AICN Downunder: PUBLIC ENEMIES, LAKE MUNGO And That Jeff Goldblum Thing!
Published at: July 3, 2009, 2:32 p.m. CST by mrbeaks
There is absolutely nothing I want to do in Indiana.
AICN-DOWNUNDER
Every year when I sit down with friends (occasionally, I stand with contemporaries or squat with antagonists) to watch the Oscar telecast, we're always forced to watch the pre-show red carpet nonsense. Painful though it is for us, I always -- always -- feel the desire to apologise to any actors or directors or unfortunate passers-by who are assaulted on the carpet by Australian "entertainment reporter" Richard Wilkins. I was, if nothing else, consoled by the fact that his idiotic questions and banal comments were only broadcast here in Australia. At least the rest of the world wouldn't know we'd produced him.
Well, so much for that consolation. That Jeff Goldblum fake death story may not have originated from Wilkins, but he picked up on it and broadcast it live on national television. I immediately received a text message from my brother informing me that Goldblum had died -- his follow up message, incidentally, read "Oh, and Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett".
A quick check on the net made it clear that this was a completely unfounded rumour. Goldblum was filming in New Zealand? Wasn't he on "The Colbert Report" recently, in this hilarious response to Obama swatting a fly, and again a few episodes later in this brilliant follow-up? And three days later he was apparently in New Zealand making a film and falling off mountains? It was possible, but highly implausible. The lack of back-up evidence suggested this was almost certainly rubbish. It took me about fifteen seconds to find this on Google. I wonder how long it might have taken Wilkins? Especially, as the enormously entertaining press watchdog show "Media Watch" pointed out, he had time to edit together a clip reel of Goldblum moments.
This is the sort of crap I expect on the internet. I'm not bemoaning all of the net, of course. I've been both impressed and inspired by the contingent of web film reporters who go out of their way to cite sources, triple check facts, and call out fakery. The net has a bad reputation, and given how much dodgy reporting is out there (and will always be out there due to its lack of self-regulation) such a reputation is well-earned. Particularly as that whole Goldblum hoax begun on the net in the first place. For a professional -- and I'm at loathe to use the word -- journalist like Richard Wilkins to broadcast it without doing any sort of check, and to then, upon finding out it was a hoax, stumble over an ad-lib in which he claims that in the quest to produce the truth in a professional manner sometimes mistakes are made... well, I'm astonished he still has a job. Truly astonished.
Still, good and bad tends to emerge from every situation. In this case, the bad was that Stephen Colbert then broadcast the clip to the world, revealing one of Australia's greatest shames for everyone to see. The good that emerged was that same exact segment, in which Colbert and Goldblum produced what will likely be my favourite moment of television in 2009.
To Jeff Goldblum, I'm exceptionally glad you're still alive. To everybody who isn't Richard Wilkins, I sincerely apologise for Richard Wilkins. We'll try not to let him happen again.
NEWS
And now to an Australian I'm quite happy for the world to know about: Guy Pearce, as was widely reported, will appear in DON'T BE AFRAID OF THE DARK for producer Guillermo Del Toro. The movie is about to start filming in Melbourne, and a significant amount of local media attention is focused on the fact that co-star Katie Holmes is now here with Tom Cruise. Director Troy Nixey makes his feature debut on the film which, so far, looks like that ever-so-rare beast: a horror film I'm really looking forward to.
Screen Australia, the Voltron-esque entity constructed from leftover parts of the Australian Film Commission and the Film Finance Commission, recently capped its feature film investment from a maximum of AU$5 million to AU$3 million. If you're wondering what that sound is, it's US film executives trying to count down to three million. Welcome to the Australian film industry. (Fingers crossed this doesn't affect WOG BOY 2: KINGS OF MYKONOS.) According to Inside Film, this would have meant MARY AND MAX (AU$4.98 million) would have either not been made, or be forced to seek the rest of its budget elsewhere. Given the story is a sepia-toned claymation about an Australian girl swapping pen pal letters with an overweight New York man with Asperger syndrome, I can't see a lot of commercial outlets jumping at that one. And so, as MARY AND MAX is easily one of the best films of the year (Australian or otherwise), this makes me a tad nervous about the future, but also serves to remind me that, for all the mockery it tends to receive, Government film financing does have a very important role to play.
