Tag: 2011

Review: Coriolanus

A contemporary restaging of one of Shakespeare’s more obscure plays has a frightening resonance for modern audiences.

[stextbox id=”grey” caption=”Coriolanus (2011)” float=”true” align=”right” width=”200″]

Director: Ralph Fiennes

Writer(s): William Shakespeare, John Logan

Runtime: 122 minutes

Starring: Ralph Fiennes, Gerard Butler, James Nesbitt, Brian Cox, Jessica Chastain, Vanessa Redgrave

Distributor: Icon

Country: UK

Rating: Highly Recommended (?)

More info

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If William Shakespeare was alive today, he’d be the highest paid screenwriter in Hollywood’s history, churning out everything from rom-coms to epic wartime biopics. The playwright who has been dead for almost four centuries has inspired well over four-hundred feature-length film adaptations of his works. Some of these are standards that get trotted out every few years: Hamlet, Richard III, Macbeth and, of course, Romeo and Juliet. Despite this strong fascination that the world still seems to have with the Bard, there are those plays that just don’t get performed as much as the more famous works. Now the more obscure Coriolanus joins the ranks of Titus (Andronicus) and Love’s Labours Lost thanks to director and star Ralph Fiennes.

In an empire calling itself Rome, the people are restless at having stores of grain withheld from them. Most of them blame Caius Martius (Ralph Fiennes), who is openly contemptuous to the masses. While Menenius (Brian Cox) placates the masses, Brutus (Paul Jesson) and Sicinius (James Nesbitt) privately denounced Martius. When the latter hears of the Volscian army in the field, he is soon off to combat. Caius is awarded the title of Coriolanus for his bravery in fighting Aufidius (Gerard Butler), the Volscian leader, and his mother Volumnia (Vanessa Redgrave) urges him to parlay this recognition into a run for the office of consul. However, he soon finds himself up against a sea of populist aggression.

The lack of performances and adaptations of Coriolanus to date are undoubtedly due to how unsympathetic the central character is. Unlike other Shakespearean tregedies, we are offered no soliloquies or monologues to peep inside the mind of this very complex character. He is openly contemptuous to the masses, but also a fierce defender of the kingdom. He seems reluctant to accept praise, but has no issue in publically airing his negative views. He is a strong military man able to be manipulated by his mother. All of this amounts to an incredibly difficult character to pin down, but Fiennes in his role as director, producer and star manages to make the figure one worthy of the canon. Above all things, he is a character with a high standard for himself that he remains true to above all things. “Would you have me false to my nature?,” he asks. “Rather say I play the man I am”. Yet as noble and complex a character as this it, he may prove an impenetrable barrier for some.

John Logan has already had a terrific run in 2011 with his screenplays for the Academy Award winning films Rango and Hugo, and with Coriolanus he continues to show his versatility. Restaging the film in the battlefields of the 21^st century, Logan and Fiennes’ Coriolanus is a study of modern warfare and politics, a stunning achievement given that it maintains the original text. The play has been used over the years for various purposes, actually banned in France in the 1930s for being used by a fascist element. In a post-9/11 world, the play is reshaped to take on the power politics and popular perception in influencing the masses, and in shaping or destroying the destiny of the individual.

The performances are central to the success of this adaptation and Fiennes has gathered together an unquestionably impeccable cast. Unlike Julie Taymor’s casting of the recent The Tempest, which threw an eclectic cast mix at the film hoping some of them would stick, Fiennes’ carefully selected troupe all adds something to the film. This may be minor Shakespeare, but there are no minor roles here. Even the ubiquitous Jessica Chastain, who only has a small amount of screen time, brings a quiet dignity to Coriolanus’ wife. Nesbitt and Cox in particular give the supporting cast an authenticity, delivering 400 year old lines as though they were everyday speech. Yet it is Fiennes and Butler who command the screen, with the former only having to utter a few lines or stroke his shaven head with Colonel Kurtz megalomania to send shivers down your spine.

