Film Shapes

Digger

2026-10-18T20:06:10.587+08:00

Including this new film, Alejandro González Iñárritu has directed only eight features, and his resume has its ups (Amores Perros, The Revenant) and downs (Birdman). But I make Digger his best. He shares a writing credit with a number of other folk (sounds like too many cooks but they get away with it), and it's shot by the ever brilliant Emmanuel Lubezki.

Kudos firstly must go to the trailer editor to sell it the way they did - it's a really eyebrow-raising subterfuge. I was expecting Dr. Strangelove, with climate as the nuclear bombs, instead we get a blend of films like Synecdoche New York, Beau is Afraid, and Birdman, and it's superior and more accessible than all of those. Colour me gobsmacked.

From the start, Digger was heading one way and, had it continued that way, this would be a very different review. Luckily, it pulled a terrific gear change. In a nutshell, the Cruiser plays Digger Rockwell, a mega rich oil man who ignores all warnings of an impending disaster caused by his drilling in Greenland. When it does hit the fan, he's forced to confront his place in the dwindling world, while also battling John Goodman's US president, his half-sister (Sandra Hüller) and Riz Ahmed's head of Environmental Safety.

It must be said that the cinema experience probably added to the enjoyment. At around 30-40 minutes in, out cinema complex sounded the emergency alarm, but it fit the scene so well, most of the punters in our screening weren't aware at first.

After heading out for 10 or 15 minutes, watching firies give the place a once-over, it was back to our seats to pick up from where we left off (I think). Then at the end, as the credits rolled, a couple of bag ladies moved in, possibly to kip for the night. Fair play to them, if they can get away with it. This all seemed to fit the mood of the film - you'll know what I mean when you see it.

The climate change message is strong, helped by Ahmed nailing a meaty monologue or two. It boasts a really strong cast, all excelling, but this is a Tom Cruise film and it's his best performance in a very long time. His pivotal scene with Australia's own Sophie Wilde (from Talk to Me) is a powerful moment, with an intervention by Jesse Plemons only ratcheting up the drama.

Thematically, there's a generational divide, a look at hypocrisy (Cruise's speech to the European court brings home some tough truths), and a pretty grim ending (that put me in mind of the underrated and underseen Hugh Jackman film Reminiscence).

Lubezki's camera angles add to the off-kilter feel - all slanted slightly upwards, creating a semi-claustrophobic state. I felt like these changed to a more level angle during the *REDACTED* sections, but I might be mistaken.

Overall, it's not as tight as it could have been. Some of the *REDACTED* scenes were overly wrought, and the stakes dip when we are exposed to the reveal. But to be fair, they rise again as Digger faces a potential family disaster, and the reality of life outside the *REDACTED* is unmasked bit by bit.

This seems to have polarised the film-going community (and it's on course to lose a lot of moolah), but I'm firmly in the positive camp on this one. Digger is ambitious, inventive, and doesn't dumb down it's style or message. More power to films like these.

Digger is still showing in Australian cinemas but may not be for long. I'd urge everyone to go and see this while you can.

See also:

Iñárritu's best film before this was The Revenant (2015), and there are clear (and less) obvious links to the following: Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learnt to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964), Mel Brooks' The Producers (1967), and Michel Hazanavicius' Final Cut (2022).

(Film stills and trailer ©Warner Bros, 2026)

Queen: Budapest

2026-10-11T20:22:14.854+08:00

Pure class. A Hungarian director, János Zsombolyai, and his crew filmed Queen's concert at Népstadion in Budapest in 1986 with a fair number of 35mm cameras. It's recently been finessed for IMAX and the result is a bloody ripping concert film.

There's a short preview promo featuring sit-down interviews with Brian May and Roger Taylor and then the concert begins. The band played this unprecedented gig at the end of July, just a couple of weeks after their Wembley sets, and as part of the Magic Tour. It was one of the first stadium concerts played behind the Iron Curtain by a 'Western' band, and apparently around 80,000 punters turned up, with more than half that number listening from outside the stadium.

The band run through a typical set list of favourites, starting with One Vision, Tie Your Mother Down, and (my favourite from the gig) Seven Seas of Rhye. Other belting highlights include Under Pressure, Now I'm Here, Hammer to Fall, and Radio Ga Ga.

Watching a concert film from Queen illustrates the place some of their 'lesser' songs hold. We Will Rock You and We are the Champions aren't great tracks but they really suit the stadium rock atmosphere. The Hungarian crowd even went bonkers for the ropey Crazy Little Thing Called Love.

Interspersed with the performance are little documentary clips of the band and entourage getting about Budapest - taking a ferry ride, visiting a museum, Roger even has a spin in a go-kart. One of my biggest regrets in life is not getting a chance to see Queen (obviously with Freddie) perform live, but this kind of thing in IMAX alleviates that a bit. Brilliant.

See also:

Queen's Live Aid set in 1985, which is also replicated at the end of Bryan Singer's Bohemian Rhapsody (2018).

Resident Evil

2026-10-07T20:53:35.258+08:00

This latest Resident Evil is a slight zombie viscera flick that doesn't really say much but is a bit of fun anyway. Director Zach Cregger impressed with Weapons, and folk have good things to say about his film before that, Barbarian, too (I'm yet to watch). His latest is a reboot, retool, reimagining, however you'd like to put it, of the film series spawned from the game in 2002, that eventually mutated to six entries, all gamely starring Milla Jovovich.

Now before this new iteration, I'd only seen that first one, but quite possibly one or two more (like the creatures in the film, I'm guessing they all meld together). My gaming credentials are even more paltry - I seem to remember playing a version once years ago, but it could have been any zombie shooting game.

So drawing a long bow, I'm going to say this one aims more for the shits and giggles than the others, borrowing from Cregger's previous life as a comedy actor/writer/director. Austin Abrams plays Bryan, a medical courier slacker dude who accepts a late night job, entrusted to take a shoulder bag to Raccoon City hospital. It's very snowy and he soon runs into trouble, literally.

This first third, even half, of the film is great fun. Bryan muddles along like a slightly less oblivious Shaun (from the peerless Shaun of the Dead), as events take increasingly macabre turns. He has either never seen a zombie film, or has seen way too many, such are his reactions to the weird shit going on. The jump scares are planted sparingly, and the situation is played close to farce.

As the story becomes a mission to the top floor of Raccoon City hospital (oddly, a skyscraper), the story weakens at the seams. Sure, it's probably very faithful to the game, so might please some gamer nerds, but it doesn't really add anything to the zombie film genre. The tone made the film suffer from the old 'between two stools' problem. It doesn't reach the levels of humour in good Zom-coms, and also fails to be gripping enough to match the classic bleak edge of 'serious' zombie thrillers.

Cregger seems to have the knack of getting bums on seats, he just left me wanting a bit more inventiveness. It's so much easier to start well than end well, especially in the horror genre - once the anticipation of the 'monster' is gone, the filmmakers have a lot of work to do in order to maintain tension to the end. Also, it doesn't help if there isn't really a conclusion, but rather an ambiguous franchise promise. Prepare for diminishing returns, folks.

Resident Evil is still showing around the country - I caught this at the precious Luna cinema in Leederville.

See also:

Edgar Wright pastiched the genre with Shaun of the Dead (2004) and Michel Hazanavicius remade a Japanese film as his Final Cut (2022). Both films are clever and very funny.

Life is Life

2026-10-04T18:40:34.517+08:00

Here's another serving from the Italian Film Festival, this one set mostly in the fictional town of Bellesammama in Southern Sardinia, the beautiful Spiaggia di Tuerredda standing in for the beach paradise. The recognisable story goes that a rich company wants to buy up the land on the beach to build a resort, promising to create jobs and bring untold wealth to the struggling area.

Everyone is confident things will be done and dusted in no time until the real estate company runs up against an immovable object, old farmer Efisio (Giuseppe Loi). Offered ever increasing sums of Lira, then as time goes on, Euros, he rejects all. This is his home, he doesn't need anything else.

The townsfolk cajole Efisio and chivvy his daughter Francesca (Virginia Raffaele), hoping they'll see reason. The head of the Milanese real estate firm, Giacomo (Diego Abatantuono), sends a foreman, Mariano (Aldo Baglio) to sort things out, and even enlists the local mayor and police. No dice.

