” ONE NIGHT THE MOON “
PEDRO’S WORLD OF CINEMA
“ONE NIGHT THE MOON”
Dir: Rachel Perkins Australia 2001
wonderfully atmospheric,this outback tale centres on the search for a missing girl in 1950’s South Australia.Based on a true story where the white father,played by singer Paul Kelly forbids the use of a black police tracker,Kelton Pell.
the man and his wife have previously sung a sweet lullaby to their 6 year old about the moon’s silvery light…trouble is now the child climbs out her bedroom window to follow the moon…all the way up to the hills…after many fruitless days with volunteers the wife desperately begs the Tracker to help her…he is disillusioned by all the racism but in the end helps…
now the really interesting thing is that there is hardly any dialogue…characters sing…like an outback opera…esp..powerful is the duet sung seperately by the white farmer and the black tracker called “my land”…wonderful juxtaposition that reveals character.
kooris have always sung as they travel across country…singing creation stories and passing on knowledge so this is a natural progression…ruby hunter plays the tracker’s wife who sings a haunting koori funeral song at film’s end…a sad sidenote…this wonderful singer/activist died this week…
highly recommended as a haunting,powerful idiosynchratic film that explores racism and duty…
4 1/2 **** outta 5
++++++++++++++++++++++
” THE ROAD “
PEDRO’S WORLD OF CINEMA
“THE ROAD”
dir: John Hillcoat USA/AUST….2009
…a father and son walk through a post-apocalyptic world,grey ashen skies with no living trees or animals…scavenging food from destroyed shopping malls and farmhouses…nothing is explained apart from flashbacks of the mother who suicided out of despair…
viggo mortensen plays the desperate father and kodi smit-mcphee the son (see previous review of “Romulus,My Father”)…they share a real bond,a beautifully tender but unsentimental relationship that explores the question of humanity…when survival matters above all else can the simple act of helping a stranger be possible?…
the cinematography by javier aguirrasarobe is enthralling….every tree is blasted down or leaning and in one incredible scene toppling over themselves…he and the director shot mostly in pennsylvania where abandoned mines and towns provided the requisite atmosphere…they also filmed down in hurricane -affected new orleans…the silvery greys and blacks are continually mesmerising…scenes of harbours clogged with logs and damaged boats…
but the real heart of the film lies between father and son…viggo will not give up and yet even the boy starts to question their tough and mean-spirited life…mortensen’s haggard + bearded face conveys so much pain and love for his son…and in one incredible scene with an aged robert duvall…conveys just how much he lives for his boy….NO PLOT SPOILERS………………….
but as i sat through all this degradation-porn,safe in my upholstered chair…watching people starve and/or become cannibals,i pondered not on some bleak future but of fathers and sons making similar bleak journeys RIGHT NOW in africa,the middle east,haiti…war and famine burning off humanity…
a harrowing but truly powerful cinematic experience based on the 2006 book by Cormac McCarthy…and again as they did in Hillcoat’s “The Proposition” Nick Cave and Warren Ellis provide haunting elegiac music…
5 ***** outta 5
so what do you think?
” ROMULUS, MY FATHER “
PEDRO’S WORLD OF CINEMA
“ROMULUS,MY FATHER”
Dir Richard Roxburgh Australia 2007
…Yeah,caught this on telly last night as it seemed fedex had murray’s measure….this powerful family drama stars eric bana as titular character,quiet,powerful immigrant farmer struggling to survive raising his son and dealing with his beautiful but unpredictable wife…the kid from THE ROAD, Kodi Smit-Mcphee is incredible,such emotion plays easily over his face…he is the sad anchor to this film as adults all around him do selfish,mean things…suffer depression+anguish..
beautifully filmed in golds and browns in the wheat lands of northern Victoria…it is a measured film beautifully handled by the actor/director Roxburgh…score is exquisite as well…story takes place in 1960 so moody soundtrack is mixed by old italian lovesongs or early rock’n'roll…lots of robust comedy as farmer tries to start egg business…lots of sadness as wife,wife’s lover,husband all go loopy________you feel so sorry for the kid…based on true story-memoirs of author/philosopher Raimond Gaita…he indeed turned out ok…with much experience to ponder on obviously…
4 1/2 **** outta 5
so what do you think?
