Alita: Battle Angel: Blu Ray Review

Alita: Battle Angel: Blu Ray Review

Little more than the sum of its hollow parts, Alita: Battle Angel is a spectacle bar none.

Sat with James Cameron for the best part of two decades, the CGI movie, which meshes cyberpunk with Young Adult sensibilities (not always successfully, one may add) is an interesting start to the beginning of a hopeful franchise.

Taken from the Manga source material Battle Angel Alita, Waltz is Dr Dyson Ido, a cyber-surgeon in a city several centuries in the future. Finding a cyborg with a functioning heart in the scrapyard, Ido rebuilds her in the hope that she will live again.

But when Alita (Salazar, recently seen in Bird Box) comes around, she has no memory of who or what she is. Hunted for what she represents, Alita finds her world turned upside down as she regains flashes of who she is.

It's fair to say that Alita: Battle Angel looks incredible.

The mix of the CGI realisation and the integration of technology with human edges is nothing short of flawless, and Salazar brings life to the CGI character lead, lending a heart that's needed.

Alita's wide eyes may suggest innocence and be in keeping with anime's trademarks, but it also helps the character stand out from the crowd, as she's forced to deliver some truly groan-worthy dialogue, ripped from the pages of a pulpy Young Adult novel, via some Nicholas Sparks style imagery.

Waltz adds humanity to his doctor, ensuring that the paternal relationship hits the right notes, even if it follows down the well-worn paths of any father-daughter movie.

It's Alita's mix of familiar that stops the film from feeling truly original; from elements of Rollerball crossed with Transformers, portions of the City that Never Sleeps Spider-Man DLC, via Detroit:
Becoming Human, Ghost In the Shell elements, to a love story in among separated societies that was part of Mortal Engines, there's an incredible sense of deja vu on show here, coupled with a feeling that the story's as low stakes as it could be, with frustrating hints proffered of what could come in a future instalment.

Whether that does eventuate will be another matter entirely, and certainly in the film's back 20 minutes, the feeling of resolution is frustrated by out-of-character character behaviours that don't gel and jar the flow.

Ultimately, Alita: Battle Angel is a worthy attempt at something new and is visionary in its visual execution once again (as you'd expect from Cameron et al) - but once again, a sci-fi epic is frustratingly hamstrung by its human edges, and its lack of commitment to tone that leaves Alita floundering for a USP in an ever-crowded pantheon of franchise wannabes. 

Backtrack Boys: NZIFF Review

Backtrack Boys: NZIFF Review

More gentle amble through troubled boys' lives and less about the dogs they're paired up with, director Catherine Scott's genial Backtrack Boys heads to Australia to talk second chances and maturity.

With an unfussy and unobtrusive camera, Scott follows the lives of boys in Aussie Bernie Shakeshaft's programme aimed at turning kids around as part of his residential programme.

It's tried and tested material admittedly - for every troubled kid, there's a familiar story to follow (the commonalities in these types of yarns is never earth-shattering), but what Scott does is to centre in on three boys, and make you care for them via simplicity of execution, and intimate portrayals.

Perpetual offender and youngster Russell, aka Rusty, is the wild card, a ready to bite, ready to fight, ready to run kid who's one incident away from jail; there's Zac, the teen who's like a big brother, but whose anger underneath his soft edges could destroy him and Tyson, the kid from jail, who's trying to go straight.

It's obviously heart-warming fare, and is intensely devastating when things don't go right as they should. While some may berate Scott for never really presenting the victims' side of the offending, her maturity in holding the boys upto account via their own interactions is commendable.

It's affecting admittedly, and gentle in many ways, but Backtrack Boys continues the lines set down by last year's Celia Lashlie doco, in that social interventions and people make the difference. These are not new conclusions, and there's an underlying sadness that these stories have to be repeatedly trotted out, but with sensitively handled fare such as this, maybe ultimately, the message will get through.

NZIFF Q&A - director Lorcan Finnegan, Vivarium

NZIFF Q&A - director Lorcan Finnegan, Vivarium

My film is.... VIVARIUM, a strange twisted sci-fi nightmare about a consumerist life

The moment I'm most proud of is.... Probably getting into Cannes. It made all the problems go away

The reason I carried on with this film when it got tough is..... Because there is never any other choice unfortunately. You convince all these talented people to help make your film, so you owe it to them to make a good film. And to yourself from the past who thought it was a good idea and yourself from the future who thinks you did an alright job.

The one moment that will resonate with an audience is....... When something happens in the 3rd act that I can't tell you about.

The hardest thing I had to cut from this film is........ A sequence I spent 5 days shooting. It was very complicated and required lots of vfx to complete but ultimately didn't make the film better so I beheaded it.

The thing I want people to take from this film is ...... To watch out for creepy estate agents called Martin. 

The reason I love the NZIFF is....... Because it has all the best films and is in New Zealand!

What I want to see at this year's NZIFF is...... Long Day’s Journey into Night, Monos, Song Without a Name, In Fabric and another Poots / Eisenberg film by my friend Riley Sterns, The Art of Self Defence

The one thing I'd say to aspiring filmmakers is..... Keep the blinkers on and stay delusional enough to get your film made

2040: Film Review

2040: Film Review

Director: Damon Gameau

Idealism seeps through the veins of That Sugar Film's follow up.

