Some Kind of Heaven: NZIFF Review

Director Lance Oppenheim's peek behind the curtains of The Villages in Florida in the US is a crafty little doco that finds a way of inveigling itself under your skin.

Some Kind of Heaven starts with a series of golf carts being organised in a synchronised pattern as someone barks orders from a loud hailer and from then on, Oppenheim leads you through the lives of some of the residents.

Taking in a widowed woman, a long-married couple and a non-resident who believes he's still got the right to be a player, the doco somehow proffers up the feeling that The Villages is some kind of cult, with quick cut shots showing residents involved in activities, expounding the joys of it all, but never once looking like the emotion is there.

But scratch beneath the surface and Some Kind of Heaven unveils a kind of nagging sadness within its subjects. 

The long-married couple appeal to be unravelling; the widower worries she's never going to find anyone else, and the non-resident believes his way of life is best until it comes crashing down around his ears.

There are bittersweet touches here in Oppenheim's doco, but none of them are manipulated for the viewing pleasure of the audience. Each story plays out with poignancy and disturbing flair.

Part of the joy of Some Kind of Heaven is seeing it unfurl and its poignant surprises - but its look beneath the polished veneer of OAP happiness is as disturbing and as tragic as they come, without ever feeling exploitative.

If anything, Oppenheim's managed to scratch below the surface of the Stepford Wives-esque perfection, and what's laid out is slickly delivered, cut for an eye with the humanity as well as the humour and tragedy, and is really a damning indictment of this Florida utopia.

Win a double pass to see UNHINGED in the cinema

To celebrate the release of UNHINGED in cinemas July 30, thanks to Studio Canal NZ, you can win a double pass.

About UNHINGED

Oscar-winning actor Russell Crowe catches a deadly case of road rage in this psychological thriller, choosing to relentlessly pursue a mother who overtook him at a corner (Caren Pistorius, Slow West). 

From the writer of Disturbia and Red Eye. 

UNHINGED is in cinemas July 30

Kubrick by Kubrick: NZIFF Review

The reclusive Stanley Kubrick is laid a little more bare in Gregory Monro's doco - but the words of the man ultimately give way to the usual discussions and praise of his films.

Kubrick authority Michel Clement reveals hitherto unknown conversations with the man about his art and the reasons why he rarely engaged with media over his films.

Beginning with the BBC announcement of the death of Stanley Kubrick in 1999, Monro's doco sets out its MO early on - how do you capture the details of a man who was not anything the papers said and who rarely gave insight into his personality.

Via fascinating snippets early on, Ciment reveals how Kubrick never found it meaningful to talk about the aesthetics of film and how rare interviews made him feel under obligation to be insightful about his films.

But for fans of Kubrick, there's a haunting feeling there's nothing new here, and even Ciment's recordings gradually give way to clips from the films and others discussing Kubrick and his way of filming. From discussion over how continual takes would dull the actor until the words and performance came alive again to the interjections of the brilliant BBC film critic Barry Norman, a lot of the last portion of this film gives voices to others than Kubrick.

It's not that these insights have less to offer, more that they take away from what the doco set out initially to achieve.

Ultimately, you're maybe left with the feeling that Kubrick rarely saw the value in going deeper under the skin of his films and that may have been a wise move from him.

In Kubrick by Kubrick, despite an initial flurry of heady excitement, it ends up feeling much like other insights into the man - others put words into his work, and breathe unnecessary life in where there was already plenty. 

Steelers: The World's First Gay Rugby Club: NZIFF Review

Perhaps the biggest disappointment of the 2020 New Zealand International Film Festival, doco Steelers: The World's First Gay Rugby Club falls squarely into the formulaic category as it spools out its story.

Eammon Ashton-Atkinson's doco delivers the story of the inception of the London based club, the ripple effect it had on the scene and the journey of the team at the Bingham Cup, the event where the gay rugby teams come together to fight it out.

It may be earnest and crowd-pleasing at times, but coupled with an overly bombastic piano score everytime there's a hard story to be told or a flashback to be conveyed and a voiceover of a script that's ripped from cliche, Steelers: The World's First Gay Rugby Club emerges as more of a damp squib than a firing-on-all-cylinders story.

It's not helped by the usual slow-mo shots from the game - there's little that feels original in here for even casual viewers of sports docos or coming of age stories.

