Author: Natalie Teasdale

I want to share with other movie fans those amazing films that get under your skin and stay with you for days: the scary ones, the funny ones; the ones that get you thinking. With a background in creative writing, photography, psychology and neuroscience, I’ll be focusing on dialogue, what makes a great story, if the film has beautiful creative cinematography, the soundtrack and any movie that successfully scratches the surface of our existence. My aim is to always be searching for that ultimate movie, to share what I’ve found to be interesting (whether it be a great soundtrack, a great director or links to other information of interest) and to give an honest review without too much fluff. BAppSci in Psychology/Psychophysiology; Grad Dip Creative Arts and Post Grad Dip in Creative Writing. Founder of GoMovieReviews.

Wicked Part I

GoMovieReviews Rating: ★★★☆ (3.8/5)

Rated: PG

Directed by: Jon M. Chu

Written by: Winnie Holzman

Based on the Musical Wicked, music and lyrics by: Stephen Schwartz,

Book by: Winnie Holzman

From the Novel by: Gregory Maguire

Produced by: Marc Platt, David Stone

Starring: Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Michelle Yeoh, Jeff Goldblum, Jonathan Bailey, Ethan Slater, Marissa Bode, Bowen Yang, Bronwyn James, Keala Settle and Peter Dinklage.

Cinematic from the beginning, Wicked Part I opens on a black witch’s hat reflected in a pool of water. And of course, flying monkeys, the yellow brick road, then the cry, ‘The Wicked Witch is dead. The Wicked Witch of the West.’

‘Why does wickedness happen?’ one of the townspeople asks.

After telling people, ‘It’s good to see me, isn’t it?’ Galinda/Glinda the Good (Ariana Grande) tells the people, let me tell you the whole story.

The screenplay is written by Winnie Holzman who also wrote the book for the musical; she returns with lyricist Stephen Schwartz to adapt the Gregory Maguire’s reinvented bestseller into a spectacle for the screen. Expectations for this film are high.

However, I admit, I have not seen the stage play. Not really my cup of tea. So you can stop reading the review now or read the review of someone who wouldn’t usually watch a musical but enjoyed this one despite herself.

I just got won over by the characters, Galinda described by Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) as well, blonde.

And Elphaba green and pretending not to care about the laughter at her expense. That she cares more about the animals that are being silenced and blamed for everything wrong in Oz, then her own lifetime of hurt.

Then the little asides from Galinda about her self-obsession to keep it light as the two who loathed and detested each other become friends.

Rather than feeling like just a musical, the singing was balanced by the storyline and visual effects and attention to detail, the turn of a scrunched page the beginning of the next scene, the floating spinning flowers dusting everyone to sleep, the silhouette of a taloned hand.

The previous collaboration of Schwartz and Holzman pays off because the story and song balance each other so well, ‘Winnie and I tell the story together,” Schwartz says. “Some of it through dialogue, which is Winnie’s department, and some through song, which is mine.’

And the two characters Elphaba and Galinda have a genuine chemistry, ‘We got tattoos together,’ Grande says. ‘I got an ‘E’ for Elphaba in a heart on the back of my leg and she had a little ‘G’ for Glinda on the back of hers.’ Erivo says that their bond is anchored by a sense of joyful exploration. ‘I hope that we don’t lose our love of play,’ Erivo says. ‘That’s something that I really enjoyed—this need to keep wanting to learn and discover. Ariana and I used that to make these beings as humane and full as possible. When we worked together, something special happened.’

Cinematographer Alice Brooks explains Elphaba and Glinda are often shot within a single frame. ‘The 2.40 aspect ratio is frequently beautifully divided in half between these two women.’

Brook goes on to say, ‘Light, to me, embodies everything—it reveals desires and conceals secrets. That’s what captivates me about Wicked so deeply. Early in our preparations, Jon and I delved into themes of good versus evil, light versus darkness. In Wicked, light paradoxically represents darkness, and darkness, light.’

Director, Jon M. Chu, a longtime superfan of the stage production, has embraced all the elements of this film, showing his enthusiasm in the attention to detail that makes Wicked Part I so very watchable.

I’m not saying I absolutely loved the film, but those 2 hours and 41 minutes went by pretty quickly. And I did leave the cinema with a smile humming ‘Defying Gravity.’

