It hits Australian cinemas August 1.
Thursday, May 23, 2013
Trailer: The World's End
Following on from Shaun of the Dead (2004) and Hot Fuzz (2007) the new Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost collaboration, The World's End, looks awesome. It wasn't at all about what I expected, but the trailer is a lot of fun.
It hits Australian cinemas August 1.
It hits Australian cinemas August 1.
Monday, May 20, 2013
New Releases (23/05/13)
Hitting cinemas this week is The Hangover Part III, The Reluctant Fundamentalist and Dead Man Down.
The Hangover Part III - The third and final film in director Todd
Phillips' record-shattering comedy franchise. This time, there's no
wedding. No bachelor party. What could go wrong, right? But when the
Wolfpack hits the road, all bets are off.
The Reluctant Fundamentalist - We begin in 2011 in Lahore. At an outdoor café a Pakistani man named Changez (Riz Ahmed) tells Bobby (Liev Schreiber), an American journalist, about his experiences in the United States. Roll back ten years, and we find a younger Changez fresh from Princeton, seeking fortune and glory on Wall Street. The American Dream seems well within his grasp, complete with a smart and gorgeous artist girlfriend, Erica (Kate Hudson). But when the Twin Towers are attacked, a cultural divide slowly begins to crack open between Changez and Erica. Changez's dream soon begins to slip into nightmare: profiled, wrongfully arrested, strip-searched and interrogated, he is transformed from a well-educated, upwardly mobile businessman to a scapegoat and perceived enemy. With time, he begins to hear the call of his own homeland. Taking us through the culturally rich and beguiling worlds of New York, Lahore and Istanbul, The Reluctant Fundamentalist is a story about conflicting ideologies where perception and suspicion have the power to determine life or death.
Dead Man Down - Niels Arden Oplev, the acclaimed director of the original The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, makes his American theatrical debut with this new action thriller. Colin Farrell and Noomi Rapace star as two strangers who are irresistibly drawn to one another by their mutual desire for revenge. The film co-stars Terrence Howard and Dominic Cooper.
The Reluctant Fundamentalist - We begin in 2011 in Lahore. At an outdoor café a Pakistani man named Changez (Riz Ahmed) tells Bobby (Liev Schreiber), an American journalist, about his experiences in the United States. Roll back ten years, and we find a younger Changez fresh from Princeton, seeking fortune and glory on Wall Street. The American Dream seems well within his grasp, complete with a smart and gorgeous artist girlfriend, Erica (Kate Hudson). But when the Twin Towers are attacked, a cultural divide slowly begins to crack open between Changez and Erica. Changez's dream soon begins to slip into nightmare: profiled, wrongfully arrested, strip-searched and interrogated, he is transformed from a well-educated, upwardly mobile businessman to a scapegoat and perceived enemy. With time, he begins to hear the call of his own homeland. Taking us through the culturally rich and beguiling worlds of New York, Lahore and Istanbul, The Reluctant Fundamentalist is a story about conflicting ideologies where perception and suspicion have the power to determine life or death.
Dead Man Down - Niels Arden Oplev, the acclaimed director of the original The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, makes his American theatrical debut with this new action thriller. Colin Farrell and Noomi Rapace star as two strangers who are irresistibly drawn to one another by their mutual desire for revenge. The film co-stars Terrence Howard and Dominic Cooper.
Weekly Recommendation: Save your bucks, though The Reluctant Fundamentalist looks to be the best option, unless Phillips can return to the form he showed in the trilogy's first installment.
Friday, May 17, 2013
Review: Snitch (Ric Roman Waugh, 2013)
Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, set to grace our screens in four films in 2013 – G.I Joe, Fast and Furious 6 and Pain & Gain are the others – gives quite an affecting performance in the forgettable, often-preposterous Snitch, a crime thriller directed by former stunt man Ric Roman Waugh.
