Month: December 2019

Nat’s Top 10 Movies for 2019

It’s been a busy year taking on another part-time job (because we all know movie reviewing doesn’t pay the bills, but it sure is fun) so a fair chunk of posted reviews are from contributors, notably, the wonderful, Lisa Roberts.

Top of Lisa’s list this year features the Spanish psychological mystery starring Javier Bardem and Penélope Cruz, Everybody Knows (Todos Lo Saben).

But there’s been some interesting documentaries with, Matangi /Maya /M.I.A., Halston and Finke: There and Back all rating 4-stars.

And for something different, see Nicole Kidman in the gritty crime thriller, Destroyer, or the recent release of French historical-romance, Portrait of a Lady on Fire.

Unfortunately, I was unwell around Halloween (yep, one of those years) so I missed some of the horror-thrillers, Joker being the film I regret missing the most…

I finally got to, Once Upon A Time In Hollywood deserving a special mention; a divisive film but one I enjoyed because Tarantino is just such a good writer (or re-writer of history in this case): clever and strangely uplifting, Once Upon A Time is like righting a wrong provoking a deep satisfaction and excuse to enjoy some gratuitous violence and in that sense, a classic Tarantino.

Which leads me to my reviewed, Top 10 for 2019.

I love a good thriller, but I’m finding my taste in movies requires levels, a journey.

Well, my top rating of Hellboy may not reflect this new sophistication – I still love some blood and guts with fantasy and a wry sense of humour.

But some of the family animation out there is mind blowing, as is the foreign film selection released this year, many rating 4-stars with Bong Joon-Ho’s, Parasite making my number one release.

And let’s not forget the indie films, the stand-out for me this year from legendary film maker and star, Jim Cummings: Thunder Road.

10. Thunder Road

A refreshing take on how life just is sometimes with an extraordinary script serving up the heart of a character with perfect delivery: pure gold.

9. The Guilty

Opening on a blank screen, the phone rings.

Asgar (Jakob Cedergren) answers, ‘Emergency Services.’

Set entirely in the room housing the workspaces for those answering and directing the urgent calls incoming, the film focuses on the mysterious Asgar as he shows the classic signs of burn-out.

This is a tense psychological thriller as we’re taken down a dark road of murder, fear and the frustration of being on the end of the phone trying to get to the person on the other side.

8. How to train your Dragon: Hidden World

The animation of this adventure-packed film is stunning; the burst of colours and detail of waterfalls and at the antics of Toothless in his attempt to woo the beautiful Light Fury hilarious and delightful.

7. The Sisters Brothers

Superficially, this is a western, a classic tale of two bad guys going after a man who’s found the secret to finding gold. But underneath all the killing and gold fever is a delicate tale of humanity.

6. Abominable

The DreamWorks Animation team have outdone themselves, the trailer for Abominable not translating just how majestic the film is on the big screen. There were so many times I said, ‘Amazing’ and ‘Wow’ from watching the trio of kids and yeti ride a wave of yellow blossoms to see raindrops fall to the earth to unfurl into flowers. And not just a few times, the film is just one wonderful moment after another.

5. John Wick 3

I’m still reeling from those fight scenes that somehow managed to tap into that fight response fuelling the experience with adrenaline. It’s just relentless, the hit after hit, I could feel the force as I laughed and cringed and grinned through all the blood and violence because it’s so hardcore it’s funny. On purpose.

Instant action-thriller classic.

4. Hellboy

It’s gory. But jez, it really is a LOT of fun.

3. The Australian Dream

A documentary about Adam Goodes, Brownlow Medallist twice (2003 & 2006) and one of the most decorated football players of all time.

But this isn’t about a sporting legend, this is about a man who stood up to a country and said: racism stops with me.

A must watch for all Australians.

2. Pain and Glory (Dolor Y Gloria)

A poignant tale of all the darkness and light in life – sad and happy and true.

Antonio Banderas won the Cannes 2019 Best Actor Award for his performance here. And I can see why with his humble sincerity a warmth felt through the screen.

The overriding feeling I got from this film was grateful: life can be cruel, but it can also be kind.

10. Parasite (Gisaengchung)

A film that starts off one way, then evolves into something else so the film’s like a journey into a way of thinking or a thought that creeps up. Brilliant.

SPECIAL MENTIONS if you’re still looking for something to watch, try this 4-star list:

Doctor Sleep

Us

Capharnaum

Arctic

Mystify Michael Hutchence

Top End Wedding

The White Crow

The Hummingbird Project

Fighting With My Family

Shazam!

Enjoy!

Portrait of a Lady on Fire

Rated: MPortrait of a Lady on Fire

Directed and Written by: Céline Sciamma

Produced by: Bénédicte Couvreur

Starring: Noémie Merlant, Adèle Haenel, Luana Bajrami, Valeria Golino.

