May 26th
The Trip to Greece - new feature film
The Story of Film - 15 part series - DocPlay
10 Years with Hayao Miyazaki - Japanese

With restrictions easing, people may well be looking forward to heading off to cinemas in the  foreseeable future. At the moment I'd say, leave it to the brave. But at least things are looking up, and for those still avoiding the increasingly thronging crowds out there, there's still plenty of fine film to be caught from the comfort of your couch (or perched on your exercise bike).  

The Trip to Greece
Director: Michael Winterbottom
Length: 103 min
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqkSrXsUOlk
Available now on iTunes, Google Play, YouTube, Sony Playstation, Telstra & Fetch TV 

 © Madman - the two kings of dry humour are at it
again in gorgeous Greece

This is the fourth gastronomic trip Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon have taken together, and, unfortunately, their last. After The Trip (visiting northern England), The Trip to Italy, The Trip to Spain, comes this journey to my favorite overseas destination. The two retrace the steps of Odysseus, starting with Lesvos, home of poet Sappho, then Macedonia, Athens, the Peloponnese and finally Ithaca, the island Odysseus returned to. Now I know not everyone enjoys this droll, very chatty form of humour, but I come to it from a place of just loving the silly conversations these two guys have, trying to one-up each other, and outdo each other with silly accents ("That's not how Michael Caine talks - this is how" - this time it's Ray Winstone imitations). The scenery is to die for, historical facts interesting, and while there is the same dry humour this one has a little extra plot depth in its ending. And needless to say the food has one totally drooling. When you can't get on a plane to Greece, give this one a go!

10 Years with Hayao Miyazaki
Director: Kaku Arakawa
Length: 4 x 49 minute episodes
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/ondemand/video/

 © JFF - Miyazaki is an animator almost without
peer. 

Thanks to the team at the Japanese Film Festival, there is some excellent FREE watching for Japan-o-philes! With a smorgasbord of documentaries, anime series, travel series, and much more, this is a fabulous opportunity to top up your craving for all things Japanese. I've always loved the animations from Studio Ghibli who gave us such sublime films as My Neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away, Ponyo, Princess Mononoke, Howl's moving Castle, The Wind Rises and many more. In this fabulous series, we get an insight into the creative process of co-founder of the studio Hayao Miyazaki. For lovers of these animations, I suggest this is something not to be missed. 

The Story of Film - an Odyssey
2011
Director: Mark Cousins
Length: 15 x 1 hour episodes
Streaming on DOCPlay: https://www.docplay.com

© DOCPlay - heaven for movie fans

The ultimate doco for movie lovers (yes I know, many of you tell me you've already seen this, but I hadn't.) Film critic Mark Cousins spent six years on four continents to cover more than 1000 films and spanning 11 decades. Unlike similar American-based docos, Cousins looks at film the world over, comparing movements, trends, iconic films from everywhere, sometimes as a complement and sometimes as a contrast to what Hollywood was up to.  He includes clips from the films, interviews with directors and actors, now grown old, and the wealth of information and entertainment here is simply monumental. I now have a new list of films I must track down from the past, and from far-flung countries. 

May 15th
Astronaut - new feature film
Afterlife - Series Netflix
This Ain't No Mouse Music - DocPlay
Lost in Translation - revisit - Foxtel film

My sadness continues - for the many deaths, illnesses, ongoing dramas, people struggling to make ends meet, and the stupidity of certain politicians who are still disputing, denying, self-aggrandising and creating more trouble than we already have.   So, lifting of restrictions - how have things really changed though? Yes we can gather in larger groups, but it just means we have to be all the more cautious. Hopefully not too many silly people will run amok and flout the restrictions, as if there were no pandemic. It's still with us, and we still have no cure or vaccine. To be really safe, stay at home and watch films. This week's selection is a slightly more uplifting bunch - we need it!!
P.S: I'm not giving my usual graded recommendations during this period - I'm only reviewing things I recommend!

Astronaut
Director: Shelagh McLeod
Length: 97 min
Available on FetchTV, Google Play, Foxtel Box Office, Apple TV

 © Filmink - Dreyfuss plays a loving grandpa, who

still has all his marbles

Only a few weeks ago I was talking about the young Richard Dreyfuss, then only 26 years old, in American Graffiti. Now in his 70s, he plays Angus, a retired civil engineer, who has always wanted to travel into space. When a raffle is held with the prize of that exact trip, despite his age, he enters. Yes, I know some reviewers are negative about a film like this, with its rather stereotyped view of old age (not Angus, but the other oldies in the retirement home). The film's denouement, no matter how realistically based on the Branson/Musk space-flight ambitions, also lacks a certain credibility and is too neat. However, there is MUCH to recommend this sweet, heart-warming film, not the least being the fabulous performance by its lead, and the lovely relationship created with grandson Barney (Richie Lawrence). Angus is a wonderfully inspiring character, as he proves old-age is not an impediment to being useful, or to having big dreams, which is a much-needed reminder in today's world. I chose to put aside the ultra-critic hat, and simply enjoyed it as a delightful, feel-good film.  

