Tag: Hugo Weaving

Review: Lone Wolf

If there’s two things that continue to adapt to our modern age, it’s surveillance techniques and Joseph Conrad novels. Jonathan Ogilvie, who we last saw behind the camera on 2008’s The Tender Hook, combines the two in an intriguing mystery set in Melbourne’s not-too-distance future.

In the film, loosely based on The Secret Agent, an enigmatic Police Minister (Hugo Weaving) is asked to review some surveillance footage of Winnie (Tilda Cobham-Hervey), an adult book store clerk tied to some potentially shady dealings with Conrad (Josh McConville). Thanks to her disabled younger brother Stevie (Chris Bunton) continuously filming on his phone, and the many cameras around Melbourne, there’s ample stock to construct a case.

Ogilvie reportedly spent five years developing LONE WOLF, and it’s clear that a lot of love has gone into this production. Originally conceived as a 2D/VR hybrid set in Sydney, it was decided to roll back to traditional 2D only following several tests. This part of the development is evident in the final cut, as the camera spends a long time on street corners or locations as establishing shots.

Which might be where the film loses some momentum. Ogilvie’s primary aim with this film was to build a narrative out of surveillance footage, sort of a fictionalised version of what Dragonfly Eyes did with real footage a few years back. You can totally imagine standing inside this VR world and looking at things unfold, much the way that short films like Bloodless left you feeling voyeuristic and complicit in a crime. However, by the end some of the lengthy cutaways tend to muddle the plot a little bit.

Yet thanks to some slick photography and a solid cast, Ogilvie’s film remains mostly engaging throughout. Coming off the back of I Am Woman, Cobham-Hervey is every ice queen that’s ever worked a book/record store. Ogilvie’s commitment to casting an actor with a disability in the part of Stevie pays off in Bunton, a young actor who already impressed audiences in last year’s Relic. Weaving doesn’t so much phone it in as Skype it, but he and associate Stephen Curry are welcome screen presences.

Although ultimately debuting at the International Film Festival Rotterdam, LONE WOLF was made under the auspices of the MIFF Premiere Fund. The themes of threatening surveillance are universal, but it will be interesting to see how this plays with audiences more familiar with the city. Meanwhile, Ogilvie’s next film is reportedly Head South, set during the New Zealand post punk scene of the late 1970s.

2021 | Australia | DIRECTOR: Jonathan Ogilvie | WRITER: Jonathan Ogilvie | CAST: Hugo Weaving, Tilda Cobham-Hervey, Chris Bunton, Marlon Williams, Diana Glenn, Josh McConville, Stephen Curry| DISTRIBUTOR: Future Pictures/Level K, International Film Festival Rotterdam | RUNNING TIME: 100 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 1-7 February 2021 (NL)

February 9, 2021
Review: Hearts and Bones

Director Ben Lawrence won the Australian Documentary Award at the Sydney Film Festival last year, and his debut feature follows a year later at the same festival. Finished only four weeks before its debut, HEARTS AND BONES is a very Sydney-based picture.

Lawrence’s script is one of those ones you think you’ve got pegged from the start: war-torn photographer Daniel Fisher (Hugo Weaving) temporarily finds a reason to stop travelling when he befriends South Sudanese refugee, Sebastian Ahmed (Andrew Luri), a taxi driver who has a community choir.

Certain expectations come when a mismatched duo from different worlds come together on screen. Yet Lawrence manages to imbue his characters with a complexity that defies at least some of the conventions of the genre. Weaving’s Daniel Fisher suffers from PTSD, gained from repeatedly throwing himself into dangerous situations to avoid anything more complicated with his longtime partner Josie (Hayley McElhinney).

The leads make a comfortable partnership, especially given the disparity in acting experience. The veteran Weaving carries a world-weariness to him that won’t easily wash out, and his past traumas slowly roll out as the film progresses. Luri, in his debut feature, was driving a garbage truck in Melbourne when he auditioned for the role. A Sudanese-Australian who came to Australia 15 years ago, he brings both authenticity and pathos to his scenes.

In both of the female leads, McElhinney and Sebastian’s wife Anishka (in a quietly accomplished performance by Bolude Watson), we have forces that refuses to let their partners cop out of living, even as past demons threaten to engulf them. If anything, it would have been great to see more of both of them, especially given that their respective traumas make them far more intricate than their handful of scenes together would indicate.

Lawrence’s film tackles a lot of big issues, narrowly skirting away from the “white saviour” narrative by addressing some of the problems the industry of “misery porn” creates for the victims of war and terror. It also largely avoids the saccharine ending, almost forgetting about the feelgood nature of the choir narrative, until the very end. If nothing else, it’s a reminder that healing from trauma is not a one-step event but a process that involves an entire community.

