Stands not within the prospect of belief.
AICN-DOWNUNDER
So I wasn't having the greatest of days today. I was tired and stressed from work, and the light at the tunnel of my end was going to be the 5pm screening of 13 (TZAMETI) at the Melbourne International Film Festival. So I'm running a bit late as it is, and my friend gets out of the car to get us coffee. The coffee place is closed, so he goes ahead to the theatre to see if there's coffee there. There isn't. He goes inside to see the film. I miss it.
At 5:10pm, I'm still stuck in traffic. Even at peak hour, Melbourne traffic isn't this bad. When I reach Flinders Street, I see the problem. A bunch of police and traffic cones and so forth telling me I can't go the way I want to go. I get to the cinema at 5:40pm, and obviously I don't go in. Instead, another friend (who missed the film for the exact same reasons) go and get coffee.
Turns out the problem was a strike undertaken by the taxi drivers of Melbourne who decided to block traffic in the busiest part of the state until Premier Steve Bracks met with them to discuss driver safety following the death of a cabbie earlier this week. Now, I'm not totally indifferent to their issue. My father is a taxi driver, and frankly the issue of taxi driver-related violence scares the crap out of me. However, I'd have thought that the best way to get the public on your side was not to cause massive traffic problems in the heart of the city at peak hour. It certainly made me feel passionate about cab driver violence, but I was starting to come out in favour of it.
Anyway, I finally reached home where I have forsaken well-earned sleep to bring you the poorly-transcribed news of this week. Or you can just skip the bottom where a group of talkbackers will completely misinterpret this editorial and claim that a possible murder got in the way of me seeing a film. No matter what you choose to look at, I promise it might be mildly entertaining!
NEWS
We're scant on news this week, so before you start to wonder why I bothered putting together a column this week, I thought I'd throw my two cents on this Neill Blomkamp fellow whose first film will be the indie talkfest HALO. Personally, I found it a bit exciting when this announcement was made. I mean, if this guy was picked, he has to have something going for him, right? And if he hasn't made a feature film yet, and none of know what that special thing is, then frankly I find that a little tantalising. Onto the actual news, in his interview on AICN, Blomkamp was coy when asked about the Master Chief's face being exposed, so I'd like to reiterate something one of my NZ-based sources told me a few weeks ago: Bungie is still in control of the design elements, and the Master Chief will not be removing his helmet at any point during the film. Not even when Cortana (as played by Denzel Washington) insists that she can only be saved with a kiss. And aren't you glad I made that last bit up?
Black Magic noticed that IMDb has Craig Hall (from the upcoming NZ films THE FERRYMAN and THE WATERHORSE) as a possible cast addition for Sam Raimi's vampire flick 30 DAYS OF NIGHT. He'll be playing Wilson Bulosan, which means very little to me after a search through internet resources on the graphic novel turned up squat.
Australian filmmaker Jonathan Adams has made a short film called 10 MINUTES, and has just cut together a trailer for it. Ironically, the trailer itself is feature-length. No, that's crap, but the trailer itself is anything but. The film is currently being entered into festivals around the place, but in the meantime he suggests you check out the easily-downloadable trailer at this address.
Instead of taking the much-easier option of resting on its laurels, Dolphin Dance Films moves forward, like some sort of filmmaking shark. Its latest film is NAUSEA, and the creepier-than-I-was-expecting trailer can be viewed here.
One of the few interviews I've conducted for AICN was with Nathan Phillips, who was so alarmingly down-to-Earth I felt compelled to remind him at one point that he was starring in lots of movies. Clint over at Moviehole chatted to him about SNAKES ON A PLANE, and Phillips revealed a bit about REDLINE, an action film that sees him take the lead role. He has some pretty amusing things to say about the film, and has clearly (and thankfully) not learnt the actor's art of waxing bullshit about every project. Read it here.
AWARDS, FESTIVALS AND SCREENINGS
TORONTO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
Is there any room left for non-Antipodean films? After the slew of projects we announced last week, it is now revealed that Ana Kokkinos's THE BOOK OF REVELATION (read my review here!)will screen in the Visions section of the festival next month. This will be the film's international premiere.
LOS ANGELES INTERNATIONAL SHORT FILM FESTIVAL
BLACK RAIN, an Australian short film, will soon be seen at not only the above-titled LA festival, but at the European Film Festival Alpinale in Austria and the International Panorama of Independent Filmmakers in Greece.
