Tag: Better Than Average Bear

Review: Saturday Night

Saturday Night Live has had a chequered history with the big screen. At SNL’s 25th anniversary bash, host Chris Rock quipped, “Some of the worst films ever made were made by people in this room. Thank God we’re all going to do what we do best: television.”

Now, as the show celebrates its 50th season, director Jason Reitman goes back to the beginning to make a film about the making of a TV show. Like the show it depicts, it’s chaos on wheels—full of manic energy, with as many misses as hits. Still, it’s hard not to smile at the antics.

In the film’s reality, it’s 11 October 1975, and Lorne Michaels (Gabriel LaBelle) is stressed. His talent is openly rebelling, network boss David Tebet (Willem Dafoe) is breathing down his neck, and the jaded crew don’t believe in what he’s doing. Scripts are unfinished, threats are flying, and there’s already been at least one fire. They go live in 90 minutes.

The film moves at a breakneck pace, unfolding almost in real time as the countdown to the live show ticks away. Reitman and co-writer Gil Kenan scramble to cover all angles, capturing the frenzied energy of those final moments. Like an actual episode of SNL, some of it hits, and some of it misses, but that’s part of the charm. The controlled chaos is woven into the narrative, reflecting the unpredictable nature of live television.

There’s a fair bit of mythologising here. For every self-effacing quip, we’re reminded that this is misunderstood genius waiting to be discovered. Did Milton Berle (J.K. Simmons) really pull out his dick to humiliate Chevy Chase (Cory Michael Smith)? It hardly matters because it works for the scene and feels true. Speaking of dicks, Chase is depicted as a relentless one, a smug egotist only interested in his own career. Another reminder that it’s all based on a true story.

It’s also clear that Reitman and Kenan wanted to squeeze in countless stories, but there’s simply not enough time. There are nods to sketches yet to come (like Dan Aykroyd’s bloody Julia Child routine) and hints at tensions that will later erupt into actual fistfights.

Other threads feel like they deserve their own series but are barely explored. Jane Curtin (Kim Matula), Gilda Radner (Ella Hunt), and especially Garrett Morris (Lamorne Morris) seem undervalued here, with Kenan and Reitman unintentionally sidelining them. The film has been criticised for its lack of focus on the female performers—but perhaps that’s reflective of the era.

Still, the cast make it work. Dylan O’Brien, Matt Wood, and Smith are uncanny as Aykroyd, John Belushi, and Chase. Nicholas Braun pulls double duty as Andy Kaufman and Jim Henson, and Rachel Sennott shines as unsung comedy hero Rosie Shuster.

Whether you’re a devotee of the show or just enjoy watching the craft of comedy come together, Saturday Night is a grounded love letter from Reitman to the performers he grew up with. And live from New York—it’s Saturday Night!

2024 | USA | DIRECTOR: Jason Reitman | WRITERS: Gil Kenan, Jason Reitman | CAST: Gabriel LaBelle, Rachel Sennott, Cory Michael Smith, Ella Hunt, Dylan O’Brien, Emily Fairn, Matt Wood, Lamorne Morris, Kim Matula, Finn Wolfhard | DISTRIBUTOR: Sony Pictures Releasing | RUNNING TIME: 109 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 27 September 2024 (USA), 31 October 2024 (Australia)

October 19, 2024
Review: Head South

Jonathan Ogilvie’s semi-autobiographical second feature marks a sharp departure from his debut film, Lone Wolf, a loose adaptation of Joseph Conrad. While Lone Wolf maintained a carefully crafted distance through heavy use of surveillance footage, this follow-up is warm, intimate, and very personal.

In HEAD SOUTH, Ogilvie captures a pivotal turning point in a young New Zealand schoolboy’s life, where his crushes, social standing, and parental relationships all shift to the beat of a late 1970s soundtrack. Opening in Christchurch in 1979, and framed in the nostalgic trappings of a home movie, Angus (Ed Oxenbould) has never been part of the cool crowd. Home is a mundane affair, with his recently separated dad (Marton Csokas) living a life of routine and pre-prepared meals.

