Join Luke McWilliams, Liam Jennings, Steven Robert and Felix Barbalet as they review plus interviews with Carolyn Mueller, director of the Canberra Short Film Festival and Katie Ryan, CSFF finalist.
Beneath Hill 60 is a 2010 Australian war film directed by Jeremy Sims and written by David Roach. The screenplay is based on an account of the ordeal written by Captain Oliver Woodward, who is portrayed by Brendan Cowell in the film.
Plot
Set during World War I, we follow mining engineer Oliver Woodward (played by Brendan Cowell) Called away from beautiful sunny Queensland, and a burgeoning romance, Brendan is quickly put to work in the dark and horrible trenches to lead the 1st Australian Tunneling Company underneath a German bunker at the notorious Hill 60.
Before he can go back to his idealic life in Queensland with the girl he left behind (Marjorie, played by Bella Heathcote), Brendan must first lead his men through the dark horrors of Hell.
Review
The film’s score by Cezary Skubiszewski is great and the cinematography by Toby Oliver is fantastic. The visual landscape of the barracks, aided by CGI are convincing. I would have liked a little more visual ingenuity to fully realise the underground surroundings, to experience the cramped conditions and to have a clear, working-map of where everything lay, a la David Fincher’s Panic Room and Fight Club. This would help in fully exploiting the tension of the situation/s that the men find themselves in. As it is, I was not as involved in these key scenes as much as I would have liked.
One key scene of mention is when Oliver and two of his men make a night-time mission to detonate a German tower. This is by far the most enjoyable, suspense filled scene of the movie and works extremely well.
The atmosphere of comradeship and good-old fashioned digger, Aussie larrikin matehip is well captured here, both its positive and negative side. Brendan Cowell is especially good in this role; Brendan has a curious look that you can’t quite read, a slight amused look covers what is on his mind.
The acting is however uneven. We are treated to some great monologues describing certain minor characters motivations for joining the war, but then some other characters do not come across as convincing. This however may be due to the fact that the same actors have populated Australian screens for so long that Australian audiences will, unfairly, have difficulty accepting them in different roles. In this sense, along with some of the dinky-di-Aussie accents, some of the many characters were difficult to connect with.
Rating
A good solid effort is let down in part by uneven acting and a homage or completion of a theme in Gallipoli, the greatest Australian War movie. In this attempt, the emotional climax is lessened, even more so by a relatively poor CG money shot.
A solid 3 mining tunnels out of 5
Check out the film IMDB, see what Margaret and David have to say, and check out the trailer..
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Luke McWilliams September 2010
The Killer Inside Me is a 2010 American film adaptation of the 1952 novel of the same name by Jim Thompson, directed by Michael Winterbottom.
Plot
We follow Deputy Sheriff Lou Ford (played by Casey Affleck), a law enforcer of a small Texan town, as he is asked by his superior to move along a prostitute, Joyce (played by Jessica Alba) who has recently set up shop. Despite his orders, and the fact that he has a girlfriend (played by Kate Hudson), Lou forges ahead with an affair. An opportunity soon arises however to get revenge on the person he suspects had his brother killed a few years earlier. Soon the Deputy launches into a plan of murder and cover-ups, and the depths of his insanity are slowly revealed.
Review
The violence against women in this movie is extremely graphic and unsettling. While the film shies away from the visual depiction of violence towards men, it shows the violence directed towards women in a visually and aurally graphic way.
The main character graphically kills the people he loves the most. One can argue this is due to his not believing he deserves happiness, or because of a perceived link between love and violence, sex and death.
One must look and wonder at what the intent of the movie was. Was it to highlight violence committed against women, which has been depicted deeper, from an individual, historical and sociological point of view, and less graphically (although still very disturbing) in the Millenium trilogy of books and films, or was it to tell a pulp crime- fiction story?
