ménochet) – comes forward and starts an organisation to unearth still more cases and to hold Father Preynat and those in the church who hid his dirty secret to account.
As you can imagine, it is all tawdry stuff done to boys as young as eight, who previously thought the world of the priest.
By the Grace of God is an all too common story of persistence and sleuthing to uncover the truth, involving the church, the clergy and the police.
For all the revelations, you are left with the uncomfortable knowledge that the church hasn’t done anywhere near enough ... that transparency and accountability is still severely lacking.
It is a brilliant, intelligent, heavily dialogue-driven script written by François Ozon (Swimming Pool), who also directs.
It presents as all too real, with credibility in every word spoken by an outstanding cast.
I quickly bought into the characterisations because they had authenticity about them.
Those affected are all different – rich, poor, educated, not so much, old school, conservative, passionate and so on.
Some parents (in this film … and, I dare say, in real life) simply want the past to stay in the past, but the vast majority demand justice.
This is a subject that won’t go away any time soon – and nor should it.
Hopefully films like this will serve to embolden others who, too, have been exploited by those in positions of authority.
Rated M, By the Grace of God scores a 8 to 8½ out of 10.
FARMING
website
review by Ivan Lubkov
The film Farming written, directed and played by Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje tells a slightly modified childhood story of Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje. The film is based on the true events that happened in the 1960s-1980s, told in the words of main character. It can be viewed as an autobiography or a display of greatness of the author.
The life story of a boy black boy Enitan who was given or farmed to a white couple in Essex, UK at the aged of 6 weeks with a hefty payment for fostering, starts off very sad and might trigger a lot of angry emotions in the modern society. For the rest of the movie the boy had to face mistreatment, abuse, bullying and violence aimed at him. The film presents racial hatred as the main cause of the negative emotions of the boy.
But as the viewer watches the film, he would eventually start to realize that a lot of the hatred and violence comes from the boy himself. Either intentionally or unintentionally the skinhead hooligans even though were antagonizing, and threatening do not kill or stab anyone in the film. The teenager Enitan ends up doing more violence then the racist hooligans.
And at the end of the film salvation comes from the hands of the boy’s teacher, his parent and the government that give the education that allowed Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje to become a very successful and influential actor. Altogether watching the film without knowing that it is based on the life of a famous person would cause misunderstanding.
The true meaning of the film is to show everyone that with patience and hard work and a lot of talent everyone can become successful.
website
review by Ivan Lubkov
The film Farming written, directed and played by Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje tells a slightly modified childhood story of Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje. The film is based on the true events that happened in the 1960s-1980s, told in the words of main character. It can be viewed as an autobiography or a display of greatness of the author.
The life story of a boy black boy Enitan who was given or farmed to a white couple in Essex, UK at the aged of 6 weeks with a hefty payment for fostering, starts off very sad and might trigger a lot of angry emotions in the modern society. For the rest of the movie the boy had to face mistreatment, abuse, bullying and violence aimed at him. The film presents racial hatred as the main cause of the negative emotions of the boy.
But as the viewer watches the film, he would eventually start to realize that a lot of the hatred and violence comes from the boy himself. Either intentionally or unintentionally the skinhead hooligans even though were antagonizing, and threatening do not kill or stab anyone in the film. The teenager Enitan ends up doing more violence then the racist hooligans.
And at the end of the film salvation comes from the hands of the boy’s teacher, his parent and the government that give the education that allowed Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje to become a very successful and influential actor. Altogether watching the film without knowing that it is based on the life of a famous person would cause misunderstanding.
The true meaning of the film is to show everyone that with patience and hard work and a lot of talent everyone can become successful.
PLAYING WITH FIRE
website
review by Guna Segal
"Playing with Fire": “Playing with Fire” is a comedy with John Cena, the famous wrestler as the lead actor. As my seven year old son is a big fan of John Cena, we were excited to see this movie. Before the movie, my son asked if there will be any wrestling scenes with John Cena, and was a little disappointed that this movie was about firemen. Good to hear that after the movie, he did not miss the wrestling scenes and the movie was still very entertaining. My son said, that this movie even made him want to be a fireman. We found this movie funny, cool, full of action and we would recommend it to kids and adults. Although it would had been good to have more fire rescue scenes. The movie had good acting. We found Axe’s character (Tyler Mane) very funny, even though he did not say much. There are some funny bits at the end of the movie - bloopers / outtakes, therefore recommended to stay till the end!
