Art Smitten: Reviews - 2017: Recent Episodes
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Art Smitten is SYN's weekly guide to arts, culture and entertainment in Australia and around the world.
With a focus on youth and emerging arts, we're here to showcase culture ahead of the curve. Contributors interview, review, and cover the very best of what the world’s most liveable city has to offer, all packaged in two hours to close off your weekend. Whether it's film, fashion, photography or Fauvism you're into, Art Smitten is the place.
Art Smitten broadcasts on SYN Nation on Sundays 2-4pm.
This playlist features all of Art Smitten's reviews from 2017.
Christian, Silvi, Hamish and Smithers discuss sexism in Christmas movies and review More Pudding Anyone?, the new Christmas comedy playing at 8.30pm at The Butterfly Club (5 Carson Pl, off Little Collins St) until Sunday December 17.
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Andrew reviews the new Charles Dickens biopic starring Dan Stevens, Christopher Plummer, Jonathan Pryce and Miriam Margoyles
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Christian and Amorette chat to one of the members of the French band Juniore, coming to Australia in January to perform in next year’s So Frenchy So Chic festival.
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Andrew reviews the 2017 Archibald Prize exhibition, showing at the Geelong Gallery until Sunday December 10.
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On September 17th, 2017, Harry Dean Stanton passed away at the age of 91 years old. He lived the life of an actor, but known more specifically as a character actor. Character actors are known as people who play bizarre, memorable characters in films, who usually appear as a side role. It’s no surprise then that Stanton was a favourite in David Lynch’s films, appearing countless times throughout his long line of surreal creations. Stanton has had few lead acting roles, including that of Repo Man, Paris, Texas and, as one of this final films, Lucky.
Lucky is directed by John Carroll Lynch, who, similarly to Stanton, is widely known for his supporting roles in films as an actor, including Zodiac, The Founder, and American Horror Story. This is his first time stepping into the role as a director, and it goes without saying that he’s a natural at it, in his own way. Stanton is joined in the cast by Ron Livingston, famous for Office Space, and David Lynch, the man himself. As a side note, I find it interesting that three films debuted this year; Logan, Logan Lucky, and Lucky, as well as Logan Sparks co-writing Lucky itself. So, try not to get too confused.
Before I get into what Lucky truly means, let’s look at what Lucky is on the outside. Lucky is a 88 minute drama following the day to day life of Lucky, a 90 year old Atheist who is still kicking, even though he smokes a pack a day. Lucky’s dialogue is very conversational, but existential in nature, discussing the meaning of life, friendship and tortoises. Each actor displays a fantastic performance, and really sell it as real as they can. The visuals are simple, and sometimes surreal, edging into the area that David Lynch favours so well. The score however is something that hits home for me. Simple harmonica tunes with a western spin to it send my back to when I listened to Van Morrison and Bob Dylan with my father on his old cassettes. This kind of music is that of remembrance, old classics, and age. However, Lucky has a lot more to say internally.
Lucky, in itself, is a homage to Harry Dean Stanton's life, whether is meant too or not. Each character is interesting, memorable, and a little kooky, queuing off Stanton's long career of creating characters with this sole nature. Alongside this, the character of Lucky feels like it would be Stanton in real life, if not a exaggerated version of him. Even some lines which Lucky has can be traced to Stanton's own comments in interviews. “I'm 87 years old...I only eat so I can smoke and stay alive.. The only fear I have is how long consciousness is gonna hang on after my body goes.” Two years after he said this, Lucky was filmed, and the simple image that Stanton created here is almost splitting to that of what you see in Lucky.
However, Lucky isn’t just about Stanton. More importantly, it’s about death, and acceptance of such. Lucky explores what it means to be happy, and have friendship. Death surrounds us all, but this doesn’t mean we need to be afraid of it, or talk about if we are or not. Lucky is about just that. Lucky to be here, lucky to live, lucky to have friends and experience life and what it has to offer. But in the end death comes to us all, the only thing that is inevitable. Stanton’s other comment back in 2014 encapsulates the message Lucky wishes to tell, and a very similar line to this appears in the climax of the movie itself.
“The void, the concept of nothingness, is terrifying to most people on the planet. And I get anxiety attacks myself. I know the fear of that void. You have to learn to die before you die. You give up, surrender to the void, to nothingness.”
Lucky teaches us that we shouldn’t fear death, but you must learn what death truly is. That there is no going back, no second chances. Harry Dean Stanton’s life came to a close this year, but his legacy will live on through hundreds of examples of what he chose to do with his life. Lucky is the final piece which closes a truly fascinating existence, which we have been blessed to witness on film. Lucky opens November 16th, 2017.
Written by Hamish Vallance
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Lay Down Sally is Australia’s answer to Book of Mormon. Laugh out loud, side splittingly, leave your face sore funny. Playing at Chapel off Chapel, the show opened last Tuesday Night to a sold out theatre. The audience and was not to be disappointed.
Written by Spencer Hadlow, Andrew White and Taylen Furness, The show starts directly after Sally Robbins (played by Nicola Guzzardi) 2004 Olympic lay down incident. It follows on to explore Sally’s determined comeback into Australia’s heart as she battles to win Gold at the 2008 Beijing Olympics in cycling! With the help of Steven Bradbury and Nick Giannopolis the Australian trio sing their way into our hearts, if not to glory.
The musical opens on a mostly bare stage with the cast already positioned in Olympic stances. On the screen were quotes about the incident from Australian public figures. From there it was catchy musical hit after hit beginning with the namesake "Lay Down Sally".
The set remained basic with no scene changes, this was also true of costumes with the whole cast sticking to one staple look. This allowed the audience to focus completely on the script and music which were detailed and expansive.
Behind the humour and silliness the show critiques Australias media and our almost unhealthy obsession with sport and our sporting heroes. They did this through parody with 2 media personalities commenting on Sally's struggles. By using humour to address this issue the audience is asked to consider their own role in condemning sporting losses.
The cast was outstanding. In particular their execution of the witty dialogue and with their classically trained voices they proved the Aussie accent can be appreciated in song. The songs themselves were creative and well performed.
The use of multimedia on the television was effectively utilised to add another layer of humour by incorporating previously filmed footage, maps and the 98 windows screen.
While every factor of the show was enjoyable what truly tickled my fancy was the incorporation of Aussie Humour complete with classic stereotypes and icons including just juice puns, bloody oaths, and Vegemite.
Lay Down Sally was memorable in its uniqueness and how Australian it was. A very funny and entertaining musical that everyone should take the time to see even if you don't like musicals. It's playing at Chapel off Chapel until the 24th of October so don't miss it!
Written by Samara Barr
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Samara Barr reviews Black Rider: The Casting of the Magic Bullets, a co-production between Victorian Opera and Malthouse Theatre written by Tom Waits and William S. Burroughs that's playing until October 8.
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Everyone loves a good ghost story whether to try and debunk the paranormal, persuade a non-believer, or encourage discussion on the afterlife. For me ghost stories take me back to Cub Scout campfires and sleepovers with torches. Phil Spencer's Hooting and Howling captures this essence of story telling in a delightful and highly entertaining manner as he recounts his own experience of hunting down a ghost, complete with spooky torch light.
Performing at The Butterfly Club on a bare stage, Phil conjures up an atmospheric world of senses through words alone, taking us to another time. The story is complemented by the enchanting Julia Johnson, whose soulful voice added an ethereal layer and depth to the performance. Her skill with the banjo enhances the humour and tone of the different plot points. Breaking up the story with song gives the audience time to absorb the content and consider their own opinions.
Combining storytelling and stand up comedy conventions, Phil leads us on a journey to cockatoo island in Sydney on a ghost hunt. the simplicity of the plot was created into a spellbinding tale of the different people he met, the emotions he felt, and mundane aspects worthy of inspection. His talent with different impersonations is impressive, transporting the viewer to Cockatoo Island to soak in the atmosphere and Phil's perspective of that night.
As the telling continues, Phil has moments of self-awareness and introspection which increases our relationship with him. While predominantly a comedy, Phil intertwines beautiful philosophical thoughts we have all had in the past - such as "What happens after death?" - and in doing so confronts the loss of someone dear to him. This added meaning to an otherwise playful sketch. Overall, Hooting & Howling is a piece that made me happy in a quiet and thoughtful way, something that is overlooked in our crazy world. It had strength in the straightforwardness of the telling and Phil's effervescent stage persona breathed life and depth into creating the world.
Hooting & Howling is playing at the Butterfly club until Monday 25th so don't miss it! I would highly recommend for an enjoyable and fun evening out.
By Samara Barr
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Hamish drops by to tell Christina and Reem all about this year's Melbourne Jewish Music Festival, Shir Madness
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If you’re going to go to a magic show, you really need to let yourself try and enjoy it. It sounds weird, but if you’re skeptical and you go into a magic show, don’t expect much. Honestly you shouldn’t even really be there. So, going to a magic festival is definitely not something for the complete unbelievers. I took my partner along to this show, as I felt it would be an experience that needs to be shared. In the foyer, other magicians showed off their skills, but we were more enthralled by the friendly rabbits making their way through people's legs on the floor. Soon after we headed into a much smaller, more intimate room for the actual show we were there for, White Lies by Pierre Ulric.
Ulric is a likeable, eccentric man with a well-trimmed beard and glint behind his eyes. The main basis behind the show is time, which I liked. Every time he finished with a segment he turned over an hourglass, the room would go dark, then light again, and he would address us as though we were in a different time of the show, jumping between the ending, the start and halfway through. I liked this consistency, as he repeated tricks which shouldn’t be capable of repeating, such as emptying and always refilling a water bucket each time. No one seemed to notice what I found much more interesting, which was his watch. Each time he would lock it in his briefcase, and in the next segment it would be back on his hand. Even when i was on stage later when he had the watch on, i didn't see one in the briefcase. Magic, people.
Unsurprisingly as we even changed seats at the start of the show to be closer to the front (to the dismay of my anxiety-ridden girlfriend), we were of course targeted to be part of the show itself. We helped do a magic trick with cards which apparently would confirm if we were right for each other. Both drawing correct cards corresponding with important dates with each other, we obviously are meant to be. Other tricks in the show included a cool bending of metal, which went slightly wrong when it didn’t seem to work with a saw, and a final big reveal in the end where four cards corresponded with four different people on stage. It was slightly anticlimactic, but ended the show nicely. At the end of the show, I did notice someone who obviously didn’t seem to give in to the magic. He complained about tricks and tried to explain to others how it was done, which I think is pretty unnecessary. Magic might or might not be real, but that's the reason it has a following. We aren’t supposed to know, which the enticing feature. So go about with magic how you wish, but if you do decide to go to a show, don’t just ruin it for other people. White Lies performance at the Melbourne Magic Festival might be over, but for more info about his other shows check out his website pierreulric.com.
Written by Hamish Vallance
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Do you like music? Do you like action? Do you like fast cars speeding around and crashing which isn’t Fast and the Furious? Well this is the film for you!
Baby Driver is the new love child of Edgar Wright, known for his smash hit Cornetto Trilogy, including Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and the other one we don’t really talk about, World’s End. Baby Driver sheds Wright’s former acting duo, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, replacing them with rookie actor Ansel Elgort in the lead role of Baby, a getaway driver. Alongside Elgort is an all-star cast which beefs up an already tantalizing film, including Kevin Spacey, Jon Hamm, Jamie Foxx and Jon Bernthal. Next to Elgort is also love interest Debora, played by Lily James. It might not seem like a big deal, but honestly one of my favourite things about this film is that the love story is actually good. It doesn’t feel forced, and is projected in a totally realistic and understandable way; if realistic is driving cars and robbing banks of course. It seems like a small detail, but so many films nowadays overcomplicate their love stories, or just create awful nonsensical ones.
Baby Driver is pretty much a movie length music video, which isn’t a bad thing. Nearly every action, such as doors slamming, guns shooting, and tires screeching, are done to the beat of the music playing at the time. Everything is timed perfectly, and you can tell the care that has been put into making it. This in itself resonates very well with me, as although I don’t rob banks myself or have an ear problem, I understand where Baby is coming from. I love having music go to the beat of what I’m doing, and if it’s not, I’ll change what I’m doing so it is to the beat. The motivation of Baby is clear, with exposition being simply dropped through conversation, or through snippets of artistic flashbacks. You really feel for baby, as you know his struggle is honest and important to him, not just some unmotivated kill fest. The important thing this film does really well though is the characters. They’re written well, and there comedy is perfect, timed with the music and beats of the story. I don’t laugh out loud often in films, and if I do it’s if a lot of people are around, but for Baby Driver there was only about ten of us, and we we’re laughing all the way through.
Good characters are likeable, and mean characters are likeable, that’s how convincing everyone in the film is written and acted. Of course, special mention needs to be given to the star, Ansel Elgort. Known for Fault in our Stars and the Divergent Series, Elgort has really come out of his shell in Baby Driver. His performance is perfectly timed, down to the second with his movements, and all in all is an enthralling display of acting. Even minor characters in the film are well made and funny, like the post office lady and the old lady Baby hijacks. The music isn’t the only production value which shines in this film. The long shots and actual shooting of the music based scenes are easily standouts in the film, being the most exciting and tense, as well as just a jam session.
I found the start of the film quite segmented. However it works in the grand scheme of things in setting up the world that Baby resides in clearly. The film also has some shocks in it, which I wasn’t expecting, such as truly brutal violence at times. The film doesn’t take no nonsense, meaning nothing is taken lightly or played out unrealistically. Baby’s and the other characters’ fates, as bank robbers, do not end riding into the sunset.
All in all the film is just a fun time, and is one of the few that you’re simultaneously holding your breath, laughing and going, “wow, how did they do that?” The overall production values are top notch, making the film look sublime. The role of the antagonist changes constantly, meaning it's never just one person. This adds some real dimension to characters, showing like people, they can change. Some great throwbacks to Wright's older projects are put in, including one relating to the music video the film is based on. I highly recommend this film to nearly anyone. If you just want a good time with a bunch of laughs with a killer soundtrack, and can put up with some brutal violence, this is the film you didn't know you were waiting for.
Written by Hamish Vallance
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Lady Macbeth is the debut film by William Oldroyd, written by Alice Birch and based on the novella Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District by Nikolai Leskov. It's set in the mid-19th century, though it transposes the original narrative from Russia to the Northern English moors.
The film stars Florence Pugh as Katherine, a young woman who enters into a loveless marriage with an older industrialist. He gives her no attention, and when he leaves for a business trip she looks to one of her husband's workers, Sebastian, played by Cosmo Jarvis, for the affection she so desperately needs. Soon after, however, things turn harsh and murderous, putting into motion events that earn Katherine the unspoken fitting nickname of Lady Macbeth.
