Thursday, 29 July 2021

 July 30th

Rosa's Wedding
The Toll
Get ready for MIFF! - 5 films for you to consider
Elvis The Searcher (streaming Netflix)
I Care a Lot (streaming Amazon Prime)


Cinemas in Melbourne are again open, so here are a couple for you to head off to. But if you're not yet brave enough, catch up with some good stuff on the streaming platforms. More importantly, those planning to catch up with MIFF this year (a mix of in-cinema and online), now is the time to study the form guide and figure out which films you need to book for. I preview five for your consideration. 
 

Rosa's Wedding
Dir: Iciar Bollain
Length: 97 mins
© Palace - lightweight and sweet
Rosa (Candela Pena), a 45-year-old movie costume dressmaker, is sick of putting everyone else's needs before her own. She's a movie costume dressmaker, has an aging demanding father, a daughter raising twins, a brother needing his kids babysat, and numerous other people making demands on her life. Impulsively she returns to the town of her youth hoping to revive the old family dressmaking business. Even more unusually, she decides to have a wedding - but she intends to publicly marry herself, swearing allegiance and care for her own well-being. To the many relatives who turn up (uninvited) this is a perplexing situation. While this feel-good film may be a bit too "cute" for some, it really strikes a blow for women and is anchored by such a terrific performance from its lead, that you quickly invest in the success of Rosa's project. Add a terrific perf from Sergei Lopez as Armando her brother and you have a good diverting entertainment.
3.5 - well recommended

The Toll
Dir: Ryan Andrew Hooper
Length: 97 mins
© Monster Pictures - the past catches up 
with the man in the toll booth
Michael Smiley plays the unnamed operator of a Welsh toll booth in the middle of nowhere. He  calls in local cop Catrin (Annes Elwy) to report that he has been robbed of his watch, drink and sandwich at gunpoint. But his convoluted story, told in various flashbacks, reveals a hidden past that has finally caught up with him. This is black humour at its Welsh best - quirky, clever, and rather reminiscent of the Coen Brothers style of film, where comedy meets crime caper. The naivete of Catrin is beautifully juxtaposed with the odd assortment of deadbeats and crims that come in and out of the tale - some so idiotic that when they try to organise a heist on a shipment of I-Pads, they end up with cartons of medical eye pads! Iwan Rheon (renowned as the sadistic Bolton in Game of Thrones) is wonderful in his role; in fact all the characters are terrifically drawn, and the excellent quasi-western soundtrack is a great foil for the often deadpan happenings, that are interspersed with sudden bouts of bloodshed. For lovers of offbeat fare, this should be a treat.
4 - highly recommended

Melbourne International Film Festival
5-15 August - in cinemas
14-22 August- online

Wonderful, iconic MIFF is almost back! Time to bone up on the program and organise what you want to see, as many sessions are selling out fast. No point my reiterating all the info you can check out online - suffice to say this year's festival will be a hybrid of in-cinema and online screenings. There are 199 feature films, 84 shorts, and 10 immersive digital online experiences. As usual, I'm on the go, reviewing some pretty interesting films, all of which I recommend highly.

Come Back Anytime 
Fans of foodie films, and Japan-o-philes will find this delightful doco almost unmissable. It features Taisho, who runs a ramen shop in Tokyo. This type of story, when well done, is always about much more than food. Here we meet a man who is immersed not only in creating the soup, but also a safe and welcoming environment for his customers. So much Japanese tradition is on show here, in a humble and back-to-nature way, as Taisho and his friends till the land, hunt for fresh bamboo shoots, make glutinous rice dishes, pick nashi pears, and generally hang out communing with nature, when they are not communing with each other over noodles. Many of his clientele speak to camera of just what the place (and the soup) have done for their lives, and the esteem in which Taisho is held is evident. The film is uplifting, absorbing, and has a magnificent soundtrack of jazz and classical music. Warning: Don't Go Hungry to this movie!

