April 25th
1985
Avengers: Endgame
Gloria Bell
Celeste

It's a huge week with the eagerly anticipated release of Avengers:Endgame. If you're not into blockbusters there are still another three new releases reviewed here for your consideration.  

1985
Director: Yen Tan
Length: 85 min

© Icon - deeply moving and powerful
film-making set at the start of the AIDS crisis

The year is 1985 and New York advertising executive Adrian (Cory Michael Smith) is returning home for Christmas to his conservative Texan family. How can he tell them he is gay, let alone dying of AIDS? This exquisitely understated film takes a deeply compassionate approach to its subject matter, both the trauma Adrian must go through and the repressive, religious ethos of the day that makes it so hard for him to reveal the truth to his family.  His relationships with mother (Virginia Madsen), father (Michael Chiklis) and little brother Andrew (Aidan Langford) each have their individual dynamic that is explored delicately and with deep insight. Especially poignant and heart-breaking is his friendship with local girl Carly (Jamie Chung), an old friend who still holds hope for some romantic connection with Adrian. The film is shot in evocative black and white, which somehow enhances the sadness and gloom of those early years of the AIDS epidemic. The film has won countless awards, not just at LGBTQI festivals. Justifiably so, as it is a small gem that tells a huge story of both a broader social catastrophe with an intimate family and unconditional love thread at its heart. 
4.5 - wholeheartedly recommended!

Avengers: Endgame
Director: Anthony Russo and Joe Russo
Length: 181 min

© Disney - what can I say? It's amazing

Eleven years and 22 films later, the MCU (Marvel Comic Universe) franchise about a group of superheroes avenging the world comes to its climactic end. I'm not normally a big fan of this type of film, and for those who are, whatever I say will have little bearing. BUT . . . this is such a full-on, exciting, at times moving, action-packed, funny and, dare I say, well-scripted film (well, some of the time) it is almost worth surrendering three hours of your life to it. As with all films of this genre you must suspend disbelief. In a nutshell, the team (including Cptn america, Cptn Marvel, The Hulk, Iron Man, Ant Man, and Thor) gather to try to undo the ghastliness that the big bad guy Thanos wreaked when he obliterated half the world's population in the penultimate film Avengers: Infinity War. If they succeed is for you to discover. Ultimately the film for me is made by the huge cast of characters, who die-hard fans know so well; they are rounded, feel real and even have provocative and intelligent things to say. (Whether the quantum physics stacks up or is gobbly-gook doesn't matter - it sounds convincing.) Of course there are the expected battles, some of them so ludicrous, but there's no denying the power and fury of the SFX. Star power of the cast is amazing and there are more cameos than you can shake a stick at. In the long run, it's just amazingly good fun, three hours flew past, and from what I read on the net, die-hard fans are not disappointed - in fact they are ecstatic.
4 - highly recommended!

Celeste

Director: Ben Hackworth
Length: 105 min

© Unicorn Films - a lovely-looking film with
a questionable plot

Celeste (Radha Mitchell) is a once renowned opera singer, living now in the tropical rainforest of far north Queensland. Her step-son Jack (Thomas Cocquerel) is running from debts and heads north to the magnificent estate where his now-dead father once lived with Celeste. As Celeste's close friend Grace (Nadine Garner) urges the singer to give a comeback concert, dire family secrets will be revealed. The film takes its time to unveil the connections between the characters, and what one initially assumes is constantly open to interpretation.  This is one of the most beautiful-looking films I've seen in a long time. The magnificent setting of the actual location, tourist attraction Paronella Park near Innisfail, is a wonder to behold, and the cinematography does it total justice. Everything is gorgeous, mysterious and misty, but unfortunately the script just doesn't live up to the film's lovely look. Some of the relationships feel forced and unbelievable, the opera singing (with dubious lip synching) simply doesn't feel credible, while the main characters of Jack and Celeste are so polarised it's impossible to believe that they ever shared a family. It's a shame, because there is a broody, sensual, almost European feel to the whole thing, and yet the overall impression is that the script simply doesn't provide a strong enough foundation.
2.5 - maybe!

