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2022 | DIR: WALTER HILL | STARRING: MICHELLE RODRIGUEZ, SIGOURNEY WEAVER, TONY SHALHOUB, ANTHONY LaPAGLIA, CAITLIN GERARD, ADRIAN HOUGH, PAUL McGILLION, KEN KIRZINGER | REVIEW BY CHRIS THOMPSON  Technically, this movie should have added an S to its Australian release title (in the States it was known as The Assignment) because there are really three revenge stories going on here. Frank Kitchen (Michelle Rodriguez with a fake beard and a pretty impressive prosthetic male body suit for the obligatory full frontal scene) is a low-life hitman who carries out a hit on spendthrift art collector and pinball aficionado, Sebastian Jane (Adrian Hough) who owed money to the mob. Unfortunately, Sebastian had a loving sister, Dr Rachel Jane (Sigourney Weaver) who is a disgraced and de-registered plastic surgeon now running an illegal surgery providing medical procedures for homeless people who can’t afford them. But her services are not entirely altruistic, given she dabbles in a bit of ‘mad-scientist’ experimentation on the side. The homeless people are supplied to her by Honest John (Anthony LaPaglia) a small-time hood who, himself, has an axe to grind with Frank Kitchen due to another hit that happened to be on his cousin. So Honest John who is seeking revenge on Frank, delivers him to Dr Jane, who is also seeking revenge on Frank. Her revenge takes the form of an enforced gender reassignment for the spurious and generally ridiculous reason that he’ll become less violent if he’s no longer a man. So now Frank is a woman (say goodbye to the prosthetic and the fake beard) who, of course, is seeking revenge on whoever did this to her... or him. Before going any further, I feel I should make the comment that in a time when sensitivities around the trans community are very present in the public mind and transphobia is a real issue, a story like this seems pretty tone deaf in the flippant way the subject of gender reassignment is treated. This isn’t the same as Humphrey Bogart unveiling a surgically altered face in Dark Passage (1947) or Nicholas Cage and John Travolta actually swapping faces in Face/Off (1997) and despite the inclusion of a token scene where post-surgery Frank consults a real doctor about reversing the procedure, seemingly in order for us to be told the strict protocols that exist around legitimate forms of gender reassignment, the screenwriters seem happy to assume that lip service (excuse the pun) to the issue is sufficient to allow them to use this idea more as a narrative gimmick than a crucial plot point. Those screenwriters are Denis Hamil (Turk 182, 1985) and veteran writer, producer, director Walter Hill (The Warriors, 1979 - 48Hrs, 1982 – Alien 3, 1992). Hill, who’s also the director, is well known for his sharp, gritty and often violent take on the crime genre, going all the way back to his seminal work as a screenwriter for Sam Peckinpah on the 1972 Steve McQueen classic The Getaway. Sadly, that grit is nowhere to be seen in this blunt return to the genre. Even the violence is gratuitous and oddly without much gore. It’s such a waste of talent, not just Hill’s but also his excellent cast. Not even a score by composer Giorgio Moroder (remember him from Cat People, Flashdance and Scarface in the 80s?) can lift the film.  But REVENGER has more problems than just its dubious use of the trans subject. The story is a bit of a mishmash of convoluted storylines and flashbacks, told from both the perspective of Frank (whose narration starts the film) as well as from the perspective of Dr Jane who delivers the bulk of the backstory. We meet her in a psychiatric facility, bound in a straight jacket and sitting across the table from Dr Ralph Galen (Tony Shalhoub) whose job, it seems, is to share the clumsy delivery of exposition with her. There’s not a lot of logic at play here. Dr Jane, it seems, is a remarkably skilled plastic surgeon whose work is faultless and leaves no scarring (so she says). It also seems to require next to no recovery as the narrative timeline suggests that only a couple of weeks have passed since the surgery on Frank and yet here he/she is with no visible marks on the body, running around town shooting people and entering into a relationship of sorts with Johnnie (Caitlin Gerrard) who pre-surgery-Frank met as a hooker but who now seems to be a nurse who’s quite willing to provide shelter and more, whilst Frank puts her revenge plan together. Despite the poor screenplay, some of Hill’s skill as a director still manages to shine through with stylish camerawork by James Liston and the use of screen wipes to shift timeframes in the storytelling. There’s also some nice use of ‘comic book’ style graphics to break up the scenes (a nod to the graphic novel version of this story that Hill produced with adapter Matz and illustrator Jeff). But none of that helps the story, nor does the restrictive way Shalhoub and Weaver are directed, spending almost the entire movie sitting at tables, which is far from conducive to good acting. In the end, it’s left to Rodriguez to do the heavy lifting and, for the most part, she’s enjoyable on-screen even if the film isn’t. But she’s got such a distinctive look that the gender shift doesn’t really work. For me, at least, it’s hard to buy her as a male character in the first part of the film. She just looks like she’s wearing a bad disguise. The impact of the change would have been much more effective if we’d really been able to believe the character of Frank as a man in the first act. Overall, this film just doesn’t work on a number of different levels. It’s such a shame to see a great old-school writer/director of the calibre of Walter Hill turning out something that feels more like a movie-of-the-week. And not a very good one at that. Here’s hoping that he still has the creative juices somewhere in there to give us one more great, intelligently violent crime thriller to cap off his career... ‘cause this one certainly ain’t it. 
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2022 | DIR: SCOTT DERRICKSON | STARRING: ETHAN HAWKE, MASON THAMES, MADELEINE MCGRAW, JEREMY DAVIES | REVIEW BY ALYSSA DE LEO  ‘Stranger Danger’ is the generation-spanning phrase children are all too familiar with, ingrained into their minds by worrisome adults. Never go anywhere with a stranger, never take a ride from a stranger, never accept gifts from a stranger - and so on. Director Scott Derrickson, whose work ranges from terrifying scarefest Sinister to superhero outing Doctor Strange, essentially takes this sentiment and turns it up to an eleven with THE BLACK PHONE. The result is an unabashed old-school horror that also feels refreshing because of its simplicity. It’s 1978 in New Denver and children are mysteriously disappearing, supposedly taken by a person only known as The Grabber (Ethan Hawke). He poses as a magician, complete with white face paint, but instead of bunny rabbits and hats, black balloons fill the back of his van. 13-year-old Finney (Mason Thames) is constantly bullied at school and never has the courage to stand up for himself, unlike his fiery little sister Gwen (Madeleine McGraw), who always has his back. Their father is an abusive alcoholic, who whips his daughter at any mention of her potential psychic abilities. It’s only a matter of time before Finney is abducted by the sadistic killer and trapped in a soundproof basement. On the wall is a black phone with a disconnected line, which strangely starts ringing. When Finney answers, he hears the voices of The Grabber’s previous victims, who are also Finney’s best chance at getting out alive.  THE BLACK PHONE is the latest to join shows and films like Stranger Things in paying homage to the period in which it is set and the popular culture of that time (it’s interesting to note the film is based on a short story by Stephen King’s son Joe Hill, and the It parallels are certainly evident). Not particularly elevated or metaphorical, the movie draws upon the time-honoured elements of traditional horror from the 70s and 80s - a small town, kids, ghosts, a psychotic killer and good old-fashioned scares. Derrickson absolutely nails his nostalgic 70s setting, thanks to authentic production design, costuming (one word: flares), story elements (kidnappers, child psychics) and a solid amount of needle drops. While the film falls more into the thriller category, and may not disturb in the same way Sinister did, the director knows how to fashion a solid fright. A lot of this is thanks to Ethan Hawke’s unhinged performance as The Grabber - a mysterious figure who is unnerving in both appearance and presence, whether it’s his Joker-smile-inspired mask or unpredictable nature. Derrickson has fun with the supernatural elements and manages to throw in some effective jump scares that don’t feel cheap. While Hawke is the big bad looming over the film, it’s the child performers that steal the show. Mason Thames plays young Finney with maturity and sensitivity, creating earnest vulnerability and garnering the audience’s emotional investment in his