When his estranged son, Jason (Rafi Gavron), is charged for
possession of ecstasy, the victim of a setup, John Matthews (Johnson),
an owner of a construction business, desperately tries to help him
escape a minimum 10-year prison sentence.John meets with U.S Attorney
Joanne Keeghan (a snippy Susan Sarandon), who is in the midst of running
an aggressive anti-drug campaign and cracking down on distribution. She
is immovable on the newly introduced mandatory sentencing, but is
willing to compromise and allow John a chance to reduce Jason’s
sentence. John agrees to infiltrate and provide intel on a local drug
ring run by Malik (Michael K. Williams in less-cool Omar mode).
Continue reading at Graffiti With Punctuation.
Thursday, May 16, 2013
Review: Drift (Morgan O'Neil and Ben Nott, 2013)
Drift, a good-looking Australian surf drama directed by
Morgan O’ Neil (who also wrote the screenplay) and Ben Nott, tells the
story of Andy (Myles Pollard) and Jimmy (Xavier Samuel) Kelly, who
escaped from Sydney with their mother (Robyn Malcolm) in their teens, to
a surfing hotspot in the Margaret River region in Western Australia.
Over a decade later, Jimmy has become a gifted talent with the potential
to take on the worlds best. With their mother still in debt from the
mortgage, Andy decides to start an ambitious entrepreneurial venture,
which unites the skills of the family, as well as some local friends
including JB (Sam Worthington), a Combi-dwelling surf photographer and
his companion from Hawaii, Lani (Lesley-Ann Brandt) and personally
crafted surf gear straight out of their backyard.
Drift focuses on a small pocket of this development,
but surf gear is everywhere in Australia and the carefree beach-dwelling
lifestyle will be relatable to anyone who has ever lived near or
visited a coastal tourist spot. Commendably, it is a film about the
drive required to embrace your passion, the selfless decisions we make
for one another and the importance of maintaining a strong sibling
relationship and surrounding yourself with friends you can trust.
Continue reading at Graffiti With Punctuation.
Winter Preview: 22 Films To Watch For This Season
Before we look ahead to the 2013 theatrical 'Blockbuster Season' lets take a look back over the last three months. With The Great Gatsby still to come on April 30, it has been a solid stretch of films, with exactly half of the films I saw during that time receiving a cinema recommendation. The year really comw into it's own on May 9 (The Place Beyond the Pines and Spring Breakers particularly), easily the most interesting release date of the year so far.
The Great (4.5-5) Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God, The Place Beyond the Pines, The Hunt and No.
The Good (3.5-4) Rust and Bone, Spring Breakers, Iron Man 3, Chasing Ice, Oblivion, Star Trek Into Darkness, Trance, Tabu, Sleepwalk With Me, Warm Bodies, First Position and Oz the Great and Powerful.
The Average (2.5-3) Barbara, Broken, In the Fog, Evil Dead, Drift, Haute Cuisine, The Big Wedding, The Company You Keep, Hara Kiri: Death of a Samurai and Mama.
The Poor (0-2) Snitch, Jack the Giant Slayer, A Good Day to Die Hard, Hyde Park on Hudson, The Loneliest Planet, The Incredible Burt Wonderstone, G.I Joe: Retaliation and Olympus Has Fallen.
But, here is what we can look forward to in the coming months. June is pretty dire and I am a bit thin on the August releases (though there are still plenty to look forward to) as is usually the case when investigating the ever-changing schedule from afar.
The Great (4.5-5) Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God, The Place Beyond the Pines, The Hunt and No.
The Good (3.5-4) Rust and Bone, Spring Breakers, Iron Man 3, Chasing Ice, Oblivion, Star Trek Into Darkness, Trance, Tabu, Sleepwalk With Me, Warm Bodies, First Position and Oz the Great and Powerful.
The Average (2.5-3) Barbara, Broken, In the Fog, Evil Dead, Drift, Haute Cuisine, The Big Wedding, The Company You Keep, Hara Kiri: Death of a Samurai and Mama.
The Poor (0-2) Snitch, Jack the Giant Slayer, A Good Day to Die Hard, Hyde Park on Hudson, The Loneliest Planet, The Incredible Burt Wonderstone, G.I Joe: Retaliation and Olympus Has Fallen.
But, here is what we can look forward to in the coming months. June is pretty dire and I am a bit thin on the August releases (though there are still plenty to look forward to) as is usually the case when investigating the ever-changing schedule from afar.
