Blogging doesn’t really seem to be a thing any more, and
I have been extremely slack in my movie reviews for a long time – which is
actually something I will probably regret as blogging the reviews was a great
way to keep a track of what I saw and whether or not I thought it was
worthwhile seeing again.
But I will see how I cope with those regrets. For now though, and after a few people asked
me about my picks for the 2017 International Film Festival, I thought I would
at least make the effort to record and review what I end up going to see from
all the many wonderful options on offer.
My Filmfest kicked off with an incredibly strange pick: the Love Witch is a love letter to
1960s sexploitation movies, with terrible green screen, hyper intense colours
and deliberately terrible framing and obvious changes to film stock (though it
was probably all shot digitally).
The film also has terrible plotting and was insanely
slow, with random scenes that were obviously shot with incredible love and
dedication but were just a little dull when dragged out to over 10 minutes
long.
There are some utterly hilarious scenes though, the
sexism and morals of the era coming through even in the supposed liberal intent
of the movie, The Love Witch herself,
the embodiment of female power and psychopathy in this movie, has a nefarious
plan that seems to have come (in the line I found the most hilarious in the
film) from her brain washing by the patriarchy – she will find a man and make
him love her and will become more devoted and loving and be completely his for
eternity. This of course contrasts
starkly (and murderously) with her intended suitors, as men of course want it
all at the beginning but can find utter devotion after the initial romance a
bit suffocating. This is all expressed
(and juxtaposed) in a fantastic inner monologue sequence in one of the
strangest scenes, and some sort of medieval fair that magically appeared in the
forest… much as they would in real films from the 60s.
There are the odd modern touches in between the fabulous
60s fashions: a couple of vehicles are definitely from the 2010s, a beautiful
policewoman has a very contemporary uniform on, and the use of a mobile phones
all ground the film making in modern days.
But overall, the reverence for the source material and era is total, and
the film is the stronger for it.
While I wasn’t belly laughing as much as one member of
the audience who found every nod a cue to erupt, and I occasionally found
myself drifting off in slower moments (I
was tired!), the movie was a lot of fun, but mainly if you appreciate the
film’s influences. Else, it’s a bit on
the slow, deliberately patronising side, and while there is a lot of fun to be
had, the film could have been a bit more tightly edited, though that too may
have been a deliberate homage to the 1960s inspirations.
Verdict: The Love Witch was a crazy and mad way to
start the film. Made with amazing love,
and occasionally hilarious, the joke is perhaps a bit too long and drawn
out. 6 hearts out of 10.
The next film on my list did not have that excuse: Call Me By Your Name (not the Japanese
animated film, Your Name, which is
incredible by the way) is a slow coming of age exploration, with an emphasis on
slow.
Set in Italy, the lead actor, Timothee Chalamet, plays Elio,
a character its easy to identify with: the only son of wealthy educated parents
who own a large villa with servants, and a 17 year old who not only happens to
be a musical prodigy but also speaks English, French and Italian fluently (yes,
I was jealous) and who is popular with the locals… yeah, I am being a bit
sarcastic here as the actor is incredibly talented, the character he plays is
just a bit of a d!ck.
Which is unfortunate, as the film follows him around a
lot – lazing in the hot summer sun and being a mopey teenager until (and
actually quite a lot of time while) a American student, Oliver, played by the
insanely handsome Arnie Hammer, shows up to study with Emilio’s father and
unleashes feelings within the young man that conflict and torture and yadda
yadda him.
If I sound a bit dismissive about all this, it’s not that
the emotions aren’t “real”, but just that all the situations are fairly
contrived: the parents instantly know their 17 year old is in lust with a
30-odd year old man and seem to be actively rooting for the relationship even
before the two men realise there is something there; trips away and around are
likewise set ups rather than organic feeling events, random characters are
introduced and scenes occur for singular plot purposes only (what was with the
“regular nosebleeds” that literally happened once and that was it?) and a
rather powerful (and a little ambiguous) speech from Emilio’s father is long,
very scripted, and completely out of character with the rest of the film.