survival. Madeleine McGraw as Gwen is a firecracker of a presence on screen. She is the heart of the film, along with her relationship with Finney. While the film gives audiences plenty to chew on, one can’t help but feel left wanting more, especially when it comes to Hawke’s Grabber. Sure, he’s a scary guy with a few screws loose, but the story never quite delves into why he does what he does. Some form of backstory or motive would have been a nice touch here. When the Grabber’s brother Max (James Ransone) is introduced, it seems like the perfect opportunity to flesh out and give context to the antagonist, but instead, Max feels out of place and doesn’t add any new ground to the story. Nevertheless, THE BLACK PHONE is a thrilling ride that manages to inject new life into an arguably tired genre. This is thanks to Scott’s suspenseful direction, confident child performances, Hawke’s presence and an emotionally compelling story. You can read Glenn's review of The Black Phone here.  2021 | DIR: LEXIE & NICK TRIVUNDZA | STARRING: BENEDICT MAZUREK, ANGELA SMERALDI, PAUL HAAPANIEMI, ALEXANDRA KELLER, ALEXANDER HARRIS, MATT BOONE | REVIEW BY CHRIS THOMPSON  Mixing science fiction into traditionally non-science fiction genres can be a tricky thing to make work as Jon Favreau discovered with Cowboys & Aliens (2011) and even Steven Spielberg discovered with Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008). So, kudos to the writing and directing partnership of Lexie Findarle Trivundza and Nick Trivundza (The West and the Ruthless, 2017) for giving it a red hot go by mashing together the 80’s action-adventure genre with a good dose of sci-fi-time-travel tropes in their second film, the comically titled Danger! Danger!. It may not be an entirely successful effort, but it’s a lot of fun watching them try to pull it off. The film begins with a killer opening shot. We’re looking at a wide-angle of a rugged landscape on an island that a title card tells us is twenty miles off the coast of Africa in the year 1985. Suddenly, BAM! our hero, Jonathan (Benedict Mazurak) sits up into the tight foreground of the frame with a look of astonishment on his face. He seems as confused as we are as to what he’s doing here and why. He’s even more confused (as are we) about how and why he’s been skewered by a tree branch. The camera pulls back to reveal his rumpled parachute and the branch at least, if nothing else, now makes sense. So, why has he parachuted onto this seemingly deserted island? Well, for a start, it’s not all that deserted. It’s occupied by Russian forces led, inexplicably, by Ella Fritz (Alexandra Keller) a throwback German Nazi who never got over the Third Reich losing the war (even though the war ended forty years ago and she’s clearly not that old). Jonathan stumbles into their camp where he spots a crate stencilled with the words Danger! Danger!. We never find out what’s in the crate, but this gives Jonathan the prompt, when interrogated by Ella, to invent his cover name – now he’s Jonathan Danger!  And then, in a flash (as they used to say in the classics) he escapes the clutches of the Soviet-cum-Nazi villains, only to run into Jade Calloway (Angela Smeraldi) and her kooky brother Jungle Jim (Paul Haapaniemi) who is convinced that our hero is a Russian spy. Seems as though everyone here is looking for the same thing – an ancient temple that, in reality (if you can use that word for a story like this) might just be a hidden time machine from the future. By now, you’re probably getting the idea that this movie has its tongue firmly planted in its cheek and that being set in 1985 is no accident – the 80’s is the era of movies it wants to pay homage to; Back to the Future, Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Goonies and all the rest of those action adventures that both thrilled us and tickled our funny bones at the same time. The problem is that after such a terrific set up, the action stalls and the characters tend to talk about these movies rather than referencing them in more physical and visual ways. There are too many scenes of characters sitting or standing around talking to each other in exposition and backstory rather than getting on with it by doing stuff. You know what they say, show don’t tell. Well, after such a showy start, the film settles into too much telling. It’s ironic, then, that there are some key bits of information we’re not told. We know that Jonathan is here to find the time machine and travel three years into the past to avert a tragic event that happened to him. But we never find out who he really is, nor do we find out how he knows about the time machine or how he managed to get here in the first place. The same goes for Jade and Jungle Jim. There’s a flimsy explanation about having five years' worth of Lotto numbers and going into the past to make their fortune, but how do they know about the time machine and the local tribes who created the temple that hides it and the religion it inspired? It’s not even clear how the bad guys know about it, other than a suggestion that the time machine was (or will be) a joint Soviet- American project... but that’s all in the future so it still doesn’t quite gel. Ella does try and explain that she’s hoping to go back and prevent the Soviets from dividing her city with the Berlin Wall. (If she’d just wait another four years the thing would come down anyway). Of course, in funny, silly movies like this, you can get away with the occasional plot hole big enough to drive a Panza tank through, but the basics of the story, the motivations of the characters and the film’s internal logic about the existence of time travel are fundamentals that we should be freed from wondering about so that we can enjoy the ride. Nevertheless, there are some strong performances here. Mazurek is perfectly cast as our adventure hero who is just doofussy enough to make us laugh (and sometimes cheer) and Smeraldi works well as both his possible rival and potential love interest. Keller, on the other hand, is not quite evil enough in her villainy and Haapeniemi is a little too over the top in his role as the jokey, third wheel brother (think John Hannah in the 1999 version of The Mummy, but dialled up to eleven). There are other great elements like the cinematography by Santiago Bahti which makes the most the visual potential of the film’s location in the beautiful Vasquez Rocks north of Los Angeles in California (a bit more than twenty miles off the coast of Africa) and the film’s music has as much drama, if not more than the narrative itself – not so much a score written for the film, as music sourced from pre-existing works the majority of which are composed by Graham Plowman with fantastically evocative titles like Escape Through the Asteroid Field, Rebel Assault, Shadow of the Death Star and Space Wars. Despite its clear association, Plowman’s music is more redolent of the movie serials of the thirties and forties than with space operas like the Star Wars franchise, and that’s just perfect for this movie (another nod to Indiana Jones?). Danger! Danger! Is a romp, and deliberately so. Despite its shortcomings, there’s a lot to enjoy about it, but it’s a frustration that those shortcomings weren’t addressed at the script level in order to elevate the whole venture into something that could prove you can mix sci-fi in with action-adventure and make it work. P.S. Stick around after the credits for a behind-the-scenes look at some of what goes on during the making of a low-budget movie like this, hosted in selfie-mode by the star, Benedict Mazurek. Danger, Danger! is available on DVD via Eagle Entertainment.  2021 | DIR: R.J. COLLINS | STARRING: PHILIPPE A HADDAD, DANNY TREJO, CALI MORALES, MAURICE COMPTE, JOHNNY REY DIAZ, MAYA STOJAN, JAYLEN MOORE, PAOLO CESAR | REVIEW BY CHRIS THOMPSON  Supposedly based on a true story about the first American born drug lord to operate out of Mexico, American Sicario opens with Erik Vasquez (Philippe A Haddad) - drug lord to be - working for the Feliz Family - Roberto (Maurice Compte) and his brother Juan (Johnny Rey Diaz) - ensuring the safe passage of their drugs across the border into the USA. But Erik has bigger plans than being stuck as a henchman his whole life and, against the objections of Juan, convinces Roberto that he can double the quantity of their drugs being trafficked through a part of the border where the Drug Enforcement Agency is nowhere to be seen. Wrong! The DEA, in the guise of Agent Monica Wells (Maya Stojan) is on to Erik and are determined to make him play piggy in the middle. But Erik figures he’s smart enough and determined enough to play both sides at the same time and moves ahead with his plans to take over the Feliz Family operations. Meanwhile, back at the ranch (or should I say hacienda?) Erik’s girlfriend, Gloria (Cali Morales) is pregnant, and her father Pedro (Danny Trejo) has decided to come and stay for the birth of his grandchild. The only trouble is, Erik and Pedro don’t exactly see eye to eye. Throw in some of the local Mexican constabulary who are showing an interest in Erik, the suggestion of disloyalty within Erik’s own crew and a whole lot of guns in the hands of everyone including Gloria, and you begin to see just how many ingredients make up this volatile recipe that is threatening to boil over at every turn. Sicario is the Spanish word for assassin or hitman which doesn’t really apply to Erik, although, throughout the film, he does manage to amass a pretty impressive body count. But he’s not really a hit man so the title seems a bit out of place. For most movie goers, the word is associated with Denis Villeneuve’s very good 2015 movie that uses that title, or with Stefano Sollima’s lesser 2018 sequel (but probably not with the Venezuelan Sicario made in 1994 by Joseph Noboa). For me, the title American Sicario brought Villeneuve’s film to mind and as odious as comparisons are, this film is not in the same league as it; the writing, the direction and the performances – all solid in their own way – simply don’t have the complexity that the title evokes and certainly doesn’t have the same scale of budget. But to be fair, one should take a film on its own terms and in that sense, there’s still a lot to like about it.  