2019 | Australia | DIRECTOR: Ben Lawrence | WRITER: Ben Lawrence, Beatrix Christian| CAST: Hugo Weaving, Andrew Luri, Hayley McElhinney, Bolude Watson | DISTRIBUTOR: Madman Entertainment| RUNNING TIME: 107 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 15-17 June 2019 (SFF)

June 20, 2019
Review: Mortal Engines

Peter Jackson may not have directed MORTAL ENGINES but his fingerprints are all over it. It has been on the cards at his WingNut Films since 2009, but the planned production of The Dambusters and The Hobbit trilogy pushed it back on the agenda. Having worked with Jackson since 1992’s Braindead, director Christian Rivers steps out of the second unit to deliver something that’s on par with the scale of his mentor’s work.

Based on the first novel by Philip Reeve, the Lord of the Rings screenwriting team of Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, and Peter Jackson do their thing by taking the solid bones of its structure expanding the world and placing it all in context. Eons after the 60-Minute War, the Earth is a wasteland. Massive traction cities roam the globe, literally ingesting smaller cities for survival in a philosophy called ‘Municipal Darwinism.’

Young Tom (Robert Sheehan) is low-class apprentice historian who has only ever lived in the travelling city of London. A burgeoning friendship with elite citizen Katherine Valentine (Lila George) is cut short when an assassination attempt is made on her father Thaddeus Valentine (Hugo Weaving). Tom and assassin Hester Shaw (Hera Hilmar) soon find themselves on the run in the remnants of the Earth searching for a McGuffin.

Fans of Reeve’s original quartet and prequel series will find a fair bit of joy in seeing the author’s creative vision come to life in such an impressive way, and there will be times when you’re swept away with the spectacle of it all. It’s just that it’s also such a mish-mash of ideas and references to other films and tropes that you are always conscious that you are watching a movie. An early appearance of Universal’s ubiquitous Minions leaves a taste in our mouths as bad as the millennia-old Twinkies that show up sometime later.

Which isn’t to say there’s no fun to be had: it’s visually stunning, and Rivers/Jackson know how to stage a film in a grand arena. An early chase through a town as it’s being dissected by London is as inventive as it is thrilling. The bright-red resistance airship flown by fan-favourite Anna Fang (Jihae) is the Millennium Falcon of the picture, and becomes a character in itself. It all builds to a massive battle sequence that looks like a high-tech version of something out of The Two Towers or The Battle of the Five Armies.

It’s a shame then that the principal leads of Hilmar and Sheehan have virtually no chemistry. It would have been far more interesting to follow the sub-plot about Katherine and the completely undeveloped Bevis Pod (Ronan Raftery), who were the true stars of this vehicle. The appearance of Shrike (Stephen Lang), an undead cyborg hunting Hester, feels like one plot line too many, although the writing team at least manage to imbue him with a modicum of empathy. Hugo Weaving doesn’t encounter a piece of scenery he doesn’t find delicious, and even gets his own Darth Vader moment in the climax.

So if Municipal Darwinism is the act of cities eating other cities, then MORTAL ENGINES has swallowed other films whole and recycled them for parts. At the same time, it also feels like a final package: and if there are to be sequels, the film doesn’t necessarily point the way there. There’s a solid adventure story at the centre of this adaptation, but it spends so much time swirling around its own gutsy innards that it’s sometimes hard to digest.

[stextbox id=”grey” bgcolor=”F2F2F2″ mleft=”5″ mright=”5″ image=”null”]2018 | US | DIR: Christian Rivers | WRITERS: Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Peter Jackson | CAST: Hugo Weaving, Hera Hilmar, Robert Sheehan, Jihae, Ronan Raftery, Leila George, Patrick Malahide, Stephen Lang | RUNNING TIME: 128 minutes | DISTRIBUTOR: Universal Pictures (AUS) | RELEASE DATE: 6 December 2018 (AUS), 14 December 2018 (US)[/stextbox]

December 8, 2018
‘Lone Wolf’: VR feature announced for Hugo Weaving, Tilda Cobham Hervey

Jonathan Ogilvie with script

Touted as the world’s first dramatic VR feature, Hugo Weaving and Tilda Cobham Hervey will star in LONE WOLF, a 2D and VR feature adapted by writer/director Jonathan Ogilvie (The Tender Hook, Jet Set, Emulsion) from Joseph Conrad’s 1907 novel The Secret Agent. The film is set to go into production later this year, with an Australian release slated for 2019.