Shot by Melbourne cinematographer Ari Wegner, the camerawork, which alternates between still and handheld, has an effective but obvious role of mirroring characters' emotional states. The colour palette is also suitably cold except in the more tender moments between Katherine and Sebastian – even the poster features Katherine in a long, piercingly blue dress. It also has some very interesting ways of dealing with space. We never see the front of the house and indeed most of the action takes place inside with Katherine looking out through the windows.
In fact if I have any criticisms about this film it's that most of it seems effective but obvious. The puritanical, patriarchal setting of mid-19th Century Britain, for example, is an easy conduit for its necessary statements about gender politics. However, Oldroyd and the rest of the cast and crew should be commended for creating a tense and modestly troubling film.
A solid and promising debut, Lady Macbeth is in cinemas now.
Written by Ben Volchok
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Jack reviews the Melbourne Youth Orchestras' New Worlds concert at the Melbourne Recital Centre on Sunday July 2, 2017.
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When Gareth Liddiard of the Drones took to the stage as the headline act of NGV’s Friday Night series, he took a moment to remind the audience of an unpopular Vincent Van Gogh fact. “He stinks” he said, with a wry grin. He was referring not to Van Gogh’s paintings, but to Vincent himself. Reminding everyone that one of the greatest artists of the 20th century and the star of the most successful NGV international exhibition to ever go on display, actually stank. “In fact if he walked in here now,” Liddiard continued, “You’d probably have him arrested.”
The mythology around Van Gogh is so pervasive now that it is difficult to imagine a time where he was not lauded as an artistic, if troubled, genius. Perhaps it is remembered, but in a self congratulatory way - “I would have known, I would have been different and seen him as the genius that he was.” And to this Liddiard calls bullshit. Liddiard is a loveable rogue who sings like someone having the air squeezed out of them - visceral but with a sense of brutal honesty. This felt like a natural continuation of his conversation with the audience, with lyrics reminding them to examine the world in which they find themselves and not accepting the comfortable complacency of believing our cultural heroes are people we would actually like.
The casting of David Wenham as Van Gogh in the exhibition film and audio guide is interesting in connection to this. Every woman who has ever watched Sea Change knows that David Wenham is a babe, and when he loses his good looks to the ravages of time he is going to make a fortune doing audio books. He is nothing if not incredibly palatable, sexy even, to the general public - perhaps the opposite in demeanour to Van Gogh? By making the life of an artist a narrative, and a tragic narrative at that, and making the protagonist of that narrative attractive to the champagne clutching classes who go out to galleries for a good time on a Friday night, do we not lose the parts of his work that are challenging or unpleasant? Far from wanting to trot out that tired turn of phrase that art should disturb the comfortable and comfort the disturbed - I wonder, that even though there is so much of his art and his letters that remain, is Vincent Van Gogh not lost in the myth that surrounds him, depending on whatever romantic notion the public holds at the time? Does the man himself lose value if we do not like him?
This review seems critical, I know, but I am actually so impressed by the curation of this exhibition and event. Yes, they seemingly crafted the evening around older gallery goers who love that the Grigoryan brothers are going to be playing arrangements of Debussy’s Clair de Lune and that the Elan string quartet play it just as safe - but then they follow up with a headliner like Gareth Liddiard. His presence brought with it a breath of fresh air, a touch of cynicism and the highest concentration of mullets I have ever seen in the NGV.
This exhibition has had the largest visitor numbers of any international exhibition ever displayed at the NGV - this Friday Night event sold out. What is it about Van Gogh that draws in people in such numbers? His reputation or mythology? Curator Laurie Benson explained he believe’s it is because Van Gogh died at the peak of his talent - he didn't go on for another 30 years diluting these works. However, the fact that we can never know how Van Gogh could have progressed as an artist taints this theory for me. I think it cements a mythology of the tortured artist as a genius that quickly burns out the life that channels it. I know myth has a pull - its very popular. But what about the loss - not knowing what he could have gone on to create? The tragedy that he had to die to achieve fame with, let's face it, people he would have detested?
This exhibition revels in the many sides of Van Gogh that appeared in his work and his life, facilitating questions such as these - on the nature of the art world, the cultural notions surrounding creativity and social acceptability. These are ideas that appeal widely and ignite the curiosity of the romantic and cynical alike.
Written by Gill Langford
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Playing on their egos of Fran and Yetta, Lauren Edwards and Jude Perl created a dynamic cabaret show that celebrated a decade of television history, the 90s.
Yada Yada Yada took its name from the Seinfeld episode in which George gets suspicious of his new girlfriend’s use of the term. There are a few of these Easter eggs scattered throughout the show.
The premise follows a knock off Fran and Yetta filming a 90s Television Special. The two performers did an array of sitcom medleys and original songs. Particular songs, like Cheers, made you join in with the two in wishing that we could live life in a 90s Sitcom.
There was talk of favourite heart throbs, social roles of older women, the stereotype of Jewish grandmas and audience trivia. The show felt difficult to get into as the humour was very particular to the sitcom style. A laughing track was implemented and banter between the two was undeniable. However, songs such as "Roles for Older Women" provided that much needed commentary and flavour of the two comedians.
I found it surprising that Lauren Edwards had portrayed Fran as her voice is very much unique and difficult to master. What Edwards gave was not the most perfect impression of Fran but one that had the tenacity and energy spot on. This was similar with Perl's character, Yetta, who was portrayed with such sass.
Overall, the Cabaret show was unique and fun, particularly for anyone wanting to get a nostalgia fix with a dash of music, comedy and game show.
Yada Yada Yada is on at The Butterfly Club (5 Carson Place, off Little Collins St) until Sunday July 9
Written by Maria Dunne
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At La Mama Theatre in Carlton on Wednesday night I got to experience a moving and powerful physical theatre piece called (De)construct. Directed by Cera Maree Brown, (de)construct explores themes of identity, social anxiety, language, gender, sexuality and living from home.
Based on recorded conversations between the performers, the honesty and depth to the opinions voiced struck a chord of familiarity in the audience as the different situations were played out. (de)construct begins with a movement piece, gradually building in intensity and speed before following in to a deep conversation as Jai Leeworthy, Lucy Pitt, Nabs Adnam, and Antonia Yip Side Pin recount their own experiences and tell their stories. This was accompanied with what they were saying displayed behind them, leading to the audience not knowing what was script and was was reality. The conversation was overplayed with movement which displayed the subtext of the words being said. Words saying they were doing well were contrasted with the actors trying to get out of their own skin. The show was extremely well rehearsed and you could tell a lot of thought and time had been put in to achieve a polished finish. The actors' moves were synchronised and organised as they moved through the space with confidence and ease.
Visually, (de)construct was stunning to watch as they created the feeling of a panic attack in physical form. The set, while simple, was effective in creating the feeling of isolation and withdrawal.
In terms of sound design, Isha Ram Das was masterful in complementing the mood on stage, enhancing the frenzied feeling and increasing anxiety.
(de)construct is a profound physical theatre performance which addresses the often stigmatised taboo topic of mental illness. Most people in society have suffered from anxiety or mental illness to varying degrees and (de)construct is a constructive way of opening dialogue and asking people to acknowledge their own mental health. I would give this piece 4 out of 5 stars.
Written by Samara Barr
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Wallace & Gromit and Friends and their talented creators have just arrived at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Aardman Animations. Running until October 29 this latest of the Melbourne Winter Masterpieces is a virtually exhaustive exhibition of the company's entire body of work, including their next feature film, Early Man, coming out early next year. Visiting Aardman founders and co-curators, Peter Lord and David Sproxton, working very closely with ACMI head curator Fiona Trigg and the Art Ludique museum in Paris, have delivered a generous serving of early sketches, concept art, original models, plasticine sets and, of course, the plasticine characters themselves! I was fortunate enough to hear Peter and David's brilliant introduction to the exhibition and to chat to Fiona about what it was like to put it all together.
All the favourites are there of course: there’s plenty to see of the famous bumbling inventor and his long-suffering dog, some very cute scenes from Shaun the Sheep and a few memorable set pieces from Chicken Run, but many visitors are likely to be surprised by just how many “friends” Wallace & Gromit actually have at Aardman, a company who also did scores of other shorts, commercials, music videos, and even other features films that never got quite as much attention as their first two. It’s easy to forget that their first Academy Award was for Nick Park’s Creature Comforts, the delightful zoo mockumentary that actually beat A Grand Day Out for Best Animated Short in 1989. Just as they’ve been making children’s films that adults can also get into, they’ve also produced some more adult-oriented works that kids are still drawn to because of the animation. As Fiona said during the launch of the exhibition, Claymation has a particular playful and tactile feel to it, a warmth that comes from its refreshing simplicity. Its animators basically get to play around with their favourite toys in front of a camera and make their little creations feel as real to the audience as they to do them. At the media preview I attended, I was very happy, but not really surprised, to see the adults having just as much fun as the tiny kids who also got to go. The wide-eyed children were thrilled to see things like Wallace's vegetable garden, the flying machine from Chicken Run and the massive pirate ship in the back room, right there in the flesh, while the adults were marvelling at the witty details the Aardman animators sneak into these worlds they create. I suppose that Aardman, like Disney, is usually associated with light, cheerful family entertainment, mostly because their animation style is colourful, quirky and humorous, the characters are likeable and most of their films have happy endings. For adults, this might be the overall impression, but certainly for a child these films really make you work for those moments of happiness. Many of their iconic darker scenes feature in the exhibition as well, including the chicken pie machine, Gromit's heartbreaking night in jail, and of course, Feathers McGraw, the evil penguin from A Close Shave.
It was also great to see some of the best comic characters from Curse of the Were-Rabbit, the CGI-animated Flushed Away and their most recent feature, ThePirates! Band of Misfits, who’ve been voiced by such British stars as Hugh Grant and Kate Winslet, actors that any directors would be thrilled to work with, although it looks like they were even more excited to be lending their voices to such classic stories and characters.
Wallace & Gromit and Friends is a wondrous exploration of all of Aardman’s many creations and the breadth of talent behind them, bringing its visitors into the worlds of the fan favourites, introducing them to some of their more obscure works and getting them extra excited for the next adventure.
By Christian Tsoutsouvas
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Smithers reviews the new circus show that runs from June 20-July 16 at the Big Top in Birrarung Marr (between Federation Square and Batman Avenue).
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Andrew reviews Julie Andrews’ 60th Anniversary production of My Fair Lady, now playing at the Regent Theatre until July 29.
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London Comedy Duo Roulston and Young come straight from the Adelaide Cabaret Festival to Melbourne’s Butterfly Club, to deliver an hour of upbeat laughs and jabs at relationships on a frosty Melbourne night.
The first song lets you know what you’re in for, an upbeat formula with plenty of witty banter between hosts and invitations to the audience to join in the wink-winking and nudge-nudging. The audience that this reviewer was a part of were only too happy to oblige, a lively oneindeed.
From there, Roulston and Young travel through lovers past and present, dancing between awkwardness and laughter, stopping for breath only to invite the audience to chat and join in on the stories. While interactive is probably the wrong word to exercise here, it certainly felt involved and it ushers everything in with a warm solidarity.
Songs explored everything from one-night stands with people half their age, vegging out in front of Deal or No Deal re-runs with a box of tim-tams, and crowd favourite ‘Please don’t hand me your Baby’, which brought on plenty of hearty laughter from the audience. The group was also adept at throwing in plenty of Australian references, something I thought was quite self-aware and clever.
And while it is a mixture of upbeat tempo and sultry comedy, there’s a certain tenderness that underlies it all. Particularly relevant in the song ‘The Letter’, where Young explores the crucible of adultery and divorce.
Of course, the core of it is a collection of songs on love, and the absurdity of all: the silly things it makes us do, the things it makes us put up with, and the infinite happiness and regrets it’s capable of inducing in us.
In this strange way it feels rather intimate, and human. The way the Butterfly club is set up only enhances this quality, giving the sensation that the show was written with the venue in mind, which is down a laneway off Little Collins Street and winds up staircases through to a bar, a back room littered with what seems like 50’s memorabilia, and then to a stage in the attic.
Seats are up front and centre the walls not wide apart. The only focus is on stage. People in the front row are almost at arm’s lengths from the stage. The nakedness of it gave it the sensation of being at a dinner party, face-to-face with friends.
Written by Matthew Toohey
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This documentary wasn’t just your normal superstar backstory, this was a story about a woman's journey through self-doubt, a controlling family, addiction and racism.
Nick Broomfield’s documentary of Whitney Houston is truly riveting and captivating, unlike any documentary I’ve ever seen. There were a number of never before seen home videos of Whitney starting out singing with her mum, Cissy Houston, in church, Whitney’s early interviews and of her backstage. There were also a number of interviews from people close to her where it was really interesting to hear what they saw and how she spiralled out of control.
She paved the way for African Americans. We wouldn’t have people like Beyonce if it wasn’t for Whitney, but back when she was starting out she was hated by her African American community because they thought white Amercia had basically taken her away and moulded her into a white American popstar singing pop as opposed to what African Americans wanted to hear: RNB. She was even booed on stage at Soul Train which really affected her and was something she would never get over.
The documentary really portrayed all the things that happened to her and what evidently killed her. The booing; the moulding; her now trying to find herself and her not being herself, the controlling mother who wanted Whitney's career and credited her daughter's success to herself; the father who loved her dearly but in the end wanted Whitney to pay him over 100 million dollars while he was lying on his death bad; the marriage breakdown of two addicts; Bobbi Brown and Whitney; his cheating; her not wanting to disappoint god or anyone around her: all these things are attributed to her addiction which lead to her death. So many of the interviews said she died from a broken heart. She wasn't being herself. Everyone had moulded her into this money making machine, depending on her to pay their bills. She had so much self doubt and wanted so much for people to like her that she never truly believed she deserved this success.
I always thought the addiction started with Bobbi Brown, but it didn’t, it started when she was in her teens. Her brothers gave her the illegal substances the family was ridden with drugs and no one focused on that from the beginning so addictions formed. She no longer used for fun: it was to survive.
There is a one scene near the end showing Whitney walking off stage before an encore, bawling her eyes out, the crowd screaming her name, but she didn’t care. She was lonely and heartbroken - she had no close friends, except for a woman named Robyn that everyone thought she was in lesbian relationship with, and then Bobbi Brown pushed Robyn away. No one knows if Whitney was a lesbian, but if she was, she was she wasn’t allowed to be.
It was a truly remarkable documentary, delivering intimate insights into why Whitney always asked ‘Can I Be Me’ hence the title, I really want people to watch this. It shows the truth behind fame and fortune that a lot people don’t see.
Written by Christina Cavaleri
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This weeks Friday Nights included a headline act by Two Steps on the Water, a extravagant chandelier and a reviewer entranced in the art of Van Gogh and Love: Art of Emotion 1400 - 1800.
I find that the two components that make or break the Friday Nights experience is the music and the art.