AUSTRALIAN FILM INSTITUTE AWARDS
Once and for all, my name is spelled "Latauro", not "Lautaro" or "Latoro" or any variation on that. It's "Latauro". I think that's worth mentioning at this juncture, as the AFI is asking for nominations for both the Byron Kennedy Award and the Longford Life Achievement Award. The festival takes place this December 7, which I will try to keep free if one of you bastards takes the hint.
BOX OFFICE
I feel confident blaming this box office revelation on my friend Mel, who told me she was going to see DUPREE. Genuinely curious about whether we were talking about the same film or not, I asked her if she honestly thought it would be any good. She said no. I remain dumbfounded as to how females work, especially given the grief I've been getting over my loathing of THE LAKE HOUSE. At least we agree that Johnny Depp is dreamy, so it all balances out.
1. YOU, ME AND DUPREE
2. PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN'S CHEST
3. HOODWINKED
4. THE LAKE HOUSE
5. THE SENTINEL
RELEASED THIS WEEK
Kim Ki-duk completes his IRON trilogy, a film that should not (by any rights) work is possibly the best thing you will see this year, and Mann commands Foxx.
3-IRON
BRICK
MIAMI VICE
REVIEWS
And the theme for this week is: Australia! Fitting I should get around to it after three-and-a-half years writing a column named "AICN-Downunder". The first two reviews are from yours truly, and the second is from "Simon A", who freely admits to his inability to come up with an interesting screen name. Enjoy!
MACBETH
Reviewed by Latauro
When we ran the first review of MACBETH back in June, it was pretty negative. It painted a picture of a failed experiment, and despite the positive things I'd heard from people who had seen an early cut, I was worried that it wouldn't work.
It works. Not completely, mind you. In fact, the big sticking point with most Shakespeare adaptations is the fidelity of dialogue, but it's the film's biggest crutch. The moment the witches started talking in the beginning, I sunk into my seat. When the gangsters appeared and begun spouting the Shakespearian dialogue word-for-word, I realised that this would not work. Australian accents are a very, very difficult thing. Very few non-Australians get it right, usually resorting to cockney or a bad Steve Irwin impression. The thing about the Australian accent is that it's suited mainly to a casual conversational tone. It's why I believe we're almost incapable of making a good drama or sitcom; the conceits and formality of a sitcom/drama construct do not suit our accents, and scripters invariably end up writing for American accents (watch "Neighbours" if you want proof of this... but maybe you shouldn't). "Mother and Son" notwithstanding, the only good sitcoms we've made have not been sitcoms at all: "Frontline" and "The Games" were both done in a mockumentary style, feeding off the casual nature of our speech patterns. (Stay with me, I'm going somewhere with this.) Our accents tend to falter when given rigid dialogue and there are not many plays that are as constructed, syllable-by-syllable than Shakespeare's works. The imabus he uses is not for the sake of it; you can set a metronome to most of his soliloquies.
That is the biggest problem with Geoffrey Wright's MACBETH, but unless the film was made in England, there's not much that can be done about it. After a while, however, I settled into it and the actors seemed to improve as it went along (which doesn't make any sense unless it was shot chronologically). Many of the lines still fell flat but I think it's something that you can get used to if you really want to.
At the moment, I'm selling the actors short a bit, so I should probably mention how much I was actually impressed with the performances. Sam Worthington plays the title character, and with the exception of the odd moment here and there, he nails it. Macbeth's never been my favourite character, but Worthington hits all the right notes. Everything from the level of manipulation versus his own ambition, to his eventual descent into a non-Hamlet-imitating madness is played brilliantly. I really, really didn't like the film SOMERSAULT, but kept watching because of the performances of Abbie Cornish and Sam Worthington. This is the film that should propel him into the public eye, or at least a high profile film.
Victoria Hill, who impressed me only days ago in HUNT ANGELS, plays Lady Macbeth (not to mention co-adapting the play with Wright). Aside from the running motif of the last two Australian films I've seen (Victoria Hill taking baths... not that I'm complaining), I was quite surprised by her performance. Lady Macbeth is one of the great female roles of all time, and it's usually played by someone who spends the running time completely aware of this fact. It's very easy to get away with rampant overacting, and it's easy to forgive in such a role, but what impresses is seeing someone playing the person instead of the legend. She's not the cunning manipulator who is horrifically and dramatically overcome by a sudden bout of guilt; she's already lost from frame one. I'm usually suspicious when the integrity of a character's entire motivation is changed in a Shakespeare adaptation, but in this case they made the absolute correct choice (if you're familiar with the play, you'll know when you see it). I hadn't heard of Victoria Hill on Saturday morning; three days and two films later, I'm convinced she's one of the best talents in the country right now.
