December 24th 2024
Anora
Better Man
Parthenope
A Real Pain
All We Imagine is Light
Nosferatu - opening Jan 1 2025
Boxing Day is the big one - no, not the shopping sales, but the release of many highly anticipated, already awarded, fabulous films. So, here are five for your consideration. Plus one opening on New Year's Day! Meantime have a wonderful festive season and I wish you all good things (and more great movies) for 2025.
And for those who missed it, my best of 2024:
A video interview with Movie Metropolis:
Anora
Dir: Sean Baker
Length: 139 mins
 |
© Kismet - funny, joyful, raunchy - a
delight of a film |
Anora, known as Ani (Mikey Madison) is an exotic dancer/sex worker in a Brooklyn club. One night she is thrust into the world of Ivan (Mark Edelshteyn), the son of a Russian oligarch. After hiring Ani for a night, then for a week as his pretend girlfriend, Ivan decides impulsively that the two should marry. After a Vegas wedding, news filters through to Ivan's parents that he has married a hooker, (shame!!) and they head to America, but not before sending three heavies to clean up the mess. Toros (Karren Karagulian), Gulack (Vache Tovmasyan) and Igor (Yura Borisov) invade the mansion where Ivan and Ani are living. Ivan flees, and Ani turns out to be a fighting force to be reckoned with. The three "goons", plus Ani head out on a frenetic journey to try to find Ivan. Anora has just received five Golden Globe nominations, already having the big one, the Palme d'or from Cannes under its belt. This fast-paced film is a delight, moving seamlessly between genres, at first feeling like an erotic, sex-filled romp, then slipping into a madcap chase adventure, and ultimately concluding as a more intimate story of disapointment, vulnerability and deeper connection. I love the way Baker combines humour, sensuality, raunchiness and emotion, and much of this success is due to a blistering and nuanced performance from Madison. Her Ani refuses to be shamed by her job or stereotyped in any way; she consistently feels like a real person. Even the three goons are a delight, their individuality and personalities defying expectations. Seriously good and fun film-making.4.5 - wholeheartedly recommended
Better Man
Dir: Michael Gracey
Length: 134 mins
 |
© Roadshow - a powerhouse bio-tribute to
singer Robbie Williams |
Unless you take zero interest in films, you must know by now that the new music biography on the career of rock superstar Robbie Williams features a CGI-generated chimp in the lead role. Well, Robbie himself provides the voice, while actor/dancer Jonno Davies performs the role that becomes an ape on screen thanks to the genius of CGI motion capture. Theories abound as to why this approach: some say Williams referred to himself as a performing monkey, others reckon it's a stroke of genius so that no actor can be accused of looking too much or too little like Williams - the anonymity makes the story itself shine. From his teenage role in the band Take That through to adult solo career, tainted by drink and drug addictions, Robbie and his journey are writ large and loud in this boisterous, creative and absorbing story of pop stardom and its perils. Choreography is exciting and fast-paced, the range of songs is superb, and Robbie's retelling of his life doesn't spare the viewers and fans the darker side of the man. Melbourne-born director Gracey started his career in visual effects and music video. These skills combined with the audacious central choice of character, make for a wildly original, entertaining, and ultimately moving film. 4 - highly recommended
Parthenope
Dir: Paolo Sorrentino
Length: 136 mins
 |
© Palace - more beauty and sexiness than
seen in a long time! |
In 1950 a mother gives birth to her baby in the waters of the Bay of Naples. The girl, Parthenope (Celeste Dalla Porta), grows to be a beauty, her exquisiteness captivating all those who see her. The film follows her journey through life, as she navigates and balances love with her anthropology studies. Her professor (Silvio Orlando) has high hopes for her academic and professional success, while her tumultuous love life will deliver much pleasure and also much disappointment and pain. I exited this film asking myself, "Is it a serious meditation upon life's profundities, or is it an overwelmingly beautiful-looking story that is nothing more than vacuous fairy floss?" I'm still not sure! Cinematographer Dario D'Antonio has served up visual extravagance and gloriousness in spades, the musical soundtrack is fittingly lovely, and Della Porta is mesmerising in her sexiness and allure. Aspects of the so-called plot intrigue - Parthenope's quasi-incestuous relationship with her older brother, the publically witnessed "joining"of two criminal families, the treachery of a high-up priest, along with many other vignettes may fascinate, but don't amount to absorbing story-telling for me. Nevertheless, I could well be missing something vital, and the beauty of the film's look alone, may make it a worthy watch for many!2.5 - maybe
