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.

Ip Man: Kung Fu Master

Rated: MA15+IP MAN KUNG FU MASTER

Directed by: Li Liming

Produced by: Kai Pictures/Palm Entertainment

Starring: Dennis To, Yuan Li Ruo Xin, Michael Wong.

Mandarin with subtitles

‘It’s not important when you die, but how to live,’ says San Ye (Michael Wong), an honourable mobster who will deal in anything.  But opium.

San Ye believes in the Axes – a gang of axe wielding martial artists.  Ip Man (Dennis To) is a police captain.  He believes in the law.

But when the Japanese start smuggling opium through the docks of Foshan, the Axes and the Law make unlikely allies.

The story gets way more complicated than just a drug smuggling feud.

There’re double crosses, triple crosses, with each rapid shift of scene spliced with another story so a Kung Fu fight cuts to a game of checkers, the game pieces like the black hats wielding axes. Or a misunderstanding leading to more Kung Fu fighting cutting to Ip Man’s wife having a baby (named Chun, of course).

Then there’s the classic comic character, the drunken uncle, who’s really a master in disguise and willing to fight.  When bribed with the promise to pay for his wine for two years.

And that’s before the introduction of the Masked Man.

Based on the legendary teacher of Bruce Lee, Ip Man, there’s many other previous instalments of Ip Man movies out there:  Ip Man (2008), Ip Man 2 (2010), Ip Man 3 (2015), the spin-off Master Z: Ip Man Legacy (2018) and another sequel Ip Man 4: The Finale (2019).  The above directed by Wilson Yip and starring Donnie Yen.

This is the third time Dennis To plays the role of Ip Man, after 2010’s Ip Man: The Legend is born (directed by Herman Yau), and 2018’s Kung Fu League (directed by Jeff Lau).

So it’s a popular character, Ip Chun, the son of Ip Man, praising Dennis To as the most accurate portrayal of his father.

And there’s a lot of action here as the film dives from one thought to the next, keeping up the pace.

What wasn’t successful was the change in emotional tone.

The drama in, Ip Man: Kung Fu Master relies heavily on a cheesy soundtrack, at one point the lyrics part of the scene, so there’s this superficial skating over every opportunity for depth in the relationships just to get to the next part of the story as quickly as possible.  But that pace doesn’t stop the story going to those tearful goodbyes at the train station or a sacrifice for family.  And that’s OK because the film isn’t about the drama, the theme is more about Kung Fu versus Karate.  Or is it?

The only foundation of the story is the honour of Ip Man and the setting up of those action, martial art scenes.

Although emotionally transparent, some of those action scenes were shot with vision, the camera shot from above to see the patterns of fighters running like water down a drain.  A little like the emotional content of the film.

But if you can stomach the cheesy attempt at drama and the patriotic tone of good (Chinese) versus bad (Japanese), there’s some fun twists in the story that keeps the action entertaining.

Honest Thief

Rated: MHonest Thief

Written and Directed by: Mark Williams

Produced by: Mark Williams, Myles Nestel, Tai Duncan, Craig Chapman and Jonah Loop

Production Designer: Tom Lisowski

Editor: Michael P Shawver

Music by: Mark Isham

Starring: Liam Neeson, Kate Walsh, Jeffrey Donovan, Jai Courtney, Anthony Ramos, Robert Patrick and Jasmine Cephas Jones.

‘I met a woman.’

Honest Thief is a classic formula that plays-out like a movie I felt like I’d seen before.

Set in Boston (including that Boston accent and typical dirty cops), the In-And-Out Bandit, AKA Tom Carter (Liam Neeson) has been robbing banks without leaving a trace (hence the nickname and yes, he doesn’t like it either) for eight years.

Until he meets Annie (Kate Walsh – the actress from Grey’s Anatomy.  She looks nothing like Dr. Addison Montgomery here as Annie and that’s OK.  She’s well-cast).

It’s a real meet-cute, setting the tone of the film – a romantic crime drama set to the gravitas of Liam Neeson’s deep-bass voice.

