April 24th
The United States vs Billie Holiday
Hillbilly Elegy
Six Minutes to Midnight
Spanish Film Festival
Yay!! The Oscars are upon us and this week I look at the last of those nominees I've managed to catch. Plus a new film festival is here, with plenty of great stuff on offer, and a British thriller featuring Judi Dench.
The United States vs Billie Holiday
Dir: Lee Daniels
Length: 130 mins
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| © Universal - wow - what a performance! |
Renowned jazz singer Billie Holiday (Andra Day) was adored by her fans but spent her all-too-short life persecuted by US drug enforcement officers. Federal agent Jimmy Fletcher (Trevante Rhodes) leads the undercover sting against the singer, who ends up having a roller-coaster love affair with him anyway. Ruthless agent Harry Anslinger (Garrett Hedlund) is determined to hound Billie to the bitter end, using drugs as his excuse for what is essentially a racist campaign. Day has already won a Golden Globe for this towering performance and is nominated for a Best Actress Oscar. She is sublime in the role, capturing the entire spectrum of emotion, and when she sings the controversial song Strange Fruit (about black lynchings), she sends chills down one's spine. Yes, there are a few annoying stylistic inconsistencies, (going to black and white to unnecessarily emulate archival footage) and a couple of time leaps that don't flow, but they don't warrant some of the negative critiques of this fine film, that is still so timely in the world of #blacklivesmatter. Day is the beating heart of the film, but the whole stands up really well as a picture of horrendous times for people of colour (even if they are hugely famous), and the torment of drug addiction in a talented but damaged woman. The film looks magnificent, the soundtrack is stunning, and it's a totally immersive experience.4 - highly recommended
Hillbilly Elegy
Dir: Ron Howard
Length: 116 mins
Streaming on Netflix
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© Netflix - Almost unrecognisable, Glenn Close
is nominated for a Best Supporting Actress |
Yale law student J.D. (Gabriel Basso) gets an urgent phone call to return to his home, because his mother Bev (Amy Adams) has overdosed on drugs. Based upon the life memoir of J.D. Vance, this is an insightful portrait of a family with big problems - poverty, parental instability, and their effect upon a young man with talent and aspirations, caught between his hopes for a better future and his feelings of duty to family. Glenn Close is nominated for a Supporting Actress award in this fine drama, but I'm surprised Adams didn't get a nod for her poignant performance as a mother who just can't cope in the world. Interestingly, although many of the performances have been praised and nominated for various other awards, the film gets a generally negative critical reaction, possibly because of the stereotyping of the sort of people it purports to have sympathy for. Howard often has a fairly predictable directorial style, sometimes overly melodramatic, but this is possibly worth seeing alone for Close's fine performance, in which she absolutely inhabits a trashy but loving grandma.3.5 - well recommended
Six Minutes to Midnight
Dir: Andy Goddard
Length: 99 mins
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© Transmission - fascinating premise -
not so wonderful execution |
Throughout the 1930s, the daughters of influential men in Nazi Germany attend a finishing school in the south of England as preparation to be part of the Anglo-German fellowship. The school head Miss Rocholl (Judi Dench) hires a new teacher, Mr Thomas (Eddie Izzard) to replace Mr Wheatley who has mysteriously disappeared. Thomas gets suspicious of Ilse Keller, the girls' German teacher, but soon finds himself on the run, under suspicion for murder. Loosely based upon a true but little-known World War 2 story, this is a good-looking film that takes a fascinating premise, but unfortunately doesn't deliver on a sense of authenticity. Dench is type-cast and somewhat melodramatic, Izzard is miscast, and all the attempts to make something thrilling out of the plot and idyllic out of the setting, don't work as well as they could.2.5 - maybe
Moro Spanish Film Festival
22 April - 9 May (Melbourne)
At all Palace cinemas
Spice up the start of the cold days, with the sizzle of Spanish and Latino cinema. As always I'm fortunate to preview a few.
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| © Spanish FF: hard-hitting social drama |
A Thief's Daughter: With 12 awards under its belt, this intense social drama is the story of Sara (a stunning perf from Greta Fernandez) and her attempts to make a better life for herself. She is partly deaf, is a single Mum, struggles with her relationship with her father, is rejected by her baby's father, and is generally a very sad character. While anything but uplifting, this is the sort of European cinema I really enjoy and admire - beautifully scripted, meaningful, authentic and a real comment and reflection upon the struggles some people have in life. Spider is a political thriller from Chile, set in the 1970s. Ines and husband Justo, along with Ines's lover Gerardo are neo-fascists who work to overthrow the left wing government of Allende. Toggling between the present and the past, this is an intriguing and tense film, featuring strong performances, but if you're a politico-klutz like me, I suggest boning up on a bit of Chile's history before you view it.
Ladigo: Aussie comedian Simon Palomares is intrigued by Cuban comedians, trying to fathom how certain folk seem so relentlessly funny when life is in chaos around them and they have so little. It's a great concept and starts off really well with some strong stand up comedy that crosses the language barrier. Unfortunately the film then veers off into endless talking heads which becomes a bit repetitive, but if you want to see something of the appealing streets of Havana, the iconic classic cars, and get an insight into how to be happy regardless, you may enjoy this short doco.
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