If it is the latter, the director has responded to critics of the Sundance opening of the film that the world presented in the novel is a ‘hyper reality’, and that it is not realistic, due to the movie’s pulp origins and also due to the fact that the story is told from the disturbed first person’s point of view; the movie’s protagonist\antagonist. If that is the case, why present the story and its violence so realistically? Sin City was extremely violent, but was presented in a hyper-stylized way, celebrating its hard-boiled, grim graphic-novel origins which were a hyper-stylized throw-back to film noir, hard-boild pulp fictions in the first place. The Killer Inside Me takes a story from a pulp magazine and presents it in a very realistic way, with only a few posters and the intro sequence tying it in with its pulp origins.
This adaptation may be highly faithful to its source material, however, as Stanley Kubrick has said, the source material is “the most chilling and believable first-person story of a criminally warped mind.” If this is the case, should the film then be more of a character study of the character’s motives and intent, rather then concentrating on the violence of his actions, especially towards women? The Silence of the Lambs was a brilliant study of not one, but two criminally insane minds, building tension and horror without the need to show any graphic violence. American Psycho holds a similar theme as The Killer Inside Me in that it is a concentrated first-person perspective of the main protagonist/antagonist but it was also a fantastic character/psychological study and a satire of the 80’s yuppie male with a brilliant performance from Christian Bale.
Through flash-backs we learn the psycho-sexual cause of Lou’s mental illness (critics may argue that it isn’t), and we experience his calculating self-preservation, much like Mat Damon’s Tom Ripley in The Talented Mr Ripley. Unlike Ripley, Lou holds no perceived guilt over his actions, as he does not hold himself responsible for them. Lou merely reacts to the world around him, painting himself a victim to circumstance and chance.
In relation to the violence, Jessica Alba said the following:
“It’s a Jim Thompson novel about a sociopathic killer who’s a coward! I think the detail that went into the killing of the women is actually showing how weak he is, because he’s preying on the people who loved him the most. I think a lot of people also want everything to be shiny happy people, and they want killing to be a sexy guy with his shirt off blowing guys’ heads off. This just shows how horrifying it is, which is responsible, actually.”
And Casey Affleck in turn;
"I hope there's room for discussion around this film, and room for people to tell us we're being irresponsible," he said. "But to me, irresponsible is when you have a movie where 300 people get killed by robots, and none of it matters, none of it registers. In this movie, we wanted the violence to seem real, and the victims of violence to seem real. I think we've been very responsible in how we approached the violence. I wouldn't have done the movie otherwise.”
The film is shot beautifully, with fantastic performances all round. Casey Affleck is amazing in his role, and Simon Baker is surprisingly terrific as the county attorney who is highly suspicious of Lou (I’ve hated Simon Baker ever since his character slept with Anne Hathaway’s character in The Devil Wears Prada.........maybe I should just get over it). Jessica Alba’s performance breaks your heart, and it is interesting to see Kate Hudson in a relatively less glamorous role that we are used to.
A highlight of the film is the representation of the burden of evidence to charge, and convict, one who is found guilty of a crime/s . Because there is a lack of evidence against Lou, he cannot be charged for his crimes. However, as the tight knight community rightly knows, there is a difference between one being found ‘not guilty’ of a crime and one being ‘innocent’, much in the same way as Johnny Depp’s character discovers in the movie, Rear Window.
Rating
This is an odd film because it is exceptionally well made, well acted and looks beautiful. Even though Lou does not completely understand his responsibility of his actions, the beautiful look of the film (the shots of remote landscapes, the 1950’s urban and city architecture, costumes all shot in hot daylight) are not enjoyed due to the unease that we as an audience feel as a result of such actions. We are successfully made privy to the happiness and beauty that surrounds the main character, but are saddened that it is so out of reach for him. Like Scott Pilgrim, The Dark Knight and, to a lesser extent Shutter Island, this is a film that transcends its pulp origins. It is just a shame that, unlike the above mentioned films, its pulp content was not evolved to match a more specific intent and therefore focus the film’s reason for being.
Due to the technical craftsmanship of the film, I give it 2 fedora hats out of 5, however, due to the harrowing, misguided and surprisingly gratuitous graphic scenes of violence against women I cannot recommend watching it.