Did I just enjoy watching musical?

Yes. Yes, I did.

Weekend In Taipei

GoMovieReviews Rating: ★★★1/2

Rated: MA15+

Directed by: George Huang

Written by: George Huang & Luc Besson

Produced by: Virginie Besson-Silla & Luc Besson

Starring: Luke Evans, Gwei Lun-Mei, Sung Kang, Wyatt Yang.

‘Who’s the snitch?’

The opening of, A Weekend in Taipei is the city shown in a fast-paced montage of images of the street life; to dead fish on the pavement, motorbikes, toys and temples – all shot in contrasting saturated colour to black and white to introduce the style of the film: action featuring car chases and fight scenes but also the drama of an unhappy family and a woman waiting for The One to finally come back.

Kwang (Sung Kang) is a corrupt billionaire being charged with the only crime that sticks – fishing license violations.

Surrounded by media, Kwang curses at his staff as he gets into his car. He tries to call his wife, Joey (Gwei Lun-Mei). She ignores him.

Instead, Joey takes a Ferrari for a test drive. She drives, fast.

Joey’s been married to Kwang for 15 years. Her son, Raymond (Wyatt Yang) hates him. Raymond doesn’t understand why she’s with him.

But Joey explains that a long time ago, she needed help. And Kwang was there.

Cut-to Minneapolis where John Lawlor (Luke Evans) is getting arrested holding a goldfish in a glass.

An undercover DEA agent, Lawlor is on the trail of Kwang after uncovering a delivery of heroin with Kwang’s name all over it.

It’s time to spend a weekend in Taipei.

Amongst the action, knife fights and car chases, there’s a lightness to this film that adds a sense of fun.

Lawlor’s fellow agent in a restaurant fight unintentionally getting more injured as Lawlor tries to protect him is hilarious – grater across the hand, the kitchen on fire, ‘oh, no.’

This is a classic- style action movie with humour that hits the mark. And there’s some fresh ideas here, like knocking the power board off the lift, then the door handle off the exit door to the stairs, delaying the bad guys giving chase.

Director George Huang explains one the biggest challenges making the film was shooting in Taipei in the summer. It was so hot that the final fight scene was moved indoors to a cinema where, ‘images from Zhang Yimou’s The Secret of the Flying Daggers are projected onto the actors.’

It’s a clever device that adds another layer to the fight and another point of difference to the action that I enjoyed.

The film does feel stilted at the beginning but the chemistry between Agent Lawlor and mother, wife, badass-driver Joey lifts the film up a level.

There’s a good balance as young actor Wyatt Yang who plays the son Raymond states, ‘It’s a very exciting film, it has lots of fast cars, guns, and blood, but at the heart is a family story.’

Not the deepest dive into the characters but there’s enough amusement and action thrills – who doesn’t like a car chase featuring a beach buggy?! – to make for an entertaining watch.

CatVideoFest 2024

GoMovieReviews Rating: ★★★

Rated: G

Directed by: Will Braden

CatVideoFest is a compilation of cat videos sourced from submissions, animations, music videos and the internet.

Trawling through over 15,000 videos, director Will Braden has found the most entertaining moments of cats to raise money for cat shelters.

Beginning in 2019, the festival has raised over $150, 000 for local shelters as well as encouraging adoptions, fostering, volunteer signups and more.

The delightful end result shows a loose structure to a 75-minute reel, from ‘Drama’ featuring cats sharing space with a dog, giving a baby The Look, to opening the fridge, to oh-how-we-love-to-knock-things-off-shelving, to a black kitten trying to capture the sun.

‘Action Adventure’ shows a kitten attacking shoelaces, cat boxing, turtle versus cat – turtle wins.

‘Cat GIFs’ has a cat in the back of a hooded jacket.

This is my fur ball of sunshine, Biddie-Fluff; ever hopeful for a belly scratch but knowing not to get too far over the keyboard when I’m working. This is of course, is not always a successful arrangement.

‘Documentaries’ has Cat Man Chris, rescue Humphrey and his brother, ‘This is peak cat owner existence,’ The Unbothered Cat, to trying to work with kittens around (I can relate!).

‘Musical’ has a cat singing on cue with his owner guitarist and sprinkled throughout the reel is an old dude playing a piano and singing lyrics describing the goings on with made-up cat songs.

