Film Review: Quartet

Originally published in BMA magazine.

I admit, I had mixed feelings going into Quartet. Directed by Dustin Hoffman, I had mentally placed this film in the same category as last year’s The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel – which some astute readers may recall I deemed to be a little, well, racist. Don’t worry, it’s not racist. But it’s also not very challenging. 

The film is set at Beecham House – a home for retired musicians – and follows the loud-mouthed and inappropriate Wilf (Billy Connolly), flighty Cissy (Pauline Collins), and Reggie (Tom Courtenay), who holds their little group together. But when their former singing partner and world-class star – not to mention Reggie’s ex-wife – Jean (Maggie Smith) moves into the house, they are shocked. The characters must try and overcome old (not racially motivated!) prejudices, and work to discover whether the passage of time can heal old wounds.

It’s a congenial comedy-drama, which is charming at its best and slightly cloying at its worst. The pace is as sedate and leisurely as the average walking speed of the elderly cast. Quartet is heartwarming, but not hard-hitting – which is a shame, as I imagine actors like Smith could’ve done with something meatier to chew on, instead of creamed corn.

Quartet is fun, light, and features a seasoned cast of talented British veterans. It’s all very pleasant – and whether you think that sounds pleasing is a matter of personal taste.

3 stars out of 5.

Film Review: LES MISÉRABLES

Originally published in BMA magazine. 

It’s possible that this film adaptation is only going to appeal to a select group: people who don’t have particularly strong feelings in either direction regarding the stage production; people who don’t hate operas and musicals anyway; and people who can tolerate Russell Crowe. Luckily I fall into all three categories, and so quite enjoyed Les Mis!

 It is 19th century France. Ex-prisoner Jean Valjean (Hugh Jackman) has been hunted for decades by a ruthless and clearly obsessive policeman (Russell Crowe) because he broke parole. Valjean agrees to care for a dying prostitute’s (Anne Hathaway) daughter, Cosette, who grows into a beautiful young woman (Amanda Seyfried). Their lives change forever when Cosette falls in love with a revolutionary agitator, Marius (Eddie Redmayne). It’s a film of broken dreams! Blood! Passion! Redemption! Anne Hathaway dying of tuberculosis!

 Okay, so Tom Hooper (of The King’s Speech fame) gets a bit carried away with all the melodrama, and regular-ol-drama, and the swooping camera shots – but there is real emotion and power. Despite its pitfalls (e.g. Seyfried and Redmayne plaintively singing about their undying love for one another mere moments after meeting), there is enough to keep you enthralled. Jackman and Hathaway both turn in remarkable performances – and their scenes are so faultless that it seems unfair to concentrate on the flaws of the film otherwise.

 It’s cheesy, yes. But it’s French. You’ve got to forgive a little cheese.

3.5 stars out of 5.

Film Review: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

Originally published in BMA magazine. 

The Hobbit is exactly what you expect it’s going to be – unless you hadn’t yet heard that Tolkien’s rather slender children’s classic was being adapted into three (yes, three!) films instead of one, in which case you’ll be all, ‘Dude, what the fuck? That’s the end? They haven’t even [INSERT SPOILERS HERE] yet!’

Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) leads a safe, small, Hobbit-like life – until he is unexpectedly recruited by Gandalf the Grey (Ian McKellen) to join a troupe of thirteen dwarves led by legendary warrior Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage), on an epic quest to reclaim the lost Dwarf kingdom of Erebor, which was long ago conquered by the dragon Smaug.

Peter Jackson’s – and our – return to Middle-earth is visually resplendent. The art direction is delightful; the cinematography stunning; the lush, green landscapes glorious. The ensemble cast of oddball dwarves, mismatched against Martin Freeman’s prudish and proper Bilbo Baggins, make for a few entertaining scenes. But this is not enough to hide that The Hobbit is a story stretched too thin. Even the addition of innumerable repetitive and pointless action sequences (though thankfully not as many as were featured in Jackson’s outrageously indulgent King Kong) cannot improve the pacing. The film stagnates, and the slowness robs the material of its magic.

 The Hobbit may not be bad. But it is very, very disappointing.

3 stars out of 5.

Top 10 Films of 2012

Originally published in BMA magazine. 

Okay, okay. So. The Dark Knight Rises isn’t on this list. Nor is Skyfall. Nor is Argo. Nor is Prometheus. And there’s a veritable smorgasbord of films that won’t be released until after my deadline (like, you know, this little film called The Hobbit), which could be truly exceptional. But, I’ll be honest, those films didn’t do it for me. As far as I’m concerned, 2012 was the year of the independent release. The year of the struggling-to-pull-funding-together-and-starring-mostly-unknowns film. Or the kind-of-difficult-but-beautiful film. It’s in films like these that you are afforded an opportunity to see just how phenomenal some actors are (cough, Michael Fassbender in Shame, cough) when they are required to carry an entire movie; with the barest of facial expressions, conveying the most subtle of emotions. Or you realise the kind of beautiful filmmaking that can be accomplished when the tethers to reality – both in terms of what Hollywood thinks people ‘want’ to see and in terms of the film itself – are cut completely, as in Beasts of the Southern Wild. (Honourable mentions go to Your Sister’s Sister, Weekend, Room 237 and Young Adult. Oh, and The Hunger Games. Not even kidding.)

