Too bleak for me. Beautiful black and white but claustrophobically grim, this Mexican drama centres on two ageing prostitutes who struggle to make enough money to live. They are exploited by everyone and do the same to others in order to survive. The only true connection seems to be the friendship, or perhaps commonality, between them. Continue reading
Tag Archives: 3 stars
Girl Asleep (2015)
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I wanted to really like this movie. It’s Australian, it has a young cast, it’s quirky and has a great sense of style. It’s set beautifully in the 70s; the fashions and decor making me want to go out there and redecorate. It starts off with an oddball lightness and a great sense of colour and framing but then veers into darker territory and seems to lose its way. I was left unsure as to which demographic the film is aimed at and how authentically it explores the anxieties of contemporary teens. Continue reading
Killing Ground (2016)
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MIFF has ‘night shift’ screenings around 11pm on Fridays and Saturdays and tonight I went to my first one. I had booked to see Baskin, a Turkish high-gore horror, but lost my nerve and swapped for the only other screening, Killing Ground. It’s an Australian thriller that will make many a city person afraid to go camping in the bush. Continue reading
Captain Fantastic (2016)
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I don’t want to put people off this film. It’s actually a pretty good, solid family film and I think it will be well-liked. Just look at that photo – quirky outfits, cute kids and Viggo Mortensen. It starts out well. We see Viggo (Ben) and his six children living in the forest, almost completely self-sufficient. They hunt, climb, make their own clothes, read and discuss world issues at a sophisticated level and follow the rigorous training regime of their father. We soon discover that their mother is not there, she is ‘sick’ in hospital, and this is the first sign that not all is well in their world. 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
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
Harmonium (2016)
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I’m not really sure what this film was trying to say and it took just a bit too long to not say it. Toshio and Akié are a married couple with a young daughter, Hotaru. One day a neat, quiet man, Yasaka, arrives and Toshio gives him work and invites him to stay in their house. Toshio’s demeanour and offhand furtiveness show that there is more to this connection than meets the eye and his generosity is not necessarily being done through friendship. Continue reading
Ma (2015)
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I knew this film was going to be different. The story of the Virgin Mary, without dialogue, as a choreographic piece and framed as a southern US road movie. And different it was. Writer, director, choreographer and star, Celia Rowlson-Hall attended a Q&A afterward which helped me understand this surreal, movement-based story. Though I’m still not sure why the members of the Village People were carrying motel room furniture across the desert. Continue reading
Sonita (2015)
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I couldn’t pass up this Iranian documentary about a young Afghan girl in Tehran, battling her family’s conservative plans to achieve her dream of being a rapper. In many ways it is like As I Open My Eyes made real. Sonita Alizadeh, like Farah in that movie, is young and idealistic, channeling her anger at the injustice she sees all around her into her song lyrics. For her it is the limitations placed on her as a young woman, destined to be married off by her Afghani family for a bride price, like so many other teenagers, and forbidden from performing. Continue reading
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