No. 26 (2023) MAFIA MAMMA April 6th.

 

Film No. 26  (2023)  April 6th.  6:15 PM EVENT Cinemas, Cine 10   Woodlands W.A.

"We need someone who is level-headed, unassuming and empathetic." (Kristin's cousin Bianca comments on what is needed to run The Family business now the boss is dead).

While the whole premise is ludicrous, ridiculous and down right silly, I was looking forward to the fun of MAMMA for one reason; Toni Collette. Collette has a reputation for making good choices when it comes to selecting roles. Maybe she could really make something of this silly caper. Sadly; she can't. But the mystery as to why she plays the lead in this embarrassingly lame romp comes in the rolling titles; she is a producer. No actor's journey is free of blemishes. Sadly, this will be remembered as the project Toni got wrong.

Catch the extended trailer (below) to get a snap-shot of MAFIA MAMMA. The best bits are captured here. There are no real surprises, just the odd sudden jolt as the story line jerks in a tangent that never gels with tropes that show some promise.  

IT may well be that Collette will get all her money back via streaming on channel Paramount. This blockbuster-ish caper flick won't be too flattering to the credit columns on her bank statements via cinema release. Of that I am certain. Say no more.  4GUMS.  

  

No. 29 (2023) EO April. 16th.

 

Film No. 29  (2023)  April 16th.  2:30 PM ELECTRIC Palace , Cinema 3, Canberra.

"May all your dreams come true." (Eo's handler gives her friend her parting words as he is shipped from the circus, a life he has only ever known).

WINNER : Jury Prize (Jerzy Skolimowski) Cannes 2022;. Nominee: Best International Film (Jerzy Skolimowsly) Academy of USA.

Make no bones, this is a film made to lead all of human kind to be more empathetic to the world of animals. The ambassador for this message is a very lovable donkey, EO! Does it work? Yes! Well maybe ... I hope so. 

In a Polish made film of the docudrama variety, director Jerzy Skolimowski (11 MINUTES) take us on a journey with EO, a charismatic donkey, via a a window in his life. EO is totally at the Mercy of decisions made in a series of situations controlled by humans. We first see the tenuousness of his life in a circus where he is loved by his handlers. But the animal rights movement have their way and soon EO is in a new chapter of his life cycle; a "cart-horse" in a horse stud.

We become witness to a series of chapters in EO's journey. Our sympathies are totally with our four legged friend, but it is no feel-good adventure. Eighty four year old Skolimowski has a reputation for his moral messages. His, ESSENTIAL KILLING, has us travelling with a Taliban soldier in Afghanistan, desperately fighting for his existence in a war he is struggling to comprehend. In EO we are placed in the "fur" of a donkey, a donkey who has no control over his future as he struggles for his existence. 

In may senses EO is a story told in chapters. Each chapter is geared to stir our emotions as we invest in EO's future, never knowing if it is simply a feel-good story. Each human involved holds EO's future in their hands. Is empathy for our friend at the forefront of their decision making?  We are asked, how often do we take time to consider the fate of animals? And, do we care? 

EO was Poland's pride and joy at film festivals throughout 2022. A nominee at The Oscars, 2022, and a winner at Cannes (Jury Prize). It's a thought provoking watch.  9GUMS.

 

No. 28 (2023) NOVEMBER (NOVEMBRE) Palace French Film Festival April. 11th.

 

Film No. 28  (2023)  April 11th.  4:00 PM  LUNA LEEDERVILLE,  Cine 5,   Leederville.

"Obviously we train for this but if the emotional burden is too much, please stand down" (Fred addresses his charges hours after the attacks. It is his initial briefing).

NOMINEE : Best Director (Cedric Jumenez). Best Editing, (Laure Gardette). Cesar Awards; France.

 

On November 13, 2015, Paris experienced a terror attack like no other. A series of systematic shootings by Islamic State terrorists saw 131 citizens slain in several separate locations throughout the city. It was the worst act of terror in Europe since the Madrid Train Bombings in 2004. NOVEMBRE is an exquisite Anti-Terrorist procedural drama depicting the crucial days following the attacks. The "fly by the seat of your pants genre", if there is such a thing, would have NOVEMBRE as one of its flag bearers. 

