Sydney Film Festival 2013 - Film Review - Before Midnight

Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy - Before Midnight

Richard Linklater's film starring Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy is a tedious affair resembling a endless, trivial conversation shot with a single continuous take - but lasting over one and a half hours. An American man, Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and a French woman, Celina (Julie Delpy) now close to middle age, recount the moment when they first met as young adults on a train in Austria and thereafter the ongoing details of their domestic life are recounted while they constantly walk (and sit) in various locations - in ruins, in shops, on the seaside, as guests in a group lunch, at a cafe, in the car and so on. The dialogue is quite well written but unduly repetitive and endless with little other activity occurring on screen. This is a film which could have provided a greater level of depth and fails to use the talents of Hawke or Delpy to any great level. Although the film is promoted as providing an atmosphere between the two leads as 'fresh and new' in reality, the title of the film could have been better set as 'After Midnight' so the audience could be forgiven for being asleep.

Sydney Film Festival 2013 - Film Review - For Those In Peril

Aaron (George MacKay) searches for his lost brother - For Those in Peril

Scottish film film director, Paul Wright, makes his feature film debut with this story about loss, alienation and ultimately magical transcendence. The plot line for this film follows a young fisherman, Aaron who is the sole survivor of the loss of a fishing trawler, the other five crew including his older brother, Michael disappearing into the sea. Aaron cannot remember any aspect of the event and the local village, imbued with superstition  and seagoing folklore blame him for the loss. Aaron becomes isolated from the community and causes further grief and anger amongst the village by insisting his brother is still alive and complicating the situation by becoming involved with his older brother's fiancee. The film is almost as cold and bleak as the location in  Scotland at which it was shot. Aaron's mother, Cathy (actress Kate Dickie) is torn between the loss of her eldest son Michael and the apparent mental illness of Aaron and reluctantly she agrees to have him institutionalised. The night before he is due to leave, Aaron disappears and the film closes with his transformation. This film has a blanket of sadness throughout its length yet it's not exaggerated nor overstated.

Sydney Film Festival 2013 - Film Review - The Broken Circle Breakdown

Elise (Veerle Baetens) and Didier (Johan Heldenbergh) on stage 

A Belgian bluegrass music band playing American country music and a passionate relationship between the band's lead guitarist and his tattoo artist (and later the band's lead vocalist) form the basis for this film by Felix van Groeningen. The central characters, Didier (the bluegrass band's banjo-playing lead - actor, Johan Heldenbergh) and Elise (the tattoo artist and vocalist - actress, Veerle Baetens) have been in a rapturous relationship for seven years further infused by the music of the band which Elise joins as lead singer. Together with their little daughter, Maybelle, they form a happy family unit and picture of domestic bliss. When Maybelle falls ill with cancer, Didier and Elise are severely tested and their relationship starts coming apart. Ultimately tragedy occurs more than once in this film with the full spectrum of emotions being displayed on the cinema screen. Felix van Groeningen's screenplay is masterful with its conveyance of passion matched by the vitality of bluegrass music making a potent mix.

Sydney Film Festival 2013 - Film Review - The Rocket

A rocket explodes on launch at the Rocket Festival

Australian film director and screen writer, Kim Mordaunt who filmed the acclaimed documentary, Bomb Harvest, released in 2007 has returned to Laos for this feature film of a coming-of-age story. The story plot line revolves around 10-year-old Ahlo who with his family is displaced from their home by the construction of a large dam. While travelling to their relocation village, Ahlo's mother is killed in an accident and the family finds itself almost destitute on arrival as the relocation village is not much more than self-built shacks. The village itself is superstitious and Ahlo and his family are forced to flee along with his new friend Kia and her uncle, Purple. Seeking a new life, Ahlo hears of the Rocket Festival, a dangerous, crazy event where large bamboo rockets are launched into the clouds to bring rain but with the incentive of a large cash prize for the winner whose rocket travels the furthest into the clouds. Ahlo builds his own rocket and challenges for the first prize. Ever present throughout this film is the legacy of the Vietnam war with bomb craters, live cluster bombs and large active munitions still littering the landscape and casting a long shadow over the lives of the Laotian people. Overall this is a feel-good film shot in an evocative landscape with a story of overcoming the odds.

Sydney Film Festival 2013 - Film Review - Oh Boy

Niko (Tom Shilling) and his father on the golf course

Oh Boy is the feature film debut for German film director, Jan Ole Gerster and deservedly has been a hit winning a number of awards. Its a light-hearted, breezy comedy which does have a serious element both for the characters portrayed and the locational setting which is the German capital, Berlin, currently undergoing transformation. The film has also been shot in grainy black and white which brings an alluring appeal and effective conveyance of mood. The story focuses on law college dropout, Niko (Tom Shilling), who simultaneously loses his girlfriend, has his financial support cut off (after his father discovers Niko dropped out of his course two years earlier) and finds it difficult to actually buy a simple cup of normal coffee. Through a series of chance encounters with various people including many from his past, creating a profound influence on him, Niko finds meaning and an insight into life. This film is episodic in structure and has many humorous points with disarming use of black humour and irony. Tom Shilling portrays the hapless bewildered Niko with laid back conviction seeking to find his way while Berlin, a city with a dramatic historical past, including the Nazi era, provides the canvass for this search.

Sydney Film Festival 2013 - Film Review - The Look of Love

Steve Coogan and Anna Friel - The Look of Love

The latest collaboration between British film director, Michael Winterbottom and actor/producer Steve Coogan is a film of the true-to-life story of British entrepreneur, Paul Raymond. Often called the 'King of Soho', Raymond built a huge night-club, real estate and porn publishing empire worth hundreds of millions of pounds in the second half of the 20th Century. The film concentrates on Raymond's relationship with the three critical women in his life - his divorced wife Jean (Anna Friel), his girlfriend Fiona (Tamsin Egerton) and his beloved daughter Debbie (Imogen Poots). The film has a high level of titillation (its a tits and bum film), indulgence (Raymond seems to drink only champagne whilst entertaining numerous lovers in his penthouse) and drug taking (endless snorting of cocaine). Tragedy strikes when Debbie accidentally dies from a drug overdose just as Raymond was starting to transfer control of his business empire to her. This film is fairly shallow with an over-emphasis on the night club scenes and bare breasts providing little insight into Paul Raymond himself or the acumen which enabled him to be listed as Britain's richest man, the year after his daughter's death.