Downhill: DVD Review

Downhill: DVD Review

Ruben Östlund's 2014 movie Force Majeure was beloved by many.

A film that excoriated a marriage, threw up questions of male ego and dialled up the discomfort, the near 3 hour movie was lauded as a masterpiece.

It seems unlikely Downhill, which is inspired by the film, and follows many of the beats but in half the time, will be mentioned in the same breath.

Ferrell and Louis-Dreyfus are Pete and Billie, parents of two, all together on a skiing holiday. However, there are already frustrations inherent among them, with Billie's generally uptight nature clashing with Pete's insistence on being in the moment above all else.

When a controlled avalanche nearly overwhelms the family at a restaurant, Billie is left with the fall-out of the fact Pete grabs his phone and runs off, leaving her and the kids to ostensibly die. As the chasm grows, the family will never be the same again.

Downhill has a tonal mismatch which doesn't help matters.

While Force Majeure dabbled in subtlety (although admittedly took a long time going anywhere), Downhill's halved run time and desire to inject broad bawdy elements within its story means it adds up to feeling like a mix between cringe-worthy comedy and flat moments that simply don't add up.

And yet with Louis-Dreyfus turning in a performance that's somehow excellent beyond the material, Downhill's watchable enough fare - albeit muddled. Icy, muted laughs come as the cordial atmosphere dries up immediately, and the excruciating irritations boil over. Ferrell's downbeat, but his restrained performance doesn't match up to the needs of the film, and he feels at times, out of place.

It's the Euro-stereotypes that flunder the film, with Otto's amusing-to-watch laissez-faire hotel owner ramping it up to 11 and a ski instructor hunk feeling ripped from the pages of another movie. It's these moments that give Downhill a level of inconsistency that's hard to match.

Ultimately, feeling muddled and muddying the waters, Downhill does offer some good moments of comedy if you know where to look. But were it not for Julia Louis-Dreyfus' performance, this film would be more of a downhill experience that its name suggests.

The Call of the Wild: DVD Review

The Call of the Wild: DVD review

Chris "How To Train Your Dragon" Sanders dials up the beauty of the Yukon for this relatively tried and tested formula story on owning a dog.

Based on the 1903 Jack London novel, The Call of The Wild follows the rambunctious pooch Buck, as he finds himself dognapped and sold into the Yukon wilds to the highest bidder. Initially falling in with Omar Sy's mail courier, and falling foul of the pecking order of the sledding pack, Buck's world appears to be a harsh one as he tries to find his place in the world.

But when he is taken under the wing of Harrison Ford's grieving prospector John Thornton, he finds a different life as he tries to help Thornton come to terms with what life has dealt him.

Essentially The Littlest Hobo mixed in with a very familiar wilderness story and poured through a prism of old time sentimentalities, The Call of the Wild has heart under an uncanny valley CGI dog.

Initially fine, Buck's transmission to the screen soon becomes a little too hyper real (a WWE move on another dog being the defining moment) - but when the film settles, it uses simplicity to convey its heartfelt message of finding your place in the world.

Episodic by nature (Buck's kidnapped, Buck's new owners, Buck's perils among the Snow Dogs) the film lags in its final third, even as it tries to find legs for the true nugget of the tale - Buck's discovery of his wilder side, and how humanity is not for him.

That's a big theme to rest on the film's shoulders, and it doesn't always quite pull it off.

But a grizzled and silent Ford (he's acted with a furry companion to reasonably famous effect before) brings out the film's gentler and more contemplative edge - even if that's partially ruined by Downton Abbey's Dan Stevens hamming it up as the big bad.

There may be stock standard elements of a family film here, and there may be no surprises as the sentiment's piled high enough for mush in this Yukon Tail, but The Call of the Wild may find you feeling more stirred than you would like.

Whānau Mārama: New Zealand International Film Festival - first films announced

Whānau Mārama: New Zealand International Film Festival - first films announced

Four New Zealand Feature Films And A Web Series To Have World Premieres at Festival

Four New Zealand feature films will receive their World Premiere screenings as part of Whānau Mārama: New Zealand International Film Festival 2020 At Home – Online, and at selected cinema screenings across the country.

And, for the first time ever the Festival will screen a Web Series in its entirety. This year’s homegrown selection includes four documentaries and one episodic drama.

Festival Director Marten Rabarts said programming New Zealand films for the 2020 Festival has been challenging due to the impact of COVID-19 restrictions which brought shooting and post-production on a number of films to a halt or caused significant delay.

“We’re very proud to present this programme of films from Aotearoa for this year’s Festival. We’ve worked closely with all the filmmakers to ensure these films can be part of the Festival.”

Rabarts adds that as well as screening online as part of NZIFF At Home – Online, all five Aotearoa films will also be screened in cinemas.

“As COVID-19 restrictions began lifting in New Zealand, we have been exploring options to present a selection of films in many of our favourite cinemas and venues, and this includes the five Aotearoa films. We expect to reach agreement in the coming days as to which cinemas will be welcoming us for the 2020 hybrid edition.”