10. The Intouchables

The Intouchables broke box office records in France and across Europe and may be one of the most popular foreign films in Australia since Amélie. Based on a true story, The Intouchables charts the friendship between the millionaire Phillipe (Francois Cluzet), who is paralysed from the neck down, and the ex-criminal Driss (Omar Sy), who he hires to be his carer. The performances from Cluzet and Sy are phenomenal and their chemistry wholly believable. This film was sweet and sentimental and didn’t make me want to fake retch for comedic effect. No mean feat.

9. Safety Not Guaranteed

Safety Not Guaranteed begins with a mysterious advertisement in a newspaper. ‘WANTED: Someone to go back in time with me.’ Starring Jake Johnson, Aubrey Plaza, Karan Soni and Mark Duplass, this is a film about love and regret. It’s sweet and clever, with a genuine pathos to counterbalance the comedy. Although it sounds too twee to appeal to either hipsters or mainstream audience, there is actually something here for both counterculture kids and multiplex viewers. There is always a place for real heart on the big screen.

8. The Cabin in the Woods

Directed by Drew Goddard and from a writing team that features Joss Whedon, The Cabin in the Woods is a horror film about horror films. A group of five kids are sent to a mysterious cabin in the woods, through a series of clichéd circumstances beyond their control, and, once there, the film descends into madness. It’s more meta than an episode of 30 Rock directed by Quentin Tarantino. It’s funny, strange, and scary – most frequently simultaneously – and always surprising. There is no higher praise than that.

7. Shame

Where was Michael Fassbender not in 2012? Although he also starred in Prometheus and A Dangerous Method, the most compelling of his films was definitely Shame. A film about sex addiction, it followed Brandon (Fassbender), a man living in isolation in New York, whose carefully controlled existence begins to unravel when his younger sister (Carey Mulligan) comes to stay. For a film in which you get to see Fassbender’s penis, Shame is more harrowing and haunting than tantalising or titillating. The cinematography is stunning, but this is a film designed to make audiences uncomfortable.

6. Carnage

Based on the stage play by Yasmina Reza, Carnage is a compelling, amusing film that shows how childish adults can be, starring Jodie Foster, Christoph Waltz, Kate Winslet and John C. Reilly – all of whom turn in fantastic performances and look like they’re having a lot of fun while they’re at it. It is simultaneously wickedly dark and funny and, although director Roman Polanski can’t claim credit for the script, that is what makes it one of the year’s best. Carnage is a short, sharp and biting feast. It’s absolutely vicious.

5. Looper 

Looper is smart and slick sci-fi, thought-provoking as well as thrilling. In a future world where time travel has been invented, the life of a young man (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) spins wildly out of control when he is ordered by the mob to kill his future self (Bruce Willis). It’s got good old-fashioned action combined with an uncommonly smart script and is a lot darker and more mind-bending than most films in the genre. Bruce Willis is Bruce Willis as always and Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Bruce Willis is astonishing.

4. The Artist

Released all the way back in February, The Artist has already received numerous accolades (um, it won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture), but I couldn’t resist giving it the greatest honour of all: a place on this film critic’s Top 10 list. Tongue firmly in cheek. For those of you who missed it, The Artist is a clever, charming and crowd-pleasing tribute to the era of silent cinema. It’s pure artistry with visual style to spare and the cinematography shows just how much can be done with two tones. Unspeakably clever and joyous.

3. Beasts of the Southern Wild

Beasts of the Southern Wild is a surreal, magic realist dream and nightmare in equal measure. Set in the bayou community of ‘The Bathtub,’ a six-year-old girl called Hushpuppy (the stunning Quvenzhane Wallis) must face her father’s fading health as melting ice caps begin to flood her ramshackle community. The film is a fantastical, emotionally powerful journey that always has compassion for its flawed characters. It’s an ambitious ‘Apocalyptic Southern Gothic’ and incredibly tender. It is a film that shows why imagination is more valuable than money.

2. Moonrise Kingdom

Wes is back! Moonrise Kingdom told the simple story of two 12-year-olds in love. Sam (Jared Gilman) and Suzy (Kara Hayward) make a secret pact to run away into the wilderness together, but they are thwarted at every turn. A warm, whimsical and poignant film, with the usual all-indie-star Anderson cast, MoonriseKingdom is Wes at his most idiosyncratic. It is a film that could charm children and adults in equal measure, because there is sorrow intermingled with the sweetness, regret with the love. Completely charming and enchanting.