[stextbox id=”custom”]A fresh and lively take on this little-known Shakespeare marks a thrilling debut from Fiennes as a director, commanding this huge cast like a seasoned pro.[/stextbox]

Coriolanus is released in Australia on 8 March 2012 from Icon.

March 13, 2012
Review: Like Crazy

A refreshingly improvised romance emerges from a sea of tightly scripted genre films, showcasing the talents of rising stars Felicity Jones and Anton Yelchin.

[stextbox id=”grey” caption=”Like Crazy (2011)” float=”true” align=”right” width=”200″]

Director: Drake Doremus

Writer(s): Drake Doremus, Ben York Jones

Runtime: 90 minutes

Starring: Anton Yelchin, Felicity Jones, Jennifer Lawrence, Alex Kingston

Distributor: Paramount

Country: US

Rating: Better Than Average Bear (?)

More info

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Like Crazy is released internationally in the shadow of the Sundance Film Festival behemoth, where it won the Grand Jury Prize all the way back at the 2011 festival. While director Drake Doremus isn’t exactly a household name, at least not yet, his previous feature Douchebag also played at Sundance in competition the following year. For his third feature, he brings us one of his most personal stories to date, reenacting (according to Austrian-born ex-wife Desiree Pappenscheller) much of their romantic history.

Jacob (Anton Yelchin) and Anna (Felicity Jones) meet at college in the US, and promptly fall in love. After an intense period of romance, Anna decides to break her visa and not return to her native UK in order to spend more time with Jacob. However, when she eventually goes home for a wedding, she is denied re-entry into the US for having broken the terms of her initial visa. So begins a long-distance romance between the pair, testing the limits of their love and the very notion of what a relationship is.

Like Crazy offers an amazingly intense and intimate portrait of a relationship as it grows and fades. If the emotional reactions seem like genuine ones, it’s because they are to some extent. What is truly remarkable about the film is that while the scenarios were scripted, the dialogue and individual moments were entirely improvised. Actors Jones and Yelchin were given a “scriptment”, much like the TV shows in the vein of Curb Your Enthusiasm, where the scene had a purpose but it was up to the actors how that scene played out. Yet moving this technique from comedy to drama is a bold one, bringing the same freshness to melodrama.

This would not be possible, of course, without two strong leads and the impressive Jones and Yelchin are the very model of a young couple in love. What is essentially a two-hander, with the exception of a few people who drift in and out of their lives, is driven by their dual passions for finding the truth in these characters. The relationship is either doomed or fated to be from the start, begging the larger question of what happens when you do find the person you are supposed to be with from the start. The purposely ambiguous ending makes us question whether this love is just an illusion, as manufactured as the Go-Kart/beach montage that indicates they are now in love, but the relationships that they do develop with other people (including an incredibly patient Jennifer Lawrence) seem to be simply biding their time. On the other hand, could love simply be the ache we feel for something we can’t have?

Shot on the inexpensive Canon EOS 7D DSLR camera, a consumer level piece of equipment, the rawness of this imagery enhances rather than detracts from the realness of the scene. As Ryan Adams once sung, “When you’re young you get sad, then you get high”, and Like Crazy aims to strip raw the illusion of youth, back to these bare essentials. The slow and meandering pace serves to capture the frustration of aching to be something or with someone that may never come to pass, but having to keep on living regardless of what the heart wants.

[stextbox id=”custom”]A touching and genuine love story, told from a place of truth that strips love of its mystery and replaces it with the highs and lows of living.[/stextbox]

Like Crazy is released in Australia on 1 March 2012 from Paramount.

February 29, 2012
Review: Carnage

Roman Polanksi goes back to his apartment roots and lightens up a little bit in this star-studded observation of human nature.

[stextbox id=”grey” caption=”Carnage (2011)” float=”true” align=”right” width=”200″]

Director: Roman Polanski

Writer(s): Yasmina Reza, Roman Polanski

Runtime: 80 minutes

Starring: Kate Winslet, Christoph Waltz, John C. Reilly, Jodie Foster

Distributor: Sony

Country: France, Germany,
Poland, Spain

Rating: Better Than Average Bear (?)

