High Ground

Satisfying Australian western with a difference.  

Set around a century ago in Aboriginal land in the North of Australia, it tells the tale of an Aboriginal boy whose family is killed by a platoon of trigger-happy white soldiers and ends up being brought up by a pastor and his wife who are trying to sustain a mission in the bush.

12 years later, his uncle Baywara (Sean Mununggurr) is out for revenge and apart from attacking other white settlers’ stations, he also wants to get those members of the platoon still around.  

Gutjuk (Jacob Junior Nayinggul) is now a young man and is inevitably drawn into the conflict, first being used by the whites to draw out Baywara and then being welcomed back into his local family.

What follows is a combination of Western and thriller as we see whether the aboriginal knowledge of land and nature can stand up to the White man’s firepower and ´control´.

It is a very well-made film by Stephen Maxwell Johnson that apparently took years to set up as they requested local permission to use the land in the Kakadu region of the Northern Territories and employed local non-actors as cast.  

I found the treatment of a largely simple story compelling and enjoyed the complicated relationship between the whites as well.  

Jack Thompson appears as the head honcho,

Simon Baker as Travis makes for an intriguing sort of conscience among the whites and Callan Mulvey convinces as the bad guy.  

Caren Pistorius does a good job as the pastor’s wife. Among the locals Witiyana Marika as the grandfather and Esmeralda Marimowa as a wild Amazon fighter shine.

The script by Chris Anastassiades may seem a little modern and slightly obvious in terms of the message he wishes to convey but it includes some very good scenes.  Camerawork by Andrew Commis is excellent and a feature of the film is the use of birdsong and animal sounds throughout.

A very beautifully presented film with a historical punch and plenty of relevance for today.  It may not be an epic but it does tick most of the boxes.

4 stars plus

Dragonfly Boy

Not a lot to say about this independent student film set in Maine.  It basically shows us a few months in the life of Graham, a 21-year-old who has a bit of a crisis in his life with the realization that he has to accept his gayness and not hope that somehow he will become heterosexual.  

This means facing up to the fact that a guy he meets, Connor, is a logical step forward in his life and that he needs to stop playing Grace, a sort of ‘girlfriend’, along.

The topic is a common one and while Jake Hotaling has little new to bring to the table, he does it nicely and honestly.

To compensate for the lack of budget, some of the camerawork is rather grainy and bleached but it fits the mood of the film and the nice selection of songs on the soundtrack.  A party scene early on is experienced as if we are drunk or under the influence of something and works well.

I did feel that there was a little too much speechifying about love and finding yourself but it also works given the natural way the actors performed and interacted.

Ethan Rhoad is solid in the lead and Maddie Touri and Daniel Khat give good support.

Jake Hotaling has a future based on this work that he writes, directs and acts as photographer.

2 stars plus

Beyto

Small but important Swiss film on the subject of a young man of Turkish origin who discovers he is gay and is then pressganged by his family into returning to the Turkish village he came from to be married in an arranged wedding.  You don’t know what it’s like being Turk says Beyto and we can say the same of people from most traditional cultures. Worse still is that he has moved on from his tribe and is a champion swimmer and getting excellent grades in IT.

Back in Bern, his boyfriend doesn’t want to know anything and he has this young bride who doesn’t speak the language and is lost.  

Another film about the messes we humans create in the name of religion, culture and tradition. The worst is that the parents think they are doing the right thing until very late on when it become clear that no one except public opinion is happy and even that is falling apart.

I liked this film by Gitta Gsell.  It is simple and to the point.  It is a little uneven in parts and the ending is rushed but rather than a drawn out reiterative number.

Burak Ates is convincing as the lead (Beyto) , his boyfriend Mike (Dimitri Stapfer) is perhaps less sympathetic

and there are nice turns from Eçem Scher as Seher, the bride and Beren Tuna as Beyto’s mother.  The vast gap between cosmopolitan Switzerland and a village near Ankara is caught well in all its vastness and the dilemma that Beyto has of trying to get out of this situation with any kind of win-win is well put.

3 stars

Carmel: Quién mató a María Marta?

4-part documentary series explaining the twists and turns of Argentina’s most famous recent criminal case – the death of a well-to-do middle-aged woman in a gated community and the cover-up attempts on the crime by her very own family.

