Archive for April, 2010
RAW – Film – Accidents Happen
Apr 26th
As the opening narration points out, accidents happen and what matters is how we deal with them. Here, the Conway household has been torn apart by a car accident that left a daughter /sister dead and a son/brother in a vegetative state. Eight years on and little has been resolved. Son, Billy (Harrison Gilbertson) takes on all the blame for this and an array of other accidents that go sadly wrong as his mother, Gloria, (Geena Davis) sees her life’s hopes fade. Their neighbours, the Posts, also get caught up in the turmoil to their own significant loss.
Davis dominates the screen in a performance that reminds you of Joanna Lumley. Gilbertson, an excellent young talent, does admirably as the co-star and comparisons to Leonardo DiCaprio at the same age are warranted. Ben Nott’s cinematography is imaginative and appropriate and helps lift what may otherwise be drab suburban house scenes.
Director Andrew Lancaster and writer Brian Carbee deal with the material through both melodrama and acerbic wit. This dual theme approach is both risky but also surprisingly common in Australian family mess-up films of recent years (eg Black Balloon.) Providing audiences with a safe way to endure domestic misery may boost bums on seats but the price is always that the emotional lows and the highs fall short on their impact.
Just why this very Australian film needed to be set in the US is beyond me but otherwise this is fine entertainment.
Kryztoff Rating 3.5K
RAW: Film – Harry Brown – 4K
Apr 23rd
It’s so refreshing to see a veteran star embrace their age.
Michael Caine is admirable in the role of ex-serviceman Harry Brown, a senior citizen living in The Estate: a haven for thugs and drugs. After his wife passes away, and close friend Leonard Attwell is murdered, Harry takes matters into his own hands when he realises the police, including D.I. Alice Frampton (Emily Mortimer) and D.S. Terry Hicock (Charlie Creed-Miles), are unable to help…
Harry Brown is perceived to be a ‘vigilante pensioner’, however there is more to the character. Perhaps the catalyst for Harry’s actions is the death of his friend, but it is clear that he is acting in the best interests of the community living in The Estate.
Frampton: It’s not Northern Ireland Harry.
Harry Brown: No it’s not. Those people were fighting for something; for a cause. To them out there, this is just entertainment.
Fresh director Daniel Barber (The Tonto Woman) paints a realistic picture of The Estate, gritty and unsafe. Hand-held cameras are used to great effect at the start of the film, where instability and unpredictability are quickly established as the norm. Combined with a well-written screenplay by Gary Young, this film engages throughout.
Caine is supported by a great UK cast, including a meek Emily Mortimer, a paranoid David Bradley and an aggressive Ben Drew.
You’ll never underestimate an old man again…
Kryztoff Rating: 4K
For more film reviews from Kryztoff, click here.
RAW: Pomona Road @ Space Theatre
Apr 23rd
This innovative production combines elements of contemporary dance, spoken word and visual projections to portray a family enduring tough times after surviving Ash Wednesday.
Adelaide choreographer Katrina Lazaroff (pictured below) has put together a truly touching show. This is actually the third installment of Pomona Road, finally uniting a family of five. They are established as warring siblings and loving parents through a varied soundtrack (voiceovers and songs) and choreography that connects with the average person. As the plot unfolds, unresolved tensions seem to rise to the surface, as do questions relating to child abuse and alcoholism.
Katrina Lazaroff
Martial arts have also influenced this piece – and are particularly useful when expressing frustration, anger and violence.
Nic Mollison also should be applauded for creating realistic projections of the forest, the bush and the city. The main set piece constructed by Richard Seidel is unexpectedly versatile.
The 60 minute production appeals to more than the typical fan of dance as a genre – this emerging style of ‘documentary dance’ engages anyone with an appreciation for the arts.
Pomona Road is only running until 24th April 2010 at Space Theatre – see it while you still can!
>>> For more on the Arts around Adelaide, check out Kryztoff: Edition 12.
RAW: Film – Beneath Hill 60 – 5K
Apr 16th
This Australian film tells the previously untold true tale of Aussie tunnel experts, led by Capt Oliver Woodward (Brendan Cowell), chosen to create and detonate bombs under no man’s land to German positions in order to advance the Allied cause. Their ultimate target, Hill 60 in Belgium, a German stronghold, is the scourge of advancing troops. When and how to detonate is the key to maximise the damage but against them are atrocious conditions and the Germans’ own attempt at closing the mine down (if they can find it.)
Directed by Jeremy Sims and written by David Roach, this is a gripping drama superbly scripted and acted. The claustrophobia of not only the tunnels but also the trenches themselves, the ever present danger and constant pounding on both the land and the minds of the soldiers and the importance of silence underground amongst all the mayhem are all brilliantly executed. The staples of WWI Australian dramas are all there, ordinary men from all over brought together, young and old fighting side by side, idiot generals and basic heroics are as well dealt with here as in Peter Weir’s Gallipoli.
Depicting action below the ground was a new twist and the closing church scene was as chilling and moving a representation of the lingering horrors of war as any.
