Whispers in the Woods: Movie Review

Director: Vincent Munier 

Famed French wildlife photographer Vincent Munier takes viewers on an utterly incredible visual journey in Whispers in the Woods, a movie about the connection between man and nature, as well as the bond between stories and generations.

In Le chant des Forets (its French title), the Velvet Queen director delivers some stunning visuals as he negotiates the forests of Vosges in Eastern France, the home of bears, deer, owls, lynxes and others, with his grandson.

To say that Whispers in the Woods is part of slow cinema is both an understatement and a disservice. 

Whilst it's true the pace is almost glacial at times, the film's commitment is to both its soundtrack, which charts the aural world around us, and its visuals which prove life in all its forms is a wondrous thing.

Whether it's mist burning off from the forests to reveal the trees ("A sense of resurrection," Munier intones magnificently as the camera hangs on the spectacle) or shots of animals sticking their heads out of dead trees unexpectedly, Whispers in the Woods returns the kind of awe to the landscape which has been largely missing from the big screen for years and shoves nature to the forefront.

Whilst there's also a message about climate change destroying life in the forest, Munier's also keen to take the earpods out of our ears and listen to the shrill noise of the birds, the stirring sounds of the wildlife and to appreciate what we have on our doorstep.

As well as the message of not hurrying deforestation, there's a subtle second thread at play here - one of generational connection and passing on information to kin. Munier spends the time in the woods with his grandson, educating him on where to look, when to listen and as a result, the bond between them grows.

A stunning bigscreen outing, Whispers in the Woods offers a kind of solace rarely witnessed in the cinema these days - it's an incredible tribute to the simplicity of life in all of its various forms.

Whispers in the Woods is playing at the New Zealand International Film Festival - for screening times, visit nziff.co.nz

Rose of Nevada: Movie Review

Cast: George Mackay, Callum Turner, Francis Magee, Edward Rowe, Rosalind Eleazar 
Director: Mark Jenkin

British director Mark Jenkin returns to the world of Cornwall in the third of his Cornish trilogy films, a low-key scifi horror that mixes elements of Triangle with a level of existential dread that seizes on the nature and eco-system of living in a fishing town.

It starts with the creaking sounds of a boat, before segueing into shots of rope, moorings and birds - and before long, the sounds that offer comfort within a seaside community become something a little more disconcerting, thanks to Jenkin's use of still shots and an atmosphere of unease.

It's the tale of Nick (1917's George MacKay) and Liam (Callum Turner) a pair of desperate men trying to find work to cover various problems in their lives - be it leaking rooves or a need to pay for drinks down the local pub.

When the boat the Rose of Nevada reappears in the waters on a Cornish dock having been last seen in 1993, its owner Michael (Rowe) gives the two the chance to make some cash and go out on a trawling mission for a few days. But when they return to shore, both Nick and Liam find different lives awaiting them.

There's a touch of an elemental Cornish folktale here as Jenkin stacks the story with mystery, preferring to trade on the atmosphere rather than any form of direct explanation. For some, that may prove frustrating as answers are not forthcoming and the reason for the timeslipping nature of what's going on remains directly opaque.

But what emerges from Rose of Nevada is a sense of style amid the foreboding. Like a kind of Wicker Man vibe that taps into the unending implied menace of winding Cornish backroads, Jenkin turns the sea into something mystical and menacing. But he also builds a sense of community too, something that's key only to fishing towns where everything hangs on the quality and quantity of the catch.

The film's key inspiration is delusion and madness, as opposed to outright fear, and while Turner's Liam leans into the life that he's found, Nick is horrified - leading to an emotional ending that most won't expect.

Rose of Nevada is an oblique tale that once again showcases Jenkin as an esoteric unique British film voice. It's a voyage worth taking, if only for an unknown destination that will spark plenty of discussion.

Rose of Nevada is playing at the New Zealand International Film Festival - for times, see nziff.co.nz

Dead Man's Wire: Movie Review

Cast: Bill Skarsgård, Dacre Montgomery, Al Pacino, Colman Domingo, Myha'la
Director: Gus Van Sant

Aiming squarely at crowd-pleasing and the little guy taking on the big guy, Dead Man's Wire's tale of one man fighting back against the big banks is a simple heist story that's well told and excellently executed.