Ogilvie updates Conrad’s story to contemporary Sydney, Australia, in a world of constant surveillance and the imminent threat of terrorism. An absurdist cautionary tale, LONE WOLF will “explore issues of fanaticism in the form of terrorism and anarchy.” Winnie (Tilda Cobham-Harvey) lives with her disabled younger brother Stevie and boyfriend Verloc behind a political bookshop. Verloc, a founding member of an anarchist cell and a police informant, receives a lucrative proposal to commit an act of destruction – an attack on the iconic Sydney Opera House. Hugo Weaving will play the Police Minister who is implicated in the conspiracy.

While no casting has been announced for the role of Stevie, the production is committed to casting an actor with a disability for the part. “Casting a non-disabled actor in a disabled role may have won Oscars in past but in the quest for diversity and authenticity on screen it is time to identify this practice for what it is – the equivalent of performing in ‘black-face’,” Ogilvie says.

The production website also speaks about the timely nature of surveillance in contemporary discourse, using the term ‘cineveillant’ to describe their approach to making films. “Cineveillant films employ the grammar of surveillance as more than just Hollywood spectacle. They explore the societal and psychological implications of being watched.”

Label Distribution will handle the local release, while Level K is looking after the rest of the world.

May 31, 2018
Review: Jasper Jones

The films and television work of Rachel Perkins have ensured a strong representation of Indigenous Australian voices in the media over the last decade or so. Mabo and The First Australians both documented the legacy of European contact and colonisation, while musical comedy Bran Nue Dae was a self-assured celebration filtered through a kitschy retro vibe.

JASPER JONES, an adaptation of Craig Silvey’s novel, sits somewhere between these two as a powerful coming-of-age drama with a lot to say about race in Australia. Set in the mining town of Corrigan in Western Australia in the late 1960s, 13-year-old Charlie Bucktin (Levi Miller) has a nocturnal visit by fellow teen Jasper Jones (Aaron McGrath), a social outcast due to his mixed Anglo-Aboriginal heritage. Confronted with a shocking discovery, the pair must navigate a web of secrets and lies as the town turns itself inside-out in the coming days.

On the surface, JASPER JONES can be viewed as a localised spin on the coming-of-age adventures that mirror the American picaresque adventures of Tom Sawyer. Yet at the core of the narrative is deep examination of race in Australia, from the Vietnam War era treatment of the family of Jeffrey Liu (Kevin Long), Charlie’s best friend, to the automatic suspicion and abuse in custody of the titular Jasper Jones. Here it becomes more akin to To Kill a Mockingbird, with Charlie’s dad (Dan Wyllie) an Atticus Finch type without the resolve.

Mark Wareham’s stellar photography often lurks in dimly lit locales, providing genuine shocks and warm summer moments in equal measure. Selling this conceit are the wonderful characters that populate Corrigan, each with their own concealed truths. Toni Collete’s mother character is a villain of sorts, at least from the perspective of young Charlie, but her performance (like all things in a young boy’s mind) is magnified. Similarly, Hugo Weaving looms large as Mad Jack Lionel, the ultimate small-town outsider whose legend is bigger than his tragic past.

Yet its Miller and McGrath, the latter in his debut feature, who make the film their own in the midst of massive star talent. The friendship that forms between Jasper and Charlie is in spite of these cultural norms, providing a guiding light in a film that goes to some very dark places. Coupled with a charming turn from The Nice Guys‘ Angourie Rice, it’s a true youth ensemble that recalls the great childhood adventures you never had. Not just a great adaptation, but one of the best and most heartfelt Australian films of the last decade.

[stextbox id=”grey” bgcolor=”F2F2F2″ mleft=”5″ mright=”5″ image=”null”]2017 | Australia | DIR: Rachel Perkins | WRITER: Shaun Grant, Craig Silvey | CAST: Levi Miller, Aaron McGrath, Angourie Rice, Dan Wyllie, Toni Collette, Hugo Weaving | DISTRIBUTOR: Madman Entertainment | RUNNING TIME: 105 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 2 March 2017 (AUS) [/stextbox]

February 21, 2017
Review: Hacksaw Ridge

This review began its life very differently, as a reflection on gun violence and a pulse-check of the conscious of a country. Yet so much has happened in the last week, with an historic US election that has divided a world and given us all pause for thought. HACKSAW RIDGE explores the notion of personal conviction, and how the strength of an individual’s will can influence the collective unit. Tied up with director Mel Gibson‘s intense Christianity, it is hard not to see the darker side of the neo-conservative moment running through this film as well, one where violence and a idealistic view of America’s past is wrapped up in a complicated bundle.

