FILMS ... with Tim Milfull
Lou (M
Stars: Emily Barclay, John Hurt
Rating: 3.5/5
80-minutes, screening from tomorrow May 27
Blind Company (MA15+)
Rating: 3.5/5
98-minutes, now screening
Those looking for the kind of family film that suits intelligent, enquiring adolescents should consider Lou, a little-known Australian production that was produced on the north-coast of New South Wales.
Hidden among lush sugar cane fields, single mother Rhia’s (Emily Barclay) rental Queenslander isn’t quite secluded enough to avoid the debt collectors who make regular visits to terrorise her children while she is away at work. When a financial lifeline comes in the form of caring for her ex’s Alzheimer’s-addled father, Doyle (john Hurt), Rhia jumps at the chance to climb out of debt, even if the challenges of dealing with dementia, working, worrying about three kids at home on summer holidays with a strange old man, and juggling a new relationship threaten to overwhelm her.
But this film is really about Rhia’s eldest daughter, Lou (Lily Bell Tindley), who at twelve faces all the traumas of adolescence and resentment that could possibly present themselves in a single-parent family, let alone the responsibility for the crusty Doyle, who sees his long-dead wife in Lou’s face.
Lou is Belinda Chayko’s first film since City Loop (2000), and it’s nice to report that it was worth the wait – this is a thoughtful, beautiful film.
For something darker, viewers should check out Blind Company which reunites Alkinos Tsilimidos and Colin Friels, who last collaborated on Tom White in 2004.
Friels plays Geoff Brewster, a similar character to White in that he is debilitated by illness, this time something terminal. Brewster has decided to live out his last painful days in a remote Tasmanian beach-house, and is quite content to avoid all human contact.
There are others who think differently, including his estranged wife, Sally (Gloria Ajenstat) and belligerent nephew, Josh (Nick Barkla), who has a toxic agenda that only reveals itself at the very end of the film. Tsilimidos offers up a beautifully-shot, very theatrical drama that skilfully manipulates sympathies and emotions.
Controversial story might incite bigotry
The Stoning of Soraya (MA15+)
Rating: 3.5/5
Screening from tomorrow May 27
City Island (M)
Rating: 3.5/5
Screening from tomorrow May 27
In the late 70s, Freidoune Sahebjam was a journalist travelling through Iran on his way home to France. Fluent in Arabic, Sahebjam initially thought that having his broken-down car repaired in a village wouldn’t be too challenging, until an emotional woman approached him and insisted on sharing a tragic story that would later become a best-selling work of nonfiction.
Jim Caviezel (The Passion of the Christ) plays the no-nonsense Sahebjam, who listens to Zahra’s (Shohreh Aghdashloo) account of the treachery that led to the murder of her niece. Soraya (Mozhan Mamó) is raising two sons and two daughters in a marriage to an opportunistic thug who claims he can’t afford another wife.
What else to do than rid himself of the first? The film’s denouement is obvious in the title, but the story that leads to Soraya’s execution is devastating. W
hile this is a story that needed to be told, I wonder whether screening such a controversial film in our xenophobic climate is only going to throw oil on the fire being fanned by right-wing bigots.
For something a little more light-hearted, I recommend Raymond De Felitta’s City Island, which is set on the eponymous island north of Manhattan Island, and focuses on the Rizzo family, a middle-class bunch of relatively ordinary misfits who each hold a separate set of secrets from each other.
Featuring excellent performances from Andy Garcia, Juliana Margulies, and Emily Mortimer amongst others, City Island is a very satisfying comedy-drama.
THE BINGE
Exit Through the Gift Shop (M)
87-minutes, screening at Tribal Theatre from June 3,
Savages Crossing (M)
84-minutes, now screening at Tribal Theatre
Chaw (MA15+)
now available from Madman
Cure (MA15+)
now available from Madman
Fans of the anarchic graffiti-artist Banksy will be excited to hear that his debut feature documentary will soon be showing in Brisbane. There’s been plenty of industry buzz about the veracity of this film by and about himself, with some people suggesting that Exit… is a “collaborative” fiction cooked up by the controversial artist-cum-activist and video-diarist, Thierry Guetta.
I haven’t been able to see the film in the lead-up to the release, but all the signs are that this is very entertaining and a lot of fun. I don’t mind, as long as Banksy encourages graffiti-artists to move on as quickly as possible from the pollution that is tagging to the glorious art that graffiti can sometimes be.
In a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it season, John Jarratt’s new film Savages Crossing has been showing in selected cinemas around Brisbane.
Another film I wasn’t able to catch—the filmmakers avoided any media other than a couple of very dodgy attempts at mounting a viral media campaign—the preview for Savages Crossing looks very much like the knock-off of Wolf Creek it was meant to be.
Finally, a couple of DVDs to chat about—I mentioned the J-horror classic Cure a couple of weeks ago, and finally came across a copy. This very moody hunt for a serial killer who might just have a supernatural side was one of the first films in Japan to set the standard for a spooky genre that has spawned all manner of sub-par Hollywood remakes. And in the just plain laugh-out-loud brutal stakes, Jeong-won Shin’s Chaw is a Jaws-wannabe-that-is, with a ravenous mutant boar terrorising a small Korean farming village. Looking for thrills, spills and laughs? Chaw brings home the bacon.
