September 13th 2024
Speak No Evil
Elizabeth Taylor: the lost tapes (streaming on Foxtel)
Follow the Rain (streaming on Netflix)
Operation Finale (streaming on Netflix)
Unfrosted (streaming on Netflix)
The big release for fans of psychological thrillers is Speak No Evil, with plenty of gasp-put-loud moments. I've also gone on a bit of a stay-at-home streaming binge, with a motley assortment of films viewed.
Speak No Evil
Dir: James Watkins
Length: 110 mins
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© Universal - scary with an unnerving
lead performance from McAvoy |
Louise (Mackenzie Davis) is holidaying in Italy with her husband Ben (Scoot McNairy) and their 11-year-old daughter Agnes (Alix West Lefler). They end up sharing a few meals and fun times with a rather pushy couple, Paddy (James McAvoy), his partner Ciara (Aisling Franciosa), and their son Ant (Dan Hough), who can't speak, supposedly due to a congenital tongue defect. Paddy subsequently invites the family to stay with them at their idyllic English country house. Very quickly Louise feels uncomfortable and wants to go home, but Paddy and Ciara have a way of smoothing over awkward situations and forcing the issue, while Ben seems quite unable to speak up for himself. This remake of an award-winning Danish film is, apparently, less horrific than the original, but it sure had me scared and emitting a few involuntary gasps. The less said the better so as not to spoil the plot, but McAvoy is quite brilliant as the sort of person who seems likeable enough, yet gradually one realises he is not what he seems. Coercive control and psychological mind-games are big in this film, but there's way more, in the way of old-fashioned thrills, especially as the audience starts to realise the real depths of trouble Ben's famly has got themselves into. The two kids cook up a great chemistry, the slow build up to the nightmarish second half of the film is effective, and thankfully the director chooses not to use music to create suspense - there's enough of that in the narrative and action.4 - highly recommended
Follow the Rain
Dir: Catherine Marciniak
Length: 87 mins
Streaming on Netflix
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© Netflix/ Planet Fungi - yes they are real.
A spell-binding doco on fungi |
Years ago I fell in love with a film called Fantastic Fungi. And now along comes this doco to rival it, exploring the world of extraordinary fungi, many of them in Australia. Now you may think the topic boring, but I assure you, when you see this mind-blowing time-lapse photography you may think again! It's not just about the film's passionate narrator and mushroom hunter, Stephen Axford, whose life has been devoted to tracking down the life form, but also about how critical mycelium and its fruiting bodies (mushrooms) are to the very existence of life on earth. Treat the viewing as both educational and as a form of meditation upon the exquisite beauty of this wondrous life form. 4 - highly recommended
Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes
Dir: Nannette Burstein
Length: 100 mins
Streaming on Foxtel
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© Netflix - beautiful and talented -
her life in her own words |
Compiled from 40 hours of taped interviews, this is a documentary to please any Liz fan, or even most cinephiles. It's a comprehensive look at her career from child star in National Velvet and Lassie, through the golden era of movies in which people declared she was too pretty to be a serious actress. It traces her fight for recognition through to eventually winning Oscars and being taken seriously. She speaks a lot of the demarcation between her celluloid self and her "real" self, and this of course includes the countless marriages and life/health struggles, along with her later years campaigning strongly for AIDS justice. Great footage and interesting information make for a worthy watch. 3.5 - well recommended
Operation Finale
Dir: Chris Weitz
Length: 122 mins
Streaming on Netflix (2018)
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© Netflix - Ben Kingsley, as always,
nails his role |
This is based upon the true story of how the Israeli secret service tracked down the so-called "author of the final solution", war criminal Adolf Eichmann (Ben Kingsley), to Argentina, then sent a crack team to abduct him and get him out of the country to stand trial in Israel. Although at times uneven, this is an interesting production. I strongly feel it should have been in the languages of the countries concerned (Hebrew and Spanish), as the many accents speaking English detract from the story. But its cast is strong. Kingsley at times looks uncannily like Eichmann and captures the snake-like coldness of the man. Oscar Isaac impressively plays Peter Malkin, one of the agents critically instrumental in getting Eichmann to sign a paper that allowed for his extradition. Lior Raz (well-known from Fauda) is Isser Harel, Director of the Mossad, while Melanie Laurent plays a doctor whose help is vital in keeping Eichmann sedated as the group make a final run for the El Al plane, with Argentinian authorities in hot pursuit. There is enough tension, and intriguing psychological discourse between Eichmann and Malkin, around the usual topics of who was following orders, and who was intrinsically evil.3 - recommended
Unfrosted
Dir: Jerry Seinfeld
Length: 93 mins
Streaming on Netflix (new release)
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| © Netflix - silly, sillier and silliest! |
Sometimes a movie is so bad it's good! I can't be sure if this fits the category, or is just plain bad, but I must confess to moments of cackling with laughter as some scenes tapped into my sicko, childish sense of humour! Inspired by the true race between Kellogg and Post to create a new breakfast food (the Pop Tart), this really is a mix of insipid, childish, funny, goofy and just plain silly. Mind you, there's some strong comedic talent like Melissa McCarthy and Amy Schumer, with other unexpected appearances by the likes of Christian Slater and an excellent Hugh Grant. He's fun to watch as an aspiring Shakesperian thespian who dons a tiger suit to advertise Frosted Flakes. Die-hard Seinfeld fans, and those wanting a dumb diversion may well enjoy it. 2.5 - maybe
There's Still Tomorrow: This multi-award winning film (including best film at the Sydney Film Festival) is set in Rome in the late 1940s, a time when women in Italy are still subservient to their often physically violent husbands. Director Paola Cortellesi plays the lead role of Delia, a woman who, on one level, accepts her lot, while on another hopes for change, especially for her daughter. Shot in evocative black and white, the film is replete with poignancy and moments of almost bizarre levity, as the brutality of the men is portrayed as a strange relationship dance. Each character is so distinctively drawn that the whole story is quite spellbinding throughout. 