Speaking of which, there’s of course the Christmas ornaments sequence, ‘Your ornaments are history,’ then there’s Goat suffering from seizures but oh so soothed by his human’s music therapy.

‘More Cat GIFs’ shows orange straddling a pole.

‘Comedy’ has the ultimate ownership of the family cat being more important, or more demanding of attention and cuddles, then the newborn baby just brought home.

CatVideoFest is good G-rated fun that had me crying with laughter.

The sometimes deadly looks from these playful felines? Priceless. And of course, it’s all for a good cause.

To submit a video of your fun fluff, see: https://catvideofest.com/submission.

See list of cinemas showing CatVideoFest, starting 17^th of October, 2024 here: https://www.catvideofest.com/where-to-watch-aus-nz

The Apprentice

GoMovieReviews Rating: ★★★★

Rated: MA15+

Directed by: Ali Abbasi

Written by: Gabriel Sherman

Produced by: Daniel Bekerman, Jacob Jarek, Ruth Treacy, Julianne Forde, Louis Tisné, Ali Abbasi

Starring: Sebastian Stan, Jeremy Strong, Maria Bakalova, Martin Donovan, Catherine McNally, Charlie Carrick.

‘If you’re indicted, you’re invited.’

A clever play on the Donald Trump TV series, (‘you’re fired’) The Apprentice, the apprentice, here, is Donald Trump.

Based on true events, the film is about the relationship between Trump (Sebastian Stan) and ruthless lawyer, Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong).

Director Ali Abbasi states: “I hope that people, no matter how they might feel about Donald Trump, can watch the film and really experience this relationship. It’s not supposed to be an ideological attack or a polemic debate. It’s about depicting a certain complexity in these human beings.”

The film begins in the 70s, when New York was known as The Fear City.

With his father’s (Freddy Trump (Charlie Carrick)) company currently indicted for a racist policy when leasing apartments in their buildings, Donald’s dream of converting the debilitated Commodore Building into a luxury hotel is impossible.

Meet, Roy Cohn.

Roy’s first seen with a devilish look through an open doorway – he sees Trump struggling to make an impression on his date, ‘Why are you so obsessed with these people?’

Because Trump knows that the people in this place are billionaires, the decision makers with connections.

And he wants to be one of them.

Cohn takes pity on Trump. He likes him. So agrees to show Trump how it’s done, starting with his three golden rules of winning:

Rule 1. Attack. Attack. Attack.

Rule 2. Admit nothing. Deny everything.

Rule 3. Claim victory and never admit defeat.

Trump needs to be able to do anything to anyone.

There’s a naivety to Trump in the early days – cap in hand, knocking on tenant’s doors to collect rent. Compared to Cohn and his connections, Trump is a mild-mannered businessman who likes the ladies.

Trump is uncomfortable drinking, he doesn’t smoke, do drugs. Except for taking diet pills, AKA cheap amphetamine, so instead of sleeping, he can continue to make deals.

Trump loves making deals.

He also falls for Ivana.

Ivana isn’t like other girls. She’s feisty. Ambitious.

Roy makes sure she signs a prenup.

This is Trump’s origin story. He comes from a solid but dysfunctional family with a tyrannical father that’s ashamed of his eldest son because he’s an airline pilot.

The loose parties Cohn hosts are something Trump hasn’t seen before.

‘If you’re indicted, you’re invited.’

But Trump’s a businessman who wants success. And Cohn is the man to get him to the top.

As Trump’s apprenticeship comes to an end, the power Trump cultivates begins to corrupt:

‘Run ‘em over Simon,’ he tells his driver as they’re stopped by an AIDS protest.

‘I’m kidding,’ he adds.

Over time it becomes apparent Trump has no shame.

“In life, there are two types of people. There are killers, and there are losers.”

—Donald J. Trump

The Apprentice is a vastly entertaining film, the image a gritty 70s vibe.

The tone is set with the red light of dabaucherous parties, the perfectly timed moments like Trump holding onto his vomit until he gets out of Roy’s car – then sputtering an upchuck out on the street to confirm his make-or-break appointment – to the city reflected in Trump’s eye as he observes his dominion.

