Big Eyes: Blu Ray Review

Big Eyes: Blu Ray Review

Rating: M
Released by Roadshow Home Ent

Amy Adams and Christoph Waltz star in this straight-down-the-line flick about Margaret Keane from master of the slightly weird Tim Burton.

Keane was the painter of the pictures of children with over-large eyes (it's easy to see why Burton's Gothic tendencies were drawn to this story) - but her story is more complex than that. Walking out on her husband in 1958 with a daughter, Margaret comes to San Francisco determined to provide for her family and be creative.

One day she meets confident bon vivant and would-be artist Walter (an overly energetic Waltz) who falls under her spell - and one chance incident later, Margaret's paintings are a massive hit on the burgeoning 60s American scene. But Margaret falters when asked who painted them, leading to Walter claiming them as his own for their shared interest...

And things get worse as the Keane's art fame grows, and Margaret shrinks ever smaller in her husband's growing shadow - is his altruism real or has Margaret made a terrible mistake?

Big Eyes is surprising.

It features the usual crisp Burton aesthetics and shots (the opening moments are a pristine mix of colours and images) but the subject matter is relatively straight down the line, something he's not done since Big Fish. (And the soundtrack from Danny Elfman deserves particular mention)

However, a quieter turn from Adams is powerful and impresses as Waltz's turn becomes ever more OTT. It's not that it's a bad performance from Waltz, merely that his character needs the impetus to over-shadow Margaret and Waltz embraces it with a joie de vivre that's both compelling and frightening. A court-room scene particularly brings some peculiar laughs.

Occasionally, the story jumps around and motives for Margaret's behaviour are never fully explained (I was never quite convinced as to why she shrank from claiming the art was her own at the start, even though I guess walking out on a man was a big thing in the early 1950s) and a few scenes suffer from choppy editing.

Overall though, Big Eyes is an impressively quiet little film - it befits Burton to do the straighter turn from his usual kooky oddbeat fare. While the interest wanes towards the end and the conclusion of the storyline isn't quite as powerful as it could be, that remains a fault of the scripting, rather than of any of those involved.

Rating:

From Scotland with Love: NZFF Review

From Scotland with Love: NZFF Review

New Zealand director Virginia Heath and King Creosote have created something that will resound with many in the Dunedin district or anyone with Scottish heritage.

Taking in hours of archival footage and trawling through people's home movies, this unique collaboration has wielded some intriguing results which were initially released to coincide with the 2014 Scottish Commonwealth games.

Weaving themes of love, work, industry, immigration, and most importantly, Scotland's social history, this is the tale of thousands of ordinary lives told in an extraordinary way.

From trips to beaches, to protests being dispersed, the whole tapestry of the country in simpler times is put under the microscope and sound-tracked by King Creosote's folksy OST which bolsters the images and gives them an added dimension.

Several sequences stand out as they represent different parts of history - from the launch of a steamship in all its magnitude definitely feels like a moment brought to life and the sequences of ships leaving full of people as they emigrate packs an emotional punch that you'd probably not see coming.

Granted, perhaps afficianados of Scotland would see a lot more in this piece, and get some of the subtleties of the area - it's not a film that panders to a timeline, gives you captions to get into the timezone or definitive landmarks for you to scope out. But those factors don't hamper the film as it proffers up a window into simpler times, a ramble through the brambles of the highlands and striking images from a nation rich in heritage and culture.

The recognition factor will likely spark a wave of nostalgia in many who are going to see glimpses of families past, and of a time gone by. From a child wearing her mother's over-sized shoes to a child wrapped in calipers on the beach, the striking and universal images live from the screen as much as any overdone CGI blockbuster ever could.

This may be From Scotland With Love, but the love Virginia and Creosote have shown in compiling this comes poring from the home-movie format and linger long after the curtain has risen on us, but fallen on a past.

Mr Holmes: Film Review

Mr Holmes: Film Review 

Cast: Ian McKellen, Laura Linney, Milo Parker,
Director: Bill Condon  

As the argument rages over copyright infringement between the studios and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's estate, it's down to Sir Ian McKellen and a prosthetic nose to carry off this tale based on A Slight Trick of the Mind by Mitch Cullin.

Playing an aged and retired Holmes in 1947, the great detective is now living out his twilight years in a Sussex village, under the house leadership of Mrs Munro (Linney). Dividing his time between keeping bees and little else, Holmes finds his failing memory jolted by Munro's son, Roger to try and solve one last unsolved case that's haunted him for 50 years.

The case is that of a beautiful woman....and only fragments of it remain as Holmes juggles the memories of that, a trip abroad to secure a plant for his illness and the impending visit from the Grim Reaper.

A fascinating character study of a man so reliant on his wits and his powers (Holmes is urged several times to 'Do the thing' by one youngster where he demonstrates his powers of deduction) now facing ruin thanks to the ravages of time and the onset of dementia.

McKellen pulls off Holmes (and being in his 90s) with considerable aplomb, mixing humanity, frailty and frustration in equal measure; he's perfect as the aged great detective, playing it heartbreakingly as the end nears and slightly more agile in 2 flashbacks set after the marriage of Watson (who curiously only appears in blurred shadow and is frequently referred to as having heavily fictionalised Holmes' escapades). 

