December 7 2017
Wonder Wheel
Only the Brave
In This Corner of the World

With awards season starting, along with the festive season releases, there will be a barrage of films to be reviewed before next Feb. This week a couple of new offerings, plus one I caught up with from last week, make it into my reviews. 

Wonder Wheel

Director: Woody Allen
Length: 101 min

© E-One - gangsters, sex, booze, love affairs and
a fairground - what more could you want?

Set in Coney Island in the 1950s, this is the sad and sorry story of Ginny (Kate Winslett), an angry and discontented woman on her second marriage to Humpty (Jim Belushi), a carousel repair man. Ginny embarks upon an affair with much younger smooth-talking Mickey (Justin Timberlake), but then Humpty's estranged daughter Caroline (Juno Temple) turns up. She's running from her gangster ex-husband who has her marked for death, and she soon becomes a thorn in Ginny's side. Meantime Ginny's son is a pyromaniac who is setting fire to everything he can. Woody's films are generally eagerly awaited by his fans, but don't get too excited about this one. It looks absolutely gorgeous and delightfully recreates the tawdry glitz of the fairground and the era, accompanied by the usual excellent soundtrack. Winslett is laudable for the histrionic style of melodrama she brings to her role, but there is something wooden about the dialogue - not up to Woody's usual standard of pithy one-liners. Thematically, though humour is there in parts, the whole thing gets rather dark and nasty by its end. 
2.5 - maybe!

Only the Brave
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Length: 134 min

© Studio Canal - a visceral look into the lives 
of firefighters - based on a true story

Eric (Josh Brolin) heads up a crack firefighting team near Flagstaff Arizona. The men dedicate themselves to  training army style, and their main wish is to be reclassified as "Hot Shots", rather than being simply a municipal crew. When they become the Granite Mountain Hot Shots, they go into battle against a deadly fire in Yarnell Arizona. Based upon the true events of  June 2013, this is a really well told story of bravery and tragedy. Even though things seem a bit gung-ho and archetypically American at the outset, the strong underlying themes of the film soon take over - comradeship and bravery, along with subplots around the marital discord between Eric and wife Amanda (Jennifer Connolly) and young Brendan (Miles Teller) turning his drug-addicted life around by joining the crew.  Jeff Bridges  is a welcome addition to any film, and overall this one makes for tense and good viewing. 
3 - recommended!

In This Corner of the World
Director: Sunao Katabuchi
Length: 130 min

© Umbrella - exquisitely animated different take
on Japan in world War 2

I spoke last week of the sad lack of Japanese films in Australia. Well, here's your chance to see a genre of film much loved in Japan - anime. Don't be fooled into thinking animations are for kids. This deals with the events around Hiroshima at the end of Second world War. The perspective comes from Suzu, a young girl married off to a  stranger, and simply getting on with her life, when tragedy strikes. Every frame of the film is like a beautiful watercolour painting, and the story is humble, sad and heart-warming. I confess to finding myself at times unsure of which character was which, but the heart of the story soon overrode my uncertainties. Animating such ordinary lives against such extraordinary historical events makes for a totally fresh perspective into one of history's dark times.    
4 - highly recommended!