July 3rd 2025
The Shrouds
The Wolves Always Come at Night
Jurassic World: Rebirth
I'm Your Venus (streaming on Netflix)
What a wondrously varying assortment of films this week. From erotica and death, to dinosaurs, nomadic Mongolians and the murder of a transgender movie star.
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© Rialto - Vincent Cassel is wonderful in this
confronting story of staying too close to
departed loved ones. |
Sex, death and love are a powerful combo. And who can handle this better than Cronenberg, a master of sci-fi and technology, body horror, and psychological motivations. In this reflection upon loss, we meet Karsh (Vincent Cassel), whose wife Becca (Diane Kruger) has died of cancer. He is a tech entrepreneur, and devises a shroud which encloses the body, and, through its sensors, allows the bereaved to observe their departed loved one, in the grave, as they decay. He runs cemeteries which specialise in allowing this technology to be shared by other bereaved souls. But when the cemetery is vandalised, speculation arises as to whether foreign powers are trying to harness this technology for nefarious purposes, and conspiracy theories start to fly. Meantime Karsh gets closer to Becca's sister Terry (Kruger again), while also starting a relationship with Soo-min (Sandrine Holt), whose husband wants to finance one of Karsh's high-tech graveyards in Budapest. To add to the convolutions, Karsh's virtual assistant Hunny starts to go rogue. Enough plot twists for you yet? While not totally hanging together plotwise, and having a most perplexing ending, the film never shies away from thorny issues: the true meaning of debilitating grief, the ravages that cancer can make upon the body, (and how that intersects with sexuality), and the confronting fact of death and mortal decay. Cassel is at his best in this role, and is on-screen most of the film's runtime. His chemistry with Kruger is erotically charged, with one especially impressive sex scene. While the confronting nature of the film's subject matter may not be to everyone's taste, it's an unforgettable watch.3.5 - well recommended
The Wolves Always Come at Night
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© Madman - powerful hybrid film-making -
documentary and fiction merge in a Mongolian tale |
Daava (Davaasuren Dagvasuren) and Zaya (Otgonzaya Dashzeveg) are Mongolian goatherders and keepers of wild ponies. They live in their yurt with their children, and while life is certainly tough, their connection with the land and their animals is hard-wired into their very being. But as climate change brings increasingly drastic weather events, one day a sandstorm wipes out half of their goat herd. Daava makes the drastic decision to relocate the family to the city and to take a job with a construction industry. This fascinating and lovely film sits between a documentary and a feature film. The director (an Aussie) has constructed it in collaboration with the two people whose lives it portrays, and as they are revisiting the life they once led, of course it feels really authentic. Cinematography is truly impressive, ranging from vast sweeping shots of the barren desert landscape, to the most intimate interiors, where the little family eat, sleep, play and debate their future. The film is bookended with Daava riding his favorite horse - free and at one with the land - but sadly, as the film underscores, this way of life is rapidly under threat as climate change forces people into the cities. The final scene, where Daava listens to a song, drives home the disconnect so many people of the land throughout the world feel when they are displaced. Not every viewer has the patience to enjoy this sort of careful observational film, but for those who give it a go, it is richly rewarding. 4 - highly recommended
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© Universal - the dinos had better not
mess with this gal! |
Just when you thought dinos had done their dash . . . they're back, scary as ever but weirder than before! In this, the seventh in the "Jurassic" franchise, scientists breed a mutant dino, Distortus-Rex, in the lab on a remote island. When containment protocols are breached, the creature escapes and the facility is shut down. Fast forward 17 years, and a dodgy pharmaceutical company run by Martin Krebs (Rupert Friend), is looking to extract live dino DNA to make a new drug that will eliminate heart disease. The deserted island is now a no-go zone for all, but Krebs cobbles together a team to illegally go in and get the required samples. Mercenary Zora (Scarlett Johansson) and paleontologist Henry Loomis (Jonathan Bailey) employ the boating services of Duncan (Mahershala Ali) to get them to the island. Meantime an intrepid family of Dad Reuben (Manual Garcia Rulfo), two daughters and a boyfriend are sailing across the ocean, blissfully unaware of the prehistoric creatures that lurk in equatorial waters. Several hair-raising adventures later, the two groups combine, and end up on the island where they must fight for their lives. I could pick the hell out of the film - predictable, a formulaic plot repetitive of the previous six (without the surprise value), and too "creative" for its own good: why invent these non-existent dinos with idiotic names, and even worse why have the D-Rex so derivative of the Xenomorph in Alien? Also, attempts to make oblique references to climate change and other socially aware issues like the evil of "Big Pharma" don't really work. But . . . there are enough exciting and fun set pieces to entertain, most of the creatures are wonderful to behold, and watching Scarlett strut her stuff is indeed worthwhile. Nothing will ever impress as the first Jurassic Park, but for what the film sets out to do - namely provide easy thrills - it does its job. So . . . 3 - recommended (but maybe the franchise should call it quits?)
I'm Your Venus
Dir: Kimberley Reed
Length: 85 mins
Streaming on Netflix - 2024
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© Netflix - moving documentary on an
unsolved murder and a community
fighting for their rights |
In an era where America is trying to wind back the rights of gay and transgender communities, this documentary couldn't be more timely. In 1988 Venus Pellagatti Xtravaganza was murdered at the age of 23. She was a trans woman and upcoming star of the film Paris is Burning, a doco about the New York ballroom scene, fabulous events showcasing dance and fashion for the LGBTQ+ scene. Her murder has never been solved. In this film her brothers, John, Joe and Louie Pellagatti, are trying to find answers, and to honor their baby sister by getting her name officially changed to Xtravaganza (the house to which she belonged). We only see Venus in scenes from her film, all intercut with the present and ongoing grief of the brothers in their quest for justice. This is a fine showcase for a community of people who create chosen families and "houses", as a support and celebration of their lifestyles. The doco shows deep compassion and humanity and is a worthy memorial to a life lost too young, and a rallying cry for acceptance, as well as a fascinating insight into an alternative definition of "family" and "mother". 3.5 - well recommended
