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!