Wednesday, 24 August 2022

August 25th

Blaze
Crimes of the Future
Fire of Love
Hit the Road

I've gone nuts today - across the board 4 stars for all the movies reviewed. This is truly an eclectic mix of excellent film-making. From violence against women, to vulcanologists in love, futuristic human evolution, and an Iranian road trip, every film is utterly thought-provoking, and of course, entertaining in its own way.  

Blaze
Dir: Del Kathryn Barton
Length: 101 mins
© Bonsai - a new creative film-making
voice in Aussie cinema
Blaze (Julia Savage) is twelve years old, when, returning from school, she witnesses a violent and horrific assault upon a woman, Hannah (Yael Stone), who is then left for dead in a laneway. Unable to make sense of what she has seen, Blaze retreats into her imaginary world, in which her childhood friend, a dragon called Zephyr, comforts and protects her. Blaze's mental state is exacerbated when she appears in court and is destroyed by the defense attorney for the accused. Single father Luke (Simon Baker) is at a loss how to help his child, who is descending into withdrawal and severe psychological disturbance. Director Barton comes from a background as an artist, and it shows in her creation of this film which cleverly blends live action with animation and puppetry. The dragon itself is a major artistic creation, colorful, sequinned and enormous. The magical realism combined with the serious issues being addressed (rape, the shocking statistics of women killed by their partners) make for an interesting counterpoint. My main beef is that at times the courtroom scenes felt clunky and inauthentic. However, young Savage's performance is a revelation - she is a powerhouse of anger, confusion and sorrow, and completely captures the journey that goes from loss of innocence to incipient womanhood. That, combined with the director's visionary style and ingenuity make it something that really stands out in contemporary Aussie film-making. 
4 - highly recommended

Fire of Love
Dir: Sara Dosa
Length: 99 mins
© Madman - lunatics, lovers - 
a bit of both. Vulcanologists extraordinare. 
Katia and Maurice Krafft died in 1991 doing what they loved - documenting volcanoes. The French vulcanologists were at the forefront of their field  - getting up close and personal with the fire-breathing mountains all around the world. This amazing doco records their lives, and captures their unquenchable passion for their subject matter. There is remarkable and terrifying footage of lava flows, molten and red, and pyroclastic eruptions of grey belching smoke (the gray ones are the killer volcanoes, according to Maurice), with the couple walking close to it all. Maurice is so obsessed he reflects that he'd like to ride a heat-resistant boat down a lava flow. Nuts, or just devoted to their science? The couple's research in predicting volcanic behaviour in fact helped save thousands of lives in parts of the world prone to eruptions. Love and togetherness in the face of ever-present danger and risk of death - that's really living on the edge, and the film captures the sense of it all perfectly.
4 - highly recommended

Crimes of the Future
Dir: David Cronenberg
Length: 107 mins
Exclusive to Cinema Nova
© Madman - watch it and blow your mind.
The evolutionary future is upon us!
A nominee for the Palme D'Or at this years Cannes, Crimes of the Future sees director Cronenburg back in form with his most bizarre and perhaps stomach-churning film yet. It is set in a future world where humans are evolving by changing their internal organs to adjust to the industrialised and synthetic world we live in. Saul Tenser (Viggo Mortenson) is growing copious new organs inside his body. His partner Caprice (Lea Seydoux), an ex-surgeon, joins him in making performance out out of removing said organs. Timlin (Kristen Stewart) and Whippet (Don McKellar) head up an organ registry which keeps track of all the new developments. To add to the complexity, government undercover agent Cope (Welket Bungue) lurks around, and bereaved father Lang Dotrice (Scott Speedman) organises for Caprice to perform an autopsy on his child, who has been killed by his mother, unable to cope with the child endlessly eating plastic. Intrigued yet? In this future world many people no longer feel much pain, and use surgery as "the new sex", making some of the surgical scenes mesmerisingly ghastly. The machinery and contraptions are deeply disturbing, just as you would expect from a Cronenberg film. Mortensen and Seydoux create amazing chemistry together. At times the film makes profound and insightful comment upon the world of obsessive art; at other times it is nearly incomprehensible. This is a film to be experienced on a gut level (literally!!) Lovers of Cronenberg should not miss it; squeamish folk should perhaps avoid it. Regardless, I find it an incredible and confronting piece of film-making, now indelibly etched in my brain. 
2 - forget it or 4 - highly recommended (listen to your stomach)

Hit the Road
Dir: Panah Panahi
Length: 93 mins
© Rialto - a family road trip
is not what it seems
A family of four, a dog and a road trip: but to where and why? Mother (Pantea Panahiha), Father (Hassan Madjooni), Big Brother (Amin Simiar) and Little Brother (Rayan Sarlak), plus the very ill family dog, Jesse, are heading towards the Iranian-Turkish border. Supposedly Big Brother is getting married. Only gradually will the purpose of the trip be revealed. This is extraordinary film-making, that delicately balances humour, absurdity, pathos, and an underlying agenda of social commentary and the sort of fear that is ever-present in oppressive countries like Iran. Slowly intimations of what is happening are revealed, but the overall sense is of a family trying hard to keep a sense of normality for the sake of their overactive youngest son, who obviously adores his older brother. Young actor Simiar was only six when shooting began, and he is truly a force to be reckoned with - precocious, hyperactive, hilarious, infuriating. Mother is trying to cover a deep sadness while Father, nursing a broken leg, toggles between humour and philosophy. Stressed-out Big Brother is obviously on the cusp of something life-changing. All the performances are pitch perfect. As the car wends its way from barren desert landscapes towards a more verdant area, we ponder the symbolic significance of choice of settings. When another (benign) car tries to pull them over to report upon a possible problem, it evokes all the constant fear Iranians live with. And why wouldn't this serious sub-text be reflected in a film directed by the son of one of Iran's greatest film-makers - Jafar Panahi, currently serving time in jail for his political views against the system. This type of slow and deliberate film-making is not for everyone, but is so rewarding when given the attention it deserves. (PS: 8 wins and 11 nominations for this film at various festivals!)
4 - highly recommended

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