Category: Movie Review

Bros

Rated: MA15+Bros

Directed by: Nicholas Stoller

Written by: Billy Eichner & Nicholas Stoller

Produced by: Judd Apatow p.g.a, Nicolas Stoller p.g.a and Josh Church p.g.a

Executive Produced by: Billy Eichner and Karl Frankenfield

Score: Marc Shaiman

Starring: Billy Eichner, Luke Macfarlane, Guy Branum, Miss Lawrence, Ts Madison, Dot-Marie Jones, Jim Rash, Eve Lindley, Monica Raymund, Guillermo Díaz, Jai Rodriguez and Amanda Bearse.

‘Hey, what’s up?’

It’s a classic Grindr introduction.  And all that’s required to hook-up.

But it’s not a relationship.

Bobby (Billy Eichner) doesn’t want a relationship.  He’s independent, has his own Podcast and is an advocate for the LGBTQ+ community.

Bobby’s been around, he knows what gays are like: ‘I support them, I don’t trust them.’

Then he meets the super-hot, ‘grown up boy scout’, Aaron (Luke Macfarlane).

He doesn’t want a relationship either.

‘I hear your boring.’

‘Cool.’

They’re getting to know each other.

Directed by Nicholas Stoller (think, Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008) and Get Him to the Greek (2010)), Bros has the usual romcom formula, including the classic romcom run.

In the Q&A post screening at the Melbourne Premiere, yep, I was there.  It was fun.  Nicolas explains the decision behind the making of the film, ‘That it be honest, have a happy ending, and be really funny.’

And Bros has all those things.

Worth noting here that the entire cast in Bros is LGBTQ+ – an achievement Eichner noted in the discussion and highlighted how it was difficult for actors to land a role with their sexual orientation stating most gay roles were played by straight actors.

So there’s a genuine focus on the LGBTQ+ community in the film.

The film’s one of the deeper explorations into a gay relationship that I’ve seen, not being gay but being in a gay relationship – or, pretending not to want the relationship, the insecurities.  Like it’s just the beginning to know who they’re supposed to be in a relationship.

It gets emotional, exploring topics I hadn’t really thought about before like injecting testosterone to look good and why are you complaining because you like me looking this way?

And there’s a fair bit of gay sex.  Not so graphic to be porn, but enough to see the enthusiasm.  And the feeling of lying on the warmth of another human’s chest.

I admit I didn’t get all the jokes or jargon.  But there were plenty of moments that provoked a good belly laugh, appealing to my dry sense of humour – like Aaron and Bobby having a serious conversation while a guy tries to park his rent-a-bike in the rack, right in between the couple.

The look on the face.  It just tickles.

Billy Eichner is great as Bobby: he’s dramatic and funny in his anger and love and emotion.  Aaron describes Bobby as getting angry at things is your brand.  Which is apt.  And it has to be said, Luke Macfarlane as Aaron is hot.  I’m sure he appeals to many all over the Kinsey scale.

There’s just a bit too much emotional drama for me, not because it was about a gay couple, it was actually refreshing to explore the different tone and issues to unpack surrounding a same sex couple; I just enjoyed the comedy more than the serious moments.

 

A Taste of Hunger (Smagen Af Sult)

Rated: MA Taste of Hunger (Smagen Af Sult)

Directed by: Christoffer Boe

Written by: Tobias Lindhold & Christoffer Boe

Produced by: Louise Vesth & Sisse Graum Jørgensen

Starring: Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Katrine Greis-Rosenthal.

Danish with English Subtitles.

‘If you ask me what I want

I’ll tell you.

I want everything.’

A Taste of Hunger is about the journey of a chef wanting to fulfill his dream of being awarded a Michelin Star.

Going back ten years, it was when Carsten (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) met Maggie (Katrine Greis-Rosenthal); when she tasted his fancy food at a party no-one else wanted.  When she told him that he deserved his own restaurant. That’s when he knew what his life was.  A dream.  A Michelin Star. Together. That’s what they hunger for.

It’s a film more about the relationship between Carsten and Maggie, and their family of two children, Chloe (Flora Augusta) and August (August Christian Vinkel), and the sacrifices they make to have everything.  But can they have everything?  Eventually, something has to break.

The journey of food and the subtleties of relationship are intertwined, told in chapters, named after the tastes: sweet, sour, fat, salt and heat.

The food adds the sensory to an emotive mystery as Carsten makes food worth fighting for but becomes so focused that nothing else matters beyond what’s on the plate.