Details of screenings in cinemas and venues will be announced on Thursday 25 June alongside the announcement of the full festival programme.

The confirmed New Zealand films for 2020 are:

Before Everest

Director/Producer/Screenplay/Photography/Editor: Richard Riddiford
“I’d never share a rope with him” is about as damning a comment as anyone can make about a fellow mountaineer. Sir Edmund Hillary’s words about Earle Riddiford in his last autobiography set the uneasy tone of this nuanced documentary by Earle’s son Richard Riddiford.
“In his final autobiography, Hillary wrote some fairly damning remarks about my father... Why had Hillary been so ungracious? ... He was as close to a god as a mortal could be in our country, but it had been my father who had helped get him there.” — director Richard Riddiford

LOIMATA, The Sweetest Tears

Director: Anna Marbrook
Director Anna Marbrook honours the last voyage of the great waka maker, sailor and mentor Ema Siope in this chronicle of journeys – journeys of migration, spirituality, voyaging, healing and coming home.
“A stirring and visually gripping documentary… honouring the life and times of great woman whose wake will be felt for years to come.” — Michael Andrew, Asia Pacific Report

Rūrangi

Director: Max Currie
Premiering their forthcoming web series as a special festival presentation, director Max Currie (Everything We Loved, NZIFF14) and writer Cole Meyers’ queer and trans-positive drama swells with character, heart and filmic sophistication in ways rarely seen in the web series form. Rūrangi was previously selected for the prestigious Frameline – San Francisco LGBTQ+ Film Festival (June 2020) which was cancelled due to COVID-19.  Rūrangi is fully worthy of its Film Festival world premiere and we’re proud to be part of its journey into the world.

The Girl on the Bridge

Director: Leanne Pooley
In the increasing public discourse on mental health, Leanne Pooley’s inspiring and fearless documentary tracks an extraordinary young woman’s journey from suicide survivor to advocate for those struggling. The fact it leaves you hopeful and with tangible advice makes it vital viewing.

Tupaia’s Endeavour – The Director’s Cut

Director/Producer/Editor: Lala Rolls
Re-edited from both the Māori Television series and with new material, Lala Rolls’ fascinating quest to examine what happens to a Tahitian high priest and navigator when he travels across the Pacific – and further on towards England as a translator and guest (or is it as a living trophy?) – aboard Captain James Cook’s HMS Endeavour.

Whānau Mārama: New Zealand International Film Festival is run by a charitable trust to enhance local appreciation of, and engagement with, global art and culture by providing access to a diverse range of high-quality film.

The full 2020 Film Festival programme will be announced on Thursday 25 June and the festival will run from 24 July – 2 August.

Queen & Slim: DVD Review

Queen & Slim: DVD Review 

Cast: Daniel Kaluuya,  Jodie Turner Smith 
Director: Melina Matsoukas

Queen and Slim desperately wants to be a classic, a "black Bonnie and Clyde" as they even refer to themselves but in truth the rambling drama feels more like a missed opportunity than a gritty timely social commentary.Kaluuya and Smith are strong enough as the two leads and the film early on has a kind of intimacy that a good relationship drama requires as we first meet the pair on a first date.

Soon after that, their date takes a disastrous turn when they're pulled over by a police car....

However, the film's leaps of logic and suspensions of disbelief prove almost fatal after the initial horror of the police assault takes place. 

Shot in an almost verite style the unfolding drama grips as the duo are caught in an all too familiar scenario, and one that would provide a rich source for drama.

Yet once they set out on the run, the detours prove to be more of a distraction and threads of the two being the touch paper for a societal revolution jar more than cohesively gel.

Though the divisions between the community over whether to support or condemn are a worthwhile thread, they’re always secondary to the proceedings with the film's style being the sole raison d’être as it plays out amid moody shots, music-video stylings and intriguing camera angles.

There’s an easy charm and charisma to Kaluuya's character as he negotiates his way through the maelstrom; equally Smith goes from spiky to soft and back again with speed and the emotional whiplash is giddying, but finally satisfying.

Ultimately though Queen & Slim is more about style than great substance; sure, there's some commentary going on under the hood, but this is far from the classic it could be - despite the work of the talented cast, thanks to a messy approach and a need to fine tune the script.

Dark Waters: DVD Review

Dark Waters: DVD Review

Todd Haynes' safe and formulaic legal chiller Dark Waters is a solidly told tale, albeit one that never quite finds a way to rise into the upper echelons of drama, despite the presence of Mark Ruffalo.

Ruffalo is Robert Bilott, a newly-minted partner of a US legal firm that defends industrial companies.

When a farmer (Camp, in one of the more lively and complex roles of the film) shows up on his doorstep wanting to fight those who he believes have poisoned his land and his cows, Bilott finds himself torn between duty and a light familial connection to what's going on.

But as Bilott begins to investigate the malfeasance of local industrial giant Dupont (with Alias' Victor Gerber as their figurehead), he discovers the case has much more horrific wider consequences.

Dark Water is a solidly told film, anchored by the mutedly dogged performance of Ruffalo and supported by the growing outrage of Camp.

