I’m not sure what I was expecting with this low-key Canadian documentary by Jean-François Lesage that uses the lost and found office at the Montreal metro as a jumping off point for a meditation on loss. From the first bleak and beautiful scene of snow falling against a night sky as a clarinet mournfully plays, you know this is going to be about more than a lost mitten.
Continue reading
Image via miff.com.au
This sober and creepy tale has an inexorable pull that keeps you watching despite what seems at first to be a simple story. Continue reading
Image via tribecafilm.com
This inoffensive hagiography of Australian actor Heath Ledger gathers handfuls of his family and friends to tell us what a good bloke he was. Combined with home movie footage shot by Heath, who obsessively documented his life, we build a picture of a talented young man with a generous heart and an unchecked manic energy that more or less guaranteed he would burn brightly but not for long. He died at age 28 of an accidental overdose of prescription drugs. Continue reading
Image via http://www.dailymotion.com
Another Melbourne Queer Film Festival screening and with a title like that you know it’s going to be a raunchy lesbian film. There were two queues snaking down the stairs at ACMI and I could tell at a glance that the all male one was not the one I needed. The first of two sold out sessions, my expectations were high. Sigh. Below Her Mouth is everything that Lovesong isn’t. Continue reading
This Irish/Canadian drama has an interesting premise. We meet five-year-old Jack and his mother, Ma. They go about the ordinary business of domestic life in their home but it soon becomes apparent that Ma and Jack are confined to a single room. It takes a while for us to discover why and, for a while, we are no more than arm’s length from them, seeing everything through their eyes. On the surface, the film explores the challenges we face in life and the courage we may find within ourselves but it also posits a deeper question – how much do we need to protect children from the world? Continue reading
fillums 