Best of the 2010s - 2019 - Parasite

Of course this is going to be my favourite movie of the year. If you've heard me on the Movie Bears Podcast episode I was on for Fantastic Fest (linked here), you'll have heard me go thorougly excitable about this (around the 1:17:00 mark to 1:19:00 or so). It just is that damn good. And if you haven't seen it, I'm not going to tell you why beyond that, yes, this deserved to win the Palme D'Or. And it deserves to win ... pretty much anything on offer. It's griping, stunning, clever, twisted, hilarious, scary, and completely engrossing. If you haven't seen it yet ... well, get to it whenever you can.

Top 10 films of 2019

In alphabetical order because I don't particularly want to sort them (although I'll be posting a favourite film of 2019 separately for the decade exercise so... there's a favourite and then there's 9 second places). It's based on Australian release dates and doesn't include anything that only got released as streaming (though one of these got only a cursory Melbourne/Sydney cinema release).

Border - a romance, a horror story, a thriller and a creature-feature, all in one - poignant and strange and touching, this Swedish film about a customs agent with a special ability to sniff out contraband, and what happens when she makes some discoveries about herself, didn't get a particularly wide release (though it's available on SBS on Demand), but it's worth tracking down.

Burning - another romance/thriller, this time Korean, as a three-sided relationship develops increasing paranoia as a disappearance leads to increased tension. All three leads are compelling, and there's a skillful mix of music, performances and shooting that builds all the way through to a stunning finale.

Eighth Grade - this was the first movie I saw in Australian cinemas this year, and it stuck with me throughout. It's a rare case of a teen movie that is very recognisably about contemporary teens, not just a middle aged screenwriter applying their own teenagehood to modern performers. Elsie Fisher as the lead is touching and hilarious and heartbreaking as a girl just on the verge of hitting the senior years of high school, trying to find her way in a world where social media seems all important and finding her place seems incredibly difficult. 

Hustlers - There's a lot of fairly trashy movies about the exotic dance world - but this beats the rest of them by virtue of actually having a plot and a point to it, along with some great performances. In a cast where all the important characters are female, it rarely caters to the male gaze except to look at the ways it can be manipulated by cunning women. Jennifer Lopez issues a big reminder why she's a skilled performer when the right role comes along and owns large chunks of the screen, but there's a great array of talent here.

Knives Out - A great examination of the standard country-house murder mystery, with more than a couple of twists. The thoroughly loaded cast of great talents includes a couple who are basically there to be red-herrings (which is standard in the model), but there's also some great non-standard surprises on the way to a thoroughly satisfying ending, all the way through to the final shot.

Marriage Story - Scenes from a disintegrating marriage as a couple prepare for their divorce, which seems to be going so simply until the lawyers get involved - as both find that the dissatisfactions they've been burying begin to bubble to the surface. I've seen some argue that it's one-sided but to me we get a clear understanding why both sides do what they do - and why it gets so brutally hurtful as both find themselves unable to compromise for the sake of the other.

Parasite - If you haven't been told yet that this is awesome ... it is. It's a clever modern thriller as a poor Seoul family catch a break when the son manages to con his way into becoming a tutor for the daughter of a rich family - and I really shouldn't go much further because this is a film that twists, twists again, pulls the rug out from under you, wraps you up in the rug then rolls you right down the hill before finally setting the rug on fire. There's astonishingly tense sequences here, many with minimal dialogue, as people get into more and more desperate plights. It's a triumph.

Us - Yeah, I loved this. No, it's not strictly realistic, but I don't think it's aiming to be - there's a very definite allegory of the underclass being pushed here, of how western society kinda relies on someone else suffering to keep itself running, and about what might be coming to stop it - and it's beautifully and terrifyingly executed, both in performance (particularly Lupita N'yongo) and in production.

Who You Think I Am - a tension builder from France as Juliette Binoche plays a divorcee whose online affair becomes increasingly obsessional. A key quote here is "Social media is both the shipwreck and the liferaft" and, here the simple human desire to connect is twisted again and again in ways that are engrossing to behold.

Woman at War - An icelandic souffle of a film, as an environmental activist carries out strikes against an aluminum factory - much of the film is devoted to those missions in the gorgeous Icelandic countryside, to an engrossing klezmer score, it's a great example of deadpan thrills mixed with exceptional charm, particularly the wonderfully stoic performance of Halldora Geirharosdottir. 

The Truth

A thoroughly middling exercise in Frenchy Ennui and stories about actresses, mothers and daughters, this has one or two decent moments when Deneuve and Binoche are sparring, but it never really cuts particularly close to the bone - none of the long-standing family resentments really seem particularly high stakes. Instead it's about 100 minutes of people being mildly snippy with each other. There is a good turtle, though.

Jumanji - The Next Level

A pretty worthwhile follow up to the reboot from a few years ago, with some clever variations. One of the variations means that Karen Gillan gets to be de-facto lead for most of the first chunk of the film, which is incredibly enjoyable, and the remaining returning three bigger names get to have some nice twists on their character. The addition of Awkwifina is very welcome, and Rory McCann is suitably menacing as a minimally characterised bad guy. If the ending is a little too sequel-confident for its own good, it's still not a bad way to keep things rolling.

Portrait of a Lady on Fire

I understand the acclaim for this and I liked a fair chunk of it once it got going but .. .gosh there's a lot of long pauses in the dialogue and maybe not as much significance in the long stares as the filmmmakers might like to think.  It comes together reasonably well, and I think the passion between the two leads burns when it's set alight, but gosh it takes a while to get kindling.

Sorry We Missed You

This is merely "very strong" rather than "transcendentally wonderful" like Ken Loach's "I Daniel Blake" was - I think it might be the storyline with the son in it that gave me pause here, as he's mostly an irredeemable little shit and you can't really blame capitalism for him the way you can for everybody else in the film. But there's a strong sense of build from about halfway here, with things getting more and more out of control for a family where both parents are tied to contracted work that demands more and more of them and gives less and less. Loach is a powerhouse director and Paul Laverty knows exactly the kind of stuff to write for him.

Frozen 2

A pretty solid follow up, carefully picking up some of the dangling threads from the first one in a film just as unafraid to go big emotive musical when it needs to. It's got a mix of epic and personal, as our returning cast go into the woods north of Arundell to resolve old secrets and discover new ones. No, there's no songs quite as earwormy as "Let it Go" (although "into the unknown" tries very hard to get there), but there are gorgeous visuals and some gentle maturing of the characters (and, to be honest, Elsa gets a lot more time to be explored as a character in this one, rather than just an object to be chased who has a big song). Should satisfy fans of the original nicely

Black Christmas

This is kinda in the "good intentions but execution is a little wobbly" school of horror movies. A campus-set yuletide story as a sorority who's been defending a member who has recently been assaulted by a frat bro is suddenly overwhelmed by attacks from strange masked figures, this always feels a bit muted - there's a couple of good ideas and some reasonable performances here, but it's never quite clear whether it wants to take the ideas seriously or go for broke into a broad ranging over the top parody. And given where this goes, broader would have been better. Still I didn't entirely loathe it.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

This is probably the definition of a mixed bag - there's moments which work brilliantly and there's moments where I am not entirely sold. In particular the opening (for a movie that's two and a half hours, there's a lot of elements here that feel squished for time), and some of the fan-service moments. But at the same time ... it's Star Wars. And it is a conclusion to the saga. And it has great character moments, and strange creatures, and strange moments of grace and beauty. So ... this is probably an interim score.

The Good Liar

This is kinda enjoyable in the way that watching good actors in a film that doesn't quite hold together can be - both Mirren and McKellen have done far better work, but they're enjoyable to watch together in a mild kind of cat and mouse thriller. It's slightly oddly placed for audiences - the lead pair lead to an audience of the older-biddies, but McKellen drops by a strip club early in the film for a couple of gratuitous bare boobies, and there's also a reasonable amount of high-level swearing for no particular reason other than, presumably, to push the rating up to an MA. Some of the twists border on the slightly unbelievable, and in some ways casting Mirren means that you're never quite going to buy her as a patsy - you're pre-clued in that she has to have something more going on. Still, it's one of those "it just about does the job of being vaguely worth the time but unmemorable afterwards" films.