First time feature film director R.J Collins and horror/thriller/action screenwriter Rich Ronat (While We Sleep) deliver some compelling character dilemmas and some engaging action sequences although the narrative generally offers nothing we haven’t seen before. Haddad (whose previous experience is mostly television and short films) is a real presence on the screen; he’s a big guy with a gregarious personality so the violence that erupts within him often takes up by surprise. His performance is nicely counterpointed by Compte as his ‘frenemy’ Roberto whose outbursts of violence come as no surprise at all. Morales as Erik’s girlfriend Gloria is also very watchable, moving easily from affectionate lover to hard-arsed, no-nonsense killer, finding a really entertaining, compelling ambiguity that lets her stand on her own two feet in a film where the women (especially DEA Agent Wells) are scarce and mostly undeveloped. But none of them have the depth of character development to elevate them from the same sorts of cyphers that we always find in this kind of movie. The real disappointment, though, is Danny Trejo who is mostly wasted on the sidelines of the story. For a good two thirds of the movie, we’re itching for him to get up from the table and cut loose with a bit of good old Machete action but, sadly, even when he answers the call to action his character Pedro is unremarkable in the way he lends his trigger finger to Erik and the other good-bad-guys’ in their fight with the bad-good-guys and the bad-bad-guys. It’s hard not to see this kind of casting as serving the marketing campaign more than the character and the narrative of the film. Where the story runs aground is in the tail end of the third act. No spoilers here, but there’s a marked shift in the tone and pace of the film that, far from delivering the kind of final scenes we might be hoping for, ends not with a bang but a whimper. At this point it might have the potential to pull a tragedy out of its sleeve but, unfortunately, there’s no such luck. If, indeed, this is based on a true story, maybe the end remains faithful to that truth at the expense of the drama. Nevertheless, despite its third act problems, the film has a stylish look and Collins finds a real energy in many of the action sequences which are mostly well staged. It’s nicely shot by cinematographer Pascal Combes-Knoke and Scott Adderton’s editing gives the film a good pace and some nice narrative counterpoints. It’s not a film that will change the genre and, allowing for its struggle to get out from under the idea that it’s a ‘Sicario’ movie, or its strong themes of family and loyalty that too often end up feeling like pale echoes of Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather (1972), it’s an entertaining and sometimes fun hundred and one minutes that hopefully won’t have you reaching for the remote.  2022 | DIR: VIKTOR GLUKHUSHIN & MAKSIM VOLKKOV | STARRING: PAULY SHORE, HAYLIE DUFF, JON HEDER | REVIEW BY GLENN COCHRANE.  MY SWEET MONSTER is an all-new animated feature film from Russia, which comes to us with an English-speaking cast including comedy favourite Pauly Shore (Encino Man), Jon Heder (Napoleon Dynamite) and Haylie Duff (also Napoleon Dynamite). If ever there were an appropriate application to the word 'fantasy' this is it. Nothing on the screen makes practical sense, and yet the creators have crammed together an assortment of ideas into a jar, proverbially shaken it up, and spilled the strangely absorbing contents into our laps. Most of the characters dress from the Victorian era, while some get around on 1950's motorcycles, and others use futuristic drone technology. Robots serve on royals like a bizarre steam-punk-inspired fable, and mythical creatures roam the forests. All in the service of a fun family movie. Princess Barbara (Duff) is tricked into an arranged marriage to an arrogant and evil postal worker named Bundy (Shore), who has cast the king under his spell (yeah, just go with it), and when the wedding is thrust upon her without warning, she leaps onto her horse and rides away into the woods. There she meets up with an odd beast named Boogey (Heder), whose appearance is that of various combined creatures (in other words, he looks like a pre-schooler's drawing of a monster). Think Shrek meets Wreck it Ralph, with a touch of Disney's Beast. He is the King of the Forest and protects all of the creatures within it, and with his help – and a cute bunny named Rabbit – Princess Barabara sets about freeing her father from Bundy's control and reclaiming the kingdom.  It's all very convoluted and difficult to explain, but for all of its oddities, MY SWEET MONSTER works rather well. It certainly takes many cues from American films, like Shrek and Hoodwinked, but it also has a charm of its own. The characters are unusual, and the crockpot of aesthetics makes for a surreal experience, while the English-speaking cast of voices do a surprisingly good job of it. Pauly Shore invests a lot of energy into bringing the villainous Bundy to life, and he contorts his voice in some weird and wonderful ways. Perhaps the most charming quality of the movie is the music, of which there is plenty. The songs are catchy, and in stark contrast to the bigger Hollywood animated films, the actors sing with all of their patchy, almost tone-deaf sincerity. Pauly Shore is particularly delightful, applying his trademark 'Weasel' voice to several songs, including a fantastic hip-hop-inspired number called Live Life to the Fullest. MY SWEET MONSTER may not be a big-budget razzle and dazzle like its Hollywood contemporaries, but it is a sweet and inspired extravaganza of its own, which makes for fun family entertainment during the school holidays. Now playing in selected cinemas.  2022 | DIR: JON BINKOWSKI | STARS: ARIAN ASH, CHRIS BURNS, NEIL BROWN JR., MICHELE SIMMS, SIMON NEEDHAM, JORDAN WOODS-ROBINSON | REVIEW BY SAMANTHA HOWSON  Have you ever been to a horror house and wondered if the dripping blood was real? Or maybe that skull was the first employee to have slacked off. Writer/director Jon Binkowski ponders those questions and makes them a reality in SCARE ZONE. Just as new employee Daryl (Burns), starts working at Oliver’s (Needham) horror house, Scare Zone, the employees of the venue go missing one by one, with a sinister figure lurking behind every corner. Is it a part of the show or something more disturbing? SCARE ZONE is a nostalgic romp, harking back to teen movies of the noughties, such as American Pie and Van Wilder, where teenagers partied hard and awkwardly navigated their way into adulthood. The movie provides this and more, with a murder mystery plot that is fast-paced, creative and engaging to the end. The aforementioned mystery component of the film is a fun motif despite its predictability, and the various red herrings are also amusing nevertheless. The noughties tropes are also a welcome ingredient, with frat-boys, ditzy girls, goth chicks and geeks offering a throwback for a specific generation who wreaked havoc during the early 2000s. The music offers more appeal with its distinct alternative stylings, providing an effective soundscape to underpin the horror. Furthermore, Binkowski has created a film with solid production value, filmed on the Universal Horror House lot, with impressive practical special effects.  One issue with the film, however, involves character subtext that comes across as intentionally provocative, and perhaps insensitive to some vulnerable viewers. And without revealing any spoilers, the story leans on depression and mental illness as a motive for various criminal acts. While it could be argued that the finale is rushed, the film does offer a rewarding payoff with a cheeky final twist that will have some viewers kicking themselves for succumbing to many of the red herrings. Suffice to say that SCARE ZONE is a well-paced horror that should keep viewers on their toes. It's chock-full of laughs, jump-scared and plenty of kills. The story is creative and clever and is well worth a look. Available on the Tubi streaming service. Note: Scare Zone's worldwide release is 2022, however its production dates back to 2009.  