Writer Gabriel Sherman (author of the New York Times best-selling biography of Fox News founder Roger Ailes, The Loudest Voice in the Room), states: “My worst nightmare for THE APPRENTICE was that it was going to be something predictable or bland, or on the other extreme, a political polemic that’s just one-dimensional cartoon,” Sherman says. “I wanted to write these three-dimensional characters that were complicated and flawed and surprising and frustrating just in the way that real people are.” Adds Baer: “I knew that this film would have so many inherent challenges along the way, and I didn’t want to add another one by having it perceived as a political statement by an American director.”

The Apprentice is anything but bland or predictable.

A great storyline that’s more a psychological unpacking of Trump’s origin than political statement, with pacing and pitch perfect performances make this a much better than expected film.

Insightful and entertaining.

A must watch.

Hellboy: The Crooked Man

GoMovieReviews Rating: ★★1/2

Rated: MA15+

Directed by: Brian Taylor

Written by: Christopher Golden, Mike Mignola, Brian Taylor

Based on: Hellboy by Mike Mignola

Produced by: Mike Richardson, Jeffery Greenstein, Jonathan Yunger, Les Weldon, Rob Van Norden, Yariv Lerner

Starring: Jack Kesy, Jefferson White, Adeline Rudolph, Joseph Marcell, Leah McNamara, Martin Massindale, Suzanne Bertish.

Screwed, chewed and tattooed.

In this fourth instalment of Hellboy, it’s 1959. And Hellboy (Jack Kesy), along with Bobbie Jo Song (Adeline Rudolph) from the bureau for Paranormal Research and Defence (BPRD), are on a train transporting an arachnoid that is more than just a spider.

The opening of, Hellboy: The Crooked Man, is fast-paced. The arachnoid breaking free, the scene out of control as the train dislodges from the track, landing Hellboy and the certainly-has-a-thing-for Bobbie in the Appalachia Forest, lost.

The storyline meanders until landing on the re-negotiation of a soul. Tom Ferrell (Jefferson White) losing his soul when he happens upon a beautiful witch (Leah McNamara) bathing in the river in his younger days.

The witch encourages Tom to make a deal with the devil, where the bone he holds in his hand when he sees the devil becomes a lucky bone saving him from injury during the war.

In 1959, Tom comes home to the Appalachia mountains to search for his family and girlfriend Cora (Hannah Margetson) whom he left, trying to escape the pact he made all those years ago.

The forest is full of witches, serving, The Crooked Man.

When alive, The Crooked Man was made rich playing both sides of the Civil War. Hanged, his reward from those who live in the mountains, The Crooked Man was returned by the devil to collect souls, receiving a copper penny for each soul, including Tom’s.

The only sanctuary in the mountains is the old church where blind Reverend Watts (Joseph Marcell) holds the dark forces at bay.

The passage of the film is earmarked with chapters that don’t really signpost the story:

‘The Lucky Bone’,

‘Witch Ball’,

‘The Hurricane’.

But lend a fable to the storyline, like the witch acknowledging the screen as the audience watches through the eyes of a crow as she explains the spell of making a witch’s ball.

There’s trickery with the camera work, the perspectives adding a foreboding feeling:

Guts splatter across the lens of the camera.

Sudden darkened scenes click to switch from one place to another.

There’s that Hellboy flavour to, The Crooked Man but there’s also a distinct feeling of a glossing over, creating a superficial tone.

Hellboy’s mother’s introduced into his origin story, the film clicking into this other dark world where she hangs in suspense, tortured. A giant crow represents the devil as he incites her pregnancy with Hellboy.

It’s another dimension to the film.

But the threads of the storyline barely hold together in this movie.

Hellboy, the character, is strangely monotone, with a rare wisecrack, ‘Smells like death. And birdshit,’ so it didn’t seem like Hellboy at all.

But there is a unique strangeness to the film.

It’s dark and creepy but so very disjointed. Which makes me think of a piece of meat.

It’s that kinda movie.