The Two Popes

Telling the story of the historical moment when the transition between Pope Benedict and Pope Francis happened, this is an intriguing look at two men whose lives are wrapped up in spirituality and in politics, whether they like it or not. For much of its length, it's almost a play, with the two in constant dialogue as the Argentinian Cardinal Bergolio visits Pope Benedict planning to resign, only for their conversation to twist again and again, as they talk about everything from soccer and Kommissinar Rex to notions of sin, poverty and their guilts. Director Fernando Merilles opens it up by moving us around Benedict's various domiciles, taking us on a deep dive historically into Bergolio's background, and top-and-tailing with two papal elections, with writer Anthony McCarten providing a lot of fairly sharp dialogue to go with the visuals. It's quite satisfying to watch two actors of the calibre of Jonathan Pryce and Anthony Hopkins going head to head - both playing somewhat differently (Pryce brings an open emotionality and a sweetness (and a reasonable Argentinian accent), Hopkins closed and sly and inqusitive (and not particularly bothering to sound Austrian)). It's surprisingly funny and gets under your skin in a way you probably aren't expecting and, as a non-catholic, I enjoyed myself hugely.

Best of the 2010s - 2018 - The Shape of Water

Another of the "I've already reviewed this on this blog" movies (linked at this link here). This is, I suppose, the official "oh, the Academy awards are not completely full of it the way I like to pretend they are" film, because dammit I love this film, a beautiful story of two outsiders finding each other, and finding people around them who protect them. Having said that, the Academy awards of course are complete bullshit for not awarding Richard Jenkins for this, because dammit he utterly broke my heart here. I said at the time this is definately Guillermo del Toro's best English language film and possibly his best overall, but I'd first have to rewatch this, "Pan's Labyrinth" and "Devil's BAckbone" next to each other, and then possibly die from an overdoes of movie perfection. But it'd be a good death. 

Best of the 2010s - 2017 - The Florida Project

This one I've already reviewed on the blog (at this here link here) but it's worthwhile talking about again as an extraordinarily piece, mixing elements of doco and drama in director Sean Baker's inimitable style mixing professional and non-professional actors in a piece about people living on the edge of poverty and sometimes falling over, against the background of the ultimate in American leisure. It's beautiful and sad and funny and outraging. Willem Dafoe slips into the cast mix as naturally as every other performer, and this builds to a climax both hopeful and devastating in the temporary nature of the joy it provides.

Best of the 2010s – 2016 - Hunt for the Wilderpeople

This was my introduction to what Taika Waititi can do – his mix of poignancy and humour, with surprising moments of visual flair. It’s the story of Ricky Baker (Julian Dennison), a boy who doesn’t quite fit in, rejected by most of his foster homes. Finding warmth and acceptance with Bella (Rima Te Wiata), albeit slightly less with her husband Hec (Sam Neill), he’s then shattered when Bella dies, and flees into the bush. Hec follows but injures himself, and the two have to find their way back out, in the meantime realising their bond.   It’s simultaneously a small scale story of a boy and a man finding a reluctant kind of family, and an epic road movie as the two trek across New Zealand. And it’s a warm comedy with an underpinning of connections lost and found again.  It also has the shoulda-been-an-academy-award-winning “Ricky Baker” song, and is one of those films that lugged my jaded self into a sense of warmth and adoration. 

Ford v Ferrari

This is in many ways a meat-and-potatoes "Dad" movie - two guys get together to achieve something historic during the 1960s, the only female character of note is one of those men's wife who's job is to stay home and react while her man goes out and does things (possibly with a "you shouldn't be doing these things" speech somewhere along the line), there's some tertiary figures blocking them from making their achievement, and the climax is them finally making that historic achievement. It's a very familiar formula by now.

The thing is, though, that it can still work, and here it works pretty damn well. I am usually bored shitless by car racing and it's a tribute to the craft of this film that I wasn't bored by this - there's enough twists and turns of the narrative to keep hold through a two and a half hour running time. And both Damon and Bale as the two men in question are at peak performance - Bale hasn't had this much fun in a role in years. There's an obvious subtext here about the relationship between two men looking to innovate and the Ford Motor Company's preference for production line success, and it's not exactly difficult to extrapolate it. And in supporting roles there's strong work from Tracy Letts and Jon Benthal as the Ford execs, and, dammit even Caitriona Balfe (who, to be fair, has a somewhat better wife-role than a lot of the ones in films like these - the relationship between her and Bale actually feels real and lived in, rather than just a dramatic device).

For a film I was expecting to be vaguely adequate, this exceeded my expectations quite a lot.

Judy and Punch

In any given year, it sometimes becomes inevitable that films become paired together, and for various reasons, "Judy and Punch" made me think of it as a companion piece for "The Nightingale" (both Australian, both vaguely historical, both featuring violence against women and children, both directed by women and featuring Damon Herriman). But this is somewhat different tonally - more in the territory of dark fantasy/comedy,  the historical era is deliberately undefined, and what we get is largely in the territory of an interrogation of the traditional Punch and Judy show and the dubious morals that lie beneath it. Wasikowska and Herriman both give great performances (Wasikowska with an emerging righteous anger, and Herriman with a weasel-esque cunning), and writer/director Mirrah Folkes manages a tricky tone that manages to take the subject matter seriously while still keeping eccentric and dark comedy. It's a fascinating piece that is worth catching.

Marriage Story

This is the acting powerhouse to beat this awards season - telling the story of a couple who are divorcing and how their best intentions to keep things gentle and well mannered for the sake of raising their kid together slowly fall apart as the things that broke them up in the first place start to bubble over. Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson are both simply outstanding as the couple in question, as they start to delve deeper into their desires and their emotional fragility, and tear into both themselves and each other. As the various lawyers,  Laura Dern, Alan Alda and Ray Liotta all have great moments to shine, and there's terrific support particularly from Julie Hagerty as Johhansson's mother. If I wanted to issue minor criticisms it would be that Randy Newman's score is occasionally a little intrusive, and the representation of New York's avant-garde theatre community is a little odd, but ... this comes together so well it feels petty to bitch.

Charlie's Angels

This is kinda disappointing - as someone who really liked the first "Charlie's Angels" film and thought the second had its moments, this kinda falls flat. It largely has to do with script and direction here - things just generally fail to be fun and frivolous, and there's way too many plot complications and comedy-that-doesn't-quite work. Kristen Stewart does pretty damn well here (there's a whole separate movie here which is basically "Finally Kristen Stewart gets to have fun") and as the other two Naomi Scott and Ella Balinska have their occasional moments (Scott as a tech-nerd pulled into helping the angels when her company's project turns out to have evil consequences, Balinska as the serious-minded ex-MI6 agent), but the film generally fails to take advantage of the three women getting to play together as a team - the plot setup has them as a team coming together over the course of the mission rather than as the well-oiled team we remember from previous entries, and there's never really a moment that they snap into place and become something solid, so their team bond is more something we're told is happening than something we can see. It's proof that making a fun bouncy piece of nonsense is harder than it looks.

The Irishman

This is a case of a film where it's reasonable but it could be so much more if it just was tighter or better focused. This isn't a film in a hurry to get anywhere which is ... fine, but it does mean we get a lot of conversations that are rather circular (actually, a few of them feel like bad improv class where nobody's quite ready to call "Scene"). DeNiro's been an actor who's been somewhat uninspired for roughly a decade, and this is him in clumping mode. There's stronger support from Pesci (who plays in a quieter mode than his 90s heyday but is quite good at quiet menace), Pacino (who is, admittedly, slightly in scenery-eating mode as Jimmy Hoffa, but he does at least bring the film to life when it's getting a bit aimless), and, surprisingly, Ray Romano (who's very good at shifty-lawyering). There's some strong scene-to-scene work here but there's also an overload of gangster-plots-and-counterplots which aren't all particularly clearly presented, and there's an overlong anti-climax after this reaches the point where we were all expecting this to go. Also the anti-climax does feature some of the weirdest casting, including a small role for Action Bronson, and a priest being played by a priest which explains why he's so awkward with his dialogue. Honestly, the main reason to see this in a cinema rather than wait for Netflix is that the cinema seating will probably keep you paying attention to the screen rather than allowing you to zone out. Having said all that ... this is not a bad film, it's just an indulgent film and Scorcese has done better, fairly recently.

