This week's films go from the sublime to the ridiculous - literally!!

Ballet meets film in the exquisite Spear, while Sacha Baron Cohen pushes the gross-out envelope (albeit with a few laughs) in Grimsby. I also look at Victoria, a German thriller which is shot in one long take!

Spear
Director: Stephen Page
Length: 84 mins

Photograph: Tiffany Parker

The artistic director of Bangarra Ballet Company directs his first film in this stunning morph between dance and film. Told with minimal words, the loose narrative follows Djali, a young Indigenous lad, who is trying to reconcile traditional ways with urban living. Many much-loved dancers from the company make their film debut, alongside esteemed, established actor Aaron Pederson.  The cinematography is nothing short of dazzling, the dancing compelling, and the themes covered are broad-ranging and critically relevant to the problems faced by Aboriginal people in today's Australia. 

Absolutely unmissable! Exclusive to Nova, Carlton.

For my full review:

http://www.cinephilia.net.au/show_review.php?movieid=5986


Grimsby
Director: Louis Leterrier
Length: 82 mins

You gotta hand it to Sacha Baron Cohen - he knows how to gross audiences out. That's all very well if you are a 14-year-old boy who loves poo jokes, detailed shots of mating elephants, and everything else that could possibly go into a Smut-fest! Beyond that there are some witty digs at the Brit working class, several well made action pieces, and a few moments of laugh out loud humour. The silly story is of Nobby and his long-lost brother Sebastian (Mark Strong), now an MI6 spy, who reunite to save the world from terrorists. How the likes of Penelope Cruz got herself into this one I'll never know! I can't really recommend it, unless you are a die-hard Cohen fan. 

You've got better things to do with your time!

For a full review from Bernard Hemingway:

http://www.cinephilia.net.au/show_review.php?movieid=5989

Victoria
Director: Sebastian Schipper
Length: 135 mins

Despite its overly long runtime, this winner of several German film awards, including Best Film and Best Cinematography, is quite a triumph of film-making. In real time, and done totally in a single take, it tells of Spanish gal Victoria (Laia Costa), who meets four guys in a Berlin nightclub. They hang out a while, but when she agrees to drive them somewhere, things take a turn for the worse, and she finds herself caught up in a nightmare. The film moves effortlessly from what feels initially like a lightweight relationship story to thriller genre, and manages to keep the tension up for most of the time.   

Worth seeing! Exclusive to Cinema Nova

For a full review from Chris Thompson:

http://www.cinephilia.net.au/show_review.php?movieid=5988