Hursto's five minute films: April 2022

Wednesday 27 April 2022

April 28th

Downton Abbey: A New Era

After Yang

Farewell Mr Haffmann

Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy

More from the Moro Spanish Film Festival

This week brings something to relish for the fans of Downton Abbey, plus a trio of intriguing arthouse films. Also the Spanish FF continues, with the film Mediterraneo bordering on unmissable.

Downton Abbey: A New Era

Dir: Simon Curtis

Length: 125 mins

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wN0Spmq610Q

Never having watched the series or for that matter seen the first film, I really am not so familiar with all the characters in this incredibly handsome, uplifting and crowd-pleasing story of an English upper-crust family living in a majestic old home. For the cogniscenti, rest assured all your faves are here, including the family matriarch Violet (a marvellous Maggie Smith). Two main plot threads run through the film: 1. Violet discovers she has inherited a villa in the south of France, leading the family to delve into a possibly scandalous past and to visit said French connections. 2. Lion Films come to Downton to use it as a setting for a silent movie which runs into trouble causing Downton family members and staff to become involved in the project. The cast plays as a roll-call of much-loved faces of British acting; apart from Smith there's Imelda Staunton, Hugh Bonneville, Elizabeth McGovern, Michelle Dockery, Penelope Wilton, Jim Carson (the archetypical butler), to name a few. I am impressed that the upper-class do not come across as a parody of themselves; all seem quite believable, nor are the downstairs servants presented patronisingly. Smaller plot threads of possible life-threatening illness, gay romance and Eliza Doolittle-esque reimaginings are nicely handled. The costumes, settings and cinematography are simply splendid old chap, and in this utterly fraught and troubling world, this is just the sort of diverting entertainment we need.

3.5 - well recommended

After Yang

Dir: Kogonada

Length: 96 mins

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kwp32zLc08c

Set sometime in the near future, Jake (Colin Farrell) and Kyra (Jodie Turner Smith) have an adopted Chinese child Mika (Malea Emma Tjandrawidjaja). To help her understand her heritage and to give her a sibling they purchase an android named Yang (Justin H Min). Mika is deeply attached to her older "brother", but he is second hand, and one day suddenly ceases to work. While attempting to repair Yang for a distraught Mika, Jake discovers a camera inside the android, and on the memory card is footage of everything that Yang has ever recorded from each day of his life, including previous lives he has led with other families. With overtones of Blade Runner, the film explores the huge questions of love, loss, connectedness and what it means to be human. Winner of Un Certain Regard at Cannes 2021, this is a gentle and deeply moving film that will both intrigue and challenge you to deeper philosophical thought.

4 - highly recommended

Farewell Mr Haffmann

Dir: Fred Cavaye

Length: 115 mins

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynh8hXoLza8

Paris 1941: Joseph Haffmann (Daniel Auteuil) runs a jewellery shop, his creations in high demand. But when the Nazis start rounding up Parisian Jews he makes a weighty decision: he sends his wife and three children down to the south of France, and signs his shop over to his assistant, Francois Mercier (Gilles Lellouche), a man hoping to make his own designs one day. Joseph hopes to join his family but can no longer exit Paris safely, so ends up hiding out in the basement of his own home, where Francois and his wife Blanche (Sara Gireaudeau) are now in residence. What ensues is a convoluted twisting of roles, colored by Francois' increasingly dark side coming to the fore, both in his marriage, his greed, and his relationship with the Germans. Much of the increasingly taut action centres around the fraught dynamic of the threesome in the house, and an almost Faustian pact they strike. The camera captures the claustrophobia of Joseph's situation, viewing the outside world through a street level window. This is subtle film-making, with a wonderful plot (some fabulous twists at the end), and sublime acting by the three leads. It is yet again a reminder of the horrors of the Jewish situation in World War 2, along with an invitation to ponder, what makes for a good person?