Check out the film at IMDB, see what Margaret and David have to say and check out the trailer..
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Luke McWilliams September 2010
Join Luke McWilliams, Liam Jennings, Steven Robert and Felix Barbalet as they review
- The Killer Inside Me
- Beneath Hill 60
- Dear Zachary
plus an interview with Marisa Martin, of Enemies of Reality Media about the Canberra Short Film Festival and other local film news.
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Brothers is a 2009 American-British drama-war-thriller film directed by Jim Sheridan. The film is a remake of 2004 Danish film Brødre directed by Susanne Bier. Both films take inspiration from Homer's epic poem The Odyssey.
Plot
The film follows Sam (played by Tobey Maguire), a Marine captain, and bad-boy Tommy Cahill (played by Jake Gyllenhaal) who are brothers. We meet Tommy as he is released from jail for armed robbery, and we soon see Sam embarking on his fourth tour of duty to Afghanistan, leaving behind his high school sweetheart, Grace (Natalie Portman), and their two young daughters.
Tommy’s family soon receive news of Tommy’s death. In Tommy’s absence, his brother Sam supports Tommy’s wife and children in their collective grief. However, when Tommy unexpectedly returns home very much alive, whackiness ensues.
Review
There are great performances all round in the movie, although admittedly it is a little odd to see such young looking actors in parent roles with young children.
The casting for Tobey and Jake is very good. The audience really does feel Tobey’s character’s sense of mental trauma, and we expect him to lose control at any moment. We, like the family depicted, feel at ease with Jake’s character on screen and miss him when he is absent. As a reformed bad-boy trying to-make-good to the family that he has let down in the past, you can understand why the bad-boy is so attractive.
One could argue that Natalie’s emotional response to hearing prematurely of her husband’s death as being a tad too understated, however, this could just be the actor’s choice as the character would have undoubtedly have been prepared for receiving such inevitable news from past tours.
The only real letdown was the redundant narration at film’s end which annoyed an otherwise subtle and emotional revelation.
The director for the remake decided to make the film more about the brother’s relationship with each other then the emotional attraction to Tommy’s wife. This is a good move as it keeps a clear focus of the film’s intent.
One may argue that this was again an exercise whereby Hollywood again ‘ruined a fine movie’. I prefer the wording of the remake’s writer; that he and the director had discovered the ‘bones’ of a great story. Certain characters have had their backgrounds more fleshed out, giving their entwining familial relationships more weight. A bigger budget has given the film a more cinematic style and attracted a beautiful score and, of course, a swath of young, good looking stars.
Rating
Brothers is a very satisfying film. Toby Maguire has done a fine job portraying a stable family man who suffers trauma as a result of his experiences in war. This was a much more satisfying study of the psychological effects of war on soldiers and their families than The Hurt Locker as previously discussed on the Movie Club.
I loved Jake Gyllenhall’s character and could completely understand the attraction that Tommy’s family had for him during such an emotionally vulnerable time.
The lead character’s intertwined past with their marine father is completely relate-able and understandable. The story served as a foreboding parallel of what happened during the brother’s early family years with a father who had returned from Vietnam.
Apart from the unnecessary short narration at film’s end, Brothers is a solid movie viewing experience.
4 brothers out of 5
Check out the film at IMDB, check out the trailer, and see what Margaret and David had to say about the original.
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Luke McWilliams August 2010
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The Ghost Writer is a 2010 politica; thriller film. It is adapted from the novel, The Ghost by Robert Harris. Directed by Roman Polanski, the screenplay was written by him and Harris.
Plot
After the death of a ghost writer who was writing the memoirs of former British Prime Minister Adam Lang (played by Peirce Brosnan), Ewan Magregor’s anonymous ghostwriter agrees to complete the manuscript.
The ghostwriter flies out to Lang’s beachfront mansion to work on the project behind high security in the middle of winter. Unfortunately, the day he arrives, Lang is accused of war crimes. Lang faces prosecution by the International Criminal Court, and all of his staff are subject to reporters and protesters swarming to the island mansion. Amongst all of this, the ghostwriter continues his work, uncovering along the way that perhaps his predecessor’s death was not as straight forward as he was thought to believe.
