August 28th 2025
The Ballad of Wallis Island
Eddington
The Lost Caravaggio (one night only)
Each of this week's films will no doubt have quite a different audience. Old fans of the folk era will love the first film I review, as did I. Then we have Covid era satire, the rarefied air of the art world, and a French courtroom drama.
The Ballad of Wallis Island
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© Park Circus / Universal - tender and
funny - can we ever recapture the past? |
Charles Heath (Tim Key) has, amazingly, won the British lottery twice. But he lives a lonely life on a remote island, grieving his dead wife, who had been a huge fan of a folk duo comprised of Nell Mortimer (Carey Mulligan) and Herb McGwyer (Tom Basden). Although the duo have long disbanded, Charles gets the inspiration to stage a reunion concert on the island, and is prepared to pay big money. The film may sound slight, but make no mistake - it packs an emotional wallop, seamlessly blending poignancy and humor and with a trio of actors who work really well together. Herb's initially world-weary dour personality is a terrific foil to the cheerfully ebullient and joke-cracking Charles, but underneath both men carry a deep sense of loss, for different reasons. The screenplay is written by Basden and Key, with Basden also being the songwriter. He has composed a delicate lovely collection of folk songs that he movingly performs with Mulligan. Their chemistry and the nostalgia they conjure is a reminder of the long-gone folk era. All up a sweet, funny and deeply reflective film, that reminds us while some things are gone for ever, they can be replaced by something new.4 - highly recommended
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© Universal / A24 - dark comic satire
on the state of America during Covid |
It is May 2020, Covid is raging, and in the small New Mexico town of Eddington, a face off between local Sheriff Joe Cross (Joaquin Phoenix) and mayor Ted Garcia (Pedro Pascal) is brewing. Meantime the local youth are protesting, seething with resentments on issues from mask-wearing, to Black Lives Matter, to the proposal to build a giant data centre in their town. Conspiracy theories abound, with the Sheriff even asserting that there is no Covid in Eddington. If you want a genre mash-up extraordinaire, this is for you. It's a Western, a black comedy, a biting satire and, by the end, a violent psychological thriller. Throw into the mix a homeless man, Ted's gay son, Joe's unstable wife (Emma Stone), her overbearing mother, and a charismatic visiting cult leader (Austin Butler), and you have a recipe for all manner of mayhem. As a reflection on the state of the American psyche, Eddington hits hard, with its unforgiving satire being sometimes a little heavy-handed. The lurching around from genre to genre may be disturbing to some viewers, but no-one can say it doesn't take a good hard look at pandemic era craziness. Phoenix's performance as the progressively unhinged Sheriff is notable, and there is a lot of fun to be had, even if the runtime is a bit long.3.5 - well recommended
Espresso Cinema - final film
In a collaboration between Cinema Nova Melbourne and Luna Palace Perth, along with ABCG Films, Espresso Cinema screens top-notch Italian movies viewers would otherwise not get an opportunity to see. The trick is, each screening is a one-night opportunity.
The Sleeper: The Lost Caravaggio
Only this Sunday, 31 August, Cinema Nova
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© Fandango / ABCG - Ecce Homo (Behold
the Man) - priceless painting rediscovered |
When the Perez de Castro family of Madrid decided to downsize in 2021, they sent one of their paintings to an auction house, where it was listed for 1500 euros. Experts who saw it sounded the alarm: wait a minute! could this actually be by the renowned 16th century artist Caravaggio, not the lesser painter to whom it had been attributed? And so begins a real-life thriller, set in the rarefied world of art dealers, galleries and high-stakes investors. Time is of the essence for an accurate indentification, lest the painting be horrifyingly undersold. Art dealers and Caravaggio have been getting a run of late on the big screen. Following on from the French film The Stolen Painting, and 2023's excellent Caravaggio's Shadow, this is another look at an intriguing world we seldom get to see. This short and sweet doco also looks in detail at the painting technique of the great master Caravaggio, and teaches us much about restoration, along with the high-powered negotiations and rivalry among delaers. Locations are glorious, in the most elegant cities and galleries of Europe, and the impressive soundtrack adds to what is a film art lovers won't want to miss. 4 - highly recommended
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© Palace - Auteuil goes in to bat for an
accused murderer, convinced he's innocent |
Jean Monier (Daniel Auteuil) is a lawyer who has not run a single defence case for fifteen years, when he was responsible for helping to exonerate a guilty man who went on to kill again. His fellow lawyer and wife Annie (Sidse Babett Knudsen) talks him into going to a case of a man arrested for murder of his alcoholic wife. As the accused Nicolas Milik (Gregory Gadebois) protests his innocence, Jean decides to defend him, convinced to the core that Nicolas, a seemingly loving father of five, is innocent. I really wanted to love this film, as I've always been a big Auteuil fan. But perhaps he's taken on too much this time. Writing the screenplay (based on a true memoir), directing the film and starring in it hasn't allowed him the space to give the story some much-needed oomph. The courtroom proceedings (so mystifying in France!) seem rather pedestrian, played by the numbers, while Jean's relationship with Annie is not developed as it could have been. The flashbacks to what might have happened serve to relieve the one-room court setting, but never take on enough urgency. The shock ending provides an unexpected jolt, but a little too late to really elevate the film, and its, at times, wooden script and seeming ignorance of the existence of forensic evidence! That said, Gadebois and Auteuil give top-shelf engrossing performances; Gadebois brings a cunning ambivalence to his teddy-bear like character, while Auteuil lets Jeans' emotional convictions overwhelm his rationality. The audience meantime is invited to speculate on the nature of truth and evidence.3 - recommended
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