This weeks Friday Nights had exhibitions that emphasize emotion and mood. It only made it more suitable that the headliner for this week had so much gumption and feeling in their songs. The three piece punk/heavy folk band, Two Steps on the Water gave such a colourful performance that complimented the often varying tones of Van Gogh's art pieces. Their set also had heaps of humour implanted between songs. In every wolf whistle, lead singer June Jones was there to alert everyone "there are no wolves in the NGV".
People filled every room to offer, perhaps to feast their eyes on the amount of art available on display. If you are heading to the Friday Nights in the future don't forget to check out the other exhibitions like love that the NGV has also opened up for the public. A particular favourite of mine was the exhibition with a ceramic of a dog that looks like a Chihuahua in a beard and a locket of a noblewoman where she is holding her prized squirrel. The aesthetic and atmosphere of the night as usual was chill. A new art piece, The Chandelier, dawned the centre of the Gallery. Art goers circulated it. It became a nice centrepiece for the night.
Everyone was free to move around talk and be engaged in this cultural experience. Art and Music a perfect mix. Be sure to attend the next Friday night at the NGV next Friday where The Fauves are playing.
Written by Maria Dunne
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There's something very romantic about going to an art gallery at night time, especially one as grand as the NGV. The high ceilings and wide open spaces are really beautiful. It would be really cute to take someone there on a date and afterwards get a hot chocolate and sit by the river, just a suggestion.
Van Gogh and the Seasons was curated by Sjraar van Heugten The exhibition begins with a short 9 min video detailing important points and shifts in Van Gogh's life. I really enjoyed this part of exhibition, it was interesting and easy to understand. Then you walk into the next part of the exhibition, a narrow walk way the kind of zig-zags around, it had big blocks of writing to read on the walls, which made this part of the exhibition very congested and I found it hard to keep my attention on the text.
Next was a grey U-shaped room with Van Goghs early works.
Then it moves into the main event of his prints and paintings. The dull grey then turns into black and white with scrims in between sections. The artworks are split into seasons which they represent, soall the works that look summery are together in one section, the winter in their own section ect. To me Van Gogh is far from interesting in his style in comparison to today's contemporary artists but acknowledging that he was experimental for his time is very important and this exhibition captures that importance very well. Due to his popularity it was incredibly crowded and hard to navigate, there was lots of text to read on the walls, a lot of people stood still to read these getting around was difficult, I would really suggest going at an off peak time so you can really take in the work.
There's a number of bands playing at these events. I was lucky enough to catch Two Steps on the Water, a local group belting out emotionally charged folk punk. They really made the night for me. Most of the audience were sitting down in front of the stage which made the mood feel very gentle and kind. The music is nostalgic yet modern and June Jones voice and is ethereal, even at times when she is screaming into the microphone.
This exhibition recently opened on April 28th. The exhibition run until the 9th of July and is open on every Friday night until 10 pm, with live music, artist talks and food and beverages. It’s a great mix of old and new, highly recommended.
Written by Finley Fletcher
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Jack reviews the Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra’s May concert, Unfinished Romance – Rossini & Schubert.
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20th Century Women is the latest film from Mike Mills, whose previous film Beginners came out a full six years ago – but the wait has certainly been worthwhile. He’s managed to follow up what was a rather lovely and tender film with an even lovelier and even more tender one, a film that encompasses a sprawling range of themes and sentiments.
It’s set in Southern California in 1979, and centres on Jamie, a fifteen-year-old living with his single middle-aged mother, Dorothea (Annette Bening), in a house she rents out to punk photographer Abby (Greta Gerwig) and hippy handyman William (Billy Crudup). Rounding off the main ensemble is Jamie’s best friend Julie (Elle Fanning), a troubled teen who spends much of her time staying at Jamie’s house.
We grow close to these characters as we learn intimate details about their past, present and future and go through their pleasures and pains alongside them. It’s the rare type of film that not only introduces a relatively large core cast of five but also makes you care about each one of them equally and deeply. By the end, you realise that they’re all very special people, unique people, but that they’re just people, and that there’s billions of other people and that you’re one of them. It’s the feeling of simultaneously mattering a lot and not mattering in the slightest.
The script is among the strongest of recent years. There’s an almost literary quality to the dialogue, with most characters being given a selection of sweeping epigrammatic lines like: “wondering if you’re happy is a great shortcut to just being depressed”, or: “whatever you think your life is going to be like, just know, it’s not gonna be anything like that”. The narrative unfolds naturally, incrementally, at once mirroring life and yet crystallising it. It manages to take in all of the characters’ lives from beginning to end while still focussing on this one specific point in their lives, the summer of 1979.
This sense of time is also conveyed exceptionally well through music, not only through the gentle score by Roger Neill but also through the songs chosen to make up the film’s soundtrack. These are songs that evoke an array of moods, but also songs that function to contextualise the story and characters in a certain place in history and the world. It’s also used quite meaningfully to develop the characters’ identities. Indeed, music forms an integral part of the story itself, with clubs and concerts and dancing to record players in the bedroom featuring heavily in the film.
There is one element of 20th Century Women that did kind of bother me, though. Despite the interesting and well-crafted female characters and the fact that it’s called “20th Century Women”, it’s still a story told through a man, since the main narrative thread is the coming-of-age of a teenage boy and the way the women around him shape him as a person. Yes, it’s a semi-autobiographical film about how Mills himself was shaped by the women around him when he was growing up, and, yes, it does make a change from films primarily about men, but it’s still a concern.
That quibble aside, however, 20th Century Women is beautiful, clever and emotionally complex. There’s a lot of feelings condensed into these two hours. It’ll make you laugh, it might well even make you cry, and, after experiencing all these characters’ lives, it will almost definitely make you sit down and take stock of your own.
20th Century Women is in cinemas June 1st.
Written by Ben Volchok
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Wild Bore is a new theatre production by three comedians, Zoe Coombs Marr, Ursula Martinez and Adrienne Truscott. It is a meta theatrical production where the three performers analyse and deconstruct theatre criticisms, drawing material from real reviews they have received and other brutal reviews of other theatre productions. A lot of the themes of the show revolve around their experience of being ‘female comedians/theatre artists’ and the sexism and misunderstandings and backlash they receive. It’s very farcical and crass and is delivered in a very satirical tone.
It opens with the three performers bums at a long table reading reviews of the show performing as theatre critics, this image is repeated through the whole show. Then there is an ‘interval’ and the curtains part and there’s a giant long table and the performers are wearing bum hat mask sort of things and continue with the critiquing of theatre critics, it then gets a bit surreal and there’s a big scene where they are all eating food and it’s really wacky and bizarre. There is then a series of very short vignettes exploring the same themes as pervious. It ends with a monologue by a third performer Krishna Itsha, they are a trans person of colour and their monologue is about their feelings about Wild Bore. Then there is a choreographed dance scene where all four performers dance naked.
I overall had a pretty good time, I do feel like I would have enjoyed it more if I wasn’t reviewing it, I felt pretty anxious a lot of the time but still was having a ball. I was so ready to tear apart the cisexism/white privilege in my review and then Krishna came out and put a lot of my thoughts about that in the show and I was like dang, they got me.
All the performers were great, and really fun to watch, I just love watching Zoe Coombs Marr on stage, she’s just got such a great thing going on, I want to see more and more from her, I don’t know what else to say, she’s just really great.
Krishna's monologue was one of my favourite parts of the show, it was very powerful and felt like the most important part of the show, what a champ!
Go see this show if you want to have a good time, don’t go to review it, it’s too hard! God knows why I signed up to review a show about theatre critics, what a silly move.
Written by Finley Fletcher
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Action Hero arrives in Melbourne bringing a light Americana teeny boppy show
"Whatever it takes" the banner read on the gym decorated theatre.
Lines like these that seemingly belonged in a Degrassi High after school special were particularly prevalent in the UK groups show. It relied on the underdog team standing up against great grief and overcoming it all.
The plot relied on spectacle and capturing this culture of teen movies. This was hard at first for many of the more elite theatre goers who joked later that this "was the closest they got to a sport game in their life".
Action Hero, created by Gemma Paintin and James Stenhouse, is a company that focuses on theatre, performance and live art. The company has been particularly noted for their ability to involve the audience continuously. Hoke's Bluff was no different. The audience had to walk on the stage in order to get to their seats and whilst doing so the actors invited them to collect popcorn. As soon as you sat down there was a flag and the Hoke's Bluff team mascot encouraged all to cheer and get involved. Minor characters like Tyler were played by the audience.
At first it was hard to follow the characters in the play. There were only 3 performers on stage and the scene changes were quite abrupt but as the play furthered it became clearer.
It was both a story on teen triumph in sport and all the knitty gritty of growing up including the awkward teen romance. The cheerleader Connie and the sport star Conor were the protagonists of this show.
Music was a big part of the show. Songs like Flashdance were expected at any time as the show went from Minaj to some generic 80s Power Ballad.
The show ended, the team had won.
Written by Maria Dunne
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Producer Christian chats to hosts Ellie and Jack about North of Eight's production of Gardner McKay's Toyer, featuring Faran Martin and Kashmir Sinnamon, which runs until May 13 at the Courthouse Hotel, 86-90 Errol St, North Melbourne.
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Shining a spotlight on American independent cinema
The American Essentials Film Festival, now in its second year, features a range of independent works produced over the last year and timeless American Masterpieces. The Artistic Director, Richard Sowada created a program that captured the essence of American culture. The program features G-Funk, Annie Hall and feature documentaries such as The Bomb that Sowada noted “is an interesting piece… particularly at a time like now”.
David Lynch: The Art Life is one of the featured works inthe festival. It uses Lynch’s artworks, archives and stories from his past to get a deeper view of his work. Within the film, he speaks of his adolescences, his search for meaning and his push to create impactful works.
It is impossible to see David Lynch as dull, but Jon Nguyen's documentary about him comprises mostly of montages of the director's paintings interspersed with dramatic music that were a distraction more than anything. Some music felt carefully crafted to the tone of Lynch’s work but the dramatic chords such as that in the beginning felt more suitable for a Bold & The Beautiful shock reveal. I felt irritated at the film’s push towards depicting Lynch as the egocentric brooding artist. The coffee drinker, the hard-working painter burdened with this pressure to make art. This "no one will ever understand me" mantra has played repeatedly in Art Cinema and it seems to be inflating the art worlds ego more than anything. Rather than alienating its audience in the world of the somewhat-cold Lynch, Nguyen perhaps could have created a more engaging dialogue that involved art viewers and friends alike.
I see films such as these that supposedly explore a new side of artist as pointless. Considering how much of artist’s experiences they usually put into their work, these films only seem to point out well established facts for fans.
To be fair, the interview style at his home studio in the Hollywood Hills were nice. The shots of him in which you could she him reacting to his life felt genuine, particularly when he was playing with his daughter.
As the movie progressed, like with films such as Whiteley the fun of the first few minutes of the film had become a gimmick. Props to the Cinematographer, Jason S., as the shots were visually beautiful but they were all so slow! Shots of Lynch playing with his hands were ok for the first few seconds yet it becomes tediously long.
Nethertheless, this film has an amazing array of David Lynch’s visual art, seen with the telling of accompanying stories. The film also gives viewers footage from the notoriously press-shy director including pictures and footage from early life. Therefore, this film is recommended for Lynch fans and art lovers. The film undeniably gives you an unusual look into David Lynch and his work that is best to be engaged if you are aware of the cold and surreal works Lynch has done with paint and film.
Written by Maria Dunne
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“I myself almost don’t know which season I like best; I believe all of them equally well”
-Van Gogh London 1873
The NGV has done it again. The NGV has pulled off one of its most ambitious plans for the 2017 collection. The Winter Masterpieces exhibition, which started in 2004, features a beautiful array of Van Gogh pieces; some of which have never been on Australian soil.
The exhibition featured the contribution of, a deeply devoted Van Gogh scholar and curator. Sjraar found seasons a proper title for a collection of Van Gogh’s work. She stated that within Van Gogh’s work “seasons become a representation of life itself”. Seasons reflected his sporadic passions and pain within his life.
The Exhibit makes note of many aspects of Van Gogh’s life that aren’t as widely known. The exhibit reflects on Vincent’s relationship with his brother Theo and how he inspired Vincent to become an artist. It also reflects on his time in Nuenen which he spent drawing and painted farmers working the land. Sketches like The Sower (1882) showed Van Gogh’s interest in the darker themes of emptiness and cold.
Another aspect that makes the NGV’s exhibit unique is its use of Japanese prints at the beginning of the exhibition. Sjraar notes that he was “fascinated by Japan”. As a painter in Paris at the end of the 19th century, Van Gogh became indoctrinated in the same curiosity with Japanese prints as other Impressionists did. A particular artist that is featured heavily in this section is Utagawa Kumisada, who did prints such as Actor Iwai Hanshiro as Oyasu.
The exhibition features the two sides of Van Gogh. It relays the bright, vibrant pieces such as the much advertised A Wheatfield, with Cypresses, (1889) as well as The Parsonage Garden at Nuenen in Winter (1884). It is a phenomenal achievement for the National Gallery Victoria and a beautiful new look into the Dutch painter.
Words and image by Maria Dunne
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I often find myself unable to articulate what I feel, think and experienced after seeing a Rabble show, and JOAN was no different, so here’s my best shot at trying to speak about it.
JOAN is an experimental theatre production exploring the story of Joan of Arc. It has no plot or story and very little dialogue, and it is made mainly of images inspired primarily from Joan of Arc. A lot of the show is quite visceral, not only in the performers' bodies, but also in all the elements of production, including sound design and stage design, it was very uncomfortable in it’s imagery but also very beautiful. It speaks to and explores why Joan of Arc has been retold so many times and why she is so significant. And to my understanding the story of Joan of Arc is also used as vessel to explore women’s/females bodily autonomy, and violence.
As always in The Rabble shows, the direction, light, sound, and design of this work was impeccable, some of the most beautiful lighting design and a beautiful use of the space in theatre works.
I usually can understand the relevance and the politics behind The Rabble's work, but I found JOAN to be a bit disappointing on that part. I felt this show was a series of images inspired by Joan of Arc put together on stage, although they were all interesting and beautiful, there was no retailing that was relevant to contemporary Australia or modern feminism. It felt a bit reserved and I really wanted a lot more political commentary, The Rabble are usually so good at that!
Unfortunately I was dissatisfied with this production, The Rabble are usually so great at making a politically charged, beautiful disgusting masterpiece but yeah, unfortunately it was just beautiful disgusting this time round for me.
All that being said, The Rabble are theatre genius and I will keep supporting them until they disband or I die.
Written by Finley Fletcher
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An Intimate look into Brett Whiteley's life and legacy
Whiteley uses Brett Whiteley's art and interview archives to take you on a journey into his inner psyche. Within the footage he tells of his relationship with Wendy, his search for meaning and his push to create art that serves a purpose for the public. His life is summed up with tension and brooding that Brett unsuccessfully attempts to get away from.