1. The Avengers

The Avengers may just be the greatest superhero movie of all time. And that’s not even a hyperbole. Written and directed by geek-saviour Joss Whedon, the film raises the movie-making bar for Marvel and does more than meet expectations – it surpasses them. Bringing together Iron Man, Captain America, the Hulk (in the first time he has ever been tolerable on the silver screen), Thor, Black Widow and Hawkeye, the film was very funny, genuinely affecting and featured impeccably choreographed fight sequences. As multifaceted a film as the superhero team it features.

What were your favourite films of the year?

Film Review: Breaking Dawn Part 2

Originally published in BMA magazine. 

Finally, after years of laughter and tears and torture, The Twilight Saga draws to close with Breaking Dawn: Part 2. The promo for the film insists that, ‘The astonishing conclusion to the series… illuminates the secrets and mysteries of this spellbinding romantic epic that has entranced millions.’ Aha ha! Ha ha!

Okay, okay. Tears of laughter aside, this is definitely the most entertaining film in the franchise since the first instalment. It features an actual action sequence and this is also the only film in the series where Bella does more than simper and gaze adoringly at Edward.

In this film, Bella (Kristen Stewart) is now a vampire and married to Edward (Robert Pattinson). Jacob (Taylor Lautner) has ‘imprinted’ on their hilariously CGI’d baby (the film glosses over the connotations of pedophilia). But trouble is afoot and an evil vampire clan – the Volturi – are coming to steal the immortal child away.

But saying this is the best film in the franchise is like saying that projectile vomiting is better than explosive diarrhea – both are pretty awful. The film is incapable of rising above its frankly anti-feminist and unashamedly pro-Mormon origins and this time doesn’t even have the pseudo-hipster soundtrack to distract the audience from realising that nothing ever happens.

But, you know, the most insipid vampires ever created are back on the big screen. You’d be crazy to miss this clusterfuck.

2 stars out of 5. 

Film Review: Skyfall

Originally published in BMA magazine. 

After the disappointment of Quantum of Solace, Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Revolutionary Road) brings Bond surging back onto the big screen with Skyfall. This is smarter than many Bond films (especially the ones starring Pierce Brosnan), as sexy as ever (and, again, still sexier than the Brosnan films) and the most human interpretation of Bond to date.

In Skyfall, Bond’s (Daniel Craig) loyalty to M (Judi Dench) is tested when MI6 comes under attack – and it’s because somebody from M’s past is back to haunt her. For a James Bond film, it’s surprisingly meta. This is a film about the old versus the new ways of doing things; traditional espionage versus the world of cyber-crime and hacking that constitutes modern terrorism. Skyfall demonstrates a self-awareness about Bond conventions: when Q (Ben Whishaw) gives Bond a gun and nothing more as he sets off on a mission, the quartermaster notes, ‘What did you expect, an exploding pen? We don’t really go in for that sort of thing anymore.’

In this film we are also given glimpses into Bond’s past, which explain how he became the womanising, emotionally unattached, troubled character that we see in the Craig reboot. It may not be the best Bond film of all time, as some critics are claiming, but it is certainly the most poignant.

Oh, and don’t worry – there are some actions sequences and stuff. And a martini.

3.5 stars out of 5. 

Film Review: Bachelorette

Originally published in BMA magazine. 

Bachelorette follows three bitchy, snarky, very real women (Kirsten Dunst, Lizzy Caplan and Isla Fisher) who are asked to be bridesmaids at the wedding of one of their high school friends, played by Rebel Wilson. Rebel’s character, Becky, was the overweight, kind of uncool member of the group in high school (so obviously actually the best) and her wedding sends the other three into a tailspin as they wonder why their lives haven’t worked out as they planned. Dunst is the uptight bitch of the group; Caplan (Janis ‘Your mum’s chest hair!’ Ian from Mean Girls) plays the alternative, messed-up one; and Fisher is the ditz.

So, Bachelorette gives us a trio of unlikable stereotypes for our protagonists – and yet I loved this film. Perhaps because beneath the shine and the sharp one-liners it has a darker side. Perhaps because people – not just women – can be bitches, and this film doesn’t shy away from complex characters. Perhaps because it’s not afraid to explore the dynamics of long-term female friendships and the ugliness and neuroses and insecurities involved.

Ultimately, there is a heart beneath the bracingly honest bitchiness and there is still a sentimental ending, as well as some laugh-out-loud moments.

Bachelorette will obviously draw comparisons to Bridesmaids – but it’s a whole lot darker than the Kristen Wiig comedy and the characters a whole lot bitchier.

3.5 stars out of 5