Tom wants to the do the right thing.  To build his relationship with Annie on an honest foundation (see the title), and be an, ‘Honest Thief’.

After twelve bank robberies over seven states and nine million in cash, Tom wants to turn himself in.

‘He met a woman,’ Agent Meyers (Jeffrey Donovan) explains.

‘Poor guy,’ replies Agent Baker (Robert Patrick).

The robber-turned-soft romantic overtones of this film are somewhat offset by the humour of this Agent Baker, desperately trying not to be bitter after being left with a dog (instead of a house) after his divorce.

And we get some dirty cop crime thrown in with some explosive action.

Writer and director Mark Williams (A Family Man (2016)) states, “It has the action, the thrills, car chases, guns going off, things exploding. But at the heart of it, it’s a love story, and to me that’s the most important thing.”

So, Honest Thief isn’t one of those shoot-em-up action flicks, or crime thriller.

This is more Tom proving he’s the In-And-Out bandit – an excuse to show some strategy in the film – then after being double-crossed by dirty cops, proving he might be a robber, but he’s no killer.

At one point Tom’s asked, ‘What do you want?’

‘To prove my innocence.’

Because as stated above, he’s met a woman.

It’s just not that exciting.

But the addition of Robert Patrick as Agent Baker (Robert Patrick) and his increasing affection for his fluffy companion, Tassy lifted the tone and added that extra bit of humour.

‘Poor guy.’

Hilarious.

Deerskin

Rated: MA15+Deerskin

Directed and Written by: Quentin Dupieux

Photography, Editing: Quentin Dupieux

Art and Set Direction: Joan Le Boru

Sound: Guillaume Le Braz, Alexis Place, Gadou Naudin, Cyril Holtz

Starring: Jean Dujardin, Adele Haenel

French with English subtitles

‘I swear never to wear a jacket as long as I live.’

Deerskin first introduces Georges (Jean Dujardin) wearing a green jacket with three plastic buttons.  He parks on the wrong side of the petrol bowser.  And looking at his reflection in the car window he frowns at what he sees.  Then he flushes the jacket in the public toilet.

Yep, Georges is losing it.

The music flares.

And I think to myself, I already like this movie.

The film is character driven and continues to follow Georges.  But there’s another character in this movie.  A jacket.  We meet the beast.  The new jacket: 100% Deerskin.

The way the film flashes to a live deer in the wilderness seals it somehow.  Just how cool the jacket is.  But It’s not. It’s made from the skin of this beautiful innocent animal (see previous flash to said deer in the wilderness).  And, it’s got… fringes.  But Georges LOVES it: ‘Style de tueur (Killer style),’ he says, looking in the mirror.

It just makes me grin.

After that Georges keeps driving.

‘You’re no-where Georges.  You no longer exist.’  That’s what his ex-wife tells him, over the phone.

Georges ends up in the bar of a small village, where he meets the barmaid, Denise (Adele Haenel).  She’s been burnt by love too.  But Georges is a brand-new man in his deerskin jacket.  He tells Denise he’s a film maker.

It makes sense to say he’s a film maker.  He’s been recording film all day, so it’s kinda the same.  ‘No it’s not,’ says the jacket.

Instead of getting to know an available woman, Georges gets to know the jacket as his relationship with this 100% deerskin jacket becomes the subject of Georges’ movie to be.

Killer style indeed.

Director and writer Quentin Dupieux says, ‘I wanted to film insanity.’

And Georges has lost it.  But wow, he’s really enthusiastic about it.

The way Georges insanity is shown is somehow shocking and hilarious.

It’s the same dark humour used in, The Lobster, but less confronting even though there’s more killing…  And this whole jacket business is just so ticklish.

Jean Dujardin (who plays Georges in the film) explains it’s Quentin’s use of space that creates the comedy, ‘It’s in those moments of hesitation that the comedy and drama blend. You’re right on the borderline. All those scenes, for example, in which Georges demands money, or can’t pay. Quentin takes the time to stretch out the sense of malaise, to allow for some lingering doubt. Is Georges going to turn violent? Weep? Laugh? You never know what will happen. Time stands still for a moment, and those little agonies make me want to die laughing.’

