Nymphomaniac Volumes I and II: DVD Review

Nymphomaniac Volumes I and II: DVD Review

Rating: M
Released by Universal Home Ent

Cinema's enfant terrible returns to fire off another salvo of provocation and start up another round of taboo discussion.

This time round, following a series of O face posters, and a tease campaign that's been guaranteed to whip all and sundry into a frenzy, and over a more cinema friendly 4 hour, 2 volume cut (though he has worked on a 5-and-a-half-hour director's cut), he tells the tale of Joe (played in later years by Charlotte Gainsbourg and in younger form by newcomer Stacy Martin). After being discovered beaten in an alleyway by Skarsgaard's Seligman, Joe takes to telling him of her life and loves and how she came to be in said alleyway.

Nymph()maniac Volume 1 deals with Joe's more formative years, her relationship with her ailing father (played by Christian Slater) and her coming to terms with who she is.  Divvied up into five chapters in Volume I, it also looks at her relationship with her apparent love Jerome (played by Shia LaBeouf who delivers one of the worst English accents ever committed to celluloid). It's clearly aiming for the more inflammatory, as it shows a couple of young girls trawling a train for men to sleep with as a competition to one up each other and win a tub of candy. Yet, it's also incredibly playful in among the graphic moments. Seligman is to all intents and purposes a monk, who's chosen books to life and who draws various analogies with Joe's choices to fly fishing. It's hilarious at times how shoehorned in that becomes but it serves as a philosophical bent to the film as well - parallels between sex and sin are drawn, the Fibonacci numbers are mentioned in among Joe's apparent regrets as she rhapsodises over her life.

The crowning moment of Nymph()maniac Volume 1  comes from Uma Thurman's appearance as a slighted woman who brings her children to Joe's house so that they can see the "whoring bed". It's a shocking scene as it teeters on extremely uncomfortable, pathetically sad and something more volatile.
Nymph()maniac Volume 1 ends on an almost unoriginal note - before images of plenty of sex are thrown in as a trailer for Nymph()maniac Volume II. It's touches like this that leave you unsure whether von Trier's playing with you and your expectations or the marketers have decided the most provocative moments will make you feel something. But the thing is, Nymphomaniac is not actually as button-pushing or as controversial as it purports to be. It's almost as if von Trier's lost some of his bite in among the playful narrative moments and close ups of phalluses; you roll your eyes in almost boredom rather than in anger. It's the most stunning part of Nymphomaniac - that a once notorious auteur has had to rely more on the marketing than the celluloid content to shock.

Nymph()maniac Volume II disappoints as it runs out of steam - it goes more for graphic rather than the philosophical debate and while Gainsbourg commands the screen, the final moments, just when you think von Trier's done more to combat accusations of misogyny and that sex is art, he throws in a moment that makes you throw up your hands in frustration as the screen goes to black.

All in all, Nymph()maniac is nowhere as bad or as notorious as you'd expect - it's certainly not titillating or erotic, merely functional in parts. You may actually be more surprised by what you see, but if you're a Von Trier connoisseur, you'll definitely feel the controversial auteur isn't as bad as he could be and that's perhaps the biggest shock of the film.

Rating:

NZIFF Review - The Congress and When Animals Dream

NZIFF Review - The Congress and When Animals Dream

Sci-fi and satire are the order of the day of The Congress, from the director of Waltz with Bashir, Ari Folman.

Starring Robin Wright, and inspired by Stanislaw Lem's novel The Futurlogical Congress, it's the story of the actress Robin Wright, considered washed up by the Miramount studio. Unable to secure work for years, due to demands and concerns over looking after her son, Robin's offered one last contract by the studios to hand over her digital image so they can do what they want with her.

The only condition is she can never act again...

The Congress is a surrealist piece of cinema, that dances the line between head-scratching and reality with ease. But in among the animated weirdness, there's also a satire that hits at Hollywood and current pre-occupations with digital rights and intellectual property. Half animated, the film waltzes a line between Yellow Submarine with some truly gorgeous animation that is psychedelic and intoxicating to look at, as it mixes the line between sending up characters you know from Hollywood via classic WB animation with a dash of Ren and Stimpy.  It's the visual style which soars here initially before you immediately become accustomed to it.

And once you do, you realise that The Congress is quite a sad piece and potentially a warning to Hollywood over where it's going - there's no way that Folman's not constructed a piece which fires a shot over their bows telling them that the extremes they've painted in this picture could signal an interesting debate somewhere down the line. Pre-occupations with Hollywood fads, women in movies, ownership of properties - it's all up here for the discussion. There's a lot to debate and think on after this film - and towards the end of the NZIFF, that's no bad thing.

Elsewhere, When Animals Dream may at first glance appear to be that horror trope we've seen before - girl's awakening sexually brings out the animal in her (Ginger Snaps, anyone?).

But in this restrained Danish thriller, newcomer Sonia Suhl is our heroine Marie, who begins working at the local fish factory but comes to realise her family is harbouring a terrible secret.

Mixing atmospherics among the shots of moody coastline, director Jonas Alexander Arnby has brought a piece that's dark in tone and rich in subtext, while also proffering a few scares here and there. However, it's Suhl's piece as she channels the uncertainty and awkwardness of the age while probing into her family's secret background. As Marie's world changes, the film moves to the more stock standard werewolf tropes and horrified reactions, but it loses none of its impact and subtleties throughout.

NZIFF Review - Joe and Wild Tales

NZIFF Review - Joe and Wild Tales

Heading back into Southern Gothic territory, David Gordon Green gives us the story of Joe, a tough Mississippi woodsman who takes a youngster Gary under his wing.

Joe's an ex-con with a volatile temper who's trying to avoid going back to jail, but this latest course of action sets him on a collision course with Gary's drunken and violent father. Will he give in to his dark side?

Joe certainly has the moody feel of the American deep South a la Mud, even if the story is not quite as engaging. With facial hair aplenty though it's Nicolas Cage who impresses as the titular Joe, a simmering man waiting to explode in this slice of Southern Gothic.

Tye Sheridan (who did star in Mud) impresses as Gary, a conflicted boy who just wants what's best for his family as this slow burning flick kicks into gear. As a surrogate to Gary, it's Cage though who owns this film from beginning to end despite the brooding and building soundtrack trying to push all of your viewing buttons.

This taut tale of doing the right thing is a quietly impressive piece which has a dry rich humour occasionally thrown it. It's more a simmering cauldron of resentment though and you'd be wise to hunker down for it - and enjoy Cage finally giving up on his OTT acting and turning in a performance that's watchable from start to tragic end.

Wild Tales was Auckland's closing night film - and the audience ecstatically clapping by the start of the opening will give you an idea of why this Argentinian flick was a Cannes sensation.

Six short films about revenge / vengeance are thrown together in this 2 hour piece from director Damian Szifron. And about two thirds of them are successful - though nothing really reaches the opening short's dizzying heights about a model on a plane; quite simply that freeze frame into the titles is one of the best I've glimpsed all year.

The following two shorts also work as well - one about poisoning and another that demonstrates road rage is a very real and ongoing problem.

One short within the mix that does stand out for all the wrong reasons though is a piece about a rich family trying to cover up their son's involvement in a hit and run by implicating their gardener. It's an horrifically ugly piece that is repugnant and could do with being dropped despite its acting prowess on display.

I'm guessing these shorts generally showcase a growing feeling of dissatisfaction with authority in Argentina, such as they are basically a series of fingers to those in power - from a corrupt official to parking warden bureaucracy, they all hit that note.

The portmanteau showcases very recognisable feelings of frustration at civic bureaucracy and the idiosyncracies of life, but all in all, Wild Tales is a farcical way to end the festival and an overall slickly polished compendium to put a blackly comic smile on everyone's faces.

