Brittany Runs a Marathon: NZIFF Review

Brittany Runs a Marathon: NZIFF Review

Easily one of the most commercial films of the festival, and crowd-pleasing in extremis, Brittany Runs a Marathon's commitment to good humour and geniality is obvious from the get go.

Jillian Bell is Brittany, an overweight party goer who's in a dead end attendant job at the local theatre, and whose propensity for casual hook ups and nothing serious has sent her into an early downward spiral.

Heading to the doctor to score some free drugs, Brittany gets a wake up call and decides to lose some weight and shake her life up.

The lifestyle-choices-catch-up-with-you sentiment is not exactly a new one, and the sentimental edges of Brittany Runs a Marathon can be seen coming a mile off, but that doesn't mean Paul Downs Colaizzo's screenplay doesn't present some highlights and positivity for everyone to take away.

Pitch Perfect's Jillian Bell makes great fist of the comedic elements of the script, and there are some genuine laugh-out-loud moments as the authentic and earnest film plays out, and deals out a character that's messed up and not necessarily one that's going to get perfection by the final frame.

Internal loathing, social awkwardness and lashing out as well as self-deprecation are the orders of the day as Brittany Runs a Marathon's body image message is got across through great swathes of recognition. It's hard to negotiate both insecurities and deal out empathy, but Colaizzo and Bell deliver in spades.

Brittany Runs a Marathon may collapse in gooey sentiment at the end, but it's almost forgivable, given how criminally enjoyable it is.

Hale County This Morning This Evening: NZIFF Review

Hale County This Morning This Evening: NZIFF Review

There's frustration and beauty a-plenty in Hale County This Morning This Evening, a freewheeling doco that plays fast and loose with the traditional idea of a documentary.

Director RaMell Ross has, in truth, constructed something which is more of a moving exhibition of photos and moments to reveal more of Hale County in Alabama.

Using intimate shots, and moments of beauty behind a lens, Ross channels the excitement of a first-time filmmaker, capturing the people and the sights of the area that he came to as a teacher. But a traditional narrative aches to be placed into the context of this documentary, with glimpses rather than fully formed foundations informing his characters and the people within.

From sweat falling onto the ground like raindrops, to a neon pink religious sign glistening in the wind, to two people playing in a car lot while the storms swirl around them in the sky, Ross has an eye for the artful and the artistic in droves.

But punctuating the shots with bizarre title cards does little to add to the experience, and if anything, takes you out of what is clearly meant to be an experimental experience of a filmmaker capturing life at both its most mundane and day-to-day voyeuristic.

It's a frustration more than a condemnation of Hale County This Morning This Evening, because it's guaranteed you won't see a more carefully considered piece of documentary making this year.

But it's also a frustration, because the freeforming nature may capture some wondrous moments of banality and of life in its truly most basic form, yet it does so without turning them into something cohesive.

Come To Daddy: NZIFF Review

Come to Daddy: NZIFF Review

Incredibly Strange programmer and industry stalwart Ant Timpson's directorial debut is a strange slice of sentiment mixed with the usual gonzo horror gore you've come to expect.

A terribly haircutted Elijah Wood is Norval, a hipster musician who's called back to his father's side after a letter shows up without warning decades after they were last seen. But upon Norval's arrival, his father is a crude and unsympathetic father figure, apparently disinterested in his son, but fervently keen in abusing him and mocking his musical success and limited edition Lorde designed phone.

However, things take a turn for the dramatic as time goes on.

To say more about Come To Daddy is to rob the ride of some of the uncertain richness that's portrayed within. And that's kind of the point of most of the film, as it toys with the intimate and preys on the audience expectations.

But what Timpson's delivered, along with writer Toby Harvard, is a film that ripples in parts, and feels under-explored in others as it bends genres and audience hopes.

Shot in close up styles, and with a cast that's best described as intimate, rather than sparse, there is more of emotional heft than you'd expect as you watch Wood's uncertain Norval try to impress his father and reconnect. Wood channels awkwardness and misplaced bluster as he tries to show off, and the excruciating scene is made even stronger by some tautly shot moments and some wide angles suggesting the divide between them.

Apparently, there are autobiographical elements within, and one senses the early scenes speak to a generational gap that has been witnessed for years as families try to reconcile their hopes for their siblings / paternal relationships.

Timpson makes great fist of the claustrophobia here and there, and never loses the propensity for laughs - obvious or otherwise (a plastic bag on a beach being one of the chief examples).

But when the film moves out of the confines of its dramatic journey and into genre areas it's destined to fulfill, it loses some of the scope that's kept it together as it looks to satiate an audience seeking a gore quota and a sleaze factor.

The payoff is an interesting one, and one which speaks volumes to the relationship, but which to discuss more is to spoil - ultimately, Come To Daddy may offer a Friday night's worth of entertainment, but it's never as gory or as humorous as it could or should be.

And for that element alone, it's more of a sentimental film than you'd ever expect from Timpson et al - and all the more interesting because of it.

NZIFF 2019 Q&A Justin Pemberton, director of Capital In The Twenty-First Century

NZIFF 2019 Q&A Justin Pemberton, director of Capital In The Twenty-First Century

My film is....Capital In The Twenty-First Century

The moment I'm most proud of is....