Then Maggie finds a letter, typed, anonymous, addressed to Carsten: ‘Your wife is in love with someone else.’  She hides the letter, knowing it will destroy all they’ve worked for.

The knowing looks and play of dialogue lead an emotional investment as Carston describes creating a dish requiring the same elements as attributes needed in a relationship: attention, dedication and passion.

Knowing actor Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as Jamie Lannister in, Game of Thrones (winning him a Primetime Emmy Award in 2018), it was refreshing to see him in this role as a native Dane.
He wears the suit of an obsessive chef well, and he’s a man you believe to be in love.

The relationship between Maggie and Carston is the centrepiece of the film offset with the warm aesthetic of the restaurant with the light shining up through moss onto the branches of a small tree – an echo of Maggie looking up into the autumn leaves of a tree in awesome relief when they find out they’ve successfully purchased a place for their restaurant; their dreams coming true.

Along with the relationship’s dynamics, the looks; the children, brother and sister, are given space and relevance in the story as well, adding weight to the pressure of having everything, and the price to be paid.

There’s attention to detail in the portrayal of the story, like the echo of the tree, like the title of each chapter overlaying the view of each setting and giving each stage of the relationship a taste: sweet when they first meet, sour when the story of their relationship begins to turn.

The detail in the telling adds that emotional tone, drawing me in so the journey of their relationship was felt, the need for that dream of being awarded the Michelin Star understood.  It means everything.  But not without everything else.

 

Nope

Rated: MNope

Written, Produced and Directed by: Jordan Peele

Also Produced by: Ian Cooper p.g.a.

Executive Produced by: Robert Graf, Win Rosenfeld

Starring: Daniel Kaluuya, Keke Palmer, Steven Yeun, Michael Wincott, Brandon Perea, Keith David.

‘What’s a bad miracle?’

Nope is the third movie Jordan Peele has directed (among many others he has written), and I had high expectations after enjoying, Get Out (2017) and Us (2019).

Peele has a certain off-kilter vision in his films that translates here, opening with a monkey on a TV set, covered in blood.

I didn’t know what I was walking into with, Nope, producer Ian Cooper explaining the intention to withhold from giving away too much away in the trailers.  All that was clear was the title, Nope, which I thought was perhaps a wry push too far but the humour here is spot on.

Cooper goes on to explain that Jordan was originally thinking of, ‘Little Green Men’ for the title, hinting at, “The idea of the quest for fame and fortune, and the quest for documenting existence of life beyond Earth,” Cooper says. “The double entendre of ‘Little Green Men’ was a way in which you could talk about dollar bills as well as talk about aliens and the unknown.”

As always with Jordan, the concept of, Nope is unique.

Inheriting the horse ranch from their father, Otis Haywood Sr. (Keith David), OJ (Daniel Kaluuya) and sister Emerald (Keke Palmer) attempt to continue the legacy as horse wranglers for film and TV.

Living on a ranch, far out in the Sant Clarita Valley in Southern California, the sky is endless, the expanse filled with clouds and something otherworldly lurking within.

The film has a western feel with OJ selling horses to child star, come cowboy-themed fair owner, Ricky ‘Jupe’ Park (Steven Yeun), crossed with the family drama of the reserved, OJ and his larger-than-life sister, Emerald – the people person of the partnership – crossed with a sci-fi with an alien creature causing electrical black-outs before sucking up whatever happens to be looking up into its guts.

The horror aspect of the film the sound of screams from the sky when the power cuts out.

It’s not an in-your-face horror here, more an unsettled feeling built with the soundtrack but also with the strangeness of the film.

It’s a confusing beginning and continues with random threads brought into the storyline that don’t always make sense in the general narrative of the film.  There is some structure with chapters named after the horses featured in the film.  But otherwise the threads are left to spool with not all coming full circle, well, not quite.

The cinematographer character, Antlers Holst (Michael Wincott) brought to the ranch to help capture what’s lurking in the sky comments, ‘That’s the dream I never wake up from.’  It sounds cool.  But doesn’t quite have enough weight in the end to stand up straight.  Again, adding to the slight disconcerting tilt to the film.

The wonder I had about the humour being pushed too far with the title, Nope was however, unfounded.  Daniel Kaluuya as the steady and reserved horse wrangler gives the word ‘nope’ a weight that just tickles.  Again, Kaluuya is well-cast and obviously a favourite of Peele’s because he brings it every single time.

