Streamline

There are clearly good intentions behind this debut, semi-autobiographical film by Tyson Wade Johnson, a former professional swimmer.  It is the story of 15 year-old swimmer Ben Lane, on the verge of making the Australian Olympic team but coming from a dysfunctional family.  His father is in jail for unspeakable and unmentioned deeds, his struggling solo mother partly sees Ben’s success as their ticket out of misery and there are two half-brothers whose lives are a toxic drunken mess living in a shack out of town.

  When Dad gets out of jail, Ben loses it and his world spirals down as he fails to cope with all the memories and expectations on him.

Levi Miller does a good job with this laconic, not especially likeable character whose happiest moments are with a sort of girlfriend.  

Of the others, Jake Ryan as his bullying older brother is the most convincing. While there are some good scenes here, there are also fillers (a forest fire highlighting a critical phase for no apparent reason) and the usual failure of not developing characters well enough.  The coach has a key role at the beginning and then, like the mother fades out, for example.

The script never quite takes off though the images and the feel of the film are both effective in creating a bleak mood in sunny Queensland climes.  

I preferred the series Barracuda which had similar themes on family issues and expectations and a much tighter script behind it.

3 stars

Nine Perfect Strangers (series)

Adapted from a best-selling novel, this is an excellent subject for the times, set in a retreat centre with the sensation of lockdown.

As a series it has had a mixed reception with quite a lot of poor reviews. In terms of representing the sorts of wellness activities that occur in this place it seems to work well. It also introduces the use of psychotropic drugs which is relatively new ground. 

The characters are your typical ragbag of reasonable types and nutters.  

Masha, the leader of the centre is played by Nicole Kidman, who definitely has a quota of madness and struggles with a Russian accent.

Kidman is good enough to keep our faith in the character whereas in other hands it could have been disastrous.

Among the guests Melissa McCarthy shines as an embittered writer and her scenes with Bobby Cannevale as an ex-football jock are among the most enjoyable and interesting

.  Michael Shannon also stands out as Napoleon, father of a family whose son committed suicide.  His is truly quite a complete performance.

Luke Evans has a rather sparse role as a journalist and probably the most interesting character is the wacky Carmel, played by Regina Hall.

I guess the lack of clarity as to whether we are watching a mystery, a thriller or a psychological portrait probably confused many people and while there is a sense of progression it doesn’t have the bite of a well-constructed thriller.  

There are also several moments when our beliefs are challenged or when logic seems to be skipped.

  I would say that it is professional and reasonably filmed with some moments more satisfying than others.

There is also a rather pat ending. Watchable but in the hands of others it could have been really great.

3 stars plus

Coda

This year’s Best Picture at the Oscars, presumably winning because the Academy wanted a feelgood movie to win.  Yes, it has some important merits, especially the fact that 3 of the 5 main actors are deaf and it is enjoyable and weepy in the right moments.  

Basically, it’s a film about breaking away from home and of parents letting go with the particular characteristics here that the heroine Ruby (Emilia Jones) is the only non-deaf person in the family and they depend on her for most things from translating in doctor’s appointments to safeguarding the family fishing business.  She fits school around this and has little time for anything else but discovers she wants to sing and that she has a good voice.  When her singing teacher suggests she apply for music school this will mean leaving her family behind.  

The film charts this decision and what happens to her and the family.  The film is based on a French original and is indeed feelgood and predictable even if it is smoothly directed and avoids unnecessary melodrama.  Sian Heder is both screenwriter and director and succeeds better in the latter role.  Plot-wise things are nothing special and there are lots of poetic licences and gaps.  If you can suspend your disbelief and not worry about matters like how the family suddenly jumped into a new business, etc, then you can just enjoy the basic story.  

There is also a burgeoning love story between Ruby and a classmate to round things off.  Emilia Jones is very effective in the lead role – another excellent debut this year.

  Troy Kotsur as her father took Best Supporting Actor and gives us a well-rounded character with Marlee Matlin and Daniel Durant as the other deaf members of the family.

All well and good but in terms of being a supremely-crafted movie, Coda falls short.  It’s popular and fulfils its purpose.

4 stars

People you may know

Along the lines of Dark Money, recently viewed, this is another low-key documentary tracing the use of money and information in the USA and Britain in less than honest ways.  

Here, Charles Kriel and Katharina Gellin put together a dossier on the way information gathered by parish churches in the US finds its way into the hands of groups linked to the far right and targets swing voters convincing then to vote Republican.  

There are also references to Cambridge Analytica and their role in collecting voter information to help sell Brexit.  A follow-up could also focus on the influence of Russian money in these manouevres. 