Fred (Jean Dujardin; THE ARTIST) heads up the squad and is a competent, intelligent commander, alert and on edge, as he combats the new war of our time; terrorism. The opening scene, shot in Athens, pricks our senses to his suspicions of an active cell, and he misses an opportunity to arrest a key perpetrator. Paris may well pay a price for the miss. It does, and Dujarin, with the reassuring look of a young Sean Connery, leads us on our four day, fly on the wall adventure in seeking some justice. 

New French star, Anais Demoustier, plays a young cop, Ines, attached to the unit. She is ambitious and desperate to make an impression. The risky investigative behaviour we witness based on her hunches may well be the spice added to this fictionalized version of events. Her input is key. It works well in the scheme of this chaotic drama. There is a puzzle to be solved within hours, and there are deadlines to meet while the perpetrators remain in the country. NOVEMBRE takes us, with great effect, along this tightrope.

You'll need to be sharp of wit to work through the detail we are confronted with. The sub-titles, essential for an English speaking punter like myself, sprint across the screen with haste. But this is an A grade re-enactment of procedural drama, told in docudrama terms.  Director Cedric Jimenez placed the theme of urgency at the top of the list for his message in NOVEMBRE. He achieved this - you'll see. Don't miss it.  10GUMS. 

   

 

   

No. 27 (2023) EMPIRE OF LIGHT April 10th.

 

Film No. 27  (2023)  April 20th.  10:40 AM  LUNA SX,  Cine 4, Fremantle.

"Look around you. This whole place is here for people who want to escape. People who don't belong anywhere else" (Norman, the projectionist expounds his philosophy about the existence of a cinema and more particularly, The Empire).

NOMINEE : Best Achievement in Cinematography (Roger Deakins) The Academy (Oscar). WINNER: Best Production Design,  BFDG Award. 

There are some negative views circulating about EMPIRE OF LIGHT. I made the mistake of reading a few - it's why it has taken me some weeks to catch it on the big screen. I'm so glad I did. So, so glad! 

Sam Mendes has always wanted to tell a very personal story relating to his mother and living with a loved one suffering mental health issues. As a child in the eighties, Sam observed his mum. It was a tumultuous time for him, his mum and his country. He needed to write and direct a film that was going to allow him to better understand this phase of his life. A life where he would escape to the cinema, giving him some separation from the real world and home life. 

Olivia Colman is Hilary a duty manager at The Empire Cinema in a large seaside town on the south east coast of England. She is our anchor point to the story which depicts care and friendship, something Hilary needs as she traverses a life of loneliness and bouts of depression. Cinema manager, Mr Ellis (Colin Firth) offers a comfort while using Hilary to satisfy his sexual needs. Hilary sees these visits to his office, while wrong and unsatisfying, as opportunities for intimacy she'll never have in her world, encompassed by a small flat and The Empire.

Enter Stephen, (superbly played by Michael Ward) as a new employee (usher) to The Empire team. He is empathetic, intelligent and black, a breath of fresh-air in Hilary's claustrophobic world. He's always headed for study and a profession but the legitimate care both he and Hilary share for one another massages EMPIRE OF LIGHT into our psyche perfectly. 

I'm not sure what Mendes was aiming for precisely. His mum was never a cinema duty manager. There is no depiction of a young boy watching movies. He has however captured a tender story of a time, the eighties, that shaped him, using themes of; racism (a U.K. epidemic at the time), mental health (a misunderstood strand of life), collegial friendship (The Empire crew) and care, leading to hope. Maybe the criticism of Empire of Light relates to the lack of "flesh on the bones" of these themes. I get that, but I was captivated by the convincing tender performances, giving Mendes yet another small triumph. 10GUMS.

         

No. 25 (2023) INCREDIBLE BUT TRUE (INCROYABLE MAIS VRAI) April. 5th.

