February 10th 2023

The Son

Spoiler Alert

The Whale

Corsage

Get the hankies out this week. Three quarters of the films are dangerously tear-inducing. Magnificent performances from the leads in all four films. (PS: A little change of layout, as people tell me the photos are presenting awkwardly on mobile phones!) 

The Son

Dir: Florian Zeller

Length: 123 mins

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJWRY4DzoAQ

© Transmission - Jackman leaves the Wolverine 
claws behind to show his serious acting chops. 

Peter (Hugh Jackman) is a successful New york lawyer aiming for a post in Washington. He lives with his new, younger wife Beth (Vanessa Kirby) and their baby son Theo. Life seems cruisy until ex-wife Kate (Laura Dern) turns up on the doorstep, wanting to discuss Nicholas (Zen McGrath), the seventeen-year-old son she had with Peter. Nicholas has been skipping school, seems to loathe his mother, and is constantly depressed. The troubled teen asks to live with his father, and so begins the inexorable march towards a very dark place for all concerned. I'm at total odds with the Tomato-meter on this one. Many critics are wanting to compare it (unfavourably) with Zeller's previous brilliant film The Father, but I believe maybe their negativity comes from the fact that they can't cope with the director's raw depiction of the devastation that depression can wreak. Yes, this is blunt and in your face, no punches pulled, but to me it feels spot-on authentic. Jackman gives his best performance yet, while young Aussie-born McGrath is heart-breakingly good. The camera hones in on his face as he begs his parents and the audience to understand what is essentially incomprehensible to him and to onlookers - why he feels the way he does. Dern strikes just the right note as the wounded first wife and Kirby beautifully captures the tightrope that a new wife must walk in this precarious situation. Anthony Hopkins has a short but unforgettable cameo as Peter's emotionally distant father, and the crucial scene explains a lot about Peter's fathering techniques. Viewers who've been anywhere near this scenario may find the film almost unbearably painful to watch. (Think: older wife left for younger woman, parental inability, despite loving a child, to cope with or understand depression). There are rare moments of relief, when Peter recalls his curly-headed adorable six-year-old son, but beyond that this is a film that will grab you in an emotional headlock and not let go. It was a nominee for this year's Venice FF Golden Lion.

4 - highly recommended

Spoiler Alert

Dir: Michael Showalter

Length: 112 mins

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6_ZQ-tdwhk

© Universal - a real-life romance ends in
tragedy in this funny, moving creative film

Imagine your life was seen in retrospect as if it were a TV sitcom? That's how real-life television journalist Michael Ausiello reflects upon painful aspects of his life, in this creative story of love and loss. Made into a film from Ausiello's memoir, Spoiler Alert: The Hero Dies, the film reveals from the outset that someone dear to the protagonist's heart is going to die. That someone is Kit Cowan (Ben Aldridge), a free-spirited guy who becomes Michael's boyfriend and live-in partner.  But, as we already know, their love, and Kit's life itself, are doomed, as he battles terminal cancer. Strong chemistry between the leads makes the characters very appealing and easy to relate to, while supporting cast of Sally Field as Marilyn and Bill Irwin as Bob (Kit's parents), ground the story in old-fashioned family values and bonding. Again, great to see gay stories front and centre (recently we had Bros and Knock at the Cabin). The scene with the shrink helping Michael and Kit with typical issues that many couples face is funny and truthful.  The clever device of Michael as a FFK (former fat kid) represented in sitcom settings brings originality and comic relief to what is quite a tragic situation. And the very existential issue of the self departing this world while life just continues on really taps into death anxiety. Go prepared with tissues.

4 - highly recommended

The Whale

Dir: Darren Aronofsky

Length: 117mins

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWiQodhMvz4

© Madman - Brendan Fraser is back
with a magnificent performance
as a very troubled man

Charlie (Brendan Fraser) is a morbidly obese man, confined to home, teaching literature students online (but carefully leaving his camera off). Friend Liz (Hong Chau) pays regular visits to attend to his needs, but his trajectory seems doomed. He is also mourning the death of his gay lover, who happens to have been Liz's brother. Unexpectedly, Charlie's daughter Ellie (Sadie Sink) turns up after 10 years of estrangement, and Charlie sees an opportunity to reconnect with her by helping with her essays. A young evangelist missionary Thomas (Ty Simpkins) also joins the small group of visitors to the claustrophobic squalid apartment, along with a later appearance of Charlie's ex-wife Mary (Samantha Morton). Despite the brilliant, Oscar-nominated performance from Fraser, it seems this film is creating controversy over the screen representation of fat people, and all manner of politically correct arguments are breaking loose (Why wasn't a genuine fat person cast in the role? This film makes us voyeurs of obesity etc, etc ...). I say get over it! This is a genuinely moving, insightful, compassionate and beautiful film about the tragedies of loss, regret, and the sort of self-destructive rabbit hole that only a truly sad person can go down. And of course it is about the quest for redemption. Fraser's inhabiting of his role is simply magnetic, despite any revulsion we may feel, and the film's careful avoidance of any mawkish sentimentality just adds to the authenticity. (Well, maybe with the exception of the final scene.) 

4.5 - wholeheartedly recommended

Corsage

Dir: Marie Kreutzer

Length: 114 mins

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7LpMtLRe2E

© Vendetta - Krieps has already won awards
for her portrayal as Queen Elisabeth of Austria

Empress Elisabeth of Austria (Vicky Krieps) is renowned for her beauty and her sylph-like tiny waist. But as she turns 40 she is seen as an old woman. She takes to wearing a veil in public, and wondering how to fill her days when her husband, Emperor Franz Joseph (Florian Teichtmeister) views her as an appendage, simply there to be seen and to do or say next to nothing. This unexpected and creative film is a fictional imagining of a year in the life of the Empress, as she generally behaves in a manner ill-fitting to a woman of the day, let alone royalty. She smokes, pursues dalliances, and does erratic and unpredictable things. Krieps (you may remember her in The Phantom Thread) is totally in command of this role, with her defiant manner set against a craving for admiration. There is a very modern sensibility to this film, especially as a story of a woman rebelling against oppression, but also reflected in the use of contemporary pop songs as a backdrop to many of the scenes. The production is handsome and as a novel mash-up of history and women's rights it has a certain intrigue.

3.5 - well recommended 

But wait . . . there's more

Attention film-makers

The Sydney Film Festival heads for its 70th birthday in June. The largest ever prize pool of money is being offered to filmmakers, but you need to get your submissions in by 24th February. If this is for you head to https://www.sff.org.au/about/submissions for full eligibility criteria and submission details.

Need a laugh? Satirical series streaming on Netflix

After all the serious and/or distressing films (albeit great!) I watch, sometimes a good laugh is just the go. And while I keep saying I won't review series, I loved the silly satire Cunk on Earth, streaming on Netflix. For those who know Afterlife, Dianne Morgan played Kath, and here she plays presenter Philomena Cunk, who attempts in 5 x 25 min episodes to sum up the entre history of human civilisation on earth. The looks on the faces of the serious academics she interviews are priceless. (Reminded me of Norman Gunston doing a similar hit-job on famous people who simply couldn't believe whether he was for real or sending them up!)