A guy I know was recently served a cease and desist letter for a comment he posted on someone's MySpace page. I think we're going to see a lot more of that in the future, as both plebs and big corporations try to figure out where the line between private discussion and public broadcasting lies. Case in point: Australian indie filmmaker Jonathan Nolan (no, not the DARK KNIGHT one) was putting together a documentary called MERCHANT OF DEATH. Following the announcement of the project in April of this year, posts began appearing on the sites Filmnet and ZGeek completely discrediting Nolan's company (Pisces All Media) and suggesting that the finances had not, as was claimed, been raised. The doco was about Viktor Bout, a Russian arms trafficker, and the money had, according to finance broker Greg Smith, come from Russian and Ukrainian business sources. The comments posted on the sites, claimed Nolan, had spread and cost him the film's budget. He and Smith are now suing Filmnet and ZGeek for AU$2.5 million. Says Nolan: "I'm $2.5 million out. I want that 2.5 million from someone responsible." All of the above, plus the statements from Nolan and Smith, were originated on ScreenHub, which did the heavy lifting on this story. Very interested to see how this whole thing progresses.
H2>AWARDS, FESTIVALS AND SCREENINGS
2009 Melbourne International Animation Festival
Dammit, I was going to go to this. Anyway, the winners of this year's MIAF included THE SPINE by Chris Landreth (Canada) which won Best of the Fest, THE BRONZE MIRROR by Susan Danta which won Best Australian Film, and THE LAST WARHORSE by Susan McMinn which won Best Australian Student Film. The full list of winners can be found on the MIAF website.
DigiSPAA Digital Filmmaking Competition
If you're a filmmaker who desperately needs $15 000 and $20 000 of post-production, then-- Hang on, I'll rephrase: If you're an Australian filmmaker, you'll definitely want to enter DigiSPAA's competition. If you've made a feature film that is at least 70 minutes long, is independently funded, and will be finished by August 31, then you're probably eligible! To enter, I mean. I wasn't casting aspersions on your personal life. Go to the DigiSPAA website for more info.
BOX OFFICE
Amongst the many amusing talkbackers who took issue with me not liking TRANSFORMERS 2 was one crackpot who tried to convince me my review wouldn't stop the film making money. My jaw dropped when I read that! I curled up into the foetal position and rocked myself to sleep that night. You're saying I don't have that sort of influence? Wow. Shocking. But, hey, apparently that brilliant prediction was borne out, with Michael Bay's shitfest taking in over AU$13 million in its first week. Is that a record of some kind? It may well be. Well, can't say I didn't warn you.
Aboriginal elder-cum-actor-cum-heroin addict-cum-cat burgler Jack Charles is revealed in this fascinating-looking Australian doco, Audrey Tautou stars in the sequel to YVES LAURENT APRES SAINTETÉ, the audition process for A CHORUS LINE is released to the big screen (and, likely, the filmed version of A CHORUS LINE will wind up as a DVD extra!), the loose ends left hanging at the end of the TV series DEADWOOD are finally tied up, I really haven't seen this movie, I'm now actually curious to see these ICE AGE films given the positive reviews of the third one, Hugo Weaving escapes angry cops, Hugo Weaving escapes angry filmgoers, and a classic Australian movie (does it qualify as Ozploitation?) gets a digital restoration and re-release.
BASTARDY
COCO AVANT CHANEL
EVERY LITTLE STEP
HANNAH MONTANA
I REALLY HATE MY JOB
ICE AGE: DAWN OF THE DINOSAURS
LAST RIDE TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN
WAKE IN FRIGHT
REVIEWS
LAKE MUNGO
Australian release: July 30 (limited)
New Zealand release: yet to be announced
I don't know why I was so reluctant to watch this. Maybe it's because I have less luck with screeners than I do with films in the cinema. It's a silly distinction to make, but for whatever reason, my expectations were low. It played on a screen beside my computer, where I had a whole bunch of work-in-progress that would hopefully serve to distract me when the film proved to be dull, bad, or both.