More info

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Roman Polanski is undoubtedly one of the most interesting and experimental filmmakers of the twentieth century, with Repulsion, Rosemary’s Baby and Chinatown alone being enough to forever secure him a place in film history. Whether connected or not, the years following his highly publicised sexual assault charges have seen his career take a series of patchy turns, with only the highly acclaimed The Pianist standing out in the last three decades. With Carnage, based on the play God of Carnage by French playwright Yasmina Reza, Polanksi is back in in top form.

Following a fight between two schoolboys, in which one severely injures the other with a stick, the parents of the two children meet to discuss the issue amicably. The parents of the boy wielding the stick, Alan and Nancy Cowan (Christoph Waltz and Kate Winslet), visit the home of Michael and Penelope Longstreet (John C. Reilly and Jodie Foster) and things initially go well. However, as the conversation progresses, irreconcilable differences begin to emerge between the couples, slowly turning on each other and their own spouses as an all-out argument ensues.

With the weighty themes of The Pianist and the mediocre The Ghost Writer dominating much of the last decade, it is great to see that Polanski still has a funny-bone. Indeed, not since 1967’s The Fearless Vampire Killers or: Pardon Me, Madam, but Your Teeth Are in My Neck has the Polish director attempted something this consciously humourous, albeit a very black comedy at that. This is not a comedy in the traditional sense, but the humour comes from a darker place, one in which we revel in the rapid decay of civilised niceties between four otherwise typical middle-upper-class folk. Alliances are formed, couples separate and come together again, there is male and female bonding over tulips, cobbler, whisky and cigars. It’s a microcosm of society, of course, showing how one single issue can cause otherwise “liberal” people to rapidly change sides, but also that civilisation itself is an illusion.

The voyeuristic interest in watching the scene disintegrate is enhanced by the performances, which are undoubtedly the focus of the piece. In Waltz, Winslet, Reilly and Foster, director Polanski has assembled some of the finest Academy Award nominees or winners of the last few decades, and it is a no-brainer that they all perform their roles admirably. Foster in particular, in an increasingly rare on-screen appearance, does not mind making herself both physically and emotionally unattractive, screeching her way through an angst-ridden feature. Reilly, on the other hand, is remarkable in just how unremarkable he is for the first half of the film, before making a dramatic turn on a dime and revealing his true form. As the uptight Waltz and Winslet gradually unwind and let it all go, quite literally in the case of Winslet and to the detriment of several coffee table books, the versatility of the actors is evident.

The claustrophobia of the setting, harking back to Polanski’s own “Apartment Trilogy”, enhances the social angst and commentary of the less-than-subtle class struggles in the film, but it also betrays the stage origins of the story. Alan’s addiction to his mobile phone, Penelope’s attachment to her art books and the composed Nancy losing it when the contents of her handbag are spilled are all indicative of this commentary. This is hardly groundbreaking stuff, and Reza’s script doesn’t necessarily alter any preconceived notions we might have about these characters. Much like the quartet in the film, our allegiances shift and reform throughout the film, but we ultimately end up not too far from where we started.

[stextbox id=”custom”]As a performance piece, Carnage is a terrific showcase for its four stars, even if it leans a little too close to the stagey side of things. A nice comedic return for Polanski.[/stextbox]

Carnage is released in Australia on 1 March 2012 from Paramount.

February 27, 2012
Review: Killer Elite

The ultimate combination of Jason Statham, Robert De Niro and Clive Owen accounts for the elite, but the end result is less than killer.

[stextbox id=”grey” caption=”Killer Elite (2011)” float=”true” align=”right” width=”200″]

Director: Gary McKendry

Writer(s): Matt Sherring

Runtime: 116 minutes

Starring: Jason Statham, Clive Owen, Robert De Niro, Dominic Purcell, Lachy Hulme, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje

Distributor: Disney

Country: UK/Australia

Rating: Rental for Sure (?)