Skarsgård is Indianapolis man Tony Kiritsis, who after defaulting on his mortgage, heads to the downtown offices of the company with the sole intention of taking the owner (Al Pacino) hostage. However, when he discovers that the boss is away on an impromptu trip, he seizes the son Richard (Montgomery) and wires him up to a noose with a shotgun on the other side of it.

But after his demands for an apology, immunity and money break down, he ropes in the local voice of Indianapolis, DJ Fred Temple (an ever-magnetic Domingo) to help him achieve his goal.

Tapping into both the 1977 vibe and the heist ethos proves to be highly effective fare for Van Sant here, marking one of his most accessible films for years. It's bolstered by the fact Skarsgård disappears so completely into the role of Kiritsis, keeping him both nervy but also recognisable enough as the everyman driven to the edge by corporate greed.

As Van Sant walks the line between a retelling of these true-life events and creating a fictional and gripping story, he manages to ensure that loyalty lies largely with Kiritsis, whose nervy charisma and outright paranoia prove to be fertile ground for some playful moments.

Whether it's the grotesquerie of the spectacle appearing on live TV (footage of which is referenced at the end) or the moments where Richard's father cruelly dismisses the plight of his son as he mulls over the fact admitting guilt would be career suicide, there's a kind of timeliness that swathes much of Dead Man's Wire in a contemporary feel even though it's 50 years ago the events took place.

Coupled with the fact Skarsgård perfectly delivers a protagonist who even has the nerve to catch up with old colleagues while holding a shotgun to someone's head on live TV, Dead Man's Wire has the kind of incredulous flair you can't help falling for.

Dead Man's Wire is playing at the New Zealand International Film Festival - for screening times, visit nziff.co.nz

Whistle: Movie Review

Director: Christopher Nelius

As light as a song on the breeze, director Christopher Nelius' Whistle (not to be confused with the recent horror movie of the same name) is as genial and pleasant as they come - and content to let its subjects do the talking.

Or in this case, the competitive whistling.

Assembling a mix of global competitors who all just put their lips together and blow may seem like the kind of assignment that quirky investigative journalist David Farrier would have done years ago, but this has all the elements of a best in show style doco you'd expect.

There's the ever-so slightly out of control self-appointed director of the event (Carol Anne Kaufman), the competitor (Yuki) from Japan who always places second or third at the Masters of Musical Whistling competition, a Spanish genius who's doing it for the first time (Ayna) - the list goes on.

But as the camera follows the build-up to the 3-day event, what emerges instead of a gently mocking tone is something that salutes the camaraderie and support of each other - and when one competitor simply loses the art of how to whistle on stage for his first-ever appearance, it's somehow amusing and utterly devastating.

It's in the smaller moments that Nelius fashions something heartwarming and universal. Whether it's catching Carol Anne in micromanaging mode, berating a store seller who she feels is underselling the chocolate prices despite the standee's protestations nobody is buying anyway, or catching the moments some of the competitors live their lives outside of the event, Nelius builds something that's both warm and engaging, even if it is a little corny.

Unashamedly feel-good and with plenty of heart, Whistle's grounded commitment to a colourful cross-section of humanity makes this perhaps one of the most crowd-pleasing films of the year - even if it's not the most technically original.

Whistle is playing at the New Zealand International Film Festival - for screening times, visit nziff.co.nz

The Voice of Hind Rajab: Movie Review

Cast: Saja Kilani, Motaz Malhees, Amer Hiehel, Clara Khoury
Director: Kaouther Ben Hania

There's a degree of provocation in Four Daughters' director Kaouther Ben Hania's The Voice of Hind Rajab, a distressing film that meshes The Guilty's setting with a 24-style story set in the war in Gaza.

But the biggest shock of all is that it's based on true events - and is incredibly harrowing, thanks to Hania's one single choice: to use the emergency audio of a 5-year-old girl caught in the middle of a horrific conflict in Gaza.

The Voice of Hind Rajab has an awful familiarity to it - a shift worker in the Palestinian Red Crescent exhausted after a long night and about to clock off, a worker caught in an unimaginable situation and a manager seemingly faced with an unenviable choice to make.

When a call comes in from a little girl trapped in her car as the tanks and guns fire all around her, the volunteers race to save her from afar. But what should be an 8-minute rescue run for a local ambulance turns into a bureaucratic nightmare where nobody can win and the victim is the little girl, Hind Rajab, whose family are "sleeping" next to her having been shot to death.

This searing docudrama is sickening from the get-go. 