Yet, in telling it in a non-showy way, and scattering it across the timeline (A narrative necessity given how long Bilott's case has been going against Dupont), the film occasionally stutters to raise some real drama. It prefers a more quiet outrage that boils under as the reality of Dupont's shenanigans are gradually exposed.

There are moments that chill, and revelations that abhor, but Haynes' delivery of them is more restrained than perhaps it could be, as the effects on communities and even the world comes to light.

There are also times when the exposition floods some of the legal proceedings and montages of lawyering - and certainly Hathaway feels wasted after early promises threaten to expose the sexism within the boys' club industry.

Yet for all its dialled down touches, Dark Water does present a compelling story - albeit one that is good, rather than great.

The Invisible Man: Blu Ray Review

The Invisible Man: Blu Ray Review

Upgrade's Leigh Whannell turns his hyper-kinetic hand to another update of The Invisible Man story.

This time around, The Handmaid's Tale's Moss plays Cecilia, who's trapped in an abusive relationship with beau Adrian. Finally making the jump to escape, Cece believes her world is changed, and due to his apparent suicide, she's free.

However, she soon comes to believe that Adrian's not dead and is out to get her.

But can she convince those around her this is actually the case?

Essentially a film about gaslighting, and one woman's fight back against it, Leigh Whannell's The Invisible Man is atmospheric intrigue from the get-go.

Haunting and a grippingly bleak expose of the legacy of abuse, Whannell's script makes the most out of a harried Moss, who gives her all and revels in her misery when there's no one else onscreen. (Or is there?) Her Cecilia has enough seeds of doubt sewn to make you question whether she's right, or what exactly is going on - though admittedly, the title is The Invisible Man and not The Invisible Woman.

But it's the director who's primarily the star of the film.

Employing techniques he used to visual excellence on Upgrade, Whannell brings his  use of syncing the camera to the film's most chilling moments. Whether it's a sequence in a kitchen, or a brutal encounter within a hospital, Whannell channels a kind of kinetic brilliance that marks this revamp of The Invisible Man out when it comes to the action.

Long wide shots of empty unsettling spaces, a la early Paranormal Activity, promote a kind of queasiness as the film practically invites you to scan the screen, searching for the titular character and putting you in the mindset of unease thrust upon Cecelia.

Granted, the film's really about a woman's crusade against endless negativity and systematic and systemic ignorance, but it never loses sight of the fact that at its heart, it's about a primal horror and terror.

It's just that this terror is more psychological and excellently conveyed by Moss' character.

Ultimately, it's so engrossing and unnerving, that it may allow you to skirt over some of the script's hokier edges, occasional predictable moments and odd lapses of logic which occur among some of the more obvious jump scares.

At its heart though, The Invisible Man offers terrifying thrills among its subtle fearscape (its use of sound is superlative as well) - as much of a rollercoaster as a psychological breakdown, against all odds, The Invisible Man remains one to be seen.

Guns Akimbo: Blu Ray Review

Guns Akimbo: Blu Ray Review

Frenetically edited and frantically paced, Jason Lei Howden's Guns Akimbo is the triumph of style over substance.

But it's nothing without the 110% commitment of its lead, Daniel Radcliffe, who proves terrifically game and fantastically physical in his pursuit of the story.

Radcliffe is Miles, a low-level coder who lives in Shrapnel City. Recently dumped and bored with his work, Miles stumbles onto the live fight site Skizm and delivers some high-level trolling of those dwelling within.

However, those in charge of Skizm aren't impressed and decide to make Miles the star of their next death match, bolting guns to his hands and pitting him against the current champion, psychotic killer Nix (Samara Weaving, in a sneery punkish role).

But Miles isn't ready to die yet...

Guns Akimbo is relatively shallow, a series of fight sequences set to heavy metal renditions of 80s pop music tunes. Quickly edited, with swirling cameras that seem to suffer from ADHD, the film rarely stops for a moment to breathe, delivering some impressive kill sequences, and some gun fu that's to be admired and enjoyed in a Friday night popcorn entertainment way.

There is some commentary of life in the social world versus the real world, but to be frank, it's not smartly delivered, nor is it radically challenging.

Meshing the juvenile with the video game shooter mentality works well for the film, elements of Crank and Death Match blended together, but it does struggle to deliver anything more than this as it breezes through its 90 minutes run time

Where Guns triumphs though is in its two leads - Radcliffe's overly committed to Miles' disastrous situation and delivers a performance that is comedic and impressive, his everyman schlub loser caught in the crossfires of his own doing. Samara Weaving is equally enjoyable as Nix, a drugged up psycho who's addicted to the kills, she gets to deliver the lion's share of the film's best lines.

In truth, the villains are a little vanilla, and some of the peripheral characters are merely there for exposition rather than to flesh things out, but Guns Akimbo mostly delivers a blast of neon-soaked bubblegum fun. Sure, it riffs on its own video game mentality (dispatch a load of bad guys, take on the final big boss), but there's a reasonably disposable ethos to Guns Akimbo that sees you through the repetitive nature