A Real Pain
Dir: Jesse Eisenberg
Length: 90 mins
 |
© Fox Searchlight - cousins on a hunt
to understand their heritage |
Already garnering plenty of awards, Jesse Eisenberg's film of two mismatched cousins exploring their past, is a lovely mix of humour and pathos. David (played by Eisenberg) and Benji (Kieran Culkin) head off on a guided Holocaust tour of Poland and to visit their grandmother's home. The cousins are third generation Holocaust survivors living in America, and they are as different to each other as chalk and cheese. David is a stressed out, nervous retiring type, while Benji is loud, irreverent and seemingly self-confident, his brashness masking an extreme vulnerability. Eisenberg comes across as somewhat similar to many other roles we've already seen him in, whereas Culkin (memorable as Roman in Succession) is an unforgettable dynamic powerhouse as Benji. Both characters carry their own pain in different ways but Benji is definitely the bigger "pain" of the two. Ably supporting the leads are a motley crew of characters also along on the tour: an African ex-child soldier who has converted to Judaism, a recently widowed woman, and an old couple, along with their non-Jewish tour guide. Visits to Jewish graveyards, and the site of a ghetto and a concentration camp, bring home the seriousness of the tour, in careful contrast to the moments of irreverent humour and craziness. The intimacy of the cousins' relationship, in counterpoint to the vastness of the Holocaust history. make for a good yin and yang in the film's overall feel. 3.5 - well recommended
All We Imagine as Light
Dir: Payal Kapadia
 |
© Rialto - delicate and slightly fantastical
story of friendship |
Prabha (Kani Kusruti) is a nurse working in a Mumbai hospital in the field of women's health. She is fairly straight-laced, and shares a room with fellow nurse Anu (Divya Prabha), who is secretly dating a Muslim boy, Shiaz (Hridhu Haroon). Prabha's husband from an arranged marriage is in Germany and she seems at a loss as to her place in the world. When hospital cook Parvaty (Chaya Kadam) is evicted from her Mumbai home, the two women accompany her back to her village. This powerful, yet mysterious, film captures so much about the paradoxes of life in modern India - women's place, Hindu/Muslim conflict, old ways versus new. The sountrack is haunting and the camera work captures the intensity and vibrancy of the city of Mumbai and of the monsoon, as well as the quiet intimacy of the women's relationships. It also has a slightly fantastical edge to the later part of the plot, giving an added depth. The whole is at once atmospheric, beautiful and intensely humanistic. Winner of the Grand Prix at Cannes 2024 and nominated for many other awards, this is truly a piece of delicate and engaging film-making. 4.5 - wholeheartedly recommended
Nosferatu - opening January 1 2025
Dir: Robert Eggers
Length: 133 mins
 |
© Universal - he's coming to get me!
A classic most excellently remade. |
What could be more iconic in the pantheon of horror characters than a vampire? In 1897 author Bram Stoker wrote the novel Dracula, which has since inspired countless movie versions of the story, some forgettable, some legendary, some scary and some ludicrous. The first version to shock the world was German director FW Murnau's silent classic, and it is this film that Eggers has been inspired to remake. In the opening scene we meet Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp) who is suffering horrific nightmares. Her new husband Thomas (Nicholas Hoult) is a comfort to her, but then he is sent away to the remote Carpathian mountains in Romania to secure a real estate deal in which Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgard) buys a house in Thomas' hometown. As Ellen's nightmares and distress increase, Professor von Franz (Willem Dafoe), occult and vampire expert, is called in to diagnose and help. Confession: I've still not seen the original Murnau film, so no comparisons to be made here! This is a genuinely frightening and stylish film, with the requisite elements of the best Gothic horror, with its brooding castles, grey pallette, and of course the repulsively grotesque Orlok himself. In the Ellen/Orlok dynamic there are plenty of interesting psychological undercurrents hinting at repressed sexuality that encompasses both bizarre attraction and repulsion. Though not to everyone's taste, this is a terrific horror, to both thrill and repulse.4 - highly recommended
No comments:
Post a Comment