The case of Maria Marta Garcia Belsunce has perplexed Argentina for twenty years now.  As one of the commentators says it should have been easy as the murder was committed in a type of closed room – a space in which only a certain number of people could be present given the strict security in the neighbourhood of Carmel Country Club.

What seemed to be a household accident in the bathroom soon became a homicide with 6 bullet holes in her head, fired at close range. Eventually, the prosecutor Diego Molina Pico charged the widower, who had a reasonable alibi at the time (being with family and in the Carmel clubhouse) and members of the family for a cover-up – they cleaned up the body and the room, disposed of evidence, avoided reporting the matter to the police and initially rejected an autopsy.  

Carlos Carrascosa eventually served time for this, the rest of the family were found to be free of any case against them and a third trial implicating a neighbour has recently begun 20 years after the event.  What a mess!

The family certainly acted very suspiciously in the cover-up but then maintained relatively coherent stories.  That they were present soon after the death is confirmed by tracing background voices on a phone call.  But did one of them actually commit the crime?  There was blood at the scene whose DNA does not match anyone known to be present. There are also suggestions that the window of time for the crime was shifted but this may not mean much as plenty of witnesses corroborated the general timeframe and whereabouts of people – aided by it being a Sunday when the most important local football Derby was being held.

The neighbour, Nicolas Pachelo, who had some minor record had an alibi but this is now being questioned.

The big sticking point is the motive.  The prosecutor claimed the family wanted Maria Marta out of the way because she had discovered money laundering activities with drug traffickers going on among family members. This has not consolidated as a likely motive and in any case, the family had other income. Pachelo could have had a motive knowing that Maria Marta had a lot of money in the house from a charity she ran.  Possibly she surprised him when returning home and he panicked and killed her.  This would work but there is still no clear evidence that this combination of motive and accused is able to be proven.

Quite a bit of the series focuses on the performance of the prosecutor, who it is said did not investigate all leads. Molina Pico comes across as being a reasonable serious man in a very tricky situation but there is a nagging feeling that he was missing something. And of course, the Argentine tradition of muddying the waters at any crime scene plays a huge part here.

This Netflix series is a reasonable production which clarifies much of the confusing evidence and theories.  But it leaves things very much in the air so that is less than satisfying. At least most of the protagonists get their chance to speak and as a writer says, it would make a cracker whodunnit.  Somehow, I doubt we will ever find out the identity of that person.

3 stars

My Fake Boyfriend

Rose Troche emerged in the 90’s as an LGBTQ film maker with a fresh look on relationships.  After 3 or 4 well-received films I lost sight of her until now though she seems to have been busy on television.

My Fake Boyfriend is little more than an entertaining bit of fluff.  You need to suspend belief a hell of a lot but even so it moves along jauntily and has some good acting.  

Andrew (Kelynan Lonsdale) can’t wean himself off an abusive and egotistical actor boyfriend so friend Jakey (Dylan Sprouse) and his girl Kellie (Sarah Hyland) invent a fake influencer boyfriend by the name of Cristiano Maradona !!! to jerk Andrew out of his funk, gain confidence and move on.  Cristiano becomes a monster and Jake spends most of his time creating fake content while he rakes in sponsorship deals.  

His relationship with Kellie also suffers.  

Meanwhile, Andrew bumps into a chef, Rafi (Samer Salem) who may be interested and could be a future boyfriend

but any attempt to get closer seems thwarted by the social media web of lies and by Nico, the-ex deciding he won’t let go so easily.

It’s not laugh out loud comedy and as I said it defies belief in parts but it does have some wry comments on our values today. Lonsdale surprised me with a good central performance and all round the film is able to hold itself upright when it could have been really awful!

2 stars plus

Red Rocket

Sean Baker’s previous film was the much acclaimed The Florida Project, which I liked a lot in its portrayal of the poor eking out a living in cheap motels near Disney World.

Baker moves to Texas City here, a similarly depressed and industrial centre with oil refineries set between Houston and Galveston. The story revolves around Mikey Saber, a washed-up porn star in his 40’s who returns home to his ex – but still married – wife and then, as he tries to regroup for a return to Hollywood and the porn world, makes some money selling weed and falling in love with an underage schoolgirl who wants out of the dull town they live in.