It's not my proudest moment as a film critics and yes, I should probably be ashamed of myself, although you'd probably do the same if you'd seen as much well-intentioned dreck as I had. I'm telling you this because it's important to know just how well the film worked to suck me in, not just as a viewer, but as a disinterested viewer who was actually looking at something else.
See, it's one thing to be scared in a cinema with the lights down and nowhere else to look. But to be scared when it's daytime, the lights are on, and you're surrounded by a myriad of distractions... well, that's a pretty impressive feat.
It didn't take along until my attention was exclusively commanded, and I began to wonder: who the hell is Joel Anderson, and how did he get so fucking good?
Joel Anderson is the writer and director of LAKE MUNGO, a horror made in documentary style (I don't want to call it a mockumentary due to the unfavourable images that word sometimes conjures for non-comedies, but I may have to as this review wears on and I run out of euphemisms). So often, the fake doco style is used as a crutch. Ever since THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT, a lot of filmmakers have employed a faux documentary style to cover up (a) a lack of budget, and (b) a lack of talent. So many low budget mockumentaries are rambling, discordant, and completely missing the point of real documentaries. They forget that documentaries actually have strong narratives and little, if any, filler. Documentary makers work extremely hard to craft footage into a compelling story, a fact that did not go unnoticed in the construction of LAKE MUNGO.
The pacing and structure of MUNGO is spot-on. The scares come at the perfect moments, the revelations are flawlessly timed, and the use of interviews, reconstructions, and found footage is neither overdone nor under-utlised. For the most part, the actors are incredibly naturalistic, and actually feel like people giving interviews, rather than actors reciting lines and unsuccessfully attempting to appear spontaneous.
I shall refrain from saying anything else about the film itself, as it should be seen with as little fore-knowledge as possible. When the film finished, I did a search on the net to read up on the movie and see if it had made any sort of splash that had passed me by. Apparently it had: a week ago, the news came out that Paramount Vantage had bought the remake rights, and now plan to remove the mockumentary elements to make it a straight narrative. I see. How subtly can I put this? THIS IS THE WRONG THING TO DO. Unless, of course, your plan is to end up with something akin to BLAIR WITCH 2: BOOK OF SECRETS. The smart thing to do is to allow LAKE MUNGO -- which is so perfectly suited to its style and budget that changing it or throwing more money at it would do anything but improve it -- to exist on its own, and to hand the money you were going to waste on it over to Joel Anderson. Give him a cheque and let him make something new, because LAKE MUNGO is a film made by someone who really knows what they're doing.
PUBLIC ENEMIES
Australian/NZ release: July 30
There are so many Hollywood pairings I don't understand. I'm not talking about celebrity gossip (I have a useful filter in my brain allowing me not absorb about 94% of that nonsense), but more professional coupling involving directors I admire that usually does the director no favours at all.
I'm talking Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe. I'm talking Ron Howard and Akiva Goldsman. I'm talking Michael Mann and digital cinematography.
The biggest, most overt letdown of PUBLIC ENEMIES is how truly awful it looks. Now, I'm not against digital cinematography. I think in the right hands, it can be used well. I adore the Earthy grittiness of Steven Soderbergh's BUBBLE, and I love how rich and -- dare I say it -- filmic David Fincher's THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON looks. I have no particular bias towards the various digital formats, yet I can't escape the fact that Michael Mann's films have looked uniformly ugly since he switched. PUBLIC ENEMIES is no exception.
Once I got past the flat visuals, I found a fairly flat film underneath it. Now, I'm not going to completely pan the film, because I can't specifically name anything (outside of the photography) that I disliked. But nor can I name anything I particularly liked.
It's weird, because all of the elements get a big tick. Johnny Depp? Tick. Christian Bale? Tick. Marion Cotillard, Billy Crudup, David Wenham, and the entire rest of the cast? Check. A film about John Dillinger and Baby Face Nelson and J. Edgar Hoover? Big check. Michael Mann? Check.