IN CINEMAS OCTOBER 10

Also screening at MONSTER FEST 2024

Hellboy – The Crooked Man – Monster Fest Australia

Click HERE for dates & venues

Joker: Folie À Deux

GoMovieReviews Rating: ★★1/2

Rated: MA15+

Directed by: Todd Phillips

Written by: Scott Silver, Todd Phillips, Bob Kane

Produced by: Josephe Garner, Todd Phillips, Emma Tillinger Koskoff

Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Lady Gaga, Brendan Gleeson, Catherine Keener, Zazie Beetz, Steve Coogan, Harry Lawtey, Leigh Gill, Ken Leung, Jacob Lofland, Bill Smitrovich and Sharon Washington.

Madness of two

Folie à deux (French for ‘madness of two’), also known as shared psychosis or shared delusional disorder (SDD), is a psychiatric syndrome in which symptoms of a delusional belief are “transmitted” from one individual to another.

An emancipated Joker (Joaquin Phoenix) is in jail. He’s never been more like Arthur Fleck. He takes his pills. The jailers (Brendan Gleeson) joke with him, ‘You got a joke for us today?’

But Arther Fleck says nothing.

It all changes when he sees her. Lee (Lady Gaga).

Lee sings in music therapy.

She tells Arthur that she understands him. When Joker killed Murray on live TV, she was thinking I just wish he’d kill that guy. And then, he did.

Arthur starts having his fantasies again.

The Joker is his shadow self, his other self. A product of childhood abuse.

His lawyer, Maryanne Stewart (Catherine Keener) wants Arthur to pled insanity.

But with Lee, Arthur’s proud to be Joker. He wants to be Joker.

The saints being to march again.

Returning director Todd Phillips (he also directed, Joker (2019)), has taken a different perspective with the character in, Joker: Folie À Deux.

Instead of the DC world of Gotham City, the fantasy is in Arthur’s head.

And in his head, everything’s a musical.

There’s A LOT of singing. Too much singing.

And we all know Lady Gaga can sing (and here too, Joaquin Phoenix), but that didn’t save the movie for me.

The film’s a contrast of a bland and depressing prison and the sad life of Arthur Fleck juxtaposed with his fantasy as the Joker in a sing along with Lee.

When Joker represents himself in court, the fantasy bleeding into reality, parading with a southern American accent, it jars. The fantasy not so endearing; the crossover into reality misfiring and building to that depressing point of difference that this isn’t set in the fantasy world of Gotham City.

This is an unpacking of Arthur Fleck’s mental health.

Set to a musical.

It’s depressing.

In spite of the theatrics (l don’t actually like musicals), the tone was bland. So neither the fantasy nor the depressing reality had the right tone or play off each other in quite the right way.

Unfortunately (I was really looking forward to this sequel!), Joker: Folie À Deux is disappointing.

Megalopolis

GoMovieReviews Rating: ★★1/2

Rated: M

Directed by: Francis Ford Coppola

Written by: Francis Ford Coppola

Produced by: Francis Ford Coppola, Barry Hirsch, Fred Roos, Michael Bederman

Starring: Adam Driver, Giancarlo Esposito, Nathalie Emmanuel, Aubrey Plaza, Shia Labeouf, Jon Voight, Laurence Fishburne, Talia Shire, Kathryn Hunter, Grace Vanderwall, Chloe Fineman and Dustin Hoffman.

‘I will not let time have dominion over me.’

Megalopolis begins.

At first, I thought Megalopolis was going to be about perspective. With Cesar Catilina (Adam Driver) opening a window to step out, onto a roof to look over the city before him, to walk to the edge while the clouds race across the sky. He looks over the roofline, teetering, about to fall. Then, he stops time.

It’s a new Rome.

A narrator, Funi Romaine (Laurence Fishburne), shown later to be a historian, speaks of not wanting to make the same mistakes as Old Rome, mistakes that benefit a few at the expense of the many.

So the main underlying theme here is social change with A LOT of other ideas thrown in the mix creating an overly ambitious chaos full of lofty ideals used to intellectualise the storyline but instead comes across as pretentious and cliché; an example when Cesar Catilina starts spouting, ‘To be, or not to be,’ to sell his architectural utopia.

Writer, director and producer, Francis Ford Coppola states:

‘Step by step with these beginnings, I researched New York City’s most interesting cases from my scrapbooks: the Claude Von Bulow murder case, the Mary Cunningham/James Agee Bendix scandal, the emergence of Maria Bartiromo (a beautiful financial reporter nicknamed ‘The Money Honey’ coming from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange), the antics of Studio 54, and the city’s financial crisis itself (saved by Felix Rohatyn), so that everything in my story would be true and did happen either in modern New York or in Ancient Rome.

