Searching: NZIFF Review

Searching: NZIFF Review

Cast: John Cho, Debra Messing, Joseph Lee, Michelle La
Director: Aneesh Chaganty

Searching taps into the digital world we live in and the price we pay for living online.

A solid and empathetic Cho stars as David Kim, whose life is changed when his daughter goes missing. As he tries desperately to track her down, with the help of a detective (Will and Grace star Debra Messing). he discovers he knows little to nothing about who his daughter really is...

Searching has a gimmick - it's a smart digital film thriller played out with everything unfolding via a computer screen. Admittedly, the contrivances come piled high in the back third of the film, threatening to topple the house of cards that's piled high, but there's a lot to digest beforehand.

Chaganty opens with a clever digital montage of the family, a reminder of how much we catalogue online these days, and how computers are so much about our memories as well as the RAM within. In many ways, it's a digitised version of the opening of Up, but for the Facebook generation.

If the gimmick is smartly executed by digital native Chaganty, it's also humanised by Cho's performance. Anchored with a turn that's both empathetic and gripping, Cho's desperation feels real as he plays off a screen and Face time conversations. The anguish etched on his face is never over-played, and he holds the story strongly.

Chaganty spins the thread as far as he can, but the back stages of the film feel like they have piled up the coincidences a little too highly, and while the smarter technical edges have reminiscences of Kristen Stewart's Personal Shopper, Searching always constantly feels gripping when it needs to.

An outlandish twist seals the deal for Searching, but that aside, the film's desire to provide an emotional rollercoaster for the large part works - it may not be perfect, but it's a thrilling tale of the lengths parents will go to and the cautionary fact we're all slowly becoming disconnected in a digital world.

A Kid Like Jake: NZIFF Review

A Kid Like Jake: NZIFF Review

Wisely steering clear of the hysterics that could come from a drama of trying to place a child in a school that's best for them, director Silas Howard's film version of Daniel Pearle's play is a piece that keeps itself grounded throughout.

Claire Danes and Jim Parsons play parents Alex and Greg, who seem diametrically opposed to their parenting approach - she's uptight, and almost neurotic in his eyes and he's indifferent and calm, to the point of comatose in hers.

Issues are further complicated by their son Jake whose desires extend to cross-dressing, a Disney princess obsession and long tresses as well as dresses which is causing problems when trying to pigeon hole him for future schools.

Inevitably, conflict arises as the parents find the pull of the familial sending them to places they'd not expected to go.

Imbued with a degree of WASP-ish indifference, it's hard to care really about the problems these guys face, something which would usually prove fatal to a drama. But by keeping everything grounded, Howard's manipulation of his actors and their commitment to the cause offers up more than just an insight into parenting choice, but also the deepest of human foibles and trivialities.

As Danes ratchets up the control-freakery, Parsons' laid-back approach threatens to derail everything - this at-times kitchen sink drama does inevitably boil over in one mightily familiar scene to many (parents or otherwise) but rarely, unfortunately, transcends its play-like setting.

However, it scores highly for its common touch, its exploration of doubt and its desire to avoid throwing the kid Jake into the middle; smartly, this works when it should and only occasionally teeters.

Gurrumul: NZIFF Review

Gurrumul: NZIFF Review

Some may not be familiar with Australian musician Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu, but this doco may look to change some of that.

Paul Damien Williams' piece follows the history of the Australian artist, whose use of soulful Aborigine tunes and definitive voice captivated a generation back in 2008.

Mixing Indigenous languages and simple music, Gurrumul's success was guaranteed, but what came with it was something more than perhaps blind musician Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu actually wanted.

Williams' piece is somewhat confined by the fact that the reclusive Gurrumul was no fan of talking to the media - not out of arrogance or indignance, as an early interview shows, but more out of discomfort.

Despite being gently persuaded to try and engage, Gurrumul stands his ground, preferring to let the music speak for itself, and partly staying true to his reclusive nature. It hampers what Williams may have set out to do, but what it does do, as it's forced in another direction is to promote the enigma and mystery of Gurrumul.

Fans include the likes of Sting, Elton John and Bjork - none of whom are included here, as Williams doesn't wish to pursue a hagiography of the man.

Equally, even though Gurrumul was photographed with the likes of Obama and was a star at the Australian music awards, Williams' piece reveals the pain he felt over being about to break the American market, and the disconnect the idea of fame offered compared to his Indigenous roots.