Helmut Newton: The Bad and the Beautiful:
Anyone with knowledge of the world of photography knows the name Helmut Newton, photographer extraordinaire, renowned for his erotic, off-beat and sometimes confronting photos. In this wonderfully engaging doco we meet the man, look at his work, and hear from many of his subjects, while we try to decide if he really was a misogynist, or a champion of women. The film is chock-full of intriguing reminiscences with the likes of model/singer Grace Jones, actors Charlotte Rampling and Isabella Rossellini, vogue editor Anna Wintour, and many more who have been the subject of Newton's iconoclastic way of recording the world, with particular focus on the female body. Newton comes across as such an entertaining and self-confident man, and his ground-breaking photography has influenced the art-form forever.    

The Girl and the Spider 
Lisa is moving into her new apartment, leaving her ex-flatmates behind. Mara is especially bereft. Imagine that new apartment crammed full of people, among them Lisa's mother.  Some are helping, others are in the way - add a couple of playful kids, a mother, neighbors, a couple of dogs and a few tradies fixing things, and you have a very different psychological relationship drama from Germany. Here's one for lovers of long meaningful looks, and bucketloads of emotion - much of it never articulated. Even though little happens, this feels totally in-your-face authentic, in terms of the characters' disappointments and longings, and the basic dynamic of human inter-connectedness. Great acting, a lean and spare look to the settings contribute to unusual but fascinating viewing. 
 
Azor 
Argentina 1980: the ruthless regime of the military Junta is taking over, and people of wealth and privilege are scared for their lives and their money. Swiss private banker Yvan De Wiels and his wife Ines head to Buenos Aires after his colleague from the private bank mysteriously disappears. You don't have to have any interest in private banking to become instantly engrossed in this fine film and the tension of the times. The look is elegant and moneyed, and the performances are all stand-out. As Yvan becomes progressively drawn into the web of the strongmen, including corrupt clergy, we feel the simmering sense of menace, and question constantly where people involved will draw their moral boundaries. 

Pebbles
In a relatively short run time (75 mins) the director manages to convey so much more than the basic story of a father and son heading home to their village. The father is a vile man - violent, physically and verbally abusive, and a drunk. As the hapless but defiant child is towed along, we fall to wondering about the sort of toxic masculinity that pervades some of Indian society, and the role model it gives. Set in the arid regions of Tamil Nadu, we witness the devastating poverty many villagers live in, and the way that the women manage somehow to hold things together. This is powerful film-making, that, by saying less, and showing more, says so much. The cinematography, with its broad sweeping vision, is memorable. 

Elvis Presley: The Searcher
Dir: Thom Zimny
Length: 205 mins - in two episodes 
Streaming on Netflix

© Netflix - how can you not love this face?
Going behind the legend, and the commonly known facts of Elvis's life, this wonderful, in-depth documentary is a treat for fans and music historians alike. Starting with the 1968 come-back concert, the film moves all around the time line of the iconic singer's life, including much about his personal life as well as his battle to find his true musical passion, hampered as he often was by his manager Col. Parker. There's lots of archival footage I certainly have never seen and the music is magnificent. Elvis comes over as a really decent human being, making the sad arc of his life all the more tragic.
4 - highly recommended

I Care a Lot
Dir: J blakeson
Length: 118 mins
Streaming on Amazon Prime

© Amazon Prime - worthy adversaries
Marla Grayson (Rosamund Pike) is a high-flying executive who runs a guardianship business - i.e. folks considered unable to care for themselves and manage their own affairs are put by the courts under her care in one of her residential homes. Once she has full control over their assets, she milks them for all they're worth. But when she takes over the care of Jennifer Peterson (Barbara Wiest), she has no idea what she is up against.  Pike won the Golden Globe for an actress in a comedy, and deservedly so. Wiest is terrific too, as she goes from seeming scatty old woman, to a major force to be reckoned with. Equally impressive is Peter Dinklage (who can forget him as Tyrion Lannister in Game of Thrones?) as Roman, an unexpected spoke in Marla's wheel, and with connections to the Russian mafia. I really got a kick out of this film - funny, pacy and well-scripted with a great twist at the end.
4 - highly recommended

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