Mud (June 13)*
Man of Steel (June 13)
Monsters University (June 20)
Man of Steel (June 13)
Monsters University (June 20)
World War Z (June 20)
Satellite Boy (June 20)
In the House (June 27)
We Steal Secrets: The Story of Wikileaks (July 4)
To the Wonder (July 4)
Before Midnight (July 11)
Pacific Rim (July 11)
Behind the Candelabra (July 11)**
Behind the Candelabra (July 11)**
Much Ado About Nothing (July 11)
This is the End (July 18)
Only God Forgives (July 18)
The Way, Way Back (July 18)
The Bling Ring (July 25)
Blancanieves (August 8)
Elysium (August 15)
Frances Ha (August 15)
You're Next (August 22)
What Maisie Knew (August 22)
Stoker (August 29)
What are your most anticipated films for the next three months? Are there any that I have left off this list with a confirmed release date that you can recommend?
*New addition, courtesy of Andrew McCarthy.
**New addition, courtesy of Roadshow schedule update.
*New addition, courtesy of Andrew McCarthy.
**New addition, courtesy of Roadshow schedule update.
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
Review: Evil Dead (Fede Alvarez, 2013)
This intense re-imagining of Sam Raimi’s 1981 low-budget gore-fest, The Evil Dead, which spawned two sequels and remains a cult favourite today, is the feature debut from Fede Alvarez. Raimi (Spiderman, Oz: The Great and Powerful), his Evil Dead
star, Bruce Campbell, and original producer, Robert G. Tapert, remained
involved to supervise this new addition to the franchise, serving as
producers.
Five twenty-somethings – a brother and sister, Mia (Jane Levy, very
good) and David (Shiloh Fernandez), David’s girlfriend Natalie
(Elizabeth Blackmore), and Mia’s friends Eric (Lou Taylor Pucci) and
Olivia (Jessica Lucas) – meet at an abandoned cabin deep in the forest.
The reason: not to party, but to form an intervention to support Mia
through drug withdrawal and a give her opportunity to cleanse herself
from her addiction. When they discover a book titled Naturom Demonto: The Book of the Dead, irresponsibly opened by Eric, releases a demonic presence from the surrounding woods.
Continue reading at Graffiti With Punctuation.
Review: Tabu (Miguel Gomes, 2012)
Winner of the Alfred Bauer Prize for Artistic Innovation and the FIPRESCI Jury Prize at the 2012 Berlinale, Miguel Gomes' passionate and provocative drama, Tabu, about love and memory, is separated into two distinct halves. Opening up in contemporary Lisbon, it
follows a temperamental old woman named Aurora (Laura Soveral), her Cape Verdean maid,
Santa (Isabel Munoz Cardoso), and her caring neighbour,Pilar (Teresa Madruga), who shares the same floor of Aurora's apartment building. Pilar does her best to take care of Aurora, who
gambles away all of her money at casinos and is convinced that her maid
is practicing witchcraft on her.
When Aurora's health begins to fade she asks for Gian Luca Ventura (Henrique Espirito Santo), revealed to be a man she once knew but had never spoken of before, to come to her bedside. When he is tracked down, he reveals to the women an extraordinary tale (at this point the film shifts to the past) of obsessed love shared by he and a pregnant and married Aurora (Carloto Cotta and Ana Moreira respectively) in Africa in a period prior to Portuguese Colonial War, and the events that led to their since life-long separation.
Tabu is a beguiling and original film. Gomes has utilised a number of interesting stylistic devices; a 4:3 ratio and classy black-and-white cinematography from the very beginning, and in the second half a complete absence of dialogue, reliance on gesture and expression, and a blend of voice-over narration (Ventura's account), tribal beats, pop songs and the concoction of sounds from the Mount Tabu location. These inspired ideas are not a gimmick and give the storytelling unique qualities that are both alluring and distracting. I wasn't convinced they all worked, or were necessary, and when I viewed Tabu amidst the 2012 Sydney Film Festival it wasn't one of my highlights. But still, there was plenty about this film that I admired.