To that I added everything I had ever read or learned about.’

Cesar Catilina is a genius born into a mega rich Catilina family.

The Cesar has won a Nobel prize for inventing a new building material, Megalon.

His vision, to build a new city for all by tearing down the old and building Megalopolis.

The mayor, Franklyn Cicero (Giancarlo Esposito), disagrees.

Mayor Cicero thinks Cesar will destroy society before he has time to build a new one, to which Cesar replies, ‘Don’t let the now destroy the future.’

A neat summary of Cesar’s perspective and by the end of this chaotic saga, I wondered why bother with all the other madness thrown into the storyline, a madness that felt like an experiment that got out of control, then exploded. Anyway.

Alongside this ongoing dispute with the mayor is the family dynamics of a jealous cousin, Clodio Pulcher (Shia LaBeouf), forever trying to take down Cesar, socialite-turned-visionary, daughter to the mayor, Julia Cicero (Nathalie Emmanuel), and the complicated relationship of spurned lover and journalist, Wow Platinum (Aubrey Plaza), who ends up marrying Cesar’s uncle, Hamilton Crassus III (Jon Voight).

Not forgetting Cesar’s mother, Constance Crassus Catilina (Talia Shire) who pulls away her hand from Cesar after he kisses it because, ‘it hurts.’

Amongst the family dramas, love triangles and marriage – there’s a whole lot of silly. Not funny. Silly.

Like the ‘Dingbat News’.

Like a young girl famous and singing for donations in the Colosseum to remain a virgin until marriage.

Then flashes to undies for sale with her image on the front.

The chaotic that creates an unsettled feeling throughout the film is amplified by a soundtrack that shifts from court music with trumpets, to orchestral classical, to jazz, all within the same scene.

The first half of the film felt distant, like watching a performance instead of being absorbed into the film.

Coppola experiments, his vision shown by darkening the screen to a spotlight to pull the audience into a moment (well, that device drew the focus into the scene), splicing the screen, to using the cinema as part of the film, literally. Someone in the audience set up a podium, facing the screen to then ask Cesar a question.

After this moment, the film conversely, felt more like a movie rather than a performance.

But for me, this fable, literary debacle didn’t sell – the silly and the pretentious just made the sometimes poignant moments weird:

‘You can see right through me’

Only those in a nightmare are capable of praising the moonlight.’

I found the film so ridiculous that if Cesar woke up at the end of a dream, a nightmare, that might have been a better ending.

Megalopolis – it’s as pretentious as it sounds.

The Wild Robot

GoMovieReviews Rating: ★★★★☆ (4.2/5)

Rated: PG

Written and Directed by: Chris Sanders

Based on: ‘The Wild Robot’ Novel by Peter Brown

Produced by: Jeff Hermann

Starring: Lupita Nyong’o, Pedro Pascal, Catherine O’Hara, Bill Nighy, Kit Connor and Stephanie Hsu, with Mark Hamill, Matt Berry and Ving Rhames.

‘Funny how life works.’

Opening on a dark and stormy beach, otters sniffing the sand discover a crashed robot.

Meet, ready-to-receive-my-first-task ROZZUM unit 7134 (Lupita Nyong’o).

A ROZZUM AKA Roz always completes its task, just ask.

The Wild Robot analyses life through the lens of a robot’s eyes that has all sorts of fun and weird and wonderful moments including physical mimicry of Roz running around trying to find instruction from a bunch of wild beasts that are terrified of it.

Eventually, Roz the robot saves a goose egg from a conniving fox named Fink (Pedro Pascal). And watching the egg hatch, as nature instructs, the gosling imprints on the robot.

Roz, now has a task (along with the help of Fink): to raise a gosling, later named Brightbill (Kit Connor), so he’s ready to migrate before winter sets in.

There’s so much to love about this movie, the critters all adorable, not one character out of place.

There’s the family of possums where all the young possums are taught to play dead (well, possum), each explaining the type of death therefore undoing the subterfuge because, ‘dead things don’t have to explain they’re dead.’