website
review by Guna Segal
"Playing with Fire": “Playing with Fire” is a comedy with John Cena, the famous wrestler as the lead actor. As my seven year old son is a big fan of John Cena, we were excited to see this movie. Before the movie, my son asked if there will be any wrestling scenes with John Cena, and was a little disappointed that this movie was about firemen. Good to hear that after the movie, he did not miss the wrestling scenes and the movie was still very entertaining. My son said, that this movie even made him want to be a fireman. We found this movie funny, cool, full of action and we would recommend it to kids and adults. Although it would had been good to have more fire rescue scenes. The movie had good acting. We found Axe’s character (Tyler Mane) very funny, even though he did not say much. There are some funny bits at the end of the movie - bloopers / outtakes, therefore recommended to stay till the end!
review by Max Lyons
Director:
Andy Fickman.
Starring:
John Cena,
Brianna Hildebrand,
Keegan-Michael Key,
Judy Greer,
John Leguizamo,
Finley Rose Slater.
Genre:
Comedy,
Family.
Rating:
PG.
Running time:
96 Minutes.
Film Review:
By Maxwell M. Lyons
Playing with Fire is a family “comedy” starring John Cena as superintendent Jake “Supe” Carson, a straight-faced by-the-book smokejumper — specially trained wildland firefighter. In a role near frequent enough to be donned a typecast, the squared-chinned Cena and his crew cut fronts a stoic emotional-brick jock-like persona with a hidden heart-of-gold; the endearing brute. Following the abrupt departure of half his men (the overtly named ‘alpha team’), he’s left with a crew of questionably competent men (‘beta team’… get it) to keep the station afloat all the while attempting to prepare an application for a big promotion. To complicate matters further, the team is forced to babysit three siblings for the weekend after saving them from a burning building, waiting on their absent parents’ arrival. And with that, hijinks (or more accurately sequential less-than-humorous events) ensue.
At its heart, the central narrative holds a heartfelt tale of family, self-growth, and cross-generational understanding. Unfortunately, the movie that surrounds this message is a mediocre slog of poor writing, low-brow humour, splat-chop plot points, and uninspiring direction. There are chuckles here and there, but for a comedy movie boasting the talents of Keegan-Michael Key, John Leguizamo, and Tyler Mane the laugh are unacceptably few and far between; made worse by the seemingly intentional pauses following each ‘joke’, as if to accommodate for the gleeful uproar of the viewing audience before progressing forward. As talented as the cast may be, their mastery can only match that of the material they’re given and based on director Andy Fickman’s recent screenwork (‘Parental Guidance’ and ‘Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2’) and the inexperience of co-writers Matt Lieberman and Dan Ewen it’s quite apparent where the deficit lies. Even a cinema full of energetic children seemed eerily quiet throughout the film’s screening, a clear sign they’ve missed the mark.
On a finally note, it should be mentioned that the film’s release comes at an unfortunate time as horrific wildfires currently rage across both NSW and California, LA. Though Paramount Studios are not entirely at fault here — Playing with Fire was schedule for an early 2020 release before production delays on the new Sonic The Hedgehog movie caused it to be pushed up to fill the slot — some positive action has come from it. Following the film’s US release, Cena invited Paramount to “Pick a charity that aids our first responders…”, announcing that “…on behalf of ‘Playing with Fire’ and out of respect to the people I truly believe are heroes, [I] will … donate half-a-million-dollars to that cause.” Both California Fire Foundation and Los Angeles Fire Department Foundation were suggested.
In the end, you can smile knowing a good deed has come from the existence of this film, but don’t let that smile fade by actually going to see it. Not recommended.
will be released in cinemas Australia-wide on December 12, 2019.
Andy Fickman.
Starring:
John Cena,
Brianna Hildebrand,
Keegan-Michael Key,
Judy Greer,
John Leguizamo,
Finley Rose Slater.
Genre:
Comedy,
Family.
Rating:
PG.