Doctor Sleep

For a movie that doesn't entirely have a sensible reason to exist and has a plot setup that is kinda odd, this is quite reasonable. And I'm aware that probably comes as slightly lefthanded praise, but ... this isn't really any sensible kind of sequel to "The Shining", so much as a "Stephen King wanted to write a novel about a psychic kid and the older psychic who mentors her in battle with other evil psychics, and realised he already had a psychic kid from a previous novel thirty odd years back". Mike Flanagan's film does an interesting job of managing to combine the concerns of the sequel novel, the original novel AND the very much altered film that Stanley Kubrick did of the original novel to make something that, if it doesn't exactly have the depth of the original, does surprisingly well. It's definitely nice to have Rebecca Ferguson as a very active villain after she spent most of "The Kid Who Would be King" stuck in a tree, and there's striking visuals that are all this film's own work in the middle third. There is a weird stoppy-starty energy in the first third before the various plot strands come together, but once this hits the ground it does it running and works pretty well.

The Report

The story of how the senate committee study of the Central Intelligence Agency's Detention and Interrogation Program was put together and released does not, necessarily, sound like the stuff of cinematic dreams, so much as a CSPAN marathon for those seeking a good snooze. But for those of us with a politically wonkish bent, or if you realise this is about the CIA's torture of prisoners, it suddenly becomes a fair bit more interesting, and helps to explore a fair chunk of how the last two decades of international policy have gone down.

It is still mostly a bunch of men and women sitting in rooms talking about documents for a fair chunk of time (though there are flashbacks to show some of the more egregious moves made during the torture program - not graphic, but effective) - but fortunately this is an interesting bunch of people. Adam Driver's career civil servant drawn more and more into his work as he first prepares then has to defend the report; Annette Bening as Senator Dianne Feinstein, head of the committee trying to release it; and a fine set of supporting actors as well. This is probably not going to be everybody's cup of tea - it is very much a "how the sausage is made" approach to political maneuverings and that's not for everyone. But for those of you who are into it, this is definitely something to delve into.

Best of the 2010s – 2015 – The Dressmaker

Two of the best female performances of the decade (Kate Winslet and Judy Davis) in a film that smashes genres together with ruthless abandon, this kinda delighted me. I understand the objections people have to it (there’s some, ahem, very exaggerated performances around Winslet and Davis), and a third-act twist definitely pulls the rug out from under its audience in a way that won’t necessarily make this a crowd pleaser. But the combination of great frocks and ruthless vengeance is utterly up my alley, with writer-director Jocelyn Moorehouse absolutely achieving her aim of making, as she put it, “Unforgiven with a sewing machine”. It teeters on the edge between deliciously camp melodrama and ridiculous stupidity, and for me it triumphs – though this is the kinda tightrope where I can imagine plenty loathing it (well, I don’t need to imagine it, I’ve read the alternate opinions, and … well, for me they just plain don’t get it or don’t want to get it.

Best of the 2010s - 2014 - Frank

A particularly sideways view of the music industry, “Frank” looks at a band attempting to make it, who in many ways are not entirely sure they agree on what making it means anyway. Is it the art? Is it material success? Is the attempt to combine both inevitably disastrous? And is creating art a kind of madness that can never really be brought under control? We see it through the point of view of Jon, a struggling songwriter who gets involved with the Sornonprfbs, an experimental band led by Frank, who constantly wears a papier-mâché mask and is clearly the genius of the group.  As they struggle to record an album, Jon begins to document their work on youtube and twitter, but as they gain a fan following and are invited to the South by Southwest festival, can they hold everything together, and is the public embrace really what they want?

The one-two punch of this and “Room” made Lenny Abrahamson one of the most intriguing directors of the 2010s, and Domnhall Gleeson as Jon has been one of the most interestingly chameleonic performers of the era too (pretty much every role I’ve seen him I’ve been surprised that it’s him – there’s no standard-actor-tricks that make me predict what he’s going to show up as next). And Michael Fassbinder as Frank has a role that allows him to escape from some of the more dour roles he’s been in for the last decade – there’s a kind of melancholy whimsy in the role that sits between sorrow and childish glee. I know for fans of the real Frank Sidebottom this anti-factual treatment of his career might not be what they’re looking for, but it’s a fascinating film that I adore, and having seen plenty of supposedly factual biopics of musicians that entirely miss what their work was really about, I think I prefer something like this that captures the spirit and vibe.

Best of the 2010s – 2013 – Pitch Perfect

Okay, if I had any credibility going, this should by rights throw it out the window. And yes, “Pitch Perfect” was a 2012 release in the US – but it’s a 2013 release in Australia, which is where I am. And yes, 2013 was the year of “Gravity” and “12 Years a Slave” and, probably, another dozen films that should in qualitative terms precede this one.

But this is the one that I enjoy the most, and would most eagerly return to watch again. It’s fluffy as hell, it’s silly, occasionally crossing the line into the ridiculous, only blemished by a love plot that doesn’t really work at all (sorry, Skyler Astin, you’re just kinda creepy, and there’s a reason you’re barely in the sequels). It’s a friendly tale of female bonding and finding delight even where you think you’re not going to, as a girl enters into a college campus acapella society, wrestles with its strictures and rituals, before finding ways to find her own voice and stretch her abilities. It’s unashamed to be ridiculous, to be sexual, to be sometimes a little gross  - and it’s unashamed to reach for the pure joy that is pop songs. And a bit of pure joy is always welcome.

Best of the 2010s – 2012 – Cabin in the Woods

The setup is achingly familiar. A disparate group of five college students head up to a cabin in the middle of nowhere. There are dark portents that they ignore, and when they descend into the basement, they discover a plethora of strange objects, and a dark curse on one of them leads to horrific consequences.

Except, of course, this isn’t quite that simple. This is a self-aware age, and the mechanisms behind the ritual teenage carnage get explored in depth as events play out and get more and more out of control. “Cabin in the Woods” remains a pure ridiculous entertaining pleasure, even down to the pavlovian glee of seeing something else spectacular show up with every “ding” at the end of the film. (and yes, I’m trying to avoid spoilers despite the film being 7 years old because, dammit, this is still a film that is fun and surprising and I would never ruin anybody else’s joy in discovery unless I accidentally did). And it’s weird and witty and playful and just a little bit thoughtful. It’s for anybody who’s ever loved horror movies or who wants to know why other people might love them.

Terminator Dark Fate

When a series has rebooted as often as this has (after the canonical first two films, the four follow up films (including this one) and the follow up TV series all ignore each other and recast key roles), it’s clear there’s still some residual affection for the underlying property but no actual idea how to take it forward in a way that captures the public imagination. And, alas, this one seems to be doing the same, based on box office. Which is a pity – if nothing else, this has a couple of the right instincts – in particular, it’s the first time since Terminator 2 that Linda Hamilton is back as Sarah Connor, and she absolutely owns the screen. And the format’s back to something simple – two visitors from the future, one hunting someone key in the present day, the other assigned to protect them, and a whole lot of chases and destruction going on around them.

In some ways, this would be easier to take if it was a wholesale reboot – neither of the key returning actors (Hamilton or Schwarzenegger) are really that vital to the plot, and the trio of MacKenzie Davis (as future rescuer), Natalie Reyes (as the target) and Gabriel Luna (as the terminator) are pretty solid as performers. And this is largely a reboot –the threat is renamed, the plot-forwarding figures are new, and the only things that are hanging around pretty much are Hamilton and Schwarzenegger, and Sarah Connor’s past. And this does bear the hallmarks of something that several writers worked on – there’s a lot of ideas, but none of them are dwelt on enough to entirely have enough weight. Also the CGI suggests a slightly rushed production schedule – there’s moments of slightly rubbery action as digital stuntmen jump in to do what humans can’t. But still, this works out as making a good case to be my third favourite Terminator movie. Which puts it ahead of three other movies, but still … isn’t quite enough.