More info

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Based on Sir Ranulph Fiennes’ novel, The Feather Men, and not the 1975 film of the same name, Killer Elite enters a crowded market of spy flicks and secret ops that are covertly beating each other up in cinemas around the world. Fiennes’ book caused a stir when it was released in the early 1990s, as it was purportedly based on “real life” examples of a secret squad of British SAS assassins. In the wake of a decade of post-9/11 spy dramas and thrillers, this Australian co-production goes back to the heyday of the 1980s, where the good guys were good, and the bad guys had beards.

It’s 1980, and mercenary Danny Bryce (Jason Statham) is ready to leave the killing business after a job goes wrong in Mexico. Returning to Australia with his girlfriend, Danny is summoned to Oman a year later when his colleague Hunter (Robert De Niro) has been held captive. Mission facilitator Agent (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) lets him know Hunter accepted a $6 million job and couldn’t finish it, and now he is being held captive by Sheikh Amr, who wants the three SAS agents who killed his eldest sons terminated. In order to save Hunter, Danny has to get back in the game and not only convince all three agents to confess, but to make their deaths look like accidents. Plus, he must also contend with Logan (Clive Owen), the head enforcer of the Feathermen, a society that protects their own agents.

Academy Award nominated short film director Gary McKendry makes his feature debut with Killer Elite, and he has done so by throwing most of his kitchen utensils at the task. Shot almost entirely in Australia, this is an awkward fit, presumably only done to appease the local financing gods. Yet with a few trips to the UK and Morocco, McKendry attempts to give the film a bit of a globetrotting flavour in the style of the Bourne films. However, the slate-grey and über-serious way the film treats the material sucks any of the potential fun out of the mash-up of these three distinct superstars in their own right. Killer Elite is a very no frills affair, and even with explosions, car chases and gunplay galore, none of it is done with a sense of entertainment, or seemingly with a sense of purpose.

Killer Elite lurches from one scene to the next, as if carrying the weight of the action tropes it know that it must live up to. You can almost see the action movie checklist hovering over the side of the screen during this overlong movie. The usually reliable Statham takes no pleasure in the methodically presented bone-crunching action, and Owen seems to have phoned in much of his performance. Supporting cast members Dominic Purcell and the great Lachy Hulme provide a bit of liveliness in quiet moments, but only De Niro, who holds the smallest amount of screen time of all the players, truly impresses with one of his more solid performances in recent years.

Matt Sherring‘s script hints at the possibility of a sequel, although he and director McKendry will next be seen working together on Joseph and the Girl, a remake of the French film Joseph et la Fille. If that sequel does come along, Killer Elite has all of the basic building blocks to make a solid action film, it just needs to tighten them all up to truly live up to its title.

[stextbox id=”custom”]Killer Elite is neither part of the action elite, and nor is it killer, meandering from one scene to the next as if searching for its own purpose. [/stextbox]

Killer Elite was released in Australia on 23 February 2012 from Disney.

February 25, 2012
Review: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

An adaptation of Jonathan Safran Foer’s 9/11 novel makes a great deal of noise, but not much impact in this sentimental expedition.

[stextbox id=”grey” caption=”Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2011)” float=”true” align=”right” width=”200″]

Director: Stephen Daldry

Writer(s): Eric Roth

Runtime: 100 minutes

Starring: Thomas Horn, Max Von Sydow, Sandra Bullock, Tom Hanks, John Goodman, Viola Davis, Jeffrey Wright

Distributor: Roadshow Films

Country: US

Rating: Rental for Sure (?)

More info

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The attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001 left almost 3000 dead, and arguably shaped the course of the first decade of the 21st century. Shaking America out of its complacency, it is difficult to imagine an aspect of life that hasn’t been touched in some way in the aftermath of this tragic event. Jonathan Safran Foer’s novel, which serves as the basis for this film, deals with the individual voices in New York City, depicting a narrative that reflects a young man and an older man’s point of view. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close would seem to have all the right ingredients for a gold derby, coming with the weight of Academy Award favourite Stephen Daldry, but as the film might suggest, you can’t predict everything.

