July 7th - this week:  
Goldstone
Scandinavian Film Festival
Everybody Wants Some

Aussie red-dirt noir, Scandi delights and American frat boys - the range of movies is again to be marvelled at! 

Goldstone
Director:  Ivan Sen
Length: 109 mins

© Transmission Films  - Aaron Pedersen and David Gulpilil

The red dust of outback Australia dominates this police thriller which sees Aaron Pedersen as Detective Jay Swan, investigating a missing persons case in the remote town of Goldstone. A simple case turns into something far darker - a web of corruption and crime. Jay  locks horns with local cop Josh (Alex Russell), the mayor (Jackie Weaver), boss of the mining company (David Wenham), and discovers important things about his own heritage with the help of Aboriginal elder Jimmy (David Gulpilil).  Director Sen (whose work I admire greatly) succinctly calls Goldstone a cross between "Outback Noir and  Neo Western". I couldn't have said it better. I love the mood and look of this film - the way it captures the remoteness and wild beauty of the area, and the clash between white and Indigenous cultures, an issue to which Jay is central, walking between worlds as he does. The plot has many convolutions, and at times doesn't absolutely hang together, and I dislike the casting of Weaver (she seems to constantly reprise her Animal Kingdom role!) However I found Goldstone an absorbing and important film, beautifully executed and with many underlying issues to mull over. And Pederson is, as always, a stunning screen presence.  

4 - Highly recommended!
For a full review head to:
http://www.cinephilia.net.au

Septembers of Shiraz
Director:  Wayne Blair (the Aussie who directed The Sapphires)
Length: 109 mins

© Roadshow

Adrien Brody plays Isaac, a wealthy Jewish diamond merchant living in Iran in 1979 when Ayatollah Khomeini and his revolutionaries  took power. Iran went from a country where people of all faiths lived relatively harmoniously, to a place of persecution for non-Muslims. The story follows the plight of Isaac who is imprisoned and tortured, while his wife Farnez (Salma Hayek) and young daughter Shirin (Ariana Molkara) face uncertainty and raids of their home.  Even though the politics of Iran are not examined in depth, and the film falls prey to a level of formula, it has gripping moments and flirts with issues of tolerance, persecution, injustice, and power, all totally relevant today. Brody's and Hayek's accents are a bit suss (films like this should be in the native language), but the cinematography by Aussie Warwick Thorton is excellent. 

3 - Recommended!
For a full review from Bernard Hemingway:
http://www.cinephilia.net.au/show_review.php?movieid=6052


Scandinavian Film Festival
Melbourne 6th - 27th July  
Palace Como and Palace Brighton Bay
(for other states, see link below)

Once more I've been lucky to catch a number of these films in advance. There is some excellent watching to be had. 

Land of Mine (Denmark)
This centrepiece of the festival is a gripping film based upon true events at the end of World War 2. In Denmark, after the surrender of Nazi Germany, a Danish sergeant is put in charge of a group of German POWs, who are ordered to find and defuse thousands of landmines littering the beaches. The sergeant is bitter and vengeful, but as he gets to know his charges, most of them barely out of their teens, he starts to have conflicting feelings. The film is suspenseful to the max, extremely moving, and and raises challenging moral issues. 
The Wave (Norway)
Move over Hollywood - Norway has made Scandinavia's first disaster film, and what a great job they've done of it. The story is based upon a real event in 1934, when a rock avalanche caused a tsunami in a Norwegian fjord. Reimagined in modern times, The Wave tells of a geologist working in an early warning centre for an oil company. The warning systems say disaster is impending, and the holiday town on the fjord's edge goes into panic. Not only is the story gripping and terrifying, the depth of the characters is impressive and the spectacular settings authentic, all lending a realism generally not seen in this type of film. 
The Idealist (Denmark)
Another film based upon fact, this one is set in 1986, when a young journalist is investigating a worker's compensation story. It leads him back 18 years to 1968, when a US bomber carrying nuclear warheads crashed in Thule Greenland. His investigation proceeds to unearth international cover-ups at the highest levels within both the US and the Danish governments. Made in a quasi-documentary style, The Idealist uncovers an important piece of history that still has relevance for the entire world today. 
Reindeer in My Saami Heart (Finland)
This eye-opening doco looks at the Saami people (who used to be known as Lapps), and how they have suffered similar indignities as our own Aboriginal people. Removed from their families, forced to attend Swedish schools, forbidden to speak their language, today these reindeer herders face new challenges that threaten their culture and traditional lands. This special event film is an Aussie co-production with Finland, Sweden and Norway, and Q&A sessions with the director will accompany selected sessions.
The Together Project (Iceland)
An Icelandic-French co-production, this is a slight but sweet film about Samir, who falls in love at first sight with Agethe, a swimming teacher.  Trying to win her, he takes swim lessons, but when he's sprung as a fraud, follows her to a life-saving conference in Reykjavik, Iceland, where he declares (posing again as someone he's not) the Israelis are working on a vital swimming pool project with the Palestinians. The humour is gentle and off-kilter, performances are lovely, and overall this is a feel-good romance.
The Yard (Sweden)
This is the story of a once-professional writer who is reduced to working at a car yard with migrants. The film is beautifully shot in an utterly minimalistic way, excellently acted, and raises interesting moral issues, but the glacial slowness of it defeated even me.  

4 - A highly recommended festival!
For more details and to find out screening times visit:
www.ScandinavianFilmFestival.com
 
    
Everybody Wants Some
Director:  Richard Linklater
Length: 116 mins

© Roadshow - Testosterone on the march!

Want to go back to the 1980s? This is the film for you! Well, maybe, especially if you are a fan of Linklater and his dialogue driven films, (think Before Sunset) or if you want to relive what it's like to be a teen starting college. Of course this is ultra-American stuff which follows one pivotal weekend in the life of hunky Jake (Blake Jenner), who is about to start college as a Freshman on a baseball scholarship. Jake rooms with a bunch of testosterone-driven, shorts-wearing mustachioed blokes, who are competitive with each other and focussed on four things - baseball, girls, drugs and drinking. I thought I'd hate the film, but actually enjoyed the bunch of guys, their wacky humour (not gross, in the usual manner of this genre of film) and youthful enthusiasm. The soundtrack of an 80s mix of New Romantics, punk and more is a winner. 


3 - Recommended!
For a full review from Bernard Hemingway:
http://www.cinephilia.net.au/show_review.php?movieid=6042