People you may know is definitely interesting but it lacks perhaps the punch it needs to have despite the sincerity of the whistleblowers involved.  I can’t say that it inspires me to action even though the way that these actors openly operate to influence democratic processes are worrying to say the least.

2 stars plus

La Corazonada

Argentine Netflix thriller which has some good features but comes out underbaked and rather less than exciting.  

Pipa Perlani (Luisana Lopez) is a rookie cop who gets to accompany top detective Juanez (Joaquin Furriel), when a colleague is shot in action.  They are busy investigating a case of the death of a young woman possibly at the hands of her best friend Minerva (Maite Lanata).  

But Pipa comes with a second briefing – that of observing Juanez who may have killed a young man in revenge for the latter’s killing of Juanez’s wife some time back. So, a double mystery which throw up some unexpected twists.  But not too many.

This film has a super look thanks to Guillermo Nieto, a famed local photographer and Nico Cota’s music is also good if a little obvious (lots of heartbeats). The acting is somewhat uneven though Lopilato manages to hold the centre quite well.

The version I saw was spoken in English which I think didn’t help the story of any sense of authenticity and frankly some of the dialogue was wooden and uninspired.  

Rafael Ferro as the Fiscal comes across as too untrustworthy for words even though we later understand where he is coming from.  But the sense that this is a play-by-numbers thriller is precisely what prevents actors of the caliber of Furriel from shining.  

You just sense he doesn’t believe the story he is telling.  A pity because there is plenty to tell.  It’s just that Alejandro Montiel and co don’t give us the oomph and the credibility we need to make it any more than mildly interesting to watch.

2 stars

Firebird

This largely Estonian film is not so original in theme: a sort of love triangle involving a young army recruit, his female army colleague and friend and a new officer who arrives on base.  

What sets it apart is that it is set in the late 70’s in the Soviet Union (Estonia mainly) and the central relationship is the gay one between Sergey (Tom Prior) and the officer Roman (Oleg Zagorodnii).  They find things in common like photography and the stage and sneak off to have trysts in the woods or at the beach, which could be very dangerous for them in those times.  

A Soviet military regulation allowed for severe punishment if homosexual activity was discovered.  As Sergey ends his military service and considers drama school as an option, pressure on them mounts when an anonymous report is made and Roman has to become more circumspect, all but breaking off the relationship.  

Sergey moves to Moscow to study and waits for Roman to return one day but is shocked when he does as Roman announces he is going to marry Louisa, the female army colleague. Not end of story.  As in all these cases, even when there is marriage and children, there is no escaping the desire for other men and Sergey and Roman cross paths again in the future until a solution of sorts is found.

The biggest message here is how some regimes make it so freaking difficult for people to live as they wish, entrenching the social conditioning in laws that punish alternative behaviour.  Through Sergey’s studies we see Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet and Stravinsky’s Firebird reflected in the stories of the characters.

Production values are very good in this film by Estonian Peeter Rebane.  The recreation of the era seems to be pretty authentic and suitably bleak.  Cinematography by Mait Maekivi is high class and Krzysztof A. Janczak gives us a moving score.  

Diana Pozharskaya has a rather underwritten role but has her moment as Louisa.  Tom Prior is particularly convincing in the lead role.  My only criticism is that as it is spoken in English the accents in the film waver a bit.

Not a major work but enjoyable in a melancholic way and a solid addition to LGBT film lists.

3 stars plus

The Green Knight

This version of the famous poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is the latest by director David Lowery who brings his very own version to a tale oft-covered in films.  

Here, Gawain is still not a knight but accepts the challenge to cut off the head of the Green Knight and then in a year to make the quest to find the Knight and receive the same action in return.  

The main part of the movie is the journey to the Green Castle during which Gawain faces many challenges and meets a Lord and his Lady who teach him some lessons and play some games with him.  

The actual meeting with the Green Knight throws up different possible endings depending upon how heroic Gawain is.  Themes that emerge include the real meaning of honour, fame and glory, man’s treatment of the environment and other creatures, loyalty, honesty and magic.  

It is a film that really requires a couple of viewings given the discreet way Lowery tackles the themes and a somewhat undogmatic approach (you are left to draw your own conclusions). Apart from changing some features of the original – the role of Morgan le Fay is shifted largely to Gawain’s mother,

he has also included a scene in which Gawain encounters huge female giants moving about in a type of mist in a scene more reminiscent of science fiction.