Oskar Schell (Thomas Horn), the son of Thomas Schell (Tom Hanks), plays scavenger hunt games with his father around the city to help Oskar get over his social awkwardness. Through a fractured narrative, we learn that Thomas has been killed in the 9/11 attacks, and Oskar has withdrawn almost completely, especially unable to relate to his mother (Sandra Bullock). When he finds a key hidden in his father’s cupboard, in an envelope simply marked ‘Black’, Oskar treats this as another expedition and sets out to systematically visit every Black in the phonebook. Along the way he encounters hundreds of stories, including the one belonging to his grandmother’s mysterious tenant (Max Von Sydow).

Trying to makes sense of the 9/11 attacks through the eyes of a child is a bold approach, although considering the multitude of layers of meaning that have been added to the fateful date for adults, it is perhaps the most straightforward way to get a handle on the incomprehensible. Yet the vessel is just as important as the contents, and with Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close we have a lead who is almost as unfathomable as the events that inspired his story. Newcomer Thomas Horn does an admirable job with the material he has been given, but his character is so consciously written as quirky that it is difficult to pay attention to the message for sheer annoyance at the messenger.

Dealing with 9/11 was a big enough task without making the child so deliberately Asperger’s like, from his ‘genius’ plans to allegedly calming tambourine. Daldry tries for endearing, but when the just plain weird Oskar asks for kisses from strangers, it is cringing and not crying that you’ll be doing. Sustaining the Don Quixote quest (by way of The Fisher King) is a difficult task, especially when a weird kid is yelling at you for well over two hours. The appearance of Max Von Sydow promises to bring some gravitas, but as a completely mute character, this merely provides an excuse for the weird kid to yell some more. Oskar is not a bad kid, but rather grates because he is too perfect, dispensing homespun wisdom and Pollyanna virtues throughout the city like a tambourine carrying unicorn with rainbow exhaust.

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close may think it is important, and there is little denying that all of the issues it deals with are worth exploring. At its core, the film is about dealing with grief, the relationships between a father and a son and the commonality of experience, and to the film’s credit, it eschews with the more obvious jingoistic nods and anthemic country music wisdom. Yet the film doesn’t find a thread of unity running through the stories of New York City, but instead creates one out of disparate pieces it has thrown together. The use of 9/11 doesn’t frame the story, but rather the film exploits the tragedy, using is a shorthand for sentimentality when all it has are cheap imitations of life and faux emotions copied from other similar narratives.

[stextbox id=”custom”]A forced set of emotions and a frankly annoying lead send mixed messages in what could have been a great commentary, but is instead extremely long and incredibly dull.[/stextbox]

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close is released in Australia on 23 February 2012 from Roadshow Films.

February 21, 2012
Review: Weekend

Andrew Haigh’s sophomore effort explores sex and relationships in a refreshingly frank two-hander about contemporary gay life in the UK.

[stextbox id=”grey” caption=”Weekend (2011)” float=”true” align=”right” width=”200″]

Director: Andrew Haigh

Writers(s): Andrew Haigh

Runtime: 97 minutes

Starring: Tom Cullen, Chris New

Distributor: Rialto

Country: UK

Rating: Highly Recommended (?)

More info

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“You become this blank canvas,” explains Glen (Chris New), on the act of sleeping with someone new. “It gives you an opportunity to project onto that canvas who you want to be.” The “gap” that opens up in between is where auteur Andrew Haigh sets his second film, Weekend. Taking a leaf out of time-limited films like Before Sunrise, Haigh explores the idea of sex and love, in that order, something that contemporary romantic films of any genre have trouble reconciling with Hollywood mores.