Then there’s Georges dream in life – for him, it’s all about wearing this deerskin jacket.  To be the only person wearing… a jacket.  It doesn’t make sense.  But from the perspective of Georges, as he makes a film about his dream, it kinda does.

The character Denise gets it.  She reckons the jacket is like a shell to protect the wearer from the outside world.

I think it’s because Georges hates who he used to be, wearing that green blazer with the three plastic buttons.

Or perhaps Deerskin is just a weirdo movie that’s put together in a way that somehow makes sense.

Whether you analyse the layers or not, I was thoroughly absorbed and entertained from start to finish.

Like Denise says, ‘I’m into it.’

The Vigil

Rated: MA15+The Vigil

Directed and Written by: Keith Thomas

Produced by: J. D. Lifshitz & Raphael Margules of BoulderLight Pictures and Adam Margules

Cinematographer: Zach Kuperstein

Score: Micael Yezerski

Starring: Dave Davis, Menashe Lustig, Malky Goldman, Lynn Cohen, Fred Melamed, Ronald Cohen, Nati Rabinowitz, Moshe Lobel, Efraim Miller, Lea Kalisch and Ethan Stone.

The Vigil has the style of a classic horror, of creaking floorboards and shadows hiding in the dark combined with a different style of story: a Jewish shomer or watchman of the dead, haunted by a monster awakened in a forest during the Holocaust.

Recently moving to ‘Boro’ Park, Brooklyn (a Hasidic community), Yakov (Dave Davis) is adapting to his new life in America.  Having just lost his faith and struggling – having to choose between buying medication or food – the leader of a support group for Jews adapting to their new life says, ‘What matters is that we’re moving forward.’

And underneath all the shadows and monsters, moving forward is the driving theme of the film.

When Yakov is offered the job of shomer, he weighs up his hesitation to return to a life he wants to leave behind versus the offer of money he desperately needs to pay his bills.

All he has to do is sit for five hours and wait for morning.

It only takes fifteen minutes for him to believe he’s losing his mind.

Set over one night, most of The Vigil is set in the house of recently deceased Rubin Lutvak and his wife.  A known recluse, Mr Lutvak was the only surviving member of his family after the Second World War.

It’s all dark and creepy and goes down that path of history and memory so there’s a complete story behind the monster haunting, damned to look back at the past.

Writer and director Keith Thomas has a background as a novelist (The Clarity (2018) and Dahlia Black (2019)) as well as a screenwriter, and he’s taken time to round out the backstory so The Vigil becomes a horror movie, with a difference.

There’s a feeling that this is a unique storyline because the supernatural of the horror is based on Jewish culture and mysticism.  Where four hundred dollars for five hours of time becomes the price of the shomer’s soul, as he becomes haunted by a monster that feeds on the memories of the broken.

And there’s some scares here, I yelped at one point, after being left on the edge with moments where Yakov thinks he can see something, there in the shadows, so I look, not knowing if the mind is playing tricks or if there’s actually something there.

Dave Davis as Yakov is well-cast, believable in his nonchalance and questioning of his sanity.

And the thumping and scratching, the sharp intake of breath and winding soundtrack adds that extra tension, even more during the silence, the pause, the waiting.

The only drawback for me was the portrayal of the monster, those claws not quite convincing.  Not quite as scary as those shadows used to build the suspense.

But overall, The Vigil is worth a watch.

The Wretched

Rated: MA15+The Wretched

Written and Directed by: The Pierce Brothers (Brett Pierce, Drew Pierce)

Produced by: Chang Tseng, Ed Polgardy

Music Composed by: Devin Burrows

Starring: John-Paul Howard, Piper Curda, Zarah Mahler, Azie Tesfai, Kevin Bigley, Blane Crockarell, Jamison Jones.

‘Can’t be lost if we don’t know where we’re going in the first place.’

