Showing all posts about film
Nitram, the new feature from Australian filmmaker Justin Kurzel
1 October 2021
Nitram, is acclaimed Australian filmmaker Justin Kurzel’s (Snowtown, Macbeth, True History of the Kelly Gang) controversial portrayal of events leading up to the Port Arthur massacre in the Australian state of Tasmania in 1996.
With a cast that includes Caleb Landry Jones, Essie Davis, Judy Davis, and Anthony LaPaglia, Nitram tells the story of an isolated, troubled young man (Caleb Landry Jones). When an unlikely friendship with Helen (Essie Davis), a reclusive heiress, comes to a tragic end, his anger and frustration spirals out of control.
Nitram opened in selected cinemas across Australia yesterday, in areas not subject to COVID lockdown restrictions.
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Titane by Julia Ducournau, buckle in for a wild ride
29 September 2021
Titane, the latest feature from French filmmaker Julia Ducournau, has been described by the BBC as the most shocking film of 2021. Yes, that make me look too.
As a child, Alexia is badly injured in a car accident, and needs a titanium plate fitted in her head. On her release from hospital she snubs her parents and instead hugs their car. From there Alexia develops what could only be called an obsession with cars, one eventually resulting in her becoming pregnant to… a car.
It’s a violent, gory, blood-soaked, utterly implausible ride, but that didn’t stop Titane from taking out the Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.
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film, Julia Ducournau, movies, trailer
Float, a short film by Aundre Larrow
27 September 2021
This is what having an oblong obsession is all about. Float is short film by Brooklyn, New York, based American photographer Aundre Larrow, filmed entirely on the new iPhone 13, using its much lauded Cinematic mode. For better or worse, I think a whole new age of filmmaking is upon us.
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Nightmare Alley trailer
25 September 2021
I hope the film is as good as the trailer. Nightmare Alley, by Mexican filmmaker Guillermo del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth, The Shape of Water), arrives in cinemas in December. Australians Cate Blanchett and Toni Collette lead the talented cast that also includes Rooney Mara, Bradley Cooper, and Willem Dafoe. del Toro says this is not a remake of the 1947 movie of the same name, but instead his adaptation of William Lindsay Gresham’s novel. Roll on December.
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film, Guillermo del Toro, movies, trailer
The Voyeurs trailer
24 September 2021
The Voyeurs, the new film by American filmmaker Michael Mohan, drew me in with its Rear Window feel. Sydney Sweeney and Justice Smith star as a young couple who have moved into an apartment in Montreal, and become obsessed with the antics of their neighbours who live across the road.
Who doesn’t love picture windows, and people who never close the blinds? Charles Bramesco, writing for The Guardian, describes The Voyeurs as a sorely needed throwback to the heyday of skin and secrecy:
Wielding a nasty cunning and just the right amount of irony, he sets up a playful take on Rear Window for the age of nude leaks that lays bare the roiling carnal subtext of Hitchcock’s masterpiece.
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film, Michael Mohan, movies, trailer
Spencer, starring Kristen Stewart
9 September 2021
I’m loving Kristen Stewart’s work post The Twilight Saga. Clouds of Sils Maria, and Personal Shopper, are two stand-outs for me, but if the trailer/teaser for Spencer is any indication, it looks like she well and truly out does herself.
Set over three days at Sandringham, the Norfolk estate of the British royal family in 1991, Princess Diana makes the decision to end her marriage to Prince Charles, as she spends Christmas with her in-laws.
But Xan Brooks, writing for The Guardian, suggests Spencer may not be a film for monarchists:
No doubt it took an outsider to make a film that’s as un-reverential as Spencer, which dares to examine the royals as if they were specimens under glass. At heart, of course, Larraín and Knight’s tale is utterly preposterous. It’s a tragedy about a spoiled princess who lashes out at the servants; a thriller about a woman who has only 10 minutes to get into her dress before Christmas dinner is served. But how else do you play it? The monarchy itself is preposterous.