After a drunken party at a mate’s place, Russell (Tom Cullen) heads to a gay night club where he meets and goes home with Glen. What they both expected to be a one-night stand develops into something more, but this is not an immediate revelation. On the premise of Glen’s art project, in which he asks gay men to talk frankly about sex, the two begin a weekend of talk, sex, drugs and more importantly, conversations that reveal just as much about their own fear and anxieties as their own search for an important relationship in their lives.

Where recent more high-profile films have depicted more confrontational hate crimes or even a courtroom-like speech to hammer home their points, Haigh’s Weekend concentrates on the drama of the discussion between the two fledgling lovers. Indeed, with the exception of a fairly rational drunken conversation in a pub, both instances of abuse are heard off screen. Russell is uncomfortable with his own sexuality, and while he is not closeted, there is an emotional distance he has created for himself to the point that he doesn’t seem to enjoy sex without love.

The drama comes from Glen being ostensibly his opposite number, a hedonist who says he doesn’t want or need a boyfriend. The truth for both men is that aforementioned “gap” in between, what Glen describes as the space “between who you want to be and who you really are”. Both Glen and Russell desire not just each other, but to take on aspects each other’s personality. Through them, we are only given the promise of a future, but Weekend has no easy answers to help that future along on its way.

In this sense, Weekend is the most unabashed love story in recent memory, fully aware it is telling a story of two people who will never be complete without each other. The performances are top notch, particularly the quietly tortured Cullen, who aches for much of the film but plays it close to the chest until the end. Intimately and beautifully shot, Urszula Pontikos’ cinematography is one of the rare instances where the freestyle floating camera brings us closer to the subjects. Carried solely by the two central figures, Weekend is a triumph in personal drama.

[stextbox id=”custom”]Haigh’s second film marks him as a filmmaker to take notice of, having an incredibly adept knowledge of dialogue and drama. In doing so, he demonstrates that film is not just about the observation of a conversation, but about opening a dialogue.[/stextbox]

Weekend was released in Australia on 26 January 2012 from Rialto.

February 18, 2012
Review: My Week with Marilyn

Marilyn Monroe lives again as cinema continues to consume its own history in this brief and flirtatious peek behind the lenses of the Golden Era.

[stextbox id=”grey” caption=”My Week with Marilyn (2011)” float=”true” align=”right” width=”200″]

Director: Simon Curtis

Writers(s): Adrian Hodges

Runtime: 101 minutes

Starring: Michelle Williams, Kenneth Branagh, Eddie Redmayne, Emma Watson, Judi Dench, Julia Ormond, Dougray Scott

Distributor: Roadshow

Country: UK

Rating: Worth A Look (?)

More info

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Despite no more than a dozen starring roles in the 1950s and 1960s, the woman raised as Norma Jeane Baker still continues to capture the public’s imagination in her persona of the late, great Marilyn Monroe. Ranked as one of the greatest female screen performers of all time, she died young enough to forever be remembered as a goddess of the silver screen. Yet her personal life was just as glamorous and chaotic as the musical comedies she became famous for, and even in death she remains a mysterious and enigmatic figure. Based on two diary accounts by Colin Clark, The Prince, The Showgirl and Me and My Week with Marilyn, the film takes a small slice of Monroe’s life and views it from the inside-out.

It is the summer of 1956, and Colin Clark (Eddie Redmayne) is desperate to work on a film set. He gets his chance when Vivien Leigh (Julia Ormond) convinces husband and director Sir Laurence Olivier (Kenneth Branagh) to give him an assistant director position on The Prince and the Showgirl, a new film to star the director and Marilyn Monroe (Michelle Williams). Arriving in England to great buzz with her new husband Arthur Miller (Dougray Scott), the shoot is not exactly a smooth one. When Miller leaves, Marilyn takes comfort in the company of Colin.

