A number of years ago, the Adelaide Film Festival ranked in Variety‘s Top 50 unmissable film festivals, and it retains it’s ‘must see’ status to this day.
For lovers of Australian film in particular, ADLFF has always been a launching pad for some of the biggest premieres in the country, as film lovers, critics, and a who’s who of industry gather in the GU Filmhouse and the West End surrounds for a celebration of film and the culture that spawned it.
This year’s massive debuts included the award-winning SWEET COUNTRY, largely tipped for Oscars and more next year, and the zombie film CARGO.
Here we capsule review almost 30 films from ADLFF, but follow the links to full reviews and check out our full coverage of the festival at our 2017 Adelaide Film Festival portal.
★★★★½ – Super Highly Recommended
SWEET COUNTRY: A phenomenal western drama mixed with a legal procedural that searches through Australia’s past to find which one of the many shades of justice will lead us to reconciliation in the future. Like Warwick Thorton’s documentary We Don’t Need a Map from earlier this year, it looks to Australia’s past to ponder the future. It’s not always an optimistic portrait either, with the extreme prejudice of the town still alarmingly alive in modern Australia. Full Review >>
THE FLORIDA PROJECT: Director Sean Baker has described his story as a “modern day Our Gang,” name-checking a parallel to the comedy shorts where poverty stricken children ruled the streets during the Depression. His film focuses mostly on children living in similar circumstances almost a century later, and their meaningless pastimes form most of the action. A lyrical, intense, superbly shot and impeccably cast study of life on the fringes that mesmerises while taking you through the entire emotional spectrum. A must see. Full Review >>
WONDERSTRUCK:A masterclass in visual storytelling, a love letter to cinema, and other hyperbolic catchphrases apply to Todd Haynes’ stunning adaptation of Brian Selznick’s illustrated novel. It’s rare that an adaptation can match the visual and emotional beauty of the source material, and with WONDERSTRUCK we have a rare beast that does both. Full Review >>
A FANTASTIC WOMAN: The basic premise, that a waitress/singer is struggling to recover from the death of her boyfriend, comes with the added dramatic powerhouse of tackling grief and prejudice in one of the most accomplished turns in a serious drama film. Fantastic performances. Fantastic script. Fantastic.
THE SQUARE: “If you put something in a museum, does it make it art?” Ruben Östlund’s film is sharp, satirical, and hyper aware of itself. A true gem and worth the accolades. Some may struggle with the back half of the film, where the narrative takes a darker and more somber turn. The ‘ape’ scene is both hilarious and uncomfortable, which is probably the best description of the film in its totality.
MY LIFE AS A ZUCCHINI: From the opening frames of striking stop-motion to the emotional finale, director Claude Barras and his story team pack a lot of complexity into a short running time. These come across as real kids dealing with the weight of real emotions, from abandonment to depression and simple joys. Wonderful.
★★★★ – Highly Recommended
CARGO: Adapting their own Tropfest short of the same name, the feature film introduces us to Andy (Martin Freeman) and Kay (Susie Porter) and their daughter Rosie, surviving on a houseboat in the wake of a pandemic. When tragedy strikes, Andy has less than 48 hours to find a suitable caretaker for Rosie before he too succumbs to the virus. A terrific spin on the ‘zombie’ movie, weaving traditional Aboriginal narratives into an unforgiving landscape for an experience that’s truly unique. Full Review >>
ARRHYTHMIA: From Russia’s Boris Khlebnikov comes an intense and personal account of a relationship struggling to stay alive under the weight of itself, mixed in with the backdrop of a health care system on life support. The two make for a happy marriage, which is more than can be said for the leads: even if we are kind of rooting for them.
HAPPY END: It’s a Michael Haneke film, so don’t trust the title. Drawing on references to the filmmaker’s career to date, the Austrian director tackles the European refugee crisis in an inimitable fashion. This may not be Haneke’s most shocking, or even his most satirical to date, but it’s still a showcase of a master still working at the top of his game after four decades. Full Review >>
ON BODY AND SOUL: A beautiful and deeply contemplative study on the meaning of connection, and those two things that are up there in the title. Alexandra Borbély’s amazingly restrained performance plays off against the visible anguish of Géza Morcsányi. Such a powerful ending, a a deserved winner of this year’s Official Competition at the Sydney Film Festival.