The heroism of the real-world Medal of Honor recipient Desmond Doss (portrayed here by Andrew Garfield) is unquestionable and well documented, so it’s somewhat ironic that the strongest elements of the film are the pre-war development of Doss’ credo. A childhood fight with his brother reinforces his view that “Thou Shalt Not Kill.” Yet a chance encounter not only leads him to the love of his life, Dorothy Schutte (Teresa Palmer), but a determination to serve his country as a healer. He enlists in the US Army, and despite the tough-as-nails drill sergeant (Vince Vaughn) and bullying colleagues, he holds true to his Seventh-Day Adventist beliefs in not carrying a weapon. This part of the film is a straight biopic, and one that is told with equal amounts of sweetness, sincerity and grim determination.

When the film shifts gears into the wartime scenes, the transition is both jarring and shockingly violent. This is clearly intentional to showcase the consequences of war, but the hyper-reality of Gibson’s trademark bloodiness borders on its glorification. Nevertheless, Gibson wields it with scalpel-like precision, even if it is one of the blunter tools on his belt. Limbs go flying, the splattered remains of humans cover the fields next to the titular ridge, and rats gnaw their way through the remains of the fallen. Which is why it is difficult to view HACKSAW RIDGE as “anti” anything: not guns, not violence, nor even war.

Rather, the film is “pro” the sorts of things that one would typically associate with Gibson’s body of work: overt Christianity, and an unwavering adherence to personal doctrine. These are overwhelmingly positive attributes to the film, and as we watch Doss carry scores of soldiers to relative safety, only the most cynical of viewers could possibly view this as anything less than inspirational. Potentially complicating things is the depiction of the Japanese as faceless and demonic, set up as the ruthless antithesis of all that is good about Doss. Which is where the uglier side of film’s message could lead us, to a situation where these same heroic achievements are necessarily accompanied by a fear of the ‘other’ that runs deeper than wartime enemies. This naturally leads us to ponder the parallels with our contemporary mixed messages about patriotism and border protection.

Garfield gives one of his most compelling performances in years, overcoming the infamy of his Spider-Man portrayal to give us a down-to-Earth Doss. He might be a big cornball, but he is also impossibly likable as well. The most interesting relationship in the film is the one he has with his veteran father (Hugo Weaving), another broken source of violence in Desmond’s life, and an additional catalyst for the younger Doss’ non-violent stand. Simon Duggan’s photography is the other star of the film, making sense of the chaos in the same way that Janusz Kamiński did with Saving Private Ryan. Gibson’s film is, at the very least, a technical triumph of sound, vision and fury, enveloping the viewer in the gore of war.

At the time of writing it is Remembrance Day (or Veterans Day in the US), a recognition of the lives lost in the First World War, another event that looms large in HACKSAW RIDGE. It is absolutely essential that we continue to mark those who sacrificed their lives in service of their country, but also just as important to not let a misremembrance of things past guide our current decisions. In this darkening hour, Gibson’s missive is unapologetic in its optimism, and as we watch the powerful coda featuring interview footage with the actual Doss and his contemporaries, lest we forget the price of liberty.

[stextbox id=”grey” bgcolor=”F2F2F2″ mleft=”5″ mright=”5″ image=”null”]2016 | US, Australia | DIR: Mel Gibson | WRITERS: Andrew Knight, Robert Schenkkan | CAST: Andrew Garfield, Sam Worthington, Luke Bracey, Teresa Palmer, Hugo Weaving, Rachel Griffiths, Vince Vaughn | DISTRIBUTOR: Icon Films (AUS)| RUNNING TIME: 131 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 3 November 2016 (AUS), 4 November 2016 (US) [/stextbox]

November 11, 2016
SFF 2015 Review: Strangerland

A gripping Australian drama that sees Nicole Kidman return to the local indie screen.

Documentarian Kim Farrant’s debut feature film might recall elements of Nicolas Roeg’s Walkabout, in that both focus on children lost in the Australian outback, the similarities end there. STRANGERLAND focuses on parents Catherine (Nicole Kidman) and Matthew Parker (Joseph Fiennes), who have moved with their children Steve and Lily to the remote township of Nathgari. The marriage is a loveless one, fractured by some former scandal involving Lily that is only hinted at initially. When the children go missing, secrets emerge with the involvement of Detective David Rae (Hugo Weaving), uncovering the skeletons in their closets.