It's this touch which allows Williams to show more of Gurrumul's background, his life on Elcho Island and why his sense of community and connection to the land was more important than the possibility of fame.

The end result is humbling and while it may be frustrating to some given how the usual biographical documentaries handle their subjects, this spiritual piece talks of tolerance, tradition and offers treats.

Eye-opening in some ways, and a window into another cultural world, Gurrumul insight into cultures is its sole MO, with the music and life of the man very much being a much needed and intriguing extra insight.

Birds of Passage: NZIFF Review

Birds of Passage: NZIFF Review

Mining thematically similar edges to 2016's NZIFF entrant, Embrace of The Serpent, director Ciro Guerra's Birds of Passage takes a very familiar story and piles it through a prism of spiritualism, tribal ways and never-seen-before customs.

Much like Embrace of the Serpent's Amazonian world fell apart from the entrance of strangers, so too does the Colombian world of Zaida and her family. Freed after a year imprisoned in a hut, Zaida's courted by Rapayet, who's rebuffed by her family for having no wealth, and unable to afford her dowry.

However, Rapayet meets some members of the US Peace Corp who are in the region (the first hint of incursions ruining culture) and who are after marijuana. Partnering up with a volatile friend, Rapayet discovers the wealth in the marijuana, and sets in motion a chain of events which threatens both their indigenous ways and their own family values.

Guerra's Birds of Passage is a slow watch, a slow-burning intensely interesting take on an overly familiar story of how drugs - and drink - destroy and how feuds are started in the most insidious of ways.

What Guerra and fellow director Cristina Gallego have done is to take the very rote stories and give them a new spin. Thematically familiar to Embrace of the Serpent ie corrupting influence of outsiders, Birds of Passage takes a overly used drugs story trope and files it through a spiritual prism for maximum effect..

The matriarch (very similar to Animal Kingdom's Jackie Weaver) puts a lot of spiritual edge on what's going on early on, leading to Rapayet almost scoffing at her thoughts and superstitions.

But the further into the marijuana mire he goes, the more he comes to realise the portents she'd talked about were true and how the inevitability cannot be avoided.

Split into four chapters and four time zones, complete with a final song, and blessed with some truly deeply rooted performances, Birds of Passage takes you into the world of the Wayuu and their cultures with no prior knowledge needed of what they are. These are universal tales of corruption, of power struggles and of innocence caught in a cross fire that's unnecessary and yet unavoidable.

Packed with a cultural power, and blessed with a tragedy that's all too familiar, Birds of Passage becomes a film that elevates itself as it goes on - it may be slow at times, and could potentially have lost some of its 2 hour run time, but the wonder of what transpires is in line with Guerra's consistent themes of colonialism corrupting indigenous people, of how the white man has effectively ruined lives in the most insidious of ways without even trying and of how families fracture when the most human of sins rear their ugly heads.

Leave No Trace: NZIFF Review

Leave No Trace: NZIFF Review

Cast: Ben Foster, Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie
Director: Debra Granik

A strong piece about deep connection, a symbiotism and subsequent disconnection, Granik's follow up to Winter's Bone is mesmerising in its minimalism.

McKenzie and Foster play father and daughter, Tom and Will. We first encounter them walking through the woods, and it soon becomes clear that this is where they live - to outsiders, it's less than idyllic, but for this pair, who seem unnaturally close, it's perfection.

Certainly for Tom, it appears to be all she's known - but all that changes when she's accidentally seen one day by a passer-by and authorities are alerted.

The pair are picked up by social services, and it's here problems develop for the father and daughter.

To say more about the adaptation of Peter Rock's 2009 book My Abandonment is to spoil what unfurls - and certainly, there's more of an air of mystery in this piece that eats away at you as the film goes on.

Hints are dropped both in moments of dialogue but also in actions - primarily via Foster's edginess, and the decision not to reveal everything immediately. It's this pervasive sense of mystery which soaks through Leave No Trace's DNA which makes such a rewarding watch.

What Granik achieves is a feeling of capturing the margins of society in hints rather than direct exposition and action. Coupled with two naturalistic turns from Foster and McKenzie, the film's power lies in its stillness and its sense of connection.