The film starts off strong, playing with the biographical art piece of Brett, incorporated with the amazing score of Ash Gibson Greg. However, as the movie progressed, the fun of the first few minutes of the film had vanished. It became another story of a brooding artist going to overseas to find himself, coming back to Australia when he lost himself and feeling generally as lost in his life. This contradicted with the tagline from the movie "if there's no meaning to life then you might as well make it extraordinary." Where was the fun, bold character of Whiteley?
A similar frustration was the use of visual effects, acting as a means of engaging the audience. The effects were a distraction more than anything and some images felt clearly used out of context in order to push the story along.
I felt that this documentary would feel more engaging if it had less dramatic reenactments of Whiteley falling across the room in agony and more of the occasional friend of the family discussing him. As it was so personal, the documentary felt too caught up in his world and I felt frustrated as the egocentric "no one will ever understand his inner psyche" mantra played over and over again.
Nethertheless, the art showed within the film made me giddy and involved. His work is something deeply immersive, making you think in various ways. His discussions about life, colour and being influenced by the Renaissance painters, such as Massacio, made me contemplate his work in a new way.
This film therefore is recommended for art buffs and Brett Whiteley fans. It undeniably gives you a new look into his world and though at times it felt overtly dramatic, the film also intrigues you.
Written by Maria Dunne
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Smithers reviews Comedy Zone Asia, the Melbourne International Comedy Festival show featuring Jinx Yeo, Neeti Palta, Sumit Anand, Rizal van Geyzel and Douglas Lim that runs until April 23.
Click here to listen to Smithers' interview with Douglas!
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In the Mens
Interesting look into the expansive Australian male psyche.
The show is a number of monologues dedicated to generations of male Australians. It highlights the weird, quirky and uncomfortable experiences felt in our own backyard.
Characters included “shirtfront” the jockey addicted to cheesecake, a ex-greyhound racer, a stockbroker stuck between the bliss of the sea-change and the agony of work, the oldest man in Australia, and a businessman breaking up with his fiancee due to his supposed infidelity.
The show felt at first difficult to approach. Introducing this short enthusiastic Jockey and his pursuit of racing success and love was completely different from my experience. He was the epitome of who I could not care about unless I personally knew him. This was similarly seen with the greyhound racer. However, I was taken aback as the ex-racer’s story took a turn with the dog’s eventual death.
Ben Maclaine and Ben Grant’s depictions of loneliness and stress within these characters surprisingly positioned me to understand the pressures that men in a variety of circumstances can make. Some characters felt surprisingly familiar, such as the stockbroker. His story of wanting more from life reminded me of individuals who boast of success within work yet have lost the ability to enjoy life. Ben Grant’s acting had so much poise to it, his words, no matter how mundane they were, held you like Kevin Spacey in House of Cards.
Overall, this play positioned me to find it arduous but then broke it down with some incredible engagement by actora on stage. Although parts such as the monologue on the oldest person alive lost me, it kept bringing me back with interesting plots and characterisation. It is highly recommended for people who want to step in other people’s shoes for a night.
In The Mens runs until April 30 La Mama Courthouse, 349 Drummond St, Carlton
Written by Maria Dunne
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Cal Wilson's show in the MICF this year is about 'Things I've Never Said', or, all things she's never focused on in her comedy. For Wilson, this means a focus on politics and feminism. Wilson flourishes on the topic, deploying a white hot commentary on sex, gender and equality. Throughout a series of anecdotal pieces which include her prejudice about playing to a room full of male mine workers; what it means to be a mother; what happened when her son wore pink sparkly face paint, and being physically dominated by men or boys, as a woman or a girl, Wilson constructs a framework exploring very serious subject matter. Not one, you might think, for a comedy show.
This is where the highly experienced comedian demonstrates, lightly, almost effortlessly, her genius. Wilson navigates her sadder pieces with grace, perfectly balanced between sad and happy, finding positive elements in each story, but also finding ways to tickle her audience into a state of emotional abandon, caught between the jagged truths of our current society, and a perspective delivered in caring humour which gives us the strength to face these fears head on.
I might compare Wilson's show to the Bogart in Harry Potter. The Bogart is a magical creature, which hides in cupboards and under beds, which when you look at it, it takes on the facade of your greatest fear, like a perverted Chameleon. The only way to fight the Bogart is to cast a spell which turns that great fear into something ridiculous and stupid, to see it from a perspective which reminds you of your own power, in the snapping towel edge between fear and laughter.
Aside from the more serious parts of her show, Wilson's laughs are generally extremely warm and kind, which makes the times when she diverts into a dirty joke or a naughtier story even more enjoyable. The things she does with language are intelligent and mercilessly funny, and I nearly cried with laughter many times throughout.
Wilson is a complete professional. I've seen a lot of live stand up, and she has just got it. She never failed in her delivery, which I found incredible given the speed at which she speaks and moves, cramming into an hour slot what most comics would only be able to fit into an hour and a half. She knows how to take care of her audience, too, and her interactions are always witty without picking on anyone when she does talk with the crowd. I would love for you to go and see this show. Cal Wilson is playing at the Swiss Club until the 23rd of April.
Written by Jim Thomas
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Colossal is a film about monsters, both literal and metaphorical. Written and directed by Nacho Vigalondo, perhaps most famous for his sci-fi dark comedy Timecrimes, it stars Anne Hathaway as Gloria, a young woman with a lot of problems. In an attempt to recharge, she goes back to her home town, which is small, nondescript and somewhere in the Midwest of America. She reconnects with a childhood friend, and slowly starts to get back on her feet, when suddenly news breaks out of a giant monster terrorising the city of Seoul in South Korea. Amazing! We soon find out that through some strange force Gloria actually controls this giant monster when she stands at a particular spot in the playground at a particular time of day. And then a robot appears as well! Even more amazing!
Amidst this odd revelation all the issues that plague Gloria still rage on. Alcoholism, the reason she went back to her home town in the first place. Relationships, both dysfunctional and downright abusive. The general disorientation of life. Which means that yes, the giant monster attacking Seoul is in fact a giant monster attacking her soul. The entire film hangs its premise on a pun. You’ve got to admire that.
While some moments are dragged down a bit by clumsy writing and acting, most of the film breezes along. That said, there’s a real depressive mood to Colossal, something that caught me a little off-guard. Once I recalibrated, however, I appreciated this downbeat vibe quite a lot. Gloria is struggling with a lot of issues and the film’s pace and atmosphere mimic that really well. Some might find the metaphor a little trite, but I thought it was quite a clever and unusual way of dealing with personal traumas. The monster and robot are less of the focus and more of a surrealist addition to the main narrative – and it works.
If you’re going into Colossal expecting an explosive robot vs monster action fest, you’re going into the wrong film. This is a subdued, personal character study that just so happens to have a giant monster. Both literal and metaphorical.
Written by Ben Volchock
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Raw has got to be one of the best horror films I’ve seen in recent years. It manages to create discomfort not only out of the deeply horrifying but also out of pretty much everything else. Cannibalism becomes as nasty to watch as skin rashes. The first film by Julia Ducournau, it’s grisly and very dark and shows an impressive flair for visceral tension and thematic construction. I was gripped from the start and floored by the end.
Justine is a first-year veterinary student, intellectually gifted but socially stunted. It’s the start of the academic year and like all first-years has to undergo a series of unpleasant hazing rituals, including eating a piece of raw rabbit kidney. That she’s a vegetarian who’s just eaten meat turns out to be the least of her worries. Soon after, she starts displaying alarming symptoms, culminating in an intense hankering for more raw meat and, finally, human flesh.
The discomfort is palpable from the start. From the startling opening, to the subsequent scene in the roadside diner where Justine’s family, all vegetarians, find some meat in their meal, to her arrival at the university where she’s immediately thrown into a daunting and unknown environment. No sooner has she settled down than she’s torn out of her bed and forced to crawl alongside other first-years to an unspecified location that turns out to be an underground rave full of sweaty screaming bodies tanked up on drugs and alcohol dancing to oppressively loud music. That’s frightening enough as it is. It’s definitely alienating and unsettling and places us on the side of Justine so we’re with her every step of the way as she attempts to make sense of her situation and survive these intrusive humiliations. And later on, when things get a lot darker, we’re still with her.
Raw does what all good horror films do: it couples themes of horror and of life. And it does this amazingly well. It finds the horror in life and it finds the life in horror. In this case, Justine’s cannibalism is explored alongside the rest of her uncertain identity. She’s trying to figure out her place in society as a young woman, as well as her body. There’s a reason cannibalism is a physical act, as it complements the physical manifestations of conformity and adulthood, like clothes and sex, and the parallel is deliberate and effective. At one point, Justine’s older sister tries to give her a Brazilian wax, which goes wrong, and moments later Justine is nibbling on a human finger. It’s a very clever scene as it shows Justine at her least comfortable, namely changing her body to fit in with social expectations, quickly followed by her most comfortable – being a cannibal. And there’s plenty more like it.
I highly, highly recommend Raw, but I will warn that it’s quite graphic and confronting. Many people have reportedly thrown up while watching it. Many more have walked out. But those people are missing out on one of the best new horror films around.
Raw is out in cinemas April 20.
Written by Ben Volchock
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Nikki Britton is an excitable, full of energy Australian comedian whose show, Romanticide, reflects on her not so excitable love life. Britton reflects in her show on her romantic conquests, experiences and failures, and how they have shaped her as a person. The show is a one hour energised stand up routine in a small crowded room at The Forum, which boasts quite a hot time, as it’s stuffy inside. Luckily, there is a massive air conditioner blasting cool air into the place. Unluckily, it was positioned directly behind my head, meaning I sometimes struggled to concentrate on the show as blasts of cold air ruffled my hair.
Apart from this however, Britton manages to encapsulate her audience over the hour by going through her experiences in the field of relationships from the help of a show plan which she attempts to hide behind a massive speaker on stage with her. Although this might come across as amateur at first, it merely adds to the hilarity of the show as she openly denies what it is, instead cracking jokes about how interesting the speaker is. Her use of accents and impersonations brings the majority of laughs in the show, and it's genuinely amusing when she uses body movement to help tell a story or event.
Britton connects with the majority of the audience through the topic of her show, being romance and relationships. Nearly everyone has experience something to do with love or loss of it, and even if you haven’t you are still able to connect with what Nikki Britton is joking about. She covers the new age of online dating and dick pics, how she deals with them and the stupidity of it. Her audience interaction and comments on what we laughed at added to laughs, pinpointing men’s awkward laughing at the dick pics and just making the show funnier.
Since Nikki Britton’s Romanticide can relate with so many different people, it comes down to her personality which determines if you would like this show or not. Nikki Britton is a very energetic ball of excitement, and perhaps that’s why I enjoyed her so much, because I feel like I relate with the constant energy spikes. If you prefer a little bit more sedated, not in your face comedy, then this might not be the show for you. However if, like me, you enjoy explosive comedians who can never get run off their feet from overuse of yelling, moving or shouting, Nikki Britton is for you. Her show, Romanticide, is on at the MICF until April 23rd at The Forum Theatre’s Ladies’ Lounge.
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I grew up watching older British Comedy, so I’ve always had a love for it. Fawlty Towers was of course one of these loves, as well as Monty Python, The Goodies and Benny Hill. I’m shocked that I never heard about Faulty Towers, The Dining Experience until now, but better late than never, I finally went to go. Straight up, and I didn’t even realise until writing this review, the actual names of the show and the original are different. Fawlty is spelt F A W L T Y whilst the Dining Experience is F A U L T Y. Not a big deal, just thought that needs to be clarified. Even with the name change, Faulty Towers The Dining Experience is almost a complete mimic of an episode of the original Fawlty Towers, just with more improvisation. It’s remarkably impressive.
It is also quite group, family or couple experience. It would be weird going in to sit by yourself and enjoy a three course meal. It just wouldn’t be the same. For the night I took my partner too the show, who actually has never seen anything to do with Faulty Towers before, apart from one scene I showed her once. It’s interesting already going in as one person knowing everything about the show, and another going in pretty much blind to what it’s about. Performed at The Aegean, a greek restaurant in Fitzroy, a short wait occurs before Basil, the co owner of the hotel, emerges to show everyone to their seats, with the help of Manuel, the waiter of the hotel. The comedy starts immediately, due to the personal touch that the actors take with the guests, giving them different names or slurs. For instance later in the night during a fake fire drill, I was referred to at the Harry Potter knockoff.
Basil is pretty rude to the majority of the guests when seating them, so it was a surprise that we didn’t endure too much abuse when being seated, instead receiving a smile. Perhaps it was because we we’re the youngest in the restaurant. Soon after being seated we are given an intro, where we are introduced to Cybil, Basil’s wife and co-owner of the hotel. Cybil is much more sensible and real than Basil at first, and easily brings empathy to the show by her compassionate act. However the star of the show in my opinion is Manuel. Manuel brings the biggest laughs, to the amount that my partner, who mind you hasn’t had any history of Fawlty Towers, was in pain from laughing so hard.
The show progresses from the intro through two of the three main courses, with each course coming with a fresh array of jokes or a sketch. A juggling match is made out of the bread, as Manuel lobs multiple pieces to different people across the restaurant, whilst some of the entries of pumpkin soup had fake dentures in them. Manuel’s misinterpretation of Basil’s orders brings the most laughs in the show, as he takes everything he says to heart, the most extreme taking wait on the tables to literally waiting for Basil to return by dancing on top of one family’s table. I don’t want to give away the major laughs for the show, but the presentation and improvisation was incredible well done to the extent that sometimes I forgot that we weren’t in one of the episodes of the originally show. This is what Faulty Towers does best, and stands out as the shows major selling point for the show. It has the ability to take a 40 year show and still make it hilarious for a contemporary audience. Take my partner for instance; having no knowledge or interest in british comedy, she ended up laughing at the show more than I did at some points. Even if not all the comedy was spot on, the addition of a three course meal of really well made food should give you enough incentive to give this show a go. Faulty Towers The Dining Experience might of ended at the MICF by this reviews airing, however productions of the show take place all around the world, so go to their website to find a location near you!
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A stunningly beautiful dive into humanity's dark future with cyborg implants and upgrades, skyscraper high advertisements and incredibly frightening half human half machine - cyber terrorists.
Ghost in the Shell is effectively a dark futuristic crime thriller that follows the Character of Major, who is an all robot body with the brain of a human being. She’s an elite counter-terrorist working for a crew called section 9 an elite group formed by murky mix of Hanka robotics the company responsible for Major, and the Government, Aramaki the the head of section 9, an enigmatic leader who seems to of seen it all before.
Major’s team are relatively interesting but not particularly explored in depth, except for Major’s Partner Batou, who’s a relatively interesting character who ventures further from simply musclebound hard ass. He’s got a more soulful human bent.
