Review: Lore

Lore

Dir. Cate Shortland

Country: Australia / Germany /UK

Aus Rating: MA15+

Running Time: 109mins

In the dying days of WWII, a mother to a seemingly affluent family with a husband whose supposedly still away at war fighting for the Third Reich, tells her five children that they must leave and seek refuge with their grandmother. As word of Hitler’s death filters across the European landscape, the mother departs her children to hand herself in to the new occupying forces and leaves the teenage Hannelore (Saskia Rosendahl in a fabulous debut performance) in charge. As they struggle to make their way across a divided nation that is crumbling around them, the children must join forces with a Jewish boy who makes Hannelore confront the prejudices that she and her siblings have been taught to adhere to for as long as they can possibly remember.

Read the rest at Onya Magazine

Review: Make Hummus Not War

Make Hummus Not War

Dir. Trevor Graham

Country: Australia

Aus Rating: Exempt

Running Time: 77mins

In 1995, the hummus industry (such as it was) was worth around $5million in the United States. In 2012, it is worth over $400million. That’s probably the wildest fact from this small-scale documentary by local filmmaker Trevor Graham (AFI Award-winning Mabo: Life of an Island Man), and the one that, for whatever reason, stuck out the most and has stuck with me once the credits rolled. It’s probably a backhanded compliment to this film for such a random fact, slotted into the story late in the game with little fanfare, but it is the kind of information that seems so ridiculous that its mere mention was enough to perk me up when some of the film’s other elements failed to spark in a way to make me truly engaged.

Read the rest at Onya Magazine

Review: Bait 3D

“Wanna see a movie?”

“What’s playing?”

“Bait 3D?”

“What’s that about?”

“It’s the one where a tsunami hits the Gold Coast and sharks end up inside a supermarket.”

This conversation can go one of two ways. The friend could think Bait 3D, the latest big budget Aussie flick to come along in an effort to snare more box office returns than critical adulation, sounds completely ridiculous and scoff at your notion. Or they could think it sounds completely ridiculous and want to be the first in line at the ticket counter. The end result of the film lies somewhere in the middle.

Read the rest at Trespass Magazine

Also, it should be noted that as I was doing "research" about the movie, I came across some images that I think are very important for judging whether to see this movie or not. I don't think it's spoiler territory to tell you that for a movie about people be drenched, there isn't anywhere near enough in the sexiness department.

This actor is Richard Brancatisano and when I saw him listed in the cast list I couldn't for the life of me remember who he was. Was he one of the early victims of the tsunami? No, then I remembered he features in the opening scene and then, er, is disposed of. Obviously the film doesn't utilise his considerable skills if I didn't even remember this. Not at all. Also this, this, and this.

Elsewhere, fans of Xavier Samuel get some surf lifesaver roleplaying inspiration, but little else. Hilariously, multiple characters tell him he "looks like crap". My kingdom for my version of "looks like crap" to be in the same beautiful universe as his. Alex Russell doesn't get much in that regards either, but he does get the best scene in the movie (a genuinely tense pipe crawl over shark-infested water) and he gets out of the film with his career unscathed. The same can't quite be said for Lincoln Lewis - who has a brief shirtless scene that was met with somebody over the other side of the cinema hollering "WOW!" - or Cariba Heine, Julian McMahon, or poor ol' Sharni Vinson who's called to drop to her knees in horror and scream "NOOOOO!" more times than I care to remember.

Yes.

Review: Your Sister's Sister

Your Sister's Sister

Dir. Lynn Shelton

Country: USA

Aus Rating: M15+

Running Time: 90mins

If you don’t know what “mumblecore” is (or was) then my describing Lynn Shelton’s Your Sister’s Sister as “post-mumblecore” will mean absolutely diddly to you. If, however, you’re familiar with the term and the filmmaking names and styles that arose out of the lo-fi, independent movement then my aforementioned description of this affably charming romcom will prove most apt. Shelton and her star/executive producer, Mark Duplass, have well and truly moved out of the shadow of mumblecore’s limitations and into the realm of wider public consciousness. It helps that an actor of Emily Blunt’s stature signed on to give this project star wattage, but the film is genuinely a major step up in terms of maturity and skill compared to Shelton and Duplass’ last collaboration, Humpday.

Read the rest at Trepsass Magazine