Biggest ever little film festival Show Me Shorts 2019 line up announced in New Zealand

Biggest ever little film festival Show Me Shorts 2019 line up announced in New Zealand

LARGEST PROGRAMME EVER FOR SHOW ME SHORTS FILM FESTIVAL 2019 NZ's biggest little film festival opens across Aotearoa from 5 October

Show Me Shorts Film Festival has revealed the 2019 programme, which includes their largest number of films ever: sixty short films and three music videos, chosen from a record 2040 entries. The programming team scoured the world for their selection of the best new short films to deliver to New Zealand audiences. The programme spans a variety of genres, styles and topics. Eight Kiwi films will make their world premiere during the festival: Kino Ratten by Peter McCully Elder Birdsong by Shuchi Kothari & Sarina Pearson TIP by Jaya Beach-Robertson #Collapsingempire by Cathy MacDonald Number Two by Rachel Ross One Hundred and Twenty Seconds by Connor Slattery Te Whakairo - Ngā Kī o Te Tai Ao (The Carvings Carry the Stories of the World) by Vanessa Wells Love Bytes by Sam Prebble. There are also more than 30 New Zealand premieres of international films in this year’s programme. Festival Director Gina Dellabarca says, “This year, the quality of films overall was extremely high, which is why we’ve expanded the programme. Sixty-three films may not seem like so many when compared to some international film festivals that can run hundreds of films, but we deliberately try to keep the programme small for three reasons: 1. To ensure only the best films are selected; 2. To make deciding which films to see manageable for audiences; 3. Because it’s better to have fewer screenings that are full instead of lots of half-empty screenings.” A total of 22 countries will be represented on screen this year: Australia, Austria, Canada, China, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Romania, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States. Japanese filmmakers are in the spotlight in the 2019 programme, with a special Japanese Focus section. Two Japanese filmmakers, Fuyuko Mochizuki and Kimi Yawata will be taking part in screenings and events, while Eiji Shimada from Sapporo International Short Film Festival & Market joins the Show Me Shorts national awards jury. Regarding trends, documentaries made up a large portion of this year’s entries, with a total of ten short documentary films selected for the programme. For fans of this genre, there is a section of the programme called Doc Station where most of them can be viewed together. Viewers can observe the beautiful banality on board a cruise ship, take part in a festival celebrating crawfish, experience a Mardi Gras in New Orleans, and follow the mayhem that ensues when a new traffic separation device is installed in Sweden. The remaining six themed sections of the programme are: Better Work Stories showing people in unusual jobs or in boring jobs doing unusual things; Freaky Futures features sci-fi and dystopian stories; My Generation is for children and families; The Sampler is the travelling programme with shorts of wide appeal; Unconventional Families includes a wide variety of stories about whānau; and Love and Other Catastrophes has dating disasters, grand gestures and love gone wrong. Show Me Shorts is an Oscar-accredited film festival, meaning the winners of the top two awards, Department of Post Best New Zealand Film and Best International Film, will become qualified to enter the Academy Awards. Eight prizes will be given out at the launch of the festival on Saturday 5 October at Auckland’s ASB Waterfront Theatre. Wellington Opening Night will follow on Friday 11 October at The Embassy. With more than 25 cinema locations across Aotearoa there are ample opportunities to get friends and family together and enjoy the range of films and events on offer. Full dates, locations and booking information is available at www.showmeshorts.co.nz/programme.

It: Chapter Two: Movie Review

It: Chapter Two: Movie Review

Cast: James MacAvoy, Jessica Chastain, Bill hader, Bill Skarsgard, Jay Ryan, Isaiah Mustafa, James Ransome, FinnWolfhard, Jaeden Martell, Sophia Lillis
Director: Andy Muschietti

The sequel to the phenomenally popular horror movie It presents a sustained disturbing assault on your psyche, while somehow managing to completely repeat itself from its first outing.

In the final part of the adaptation of horror meister Stephen King's seminal work, the Losers club, now scattered, scarred and disjointed, are pulled back to Derry by Mike (an exposition heavy and sullen Mustafa) after it appears Pennywise has reappeared 27 years later.

Dealing with their own issues, as well as an inexplicable memory loss in the intervening years, the group must come together one more time to face their own fears and banish the malignant clown cancer that's blighting their home town.

It: Chapter Two presents almost three hours of psychological assault, trading on primal fears and drowning the audience in noise and bluster - as well as making a strong case for exceptional work by both Bills in the cast.

Yet, in among the meta gags about writers that seems to mock King, there's a feeling "You don't like endings" is a trope which can't be escaped. (MacAvoy's Bill, now a writer is oft mocked for his literary inabilities to climax).

Choosing to present sustained noise and fury, the film seems content to retread a similar pattern proffered by Muschietti's first opening chapter - one of a funhouse with jolts and jump scares rolled out as a series of set pieces, and held together solely by nicely emotional flashbacks and a less weighty current day plight for the gang.