Running time:
96 Minutes.
Film Review:
By Maxwell M. Lyons
Playing with Fire is a family “comedy” starring John Cena as superintendent Jake “Supe” Carson, a straight-faced by-the-book smokejumper — specially trained wildland firefighter. In a role near frequent enough to be donned a typecast, the squared-chinned Cena and his crew cut fronts a stoic emotional-brick jock-like persona with a hidden heart-of-gold; the endearing brute. Following the abrupt departure of half his men (the overtly named ‘alpha team’), he’s left with a crew of questionably competent men (‘beta team’… get it) to keep the station afloat all the while attempting to prepare an application for a big promotion. To complicate matters further, the team is forced to babysit three siblings for the weekend after saving them from a burning building, waiting on their absent parents’ arrival. And with that, hijinks (or more accurately sequential less-than-humorous events) ensue.
At its heart, the central narrative holds a heartfelt tale of family, self-growth, and cross-generational understanding. Unfortunately, the movie that surrounds this message is a mediocre slog of poor writing, low-brow humour, splat-chop plot points, and uninspiring direction. There are chuckles here and there, but for a comedy movie boasting the talents of Keegan-Michael Key, John Leguizamo, and Tyler Mane the laugh are unacceptably few and far between; made worse by the seemingly intentional pauses following each ‘joke’, as if to accommodate for the gleeful uproar of the viewing audience before progressing forward. As talented as the cast may be, their mastery can only match that of the material they’re given and based on director Andy Fickman’s recent screenwork (‘Parental Guidance’ and ‘Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2’) and the inexperience of co-writers Matt Lieberman and Dan Ewen it’s quite apparent where the deficit lies. Even a cinema full of energetic children seemed eerily quiet throughout the film’s screening, a clear sign they’ve missed the mark.
On a finally note, it should be mentioned that the film’s release comes at an unfortunate time as horrific wildfires currently rage across both NSW and California, LA. Though Paramount Studios are not entirely at fault here — Playing with Fire was schedule for an early 2020 release before production delays on the new Sonic The Hedgehog movie caused it to be pushed up to fill the slot — some positive action has come from it. Following the film’s US release, Cena invited Paramount to “Pick a charity that aids our first responders…”, announcing that “…on behalf of ‘Playing with Fire’ and out of respect to the people I truly believe are heroes, [I] will … donate half-a-million-dollars to that cause.” Both California Fire Foundation and Los Angeles Fire Department Foundation were suggested.
In the end, you can smile knowing a good deed has come from the existence of this film, but don’t let that smile fade by actually going to see it. Not recommended.
will be released in cinemas Australia-wide on December 12, 2019.
I AM NO BIRD
website
review by Vellu Khanna
I AM NO BIRD
This documentary-stylised movie revolves around four women from different cultures, from Turkey, India, Mexico and Australia. And they are about to tie the knot with the person they love.
The wedding preparations ensue for all four of them, and the sequence of events unfolds steadily to the big day - from the littlest of ceremonies to the procuring of the wedding cake. Needless to say, the audience become a witness to the wondrous union of individuals, beholding the assemblage of beautiful emotions that friends and family radiate throughout the movie.
A remarkable work of art of the contemporary age, it hits a note that any person would readily attest to.
website
review by Vellu Khanna
I AM NO BIRD
This documentary-stylised movie revolves around four women from different cultures, from Turkey, India, Mexico and Australia. And they are about to tie the knot with the person they love.
The wedding preparations ensue for all four of them, and the sequence of events unfolds steadily to the big day - from the littlest of ceremonies to the procuring of the wedding cake. Needless to say, the audience become a witness to the wondrous union of individuals, beholding the assemblage of beautiful emotions that friends and family radiate throughout the movie.
A remarkable work of art of the contemporary age, it hits a note that any person would readily attest to.
EMU RUNNER
website
review by Olga Kirk
Emu Runner
Director and Writer: Imogen Thomas
Stars: Rhae-Kye Waites, Wayne Bliar, Rob Carlton
Gem mother’s death propels a 8-year-old girl to seek comfort in her Mother Lands, where she forms a wonderful bond with a wild emu. The wild life connection not only rebuilds her broken spirit but also brings her into an unpredictable conflict with a young and inexperienced social worker who could break her family apart.
Gem is the main character and the driving force of Emu Runner. It is through her eyes that the story unfolds in front of the film spectators. She is a child full of joy, innocence, wonder and intrigue and anchored by the deep cultural roots of her native Ngemba people and country, and thus her sense of belonging is implicit. Her remote country town may struggle to exist, and yet, it is a place that offers great freedoms, home-like warmth and a way of life where time slows down and simple pleasures are found for the soul to rest and rehabilitate. At the same time Emu Runner movie presents the fragility of this world and how quickly it can change and how we are sometimes unable to adapt to such changes quickly.