Pain and Glory

I think I have an issue with late Almodovar, which it’s taken me a while to recognise. He always had a melodramatic streak, but I used to enjoy the slightly extreme, far-fetched nature of the actions, whereas now, everything seems kinda reasonable and regulated and lacking in broader surprise. It’s not … bad, per se, it’s just very tasteful and not, for me, particularly engaging. In this case there’s at least 50% of an engaging story here, as we flash between a contemporary filmmaker looking back on his past, and his childhood – the childhood story has a nice arc to it and resolves in an interesting way, but the modern day story feels very bits-and-pieces. Some of the bits and pieces are pretty interesting (Antonio Banderas certainly knows how to hold a camera’s interest) but I never quite felt involved (it may be that “films about filmmakers who aren’t making films” isn’t a genre I ever particularly go for). There’s occasional playful moments but it never quite adds up to as much as I was hoping.

Balloon

During the cold war, large numbers of people attempted to flee East Germany to get to the west. Two families managed the feat in a balloon across the border, stitched together at home and flown at great peril the necessary few kilometres. This telling of the story plays largely as a procedural thriller, starting with a failed attempt that leaves clues behind for the secret police to follow – and we follow both the family and the secret police investigation, as the tracks get ever closer.

This is reasonable without being excellent – for some reason, I found the families at the centre a tad bland at the beginning of the film, though they develop as things go along, and tension builds pretty well, although the outcome is never really in particular doubt. Director Michael Bully Herbig has a background in sketch comedy and perhaps he overcorrected here as this plays very straight-down-the-line – this could probably use a little more humour, dark or otherwise. The climactic flight has a fair few thrills (albeit at the threat of stretching credulity – it’s difficult to buy that the escape was quite this narrow), and all round this is a reasonable film without ever quite driving me to full excitement.

Zombieland Double Tap

It’s been about a decade since we visited Zombieland, and the principal four are all back, coping with both the evolving threats of the undead (as new types of creatures, some harder-to-kill than others) and their own internal tensions. But when they’re suddenly separated, a road trip to find one of their own leads to a few new surprises, not all zombie related.

Yeah, this is pretty much second-verse, same as the first. The four leads are still mostly pretty charming (although Jesse Einsenberg’s shtick is feeling a little tired) and there’s a few decent additions along the way, but as plotting goes this uses the road-movie structure as an excuse to throw ideas at the screen that wouldn’t really have the staying power to motivate a whole film but which could entertain for about five minutes. It does wind up being slightly less than the sum of its parts, but as amiable time wasters go it’s reasonable – though very much dependent on the charm of its cast and how you feel about hanging out with them a bit more.

Ready or Not

Marrying into a wealthy family can be plagued with difficulty. For Grace (Samara Weaving), the ceremony seems to have gone fairly well. But that night, there’s a little family ritual that has to be gone through. It seems for the Le Domas family, every new family member has to play a game by drawing a card from a special box. And if that game turns out to be hide and seek, the results are particularly deadly, with every other family member looking to hunt down and kill her before dawn. But Grace turns out to be a much more cunning opponent than the family expects, and events start to escalate as the hunt takes out more than one unsuspecting victim…

This is a dark comedy with a macabre sense of glee, and a genially ruthless way of treating its cast. Its main interest is in playing out variations on the central situation, as Grace avoids perilous death by inches as she works her way around the maze-like mansion, and it becomes increasingly apparent what the penalty for the family might be if they don’t succeed. In a year that’s seen a lot of not-very-subtle metaphors for the shaky groundings of Capitalism, it’s another one, but as a gory frolic (as Weaving’s pristine lace wedding gown accumulates more and more debris), this works quite well. There’s a varied supporting cast, mixed between actors-whose-careers-have-been-quiet-a-while (Henry Czerny, Andie McDowell, Adam Brody) and interesting actors who are less well known (most noticeably the guy who plays Donny, the suburban clone’s husband, in Orphan Black). So recommended for anybody who wants a romp with a bit of gore.

Blinded by the light

Gurinder Chadha’s had a pretty good run of gentle examinations of immigrant life in Britain as two cultures intersect, the traditional one full of expectations and restrictions and the modern-facing world offering potential freedom but also a loss of connection with the past. Best known for “Bend it Like Beckham”, her latest film trades football for a Bruce Springsteen fixation, trades a contemporary setting for 1987’s Thatcherite Britain, and deals with a Pakistani boy rather than an Indian girl. It’s still a fairly feel-good story of finding your place in a world balanced between tradition and modernity, in this case showing a bit of bravura filmmaking as Javed gets more and more engrossed in the words and music of Springsteen and his themes of escape and transcendence.

Admittedly this isn’t wildly unfamiliar – but there’s an irresistible energy and enjoyment here that keeps things rolling, and while it’s a personal story it does know how to break out enough to find interesting places in the lives of its supporting cast, whether it be the socially-aware girlfriend, the traditionalist dad going through an employment crisis, the best friend left behind by this newfound passion, or even the sister who finds her own method of rebellion. This is a very solid film that’s only real drawback is that it’s nothing particularly new or different – but it does what it does pretty darn well.

Best of the 2010s – 2011 - Attack the Block

Joe Cornish’s sci-fi-action-thriller takes a simple premise (hoodie thugs versus aliens in a London tower block) and complicates it by giving us a messy array of characters to contend with. We’re introduced to the gang at their most brutal and uncaring – teaming up to rob a sympathetic nurse (played by future Doctor Who, Jodie Whitaker). And their behaviour when they first meet an alien is to beat the everloving snot out of it. But once more aliens show up and they’re outnumbered and running from the monsters, we start to get a sense that maybe there’s more to these kids than just the brutal facades.

It probably helps here that the main kid, Moses, is played by John Boyega, who’s since showed his immense charisma in Star Wars, and here gets to slowly peel back the layers of a largely silent kid til we get to see what's going on inside him. And it helps that lets the aliens be genuinely menacing – in some ways, they’re not the most obviously scary creature design (they’re basically shaggy gorilla suits with glowing eyes and teeth – looking something like the creatures on the side of an old “Space Invaders” machine) but they’re effective and brutal. But it’s Cornish’s direction, that balances the terror, the action, the comedy and the heart, that makes this really work – it’s a highly successful thrill ride that has just that little bit extra to take it over the edge.

Judy

This is one of those films that has everything I kinda hate about Oscar season. It’s a biopic where the facts have been extensively massaged so that we can have simple inspirational moments (rather than the messier nature of reality), more interested in a lot of dramatic posing than in necessarily constructing a balanced informative narrative. With Rene Zellweger representing Judy Garland during her last run of concerts in London towards the end of her life, this hits some of the key points (the pills, the inconsistent performances, the gay worshippers, the creepy fourth husband), and gives Zelwegger a chance to show off her dramatic talents and some true star power. It also has multiple scenes of transparent bogusness (in particular the finale) and some very clunky writing (in particular in the flashbacks to young Judy’s years as a child star at MGM).

But dammit, Zelwegger really works in this role, particularly during the scenes where Judy’s on stage. They shouldn’t work, and their accuracy is variable (the Judy we see is nearly always presented as a consummate performer, hitting every note and electric on stage, barring one disastrous hostile audience – while in reality, Judy’s final concerts saw her cancelling frequently or stumbling off-key through a shortened set). But dammit, she’s magnetic and stunning and the film deliberately holds off the one big song we’re all waiting for til the end. In some ways this feels a bit like the recent “Stan and Ollie” – a beloved entertainer on the skids playing the UK under the sponsorship of Bernard Delfont – and like that film, it’s better as something to show a magnetic performance (or in the case of “Stan and Ollie”, two great performances), than as a particularly historically accurate or skillfully made film. It’s blatantly emotionally manipulative, bogus and with some very clunky writing. It’s also got a performance that really works and almost holds it all together by force of will. How much you like this film will rest on to how much you let the latter overwhelm the former.

Best of the 2010s - 2010 - Four Lions

With the decade ending I thought I’d run a series of retro-reviews in for my favorite new film I saw in each year of the 2010s. The first couple of years of the 2010s I must admit I’d slightly stepped away from film, so there’s a couple of big name films that are probably incredibly important that, for one reason or another, I just didn’t see in that year. But these ones I did. And they’re an interesting mix, and, if you want to diagnose me or my taste or the decade via those, I won’t object.

