Rev Stan's film blog

The cheat post of three reviews in one: Wuthering Heights, Twiglet 4a & Snowtown

I've virtually run out of time to write these before I head off on holiday so I'm going to combine three short reviews into one post for brevity (if I wait until I get back, it'll never happen)

Wuthering Heights

This is stripped back version of the classic novel, devoid of cliched fancy costumes and violin heavy soundtrack instead you get an almost sensuous approach. The sounds of the landscape, the weather and creatures form the music and the backdrop. There is mud and rain and rough clothes of those who live from the land. 

It is a brutal portrayal with dialogue pared back to a minimum. Cathy and Heathcliff's is a visceral connection established in looks and touches but it is all the more powerful for it. 

Breathtaking in its beauty and brutality, its a refreshing take on what is actually quite an odd novel, my only reservations is that the long lingering shots of nature and constant use of pull focus gets a bit tiring in the end and I'd like to have seen 10 minutes or so trimmed from it's running time just to tightening it up a little.

Stan rating 74%, IMDb 67%, Rotten Tomatoes 81% from critics and 68% from audiences.

Twilight Breaking Dawn part 1

Never should have been split into two films, the result is indulgent and I haven't rolled my eyes so much in a Twilight movie yet. But I'm a sucker for a wedding and so the first half had me smiling. 

As a consequence when the plot moves into the wolves story line it feels like a different film. The scene when Jacob challenges the pack shouldn't have been done as wolves but as humans as it just felt like a kiddies film.

Think I'm over Twilight, there are far better and far more interesting Vampire stories being told elsewhere (True Blood, Vampire Diaries for example) but I've come this far with the films I feel as if I have to see it out.

Stan rating 56%, IMDb 47% and 45% from Metacritic, Rotten Tomatoes 28% from critics and 92% from audiences (it's going to take loads of money regardless because of its fan base)

Snowtown

Certainly the most disturbing film I've seen in a long long time. Based on a true story of Australian serial killer John Bunting but told from the viewpoint of a 16-year old boy Jamie whom he takes under his wing. John becomes a father figure to Jamie but his vigilante morals against paedophiles and then homosexuals disguise the fact that he is a brutal sadist who takes pleasure inflicting pain and fear on his victims before murdering them. 

Jamie is at first flattered, John is charming and pays him attention but slowly he manipulates the teen introducing him into his world bit by bit until he is terrified and reluctantly does all that John asks.

There is one particularly gruesome scene but it is the growing threat from John, all smiles and charm on one hand and a torturer and murderer on the other.  

It's a gritty and simply shot film with little by way of dramatic embellishment. Jamie says little but emotes a great deal and I was squirming in my seat for him. Fantastically naturalist performances all around.

Its haunted me for days. I'm glad I saw it but I don't think I could ever watch it again.

Stan rating 80%, IMDb 68%, Rotten Tomatoes 93% from critics and 73% from audiences

The disappointing Sleeping Beauty

It held so much promise. An intriguing sounding indie flick about a young woman Lucy (Emily Browning) who in order to fund her way through college starts working for a mysterious organisation that can best be described as offering alternative titillation services.

This isn't prostitution in the traditional sense, this is an art flick after all. At first Lucy has to serve at a dinner party where all the female waiting staff are bare-bosomed or in stockings and basques. Then she graduates to a service where she is drugged into an unconscious state and men - all at the older age range - can do whatever they want with her naked body except penetration and with the proviso they don't leave any marks.

The film's blurb concentrates on the fact that she becomes curious about what the men do while she is in her drug-induced sleep and so sets up a secret camera. However, the film takes an awful long time to get that point and it is something that is concluded very quickly.

Ultimately it is unnecessarily arty, self-consciously so, with lots of lingering shots and people not saying very much either with or without words. You don't get to know very much about Lucy and how she really feels about what she is doing and what impact it is having on her.

She visits a man with whom she seems close who spends most of his time in bed but who he is or what the relationship is, isn't explained. Towards the end of the film she gets into a relationship with a fellow student but again the impact of her job on this isn't explored.  

There is much that could be delved into in this film but just isn't. It just feels risque for risque sake rather than having any real depth.  I left the cinema feeling only disappointment and a little bit cross that that it failed to deliver on any its promises. 