That's not to say they're not successful in among the bluster, more than they're a narrative equivalent of a carny ride through the spooky horrors of the gang's scarred psyche. But despite the noise of the horrific gay bashing that opens the film, the success comes in the quieter moments and the more upsetting set pieces.

A sequence with Pennywise and a young girl under the bannisters of a baseball game is as disturbing and as delightful as it should be - and equally, a sequence in a hall of mirrors offers some viscerally unsettling moments.

But all too often, It: Chapter Two is happy to squander those in favour of bigger, brasher horror set pieces which scream out of the screen as the nightmarish edges are etched into the mind.

And if anything, the lunatic conclusion of the film and the third-act reveal of the origins of Pennywise border on the laughable, as befits the material.

However, there are bonuses to be had among the boos.

While the older version of the Losers' Club are essentially sidelined in favour of flashbacks, Bill Hader offers up a broken fragile version of an older Richie that feels lived in, giving depth to where King's brush strokes have been found wanting. The same can't be said of Jessica Chastain's Bev, a domestic violence victim that barely gets the redemption and boldness her younger version was proffered in the first.

Bill Skarsgaard's Pennywise remains a definitive take on the character, but this time around, while the scares he delivers are genuinely unsettling, the boogeyman feels less developed and more a purveyor of terror than a figure of depth. But when the jolts are delivered as effectively as they are, this is less glaring than it normally would be.

There's no denying an edit may have helped It: Chapter Two, and there's a distinct feeling of disturbing deja vu, but ultimately, this big budget adaptation is a fitting finale to fear.

It offers some psychological terrors to unsettle long after the lights have gone up, and while its themes of trauma and friendship aren't new or original, they're solidly executed in among the carnival atmosphere of carnage.

Ultimately, It: Chapter Two will leave you feeling bereft and potentially divided; it doesn't clown around when the scares are needed, but its propensity for bluster damages the great work done by the first part.

Danger Close: The Battle of Long Tan: Film Review

Danger Close: The Battle of Long Tan: Film Review

Cast: Travis Fimmel, Luke Brcey, Daniel Webber, Richard Roxburgh
Director: Kriv Stenders

The war film is an obvious beast to master.

It requires a reasonable amount of character setting up, then a soupcon of tension, some action and some emotional catharsis mixed in with a denouement of tragedy and the human condition.

Red Dog's director Stenders knows that, and setting the Anzac story of a little-known battle in Vietnam, the film chooses to recreate the feeling of courage under fire as the skirmish plays out. (The 120 plus inexperienced New Zealand and Australian soldiers believed they'd only face a handful of Vietcong - whereas the reality was somewhere in the region of 2500.)

Travis Fimmel is Major Harry Smith, a would-be leader frustrated by the backroom machinations of the officers as a battle near the Vietnamese plantation Long Tan draws ever closer.

When his company finds a chance to be involved, Smith, who's determined to prove himself seizes it with lustre - but most of his troops aren't ready for conflict, or willing to commit to Smith's methodology.

Danger Close: The Battle of Long Tan recreates the battle scenes with a sheen that's polished and accomplished, as bullets fly left, right and centre. Limbs are torn, soldiers are felled and outrage boils as those behind in the camps bluster and effectively abandon their compadres in the heat of one upmanship.

But because of the script's broad strokes and brash characterisation, the sacrifices feel slight, and the beats of the movie are obvious - enemies within the same side soften, and you can almost hear what's coming next a mile away.

And don't even think about getting any kind of insight into the Vietcong as this film is less interested in portraying anything of the faceless enemy other than frenzied, screaming and in slow mo.

Much like Red Dog dealt in the interactions of the everyday, Danger Close: The Battle of Long Tan tries for similar, with more patchy results.

Fimmel goes from boggle-eyed to humbled, and his companions fare equally less well.

Danger Close: The Battle of Long Tan hits every cliche going, and then some, but still manages the kind of solid war film propaganda that it intends to do when it tries to educate.

The action is well-presented, relentless and with a small scope (and maybe some budgetary restraints), Stenders relives the theatre of war with a kind of palpable horror and intensity. But it's the more human side of the conflict that lets the film down badly, robbing it of poignancy, pose and purpose as it hurtles to its inevitable conclusion.

RAD: PS4 Review

RAD: PS4 Review

Published by Bandai Namco
Platform: PS4

Double Fine's latest is a table top style randomised game which sees you taking the helm of a teenager and firing them out into a post apocalyptic wilderness.

From a central hub that's infused with an 80s vibe (cassettes, floppy disks) to a wasteland that's teeming with troubles, and weirdness, the game gives you the chance to kill and develop your own mutations to survive.

It's inside the Fallow,  the ever-changing, radioactive wasteland filled with unknown and unspeakable creatures that the game comes to life in its own weird twisted logic.

Not every mutation is a bonus - some are handy and some hinder, and the game's randomness doesn't always help you develop a survival strategy. It can be frustrating as you're sent back to the start, and can't plot your way through, but the elements of chance give RAD a point of difference that's lacking in the marketplace.