There are a lot of good scenes and the actors are all
amazing, and the scenery, food, and Italian towns and countryside are all
gorgeous and enviable, especially on a cold Wellington winter’s day, but
overall I felt the film was overlong, not particularly romantic (as talented as
the leads are, there was very little chemistry between them) and relied on the
setting rather than the story to lure people in. Still, while no one clapped at the end (thank
heaven), people seemed to enjoy it, and there were definitely good aspects of
the film. But Your Name or Under the
Tuscan Sun (ah, Diane Lane!) this is not…
Verdict: Call Me By Your Name has so many great
elements working for it, it’s a shame the overall film is a bit dull. While the main character is fine, he is not
the easiest to relate to, making it harder to fully engage with the film, and
the duration works against it. 5 days in
Tuscany out of 10.
Third on the list was The Farthest, the movie I was anticipating most from this year’s
selection, and, as a documentary based on the trip and discoveries of the two
Voyager space probes, it did not disappoint.
The movie was shown on the main screen of the Embassy Cinema to a sold
out audience, and the size of the projection and the crowd was amazing. There was silence as the story of the craft
was explained by some incredibly engaging talking heads, some surprisingly
emotional, and then when they described and showed the discoveries, all
projected in huge, colourful images on the screen, you could feel the
excitement and the joy. Music from the
era of the launch and a “making of” on the gold disc that was sent out amongst
the stars on the vehicle blared loudly (sometimes a little too loudly) for good
and ill, but the most touching tales were those of the greetings from Earth,
simple messages describing hope and friendship.
And of course, there was Carl Sagan. As the superstar astronomer of the 20th
Century, and someone I have come to respect and admire more and more, he was
hovering in the background, and while his emotional look back on the Earth from
Voyager 1 just before it turned off its cameras was still incredibly moving,
the movie made the Voyager craft the stars of the show. And it did it super well.
Verdict: The Farthest is amazing, though my own
personal bias and interest in the subject probably influences that opinion a
lot. And it’s a documentary. 8 galaxies out of 10.
After an hour break, it was off to Marjorie Prime, a small movie with an amazing cast. I did not realise that Geena Davis was in
this film (as she is always amazing, and was the best thing in this movie),
alongside power thespians Tim Robbins, John Hamm and the always luminous Lois
Smith. Overall, the film was not what I
was expecting. I did not read the “based
on a play” warning label on the description, and only afterwards did it click
and the small, single room setting make sense.
It also made a bit more sense of the plot, a winding, time jumping and
not altogether straight forward tale of loss and dealing with grief. The performances are all excellent, but the
ties that bind the scene and the people, and the overall thrust of the story (I
am sure it was about the malleability of memory, but not quite sure what) were
all fairly obscure.
The pace also lacked a little, and it was not helped by a
small preceding feature, For the Light,
which was itself very opaque and quite a lot dull – so thematically in keeping
with the movie, true, but with a grating, almost bored narration from a very
Kiwi accent and it rapidly outstayed it welcome. As that started the session off in a fairly
dulled mood, Marjorie Prime was not
able or designed to reinvigorate the audience, so a fairly unfortunate
combination there. But Geena Davis… more
please!
Verdict: A play
made a movie, Marjorie Prime does
not lack for star wattage but does lack for dynamism and an obvious
direction. The individual scenes are
amazing, but overall… it’s a movie with something to say about memory and loss,
but either I can’t remember exactly what that is, or I lost it somewhere along
the way. 6 ghosts out of 10.
A little bit of a pause before my first mid-week fim, The Workshop (l’Atelier), screening in
a half full (if that) large Penthouse cinema late on a cold night. This was an utterly gripping film, despite
its small scale, budget, and use of quite a few “un trained actors”. Some local unemployed youth from a
Mediterranean town devastated by the closure of the main ship building yards
come together for a training session on creative writing course. The group is diverse, and one young man in
particular to have a fairly morbid and right wing outlook that brings him into
clashes with his classmates and with his intrigued teacher.
The film touches on so many things: multiculturalism in
France, the impact of terrorism in France on everyday life and perspectives,
the use of social media and what it reveals about people, the disenfranchisement
of some of today’s youth, the legacy impacts of the changes in local economies…
and when I put it like that, it seems perhaps too heavy and weighty a film, but
its really not: these are all just background to the “reality” that these
people find themselves in. The south of
France looks warm and inviting, though there is the underlying sadness of the
way things used to be and the use of a couple of clips from archival
documentary footage explains and illuminates how things used to be.