 

Film No. 25  (2023)  April 5th.  11:00 AM  LUNA SX,  Cine 2,  Fremantle.

"If you accept to come with me, what you'll discover is dazzling." (The words of Alian and Maree's real estate agent in leading them to an intriguing aspect of the house).

NOMINEE : BEST FILM (Quentin Dupieux), Motovum Film Festival.

I enjoy the new concepts introduced to screen through the story-telling of the Duplass brothers (JEFF, WHO LIVES AT HOME, SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED). Quentin Dupieux is France's equivalent to this left-of-centre film-maker. His films include RUBBER and MANDIBLES - if you've seen either, you surely get my drift. INCROYABLE is Dupieux's most recent creation. So, yes it is high concept and no, for me, it misses the mark, but is well worth a look.

Why? Well, using the idea that a middle aged couple buy a house where the deal breaker centres on a particularly odd tunnel in its basement. The most I'll make comment on here is to say that by entering the tunnel, concepts of time travel and aging take effect on the user. It's too intriguing for Alain (Alain Chabat) and Marie (Lea Drucker) to resist.  The effect on their lives from then on becomes significant. Themes of temptation, vanity, real love, friendship, technology and regret, provide fodder for we, the audience, to muse over. 

At such a short run time (74 minutes), INCREDIBLE never outstays it's welcome and has a series of laugh out loud moments. It is a silly, absurd, comedy caper that never quite becomes the sum of all its parts. The cast, including the very amusing Benoit Magimel as Gerard, the friend who takes vanity to new levels, work each scene expertly. I just wish its conclusion brought more of it's thought provoking strands together. I'm glad I caught another of Dupieux's wild concepts on screen. He is a uniquely creative film-maker.   8GUMS.

    

 

No. 24 (2023) ALLELUJAH March 31st.

 

Film No. 24  (2023)  March 31st.  11:15 AM BACKLOT Cinema, West Perth W.A.

"Rubbish! Even old people don't like old people." (The sarcastic comment from the cynical son-in-law of a newly admitted patient).

NOMINEE : Best Actor (Bill Nighy), Best Adapted Screenplay (Kazuo Ishiguro) Academy Awards USA.

What better way to make a strong comment about the dodgy U.K. health system than through cinema. For a film of this nature to have an effect, it needs to attract a crowd. So will ALLELUJAH fulfil that ambition? 

Maybe, and I hope so, but ALLELUJAH is a strange film and not because of the important themes it raises. It's more to do with the way the strange twist in its story is handled. I've not seen the much adored play of the same name (2018), the inspiration for this film, written by Alan Bennett, so maybe I've missed something. The film simply anti-climactically ends, when I think the audience should have been given clues about where it was headed, well before the titles began to roll. 

Anyway this is not to detract from an earnest (to begin with), solid film played out by a cast including Jennifer Saunders (Nurse Gilpin), Judi Dench (Mary Moss), David Bradley (Joe Colman) and Russel Tovey (Colin Colman) who help to depict the hurdles a small geriatric hospital needs to jump in order to provide good, competent care. The eyes of the NHC are firmly on The Beth (Bethlehem Hospital) as an effective option in providing competent care to the elderly. So when the story strand where government advisor on health matters, Colin,  is the son of patient Joe Colman, and visits regularly while their strained relationship gradually repairs, we get a sense of why the film might fulfil us. WRONG!

The third stanza of ALLELUJAH takes us, suddenly, into MIDSOMMER MURDERS territory. What more can I say? Heidi Thomas (writer) of CALL THE MIDWIFE fame is credited with this adaptation. This is her first feature film credit. TV series writing, and feature film writing are very different beasts (I'm only saying). In the final 10 minutes, Nurse Gilpin takes us into new territory, but gives no indication of what the audience should be prepared for. I know, plenty of thrillers do that, but this is not a thriller. It's an amusing British social drama with serious themes, asking questions about a country's heartlessness in its decision making process on matters of health care. Not ... well, maybe I've said too much when I used the MIDSOMMER analogy.  7GUMS.