Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Review: Mao's Last Dancer

Mao's Last Dancer
Dir. Bruce Beresford
Year: 2009
Aus Rating: PG
Running Time: 117mins

Some readers may be surprised to learn that Mao’s Last Dancer is indeed an Australian film. Being set primarily in China and the USA, and featuring mostly American actors, it would be easy to not realise the Australian connection, but it is funded solely by Australia, and underneath the international sheen is a collection of Australian talent. Hopefully, the tact works, and this film becomes a local and international success, because it would be nice to see audiences respond to this Australian telling of a very worldly tale.


My full review of Mao's Last Dancer can be found at Onya.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Review: Van Diemen's Land

Van Diemen's Land
Dir. Jonathan Auf Der Heide
Year: 2009
Aus Rating: MA15+
Running Time: 104mins

"Arthouse Horror Porn" (wank-fest), noun, 1. A variety of horror films targeted at the arthouse crowd that allows them the visceral thrill of watching people die in gruesome ways while also providing them with the minimal dialogue, long tracking shots and artful cinematography that they crave, allowing them to nod their head in approval and extol such lines as "yes, it's a film about the human condition" while they simultaneously look down on those who prefer horror films to actually be scary, thrilling and/or fun. 2. A sub-genre of film that allows filmmakers to indulge in gore and violence while masquerading behind a wall of pretentiousness and wankery.

3. Jonathan Auf Der Heide's Van Diemen's Land.

Set during the times of Australia's colonisation, Van Diemen's Land is set in the titular island off the south-west coast of Australia (nowadays called Tasmania) and follows the confessions of Alexander Pearce, a convict who was convicted of murder and cannibalism and hanged in 1824. He and seven other prisoners escaped their Penal Settlement and trekked their way through the Tasmanian wilderness before eventually turning to eating each other to fend off hunger.


Curiously, the story of Alexander Pearce was used as the basis of the dire horror film Dying Breed less than a year ago as well as the TV film The Confessions of Alexander Pearce from earlier this year. I have not seen the latter, but while Van Diemen's Land is much better than Dying Breed it gets nowhere close to being a good movie. It starts out promisingly enough, but soon descends into a dull, tedious mess. Van Diemen's Land is pretentiousness of the highest order.

The film is competently made from a technical standpoint, that's for sure. The cinematography by Ellery Ryan is gorgeous, yes, but filled with shots of things like the sky and trees blowing in the wind. It works here most of the time, until it becomes apparent that they're being thrown in at anytime when the story has nowhere to go. It is filmed in an almost monochrome style punctuated occasionally by the rich green forestry of Tasmania. Sound design and sound editing are also noteworthy, especially the oft-gruesome scenes of munching, biting and chewing. Grisly stuff, there. Performances run from hot to cold though with Mark Leonard Winter and Torquil Neilson proving to be best in show. As Alexander Pearce, Oscar Redding is transparent. Sure, you could say it is the character, but nothing Redding does on screen registers one iota.


The first half of Van Diemen's Land is actually quite good, however, once the nasty stuff begins, it shifts gears and all the tension that had been built comes crushing down. All the best characters either get eaten or simply walk off screen never to return. The atmosphere morphs into boredom as the numbers on screen dwindle and the interactions between them go with it. Dialogue becomes almost non-existent and the only intrigue - who's going to die next - is hindered by the fact that these characters are all deathly dull with no interesting aspects to them at all. Something could have been made out of the Pearce tale that really took a look at the madness that can form in situations as horrific as these, but Van Diemen's Land is not it. To take a pun from Pearce's nickname of "The Pieman", Van Diemen's Land is like a soggy meat pie. It's got the right ingredients, but by this stage it's no good to anyone and you may as well throw it out. C-

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Review: $9.99

$9.99
Dir. Tatia Rosenthal
Year: 2009
Aus Rating: M
Running Time: 78mins

The latest in the very short list of Australian feature animations is called $9.99. Is it worth its title in a movie ticket? Probably not, but those who are willing to go along for this incredibly bizarre piece of stop-motion filmmaking will surely find something within it to tickle your fancy. A co-production between Australia and Israel, $9.99 is the second animated feature to come out of this country this year after Adam Elliot’s superb Mary and Max, and while that title is by far the superior one, it is encouraging to see such a medium being embraced by filmmakers, even if there’s no chance of them ever reaching the box office heights of even the most C-grade American animation.


Read the rest over at Onya Magazine.

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Review: Blessed

Blessed
Dir. Ana Kokkinos
Year: 2009
Rating: MA15+
Running Time: 117mins

There comes a moment late into Ana Kokkinos’ latest adventure through suburban woe that features Frances O’Connor, and it will surely hit any viewer like a punch from Mike Tyson right in the gut. So visceral is the moment that it rattled me for quite some time after the credits had rolled and its effects may actually give the illusion that Kokkinos is responsible for having made a good movie.

She is not and she has not.


To read the rest, head on over to Onya Magazine.