Resolutions don’t come easy in STRANGERLAND, but it is nevertheless a gripping film from start to finish. Against some gorgeous photography by P.J. Dillon (recently of TV’s Vikings), the leads work with a lightly scripted film, where it is more about visceral reaction than subtle character development. Kidman gives one of her finer performances as she descends into anguish, surprising us several times along the way with emotional, sexual and sometimes violent outbursts. Fiennes is restrained as the pharmacist husband, who exhibits an indifference that is equal parts frustrating and understated stoicism. Of particular note is Meyne Wyatt (Neighbours), who has a award-worthy performance as the intellectually disabled Bertie. There are certainly elements that don’t entirely work, including some tacked on rainbow serpent spiritualism in the back half of the film that strives for Picnic at Hanging Rock mystery. It’s a plot thread that seems redundant by the end, but it doesn’t detract from the emotionally raw and captivating journey this film takes us on.

2015 | Australia/Ireland | Dir: Kim Farrant | Writers: Fiona Seres, Michael Kinirons | Cast: Nicole Kidman, Joseph Fiennes, Hugo Weaving, Sean Keenan, Maddison Brown | Distributor: Transmission Films | Running time: 112 minutes | Rating:★★★★½ (9/10)

June 10, 2015
First look at ‘The Turning’ trailer and poster

Madman Films and CinemaPlus have revealed a first look at the film adaptation of Tim Winton’s best-selling novel The Turning, consists of 17 chapters that each features a different director and stellar cast. Under the guidance of curator Robert Connolly (Balibo), first time filmmakers Mia Wasikowska and David Wenham make their directorial debut amongst acclaimed directors such as Warwick Thornton and Justin Kurzel.

Australian talent starring in the film includes Rose Byrne, Hugo Weaving, Cate Blanchett, Miranda Otto, Brenna Harding, Richard Roxburgh, Callan Mulvey, Dan Wyllie, Oscar Redding, Robyn Nevin, Susie Porter, Wayne Blair, Mirrah Foulkes and numerous others.

The Turning is a unique cinema event. Seventeen talented Australian directors from diverse artistic disciplines each create a chapter of the hauntingly beautiful novel by multi award-winning author Tim Winton. The linking and overlapping stories explore the extraordinary turning points in ordinary people’s lives in a stunning portrait of a small coastal community. As characters face second thoughts and regret, relationships irretrievably alter, resolves are made or broken, and lives change direction forever. This watershed film reinterprets and re-imagines the work for the screen.

July 1, 2013
Epic New Trailer, Director’s Commentary and Poster for Cloud Atlas

The first look at Andy and Lana Wachowski and Tom Tykwer’s Cloud Atlas, adapted from David Mitchell’s novel of the same name, is online as a whopping 5-minute international trailer. It stars Tom Hanks, Hugh Grant, Halle Berry, Hugo Weaving, Ben Whishaw, Susan Sarandon, Jim Broadbent, Bae Doona and James D’Arcy, all in multiple roles.

According to the back of the book, a reluctant voyager crossing the Pacific in 1850; a disinherited composer blagging a precarious livelihood in between-the-wars Belgium; a high-minded journalist in Governor Reagan’s California; a vanity publisher fleeing his gangland creditors; a genetically modified “dinery server” on death-row; and Zachry, a young Pacific Islander witnessing the nightfall of science and civilisation — the narrators of Cloud Atlas hear each other’s echoes down the corridor of history, and their destinies are changed in ways great and small.

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July 26, 2012
The trailer and poster for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey arrives

It what is possibly a record week for trailers, Warner Bros. Pictures and iTunes Trailers has unveiled the first official trailer and poster for Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.

This instantly has our joy buzzers set to maximum, with a very familiar looking world back in the hands of the same team who brought it to the big screen almost a decade ago. Some familiar faces, and many new, just try and not get a fanboy tingle while watching this.

Synopsis: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey follows title character Bilbo Baggins, who is swept into an epic quest to reclaim the lost Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor, which was long ago conquered by the dragon Smaug. Approached out of the blue by the wizard Gandalf the Grey, Bilbo finds himself joining a company of thirteen dwarves led by the legendary warrior, Thorin Oakensheild. Their journey will take them into the Wild; through treacherous lands swarming with Goblins and Orcs, deadly Wargs and Giant Spiders, Shapeshifters and Sorcerers. Although their goal lies to the East and the wastelands of the Lonely Mountain first they must escape the goblin tunnels, where Bilbo meets the creature that will change his life forever … Gollum. Here, alone with Gollum, on the shores of an underground lake, the unassuming Bilbo Baggins not only discovers depths ofguile and courage that surprise even him, he also gains possession of Gollum’s “precious” ring that holds unexpected and useful qualities … A simple, gold ring that is tied to the fate of all Middle-earth in ways Bilbo cannot begin to know.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is released on 26 December 2012 in Australia from Roadshow.

December 21, 2011