Although Life is Life (or La Vita va Cosi) is based on the true case of an old Sardinian shepherd, it plays like a sunny, Italian Local Hero, right down to the rich company president making a visit to the idyll - but does Giacomo handle it in the same way Burt Lancaster did?

Riccardo Milani's film asks some curly questions about sacrifice, class disparity, Italy's north/south divide, loyalty, roots and community, and seems to have a bit of craic with the Sardinian dialect too. It could have been trimmed a touch and some of the antics of Mariano were way too broad - he very nearly derailed the whole film. There's also a parallel universe version of this film when Efisio is quietly dealt with by the mafia. That certainly would have been a very different movie but perhaps more realistic.

The film's message was also a bit ambiguous - it was difficult to tell how the villagers ultimately felt about Efisio's stance. Francesca's final utterance of 'finding a way' seemed to indicate a failure, or at the very least, a lack of growth or progress. So maybe a slice of realism after all.

Life is Life is part of the St. Ali Italian Film Festival, showing in Perth at Luna and Palace cinemas (and many fine cinemas around Australia).

See also:

Bill Forsyth's aforementioned (and excellent) Local Hero (1983) is a touchstone. On a different note, some of Lewis Gilbert's 007 effort, The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) was filmed in Sardinia.

Classmates

2026-10-01T21:18:22.730+08:00

This solid, if not super original, slice of high school life in gritty Euro-environs looks to be a change of tack for director Umberto Riccioni Carteni. Much of his back catalogue appears to be on the frothy end of the spectrum, and oddly, Classmates is listed as a 'Drama, Comedy' in the festival programme. It's not all that heavy but it's a stretch to call it a comedy. It starts with English teacher, credited as Professoressa (Anna Ferzetti) arriving at her new school in a rough-ish area of north-east Rome called Rebibbia.

The final year students of this class are generally downheartened nihilists, all carrying problems related to poverty, drugs or family. A more difficult start might have been expected for the Prof but most of her students respond well to her, due to a policy of treating them like humans, not the garbage they (and other teachers) believe they are.

A familiar trope of students shouting at each other, insulting and threatening, soon shows itself to be part of a more complex structure, involving elements of warmth and solidarity. There's a nice scene where one of the loose units in class, Daniele (Morgan Sebastian Wahr) defends Sofia (Zoe Massenti) from an aggressive ex-boyfriend.

The two mentioned above are part of a stellar group of young actors that make up the main classmates, including: Flavietto (Lorenzo Bagalà), Alessandra (Sara Silvestro), Francesco (Fabio Bizzarro), Faso (Paterne Sassaroli), and Margherita (Anita Serafina). They're mostly inexperienced but all put in great, naturalistic shifts, offset well by the more experienced Ferzetti.

Classmates (or Domani Interrogo) is based on a book by writer/translator/teacher, Gaja Cenciarelli, and this informs some of the narrative choices within. For example, the conceit of having a to-camera narration from many of the leading players was a novel idea (it almost felt like a particularly affecting music video in these moments). It may not be the most challenging or gut-wrenching watch but it's definitely a sweetly, youth-affirming way to spend ninety minutes.

Classmates is screening as part of this year's Italian Film Festival, with usual legends Luna and Palace cinemas hosting.

See also:

This is similar to Laurent Cantet's excellent The Class (Entre les Murs) (2008), though not quite as confronting. Another brilliant film about the teacher/student relationship is The Teachers' Lounge (Das Lehrerzimmer) (2023), directed by Ilker Çatak.

Coyote vs. Acme

2026-09-13T18:19:45.506+08:00

While there have been loads of Looney Tunes feature films, this is the fourth to mix live action with the animated favourites. There are two Space Jam films, but if you can remember 2003's Looney Tunes: Back in Action, you're doing better than me. This new hybrid, directed by Dave Green, stars Will Forte and John Cena as opposing lawyers in a case brought against Acme by Wile E. Coyote.

Oddly, this film is actually based on an article for the New Yorker magazine, written by Ian Frazier, about the downtrodden desert dog and his annoyance with Acme Corporation and their faulty products. I realise that some younger crew will have no idea of the content of the Looney Tunes Road Runner cartoons, so to sum it up:

"Road Runner, the Coyote's after you. Road Runner, if he catches you, you're through."

Yep, it's a classic, constant chase, and as this film posits, maybe the chase is the point. Logically, and in nature, the coyote would probably eat the bird, if it ever caught it. But this is cartoon world, where animals can produce superhuman feats of strength and resilience, and where the laws of physics are totally out the window. So perhaps Coyote is only interested in the hunt, not the result. Road Runner is on board, he's having a great old bubble.

But this theory has some faults. Why then, would Coyote feel pissed off enough to enlist a law firm to help him in his ultimate aim of eating the Road Runner? I might be overthinking it. Incidentally, the law firm is named Jones, Avery and Maltese, after three of the important figures in Warner Bros cartoon production, Chuck Jones, Tex Avery and Michael Maltese (I wasn't familiar with the latter, but he co-created the Road Runner and Coyote characters with Jones). They even have a website set up for the fake company - averyjonesmaltese.com.

The film boats a few ingenious set pieces, reminiscent of the best of the old cartoons, some even outdoing them with newer technology. Coyote's maniacal genius is very funny, as is his unfathomable lack of speech - if a rabbit, duck, pig and rooster can talk, why not a coyote? The steps he takes to communicate are brilliant, even a bit affecting as Avery tells him at one stage that they don't need the signs any more.

The human performers are great - Forte as loser-ish Kevin Avery; Cena as blowhard Buddy Crane; Lana Condor as Kevin's niece, Paige Avery; Tone Bell as Sal Maltese; and especially Martha Kelly as Dottie Jones. But it's really the nostalgia of seeing the old WB characters in this weird context that draws you in, particularly members of older generations like yours truly.

There are cameos from Bugs, Daffy, Porky, Tweety, Granny, Foghorn Leghorn, even minor contributions from Pepe Le Pew and, off camera, Speedy Gonzalez. Painted holes, exploding detonators, dodgy rocket skates, magnetic bird seed, some fantastic old gadgets make appearances. And there's even a nod to taking a wrong turn at Albuquerque. My favourite was probably the deposition given by the Tasmanian Devil.

Look, the message is kind of formulaic and I was hoping for slightly more madness (Daffy can always bring that) but, for a burst of zany fun and a bunch of throwback moments for the grownup kids, this does the trick.

Coyote vs. Acme opens around Australia on Sep 17th.

See also:

Robert Zemeckis gave us Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) but before that, Mary Poppins (1964), directed by Robert Stevenson, and Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971), directed by Ward Kimball and Stevenson again, both had elements of animation mixed in with live action.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day

2026-08-30T12:08:06.314+08:00

Well, well, well. This thing has done some business. It's currently SIXTH in all time worldwide receipts, with Titanic in its sights. But, of course, it's problematic to rely on public opinion as a judge of quality. Or maybe that's just me. Because I found this new Spider-Man film to be just slightly above average.

They are quite a few positives to take from it. Tom Holland has a winning presence, the omnipotent Zendaya is his equal (they have some nice moments together), and the cameos are fun - Mark Ruffalo's Hulk, Florence Pugh's Yelena Belova, and John Bernthal's Punisher big screen debut.

Aside from the performances, the city of New York is almost another character, and it's portrayed lovingly here. The jumpy, swingy scenes feel more realistic than previous films, and there's a dark edge to the story as well, to do with change and maturity. The first grown-up Spider-Man?

On that note, I read his situation as a late arrival at puberty. Bear with me. Peter Parker is alone after events in the previous film (Dr Strange making everyone forget him for plot reasons). We see him struggling with headaches and a sore wrist. At one stage, he blacks out and wakes up nearly naked in a sticky web. You see when I'm going. Not long after this, we get the money shot. Confused by these body changes, he goes to the roof and, after a minor leakage that makes him gag, he begins ejaculating wildly (from his wrists - behave, it's not that kind of film).

So hidden in plain sight is the theme of the movie. There will be changes in life, awakenings, schisms even, but it's best not to face these alone. This edict also applies to another central character that I won't name-check for fear of spoilers. In fact, much of the investment in the film is wondering if Spidey's friends will ever remember him, and more romantically, will he ever get back with his real-life-wife MJ?

On the action side of the ledger, there are some fine brawls, including Spidey and the Punisher versus the Hulk, and Spidey versus a bunch of wuxia ninjas called The Hand. And the villain's mind jumping scenes are straight out of an underrated 1998 serial killer thriller called Fallen with Denzel Washington and John Goodman. Also, Spidey's internal body struggles recall the symbiote takeover of Tobey Maguire in the weak Spider-Man 3 from Sony's first iteration.