This changes when his London-based brother sends him a record in the post, and he begins his journey through Middle-Earth (Records). The introduction of Public Image Ltd. is so powerful that it changes the film’s aspect ratio, literally widening Angus’s world. Without thinking, he lies his way into band life, partly motivated by his crush on Holly (Roxie Mohebbi) and his growing friendship with Kirsten (Stella ‘Benee’ Bennett).

Ogilvie knows his music history, having made music videos for the Flying Nun label before moving to feature films. His style, filtered through nostalgia, blends remembered aesthetics with ideas that feel right even if not entirely accurate. Yet, despite familiar coming-of-age beats, the film’s killer soundtrack —featuring Toy Love, Magazine, Marching Girls, The Scavengers, and PiL — still resonates with the disaffected more than four decades later. (To see what was happening in Australia at the time, check out Richard Lowenstein’s Dogs in Space and related documentaries).

Oxenbould plays a wonderful ‘everyboy,’ the kind you can readily believe would start a band to impress a woman while being hopelessly awkward at it. Mohebbi exudes cool as the object of Angus’s affections. Yet the real standouts here are Csokas and Bennett. The former vacillates between earning our laughs and empathy, being even more desperate than Angus to prove his cool cred. Pop star Bennett, in her feature debut, is so good that she just feels like she was meant to be part of this film.

With shades of a post-punk Sing Street, Ogilvie perhaps only falters in the final act when the plot points pile up, leading to a series of whiplash emotional moments and ending on a downbeat. Which might be the most authentic element of the whole affair, serving as a reminder that the soundtracks of our lives aren’t always happy ones.

2024 | New Zealand | DIRECTOR: Jonathan Ogilvie | WRITERS: Jonathan Ogilvie | CAST: Ed Oxenbould, Stella Bennett, Roxie Mohebbi, Marton Csokas | DISTRIBUTOR: Melbourne International Film Festival | RUNNING TIME: 98 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 8-24 August 2024 (Melbourne International Film Festival)

August 14, 2024
Review: My Sunshine

In stark contrast to the quirks of Hiroshi Okuyama’s first film Jesus, this film is content to simply exist. What both films have in common is that they retain a child’s point of view on some occasionally melancholic subject matter, told through the wide-eyed lens of a coming-of-age narrative.

The youth in question is the shy and stuttering Takuya (Keitatsu Koshiyama), who is demonstrably unskilled at either baseball or ice hockey. When he spots fellow student and figure skater Sakura (Kiara Takanashi), he becomes captivated by her ability.

As Takuya attempts to replicate her form, coach and former figure skater Arakawa (Sōsuke Ikematsu) takes an interest in the boy. Intuiting Takuya’s potential, Arakawa not only begins to teach the lad how to skate but also spies the possibility of teaming him up with Sakura for an ice dancing championship.

Taken purely at surface level, Okuyama’s film plays right into some familiar story beats. Against the wintry backdrop of a Hokkaido town, two small children discover something about themselves, there’s a mentor with his own scars and, of course, a skill-based competition approaches. It might all seem as predictable as the changing of the seasons.

Yet, beneath the veneer of the ice, there’s much more. As Arakawa’s backstory unfolds, we also learn that he is gay. While never said outright, it’s strongly inferred that institutional attitudes towards his sexuality, not his skating skills, are what held back his career. Small-town bigotry disrupts the gentleness we’ve observed, although even this development maintains the film’s steady flow. There are no grand speeches or declarations, but the consequences are all the more cutting for their matter-of-factness.

Shot in a pillarboxed Academy ratio (with writer-director Okuyama handling photography duties as well), there is something deliberately retro about MY SUNSHINE (ぼくのお日さま). From the first shot of a baseball game amidst the first flakes of snowfall, Okuyama’s film immediately feels nostalgic. With Debussy’s “Clair De Lune” acting as a recurring motif, it’s a film of gentle grace and restraint.

Despite only being Okuyama’s second feature, it’s arguable that his collaborations with Hirokazu Kore-eda and Megumi Tsuno (on Netflix’s The Makanai: Cooking for the Maiko House series) have positively influenced the storytelling here. Indeed, the film comes to an end as Takuya attempts to stammer out a sentence, literally leaving words unspoken.