All the characters in, Nope are well-cast, Angel (Brandon Perea) the Fry’s Electronics IT expert adds another layer of humour as he misses his girlfriend while ingratiating himself into the plot of the film because he’s slowly losing the plot with his life and needs to be involved.

It’s an entertaining film.  A strange slightly off-kilter film where Jordan has juxtaposed sci-fi, (some) horror, family drama and western that comes together as something funny and unique.  I just couldn’t quite get on board with the why of it.  Still, a fun ride.

Official Competition

Rated: MOfficial Competition

Directed by: Gastón Duprat & Mariano Cohn

Written by: Andrés Duprat, Gastón Duprat & Mariano Cohn

Starring: Penélope Cruz, Antonio Banderas & Oscar Martínez.

Viewed in Spanish with English subtitles.

‘What a wanker.’

It’s Humberto’s (José Luis Gómez) 80th birthday.  His life summed up in the presents laid out before him: a massage chair, a Virgin Mary under a glass dome, a rifle set in its casing.  A painting of a sad clown.

He’s a millionaire who feels like he has money but no prestige.

He wants to be remembered, differently.

He decides he wants to build a bridge.  Or a movie.  Yes, fund a movie.  A good one.  Only the best.

Enter award winning director, Lola Cuevas (Penélope Cruz).

Humberto buys the rights of a Nobel Prize winning novel to base this, only-the-best movie on, and having failed to read it, he asks Lola what it’s about.

She explains its about a rivalry between two brothers.  She has the two actors in mind to build on that rivalry for the film:

Iván Torres (Oscar Martínez): a teacher, an academic, an actor of integrity and respect.

And, Félix Rivero (Antonio Banderas): popular, multi-award winning and arriving at rehearsal in a Lamborghini pashing his latest.

Let the butting of egos begin.

Official Competition is a movie about making a movie, most of the set in an expansive, minimalist house as Lola pulls the actors into the minds of their characters.

Kinda sounds boring, but it’s brilliant watching the techniques used to get the ego’s of these two actors into a place so Lola gets the tone she needs for each scene.

‘I want the truth,’ she demands.

Have to say, Penélope Cruz as Lola looks amazing as the sensitive, brilliant and dedicated director, Lola.  She is the wild, red curly-haired, sensitive and very aware puppeteer.

The film is about how very different these two actors she’s chosen to play the parts as brothers, are; to then realise, they’re as vain as each other.

Iván at one point is seen to be accepting a pretend Academy Award in the mirror, after denying he’d ever lower himself to the popularist farce, and of course not speaking anything but Spanish, to announce in his pretend speech that he was only attending the ceremony to formally reject the award.

Meanwhile, Lola looks incredulously at an online video of Félix making a plea to save the pink dolphin.

I just kept bursting out laughing.

It’s hilarious, all set to Lola’s tricks, using big screens in the background of monologues, rocks suspended over their heads during rehearsal, the sound of kissing while surrounded by microphones, a meat grinder used to signify transition but also showing the edge of Lola’s destruction.

Even Iván’s wife, Violeta (Pilar Castro) an academic hipster who’s written a children’s book is shown as vain as Iván shares a new piece of discordant music where she comments on the brilliance of the tribal drumming.  But no, that’s just next door banging on the wall, again.

This is one of those quietly clever films that seems like it’s not about much but then gives you a tickle when the cleverness of a layer reveals itself.

The whole film’s about ego so in the end the film finishes with a forced clever ending with an ego all of its own.

Great acting, unique and clever story and a good laugh.

The Black Phone

Rated: MA15+The Black Phone

Directed by: Scott Derrickson

Screenplay Written by: Scott Derrickson & C. Robert Cargill

Based on the Short Story by: Joe Hill

Produced by: Jason Blum, Scott Derrickson, C. Robert Cargill

Executive Produced by: Ryan Turek, Christopher H. Warner

Starring: Mason Thames, Madeleine McGraw, Jeremy Davies, James Ransone and Ethan Hawke.

‘Would you like to see a magic trick?’

It’s 1978.  Finney Shaw (Mason Thames) is pitching a baseball, trying to impress a girl.

With two strikes, he almost does it.

He lives with his dad (Jeremy Davies) and little sister, Gwen (Madeleine McGraw).

Their dad drinks.  Finny and Gwen are tense.

Kids in town are going missing.  And they all know why.  It’s the Grabber (Ethan Hawke).  He’s taking them.

