February 13th
The Leunig Fragments
Emma
The Lighthouse
The Guide to Second Date Sex

The Oscars (and the rest of awards season) have now come and gone, and the film world is buzzing with Parasite's coup - four Oscars: Best International Feature Film, Best Picture, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay. But that doesn't mean there aren't heaps of new and exciting releases this week, and next week two new festivals come our way.  

The Leunig Fragments
Director: Kasimir Burgess
Length: 97 mins

 © Madman - art; poetry; philosophy,
cartooning - the film embodies much of this
enigmatic genius

Michael Leunig - An Aussie living treasure, a household name, beloved by many, misunderstood or even hated by others. Full disclosure - I'm a card-carrying Leunig fan, and have been for decades. But the revelations and sensibility of this film surprised even me. It is profound, sad, joyous, beautiful, and poetic. The film is no standard biopic, but is indeed fragments of the man's life; sensory memories (re-enacted, beautifully shot) of seminal moments in his youth, issues he has felt strongly about and that have inspired his artwork, claymation animations of some of his cartoons, and overall Michael's poignant ponderings upon mortality (his own and that of others). The paradox of a shy man thrust into the limelight is there, and such friends of his as Philip Adams and Richard Tognetti also shed light on the reclusive artist. One stand-out sequence has singer Katie Noonan performing a Leunig song with a symphony orchestra as Michael draws one of his signature works. Another has him visiting Joan, a much-loved teacher who helped him become "himself", after she's had a stroke. A voice-over near the end of the films says, "Leunig has left behind a body of work that celebrates the complexity and imperfection of life." It is this imperfection, a perplexing life with no hard and fast answers, with endless moments of sensory and emotional responses, that really speaks to me in both Michael's work, and this glorious film, which is totally in the spirit and style of the genius artist.
4.5 - wholeheartedly recommended!

Emma
Director: Autumn de Wilde
Length: 124 min

 © Universal - what a delight, on every level

In England in the 1800s, Emma Woodhouse (Anya Taylor-Joy) lives with her morose father (Bill Nighy) in the village of Highbury. The Woodhouses are extremely rich, and Emma, though declaring she'll never marry, delights in matchmaking her friends and meddling in everyone's romantic affairs. To elucidate further on the plot would take forever; suffice to say this is the umpteenth remake of a classic Jane Austen novel, and what a delight it is. Where to begin? I'm first struck by the glorious production values - this film looks outrageously beautiful, from its settings, to its costumes, to its attention to period detail. In certain scenes I gasped at the magnificent cinematography. The casting is perfect. Taylor-Joy gives her Emma an edge that makes one almost hate her for her petty, mean-minded meddling, and her excessive snobbery and vanity, and yet there is enough subtle undercurrent of personal growth and self-awareness to make us love her. All the cast fill their roles perfectly, with special mentions of Mia Goth, as Emma's best friend Harriet and Bill Nighy, the master of the sideways glance, as Emma's father. Broody, handsome Johnny Flynn is just right as the love interest, George Knightley. As with most Austen stories, everyone is a potential love interest, but there is much more to this tale than misplaced affections, afternoon tea, fine frocks, and gossiping. Ultimately it is a story of self-recognition (and of course love), but this version has a surprisingly modern resonance, and enough satirical bite, nipping at the heels of its pompous, self-absorbed, or social-climbing characters. I loved it and don't let anyone who derides it as a "chick flick" put you off what is a total entertainment for all.
4.5 - wholeheartedly recommended!

The Lighthouse
Director: Robert Eggers
Length: 124 min

 © A24 - madness, masculinity, isolation - all
in a day's work for these guys

Anyone who saw Egger's first film The Witch will know he is no run-of-the-mill director. From Gothic horror to the horror of isolation, he knows how to do it. Here we meet Winslow (Robert Pattinson) who is sent to work for four weeks as assistant to lighthouse keeper Tom Wake (Willem Dafoe). The arduous physical work is backbreaking, and some of it repellent. Wake is a slave-driver, but as the weeks wear on conflict between the men gives way to endless drunkenness, singing, dancing, and, for Winslow, disturbing hallucinatory visions of mermaids. This is an uncompromising film, in its view of what could happen when two blokes are holed up together in forbidding circumstances. Eggers shoots in black and white, its crispness accentuating every oppressive detail. Shots of the lighthouse's machinery and the hypnotic light itself (which Wake forbids Winslow to go near) create a mesmerising atmosphere. If there's allegory here, I think it's gone over my head, but as a mere vision of claustrophobia, madness and mateship, with rivetting performances from the men, it's a real cinematic treat (though not for everyone), with plenty to ponder on, especially in the light of its perplexing ending. 
4 - highly recommended!

A Guide to Second Date Sex
Director: Rachel Hirons
Length: 98 min

 © Icon - hmmm - they look as bored as I was

Laura (Alexandra Roach) and Ryan (George Mackay - of 1917 and Ned Kelly fame) meet in a bar and head home together, where they end up in bed. The sex is fumbling, awkward, in fact quite disastrous. However, they decide to get together for a "real date", which doesn't quite go as planned. Both have been scarred by previous relationships, and, while they obviously like each other, imagining in their heads scenarious of great times together, neither seems to have a clue how to behave with each other. There's potential here for a fun story, especially for folks young enough to remember the awkwardness of first sex, but for me the attempts at humour don't work. Ryan's Indian housemate is an exploitative creep (never fodder for my laughter) and there is something very cringeworthy and forced about much of the dialogue. (Yes, I know the characters feel uncomfortable, that that shouldn't detract from the film's entertainment value.)  Hirons developed the film for a stage play, and I think it could have worked much better in that context. Maybe novices to dating will have fun with it, and I'm just an old curmudgeon.
2 - you've got better things to do with your time!