2024 | Japan | DIRECTOR: Hiroshi Okuyama | WRITERS: Hiroshi Okuyama | CAST: Sōsuke Ikematsu, Keitatsu Koshiyama, Kiara Nakanishi | DISTRIBUTOR: Melbourne International Film Festival | RUNNING TIME: 90 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 8-24 August 2024 (Melbourne International Film Festival)

August 12, 2024
Review: Armand

If ever there was a movie that could be described as a film of two halves, this is certainly a leading contender. Filmmaker Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel comes out of the gate strong with a debut that has already won him the Camera d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. It’s not surprising when filmmaking runs in your blood—Tøndel is the grandson of Liv Ullmann and Ingmar Bergman.

Tøndel’s script immediately catches us off guard, deliberately keeping the reason Elisabeth (Renate Reinsve) has been summoned to her son Armand’s school on short notice a mystery. It has something to do with an act committed against a fellow 6-year-old classmate, Jon, the child of Sarah (Ellen Dorrit Petersen) and Anders (Endre Hellestveit).

As the nature of the accusation unfolds, the relationships between the parents become apparent as well. Well-meaning teacher Sunna (Thea Lambrechts Vaulen) flails in the face of manipulative emotions and gossip, and it’s entirely possible there’s an entirely separate conversation happening beneath the surface.

The first half of ARMAND works so well as a self-contained tension bubble, partly because of how little Tøndel wants us to know. It’s a psychological drama filled with pointed blame, sneering looks, and sniping remarks. Here, it sits somewhere between Thomas Vinterberg’s The Hunt and the more recent Radu Jude film Bad Luck Banging in terms of social satire.

Once the first few facets are on the table, Tøndel’s film becomes something else entirely. Amidst the whispers that begin to fill the hallways of the school, we see Elisabeth’s mind unfurl. A scene in which she dances in the corridors may seem incongruous, but perhaps not as much as the moment where a dozen hands accusingly grope Elisabeth in a movement straight out of Dario Argento.

Yet, despite some stylistic departures that suggest interiority, it is unsurprisingly held together by Reinsve’s singular performance. There’s one scene in particular where she slowly builds from fits of giggles to full-on hysterical laughter and ultimately anguished tears that is as uncomfortable as it is captivating.

Petersen is equally fierce. A single glare from her in Elisabeth’s direction could cut through the fabric of the film itself. Hellestveit plays it close to the chest but has some stellar quiet moments opposite Reinsve.

For all of its impressive style, ARMAND is ultimately a familiar affair. Yet as a showcase for the three central performances, there’s plenty to keep audiences engaged. Let’s look forward to wherever Tøndel goes next.

2024 | Norway | DIRECTOR: Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel | WRITERS: Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel | CAST: Renate Reinsve, Ellen Dorrit Petersen, Thea Lambrechts Vaulen, Endre Hellestveit, Øystein Røger, Vera Veljovic | DISTRIBUTOR: Melbourne International Film Festival | RUNNING TIME: 113 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 8-24 August 2024 (Melbourne International Film Festival)

August 11, 2024
Review: We Were Dangerous

New Zealand is ahead of many countries in this conversation, but the impact of colonialism on First Nations peoples remains an ongoing discussion. Although Stewart-Te Whiu’s WE WERE DANGEROUS isn’t inspired by a single story or incident, it draws on the lived experiences of many across New Zealand to explore the lasting effects of that history through institutionalisation and eugenics movements.

After an escape attempt from a girls’ juvenile institute by two Māori teens, Nellie (Erana James) and Daisy (Manaia Hall), the entire class is sent to a remote island facility. Run under the strict watch of the Matron (Rima Te Wiata), Nellie and Daisy soon begin to grow close to Lou (Nathalie Morris), who comes from a background of some privilege.

The year is 1954, and the spectre of moral panic and the Mazengarb Report (or more fully, Report of the Special Committee on Moral Delinquency in Children and Adolescents) looms large. While New Zealand only came close to introducing forced sterilisation in 1928, here screenwriter Maddie Dai also draws on the 1950s writings of eugenicist William Chapple’s The Fertility of the Unfit book. What emerges is a complex coming of age story told through the lens of these totems of control.

