August 25th 2023
Sound of Freedom
The Volcano: Rescue from Whakaari (streaming on Netflix)
Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood (streaming on Binge)
Run Rabbit Run (streaming on Netflix)
Unknown: Cave of Bones (streaming on Netflix)
As MIFF ends online this weekend, not a heap of new releases have come to my attention. In a world where the horrors of child trafficking are beyond our imagination, Sound of Freedom is an important film. Plus for stay-at-homes, I review two excellent streaming docos for your delectation. And just in case you think I only ever review four-star films, a very brief look at a couple of maybes.
Dir: Alejandro Monteverde
Length: 131 mins
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© Icon - a true story of a rescue from an
ever-growng trade in chidren |
This stirring film, based on a true story, opens with a young boy and his sister being abducted in the Honduras. It then moves to the Department of Homeland Security, where Tim Ballard (Jim Caviezel) works as a Special Agent with a task force investigating internet crimes against children, specifically child sex trafficking. After Tim busts a pedophile, the case provides leads which take him further down the rabbit hole, as he attempts to not just expose pedophile rings, but to attempt the rescue of trafficked kids. Tim meets Vampiro (Bill Camp), an ex-cartel dude trying to atone for his sins, and the two head to Columbia, where they mount an undercover operation in the depths of the jungle. The film is thrilling, moving and highly watchable, despite the disturbing nature of the content. Fortunately the nastier details are not explicitly shown; the emphasis is upon the tragedy of the kids, and on Jim himself, a compassionate, brave man with a dogged determination to rescue not only as many kids as he can, but to find one in particular. At times the message is a little heavy-handed, as are the closeups of tear-filled eyes and children's faces. But overall the film is tense and exciting, Caviezel gives a fine empathetic performance, and the message is so important, (stats for child trafficking are horrendous) so why not drum it home? 4 - highly recommended
The Volcano: Rescue from Whakaari
Dir: Rory Kennedy
Length: 98 mins
Streaming on Netflix
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| © Netflix - a tourism tragedy reexamined |
In December 2019 a group of tourists headed off to visit the active volcano on Whakaari (White Island) in New Zealand. They were assured everything would be safe. It wasn't and the volcano erupted, killing 22 people and injuring another 25, many with ghastly burns. This excellent doco is the story of that fateful day and what followed. Using footage from several witnesses' phone cameras, along with recreations of rescue flights and interviews with survivors and relatives of the deceased, this film brings into sharp relief the anticipation of adventure, followed by the terror of the eruption and the lifelong consequences of surviving such an event. The film doesn't go into too much legal detail of who was to blame, or even the inherent risks of adventure tourism, but concentrates upon the people involved, and the many heroic and selfless acts that emerged from the rescue. It also alludes to the history and mythology of the island, sacred to the Maori people. It's an American production with Brian Grazer and Ron Howard involved as executive producers, and the director uses an assured hand to construct a doco that is both chilling, tense, informative and sensitive.4 - highly recommended
Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood
Dir: Matt Tyrnauer
Length: 98 mins
Streaming on Binge
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© Netflix - Scotty's beaming smile belies
a questionable and sometimes dark past |
I had just finished watchng a terrific Netflix series called Hollywood, set in the Golden Era of the mid to late 1940s. A group of aspiring actors seek to make it big, some of them getting involved with Ernie West, who runs a petrol station, which is really a front for a "hook-up" business, in which he supplies "escorts" for movie stars who need to keep their private lives a secret. Then, lo and behold, I catch a fabulous doco about a man called Scotty Bowers, who in real life Hollywood provided "full service" to the stars, and then wrote a tell-all book about his exploits. The film opens with Scotty turning 90, then takes us in and out of timelines, showing his current life (he owns five houses each chock full of memorabilia and junk - a real hoarder). Then old clips, photos and interviews surprise us with revelations about just who from the pantheon of stars was a closet gay, who was attending orgies, or having threesomes and foursomes. Gradually a darker side of Scotty's past is revealed, but he remains a cheery soul who is obviously much loved, and, as he puts it, provided a service to people in allowing them to be their true selves in a time where any scandalous revelations would have ended their careers. The film is a salutory critique on the bad old days of demonising homosexuality as well as being funny, touching, informative and, simply, great entertainment.4 - highly recommended
A couple of Maybes from Netflix:
Run Rabbit Run
Dir: Daina Reid
Length: 100 mins
Streaming on Netflix
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| © Netflix |
Sarah (Sarah Snook) gets worried as her child Mia (Lily LaTorre) starts behaving increasingly strangely, claiming she is someone from Sarah's past, and wanting to see her grandmother, Joan (Greta Scacchi) from whom Sarah is estranged. As things get weirder, Sarah must start confronting ghosts from her past. Fans of Succession know just how great Sarah Snook can be. She's pretty good here, as are LaTorre and Scacchi, and the film is engaging despite the many predictable horror tropes. The problem is that the script runs out of oomph towards the end, as if the screenwriters really didn't know how to finish things off.
Dir: Marc Mannucchi
Length: 93 mins
Streaming on Netflix
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| © Netflix |
Paleo anthropologist Lee Berger and his team find a cave of bones in South Africa. They dub the species Homo Naledi, and claim that, although not human, these ape-like creatures engaged in rituals involving burying their dead. If what they claim is in fact true, the story could change current theory of human evolution. Too much of the doco is given over to the deep cave structure that had to be navigated by the creatures, but I suspect for fossil and evolution buffs, it will be pretty fascinating.
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