What drew me into this film was how cool the kids are – this is a movie about them; a crime, supernatural horror where kids are being kidnapped and a black phone that’s dead but still ringing.

The film is based on the short story written by, Joe Hill, Stephen King’s son and a great horror writer in his own right, see, 20th Century Ghosts (2005), short fiction piece, Best New Horror – a unique voice that’s haunting and has a punk horror feel about it.  There’s also the novel, Heart Shaped Box (2007) and others worth checking out.  Yes, I’m a fan with signed copies.

Adapted for the screen by director Scott Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill (Sinister (2012), The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005) and Doctor Strange (2016)), it’s like there’s a window into what it’s like growing up in a small town in Denver: bullies, parents, crushes.  Serial Killers.

Gwen as the little sister is hilarious with her little skips of excitement and comments like, ‘Dumb fucking fart knockers.’

Not only is she a fire-cracker, she has a gift.  Her dreams show her things she’s not supposed to know, like, The Grabber has black balloons.

So when her brother’s taken, she prays to God for her dreams to show her where he’s been taken.  And desperate, the cops listen because no-one else knows about those black balloons.

The suspense is built by slowing the shots, the words silent, the sound of sinister amplifying the quiet to give a moment to feel, to then screech a sudden shot to a dead kid, to get the heart pumping.  There’re some jumps here, layered over the suspense so, The Black Phone creates a suspense thriller without the gore.

There’s a lot of thought here from director Scott Derrickson with cuts back and forth when Finney realises he’s trapped in basement, where no-one will ever hear him scream.

There’s good use of objects from the creepy mask of the killer to create an other-worldly monster, the toy rocket ship like a talisman, the crack in the wall of the prison like a bleeding cut.  And of course, the black telephone.  The ringing built in the soundtrack like the sound of a saviour.

There’s a careful stepping as each piece of the story come together, each given space and care and more thought than I expected.  And there’s restraint to let the performances of the characters become the focus.

Where do they find these kid actors?!

And there’s good support from Jeremy Davies as the dad and ‘night-night naughty boy’ Ethan Hawke suitably creepy as, The Grabber.

A better than expected suspense, supernatural thriller with thoughtful pacing set to a 70s vibe.

The Worst Person In The World (Verdens Verste Menneske)

Rated: MA15+The Worst Person In The World

Directed by: Joachim Trier

Screenplay Written by: Eskil Vogt, Joachim Trier

Produced by: Thomas Robsahm, Andrea Berentsen Ottmar

Executive Producers: Dyveke Bjøkly Graver, Tom Erik Kjeseth, Eskil Vogt, Joachim Trier

Starring: Renate Reinsve, Anders Danielsen Lie, Herbert Nordrum, Hans Olav Brenner, Helene Bjørneby.

Viewed in Norwegian with English Subtitles

“You need to be completely free.”

Julie (Renate Reinsve) stands smoking in a black cocktail dress with the city in the background.

The Worst Person In the World follows Julie as she figures out life.

She starts off studying to be a surgeon, then psychology then photography.

Moving from one thing to the next, she never quite finishes anything.  But she lives and loves.

The film is set out in 12 chapters, with a prologue and epilogue.  This is the analytical part of the film and something the character Aksel (Anders Danielsen Lie) would appreciate.  He’s a comic creator that analyses everything.

Julie loves him.

But doesn’t love him.

Aksel tells her, You need to be completely free.’

That’s the first time she realises that she loves him.

Until she meets Eivind (Herbert Nordrum).

In an interview with director and screenwriter Joachim Trier, he’s asked to talk, “more about the very literary way the film is broken into chapters?”

“We had this idea early on when writing: to show fragments of a life and that the space between the chapters was as important as what we actually see. This is a coming-of-age film but for grownups who feel like they still haven’t grown up. To find a structure of covering several years in a life, from when Julie is in her mid-twenties to her early thirties, we found the humour of a “literary” framework to help us tell that story. The almost novelistic form also reflects Julie’s longing for a grand literary destiny, almost as if she unconsciously wishes her life to have a literary form.”

I’m trying not to think too deeply about the explanation of, coming-of-age film but for grownups who feel like they still haven’t grown up.  I related to this character, Julie, as she tried to figure out what she wants or why she feels the way she does.

But more than relating to the feelings of how to navigate love while remaining independent and free (yes, am still thinking about the film a week later), the way the film’s put together adds to that feeling of running towards what’s right.