The last year has seen the film industry look long and hard at itself, from the decline of silent film in The Artist to the rediscovery of it decades later in Hugo. My Week with Marilyn looks at the tail end of another system, one where new stars like Monroe threatened the old guard thesps and shook them out of their complacency. Much of the earlier part of the film concentrates on Clark and Olivier, with Monroe frequently referenced on seen in test footage. The tactic pays off, for the arrival of Michelle Williams both on screen and on the fictional set as Monroe is a moment to savour, with her performance being one of the things that makes the movie stand out from a sea of similarly plotted biopics.

Williams doesn’t simply look the part, but embodies the contradiction that was Monroe. She may not be quite as stunning, or as curvy, as the subject she is portraying, but she captures the era and the essence of the showgirl. Her speech patterns border on the caricature at times, but it is not long before we are seeing the starlet spring to life again, especially in the recreation of several famous sequences from the The Prince and the Showgirl. More impressive is Branagh as Sir Laurence Olivier, a perfect bit of casting if ever there was one. Branagh’s early career was offered compared to the man he plays here, but rarely has Olivier been seen with such heartfelt humility. Eddie Redmayne should also be praised for standing out in a group that is also made up of the likes of Judi Dench and Julia Ormond, rounding out the cast with sincerity and earnestness. It’s not all good news though, with Emma Watson still no closer to showing any talent after eight Harry Potter movies.

My Week with Marilyn is a picturesque snapshot of an era, filtered through the memoirs of an individual who lived through them. Whether that makes them unreliable is almost irrelevant, as the film is just as much about the end of an era as it is about the people in it. The narrative is sometimes a little uneven, and if we are reminded once we are reminded a dozen times by various characters that Marilyn was the “greatest actress” of her time, and it could just as easily be a television biopic as a big screen outing for all the melodrama.Yet Monroe’s story is undeniably compelling, and this small portion leaves us craving more of the authentic stuff.

[stextbox id=”custom”]The high-calibre of acting and superb cast makes this straightforward biopic of a period worth a look, but nothing beats the original classics.[/stextbox]

My Week with Marilyn is released in Australia on 16 February 2012 from Roadshow Films.

February 15, 2012
US Trailer for Snowtown Renamed The Snowtown Murders

Following its recent run of AACTA Awards, Snowtown is getting a release in the US on 2 March 2012. iTunes has released a trailer for the renamed The Snowtown Murders, a name which may have more meaning for the US audience who may not have as much of a connection to the name Snowtown. Unfortunately, it also makes it sound a little bit like a movie of the week or forensic investigation special. The US trailer also adds a fair bit of text spelling out why the murders were bad.

The official US synopsis reads as follows: Based on horrifying crimes discovered in Snowtown, Australia in 1999, The Snowtown Murders is Justin Kurzel’s directorial debut, a stark journey into a brutal subculture of suspicion, addiction and violence. Winner of the Special Jury Prize at Cannes’ Critics Week, the film follows Elizabeth Harvey (Louise Harris), a mother raising her three boys in a poor suburb. After her latest boyfriend displays pedophilic tendencies, she takes up with a new man, hoping for security but instead welcoming an even more vicious predator into her home. John Bunting (Daniel Henshall) is the moral compass of a self-appointed neighborhood watch who, fueled by cigarettes and beer, cast judgments on those living around them. Bunting enlists his crew in acts of sadistic vigilantism on those he considers deviants, and in the process takes Elizabeth’s son Jamie (Lucas Pittaway) under his wing. The Snowtown Murders is an uncompromising film focused on the relationship between vulnerable teenager and a father figure who is revealed to be the worst kind of bully.

The original Madman trailer for comparison. It’s mostly the same, without all the explanatory text:

February 15, 2012
Review: Buck

Perhaps the last of the true cowboys, or another breed entirely, the story of Buck Brannaman is as thought-provoking as it is beautiful.

[stextbox id=”grey” caption=”Buck (2011)” float=”true” align=”right” width=”200″]

Director: Cindy Meehl

Runtime: 88 minutes

Starring: Buck Brannaman, Robert Redford

Distributor: Madman

Country: US

Rating: Highly Recommended (?)