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The 2021 Irish Film Festival Australia
7 September 2021
The 2021 Irish Film Festival Australia is on now until Sunday 12 September 2021. If the above trailer is anything to go by, there looks to be some top-notch lockdown movie viewing on offer.
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film, film festivals, Ireland, movies
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, by Ocean Vuong
6 September 2021
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous (published by Penguin Books Australia, 2019), is the debut novel of Vietnamese American writer and poet Ocean Vuong. The story is set around a long letter written by a twenty-something Vietnamese immigrant living in America, nicknamed Little Dog, to his mother, Rose, who is illiterate.
Little Dog’s letter traces his family’s history, prior to his birth, and their relocation to America. He recounts his experiences of being bullied at school, and goes on reveal things his mother did not previously know about him. It is not always a life lived happily though, and domestic violence, racism, and homophobia, are among recurring themes.
Based in part on Vuong’s own life, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous was named as one of the top ten novels of 2019 by the Washington Post, and was also a finalist in the 2020 PEN/Faulkner Award. The novel is also set to be adapted for the screen, with American filmmaker Bing Liu directing.
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books, film, literature, novels, Ocean Vuong, TBR list
Macadam Stories
4 September 2021
Macadam Stories, a 2015 film by French filmmaker Samuel Benchetrit, tells the story of four people living in a dilapidated apartment block on the verge on an industrial wasteland, each of whom are seeking connection, whether they know it or not.
Sternkowitz (Gustave Kervern) finds himself confined to a wheelchair after some exercise misadventure. He strikes up a friendship with a nurse (Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi) who works nights at the local hospital, after he goes in search of food late one evening.
Charly (Jules Benchetrit), a lonely teenager, befriends Jeanne (Isabelle Huppert), a despairing actor, living across the hall, who’s struggling to find a new role.
Madame Hamida (Tassadit Mandi), meanwhile finds herself hosting John McKenzie (Michael Pitt), an American astronaut who’s capsule inadvertently landed on the roof of the apartment block.
While viruses, lockdowns, and self-isolation, are not a part of this story, all the characters here are cut-off in some way from the outside world. Macadam Stories is a hopeful, warming, film for our times.
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film, movies, Samuel Benchetrit, trailer, trailers
Queen of the Desert, by Werner Herzog, with Nicole Kidman, Robert Pattinson
31 May 2016
Still from Queen of the Desert , a film by Werner Herzog.
Born in England in 1868, Gertrude Bell spent the early decades of the twentieth century travelling across the Middle East, in what is now Turkey, Lebanon, Israel, Syria, Iran, and Jordan. She was a writer, archaeologist, and explorer, and was much respected by both the British, and the peoples of the region. She also played a part in establishing latter day Iraq and Jordan.
In Queen of the Desert, trailer, the Werner Herzog (Invincible, Cave of Forgotten Dreams) made depiction of her life, she is portrayed by Nicole Kidman. Bell is desperate to flee the clutches of her stifled upper class life, and leaps at the opportunity to leave, when her father (David Calder) offers to send her to stay in Tehran with her uncle, the British ambassador.
Upon arriving, Bell is soon enamoured by the free-spirited way of life in the Middle East, and sets her sights on seeing as much of the area as possible, plus meeting the local inhabitants, and their tribal leaders. She also catches the eye of several British military and diplomatic personnel, including Henry Cadogan (James Franco), and T.E. Lawrence, also known as Lawrence of Arabia (Robert Pattinson).
Nicole Kidman meets Lawrence of Arabia? Who wouldn’t want to see a film where that happens? Maybe quite a few people, and it almost seems the producers were hoping this drawcard meeting would carry the story. Instead, Queen of the Desert presents as little more than a perfunctory re-counting of Bell’s exploits in the Middle East. The performances by the leads are competent, but I think audiences may be left feeling unsure what sort of film Herzog was trying to make.
Originally published Tuesday 31 May 2016. Updated Sunday 21 April 2024.
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film, James Franco, legacy, Nicole Kidman, Robert Pattinson, Werner Herzog