Penguin Bloom: Film Review

Cast: Naomi Watts, Ewan McGregor, A bird, Rachel House, Jacki Weaver

Director: Glendyn Ivin

There's something awfully familiar about Glendyn Ivin's film version of the book Penguin Bloom.

It's a predictable tale of triumph over adversity, and one which hits pretty much all of the expected beats as it traverses toward its endgame.

Watts plays Sam, a surf-loving waterbaby whose perfect idyll with her husband Cam (The Walking Dead's Lincoln, just about managing an Aussie accent) and three kids is rudely shattered when holidaying in Thailand. Venturing up a roof, Sam falls thanks to a rotten barrier and falls to the ground, emerging paralysed from the "bra strap" bone down.

Heading back to Australia, Sam struggles to acclimate to what has happened, and as the family adjusts around her, feelings of frustration and loss of familial place bubble up in among the expected grief and inevitable depression.

When her son Noah (a sensitive Griffin Murray-Johnston) discovers a magpie that's unable to fly after falling from a tree - spot the parallels already - he brings it home, and asks his mother to keep an eye on it.

And you can tell what's coming next.

There's nothing new in Penguin Bloom, and whilst it's told with sensitivity by its director, it borders on occasionally cute thanks to the magpie's antics and the sappy as it treads into familiar waters and beats. There's little subtlety here thanks to the symbolism, and while the fall itself is a truly shocking moment, the film barely offers any further shocks as it plays on (aside from one third act out-of-the-blue incident which surprises).

But there are moments throughout that work - the growing relationship between Sam and the magpie named Penguin are believable and tenderly choreographed. Of the rest of the family, only Lincoln and Murray-Johnston are afforded a touch more characterisation, but those are broad strokes at the best of times.

And while the cinematography and sensitive camera work don't overplay much of the film's potential to head into saccharine waters, Penguin Bloom feels like a throwback of a film in many ways, a safe and family friendly one that would easily pass a 90 minute window in the coming summer months.

You'd have to be a fool to not know how it's all going to play out, and you'd have to have a hard heart to not be moved by parts of Penguin Bloom. It never quite soars, but is the kind of film that's rarely made these days - an inoffensive parable where everyone acquits themselves reasonably and younger viewers will be left mildly inspired.

Ride Like A Girl: Neon NZ Film Review

The story of Michelle Payne, the first female jockey to win Flemington in 2015, the horse race which stops Australia should on paper be a home run.

In theory, an underdog story, a tale of female empowerment and of triumph in the face of adversity, it has it all as it goes into the starting gate, promising a powerful start and an uplifting final furlong.

But what emerges from Ride Like A Girl is a story given such a light touch that very little rarely lands as it should, despite the stoic work from Palmer, the reliable gruff from Neill as the emotionally stunted father and Stevie Payne as the real-life brother, Stevie.

The trouble is that Griffiths keeps flitting from one sequence of Payne's life to another, hardly allowing anything to resonate as it should. Equally the chauvinism and sexism that was thrown Payne's way warrants only the briefest of mentions in proceedings and certainly doesn't do much to increase the drama stakes.

Where the film is more triumphant is in its execution of the horse riding sequences, capturing both the intensity and the tension of the race from within the galloping cluster. It means that in these sequences alone, there's a palpable sense of stakes and tension.

And the family story at the heart of the Payne story is the one that beats a little louder than normal - certainly Stevie Payne brings real pathos to his role, and never once does the script play to an audience's easy expectations.

Ride Like A Girl does feel, at times, like a TV movie writ large but it lacks the conviction of its desired inspirations, preferring instead to plough a conventional and extremely safe path. Ultimately, because of that decision at a script and directorial level, the film rarely raises its head from the pack and disappoints what should have been an easy win.

The Way Back:Neon NZ Film Review

In many ways, The Way Back is a film you've seen before.

One of a broken sports person and alcoholic, not searching for redemption, who's offered the chance to get back in the game and tackle their own personal demons at the time.

But The Way Back suffers from the delicious irony that its central star has battled with these very demons and has slowly fought his way back.

Affleck is Jack Cunningham, a former high school basketball star, who's asked to coach the local team - for no real reason other than they're tanking and he was their next big thing. Initially reticent, the separated Cunningham takes on the mantle and begins his journey back.

Dour and rightfully downbeat, The Way Back sees Affleck reteaming with his The Accountant director to create the sort of sports underdog film that is all too rote and all too familiar. And yet, with a relative career best from Affleck, the film's certainly got some redeeming features.

Sequences wondering if Jack will hit the booze again may ooze familiarity, but tempered with scenes where Jack goes through a 30 pack of beer in one night, with a routine of picking one out of the freezer, returning a fresh one in there ready feeling raw and tempered with the kind of veracity Hollywood rarely siphons for films about alcoholics. There's no doubt Affleck brings a lot of himself to the role, and it wouldn't work without him.

And it's in the central relationships the film rises too - a needling sister who's only doing it out of love, and a coach and head coach relationship that's tinged with respect, admiration and awareness of failing.

Certainly, in the rest of the film, there are a few narrative jumps too many.