Gloria Bell
Director: Sebastian Lelio
Length: 100 min

© Roadshow - Julianne contemplates mortality
and how to get the most out of middle age

Mother of two grown kids, Gloria (Julianne Moore), has been divorced for about 12 years. She loves to dance and frequents clubs playing retro disco music and offering possible opportunities to meet men. When she meets recently divorced Arnold (John Turturro) it looks as though she may have found a dance partner and a soul mate. But as we know, these things seldom go so smoothly. Director Lelio made this same film, set in Chile and called Gloria, back in 2014. It's odd that he has remade it in English, but it certainly is great to see the wonderful Moore back on the screen. She has the sort of emotional range that speaks volumes without words. Women of a certain age (and marital status) will relate to this and possibly feel quite uncomfortable. Arnold is the sort of fellow I hear single women talk about - a man who seems to offer the world but can't break loose from his past and the pressures of an ex-wife and demanding daughters. While it is a fairly low-key film, it will surely resonate with middle-aged people on the dating scene,(not to mention with parents whose kids are too busy with their phones and self-absorption to relate to their family).
3.5 - well recommended!

April 18th
Burning
Thunder Road
Breaking Habits
Spanish Film Festival

Ole!! The Spanish Film Festival opens tonight with weeks of terrific films from Spain and Latin America. As well there's the new award-winning Korean film, plus a couple of fascinating decidedly non-mainstream offerings.  

Burning
Director: Lee Chang-Dong
Length: 148 min

© Palace - a powerful new film from
South Korea leaves you thinking

With a massive 32 wins to its name, Burning is the story of Lee Jong-su (Yoo Ah-in), an awkward farming country bumpkin who runs into old school pal Haemi (Jong-seo Jun). She's flirtatious, and strangely other-worldly and he falls madly in love with her. When she returns from a trip to Africa she has a new man, Ben (Steven Yeun), in tow. Ben is rich, self-confident, arrogant and a self-professed "player". He is everything Jong-su is not, but he harbors some disturbing secrets. As the trio spend time together, with Jong-su feeling like the third wheel, raging jealousy, envy and obsession overcome him. This is an intriguing, frustrating, at times sublimely beautiful film that is sometimes so slow it almost crawls, and at other moments it has you totally enthralled and mystified. While some folk cannot stand such intensely drawn-out films, others will revel in the film's many memorable aspects: a relentlessly slow-burn air of intrigue, along with evocative cinematography (scenes of nature, capturing a universal human sadness and longing). The trio of lead actors are seriously impressive, with the complexity of Haemi and her unexpected behaviours baffling, while the starkly drawn contrasts between the two men only add to the increasing tension and the totally shocking denouement. It won't be for everyone, but this is a film to ponder on long after you've left the cinema.  
4 - highly recommended!

Thunder Road
Director: Jim Cummings
Length: 92 min

© Rialto  - Cummings is a bit of a one-man
tour-de-force as a cop having an
emotional meltdown over his personal life

For policeman Jim Arnaud (Jim Cummings), nothing seems to be going right.  At his beloved mother's funeral he has an emotional meltdown and is undergoing further stress trying to share the upbringing of his daughter Crystal (Kendall Farr) with his estranged wife. Cummings won umpteen awards with his short film of the same name back in 2016, and now this feature film has already garnered a swag of awards and nominations. This is film-making not of the mainstream variety. It is touching, quirky, and low-key. Most of what happens appears as small vignettes, all held together by Cumming's astonishing performance of a vulnerable man struggling with his emotions, and trying to do the right thing. As Jim lurches between semi-hysteria, despair and positivity, the film toggles between semi-comedy and heart-wrenching drama. It is the simple humanity that is front and centre in an off-beat but most rewarding movie.
4 - highly recommended!