The colonialist attitude the film explores can almost be summed up in a single line. “It’s very difficult to redeem a girl like Nellie,” narrates the Matron. “A girl who believes there’s nothing wrong with her.” She goes on to discuss about how hard it is for Māori to lead “Christian lives” because “we learned about the Bible so late.” The internalisation of these controlling forces is precisely what this narrative is about, the imposed belief that ‘we were dangerous.’

Despite these weighty topics, Stewart-Te Whiu’s film is often disarmingly funny and hopeful. Much of this is thanks to the powerhouse performances from James, Morris and Hall (along with the incomparable Rima Te Wiata). So, when the tone shifts into something darker, it comes like a literal slap to the face, a stark reminder of the lived history that led to this film.

WE WERE DANGEROUS is imbued with a hopefulness rarely seen in this subject matter. As a result, it’s arguably a little inconsistent in the back half. Yet the taut running time allows for a laser focus on character, marking Josephine Stewart-Te Whiu as someone to watch with this impressive debut.

2024 | New Zealand | DIRECTOR: Josephine Stewart-Te Whiu | WRITERS: Maddie Dai | CAST: Rima Te Wiata, Erana James, Nathalie Morris, Manaia Hall | DISTRIBUTOR: Madman Entertainment, Melbourne International Film Festival | RUNNING TIME: 82 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 8-24 August 2024 (Melbourne International Film Festival), 22 August (New Zealand)

August 10, 2024
Review: Deadpool and Wolverine

Before you even crack the lid on this third Deadpool film, a much-anticipated union between the Fox and Marvel Cinematic Universes, you already know it represents the best and worst of Disney’s recent excesses. Still, as Deadpool literally flogs the desecrated corpse of Logan to the strains of NSYNC, it’s hard not to kick back and have fun with it all.

Given that Wade Wilson/Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) has always been fully cognisant of life beyond the fourth wall, it’s no surprise that references to the 2019 Fox/Disney merger begins during the Marvel Studios ident. In universe, Deadpool’s unsuccessful attempt to join the Avengers on Earth-616 has left him aimless but content in his native pocket of the film world.

All that changes when the Time Variance Authority (TVA) scoops up the motor-mouthed merc and informs him that due to the death of ‘anchor being’ Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), his timeline has been scheduled for an accelerated demise. Instead of burning out and fading away, Deadpool looks for a way to restore his world by scooping up a reluctant Logan from another timeline.

If you’ve not kept up with the Disney+ series (particularly Loki) or are unfamiliar with life outside the MCU, you might find yourself mildly out of step with some of the references and in-jokes. Of course, you wouldn’t be the core audience either. Deadpool’s stock-in-trade has always been throwing out references faster than the Gilmore Girls. There’s an early montage that throws away nods to the comics (from John Byrne and Chris Claremont/Marc Silvestri art) to the Bryan Singer X-Men films so fast that you’ll get whiplash. (The medical condition and not the Iron Man villain of the same name).

As the film eventually settles into the story proper, a lengthy battle in the Wasteland with Xavier’s hitherto unseen sister Cassandra Nova (Emma Corin), those references only intensify. Here no cow is left sacred, eviscerating characters we’ve grown to love, nodding to both Reynold’s wife Blake Lively and even Jackman’s divorce. Blood flies as fast the f-bombs as the titular characters scrap over the literal ruins of the 20th Century Fox logo. This is precisely the ‘madness’ that was missing from Doctor Strange’s journey through the Multiverse.

Sure, it all culminates in the kind of intertextual multiverse hopping hijinks (or “Marvel Sparkle Circles” in Deadpool’s parlance) that have awed and frustrated audiences over Phases Four and Five of this ongoing saga. There is an absolute melee of a bloody scrap split over two worlds that throws more in-jokes against the wall than an entire animated series. Yet even when it’s straight riffing on things we’ve seen a hundred times before, there’s still room for a few surprises in the name of fanservice.

