This was the first time at MIFF 68.5 that I really missed being in a cinema. Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson directs his only feature, bringing together three distinct and disparate components to create an emotional experience that cries out for sensory immersion.
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Plot be damned, this wacky, fantastical tale carries you along in a multi-coloured street dance, transfixed by the awful beauty that is Ema.
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You know if Steven Oliver is narrating, this is going to be a warm and fabulous ride through a serious subject. Taking the 250th anniversary of the landing of Captain Cook in Australia as a jumping off point, Indigenous artists create modern-day songlines that voice an Indigenous view of colonisation.
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Notable for being the most significant acting performance by Miles Davis, Rolf de Heer’s feel-good, boy-has-a-dream drama seems like a film from another era.
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I wanted to like this documentary about “the first all-female band who wrote their own songs and played their own instruments to reach number one in the Billboard album charts.” This fact in itself is worthy of celebration. That this feat occurred in 1982 and hasn’t been repeated is appalling and I was hoping that this documentary by Alison Elwood might shine a light on “why The Go-Go’s?”
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Image via http://www.spaldingtoday.co.uk
My comfort food is mashed potato and gravy, which is not a bad analogy for (Full Monty (1997)) Peter Cattaneo’s choir-based feel-good movie. It’s warm and predictable with just enough flavour to keep it interesting. The beats are predictable, the ending assured, the tissues needed, but the performances of leads Sharon Horgan and Kristin Scott Thomas elevate it to something more. Continue reading
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It’s possible I am a lone reed in not loving the third remake of this quintessential film about the tragedies inherent in fame. A lone reed. Or a heartless wretch. I remained unmoved as Bradley Cooper heroically directs himself into every frame, leaving not enough room for the absorbingly wonderful Lady Gaga. Continue reading
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This masterful and emotionally-engaging documentary begins as a journey through the key places and moments in the life of Elvis Presley, from Tupelo to Memphis, Nashville, New York and finally Las Vegas. Filmmaker Eugene Jarecki drives around in Elvis’s Rolls-Royce and passengers join him, some telling stories of being Elvis’s friend, neighbour or fellow churchgoer, some famous faces talking about celebrity and politics, others just playing a tune. Continue reading
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Pretty much all I knew about Matangi a.k.a. Maya Arulpragasm a.k.a. M.I.A. is the song Bad Girls. The anthem to girls doing whatever they want has a killer video clip of stunt drivers in the Middle East and M.I.A. resplendent in shades and gold chains. I now know there is so much more to her than this song and her Grammy and Oscar nominations. Continue reading
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My film before this one, Ukrainian Donbass, was an unrelenting, grubby onslaught of caricature, corruption and violence. Following it with 100 minutes with Ryuichi Sakamoto was like a balm for the heart and soul. Continue reading