I guess it is good to have movies about the down and ´economically oppressed´ and how they get by but personally I was far less satisfied with this movie than his previous one, despite the fact that it was at Cannes, has had good reviews and won a plethora of awards at different festivals.

Firstly, it is not such an interesting story.  

Mikey is a mouther who lies constantly to get some advantage but is not someone you warm to or feel sympathy towards.  And at the end of the day there is nothing very interesting or uplifting about his strategies to make money or get his own way.  Perhaps Baker is showing something about empty ambition that seems to be increasingly common these days.  

The use of the Donut Hole and the decisions customers make about what flavour of artificial donut they want sets a bit of the tone.  And still I’m not sure that this is Baker’s point.  The sound of Trump’s electoral campaign in the background (this is 2016) seems to be there for a reason but this is not so clear, apart from suggesting that this depressed area of the States believes in Trump making America great again.

The sex and porn elements are handled naturally enough – we get to see male and female nudity – and seems to reflect the current carefree attitude towards people exposing all online.  But there are no great revelations here either.

The characters are pretty universally unlikeable, even though Simon Rex tries to make Mikey an appealing character.  He does a reasonable job acting wise but I’m not sure it suggests that a great new career is likely.  

I found that Suzanna Son as Strawberry, his 17 year-old foil is actually much more charismatic and steals the scenes she is in.  Much of the rest of the cast are non-professional and while they fit here, again I would not be black-booking any of these names.

My last criticism is that I feel some sharp editing is required.  The film lasts over 2 hours but the material is such that at least 30 minutes could have been cut without losing too much.  Baker may have wanted to present the languid small-town rhythm but at the same time, respect for the audience’s time would have been good.

2 stars plus

Mass

Mass is no walk in the park.  And yet it is a surprise that the film has not received more awards from the big ceremonies.  It has picked up numerous prizes from smaller festivals and film groups.  Probably the reason lies in the subject matter.  It is a film about grief and forgiveness in the aftermath of death and this tends to make people feel uncomfortable.

In a small Episcopalian church in Idaho two couples meet in a basement room to talk.  The subject is the death of their sons in a school shooting 6 years previously when one of the boys shot a number of his college mates and a teacher and then committed suicide.  Despite opportunities to discuss this in the media and during police investigations it is only now that the couples feel capable of facing each other in the hope of seeking some closure and the possibility to move on.

The film is well set up.  We see the local church people set up the space and the counselor welcoming the 4 people and then leaving them to it.  Most of the rest of the film is a dialogue inside the room suggesting a stage play format in fact.  

But director Fran Kranz manages to make this film work in real time and never lose our interest.  It plays quieter than a stage play with a lot of focus on hands and faces. Although it is scripted it seems natural, unplanned and almost improvised flowing where the words and feelings take them. 

Questions are asked, the hint of recriminations is always present but slowly the parents work through the subject from wherever they are at.  

By a whisker, the women convince more in the acting stakes with Ann Dowd, excellent as Linda, the perpetrators mother and Martha Plimpton also shining as the victim’s mother, Gail.  

Jason Isaacs has his moments to star as Jay, husband of Gail and Reed Birney is fine as Richard, perhaps the least willing of those present.  Regardless of these small differences, the entire cast give a masterclass in ensemble acting.

Ryan Jackson-Healy’s photography is perceptive and non-intrusive and overall the production does a wonderful job of not sensationalizing the topic.  It is a tough area to talk about and full credit to debut director Kranz for his sensitive work.

Many will not choose to watch this film but it is a fine piece of work offering dialogue as a means of healing and seeking forgiveness.

4 stars 2 plusses

The Trip to Greece

30 minutes into this and I was feeling that it would be a long haul.  This is the fourth in a series of films featuring comedians Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon after a trip to the Lake district and one to both Italy and Spain.  The formula is the same: a road trip in which the two banter away in the car, visit historic sights and have lovely meals.  

Supposedly doing some sort of jaunt for a magazine or something.  They play themselves and yet they have families which are not their real families.  

Rob’s partner Sally comes to join him at the end of this trip played by Rebecca Johnson, when in real life he is married to someone else.  I mention this because the family background comes into play here as in the previous films.