I realise this is starting to read like a four star review so I'd better outline my grievances. Ultimately, Brand New Day feels too samey, and there isn't much inventiveness, whether that's down to director Destin Daniel Cretton, or more likely the constraints of the MCU behemoth. I'd suggest a bit of the superhero fatigue that seemed to hit soon after Avengers: Endgame, if it weren't for that two billion plus box office for this film. Regardless, there's still a lull for me.

Finally, the ending was too long and too contrived. After a typically emotional climax, we get something of a flaccid denouement for this maturing hybrid Supe. Spider-Man: Brand New Day is still showing in most cinemas around the country. It's a bit of fun but not outstanding.

See also:

That thriller mentioned above, Fallen (1998), directed by Gregory Hoblit. And you have Telemachus, Athena and Menelaus from Christopher Nolan's excellent The Odyssey (2026) in this film too.

The Odyssey

2026-08-07T16:16:59.677+08:00

Christopher Nolan is one of the few active directors who can entice punters to the cinema (along with Denis Villeneuve), and they've come out in droves for his latest, a retelling of Homer's The Odyssey. Matt Damon stars as Odysseus, the king of Ithaca who is co-opted to join his overlord, Agamemnon, in his attack on Troy. After near 10 years of siege, culminating in the Trojan Horse event, the silly bastard then decides to take the scenic route home, and gets plumb lost.

What follows is a technically brilliant rendering of mythical nonsense made to feel real. Odysseus's mini-fleet of three ships and maybe 100 (?) men run into several hardships, notably the Cyclops; a small army of huge men called the Laestrygonians; the sorceress, Circe; and some salacious sea nymphs. These set pieces are fantastic, especially the Cyclops (played by TARS voice from Interstellar, Bill Irwin), and Circe's cottage, where she has a way with greedy menfolk. Samantha Morton is almost best on ground in her short screen time.

I say almost because I was happily surprised by Tom Holland's turn as Telemachus, son of Odysseus and Penelope (Anne Hathaway). Serves me right for seeing him as only as Spidey, he's clearly got more range than that. All the performances are judged just about right - Zendaya is quietly powerful as Athena, Odysseus's conscience; Hathaway has some emoting to do as the stoic wife, holding things together at home; and Damon does the business as antiquity Jason Bourne. Even John Leguizamo is unusually fine as Eumaeus, and the 'controversy' about the casting of Elliot Page and Lupita Nyong'o was, as expected, all piss and wind. They're both great in smallish parts. Only Robert Pattinson's Antinous threatened to derail the enterprise, with his panto screaming and farcical gestures in the final scene.

Thematically, Nolan suggests that the underhanded invasion of Troy (massive wooden horse, Greeks bearing gifts and all that) was the defining historical incident that put us all on the track to where we are now. In the shit. In essence, thou shall not abuse the law of Zeus, or the social contract - carry oneself with dignity, not cowardice, or duplicity. A heinous act repeated since, as for example, at the Red Wedding in Game of Thrones. There's a suggestion that the impending attack on Ithaca by the 'Sea people' has been brought on by this transgression at Troy, and that as far as propriety and society goes, all bets are now off. Odysseus even theorises that he hasn't been able to return home for nearly 20 years because, deep down, he didn't want to.

Like all of Nolan's work, this is filmically peerless, the only choice to make is how the content resonates with the viewer (I appreciated Oppenheimer, but wasn't really that taken with it, even though I understand that it's amazing). The Odyssey works as a 3 hour epic because the structure is fragmented - Calypso (Charlize Theron) drawing memories from the flower-addled mind of Odysseus preps the thrilling set pieces, the attack on Troy taking top spot for tension.

Of course, this material might not work in most hands but Nolan has the style to make it succeed, he's meticulous, and crucially knows what to do with the abundance of cash available to him. He's also very good at embedding call-backs into the script - I won't mention them but there are two very clever ones that I recall in this. And he's surrounded himself with the usual experts, composer Ludwig Göransson, cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema, and editor Jennifer Lame. Not a bad roll call of talent.

So, The Odyssey - very nearly an all-time classic, save for one or two issues that resign it to the merely brilliant bracket. Honestly though, I think it's actually grown on me since I saw it last week. Maybe time for a re-watch?

See also:

Let's revisit Nolan's catalogue - two of my favourites are Inception (2010) and Dunkirk (2017) but the guy knows how to make a film. He hasn't really made a dud yet.

Stills and trailer © Universal.

The Kidnapping of a President

2026-08-06T18:42:57.224+08:00

This film, screening at the Nordic Film Festival, is a slightly slapstick telling of the attempted coup in Finland in 1930, where ex-President Kaarlo Ståhlberg and his wife were kidnapped and driven across the country by the right wing fascist Lapua Movement.

It's tied together by a best on ground performance from the Finnish Glenn McGrath, Jussi Vatanen (it's astonishing how much this guy looks like Pidge - scroll to the bottom and decide yourself). He plays Eero Kuussaari, a colonel desperate for respect and promotion. This frustration and feeling of inferiority drives him to drunkenly order a young crew of right-wing activists to kidnap Stahlberg (Pertti Sveholm) from his country home. They don't bargain on Mrs. Stahlberg (Riitta Havukainen) insisting on joining them.

Director Samuli Valkama has made a clever little historical comedy drama with current reverberations, considering Finland's place as a potential bulwark to Russia in Europe. The events of this film take place after the First World War and the Finnish civil war but just before fascism took a proper hold of the continent (Mussolini is name-checked).

The light treatment of the film suits the ridiculous story but there's a darker, more insidious entity lurking behind the scenes. It reminded me of Mel Brooks in the way he would skewer fascism in his films. The conspiring buffoons in The Kidnapping of a President are not a million miles away from Franz Liebkind in The Producers, for example.

The Finns have a curious knack of making unfussy, obscure, off-kilter films (mainly thanks to the influence of the brilliant Aki Kaurismäki), and this film, while not as kooky, certainly has the Finnish touch.

The Kidnapping of a President is screening as part of the Nordic Film Festival at Luna and Palace cinemas in Perth (check local guides for venues around Australia).

See also:

Kaurismaki's Fallen Leaves (2023) also stars Vatanen. Kidnapping in the snow? Anyone for the Coen Brothers' Fargo (1996)? Also, see below for the Vatanen/McGrath nexus.

Revelation Film Festival 2026 - Wrap up

2026-07-30T21:36:31.819+08:00

So that's Rev for another year. I made it to eight films and it was far from a stellar collection, but I think I made the wrong choice to start with - Bulk, when I could have waited an hour and watched Rosebush Pruning, which looked better in hindsight. Anyhoo, live and learn, I guess. Here are the films I saw in viewing order:

Bulk ★

Boy, this was hard to get through. More pleased with itself than it had any right to be. Sam Riley and Alexandra Maria Lara are together again (after the vastly superior Control) with Noah Taylor wafting around too. Writer/director Ben Wheatley has had a roller-coaster of a career so far, but this must be one of the nadirs.

There are elements of Team America: World Police, Eraserhead and model work reminiscent of Ray Harryhausen, but the overripe dialogue, annoying performances, and sheer boredom all serve to give this a whiff of a pretentious student film (past experience verified). Avoid.

Penny Lane is Dead ★★★

There is a lot of blood in this mean-spirited and brutal Ozploitation flick but it's redeemed by a feminist angle and fun performances, especially from Steve Le Marquand, Bailey Spalding, Sophia Wright-Mendelsohn (yep, daughter of Mendo), and Tahlee Fereday.

Writer/director Mia Kate Russell packs it with nice 80s Australiana, especially the dialogue and Fereday's panel van. It didn't really say anything, though, and the killings got less meaningful as the film progressed, in that I found one or two to be purely for the splatter, the titillation. And my read on the ending is super bleak but maybe that's just my interpretation. Other Aussie films like The Boys, and Birdeater seem to be touchstones, though other films were mentioned in the somewhat chaotic Q&A at the end of the film.

Closure ★★★

Here's a sombre Polish documentary about a father's search for his lost teenage son. In May 2023, Krzysztof Dyminski left home and was last seen by CCTV on a bridge over the Vistula River. He hasn't been seen since. Did he commit suicide or just run away from home?