Is it the ‘Lady’s’ portrait that is on fire or does the title allude to a portrait of a ‘Lady’ who is on fire? Inscribed within the very title is a hint of the subtleties and ambiguities that characterise this deeply intimate romance, winner of the ‘Best Screenplay’ at the Cannes Film Festival.

And from this point on, the enigmas only proliferate.

In the opening scene, a hand clasping a stick of willow charcoal hesitantly traces a black line across the page while the model/tutor posing in front of the class instructs her students and, at the same time, indirectly urges the viewer to, ‘Take the time to look at me.’

Much in the way that an artist will strive to render three dimensional form on a two dimensional surface, noticing the minutiae of form and the way the model’s limbs and torso are affected by the quirks of perspective and the play of light, so too the viewer is invited into a more intense and quiet world where gesture and symbol take on a deeper meaning and sounds emerging from the stillness— waves slapping against a wooden hull, keys jangling, the scratch of charcoal on paper—take on their own musicality.

It is 1760 and Marianne (Noémie Merlant) is travelling to an isolated chateau perched atop a cliff on the Brittany coast to fulfil a commission. She is to paint a wedding portrait for Héloïse (Adèle Haenel), but the work must remain a secret. Her subject, freshly graduated from life in a convent, is clinging on to her first and last moments of freedom before she is offered up for marriage to an Italian nobleman she has yet to meet, and the only way for Héloïse to resist is to prevent her portrait from coming into existence.

While Héloïse has already forbidden one artist to continue painting her, she doesn’t suspect that her new companion may have her own agenda. Not only is Marianne compelled to work in the few moments of daylight she can snatch away from her time with Héloïse, she must also reassemble Héloïse in her memory from the fragmented glances she manages to steal as the two roam the grasslands surrounding the estate and the rugged shoreline below.

As she works at her task Marianne reflects, ‘One must study the ear, even if it is covered.’ With this observation, Marianne does not simply refer to the way that memory and imagination must work together to reconstruct that which is hidden, or the way the folds and whorls of the ear set up a visual rhythm that recalls its function, she also draws our attention to the ear as a motif, with its form a labyrinth at the entrance to a lightless tunnel.

Like the layers Marianne builds up on her canvas—from the initial cartoon marked out in charcoal, through the abstract daubs of paint where features roughly blocked in glow whitely against the raw umber imprimatura, to that moment when a likeness appears as if from a veil of smoke—that first guarded friendship between the artist and her subject forms its own layers, eventually building into a connection that will draw them both through an emotional and philosophical labyrinth to that lightless tunnel at its heart.

Cats

Rated: GCats

Directed by: Tom Hooper

Screenplay by: Lee Hall, Tom Hooper

Based on: Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot, the musical “Cats” by Andrew Lloyd Webber

Produced by: Debra Hayward, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Tom Hooper

Starring: James Corden, Judi Dench, Jason Derulo, Idris Elba, Jennifer Hudson, Ian McKellen, Taylor Swift, Rebel Wilson and introducing Francesca Hayward.

‘It’s party time, with your permission, of course.’

With dark streets lit by the neon signs of, The Egyptian and, The Rising Sun, cats prowl the streets…

Based on the multi award winning musical (including seven Tony Awards), Cats, I expected a lot of, well, cats singing.

That is the nature of the beast, so to speak.

What I wonder is how to write a review about a musical when I really can’t stand the things.

And I have to say the movie got so bad, it was kinda good.  Sometimes.

Take Skimbleshanks (Steven McRae) the Railway Cat.  He had nothing else in the story except being a tap dancing, ginger cat that lives on the railways.  It still tickles me because it was just so bad.

But, I love that ginger Railway Cat!

Weird, right?!

The whole movie is just a little bit weird.  But basically, Victoria (Francesca Hayward) gets dumped by her owner in the streets and suddenly, all the street cats start singing about being a Jellicle cat and how one cat gets chosen by Old Deuteronomy (Judi Dench) for another life at the annual Jellicle Ball.

With a few, I mean a FEW, jokes thrown in like, Cat got your tongue; and other jokes in the same bad dad joke arena, the film is all about singing and dancing.  To the point the question was asked, ‘Who is Deuteronomy?’

And I thought, No doubt they’ll sing about it… Guess what, they sang about it.

I couldn’t wait for the film to be over so I could cleanse my brain with a crime thriller of some description.

Then, either because I got used to the painfulness, accepting the cat reality, or, the movie got a little better, I found myself moved by the beautiful sweet voice of Victoria.  And I could visualise some of those beautiful ghosts (from some of the more famous songs fans will be well aware of).

But most of the time, I was scratching my head (influenced by that cat scratching behaviour, no doubt), wondering, why?

