December 19th 2024
Black Dog
How to Make Gravy (streaming on Binge/Foxtel)
Two vastly different films this week: one award winner from China and one Aussie film based around a song that has almost become a Christmas classic.
STAY TUNED very soon for the boxing Day releases.
For my top films for 2024 check out this link to my video interview with Movie Metropolis:
Black Dog
Dir: Guan Hu
Length: 118 mins
 |
© Hi Gloss - man and dog head off
across the Gobi desert |
Winner of Un Certain Regard in this year's Cannes FF, Black Dog is an unusual and touching man and dog story. Lang (Eddie Peng) has just been released from jail for murder. Back in his rapidly declining home town on the edge of the Gobi desert in north-west China, he is employed to work as a dog-catcher, with the focus being on capturing a skinny black dog that supposedly has rabies. Meantime the decrepit town is slated for demolition, and China is gearing up for the 2008 Olympic Games. The local butcher, whose son Lang killed, has it in for him and Lang's ailing Dad has decamped to what's left of the local zoo, where he tends a lone tiger. Lang manages to eventually befriend the black dog. This is decidedly an odd-ball film, but with much more below its surface than initially meets the eye. As a cinematically visual piece, it is a stand-out, the camera capturing the isolation and bleak beauty of the vast desert. Lang as a character seldom speaks, but his body language says much, espcially in relation to the dog. Moments of quirky humour abound, and there is a warmth to the whole, that speaks of the possibility of forgiveness and redemption. Even the dog, which at first glance repulsed me, ended up becoming quite appealing!4 - highly recommended
How to Make Gravy
Dir: Nick Waterman
Length: 120 mins
Streaming on Binge/Foxtel
 |
© Foxtel - the Kelly classic song is now
a feature length film! |
I always feel a deep melancholy when I hear the Paul Kelly song "How to Make Gravy". The regret, longing and fear that the words evoke, as a man sends a letter from prison to his brother. Now that song, dense with plot and emotion, has been made into a feature length film. Joe (Daniel Henshall) has lost his block one Christmas with brother-in-law Roger (Damon Herriman) and landed up in prison for assault. The following Christmas he sends a letter to brother Dan (Brendan Thwaites), pouring out his heart and revealing the secret recipe for a successful gravy. He exhorts Dan not to get too close to wife Rita (Agathe Rousselle) and says he misses everyone, especially young son Angus (Jonah Wren Phillips). In prison Joe joins a men's group run by Noel (Hugo Weaving) who also recruits Joe to the prison kitchen, helping him escape prison tough guy Red (Kieran Darcy-Smith). There is certainly much to like in the film, but it is a little schmaltzy, with some pretty unbelievable sequences such as a prison choir that sings a bit too well, moments of clunky dialogue, and the not-so-subtle implication that a ladle of good gravy can mend all rifts and ills! But there's no denying it is a worthy effort to take a five-minute song and turn it into a two-hour film, especially with a cast of such strong actors. There are worse ways to spend two hours than enjoying this archetypically Aussie story. And, by the way, it already has a massive 15 nominations for next year's AACTA awards!3 - recommended
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