Review
The movie has a great, classic thriller feel, like the recent The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. However, it also has unnecessary, old-fashioned sentiments.
The ambience is fantastic: a large office window shows a wintery ocean-front setting which depicts the natural and humanistic chaos outside the steely confines of a mansion. Such unsettling imagry and sound reminds of another great classic thriller Shutter Island.
The performances are unfortunately uneven; Kim Cattral is a wispy female, not unlike Mia Farrow’s performance in Rosemary’s Baby, and has an air of film Noir about her, such as Evelyn in Chinatown. Dressed in white, she is contrasted ( although her prowess is subverted) with the dark hued, femme fatal Ruth Lang (played by Olivia Williams), the backbone of her husband, the Prime Minister. Olivia delivers a surprisingly unconvincing performance in a scene of supposed vulnerability. Perhaps Roman has a perception of women in film that resonates.
There are also some choice camera angles throughout the movie, and the lens lingers too long, almost making sure that the viewer captures every little nuance the actor is giving, which is completely unnecessary, and patronises the actor’s performance. From research in comparison with the book, it is surprising that Polanski chose to actually downplay some scenes that would have played very cinematically.
The score is almost darkly comic. I would have preferred a much more intimidating, straight thriller score, given the context, in the mold of other recent films Shutter Island and Inception which both used amazing, menacing, bombastic scores which had as much presence and personality as any other actor on screen.
As mentioned above, it is surprising how the film bears away from use of technology. When The Ghost Writer tries to use a computer with a USB key, all hell breaks lose. Instead, The Ghost Writer must engage in the practical, textural feel of the original manuscript. Characters labor over it, feel it with their fingers and almost enjoy the physical pleasure of touching it. Such use of manuscript-texture reminds me of The Ninth Gate and the supernatural powers that are within the pages of a book.
As The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo demonstrated, research through means of computer can be just as textile, whilst also conveying the sense of a ghostly observer, someone who is dabbling with people’s lives from another sphere of existence. Also, the use of computer data can just be just as hard to trace and hold as a ghost. Cinematic research montages can be delivered with both mediums, but layers of a computer screen imposed over the researcher is far more cinematic than following text on a manuscript. In this sense it may be unfair to call this film old fashioned, but it is warranted here.
There are great allegories of ghosts here; Ewan’s unnamed character is haunted by his predecessor, finding his spirit within the pages of his manuscript, his clothes and the furniture in his room. Ewan prefers spirits rather than wine, and, whilst being an anonymous ghostwriter, holds a certain amount of power over the very public figures. The theme of the Ghost within the Machine could have given another metaphor if technology was not presented in such a phobic way.
The film has a strange dark comic humour; delivered in Ewan’s performance, the score, filing of scenes and some script choices. Ewan’s performance aside, I would have preferred a much more straight approach given the success of the recent, and superior above-mentioned thrillers.
Rating
The Ghost Writer is unfortunately, disappointingly and irritatingly flawed in the sense that it is a good movie, a great visual experience but it could have been so much more. There are many editing and acting choices that take away from the film, in both logic and quality. Like the superior The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, however, this movie has compelled me to read the novel and think of what may have been.
3 pages out of 5
Check out the film at IMDB check out the trailer, and see what Margaret and David (and Ewan) have to say.
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Luke McWilliams August 2010
Join Luke McWilliams, Liam Jennings, Steven Robert and Felix Barbalet as they review
- The Ghost Writer
- Brothers
- Ichi the killer
plus an interview with Britt Arthur, writer and director of 'My Uncle Bluey' which won the 'Best National Film' category at the 2009 Canberra Short Film Festival
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Youth in Revolt is a 2010 American film adaptation of C.D. Payne's epistolary novel of the same name starring Michael Cera. The novel was written in 1993 epistolary novel, and is part three of a six-part series.