” A LOVESONG FOR BOBBY LONG “
PEDRO’S WORLD OF CINEMA
“A LOVE SONG FOR BOBBY LONG”
dir shainee gabel USA 2004
yeah this “little southern sudser-tale o’ redemption” kinda slipped under our radar back when,may not have even got distribution in cinemas here…it’s a slow,literate tale of dark secrets,alcoholism+gothic novels…
travolta plays a washed up englishLit professor holding drunken court with his washed up protege who is supposedly writing his lifestory…they mainly drink and sit around junk sofas with lots of “forgotten” people…strumming guitars and quoting t.s.elliot,bob frost+++william faulkner…it’s a bit like cannery row with doc and the boys….all hot,oozy,alabammy,vodka+juice for breakfast and health problems ignored…
into their world comes a luminous scarlett johannsen…she’s inherited their wooden louvred bungaloh from her dead mother,a jazz singer from the french quarter…it’s so softly+sweetly filmed,all heat+ langour…
like it’s black+white cousin,jim jarmusch’s DOWN BY LAW…it just makes you wish all american cinema was filmed in new orleans….the charm+vibe…all verandahs,music and downbeat characters…
travolta doesn’t get on with johannsen and yes,you can see the ending from a mile away but he makes the journey worth it, as a totally brave and magnificent wreck of a man…think “gregory peck playing charles bukowski”…
4 1/2 **** outta 5
so what do you think?
” MAGNOLIA “
PEDRO’S WORLD OF CINEMA
“MAGNOLIA”
dir ..P.T.Anderson…1999…USA
yeah missed this first time around,vaguely aware the Cruiser put in a good performance as sex-guru for put-upon loser-dudes…and that the same director did “boogie nights” + “there will be blood”,the former turgid,filled with vile ennui and the latter,supposedly a revelation,thanks to daniel day lewis in title role…
so first impression…there is a rain of frogs…not so much biblical as it reminded me of Joyce’s short story from “Dubliners”, “the dead” where its protaginist, Gabriel watches the snow fall down on dublin,his wife and friends,the living and the dead(esp. his wife’s former lover)…a unifying metaphor that embraces the nerve-ridden angst of the here and now and the long goodbye…here made flesh with a dying jason robards who is estranged to his son tom cruise ,the sex-guru who is led to the bedside by philip seymour hoffman as the male nurse as william h. macy, former child quiz star falls apart and turns to burglary to get braces (he’s in love with a gay barman with braces) only to be stopped by john c. reilly as a cop who falls in love with a druggie whose father molested her and turns out to be a child quiz master on TV where another young boy is feeling pressure to win his dad tons of cash…..wwwoooooooooooooooooo
get the drift?….many lives interweaving and commenting obliquley on them all…a bold ,stylised film with powerful editting and cut-aways often tied together by the musical score and in one montage where all the characters take turns to sing the sad,soulful song*…as most consider suicide…
cue the frogs SPLAT! SPLAT! SPLAT!
*Still not sure of that device–seemed to break down the 4th wall a little too much…still the milieu of burbank,tv studios,bars,apartments,neighbourhoods feels natural and anderson should be congratulated for his boldness…i mean some big studio (NEW LINE) ponied up all the money for the Cruiser+the frogs (and a wacked out julianne moore+alfred molina+jeremy blackman+john C. reilly)
2 SCENES STAND OUT
1…tom has been a gung-ho “respect the c*ck” motivator who has agreed to be interviewed by a nationalTV show and is interviewed by a beautiful woman…he’s carrying on like a dog-in-heat until she quietly challenges him about certain biographical lies…re: his mother and his father…suddenly the camera holds on his stone-still face,the eyes are burning and after what seems minutes, she asks what he is thinking…he replies “i’m quietly judging you”….one hurt little boy as we discover…
2…after the cop saves the burglar from the rain of frogs…and the dawn is breaking…he returns the money and they chat, macy’s face is all smashed in,he really needs dental work now…he blurts out that “he has love to give,he just can’t find the place to put it”…it’s an amazing true,raw emotional scene…sitting in an empty petrol station…2 saps struggling with life….
so much black humour and sadness yet cop returns to druggie,tom looks into loathed step-mom in hospital,quiz kid tells dad he needs to be kinder to him…i love this movie—it’s bold and has a wonderful cumulative effect as all the wounded souls intersect on a LA day…
4 1/2 **** outta 5
++++++++++++++
” BRIGHT STAR “
PEDRO’S WORLD OF CINEMA
“BRIGHT STAR”
dir Jane Campion….UK/Australia….2009
Looking at the 6 images above one may conclude that what we have here is another “bonnets+bodice” drama for sunday night TV…how wrong that would be…this is truly a stunning achievement…
Campion has created another world,period London and esp. Hampstead Heath in the time of the Romantic poets…Byron,Wordsworth and John Keats.A shabby genteel place of large messy kitchens,acres of clothes and bedsheet washing,candles,ink pens and social heirachies.The miracle in this love story is that the world is totally believable and endearing…before TV or hifi or blackberries…people entertained themselves with parlour games,recitations and singing…they cooked everything themselves..they wrote letters…they had fun…Fanny Brawne (played by a luminous Abbie Cornish) is a bold,flirty woman who adores fashion and sewing her own clothes (introduced in the stunning opening sequence celebrating the needle and the thread-set to the most gorgeous music),she comes from a lower middleclass old French family (maman played by Kerry Fox, speaks French) who seem to own a rundown place on the edge of Hampstead Heath…her father is dead and they are cultured but not at all well off…cue John Keats (played by a moody and melancholic Ben Wishaw) and his over-protective,literary buddy Mr Brown,who move in next door…2 poets who graft away “seeking the muse”…Fanny makes much fun of them and slowly wins the heart of Keats but not in a modern way,Campion has played a restraining game here…long,languid encounters,misunderstandings,sudden passion,rules of etiquette and of conscience…it is an organic relationship that is more powerful for the repressed desire…similar to Scorcese’s “The Age of Innocence” with Day-Lewis and Pfeiffer,theirs is a slow burning passion that is stymied by the fact that Keats is penniless and in no position to marry Fanny.Nowadays he’d be on the dole or a grant or be teaching adultEd and they’d shack up in some groovy inner city flat but back then it seems a big deal and frustrates the 2 lovers—simply,noone is buying his books of poetry.