2022 | DIR: BAZ LUHRMANN | STARS: AUSTIN BUTLER, TOM HANKS, OLIVIA DEJONGE, HELEN THOMSON, RICHARD ROXBURGH, AND LUKE BRACEY | REVIEW BY SAMANTHA HOWSON  The ever-glittering creative colossal that is Baz Luhrmann, emanates his newest instalment, simply titled ELVIS, and is there really any need for more? Elvis, the legend, can hold a movie on his name alone, so how do you match his grandeur and status? Ask Baz Luhrmann. Like being slapped and having glitter thrown in your face, ELVIS begins laying down its rules fast. The cinematography is like being whisked through the tornado with Dorothy, and while it does thematically make sense, in the beginning, it is so fast-paced and jarring that it's hard to know where Elvis’s story began. Similar to the styling of Luhrman's Romeo and Juliet (1996), its fast-paced and edgy visual storytelling adds to the drama and the heightened reality of Luhrmann’s Elvis. Luhrmann is an auteur; he has a specific aesthetic and theatrical style of filmmaking, which wouldn’t ordinarily lend itself to some stories. However, for ELVIS he chose a comic book theme that portrays Colonel Tom Parker as the evil villain, and Elvis as the tragic hero. While it may not be accurate to how he was in real life, Tom Hanks played the villain archetype very well.  Austin Butler is incredible, and he carries this movie. He is so captivating, but also so… Elvis. Not in the way that he accurately depicted Elvis, but in the way that Elvis’s legacy is portrayed visually. While watching this, you will be transfixed and engaged until the very last scene, and Butler’s performance shone through Luhrmann and Catherine Martin’s theatrical and colourful production design. I felt myself looking at Elvis like those girls were in the movie (without the involuntary squealing). I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the music and soundtrack of the film. I was expecting it to be solely Elvis songs, but Elliot Wheeler modernises a majority of the soundtrack, particularly the blues music which influenced Elvis and informed his own sound. Luhrmann’s appreciation for blues music is also commendable and he utilises it effectively, marrying the classic and contemporary sounds perfectly, making ELVIS one of his best to date. The story is heartfelt, exciting, and sexy. It does what should be done for such an icon in music. The flamboyant and unapologetic depiction of both Elvis and Colonel Tom Parker make ELVIS a cinematic experience. This is what cinema means to me. Luhrmann tells the story of Elvis the legend, whose star was brighter than life itself.  2022 | DIR: DAVID MIDELL | STARRING: FRANKIE FAISON, STEVE O’CONNELL, ENRICO NATALE, BEN MARTEN | REVIEW BY ALYSSA DE LEO  Two years ago, the world was shaken by the racially-charged murder of George Floyd. There was a revolutionary and visceral reaction to the injustice, but it was not the first time something like this had occurred. Institutionalised racism has obviously suffocated the United States of America throughout its history, and even though society pretends it’s something of the past, it clearly isn’t. There’s nothing more terrifying than how prominent unprovoked racist attacks are in the twenty-first century. Another horrific tragedy, similar to that of Floyd, occurred in 2011. THE KILLING OF KENNETH CHAMBERLAIN is the dramatic retelling of this story. From executive producer Morgan Freeman, the film, told in real-time and based on audio recordings, chronicles the events leading up to the death of Kenneth Chamberlain Sr (Frankie Faison), an African-American man. Chamberlain is seventy years old, a former marine, and suffers from bipolar disorder as well as a heart condition. At 5.20am, Kenneth accidentally triggers his medical alarm while half-asleep, and three police officers are dispatched to check on him. Chamberlain is confused by their presence, as he didn’t mean to set off the alarm, and is afraid because of previous negative experiences with police. He insists there is no emergency, but the police won’t back down. By 7.00am, Chamberlain is dead. The film is a brutal and difficult watch, but that is, by all means, the intention. It wants to anger and disturb its audience, which it succeeds in doing. What is so evident here is the helplessness of Chamberlain and the pure hatred and ego of the police. The three officers, Parks (Steve O’Connell), Jackson (Ben Marten) and Rossi (Enrico Natale), all have a part to play. Although Jackson is more overt with his bigotry, good-cop Rossi is overwhelmed by the power of his superiors, despite any good intentions.  From the get-go, it is evident that Chamberlain poses no threat. He is a confused and sick old man who just wants to be left in peace. The police clearly have their own preconceptions about people like Kenneth, made known when they comment on his run-down apartment building and the illegal activities he may be involved in. Their attitudes and power-trip push them to use excessive force against the harmless Chamberlain, to a point where it never should have gotten. What is also frightening is that Chamberlain isn’t alone. For a majority of the runtime, he is on the phone with the dispatcher from the medical company, as well as taking calls from concerned family. Outside in the stairwell, there are witnesses trying to negotiate with the police, including Chamberlain’s niece. Even united, they have no power over the police - or the system. Faison is a veteran character actor and has been in the game for years and this is a career-defining moment for him. He is masterful as he expertly portrays Chamberlain’s spiral into confusion and disorientation, anger through his bulging bloodshot eyes, and fear with his quivering voice. He uses his physicality to effortlessly switch between a vulnerable old man and ex-marine father, composing himself as he assures his children that he’s okay. Director David Midell may not have had a blockbuster budget, but it works in his favour. The single location instils tense claustrophobia, the handheld camera reiterates the chaos of the situation, and the tight runtime allows for events to unfold in real-time, which results in authentic storytelling. However, particularly during the film’s more climactic moments, the score becomes loud and overbearing to a point where it’s distracting. It’s not needed, as the other technical elements and performances are already doing a fine job of making our hearts pound. THE KILLING OF KENNETH CHAMBERLAIN is an uncomfortable watch, and audiences will be grateful for the film’s taut runtime. The film showcases a powerful lead performance and serves as an irrefutable condemnation of police brutality. 2021 | DIR: PAWO CHOYNING DORJI | STARRING: SHERAB DORJI, UGYEN NORBU LHENDUP, KELDEN LHAMO GURUNG | REVIEW BY ALYSSA DE LEO  Lunana is a remote village in Bhutan, a small country in the Eastern Himalayas. It is also the most remote village in the world, sitting at an altitude of 4,800 metres and a tiny population of 56. With solar panels as the only source of power, no connection to the outside world, and a heavy reliance on mother nature itself to survive, there is certainly nothing glamorous about the place. It is also the setting of Bhutan’s first Academy Award-nominated feature film, LUNANA: A YAK IN THE CLASSROOM. Ugyen (Sherab Dorji) lives in the capital city of Bhutan with his grandmother (Tsheri Zom), and has a contract as a teacher working for the government. However, he is unmotivated in his profession and dreams of obtaining a visa to go to Australia and become a singer. Before he is able to do that, his government employers send him to Lunana to complete his teaching contract. This is no easy adjustment for Ugyen, who lives a Westernised and modern life in the city. Only accessible by horse and foot, the trek up to the village takes eight days and is physically gruelling. Ugyen is completely out of his element, with no wi-fi or electricity, limited supplies and a tiny classroom that doesn’t even have a blackboard. Ugyen finds himself wanting to quit and go home, but the kind-hearted villagers welcome him with open arms, and the children are more than eager to learn - even knocking on his door when he doesn’t show up to class on time. Ugyen’s cynical and narrow-minded attitudes are challenged when he connects with his students and learns about their hardships. He begins to embrace and admire the spirituality of the villagers, and understand the importance of what he’s doing.  