Initially, everything seems fine between the father and daughter - and the film's suspicions are raised by societal obsessions over motivations of why they live in the woods. It's notable that everything that goes wrong in this is due to external circumstances and intrusions - and certainly Foster's performance of internalised pain and struggle is deeply affecting.

Equally, McKenzie's turn as Tom is something else. She manages to affect great subtle change in Tom's arc, and her journey feels like the full gamut has been reached by the end. However, her confusion, occasional fiery burns, and her strength are key traits to Tom, never once overplayed and ultimately deeply empathetic.

While the film's suffused in mystery, the bond is resolutely human and co-dependant in many ways.

"How important are their judgments" is a line uttered early on, but it's one which forms the mantra of what Granik's trying to achieve here - everything is viewed from other's perspective, the inner sanctity of Tom and Will's bond subject to repeated scrutiny, and due to this, ultimately Tom's own scrutiny comes into play, setting in motion a chain of usually normal events that feel loaded with sadness.

Along with the reflection of an America split and marginalised (as briefly glimpsed throughout), Granik's pared back direction and wondrous cinematography helps Leave No Trace gain its growing atmospheric sense of dread.

But yet, Granik is also wise enough to present those from the outside world who interact with the duo as normal people, blessed with both empathy and a desire to help - making their discord and disconnect even more heart-wrenching to endure and watch.

It's compelling in extremis, and executed with such naturalistic edges, that it almost feels intrusive to watch. Very much the antithesis to Captain Fantastic, and although endowed with similar themes, Leave No Trace has a quiet power from beginning to end.

It's wondrous to behold, with much of the apparent coming-of-age tale leaving lots to unpack long after the lights have gone up and Foster and McKenzie's performances have been marvelled at.

First look - Doctor Who Series 11 - Jodie Whittaker, new sonic screwdriver

First look - Doctor Who Series 11 - Jodie Whittaker, new sonic screwdriver

The first trailer for Doctor Who Series 11 has dropped, showing Jodie Whittaker's 13th Doctor entering the TARDIS and also debuting a brand new sonic screwdriver.

The trailer was first shown at San Diego Comic Con 2018 with director Chris Chibnall saying he wanted fans to have a communal experience this time, hence why all the show secrecy.

The BBC has confirmed the first look at the new series of Doctor Who, with an exclusive new trailer shown during the BBC coverage of the World Cup final. 

It comes as American magazine Entertainment Weekly brings us the first look at the new Doctor Who series starring Jodie Whittaker as the 13th incarnation of the Time Lord.

There are also exclusive first looks at the new TARDIS team, led by Jodie Whittaker too.

Mega Time Squad: NZIFF Review

Mega Time Squad: NZIFF Review

More loopy, than Looper, Mega Time Squad is a blast.

A ludicrously-fuelled tale of crime and lack of ambition in middle New Zealand (Thames, to be precise), director Tim Van Dammen's follow up to NZIFF hit Romeo and Juliet: A Love Story is nonetheless stylish.

Anton Tennet is John, a small town hoodlum who's less a player, more easily-to-be-played. Part of a crime gang run by Jonny Brugh's Shelton (the humourous lunatic of the piece), John's sent to rob a triad at his behest to prevent the Chinese from getting a foothold in Thames.

While carrying out the deed, John gets his hands on a mysterious piece of Chinese jewellery that has mystical time-travelling properties...and suddenly finds he has ambitions he never realised.

Fresh, enticing and flipping funny, Mega Time Squad is easily the 2018 New Zealand International Film Festival's best time at the movies.

With a laconic style and some unexpectedly humorous moments to pierce any of the meanness (of which there's little) van Dammen celebrates the Kiwi in the middle of the country, and never once loses any of the smarts of the film's genre. It may play up the mystical elements of the bracelet and then never quite deliver (the film's only criticism), but van Dammen's clever enough to use the genre for what it needs, and never loses sight that the core of the story is of a man stuck where he is split between wanting to be and not.

Very much a celebration riddled through with a lunatic lo-fi joie de vivre (and some truly amusing yet human imagery, pies under a cloche being the best), Mega Time Squad is the NZIFF's best good time so far.

There's nothing pals and pies can't solve, and amid the wannabe gangster storyline and growing absurdities, Mega Time Squad packs as big a heart as you could ever want from a NZ film.