Now the film is an obviously an adaptation of the wildly successful and groundbreaking 1995 anime original. And in a way beautifully realises that original vision, the post-human cyber punk future of hong kong is seen in all it’s neon glory, seeing this film in 3D is a visual feast. And on those grounds i highly recommend it. It also borrows heavily from Ridley Scott’s Classic Blade Runner, the gritty apocalyptic visuals and noir dreariness set a very nervous and eerie tone undercut but the superficial beauty of neons splashing across all surfaces, murky or otherwise.
But where the previous two films explore the intersection of human and machine, meditating on what it is to be alive and indeed what it is to be human, and if that is actually worth anything at all - this film instead opts for a broader appeal, dealing less on introspection and instead plenty, of visuals action and strong acting from Scarlett Johansson.
This isn’t to say that it doesn’t explore important themes, it delves into memory and what that means and how that makes you human but in my opinion not as well or as deep. Which is a shame, given our current techno-political climate and all the ramifications of transhumanism in the future.
Ghost in The Shell, goes in guns blazing and maintains that pace throughout, rarely coming up for air. The opening scene has Major dive off a building into a room and pull of some matrix-esque moves before blowing up and neutralising the threat of rogue robots, killing humans and hacking into their brains via their modifications, which make them just as vulnerable as it makes them stronger.
Ghost in the Shell is well acted, the action enthralling, it’s biggest selling point is the visuals. And these are great, stunning even. But I don’t think it’ll see the film last, perhaps in much the same way we now view avatar, from afar, with the novelty less bright. We will to this film, But if this is the beginning of a franchise then so be it, the story is tight the themes dark, the hero interesting. Viewed on it’s own terms, Ghost in the shell is a thrilling watch in for the action fan.
Written by Matthew Toohey
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For those who haven’t seen David O’Doherty’s comedy before, like myself, if you decide to see him in action you’ll be greeted by one of the most refreshing examples of comedy in modern day times. O’Doherty blends his own down to earth comedic vibe with music seemingly created on the spot in front of the audience. He covers both the biggest issues that the world faces today such as the rise of fascism, to the smallest such as bad twitter sponsorships. It’s nice to see both topics handled off hand, putting a light touch on even the saddest of events our world faces today.
Performed at the Forum Theatre under a wash of blue, red and multicoloured lights, David O’Doherty keeps the crowd focused through his consistent switch between musical performance and stand up comedy, as he prances around the stage displaying his own brand of characteristics. You become so immersed in what he’s saying occasionally that you forget to notice him lying sideways on the stage, his legs splayed and in a state of obvious relaxation. This itself is hilarious, as O’Doherty is obviously a man who does what he wants, when he wants it, wherever he wants it. And of course, the crowd will follow.
There are never massive crack up moments from the crowd, but there doesn’t need to be. O’Doherty dishes out comedy by the second, meaning that there is a constant state of amusement in the air. Although not all of it lands, the nature of constant comedy makes up for this, as you’ll forget that you didn’t laugh at something within minutes. The star of David O’Doherty’s show perhaps might be his musical ability, or his little keyboard. The musical instrument brings a lot to the show, which would be lost without it. O’Doherty’s skill with the instrument is apparent as he blunders music on purpose for the gags, switching between singing and talking sporadically, which gives the impression of complete unpreparedness.
This skill is brilliant, as in your heart you know this is a show which is perfectly timed, structured and planned, however you just believe it too be completely improvised as he jumps from topic to topic to on the keyboard. David O’Doherty breathes a breath of fresh air into the modern day comedy scene, which in itself is amusing coming from a man who's been in the game for so long, eighteen years to be exact.
This in itself shows his prowess in the sport of comedy, as he has perfected his own style of comedy, which no one else would be able to come close to mimicking. David O’Doherty’s Big Time is on till April 23rd at the Forum Theatre. He also has a children's show Danger Is Everywhere on the 6th and 13th of April at the Melbourne Town Hall.
Written by Hamish Vallance
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Aunty Donna’s new show hits the MICF under the title Big Boys, a show about boys, who are now big. The title is more than just a gag or joke to go with the show. The title incidentally refers to the three boys who are Aunty Donna, who have now become big after years of being together as a group; Mark Bonanno, Broden Kelly and Zachary Ruane. The three are perfect for each other, and after years of performance their blend of slapstick comedy, alternative sketch and surrealism creates a hilarious show which might not be for everyone, but has an incredibly big following.
The trio are most successful for their online content, in which they create web series and musical sketches, which gain up to millions of views. There comedy show, Big Boys, blends what they do on the small screen with stand up comedy as well as a mix of audience interaction. Big Boys shows what each member of the group bring to the table, or stage in this case, and how they can do more than just planned sketches. Some of the funniest parts of the show were actually things which obviously were not planned for. Easily the best moment was when Aunty Donna’s silent DJ finally spoke a word, which the audience slowly applauded too, getting bigger and bigger, until it was a literal standing ovation. Bewildered but running with it, all three members left the stage and returned with Broden yelling for us through tears of laughter to sit down.
Aunty Donna is infectious that way. They’re capable of making you laugh and not minding laughing along with you. Them laughing just makes you laugh more. And then more, and then everyone in the room can’t breath because it’s just a circle of laughter which only ends when one of Aunty Donna breaks the silence with a completely straight faced dance routine. This kind of nonlinear structure to a comedy show breathes another breath of fresh air into modern day comedy. I myself love surrealist comedy, and Aunty Donna is easily some of my favourite examples of such. The characters they make out of themselves are perfectly timed, executed and developed, so that you never know when they’re going to be themselves or something they designed for stage.
Big Boys is a loud show, almost a little too loud for me. It’s also quite a personal show, being underground is a very dark room full of people who all love the same thing you do. Aunty Donna play the crowd well, interacting with them and running with nearly anything they say or do, making the audience feel like they are helping direct the show themselves. Although their comedy might not be for everyone, Aunty Donna has definitely perfected the niche they set out to claim, and even if it might be a bit odd to you, perhaps give it a go even then. You might still find something you like. Aunty Donna’s MICF show, Big Boys, is on until April 23rd.
Written by Hamish Vallance
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I haven’t been too a lot of shows when the Melbourne International Comedy Festival is on, but this year I’m starting off strong by seeing both big and smaller shows that the festival has to offer. To kick this season off, I checked out the preview show of Gavin Roach’s All The Songs I Can't Sing, a just under 50 minute show that is about just that; all the songs that Gavin Roach cannot sing.
It’s an amusing title which follows through in the show. Roach structures his show well, telling a funny story from his life which follows into a song which has special meaning with that story. This rinse and repeat idea works, but does become a little tiresome after awhile, although the show is quite short. Roach also changes costumes in between stories, which takes a little while meaning there are moments of nothingness on stage, however you can see the costume changes as a mirror on the wall reflects it from behind stage.
It is Roach’s personality which really sells the show, rather than his singing and jokes. Although it isn’t my kind of humour, I know people who would get a good laugh out of the way Roach acts on stage, in a very stylised gay performance which he constantly refers back too. His jokes don’t always land, but his personality does, and I would much rather a good personality with alright jokes to a bad personality with great jokes. Roach has a strong commitment to the stories he tells, and they’re very believable from the focus he puts into telling them, painting a good picture. On a side note, the use of swearing is done extremely well in addition, as only a few swear words are dropped but at opportune moments.
Although Gavin Roach’s performance is not my cup of tea, I can definitely see what he was going for with his performance. If he focuses more on playing up his performance, and adds a little more to the show than just singing and stories, then I think the overall performance would be great. Gavin Roach’s “All The Songs I Can't Sing” is currently on at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival til April 8th, so get in quick if you want to go see Gavin in action!
Written by Hamish Vallance
Photo by Julyan Stephens
Click here to listen to our interview with Gavin Roach
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Stellar Project is a premier dance work by Prue Lang, it is an hour long contemporary dance piece, with 5 performers.
It was presented in several parts, first was a dimly lit gentle dance piece, then the lights came up and the dances congratulated each other saying good job etc etc, like they had just finished a improve or something in a dance class, they then took turns performing solo dances and then the other people had to guess what they were doing, whoever guesses correctly got to do a solo dance.
There were several other parts, some of which I have forgotten, because at times I found myself drifting off, it may have been because the show was on quite late at night and it was very hot which in combination made me feel very tired, but overall I did have a nice time, the show was very gentle, soothing and sweet.
My favorite part was when the dancers formed a solar system, one person was in the middle representing a star, the others orbited the star and offered a little dance wiggle thing to the star, if the dance wiggle was correct the dances representing planets got to move closer to the sun and orbit faster, the goal was to become as close to the sun as possible, this section of the show was particular pleasing to watch.
This work as re-occurring images and themes about the cosmos, which was interesting because the aesthetic of the show was nothing like ‘sci-fi’ I really enjoyed the juxtaposition between the two.
The costumes were lovely, mainly block colours and very sporty, and causal. The lighting design and sound design was also very lovely, very simple and sweet.
Stellar Project is part of Dance Massive a bi-annual dance festival, there are multiple works showing in multiple venues across Melbourne, the festival is on now and goes until March 26th. Stella Project is showing at Dance House in Carlton until the 21st of March.
Written by Finley Fletcher
Photo by Gregory Lorenzutti
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Danny Boyle’s Trainspotting is a one of a kind movie; back when it was released it was different, new and explosive, something not many had ever seen before. The same can be said for the stage adaptation, Trainspotting Live, which is literally in your face the entire way through. It takes immersive to a new level. If you’re a fan of the movie then you might be pretty confused when first going into Trainspotting Live, as it strays vastly from the original. I haven’t read the novel, but from what I gather I’m assuming the stage adaption takes more cues from the novel rather than the movie. For instance, Spud’s character doesn’t appear, rather Tommy takes his place as another drug addict instead of being a clean cut athlete as presented in the film.
Major plot points are also missing from the film adaption, such as the robberies, court case and baby head turning. There is a baby scene, however it's presented slightly differently to the film. The main selling point of Trainspotting Live isn’t the story, characters or themes however. Although that is all important, the immersiveness is what the show strides for, and does well at. Presented at fortyfivedownstairs, Trainspotting Live takes place a few floors underground in a fairly large stage room, which resembles more of a club than a theatre room when first entering. Music is pumping, the cast is dancing hard on stage, and seats are just long benches which you crouch on close to the stage. In the twenty minutes before the show starts, actors drag people onto stage to throw down with them, drink soft drink and spray it on you, and collapse in your lap pretending to be drunk off their faces.
It's a bizarre but enthralling experience, and you never know if they’re playing it up or doing it legitimately sometimes. What’s genuinely incredible is that they jump right into the show after doing dancing without missing a beat, or being out of breath. Gavin Ross opens the show as Renton, however I did think he looked like more of a Spud if I’ll be honest. Ross has the perfect persona of Renton, including the accent which adds to the character's explosive Scottish nature. As he stomps around stage other characters enter, all displaying different traits and characteristics. Tommy for instance, played by Greg Esplin constantly topples into the crowd and lays on someone, falling asleep or mumbling in their ears. Michael Lockerbie as Sick Boy doesn’t interact as much, choosing to stay standing wearing a clean white shirt and tie.
I found that the two ensemble females in the show, Erin Marshall and Rachel Anderson played a much bigger part than what I first saw in the film. They are strong, powerful women who for a lot of the play push their male counterparts around. Chris Dennis as Begbie is just as, and maybe more so intimidating than he is in the movie, getting right up in people's faces and screaming abuse at them, whilst Calum Barbour as the other ensemble cast member, manages to create about five different characters on the fly which you can easily tell the difference between.
However what Trainspotting Live tries to do mainly is shock, which only hits home some of the time. You can tell they are trying to cover as much ground as they can in the short 75 minute show, but it does become a bit heavy handed at times. The gross funnier scenes such as the scat blanket and the toilet scene are easily standouts, however the scene in which a character punches Erin Marshall’s character, and she spits fake blood across the stage came across as quite shocking, and I wasn’t sure if the desired response was met. However, Trainspotting Live is truly an experience, one that I’m not sure if I’d take again, but found thoroughly interesting to say the least. The presentation and acting was brilliant, whilst the shocking scenes hit home only some of the time. If you don’t mind getting a bit close and personal with actor and fake poop alike, then this might be the play for you. However, if you prefer to watch your plays from a few metres back, then you might want to sit this one out.
Written by Hamish Vallance
Click here to listen to Hamish and Christian's interview with Gavin Ross
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Deep Sea Dances was a new contemporary dance work by Rebecca Jensen.
The performance space is in The Stables are Arts Houses’ Meat Market, we entered into a large space with beautiful projections on the walls, we were asked to remove our shoes and socks and entered into another large space in the building, the floor was covered with squishy plastic and there were chairs and pillows either side of the long room to sit on.
Deep Sea Dances was performed by a large ensemble of trans femme and trans women, and female identifying people, it was presented in what I felt like several ‘parts’. The performance began with a dance choreographed by Dorris Humpfry in 1928, she is often forgotten and her experimental choreography is often credited to men who created work in the 1950’s. After the dance was finished Rebecca came out and told us what we had just seen, acknowledged the traditional custodians of the land which we were viewing the work and announced Deep Sea Dances would now begin.
A big roller door then opened at one end of the space and the performers came in one by one, kinda like a cat walk in a fashion show, they were wearing this strange shimmery dark pants, dresses and shirts, and they were drenched in water, this was accompanied by a smoke machine and loud intense music.
Several more ‘parts’ followed this, that had a similar vibe to each other, they started off quite gentle and fluid then build into a climax of bodies erratically dancing and seemingly merging together then dissolving into the floor.
Deep Sea Dances is beautiful, quirky and wholesome, it felt very special to witness, and is probably one of my favorite shows I’ve seen, my only problem was I didn’t get a very good seat and often had to strain to see what was happening at the other side of the room, but apart from that I had a great time, I felt lots of different emotions and thoughts, it was a very internal experience that often bubbled up to the surface in different ways like giggling or gasping
The lighting design by Matt Adey was, like all of Matt Adeys’ work was amazing and the sound by Marco Cher-Gibbard and Rebbeca Jensen, again like all of their work was fantastic.
Deep Sea Dances is part of Dance Massive a bi-annual dance festival, there are multiple work showing in multiple venues across Melbourne, the festival is on now and goes until March 26th, as does Deep Sea Dances. Deep Sea Dances in on now at Meat Market in North Melbourne.