Even at close to two hours, which is a test, Gomes' film is certainly not dull. It does evoke a strange feeling of hypnosis in the second half as the sweaty African climate and the voice-over lull one into a surreal viewing state. It felt like I was dreaming up the story of Aurora's past for myself. Hard to describe. For future analysis I would be interested in giving it another go, ensuring I am fully alert. Perhaps I would have a completely different experience.
This adventurous drama uses subversive humour and creates effective tension. The performances are great, the sound design is brilliant and this rich tapestry of ideas will leave viewers with plenty to discuss. It looks explores the loneliness and bitterness that accompanies aging, the longing for the past. It also optimistically addresses the idea that fleeting chapters in our lives, if they significantly re-route them at the time, will always remain with us, the increasingly unreliability of memory aside.
When Aurora's health begins to fade she asks for Gian Luca Ventura (Henrique Espirito Santo), revealed to be a man she once knew but had never spoken of before, to come to her bedside. When he is tracked down, he reveals to the women an extraordinary tale (at this point the film shifts to the past) of obsessed love shared by he and a pregnant and married Aurora (Carloto Cotta and Ana Moreira respectively) in Africa in a period prior to Portuguese Colonial War, and the events that led to their since life-long separation.
Tabu is a beguiling and original film. Gomes has utilised a number of interesting stylistic devices; a 4:3 ratio and classy black-and-white cinematography from the very beginning, and in the second half a complete absence of dialogue, reliance on gesture and expression, and a blend of voice-over narration (Ventura's account), tribal beats, pop songs and the concoction of sounds from the Mount Tabu location. These inspired ideas are not a gimmick and give the storytelling unique qualities that are both alluring and distracting. I wasn't convinced they all worked, or were necessary, and when I viewed Tabu amidst the 2012 Sydney Film Festival it wasn't one of my highlights. But still, there was plenty about this film that I admired.
Even at close to two hours, which is a test, Gomes' film is certainly not dull. It does evoke a strange feeling of hypnosis in the second half as the sweaty African climate and the voice-over lull one into a surreal viewing state. It felt like I was dreaming up the story of Aurora's past for myself. Hard to describe. For future analysis I would be interested in giving it another go, ensuring I am fully alert. Perhaps I would have a completely different experience.
This adventurous drama uses subversive humour and creates effective tension. The performances are great, the sound design is brilliant and this rich tapestry of ideas will leave viewers with plenty to discuss. It looks explores the loneliness and bitterness that accompanies aging, the longing for the past. It also optimistically addresses the idea that fleeting chapters in our lives, if they significantly re-route them at the time, will always remain with us, the increasingly unreliability of memory aside.
My Rating: ★★★1/2
Monday, May 13, 2013
New Releases (16/05/13)
In cinemas this week we have Snitch, The Call, Broken, Tabu and A Place For Me.
Snitch - In this fast-paced action thriller, Dwayne Johnson stars as a
father whose teenage son is wrongly accused of a drug distribution crime
and is looking at a mandatory minimum prison sentence of 10 years.
Desperate and determined to rescue his son at all costs, he makes a deal
with the U.S. attorney to work as an undercover informant and
infiltrate a drug cartel on a dangerous mission - risking everything,
including his family and his own life.
The Call - When veteran 911 operator, Jordan (Halle Berry), takes a life-altering call from a teenage girl (Abigail Breslin) who has just been abducted, she realizes that she must confront a killer from her past in order to save the girl's life.
Broken - Skunk is 11, diabetic, and pretty cool. The summer holidays have just begun and her days are full of easy hopes. Then Mr. Oswald, the ugly man who lives opposite, beats up Rick, the sweet, but unstable boy next door and Skunk's innocence begins to be drained away at a speed and in a way she cannot control. Her home, her neighborhood, her school - all become treacherous environments where the happy certainties of childhood give way to a fear-filled doubt, and a complex, broken world fills her future. Skunk seeks solace in the last remaining place where she knows she can find it - the unspoken friendship with sweet, damaged Rick - and falls into a chaos where suddenly, joyfully, she has choice thrust back into her hands.