Emu Runner invites audiences into Gem’s world as she faces the most difficult test of her life.
Emu Runner presents a child’s perspective of life in an Australian outback town and this is reflected in the cinematic language. The mood and the tone is visceral, honest and immediate, instantly engaging the audience in Gem’s world.
It is the film, worth of watching to open our eyes and hearts!
website
review by Olga Kirk
Emu Runner
Director and Writer: Imogen Thomas
Stars: Rhae-Kye Waites, Wayne Bliar, Rob Carlton
Gem mother’s death propels a 8-year-old girl to seek comfort in her Mother Lands, where she forms a wonderful bond with a wild emu. The wild life connection not only rebuilds her broken spirit but also brings her into an unpredictable conflict with a young and inexperienced social worker who could break her family apart.
Gem is the main character and the driving force of Emu Runner. It is through her eyes that the story unfolds in front of the film spectators. She is a child full of joy, innocence, wonder and intrigue and anchored by the deep cultural roots of her native Ngemba people and country, and thus her sense of belonging is implicit. Her remote country town may struggle to exist, and yet, it is a place that offers great freedoms, home-like warmth and a way of life where time slows down and simple pleasures are found for the soul to rest and rehabilitate. At the same time Emu Runner movie presents the fragility of this world and how quickly it can change and how we are sometimes unable to adapt to such changes quickly.
Emu Runner invites audiences into Gem’s world as she faces the most difficult test of her life.
Emu Runner presents a child’s perspective of life in an Australian outback town and this is reflected in the cinematic language. The mood and the tone is visceral, honest and immediate, instantly engaging the audience in Gem’s world.
It is the film, worth of watching to open our eyes and hearts!
review by Vellu Khanna
Emu Runner
Emu Runner is a featurette exploring the ways of life and loss of an Indigenous family, with the central figure being that of Jemma, a young school girl who had recently lost her mother.
The audience is brought through a journey of the interiors of Australia, and are given a view of the world through the eyes of original custodians of the land, with their spiritual essence and ceremonies that they have imbued with it. As such, Jemma befriends a particular wild emu who appears periodically on the path to her school, which seem to have a bond with her.
Over the course of the story, we understand a deeply-set relationship of all things within the land of the ancients, and that when something ends, another path seemingly nudges us onward to a new beginning.
Emu Runner
Emu Runner is a featurette exploring the ways of life and loss of an Indigenous family, with the central figure being that of Jemma, a young school girl who had recently lost her mother.
The audience is brought through a journey of the interiors of Australia, and are given a view of the world through the eyes of original custodians of the land, with their spiritual essence and ceremonies that they have imbued with it. As such, Jemma befriends a particular wild emu who appears periodically on the path to her school, which seem to have a bond with her.
Over the course of the story, we understand a deeply-set relationship of all things within the land of the ancients, and that when something ends, another path seemingly nudges us onward to a new beginning.
OFFICIAL SECRETS
website
review by Olga Kirk
Official Secrets
Director: Gavin Hood. Starring: Keira Knightley, Ralph Fiennes, Matt Smith, Matthew Goode, Rhys Ifans, Indira Varma, Conleth Hill, Adam Bakri, Hattie Morahan, Monica Dolan, Tamsin Greig
For millions of people around the world, information about the invasion of the allied forces of the United States and Britain in Iraq was like a cold shower, because this incident automatically entailed consequences that few could have foreseen. Just having coped with the worries of the September 11 terrorist attacks, the civilized community was forced to accept the fact of another war, in which innocent victims could not do without. Nevertheless, George W. Bush, Tony Blair and their political allies, in spite of everything, started a complex party, which could not do without substituting truth and facts.
Attributing the creation of weapons of mass murder to the regime of Saddam Hussein, the allies in the most arrogant way deceived everyone and went to bomb Iraq. As you know, winners are not judged, because they are always right, but in the modern world things are not so simple, and the new film by director Gavin Hood shows us what the price of truth is and what a person can do to high principles when revelations fall into his hands, on which the reputation of power and people's faith in democratic institutions depend.
In the center of the plot is British intelligence officer Catherine Gan, who accidentally discovers extremely important data that the government was least willing to make public. Having familiarised themselves with them and realising that the invasion of Iraq was actually a grandiose scam, Catherine must decide for herself what to do next. On one side of the balance is calm, humble acceptance of the given, blind observance of the oath, and justice on the other, honor and own conscience. Katherine chooses, in her opinion, the most correct path and finds herself under a special eye that can destroy her life once and for all. But the choice has been made; retreating is pointless.