Suffice to say tensions mount as people clash, even as
the scale remains small and low-stakes.
I was intrigued throughout, even if on occasion I thought there were
times the movie could have been shortened a bit from the 2 hour run time. Definitely a highlight.
Verdict: the Workshop seemed a very topical
movie covering a lot of ground in very intelligent and insightful ways. While never condoning racism, it explores why
there are people who do feel disassociated from today’s society and isolation
even in the age of social media. 8 ships
out of 10.
Next was another mid week late night screening of
Portuguese thriller, the Ornithologist. I had totally forgot the premise of the film
before I went in to the packed and cosy Embassy Deluxe screening room, and so it
took me a little while to orient myself, especially as the first 10 minutes are
fairly relaxed shots of Fernando watching birds.,
After an accident, we changed to the perspective of two
Chinese tourists, lost in the wilderness and on a pilgrimage in Spain – so
being in Portugal comes to them as quite a shock. They come across Fernando and while things
seem okay to start off with, the next morning, everything goes awry – and it
just gets more crazy from there.
About two-thirds of the way through, my expectations
changed from thriller to Lynchian, a change of perspective that made it much
easier to deal with the increasingly bizarre situations. It also helped me enjoy it more, though at
the same time, made the film suffer in the comparison: David Lynch films like Mulholland Drive may not make a huge
amount of sense overall, but there are scenes of such beauty and exquisite
execution that the parts seem occasionally greater than the sum of the
whole. The Ornithologist did not have those kind of stand out moments – a
smaller budget and cast and lack of dialogue probably didn’t help. Neither did a screeching sound track that
definitely disoriented but pushed me out of the film rather than (as in a Lynch
film) lulling you in and trying to make you feel a part of the film’s
world.
Verdict: The Ornithologist claims to be an
erotic thriller swimming in symbolism – which it is in a very Lynch-lite way. The lack of dialogue and infuriating use of a
mobile phone (if you can receive texts, you can send them! You don’t need to call!) mean that the film
relies on visuals and happenstance to propel the plot and set the scene, which are
not terribly memorable or imaginative, and do not always work. A good edit or two could have helped as
well. 6 birds out of 10.
It was a fairly dark and stormy Sunday afternoon when I
headed out to the Roxy in Miramar to catch the only film I was seeing on my
lonesome, Gabriel and the Mountain. This was a real life travel journey,
recounting the life of a Brazilian man Gabriel and the final 70 days of his
round the world adventure, focussing on his time in central Africa.
https://www.nziff.co.nz/2017/wellington/gabriel-and-the-mountain/
From the get go, you know this is a tragic tale: the film
starts with the discovery of his body.
It then rewinds back to his time in Kenya, and from there, we see the
adventures and experiences that shaped his final months, with the people who
actually interacted with Gabriel playing themselves, and summarising their
impressions of him from their brief encounters.
The overall picture is one of an easy going but
determined character, one who liked to push himself and take chances, a
recklessness that ultimately led to him ending up lost and dying from
exposure. He and his girlfriend, who
joins him for most of the journey, fight and make up, and there are also
interviews with people who didn’t like him very much either. The balance between showing his bright side
and his dark side is really well handled, meaning that the character / person
is very sympathetic, despite at times being a total d!ck.
The Brazilian leads are both outstanding, while the
locals aren’t professionals but are totally authentic, and the Massai people
are absolutely stunning and have unfortunately little screen time. At two hours though, the film does seem a bit
drawn out, despite the fantastic scenery.
Still, I was entertained and engrossed throughout. Even though Gabriel’s end was increasingly
more likely after a series of poor choices and decisions on his part, it was
touching to see the effect he had on the lives of those around him.
Verdict: Gabriel and the Mountain tells the tale
of a real life guy, brimming with life and energy and overconfidence, whose
hubris leads to his early demise. But
seeing his adventures through several African nations was an incredible end
enviable journey, as without Gabriel’s laid back and extroverted personality, I
could never undertake such a fascinating trip myself. 7 visas out of 10.
Another full session at one of the Embassy’s mini
cinemas, and it was time to see Beach
Rats, another coming of age drama about a young gay man, though this one
was set not in Italy but in the suburbs of New York, where men are tough and
awakening does not come in the form or an amiable Arnie Hammer but instead
takes place online through gay hook up sites.
