Feb 14th
If Beale Street Could Talk
At Eternity's Gate
Arctic

Another week for films with Oscar nominations. These are amazingly diverse thematically, all strong in their own unique way, and once more testament to the art of independent non-mainstream film-making. 

If Beale Street Could Talk
Director: Barry Jenkins
Length: 119 min

© EOne - maximum romance - maximum anguish
when yet again, an Afro-american is falsely imprisoned

With three Oscar nominations to its name, plus another 67 wins and 133 nominations in other festivals, this is a much anticipated film. Based on a novel by James Baldwin, it is set in Harlem in the 1970s, and, like last week's The Hate U Give, it again highlights the injustices done to the Afro-American community. Tish (Kiki Lane) and Fonny (Stephan James) are young lovers with their lives ahead of them, that is until Fonny is framed for a rape he never committed. The film moves between Tish's visits to her lover, as she progressively swells with their baby, the increasingly futile attempts to get justice for him, and the past tracing the trajectory of their incredible over-the-top romantic love affair. Jenkins already won Best Picture for Moonlight in 2017, and he again proves what a fine director he is. The transcendent beauty of the intensely romantic love between Tish and Fonny is in stark contrast to the ugly reality of the prison world, and the corrupt justice system stacked against blacks. Here's yet another film still as relevant today as it was then.
4 - highly recommended!

At Eternity's Gate
Director: Julian Schnabel
Length: 111 min

© Transmission - Dafoe could almost be 

Vincent Van Gogh come back to life.

Quite simply, this film traces the life of painter Vincent Van Gogh (Willem Dafoe), during the time he lived in the southern French town of Arles near the end of his life. Schnabel is trying to get inside the artist's head - to use film as a medium for expressing the intensity of Van Gogh's need to paint, and his amazing perception of color. The camera work is remarkable, swirling around the subject matter in the way Vincent's thick paint swirled on the canvas. Scenes of natural beauty within the film are as beautiful as paintings themselves. It's really something that needs to be seen, as did Loving Vincent, the film that animated Van Gogh's paintings to tell a similar story. Dafoe virtually inhabits his character and is nominated for a Best Actor award. Some people judge films like this as too slow - I see them as something to be relished - almost frame by frame - a true celebration of the life of a misunderstood, somewhat unstable genius.
4 - highly recommended!


Arctic
Director: Joe Penna
Length: 97 min
Exclusive to Sun Yarraville, Lido Hawthorn, Classic Elsternwick, Cameo Belgrave

© Umbrella - survival in an unforgiving wilderness. 

Mads gives a great performance. 

For fans of the survival genre film, here's one for you. A man, Overgard,  (Mads Mikkelsen) becomes stranded in the Arctic after his plane crashes. Hopeful of being rescued, he is thrown further into crisis when he must be responsible for a woman (Maria Smaradottir), who has also met with an accident. This is survival at its most harsh, and strong visual film-making that must have cost the cast and crew many near frost-bitten moments. Shot in the deep north of Iceland in winter it looks fabulous, (a nominee for last year's Golden Camera award) but the action is at times painstakingly slow. I guess that's the point - to follow the gruelling journey of this man, and to feel his pain and steely determination. Self-preservation versus altruism is at the forefront of the story, and it is to Mikkelsen's credit that, with hardly any dialogue, he masters every nuanced look, so critical to getting the audience to engage with him. I like the fact that no backstory is given (it is not needed) and that the ends are not neatly tied up. 
3.5 - well recommended!