Breaking Habits
Director: Robert Ryan
Length: 87 min

© Icon   -  "nuns" up to their ears
in medicinal cannabis

This intriguing but bizarre doco follows Sister Kate, founder of Sisters of the Valley, a group of marijuana growing "nuns".  She started life as Christine Meeusen, corporate executive and mother of three. When her double dealing husband rendered her penniless and homeless, she found a way get back on her feet and support her kids. Teaming up with like-minded women, she became involved in California's lucrative weed industry. Dressing like nuns and devoted to healing, they grow medicinal cannabis and develop associated products, many of which are given free to poor sick folk unable to afford it. There certainly is plenty of food for thought in this doco; but the anti-weed brigade will no doubt rail against it. 
 3 - recommended!

Moro Spanish Film Festival
Melbourne: 18 April to 8 May

Palace Cinemas at:  Westgarth, Como, Kino, Brighton Bay, Astor, Balwyn

For times, ticketing and other states visit: https://www.spanishfilmfestival.com/

There's not only the latest in Spanish cinema but also films from all over Latin America (the Cinelatino Festival), including Cuba and the Dominican Republic. This vibrant festival has so much to see and experience. Special events feature cocktails, music, flamenco dance and even an olive oil appreciation session. From the few I've previewed there are a couple of standouts:

Engaging and endearing

Champions: Marco, an arrogant basketball coach going through a marital separation, is convicted of drink driving and given 90 days community service. He must coach a team of people with varying disabilities from Down Syndrome to other mental issues. The film has copped some flack as being patronising and potentially offensive, however I think it manages to create an effective platform for better understanding of difference and inclusion of marginalised people. The characters, despite their foibles, are never less than endearing, some of them very astute, and all played by non-professional actors with the actual disabilities. The arc of Marco's transformation is predictable but sweet, and the very funny, heart-warming film has smashed all Spanish box office records.

Gypsy life and love

Carmen and Lola: Fresh from the Melbourne Queer Film Festival, this story is set in the impoverished Gypsy community who live on the outskirts of Madrid. A woman's role is to remain uneducated, marry young, breed and be subservient to her man. When Carmen, 18 and just engaged, meets rebellious Lola, the two are instantly attracted but the love they develop will be in conflict with the expectations of their community. This is touching, highly romantically charged and a great insight into the lives of the Gypsy people (with some excellent music too!)
The Good Girls: In a wealthy Mexican suburb, the biggest problems for the upper class snobby women are what flowers to put on the table, what handbags to buy, and who to gossip about next. Beautiful, cold Sofia has it all, until her husband's business hits a stumbling block, as does the broader Mexican economy. This film walks a fine line between comedy and tragedy; it is a scathing look at the idle rich, as well as the sort of economic problems that beset countries not as stable as our own. The production values are lovely, every setting carefully crafted, while the subtlety of the gradual deterioration of Sofia's life and relationships almost makes one feel sorry for her. 
 4 - the Spanish Film Festival is highly recommended!

April 11th
Aftermath
The Man Who Killed Don Quixote
The Kindergarten Teacher

Isn't it wonderful that not everyone feels the same way about every film? Ultimately film critiquing is often a matter of opinion, along with what (re)viewers brings to that film from their own lives. Here's one of those weeks where I certainly do not seem to be in alignment with many other critics. Despite my amibvalence this week, I'm always "entertained", and most films, no matter how equivocal, have redeeming features and reasons to be seen.  

Aftermath
Director: James Kent
Length: 108 min

© 20th Century Fox - a handsome and romantic tale

of loss and redemption

Five months after the allied victory over Germany, Rachael Morgan (Keira Knightley) heads to Hamburg to join her husband Colonel Lewis Morgan (Jason Clarke). He is a colonel in the British army and has been charged with rebuilding the shattered city. They are installed in the commandeered palatial home of  architect Stephen Lubert (Alexander Skarsgard) who is widowed with a teenage daughter. When Lewis makes the decision to invite Lubert to stay on in the house, the door is opened for passion and betrayal. I'm not sure why some critics are so ruthlessly cruel to this film. Sure it is somewhat predictable in its narrative arc, but it is uniformly well acted by the three leads, the chemistry between the lovers is strong, and the costumes and handsome production values are impressive. It may not be an "epic romance", but it is touching, and also has a worthy subtext: that war is never totally one-sided and even on the side of the aggressors there is sorrow, heartache and much loss to civilians who may not have necessarily followed the party line.  
3 - recommended!