Anyway, my favourite film of 2010 turned out to be “Four Lions”, Chris Morris’ comedy about four muslim terrorists and the disasters that befall them. I was kinda knocked out by this – by any rational standards this is not a film that should work – the causes and implications of Muslim terrorism are complex, historic and deeply difficult to resolve – but by cutting straight to their humanity, their fallibility, their goofy male bonding – and making their folly an incredibly understandable folly (it’s not that they’re crazy so much as that they’re human), Morris succeeds at making a funny relatable film. And there’s pathos and there’s vast degrees of humanity and a firm understanding that it’s our human folly that will destroy us rather than any some vast unknowable network of evil. It’s a film that does something that should be impossible, and it does it without falling into the traps of sentimentality, or simplifying, or silliness or bitterness or lecturing. It’s inexplicable how this film works except that, somehow, it does. I’d known Chris Morris from his work in the late 90s/early 2000s as a brutal satirist. I didn’t know he could combine that brutal satire with incredible humanity and soul – that the hardest thing about knowing all this is seeing how people end up dying anyway. I was also going to note it’s a pity that the great performers from this haven’t become better known – except that the two leads are Riz Ahmed and Kayvan Novak – the first is pretty damn well known now, and the second has been working pretty constantly in the UK and is now in the US “What We Do in the Shadows” series. So that’s nice.

Hustlers

Films about exotic dancers don’t exactly have a top-notch history – your “Flashdances” and “Strip Tease” and “Showgirls” generally tend to substitute bumps and grinds for plot and interesting characters. “Hustlers” is a rare exception, partially because the true story it tells is legitimately interesting beyond the environment it’s set in, partially because it’s a film almost entirely populated by women and with very little interest in just offering cheap titillation to the audience (though the titillation when it is required is indeed fairly lively). The action starts in the late 2000s, as a struggling young woman starts exotic dancing to support herself and her grandma, learning tips of the trade from the older Ramona. After leaving the business for a failed marriage, she returns to find the financial crisis has dried up the usual sources of income, and slightly more devious methods become necessary.

Ramona is the kind of role we’ve been waiting for Jennifer Lopez to have for around 20 years (ever since “Out of Sight” showed there was a powerhouse performer here who just needed the right script). She’s tough but tender, rough and ready and incredibly intriguing. Constance Wu as the ostensible lead is never quite as fascinating, but she has a few moments as the student develops her own skills. The rest of the supporting cast also keeps things moving pretty well, as this develops into an unusual kind of crime story where capers pile up until everything shifts out of control. There’s a little bit of political underlining at the end, but in general this is a really thrilling, fun, stylish female-centric comedy-drama-crime-thriller kinda film that is way smarter than it initially looks.

The Dead Don't Die

Jim Jarmusch’s visit to the Zombie movie genre is, as is to be expected from Jarmusch, not exactly typical of the genre. It’s a bit of a Jarmusch love-in, in fact, with a bunch of people he’s worked with before (most notably Bill Murray, Adam Driver, Tilda Swinton and Steve Buscemi) as various small-town types facing a small-town zombie apocalypse in a reasonably lackadaisical manner. It could reasonably be argued that this is, perhaps, a little too lackadaisical with nobody really all that fussed about the end of existence as they know it, and, indeed, this isn’t particularly committed to any level of reality beyond enjoying itself in a somewhat perverse manner. Swinton probably gets the highlight by getting a character who stockpiles every eccentricity Jarmusch can think of – she’s a Scottish morgue attendant who’s also a dab hand with a katana – while Murray and Driver lightly kvetch as a pair of local police who are, perhaps, a little too aware of the unreality of the film they’re in. There is one decent idea that means that the splatter is kept down to a minimum – Jarmusch’s zombies just emit a bit of dust as their combatants go about the business of decapitating them – and the very idea of casting Iggy Popp as a zombie does seem like enough genius to not matter that not a lot is done with the idea beyond just having it happen.

This is more a gentle goof than something Jarmusch seems particularly invested in making (for something a bit more heartfelt, his previous film “Paterson” is probably more your speed), but it’s harmless doodling.

Scary Stories to tell in the dark

This is a slightly odd movie as sits in a weirdly in-between audience level – it’s basically designed as young-audience horror movie, but it’s a little too intense for the very young and, perhaps, a tad too childish for teens who can seek out more adult horror fairly easily. Based on a popular-in-the-US series of children’s books, it has a very keen sense of design, and a plot that is designed to lead from horror-set-piece to horror-set-piece (and it tends to peak in the set-pieces and flail around a little when getting from A to B). It’s got a nice pseudo retro set up in the late 60s though this sorta seems to stop mattering as much later on, and some reasonably generic teen leads who get involved with a mysterious book that writes out horror stories that seem to lead to deadly fates for each of them. The design for a few of the horrific creatures have a nice feel to them, and it does play somewhat in the same retro-kids-horror field that throwbacks to the Amblin 80s films in the same way the recent “Goosebumps” and “The House with the Clock in its Walls”, without quite capturing the go-for-broke energy that either of those did. Probably this is really just for design geeks and those who want a not-too-demanding time.

Joker

An attempt to give a backstory to a character who probably doesn’t need one, “Joker” gives us a very late-seventies-early-eighties-New York looking Gotham City, as failing, mentally damaged party clown Arthur Fleck (Phoenix) is battered by society repeatedly until, one day, he shoots three stockbrokers who are teasing him on the subway. As the local reaction to his act gets ever louder, his confrontations with his past and present condition grow ever deadlier until everything boils over in an outpouring of violence.

This has all the clothing of a serious movie – the gritty setting, Phoenix’s deep immersion in the character, grim photography, an avoidance of the glossy excess that has marked other Batman-related films. But it also trades in so much ambiguity as to what’s going on inside and outside Fleck’s head that in the end it never really says anything at all clearly beyond that traumatised people pass on trauma. In particular, the Robert DeNiro sequences rely on some fairly unlikely plotting just so the film can pull off a not-very-successful “King of Comedy” riff – and the tie-ins to Batman mythology tend to be messy and reaching for relevance. I don’t believe in this grimmer-than-grim take on existence any more than I believe in other superhero fantasies happy-go-lucky take on things, and the main difference is that this is less fun and more ponderous. So no, this is not a film I particularly went for.

Birds of Passage

There's been a reasonable number of films about the drug trade in Columbia. But a lot of these tend to be city-based, and often playing with Americans falling afoul of the cartels or else caught up in their activities. "Birds of Passage" is different - it takes place entirely within the Native American Wayuu people, with outsiders barely involved, as an increased involvement in the drug trade sees traditions challenged or ripped apart as the individuals find that their children lose respect for tribal traditions, and the spiritual practices that have sustained their people fall apart.

IN some ways, the details of this are somewhat familiar - people enter into the trade thinking it is going to be an easy path to fortune, only to find greed and individual betrayal creates cycles of violence that destroy them. But playing this against a wildly different culture gives this both a radically different set of visuals and a different energy - and it's something that emerges as a strength of the piece that it's never just about these characters, but also about their connection to the culture around them. There's a little bit of a gradual start here as this isn't entirely concerned with holding a western audience's hand while we walk through the culture - beliefs and concepts are discussed as they are practiced, with us left to understand that these are important to the characters even if we haven't been filled in on the details of how they work or what they mean. It's a fascinating film that is well worth catching, both as a very different take on the drug crime film, and as an exploration of a community that we don't get to see much of.

Fantastic Fest 2019

Another year, another Fantastic Fest. 8 days, 37 movies, plus associated craziness, Q and As, a chance to interact with directors, cast, crew, and to dive into a whole bunch of genre cinema (which is to say - action, crime, thrillers, horror, sci-fi and fantasy), cinema dedicated to making sure your pulse is racing and your eyeballs and soul are engaged. This is not the festival to go for deep long contemplation of a disintegrating middle class marriage - unless that disintegrating marriage is also being attacked by enraged demonic bear. Which is not to say that it's an intellectual void - just that this is cinema that knows that a metaphor is sometimes stronger for being accompanied by something mindbendingly weird or disgusting.

This is my third go at Fantastic Fest,and I am going to take a break next year for personal reasons (rushing away to the other side of the planet for a film festival every year is fun but it does mean, this year and next year, leaving my husband, currently studying, alone at home for a little too long). I will be back, though! If you want to hear me (and two other guys) talking about the festival and my favourite films (including a probably quite self-indulgent rhapsody about one particular film), I also got a chance to record as part of the Movie Bears Podcast wrap on Fantastic Fest, which you can hear at this link here or else by picking up the 2019 Fantastic Fest episode of the podcast wherever you get your podcast feeds.