Opening 35 years ago to a teen girl going to a house to babysit, it’s all pop music and the 80s.  Until she walks down the stairs to the basement…

Fast forward to five days ago and we meet 17-year-old Ben (John-Paul Howard) on his way to visit his dad (Jamison Jones).

Ben’s got a broken arm, his parents are getting divorced and the local kids are mean.  Except Mallory (Piper Curda) – she has a crush.

It’s all a bit teen, even to the spying on the next-door neighbours when they’re about to get it on.

But horrors and teen dramas can be a good mix if the right characters get killed off and the monster’s scary enough.

Enter, the Dark Mother.  A monster of the forest that feeds on the ‘forgotten’, AKA: eats kids.

‘Mum’s acting weird,’ says young next-door neighbour Dillon (Blane Crockarell).

And quite rightly so as the Dark Mother takes possession, creaking, stinking, her flesh rotting, her whispers making ears bleed.

I just didn’t find this Dark Mother particularly scary.

There’s an overreliance on the soundtrack with no real back story to this monster.

The Pierce Brothers (Brett Pierce, Drew Pierce) were inspired by Roald Dahl’s The Witches and the experience of living through their parents’ divorce.  “We cobbled together our favorite aspects of Black Annis, an English legend, and the Boo Hag of the Appalachian Mountains and fused it with our own creepy concepts.”

But the idea behind the monster doesn’t translate.  Adding some history into the film would have given the Dark Mother more meaning, giving the scares more meat.  Instead, she’s a mystery in the film, where all Ben can figure is that it exists.

But it’s not all bad.

The story itself has some twists, and the pacing of the drama is just right.

The dad character adds a playful tone to the otherwise taking-life-way-too-seriously son, Ben:

‘The TV doesn’t have a HDMI port,’ says Ben.

The Dad replies, ‘Did you plug it in?’

Yet there’s no circling back to that 35 years ago beginning of the film, so why start there?

The film lived out its own journey of, can’t be lost if it doesn’t know where it’s going…

All the symbolism was there but then the narrative got too caught up in the teen drama so the drama was better executed than the horror of the dark monster.

Certainly not the worst horror I’ve seen but the few moments of, OK, that just happened, didn’t lift the tension to any genuine scares.

Burden

Rated: MBurden

Directed by: Andrew Heckler

Written by: Andrew Heckler

Produced by: Robbie Brenner, Bill Kenwright

Starring: Garrett Hedlund, Forest Whitaker, Tom Wilkinson, Andrea Riseborough, Tess Harper, Crystal Fox, Usher.

‘Perfect love drives out fear.’

Hitting a sledgehammer through a pane of glass introduces Mike Burden (Garrett Hedlund).  He’s having fun with his mates; he’s teaching kids to be nice.  He’s a Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan.

Based on a true story, Burden shows Mike as he tries to see past his loyalty to the KKK and the father figure who raised him: leader of the KKK, Tom Griffin (Tom Wilkinson).

The film follows Mike as he begins to see past hate and resentment when he meets single mum, Judy (Andrea Riseborough) and how her young son doesn’t see colour, his best mate black and the son of an old high-school friend Clarence (Usher Raymond): someone Mike says to a KKK member he can talk to but wouldn’t sit and eat dinner with.

Set in 1996, tension rises in the small town of Laurens, South Carolina when the Klan opens up, The Redneck KKK Museum.

The black community led by Reverend Kennedy (Forest Whitaker) protests against the glorifying of the KKK’s hateful past.

What the film shows and what writer and director, Andrew Heckler has captured is not just a right and wrong side, or a good versus evil – there’s family and community in the Klan and in the flock of Reverend Kennedy.

The film makes the point of how important family is in the Klan, and how kind.  And how hateful.

From the Klan there’s talk of protection and heritage, then there’s the Reverend talking of love thy neighbour, rebuke evil and the fire of love.

With Forest Whitaker you always know there’s going to be some authentic sincerity – used well here as the Reverend navigates his very human feelings of hate for those who lynched his uncle versus his love of God, to want to rise up to lift others.

Love is what saves Mike – from the increasing violence and threat of murder.  It’s his love of Judy and seeing the world through the innocent eyes of her son.  And it’s the embrace of acceptance and understanding from a man he once would have killed because of the colour of his skin.

I admit, I was bracing myself before watching this film, feeling oversensitive with all the protests and racial tension in the world.  I find the violence in true stories harder to watch.  But Burden is more drama than horror or crime.

This is a film about the individual, about Mike letting go of that American Dream.  And if you don’t get it then it’s got to be someone’s fault.

About needing someone, ‘to step on to feel better.’

By turning away from resentment, Mike becomes free.

And at the moment, any message of Be Kind is very welcome.

Be kind peeps.

Vivarium

Rated: MVivarium

Directed by: Lorcan Finnegan

Written by: Garret Shanley

Produced by: Brendan McCarthay & John McDonnell

Co-Producers: Jean-Yves Roubin, Cassandre Warnauts, Alexander Brøndsted, Antonio Tublen

Starring: Imogen Poots & Jesse Eisenberg.

“The idea of owning your own home has become like a faery tale. Insidious advertising promises ‘ideal living’, a fantasy version of reality that we strive towards. It is the bait that leads many into a trap. Once ensnared we work our whole lives to pay off debts. The social contract is a strange and invisible agreement that we flutter towards like moths to a flame.” – Director, Lorcan Finnegan.

Watching a cuckoo bird kick the other baby bird out of its nest and to see the mother feed the imposter – demanding, destroying, killing – sets the tone of the world young couple, Tom (Jesse Eisenberg) and Gemma (Imogen Poots) find themselves trapped: Yonder: You’re Home Right Now.

Walking into a real estate agent’s office, they follow the creepy agent, Martin (Jonathan Aris) to the Yonder housing development, only to find the creepy agent has left and they can’t seem to find their way out – all they can see are perfect clouds and identical green houses lined up, green and the many shades of green, they always end up back at Number 9.

And inside Number 9 is one blue room, the baby room.  The baby boy room.

‘Do you have any children?’

‘No, not yet,’ Gemma replies with a clap.

‘No, not yet,’ mimics creepy Martin – clap.

Vivarium’s a creepy movie with flashes of sci-fi and the drama of a couple stuck in what becomes a living hell.  Where they’re left with a child to raise who speaks like a man.

It’s tempting to see the comment of young couples getting trapped into these model houses (the point made by director, Lorcan Finnegan), but to also be trapped into having a family, to be fed upon until left as a dry husk…  But raising a family gives back as much as it takes (I’m generalising here).  A Cuckoo bird?  It just takes.

It’s like a survival story where I’d be trying the same things to escape those endless fake green houses and the screaming not-boy.

“I am not your mother,” says Gemma.  Yet she continues to feed him, wash him, put him to bed.

The bulk of the story is the relationship between Tom and Gemma, the tidy build of pressure as time outside of the normal world takes from them more than physical labour or starvation, it’s the psychological toll of living somewhere else that destroys.  The monotony poisons, as the cuckoo bird takes what’s left.

“That’s nature, that’s just the way things are.”

A bleak film, but thoroughly absorbing.

Come to Daddy

Rated: MA15+Come to Daddy

Directed by: Ant Timpson

Based on an Idea by: Ant Timpson

Story by: Toby Harvard

Starring: Elijah Wood, Stephen McHattie, Garfield Wilson, Madeleine Sami, Martin Donovan, Michael Smiley, Simon Chin, Ona Grauer, Ryan Beil.

Based on the idea from William Shakespeare, ‘The sins of the father are to be laid upon the children,’ Come to Daddy has city boy, Norval (Elijah Wood) dragging a silver suitcase through the woods to visit a father who abandoned him when he was five years old.

Dragging his suitcase, he loses his hat.

It’s the beginning of his exposure as being, ‘Full of shit.’

He knocks on the door, ‘Dad, it’s me.  Norval.’

And I wondered how many layers there would be to Norval, to the story, as the mystery of this, Dad becomes more obscure.

What we get is a violent kooky comedy that skirts the line between mystery and weird, the screenplay like a story written by a uni student with father issues.  Which is fine, but it translated like a bad dream rather than a story for a movie because of the many red herrings.

Elija Wood as Norval does a lot of the heavy lifting, being the only ‘normal’ character in the film.

Including a cop describing liars as having ‘raisin eyes’, and a coroner who has ‘no filter’ and no real role in the film.  But I guess that’s true to life, the random strangers that make an appearance, then exit.

I don’t want to give too much away as there are unexpected turns making the film feel original.

But there are more strange moments as the mystery of this unpredictable and alcoholic father are revealed, that don’t quite add up, taking away the already tenuous grasp on that suspension of reality.

To add to that strangeness of gore and obscure, the scenery and setting is beautiful; the beach house, a stilted house overlooking the sea, my favourite part of the film, and aptly described by Norval as, ‘A UFO from the 1960s’.  Cool, right?

And some moments are kinda cool and funny – I say skirting, because the film doesn’t completely cross the line into the bizarre, but there just isn’t enough to stack-up making, Come to Daddy more puzzling than surprising.

Easter Movie List

Nat’s Ten Delightful Movies to Watch Over Easter

JoJo Rabbit

 

Thunder Road

 

Hunt for the Wilderpeople

Paddington 2

Johnny English Strikes Again!

Abominable

 

The Royal Tenenbaums

 

Dean Spanley

 

The Guard

 

Top End Wedding

Dark Waters

Rated: MDark Waters

Directed by: Todd Havnes

Written by: Mario Correa and Matthew Michael Carnahan

Based on The New York Times Magazine article, “The Lawyer Who Became DuPont’s Worst Nightmare,” by Nathaniel Rich

Produced by: Mark Ruffalo, Pamela Koffler, Christine Vachon

Starring: Mark Ruffalo, Anne Hathaway, Tim Robbins, Bill Camp, Victor Garber, Mare Winningham, William Jackson Harper, Bill Pullman.

Better living through chemistry – that’s the catch phrase from big chem company, DuPont.

For decades the company has been sticking Teflon onto everything: carpet, teeth whitener; it’s the stuff that makes fry pans, non-stick.  The stuff is everywhere, making DuPont one billion a year in pure profit.

When Rob Bilott (Mark Ruffalo) makes partner at a prestigious Cincinnati law firm, it’s everything he and his wife Sarah (Anne Hathaway) have worked for.

Until a couple of farmers from West Virginia turn up at the office with a box full of video tapes of dead or dying cows.

Rob’s grandmother who lives in the area gave the farmers his name because he’s an environmental attorney.  A corporate environmental defence attorney for the chemical companies.

But what Rob sees when he visits his grandmother is enough to sue DuPont, resulting in a case spanning two decades, a case he continues to fight today.

It’s a classic David and Goliath tale of the small people being knowingly poisoned by the big chem company for profit.

Even with compassion fatigue (after seeing so many of these films and after watching what’s on the news), I was still stunned by the evil of a company that would knowingly lace cigarettes of employees with a toxic, man-made chemical to see what would happen.

It’s a stark tale based on the true story and The New York Times Magazine article, “The Lawyer Who Became DuPont’s Worst Nightmare,” by Nathaniel Rich.

Adding to the bleak story is the way the film was shot, in the middle of a bitterly cold winter of snow, flat colourless buildings in a small community filled with sick residents.

Stark and Anne Hathaway cast in a wholly unsuitable role – I just couldn’t believe her performance as the housewife: it’s depressing.

Yet, it’s a movie that starts to answer the question of why so many people seem to be getting cancer these days.

Not that every cancer is accountable to the dreaded man-made PFOA compound.  But this is a story of just one of the ‘forever chemicals’ floating around.  That once in the body can never be processed and eliminated.

It’s not the family or the expose that gives this film momentum – the story here is the truth of the story itself.  And it’s bleak.