The cinematography and musical score is superb,eg: the famous lilacs meadow scene where we see (from behind) Fanny read Keat’s love letter and collapse in a swoon,all billowing dress and blue fragrant flowers…the film features the natural seasons…spring,flowers,butterflies (amusingly caught to become a “butterfly farm” in Fanny’s bedroom)…winter,snow and logfires,coughing and sickness…Keats has lost his brother to TB and a lot of his melancholy is the result…but he lives to describe rapture and mystery and now to be with his “Minx”…Wishaw delivers a heartbreaking performance…you intuit he knows he’s going to die as well…caught between love and resignation…Cornish plays the girl as a headstrong lover of life,unafraid to appear foolish,certain of her heart’s affections…she does suffer.
so a deeply felt,unsentimental examination of a doomed
relationship by one of the world’s foremost directors at the very top of her game…interestingly enough in recent interviews, 52 year old Campion has discussed her life beyond “the relationship thing” but here she may be exploring her life and the heady days of young love…
highly recommended (fellas,take a tissue or 3)
5***** outta 5
” SIDEWAYS “
PEDRO’S WORLD OF CINEMA
SIDEWAYS
dir by Alexander Payne USA 2007
is a story about Californian wine, featuring 2 grapes…one called Pinot and the other Merlot.Pinot is a little bit thin-skinned and neurotic and Merlot grows everywhere, latching onto everything…they rub skins,bicker,fight,argue then both get crushed into a juicy deep finish.
fun film.
(and yes fellas,Merlot shows us how to chat up chicks—secret–pay attention to them –who’da thunk that?—-pay compliments but don’t rush in with something too personal,say something about how they uncork a bottle or flip a flapjack for eg.—-then after 1st base you can bang on about their eyes or somesuch.)
the highlight? possibly the sweetest recorded message in Amreekan Cinema History…i felt a salty riesling drop cascade from my duct…magic)
oh Paul Giamatti plays Pinot and Thomas Haden Church plays Merlot.
3 ***…….SO WHAT DO YOU THINK ?
” AVATAR “
PEDRO’S WORLD OF CINEMA
“AVATAR”
director : james cameron ….Canada/USA 2009
…noisiest,most involved crowd i’ve ever been in,a socially shared event,a reason that widescreen cinema is best viewed with friends+1,000 strangers.This film is a jaw-dropping action adventure with heart.I normally get bored with Bond films or STAR WARS after the character development is over and the big set pieces roll out but this film is a whole other world,every scene remains visually and emotionally compelling…this one “kicks in from the get-go!”
set up has sam worthington,a paraplegic marine travel to a distant moon called Pandora to help in a scientific assignment…mind-controlling his “avatar”…a DNA alien-human hybrid that can survive the different atmosphere and infiltrate the indigineous population.A people called the Na’vi who exist peacefully with the environment of flourescent plants,animals,birds…plants display amazing behaviour…6-legged horses look like dinosaurs…the design is amazing…yes,probably inspired heavily by roger dean and other SF fantasy artists…the CGI of the blue Na’vi people and sam’s blue avatar is a winner because of Cameron’s use of tiny cameras that capture the actor’s every twitch and blink for CGI purposes…thus the aliens are totally believable and compared to a leathery,chain-smoking sigourney weaver as the head scientist,are much softer+sexier.
don’t fear the future people,if our alien overlords are tall,slim+sexy(geddouttahere!!!)—with swishy tails toboot!