Otherwise, here's a summary of the 37 films I saw, plus a coupla extras at the end where I saw films that were showed as part of the fest outside the fest (one before the fest, and two after). 

Film 1 - Jojo Rabbit - a sweet funny occasionally heartbreaking story of a 10 year old in Nazi Germany. I giggled cried and enjoyed greatly. 4

Film 2 - First Love - boxer gets mixed up with the yakuza, a corrupt police conspiracy and a drug addicted prostitute in a Takeshi Miike movie with all the usual violence. Has a few too many subplots and doesn't always pay them off in order of least to most interesting, but there's a heap of entertaining violence and plans going haywire. 4. Film 3 - happiness of the katukuris - sweet natured family tale of guesthouses, sudden deaths and dance numbers. It's sweet and strange and a little silly - but also not quite focused. I suspect a Shinto parable about death is in here that I don't quite get. 3 Film 4 - the black pit of doctor m - Mexican 1930s horror about a psychiatrist who gets a dying friend to send him a message on what lies beyond death, but a surprising daughter, a few bottles of acid, some easily shatterable doors and an insane gypsy ensure things get complicated. It's... an okay sample but doesn't transcend it's type and is a little slow. But there's nice shadowy sets and it has its moments of thrills. 3 Film 5 - Prey - 1977 alien versus 2 British lesbians- another of its era but I think I like this set of cliches better (particularly the bitchier controlling lesbian Jo, and the slightly naive carnivorous alien. So it's a 3.5 Film 6 - the true adventures of wolfboy- A hairyfaced 13 year old receives a birthday present that will send him on a journey that is scary, emotional, inspiring, heartbreaking and amazing. I kinda loved this one - it plays the outsider tropes interestingly and with a few new spins. And there's a great payoff and a strong soundtrack. John Tuturro's slightly hammy performance is the only thing keeping this from being a 5. 4.5 Film 7 - Color out of space -Nick cage movie from the not-actually-the-director of the Marlon Brando version of island of Dr moreau about a meteorite that affects a farming family. It's strange, looks like nothing I've ever seen, drew me in, was occasionally incomprehensible and astounding. I'm tempted to dive outside all known ratings scales and give this a purple out of five. But it's a 4.5 Film 8 - rock, paper, scissors - three Argentinian siblings are reunited after the death of their father, but the one who left is held behind by the other two's increasingly desperate behavior - this was too slow and not sufficiently surprising to hold attention in a midnight slot - there's nothing here that hasn't been seen elsewhere, and it's not committed to its gruesome aspects enough to hold attention. There is a nice guinea pig in it. 2 Film 9 - Cosmic Candy - a Greek supermarket clerk obsessed with a favourite snack becomes entangled with a young girl left alone in her apartment building - a sweet study with a suitably troubled core as the woman with arrested development finds her way - with some suitably weird dream sequences. 4 Film 10 - The long walk - a Laotian timetravelling ghost story - this is a slow-burn of a film (though there is good payoff) and if you have a specific theory of how time travel is supposed to work then this probably breaks it, but it's a strong emotional experience about regrets and attempting to fix the past. 4 Film 11 - Jalikattu - an escaped bullock ignites havoc in a small Indian village as the men compete to stop it. (incidentally, this isn't Bollywood, it's Malayalam, which is india's fourth biggest film industry) - This is a case of a film that is overstuffed and uneven as hell (there are a LOT of men arguing, in a lot of subplots, and not all of these really serve to deepen the film so much as pad it out) but it's completely redeemed by a couple of moments near the ending, particularly one image that shows the power of obscure Indian cinema having access to vast armies of extras who don't appear to care about oh&s. It's unsubtle but it's a 4 Film 12 - the pool - a Thai art director sticks back after a commercial shoot at a soon-to be decommissioned pool. But when it's drained while he's resting he finds himself unable to get out... and that's just the start of his problems. A classic "how much can we Fuck over the protagonist" film that keeps tension going for the full runtime (give or take a gratuitous pizza hut plug. Thoroughly enjoyed how this played the audience. 5. Film 13 - butt boy - after his first prostate exam a man begins inserting more objects inside him - first everyday household implements, then pets and people... in some ways this is an overgrown student film and seeing it at a screening with overenthusiastic friends and family of the cast and crew wooing and over giggling was not the best environment, however I give it credit for playing the ridiculous premise straight, and going as far as it goes. The acting is variable and it has longeurs in the middle but it has a suitably ridiculous conclusion that earns it a 3.5 Film 14 - memory origins of alien - look at some of the historic, mythological and sociological background to the 1979 film - a nice deep dive that I liked better than the same directors' "78/52" - the wider focus means this isn't running on quite as narrow a groove and while Alien has been heavily analysed this still finds a few new dimensions. 3.5 Film 15 - The platform - in a Spanish pit, two men are held as part of something part punishment, part experiment. Must admit this one where I'd forgotten why I picked it beyond that I'd given it a reasonable appraisal based on the description a month ago, and I liked what I got, but part of enjoying was the discovery. It's an unsubtle metaphor but it goes all out with it so it's a 4.5 Film 16 - Fractured - bog standard thriller about guy whose daughter has an accident and he takes her and his wife to hospital only for sinister things to emerge - this kinda fails to surprise and foreshadows it's alleged big twist in the first 10 minutes, leading to a distinctly dull experience. This is a 1.5 cause... I dunno, it's in focus Film 17 - secret screening 1 (of 2) - dolomite is my name - the story of Rudy Ray Moore, musician turned comedian turned blaxploitaition cult figure - ridiculous and hilarious with great soul and a great heap of good performances. It's a warm hug of a film - the only downside, perhaps, is that it's such a loving tribute to the cult figure that it never really tries to consider whether it matters whether his work is any good. 4 Film 18 - why don't you just die - matvei is a twentyish Russian meeting his girlfriends father for the first time. He's brought a hammer with him. In five minutes he will swing it. A lot of blood follows. An extreme gorefest with just about enough plot to tie together the splatter with a ruthless sense of very Russian humour. There is a little plodding in the middle as plot plays catchup but enough twists and reversals to make this a solid 3.5 Film 19 - happy face - a Montreal support group for people with facial deformities is disrupted by a young man who has no deformities but his own issues - an engaging story about finding a community among outsiders - it does have a little bit more "inspiration porn" moments than I'd really like but there are enough moments that play against that to complicate the case that it overcomes that. 3 Film 20 - Patrick (not the Australian one or the other Australian one) - in a Belgian nudist colony, Patrick is the son of the owner and general handyman. When his hammer goes missing a quest begins that will discover a lot is hidden. Oddball charactepiece that gives a lot of nude Belgians plus a minor role for Jermaine Clement, it's nice enough but not something I flipped for. 2.5 Film 21 - secret screening 2 of 2 - The lighthouse - isolated in a lighthouse two men fall prey to their rivalries, paranoia, superstitions and nature's forces - a tense gripping piece as Robert Eggers again shows why he is in the race for best contemporary horror director (the battle is so strong between him, Are Aster and Jordan Peele that I can't call it. It's a triumph. 5. Film 22 - the lodge - in the wake of their parents divorce, two kids spend the days before Christmas in an isolated snowed in lodge with dads new girlfriend. This goes about as badly as it can. Rather blah, with only some weird religion baiting keeping it vaguely endurable. 2 Film 23 - Wrinkles the clown - a documentary about a Florida clown who parents call to scare their children, this is as much about urban myths and how they spread in the YouTube era as it is about the titular clown. There's also a twist that changes the tale a little. It's still a little rambly at 78 minutes but has enough to get to 3.5 Film 24 - ride your wave - anime about a girl who surfs, a firefighter and what draws them together in a love story that squires weirdness along the way. Loved it. It justifies some fairly extensive song plugging and goes to some decently odd mental places - it's more in the modern teen emo phase of anime rather than the Miyazaki clones, but it's a superior example with a insane climax that is simultaneously surprising and completely prepared for. 5 Film 25 - Swallow - a young woman has a rich husband and the perfect house. But then she decides to swallow a marble. And then other objects and things begin to unravel. A solid psychodrama - it slightly becomes a different film in the last 20 minutes but it wasn't a badly wrong different film. Though some of the swallowing scenes did cause me to have my own sympathetic gag reflex. 3.5 Film 26 - iron fists and Kung Fu kicks - doco about the history of Kung Fu cinema and how it's rolled out across the world - it's a solid fun doco with a lot of good angles on its subjet (it does have some curious pacing, though -trying to trim everything into 100 odd minutes while giving enough time to properly cover, say, Bruce Lee, does mean that some elements are whooshed through - not necessarily retaliatory but fun. 3.5 Film 27 - scream, queen: my nightmare on elm street - documentary about the complicated legacy of nightmare on elm street 2 and what happened to its young lead, Mark Patton - it's an important and interesting story about homophobia and the early aids era and survivors - it's also probably ten to fifteen minutes too long as it sorta reiterates a few too many points. But still a 3.5 Film 28 - synchronic - two paramedics encounter a new designer drug and suddenly it's effects hit close to home - low budget sci-fi largely playing with ideas - the main visual effects work is a good distinctive approach - with decent character work thrown into the mix. It's a 3.5 Film 29 - the death of dick long - three Alabama friends hang out practicing for their crappy band but when one of them dies and the other two try to cover up the circumstances mistakes quickly accrue - a little bit of an Alabama Coen brothers movie about men who Fuck up and the women who clear up behind them, with one suitably squicky twist. I found it funny and odd and with a strange mix of compassion and inevitable justice. It's probably a 4 Film 30 - Wyrm - wyrm has typical adolescent problems, like squabbling with his sister, dealing with his weird uncle, the death of his brother and the school requirement to kiss someone for thirty seconds to get the mandatory collar removed - a good variant on coming of age with an interesting take on societal expectations - good mix of humour and melancholy. 4 Film 31 - Dogs don't wear pants - a Finnish doctor starts visiting a dominatrix after seeing her while getting his daughter a piercing, and their limits both get stretched - fairly intense as it goes along with two look away from the screen moments but also good at giving both leads chances to be a lot more than just their fetishes. 4 Film 32 - Saint Maude - a young nurse who's recently had a religious conversion starts caring for a dancer but her obsessions take over from the care - grows in effect strongly, and Maude is one of the great nutso roles. It is a bit clunky in setup but pays off well. 4 Film 33 - Guns Akimbo - after annoying the runners of an internet death tournament by his online comments, a guy gets two guns bolted to his hands and is the next target in the tournament. Loud, over the top action with New Zealand doubling for anonymous US city, it's basically pantomime with guns, and rises or falls on how you respond to the dumb. Annoyingly it doesn't quite have enough variety of setpieces to sustain that level of dumb, but it still kept me awake for my seventh midnighter in a row, so it gets a 3 Film 34 - Phil Tippet Mad Dreams and monsters - doco about the seminal stop motion designer and his professional transition post the Jurassic Park CGI revolution - a nice summation of a key effects designer of the modern era - perhaps a little bit authorised biography but it's still strong. 3.5 Film 35 - koko-Di-koko-da - a Swedish couple post bereavement are haunted by three mysterious figures who recurringly assault them while they're camping - this is one where i appreciate the personal and individual vision but it's not quite for me - I don't know if it's just that I didn't find the people engaging or that the brutality is a bit nihilistic or that the earwormy tune is kinda a lot. 2 Film 36 - The Whistlers - an international crime gang who communicate largely in a Canary Island whistling language are infiltrated by a Romanian cop - this has a couple of interesting noir moments but most of the time is pretty by the numbers familiar. It does score with some nice soundtrack bits. 3 Film 37 - knives out - a fun old fashioned country house murder mystery with a new fashioned political side to it - it plays with the form in tricky ways, and remains fun and invigorating throughout - 4.5