Writer/director Michal Marczak follows the father, Daniel as he scours the river with GPS, underwater cameras, mapping technology, all the gear that he can utilise. The film certainly is a kick in the guts, but also has something to say about letting go, searching for some form of closure, even finding happiness amidst all the gloom. It's slightly overlong, needs a bit of river time trimmed off it, and the maudlin tone is hard going but as a view of how grief can become an obsession, it has its place.

Hen ★★

Director and co-writer (with Zsofia Ruttkay), Gyorgy Palfi brings us this odd, chicken's eye view of the world. After a good start, it loses its way. It's too cloying and there's too much anthropomorphism - the hen learns that live chicks also hatch from eggs via a cartoon on TV. Hmmm.

Here's another Rev film that could have been shorter, in fact, it would have been more compact and welcome if it were a short, say 15 minutes long, instead of over 90 minutes! The involvement of the humans (smugglers, restauranteurs, etc.) serves to somehow improve and diminish the film at the same time. The tone suffers as soon as the humans get involved. Is it a breezy farm-yard comedy? But what about all the dead refugees? Is it a commentary on displacement? Then please explain the poultry porn. If you're looking for an animal's view on the world, Jerzy Skolimowski's Eo will sate you better.

The Best Summer ★★★½

This is a patched together 'found footage' doco from backstage (and sidestage?) at the Summersault festival in Australia in the mid 90s, plus a tour of South East Asia after. Director Tamra Davis went along with hubby at the time, Mike D from the Beastie Boys, and shot loads of tapes - interviews, gig footage, the odd travelogue shot here and there.

It suffers from mildly repetitive questioning, and thoroughly ropey handicam footage, but it brings back some nice nostalgia for those who were around at the time. Acts include Beastie Boys, Sonic Youth, Foo Fighters, Beck, Pavement, Bikini Kill, Rancid, The Amps. Highlights include Dave Grohl on guest vocals for Sabotage, and Sonic performing 100%. Fun for the 90s kids out there. What I wouldn't do for a version of this covering The Big Day Outs of the 90s, though. Incredible line-ups.

Super Nature ★★½

This is a well-meaning collection of short snippets of nature from around the world, shot on super 8 film. It seems to be the brainchild of Ed Sayers, a bloke whose concern for the planet is admirable. Unfortunately, this doco is overlong and meandering, albeit with some nice amateur shots, and the grain is lovely to look at.

The filmmakers could, and should, have cut the dozens of participants down to about 8 (in keeping with the theme), and really dug deep into these chosen folk and their stories of how nature affects them. A missed opportunity.

Dreamquil ★★★

Elizabeth Banks and John C. Reilly star in this wry, rather than hilarious, story about the virtual world of the future where the Marvel comics-style Life Model Decoys become a very real concept. Alex Prager, helming her first feature, gives us a bit of David Lynch via Jeunet & Caro, with a smidge of Don't Worry Darling and Kazuo Ishiguro's Klara and the Sun thrown in (soon to be a Taika Waititi film).

The performances are pitched right (Reilly plays a straight bat all innings) and the film looks slightly off colour, like the balance is just off. The whole film is made to feel like a non-frightening nightmare, one that might wake you up, not screaming, but maybe feeling like you had the wrong cheese before bed. Oh, and it's good to see Juliette Lewis in a minor Nurse Ratchet style role. A curious flick.

Hex ★★★★

This is a brilliant documentary about the all-female Norwegian black metal band, Witch Club Satan, and their attempts to break into the Scandi metal scene. It's nominally framed as a court case, with witnesses giving 'evidence' about the worth of the women, potentially trying them as witches. All fun and games. Aside from this unorthodox structure, we see the three musos, Nikoline, Victoria and Johanna, writing and jamming, playing gigs, including the famous Roskilde in Denmark, and just going about their lives.

There are important scenes with each band member and their parents, specifically taking about the role of feminism in the metal scene. Plus an incredible album launch - the witches lying topless in coffins, having their blood (and others') taken and used to create a painting of them, which is then nonchalantly taken home on the subway.

This is Maja Holand's first directing job (after many credits as a cinematographer) and she has provided us with a fascinating look at the alter egos of the three women and how these 'witches' help or even define them. The whole film rests on the personalities of Nikoline, Victoria and Johanna, and luckily, they've got charisma in spades. "Phil, we pray for your ethical recovery" is a joyous line in context. Check this film out, it's one of the year's best.

And that's your lot, chums. An average year, all choices considered, redeemed by one amazing doco to finish the fest. Roll on 2027.

The Last Resort

2026-07-21T19:56:57.470+08:00

This preview for the Nordic Film Festival is a proper drama for grown-ups, directed and co-written by Maria Sødahl, that poses some curly questions. It's about a middle class Danish couple on holiday with their young daughters in the Canary Islands. Interestingly, the Danish title is Paradis, which carries a bit more irony than its English title.

Mikkel (Esben Smed) and Louise (Danica Curcic) are a typically 'normal' couple from northern Europe, enjoying their island holiday when they run down a bloke while driving at night. He turns out to be Ahmed (Aziz Çapkurt), a refugee from Afghanistan, and his leg is pretty munted. Trying to do the right thing, they take him to hospital and leave him with some cash, and crucially, their resort room and phone numbers.

This minor act of kindness, and no little guilt, sets in motion a slow building series of events that fucks with the couple's holiday, and relationship in a wider sense. The resurfacing of Ahmed is clearly signposted (no film otherwise) and his ever increasing requests for help begin to drive a wedge between the holiday-makers. On one hand, Mikkel is slightly more sympathetic of Ahmed's plight, while Louise has her reservations and is also concerned about the chance of parting with loads of cash.

The film strikes a commendable balance between the plight of the refugees and the reactions of the Scandinavian visitors and island locals. Characters like the hotel manager, well-meaning volunteers, waiters, and various resort guests, all add their tuppence worth to the situation, one way or the other. And there's one clearly mirrored subplot involving a hotel cat that runs along in the background.

As the credits rolled, I was asked a question to the extent of 'Do you think he (Ahmed) was legit?' and there's the key to the film. Whichever way you go with this question could be a pointer to your political bent, or your level of general cynicism. It's a pretty good barometer for where you stand in the current climate of extremes.

This is one of those films that was fine while watching but gains an extra half star while writing about it, due to the subtle complexity of the script and the solid performances. There's a bit of a genre starting to appear that deals with the modern 'White Man's Burden' (or probably more prosaically, just rich, well-meaning folk on holiday), specifically focussed on northern Europeans, and this film sits firmly in that category.

The Last Resort is part of the upcoming Nordic Film Festival, screening at Palace and Luna cinemas rom July 23rd to August 16th.

See also:

Two Ruben Östlund films, Force Majeure (2014), and Triangle of Sadness (2022), John Michael McDonagh's The Forgiven (2021), and Charlotte Wells' fantastic Aftersun (2022) are all examples of that mentioned above. Kind of.

Supergirl

2026-07-11T14:03:40.020+08:00

This new superhero flick from the DCU is an incel's nightmare. Following on from James Gunn's Superman of last year, Craig Gillespie takes the director's reins for this spin-off, Supergirl. Quick deviation - partway through, there's a clever aside about how Kara gets the 'girl' label, while her cousin Kal-El can use 'man'. Starting as it means to go on.

Before we actually see the lead, we open with the motivating event of a family slaughter by the face-studded Krem of the Yellow Hills (Matthias Schoenaerts), sending young Ruthye (Eve Ridley) off on a revenge quest, which eventually drags in Kara Kor-El (Milly Alcock). Kara is on a week-long birthday bender, making sure to stay in red sun systems so that her powers don't work and the booze does. This is significant for the showstopping transformation yet to come on an interplanetary bus.

Look, the film itself is fine, nothing new in the storyline structure (Andrew from The Curb notes that 'the only thing worse than a fetch quest is an escort mission' and this film packages them together). The slightly more interesting point is how this is cutting through (or not) socially, and why. By all accounts, this has tanked at the box office, particularly compared to it's predecessor, Superman, which took in around USD 618 million in its cinema run. Supergirl is sitting at about USD 108 million (at time of writing - 2 weeks after opening).