so the whole shebang relies on the chemistry of samW and the actress who was used to generate the warrior-princess he falls in love with…ok,it’s a broad romantic adventure that has to play in vladivostock,istanbul as well as alberquerque,so some of the dialogue is clunky “i gotta take this to a whole new level” and some of the characters are broad and cliched…the general in particular is a classic jar-head psycho…no,even he is cool…hhahaha….NO PLOT SPOILERS,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
check it out as you will go to a world of floating mountains,flourescent plants,flying dragons,generous wide-mouthed women,brave guys,trees that communicate electronically on a global scale…it’s got a green message bubba-louies (and a political one)…gunna enjoy reading some of the blog-takes on Cameron’s spiritual+political statements all played through character+story.Sam Worthington is a solid,economical presence,he’s a bit dumb but fearless,he wants another chance to feel alive since his accident that keeps him in a wheelchair….great leading man,like harrison,you can imagine he knows how to build a house…born in western australia,he auditioned for the role here,was asked to do more screen tests in LA so sold all his possessions and landed there with $AUD2,000________________i’m sure he’s got more now…but you can tell he likes a risk…you never get to see the actress playing the princess,Zoe Saldana* (?)…i guess she was african-american,a lovely warm beyonce-like voice+++can she shoot arrows hahhahahahha
(the stuff the army want is energy-rich Unobtainium—to power a dying earth………a small misstep,the name i mean…oh dear…but still_______________________easily)
4 **** outta 5
so what do you think?
www.pedro-tv.com
(though not everybody is impressed…..watch internet sensation critical review here:_______________
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAPyipuT-Jg
” ASTROBOY “
PEDRO’S WORLD OF CINEMA
“ASTROBOY”
Dir IMAGI studio Japan 2009
………..cool,retro titles… a techno world up in the clouds,think a floating singapore…clean,sterile,robot-slaves to do all the work,a bit soulless…astroboy,called ken or something…coulda been clive…smart…gets killed by dad’s war/energy thingy-not smart—and nic cage phones in the father’s voice role—sounds like a somnulant donkey….sorry nick,miss the brown eyes and muscles (his acting chops)….so kid becomes robot for grieving father…so pinocchio+frankenstein is referenced…not quite like the son…more like vigilante batman/boy—so is jettisoned to earth which all the junk goes to scrapped together by mutant children…think mad max3…fun time/robot wars melding into godzilla by time of last act
NO PLOT SPOILERS
animation by numbers/creaky plotting/silly voices except for astroboy which could be just a software program called PETULANT AMERICAN TEENAGER or PAT for short
still some sweet/funny/sad moments by gee whillikers…12 year old boy audience member was bored while his father (who is considering an upgrade to GRATEFUL SON BOT 09 or GSB o9 in SONY online catalogue www.letsplaygodwithourNerdyPreoccupations thought it was kind OK)
2 ** outta 5
so what do you think?
__________________
” THE COMBINATION ” + ” BLESSED “
PEDRO’S WORLD OF CINEMA….DOUBLEHEADER
THE COMBINATION
Dir david field australia 2009
…yeah, a searing drama set in western sydney amidst the lebanese community there…george basha wrote screenplay and stars as lead just outta prison,who comes to aid of gorgeous white girl…gang violence,ethnic tensions in the summer of the cronulla riots,drug deals…older brother trying to steer younger brother away from all this…
film begins with tracking shot descending,swirling arabic music,palm trees,we could be in tripoli..but trains,shops,hotels,islander kids,lebs,skips,soon remind us that we’re in multi-ethnic west of sydney…director david (oyster farmer)field is a renowned tough,nuggety actor and has delivered a taut,absorbing story…tradition V modernity,responsibility V crime, love V intolerance…it’s the combination of all these which is the answer…sample dialogue:
“we grew here, you flew here!”
“yeah, we came in planes,but you came in chains!”
4 ****
BLESSED
dir ana kokkinos australia 2009
..ok,another gritty,beautiful film that explores teenagers and parents,this time set in melbourne…structured in 2 parts….first we follow 5 kids as they wake…some are homeless,a couple will wag school…get in trouble,steal,perform degrading acts for money…tough street kids caught in a downward spiral….
next part is same day but seen from the mothers’ perspective…miranda otto,frances o’connor,deborah lee furness are all fearless in portraying adults who are not in control as they seem….the kids are not as tough as they seem…we get to see why the kids made their initial decisions…it’s heartbreaking stuff…otto is addicted to poker machines,o’connor has 4 kids from 4 different men,furness is in a loveless marriage with financial strain…she is hugh jackman’s wife in real life and here doesn’t look a day under 55 years old…none of the woman are glamourised…otto especially as she drunkenly dances alone in her house,in a new dress to THE ANGELS’ “she keeps no secret”….co-written by the guy who wrote LANTANA, andrew bovell,again it’s an absorbing,multi-layered story that as a parent was tough to watch…the gulf between children and parents…the words that wound…
highly recommended…
4 1/2 ****
so what do you think?