FILM ... with Tim Milfull
Any Questions for Ben? (M)
Director: Rob Sitch
Stars: Josh Lawson, Rachael Taylor
Rating: 4/5
114-minutes, screening from 9 February
We haven’t seen the work of Rob Sitch on the big screen for more than a decade, with the talented director pumping out high-quality television in the form of shows like Thank God You’re Here, The Panel, and the ABC’s entertaining and more often than not cerebral The Hollow Men.
Thankfully, it’s been worth the wait since his last feature film, The Dish, for Sitch and his long-time collaborators, Santo Cilauro and Tom Gliesner have moved into rather more mature – if not still often very funny – territory with their new film, Any Questions for Ben?
The eponymous Ben (Josh Lawson) is a twentysomething who bailed on university to take up a lucrative job in marketing. In the intervening years, Ben has changed jobs with alarming frequency, moved house at least once a year, and has had a string of short-term relationships with gorgeous women. And until being invited to speak at his alma mater’s careers day, Ben has been the envy of everyone who has met him – women want to be with him, and men just want to be him.
But as he sits on the stage alongside his former schoolmates – with Sitch in a very amusing uncredited cameo – Ben realised that his wildly successful life doesn’t seem as fulfilling as he once thought, especially when he listens to the beautiful Alex (Rachael Taylor) relating her life as a human-rights advocate.
While it’s not hard to see where Any Questions for Ben? might ultimately be headed, the journey is not so predictable, with one of the joys of the script written by the former D-Generation team being their pleasure in playing with our expectations.
And like their other feature films, Sitch, Cilauro and Gliesner have populated their screen version of Melbourne with a cast of believable, endearing, and often very funny characters.
After the saccharine gloop of Red Dog and the bawdy superficiality of A Few Best Men, Any Questions for Ben? is a welcome relief.
Want to survive the wilds of Alaska? Let us prey
The Grey
Director: Joe Carnahan
Stars: Liam Neeson, wolves
Rating: 3/5
117-minutes, screening from 16 February
Writer-director Joe Carnahan is a man’s man, a characteristic that shines through in his films, from the gritty 2002 thriller Narc starring a snarling Ray Liotta, through to the 2008 corrupt police drama Pride and Glory and most recently the reboot of The A-Team, which featured the dour-faced Liam Neeson as Colonel Hannibal Smith.
In The Grey, Carnahan renews his association with Neeson, and pitches the actor into a story about the sometimes gruesome relationship between man and nature. Neeson plays a hunter called Ottway, who for reasons left unspoken has exiled himself to the wilds of Alaska, where he picks off wolves threatening the safety of miners.
While heading home for some down-time, Ottway and a battered bunch of his colleagues survive a plane crash only to find themselves the prey of a pack of wolves that have no problem with the extreme weather conditions that have already overtaken the rest of the survivors. After a rallying speech to bring everyone into line, Ottway and his mates trudge off into a blizzard seeking rescue.
The rest of Carnahan’s film is a mix of howling winds and howling wolves, and occasionally howling blokes, as one by one the group succumbs to the elements or the animals. There’s no denying the suspense that the director lays on to what is really a conventional narrative counting down the deaths.
The question is whether Ottway will ultimately prevail over his adversaries – you’ll need to sit through the credits to find out.
But as a panacea to all the blood, guts, and adrenaline, I recommend you seek out Neeson’s cameo on the latest series produced by Ricky Gervais. The lumbering Irishman plays a version of himself looking to become a comic, and it’s one of the funniest scenes I’ve encountered in ages.
THE BINGE
Worthy glimpse into The Future
The Future (M) Available through Madman from 17 February
Kill List (R) Now available through Madman
The Whistleblower (MA15+) Available through Hopscotch from 22 February
The People vs George Lucas (M) Available through Hopscotch from 22 February
Indie darling, Miranda July’s latest film The Future (pictured above) follows the deteriorating relationship between performance artist Sophie (July) who cannot decide what she wants out of life, and IT consultant Jason whose desperate attempts to hold onto Sophie lead to a particularly surreal nightmare.
Like July’s previous work, this rambling, existential narrative dips into the lives of ordinary but quirky people and delivers a very rewarding story.
I watched Kill List twice within a few days, and this bleak, horrific thriller is still echoing in my mind.
Ben Wheatley recalls powerful 70s cult films like The Wicker Man, plunging two exceedingly banal contract killers into a confusing nightmare. With outstanding performances from Neil Maskell, Michael Smiley, and Myanna Buring, and featuring some truly frightening and gruesome sequences, Kill List had me asking questions (in a good way).
Equally horrific and thought-provoking, Larysa Kondracki’s debut feature The Whistleblower dramatises the true story of US policewoman-turned-UN peacekeeper, Kathryn Bolkovac (Rachel Weisz), who uncovered a shocking network of sex slavery in eastern Europe that was orchestrated by her colleagues.
Despite the film’s flaws – stories about sex trafficking have been told more effectively on the small screen – The Whistleblower will leave you shaking your head in disgust at what we can inflict on our fellow beings. And there are millions of movie fans out there who shake their heads at the cavalier attitude with which blockbuster mogul George Lucas plays with their beloved stories and characters.
The People vs. George Lucas is a very funny documentary that examines the idea that once a film has been made and screened to an audience, the filmmaker surrenders their ownership of their creation. If you’ve ever roared at the screen in frustration over Lucas’s creation of Jar Jar Binks, or his treatment of Indiana Jones, you need to see this film.