I think Gunn is a better director than Gillespie and his Superman is the marginally superior film for me. There have been rumours of disputes between Gunn (as producer) and Gillespie, test screening trouble, musical choice issues and a trimming of the final cut. But what I'm guessing is that there's one major reason this has failed with the punters, and that's your garden variety misogyny. It would sadly make sense after sample cases like the female-led Ghostbusters and Furiosa. If I'm right, these milksop knuckle-draggers can go and get fucked sky high.

Alcock is mint in the lead role, not taking any shit and clearly not the weak woman that many gronks require in their superhero films. Her response to Ruthye's question 'So when did you stop being angry?' is bittersweet and perfectly delivered. The supporting cast does what's required - this is certainly a step up for Jason Momoa (Lobo) in the DCU, after his bang average turn as Aquaman.

The story borrows a touch from Mad Max: Fury Road, especially with the dusty donuts on planet Barenton and the use of breeding 'brides' to propagate the brigand tribe. Finally, I quite enjoyed the bottom line - that Superman and Supergirl are very different people (aliens?), as evidenced by Kara's method of dealing with Krem (in that moment, I saw her as an intergalactic Michael Caine from Get Carter).

Supergirl isn't going to break your mind with innovation, but it does have its heart in the right place and Alcock is a charming anti-hero. Don't reject this on hearsay. Don't feed the beast.

Supergirl is still playing (for now) in most cinemas around Australia (and the world).

See also:

Alcock rose to prominence in a nice little Aussie drama series called Upright (2019-2022), created by Tim Minchin, Leon Ford and Kate Mulvany. As mentioned, the influence of George Miller with Fury Road (2015) and Furiosa (2024) is clear. Both are great films.

Stills and trailer © Warner Bros.

The Good Boy

2026-06-28T11:01:50.554+08:00

This English/Polish co-production is not to be confused with Good Boy, a dog-based horror film, even though in most regions the definite article is removed - it seems only Australia and the UK have it as The Good Boy. To muddy the waters more, in some areas, including the US, Brazil and the Netherlands, it's called Heel, something you might say to a dog.

Anyway, I'll call it THE Good Boy because that's how it's being sold here. It's directed by a Polish guy called Jan Komasa, who's done some features in Poland, and written by first time writer Bartek Bartosik, alongside slightly more established Naqqash Khalid. They've concocted a genre pic that flirts with horror, winks at black comedy and straight up propositions psychological dependency drama.

At the beginning of the film, young scally Tommy (Anson Boon) is a hateable twat, acting 'the big I am' on a night out, drug-fucked and aggro with everyone, until he sets off on his own for more action. Staggering along an empty street, he's abducted and so begins the film proper.

After this Prodigy clip opening, we see Chris (a fantastic performance from Stephen Graham) interview a young woman from Eastern Europe, Rina (Monika Frajczyk), who accepts the sketchy job offer. When she starts work, nominally as a cleaner at the big country house Chris shares with his wife Kathryn (a quietly brilliant Andrea Riseborough), she's shocked to find a man sleeping in the cellar, dog collar around his neck, attached by a chain to the ceiling. Visa circumstances force her to keep mum and take the job, despite all common sense.

Here's where the film begins to teeter. It's set up for Rina to play a large part in proceedings but it gradually becomes clear that she's in the film as a plot device only. Short of giving it all away, I'll just say that her role is an embodied Deus Ex Machina, and the subplot that deals with her character is a functional stretch to say the least.

There are other elliptical choices that have the viewer wondering if it's design or competence - what does Chris do for work?, How did they get this huge mansion?, Does the son Jonathan (Kit Rakusen) actually go to school (he has homework)?, Who's Charlie?, and so on. The involvement of filmic polymath Jerzy Skolimowski and legendary producer Jeremy Thomas shows that it's in good hands production-wise, so I'm going to say this is all planned, but it's still a bit unsatisfying.

The big question is what this film is trying to say about the relationship between captive and captor. Is it just another cod-psychology attempt to investigate Stockholm Syndrome, or a deeper essay on generational and social clashes? I think that in spite of it's missteps, this is a bold stab at showing a modern England, even if it does seem to normalise psychopaths. Welcome to 2026?

The Good Boy opens at the Luna cinemas from July 2nd.

See also:

Tommy's treatment is reminiscent of Alex's in Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange (1971), producer Skolimowski made an endearingly sombre donkey film called Eo (2022), and Stephen Graham played another father in the streaming series Adolescence (2025), created by Graham, Jack Thorne and Philip Barantini.

The Captive

2026-06-11T21:30:47.307+08:00

Screening at the Spanish and Latin American Film Festival, Alejandro Amenabar's first film since 2019 is a mildly controversial take on the 5-year captivity of legendary Spanish author, Miguel de Cervantes. We begin the film as Cervantes is led into a dusty courtyard in Algiers, along with many other kidnappees. Before he can be sold as a slave, or sliced up for insubordination, he presents a letter from the Spanish court, signalling that perhaps it's better he be kept as a hostage for ransom.

The film takes a bit of time to get rolling from here but when it does it settles into a clever mix of melodrama and weighty ideas. Cervantes, with his weak left arm acting like an acting crutch, slowly becomes the cheerleader of the prisoners, writing his stories in the air, only stopping when he temporarily runs light on material.

The story takes a hurdle when the Bey, a high-ranking provincial governor (Alessandro Borghi) overhears the stories told in the courtyard and summons Cervantes (Julio Peña) to his chambers. The ensuing relationship between these two moody lookers crackles with tension, and not just the murderous type. Does the Bey want to kill him or shag him, or both?

There's been a smattering of chat regarding writer/director Amenabar's decision to have Cervantes get it on with another dude. The much storied history of the author doesn't suggest this side to him but to my mind, there's nothing wrong with exploring this narratively. Maybe Amenabar's sexuality played a part in him choosing to go this way with the film, and fair dues, it's just another angle to take.

The themes in El Cautivo (the Spanish title) are muchos. Betrayal, religious freedom and intolerance, Ottoman politics, confessions, self-honesty, the importance of storytelling, sexuality, and the use of the word 'abjure' more than I've ever heard it before (speaking of being honest, I had to double check the definition).

The film looks great, with the Castle-Fortress of Santa Pola, near Alicante in southern Spain, standing in for the Bey's palace in Algiers. The costuming reeks of style and Cervantes himself is made to look very much like Joseph Fiennes in Shakespeare in Love. The most famous Cervantes characters, Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, appear in the film as wandering priests raising funds for the repatriation of Christians, and there are probably other noted characters scattered throughout that I'm ignorant of.

Amenabar scored a fantastic hat-trick in the late 90s/early 2000s with Open Your Eyes, The Others and The Sea Inside, so he certainly knows how to deliver a story. This isn't quite up to the mark of those earlier films but it's very good nonetheless.

The Captive is showing as part of the Spanish and Latin American Film Festival around Australia from June 10th to July 12th.

See also:

A recent film about an author's motivation is Chloe Zhao's Hamnet (2025), and for me, Amenabar's best film is the brilliant but very sad, The Sea Inside (2004).

The Christophers

2026-05-28T21:12:23.558+08:00

The title of the film refers to a series of paintings started by Julian Sklar in the 90s but left unfinished for reasons made clear later. Sklar, as played by Ian McKellen, is eccentric and irascible, and seems to be a blend of famous British painters, Francis Bacon and Lucien Freud.

As Sklar is getting on in years, his grown children hatch a plan to have the paintings 'completed' for sale, with, or preferably without, their father's knowledge. For this undertaking they must enlist renowned art restorer (and dab hand forger), Lori Butler, an old acquaintance from art college.

The premise is fine, but unfortunately, as created by Steven Soderbergh (director) and Ed Solomon (writer), it doesn't have any legs. Paradoxically, the best bits are probably also part of the reason it falters. McKellen is superb as the lovelorn painter, artistically blocked and emotionally bitter. His pithy, acerbic dialogue is great and he gives the performance full welly, but the actual storyline suffers because of these highs. There's not enough at stake to complement the central peak.

In saying this, I can see that Solomon has attempted to construct a twisty, clever plot. It's just that the payoffs don't land and it actually gets a bit confusing at times. Lori (Michaela Coel) is so inscrutable as to be almost wooden, she doesn't seem interested in anything going on in the film. There's little to no tension and it's hard to warm to anyone on screen, even McKellen.

Look, I suppose it's a pretty fair exploration of the lack of depth in the art world but I couldn't quite see what Soderbergh was after. It seemed the only characters who had any motivation were Sklar's offspring, played by Jessica Gunning and James Corden. I didn't really buy the arcs of the two leads. Admittedly, the old London house was a fantastic location but if that's the second best thing in the film (after McKellen), then maybe that's all you need to know.