4 - highly recommended

Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy

Dir: Ryusuke Hamaguche

Length: 121 mins

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pr7rZV1f3w

From the director of Drive My Car comes a film which is for me, much more engaging. Three short stories introduce us to women with issues around relationships: love, regret, jealousy, betrayal. In the first, Tsugumi and her friend Meiko talk endlessly in a taxi, the conversation revealing that they seem to have a connection with the same man. In the second, an aggrieved student tried to convince the woman he is having an affair with to seduce a college professor to create a scandal. And in the third, my favorite, after a high school reunion, an unhappy woman, with many past regrets, makes a chance encounter through a mistaken identity. This leads to some much needed soul-searching for both women. It's all about relationships, via intense conversations, but each tale is so intriguing that we end up feeling like a fly on the wall, almost voyeuristically engaged with the various interactions. The film has won several prestigious awards, including the Silver Bear at Berlin, and while fans of faster-paced films will possibly not enjoy it, this is terrific dialogue-driven cinema with compellingly truthful acting.

4 - highly recommended

Moro Spanish Film Festival

Ongoing until May 15

All Palace Cinemas Melbourne

For other states, times, etc visit: www.spanishfilmfestival.com

The festival continues to bring top-shelf Spanish and Latino cinema to the world. I recommended you to four last week and here we go with another two.

Mediterraneo: The Law of the Sea: This true story focuses upon Oscar Camps (Eduard Fernandez), a lifeguard from Barcelona. When, in 2015, Camps sees a picture of a small Syrian boy drowned trying to get to Europe via Greece, he heads to the island of Lesbos. There, with the help of his daughter and a couple of other committed lifeguards, he starts a rescue operation, bringing stranded refugees safely in to shore. The NGO he founds, Open Arms, still operates today, heading to the world's trouble spots. This is moving cinema with a capital M. The story is thrilling, but more importantly a vital example of people with a huge capacity for compassion. The director never descends into sentimentality or melodrama - just shows it like it is - all the despair of the refugees, the bureaucratic indifference (initially) of the Greek authorities, the generosity of some of the locals, and the life-changing contributions of Camps and his crew. The film inspired me and moved me to tears.

Official Competition: Pen Cruz, like you've never seen her before, plays film director Lola Cuevas, a woman known for her unusual methods. She is co-opted by a wealthy tycoon who wants to leave a mark on the world, and gets her to direct a film from a Nobel-Prize-winning book, about sibling rivalry. Her leading men Felix (Antonio Banderas) and Ivan (Oscar Martinez) couldn't be more different in their acting approaches, but their egos are equally large. The film is witty, at times laugh out loud funny, and as a vehicle to stick it to the film industry and to arrogance, this is one worth seeing. Cruz and her leading men are terrific in their performances, and the minimilism of the sets means you can concentrate hard on the over-the-top characters.

Wednesday 20 April 2022

April 21st

The Northman

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent

Moro Spanish Film Festival

BOFA

It's a big week for film. A Viking epic roars onto our screens, along with a philosophical sci-fi, and a comedy that no Nicolas Cage fan will want to miss. The Spanish Film Festival makes a welcome return, and Launceston's BOFA is worth investigating.

The Northman

Dir: Robert Eggers

Length: 136 mins

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMSdFM12hOw

The year is 895 and tribes are battling and rampaging far and wide. King Aurvandill War Raven (Ethan Hawke) returns from battle to Ireland, to his wife Queen Gudrun (Nicole Kidman) and young son Amleth. Within a day the king is slain by his brother Fjolnir (Claes Bang), who vows to also kill the boy, and takes Gudrun as his wife. Amleth flees and is found and raised by a band of Vikings. Fast forward a couple of decades: Amleth, played by a very buff Alexander Skarsgard, learns that Fjolnir has been overthrown and now lives in Iceland, farming and ruling over a band of slaves. Stowing away disguised as a slave Amleth vows to exact his revenge against his uncle, and to rescue his mother. He meets fellow slave Olga (Anya Joy Taylor) who claims to be a white witch and aids Amleth in planning his revenge. That's only a portion of this epic plot, almost Shakespearean in its scope, and blood-soaked in its execution. Director Eggers, known for the seriously atmospheric films The Witch and The Lighthouse, has employed some heavy-duty Viking historians to help him recreate a world we could only shudder at the thought of living in. The result is a film viscerally gory, that also manages to vividly depict the Norse beliefs in spiritual/supernatural occurrences. All is delivered to the screen with breathtaking cinematography (shot on real film, not digital), settings both majestic and oppressive, along with plenty of sword wielding and hand-to-hand combat. Skarsgard really lets loose with his inner animal, and it's a performance that could be seen as either over-the-top, or something remarkable, depending on your viewpoint. For many this will be an unmissable epic tale, while for those more squeamish it will be something to perhaps avoid at all costs. So . . . .