The film moves at a slow and steady pace in a way that is almost peaceful. Much like Ugyen, the audience is able to escape the rush and chaos of mainstream life, taking a moment to be still. Director Pawo Choyning Dorji has crafted a meditative experience, particularly through the film’s breathtaking cinematography. Actually shot in Lunana, the sweeping mountains, rich greenery and wispy clouds almost touching the ground are a sight to behold. Music also plays a key part in the film and adds to this sentiment, as Ugyen learns a traditional song from the village and connects with his students through the medium. Through the protagonist’s struggles, Dorji is able to highlight the difference between city and rural life. As a result, there are some timely and touching messages about the beauty of slowing down and connecting to nature and spirituality. The villagers, particularly the children, are humbling to watch due to their resourcefulness and gratitude. It’s always satisfying to see a story that demonstrates the power of education and learning, and how so many young people take it for granted. What’s also astounding is the villagers in the film are real life highlanders. They had never acted, seen a movie or camera, or even used toothpaste - which they are taught to do in one particular scene. As mentioned, the film was shot in the real-life remote village, which is another impressive feat within itself. Getting equipment and a whole crew up to that altitude certainly wouldn’t have been a walk in the park, as well as making a feature film with limited resources and no electricity. LUNANA is an extraordinarily simple film, which also may be its downfall. While there’s a lot to admire and the relaxed pace suits the themes present, it’s not always enough to hold the audience’s attention. The film does what it intends to do, but never feels like it goes above and beyond, which is what it needs to leave a lasting emotional impact. Some more definitive conflict and turning points, especially with our main character, could have made this something really special and more memorable. LUNANA: A YAK IN THE CLASSROOM is a sweet film with good intentions. However, rather than its plot, viewers will be touched by the window into a little-known culture and the fantastical wonder of Bhutan’s natural beauty. Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom is now playing in selected cinemas.  2021 | DIR: RICHARD JOHN TAYLOR | STARRING: STEVE WRAITH, CELIA WRAITH, DAVE COURTNEY, CHARLES BRONSON, MAUREEN FLANAGAN | REVIEW BY CHRIS THOMPSON  For fans of Monty Python’s Flying Circus, the notorious Piranha Brothers (Doug and Dinsdale) and their penchant for being cruel but fair in their practice of nailing their rivals’ heads to the coffee table were an instant and memorable hit when they were introduced to the world in episode one of the comedy show’s second season (1970). Of course, the characters were thinly veiled parodies of the real-life 50’s and 60’s East End criminals; identical twins Ronnie and Reggie Kray, who were nowhere near as funny as the Python sketch. The mythology of their sociopathic, violent exploits that characterised their careers is well known but not necessarily understood, at least if you believe what Richard John Taylor’s documentary, The Krays: Gangsters Behind Bars has to say. Centred around one long interview with occasional actor, YouTuber, podcaster and number one fan of Newcastle United, Steve Wraith, the doco offers a kind of side-view of the Krays that tempers the more commonly told and brutal story with an insider’s eye to the more human side of their lives. Revealing that they loved their mum, that they wouldn’t stand for or commit profanity in the presence of women and that they were more than willing to lend their notoriety to charity events for underprivileged children might sound like I’m still talking about the Pythons’ take on the twins, but that’s the story Steve Wraith has to tell, and it’s backed up by several other figures from their life and times. As a high school kid struggling in English, Steve Wraith’s teacher allowed him to choose a book that appealed to him, rather than one from the curriculum. He chose a book on the Kray Brothers and that set him on a path that eventually resulted in a friendship with both Reggie and Ronnie, already incarcerated in separate prisons – first meeting Reggie in Maidstone Prison and then Ronnie in Broadmoor Prison Hospital where he was classified as insane. Later Steve also befriended the third brother, Charlie who was a mover and shaker on the outside (but also ended up in prison sometime later). As Steve unfolds his tale of many years of friendship with the Krays – not always amicable - we meet other figures who corroborate and extend the story he tells. These are geezers who often feel like they could be from the cast of an early Guy Ritchie film (although, it’s more likely that they’re the ones who gave Ritchie the idea). There’s also Maureen Flanagan, former page-three girl, once touted as the most photographed model in Britain (and, curiously, who made many BBC TV comedy appearances including Monty Python!). Now eighty, Flanagan’s entre to the Kray’s world was as the twin’s mother Violet’s hairdresser. She soon became close to all three boys and it’s her recollections that portray them as gentlemen with a kinder side to the cruelty and violence they are mostly defined by.  The most entertaining talking head, though, is former Kray’s enforcer and close confident, Dave Courtney who with his bling and big cigar looks like a Soprano’s henchman. He’s the one who, when Ronnie died in 1995, stood vigil in the funeral home to make sure that rivals with long held grudges didn’t desecrate the body. Courtney doesn’t mince words and it’s his perspective that puts forward the idea that the Krays were of their time – a time before the internet and mobile phones and ubiquitous surveillance. He’s pretty clear that crims like them wouldn’t survive for five minutes in the contemporary world. As he says, with the utmost affection, they were just a couple of dickheads. The strong message that comes through from all these testimonials is, essentially, that crime doesn’t pay; that your infamous reputation and celebrity might live on, but it’s at the cost of living your life. These are voices of the Kray’s friends and acquaintances, hard men who’ve been inside or are still, inside. Perhaps the most poignant of these is the voice that begins and ends the documentary – Charles Bronson, supposedly Britain’s most violent and most notorious criminal (who was memorably played by Tom Hardy in Nicholas Winding Refn’s 2009 film of Bronson’s life). His appearance (plastered all over the promotional material as a key selling point) is audio only, but his soft-spoken memories of the Krays portray, if true, sincere friendship between men who are rarely thought of as being friendly. Visually, this doco is unremarkable. It’s mostly static talking heads with many ‘filler’ images used more than once with gives the film a repetitive feel. There’s some good imagery of all three of the Kray boys but the film would benefit from a wider variety of archival footage. There is also a sense that some of the talking heads could be more tightly edited to build a stronger overall dynamic. Nevertheless, there is much to recommend this film which, in the end, succeeds off the back of those colourful and compelling characters who were part of the Kray’s world and lived to tell the tales.  2022 | DIR: JOSEPH KOSINSKI | STARRING: TOM CRUISE, MILES TELLER, JENNIFER CONNELLY, JON HAMM, GLEN POWELL, LEWIS PULLMAN, ED HARRIS, VAL KILMER | REVIEW BY CHRIS THOMPSON  Well, I didn’t expect that! I must confess that Tony Scott’s Top Gun (1986) never really did it for me. Unlike most of the rest of the world, I didn’t get off on the high-octane, testosterone-fuelled showcase for military hardware and beefcake. I struggled to find a coherent narrative that made sense, beyond the macho competitiveness between thinly drawn characters and the over-emphasis on the ’need for speed’ (although I will concede that the aerial photography and stunt flying was pretty impressive). And that song? Don’t get me started! That’s why, when the trailer first came out for Top Gun: Maverick (was that really in 2019?) it was not high on my list of ‘must-see-must-review’ films for that year. Consequently, the five pandemic-postponements over the next three years were less of a disappointment to me and more of delaying of the inevitable: I mean, you have to see it, don’t you. So, with my mind prised open and my subjective, judgemental bias checked at the ticket box, me and my objectivity, along with some popcorn and a choc top, entered the cinema and took our seat. Wow! I was so engrossed in the first fifteen or twenty minutes, that it took me that long to realise how much I was already enjoying the ride. It begins with a good old-fashioned action-thriller sequence of Pete Mitchell (Tom Cruise), better known as ‘Maverick’, putting his courage, tenacity and self-belief (not to mention his physical safety) on the line to prove a point to the hard-nosed, stick-in-the-mud military whose not-so-hidden agendas are getting in the way of what Maverick and his team have set out to prove... that they can fly a new experimental plane really, really fast. It’s a classic set up and reminds us that, like Captain Kirk and the Kobayashi Ramu test in Star Trek (old, re-booted and recent editions), there’s always a human element that can’t be factored into the establishment’s formulaic parameters.  