That moment when everything else ceases (literally frozen in the film) as Julie runs through the streets to imagine that feeling of being in the right place.  And then going for it.  It’s hard not to get swept up into it all.

There’s something refreshing about seeing all those silent thoughts shown in a clever way so the film is more than a romance or a drama, there’s a quiet that’s absorbing.  Like the silence is there to allow reflection.

Colours are used to introduce the film: yellow and blue to black and are then circled back to later so there’s this sense of completion, like Julie reaches another layer, like it’s that layer she’s been searching for all along.

And the dialogue adds another element, the, ‘Intellectual Viagra,’ comment.

And, ‘She’s just shy.’

‘That’s what you say about boring people.’

Again, silence used when Aksel says, ‘Kids are intense.’

To which Julie replies by taking a large sip of red wine.

It’s a journey that ended up in places unexpected – sexy, clever, sad and poetic.

If you’re not usually a fan of romance, this is one of the good ones.

Best Sellers

Rated: MBest Sellers

Directed by: Lina Roessler

Written by: Anthony Grieco

Director of Photography: Claudine Sauvé

Editor: Arthur Tarnowski

Produced by: Jonathan Vanger, Pierre Even, Cassian Elwes, Arielle Elwes, Wayne Marc Godfrey

Executive Produced by: Petr Jakl, Martin J Barab

Starring: Sir Michael Caine, Aubrey Plaza, Scott Speedman and Rachel Spence.

Best Sellers is a film about a crotchety recluse writer (he has, ‘Piss off’ taped to his front door), and a failing publisher, Lucy Skinner (Aubrey Plaza).

Lucy’s boutique publishing house is about to go under if she doesn’t find a relevant writer fast.

Enter, Harris Shaw (Sir Michael Caine).

The introduction of Harris Shaw, follows his ginger cat as it makes its way into his study to find him coughing and typing.   The phone rings, ‘He’s dead.  Bugger off,’ he says.

Harris is the classic Johnny Walker, Black Label, cigar smoking recluse writer Sir Michael Caine was made for.

Swipe to classical music: the city, a clean office and publisher Lucy Skinner getting the latest review of her recent Young Adult publication being read by side kick and assistant, Rachel Spence (Elle Wong).  It’s bad.

She needs a writer that will save the publishing house.

She needs Harris Shaw.

He could be dead,’ says Rachel.

Owing the publishing house a manuscript, on the proviso there’s no editing as long as he agrees to go on a book tour, Harris and Lucy set off in Shaw’s green Jag where he starts trending after introducing his book by reading an excerpt from Penthouse.

His favourite way to describe the book tour: ‘It’s all bullshite.’

‘Bullshite’ becomes a hash tag.

And of course the publisher and writer don’t get along, but along the journey bond while Lucy vomits in the toilet.

I like crotchety characters and movies about writers, so I enjoyed the banter between, ‘Silver spoon’ Lucy and, ‘It’s all Bullshite,’ Harris Shaw.

There’s tension and obstacles to overcome, getting to the heart of this abrasive yet brilliant man that got me cheering and quietly chuckling as Shaw declares his hatred for critics – it really does suck to be a critic sometimes.

But I have to say (speaking of being a critic) the soundtrack with that 70s jangle of music to try to lift the film into old-man-cheek, cheapened the sentiment.  Shaw’s like a Hemingway character with his ginger cat and cigar smoking from his mouth while typing the next, Best Seller.  The character deserved something more deliberate.  More… blunt.  Not, dandy grandfather music.

So there’s discord between the thoughtful and funny script writing from Anthony Grieco and the underlying tone built by the soundtrack.

The script includes snippets of poignant sentences like, ‘Art is not propaganda.  It’s an expression of truth,’ giving the usual drama of, I’m-here-because-this-happened, a little more.

So when the character asks the question, ‘Who put a collar on you?’  Dandy guitars aren’t going to reflect the truth of the character.

Best Sellers is a good movie.  Could be been a great movie.

Disclosure

Rated: MA15+Disclosure

Written and Directed by: Michael Bentham

Starring: Geraldine Hakewill, Matilda Ridgway, Mark Leonard Winter and Tom Wren.

‘There are two sides to every story, and then there is the truth.’ – Anon.

Disclosure is a complex, layered and thought-provoking film, where the perspective of each character shows a different version of their truth.