Is DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE a course correction for the narratively flailing MCU? No, it isn’t—and it doesn’t aspire to be. This film is a self-aware buddy comedy and a love letter to the eclectic blend of Fox and Marvel films that began in the late 1990s and early 2000s. It culminates in a cheeky yet heartfelt montage over the end credits. At the very least, it serves as a reminder of the joy found in (mostly) self-contained universes and, with any luck, offers a glimpse of where the series might lead us next. Let’s fucking go.

2024 | USA | DIRECTOR: Shawn Levy | WRITERS: Ryan Reynolds, Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick, Zeb Wells and Shawn Levy | CAST: Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman, Emma Corrin, Morena Baccarin, Rob Delaney | DISTRIBUTOR: Disney | RUNNING TIME: 128 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 26 July 2024 (USA), 25 July 2024 (Australia)

July 26, 2024
Review: Longlegs

Supported by a viral marketing campaign reminiscent of The Blair Witch Project buzz, LONGLEGS knows its horror history. In fact, writer/director Osgood Perkins has been steeped in it for four decades, after making his screen debut as a young version of his father’s Norman Bates character in Psycho II (1983). So, it’s no surprise that this film nods to some icons while being quite unnerving in the process.

Perkins starts the process of keeping the audience off kilter from the opening scenes, in which a little girl about to have a birthday party is approached by a white-faced man (Nicolas Cage). Set in the 1970s, complete with a 4:3 aspect ratio and rounded corners, Greg Ng and Graham Fortin’s phenomenal editing cuts him off mid-sentence for a terrifying title drop, a motif that the film continues to use as a way of slapping us out of complacency.

As the narrative shifts gears to the 1990s, introducing us to green and seemingly mildly psychic FBI agent Lee Harker (Maika Monroe), the screen widens like eyes in terror. Following a brutal incident in the field, Harker’s superior Agent Carter (Blair Underwood) puts her on the trail of the Longlegs killer. Against probability, his cold trail grows warm under her watch – with revelations that sit a little too close for comfort.

Perkins’ film occupies a space between the Satanic panic films of the 1970s and the 90s serial killer films like Se7en and The Silence of the Lambs. The director has referred to the latter as a “shorthand for the audience to feel engaged.” In this territory, LONGLEGS is a wholly disquieting investigative piece that dwells in the realms of shadow and light. While Perkins also cites John Cassavetes, Gus Van Sant, and Bob Dylan as influences, it’s the aesthetics of Jonathan Demme and David Fincher that he wears on his sleeve. (Hell, even the end-credits run backwards).

Of course, if that was the totality of Perkins’ picture, we probably wouldn’t still be talking about it. With a discordant and often brain-scouring score by Zilgi (aka Elvis Perkins), coupled with the crispness of Pat Scola’s controlled photography, the opening act of this picture cuts into our psyches with scalpel-like precision.

Yet Perkins is also tied to certain things that he has trouble shaking in the back half. Nicolas Cage certainly disappears physically and audibly into the role. Still, at this point in his career there are certain ‘Cageisms’ (let’s call them) that break the fragile reality of the story. Cage screaming ‘Mommy’ in a car, not to mention the ‘shock value’ of his interrogatory denouement, elicited more than a few laughs from this viewer. By contrast, Alicia Witt (as Harker’s mother) has a restrained grace and control to her performance that is even more chilling than the primary villain.

Which ultimately brings us to the final part of the film, labelled ‘Birthday Girls’ on screen. Without revealing any spoilers, certain information comes to light that will either bring all the threads together or just leave you frustratingly cold. For me, it was a bit like another film influence entirely tacked onto the end of one that had already established a particular flavour.

The film works best as an investigative psychological horror, blending modern sensibilities with a throwback aesthetic. It’s a terrific showcase for the standout performances of Monroe and Witt, and the kind of movie that is made for horror fan cults. One just hopes it remains a self-contained story that acknowledges the power of brevity.