We can sit through things like Pacific to see us represented as likeable yokels in US stories or we can watch our own productions – about us, for us. Like the aforementioned Gallipoli and following on from the recent and excellent Kokoda, Beneath Hill 60 is a valuable Australian film that deserves recognition in the Australian consciousness long beyond its running season.
Kryztoff Rating: 5K
See more of Kryztoff‘s film reviews here.
RAW – Film – The Book of Eli
Apr 14th
Filmed for the most part in silver monochrome and deep in atmospherics, The Book of Eli, covers surprising Hollywood ground – Christianity. Washington gives an excellent display as does Oldman. The pace of the film is somewhat laboured but held together by Washington and some good old fashioned violent sword and gun fights – the opening stoush in silhouette is great. The fact that this is not a by-the-numbers type of script is an added bonus though there are moments in the closing quarter hour that undermine the credibility of the whole for just being silly.
Kryztoff Rating – 3.5K
RAW – Film – Girl With Dragon Tattoo
Apr 7th
After losing a high profile libel case, Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist) is plucked out to investigate the disappearance of Harriet Vangar 40 years after her disappearance. His search is aided by Lisbeth Salandar (Noomi Rapace), a punk, cyber geek with a troubled past who had been tracking through hacking his investigations. Mayhem and intrigue follow from there through the depths of a Swedish winter.
Based on the book by Stieg Larsson (the first of a trilogy), Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is a violent but engrossing and entertaining thriller with plenty of twists and turns. Rapace is terrific and increasingly steals the show as her character’s dysfunctional past and present get revealed. The many, often conflicting, facets of her personality get well drawn even if by the film’s end we feel we don’t much know her still. The Blomkvist character lacks development as to his motivations and history but together they make an engaging team who by one means or another come to understand how the other works best.
At 2 ½ hours, viewing could have been a struggle but the pace and tension is sustained, the cinematography is superb and the violence, while at moments graphic, adds meaning to both characters and story rather than being gratuitous. At times, the story does rely on big time coincidences that make you feel you are watching Law & Order – Criminal Intent but one quickly is moved on to see how it all plays out.
Those who have read the book may find the treatment unsatisfying but such is always the case with films drawn from novels, especially complex ones. But as a standalone film, this is a high quality thriller justifying its moniker as Nordic’s highest grossing local movie.
Kryztoff Rating 4K
RAW – Film – MicMacs
Apr 7th
This French farce features Bazil (Dany Boon), a man who lost everything after being hit in the head by a stray bullet from a gangland shootout. Out on the street, he befriends a loving but bizarre mix of characters from the underworld who inhabit a house of all sorts of equipment collected over the years from the waste of others. They include a contortionist (Julie Ferrier), Slammer (Jean-Pierre Marielle) an elderly ex-con and Buster (Dominique Pinon) as the former human cannonball record holder. Together with Bazil they plot, as revenge for his wound and the loss of his father to landmines, the downfall of arms dealers that happen to occupy offices across the road from each other by playing one off against the other.
This highly inventive comedy directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet is a feast of strange characters, a vivid imagination and the triumph of the little guy over the institution. Boon is an amusing character but it is his circus friends, especially Elastic Girl (Ferrier), who make his task as lead so much easier with eccentric performances that don’t allow real world probabilities to intrude into the plot. At all stages, the scenes are chock full of detailed items of interest and manic behaviour.
Filmed in a golden hue against overcast skies, Micmacs is both of this time (President Sarkozy is identified as a friend of one of the dealers) and of anytime; a trip into a nice dream that is part Mary Poppins and part Bruce Willis.
With a script and sub titles that are tight, this is an excellent escape flick.
Kryztoff Rating 4K
RAW – Girl With Dragon Tattoo – 4K
Apr 4th
After losing a high profile libel case, Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist) is plucked out to investigate the disappearance of Harriet Vangar 40 years after her disappearance. His search is aided by Lisbeth Salandar (Noomi Rapace) , a punk, cyber geek with a troubled past who had been tracking through hacking his investigations. Mayhem and intrigue follow from there through the depths of a Swedish winter.
Based on the book by Stieg Larsson (the first of a trilogy), Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is a violent but engrossing and entertaining thriller with plenty of twists and turns. Rapace is terrific and increasingly steals the show as her character’s dysfunctional past and present get revealed. The many, often conflicting, facets of her personality get well drawn even if by the film’s end we feel we don’t much know her still. The Blomkvist character lacks development as to his motivations and history but together they make an engaging team who by one means or another come to understand how the other works best.
At 2 ½ hours, viewing could have been a struggle but the pace and tension is sustained, the cinematography is superb and the violence, while at moments graphic, adds meaning to both characters and story rather than being gratuitous. At times, the story does rely on big time coincidences that make you feel you are watching Law & Order – Criminal Intent but one quickly is moved on to see how it all plays out.
Those who have read the book may find the treatment unsatisfying but such is always the case with films drawn from novels, especially complex ones. But as a standalone film, this is a high quality thriller justifying its moniker as Nordic’s highest grossing local movie.