July 28th
The Forgiven
Murder Party
Falling for Figaro
Full Time
MIFF . . . get ready for August 4th - 4 films reviewed in advance
It's a bumper week for hurstosfiveminutefilms! Four in-cinema releases are reviewed. From French farce, to fast-paced personal dramas, to aspiring opera singers, there's an amazing variety. Plus, for those wanting to plan their time at MIFF, I begin my reviews a week in advance with some mighty interesting films.
The Forgiven
Dir: John Michael McDonagh
Length: 117 mins
 |
© Madman - top shelf acting - great plot -
excellent viewing |
Wealthy Londoner David Heninger (Ralph Fiennes) and his glamorous wife Jo (Jessica Chastain) are driving through the remote Moroccan desert to attend a decadent party at the home of their friend Richard (Matt Smith). On route their car hits a local Bedouin boy. The police visit, and although David thinks the matter has been dealt with, events will prove otherwise. It's great to see Fiennes back in a carefully measured role, playing a complex character who is not totally what he initially seems. Apart from how impressive this film looks and sounds with its exotic settings and music, it is intelligently scripted with a plot that had me totally engaged. Obvious issues of Western wealth and decadence sitting alongside third-world poverty are interwoven with exploration of the customs and mores of the desert-dwelling locals. Smith and Aussie actor Caleb Landry Jones (star of Nitram) are excellent in the roles of the party-loving hosts, while their shallow behaviour and that of their debauched guests provides plenty of food for thought. Performances from the Moroccan actors are uniformly impressive. For me quite a stand-out film among my many viewings of late.4 - highly recommended
Murder Party
Dir: Nicolas Pleskof
Length: 103 mins
 |
© Pivot Pictures - colorful French farce
|
Renowned architect Jeanne (Alice Pol) is invited to design a renovation for the mansion of Cesar Daguerre (Eddy Mitchell), a man made rich through his company that developed a collection of board games. When Cesar is found dead and reeking of arsenic, the games really begin, with a disembodied voice directing Jeanne and the household members (family and the butler, of course) to participate, find the killer or die. I am definitely not the person to recommend (or not!) this type of zany French farce. It is not my genre of film, but I recognise that other viewers love this sort of lunacy. To its credit, the film looks great, with an over-the-top color-saturated palette, but I find everything about the characters and the plot unbelievable, and, more importantly, not especially funny.2.5 - maybe
Falling for Figaro
Dir: Ben Lewin
Length: 103 mins
 |
© IFC Films - Joanna Lumley steals the show
in this credibility-stretching but delightful film |
Brilliant and successful fund manager Millie (Danielle McDonald) is obsessed with becoming an opera singer. She leaves her job, and her partner Charlie (Shazad Latif) for a year, to travel to a remote village in the Scottish Highlands. There she hopes to take singing lessons from former operatic diva Meghan Jeffrey-Bishop (Joanna Lumley). The ultimate goal is to win the prestigious Singer of Renown competition. But she'll be up against Max (Hugh Skinner), another of Meghan's students, who's been trying to win for five years. In films of this nature you have to suspend disbelief - how could someone who has never sung hope to progress to these heights? That aside, there is so much to enjoy about this delightful film; it is funny, romantic, and at times silly (in a good way). The music is splendid (and that's coming from a non-opera fan), the countryside just gorgeous, and Joanna Lumley is an absolutely hilarious scene-stealer as the obnoxious singing coach. Although aspects of the plot are predictable, the film never falls into heavy formula; it remains fun and fresh and is a sure-fire, feel-good crown pleaser. 3.5 - well recommended
Full Time
Dir: Eric Gravel
Length: 117 mins
 |
© Palace - the pace and price
of a stressful existence |
Julie (Laure Calamy) is a divorced Mum of two young kids. Although highly qualified in a professional field, she works as head chambermaid at a 5-star Paris hotel, but barely scrapes by, as her husband is erratic with alimony payments. When a general transport strike hits Paris, everything she has juggled for so long threatens to topple down like a house of cards. Significantly, this film has won three major Venice Horizons awards: Best Actor, Best Director and Best Film. Calamy is remarkable as Julie, a woman who puts on a face for the world, while underneath is going through more stress than is reasonably bearable. The pace of the film captures the drama of Julie's day, as she gets up before dawn, takes the kids to a nanny, runs most of the way to meet unreliable transport, and then faces all manner of pressures at her job, where the clientele are beyond demanding. (Meantime she's desperately applying for a new job.) A driving, pulsating music score, combined with a fast-paced shooting style, creates a stress which is almost unbearable, and one is soon totally invested in Julie's tumultuous lifestyle, as she frantically juggles everything, rarely able to grab moment for herself. This is top-notch film-making, that really reflects what life is like for many struggling people in this fast-paced modern world.4.5 - wholeheartedly recommended
MIFF
Melbourne International Film Festival
4 - 28 August
Venues: ACMI, Astor, Capitol, Nova, Forum, Hoyts Melbourne Central, IMAX, Kino, Lido, Pentridge, Sun
It's that time of year where movie lovers risk deep vein thrombosis to be totally sedentary, reveling in endless films back to back, at Melbourne's most popular film festival, MIFF. And, as always, there is a plethora of wonderful films, plus special events, to celebrate MIFF's 70th anniversary. A record 61 films from the Cannes FF will be screened.