4 - highly recommended (for Viking buffs and adrenaline junkies) or 2 - don't bother (for gore averse viewers).

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent

Dir: Tom Gormican

Length: 105 mins

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2YHPZMj8r4

Nicolas Cage plays actor Nick Cage (a fictionalised version of himself). Full of ego, bluster and insecurity, he seems at a crisis point in his finances and career, so reluctantly agrees to accept a $1 million offer to attend a fan's birthday party in Majorca, Spain. When he arrives things take an unexpected turn. CIA agent Vivian (Tiffany Haddish) recruits him to go undercover on a mission involving his host Javi Gutierrez (Pedro Pascal). When things go seriously awry, Nick needs to channel many of the characters from his film roles to handle the situation. To say more about the plot would be to give too much away; but the referencing of many actual Cage films and the characters the actor has played in them is done to perfection. Analysts of the real Cage talk about his different incarnations - macho action man, loud lunatic, and sometimes even Mr. Vulnerable, able to weep on command. All of these versions emerge, while the film also manages to lampoon many aspects of the film industry. It satirises Cage's actual career, devises a mind-bending script-writing collaboration sub-plot, all encased within a buddy/action movie that is a wild ride. I loved every moment of this creative, zany film.

4.5 - wholeheartedly recommended

Moro Spanish Film Festival

April 21-May 15

All Palace Cinemas Melbourne

For other states, times, etc visit: www.spanishfilmfestival.com

Featuring a wonderful movie lineup predominantly from Spain and Latin America, the festival consists of 34 films: dramas, documentaries, comedies and more. And for fans of power couple Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem, encore screenings of three of their collaborations are featured in the festival. As usual, I'm the lucky duck who has previewed a selection, with more to come next week.

Maixabel: Between 1968 and 2010, the leftist group ETA fought for independence for the Basque region of northern Spain and southern France. In that time they killed more than 800 people. This is the true story of Maixabel, whose husband was a victim of the group's terrorist activities. Seven years after the life-shattering event, Maixabel receives a request from one of her husband's murderers to meet with him in prison. Blanca Portilla is simply awesome as Maixabel, deservedly winning the Best Actress Award in the Spanish Goyas. And notably, for its powerful themes of redemption and forgiveness, the film won the SIGNIS award, an interfaith ecumenical award given at many major film festivals. Inspiring viewing!

Parallel Mothers: Janis (Penelope Cruz) is about to turn 40 and is delighted when she becomes pregnant to Arturo (Israel Elejalde), even if he is married and she is to be a single mother. In her hospital birthing ward she meets 19-year-old Ana (Milena Smit), alone and scared. The women bond and give birth at the same time. What ensues will change their lives forever. Master film-maker Pedro Almodovar deftly weaves many disparate plot threads, including the dark times of Spanish history, and the disappeared people under Franco's regime. Cruz, nominated for a Best Actress, gives a performance that is a career highlight. The film is full of humanity without ever becoming melodramatic. It also has a vibrantly gorgeous color pallette which somehow heightens all the emotions. Stunning film-making.

Language Lessons: An American-made film, this delightful dramedy takes a very novel approach to the topic of friendship and deeper connections. Adam (Mark Duplass) is given a course of Spanish lessons as a gift from his partner, who dies unexpectedly just days after the lessons begin. Adam's teacher Carino (Natalie Morales, who also directs the film), gives lessons online from her home in Costa Rica. The film's visual device of seeing what Adam and Carino see of each other via their screens makes for a lot of fun, but it is the deeper emotions and vulnerabilities of each character that really hit home far more intensely than you would expect from a plot of this nature. Duplass and Morales feel totally like real people up there on the screen, making it near impossible not to be drawn into their worlds. Funny, charming and fresh.