The Man Who Killed Don Quixote
Director: Terry Gilliam
Length: 132 min
Exclusive to Cinema Nova

© Umbrella - Terry Gilliam finally gets his
long-awaited project off the ground

For me it's a challenge to create a potted synopsis of this convoluted plot. Advertising exec Toby (Adam Driver),10 years prior made a student film about Don Quixote, starring a local cobbler Javier (Jonathan Pryce) as the crazy old knight.  Now back in Spain, Toby revisits the town where he shot the film, only to discover Javier really believes he is Don Quixote, and that Toby is his trusty squire Sancho Panza. Throw in the Boss (Stellan Skarsgaard), gypsies, lustful women, Russian mafia and some apparent time travel and decadent partying and you have something so crazy I'm afraid I simply could not follow the plot. Director Gilliam spent 29 years trying to make this film, and one abortive attempt starring Johnny Depp was actually the subject of a doco Lost in La Mancha.  The premise is certainly fun, and the film looks terrific, shot in exotic locations including Spain, Portugal and the Canary Islands. Further, Gilliam is a master of creative imagination for his sets.  Pryce is superb as Don Quixote, but Driver for me doesn't quite fit his role. I'm not saying I didn't get some entertainment and laughs (remember Gilliam came from Monty Python's Flying Circus) but I was too bamboozled to be able to get seriously engaged with it. That said, I'm sure it will have a audience of die-hard Gilliam fans - perhaps he is just too idiosyncratic for me.
2.5 - maybe!

The Kindergarten Teacher
Director: Sarah Colangelo
Length: 96 min
Exclusive to Cinema Nova

© Madman - a powerful performance from 
Maggie Gyllenhaal underpins this disturbing film

Lisa Spinelli (Maggie Gyllenhaal) is a 40-year-old kindergarten teacher, herself a mother with two late-teen kids. She is finding life dull and unfulfilling, and her mid-life crisis leads her to a poetry class run by Simon (Gael Garcia Bernal). One fateful day Lisa discovers her 5-year-old student Jimmy (Parker Sevak) appears to be a child prodigy, spouting forth dramatically precocious poems at random. Lisa sees herself as a person who can foster another Mozart-like talent, but her interest in the child soon leads to obsession and deception until ultimately all lines of appropriateness are crossed, leading Lisa into deep water. This American remake of a 2014 Israeli drama has won the 2018 Sundance award for directing and has mostly wowed the critics on Rotten Tomatoes. Up front I'll say I'm ambivalent. There's no doubting the immense talent of Gyllenhaal, who inhabits almost every screen moment with a nuanced superb performance.Young Sevak is also an intriguing screen presence. The progressively unhinged and creepy behaviour of Lisa is mesmerisingly awful to watch, but here's where my problems begin - surely such an experienced teacher in her field would not fall into this trap, and furthermore, I simply cannot believe that this little kid was capable of wielding language to such a powerful effect. Yes it's a compellingly horrible vision of an emotionally troubled, insecure middle-aged woman self-destructing, but without the core premise feeling true for a viewer (namely me), the film becomes a worry. (Nevertheless, die-hard Gyllenhaal fans shouldn't miss it!)
2.5 - maybe!

April 5th
Woman at War
The Happy Prince
Shazam
Indonesian Film Festival

What a contrasting bunch of movies this week! From Icelandic droll environmental comedy, to a literary biopic, to a superhero adventure, and another Festival featuring films from our near neighbour Indonesia. 