Most people only know the name Lachy Hulme in relation to a casting rumour that didn't pan out. When MACBETH is released, this will change. His Macduff is every bit as impressive as Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, and he goes for the empathy instead of the sympathy. You don't root for him because of the injustice that was done to him and his family; when he stares down the lens, or weighs up the value of someone's life, or puts his arm around Banquo's son, he earns his role of virtuous antagonist. Hulme correctly plays Macduff as the man who truly feels the weight of the tragedy that is unfolding, centering the film from so far left of field, I didn't see it coming.
We'll be here forever if I go through the entire cast, but nearly everyone from Steve Bastoni to Mick Molloy impresses. There are some moments where a line or a moment rings false, but each actor usually gets another line or moment in which they can redeem themselves. The spirit of the play is captured so brilliantly, you soon forgive any shortcomings.
The real star of the film, however, is Geoffrey Wright. I must admit to not having seen any of his earlier work (I was a bit wary of my own ability to stomach ROMPER STOMPER when it came out, given I was, y'know, eleven at the time), but his work here is superb. I'm not a huge fan of the flashy showiness that Baz Luhrmann displays, and I think this film is a terrific example of how to use extreme styles without overpowering the film. It's brilliantly-constructed, and once you dig deeper beyond the artifice of extreme colours and lighting and angled shots, you discover he does actually understand the story he is telling. I didn't necessarily agree with every character moment he went with, but as I said earlier, the important stuff is there. The themes are given the weight they deserve, and the direction is suitably layered.
Setting the film in the drug underworld is a a bit too easy, however, and part of me wishes they'd come up with something more original. It's the obvious choice, and doesn't really impact too much on the story. Given this, you want to point out that given it wasn't key that they were dealing with drugs, something fresher could have been employed. On the other hand, the fact that it doesn't impact too much allows you to forgive it and move on. The vast majority of the choices made in the adaptation are really impressive (particularly how they interpret the advancing forest), and so the benefit of the doubt is easily given.
MACBETH is a brilliant, thoughtful, and thematically-faithful adaptation. It comes very close to greatness, and surely will feature heavily in our Best of 2006 discussions.
UNFOLDING FLORENCE
Reviewed by Latauro
I knew very little about this film or its subject going in. In fact, I didn't know what its subject was until I flipped through the press notes before the lights went down. The film turned out to be a documentary directed by Gillian Armstrong about Florence Broadhurst, an Australian fashion designer whose murder remains unsolved to this day.
The film is interesting, but takes a few big missteps, and I'll tell you what they are right now. The opening scene introduces us to the fact that Florence was murdered. We're told this by Florence herself via voice over as we see her walk down a Sydney street. Given this happened in the late 70s and the people who knew her are still alive, it seems a strange choice to start with high comedy. The film is told in a bright, comic manner; much like Terry Gilliam's Monty Python work. This is immediately unsettling (clearly not the desired effect) given how morbid the film's beginning is. It comes off as extremely disrespectful, which immediately puts us on the wrong track.
In theory, Armstrong and writer Katherine Thomson had the right idea. They wanted Broadhurst to be remembered for her life rather than her death, and so spend a lot of the film concentrating on her early life. For the most part this works, even if the style is over-earnest and off-putting. Her life is certainly an interesting one, as she appears to experience success in every area of her life. We also get a balanced idea of her character, as her ambition is balanced by her dismissive treatment of those around her. The actresses who play Florence at different stages of her life are all very good; particularly Felicity Price, who, like Victoria Hill, has recently appeared as an Australian actress with exceptional screen presence.
The problem with the well-intentioned approach that Armstrong and Thomson took is that they skim over the most interesting parts of her life. Yes, Broadhurst was best known for her two-decade career designing wallpaper in Australia, but there's not a lot of material there. The desire to make this as significant to her life story as it was to her life (in chronological terms, that is) causes the film to lag a bit in the middle. Her first forty years are given a lot of attention, but could probably stand to be given more; particularly in comparison to the over-long wallpaper segment.