That’s the narrative of the film: four parents trying to come to an understanding when Emily (Matilda Ridgway) and Danny Bowman’s (Mark Leonard Winter) four-year-old daughter, Natasha describes sexual abuse from Ethan: the nine-year-old son of Bek (Geraldine Hakewill) and Joel Chalmers (Tom Wren).

Bek refuses to believe her son capable of such an act.

And Emily is distraught that such an act has happened to her daughter.

Do they go to Child Protection?

Do they seek counselling for their children?

What decision will do the least damage to their kids?

Set in the house and backyard of the Bowmans, the film is made of silence between the dialogue, between the parents trying to behave as adults while they fall apart.

At first the film shows fractures in the façade: the politician, an MP currently under the watchful eye of police protection with his immaculate wife dressed for a fund raiser.  A family doing the best for the community.

And then there’s the two journalists, award winning documentary on the horizon, a book waiting to be published.

Intelligent.  Adults.  Friends.

Surely they can come to an understanding.

But as the conversation continues, the cicadas fill those awkward silences as the fractures widen into cracks.

‘My daughter has a name,’ says Danny.

While Joel the MP asks for reason as he’s about to launch a campaign: Strong families.  Safe children.

The complexities underneath the words are slowly revealed.

The characters drive the film as the environment of the house in the suburbs, filmed in the Dandenong’s, surrounded by trees is deceiving in its simplicity; as the parents sit by the pool, a spider dancing across the water, as shadows move underneath.

The setting is used to show the emotional tone of shock.  The distress of even talking about a son abusing a friend’s daughter leaking through the surface adults hold firmly in place: would you like a drink?  Snacks are arranged.  All those rituals of social engagement are slowly worn away as the parents attempt to process what may or may not have happened with their children.  And the consequences.

This is a tough topic to portray in a film, writer and director, Michael Bentham using the slowing down of movement, the drawing away of the camera to show denial; the shadows across a face to represent barely controlled anger, a spider web stepping the process of thought from one layer to another.

The very idea of sex and kids and porn and what’s OK for adults and how that can influence the behaviour of a child, to dealing with allegations from another child is like a minefield.  The difficulty of figuring the right way to handle the situation without losing your mind as a parent is navigated through dark corridors, beyond the surface into unexpected deep layers to where the characters hold their own truth.

I didn’t expect the depth of this film.

And the dialogue and delivery is strong.

But not always hitting the mark.

And although the slow motion was used well, the scenes with slow motion and missing frames (like a stop frame technique) feels cheap and makes me think of some re-enactment of a crime story on the news.

Having said that, if you’re in the mood for a quiet thought-provoker, the way the complexity of character is revealed makes, Disclosure a riveting watch.

The Suicide Squad

Rated: MA15+The Suicide Squad

Directed and Written by: James Gunn

Produced by: Charles Roven, Peter Safran

Starring: Margot Robbie, Idris Elba, Joel Kinnaman, John Cena, Viola Davis, Jai Courtney, Michael Rooker, Flula Borg, David Dastmalchian and Taika Waititi.

‘Is that rat waving at me?’

The opening scene sees the death of a pretty yellow bird.

Birds feature a lot in, The Suicide Squad mark II.

To the extent I was wondering by the end – what’s with the birds?!  Is it because they represent freedom?  Could be something in that, the squad been given a chance at freedom, etc.

Like the first film, potential members of Task Force X are found languishing in Belle Reve: the prison with the highest mortality rate in America.

Languishing until Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) offers them a deal they can’t refuse: 10 years off their sentence in hell.  Or for those not tempted by the reduced sentence, the promise not to incarcerate a ten-year-old daughter (Storm Reid) that would more than likely mean death.

Sent on another impossible bloody mission, this time to the jungle of Corto Maltese, there’s the same antics from characters such as Captain Boomerang (Michael Rooker) with a whole new cast of villains with unique skills like: Peacemaker (John Cena) who loves to walk around in his y-fronts, Bloodsport (Idris Elba) who really does not get along with Peacemaker, King Shark (Sylvester Stallone)  – apparently a god who now has a taste for human and amongst other new characters, Polka-Dot (David Dastmalchian): the man has issues.  With leader Colonel Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman) back to direct the chaos.

The film has the same foundation as the first instalment, a squad of anti-heroes sent on a covert mission by the government – but way more extreme.

There’s still that manic fun tone, with the likes of Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) shooting her way to freedom with a demented smile, but I don’t remember the first instalment being so brutal.