NZIFF Review - Still Life

NZIFF Review - Still Life

The wonderful Eddie Marsan stars in this beautifully poignant drama.

Marsan is John May, a quietly unassuming man who's spent his 22 years at the South London council trying to help those who've died alone. His job is finding next of kin and trying to get them to funerals that he's organised. But in many cases, there is nobody - so John is the one who stands there alone, writing eulogies and farewelling those who have moved on.

But, despite the thoroughness and the attention to detail with which he runs his world, the council decides his job is no longer necessary and makes him redundant. He's given three days to close his last case - and prepare for the inevitable...

Still Life is an utterly wonderfully English film that reeks of sentiment and heart. thanks to the carefully measured and precise performance delivered by Marsan. Each case is meticulously investigated and every lead pursued with the forensic precision of a criminal investigator. With his gentle touch, nuanced performance and ensuring every single moment counts, Marsan is a tragic joy to watch in this. Every sequence with him aches with pathos and heart - and it's all down to the work done by Eddie Marsan.

While the investigation of the last case perhaps inevitably heads toward a saccharine conclusion, it still doesn't lose any of its power and certainly the last act had me wiping away a tear as the speeches, reflections and observations on life continue to hit him time and time again. It's also the eye for the details as well which hit perfectly - from a flat of the deceased that's got drying laundry hanging from everywhere to a head impression in a pillow which will no longer be used, every last moment is perfectly positioned and executed.

"You're a rare thing, Mr May" is one of the lines uttered in this piece, and it could be said of Eddie Marsan, who delivers an unassuming tour de force in this. Recommended as a reminder why life counts and why the small man is an ambition to aim for.

NZIFF Review - The Internet's Own Boy

NZIFF Review - The Internet's Own Boy

Pioneers of the internet don't come much bigger than Aaron Swartz, the co-founder of Reddit and the star of this new documentary about his short life.

But it's not the internet which is the shadiest part of this documentary - it's the US government forces who brought down Swartz and drove him to the edge as they decided to make an example of him to the masses.

Starting back with footage of when Swartz was a young prodigious and precocious talent, director Brian Knappenberger is never far from being in Swartz's corner as this sympathetic portrait is sketched out. Using home video, stock footage and interviews from family, friends and co-workers, the tale reveals a driven talent who was unhappy that Government sources were charging for access to public documents or academic journals.

Moved by that and styling himself as a guerilla (even with his own manifesto), Swartz set out to free up access for all with a series of apparently philanthropic moves that endeared him to his peers but angered those in charge. Unfortunately, he was a victim of the times as well - with 9/11 still strong in the collective memory, his actions weren't exactly welcomed - particularly his opposition to the SOPA bill.

While the doco is slickly put together, sensitively etched and grabs the zeitgeist of the digital generation against the stuffy masses (none of the Government's decisions seem to make sense), the fact that none of the opposing parties will appear on screen or issue statements make this polished piece seem a little unbalanced, through no fault of the directors at all. It does however remain an interesting insight into the digital issues faced these days and galvanises those who feel oppressed on that front - an interesting epilogue posits that Swartz's push to get medical journals freed up has led to one 14 year old making a break through in pancreatic cancer treatment.

All in all, The Internet's Own Boy is a well constructed piece, a portrait of an internet giant and a proponent for freedom for all - however idealistic and naive that may seem, you leave this feeling that Swartz was unfairly hounded - and with a lack of counter arguments, it's hard to shake that in any sense.

Newstalk ZB Review - The Dark Horse, Deliver Us From Evil and Boyhood

Newstalk ZB Review - The Dark Horse, Deliver Us From Evil and Boyhood

Talking this week to Jack Tame about new New Zealand film, The Dark Horse, horror Deliver Us From Evil and the NZ Film Fest - Boyhood.

Listen directly here - http://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/auckland/listen-on-demand/audio/334606437-darren-bevan--the-dark-horse