A side note that might have gone some way to explaining my mild disdain for this film: Soderbergh had made many well known films (The Oceans trilogy; Magic Mike; Sex, Lies and Videotape; Traffic), some good ones (Out of Sight; Contagion; Erin Brockovich), but never a great one. Discuss.

The Christophers opens at the Luna and Palace in Perth on June 4th (the Luna has special Afternoon Tea screenings at Leederville, Windsor and SX Freo on Sunday May 31st at 3:30pm)

See also:

A better art/crime film is Giuseppe Capotondi's The Burnt Orange Heresy (2019) and for a more malicious turn from McKellen, have a look at Anand Tucker's The Critic (2023).

Head-On

2026-05-22T16:19:33.463+08:00

I saw this confronting 2004 drama at the German Film Festival as part of a retrospective of Fatih Akin films. Unfortunately, there was only one screening in Perth, there might be extra shows in other cities. Akin's a great stylist, authentic and functional, and his films are informed by his cultural standing as a German-Turkish writer/director.

In this film, a rough looking bloke called Cahit (Birol Ünel) smashes his car - head-on - into a wall after a heavy night on the turps. While getting treatment, he meets Sibel (Sibel Kekilli), a young woman who recognises his shared dual nationality status. She's looking for a 'Turkish' guy to marry, so her parents will get off her back. Initially sceptical and aggressively dismissive, Cahit realises Sibel is dangerously desperate, so he agrees to the sham marriage.

There's an early bump in the road when Cahit kicks Sibel out on their wedding night for asking about his dead wife. Soon enough though, things settle into a roommate situation, both of them carrying on their separate booze, sex and drug-fuelled lifestyles. As in most rom-coms with this kind of conceit (let's subtract the com here), the pair start to warm to each other, tilted more heavily on Cahit's side.

Cahit and Sibel display loads of self-destructive behaviour, for differing reasons, and it's a tough watch at times. Kekilli is brilliant in her first feature (she went on to play Tyrion Lannister's bed-warmer, Shae, in Game of Thrones). Ünel is also filthily superb, and I get the feeling that he may be slightly based on Akin himself (not the extreme parts, clearly).

There are some unsettling moments, no punches are pulled (family honour violence, rape, attempted suicide, attempted murder, a fair bit of blood) and it would probably come with a trigger warning if it were made these days. The performances are fantastic all round, notably the two great leads, but there's also sterling work from the supporting cast - Demir Gökgöl and Aysel Iscan as Sibel's father and mother; Meltem Cumbul as Sibel's supportive cousin; Güven Kiraç as Cahit's co-worker; and Catrin Striebeck as an occasional shag of Cahit's.

The area of St. Pauli in Hamburg has a real grungy feel that makes the time frame seem twenty years earlier than it is, so the eventual jump to Istanbul makes for an intriguing comparison. The change of scenery doesn't do much for Sibel's mindset, as she appears to absorb, and carry on Cahit's attempts at self-immolation. She does everything she can to end herself, and maybe she even succeeds, depending on your viewpoint.

To pick a nit, the film was a bit stretched, particularly in the final third (post key event), and the musical interludes on the Bosphorous or Golden Horn were an odd way to break up the narrative, not entirely successful, but quirky nonetheless. Regardless of these minor quibbles, this is a powerful, satisfying drama about disenfranchisement, grief and a search for belonging. Top drawer Akin.

Head-On was part of the German Film Festival - big thanks to the Luna for screening it.

See also:

The personality of the leads might have influenced Markus Goller for his alcoholic drama One for the Road (2023), also at GFF a couple of years back. There are more parallels in Jean-Jacques Beineix's iconic Betty Blue (1986).

Franz: Becoming Kafka

2026-05-17T13:13:20.040+08:00

In this fractured, somewhat unconventional biopic, various characters take on the role of narrator, breaking the fourth wall within the story. As curious as the method of delivery here is, the bones of the film itself still function to paint the picture of one of the 20th century's most lauded writers. We witness Kafka's less than perfect childhood with unloving father and powerless mother; his possible spectrum hovering; his near-crippling insecurities; his tricky relationships with women; and eventually the illness that brought on his early death.

Director Agnieszka Holland is still firing at 77 years old, she's quite happy to lean towards experimentation and, along with her co-writer, Marek Epstein, she imbues the film with a surrealism similar to Kafka's work. Aside from the 'to camera' narration, the timeline jumps around, even bringing in elements of 21st century Kafka tourism with French, Japanese and American tour guides, who may or may not be on the level ("Kafka loved...potatoes.")

Oddly, I felt the guy who plays Kafka (Idan Weiss) was a difficult performer to warm to. Maybe he was told to play Franz as a soporific dreamer, but all the orbital characters are more interesting, especially his parents, Hermann and Julie (Peter Kurth and Sandra Kornzeniak), and sister Ottla (Katharina Stark).

The film is slightly overlong and some scenes could have been excised without losing anything from the story (what little there is), but a couple of moments illustrate why it's sometimes best to hold the shot. For example, there's one slightly wobbly, post-coital take where Milena (Jenovéfa Boková) opens a window looking onto a cherry blossom tree, the smoke from her fag drifting through the frame. Nice lens work there from Tomasz Naumiuk.

Ultimately, I have mixed feelings about this film - I appreciate the style (Holland is a favourite) but although they tried to eschew conventional biopic structure, the cliched beats of the genre still remain. And I think it could have done with being slightly less ambitious, maybe focussing in on one period of his life, rather than attempting to cover it all, as well as the admittedly worthwhile, modern time leaps. The engagement to Felice (Carol Schuler) seemed like the central angle but if so, it didn't quite carry the requisite drama. To sum up, this is worth a look, especially if you're a fan of Kafka's work. It suffers from the restrictions of the biopic genre but it makes a better fist of it than most.

Franz: Becoming Kafka opens at the Luna cinemas on May 21st.

See also:

The bloke who plays Kafka's father is also in a film called Two to One (2024), directed by Natja Brunckhorst, screened at last year's German Film Festival. Agnieszka Holland's Olivier, Olivier (1992) is just a brilliant film. And finally, Steven Soderbergh made a film, Kafka (1991) which I haven't seen yet but looks to have a cracking cast.

The Talented Mr. F.

2026-05-06T13:45:00.001+08:00

Screening at the German Film Festival, this is a mind-boggling tale of a 'you-tuber' dickhead who nicked a short animation film off a couple of German university students and passed it off as his own work. The thief, or the 'talented' Mr. F. of the title, is Samuel Felinton, a ubiquitous pud with a probable case of Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD). This diagnosis has been mentioned on Reddit but his baggage is weighty so fucks knows what's wrong with him.

We open with Moritz and Julius, who made a cute little robot anime, uploaded it to YouTube to see if anyone liked it, and when it gained loads of hits and positive comments, took it down. Emboldened by this public favour, they then started to enter their short, Butty, into various film festivals. When the replies came back that it couldn't be accepted because the film was already doing the festival circuit, the lads freaked out.

Turns out Butty's brief online life was enough time for Felinton to download it, cut a scene or two, add some music, change the credits, and rename the film T-130. This new iteration was picked up by several festivals, winning some awards along the way, and making something of a minor celebrity of Felinton. There are quite a few found footage clips of the goon on local US TV shows, spruiking 'his' film and generally giving himself a good old flannelling.

When the lads discover the legal angle to be prohibitive, they chew over the idea of confronting Felinton themselves. And why not make a doco about this whole farrago of bullshit? Plans are set in motion and soon they're on a plane to the U.S.

The main draw of this film is not, as you might imagine, that there's a satisfying revenge outcome. It shows rather a uniquely sensible approach to something as ridiculous as this imperfect crime. The scene where Julius and Moritz finally confront Samuel is awkward, almost nauseating and ultimately, very mature. I'm not sure I could have handled the situation with as much sobriety as these guys did.

The film puts the viewer in the position of making judgements, whether it's the initial realisation that someone had the bare-faced cheek to try this, or the moment when director Igor Plischke interviews Felinton by himself, and we witness another side to him. But it's up to you to make up your own mind about him. I know I have.

The Talented Mr. F. is showing at the German Film Festival from May 6 - 27 around Australia (at Palace and Luna cinemas in Perth).