One of the Festival's special strands is Melbourne on Film, with 25 Melbourne-focused films showing. Friday 5 August sees the launch of that strand, along with a book featuring a collection of essays on how our wonderful city has starred in movies over the years.
All the festival films will screen in-cinema from 4-21 August and many will stream online from 11th - 28th August. Check out (above) the wonderful range of Melbourne cinemas in which the films will screen. And of course regional areas in Victoria won't miss out as MIFF travels to the likes of Warrnambool, Echuca, Geelong, Castlemaine and more. As always, lucky me has previewed a few.
The United States of America: Can you name every state of the USA in alphabetical order? Director James Benning has done it for you, devoting two minutes to each state, in the from of a near static shot. And they are not the archetypical images you would expect. Each shot shows that it is nearly impossible to categorise this vast country. Impatient people will not enjoy the slow pace of the film, but after a while it becomes like a game, looking for nearly imperceptible movement in each frame, studying its elements. In several places songs and speeches are used as voice/music-overs, inviting the viewer to ponder aspects of the country's history. And finally there is very big surprise in the end credits - I'll leave it for you to discover.
Reflection: You'd better brace yourself for this one - the film is set in the Russian/Ukranian conflict of 2014, but is terrifyingly current, and horrifically disturbing in its depictions of the conditions in Russian detention centres. Serhiy is a surgeon who signs up to go to war, alongside Andrii, his ex-wife's new husband. When the men are captured by Russian forces the nightmare sets in. Reconciling his trauma with a return to "normal" life and his daughter, Polina, is a challenge for Serhiy. This film also moves at times at a glacial pace, enabling the viewer to absolutely immerse in the emotions and experiences of each character. It is brutal and challenging viewing, but brilliant film-making, deserving of its Golden Lion nomination at the Venice Film Festival.
General Hercules: Here's a winner of an Aussie documentary, set in the rough-neck town of Kalgoorlie. John Katahanas, known as General Hercules, is a gold prospector who lives rough in a caravan, and decides to run for mayor. He goes up against the current mayor, on an anti-corruption platform. The hard living, hard-swearing man is a total hoot, but underneath the film's surface there is lot of serious social commentary - exposing greed, corruption and political behaviour that seems unnervingly familiar. Very entertaining and enlightening viewing, with a terrific insight into an iconic Aussie town most of us are unlikely to visit.
The Tale of King Crab: Luciano lives in a bucolic village in Italy in the late 1800s. But he is a drunk, and after killing someone he finds himself banished to the ends of the earth - Tierra del Fuego in Argentina. There, taking on the persona of a dead priest, he teams up with a posse of gold-chasing pirates, and using a red crab to show the way to the lake where the gold supposedly lies, sets out on the quest. This strangely allegorical tale has won a truckload of various awards, and though I cannot profess to totally understand all its subtleties, it is absorbing throughout. The cinematography is absolutely worth noting; beautiful and dramatic, while the lead actor is charismatic.
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