More info

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In Cindy Meehl‘s debut documentary, her subject Buck Brannaman is a quiet and thoughtful man, teaching horses and humans to cooperate. “Your horse is a mirror to your soul”, says Buck “and sometimes you may not like what you see. Sometimes, you will.” One wonders what Buck, ostensibly an open book in this documentary, would make of his own tale, which bares (almost) all about his life, philosophy and the way he relates to humans and horses both.

Raised by an abusive father, a situation that worsened with the death of his mother, Dan “Buck” Brannaman began his career as a child, soon becoming a champion trick roper, and appearing in various commercials with his brother. Yet horses were his true calling, and he was inspired by the natural horsemanship movement, one in which communication and mutual understanding with the animals took priority over any notions of trying to “break them in”. Buck’s recent life has been one of a motivational speaker, horse trainer and the inspiration for Nicholas Sparks’ The Horse Whisperer, so much so that he was later used as a consultant and trainer on the Robert Redford film of the same name.

Much like the acclaimed Bill Cunningham New York, Cindy Meehl’s documentary takes a fascinating journey into the world of true individual. Like Cunningham, Buck has dedicated his life to a singular pursuit, but his outlook on life is what will fascinate most. ”A lot of times, rather than helping people with horse problems, I’m helpin’ horses with people problems,” muses Buck. There are times when the whole film feels a bit like one of those impulse buy motivational flip-books that are found on the counters of all good book stores, but it becomes evident very quickly that Buck is, in the words of interviewee Robert Redford, “the real deal”.

Buck has emerged from a place of personal hardship to become an inspiration to others. “If you find a way to fix this thing right here”, comes Buck’s homespun wisdom ” it’ll make you better. It’ll make you better in areas you didn’t think were related to horses.” Watching Buck interact with horses is a thing of beauty, his patience and subtle movements are like magic to the untrained eye.

What is more amazing is how the humans around him react, coming in with their own baggage and somehow unburdening their souls by the time they depart. Particularly heartbreaking is a sequence with a brain-damaged stud colt that attacks a rider, one of a dozen studs owned by a woman that Buck identifies as having personal worth issues. Even though it is determined the horse must be put down, and is dangerous to be around, Buck’s patience with the animal, literally waiting it out, is nothing short of amazing.

Yet Buck doesn’t reveal everything about himself, despite his willingness to talk about his own childhood with impunity. Questions remain around the fate of his brother, even with interviews from his loving foster mother, and how his own family deals with his long absences of up to 9 months on the road without them is never dealt with in any depth. Buck makes its point early and clearly, and while it may linger on that point for a long time, this is all in the spirit of the man who inspired this film.

[stextbox id=”custom”]A beautiful and deeply inspirational documentary for anybody with a passion that they need a reason to commit to. [/stextbox]

Buck is released in Australia on 16 February 2012 from Madman Films.

February 14, 2012
Australian Poster, Trailer and Clips for The Raid

The Raid comes to Australian audiences on the back of a huge amount of buzz from Sundance, not to mention the fact that director Gareth Evans‘ (no, not that Gareth Evans) previous feature, Merantau, rapidly found a cult audience. Madman has released an original local version of the poster, coupled with the official Australian trailer and some clips.

Deep in the heart of Jakarta’s slums lies an impenetrable safe house for the world’s most dangerous killers and gangsters. Until now, the rundown apartment block has been considered untouchable to even the bravest of police. Cloaked under the cover of pre-dawn darkness and silence, an elite swat team is tasked with raiding the safe house in order to take down the notorious drug lord that runs it. But when a chance encounter with a spotter blows their cover and news of their assault reaches the drug lord, the building’s lights are cut and all the exits blocked. Stranded on the 6th floor with no way out, the unit must fight their way through the city’s worst to survive their mission. Director Gareth Evans (Merantau) and rising martial-arts star Iko Uwais reunite in this adrenaline-fueled action film.

The Raid is released in Australia on 22 March 2012 from Madman Films.

Click to enlarge

Trailer

Clips

February 10, 2012