Plot
Nick Twisp (played by Michael Cera) is a 16 year old virgin who has, by the standards of his peers, a peculiar taste in media culture; the music of Frank Sinatra and the films of Federico Fellini. Nick lives with his mother and her awful boyfriend, Jerry, who soon finds himself owing a group of angry sailors money due to a sour car sale. Instead of righting this wrong, Jerry decides to lay low for a while and takes Nick and his mother on vacation to a Christian trailer park. This is where Nick meets the beautiful but dangerous Sheeni Saunders (played by Portia Doubleday). The two strike up a relationship however it is soon thwarted as Nick inevitably has to return home. The shy, awkward and naïve Nick is however encouraged by Sheeni to become "very, very bad" so he may be kicked out of home and be free to live with his father, George (played by Steve Buscemi), and they can be together. Nick soon develops an evil, French alter-ego to help him along with his quest to become evil, afterwhich whackiness ensues.
Review
The epistolary nature of the novel is referenced in the film by use of plastacine stop-motion characateurs of the characters, references to letters and diary entries. This lends to the quirkiness of the film that a Michael Cera movie seems to ask for.
The film is not quite a drama, not quite a comedy. This makes it fall into the safe niche of young adult quirky dramedy, a la Juno; i.e. if you don’t find it funny, you weren’t supposed to, as it was a drama. Laughed at it? You were supposed to; it was a comedy.
I loved Michael Crea in Arrested Development as he played the shy and socially awkward George Michael brilliantly; a minor character in a pretty much all-star show. I am not yet sold with the idea that he can carry an entire movie, especially with the same ‘hipster’ type of role. He has played this type of character in most of his film roles, but it is at least pleasing to see him stretch himself in this role if only by just a bit; as an evil-French alter-ego.
Obviously Michael Crea fans and fans of this type of quirky comedy in general may like this movie.
Rating
It is curious that Michael’s films are based on material that was created in the early 90’s (such as Scott Pilgrim vs The World)but are reimagined as movies to apply to ‘hipster’ contemporary youth culture. I am not part of, nor a fan of, ‘hipster’ culture and therefore, again, I cannot empathise with the main character and the choices he makes.
2 revolting youths out of 5
Check out the film at IMDB, Rotten Tomatoes, and check out the trailer. ~ ~
Luke McWilliams August 2010
Scott Pilgrim VS The World is a 2010 American action comedy film directed by Edgar Wright of (Spaced, Shuan of the Dead and Hot Fuzz fame) based on the comic book series Scott Pilgrim by Bryan Lee O'Malley. Interestingly, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World was planned as a film after the first issue of the comic was released!
Plot
The film follows the precious little life of Scott Pilgrim (played by Michael Cera). Scott is a bass guitarist for the band "Sex Bob-omb," who dates a Chinese catholic high-school girl Knives Chau (Ellen Wong) and lives (and sleeps) with his gay housemate Wallace (Kieran Culkin). Scott eventually literally meets the girl of his dreams, a mysterious American called Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead). To date her however, Scott must defeat the League of Evil Exes, 7 of Ramona's Evil Ex boyfriends who are hell bent on destroying all that is Scott Pilgrim. Whackiness does indeed ensue.
Review
As a director, Edgar Wright makes all of the right decisions in regards to this film: Edgar hired Mr Brad Allan, the wushu expert who has worked with Jacki Chan in countless movies, and Bill Pope, the cinematographer of the Matrix trilogy was brought on board. The soundtrack includes music from Beck, Canadian bands Metric and Broken Social Scene, Nigel Godrich (who is a producing collaborator of Radioheand and Beck), and two members of Supergrass who recorded a Legend of Zelda theme. Several sound effects were sampled from retro 8-bit titles like Sonic and the Legend of Zelda to give it the most authentic flavour possible and techniques such as switching aspect ratio’s were used to mimic the look of in-game cut-scenes.
As with Shuan of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, this script is well constructed; the first part serves the audience metaphors of what is to follow in Scott’s subjective ‘reality’. For example, there is a great scene where we see Scott and Knives at an amusement centre. Without giving too much away, a lot of information in regards to Scott’s subjective outlook on his own life is weaved into this scene both visually and through the dialogue, setting up more surreal / hallucinatory sequences for later.