Films that showed as part of the festival but I saw outside it:

I'd already seen Parasite, which showed in Slot 36, and was somewhat strongly tempted to again (particularly as director Bong Jon-Hoo was going to be present for a Q and A) - never the less, it is currently my film of the year and I'm glad it went over well with everybody I knew. If you want to read my write-up, it's at this link bit here..

Lyle (2014) showed as part of the LGBTQIA+ horror sidebar (that also included films above "Scream Queen" and "Prey") - it's an effective lowbudget thriller about two lesbians who move into a new york apartment with their daughter only to discover sinister things are brewing. It becomes apparent what horror myth this is tied into partway through, and due to the brief running time, there's perhaps one or two interesting angles that do get skipped, but it's still pretty effective and worth catching.

The other film in the sidebar was a 35mm print of "Nightmare on Elm Street 2" (the main subject of "Scream Queen") - it's indeed an oddly messy sequel that's more interesting for its subtext than necessarily what's going on onscreen, (and the final confrontation kinda doesn't work at all) but there's some good sequences in here (the opening moments, for instance, and a not-bad building paranoia) in among the messiness.

The Kitchen

This is one of those "there's major problems with this film but I liked a lot of it anway". It's a 70's gangster saga set in Hells Kitchen as three women whose husbands are sent to prison find that the Irish Mafia that is supposed to look after them instead patronises them with a pittance, and therefore start their own challenging movement against it. The three leads, Melissa McCarthy, Tiffany Haddish and Elizabeth Moss are all pretty damn solid - McCarthy in dramatic mode at this point is often a better bet than she is in comedies, Haddish gives serious Pam-Grier-in-her-Prime vibes, and Moss enjoys a chance to embrace a bit of mild sociopathy. It does feel like someone in the studio has chopped about ten-fifteen minutes worth of character development (particularly apparent in the early stages, as the plot does a couple of big leaps in very little space), and there is a slightly uncomfortable vibe, particularly early on, that this does buy into some of the self-justification of protection rackets (that you're "looking after" people) - but there's scenes I love in this, particularly when the three get a chance to play against actors who are at their level like Margo Martindale and Domnhall Gleeson. It's a weird one where I like the details even while I'm not sure the outline entirely works. 

It Chapter Two

Back after its surprise success two years ago, "It: Chapter Two" picks up the other half of Stephen King's megasized novel, looking largely at what happend to those seven kids from Derry and how they have to come together again to fight the strange evil that takes the form of Pennywise the Clown. And, as it was a surprise success and the sequel was not guaranteed the last time, some of the bits of adaptation that were skipped last time around kinda have to get squeezed into this movie instead (meaning we do get a fair few flashbacks for more of the kids), leading to a slightly bloated runtime and a fair chunk of doubling back.

I must admit I didn't mind that as much as I might have - I enjoyed the first "It" but probably only have the vaguest notion of what went on beyond the broadest outlines (seeing around 200 movies between these probably helps with the vagaries), and I didn't find it to be the mindblowing horror experience some did so much as a good kid adventure story with horror elements. The present day elements don't always work (about half of the adult versions actually have something interesting to do, and having each split up for introduction and for an individual scare sequence each means we do have to spend as much time with the more boring ones as with the interesting ones), but there's a couple of good new sequences here, some good meta-comedy here with writer Bill (James McAvoy) being constantly told "you need to come up with better endings" - up to and including that rare thing, an entertaining Stephen King Acting Cameo. Bill Hader and James Ransome tend to steal all the best moments between them (Jessica Chastiain is slightly sabotaged in that her most interesting scene was used for the trailer, and the rest of the film tends to just use her with the personality type "girl"), and the climax is a bit of a random runaround with a monster rather than something really interesting.

Yet somehow, I didn't hate this, and I didn't begrudge it the longish running time. If, yes, the prologue probably doesn't tie into the rest of hte story as much as it should (and while it was indeed something from the book, hell, most of the book has been rethought in line with a timeshift from the 80s to the 2010s, why not rethink and reframe this bit too), and in the end Pennywise is more a great concept for a monster than necessarily a great monster, it still works, dammit, as a bigscale horror adventure story - just, perhaps, not the genre redefining one that some hoped it might be.

Angel of Mine

This Australian thriller is an odd beast - partially because of its imported lead (Noomi Rapace, still struggling to find a role anywhere near as interesting as the original Swedish "Girl with the Dragon Tatoo"), partially because of its odd focus. It's the story of a mother who's lost a daughter, and when her son meets another boy, her encounters with the other boy's family means she encounters their daughter and becomes increasingly convinced that she has a connection to the daughter.