A scene with a young Margaret Thatcher where she says, “I don’t think there’ll be a woman prime minster in my lifetime”. She’s a poster child for the post-war era of high social mobility - an ordinary shopkeeper's daughter from the North who becomes Britain's first female prime minister and very wealthy. 

The reason I carried on with this film when it got tough is.....Because the only way out is through.

The one moment that will resonate with an audience is.......

The rigged game of monopoly. It’s a simple but powerful experiment by a psychologist who shows some remarkable behaviours changes in people.

The hardest thing I had to cut from this film is........ 
Bitch Better Have My Money by Rhianna - we played with the track in an early cut but it was impossibly expensive to clear the rights. Thankfully there’s loads of other great pop-culture moments I did get to use in the movie, so I don’t miss it. 

The thing I want people to take from this film is ...... 

To see how our relationship with capital has changed over time and get people talking about how it needs to change again.

The reason I love the NZIFF is.......

It’s the prefect excuse to slack off work and to over-indulge in film... plus there’s always a great collection of docos.

What I want to see at this year's NZIFF is......

Amazing Grace, Meeting Gorbachev,  Sorry We Missed You, Where’s My Roy Cohn?

The one thing I'd say to aspiring filmmakers is.....

Always be able to tell your story in one sentence. 

The Nightingale: NZIFF Review

The Nightingale: NZIFF Review

Jennifer Kent's latest after The Babadook follows similar themes.

The colonial-set Australian adventure has a fire that's hard to deny, but it also features a mother and an imperiled child, much like The Babadook did.

But that's where the similarities end.

In 1825 Tasmania, Aisling Franciosi is Clare, a thief who's in debt to Sam Claflin's Hawkins. With Hawkins abusing his power, and frustrated at his inability to progress postings in the army, Clare finds herself extremely abused and compromised at his hand.

When things go devastatingly wrong, Clare is forced out on a mission of extreme revenge, and in the company only of Aborigine Billy (Baykali Ganambarr) as her tracker.

It may be sadistic in its opening act, and prone to sickening moments of colonial cruelty as it reveals a necessary and honest reality, but The Nightingale presents moments of beauty in among its brutality.

Kent once again presents a story that's beautifully shot, with landscape vistas presenting both the power and terror of the uncharted outside world. Thankfully, it helps counterbalance some of the cruelty that white men do which is sadly prevalent in this piece.

It may be a Western in its approach in terms of a revenge story, however, there are moments of horror as well as Kent balances a nightmarish element of hauntings for Clare.

Franciosi delivers a powerhouse turn as a woman on a mission; whereas it could be a one dimensional role, she imbues Clare with both fragility and fire. Equally, Ganambarr gives an angry yet understated edge to the local man whose land has been attacked, raped and his family killed. There's a definite anti-colonial message here, as the evil of the English is explored (both the Irish and Aborigine abhor the English) in subtle ways.

There's no denying there are hardships early on, but stick with The Nightingale as it's both necessary and the rewards are well worth it, as the final message of personal redemption and choice burn through.

NZIFF 2019 Q&A - Damon Gameau, director of 2040

NZIFF 2019 Q&A - Damon Gameau, director of 2040

My film is...
2040

The moment I'm most proud of is….
Condensing a 3 hour 35 minute rough cut of the film into 90 minutes.

The reason I carried on with this film when it got tough is…..
There is nothing more important than the health of our planet. And a better future for our children.

The one moment that will resonate with an audience is…….
The magical powers of seaweed

The hardest thing I had to cut from this film is…….. 
A larger part of the economy section and the ‘rules of the game’ that are blocking us from getting to a better 2040.

The thing I want people to take from this film is ……
Hope

The reason I love the NZIFF is…….
New Zealand is a much better country than Australia

What I want to see at this year's NZIFF is……
In My Blood It Runs’ by Maya Newell

The one thing I'd say to aspiring filmmakers is…..
Make sure the subject you choose for your film is a subject you really love. You will be tested making a film so a foundation of love is crucial.

In Fabric: NZIFF Review

In Fabric: NZIFF Review

Peter Strickland's latest is a bizarre fetish piece, packed with languishing imagery and also a bizarre headscratcher that's lashed with humour where its narrative lacks.

Marianne Jean Baptiste is Sheila, a recently dumped housewife whose son is running riot with a French teacher taking the mickey and whose job in front line banking service is overseen by two manager busybodies who have nothing better to do.

When she buys a red dress in the January sales, she's unaware of the Phantom Thread's demonic past and finds herself in a world she doesn't quite fathom.

In Fabric is frankly a stylised piece of utter nuttiness.

And when it embraces its absurdities, it's all the better for it.

But at its core, In Fabric mocks British society mercilessly; whether it's Sheila's constant phone voice reading out her entire phone number or the consumerist desires of those beating down the doors of a department store, Strickland's got an eye on the absurd in this utterly out there piece that revels in the perversity it presents.

While narratively it may go off the rails at certain points, it doesn't hold back from its more fetish edges and stylised insanity. The aesthetics impress much like the Duke of Burgundy did, but whereas here the deep reds and crisp colours hark back to the horror edges, the film's definitely keen to take you on a journey, even if the final destination doesn't offer the answers you may seek.

It's fair to say In Fabric is the most curious entry in this year's Film Festival, but it's also the one offering the most perverse pleasures in the cinema - in terms of laughs, it offers plenty, and in terms of genre nods and erotic weirdness, it's second to none for atmospheric oddities.