Black and white – that adds half a star to my rating. Shallow, I know, but there is something about black and white that suffuses me with pleasure. This lovely Finnish film is about a boxer, Olli Mäki, who has the potential to be world champion, a first for Finland in 1962. That beautiful black and white camera follows Olli as he trains, grapples with the publicity and pressure and falls in love with Raija. Continue reading
Category Archives: Reviews
Don’t Call Me Son (2016)
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Lovely, lovely. This Brazilian film reminded me a little of Sebastian Silva’s work (The Maid MIFF 2015). Pierre and his sister Jacqueline live with their mother, Aracy. Pierre plays in a band and behind closed doors puts on lipstick and dresses, finding connection with girls and boys alike. But then the police arrive and it seems his mother is not his mother, he was stolen as a baby and now must forge a new life with a new family. Continue reading
Servant or Slave (2016)
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Here is one of my biases; I like to hear the stories of Aboriginal women. I was aware of it as I sat down to watch this hour-long documentary about the stolen wages of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people over the past century. As the notes of a simple gospel song played and the first of a handful of beautiful, resilient Aboriginal women began to speak, I could feel my heart swell and the first prick of tears, because this is a sad, sad story. Continue reading
Elle (2016)
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Aaagh. I think this movie is well-made crap but I’m not sure. Okay, I need to admit my bias. It is directed by Paul Verhoeven who also directed Starship Troopers, the favourite film of a person very dear to me who I won’t name to save him embarrassment although anyone who knows him well will know who I’m talking about. And I think Starship Troopers is a heap of well-made misogynist crap. But believe me, I went into this movie with high (though slightly nervous) hopes. Continue reading
A Flickering Truth (2015)
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I bailed on this one. I gave it a good 45 minutes. It’s a documentary about the Afghan Film Archive that was funded in the 60s by the US and almost completely destroyed by the Taliban. The film focuses on three people who have played their part in saving as many films as they can. Continue reading
Kaili Blues (2015)
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It’s never a good sign when you are hoping a film is about to end, that this scene will be the final one. Not that Kaili Blues is terrible, there is a lot to recommend about it, it just seemed to get lost halfway through and then keep going. And going. Continue reading
Behemoth (2015)
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I like to be shown rather than told and this Chinese documentary about the vast coal mines of Inner Mongolia did just that. Made up of dialogue-free footage, we are taken on an absorbing and sobering visual journey. The behemoth of the title refers to the monster of the Bible who devours mountains and, through a loose translation of Dante’s Divine Comedy, we journey through the Purgatory, Hell and Paradise of China’s insatiable appetite for industrial production. Continue reading
The Nightingale and the Rose (2015)
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Not a MIFF film. I took a detour at ACMI this morning as I waited for my first film session of the day and watched Del Kathryn Barton’s sumptuous animation of Oscar Wilde’s short story, The Nightingale and the Rose. Continue reading
What’s in the Darkness (Hei chu you shen me) (2015)
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I took the advice of my husband this morning and ditched the Romanian drama Sieranevada. His advice was to make sure I enjoyed my MIFF experience and to not make it hard work. My MIFF buddy Alex pointed out that Sieranevada is nearly three hours long and I just didn’t feel like it. Instead, I booked this Chinese drama, What’s in the Darkness, that reads like a Nancy Drew set in rural China. It isn’t. Strangely, it is not so different from last night’s The Demons. Continue reading
Madly (2016)
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Madly is six short films, each by a different director and based in a different country. They all explore some aspect of love and are stylistically and emotionally diverse. It’s hard to choose a single rating for six such different films and I struggle with the episodic nature of anthologies of short films; no sooner have you engaged with the story than you have to leave. They are all interesting, the first three – from India, Australia and the US (though directed by a Chilean Sebastián Silva) – are my favourites. Continue reading
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