October 18th
Joker
Ride Like a Girl
Judy
Maiden
Strange But True
Stay tuned for Film Festival mayhem: Jewish, Iranian, British, Japanese, and Russian are all heading our way!

My catch-up continues with the extraordinary film Joker, and the Aussie crowd-pleaser Ride Like a Girl. Now I'm on to the new releases, ranging from films about a singing legend, to women changing the course of history in a yacht (as opposed to on a horse), and a bit of a mind-bender about a pregnant girl and her dead boyfriend. Certainly got all bases covered this week. 

Joker
Director: Todd Phillips
Length: 122  min

© Warner Bros  - the performance from Phoenix
is remarkable and hopefully gets many awards. 

Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) is a mentally disturbed man, living in run-down, grimy Gotham City. He works as a part-time clown, has weekly meetings with the apathetic social services department, looks after his aging mother, and aspires to be a stand-up comic. He is generally picked on, bullied and misunderstood. To make matters worse, he has a condition which causes him to laugh inappropriately. When he makes one fatal error in his job and is sacked, life spirals downwards. This could well be called "Making a Mass Murderer" . . . that murderous man who becomes Batman's nemesis, but the film is so much more than that. As a study of mental illness, isolation, marginalisation and a society full of dysfunction and hatred it works really well. I also see many political messages that can be read into this film - it feels creepily relevant to much of today's splintering society which is prone to hang its hat on the wrong causes. And of course it mirrors current neglect of mentally ill people. Best of all it is a tour de force of acting from Phoenix, who lurches from empathetic nice guy (almost), to deranged psychopath. Amazingly he manages to generate empathy for his poor, lost character, and the physicality he imbues the role with is jaw-dropping. In another wonderful support performance Robert de Niro plays talk-show host Murray, Arthur's hero, but who ultimately contributes big time to creating the "the Joker". The settings look stunningly grimy and depressing, supporting cast are uniformly excellent, and if you're up for some serious soul-searching as to why people become the way they are, this is definitely the ticket.
4.5 - wholeheartedly recommended!

Ride Like a Girl
Director: Rachel Griffiths
Length: 95 min

© Roadshow - a heart-warming piece of history
when a "girl" became the first female jockey
to win the Melbourne Cup. 

Michelle Payne grew up as the youngest of ten kids in a horse racing family. Ever determined to race horses in a male-dominated field, she suffered a catastrophic brain injury after a fall, but went on to become the first female jockey to win the Melbourne Cup. This is her story and is also Griffiths' directorial debut. I'm not a horse-racing kinda gal - in fact I hate the sport, but to the film's credit it totally engaged me, despite being a bit sentimental in parts and using over-bearing music at times. Teresa Palmer who plays Michelle brings a passion and steely determination to her character. (Apparently she had to do a crash course in everything about horses and riding.) Her stubborn and authoritarian dad is played by the ever-charismatic Sam Neill and the father/daughter conflict plays out nicely on screen, him constantly trying to hold her back, and she rearing to go. Michelle's older brother Stevie, who has Down Syndrome and is a horse strapper, plays himself; what a charming performance (well, it's not really acting). Despite following a formulaic and predictable narrative arc (we know the outcome), much excitement is nevertheless generated, particularly with the impressive close-ups that almost put the viewer in the rider's seat. I truly felt the awe and majesty of the regal steeds, as well as the terrifying fear of what could happen if rider or mount put a foot wrong. The film has a truckload of heart, and is the sort of uplifting movie-going that we sometimes really need to offset the stresses, negativity and dramas of the world.
3.5 - well recommended!

Judy
Director: Rupert Goold
Length: 118 min

© Universal - a memorable, magnificent performance
from Zellweger as Judy Garland. 

In 1968 legendary singer Judy Garland (Renee Zellweger) headed to London for a 5-week tour to pay off debts and try to get her life back together. How those weeks panned out is the subject matter of this mesmerising, magnificent biopic which in fact is not a chronological look at her life; rather a homage to a brilliant artist and a deeply sad look at the last months of someone so gifted, who had been exploited all her life, and was now victim to drugs, alcohol, and her own craving to be loved. I love the way this film doesn't try to overstate anything - it gives minimal background to Garland's teenage breakthrough in Wizard of Oz, but enough to set the scene for emotional abuse that obviously colored the rest of her life. I haven't got the words for Zellweger's amazing performance; she embodies this character with her vulnerability, bluster, optimism, difficult nature, and of course the voice (Renee does all the singing.) There are many unforgettable moments in this film that rip your heart out, from touching scenes with gay fans, to the mental torment for Judy of being apart from her younger children. All the support cast including Jessie Buckley, Finn Wittrock, Rufus Sewell and Michael Gambon are perfect. I'm tempted to give it an unmissable. It's a stunning addition to the many music themed films of the past couple of years.
4.5 - wholeheartedly recommended!

Maiden
Director: Alex Holmes
Length: 97 min

© Rialto - more women bringing it to the men, as a
female yacht crew sail in a prestigious
round the world race.

"We're not having a girl on board; girls are for screwing when you get into port." So says an obnoxious crew member, when approached by Tracy Edwards asking for a job as a cook on a racing yacht. Having fallen in love with sailing as a teenager travelling in Greece, Tracy became determined to not only become a sailor, but to skipper the first ever women's team to enter the Whitbread round the world race, a gruelling 33,000 nautical miles. In 1989 she realised that dream, with no thanks to the misogynistic male world who constantly said women couldn't do it and condescending media who asked idiotic condescending questions they wouldn't dream of asking a man. This terrific doco is a fabulous "up yours" to that sort of chauvinistic thinking. The film uses archival footage to show the race, some of it absolutely hair-raising as the boat ploughs through terrifying seas. This record of the ground-breaking race is counterpointed with interviews with Tracy and several of her crew in the present day as they reminisce on what was probably the most important experience of their lives, a major testament to team-work. You don't have to be a yachtie to be uplifted by this moving and inspirational film.
3.5 - well recommended!

Strange But True
Director: Rowan Athale
Length: 95 min

© Icon - what starts well as a good mind-bender, 
veers off into familiar territory. 

A tragic accident on prom night kills Ronnie, the boyfriend of Melissa (Margaret Qualley). Five years later a heavily pregnant Melissa turns up at the home of Ronnie's mother Charlene (Amy Ryan), claiming she is pregnant with Ronnie's child. Initially dismissive, an irate Charlene and sceptical brother Philip start investigating the strange possibilities of there being any truth to this. Charlene's ex-hubby Richard (Greg Kinnear) is called in, while the dear old couple from whom Melissa rents a cottage, Gail (Blythe Danner) and ex-cop Bill (Brian Cox), are too good to be true, supportive and loving to the expectant mother. This is an odd-ball film, though not as atrocious as some critics would have you believe. The cast is excellent, especially Ryan as the rampaging, embittered, grieving mother and ex-wife. Qualley, the daughter of Andie McDowell, is a lovely screen presence, but the two brothers are relatively bland. Danner is perfect for her nanna-ish role, but Cox, while he acts well, contends with a major flaw in his character's scripting - that of lack of credibility, as things take a dark turn towards the film's denouement. The writer tries to blend themes of dysfunctional family, possible supernatural doings, murderous mayhem and personal truths in a way that doesn't quite hang together. But for idling away a Sunday arvo, there could be entertainment to be had.
2.5 - maybe!