When I saw the premise of the film I thought it was a strange idea having a robot in the forest and at best would be cheesy, but the story leans into the pre-programmed robot that can’t feel anything contrasted with the wildlife that are in constant fear of being eaten.

The film doesn’t shy away from the reality of nature, instinct a different type of programming designed to keep animals fed or to flee to stay alive.

Afterall, ‘Death’s proximity makes life burn all the more brighter.’

Then there’s Brightbill that adopts Roz as his mother, snuggling up to the unfeeling metal, that brightens pink lights as a mechanical response to love.

It’s sweet seeing this robot become an unlikely mother with all the difficulty that goes with the ‘crushing obligation.’

There’s a real, flying the nest storyline that plucks the heartstrings but then there’s so much more to the story as Roz shows the forest creatures that kindness is a survival skill.

And that overriding programming can ultimately lead to a better survival.

This is a genuinely funny and heartwarming film that’s good fun for all ages.

The Substance

GoMovieReviews Rating: ★★★1/2

Rated: R18+

Directed by: Coralie Fargeat

Written by: Coralie Fargeat

Edited by: Coralie Fargeat

Starring: Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley, Dennis Quaid.

‘Pretty girls should always smile.’

A film of extremes, The Substance is a commentary about Hollywood’s middle-aged, white male’s view of the female form.

There is a male version of, the Other: a beautiful young male doctor introduces an aging fitness guru, Elizabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore) to The Substance, himself a demonstration to the Oscar winning actress that she can create a better version of herself.

‘It will change your life.’

Goes to show that men are feeling the push to be beautiful as well. But here the focus is on the aging actress, Elizabeth.

The action of ‘the substance’ is shown by the injection of green liquid into the joke of a raw egg. The yoke then pushes out another yoke, like a clone of itself.

And the film continues with this demonstrative view of the procedure, of the process of aging, to the birth of a young body; the splicing of a pupil into two, to another eye growing within another, all shown in macro, close so there’s no-where else to look but at the unfiltered image of the beautiful juxtaposed with the grotesque.

Director and writer, Coralie Fargeat states, ‘Bodies here are going to be tyrannized, ridiculed, destroyed, the same way I truly believe society destroys women with all the rules that we are silently taught to follow.’

‘Women’s bodies. THE SUBSTANCE is a film about women’s bodies.’

After Elizabeth Sparkle is told by Harvey (Denis Quaid) – while feeding his face with prawns, sound included- the producer of her fitness show, that at age 50, It Stops, Elizabeth can’t help but think a better version of herself could be the answer to her lack of self-worth.

Elizabeth is the Matrix, the Other is Sue.

They are one person.

This is a visceral birth, with close-ups of blood, injections, the splitting of the spine to the gush of another pushing outwards from Elizabeth’s lifeless body.

To the high impact beauty of the Other, Sue.

It’s all pink shiny leotards and perfect bodies – Sue becomes the fresh new face of fitness. She’s new and she’s young and she’s perfect.

It takes 7 days for Sue to rule the world. And as human nature dictates, Sue wants more.

The concepts of the film are portrayed with clever devices, aging is shown with a static view of Sparkles Hollywood Star cracking in the pavement over time. Of people walking across the star, admiring the star, to then show snow and rain and dirt and feet and food being spilled across her star. Like time has forgotten her face. To the giant image of Elizabeth in her apartment with the fractured glass around her eye – a loss of perspective, her self-hatred pinned up on the wall.

It’s an interesting title, The Substance, the focus on the outer beauty and social comment about aging, about what’s supposed to go where, replacing the true substance of a person with a chemical that births a younger, fresher you. Makes me wonder about Picasso’s cubism and his deconstruction of perspective.

Coralie Fargeat takes apart the idea of beauty and creates a satire with Elizabeth Sparkle using the mantra, ‘Take care of yourself,’ that Sue imitates with a wink because what is taking care of yourself when the expectation is to have medical procedures to try to stay young forever?

Fargeat comments, ‘This movie is going to be bloody gory. And it’s going to be bloody funny at the same time. Because I don’t know any stronger weapon than satire to show the world the absurdity of its own rules. And most importantly: I believe it’s going to be bloody timely. This is what this movie is about in the end. A liberation. An empowerment.’