See also:

Another great doco on the topic of faking it is Bart Layton's The Imposter (2012). A couple of interesting thematic links come from Emerald Fennell's Saltburn (2023) and Giuseppe Capotondi's The Burnt Orange Heresy (2019).

Amrum

2026-05-01T10:40:00.001+08:00

The preview film for the 2026 German Film Festival is a sombre little drama about a child's perspective of the end of WWII. Jasper Billerbeck plays Nanning, a 12 year-old doing his best to look after his pregnant mother and younger siblings in the tiny farming/fishing island of Amrum in Northern Germany. The opening scene shows German planes flying overhead, indicating that even this lonely outpost of the Reich is not untouched by war.

The story really acts as window dressing for the suppression of emotions and trepidation related to the very probable approaching end of hostilities. We find out early on, in a clever moment in the family library, that Nanning's (absent) dad is a high ranking Nazi, and his mum, Hille, is fully on board with the doctrine. Auntie Ena lives with them and is much more pragmatic, and as anti-Nazi as she can be in the circumstances. The two sisters are played by Laura Tonke and Lisa Hagmeister respectively, and they're fantastic.

Diane Kruger, who also starred in director Fatih Akin's great In the Fade a few years ago, has a small role as thoroughly cheesed off farmer, Tessa. Nanning's inadvertent betrayal of her early on sets the story beats in motion, and I reckon it's a pretty neat way of couching the real-life events. In a nutshell, when his mum stops eating after having the baby, Nanning must play 'The old woman who swallowed a fly' routine. She only wants white bread with butter and honey, none of which are easily sourced on an isolated island suffering from severe rationing.

Nanning must chivvy and scrimp to get the ingredients - hassling the local doctor, baker, apiarist, and his old Nazi uncle across the low tide. He even has to act like a seal to work for a few flatfish (don't ask). All that for a fucking honey buttie. James Garner's Hendley in The Great Escape would have been proud. While all this is going on, Nanning discovers more details of his family's history, including what happened to another, less fascist uncle.

There are shades of Michael Haneke at work here - Amrum has a very similar feel to The White Ribbon. Just like the adults in Jonathan Glazer's The Zone of Interest, some of these volk seem to have grown straight out of Haneke's masterpiece. Pacing, performances and cinematography tie these three films together to make a pretty amazing triptych.

The film is based on the early memories of prolific actor/writer/director, Hark Bohm, who co-wrote it with Akin but died in 2025, just after its general release (he has a very small cameo at the end). Amrum is showing at the German Film Festival from May 6 - 27 across Australia.

See also:

All of those films mentioned above, but also I really dug Akin's The Edge of Heaven (2007), which is included in a retrospective of his films at this year's festival, along with Head-On (2004) and Goodbye Berlin (2016).

The Magic Faraway Tree (Me) (Kids)

2026-04-24T18:51:00.002+08:00

I probably read these books as a kid (can't remember) but I certainly read them to my kids a few years ago, so the whole family took a trip to the Palace cinema to check out this new film version. It's adapted from the Enid Blyton book(s) by Simon Farnaby, the writer of Paddington 2, Wonka and Mindhorn, and directed by Ben Gregor, a British TV journeyman. The cast is chock-full of screen dignitaries, from Andrew Garfield and Claire Foy, to Python Michael Palin, to Dame Judi Dench as a talking fridge (!).

Modernising this classic kids' book series from the 30s and 40s means adding some stuff about screen (over)usage, the splintering of the family unit, and the desire to get back to the basics of life. In this case, the Thompsons go rural in a rundown barn with old tractors, and chickens living on the stove. The family is made up of Tim and Polly (Garfield and Foy), and the three children, Beth, Joe and Fran, played by Delilah Bennet-Cardy, Phoenix Laroche and Billie Gadsdon, respectively. Gadsdon is the pick of them, she's believable is the quiet kid that comes out of her shell when the magic kicks in.

As a perfunctory run-down of the story, the parents suddenly become house-less in London, so decide to move the family to the countryside. The barn-cum-house is on the edge of the Enchanted Wood, home to the titular tree. When Fran receives an invitation from Silky the fairy (Nicola Coughlan), she disappears for the day to attend. Here she meets all the reprobate tree-dwellers, Moonface (Nonso Anozie), Dame Washalot (Jessica Gunning) and Saucepan Man (Dustin Demri-Burns), to name a few.

There's another story scaffolding the kids' adventures up tree, but it's less interesting and really only acts as a motivational device. In short, Tim tries to grow tomatoes to make a pasta sauce, they go maggoty, the kids save the day. Sorry to spoil, but it's clearly not the reason to go to this film. The non-magic adults are window dressing to events, and though Garfield and Foy are a winning combo, they run very close to making this The Magic Faraway Twee. The multitude of cameos is fun - Mark Heap, Lenny Henry, Tom Meetan, Claire Keelan, Farnaby, Jennifer Saunders all enjoy themselves, and Rebecca Ferguson chews through all she can get her snaggle-tooth into as Dame Snap.

There are a few cliches (the old 'I'm definitely NOT doing that!' CUT to the character doing that), and some minor narrative queries, but not enough to derail the enterprise. I reckon Blyton nerds can feel satisfied with the way this turned out.

The Magic Faraway Tree is still showing around the traps.

See also:

Any time I see Mark Heap on a screen, I remember his Brian in Edgar Wright's TV gem, Spaced (1999-2001). A couple of other good films centred on three British kids are Bryan Forbes' Whistle Down the Wind (1961) and Lionel Jeffries' The Railway Children (1970).

Case 137

2026-04-17T21:31:00.003+08:00

Here's a police procedural drama from the Alliance Francais French Film Festival with a minor key change. Case 137 is based on true events from 2018 during the Gilets jaunes (Yellow Vest) protests in Paris. The case (or dossier in the version originale) involves a young lad who was shot in the head with an LBD riot gun (basically rubber bullets) and then left on the street. He survived, but with life changing injuries. The IGPN internal affairs department are brought in to investigate.

Léa Drucker takes the lead as Stéphanie, a single mum dealing with resentment from her ex-husband, his new girlfriend, and most other members of the force, who believe the cops should look after their own and not 'police the police'. Her teenage son is also concerned that everyone he talks to hates 'les flics'. There's a slight hitch in the case when it's discovered that the injured guy and his family come from Saint-Dizier, also Stéphanie's home town.

Director, Dominik Moll (Harry, He's Here to Help; The Night of the 12th) has a pretty solid pedigree and he handles the material (co-written with regular collaborator, Gilles Marchand) with a nice lack of sentiment and rhetoric, considering the circumstances of the piece. Thematically, it's all about systemic failures, fading hopes and your bog-standard inhumanity. There's a key scene when a hotel maid, Alicia (Guslagie Malanda), who has witnessed the attack tells Stéphanie, "You don't care when Blacks or Arabs are getting beaten up, but now, when it's a white guy, you're interested"

This film gave me a whiff of the current high-profile case of a decorated Aussie ex-soldier, charged with war crimes, where all manner of cunts have wriggled out of the compost to support the power institutions, even if, or maybe especially if, they cross the line. Mucky.

There's a lot to like about this film, it's enraging, even-handed and everyone turns in fine performances, especially Drucker. Not a brilliant crackler, and I thought the ending was a little misjudged, but it's a solid portrayal of the end of dissent.

Case 137 was part of the French Film Festival (it might get a separate release later in the year).

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This film has a lot in common with a fine doco I saw at Revelation Film Festival a few years ago - David Dufresne's The Monopoly of Violence (2020). Moll's The Night of the 12th (2022) is another example of his functional style.

The Rivals of Amziah King

2026-03-22T00:37:00.001+08:00

This final film at the Lotterywest Film Season for the Perth Festival is a surprising gem. It combines a great musical opening scene with a fine entrance from Matthew McConaughey. Writer/director Andrew Patterson knows who he's got on his hands here. McConaughey has fun with this role of Amziah King, his first real starring part since The Gentleman in 2019, and in fairness, the film probably wouldn't have been made without him.

The story goes thus: a honey maker (or beekeeper, apiarist, professor of bees, call him what you will) is coopted into helping the police identify a stolen batch of honey barrels. After a frankly incredible (in the good sense of the word) honey heating procedure that goes off the rails, Amziah finds himself at cafe, where he bumps into Kateri, a young woman who used to foster with him when she was a kid.