Dev Patel makes a perfect choice for the somewhat naïve and yet persistently brave Gawain.  Alicia Vikander plays his lover Essel and the Lady of the house visited in his travels

, Joel Edgerton, the Lord, Sean Harris the King, Kate Dickie, Queen Guinevere and Sarita Choudhury as Gawain’s mother.  All are effective and unshowy.

Daniel Hart offers a soundtrack fitting for the time, the costumes are great and Andrew Droz Palermo’s photography sets an appropriate mood.

While I found some parts a little hard to concentrate in, meaning that it is a film with which you can’t be doing other distracting things at the same time, there was plenty to reflect on here and a polished production.

4 stars

Bordertown/Sorjonen (Series 2)

Just under a year ago I watched the first series and a year was about enough time to recover from the Nordic darkness of this very well-made series.  Set in the Finnish border city of Lappeenranta it features the Serious Crimes Unit of the local police solving crimes that seem to have a lot to do with the members of this unit, their past and with important local figures.

Kari Sorjonen (Ville Virtanen) is good as the unconventional cop.  He tends to neglect his family: wife Pauliina (Matleena Kuusniemi) and first-year university student Janina.  

Pauliina is having a return of her brain tumour problems and Janina seems to pick the wrong boyfriends. The team is made of the boss Taina, Lena, the lone wolf cop with Russian connections and Niko, the solid and serious younger member.  

Then we have the local bigwigs, Lena’s daughter Katia and various Russian characters that keep reappearing.

This story featured five stories each of two episodes.  The first two were excellent – exciting and coherent. The other three were also good but down a notch in terms of credibility.  

Nonetheless, the production values are consistently good and the geopolitical setting makes for some interesting plots.

About one dose a year is enough but I will happily continue to watch this given the high standard and the exotic locations.

4 stars

Licorice Pizza

One of the contenders for Best Film at the Oscars, this movie by famed director Paul Thomas Anderson feels much like Once upon a Time in Hollywood blended with a Linklater film.  It is shot on grainy film and gives us a feel of the good old times in 1973, despite the petrol crisis and corruption in the papers.  

Young people like our heroes have all the chances to become a success in their chosen field and while things are not so innocent, they certainly seem more fun with waterbeds being launched and pinball returning to California.  Based on memories of that time, Licorice Pizza is about two young people who have a platonic relationship in Encino at that time.  Gary is a 15-year-old go-getter and future entrepreneur who apart from setting his sights on any busy opportunity going, has also met his future wife.  

Trouble is that Alana is 10 years older than him.  Somehow the two gravitate towards each other and have some wonderful adventures like selling water beds and delivering one to Jon Peters, boyfriend of Barbra Streisand at the time.  Bradley Cooper has a nice cameo here but rather overdoes it.  

The Gary-Alana relationship shifts back and forward throughout.  

Alana gets bored and starts exploring older men, provoking Gary’s jealousy and yet they keep ending up back in each other’s orbits again.  It is a nice slightly different look at a relationship though today all the wowsers would be up in arms about a 25 year-old woman and a 15 year-old boy.  

Cooper Hoffmann as Gary makes a fine and convincing debut, worthy of his father, Philip Seymour Hoffmann and Alana Haim as Alana is quite simply a major find.  

Fresh-faced and natural she conveys both the conscious and subconscious worlds of this woman who being in LA is looking for the big break and at the same time wondering what she is doing hanging out with High School Kids.  Sean Penn has fun as an action movie star, Tom Waits as a director/barfly and among the myriad bit parts, Harriet Sansom Harris has a gorgeous cameo as a casting agent.

All told it is an enjoyable nostalgic movie which is a little bit different.  Perhaps the pace slackened in parts and if you were around in the 70’s there is plenty more to marvel at than maybe someone younger would find.  

4 stars plus

The Passing Parade

This independent film has a mood like a Woody Allen New York small film but is in fact set in LA.  Its about a writer, Errol who is a successful playwright but has writer’s block.

The film is a sort of voyage back through Errol’s past to try to kick start the inspiration for another play.  Consequently, we have flashbacks and layers of anecdotes that are not exactly linear but do go some way to showing us the creative process that many writers undertake.  

Tessa Ferrer is engaging as Errol and Hal Oszan as Hal, her main boyfriend portray a couple that are together and yet struggling to stay that way.  

Filmed in black and white with excellent photography by Marianne Williams, this film is written and directed by John Hindman.  

He has his own style and adds some nice touches like the use of the inner children of the two main characters.  This unexpectedness kept me watching to the end even if I feel that the whole movie is not perhaps that great.  Nevertheless, Hindman and the main actors are to watch out for.

2 stars plus