After getting chewed out for this stunt by Rear Admiral Chester ‘Hammer’ Cain (Ed Harris) Maverick seems destined to be grounded for good until Hammer is overruled by his superior – Admiral Tom ‘Iceman’ Kazansky (Val Kilmer) who has a sensitive top security mission that needs a hot shot pilot. But, no, Maverick isn’t that pilot. He’s heading back to NAS North Island in San Diego (better known to fans as Top Gun School) where his mission isn’t to fly the mission; it’s to train a handful of the top Top Gun graduates (the best of the best) so that they can fly the mission. And guess who’s in that elite group? None other than Lieutenant Bradley ‘Rooster’ Bradshaw (Miles Teller), son of Nick ‘Goose’ Bradshaw (Anthony Edwards) whose death in Top Gun (sorry for the spoiler) provides one of the few genuinely emotional scenes in the original film and sets up the underlying emotional gravitas that fuels much of this one. Top Gun: Maverick is one of those movie conundrums where, for me at least, the sequel is a far better film than the original but only because of the way it makes use of character and narrative elements from its predecessor. And that points to the screenplay. It’s a cracker. Obviously, our hero and a couple of other characters along with key backstory elements belong to the originators, Jim Cash and Jack Epps Jr. But there’s a new writing team which includes Ehern Kruger (writer of some not-great movies like Ghost in the Shell, Dumbo and three of the Transformers franchise), Eric Warren Singer (writer of some pretty good movies like The International and American Hustle) and maybe most importantly, Christopher McQuarrie (writer of The Usual Suspects, as well as several films with Cruise including a few Mission Impossibles, Jack Reacher, Edge of Tomorrow and –, dare I say it – The Mummy) all working from a story by Peter Craig (writer of some very good films like The Town and The Batman) and Justin Marks (creator of the very good TV series Counterpart). Sometimes a litany of screenwriters is a red flag for trouble ahead, but in this case the mix seems to work. Our new team of ‘top guns’ is more diverse, more developed and more interesting than the original gang, and the dynamic they create on the ground, in the air and off-duty is compelling and highly engaging. In addition to Rooster, the new crew includes feisty, gutsy ‘Phoenix’ (Monica Barbaro) egotistic, loudmouth ‘Hangman’ (an excellent performance by Glen Powell) and endearing, hapless, funny ‘Bob’ (Lewis Pullman – Bill’s little boy). These new characters work well both individually and as a group; they are competing with each other but simultaneously have each other’s backs. Plus there’s a bit of depth to them which always helps.  There’s also the neat trick of a new ‘former’ love interest, bar owner Penny Benjamin (Jennifer Connelly) and her daughter Amelia (Lyliana Wray) who are written in a way that makes you believe the relationship between Maverick and Penny must have existed in the previous film, even though it doesn’t. As with most of the narrative undertone of this film, this is more than a two-dimensional pit stop between stunts and volleyball games; there’s something deeper going on with these two characters that carves out some space for Penny to be a more believable character than Kelly McGillis’s Charlie Blackwood in the first film, and elevates both the new film, and Maverick’s story. And speaking of volleyball games, there’s a nice nod to that famous scene with a game of touch football on the beach but again, it's there for the narrative and for the character, not just for the eye-candy. Even the unexpected narrative detour at the end of the third act where the film suddenly feels like its veered off into Alastair MacLean territory, still works despite it implausibility. But, for me, the most affecting scene in the film is between Maverick, the hot shot who just couldn’t conform and bucked the system in a way that denied him the career advancement he might have been due, and Iceman, the hot shot rival who found a friend in his competitor but who also found a way to channel his ambition into a path that led him to a top-ranking Admiral’s job. But like Kilmer himself, Admiral ‘Iceman’ is sick and can only speak with Maverick via a computer screen. (if you don’t know the story of Val Kilmer’s career-ending illness, then watch the excellent doco Val, directed by Ting Poo and Leo Scott streaming on Prime). Seeing Kilmer on screen again, sick as he might be, is a highlight of the film and cements the bond that lies between the original and sequel whilst demonstrating the brilliance of the way a far superior story has been crafted from the bones of lesser work. And then, of course, there’s Tom himself. Love him or hate him, there is no disputing that Tom Cruise is one of a small handful of old-school Hollywood movie stars and in this film, he’s in the sweet spot of that role. It’s thirty-six years since the original Top Gun and Cruise is still front and centre of the frame when it counts on making the action seem real. He’s always been one for doing his own stunts, especially when it comes to vehicles, and with Top Gun: Maverick, he shows little or no sign of slowing down. Granted, he wasn’t actually allowed to fly the F/A18 Super Hornets (they cost about $67.4 million bucks each) but he comes as close to that as he can. Those planes are two-seaters, one behind the other, so Tom’s not actually up front (that’s where the real pilot is), he’s in the second seat, shot over the real pilot’s shoulder to make it look like the real thing. But his pretend-flying is still taking place at those unbelievable speeds and g-forces. The result is it looks like the real thing because it’s as close to the real thing as movie-making can get and in the era of CGI that’s something to be admired... plus it pays off. But as a counterpoint to these show-off moments of old-guy-physical-prowess, Cruise seems not to feel the need to dominate the screen the whole time. Yes, it’s hard not to be drawn to him when he’s in the scene (and he's in almost every scene in this movie) but in this older version of Maverick, he’s a bit more sanguine than he was as a young man and, in a similar way, Cruise seems willing to make space in the narrative and on the screen to allow others to be seen in their own right. It’s something that makes an obvious ‘star vehicle’ often feel like an ensemble piece. Of course, there are still weaknesses in the film. Jon Hamm is mostly wasted as Maverick’s superior officer Admiral Beau ‘Cyclone’ Simpson. He’s the most two-dimensional character in the film, barking orders and standing scowling in the background for no apparent reason. And Miles Teller, who is so good as Al Ruddy in the current Paramount+ series The Offer, just doesn’t seem quite right here. Yes, there are spooky moments where Rooster looks the dead spit of his dad, Goose, but Teller’s overall performance seems to be missing something in the way his anger at Maverick for the death of his father and for the way he interfered in his career is played. Instead, there’s an aloofness in the way his emotion is expressed that doesn’t quite connect with the power of the rest of the storytelling. These things aside, Top Gun: Maverick is a great movie (I can’t believe I said that) and deserving of the squillions of box office dollars it’s been generating around the world. Hats off to director Joseph Kosinsky for pulling this massive, trepidatious project together. He’d already proved himself adept at working with Cruise in 2013’s Oblivion and that pre-existing relationship seems to work a treat here. Maybe Top Gun: Maverick is even good enough to forgive Kosinsky’s other current film project - the execrable Chris Hemsworth and Miles Teller effort, Spiderhead on Netflix. Maybe Kosinsky is just better on the big screen. Most certainly, that’s where a film like Top Gun: Maverick belongs... and most certainly that’s where you should see it. 2022 | DIR: HANNA BERGHOLM | STARRING: SIIRI SOLALINNA, SOPHIA HEIKKILÄ, JANI VOLANEN | REVIEW BY ALYSSA DE LEO  Body horror, satire and coming of age themes aren’t usually ingredients mixed together in cinema, let alone mentioned in the same sentence. However, HATCHING, the new creature-feature from Finnish director Hanna Bergholm, does just that - and a lot, lot more. Tinja (Siiri Solalinna) is a young member of a seemingly picture perfect family. She lives with her domineering influencer mother, (Sophia Heikkilä), passive father (Jani Volanen) and little brother (Oiva Ollila). Tinja and the rest of her family are accessories to her mother’s social media blog, where she films and shares their daily routine to an online audience - including Tinja’s gymnastics training. Tinja says very little, but is obviously unhappy and tries desperately to please her. To make matters worse, her mother is also having an affair. With pressure on Tinja to keep up her mother’s illusion, she finds an egg in the forest and hides it in her room. Over time, the egg grows larger and larger, and what hatches from it is a monstrous and grotesque creature. Tinja bonds with the hatchling, naming it Alli. Having a physical connection with the creature, she is able to express the parts of herself that have been suppressed by her mother, as it evolves into something no one could have imagined.  