We finally get back to the murder as we approach the end of the film. I understand their reluctance to reach this part of her life (the film seems to grudgingly acknowledge the murder as late in the process as possible), but if they were so concerned with sensitivity, they probably should have excised the voice over where Florence tells us she probably would have walked a bit slower to work if she'd known it was to be her last time! Like I said earlier, it's a bit unseemly, and it makes me wonder why we didn't concentrate more on the mystery behind her death. It's acknowledged by all that knew her, as well as the evidence itself, that she knew the person who killed her. It was clearly someone within the circle of friends, and Armstrong confesses in the press notes that she was hoping someone would say something that would reveal the killer. At one point we come very close (one of Broadhurst's friends hints that she knows who it might have been), but we just don't get the impression that anyone was really pushed to reveal anything. It may not be Armstrong's place to make such accusations or suggestions, but we get the impression that the list of likely suspects is so tantalisingly small, it'd be a shame not to point the finger and totally ruin someone's life. It would probably make for a better film.
UNFOLDING FLORENCE is a fairly entertaining and informative film, but it goes way too far with the wacky animations. It would have been nicer for them to trust the interest value of their subject and to focus on the things that made her interesting, instead of padding the moments that didn't.
2:37
Reviewed by Simon A
Giving too much away here would be criminal, so I'll only tell the first few minutes. At the start of the film, we have the discovery of a body in a high school. We don't see the body, just the blood, but we understand that someone has taken their own life. We then go back to the beginning of the day, where we are introduced to six students at the school. If you were in the shoes of any of these kids, you might consider taking your own life too.
Incredibly, this film was written, directed and produced by first-timer Mulari K. Thalluri at the age of just twenty- he's twenty one now. A Q&A after the film revealed that he based the film on very personal experiences, so it's got the advantage of being both a product of someone with a passion for his story, and just a young, yet-to-be-tainted passion for film.
2:37 is being compared to Gus Van Sant's Elephant. Both feature long following shots, with time constantly overlapping with multiple points of view, and both end in tragedy. Elephant shows kids meandering through the day, bored and disconnected. 2:37, however, isn't light on plot like Elephant- not that this is an attack on Elephant, which I quite enjoyed. The kids here are all at the peaks of occasionally unimaginable crises. We are presented with pretty huge plot twists over the course of the film, although these relevations that aren't quite as unpredictable as they could have been, being minorly foreshadowed early in the film. The two biggest turns in the film I had predicted to some degree, although the friend I saw the film with didn't.
The narrative is interspersed with black and white interview footage of the six students. A lot of the exposition is handled in the scenes, which could be seen as something of a cop-out, but fortunately it doesn't interrupt the flow of the film and allows for some characters to reveal parts of themselves that wouldn't be seen otherwise, with the film having such a limited timespan.
Quality of the acting varies. Melody, played by Teresa Palmer, probably fares the best here. She resembles Abbie Cornish and is perhaps just as fantastic an actress. Charles Baird, as "Uneven" Steven, is also great, and will break your heart. The weakest actor is Frank Sweet, son of Australian TV star Gary, who himself appears briefly as a teacher. Sweet the Younger, however, has the most difficult character to work with. Marcus is a slightly awkward, extremely academically focused boy, pressured by his father (unlike his sister Melody, who is ignored) but there's more to his character than this, making it a very difficult role to play. I'll also make special mention of Clementine Miller as Kelly, a character with relatively little screen time, who judging by her performance here deserves to have big things coming her way. All of the actors were inexperienced when they filmed, so even the weaker performances can't be faulted too heavily.
And now for a complaint I never thought I'd make for a film: 2:37 has too much swearing. Or perhaps it's not that there's too much of it, it just often seems randomly placed in the film, f-bombs interrupting the flow of the dialogue far too often. Now, I love a good swear, I really do. But all the characters here overuse it, and this is probably where Thalluri shows his age. The dialogue all over is the weakest part of the film.
That said, this is a stunning debut. The story is brave, the camera moves through the school like a dream, and the whole film, although few experiences would be nearly as melodramatic, really does bring right back what it was like to be at school and to feel completely alone. The film is flawed, without doubt, and perhaps from another filmmaker these flaws would be less exusable, but with the film's background taken into consideration, and the passion for the project that is so so clear when watching the film, I have to give this high marks.
9/10
NEXT WEEK
- Abel Ferrara casts Miguel Ferrer and America Ferrera in FERRARI: THE JAMES FREDERICK FERRIER STORY
- Christopher Nolan reveals he is actually making a feature film of the seven-year-long Australian women's prison TV soap "Prisoner"
- Angelina Jolie, Scarlett Johansson and Lindsay Lohan to star in David Lynch's adaptation of Alan Moore's LOST GIRLS (no real punchline here, I just passed out for a moment)
Peace out,
Latauro
AICNDownunder@hotmail.com