BLOODLESS: Director Gina Kim sets her film in around the camp town sex workers for US army stationed in South Korea since the 1950s. The short film places us on those streets, where Kim brings us an interpretation of the true events surrounding the death of a sex worker at the hands of a US soldier at the Dongducheon Camptown in 1992. Blending technology with voyeurism to subvert the male gaze, this VR short makes a strong point violence against women while thoroughly immersing the viewer in something akin to a horror story. Full Review >>
★★★½ – Better Than Average Bear
BLADE OF THE IMMORTAL: For Takeshi Miike’s 100th film, the body count might just be the highest as well. While it gets a little episodic in the middle, it builds to a suitably bloody conclusion. Full Review >>
CALL ME BY YOUR NAME: A competently told love story of sorts that improves on the book slightly, but it is still saddled with unlikable and neurotic lead. That said, others have called him ‘adorable’ and perhaps the blackness that has always threatened to consume our hearts has given over completely. Still this film lingers, so maybe it’s a grower. You know, like an orchard of apricots.
DOLPHIN MAN: Luc Besson’s The Big Blue took Jacques Mayol as his inspiration, and this multi-country documentary takes a closer look at the man behind that spark. It begins on a rough foot with some assumed knowledge, but slowly we get a sense of how and why Mayol lived his life to a code and what it did to the people around him.
NAMATJIRA PROJECT: An exploration of the life and works of Albert Namatjira filtered through the lens of a project that hopes to restore the legacy (and copyright) of his works to his family. Full Review >>
GOODBYE CHRISTOPHER ROBIN: Aka A British Handbook on Parenting. The stiff upper-lipness of it all leans towards the twee, but there’s a fascinating story at the heart of this, one that has curious parallels with the modern obsession with private lives and celebrity. If you miss this, it will be two whole weeks before there’s another Domhnall Gleeson film.
THE KILLING OF A SACRED DEER: At times painfully good black comedy, and at others it is just painful. Colin Farrell is excellent, but this overstays its welcome by a few beats.
LOVING VINCENT: The gimmick of being a fully painted feature film is something that’s an initial shock to the system but soon becomes an essential part of the storytelling. The murder mystery motif to Vincent Van Gogh’s final days is a curious approach to a biopic, one that’s mostly successful in celebrating the artist’s work and later life.
TEHRAN TABOO: Another rotoscope animation piece, this time tackling interconnected stories of the ‘taboos’ in Iranian society. The German-Austrian film, from Ali Soozandeh, about a prostitute, two women in their respective relationships, and a male musician could definitely not be made in Iran. The animation doesn’t always work for the material, but at least it gives the characters some distance from their taboos.
GUILTY: An intense examination of the final 72 hours before the execution of the ‘ringleaders’ of the Bali Nine drug smugglers in Indonesia, specifically concentrating on Australia’s Myuran Sukumaran. As we follow his journey into becoming an artist, the blend of art, recreation, and documentary gives an impressionistic view of a life cut short, and a firm statement against the death penalty.
★★★ – Worth A Look
BAD BLOOD: A slickly made local thriller with a novel (pun not intended) premise about a writer with a dark past caught in a deadly game, even if it relies a little too heavily on genre convention. Full Review >>
OUTRAGE CODA: It’s the last stand of the old school as ‘Beat’ Takeshi Kitano brings a bloody, downbeat and completely fitting conclusion to his yakuza saga. Full Review >>
MAYHEM: A fun bit of splatter that plays perfectly in the Freak Me Out section of the Sydney Film Festival. Could’ve used a little bit more office satire to be a true corporate parody, along with a bigger sense of escalation to keep with the ‘tower’ genre (e.g. The Raid, Dredd). Yuen and Weaving are delightful leads though, and it’s fun to spend time with them.
ONE THOUSAND ROPES: Having thoroughly enjoyed Tusi Tamasese’s The Orator a few years ago, we were keen to see what his subsequent work was like. The close-quartered narrative is deeply seeped in Samoan culture and mythology, and at times we feel like we are outside looking in on something we don’t necessarily have to understand. A visually engaging film, which works best as an experiment in storytelling.
PECKING ORDER: Largely billed as the ‘Best in Show for the chicken set,’ this will definitely be bizarre viewing to outsiders to the intimate world of the Christchurch Poultry, Bantam and Pigeon Club. Who knew there was so much infighting in the realm of bird breeding? Straightforwardly told, or at least as straightforward as this gets.
SPOOKERS: A fun and often touching look at life inside a ‘haunted house’ and the people who work there, including the need for community and how it helps people through their own issues. Yet it frequently loses direction and stretches the single location over too much film.