2024 | USA | DIRECTOR: Osgood Perkins | WRITERS: Osgood Perkins | CAST: Maika Monroe, Nicolas Cage, Blair Underwood, Alicia Witt, Michelle Choi-Lee, Dakota Daulby | DISTRIBUTOR: Neon (USA), Rialto Distribution (Australia) | RUNNING TIME: 101 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 12 July 2024 (USA), 18 July 2024 (Australia)

July 17, 2024
Review: Twisters

The only thing more surprising than a standalone sequel to Jan de Bont’s 1996 Twister is its director. Lee Isaac Chung, fresh off his sweeping, character-driven Minari, takes the helm. Set again in Oklahoma, this throwback disaster flick combines survival against the odds with a sense of comforting familiarity, all painted on a much bigger canvas.

Idealistic storm chaser Kate Cooper (Daisy Edgar-Jones) and her technically minded friend Javi (Anthony Ramos) lose their friends to a tornado while pursuing a storm-killer solution. Years later, the now-successful Javi lures Kate back into storm chasing with the promise of data to prevent future tragedies. Battling her PTSD and reckless social media star Tyler Owens (Glen Powell), they find themselves in a once-in-a-generation storm season.

Mark L. Smith’s narrative relies on a lot of coincidence. Disaster must strike randomly and repeatedly in a compact space in order for the story to progress in any way. While the technology has moved on, and there is a recognition that there probably would be a YouTube channel for all of this, Smith and Chung also know not to mess with a tried and true formula. In fact, were it not for the modern trappings and effects, this could have happily been released in the heyday of big disaster movies — and there’s not a thing wrong with that.

It’s also still a character piece at the heart of the film, even if those figures are fairly lightly drawn. Kate is fine successor to Helen Hunt’s Jo in the original, not only following a similar path of tragedy to redemption but giving us a human hook to hang a hurricane on. The two male leads are less well rounded, although it’s eventual love interest Powell who has this arc from over-the-top redneck to studied saviour. That said, Ramos is often relegated to a supporting character, and American Honey‘s Sasha Lane is criminally underused.

Yet if you’re turning up for a film called TWISTERS, you are here for the titular tornadoes. The location settings are convincingly ripped apart by the literal sturm und drang of the devastating phenomenon. There’s a wonderful union of special effects and Dan Mindel’s cinematography. In the climactic moment, there’s a beautiful shot that literally rips the screen off a cinema, creating one of the more beautiful effects I’ve seen in a blockbuster.

Chung’s film is ultimately everything a ‘sequel’ should be. In fact, save for a few nominal nods to the nomenclature of the original, TWISTERS happily stands on its own as an event. If the storms are going to be this fun, we’ll happily keep chasing them.

2024 | USA | DIRECTOR: Lee Isaac Chung | WRITERS: Mark L. Smith | CAST: Daisy Edgar-Jones, Glen Powell, Anthony Ramos | DISTRIBUTOR: Universal Pictures (USA), Warner Bros. (Australia) | RUNNING TIME: 132 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 11 July 2024 (Australia), 19 July 2024 (USA)

July 11, 2024
Review: Fly Me to the Moon

There’s not necessarily a huge amount in FLY ME TO THE MOON that screams Greg Berlanti. That’s probably because this film, a romantic dramedy set against the backdrop of the 1969 Moon landing, first found its feet under the directorial eyes of Jason Bateman under the working title of Project Artemis.

What TV maestro Berlanti retains from his oeuvre is a seemingly effortless sense of charm. His first theatrical outing since 2018’s Love, Simon, this time from a screenplay by Rose Gilroy, luxuriates in the swinging style of the sixties. The rom-com aspects and historical context blend to create an interesting and often successful mix of tones.

During the height of the Space Race between the US and the Soviet Union, slick marketing specialist Kelly Jones (Scarlett Johansson) is hired by the government to give NASA a public image makeover. She soon forms a relationship with Cole Davis (Channing Tatum), the Apollo launch director who is still reeling from his part in an earlier tragedy.

There’s a throwback quality to the romantic comedy, and not just because of the retro setting. The screwball stylings go back even further in cinema history, and there’s even a little Hepburn in Johansson’s rapid-fire quipping. Tatum, who reportedly replaced Chris Evans, makes for a charming romantic lead, carrying just the right level of off-screen pain to generate pathos.

