March 21st 2024
Just a Farmer
Love Lies Bleeding
The Nut Farm
More from the Alliance Francaise French Film Festival
Not one but two Aussie films with a farming theme - and they couldn't be more different from each other! Plus violence, sex and grunge intersect in a thriller with the wonderful Kristen Stewart. And one more from the French Film Festival - a lavish period piece.
Just a Farmer
Dir: Simon Lyndon
Length: 103 mins
 |
© Vam Paddock Productions - heartache on the
land. This is the daily struggle for many farmers,
both psychologically and physically. |
The life of a farmer can be one of hard work, struggle, and sometimes tragedy. The film opens early on with the suicide of Alec (Joel Jackson), who leaves behind distraught wife Alison (Leila Mcdougall), their two children, Eric (Oliver Overton) and Sally (Vivian Mcdougall), brother Oliver (Damien Walshe Howling) and father Owen (Robert Taylor). With debts up to the eyeballs, Alison barely knows how to cope, while Owen drinks himself into the ground to cover his pain. Alison's sister, city gal Kathryn (Susan Prior) comes to help out.The ghastly statistic in Australia is that one farmer dies by suicide every ten days. This timely film sets out to start a conversation that hopefully will help troubled farmers, especially men, to seek help before things get out of hand. The tough aussie male ethos is challenged, with encouragement to talk to a counsellor, or a friend, rather than stoically battle on. This is a beautifully scripted film, with lovely performances from the entire cast, especially the two young kids. Shot out in Victoria's wheatbelt, the film makes the most of the magnificent landscape, and with Mcdougall herself coming from a farming background (and having scripted the film), authenticity is at its heart. This is a moving and important story that we all should see, even non-farmers, to remember just how vital farming is to our lives, and hopefully to improve farmer's psychological and physical wellbeing.4 - highly recommended
Love Lies Bleeding
Dir: Rose Glass
Length: 104 mins
 |
© VVS - two kick-ass girls in love, seething
violence and a father from hell. |
Lou (Kristen Stewart) runs a seedy gym. When aspiring bodybuilder Jackie (Katy O'Brian) comes in, on her way to the Las Vegas championships, the two fall instantly for each other and a passionate relationship erupts. When not training, Jackie works at a shooting range run by Lou's estranged father (Ed Harris) who is definitely involved in murky criminal activities. But Jackie has a short fuse, and when Lou is upset that her sister-in-law Beth is being abused by husband JJ, Jackie snaps, triggering off a sequence of violent events that threaten to destroy the girls' love, and expose Lou's past. It's hard to categorise this film - yes it's a love story, with a side-order of revenge, all fuelled by violence and characters who each are unhinged in their own ways. The two lead women generate a fantastic chemistry together, while Ed Harris sports one of the worst hairdos seen in years on film. The broody, dark and moody cinematography captures the grunge and marginalisation of all of their lives, and the tension ratchets up with each plot twist. It's not a film for the faint-hearted, with some scenes bordering on repulsive. Unfortunately the ending runs somewhat off the rails, feeling clunky and unimaginative, but overall it's a solid and, (for most of its runtime) gripping thriller.3.5 - well recommended
The Nut Farm
Dir: Scott Corfield
Length: 91 mins
 |
© Bonsai - nuts, nonsense and fracking
in this Aussie comedy |
San Francisco cryptocurrency trader Brendan Brandon (Arj Barker) goes bust, then discovers he is to take over a macadamia farm run by his uncle Mitch (Roy Billing) who has gone missing. But the farm comes with conditions, and everything is under threat from evil schemer Zoran (Jonno Roberts) who is fracking gas and planning to send it via pipeline to his beloved New Zealand. Can Brendan save the farm and win the love of neighboring dairy farmer Kim (Madeleine West)? Arj Barker is a mainstay of the Melbourne Comedy Festival. I seldom go to the comedy festival, uncertain if any of it will elicit a laugh from me. Even if Barker's humour is great for a stand-up routine, it surely doesn't translate to the big screen. Unfortunately this film doesn't even get into the category of "so bad it's good"! It feels like peurile schoolboy humour, with an infantile collection of nut and poo jokes, none of them particularly funny. Zoran, the milk-guzzling villain, is so stereotyped he may as well have stepped out of an old music-hall routine, while the local cop Sergeant Blake is beyond unbelievable. Some viewers may enjoy this simplistic style of silly story, and I hate to stick the boots into an Aussie film, but it just doesn't do it for me. 2 - don't bother
More from . . .
Alliance Francaise French Film Festival
Until April 2
Palace Cinemas
For all information on venues, films, synopses, bookings visit https://www.affrenchfilmfestival.org/
I'm yet again at odds with the Tomatometer, but I find this lavish, unusual period piece definitely worth a look on the big screen.
Jeanne du Barry: Maiwenn directs and stars in the true story of a courtesan, Jeanne du Barry, who rose from virtually nothing to become the favorite mistress of King Louis the XV (Johnny Depp) just before his death, and two decades before the French Revolution. A French-speaking Depp plays the king with taciturn reserve, while Maiwenn conjures up a feisty woman, very ahead of her time, defying convention, and those at court who deride her. The huge pluses for the film are the magnificent settings, much of it shot at Versailles, and the glorious costumes, which, en masse, look like the pallette of a richly rendered painting. Despite feeling unsure of the authenticity of the representation of the relationship, I found myself much engaged with the plot and the characters.
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