The film’s opening scene perfectly sets the tone for the rest of the film. The family, all dressed in pristine white, smile for the camera amongst the pastel pink and floral aesthetic of their house. A crow suddenly flies inside and smashes everything in its path. While Tinja tends to the injured bird afterward, her mother kindly asks to take it and calmly snaps its neck. It might not be subtle, but this is the kind of contrast that reverberates throughout HATCHING. Behind the facade the mother puts up - a perfect marriage, athletically gifted daughter, beautiful house - is a sad and broken home. Amongst the blonde hair, makeup, painted walls and polished online presence is the dread, ick and violent presence of Alli. The juxtaposition is undeniably effective, and also makes for some stunning imagery and unique commentary on social media lifestyle. While Bergholm’s film travels down many avenues, it is at its core a horror film. There is a constant sense of dread after the key opening scene, and an unsettling atmosphere washes over each frame. A Finnish lullaby with a simple yet creepy melody recurs throughout the film. There are some genuinely great scares and heart-pounding buildups of tension. However, what remains most horrific is the creature that is hatched. The abomination is an eerily lifelike presence and incredible display of VFX and character design. It’s of a standard that could easily appear in a Star Wars film, which makes all the more sense upon discovering that animatronics supervisor Gustav Hoegen has worked with Lucasfilm, and brought his talents to this smaller-scale film. The creature is unnatural on all fronts, even more so as it evolves and becomes more revolting, making for some stomach-churning yet impressive body horror. There’s plenty of goo, blood and dismembered body parts for your liking. Even though the film is understandably far-fetched, sometimes Bergholm pushes the limit on what the audience will buy. That’s not necessarily in relation to the fantasy elements, but rather human characters and decisions. We know Tanja’s mother has more than a few screws loose, but it’s hard to believe that she would take her daughter to meet the man she’s having an affair with, or be more worried about a torn costume than her daughter literally just having had a seizure. These moments will have you scratching your head, but they aren’t detrimental to the overall story. HATCHING is a lot of things - a coming of age tale of a girl finding her voice through her new monstrous pet, a commentary on social media and the damage caused by a lack of parental love, and an all out gore-fest. Sometimes it’s not sure what it wants to be, and audiences might not know what to take away from it. But the ride itself is an engrossing experience, and cements Bergholm as a fresh and exciting voice in horror with a lot to offer. The Hatching is in selected cinemas from May 26. 2022.  2021 | DIR: DAVID FREYNE | STARRING: FIONN O’SHEA, LOLA PETTICREW, SIMONE KIRBY, SHARON HORGAN, BARRY WARD, EVAN O’CONNOR, EMMA WILLIS, LAURYN CANNY | REVIEW BY CHRIS THOMPSON  Eddie Cotter (Fionn O’Shea) is a small-town teenage boy in mid-nineties County Kildare, Ireland. Like a lot of teenage boys, sex is a bit of a mystery to him and the tougher kids who claim firsthand knowledge always like to pick on kids like Eddie. But Eddie’s wrestling with more than just his sexual innocence. He desperately wants the approval of his father, Ian (Barry Ward) but that means following in his footsteps and enlisting in the army. He's giving Cadets his best shot but seems to achieve little more than embarrassment for his dad and this doesn’t help the tensions between Ian and Eddie’s mother Hannah (Sharon Horgan). He’s also desperately trying to hide the fact that he’s gay from his family, his schoolmates and, probably, even himself. To deflect the taunts from other boys, he makes an awkward and not very successful attempt to ‘go with’ the girl he’s meant to have a crush on; Tracey Brennan (Emma Willis) but, if anything, that only makes matters worse. Meanwhile, Amber Keenan (Lola Petticrew), a brash, self-assured, in-your-face kind of girl from Eddie’s class whose extra-curricular activities include renting out the empty caravans at her mother’s caravan park to those kids at school who are, in fact, having sex, and pocketing the money towards her eventual escape to London. Like Eddie, she’s picked on at school. The kids call her ‘lezzer’ as an insult but, unlike Eddie, she’s not in any doubt about her sexuality. She knows she’s gay. What’s more, she knows Eddie’s gay. So, she comes up with a simple plan – they can avoid all the taunts and teasing by convincing the bullies that they’re both straight; by pretending to be girlfriend and boyfriend. This idea could have gone wrong, but in the hands of second-time writer/director David Freyne (his first outing was 2017’s zombie flick, The Cured), this story navigates a steady and endearing course. It’s a sweet film that keeps its hard edges at a distance and somewhat in the shadows but still manages to ensure that you know they’re there. In a sequence that sees Eddie and Amber sneak away to Dublin where they can encounter a genuine gay scene, Amber meets Sarah (Lauryn Canny) and embraces the opportunity to be her true self and to even contemplate having a relationship. For Eddie, this hiatus from the closeted oppression of home opens his eyes to the world and the life he could have if he could get out from under the macho expectations of his dad. But it’s also confusing to him and when he’s spotted by a fellow student who comes into the same gay club it sparks shame and fear and a violent outburst.  Both O’Shea and Petticrew are well cast and deliver strong and empathetic performances as do the rest of the cast, most notably Simone Kirby as Amber’s struggling single mum and Evan O’Connor as Eddie’s quirky brother Jack. The story is populated by engaging characters and is nicely shot by Ruairi O’Brien and Emma Lowney’s Production Design along with Joan O’Clery’s costumes remind us that although 1995 might not seem that long ago, it still allows a film like this to qualify as a period piece. It’s been a bit of a purple patch for Ireland and portrayals of teenage life, at least on streaming platforms, with two seasons of Lisa McGee’s excellent and hilarious Derry Girls and, to a lesser extent, the first half of the highly popular but flawed Normal People. Dating Amber may not be as confronting, dark or edgy as something like Jonathan Entwhistle’s The End of the Fucking World, but it shares some of that series’ insights into the sometimes troubling interior worlds of young people and the fact that it’s set twenty-five years ago does not make it any less relevant to a 21st-century audience. In some ways, Dating Amber put me in mind of two favourite teenage coming-of-age films from the 80’s – Bill Forsyth’s Gregory’s Girl (1981) and Michael Apted’s P’tang Yang Kipperbang (1982). Whilst both those films were very ‘white bread’ and heterosexual ‘teenage-boy-lusts-after-teenage-girl’ stories, they both found a sweetness and an offbeat humour in the pain of their situations that is echoed in Dating Amber and, whilst the issues at heart are very different, took us inside the teenage mind in ways that were as revealing to audiences then, as Dating Amber is to audiences now. This is not a film that will shock, provoke controversy, or even change the world. But it will make you laugh (at least it made me laugh) and it will make you think (ditto on that for me too).  2022 | DIR: ESKIL VOGT | STARS: RAKEL LENORA FLØTTUM, ALVA BRYNSMO RAMSTAD | SAM ASHRAF | REVIEW BY ALYSSA DE LEO  Children who possess supernatural powers are not new to the horror genre - just ask Stephen King. Whether it’s possession, telekinetic abilities or communication with the dead, there’s always something unsettling about seeing a child detach from their innocence and embrace their unnatural darker side. THE INNOCENTS - the new film from Academy Award winning Norwegian writer-director Eskil Vogt - does this in a way we haven’t quite seen before. It’s subtle and thoughtful, yet equally disturbing. Set during a bright Nordic summer, the film follows young Ida (Rakel Lenora Fløttum), who moves into an apartment complex with her parents and mute autistic sister Anna (Alva Brynsmo Ramstad). Ida seems resentful of Anna, and can’t really play with her because of her condition. While exploring their new neighborhood, she meets Ben (Sam Ashraf), a bullied boy who can move objects with his mind, and Aisha (Mina Yasmin Bremseth Asheim), a sweet girl who can hear other people’s thoughts. While their parents aren’t watching, the children play and experiment with their new powers. There are some fun and even miraculous results - Aisha seems to have a physical connection with Anna, and even helps her find her voice again. Things soon take a dark turn as Ben, who is neglected by his mother and has a taste for cruelty, develops his powers further and becomes violent. Vogt has crafted an understated yet relentlessly haunting film. There are no high-tech visual effects or any extravagances of the sort, but every frame is rich with feeling and atmosphere. All the child actors are first time performers, which is simply unbelievable as they carry the film with such confidence, charm and grit. Fløttum is particularly compelling with her wise yet curious eyes. The cinematography is both stunning and purposeful, wrapping its audience up in its wonderful and sinister world, and the gripping score, coming and going amongst the eerie silence, adds to this sentiment.  