Not that nasty is necessarily a bad thing.

I’m a big fan of gallows humour, and there were a lot of funny moments that tickled, sometimes unexpectedly like seeing the back view of Milton (Julio Cesar Ruiz), the bus driver, as he runs after the squad to ‘help out’ in his shorts and Crocs.

And making light of a trained rat, friend of Ratcatcher 2 (Daniela Melchior), 2 because the first Ratcatcher was her father (Taika Waititi, yep Taika’s in it!):

‘Is that rat waving at me?

‘It appears it is’

…’Why?’

But sometimes the humour was just that bit too off-kilter – see above about the birds.

It was about 50/50 for me.  But when the humour hit, it tickled A LOT.

The narrative goes back and forth in time, highlighted by the inclusion of text in scene – leaves falling to write, ‘Now’.

There’s more clever with relief from the blood and guts when blood’s replaced with an explosion of flowers.

And that blending of scene continues with music played in the bus becoming the soundtrack, the, Pixies track, ‘Hey’ backing the squad as they walk into their next suicide mission.  Gold.

The attention to detail is impressive as director James Gunn pushes the boundaries so the humour’s darker, the violence more bloody, with an added extra tilt towards the demented.

Tending towards horror and comedy rather than action, there’s a lot of entertainment here but brace yourself, it gets twisted.

Little Joe

Rated: MLittle Joe

Directed and Screenplay by: Jessica Hausner

Produced by: Bruno Wagner, Bertrand Faivre, Philippe Bober Martin Gschlacht, Jessica Hausner, Gerardine O’Flynn

Cinematography: Martin Gschlacht

Starring: Emily Beecham, Ben Wishaw, Kerry Fox, Kit Connor, David Wilmot, Phénix Brossard, Sebastian Hülk and Lindsay Duncan.

Plant breeder, Alice (Emily Beecham) has genetically engineered a plant that releases a scent to make its owner happy.

She names the mood lifting plant after her son: Little Joe.

Alice has a good relationship with Joe (Kit Connor); a typical teenager, ‘Yep, whatever.’

Until he breathes in the scent of the happy plant.  Because once you breath in the scent of Little Joe, you become infected.  You become, a different person.

That’s what Bella (Kerry Fox) says.  A plant breeder for over twenty years.

But she’s crazy.  She has to be crazy to think a plant can change someone.

The premise of the film, superficially, seems a stretch.  But the way the story unfolds leads with the spacious feeling of a secret.  I wasn’t sure where I was being led but there were a lot of red flags.  Literally: the red font in the opening credits, the red diffuse light, the red hair, red car, red cherry, all leading back to the red flower of the plant named, Little Joe.

That feeling of a secret, of a quiet other world is enhanced by the soundtrack, the music written by Japanese composer, Teiji Ito.  There’s this high-pitched whistle, like the plants are communicating amongst the sound of a flute floating, building with drums that flourish, marking steps in the story that are guided by science.

The strangeness of the idea works because the characters are scientists talking about science – the genetically engineered plants created using virus vectors that release oxytocin.

Bella makes the point that because the plant is sterile – has to be made sterile, because it’s genetically engineered and there’s a risk of the plant running wild in nature, and of course the commercial aspect – it’s natural for the plant to want to reproduce.  So, imagine a plant where a virus vector mutates to not only cause happiness, but to work towards reproducing itself.

Oxytocin, is otherwise known as the mother hormone because it’s released into the blood stream in response to love and childbirth, to create a bond.

You look after the plant, you feed it, keep it warm, talk to it, and Little Joe rewards you with happiness.

‘Knock on wood.’

Says Alice during a therapy session.

‘What worries you?’ asks her psychotherapist (Lindsay Duncan).

Knock on wood.

Which of your children will you choose?

The film follows Alice as she navigates her desire to work versus the love she has for Joe, her feelings towards fellow scientist, Chris (Ben Wishaw) and her fear that the plant she’s created is in fact changing people.

Is it fear that distorts how she sees the world?  Or is she finally able to see what she’s really afraid of?

What is it that she secretly wishes for?

The film scratches at those secret desires using those feelings as a vehicle to hide the agenda of the story.  Like the agenda of a new entity that wants to reproduce but can’t, so uses the happy hormone to replicate, to be cared for.

It’s clever.  But the tone of film isn’t about being clever; it’s just different.  And interesting, with a subtle flavour of the disconcerting.

 

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