A star is unearthed here in Angelina LookingGlass (what a name!), in her debut film role, and the rest of the cast is fittingly grubby and grungy. Kurt Russell and Tony Revolori are top value, and if you think McConaughey's accent can be hard to understand at times, get a load of Scott Shepherd. He's a fine running gag.

Anyway, Amziah's paternal instincts lead him to offer Kateri a chance to join his faltering honey business, which she accepts. But the earlier crime, sidelined for a time, rears its head again, and provides some well-earned motivation for our leads. Occasionally the pace drifts a touch, and tonally, it shifts on its axis at times. It has some of the oddest moments I've witnessed on film for a while and one McConaughey line, at a swarm-troubled elementary school, was sheer droll brilliance.

Amziah's bees are a metaphor for loyalty and community - it's not subtle at all but the delivery works here. Patterson has bags of style, as he showed in his debut, The Vast of Night, and he fills the screen with stop-start visuals, ever-so-slight slo-mos, and banging stringed instrument tunes. One song near the middle is a crackling barnstormer.

Interesting to watch Kateri's development from sweet, self-conscious, small-town returnee to a more toughened operator. Think Audiard's A Prophet, but with more bees. Related to some of the narrative choices here, I've been thinking about Peter Biskind's book, The Sky is Falling, and how he argues that in recent pop culture, centrist ideas have changed to more extreme ones.

Without wishing to spoil anything, there are one or two moments in this where a character makes decisions that would never fly in a mainstream Hollywood film, without it being used for darkly comic purposes. Sure, there are very good reasons for these plot choices, and they didn't take me out of the film (in fact, the character's background goes some way to explaining things), yet I still caught myself wondering, "Surely not...oh, ok. Maybe yes. So then, that's where this is going."

Without drawing too long a bow, it seems that present day 'Merica will generally see things through a polarised prism. So one side will cheer the vigilantism and small town insularity, while the other will support the Luigi Mangione-style, fuck the rich sentiments. I'd like to think I'm balanced enough to recognise both angles and still really enjoy the film.

The Rivals of Amziah King runs at UWA Somerville from March 23rd to 29th. Like I said, it's the final film at this season's Perth Festival, so don't miss out:)

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I do think this shares some DNA with Jacques Audiard's fantastic A Prophet (2009). It's pretty wild to look back at McConaughey's credits list - aside from his rom-com guffage, and before his McConnaissance, he was in some fine, varied films, like John Sayles's Lone Star (1996), Robert Zemeckis's Contact (1997) and the OTT but fun Reign of Fire (2002), directed by Rob Bowman.

Arco (Me) (Kid)

2026-03-13T22:19:00.006+08:00

This is the first feature length film from French writer/director Ugo Bienvenu. It tells the story of futuristic kid, Arco, voiced by Juliano Crue Valdi in the English dub, and Oscar Tresanini in the French original - here I'll explain that I saw the preview of this with the English voice cast, so I'll mention them from now, unless I spy a notable Frenchy. Anyway, Arco is too young to fly to the past like his family do, but like any young ding-a-ling, he decides to chance his arm, and ends up in 2075. This is a more recognisable future for us than Arco's time, as we see climate change writ large on society.

In this time-zone, Arco meets Iris (Margot Ringard Oldra) and her domestic robot, Mikki (voiced by a strange combination of Iris's parents, Natalie Portman and Mark Ruffalo). Iris wants to help Arco return to his time, but they're thwarted by a missing jewel that he needs in order to travel, as well as a trio of bumbling goons (Will Ferrell, Andy Samberg and Flea), who are tracking the time interloper. Louis Garrel plays one of these clowns in the French version.

The animation is a touch on the Ghibli side, but slightly more colourful. The themes of the film seem to indicate that Bienvenu was raised on a diet of US sci-fi/fantasy, with nods to E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, The Goonies, A.I. Artificial Intelligence, and I, Robot. The message is admirable, and it's quite sad but hopeful at the same time, warning us of the planet's destruction while celebrating human kindness and innovation.

I was a bit worried about seeing the US voice dub version but it's quite novel to see an animation film with American voices, but where the tone and style aren't typically sentimental and twee, or goofy and broad. I still think the original French might be the best option (Luna is offering both), but either choice is valid.

Arco is now showing at the Luna and Palace cinemas.

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Hayao Miyazaki loves flying, and the flight scenes in Arco may have been influenced by any number of his Ghibli films. I'd recommend the brilliant Spirited Away (2001) and Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984).

Two Prosecutors

2026-02-17T21:22:00.003+08:00

This Stalinist 'thriller' sets out its stall early, with a snowy prison yard holding our attention (or not) for a good few minutes. Prisoners are herded in, most very old and on the verge of pegging it. One such geezer is tasked with burning hundreds of letters to Josef himself, pleading with him to hear their case. The old guy saves a letter written in blood and so begins the story.

The note is from an ex-academic, party member and proud Bolshevik, asking to see someone from the prosecutors office. Enter Kornev (Alexander Kuznetsov), newly appointed and eager. His meeting with the ancient political prisoner, Stepniak (Alexsandr Filippenko) opens his eyes to the creeping dread of the times.

Kornev makes the trek to Moscow to see the Procurator General (Anatoliy Beliy) to make his case against NKVD corruption brough to his attention by Stepniak. It's not an easy mission. The bureaucracy and interminable fucking waiting throughout the first two acts of the film would make Kafka want to drop acid.

Directed by Ukrainian filmmaker, Sergey Loznitsa, the archaic system of power abuse that he examines has its future echoes in the here and now. As this is set in 1937 at the height of Stalin's reign, the modern audience cringes as we watch the idealistic Kornev go about his mission. Everyone around him knows how it will end except him.

Kuznetsov looks the part, callow and naive but with the face of an idealistic Soviet boxer. Filippenko gives off real death vibes, his injuries seem very real and his 'justification' argument, that levers of government need to find something or someone to subjugate to justify their existence, is spot on. I heard this point relating to recent police reactions to protestors in Australia.

Two Prosecutors is soporific and predictable, but if you can give over to the slow burn, it's a solid piece of protest cinema, relevant to today's political climate.

This is only screening for two nights at UWA Somerville for the Perth Festival - Thu Feb 19th and Fri Feb 20th.

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I got some memories of Terry Gilliam's Brazil (1985) while watching this, and Armando Iannucci's excellent The Death of Stalin (2017) shows that the end eventually arrives.

The Voice of Hind Rajab

2026-02-13T22:45:00.002+08:00

The Voice of Hind Rajab is a very confronting film that uses real emergency recordings to tell the story of Hind Rajab, a 6 year old Palestinian girl trapped under siege in northern Gaza in early 2024.

Tunisian writer/director Kaouther Ben Hania apparently paused work on another film when she heard the audio of the calls between Hind and the Palestine Red Crescent Society in order to get this film made. And it's a timely reminder of the crimes of this current Israeli government.

The film starts in the offices of the Red Crescent, a West Bank based rescue agency, when Omar (Motaz Malhees) gets a call from a man in Germany explaining that his family are stuck in a car that's been attacked. Omar contacts a young woman in the car but is cut off by the sounds of gunfire. When the call is reconnected, it's soon discovered that the only person still alive in the car is a 6 year old girl, Hind.

The sole way to save her is to coordinate with the Israeli army, via the Red Cross to allow the ambulance safe passage. The tension while this bureaucracy plays out is beyond enjoyable, especially as we know this is all based on real events. Omar's emotional state begins to deteriorate, as does his relationship with his colleague Madhi (Amer Hlehel), who's trying to do things correctly. They've already lost too many rescuers.

More colleagues become involved - supervisor Rana (Saja Kilani) and counsellor Nisreen (Clara Khoury) take turns on the phone, in an attempt to comfort the child. Tempers fray, tears are shed, despair and hope run alongside one another. This whole event puts our cushy Western lives into perspective.

The film's real heft is at the end when it changes to pure documentary footage (camera phones, interviews, etc.). It suddenly hits home that these were real people and it's pretty hard to take. I don't think I've muttered 'motherfuckers' under my breath more often in a cinema.

The Voice of Hind Rajab is super important viewing. If you're not angry yet, watch this film. It's screening over three nights as part of the Perth Festival at UWA Somerville from Feb 16 to 18.

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The location reminded me of the compact Danish thriller The Guilty (2018), directed by Gustav Möller. Look, I can't come up with anything thematically comparable that I've seen. I need to see more Palestinian films.