The main problem, for me, is that this never really convinces as anything other than a teetering mountain of contrivances. Everybody seems to have taken a solid thumping with the idiot stick, taking actions that bear little resemblance to anybody. Yes, loss and mourning can cause obsession and pain, but this isn't written with any particular empathy or emotion so much as a cheesy thriller idea, and it's not quite prepared to play that with the verve or enthusasm to make the unlikliness of the exercise fun in itself, or with the delicacy and insight to make this a valuable serious drama. Instead, it's just sort of ... sludge, dawdling its way towards an unlikely finale. Of the other supporting actors, Yvonne Strahovski and Richard Roxborough do the best they can with their not-particuarly-developed characters, while Luke Evans does a fair bit less as a dull lump of wood in a suit. Not at all recommended.

Amazing Grace

In 1972, Aretha Franklin recorded her first gospel album, “Amazing Grace” at the New Temple Missionary church – over two nights with the backing of the Southern California Community Choir with a live audience. The album became the best selling live gospel album of all time and the biggest selling of her career. Director Sydney Pollock also filmed the recording sessions, but due to not using clapperboards, it turned out to be impossible to sync sound and vision for general release (as far as I can tell, Pollock never made another concert film). In around 2010 producer Alan Elliot managed to sync the film, and planned to release it, but Franklin sued to prevent the release and it was delayed until now, a few months after her death.

This is an uneven piece of work. The footage is pretty raw – constantly slipping out of focus, zooming around the space often distracted by anything shiny going on at the time (the second night’s footage, with Mick Jagger in the audience, is particularly prone to just occasionally showing “hey, here’s Mick Jagger” – although it is nice to see visual prove that Charlie Watts, sitting next to him, smiles sometimes). And Franklin is shown physically sweating fairly constantly, and she has virtually no banter or action between songs – she’s just there to sing the songs. But she’s still extraordinary, and this is a document of an extraordinary performance. I occasionally complain about singers who go for every note except the ones that are actually in the songs – but with Aretha, everything is forgiven when she sings. She’s got a voice and a presence that commands attention, and everything that is significant about this film is due to her. And on the plus side, there’s not a lot of faffing about getting in the way of her – it knows, most of the time, to sit the camera down and just watch the extraordinary happen. So, on that basis, recommended. Because for whatever reasons, cinema never used Aretha Franklin very much (it’s basically this and two songs in Blues Brothers movies) and any chance to encounter her has to be cherished.

The Nightingale

Jennifer Kent’s follow up to “The Babadook” is a bigger scale film set in 19^th century Tasmania, as an Irish convict, freed but still working for the officers who run the settlement, falls afoul of one of them, subsequently seeing her husband and baby killed and herself brutally raped. Seeking justice or some kind of vengeance, she chases them down as they make the trek from Hobart to Launceston, with the assistance of an Aboriginal tracker, but how far is she really willing to go?

This is, undoubtedly, a brutal film, with some grueling images (particularly in the first phase, but it never quite lets up – some mid-film incidences, in particular, are quite disturbing). But it derives its strength through the various sufferings of an Irish convict woman and the Aboriginal tracker who has his own losses, and Aisling Franciosi and Baykali Ganambarr embody these characters in great depth. Sam Clafin as the main offending officer is painted in somewhat broader strokes, but there’s a desperate self-justification in his actions that mean he’s not an uncomplicated villain – he’s a product of the environment that made him. It’s a rough experience, and no, it is not nearly as streamlined as “The Babadook” was – but it’s worth the watch if you are prepared to take the brutality.

The Farewell

Billi is a Chinese born young woman living in New York, keeping regular contact with her grandmother. But when her family return home to China (ostensibly for a cousin’s wedding, but in reality to see the grandmother, whose terminal cancer is being concealed by the rest of her family), Billi decides to come too. The tension then plays out over the next few days as Billi’s cross-cultural experience, and two very different traditions of grieving, come into play.

This has been praised a lot elsewhere, but I didn’t quite get into this as much as others. I didn’t find much here beyond the bare premise – the acting is fine (Awkwafina, in particular, shows a different, less goofy side to her performances in “Crazy Rich Asians” and “Ocean’s 8”), and there’s some nice footage of contemporary China, but I wasn’t ever particularly emotionally gripped here – it all feels just a little too mild for me. I suspect mileage will vary on this one

Dogman

This powerful drama about a gentle dog groomer who gets dragged into a criminal friend’s circle is anchored by a strong performance by Marcello Fonte as the groomer. It finds individual strength and courage in a grim seaside town in Italy, as Fonte finds himself squeezed by the expectations of his brutish friend, and eventually rebels and finds his own freedom. There’s a glorious gentility to Fonte’s role – his kindness to his daughter and the animals around him and his integrity is contrasted with the rundown town, and how little attention others pay to him.

Director Matteo Garrone shows a strong eye for the unusual beauty in a broken town, and builds tension effectively as the relationship between Marcello and his old friend Simone gradually becomes intractably dangerous. This is a thoroughly effective film (and, no, none of the dogs in the film are harmed or appear in particularly much peril).

Weathering with you

This is the followup anime from Makato Shinkai to his highly successful “Your Name” – and again, it’s a story of a boy and a girl whose lives intersect across magic and natural disasters – in this case, a seemingly set of days of rain, which the girl turns out to have secret powers that can bring sunlight, albeit briefly. Both initially try to market the ability (selling her as a “sunshine girl” online, helping out people who want to have picnics or fireworks displays) before it becomes apparent what using these powers is doing to her – and difficult decisions have to be made…

This is a sweet natured piece, albeit one with some particularly surprising swerves in the finale. There’s familiar anime tropes including the boy who gets embarrassed when he looks at cleavage, the slightly bratty but adorable little brother and the vulnerable magical girl, but there’s a heart and soul to this that makes it still quite engaging. Shinkai has a way of diving into emotional territory in a wholehearted manner that draws on the heartstrings very effectively. Okay, so there’s a little bit of “oh, so THAT’S what’s going on” towards the end, but this is pretty effective as an anime emotion splurge.

Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood

Quentin Tarantino is by this point something who either you like or you don’t. He’s as much a film critic as he is a film-maker, albeit one whose criticism usually takes the form of making a film of his own – and he has got somewhat more self-indulgent over the years, with his films accumulating length without necessarily always increasing in depth. Still, it’s the kind of self-indulgence I like, in this case telling a tale of Hollywood in 1969, just on the verge of the great youth-quake which would see many careers end and a whole bunch of new careers take flight. We see this through three characters, two fictional, one real – Rick Dalton, an actor in decline who’s reduced to small guest spots on TV; Cliff Booth, his old stunt-double who’s largely been cut out of the industry and is left helping out Rick by driving him around; and Sharon Tate, their neighbour, a young starlet on the rise, married to a celebrity director, who’s enjoying the heights of her fame and the benefits it brings. On the periphery are various actors and Hollywood types, and the looming threat of the Manson family, whose path, of course, notoriously crossed with Sharon in August of that year.

Much of the film is fairly leisurely, as we look at two days in January 1969 for the characters, as Rick has a guest shot on a new TV pilot, Cliff picks up a hitch-hiker and Sharon meets friends and sees herself in a new film. The third act, set on that notorious August night, is where everything is leading, but in many ways this is more a film about the way fame winds down. Tarantino’s made a very loud point that he expects his career to end after one more film, and this isn’t a film that is particularly interested in the young turks and rebels (I can imagine if Tarantino made a film like this around the time he wrote the script of “Natural Born Killers”, for example, the Manson element might be a lot more to the forefront than it is). It’s an elegiac story of heroes in retreat, men who start to fear that they’ve become passe or irrelevant. But, and perhaps this is a sign that I’m aging too, I found it pretty compelling, using the talents in particular of Pitt and DeCaprio at their peak – both are better than they’ve been onscreen in a while (pretty much since both of them appeared for Tarantino). I suppose in some ways he’s himself a bit of a remnant of another era, the 90s independent scene that he did so much to epitomise and influence – but dammit, he’s still entertaining.