Apart from some gorgeous scenery and rather repetitive takes of restaurant kitchens, the main thrust is the sometimes hilarious, sometimes forced and improvised repartee in which they imitate actors, give stories a twist and sing songs badly. Grease is the word, Tragedy by the Bee Gees and Demis Roussos’s hit Forever and Ever get the treatment this time.

Anyway, as the film progressed I found myself once again admiring the sheer knowledge and talent of these two men even if they are not the most likeable types.  

Director Michael Winterbottom and the two stars also do something important in this film which is apparently the last in the series.  They introduce some real poignancy in the last part which moved me a lot.  

This compensated for the boring stretches which seemed like watching a long-established couple going through the motions yet again.  And in a way they pull this strange docu-drama/comedy off.  It is certainly not the worst in town and you get some interesting travelogue material to boot.

3 stars plus

Tehran Taboo

This very frank film about life in modern Iran seems to have avoided a lot of exposure which is probably what the regime wants but on the other hand it is a pity given the insights we gain here.  What’s more the film is an animated cartoon which is not so common these days (Waltz with Bashir featuring Lebanon was a recent exception).  

Director Ali Soozandeh is an exiled Irani and made this film from his German base.  To get around the obvious restrictions of filming in Iran he has made an animated movie with real footage using a technique called rotoscope.  So, we get to see a coloured version of real Tehran and then characters played by real actors but in some way superimposed onto the ‘backing track’.  The effect is powerful.  We feel that we really are in Tehran but a sort of clandestine Tehran which is precisely the topic of the film.  

And presumably the actors and voices used are sufficiently distanced from the filming so as to be beyond the reach of the Irani regime. (They all seem to be Iranians living outside the country).

The film, as its name suggests, tells us some of the common secrets of modern-day Tehran seen through the experiences of various characters.  

Babak is a student who composes and records music but can’t release a CD as the government won’t approve his music for being anti-patriotic.  He also has a one-night stand with a girl he picks up at a clandestine nightclub.  

Turns out she is getting married and needs to be a virgin so Babak and his friend try to find a way to have her stitched up.

Sara is a young wife expecting a baby after two miscarriages.  However, she wants to work and yet her weak husband won’t permit it and without his authorization she can do nothing else but look after her needy in-laws.

Pari is a mother of a five-year old boy and is trying to divorce her husband who is in prison and make a living.  She takes to prostitution, and a judge installs her in a flat whereby she comes across most of the other characters and tries to help them with their problems.  

Pari is also having difficulties getting her so into school – again because her husband won’t authorize the papers.

The overall message that comes out of this is how ridiculous some regimes are at going against all natural behaviour and humanity.  The result is a complicated society structure full of permissions and bureaucracy involving people’s private lives and the constant restrictions on women.  

Ironically, in this film, the main female characters are the most resourceful and innovative but also very frustrated and often thwarted by the subservience of other older women.  No sisterly love here, just loads of judgement.  We also see that anything is possible in Iran at a price and as long as you avoid the morality police.

This is a moving film, attractive to look at, engaging and well-edited.  What a lot we humans have to answer for!

4 stars plus

Sundown

This relatively short film by Mexican director Michel Franco works remarkably well at showing how we make assumptions and leap to conclusions without having all the information.

Neil and Alice Bennett are in a luxury resort in Acapulco with two late teens/young adults.  We assume it is a family holiday.  It is in a way.  News come from Britain of a death in the family and the family hasten to pack and return.  

Only at the airport, Neil claims to have lost his passport and does not board the plane, only to take a taxi and return to the beach, this time to a seedier area and to a fairly cheap hotel.  What’s he up to?  As the film progresses we get information and we start to make more assumptions and again they are not what we expect.

Tim Roth gives a very good performance as Neil, almost minimalist but at the same time conveying emotions and confusions.  

Alice is Charlotte Gainsbourg, who in relatively few scenes creates an impact and is the opposite of Neil in that she is proactive, tense, very emotional.  To this counterbalance is added Iazua Larios as Berenice, a local who hooks up with Neil.

Everyone plays their part and there are a few more typically Mexican characters and events thrown into the mix.

I found the film captivating in that I was being challenged constantly by what to believe and yet it seemed all credible.  Franco directs well in this regard, moving the pace along, assuring good editing and guiding the fine camerawork of Yves Cape who shoots from all sorts of unexpected angles.

Not a masterpiece but a very solid film any director who be proud of.

4 stars