See, I actually do really like Michael Mann. Ever since the crime operatics of HEAT (one of my favourite examples of beautiful cinematography, actually), I've been eagre to see everything the man makes. Looking over his filmography, I think it's HEAT that gives him a free pass in my memory, the same way DAS BOOT blinded me for years to the fact that Wolfgang Peterson hasn't made a good film since DAS BOOT. (Okay, I love NEVERENDING STORY, but to include it would ruin the rhythm of the previous sentence.) And I keep going into Mann films with a sense of excitement, knowing that this will be the film that puts him back on top. Except COLLATERAL did absolutely nothing for me. And MIAMI VICE was truly flat, with no highs or lows to speak of.
PUBLIC ENEMIES is much the same. All of those amazing elements Mann brought together do not add up to anything of note. Depp, Bale, and Cotillard do their best with character who go through the motions, but never connect. You have the scene where John Dillinger seduces Cotillard's Billie Frechette, but you never feel any emotional connection. You never feel like Dillinger experiences the elation he says his lifestyle gives him. You never feel Bale is particularly driven to catch Dillinger, nor that he is, say, doing so because of pressure from above. There's no real investment in any character motivations.
There's one scene in particular towards the end that is supposed to be Cotillard's big emotional moment, but it feels like it's been directed by Lev Kuleshov. Aside from a couple of tears that stream down her face (as if someone squirted saline solution into her eyes before the cut), her face is completely motionless. Not in the stoic way that suggests she's holding back a river of emotion, but in a bored way that suggests she's looking at a beige wall. I don't mean to pick on Cotillard -- I was one of the few who correctly predicted her 2008 Oscar win for LA VIE EN ROSE, largely because I thought she was so damned brilliant -- but this scene is perfectly indicative of the entire film: there is a large blank space where there should be emotion, both from the characters and from myself as an audience member.
It's not specifically bad -- it's just a big straight line without any peaks or toughs that fails to engage me in any way at any point.
DVD REVIEWS
LEMON TREE (Region 4)
The film: I'm absolutely positive you can remember my 2008 review of this film. You've probably got it memorised word-for-word, but for the sake of going through the motions, I'll refresh your memory. This was one of the films I walked into during the 2008 Melbourne International Film Festival without any prior knowledge, and it turned out to be one of the festival's most pleasant surprises. I was eagre to revisit on DVD, and I'm pleased to say it's just as good on a second viewing, perhaps even better. The film follows a Palestinian woman whose new neighbours are the Israeli Defence Minister and his wife. Selma (the Palestinian widow played by THE VISITOR's brilliant Hiam Abbass) owns a lemon grove, which the Defence Minister's security team insist must be destroyed because it could easily conceal terrorists. As Selma tries to protect her lemon grove, the Minister's wife watches from the window with what appears to be a growing sense of sympathy. So, think you've got this film figured out? Think you know all of its twists and turns and can pick all the clichés it will inevitably resort to? Yeah, so did I. LEMON TREE knows exactly what clichés films such as these dip into, and it navigates around them, presenting a beautiful character piece that avoids cheap sentimentality in favour of a terrific and engaging story.
The extras: Nada. Zip. In the region four edition, all we get is trailers for other movies. (I'd like to mock them, but IN THE SHADOW OF THE MOON looks truly amazing.) Nicely designed menu, but it's disappointing there's no commentary.
Should you buy it: In a yes/no contest, I'd lean towards yes, but I know this film won't be for everyone. I'd suggest renting it first to see what you think, but as I can't really see Blockbuster stocking up on this title, you probably should pick it up. It really is very good, and its purchase will remind retailers that we are actually interested in seeing intelligent, well-crafted foreign films, regardless of where they come from. And in case your wondering, nothing in the film is as heavy-handed as my previous sentence.
NEXT WEEK
- Megan Fox to star in Diablo Cody's sequel about a possessed cheerleader who is now obsessed with killing large-nosed Oscar-winning actors, JENNIFER'S BRODY
- Joseph Gordon-Levitt a surprise addition to HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS, playing new slacker teacher Professor Mumblecore
- Ed Zwick reunites Daniel Craig, Liev Shreiber, and Jamie Bell for a film about Jewish brothers hiding in the forest to escape the 2008 economic meltdown, in quasi-sequel DEFINANCE