But nipping back and forth in time is also the film's weaker point as it juggles three narratives, all feeling like they need fleshing out with some more dramatic worth as the tapestry is drawn. Though, it has to be argued, I would happily indulge myself in watching McKellen do a series of Holmes in his elder years.

Linney is underused as the housekeeper and there's a feeling she could have played more than a cuckold, as she faces the dilemma of what to do next. McKellen gels well with Parker, the youngster Roger who is in awe of Holmes and his reputation with a bond that feels natural and relateable, as well as serving the inquisitive assistant nobly. (Fans of Sherlock Holmes' various incarnations will be delighted to see the Young Sherlock putting an appearance in)

But it is without a doubt, McKellen's film and he delivers definitively on the mystery within a mystery premise that's been set up. Riffing on the legend of Holmes with deer stalkers and the dashing wit, Mr Holmes remains an enigmatic film, a vessel that feels like it's lacking in some parts - but thanks to the central performance, it presents a tantalising glimpse for a direction that the detective could go once everyone tires of Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock Holmes.

Rating:

The Following: Season 2: DVD Review

The Following: Season 2: DVD Review

Rating: R18
Released by Warner Home Video and Roadshow Home Ent

If the first season of The Following was guilty of anything, it was of betraying its premise and falling into a James Bond style presentation of its bad guy.

The premise of Scream scribe Kevin Williamson's psychological thriller pitted Kevin Bacon's flawed FBI agent Ryan Hardy against supposedly interned serial killer and cult leader Joe Carroll (played with delicious relish by James Purefoy) - its first season concluded with Carroll apparently blown to kingdom come.

This second takes up with an uneasy calm before the killing storm erupts and the once thought dead return to put Hardy's life in misery yet again.

That's half the problem with The Following. While the first half of the first season worked brilliantly as the cat and mouse game and betrayals played out, it was too long, a mini-series event spun into 15 episodes of predictably dark TV.

The second season falls into a similar trap with darkness and plentiful stabbings on hand to leave you feeling unsettled. But the drama this time feels more like melodrama than anything truly gripping and the fact you're prepared for not everyone to be who they seem proving to be more of a narrative hindrance this time around.

Bacon and Carroll work well, but really The Following would have worked much better as a short run event - it lacks the tension this time out and really makes you feel that the true blood of the series is lacking the bite it needs.

Extras: Featurettes, comic con footage, deleted scenes - a plethora of solid material

Embrace of The Serpent and City of Gold - NZFF Review

Embrace of The Serpent and City of Gold - NZFF Review

Madness, obsession and a drive to document link these two titles from the New Zealand International Film Festival.

Ciro Guerra's Embrace of The Serpent, shot lusciously in black and white, centres around two timelines and two explorers and a shaman as they make their way through the Amazonian jungle. The first sees the young Shaman Karmakate alone in the jungle, the last of his race approached by a European explorer and his local charge. Imploring them to help locate the mythical yakruna plant to cure the ailing explorer Karmakate agrees to go with them in their search.

So, deep into the jungle the trio goes, and at the same time Guerra employs a narrative trick that sees us flitting to later in Karmakate's life where he's searching for the plant with another traveller. To reveal more would be to spoil the film, but even that implies there's some major twists and plot shockers ahead - there's simply not, more that revealing deeper information about Guerra's film is to rob it of its richness which transpires on the screen.

Occasional humour pervades the piece and watching one of the Europeans plead with a tribe leader to return his compass flips normal reasoning on its head, a solid reminder that cultures and customs remain wiped clean by history.

Based on actual trips by ethnographers Theodor Koch-Grunberg and Richard Evans Schultes, the film serves as a document to the times, to tribes lost to history and stands as a testament to the brutality man wroughts under the umbrella of civilisation.

Rubber plantations scatter the Amazon; the scars within the trees remind us that civilisation cuts deep and also hints at the terror the natives must have felt under the rubber barons. Equally, the Christian centre the trio stumble on presents a religion that terrorises as its MO rather than helping propagate a world of love. Both show the outside world to be nothing more than a curse on the Amazon and you'd be hard-pressed to leave with thoughts to the contrary.

Beautifully and evocatively shot, Embrace of the Serpent is a haunting film, a reminder that the festival can serve up a treat under the most auspicious of disguises.

Serving up is certainly high on City of Gold's agenda.

This gentle doco from director Laura Gabbert tantalises us with the notion of a piece about food critic Jonathan Gold, the Pulitzer prize winning writer who's more at home among the street food than the swanky restaurants.

But what actually transpires is a long love letter to Los Angeles throughout the years, where Gold live, and to the people who give the food their love and serve to the man who loves their food.

With a few details about Gold scattered throughout, this piece keeps on the right side of hagiography with various colleagues and compadres of the scene espousing the virtues of Gold, who comes replete with long shaggy white hair. One even laments the fact they had discovered an eaterie which they were determined to keep secret but that ambition was foiled by Gold's review pinned up in the corner.