Capsule Review: Closed for Winter

Closed for Winter
Dir. James Bogle
Year: 2009
Aus Rating: M
Running Time: 86mins

I don't really know how to describe this film in any smart way. There's only one word for it, and that's STRANGE. Strange with a capital everything. Sure, there are other words I could use like "bad", "unfulfilling" and "laughable", but I always seem to come back to "STRANGE". Like how the character played by Natalie Imbruglia, her is Elise, is so strange and how strangely everything she does facilitates a flashback. Everything from staring out of a window - Imbruglia does this a lot - to putting a key into a keyhole to watering the garden. Stranger still is the mother, played by Deborah Kennedy, who plays the same character in present day as well as flashback from 25 years ago and yet looks exactly the same! Strangest of all is Daniel Frederickson's character, Elise's boyfriend, who is played entirely for laughs in a story about a mysterious child disappearance and possible child rape! Yikes.

Strangeness continues during scenes featuring rave clubs, gardening montages and all the particularly strange moments when Elise just gets incredibly angry over the smallest of things. And then there's the strange way the film is edited and constructed. Oh look, the camera is zooming in on something integral to the upcoming flashback! Ay ay ay. I really can't explain it and it was so strange that I can't even form a proper critique of it. Let's just say it's poorly acted, badly written, blandly filmed and with no apparent taste barrier (did we really need all those near-slapstick comedy moments at the boyfriends' house?) There's Aussie Gothic and then there's just silliness.


And strangeness. D

Friday, September 4, 2009

Review: Lake Mungo

Lake Mungo
Dir. Joel Anderson
Year: 2009
Rating: M
Running Time: 87mins

David Lynch is, perhaps, not the chief person you would think of to inspire an Aussie ghost story, but there it is clear as day right there on the screen. Joel Anderson's debut film, the suspense-filled fright fest called Lake Mungo (for those unaware of Australian geography, it is a real place and holds the key to the film's central mystery). In retrospect I feel like those haunting synethesisers of Angelo Badalamenti's Twin Peaks theme should play over the - very eerie - opening credits. It's actually a shame that the overriding sense of Anderson snatching bits and pieces of Lynch's resume is so obvious because it occasionally distracts from what is a really great movie.

Filmed in the style of a documentary, Lake Mungo traces the story of Australian teenager Alice Palmer who accidentally drowned in a weir while on holiday with her family. Her family believes her ghost is haunting their suburban home and in trying to solve the mystery, they uncover the dark secrets that Alice withheld. The same secrets that, ultimately, cost her her life. The similarities to Twin Peaks are already immense. Throw in paedophiles, hidden video tapes, sexual escapades, supernatural twists, kooky doctors and even a scene in which a man is seen hiding behind a piece of furniture in Alice's bedroom and you've got yourself a sort of mix tape of Lynchian Twin Peaks shenanigans. And I'm not even mentioning the fact that the film's biggest scare is seemingly taking a big ol' page out of the INLAND EMPIRE book. Oh wait, there I go talking about it. I told myself I wouldn't!


Thankfully though, the film emerges out of these shadows that it creates and succeeds at being a scary little movie that you should try and seek out with its scares that are far more creative than the latest piece of Hollywood pap. It is not jump-out-your-seats-gasping sort of scary (although that did happen to me once, I literally JUMPED OUT OF MY SEAT!) but works with the sort of frights that creep up on you. The emergence of a shadowy figure in the background or the sudden appearance of a figure in the frame. The hairs on the back of neck stood on end and at several moments I found myself cowering in my seat.

While the film owns an obvious debt to David Lynch, there is also a strong element of The Blair Witch Project. From the opening title card and onwards, the film actually makes the faux-documentary structure work for it. Ghosts are always going to be less scary and harder to make work than being alone in the forest with things that go bump in the night, so presenting the film as a documentary, as if it is true and real and not just a story being told by a group of filmmakers, really helps overcome that. Suspension of belief becomes true believing.


It also helps that the film is so well cast. While Talia Zucker doesn't get much of a chance to shine as the deceased Alice, Rosie Traynor, David Pledger, Chloe Armstrong and Martin Sharpe all work wonderfully, as assorted family and friends of Alice, in letting the viewer believe the situation that is unfolding before their eyes. At one point when I thought the film was beginning to wear out its welcome - a scene at the titular Lake Mungo filmed entirely on a mobile phone camera - it does a complete 180 that results in one of the scariest moments I've seen on screen in a while.

And make sure you stay during the closing credits. Just as with the opening credits, the closers are creepy and have stayed with me. They also made me want to watch the movie again right that second to see if Anderson had been as smart all along as he is implying (you'll see what I mean). And then, again, wait until the very end where the film ends with a flash of eerie imagery, which reminds me to also mention the fantastic cinematography of John Brawley. A documentary-styled movie might not seem like the natural place for fantastic lensing, but some of the images on show here are frightening and deceptive in their simplicity. Lake Mungo is one of the finest and most original scary tales in a long time. B+