The film is more nuanced compared to others of its genre, but is by no means short on dread and shock. The twisted acts the children commit are already frightening, but even more so by the fact they’re being committed by children. Unlike other films of the sort, THE INNOCENTS also poses a complex question through its horror - are children innocent because they are children, and where do we draw the line? Growing up is all about making mistakes and feeding curiosity. If these children cause damage with their powers, which they are still learning to use and control, is it their fault? Or should children clearly know the difference between right and wrong? It’s a thought-provoking discourse that perfectly fits the extreme, far-fetched circumstances these young characters find themselves. However, Vogt seems to slightly push the limit on how far the audience will go to defend these children. The overt violence committed is obviously condemned by the characters and narrative, but it’s Ida’s initial actions towards Anna that are troubling. While Anna is oblivious to pain and Ida is frustrated with the attention she gets, pinching your sister is one thing. Putting broken glass into her shoes is another, and curiosity just might not be enough to defend that one. The first half of THE INNOCENTS is arguably stronger than the second half, with an intriguing and creepy set-up that evolves into a slightly repetitive and drawn-out finale. For the majority of its runtime however, this dark fairytale will leave viewers transfixed. Its subversion of genre conventions and courage to question the audience and make them uncomfortable is highly impressive. The Innocents is in selected cinemas from May 19.  2021 | DIR: AARON WILSON | STARRING: MARK LEONARD WINTER, SILVIA COLLOCA, ROBERT MENZIES, MINNIE LISZUKIEWICZ, FREDDY LISZUCKIEWICZ, FABIO MOTTA, JULIE McGREGOR | REVIEW BY CHRIS THOMPSON  There’s such a strong sense of the natural world in Aaron Wilson’s filmmaking, both the Australian bush around the Murray River near Tocumwal in his latest film, Little Tornadoes, and the dense, lush green jungle of Singapore in his previous first feature, Canopy (2014). It provides a sobering backdrop against which the human stories play out; whether it’s surviving the deadly pursuit by an enemy in World War II (Canopy), or surviving the loss, heartbreak and abandonment of being left by your wife and finding yourself sole parent to two small children (Little Tornadoes) – in both cases, the urgency and impact of the human stories are given scale by Stefan Duscio’s beautiful, evocative cinematography – as important as these events seem (and are) to the characters in the stories, the natural world is more or less oblivious to trials and tribulations of we humans scrabbling around on the planet’s surface. It’s an interesting context in which to explore these stories of men dealing with the after-effects of trauma and the crippling effects of the male’s all too common inability to talk about painful, personal and emotionally debilitating issues. It's hard to talk about Little Tornadoes without talking about Canopy. Wilson has said that these two very personal films form two parts of a trilogy exploring the impacts of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and, interestingly they were both shot back to back in 2013 but the post production on Little Tornadoes has taken almost ten years. The two films are inextricably linked. Canopy ends with the downed fighter pilot, Jim (Khan Chittenden) being thrown into a truck by his captors and driven down a Singapore road which match-cuts to a shot of a different truck driving down a dusty Australian road and a view of an older man, presumably an older Jim (Robert Menzies) standing in a wheat field. Little Tornadoes begins with a similar shot of a car driving down the same dusty Australian road. This time, though, it’s Leo (Mark Leonard Winter) who we will soon discover is Jim’s son. 1942 has become 1971 and both father and son are struggling to come to terms with the emotional impacts on their lives – for Jim it’s the embedded trauma of the war he’s grappled with for thirty years; for Leo the trauma is fresh, sparked by a wife who, unable to bear her life in a small country town with her taciturn husband, has hopped a train to Melbourne. For much of the first part of the film, it’s Leo’s story we’re focused on – how he deals with suddenly becoming a sole parent to Maudey (Minnie Liszukiewicz) and her younger brother (both on and off screen) Jack (Freddy Liszukiewicz); how he deals with a seemingly total lack of domestic skills, how he deals with the fact that his departed wife won’t even speak to him or her children on the phone, and how he deals with the entrenched racism in his workplace, aimed at Tony (Fabio Motta) who, it seems, is his only friend and support. It’s Tony who puts Leo onto his sister, Maria (Silvia Colloca) with the recommendation that she cooks really well. And she does! Bringing Maria into the house to help with meals and the children is the first step towards Leo accepting the change that has taken place in his life, and to opening up his family to new possibilities. Around this time, though, Jim’s story insinuates itself into the narrative and we see more clearly the generational inability and paralysis of these two stoic, isolated, uncommunicative men who gird themselves against dealing with the changes that have come into their respective lives.  It's in Jim’s story that the connections back to Canopy resonate so strongly. His home is the home we caught in glimpses during that first film and memories of his traumatic flight through the jungle are imposed into present day (70’s) scenes either through a literal flashback to a scene from that film or, much more effectively, through echoed images from the one that bleed themselves like ghosts into the other. There’s an element of flashback in the Leo story as well, though this comes in the form of poetic voice over narration spoken by Maria and looking back on the tale that’s unfolding. In Canopy, Wilson took sole writing credit but here he shares that with novelist Christos Tsiolkas and, whilst the words are often beautiful, there are timeswhen the disembodied voice overstays its welcome. Little Tornadoes is not an easy film. It’s slow pace and repetitive storytelling challenges you to enter this world on its own terms, and allow yourself to become immersed in the silences, the stillness, the repetition and the internalisation that characterises both Leo’s and Jim’s stories. For those that embrace these demands, the rewards are rich. For the less willing, I can imagine that the film will often frustrate. In either case, though, the sharply drawn and deeply authentic performances shine through as does Tim Burgin’s beautifully rendered and evocative 70’s period production design, Robert Mackenzie’s score and, as already mentioned, Stefan Duscio’s photography. I’d also highly recommend sticking around through the credits to hear Sal Kimber and Simon Lewis’ haunting title song. For the most part, Little Tornadoes is a compelling and skilfully made film that sometimes over-eggs its pudding in the telling of its tale. In some cases (most notably the rapid wrap up of the narrative at the end) it relies too heavily on the narration but when it doesn’t, Wilson’s craft as a filmmaker becomes clear and the visual power of the film speaks louder than any words. As a second part of a trilogy, I must say I was glad that I had rewatched Canopy before seeing Little Tornadoes; the resonances between the two films were so much more powerful, I suspect, then if I’d relied on my memory from nearly a decade ago. In fact, I couldn’t help thinking that rather than the second in a trilogy, this film is more like the second half of the Canopy story. Wilson’s desire to explore the impacts of PTSD through these stories seems less apparent in Canopy than it does in Little Tornadoes, but the latter needs the former in order to make sense. Given the relatively short running times of both these films, I found myself wondering whether these two pretty good films might one day merge into an even more powerful and truly great film. Little Tornadoes is in select cinemas from May 12, 2022. |
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