After Life
Director: Ricky Gervais
Length: 2 Series each 6 x 1/2 hour

Streaming on Netflix

 © Netflix - Tony meets Anne in the cemetery -

bittersweet scenes to warm the heart

Written and directed by, and starring Ricky Gervais, this series is something to be relished. Gervais plays Tony, a grieving widower, who is bereft without his beloved Lisa, and uses abrasiveness, sarcasm, hostility, and suicidal desires to fend off his emotional pain. He works at a regional newspaper, where the low-key stories and his fellow employees garner his contempt, an emotion Gervais does par excellence. I used to not like him, but after this show, I'm a convert. This is a winner of a series, with incisive scripting, dry humour, out-loud laughs, but underneath it all a surprisingly moving thread of compassion, and a universal resonance for the sadness and struggle in so many of our lives. Penelope Wilton is terrific in her small role as Anne, also bereaved, but the entire cast is the perfect accompaniment to Gervais's brilliant creation. 

This Ain't No Mouse Music
2013
Director: Maureen Gosling, Chris Simon
Length: 92 min
Streaming on DOCPlay: https://www.docplay.com

© DOCPlay - heaven for music fans

Chris Strachwitz, a child refugee from Nazi Germany, has spent his life tracking down blues/roots and other traditional American music genres, recording it, and celebrating it. Chris founded Arhoolie Records, and helped bring so much previously unknown American music into people's living rooms. From down south blues (with Lightnin' Hopkins and other icons), through to Tex Mex, Cajun and Zydeco from Louisiana, New Orleans Jazz, and Appalachian bluegrass, there is an abundance of great music to be enjoyed, along with a plethora of fascinating observations and interviews with aficianados (musicians themselves) like Ry Cooder and Taj Mahal. This film won three various audience awards, and I can see why. For lovers of music, this is an absolute treat, and the word uplifting an understatement. (What is "mouse music" by the way? See the film and find out!)

Lost in Translation

Director: Sofia Coppola

Length: 102 min
2003

Available on Foxtel

 © Murray and Johanssson are perfect together

What a list of creds this film has, among them Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Screenplay in the 2004 Golden Globes, and an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. Low-key and understated is the name of the game in this sad, sublime story of faded movie actor Bob Harris (Bill Murray), in Tokyo for an advertising shoot for Suntory whisky. At the same hotel is Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson), young wife of trendy photographer John (Giovanni Ribisi), who is always too busy to barely notice his lonely wife. Despite the age gap, Charlotte and Bob seem to click together, and what happens I'm not telling, except to say it may not be as you'd imagine. This film is replete with yearning, regret, existential loneliness and the sort of emotions one can often not express. This is set against a backdrop of a wryly amusing Japanese society, where translators seem unable to communicate effectively, and where quirkiness comes up against tradition. There is so much deep poignancy in this film, such a palpable sense of "what if", it brought me to tears, and I was thrilled to revisit it. 

May 8th
Hearts and Bones - VOD release
Blood - series Acorn TV
Hostage - VOD release
Color Out of Space - VOD release
ET - Foxtel
Jurassic Park - Foxtel
Pandemic/apocalyptic/lockdown films

This week is a grab bag of liquorice allsorts (yum - haven't had them for years) - a selection of films releasing on demand, along with an excellent Irish series, and a couple of golden-oldie memory-lane blockbusters. I'm sticking fairly rigidly to the "five-minute review" idea and mostly avoiding great depth. Just brief impressions of things you may like to watch while grappling with the ongoing trainwreck of our lives!

Hearts and Bones
Director: Ben Lawrence
Length: 111 min
Available on many platforms: iTunes, Google Play, YouTube, Sony Playstation, Telstra & Fetch TV. DVD out on June 3rd 
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNaSt0_UUcc

 © Madman - Weaving is wonderful in this deep

story of trauma, secrets and friendship

Dan Fisher (Hugo Weaving) is a war photographer who has returned home and is suffering PTSD. His wife announces she is pregnant. Preparing for a gallery show, Dan is approached by a Sudanese refugee Sebastian (Andrew Luri), who requests that a certain photo not be included in the exhibition. As a friendship grows between the men, it becomes clear that both men have traumatic pasts (and secrets) that need to be dealt with. As a portrayal of shared humanity, this is a thoughtful and worthy film, anchored, as always, by a top notch performance from Hugo Weaving. The plot strands are subtly interwoven, and the whole is satisfying and resonant to many aspects of our lives and moral dilemmas. 