A lot of trouble has gone to marketing the film to both Gen Y ‘hipsters and Gen X gamers. It is interesting to note that Scott does not use a mobile phone, plays coin-operated arcade games in arcade stations and is pretty much computer illiterate. The technology on show is either the use of a pay phone, an old beige computer and several old Nintendo consoles littered around his sorry; Wallace’s) apartment. However, one can’t help but feel that the film is a very expensive marketing exercise that ultimately targets a very specific audience: males currently in their early 20’s.
The film tries to hard to be hip and cool, or perhaps this is what the current hipster culture is all about, it certainly was with Gen X…or like, whatever.
Thankfully, in regards to this, the film has a lot of self-referential observations of how ridiculous it all is, from bystanders of Scott’s ‘world’, i.e. – Scott’s friends namely his older sister and his roommate Wallace, played brilliantly by Kieran Culkin.
The special effects are amazing and cannot be flawed. It is such a shame to see Brandon Routh play a superhero role which is shot in a way that you wished his performance in Superman Returns was.
It is interesting to note that this movie has bob-ombed at the box office. This may not be all that surprising as the film is a dangerously niche, quirky comedy. It will be interesting to see if it dates quickly. It is a tremendous indulgence and it is amazing that such a film was made on such a budget in the first place. It seems that lessons were not learned from Speed Racer; a film which audience’s did not know what to make of amongst the tremendous amount of CG which created a digital divide between the audience and film: ie - is it a cartoon? Is it supposed to be taken seriously? Or perhaps falut can be found simply in the marketing strategy of the film: if you think you are walking into a hip-cool counter-culture movie a la Empire Records, Dazed and Confused or Clerks you might be disappointed. You will definitely be surprised!
Scott Pilgrim vs The World is a surreal, hallucinogenic kung-fu rock-musical peppered with retro-video game and other pop-culture that Scott has been raised in. All of this serves Scott’s perspective of his world and his role in it. As Randel in Clerks, and Holden in Chasing Amy, Scott must confront his feelings of inadequacy in relation to his current crushe’s romantic past, all the while facing the end of his adolescent reality as he knows it. In fact, this film would have been Kevin Smith’s opus if hehad been, like, bothered to make it…..pfft……
This type of money, expertise and the serious nature in which the film has been constructed makes one think of all the missed opportunities in regard to other comic-book-titles (The Batman film series, Superman Returns and a possible Ultimate Spiderman).
For all Gen X grouchiness aside for a minute, one can empathise with this world viewed from the self-interested mind’s eye of its protagonist: when one is young, everything is played for high-stakes and you are the immortal rock-star of your own life (such a metaphor was used successfully in The Lost Boys).
Special effects aside, Scott Pilgrim VS The World is a study of growing up: waking up to the world around you, coming to terms with a serious relationship, confronting sexual jealously and planning on leaving all childish things behind to venture off vulnerably into the great unknown, strengthened by the one that you love.
Rating
Ultimately, I was not the audience for this, so I felt like I was babysitting for 2 hours and was slightly angry that I could not join in on the fun (a bit like watching The Goonies again. Trust me; the experience has changed). 10 – 15 years ago I would have loved it. It would have been perfect if it was made in 1985 and starred Michael J Fox!
That being said, if you are already a fan of Scott Pilgrim, coin-op or console video-games (now labeled as, sigh, ‘retro), romance Manga comic-books, kung-fu, rock’n’roll and Michael Cera, you will undoubtedly love this little-big film.
3.5 evil Ex-Boyfriends out of 5
Check out the film at IMDB, and check out the trailer..
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Luke McWilliams August 2010
Join Luke McWilliams, Liam Jennings, Steven Robert and Felix Barbalet as they review
- Scott Pilgrim vs The World
- Youth in Revolt
- Nosferatu
plus an interview with Travis Cragg from the ANU Film Group