Tabu - Acclaimed director Miguel Gomes returns with a sumptuous, eccentric two-part tale centered on Aurora, shown first as an impulsive, cantankerous elderly woman in present-day Lisbon. When Aurora is hospitalized, she sends her neighbor, Pilar, to pass word of her grave condition to Gian Luca, a man of which no one has ever heard her speak. Pilar's quest to fulfill her friend's wish transports us to Africa fifty years earlier, before the start of the Portuguese Colonial War. We see Aurora again, this time as the gorgeous, smoldering wife of a wealthy young farmer, involved in a forbidden love affair with Gian Luca, her husband's best friend. Their moving, poetic tale is conveyed through the older Gian Luca's suave voiceover, combined with the lush, melodious sounds of its heady, tropical setting, peppered with a soundtrack of Phil Spector songs.
A Place For Me - Three years past his divorce, veteran novelist Bill Borgens (Greg Kinnear) can’t stop obsessing over his ex-wife Erica (Jennifer Connelly), who ignominiously left him for another man. Even as his neighbor-with-benefits, Tricia (Kristen Bell) tries to push him back into the dating pool, he remains blind to anyone else’s charms. Meanwhile, his fiercely independent collegiate daughter Samantha (Lily Collins) is publishing her first novel while recoiling at the very thought of first love with a diehard romantic; and his teen son Rusty (Nat Wolff) is trying to find his voice, both as a fantasy writer and as the unexpected boyfriend of a dream girl with unsettlingly real problems. As each of these situations mounts into a tangled trio of romantic holiday crises, it brings the Borgens to surprising revelations about how endings become beginnings.
The Call - When veteran 911 operator, Jordan (Halle Berry), takes a life-altering call from a teenage girl (Abigail Breslin) who has just been abducted, she realizes that she must confront a killer from her past in order to save the girl's life.
Broken - Skunk is 11, diabetic, and pretty cool. The summer holidays have just begun and her days are full of easy hopes. Then Mr. Oswald, the ugly man who lives opposite, beats up Rick, the sweet, but unstable boy next door and Skunk's innocence begins to be drained away at a speed and in a way she cannot control. Her home, her neighborhood, her school - all become treacherous environments where the happy certainties of childhood give way to a fear-filled doubt, and a complex, broken world fills her future. Skunk seeks solace in the last remaining place where she knows she can find it - the unspoken friendship with sweet, damaged Rick - and falls into a chaos where suddenly, joyfully, she has choice thrust back into her hands.
Tabu - Acclaimed director Miguel Gomes returns with a sumptuous, eccentric two-part tale centered on Aurora, shown first as an impulsive, cantankerous elderly woman in present-day Lisbon. When Aurora is hospitalized, she sends her neighbor, Pilar, to pass word of her grave condition to Gian Luca, a man of which no one has ever heard her speak. Pilar's quest to fulfill her friend's wish transports us to Africa fifty years earlier, before the start of the Portuguese Colonial War. We see Aurora again, this time as the gorgeous, smoldering wife of a wealthy young farmer, involved in a forbidden love affair with Gian Luca, her husband's best friend. Their moving, poetic tale is conveyed through the older Gian Luca's suave voiceover, combined with the lush, melodious sounds of its heady, tropical setting, peppered with a soundtrack of Phil Spector songs.
A Place For Me - Three years past his divorce, veteran novelist Bill Borgens (Greg Kinnear) can’t stop obsessing over his ex-wife Erica (Jennifer Connelly), who ignominiously left him for another man. Even as his neighbor-with-benefits, Tricia (Kristen Bell) tries to push him back into the dating pool, he remains blind to anyone else’s charms. Meanwhile, his fiercely independent collegiate daughter Samantha (Lily Collins) is publishing her first novel while recoiling at the very thought of first love with a diehard romantic; and his teen son Rusty (Nat Wolff) is trying to find his voice, both as a fantasy writer and as the unexpected boyfriend of a dream girl with unsettlingly real problems. As each of these situations mounts into a tangled trio of romantic holiday crises, it brings the Borgens to surprising revelations about how endings become beginnings.
Weekly Recommendation: I hadn't heard anything about A Place For Me until today but I have been recommended it. Broken and Tabu are both worth a look and I intend to catch Tabu again outside of the festival fatigue.
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