As Hind's calls become more desperate and her sparse words relay the absolute and abject terror she's facing, the emotional toll hits on all levels. Whether it's the frustration of Omar who takes the call that a simple journey can't take place or the rising tensions between him and his manager who has to look at the bigger picture, Hania crafts something compelling in its suspense and awful in its reality.

Using the actual audio is the final devastating blow and reinforces the horror that those trapped within the Gaza War have faced on a daily basis. But rather than lecture, Hania uses the escalating unease to point out how the bureaucracy is broken, the system is failing and the cost in the war between Israel and Palestine is all too human.

A final twist at the end of this unmissable piece is utterly devastating. 

Be warned, anyone with any semblance of heart will be utterly destroyed by The Voice of Hind Rajab. It's an urgent call to never forget the cost of war and a depressing reminder that worldwide, this kind of harrowing story continues to play out.

The Voice of Hind Rajab is playing at the New Zealand International Film Festival - for screening times, visit nziff.co.nz

The Devil Wears Prada 2: Disney+ Movie Review

Cast: Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Stanley Tucci, Emily Blunt, Justin Theroux, Simone Ashley, Kenneth Branagh, BJ Novak
Director: David Frankel

Twenty years ago, The Devil Wears Prada provided a sharp and satirical look at the world of fashion and the behaviour of toxic bosses. But the sequel is as shallow as fashion can be - all sheen and no substance below, a mannequin dressed in haute couture, yet shapeless and without form underneath.

Sure, there are the trademark barbs and bitter remarks tossed about by both Streep's beastly Runway fashion magazine editor Miranda Priestly (although she's warned by HR what she can and can't say, a la Scrubs 2026 reboot), but in a tale about the media landscape changing, this feels less insightful and as disposable as fast fashion itself.

Two decades on, Andy Sachs (Hathaway, solid and good at the more comedic elements of the script) has been working as a journalist and is about to receive an award when she's informed that her entire publication is being shut down after a buy-out. Meanwhile, Runway editor Miranda Priestly (Streep, haughty and indignant) is on the cusp of getting a prestigious promotion when an article promoting a brand using a sweatshop goes viral. 

However, when the owner of Runway magazine contacts Andy to head up their features department and tidy up the mess, it puts Andy and her former nemesis Miranda back on a collision path...

There are some things to admire in The Devil Wears Prada 2, a film that initially has ambition before squandering it all for a series of promo shoots, fashion darlings walking in montages and continual location changes that look ripped from a travel magazine's video pages before an antagonising sentimental ending that threatens to drown itself in syrup..

To begin with, the film seems to want to launch barbs at the industry itself, how media has turned on itself, how traditional media has given way to chasing page impressions, a rage against consolidation of media, and how there's no escaping from how one person can make you feel and act, no matter how far in your past they are.

But it throws all that to one side in a truly formulaic movie whose plot twists are ludicrously telegraphed and which has absolutely no consequences are felt. Characters appear and then disappear when their arc appears to be done, and most of what transpires is neatly wrapped up in a feel-good bow that belies some of the tart nature of the dialogue early on.

A Lady Gaga cameo appears to be nothing more than a promo for a song of her own catalogue; there's a Last Supper allegory that becomes literal and there's a railing at one point by Priestly about the dangers of AI. It all feels very timely, but it also somehow doesn't make the film timeless.

What's most criminal about The Devil Wears Prada 2 is how much it's abandoned the comedy elements of the story, in favour of something a little more piecemeal. It feels like the dramatic scenes have been bolted together in a myriad of ways (and don't even let's start on the Coke can product placement within) that all feel as slight and trivial as what Priestly's raging against.

Yet within the thinly sketched movie, there are some stand-out moments.

Some truly delicious one-liners are espoused, Tucci has real warmth and heart as Nigel, the perennially put-upon assistant, and both Hathaway and a slightly defanged Streep step back into their original iconic characters with ease. Some of the best scenes are in the cold interactions they have early on and the later thawing of that relationship. Emily Blunt steals the show once again as the vengeful former assistant now working for Dior. Fans of the original will be happy with it, everyone else may find their patience sorely tested in parts.

Early on, Tucci's Nigel delivers the verdict that "villains are always the most interesting" but in the case of this sequel, the devil's not quite in the details. 

As the iconic Madonna song Vogue (which makes its reappearance here) goes: "Strike a pose, there's nothing to it." It's just a shame The Devil Wears Prada 2 used that as a mantra for its own execution.