The team gets better somehow without any real conviction why, Jack decides to coach them without any real reason why he changes his mind so suddenly - these are the beats which feel off in The Way Back, and which ground the tale of a redemptive blue collar worker with moments that see you more questioning why and lifting you out of the moment.

In the final furlong, the film lapses into lamentable melodrama, and the maudlin elements threaten to topple Affleck's good work, rather than build on it; ending on mawkishness and a message of hope may be central to The Way Back's MO, but unfortunately, it leaves this final drink of drama stinging in your throat.

Win Savage

To celebrate the release of Savage, you can win a copy thanks to Madman Home Entertainment

About Savage

Inspired by stories from New Zealand boys homes and the early history of our gangs, Savage follows Danny across 3 different ages at important junctures that push and pull him towards and away from gang life.

Each chapter of Danny’s life is a complete short story set in a defining time for NZ gangs – from the abusive state-run boy’s homes of the sixties; to the emerging urban gang scene in the seventies where disenfranchised teenagers created their own families on the streets; to the eighties when gangs became more structured, criminal, and violent.

Together the three chapters combine to create a deeper lock at a boy who grows up to become the brutal enforcer of a gang; to understand how he got there.

Savage is about Danny’s search for belonging and connection, and explores the notion of family. Danny is torn between his real family and his gang family, and must choose where he belongs.

All you have to do is email your details and the word SAVAGE!

Email now to  darrensworldofentertainment@gmail.com 
Or CLICK HERE NOW  

One Night In Miami: Amazon Prime Video Film Review

Cast: Eli Goree, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Leslie Odom Jr, Aldis Hodge, Lance Reddick

Director: Regina King

Regina King's four guys shooting the breeze film just about manages to transcend its play roots to deliver a compelling and depressingly timely take on African-American culture in the world, despite being set in the 60s.

Based on Kemp Powers' own stage play, the film takes in a fictionalised meeting of Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali, Jim Brown and Sam Cooke in a Miami hotel room in February 1964.

Fresh off a victory over reigning heavyweight boxer Sonny Listen in February 1964, Cassius Clay (Goree) is heading to a Miami hotel at Kingsley Ben-Adir's Malcolm X's behest. Also along for the visit is Leslie Odom Jr's Sam Cooke and NFL star Jim Brown (Aldis Hodge).

Each of them has something they're battling with and each of them has something to get off their chest - but One Night In Miami is not a confessional film in that traditional kind of manner.

The hook is that Cassius Clay is pondering a switch to the Muslim lifestyle - but what transpires as these four friends meet up is a series of simmering tensions and minor resentments bubbling up and threatening to boil over.

One Night In Miami doesn't really do much with its play origins - a few early boxing scenes set the stall out for Cassius Clay, and there is a truly memorably shocking scene involving a genial Beau Bridges, but other than that, this is just four men interacting and talking with each other.

But it's oddly compelling stuff that has a potency hidden in its wings - and as mentioned, depressingly culturally familiar. 

If anything, One Night in Miami is really a damning expose of how little American race relations have actually progressed as each reveals how they're faring in the shadow of the white man or under the yoke. 

Yet, not once is the film ever preachy, or King's relaying of the message overdone. Sure, it takes somewhere upwards of 50 minutes to really unleash its potency and a degree of righteous indignation, but when it does, the power is truly there on show for all to see, thanks largely due to Ben-Adir's restrained but emotive performance.

There may be philosophies at stake here, and differing viewpoints that generally don't deviate from what's expected, but what King weaves together thanks to some well-reasoned and well-set out ideological clashes makes One Night In Miami something deeply thoughtful and deeply engrossing.

One Night In Miami begins streaming on Amazon Prime Video on January 15th.

Win Bill and Ted: Face the Music

To celebrate the release of Bill and Ted: Face The Music, thanks to Madman Home Entertainment, you can win a copy!

About Bill and Ted: Face The Music

Bill & Ted Face The Music

The stakes are higher than ever for the time-traveling exploits of William “Bill” S. Preston Esq. and Theodore “Ted” Logan. Yet to fulfill their rock and roll destiny, the now middle aged best friends set out on a new adventure when a visitor from the future warns them that only their song can save life as we know it.

Along the way, they will be helped by their daughters, a new batch of historical figures, and a few music legends – to seek the song that will set their world right and bring harmony in the universe.

All you have to do is email your details and the word EXCELLENT!

Email now to  darrensworldofentertainment@gmail.com 
Or CLICK HERE NOW  

Win Total Recall on Blu Ray

To celebrate the 30th anniversary re-release of Total Recall on Blu Ray, thanks to Sony Home Entertainment, you can win a copy!

About Total Recall

Douglas Quaid (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is a bored construction worker in the year 2084 who dreams of visiting the colonized Mars. 

He visits “Rekall,” a company that plants false memories into people's brains, in order to experience the thrill of Mars without having to travel there. 

But something goes wrong during the procedure; Quaid discovers that his entire life is actually a false memory and that the people who implanted it in his head now want him dead.

All you have to do is email your details and the word TOTAL!

Email now to  darrensworldofentertainment@gmail.com 
Or CLICK HERE NOW