Throughout the film, there’s an evolution of the grotesque as the weight of society’s expectation is perverted into an embrace of the gross with too much enthusiasm for my taste, to turn a fascinating film with a difference into something so awful it’s laughable.

This is a unique, determined and grotesque film.

This is body horror people. Prepare yourself.

Kid Snow

GoMovieReviews Rating: ★★★1/2

Rated: MA15+

Directed by: Paul Goldman

Written by: John Brumpton

Produced by: Lizzette Atkins, Bruno Charlesworth, Megan Wynn

Executive Producers: Matthew Gledhill, Gary Cooper

Starring: Billy Howle, Phoebe Tonkin, Tom Bateman, Mark Coles Smith, Hunter Page-Lochard, Shaka Cook, Jack Latorre, Nathan Phillips, Tasma Walton, John Brumpton, Robert Taylor, Tristan Gorey.

‘Relax. You’ll get your story.’

Robed, Kid Snow (Billy Howle) and Hammer (Tristan Gorey) shadow box in warm-up before fighting in a competition that ultimately leads to Hammer’s reign as champion.

Cameras flash.

A leggy blond holds a placard, ‘Round 1.’

It’s 1961.

And Kid Snow’s about to throw the fight.

Kid Snow throws the fight to give his brother Rory (Tom Bateman) a chance to get to the top.

It’s family. Their father (John Brumpton) thinks Rory has a better chance but it’s obvious to those watching the fight that Kid Snow could have beaten Hammer and Hammer knows it.

After disaster strikes, leaving Rory maimed and their father dead, the film jumps forward 10 years, showing the two Irish brothers in outback Australia; Rory managing a travelling Tent Fighting show, featuring Kid Snow along with indigenous fighters: Lovely (Mark Coles Smith), Lizard (Hunter Page-Lochard), Armless (Shaka Cook). And dressed up as a woman, Billy (Nathan Phillips) – the idea to goad the spectators into taking on the travelling fighters to win money and of course, boasting rights.

It’s a living. A show that now Australian reigning champion Hammer wants to see because he knows Kid Snow thinks he could have taken him all those years ago. Now he’s champion, Hammer wants to prove he deserves to be champion.

It’s a showdown a reporter, Ed (Robert Taylor) has come to write about – reigning champion versus comeback tent fighter.

At its heart, the film is an underdog story. Kid Snow taking the fall for his brother, left fighting ‘mugs’ for a living, and introducing Sunny (Pheobe Tonkin) arriving at the show with a black eye and pickpocketing, trying to make her way for her son, Darcy (Jack LaTorre).

Director Paul Goldman states:

‘Our three leads, Billy Howle (Kid Snow), Tom Bateman (Rory Quinn) and Phoebe Tonkin (Sunny), are the beating heart of this film. Each of them brave and compelling in their commitment to diving deeper into their characters and the complex relationships and emotions that resonate through this story.’

There’s the drama of the two brothers’ relationship; the elder brother Rory maimed and bitter, Kid Snow still nursing his pride after throwing the fight that could have made him.

Then there’s Sunny; Rory blackmailing her into working for the show, offering her a chance to make money as a dancer.

Then there’s the blossoming romance between Sunny and Kid Snow as Rory watches from the sidelines.

And as noted by Goldman, this is a unique film about Tent Boxing, ‘A world that, strangely, has never before been brought to the screen.’

There’s a good steady build to the story, written by John Brumpton whom represented Australia in amateur boxing in Thailand and decided to get some work for himself alongside his acting career as a scriptwriter, creating a script with himself as the protagonist.

The actors performed their own stunts which shows on screen, the feeling authentic which brings to light the attention to detail, the knowing look from Sunny, the honesty of Kid Snow. There’s a good rounding-out of characters that pulls the audience behind the characters, to cheer for the underdog, Kid Snow while also gaining insight into the relationship between the two brothers.

The film does take a beat to warm up, the acting stilted until the fast forward 10 years and the introduction of Sunny. Then the characters relax into their roles as the relationship between Sunny and Kid Snow develops and the comradery of the follow fighters plays more of a part as Kid Snow prepares for the challenge of boxing against a professional fighter rather than the mugs in the tent.

There’s a good storyline here, and a strong performance from Billy Howle, so although there’s that stilted start, the film keeps building to ultimately cheer the underdog story at its end.

Worth a watch.

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: