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.

Boys Cry (La Terra Dell’Abbastanza)

Rated: MA15+

Directed by: Damiano D’Innocenzo, Fabio D’Innocenzo

Screenplay by: “D’Innocenzo Brothers”

Produced by: Agustino Giuseppe, Maria Grazia Sacca
Director of photography: Paolo Carnera

Starring: Luca Zingaretti, Andrea Carpenzano, Matteo Olivetti, Milena Mancini, Massimiliano Tortora.

Winner of Best First Film at the 2018 Nastri d’Argento Awards

Manolo (Andrea Carpenzano) and Mirko (Matteo Olivetti) have been through primary and high school together. They have girlfriends and dead-end jobs delivering pizza.

When Mirko accidently runs down a guy, killing him, Manolo tells him to keep going – his dad will know what to do.

From that moment their lives change. An accidental hit and run that happens to take out a snitch of the mafia makes them think they’ve won the lottery when the accident ends in an induction into the mafia – going from zero to a thousand in a moment making a rags to riches change in their lives.

All they have to do is kill and pimp out underage girls.

Mirko’s girlfriend asks, ‘If you and me broke up would you cry?’

When he doesn’t answer she says, ‘I would’.

Boys Cry isn’t about Manolo and Mirko crying, it’s about a sickness that slowly eats away their lives until there’s nothing left.

The film is blunt and at times boring, like life. Even down to a mafia henchman making sauce on the same stove-top as a bubbling concoction of drugs: the every-day in the setting of crime making the crime seem every-day.

Boys Cry isn’t a fast-paced thriller, yet it was hard to look away as these two young guys waste their lives and sell their soul because they don’t realise what they’re giving away.

It’s a comment on the value of life. Where the reaction to wrong isn’t emotional but a physical sickness. Where empathy is replaced with ambition.

When a high-risk job comes up the Captain of the mafia knows the stupidity of asking the new recruits to complete what really should be done by an experienced killer. But what have they got to lose? Two kids? Slowly turning into psychos?

Some of the camera work gets creative, focussing on the eyes; panning above to show a map of attack, to distance the action only to grip when the action is filmed inside – simple yet effective.

But the film is driven by dialogue, by the conversation between the two friends as they descend into a space where they cease to feel.

Ghosthunter

Rated: M

Directed & Written by: Ben Hunter

Produced by: Rebecca Bennett

Music by: Rafael May

Director of Photography: Hugh Miller

Featuring: Jason King

Produced with the co-operation of the NSW Police Force

Writer and director, Ben Hunter originally saw Ghosthunter as a story about grief.

Seeing an advertisement in the paper about a Ghosthunting business, and then finding out Jason King, founder of the Ghosthunting crew, had started the business when he had his eyes opened to the Other side because he saw the apparition of his recently departed brother, sitting on a couch across from him – Ben wondered if Jason was projecting his grief outward.

He organises to meet with Jason, finding a Western-suburb large-as-life Sydney boy who works security, who doesn’t like to read and had only found his recently passed brother in adulthood because he turned up and announced he was his brother. Jason questioned his mother about the existence of this brother, who confirmed that yes, it was true, and for reasons he couldn’t fathom, had never told him.

Did they have the same father?

Documentary director Ben Hunter was happy to help solve this mystery without realising the story he was about to uncover.

Sourcing hospital records about Jason’s medical history, it becomes apparent he had multiple hospital admissions with what was noted as clumsiness. Soon becoming obvious that Jason suffered from chronic abuse.

It was a question of asking Jason, Do you want to continue? Do you want to find this mysterious father?

Denial from his mother about the injuries and any further responsibility or input into the documentary, the research continues over seven years as layers keep being peeled from Jason’s past – the gaps in his memory revealed as victims of his father’s abuse reach out.

There are so many complicated emotions as this unexpected story unfolds with the interviewing of Jason and his friends, family and other victims. Along with the police involvement tackling the crime, the film turns into a more unsettling reveal of a deeply damaged individual struggling to keep his good heart. We see Jason’s ignorance turn to revelation and all the ugly that comes with the knowledge his Dad was an abuser.

What crushed me was the fact that after all these years of Jason trying to find his father, then finding out he’s a monster, to then fill in those gaps of memory – to see the victims names written on the bricks of an apartment hallway where he used to live but had forgotten until seeing those names – then for his father to say he doesn’t remember him, his son. It’s devastating.

I went to this particular screening because of the Q&A with director, Ben Hunter.

When questioned as to how he handled the unfolding of such a confronting story, one where he had no idea where it was headed but doing his best to uncover, give air and still remain safe, I wasn’t surprised when Ben answered that he seriously considered taking on the advice of people telling him to pour a circle of salt around his person because that’s what you do to keep out the ghosts.

It took courage to keep following Jason as he remembered his father while walking down those cinder-block hallways as lights flickered into darkness.

Ben followed for seven years.

It picks at me because the story is still unfolding as Jason fights against the damage already done – he keeps saying he just has to move forward… Into what?

Mile 22

Rated: MA15+

Directed by: Peter Berg

Screenplay by: Lea Carpenter

Story by: Lea Carpenter and Graham Roland

Produced by: Mark Wahlberg, p.g.a. Stephen Levinson, p.g.a, Peter Berg, p.g.a

Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Lauren Cohan, Iko Uwais, John Malkovich, Ronda Rousey, Carlo Albán, Natasha Goubskaya, Chae Rin Lee, Sam Medina, Keith Arthur Bolden, Jenique Hendrix, Billy Smith, Myke Holmes, Emily Skeggs, Terry Kinney, Brandon Scales, Poorna Jagannathan, Peter Berg, Elle Graham and Nikolai Nikolaeff.

There’s no holding back in this action packed, political spy-thriller.

With blood and high-tech computer-based espionage shown through images captured by drones circling the sky and hand-held cam shots up close to see the visceral, at times, cringe worthy throat-cutting on gagged windows action (yeah, ouch!) – I was completely enthralled with this intelligent and believable military operation.

Based on the paramilitary unit within the CIA’s Special Activity Division, Ground Branch, James Silva (Mark Wahlberg) is team leader of Overwatch, a quick reaction force activated by ranking officer, Bishop (John Malkovich) when radioactive powder disks used to make dirty bombs go missing.

When a double agent forces his way to the American Embassy in South East Asia (fictional country of Indocarr) claiming to have intel on where the powder is located, the team must get Li Noor (Iko Uwais) to the airstrip for safe evacuation before he’ll give up the codes to access the intel, all while enemies stop at nothing to take the team down.

Although an action movie, there’s a lot of focus on character.

Opening on with Jimmy’s, (James Silva) background as an orphaned gifted-child, the film paces through his history like flicking through a deck of playing cards.

And the whole movie flies, each scene getting more bloody as the plot adds layer upon layer while Child 1, AKA Silva throws out statements like, ‘No birthday cake!’ while constantly flicking an elastic band on his wrist, the shock of pain supposed to keep his temper in check, but mostly adding a disturbing smack to his words – an indication of explosive violence barely held in check: brilliant.

Director Peter Berg loves his action thrillers his last three based on true stories (think: Patriots Day, Lone Survivor, Deepwater). Here he returns once again collaborating with Wahlberg, this time making a film from fiction from first time screenwriter, Lea Carpenter.

I’d love to see more writing from Carpenter. And seeing Wahlberg as an arse hole was gold: he’s so nasty it’s funny.

All the characters here were bad-arse, with Alice (Lauren Cohan) as a mother dealing with her ‘fuck wit’ ex as tough as the rest, the threat of I’ll go get, ‘a sledgehammer and ice axe and fuck you up’, a believable statement.

Violent, hard-arsed characters in action flicks can feel try-hard but not here.

And Indonesian actor Iko Uwais as the double agent on the road to betray his country was a pleasure to watch as his martial art fighting style erupts in stark contrast to his finger tapping meditation technique used to keep calm and get the job done.

There’s biometrics, drones, shots from car windshields, explosions – Doug Fox, who pulls double duty as both prop master and lead armorer says, “For this movie, we’re in the neighborhood of 50 weapons […]. That includes machine guns, M-4’s, AK’s, and Uzis; we also have to ship 40,000 rounds of blank ammo.” Just to give an idea of the amount of carnage.

And there’re flash forwards with Jimmy explaining in post-operation interview the unravelling of events as the four operatives transfer the Asset, 22 Miles in 38 minutes.

A simple concept, with many layers, so believable and so very violent – loved it.

The Nun

Rated: MA15+

Directed by: Corin Hardy

Screenplay by: Gary Dauberman

Story by: James Wan & Gary Dauberman

Produced by: Peter Safran, p.g.a, James Wan, p.g.a

Starring: Demian Bichir, Taissa Farmiga, Jonas Bloquet, Bonnie Aarons.

After first making her presence known in, ‘The Conjuring 2’, audiences were left wondering where the demonic being, Nun Valak originated. Here, ‘The Nun’ is set in 1952 in Romania where screen writer Gary Dauberman (“IT,” the “Annabelle” films) explores the beginnings of this force dripping with evil, leaking its way out of the chasm beneath the cloister where nuns worship isolated from the rest of the world.

Director Corin Hardy makes full use of filming in the dark 14th-century castles of Romania, including the Abby of St. Carta, with tunnels beneath the surface creating shadows and inescapable hallways as Father Burke (Demian Bichir), novitiate on the threshold of her final vow, Sister Irene (Taissa Farmiga) and local villager Frenchie (Jonas Bloquet) investigate the suicide of a nun.

The more they dig, the more horror they find buried beneath the surface (so to speak).

I had high hopes for, ‘The Nun’ after the introduction of this terrifying creature in, ‘The Conjuring 2’ (where many in the audience left because it was so scary!) but instead of the build-up and surprising evolution of terror, here we have moments of panning like pregnant moments in a day-time soap opera. Instead of building to climax, the moments are just… left…

The flowing shadows of spectres and bell-ringing from graves set the scene and the believable and wide-eyed Sister Irene answered some of our questions about The Nun. But I was left with more questions unanswered about the murder of nuns who were left murderous without explanation.

I’m glad we weren’t left with a psycho exorcist film which really could have been a focus here, with all the Catholicism and crosses and well, possessed nuns. But there were red-herrings and loose threads that just didn’t pull the story together well enough to be truly scary. Long moments left to drift didn’t make suspense. And the overreliance of the scare-factor of evil nuns made the nuns not so scary.

I liked that there was no digitisation used to create the spectre of The Nun; and there was some clever camera work using a Steadicam for Sister Irene versus handheld for Father Burke. But there was none of the subtle, corner-of-your-eye moment where The Nun appears like she’s been created out of your subconscious. So there was that missing creeping under the skin that Wan manages to create with the early instalments of Insidious and The Conjuring series.

Weaving back to the Conjuring verse made The Nun feel more like the Annabelle series than a Conjuring Part 3 – which didn’t make it terrible, just not as good as it could have been.

McQueen

Rated: MA15+

Directed by: Ian Bohôte

Co-Directed & Written by: Peter Ettedgui

Produced by: Nick Taussig, Andee Ryder & Paul Van Carter

Composer: Michael Nyman

Featuring: Alexander McQueen

Alexander McQueen became a fashion icon for his confronting sabotage of tradition, his haute couture fashion shows exhibiting the visions from his tortured soul.

Bruised, battered and embraced by the industry, McQueen rose from humble beginnings growing up as a lad in Leeds to become head designer for Givenchy which led to backing from Dior; his label, McQueen rising as much from infamy as from his genius to create.

His shows were made to provoke emotion: revolt, repulsion, revelation. As long as there was a reaction: “I would go to the end of my dark side and pull these horrors out of my soul and put them on the catwalk.” ― Alexander McQueen.

McQueen is a documentary pieced together like tapes from his life. Recordings of old footage taken by friends and McQueen himself to archived interviews of the designer and those closest to him: his mother, his industry supporters such as his mentor Isabella Blow close like family, to current interviews made for the film from his older sister and nephew and colleagues including stylist Mira Chai Hyde and assistant designer Sebastian Pons.

We’re given a back-stage pass into McQueen’s life from his beginnings as a youngster obsessed with drawing dresses to his drive to succeed in a world shockingly different to the tubby, shabbily dressed boy who used his dole money to buy fabric while going back to his parents for tins of bake beans.

I’m not a fashion obsessive but it was fascinating to see the man work, to see his process and gain insight from those closet to him. But more than anything I enjoyed seeing his creations, his fashion shows like theatre, his work like sculpture, his vision unique.

McQueen’s ability to turn garbage bags into dresses by waving his magic hands was absurd and genius.

And he was cheeky: As Detmar, Issie Blow’s husband, remembers McQueen telling the models, “You’ve got to put your pubic hair in Anna Wintour’s face. It was just very naughty behaviour.”

The film follows his life through the themes of five major works, displaying his morbid fascination of the dark with titles like, “Jack the Ripper Stalks His Victims,” his 1992 graduate college collection and “Highland Rape.” His shows were inflammatory and macabre.

McQueen rose to fame because he didn’t care what people thought. He rose because he took risks.

As one model states of his finale in his collection of beauty and madness in, “Voss”: ‘Fat birds and moths – isn’t that Fashion’s worst nightmare?!’

But when he became famous, that’s when his personal life began to unravel.

Director Ian Bohôte (producer of, 20,000 Days on Earth) gives us a documentary that allows the work of McQueen to speak for itself by focussing on his life through each collection – his anger after, “Search for the Golden Fleece,” his first collection designed for Givenchy, to his rebellion in, “Voss”. We see his grief in “Plato’s Atlantis” and we see his final show before his death.

We see the tortured soul of the man as he reveals everything in his work.

As the timeline of his life moves forward, his rise to fame equals his personal downward spiral as those close to him discuss what they could see happening to McQueen.

Yet, his expression continued to amaze – his honesty and grief sometimes ethereal.

The documentary takes you on that journey showing the sensitivity of what made the man.

It’s a sad story that challenges while informing – not a celebration but more a documentation of his life: honest, like the man.

Hearts Beat Loud

Rated: PG

Directed by: Brett Haley

Co-Written by: Brett Haley, Marc Basch

Produced by: Houston King, Sam Bisbee, Sam Slater

Original Songs/Music: Keegan Dewitt

Starring: Nick Offerman, Kiersey Clemons, Ted Danson, Toni Collette, Sasha Lane, Blyth Danner.

Hearts Beat Loud is one of those films that can really go either way – a father and daughter who write songs and play together in a band?! Cheesy!

But when I saw Nick Offerman was starring, I knew I was in for a treat.

Featuring the original songs and music by Keegan Dewitt, there’s an indie flavour as one-time musician and record shop owner Frank plays melody on guitar while his daughter, Sam sings and plays keyboard.

When they record a song and Frank uploads the track to Spotify, suddenly becoming a band for real is now a possibility when their song is selected to be part of the ‘New Indie Mix’, reaching thousands of listeners – a success at a time when Frank’s future at the record store looks bleak while Sam’s about to leave to study Pre-Med at college.

Director Brett Haley wanted to make a musical where the songs are grounded in real-life situations, so it’s not narrative made of song but rather the music being a mode of communication.

Rather than an awful saccharine musical, the soundtrack makes the film work because the music is gold. As Frank (Nick Offerman) says of Sam’s (Kiersey Clemons) song and hook for the film, Hearts Beat Loud, ‘it just has to have a feeling – this has feeling’.

Sure, OK, it does get a bit cheesy near the end with enthusiasm as ‘We’re Not A Band’ plays their first ever performance… But I was already pretty emotional by that stage with Frank’s store, Red Hook Records about to close and seeing him struggle with a resistive teen daughter on his own and an ailing mother Marianne (Blyth Danner) and the acceptance of what will never be…

And there’s some gems here like Frank telling Sam, ‘When life hands you conundrums you turn them into art.’

It’s all very life-affirming and inventive and creative and sweet.

We see the relationship between father and daughter and their community of friends from bar-owner, Dave (Ted Danson), landlady Leslie (Toni Collette) and Sam’s girlfriend Rose (Sasha Lane) all part of the growing process of father and daughter as they look to their next stage in life while remaining close.

It’s an accepting, bitter-sweet story that had me, I admit, crying happy tears because it’s hard to move on and grow and change. But it’s also healthy and good.

Director and co-writer Brett Haley states, ‘Given the level of anxiety in the world right now, it was very important to make a film that makes people feel good, and that reminds people of the simple goodness in the world and in ordinary life.’

You Were Never Really Here

Rated: MA15+

Directed by: Lynne Ramsay

Screenplay by: Lynne Ramsay

Based on the book by: Jonathan Ames

Produced by: Rosa Attab, Pascal Caucheteux, James Wilson, Rebecca O’Brien, Lynne Ramsay

Director of Photography: Thomas Townend

Music by: Jonny Greenwood

Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Judith Roberts, Ekaterina Samsonov, John Doman, Alex Manette, Dante Pereira-Olson, Alessandro Nivola.

Winner of Best Actor & Best Screenplay at Cannes Film Festival, 2017, there’s already a buzz surrounding the release of this film – and, You Were Never Really Here went beyond expectation.

This is a grisly and astounding crime film where director and screen writer, Lynne Ramsay (We Need To Talk About Kevin (2011)) has brought together disjointed elements of different sounds and disjointed time to create something more.

Note the music by Jonny Greenwood AKA lead guitarist and keyboardist of, Radiohead and creator of the soundtrack of, Phantom Thread which I also gave five stars.

Flashbacks and hallucinations show the fragile mind of Joe (Joaquin Phoenix), ex-military, gun-for-hire, as he works jobs as an enforcer – ‘brutally’ if necessary.

With hammer in hand Joe delivers a fatal blow to henchmen who get in his way like he’s striking a blow at the demons who continue to haunt him. He’s like an avenging angel – a theme built upon through-out the film.

This is a brutally beautiful film based on the book by Jonathan Ames where little girls need to be rescued from very bad men.

When Joe’s asked to meet a senator whose daughter, Nina (Ekaterina Samsonov), has been taken, we see just how brutal Joe can be and how deep the darkness reaches from the men who hide evil behind power.

This is a visceral and gritty crime movie with a magnetising performance from Joaquin Phoenix – I just couldn’t look away from this guy.

There’s something fascinating about Joaquin as he perfectly imbodies this hitman haunted by his past.

I was tempted to draw comparisons with, Léon: The Professional (1994): the older assassin who befriends the young girl.

But You Were Never Really Here is more than the relationship between a bad guy doing good and a troubled young girl who understands – this is more about Joe haunted by his past; about the mother he cares for (Judith Roberts) and a mind lost in memory.

With the dislocation of time, the past and present blur only to be brought back into focus with Joe grounding himself by asking, ‘What the fuck am I doing?’

Images sign-post the story: the dilated pupils of a girl’s blue eyes; the silence of a black and white security camera video; broken glasses, the eye glass with blood-stained jagged edges; the disintegration of a green jelly bean, the fracture of sugar a signal of the darkness to come.

There’s a crime story here but the weight of the film lies in the showing of how Joe sees the world as we look at him as his eyes are reflected in a car window looking back.

Astounding performance, gritty story and visually, brutally poetic.

Submergence

Rated: M

Directed by: Wim Wenders

Based on the novel, “Submergence” by: J.M. Ledgard

Screenplay Written by: Erin Dignam

Cinematographer: Benoît Debie

Produced by: Cameron Lamb along with Wim Wenders and Uwe Kiefer

Starring: Alicia Vikander, James McAvoy, Cerlyn Jones, Reda Kateb, Alexander Siddig and Hakeemshady Mohamed.

Based on the novel written by journalist J.M. Ledgard, Submergence opens the door to soaring cliffs and underwater twilight, to the senseless violence of women buried and bashed and foreigners imprisoned while Jihadists make suicide vests.

This is a movie of contrasts, where bio-mathematician Danielle Flinders (Alicia Vikander) and British Secret Service agent James More (James McAvoy) meet at a hotel on the Normandy coast in France.

Danielle’s a professor and believer in nature with a drive to understand the depths of the ocean down to where there’s no light, just darkness, searching for the origin of life to show the world there’s life in darkness.

Scottish agent James believes the world’s about power, that education is secondary – he wants to save the world by stopping terrorists from setting off bombs. His mission is to travel to Somalia to find the men responsible, to put his own life at risk to save others.

They meet; they fall in love. They each have a mission where they may never come back.

Submersion is a romance. The eyes meeting, searching to reveal the other. Yet, there’s this thread of water and life.

We’re introduced to the happy professor as she works on the discovery of the origins of life on earth; her research to compare samples with those from Mars, ground breaking.

Dani’s whole being is about work and what it means to the world.

She’s then drawn into a smaller world, a bubble – where love is like death; where apart she realises she’s never been lonely before.

To which her colleague Thumbs (Cerlyn Jones) replies, ‘Welcome to the planet’.

The film floats around with one storyline flowing into the other, from the underwater world viewed from a submersible hundreds of kilometres below the surface, to the stark desert sun where James is chained, waiting interrogation – waiting to get back to Danielle.

I drifted in and out of the film with the meeting of the British operatives to the lovers discussing life, to the science of photosynthetic life that creates through light to the organisms of darkness who live on chemicals – director Wim Wenders gives poetry to the perspective.

I liked McAvoy as the Scottish operative who falls in love – he’s a witty and likable character and quite a different role with more warmth and less crazy than his recent previous roles in such films as, ‘Split (2016)’, ‘Atomic Blonde (2017)’ or even ‘Trance (2013)’. I admit I’m a big fan.

Alicia Vikander as the mathematician was slow to warm as she falls for the Scotsman.

They’re a couple I found more believable apart than together.

I didn’t believe their love for each other as much as their passion for life because there was so much reasoning involved.

The contrast of the scientist, the solider, the extremists who believe Jihad is life after death – this is what I found interesting.

As Wenders states:
“What I really hope is on a rainy Thursday night in Bristol or Detroit or wherever you are, when you come out of the cinema, your perspective of the planet, on your own habits, is just altered slightly. You will realize how large the world is, how varied it is, but also how fragile it is.”

Overall, I found Submergence a quietly absorbing and interesting escape.

Crazy Rich Asians

Directed by: Jon M. Chu

Screenplay by: Peter Chiarelli and Adele Lim

Based on the novel, ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ by: Kevin Kwan

Produced by: Nina Jacobson, p. g. a., Brad Simpson, p. g. a., Jong Penotti, p., g., a.,

Starring: Constance Wu, Henry Golding, Michelle Yeoh, Gemma Chan, Lisa Lu, Awkwafina, Harry Shum Jr., Ken Jeong, Sonoya Mizuno, Chris Pang, Jimmy O. Yang, Ronny Chieng, Remy Hii, Nico Santos, Jing Lusi, Carmen Soo, Pierre Png, Fiona Xie, Victoria Loke, Janice Koh, Amy J Cheng, Koh Chieng Mun, Calvin Wong, Tan Kheng Hua, Constance Lau, Selena Tan, Nevan Koit, Amanda Evans.

Like Rachel Chu’s (Constance Wu) ‘auspicious nose’ I’m feeling very lucky watching Crazy Rich Asians just before going on holiday to Singapore – but trust me, I’m flying economy!

Watching Crazy Rich Asians does make you feel glamorous and extravagant, thrown into the world of the superrich. And not just rich, old money rich.

Rachel may be an NYU Economics professor, but she doesn’t know what she’s getting into when travelling from New York to Singapore to go to her boyfriend, Nick Young’s (Henry Golding) childhood friend’s wedding. And to meet his family… The family… The Youngs.

Like Rachel’s college friend, Peik Lin Goh (Awkwafina) says, Nick’s like the Asian Bachelor.

And when everyone realises that Rachel’s a Chu but not any Chu worth noting, the claws come out.

Nick’s family are posh and snobby: they’re ‘snoshy’.

To survive, Rachel needs to fight back to prove that love can conquer money.

There’re some great characters here with already mentioned college friend Peik explaining the Singapore world – that they think she’s a banana: yellow on the outside and white inside. And Peik’s ‘new rich’ family are hilarious with Neenah Goh, AKA Aunty (Koh Chieng Mun) and hubby, Wye Mun Goh (Ken Jeong) and creepy single brother (Calvin Wong) lurking and talking photos at every opportunity.

Based on Kevin Kwan’s New York Times and international bestseller novel, I can see why the story’s so popular.

There’s humour, love, history, the difficulties of relationships – the trial of meeting Chinese-mum-knows-best Eleanor Young (Michelle Yeoh) and the matriarch and Grandmother Ah Ma (Lisa Lu) who knows better. There’s the story of the beautiful and warm sister, Astrid Young Teo (Gemma Chan) trying to make her husband feel like a man. And the story of a mother who had to fight and give up her own ambitions of a career for family.

So even with all the money and glitz the story is still relatable.

It’s just that beautiful mansions lit up like a fairy tale castle in the middle of the jungle and rare orchids blooming at night and crazy fashion with golden sparkly outfits and party ships in international waters and fireworks look like so much fun on the big screen.