Fortunately some of the earnestness and energy comes from the human subjects Ashton-Atkinson chooses to dwell on - Simon the never before out player, Drew the flamboyant also drag artist and Nicky the head coach who's mothered the team but is in her last season at the top job.

It's probably not wise that Ashton-Atkinson is a paid up member of the team, and perhaps he wasn't quite distant enough from his subjects to be more objective when it counts.

Jumbo: NZIFF Review

Easily the oddest sell in the Incredibly Strange portion of the programme, Jumbo is the tale of Portrait of A Lady on Fire's Noemie Merlant's Jeanne, who falls for a rollercoaster at the amusement park where she works.

Jeanne has a condition, objectum-sexuality, that leads her to fixate a relationship between herself and the new rollercoaster in town.

Despite her over-bearing mother trying to pair her off with her new boss, Jeanne's less interested, coming only alive when she's around the rollercoaster.

What could easily be exploitative and laughable, becomes surprisingly intimate and unconventionally humane in Jumbo. 

Director Zoe Whittock's preference to never mock its subjects ends up leaving you with a wistful and thoughtful meditation on what desire means to many.

Merlant is thoughtful and awkward as this weirdly sweetly told tale unfurls in its esoteric edges; much like last year's Deerskin where a man became obsessed with his jacket, Jumbo deals with an unconventional subject with much aplomb.

Initial scenes where Jeanne believes the coaster is talking to her have both Close Encounters edges and an almost ET like naivete as the pair connect - on paper, this is a difficult sell admittedly; however, on screen, the Spielberg-esque aesthetic joys bring back memories of films of kids connecting with aliens and robots and society not understanding them. It's a mesmerising and inventive watch to say the least.

Don't overlook Jumbo - it's one of the programme's hidden secrets that's well worth discovering.

The Prince's Voyage: NZIFF Review

It may look handsome in its animation, and have elements of a Planet Of The Apes style class clash, but The Prince's Voyage feels slight in comparison to the other animated offering of Fritzi: A Revolutionary Tale.

When an ageing monkey washes up in an unknown land, he's taken in by a boy, Tom, who's living with two scientists. Curious about where he came from and battling with the concepts of other lands, the Prince forms a bond with Tom as they head out to have adventures. But all the while, suspicious scientists draw ever close, worried over what the revelation of new lands could mean for them.

The Prince's Voyage has hand-painted stylings which are truly sumptuous to behold as it pushes its cross-generational message of friendship and understanding.

But the story feels slight in comparison to the visuals, leading to a feeling of adventures being episodic rather than strongly connected to what's going on.

The film's better when it heads out of the labs and into the wider city, as the creeping rot from the outside attacks the buildings in the shape of vines. But The Prince's Voyage doesn't quite know what to do with these edges and while it uses the outsider allegory to push an element of fear, it's never cohesive enough to firmly cement its message.

A "Festival of Fear" brings a more nightmarish edge to proceedings, as a street festival allows the apes to go wild at night, but the film feels too afraid to fully embrace what it wants to be and its whimsical edges collapse under closer scrutiny.

The Prince's Voyage is pleasant enough and a visual feast, but sadly, it's not memorable enough once it's ended.

Yummy: NZIFF Review

The latest zombie splatter fest to hit Ant Timpson's Incredibly Strange section of the festival suffers somewhat from being an at home experience.

Belgium's first zombie film centres around Alison, an amply-endowed woman who's heading to a treatment centre for a breast reduction. Tagging along is her cosmetically-obsessed mum and her wet blanket boyfriend, but none of them have a clue what they're in for, when it all goes wrong.

After a patient zero zombie's set loose in the hospital, the rag-tag gang try to make it out alive...

Director Lars Damoiseaux channels the more excessive edges of splatter gore-fest with Yummy, and the film's admirably fun for at least half of its run time.

But the emphasis is more on the comedy and the gore, as well as the nudity. And while some of the kills show a degree of creativity, there's a streak of this film that cries out more for a communal cinematic experience, fuelled by puerile behaviour and booze-addled patrons.

The East-European aesthetics and setting make you feel like you're in line for a blast of Hostel's nastiness, but in truth, there's more ineptitude in these characters combined - only the lead in the form of Maaike Neuville's Alison takes it seriously, and delivers a committed performance throughout.

Ultimately, Yummy's trashy and lurid enough to last the 90 minutes, but robbed of the creativity and originality, most of it feels all-too familiar to be memorable.