There's a difficulty at times, and some of the combat could be easier (mini bosses sap you quicker than you'd expect) but largely, RAD offers a gameplay that's both a challenge and a standalone - its ever-changing ways forces you to adapt and think about how you'd survive. 

If you're willing to suspend that anger and embrace the difference, RAD is an enjoyable game, worthy of your time and one which will offer rewards.

Amazing Grace: Film Review

Amazing Grace: Film Review

There's one reason to see Amazing Grace - and it's simply staring quietly and unassumingly in the background at you throughout.

It seems woefully stupid to say Aretha Franklin is the reason to see the finally released documentary which captures the recording of a live album in the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church, a disused movie theatre, in Watts, Los Angeles.

But the power of the voice lives on and is captured easily in the doco from Sydney Pollack which has been stuck in legal and digital hell for some 45 years. (Bizarrely, also due to Franklin claiming there were no rights to use her image.)

However, it's the sheer power of Franklin's voice which carries Amazing Grace, and lest it simply become a concert recording, side characters give the film a bit more life.

As well as a couple of members of the choir who are either moved by the power of the church or Franklin's voice, the energy brought by an essentially live commentary given by the Reverend James Cleveland is central to the film's tactile success. Providing links to the tracks and to the proceedings, Cleveland's energy is what carries the film, given how silent Franklin is in between songs.

If anything, Pollack's Amazing Grace captures the vibe of being in the moment like nothing else.

Whether it's panning to the crowd, and capturing Mick Jagger grooving on the second night of recording, or simply capturing the everyday African American moved by the gospel sounds, the feeling of the extraordinary in the mundanity of the church is inescapable.

Technically, the film looks as good as it could, and the sounds are simultaneously stripped back and incredible.

Ultimately, Amazing Grace offers a timeless snapshot of a talent in ascendance. Placed in among the everyday setting, the meshing of the music and the people is transcendant. 

The Farewell: Film Review

The Farewell: Film Review

Director Lulu Wang puts family drama and reunion squarely on the table in this piece which is based on an actual lie, as the opening title board points out.

Chinese born Billi (Awkwafina, in a muted and conflicted turn) lives in New York, with her mother and father, and is a struggling writer. When she learns that her beloved Nai Nai is dying, her immediate desire is to get back to China and help her cope.

But the family decides to withhold the fatal cancer diagnosis from Nai Nai, telling her she only has benign shadows on her X-Rays and that she's fine. However, they all decide to fly back to China under the pretence of a wedding for one final family reunion.

The clash of familial duty and the affairs of the heart comes delicately together in The Farewell, and is all anchored by Crazy Rich Asians' Awkwafina's rueful turn that brings together both the inner turmoil and deep emotions needed in something that projects her from the screen into the stratosphere.

But as the subtleties of familial relationships are poured through the prism of escalating tensions and imminent sadness of the loss of the matriarch, the film pivots on its ideas and never milks the emotion for easy drama.

East vs West is explored (obviously) and the family arguments and discussions are all set against some gorgeously shot scenes of dining and food.

It all means that Wang brings together the film in ways that are warm, earnest and also amusing. From Nai Nai's nagging to Billi about how she shouldn't wear earrings in New York as they'll be ripped from her ears to the reunion of the two brothers after twenty-plus years, this is a film that's rich in nuance and deep in feeling.

The Farewell is a nuanced take on family, one that balances perfectly on resonance.

It may be based on an actual lie, but its truths are universal and its performance by Awkwafina is delicate and complex, and well worth absorbing. 

The Hummingbird Project: DVD Review

The Hummingbird Project: DVD Review

Cast: Jesse Eisenberg, Alexander Skarsgaard, Salma Hayek
Director: Kim Nguyen

Eisenberg and Skarsgaard team up in this seems-like-it's-true story of two cousins, who work in the high frequency trading market.

Eisenberg is Vinny Zaleski, a dreamer who has a vision of building a pipe across America to get the futures stocks before anyone else, and therefore make more money. A balding Skarsgaard is the more introverted Anton, a coder and over-thinker whose job it is is to shave vital milliseconds off the travelling data tube.

As they put in motion the plans for their fibre-optic dreams, reality starts to intrude - and their former boss (Hayek, in greying wig) starts to take them on.

The Hummingbird Project is a film that's a little too dry to engage in its obvious underdog trappings.

Eisenberg brings his trademark fast patter and slightly annoying edges to Vinny, resulting in an ingenue that's hard to back from the off. Equally, Skarsgaard is so dialled down in his closed down Anton that his spouting about neutrinos and milliseconds is enough to make you detach completely.

These are characters that you don't fully engage in and at times, in this story where you want the underdog to win, it's a crippling factor.

That's not to say Nguyen doesn't deploy the film with a degree of skill; it just occasionally could have used a little more urgency. Though, in fairness, this is a film that's more interested in the two main characters rather than supporting players. Unfortunately, their surface deep personalities don't add much to the mix.

A little more depth over why Vinny is so driven would have helped, and could have lifted The Hummingbird Project into something of the realm of the truly thrilling, as opposed to the occasionally drab.