Carajita: The first film I've ever seen from the Dominican Republic, Carajita tells the story of three women, and a tragedy that upends their lives. Sara, the daughter of a wealthy family, has been attached to her nanny Yarisa since childhood. When the family moves from the capital to a seaside town, it gives Yarisa the chance to reunite with her biological daughter Mallory, who she had neglected in favor of her wealthy employers. Beautifully acted and shot, with a wonderful soundtrack, it is a window into lives quite unfamiliar, but also ultimately this is also a hauntingly familiar story of class differences that cannot be glossed over when reality strikes.

BOFA (Breath of Fresh Air)

Online Until 31 May

Real-life Launceston Festival April 29-8 May

For details visit: https://breath-of-fresh-air.com.au/

At the start of covid, Launceston launched one of the first online film festivals and continues the tradition, with bundles of films to purchase for hassle-free viewing from your home. For those wanting to jet off to the gorgeous Apple Isle, there is also a real-life festival of film, food and fun from April 29-May 8.

Of the films screening online there are quite a few I have reviewed in the past and can heartily recommend: I am Wanita; The People upstairs; The Biggest Little Farm; Older Than Ireland; Chef Antonio's Recipe for Revolution.

Wednesday 13 April 2022

April 13th

Nobody Has to Know

Happening

The Good Boss

Eiffel - digital download

It always feels odd when all the high-profile films from the Oscars have come and gone. Things settle into some sort of "normality", with some excellent new releases that sometimes slip under the radar. This week's films are all worthy of a watch, with one being quite a stand-out.

Nobody Has to Know

Dir: Boulie Lanners, Tim Mielants

Length: 99 mins

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ird570nlxKs

Phil (Boulie Lanners) a seemingly healthy middle-aged man, has a stroke, causing him to lose his memory. When he is released from hospital Millie (Michelle Fairley) picks him up and soon tells him that prior to his memory loss they were lovers. Phil has no reason to question this; her attentions are pleasing to him. This film has a couple of real strengths: love in later years is always welcome on screen, and the chemistry between Lanners and Fairley is strong. Also the setting, a windswept island off Scotland, is a suitably desolate reflection of the lonely lives both lead. Not a lot happens until the shocking denouement, but as a gentle reflection upon loneliness, love and connection the film works. It's obviously a story very personal for Lanners who has written, directed and starred in it. (PS for those wondering where they've seen Fairley, think Game of Thrones!)

3.5 - recommended

Happening

Dir: Audrey Diwan

Length: 100 mins

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqsPt2lfOx0

Winner of many prestigious awards including the Golden Lion at Venice, this deeply disturbing film is the story of Anne (Anamaria Vartolomei), a student in France in the late 1960s. Her deeply-held ambition to become a writer is upset when she discovers she is pregnant. Abortion is not legal in France at that time. And so begins the desperate attempt to terminate the pregnancy. The film is based upon a memoir, and the director never flinches or avoids the most upsetting and horrific moments of Anne's increasingly dangerous attempts to solve her dilemma, making it feel totally real. The performance from Vartolomei is intense and brilliant. What is truly alarming is that, in today's world, with many American states trying to wind back women's rights to abortion, this is all horrifyingly real and threatening.

4 - highly recommended

The Good Boss

Dir: Fernando Leon de Aranoa

Length: 120 mins

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlH6FWDZQIo

Blanco (Javier Bardem) is the boss of a respected Spanish company which manufactures industrial scales. Hoping to win a prestigious award for business excellence, he is determined that nothing must go wrong. But he is faced with a disgruntled sacked employee who sets up a protest tent opposite the factory, another depressed worker, and a very young intern who has her eye on him. This film has totally blitzed with a multitude of Goya Awards (a bit like the Spanish Oscars), plus a heap of other awards and nominations. The film belongs totally to Bardem, who plays it for all he's worth - starting off as the smooth, charming, apparently uber-caring boss, who becomes a stressed out mess as he starts to meddle in everyone else's lives. Depending upon what makes you laugh, you may either love it or find it merely amusing.