Damon Gameau returns with a self-professed optimistic piece of what life could be like in 2040 that's squarely aimed at showing his 4-year-old daughter Velvet that there is hope among the doom and gloom of climate change reporting and global concerns over the planet's future.

The tone for this film is set in the opening moments as a title board reveals that carbon credits used in making this film have been offset.

It's genially put together, and should be commended for its eternal optimism, but despite Gameau deploying visual tactics such as shrinking down commentators and experts to wee tiny levels so they can be dwarfed on the screen, the film's really only interested in presenting a utopian side of the argument.

"We have everything we need right now to make it happen," Gameau intones at one point.

And as he demonstrates how farming can do its bit, how self-driving cars will provide transport peace and how energy can be shared with others, it's easy to buy into. But Gameau shies away from getting any of the critical answers why this isn't happening yet or won't in future - whether it's out of a desire to make the film so positive that it doesn't make you want to scream at politicians and their global politicking or whether it's through lack of trying, it's never really clear.

The end result is that frustrations bubble up - despite the cutesy use of kids' vox pops talking about what they want to see in 2040. Sure, it's amusing in parts, and is as hollow as a once over lightly global approach, but much like the director's predilection in That Sugar Film, it's all about shallow rushes to the head.

In truth, the narrative naivete cloys, and while it's understandable that Gameau's trying to inspire rather than put obstacles up, its occasional head in the sands' approach does nothing to dispel a nagging sense of frustration and a feeling that everyone in the film is living in Fantasyland.

Crowd-pleasing it may be; inspiring it may also be, but based on any kind of reality and giving any steps forward to making it a reality, it is not.

Don't let the politics get in the way of a good dream, eh.

NZIFF 2019 Q&A - director Sophie Hyde, Animals

NZIFF 2019 Q&A - director Sophie Hyde, Animals

My film is....
A big collaboration with a lot of great people all providing details that make the feeling of the whole. It's a lot of fun, I think pleasurable to watch and also a bit expansive, or more expansive than is expected. 

The moment I'm most proud of is....
I'm not sure. 

The reason I carried on with this film when it got tough is.....
Because they are characters and a situation that feels like it's been done a lot but not with a lot of nuance, I felt they should be on screen.

The one moment that will resonate with an audience is.......
The cocaine sex scene...no, the feeling of trying to work out your shit when your desires are so competing. 

The hardest thing I had to cut from this film is........ 
The song "Buffalo stance" which was written into the script but didn't have a place in the movie

The thing I want people to take from this film is ...... 
That friendships can be inspiring, difficult and brilliant whether they exist for a moment, a day, a season or a lifetime. 

The reason I love the NZIFF is.......
Because of the great films on offer

What I want to see at this year's NZIFF is......
Well I don't want to see it but there is another film I produced called In My Blood It Runs which is beautiful and meaningful and mesmerising and disturbing and also hopeful - that would be my hot pick. 

The one thing I'd say to aspiring filmmakers is.....Be really rigorous  about what you want to say, who you want to say it to, how you want to say it. 

Jojo Rabbit first trailer is here

Jojo Rabbit first trailer is here

The first trailer for Taika Waititi's next film, Jojo Rabbit has arrived.

In it, Waititi plays a Hitler style goofball at a Hitler camp.

The film follows a young boy (Roman Griffin) raised in a Hitler Youth camp who questions his patriotism when he realises his mother (Scarlett Johansson) is hiding a young Jewish girl (Thomasin McKenzie).

Deerskin: NZIFF Review

Deerskin: NZIFF Review

French director Quentin Dupieux, the guy who brought us Rubber, returns to the festival with an offbeat look at masculinity and bizarrely, fashion.

A greying Jean DuJardin is Georges, a man who appears firstly on the road, and secondly out of sorts. Clad in ill-fitting chinos, and drably coutured, his first stop is at a rest stop, where he throws his jacket in the loo, pushes it down with his feet, and retreats as the facilities begin to flood.

Having dispatched his wardrobe with veritable aplomb, Georges buys a full length, tassles and all, deerskin jacket, that comes with a digital video recorder. Dubbed The Beast by its seller, the jacket seems to exert a hold over Georges, demanding that all jackets be destroyed....

Deerskin is dubbed as a comedy, but it's not exactly laugh-out-loud amusing, more unusual and offbeat than anything.

Beiges, browns and other drab colours provide a palette of malaise that affects much of the mood of the film, and symbolises the collective atmosphere of loss.

DuJardin is committed to the lunacy and the delusion, but grounds his Georges in a kind of broken sadness that's universally recognised, before it teeters off ultimately and heads into the unhinged arena.

At 76 minutes, the film's stretched about as thin as it can go, but the descent into madness is well put together and sold mainly by DuJardin's sense of detachment and Adele Haenel's Denise's desperation to escape a crummy job and buy into the delusion.

"You can't make sense of it now, but it rocks," is one line intoned during proceedings, and may be much of the audience reaction to how Deerskin plays out, and descends into obvious genre tropes.

Ultimately, Deerskin paints itself into a corner, as is demonstrated by an ending that comes out of the blue, but Dupieux's commitment to the journey of lunacy allows it to not outstay its welcome.

Just.