Written by Finley Fletcher
Image by Gregory Lorenzutti
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Waiting in dark anticipation in La Mama theatre with foreboding music in the background, you could sense the experience of the director, Lloyd Jones, in non-text based performance theatre. Windows, written by Ayse Bayra-moglu, is a new work which has undertaken some swift development from play-reading to fully mounted performance in the last year. It still retains the casual essence of play-reading with the stage manager, Lisa Edman, announcing the scene and stage directions at the beginning of each scene. I thought this was a clever way to add to the audience's experience of rawness, and believe they could have taken it even further by having the two actors, Anna Ellis, who plays Esme, and Zac Kazepis who plays Huso, preparing in between scenes on the stage rather than hiding next to the seating banks where they could awkwardly be seen and heard quite clearly. Not having the luxury of wings could be used quite powerfully rather than ignored. It's sometimes really difficult watching adults play children, they often have to navigate a complicated text and story, while remaining childlike. I feel that the disbelief is only suspended when the actors let go and stop trying so hard to show the audience that they’re much younger than their years. I was wary as Ellis and Kazepis entered the stage, but as they warmed into the performance and shared true moments of connection and innocence I stopped seeing them as adult actors. The most compelling part of Windows is the beautiful, rich and poignant script which follows the broken lives of two young children as they look through a window and see into an imaginary world, and dream of a life they will never have. The writer, Bayramoglu, was born in Istanbul, where I imagine the play is set, although it's quite ambiguous. It is filled with rich cultural themes, beginning with a heavily accented prayer interwoven with Arabic, stories around arranged marriage, dowries, poverty, and more sinister female subjugation. The translation of the script had that comforting lull of english being spoken as a second language, with formal syntax, reminiscent of some of my favourite books like “God of Small Things” by Arundhati Roy. At times the characters used Australian slang which was quite jolting and took the audience out of the poetic flow of the piece, as did the continual ringing and beeping of audience members phones, and a special mention to the actors who powered through. It must also be mentioned that Ellis joined the cast with only 8 days of rehearsal before opening night, due to her predecessor pulling out. Although i was a little disappointing in the lack of ethnicity in the casting, Ellis did an astounding job of memorizing the monster script, and storytelling with such depth. The timing between the two actors was noticeably off in some parts of the play, but given the time they had to adjust to each other as scene partners, it was a commendable performance. If you enjoy independant theatre and books like The Kite Runner, and are game for some confrontational themes, check out Windows which enjoys it’s last show at La Mama on Sunday the 19th of March at 4pm. Written by Scarlett Koehne
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Rebi, Jim and Molly interview Rachael Beesley a solo violinist and musical director, performing in Italian Romance, an upcoming concert from the Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra, taking place at the Elisabeth Murdoch Hall of the Melbourne Recital Centre (MRC) on Friday March 24 and the City Recital Hall, Angel Place in Sydney on Saturday 25 March (both at 7.30pm) featuring Beethoven and Mendelssoh, and directing the Revolutionary Romance chamber concerts, featuring Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet, in Sydney on Sunday 17 September at 2.30pm and in Melbourne on Friday 22 September at 7.30pm.
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David Stratton is a pioneer in both critiquing films, and Australian films themselves. If you ever want to be a critic, you should take a good look at some of Stratton’s reviews, as they emphasis what is important about filmmaking, and how to perfectly break it down, dissect it, and give a professional opinion. David Stratton: A Cinematic Life, reveals a lot more about the man behind a critical perspective than you would ever imagine. However, it also reveals things that you could assume and gather from him, as a bit of Stratton is in every one of his reviews which have been in Variety, The Movie Show and At The Movies.
Directed by Sally Aitken, the documentary does more than just explore David Stratton’s fascinating life; it gives a wonderful homage to Australian cinema, and how far its come over the years. The documentary is wonderfully broken down by certain Australian films, and how the both impact and reflect Stratton’s life. I feel bad saying that the majority of films on screen that are shown are one’s that I haven’t seen before, and I’m not alone in this. A lot of the crowd murmured at moments when a new or unknown film came up, but the best part about this is that we all have gained something new to watch once we get out of the theatre. The documentary does give a bit of a jumbled and out of order description of Stratton’s life, and it does occasionally become a bit confusing to follow. Some of the relations to films and how Stratton’s life was impacted by them do come across as a bit of a stretch to, however there always needs to be a bit of disbelief in films like these.
In addition to seeing the film, we were treated to a live q&a with the man himself afterwards. Stratton expanded upon his experiences reviewing films, and creating the documentary, such as how he went about writing his narration for the film (he edited the director written speeches when he thought they weren’t good enough) and how the director hadn’t seen any Australian films, nor had she heard of Stratton himself. Following this, questions for the crowd were allowed, and surprisingly I had one up my sleeve which i pleasantly got to ask first. It was quite nice for the crowd to laugh at my question, “will you be reviewing this film?”, but nicer that Stratton joked along, telling us that he’d leave it up to other reviewers to break the film down, but judging by our response, we liked it. Or, that he hoped we had liked it.
Going into the film, I didn’t assume I would enjoy it a great deal. It’s not because the film is about David Stratton himself, more because I didn’t think it would be possible to make a documentary about a critic interesting. That is what David Stratton: A Cinematic Life, does best however. It’s a surprise, a pleasant surprise, one that you don’t get to be rewarded with much nowadays. Stratton is a highly interesting, and singular man, however there's also, and it sounds funny saying it, a bit of David Stratton in all of us. We are all critical of something, be it film, music or life. We are critical because we love what it is about, we are critical because we’re seeking the best of the best, to interact with anything we can, to engage and dissect and talk about why we love it or why we can’t stand it. David Stratton resonates the critic in the everyday person, and it's a glorious moment to see him rewarded with a perfectly fitting documentary which captures the films that he loves, and how they have shaped the man that he is today.
Written by Hamish Vallance
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Logan is the brand new marvel film under the banner of 20th Century Fox, adding to the long running series of X-Men Films. Logan concludes the trilogy of Wolverine, the two previous films, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and The Wolverine, being mildly successful, but for the most part not critically rated very highly. This all changes with Logan, which has been met with massive praise, easily trumping the average reviews of the previous films. However, does the film really deserve the praise? I went into Logan ready for the best superhero film I’ve ever seen, as that is what I got from the reviews. I was prepared for the best Marvel film I’ve ever seen, and I’m not a big fan of marvel films. To begin, I agree wholeheartedly that Logan is the best film in the trilogy of Wolverine films. It deals with some very real issues, the acting is great from all performances, and it reflects on the long X-Men trilogy in a simple, brutal light. However, for myself, it was not the best superhero film I’ve seen.
Logan is not a bad film, not by a long shot. Honestly, nearly up there with the best superhero films to be made in my opinion. It's up there with X-Men: Days of Future Past, Captain America: Winter Solider and Spider Man 2. These three films are what cement good superhero films to me. The Marvel Cinematic Universe is something I’m not even close to a fan of. Perhaps it's my background in film culture or script writing. Maybe I’m just a film snob. Either way, the films listed to me are the best superhero films ever made, as they present something more than just a hero and villain plot, an action sequence, and smooth editing effects. They reflect society, have a message within them, and stand out among the rest. I’m battling with the idea that Logan is up there with these three masterpieces, as it does really do a lot right when it comes to reflecting values and issues in society. Before clarifying why I didn’t love the film as much as I thought I would, I need to address what the film does shine in.
Logan is the No Country for Old Men in the Marvel Franchise. The plots are different, but the cinematography, brutality, and characters reflect the film. It's a Western at heart, the main character being a lone wolf who holds strong, moral values, and is willing to sacrifice himself to save others. The character of Logan is this clearly, a man who still holds strong values, yet is alone in an ageing and near apocalyptic society. The R18+ rating for Logan shows, and was clearly needed. Going back to watch the M rated X-Men and Wolverine films, you notice how much is lost without bloodshed and violence. I’m not advocating violence in films here, but in Logan it is a necessity. The film would not be the same without the violence which is shown, as it adds to the realism in the society the film portrays, and shows that nothing is that far from death. The performances in Logan is another aspect which shines, and defines the film. Hugh Jackman is still great as Logan, however brings something new in this installment. Logan is a lot older and more mature, and broken in this film. His limp is consistent, his yells are shaky, and his emotion is clear. Patrick Stewart however gives us something which is completely different to anything he has done previously as Professor X, and alongside this applies a message which comes from outside the film.
Professor X displays clear symptoms of dementia in Logan, due to his age. The way the film shows this idea is the backbone which make this film shine. Stewart portrays a clearly lost man, lost in his thoughts, lost in his way of life and lost in where he even is. When we are first introduced to Xavier he is rocketing around on his wheelchair yelling about random stuff, completely different to anything we’ve ever seen of him before. The most powerful moments however are the episodes that he has. A normal old person who has an episode is fair enough. It’s manageable but hard since it does affect the people around them. However this is Professor X, who has the power of telepathy. When he has an episode in the film everyone in a one mile radius are affected, and as mentioned early in the film, can kill some people. The way the film deals with dementia is simple yet explosive I thought, as easily one of the best aspects of the film. Dafne Keen does a great job as Laura Kinney, or X-23 for all the X-Men fans out there. I didn’t quite enjoy the reveal of her talking, as it was suppose to be pitched as a big deal, but wasn’t really to me. Stephen Merchant as Caliban was great, however was a bit of an odd change from Tómas Lemarquis, who portrayed him in X-Men: Apocalypse.
Alongside the performances, visually the film was very impressive, and I really liked the change in scenery from orange to green, with each location having very different styles, characters and emotions. The music of the film was good too, however the editing of sound was better, especially with Professor X’s episodes, how the audio was made high pitched and tinny, with an added screen wobble.
Finally, why was the film not everything I had hoped it would be? I’ve listed so much that is good with the film that even I’m confused why I didn’t love it. I guess it would probably be the ending. It’s quite stereotypical, and can be called a mile away, even before seeing the film. I understand what they were going for, but I feel as though it didn't add a great deal of emotional distress, which was that they were going for. The ending is important to this film, as it wraps up the trilogy and should give us something powerful and meaningful. It's just simple, plain, and obvious though, which is a disappointment. However, perhaps this is the point. X-Men films are known to be big, bold and action packed. Logan is the least of all these three. It has action, but it never reaches the spectacle of Days of Future Past or Deadpool. It deals with some big plot developments, but nothing majorly changes in the world they reside in. Finally, it's not that big; they don’t travel far, or make big impacts to the world. This is the point of Logan. Logan is a peaceful tragedy. It's a plain, simple film, which deals with sensitive issues and portrays them honestly and brutally. I don’t consider Logan a superhero film, meaning it's not my favourite superhero film. I think Logan is a perfectly timed, structured, acted, and directed tragic Western, which deals with a man who has come to the end of the line, and needs to perform one last act to save himself.
Written by Hamish Vallance
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The Dancer (or La danseuse) is the feature debut of French director Stéphanie Di Giusto starring Soko as the revolutionary dance pioneer Loie Fuller.
To start with, this film is beautiful. In the locations, in the cinematography, in the dance - the film itself captures and mirrors the longing of the protagonist Loie Fuller for the beauty she is searching for in dance. The film opens in the American Rocky’s where she is living in the wilds with her mad french father who encourages her love of art and her seemingly odd desire to become an actress. There are some charming scenes of a wild maned Soko soliloquising into the air or at taxidermy, perhaps as a set up as the humble roots of greatness but to my view represented a sheer singleness of mind on focused on stardom.
Men are quite appalling throughout the film and it is shot in such a way that Loie is suggested to only find ease and success in the companionship of women. There are some amazing scenes of her and her troupe of dancers frolicking through the grounds of her patron Louis’s house, suggesting true joy and abandon of the type that I imagine Stevie Nicks to have in her well protected female world.
When it comes down to it though, the film is a sports film in genre and construction. There are attempts to hide this under the veneer of beauty it presents the story through but its adherence to sports film tropes give it away. Loie is an american/french underdog, poor and practically orphaned. She gets a selection of coaches - well the support of her infatuated if ether addicted patron Louis and the Folies Bergère manager Marchand and his working partner Gabrielle. Loie is a proud and determined upstart and though she achieves success, it is not without struggling with her own physical and mental limits.
Then enter the antagonist - a young Isadora Duncan, played here by Lily Rose Depp in a charming performance that perfectly vilifies her. Loie falls in love with the young dancer but feeling threatened by her plays games with her. The film does not cast Loie as an overbearing infatuated employer, jealous of her protege, but on quick reflection that does seem to be the case. However, it is really nice to see a film that portrays a female sexuality repulsed by but sometimes accepting of men and alternately infatuated with women - and doesn’t draw that much attention to it or even question it.
The dances themselves - they are breathtaking. Loie’s performances of her famed serpentine dances at the Belle Epoch Cabarets and eventually the Paris Opera are paired with Beethoven in the film which, while evoking associations with Chef’s Table (and her outfit does look like a beautiful billowing table cloth which doesn’t help), gives real power to the performances that highlight the intensity of them for Loie and the audience. Soko gives a spellbinding performance and with such intensity one cannot take their eyes off of her.
This film as a biopic is startlingly inaccurate and perhaps bares only the faintest right to the claim that it is “based on a true story.” However as a film, it is about a dancer’s search for beauty in the perfection of their vision, and this is does quite well.
The Dancer is being screened around the country as part of the 2017 Alliance Franchise Film Festival. It is being screened in Melbourne across Palace Cinema’s locations between the 8th and 30th of March.
Written by Gill Langford
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Sandra Thibodeaux’s The Age of Bones is an ambitious, playfully political Indonesian-Australian coproduction now being hosted by La Mama in Carlton. For a play that extols (and some might say preaches) the virtues of working together across national and natural borders, it’s very pleasing to see how the production itself has exemplified this cultural harmony at every stage of its development. It also comes to Melbourne as part of the Asia-Pacific Triennial of Performing Arts festival, which, for some of the younger audiences of La Mama, might be delivering them their first taste of surtitled theatre, except for maybe opera.
This will certainly be a very gentle introduction for them. About half of Thibodeaux’s dialogue is performed in Indonesian, while the other half is performed, unsurprisingly, in English. It also makes magnificent use of puppetry and projections as a backdrop to this story of a 15-year-old boy, Ikan (Imam Setia Hagi) who is lost at sea. Lost because that is the last place that his mother, Ibu (Imas Sobariah) and his father, Bapak (Budi Laksana) knew that he was going. Ibu doesn’t know if he is lying dead at the bottom of the ocean, or in the belly of a whale, like Jonah. Fortunately, he’s very much alive, and hasn’t been swallowed by a literal whale, although a “metaphorical whale” is a different story. Like so many Indonesian boys of his age, Ikan went to work on a fishing boat carrying refugees headed for Australia. In his community there is simply no other way to feed his family, although they hardly knew he would be risking incarceration.
Ikan’s story is told as a fantastical, deep-sea satire, with the whale apparently representing an oppressive bureaucratic system, while a host of other underwater characters have much clearer allegorical allusions. Even though a lot of the conflict takes place in the depths in the ocean, the political symbolism is very much on the surface, intentionally and endearingly obvious. It is narrated, in English, by two of its most comedic characters, the Old Man (Deri Efwanto) and his young friend, Dalang the puppeteer (Mohammad Gandi Maulana). Dalang delights in spicing up the story with dramatic Indonesian shadow puppetry (walang), which Maulana is certainly very skilled at. Meanwhile, the Old Man, who does most of the talking, is a very charming anchor to this wild tale, even if some audience members might struggle to understand his accent.