The extreme close up shots of almost scene add to the sense of unease
and disturbance, as the young protagonist hangs out every day with his thuggish
friends then goes out for random hook-ups late at night. Life is hard, with a sick father and an
attempt at staying macho with his mates by hooking up with a beautiful woman,
but the lead character (can’t recall his name) is not particularly bright, and
in the end, the worlds collide and collapse, the film ending on a very open
note with the protagonist’s future unclear.
Even taking the extreme close ups into consideration, the
film is quite an uncomfortable watch, the actors not really talking a lot, the
intercourse loud and grunting in dark and uninviting locales, the family home
small and claustrophobic. It is well done,
and the acting seems raw and unpolished in a way that adds authenticity rather
than distracting from the plot – not that there is much of that, which also
probably helps.
Verdict: a bleak
take on modern youth from an American perspective: Beach Rats shows an aimless life filled with drugs and parties and
stifling hetero-normality. I was
surprised by the lack of the impact of social media on the movie, even though
many selfies are taken for what I presume are publicity purposes, but mostly
the film does not offer insights, just events, and leaves it up to the audience
to make its own conclusions. 6
The final film of this year’s festival for me was The Young Karl Marx, the film screening
in the Paramount, where my 2017 film festival experience began. The subject matter appealed to my inner
commie, and the practically full session indicated there were many people keen
to have an insight into Marx’s early life, though I didn’t see anyone wearing a
scarf or clothed in red.
https://www.nziff.co.nz/2017/wellington/the-young-karl-marx/
The film itself got off
to a slow start and I have to admit, as I was a bit tired, my attention wandered a little
bit. The trans-national nature of the
movie, with German, French and English all liberally used, meant there were
frequent but not continuous subtitles, and it was fascinating to see the actors
switch between languages in the same conversation, even sometimes within the
same sentence, even if they were only talking with one person with whom they
shared a common language.
The film concentrates on the relationship of Marx and his
friend and benefactor, Engels, and their interaction with the thinkers and
movements of the time. In one scene that
got quite the reaction from the audience, one prominent French thinker warns
Marx not to unleash a philosophy for reform that could be twisted, much like
the revolution Martin Luthor created in trying to reform the Catholic Church –
a nice nod to the audience aware of the oppressive forms of communism tried in
the 20th Century. But Marx
mainly stays with the thinkers: his undoubted genius in his examination of the
relationship between the working classes and the elites all seems to be based
on his readings of others. The film
balances this out by showing Engel’s encounters with workers, but in general,
the story stays focussed on the relationship between the men and with their
strong, intelligent wives, though whether they were as prominent in the social
activist movements as they evidently were behind the scenes may be a bit of
artistic licence.
A slow, thoughtful movie, the film really comes alive
(and roused me from impending slumber) when discussing the politics, opinions
and potential actions of the time. Some
interactions are friendly, some quite fraught, but the concepts discussed are
fascinating, even if the egos involved get bruised quite quickly.
Less successful was the use of music, occasionally
interrupting the flow during the film, and a jarring radical rock and roll song
finishing up the movie seeming totally out of left field. For a film concerned mainly about the Marx
family, their poverty, joining and creating the Communist party movement and
trying to get his work completed, the end of the film tries to shift gear and
make it all about the poor working classes, which didn’t really work for
me. Describing the relationships between
proletariat and bourgoise is one thing, but (as we all know) connecting that
with real life and improving the conditions of workers is quite another. Still, the language and concepts Marx
expressed to describe those relationships was incredibly insightful and
profoundly influential, and this film shows how Marx’s thinking was influenced
by the social conditions and thinkers to whom he was exposed, and the impact of
the incredible friendships and relationships of his closest friends and family.
Verdict: The Young Karl Marx is not the most
well put together film, but the subject matter itself is fascinating. It could probably have done with a bit of
trimming and a stronger ending more tied to the man and the movie than to
encompassing workers around the world, but the performances are all excellent,
the historical context it provides is fascinating, and its great to see
marriages and friendships that actually work and male and female relationships
where the women are just as smart as the men, if perhaps less able to have that
acknowledged in public. 3 stars out of
5.