Playmobil The Movie

Rated: GPlaymobil The Movie

Directed by: Lino DiSalvo

Screenplay by: Blaise Hemingway, Greg Erb and Jason Oremland

Story by: Lino DiSalvo

Produced by: Aton Soumache, Dimitri Rassam, Moritz Borman, Alexis Vonarb, Axel Von Maydell, Timothy Burrill and Bing Wu

Starring: Anya Taylor-Joy, Jim Gaffigan, Gabriel Bateman, Adam Lambert, Kenan Thompson, Meghan Trainor and Daniel Radcliffe.

‘I’ll be the girl I used to be.’

Marla (Anya Taylor-Joy) has her whole life in front of her and expresses this enthusiasm to explore the world by singing with her little brother, Charlie (Gabriel Bateman).

Oh yeah, Playmobil The Movie, is a musical (see the score by musician Heitor Pereira (Despicable Me trilogy, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, The Smurfs movies, Minions, Smallfoot, Angry Birds Movie 2 and original songs, co-written by Anne Preven).

Then the film takes a dark turn when tragedy strikes the brother and sister.

Fast forward four years later and Marla no longer has her fresh, wide-eyed view of the world, her little brother accusing her of not knowing how to have fun.

It’s all a bit cringe-worthy until the duo fall into the Playmobil world where the characters turn into live-action Playmobil figurines.

Finding themselves in an action-adventure with car chases and villains and dinosaurs, all the Playmobil® toys that have been around since 1974 come to life as brother and sister fight alongside Vikings and a suave James Bond.  So the film’s about finding the excitement and zest for life they both lost when Marla had to become sister and parent.

The animation from ON Animation Montreal (Julien Bocabeille (How to Train Your Dragon 1 and 2, Puss in Boots, Rise of the Guardians, The Croods, Mr. Peabody and Sherman, Kung Fu Panda 2 and 3, Penguins of Madagascar and The Boss Baby)) is well put together using the stiff toys then adding movement and life with materials like cloth, and there were moments of fun with villain, Emperor Maximus (Adam Lambert) sitting behind a buff body painted on one side of his chariot.

But this is a film directed at a young audience so there wasn’t much for me to enjoy except some fun changes in genre along the way.

The Addams Family

Rated: PGThe Addams Family

Directed by: Conrad Vernon and Greg Tiernan

Screenplay by: Matt Lieberman, Pamela Pettler

Story by: Matt Lieberman, Erica Rivinoja, Conrad Vermon

Based on Characters by: Charles Addams

Produced by: Gail Berman, Alex Schwartz

Starring: Oscar Isaac, Charlize Theron, Chloe Grace Moretz, Finn Wolfhard, Nick Kroll with Better Midler and Allison Janney.

The Addams Family has always been about the dark and creepy; the humour based on the inversion of what is horror and terrible, think spiders being unleashed from under Morticia’s (Charlize Theron) dress to weave together a spider bridge to cross a bottomless pit… Now that’s Addams Family normal.  While all that’s sweet and rosy is awful and intolerable, is normal – see spider bridge mentioned above.

Morticia cuts the rose flower leaving the theory stem.  That’s how she likes it.  Morticia carries a pose of thorny stems as she walks down the aisle to marry her one true love, Gomez Addams (Oscar Issac), ‘To be joined in the damning void of matrimony’.  To marry in their homeland before the villagers chase away the scary couple, along with their monstrous guests and bridal party.  They must make their way to a safer place where they can be themselves, somewhere to raise a family, somewhere like the state hospital for the criminally insane.  In New Jersey.  Perfect.

#MeetTheAddams is the tagline for this new animated version, the movie the origins of the Addams, taking the story back to the beginning, to introduce the family once again with the familiar characters captured like Uncle Fester (Nick Kroll), delightful with his, ‘I think I can see my house from here.  No, that’s a women’s prison.’

And the children, the memorable murderous Wednesday (Chloe Grace Moretz) and demolition, forever-trying-to-outsmart-and-kill-his-father, Pugsley (Finn Wolfhard).

The film becomes the lead-up to Pugsley’s thirteenth birthday, to complete the Sabre Mazurka in front of all the cousins and monstrous family.  To become a man.

There’s more to this film than the inversion of what’s horror and what’s nice, there’s also assimilation and the fight against always having to be the same.  Wednesday becomes friends with a normal: Parker (Elsie Fisher).  And shows her rebellion by wearing, OMG, a pink unicorn hairclip.

So, yeah, there’s that inversion again.  But there’s also acceptance of the individual.  I like that in a movie.

Add ‘plastic’ woman, Margaux (Allison Janney) trying to re-model the abode, the casa Addams insane asylum, and you’ve got fun times and a good watch with the kids without being too childish or too adult.

Hell, it’s worth a watch just to see Lurch (Conrad Vernon) done-up like a Christmas tree.

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