Sure, it’s over the top. But why not!

The film’s like a bejewelled party box with a heart-warming romance inside.

I had a lot of fun watching this movie to the extent I’m wondering if I’m becoming a romantic because Nick Young was just so gorgeous and polite and lovely and Rachel’s such a relatable, likeable character: I loved that they were in love.

And there’s more to this film than romance and, ‘love conquers all’, Crazy Rich Asians is also about integrity being worth far more than money.

BlacKkKlansman

Rated: MA15+

Director: Spike Lee

Written by: Charlie Wachtel, David Rabinowitz, Kevin Willmott, Spike Lee

Based on the Novel by: Ron Stallworth

Produced by: Sean McKittrick, Jason Blum, Ray Mansflied, Jordan Peele, Spike Lee, Shaun Redick

Music by: Terence Blanchard

Starring: John David Washington, Adam Driver, Topher Grace, Corey Hawkins, Laura Harrier, Ryan Eggold, Jaspar Pääkkönen, Ashlie Atkinson.

Winner of the Grand Prix Award (Cannes Film Festival 2018)

Based on the true story written by Ron Stallworth, BlacKkKlansman is set in 70s America where the Civil Rights movement of African-Americans’ fight against oppression.

Ron Stallworth (John David Washington) has just landed a job at the Colorado Springs Police Department as the first African-American detective where he has to tolerate fellow cops calling African-Americans’, Toads. To his face.

Asked to work undercover, Ron infiltrates The Black Student Alliance (AKA the Black Panthers), to bear witness to the words of Kwame Ture (Corey Hawkins) – a hint of the undercurrent and message of the film that unfolds under the careful direction of Spike Lee.

From the beginning, from the effect of showing words of film projected across the face of a Ku Klux Klan member (Alec Baldwin) as he’s making a propaganda film like so much red paint, like the words leave a curse of blood on his face; to the warmth of faces turned upwards in admiration of the words spoken by Kwame Ture at the Blank Panther rally, who wants the power to be fair and equal, to say black is beautiful; to say fuck the po-lice; to say, Boomshakalaka.

The audience is left in no doubt of the clear division between the white supremacists/KKK/general public and the African-Americans.

This is a political film.

Yet the depth of the divide leaves plenty for the ridiculous and funny.

I couldn’t help but be tickled by the idea of a black cop pretending to be a white supremacist, asking to join the KKK over the phone. To watch as the Klan’s Grand Wizard, David Duke (Topher Grace), is only too happy to help another member of the Klan, no not the Klan, the Organisation – and of course he’d be able to tell the difference if he was talking to a black man because they can’t pronounce their, ‘r’s’ properly?!

You can’t make this stuff up!

And there’s a cool vibe kicking with the funky-soul disco soundtrack (Terence Blanchard) and 70s red and orange outfits; the film embracing the times of the Mercury marauder, 70 Chrysler 300 and a well-shaped afro.

But there’s a strong undercurrent and message beneath the humour of this film; the rhetoric spewed by members of the Klan sounding all too familiar.

Ron’s partner in the infiltration of the Klan, Flip Zimmerman (Adam Driver), is forced to deny being a Jew over and over when undercover. He admits to Ron his heritage is something he’s never thought about before. He’s always been just a white kid. And then to deny, deny, deny, he’s forced to lie under threat of death by the KKK – it’s all he can think about.

One could draw comparisons with the Denial of Peter.

The more I think about this film, the more there’s to be understood.

And the way Spike Lee has shown this layered true story, with eyes shining with warmth and conviction and others reflecting the hate of a burning cross, adds a distinctive visual layer drawing you in further.

Setting the film in the 70s lulls the mind into thinking all this hatred is something in our past, only to powerfully highlight this is a terror that continues in our present.

There’s a unique perspective and voice I feel like I haven’t heard before. Sure, we all know history: the lynching’s, the slavery, the segregation. But do we? Really?

Being born in Australia, I can see we have our own history to face. And our own present.

All I can ask is, are we going to let it happen again?

Re-counting the past from the lips of a survivor in the context of our present makes a powerful and thought-provoking film.

I feel like my eyes have been opened with a new understanding – the way the behaviour of racism looks on screen is so ridiculous it’s funny. And very, very scary.

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