In the back half of the film, a comedy of errors is generated from the simultaneous staging of a faux Moon landing for television in case the real one fails. Much of this comes from Jim Rash’s over-the-top film director character, slipping in Kubrick jokes whenever possible. (Here we also get Woody Harrelson’s G-Man as a kind of villain, but only inasmuch as he’s the bureaucratic blocker). Any sense of urgency is only partially created by the countdown to the launch, and the rest is a series of mini-crises that delay an established historical fact.

Of course, the whole scenario is a narrative convenience. Taking a leaf out of Hallmark, the Moon landing is a kind of neat visual analogy for embittered Kelly’s journey to loving Christmas (or in this case, space exploration). They even have a ragtag series of likeable supports, not least of whom is Ray Romano as the beleaguered stand-in Cole’s best friend.

FLY ME TO THE MOON doesn’t so much take off like a rocket as it gracefully glides across the lower atmosphere before parachuting down to a safe spot. If you look too closely, you’ll undoubtedly find numerous holes worth picking at but at the end of the day it’s a rom-com. It’s not rocket science.

2024 | USA | DIRECTOR: Greg Berlanti | WRITERS: Rose Gilroy | CAST: Scarlett Johansson, Channing Tatum, Jim Rash, Anna Garcia, Donald Elise Watkins, Noah Robbins, Colin Woodell, Christian Zuber, Nick Dillenburg, Ray Romano, Woody Harrelson | DISTRIBUTOR: AppleTV+, Sony Pictures Releasing | RUNNING TIME: 132 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 11 July 2024 (Australia), 12 July 2024 (USA)

July 10, 2024
Review: The Bikeriders

Consciously name-checking The Wild One and Easy Rider along the way, Jeff Nichols’ sixth feature harks back to a period of great change across the United States. Based on the 1967 photo-book of the same name by photographer and filmmaker Danny Lyon, it’s not quite as documentary but there is a sense of authenticity in the low rumble of its engines.

Framed as a recollection by Kathy (Jodie Comer), the wife of biker Benny (Austin Butler), the film examines the rise of the fictional Vandals outlaw motorcycle club in Chicago during the 1960s. After meeting Benny in a bar, she’s drawn into a world run under the honour code of leader Johnny (Tom Hardy).

Over the better part of a decade, we follow the violent rise and fall of the gang, who are loosely modelled on the Outlaws showcased in Lyon’s original book. Kind of like Goodfellas, the audience rapidly gets pulled into the normalcy of this life. Kathy is initially overwhelmed by the appeal of the outlandish rebels, but soon we think nothing of the boozy picnics that threaten to erupt into fisticuffs at the drop of a beer bottle.

There are violent peaks and emotional troughs, but Nichols stills gives enough space to explore some of the smaller characters along the way. There’s an extended sequence dedicated to The Walking Dead’s Norman Reedus that’s quite amusing, and a seemingly unrelated subplot about a group of wannabes that comes swinging back with a vengeance later in the film.

Comer is magnificent, both narrator and charismatic lightning rod for the film. I would not be surprised if she turns up in a list of ‘best ofs’ at the other end of this year. Hardy does that one accent he does, but he’s damn good – it’s like he absorbs all the light around him on screen. Butler’s performance is great as well, although it’s far more obvious. Michael Shannon is terrific as always and I would happily watch a spin-off series just following Zipco telling stories.

When Easy Rider hit the cinemas, it was at the birth of a New Hollywood, one that rejected the bloat of the dominant paradigm. THE BIKERIDERS isn’t quite so revolutionary, being more of a product of that system than a rejection of it, and nor is it meant to be. Yet what it does well is showcase its stars and allow them to shine.

2023 | USA | DIRECTOR: Jeff Nichols | WRITER: Jeff Nichols | CAST: Jodie Comer Austin Butler Tom Hardy Michael Shannon Mike Faist Norman Reedus | DISTRIBUTOR: Sydney Film Festival 2024, Universal Pictures | RUNNING TIME: 116 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 5-16 June 2024 (SFF 2024), 21 June 2024 (USA), 4 July (Australia)

June 16, 2024