I'm going to give it 25% and if you are thinking of seeing it, save your money. On IMDb it has got 56% from users and 54% from Metacritic. On Rotten Tomatoes there isn't a consensus from critics but only 26% of visitors gave it three stars or more. 

 

Back in the film saddle: Oranges and Sunshine

Have had a brief cinema break for reasons too boring to explain I'm back and yesterday I did a double bill starting with Oranges and Sunshine.

This is the true story of English social worker Margaret Humphreys who back in the 1980s was approached by an Australian woman seeking help in finding her real parents. Margaret agrees to help and what she discovers opens a can of worms for the British and Australian governments.

It turns out that thousands of English children in care during the 50s, 60s and 70s were essentially deported, without their parents knowledge, to Australia and put into orphanages some of which were run by monks where abuse was rife.

Film review catch up no 1: Animal Kingdom

Lots of hype about this Australia film, set in Melbourne about a family of criminals. Joshua 'J' finds his mother dead from a heroin overdose, unsure what to do calls his estranged grandmother Janine who takes him under her wing. He starts to get sucked into the family's criminal activity but when the police investigating give him a way out he faces a tough decision between family loyalty or a life always looking over his shoulder.

What I like about this film is that the performances are generally understated but peppered with some shocking tense, violent and sometimes grim moments which gives it an overriding ominous feel. It is a very naturalistic film, no glamourous hoodlums which also gives it edge.

And it is always nice to see Guy Pearce acting with his natural accent even if he is sporting a ridiculous moustache.

I give it 77%, It's Rotten Tomatoes rating is a staggering 97% based on 130 reviews with an audience rating of 78%. Metacritic gives it 83% based on 33 reviews with an average user rating of 8/10.

 

Beautiful, Beautiful Kate

Wow, where did this little debut from actor turned writer/director Rachel Ward come from?

In a radio interview Ward said she got fed up of the limited and stereotyped roles for women in films and turned to writing and then film-making as a more satisfying career. She said she was attracted to making Beautiful Kate because it had the sort of roles she would have loved to have played when she was an actress.

And what great trio of roles they are: a tactless trophy girlfriend, a perceptive but overlooked stay-at-home sister and a teenage femme fatale.

Set in a remote Australian outback settlement, Ned (Ben Mendelsohn) a successful writer is returning home after 20 years absence, to see his dying father with his much-younger, trophy girlfriend Toni (Maeve Dermody) in tow.

Ned's father Bruce (Bryan Brown) is being cared for by youngest daughter. the ever-patient and good-hearted Sally (Rachel Griffiths back with her natural Australian accent). It is not a happy reunion for Ned and his father, the latter quickly seeking to criticise and belittle. Naturally Ned bristles but not only because of his father's bitter words but because the family home holds a lot of painful reminders as to why he ran away 20-years earlier.

As the story unfolds we learn that Ned had a twin sister Kate (Sophie Lowe) on whom he doted and an older brother Clifford. Kate died in a car accident and Cliff hung himself. Switching from present to past, the story of the fateful summer before his departure and his siblings deaths is told.

Did Samson & Delilah delight?

I'm drawn to films that win gongs at film festivals like Leonardo diCaprio to a Martin Scorsese film and this one from Australian cinematographer turned director Warwick Thornton picked up the Camera d'Or at Cannes last year.

The last outstanding Australian film I saw was The Proposition but Samson & Delilah was always going to be a completely different kettle of fish sharing only a tough, grimey, outback setting with the John Hillcoat film.

It is an unconventional love story about two aboriginal teens living in an impoverished backwater where bed is a foam mattress under an awning and life is anaesthetised by sniffing chemicals. I say it is unconventional because the two central characters never actually speak to each other. Indeed Samson says only his name once in the entire film.

Now I'm not adverse to films with little dialogue, quite the contrary. Handled correctly, and with the right actors, the effect can be extremely atmospheric. I proffer The White Ribbon by way of an example.

And I think it worked for the characters of Samson & Delilah, played by newcomers Rowan McNamara and Marissa Gibson. When there is a lack of dialogue there has to be something else to fill the gaps - some sort of drama, tension or deep emotion for example and so much was conveyed with a look.