3.5 - well recommended

Eiffel

Dir: Martin Bourloulon

Length: 108 mins

Available to rent from Apple TV, Google play and Prime Video Store

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STXwmr01J0o

Gustave Eiffel (Romain Duris) was a successful engineer who was commissioned to build a special monument for the Paris World Fair in 1889. This film is the story of how he built the iconic Eiffel Tower, but apparently it takes a few liberties with the actual facts, using a quasi-fictional romance as its cornerstone. The film claims that Eiffel was once engaged to the love of his life Adrienne Bourges (Emma Mackey), but her socially "superior" family forbade the union. Years later he re-meets Adrienne, now married to his friend Antoine, and the flame is rekindled. Fuelled by love, desire and regret, Eiffel throws his all into his project. Despite the embroidered facts, this sure makes for a handsome and entertaining romance, with some absolutely wonderful scenes and reconstructions of the engineering genius that went into the design and progressive build of what is now one of the world's most romantic and recognised structures. Duris is simply gorgeous, the vision of the wealthy socialites' Paris of the era is a delight, and all in all the film is a good, lightweight entertainment.

3.5 - well recommended

Sunday 3 April 2022

April 4th

The Duke

Carbon: the Unauthorised Biography

Encanto (streaming on Disney+)

Now we are settling into a regular flow of new releases and endless offerings available for streaming. These three are as far apart as chalk, cheese and flowers!

The Duke

Dir: Roger Michell

Length: 96 mins

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2B2bxcnt4S4

Kempton Bunton (Jim Broadbent) is a 65-year-old cab driver with a strong social conscience, which he channels into protests against pensioners having to pay for TV licenses. When the National Gallery buys a Goya portrait of the Duke of Wellington, Kempton steals it, and proceeds to send ransom notes to the government, saying he will return it on the condition that the government do away with TV licenses for the elderly. His wife of umpteen years, Dorothy (Helen Mirren), spends her time cleaning, and tut-tutting over Kempton's activities. British comedies aren't really my bag, but seeing the always amiable Broadbent in a role tailor-made for him, and the usually glamorous Mirren as a totally frumpy housewife makes for some much-needed lightweight fun. The story is actually based on a true case, and there are a couple of unexpected reveals and twists to make it mildly intriguing. The true magic is how the leads have us totally believe in their decades long marriage.

3.5 - well recommended

Carbon: the Unauthorised Biography

Dir: Daniella Ortega; Niobe Thompson

Length: 96 mins

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bdcFv9IcHs

For anyone sick of your standard drum-beating climate-change eco-film, this new Australian doco could be just the ticket to expand your scientific knowledge and give you a whole new perspective on the most misunderstoood element, carbon. The doco-makers decide to personify carbon, calling the element "she", which can be a bit annoying, but that aside, the film is at pains to explain that carbon is not the demon, but in fact the building block of all life. Sarah Snook narrates, and a raft of experts is assembled, taking us on a crash course through the development of life on earth, the wondrous versatility of carbon in creating so much of our world, including us. Carbon remains the good element, right up to the time when the industrial revolution unleashed it from the places it really needed to stay - in the trees and in the earth - giving rise to the crisis the earth now faces: climate change. The film includes marvellous visuals, inspiring music, and a creativity seldom seen in scientific docos. For me this is a really clever film that somehow manages to explain something so important, complex and wonderful in a way that both engages, educates and entertains.

4 - highly recommended

Encanto

Dir: Jared Bush, Byron Howard, Charise Castro Smith

Length: 102 mins

Streaming on Disney +

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaimKeDcudo

Mirabel (Stephanie Beatriz) is a teenager in a large extended family, the Madrigals, who live in a remote part of the Columbian mountains in a region blessed by magic and known as the Encanto. Their extraordinary house is virtually a being, responding to commands and protecting the inhabitants, while each member of the family has a special gift - each except Mirabel. Grandma Alma fervently guards the magical candle that keeps everything ticking along, but when Mirabel goes on a quest to find what happened to Uncle Bruno, somehow the magic is threatened. There is a lot of complexity in this plot, with themes around self-acceptance, the importance of communication, pride, over-expectation, familial loyalty . . . but at heart it is another gorgeous Disney animation, more colorful and vibrant than most, depicting a joyous culture I know little about, and chock-full of simply wonderful songs. Like the best animations, it can work for all age-groups, though I suspect tiny tots will have little idea of what is really going on. It has just won the Academy Award for Best animation.

4 - highly recommended