The pair of them watch and commentate as Ikan is picked up by a pair of “divers,” who are about as helpful (or unhelpful rather) as the ones in Finding Nemo. They imprison him at the bottom of the ocean for two long years. He shares a cell with a hammerhead shark (Kadek Hobman) a hilarious Aussie bloke stereotype, who has great comic chemistry with Ikan. A much less effective stereotype is the white saviour, Ikan’s lawyer (Ella Watson-Russell) who succeeds in getting him released, but not without sounding incredibly self-righteous. Given she appears as a white pointer shark, directors Alex Galeazzi and Iswadi Pratama were probably aware of the cliché, but don’t really do anything subversive or entertaining with her.
The Age of Bones’ beautiful sailing ship set design by Dann Barber, dazzling oceanic projections and impressive puppetry are so entrancing that whenever the dialogue and performances are less than spectacular, it’s very easy to get distracted from the actual plot. Fortunately though, this is a genuinely moving story, told in a way that, despite its faults, still pointedly reveals just a few of the many things we need to reconsider about how we do things in Australia.
Written by Christian Tsoutsouvas
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The Homosexuals, Or Faggots, is a new stage production at the Malthouse written by local theatre maker Declan Green, of Sisters Grimm, and directed by Griffin Theatre Companies artistic director Lee Lewis.
I’ve been a fan of everything I’ve seen of Declan Greens works, and The Homosexuals, Or Faggots is no exception.
It is a contemporary farce, set in a luxury apartment in Sydney owned by a married gay couple Warren and Kim, played by Simon Burke and Simon Corfield, Kim and Warren are both white cis gay man, Warren is a journalist and Kim is a university lecturer on gender. The events of the play take place over one night, during mardigra, Warren is setting up to do a photo shoot with a young male model Lucacz, played by Lincoln Younes when Kim unexceptedly arrives home from a conference after being ‘cyber bullied’ by a student Bae Bae played by Mama Alto, Bae Bae, publicly critisized Kim for using the term ‘biological gender’ during one of his lectures. Warrens friend Diana arrives, played by Genevive Lemon, a older trans woman, and is keen to get to a party with Warren. Warren then is informed that he will be interviewing Bae Bae, and it all goes a bit wild from there. Pam, a young woman who Kim and Warren have a past with is also chucked into the mix, who is also played by Mama Alto.
The performers work together beautifully as an ensemble, but Mama Alto, for me, was the stand out performer. Her unique performance style was extremely refreshing to see on a mainstream stage. If you see this show just for Mama, it would be worth it!
The Homosexuals is pretty full on, and at times I felt like it was too much for me, I actually had ‘nightmares’ that night about myself somehow being homophobic and transphobic and being ostracized by my friends, which is funny because I identify as queer and trans. I wonder what reaction cis, hetrosexual people had to this piece, I’d be interested to know because it really stuck with me. On a subconscious level at least, it evoked feelings of fear of being politically incorrect and hurting people.
I find the show quite difficult to explain and talk about maybe because of its complexity or maybe because I’m scared of saying the wrong thing, or maybe both or another reason completely different, but it was a hell of a journey, which left me feeling exhausted, intellectually stimulated and generally satisfied with what happened, even though I’m not quite sure what happened internally for me, it was a clever story and very engaging. I was definitely invested in what was going to happen.
This is a fast paced, intense, riot of a show, and it on at The Malthouse Theatre in Southbank until March 12th.
Written by Finley Fletcher
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Smithers reviews actor turned writer Camilla Blunden's solo show All This Living.
Click here to listen to our interview with Camilla.
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Aquarius is a three-part feature film depicting the life and struggles of its central character Clara, an ageing music critic played by Brazilian actress and former Golden Globe nominee Sonia Braga.
The film opens in 1980, where Clara lives with her family in Aquarius, an elegant nineteen forties apartment on the beachfront of Recife, a seaside town on Brazil’s east coast.
During a family celebration, it is revealed Clara is a breast cancer survivor.
Flash forward thirty-six years, Clara is a 65-year-old widow, addressed as Dona Clara, who faces disaster when developers threaten to tear down the old building and replace the Aquarius with a modern luxury condo.
As the last remaining tenant, Clara is faced with increasingly sizeable offers from the company headed by Diego, a young ambitious business graduate.
Attached to the apartment’s sentiment and memories, Clara refuses to leave despite obvious pressure from her three children, who are keen to bolster their wealthy late father’s inheritance.
So begins an epic battle against the developers to retain her apartment block, where Clara faces a series of harassment, intimidation and abuse from Diego’s company in a bid to force her out.
Director Kleber Mendonca Filho spends much time delving into detail, often with intimate close-ups portraying Clara’s everyday life and the close relationships she develops with her family and long-time housekeeper.
Clara’s deep passion for music and eclectic taste ranging from samba to Queen is often depicted through her dancing alone in the apartment to various vinyl records.
The film’s opening sequence reveals Clara models her life on Aunty Lucia, the adored 70-year-old aunt with a girlish appearance and long hair.
As the film progresses, the women’s passion for life and their legacy appears to be passed on to Julia, the young girlfriend of Clara’s nephew.
Aquarius also highlights the deeply entrenched societal divisions in Brazil through its portrayal of racial tension, class conflict and family.
In a scene where Clara and her housekeeper confront Diego, the young businessman bluntly states it would have been hard for Clara and her family to achieve success due to her dark skin.
Audiences are shown multiple facets to Clara’s character, where her formidable manner and appearance is matched by an equally vulnerable side and pain from her past.
The nightmare scene where a maid-thief recurs in Clara’s dreams is a revenge of sorts, as Clara is shown to have a lifelong habit of deriding servants and speaking as if they were invisible.
It can be argued Aquarius is a metaphor for Brazil and the country’s contemporary political tensions.
The film’s debut in the Cannes competition last year was accompanied by cast members protesting Brazil is no longer a democracy.
Aquarius ends in a rather abrupt and unexpected manner, but nonetheless paints a superb portrait of a woman who defies the boundaries of age and time.
Written by Caroline Tung
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The Love Witch is a 2016 release written and directed by Anna Biller. It follows the story of a young beautiful witch Elaine, played by Samantha Robinson, who uses spells and potions to make men fall in love with her and ultimately kill them. The movie itself is shot on 35 mm film and is visually a homage to technicolour 1960s and 70s sexploitation cinema. The use of this film gives the movie a soft visual quality and sort of decentralises it in time - this is emphasised by the 70s costuming but with modern cars and mobile phone technology.
The film opens on Elaine driving away from San Francisco with her narrating how she had to leave after the overdose and death of her first husband. This scene uses rear projection photography to film her driving from the bonnet of the car - much like in Hitchcock’s The Birds. This allusion to a period thriller and the blood red of her car, outfit and lipstick suggest that there in something sinister afoot. She is then pulled over by a police man - raising the tension of the opening yet again - but he only informs her that her tail light is out thus returning the scene to a state of calm but with a sense of foreboding none the less. This is just the first example of director Biller playing with the audiences expectations to create the suspense that permeates this thriller.
Elaine has left San Francisco to stay at her friend Barbara’s apartment, who is also a witch, and is met there by Trish the real estate agent and they go out to tea together. Both the apartment and the tea parlour are absolutely beautiful sets. The apartment is painted in bright blues and purples, the walls are covered in paintings of witches in rituals or tarot inspired scenes. The tea house interior is pink - pink walls, chairs, tables - and all of the customers including our protagonist and her friend are costumed in pink and lace. Both of these sets are deeply feminine and visually represent the female world in which men are only visitors or are absent all together. It is here that Elaine tells Trish that she knows what men truely want and is willing to do anything if she can find a man who loves and worships her. She seems obsessed most of all, not with men, but with love - the idea of being in love and being loved.
She soon meets her first victim - A university literature professor and self confessed womaniser Wayne - she doses him with her love potion and seduces him causing him to fall deeply in love with her. However, the effects of the potion escalate out of control and it seems the concoction was poisonous and he suffers a heart attack and dies. In the scenes in which Wayne has been dosed the cinematography employs kaleidoscopic effects on the lights and on Elaine which aside from being beautiful are also a throwback to the 70s that really add to the charm and the feel of the film.
Wayne is the first of her 3 victims and they only get grislier as she goes along - the finale involving police questioning, horseback riding and a staged wedding at a renaissance fair.
Samantha Robinson does a fantastic job as Elaine in an acting style that is somewhat out of date and out of favour in modern films. Sure Elaine is villainous, but also in this ultimate battle of the sexes you cannot help but be on her side. She is the perfect performance of femininity and she punishes and destroys those men that privilege her for it. Witch craft in this film is a symbol of feminine power synonymous with sexuality - perhaps as a metaphor for sexual liberation in which women desire sex and to be loved but do not necessarily care about the men themselves. This is a surprisingly enjoyable feminist twist on the sexploitation and camp horror genres and enjoyable by anyone with a sense of cinematic nostalgia.
The Love Witch is being shown at the Lido Cinemas in Hawthorn from the 16th of February until the 1st of March.
Written by Gill Langford
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Casey Affleck has been in the paper a lot recently for not the right reasons. Without getting involved or placing an opinion of the alleged allegations against Casey Affleck, I believe his career in Hollywood and acting should not be judged by his actions outside of acting. This is my own personal viewpoint, and shall be throughout my review of Manchester by the Sea.
Directed by Kenneth Lonergan, Machester follows the events from the perspective of Joe Chandler, a handyman from Quincy, Massachusetts, after he receives a call of word that his brother is having a heart attack. Arriving too late in Manchester, Joe is given the guardianship of his brothers son Patrick. The majority of the film is in the present day as Joe tries to figure out what to do with Patrick, whilst having a total disconnect to the town itself. For the rest of the film, flashbacks are used as exposition to explain why Joe is the way he is, and how he came to leave Manchester to live in Quincy in the first place. Without spoiling anything major, this film is very dark, brutal, and cold. The events which occur in them are quite shocking and depressing, however they are also bookended by some truly hilarious black comedy, and situational moments. Not many people agree with me, however I see Manchester by the Sea as a black comedy drama rather than just a drama, as almost all of the comedic moments in the film are perfect, timed well, and make light somehow, of the very sad slice of life mentality the film holds.
Lonergan hasn’t directed since 2011, the film being Margaret, but it’s like he hasn’t been out of action at all. The directing skills he has show in the film, each staging of the shots and actors positions are smooth and sublime, whilst the acting itself is fantastic. Affleck needs to be talked about solely as this is easily a career best for him. His lack of emotion as Joe is heart wrenching, especially when intercut with scenes from his past where you can still see the light in his eyes, the love in his voice, and his boyish charm. His present self is slow, uncaring, and saddening. You don’t need to be told what he’s gone through as you can just tell from looking at the way he acts. Special mention must be given to Lucas Hedges as well, as his performance as Patrick Chandler is a perfect example of a teenager forced to deal with adult situations. The character of Patrick is very brutal and rare itself, and seeing him interact with a much younger Joe in flashbacks provides further moments of the realisation of the tough lives the pair lead.
Moving away from the plot, the actual production and planning for this film must be given credit too due to the length of time spent trying to get it made, and overall development of such. The film was produced by Matt Damon, who originally was meant to star in it as well in Affleck’s role. However, this changed to having John Krasinski as main actor a bit later, before Casey Affleck was finally locked down to be the main star. With pre production of the film beginning all the way back in September of 2014, it's brilliant to see how far the film went through development to finally air worldwide in 2017. Manchester by the Sea is also filmed in its namesake, Manchester by the Sea, which adds to the realism to the film, as the plot is quite natural and easily could happen in real life. Additionally, the music by Lesley Barber in this film is marvellous as well, being an eerie mix between ethereal and hallowing tones. It's hard to discuss the film in detail without dropping too much about plot, so I urge anyone who is capable of withstanding a brutal 137 minute sitting to go and see this film. Currently nominated for 6 academy awards, with Affleck being the frontrunner for best actor, Manchester by the Sea deserves the praise it's received, as it’s a both a film and example of the hardships in life.
Written by Hamish Vallance
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Gill and Molly discuss their thoughts, feelings and impressions of Aaron Posner's play Stupid Fucking Bird, before, after and during the intermission of its new production byLightning Jar Theatre, playing at the Brunswick Mechanics Institute until February 26.
Click here to listen to our interview with director Peter Blackburn
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The Family is Rosie Jones and Anna Grieve’s ominously titled documentary about a bizarre Australian cult that was finally discovered by police in the late 1980s. Consisting mostly of corrupt doctors and forcibly adopted children, its leader, Anne Hamilton-Byrne, proclaimed herself to be the female reincarnation of Jesus Christ. She had prophesised a coming apocalypse and was desperately trying to build a master race of bleach-blonde stolen children that could survive it. Anne’s sect had the numbers, the resources and the influence to secretly spirit away 28 children from teenage pregnancies to her remote property in Eilden, Victoria.
Anne could tell any member of “The Family” who to marry, who to divorce, where to work, where to live, and when to drop everything and relocate to avoid detection. She told them they would be punished for eternity if they dared disobey her. Her “children” never questioned this, since being starved, beaten and bullied with the promise of eternal life was all they had ever known. Many adult and even teenage members of the sect were drugged with LSD in a psychiatric hospital in Kew until they too believed that Anne was the Messiah. One of the few people who dared to defy her was told that when he went home that night he would die of a heart attack, and, unsurprisingly, he was so terrified that he did exactly that.
Jones’ direction paints Anne as a demonic figure shrouded in myth and mystery, largely because this is what she was to Detective Lex de Man, the officer who spent the better part of his life tracking her down and trying his hardest to get her convicted. He would have had to sift through mountains of distraught testimonies, filled with wild stories and exaggerated claims, to get to any defensible truth about who she was and what she was doing to these people. Jones’ film contains countless pieces of wordless home footage showing her smug, pretentious smile, something the detective would have also seen repeatedly as he was working to take her down.
I’m not sure what I find harder to believe, that she was never brought to justice or that she is still alive now, even as this film is being released: a 93-year-old living with dementia in a Melbournian nursing home. Naturally, the suburb it’s in is never mentioned, most likely for her own safety. Jones and Grieve’s interviews with the surviving members of the sect answer most of the many questions that immediately spring up, and I’m sure those that the film doesn’t get to are addressed in the book Jones co-wrote with Chris Johnston. The residents of Eilden did hear screams and cries for help coming from the property, and eventually someone did call the police. They came in to question the children, but with Anne present the entire time. They asked the children if they were being fed properly, to which they replied “‘yes” simply because they were still alive and didn’t know any better. The Family was even visited by the Department of Education, during which time Anne and her husband, Bill, had dressed everything up to look like a legitimate school, with desks, chairs, and a blackboard full of impressive looking equations, which was all enough to fool them apparently.