Along the journey, and in among the tantalising dishes served up by various smaller restaurants, Gold himself emerges as a critic of yore. There's very brief discussion of the place of the critic in this internet age and the value of opinion when it's blessed with experience (a thread I'm always, understandably, interested in) but this is really a piece about Los Angeles and the rich melting pot that lies within.

City of Gold is a document and snapshot of culinary history guaranteed to titillate and salivate, but it also throws into the mix a meshing and dollop of LA lifestyle throughout the years. Culturally it may enlighten, but what it will also do for LA, as well as the debate over the place of food critic, is to put plenty of eateries and treasures on the map that hitherto have remained hidden.

And at the end of the day, isn't that the job of the critic?

Sunshine Superman: NZFF Review

Sunshine Superman: NZFF Review

It's a double of jumping with Sunshine Superman, which comes with the Kiwi short Pelorus.

Director Alex Sutherland's redemption-at-the-end-of-a-rope tale clearly has more legs in it and may be expanded to a fuller feature, but for now this 70s filled short shines. It's the story of Chris Sigglekow who preceded AJ Hackett and potentially pioneered the bungy jump back in 1979 in Marlborough.

Pelorus

Expanded upon from doco The Jump, and rich in period detail (tins of beer, clothing and a calculator) Sutherland's concisely put together short is very much the embodiment of Kiwi No 8 wire - and explored his connection to the story. With its surfer shaggy haired lead exuding a welcoming warmth, Pelorus hints at a wider story (split with wife, failed attempts etc) that could readily be examined further - and that it could be time to tell the untold story thanks to this confident and heartfelt short.

So, it's no surprise that Pelorus is paired with doco Sunshine Superman, the story of Carl Boenish, the eternally smiling and energetic founder of BASE jumping aka throwing yourself off tall objects and soaring through the skies for the hell of it. The reason being simply, cos it's there...

But Boenish was also passionate about film-making too and ensured the jumps were always caught in camera so this really is not a film for those worried about heights in the slightest. Slow mo shots of the jumpers really tower off the screen and get you right into the action of the piece, while archive footage and interviews with those who knew Boenish best give good talking head. Interviews with Carl's wife Jean give some more insight into Carl's enthusiasm for the jumping as well as their relationship.

Bizarrely the film-makers have made some reconstructions of moments during Carl's life, such as taking phone calls and a few bits like that, which seem surplus to requirements. There are problems though, with more about Carl's life really going not much further than his passion for jumping; I never entirely felt I got to know the man (having viewed Being Evel 24 hours earlier, I feel that was a more rounded picture of what makes a daredevil tick). Outside of his jumping footage, which is beautifully captured and screams to be seen on the big screen, despite the effects of vertigo haunting your every move.

Boenish is described as having "an aura of life" but I'd suggest that this isn't fully conveyed in this film that makes great fist of jumping footage and conveying the thrill-seeking element of it all - I get how wondrous it is to jump off rocks and into the sky, but a deeper dive into Boenish's mentality and life would have seen this movie soar a little more than it does.

Girlhood: NZFF Review

Girlhood: NZFF Review

Bande de Filles has a star-in-ascendance in its lead actress the young Karidja Toure.

She plays troubled teen Marieme, who's facing an uncertain future thanks to suffering grades, a bullying brother and no chance to break out from looking after her younger sister and brother. Wrapped up on the outskirts of Paris in a council area, things are looking extremely dead-end - until she falls in with a trio of other girls around her age, headed up by the sassy and determined Lady.

However, one incident later and Lady's star is in the descent, thanks to the savage nature of the streets. This gives Marieme the chance she potentially needs to make something of her life.

This coming of age flick is utterly mesmerising, as mentioned, thanks to the lead Toure, who at once is fragile then turns ferocious at the drop of a hat. Yet, she never once loses her vulnerability as she broaches the opportunities womanhood is bringing her and that life is throwing her way.

But that's half the power of this subtly underplayed piece; it's a lament to the loss of youth, a paean to the negotiations we all make with ourselves as we try to forge our own identity and take our own steps to the next stage of life.

Deeply textured, extremely subtle and entirely captivating, Girlhood aka Bande De Filles is definitely worth your own time. It's not a showy film by any stretch of the imagination but the subtle changes in  Marieme's character from clothing to the way she holds herself represents all that is right with this film - it does the small things brilliantly and by the end you're entirely captivated by an extremely natural Toure and her fragile big brown eyes, and rooting for her to make something out of the drab world she's come from.

Bonds of friendship ebb and grow stronger within Girlhood - one moment sees the friends tell Marieme that she's screwing up, but give her the power to be able to make that mistake and come back to them - it's a powerful message that speaks with universality. The celebration of these bonds and these friends form the central basis of the burgeoning of age and Marieme's being "strong and alone" as one character remarks only serves to reinforce that notion.

Moving, powerful, strong and bravura, Girlhood is utterly unmissable - Toure is bound for greatness, so saddle up now and thank the New Zealand International Film Festival for giving you the chance to witness the start of a stunning transcendence.