It was surprising to me that such a movie was shot, and even with such significant actors as Keira Knightley, Matt Smith and Ralph Fiennes. The American and British government, as well as large studios that are directly dependent on politics, are not always in a hurry to return to sensitive issues that were planned to be forgotten and not to return to them. But the situation with the war in Iraq still bears fruit, far from the best, and therefore the public resonance around the question does not subside, from which Gavin Hood decided to take a chance and, as practice shows, his efforts deserve special attention.
Much of what is shown on the screen actually happened; in this film there is also an admissible artistic invention, which allows to warm up suspense and drama. Together with the heroine of Cyrus Find, we embark on a tense and unpredictable adventure. Moreover, the debates in the cabinets and interrogations cause no less interest than any adventures of James Bond in an exotic country.
In addition to Gavin Hood, the “weather” in this film is made by the incomparable Keira Knightley, who, as for me, has long outgrown the level of primitive blockbusters and has become a confident dramatic actress no worse than Meryl Streep. In this film, she goes as far as possible from the image of a standard beauty and gives out a powerful game that forces us to follow her every move.
“Official secrets” touch upon a very difficult topic, introduce us to an interesting heroine and make us think about where the verge of truth and lies should actually be located. Believe me, you will not be disappointed.
website
review by Olga Kirk
Official Secrets
Director: Gavin Hood. Starring: Keira Knightley, Ralph Fiennes, Matt Smith, Matthew Goode, Rhys Ifans, Indira Varma, Conleth Hill, Adam Bakri, Hattie Morahan, Monica Dolan, Tamsin Greig
For millions of people around the world, information about the invasion of the allied forces of the United States and Britain in Iraq was like a cold shower, because this incident automatically entailed consequences that few could have foreseen. Just having coped with the worries of the September 11 terrorist attacks, the civilized community was forced to accept the fact of another war, in which innocent victims could not do without. Nevertheless, George W. Bush, Tony Blair and their political allies, in spite of everything, started a complex party, which could not do without substituting truth and facts.
Attributing the creation of weapons of mass murder to the regime of Saddam Hussein, the allies in the most arrogant way deceived everyone and went to bomb Iraq. As you know, winners are not judged, because they are always right, but in the modern world things are not so simple, and the new film by director Gavin Hood shows us what the price of truth is and what a person can do to high principles when revelations fall into his hands, on which the reputation of power and people's faith in democratic institutions depend.
In the center of the plot is British intelligence officer Catherine Gan, who accidentally discovers extremely important data that the government was least willing to make public. Having familiarised themselves with them and realising that the invasion of Iraq was actually a grandiose scam, Catherine must decide for herself what to do next. On one side of the balance is calm, humble acceptance of the given, blind observance of the oath, and justice on the other, honor and own conscience. Katherine chooses, in her opinion, the most correct path and finds herself under a special eye that can destroy her life once and for all. But the choice has been made; retreating is pointless.
It was surprising to me that such a movie was shot, and even with such significant actors as Keira Knightley, Matt Smith and Ralph Fiennes. The American and British government, as well as large studios that are directly dependent on politics, are not always in a hurry to return to sensitive issues that were planned to be forgotten and not to return to them. But the situation with the war in Iraq still bears fruit, far from the best, and therefore the public resonance around the question does not subside, from which Gavin Hood decided to take a chance and, as practice shows, his efforts deserve special attention.
Much of what is shown on the screen actually happened; in this film there is also an admissible artistic invention, which allows to warm up suspense and drama. Together with the heroine of Cyrus Find, we embark on a tense and unpredictable adventure. Moreover, the debates in the cabinets and interrogations cause no less interest than any adventures of James Bond in an exotic country.
In addition to Gavin Hood, the “weather” in this film is made by the incomparable Keira Knightley, who, as for me, has long outgrown the level of primitive blockbusters and has become a confident dramatic actress no worse than Meryl Streep. In this film, she goes as far as possible from the image of a standard beauty and gives out a powerful game that forces us to follow her every move.
“Official secrets” touch upon a very difficult topic, introduce us to an interesting heroine and make us think about where the verge of truth and lies should actually be located. Believe me, you will not be disappointed.