Blood
Director: Sophie Petzal
Length: Series 1: 6 x 1 hr

Streaming on Acorn TV: https://au.acorn.tv/

Cat Hogan (Carolina Main) has always been the black sheep of the family. When she returns to her village in Ireland for the funeral of her mother, she becomes convinced her father (Adrian Dunbar) is implicated in her mother's death. So begins a dramatic and gut-wrenching emotional journey of uncovering secrets, truths, and the "real story", which is only revealed in the wonderful final episode. This is strongly scripted, well acted, and something quite fresh, in terms of its many unfamiliar actors, except Dunbar, familiar from Line of Duty. If you like a good mystery, family convolutions, and lovely Irish scenery this could be one to check out.

Hostage
Director: Frank Shields
Length: 93 min
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=XsRnbqNKUWc

Umbrella Film - streaming on demand: https://www.umbrellaent.com.au/310-on-demand

© Umbrella  - Mr Handsome here is not what he seems

This film is based on the true story of Christine (Kerry Mack), a 16-year old sideshow worker who falls in love with handsome German, Walter Maresch (Ralph Schicha). After he whisks her away to Germany she discovers he is a sadistic controlling neo-Nazi. Made originally in 1983 this film has been meticulously restored. With its sex, melodrama and predictable tropes, it sits firmly in the genre of  Ozploitation - low budget Aussie films made after 1971 when the the R rating came in. This is nevertheless a fascinating piece of film history which critic Adrian Martin described (about three decades ago) as "one of the most explosive, enduring and significant movies of Australian cinema in the '80s".  Indeed it still packs a punch with its relevance for today's world, where brutality to women, abusive men, and fanatical groups are important issues to be grappled with.

Color Out of Space

Director: Richard Stanley

Length: 110 min

Available from Umbrella Video on Demand

 © Umbrella - prepare to be weirded out, 
even grossed out - but entertained

Nathan Gardner (Nicolas Cage), his wife Theresa (Joely Richardson) and their three kids have headed to the countryside to escape the city hubbub and live a tranquil rural existence on an idyllic New England property. Nathan wants to farm alpacas (so cute, stars of the film), Theresa is recovering from cancer, and the kids are a weird bunch, daughter Lavinia a self-styled witch, son Benny a stoner, and youngest Jack a cute oddball.  Life is disrupted when a meteorite crashes into their yard. The meteorite "evaporates" overnight, but some strange alien life force or pathogen begins to cause havoc - coloring the air, creating lurid flowers, and infecting everything it contacts - including Nathan and his family. Based upon a short sci-fi story by HP Lovecraft, this is one of the oddest films I've seen in a while. The opening scenes are mesmerisingly beautiful, with towering, (but slightly menacing) trees. Overall, the cinematography is stunning, and Cage (love him or hate him) gives one of his most crazed, out-there performances, which, unfortunately, towards the end runs the risk of becoming laughable, though it does capture one's attention! The film gets more horrific (think body horror) and bizarre as it goes along, but I guess this goes with the genre. However, I can't say I was bored, and I suspect for fans, it has the potential to become a cult classic. It may not be everyone's taste, but it's definitely for Cage-o-maniacs and alpaca fans.

Let's go Spielberg retro

Having recently watched a wonderful three-hour doco on Foxtel about the iconic director Steven Spielberg, I decided to indulge in a couple of his blockbuster entertaining films. I'm here to report the two I chose were mega-entertaining, and absolutely worth a second viewing (or first, if you've never seen them).

 © ET is so ugly, he's absolutely cute. 

The film is a delightful heartwarmer. 

E.T. the Extra Terrestrial (1982): The little alien who gets left behind when his spaceship makes a hurried exit from earth, is befriended by a lonely boy, Elliott. For me this sweet (at times saccharine-sweet) story doesn't really date; it is a celebration of children's dreams of belonging, and of family, and of magic. There is much to make you laugh and cry, and it's great to see the tiny Drew Barrymore early on in her career as Elliott's sister Gert. 

 © Gotta love this T-Rex!

Jurassic Park (1993): For dinosaur fans it's unmissable, this exciting story of the theme park that goes dramatically pear-shaped, when the giant reptiles get loose. With an all-star cast featuring Sam Neill, Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum, this is popcorn entertainment par excellence. The special effects were ground-breaking at the time, and some of the memorable scenes have gone into movie legend. 

Top films for lockdowns

I don't feel inclined at this moment to stress myself further with too many films of dystopian scenarios, but there are a lot of lists out there at present of people's favorite pandemic/end-of-days movies. My friend Jennifer Henry has sent me her list:

• Contagion
• The Road
• A Quiet Place
• Passengers
• The Last man on earth (actually a TV series)

I remember Outbreak, (1995), giving me a 10-Panadol headache, while 12 Monkeys (1995)  and 28 Days Later (2002)  were also worthy candidates for stress-inducing films.

What are your favorites, dear readers?