Woman at War
Director: Benedikt Erlingsson
Length: 100 min

© Hi Gloss & Limelight  - quirky yet with 
serious undertones

49-year old Halla (Halldóra Geirharðsdóttir) looks as if she wouldn't harm a fly. She conducts a choir of angelic voices in her local town, then strides out across the adjacent Icelandic hills to destroy local power lines in an attempt to stop the local smelter from destroying the environment. You like Scandi-quirky? Then this could be a film for you. With its dry humour, left-of-centre happenings (like a band constantly playing in unexpected places or a trio of Ukrainian singers turning up) and undercurrent of political commentary, it's a truly unusual film. Described as an "eco-thriller", it definitely has an agenda to spruik - namely that activism could be the only way to prevent wholesale destruction of a beautiful environment like Iceland. A sub-plot of Halla applying to adopt a Ukrainian orphan underlines the thematic threads of saving the world, one orphan at a time and one blown-up power pylon at a time.
4 - highly recommended!

The Happy Prince
Director: Rupert Everett
Length: 105 min

© Vendetta- Oscar Wilde sure knew
the meaning of living life to the full

Acclaimed playwright Oscar Wilde (Rupert Everett) lies on his deathbed, dying of syphilis and recalling the happier moments in his life, along with the circumstances that led him to this point in time. It's blatantly obvious that this is a project extremely dear to Everett's heart. His passionate performance in the role is simply divine (dahling!) and he plays flamboyant and witty for all it's worth. In an era where being gay was a crime, and despite Wilde's celebrity, he suffered grievously from the derision of many in society, and was indeed jailed for his "offences". The tumultuous love affair with the arrogant, younger Lord Alfred Douglas (Colin Morgan) broke his heart. Production values of the period are terrific and international settings scrub up well. Colin Firth and Edwin Thomas as close friends, and Emily Watson as Wilde's long-suffering wife are uniformly strong. The film's title derives from a famous short story of Wilde's, one that is very close to my heart, but there is a certain slightness to the film that doesn't totally reflect the great writer's enduring legacy.
3 - recommended!

Shazam!
Director: David Sandberg
Length: 132 min

© Roadshow / Marvel - a teen finds himself becoming
an instant superhero at the drop of a word!

Regular readers will know that I don't go to many films of this nature, but the trailer of this piqued my interest (and offered a chance to enjoy something light-hearted, after all the deep and meaningful films I watch). I'm pleasantly surprised and strongly entertained by this addition to the pantheon of superhero films. This time the hero is a kid who can immediately and at will attain the status of adult, and the accompanying superpowers by simply hollering the word "Shazam"! The plot is of course way more convoluted than that and, as is the rule, deals with the ultimate battle between good and evil, and the challenge of saving the world and one's friends and family.  Our hero is teen orphan Billy Batson (Asher Angel) who has moved from one foster home to another. In his adult incarnation (played by strong screen presence Zachary Levi) his superhero physique still houses a teenage brain. The challenge is to rise to his new role, and so with foster brother and sidekick Freddy (Jack Dylan Grazer), Billy, alias Shazam!, takes on the might of the evil Dr Sivana (Mark Strong) whose backstory opens the film. This is loads of fun, with witty dialogue, endearing characters, and of course compulsory totally unbelievable happenings that simply add to the fun and games.
3.5 - well recommended!

Indonesian Film Festival
April 5-10
ACMI
For details visit: https://www.acmi.net.au/events/14th-indonesian-film-festival/

The IFF is now in its 14th year, and with such a short season you need to be quick to catch the films you want. 
My only previewing has been of an award-winning film called Night Bus. This is gruelling watching about a group of passengers on the night bus to the village of Sampar. The bus gets mixed up with armed rebels who are fighting the state army, and it is the innocent who are the casualties of this bitter fight. Unfortunately the cinematography is very dark hence it is hard to always make out what is happening. However, as with many films of this nature it is strong viewing and a harrowing testimony to the futility and brutality of conflict. 
For other films in the festival visit the link. For added value, each screening is accompanied by a Q&A with Peter Krausz, and festival guests.