For years, none of the current or even past members of The Family were willing to speak out against Anne. Some were convinced that she really did love them, and that she deserved their love in return, but most of them were afraid of what she could do to them, spiritually or physically. This twisted obsession is something that Jones conveys very strongly, perhaps even too strongly, throughout the film’s 98-minute duration. The home footage of Anne, simulations of LSD hallucinations and aerial shots of the forest surrounding the property are all underscored with psychedelic compositions by Amanda Brown. While sometimes they feel justified, they aren’t always needed. By all accounts, Anne Hamilton-Byrne, a woman of humble origins, loved to be the centre of attention, and by building her up in this way as someone larger than life, the film might ironically be giving her what she wanted, even as it is exposing her for what she truly was.
However, there are still scenes here that recognise the most disturbing part of this story. What’s even more chilling than the things Anne was able to do is the fact that she was able to do them, the fact that Australia’s legal system, education system and medical system all allowed this cult to thrive for as long as it did.
The Family is at its best when it’s not spending too much of its precious running time on Anne and remembers what’s more important to show here: the life-long trauma of the victims and the broken systems that let them all down.
Written by Christian Tsoutsouvas
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Theatre review, An intimate look into the human cost of China’s decades long one child policy. Playing at the Malthouse A’beckett Theatre, Melbourne.
A tale of two cities one family, and the reflective story of a billion, Director Wang Chong navigates the immense human consequence of the One child Policy, with an ambitious production, that overthrows many old stage techniques in favour of relevance to the 21st Century.
The story in which our characters navigate is one that is highly symbolic, frequently changing between English and Mandarin and contorting time and space to convey states of mind and connection between the characters. For instance Kevin speaks to his mother Diane via the phone her face projected onto the backdrop, but she speaks to him directly through the tapestry which backdrops the set, to punctuate a particular point and thus breaks the illusion of distance, as though it were always an illusion. There is a rhythm and timing to this play that is wonderfully executed.
The play begins with Kevin our protagonist recalling his early childhood. An illicit second child, he his sent into hiding, to boarding school and ultimately to Melbourne to study economics, or so his family thinks. He is actually attempting to direct a play, about China’s one child policy. A point that certainly draws parallels with this play's actual director His, sister Alice, and mother, Diana, still reside in Beijing, expecting Kevin to visit them soon. Their hopes are squashed however when he refuses out of fear for their expectations and in fear of what they represent, exile, distance and rejection. Alice, his sister, is older than him at 31 and is constantly under pressure from society and particularly Diana, their mother, to find a husband. Lachlan Phillpot is careful to not simply write her off as the nagging mother, however, her pushing and chastising comes from a deep worry and concern that her children will be terribly unprepared for their lives, her diagnosed cancer underpins every word she says, with a hidden urgency.
The conservative Chinese values and gender expectations of Mao’s China instilled in Diana has been diluted with an increasingly globalised world and 21st century values and technologies. The values of Diane’s China are frequently at odds with Wang Chong’s use of technology. Live cameras are used for the characters to communicate over vast distances, their image projected onto the back drop as though through video call, though this trope begins to deteriorate as the play progresses. It comes to follow the characters on stage and follows their faces, providing multiple different perspectives on stage at once, showing literally many sides to each character.
Lachlan Philpot has done a brilliant job of magnifying the human element so easily lost in stories of far-reaching politics. Without necessarily providing us with answers he asks us to recognize the humanity of these characters, and the many more that they represent.
The play masterfully uses lighting to convey frames of mind and delineate when Kevin is directing his play, or experiencing some deep troublesome thought. Emma Valente in this instance has done particularly admirable work. The set is entirely within a pool of water, ankle deep, the rear of which is separated by high hanging tapestries of letters, ads written by family members for their offspring, particularly young woman not yet married, desperate to secure them success in life via marriage. Characters frequently traverse behind and through this tapestry however as though crossing the veil between the two cities of Melbourne and Beijing, and from the most immediate thoughts of the characters on stage.
There’s a beautiful story in the play that Alice shares with Diana, of the lakes just outside Melbourne where tea leaves fall into the water and turn them brown. Rather than an ugly sight, people flock to them, because the water is healing. And as the tea leaves fall down into the water, toward the play's end you get the sense of what this story is all about. Remembering, acknowledging the stories of the past, the individuals, the forgotten children, the play doesn’t suggest a solution, though it guides us towards a more thoughtful approach and aspires to be the clarion call for healing.
Wang Chong’s Play Little Emperors, is an important play, a must see. It burns slow but crackles into a powerful ending. Three, out of five stars.
Written by Matthew Toohey
Image by Tim Grey
Click here for our interview with cast member Alice Qin
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Lifetime Guarantee is a new theatre production written by Ross Mueller. It follows the lives of a group of people living in perhaps Melbourne,in perhaps the present. The two principle charters are Charlie, a young architect and property developer, and Dan, an slightly older news reader. Dan has just left his wife and children to be with Charlie. Charlie has just hired a personal assistant Jodie, who is new to the city. Jodie's dad has tracked her down in this new city and Dans ex wife got picked up in a bar by Jodie's dad. It's all very intricately woven, and cleverly written. Unfortunately, I found all the characters quite dull, and one dimensional , with exception to Jodie who actually goes through some character development. There were some really beautiful moments, but over all I found the work to be a bit conservative, this may be because I went into the show viewing it as a piece of 'queer theatre' which it turns out it wasn't. It seemed like it wasn't quite sure if it was a comedy, a realistic drama or post-dramatic. I guess it can be all three but it didn't seem to nail any of those genres, I feel it would have been more engaging if it had have stuck to one genre and just really went for it. The set and lighting design seemed great in theory, but unfortunately was not executed that well, it felt a little cheap and tacky, but I could definitely see what the designers were going for. All the performers were wonderful, I enjoyed their energy as an ensemble Lifetime Guarantee is theatres works first production of 2017, the season looks very exciting and I can't wait to see what they have in store of us for the rest of the year. Lifetime Guarantee is showing at theatre works in St Kilda until February 26th
Click here to listen to Finley's interview with cast member Charles Purcell.
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Smithers reviews Simon J Green's horror short film The Darkness.
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The Privatisation of Ward 9B follows a desperate psychiatrist, Doctor Craven (played by David McCrae) in his efforts to supplement diminishing public funding by dragging his patients into the merciless world of economic enterprise. Written in 1991 at a time when the Hawke-Keating government was privatising public services such as airports, airlines, telecommunications and banks, Bill Marshall’s social message still rings clear - we bring an emphasis on profit making and cost cutting into the provision of public services at the peril of those most vulnerable in society. As I was born in the year it was written, I’ve only ever known these services to be private, and wonder if the setting had a more meaningful impact on the audience’s members from an older generation.
Walking into the intimate black box theatre at La Mama, a nurse seated in the corner of the stage judged our every movements. It was as if we had entered a psychiatric ward as patients instead of a theatre as audience members, foreshadowing the audience's active role as characters in the story that unfolded.
We were addressed as potential investors, which questioned the morality of our role as observers of a stage performance as a parallel to those people detained on behalf of society at large. Theatre norms were smashed from the beginning when the theatre manager gave his Welcome to Country and phones off announcement after the play had seemingly begun. With the actors on stage with him, they guided the audience members to a medicine cup with a “pill” under each of our chairs. I don't know what was in that pill but it was a roller coaster into crazy land from that moment forward.
Mike, played by Marc Opitz, claims he is a sane visitor of the hospital, trapped in the ward and being treated like a patient. Much like Leonardo Dicaprio in Shutter Island, the audience is left wondering whether he is the only voice of reason, or profoundly self-deluded. The thematic relevance of this character in a wider sense opened the question; who should be given the power to decide what is sane and what is not? In Ward 9B, the audience is privy to Dr Craven’s abuse of authority to make these judgements, yet within the world of the play fails to see his corruption and wrongly rewards his manipulations. The farcical results are begging to be compared with our contemporary political and social landscapes.
Mike’s sub-story, like all four of the patients in Ward 9B, I felt were not fully developed and could have been produced as separate plays altogether. With the patient’s back stories, their mild relationship developments and the overarching story all happening on stage simultaneously with no ascertainable rhyme or reason, the story line was at times difficult to follow. There were moments in which eight character were crowding the tiny stage with no obvious justification. Physically and psychologically it was utterly chaotic. Trapped in the small theatre for 80 minutes, as an audience member I began to feel what the patients in that ward might be experiencing such as agitation, relentlessness and disorientation.
A special mention to Matthew Richard Walsh who plays Max, a creepy, depraved patient, whose acting was nuanced and consistent Caroline Ferguson who plays the vain Nurse Wrench (perhaps a nod to and a less malevolent version of Ken Kesey’s Nurse Ratched) has a beautifully resonant voice which filled up the space both when she was speaking, and when she treated us to a strange and random cabaret performance. I thought the acting of the cast as a whole was a little disconnected disconnected at times where lines or physical responses were anticipated, although this could have been a directorial choice by Mark E Lawrence to set up a hyper realistic, melodramatic tone.
The synopsis promises an interesting explanation into a controversial matter, but I found that the scriptwriting, direction and acting all tried to cover too much ground, which meant sacrificing a clear message, and losing important themes along the way.
The Privatisation of Ward 9B is showing at La Mama theatre in Carlton until the 19th of February.
Written by Scarlett Koehne
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Faith is a difficult concept to explain to non-believers. I was never raised religiously, or even with any sort of a belief in a god. As such, I generally struggle to connect to stories of faith and to characters who so strongly experience faith, and it takes something special to make me truly understand what these people are going through. But Martin Scorsese, with his latest film Silence, has managed to do just that. Himself a lapsed Catholic, he may just be in the best position to convey the intricacies of faith.
Silence is the story of two Portuguese Christian missionaries in Japan in the 17th century, a time when Christianity was forbidden and severely persecuted. It’s based on a novel of the same name by Shusaku Endo, a Japanese Christian author, which in turn is based on a real set of historical events. The two missionaries, Rodrigues and Garupe (Andrew Garfield and Adam Driver), travel to Japan in pursuit of another priest by the name of Ferreira (Liam Neeson) who had gone to Japan many years earlier and of whom all traces had been lost. Over the course of the film, the priests hide in small Japanese villages and attempt, unsuccessfully, to evade the authorities who are determined to make the priests apostatise, to renounce their religion, and who aim to stamp out the roots of Christianity in Japan. The more the priests persist in their attempts to find Ferreira and to hold on to their dogma, the more ruthless the Japanese officials become, not just towards them but also towards the villagers who hide them.
For the most part, the narrative is centred on Rodrigues, and the themes of wavering faith, the silence of god and the point of missionary work in general, are all explored through him. Rodrigues is so deeply embedded in his religious system and indoctrinated role as a missionary that he fails to realise that true faith is in one’s heart, not one’s church. There’s a moment in the middle of the film where Rodrigues hands out religious artefacts to the church-starved locals and observes that these people seem more obsessed with the symbolism of religion than religion itself. It’s a thought that Rodrigues himself does not seem to fully grasp in relation to the manifestations of his own faith: repeatedly, the officials try to make him renounce his faith by placing his foot on an image of Christ, and repeatedly he refuses, as indeed do the persecuted villagers. He too, then, like the villagers, is more interested with preserving his status as an emissary of the church and of god than of accepting true belief, and as a result cannot bring himself to reject a physical symbol. To add to his inner turmoil and the difficulty he faces, the longer he takes to reject his status as a priest in front of authorities, the more the Japanese civilians are tormented and tortured. Even the officials continually state that the act of apostasy is a pure formality, that they would be satisfied with the simple gesture of stamping on the engraving, and even though this statement comes from a place of heartless bureaucracy, it nevertheless encapsulates the very lesson that Rodrigues is destined to learn.
Most of these narrative twists, thematic ideas and religious dilemmas come, of course, from Endo’s original novel, not from Scorsese or his co-screenwriter Jay Cocks, so I can’t pretend that they’re specific to this film. Having said that, the novel doesn’t really work for me. It seems to presume a basic personal understanding of the problems faced by people of faith and in doing so alienates someone like me who does not necessarily appreciate the faithful mindset. Endo almost relies on the (albeit intriguing) philosophical and ethical questions to be the start and endpoint of the narrative and as a result the narrative itself falls flat. There was even another adaptation of the novel filmed in 1971 by Masahiro Shindo, co-written by Endo himself, and even that felt very unengaging, though technically well-made. Scorsese’s adaptation, however, succeeds in constructing a deeply personal and affecting portrayal of the young priest and took me on a journey alongside him, allowing me to empathise with the weight of his doubts. Ironically, it seems that he has achieved this by toning down the first-person perspective in comparison to the original, though we do get a voiceover in several sections of the film, and consequently the film becomes more subtle and more balanced as a depiction. On top of this, Scorsese pays a great deal more attention to the Japanese villagers and their suffering, the very suffering that is at the core of the moral quandary facing Rodrigues. It all makes for very engrossing and moving viewing. In other words, while Scorsese hasn’t come up with the seeds of the story and themes, it’s the way he expresses them that is significant here.
On a technical level, too, Silence is astoundingly well-put-together. The majority of the film is shot with striking cold, foggy tones, echoing the harshness of the political environment which the priests are thrust into. Yet there are several notable moments that seem surprisingly warmly-coloured, made even more notable by the overall coldness of the film. These warm moments predominantly seem to have some connection to faith, such as a night-time prayer session in a tiny hut. It’s almost as if to emphasise the extent of the meaning people derive from their faith and the intimacy of their beliefs. I should note that cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto has been nominated for an Academy Award for Silence, and it’s very much well-earned. Scorsese’s longtime collaborator and film editor Thelma Schoonmaker, too, continues her masterful work, as does legendary set and art designer Dante Ferretti. The period detail is meticulous, even in scenes we barely see. And even though superficially this film mightn’t appear to shout “Scorsese”, there’s enough of his familiar camera movements to divulge his directorial presence. Several startling zooms and pans, particularly in the prison sequences, still stick in my mind and are well and truly characteristic of Scorsese’s work. Not to mention the stark and brutal imagery that has become synonymous with his reputation.
Excellent, fascinating and absorbing, a story about faith that even non-religious people like me can get into. All that’s left to say, I suppose, is that Martin Scorsese’s Silence is golden.
Silence is out in cinemas on February 16th.
Written by Ben Volchok
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The only time I ever went to the circus was easily ten years ago, somewhere in Melbourne where I remember only feeling a little bad for the animals on display there. My second outing to the circus being this, I must say, that no animals were harmed in Cirque du Soleil’s Kooza; apart from if you count the man dressed as a dog who urinated on an audience member at one stage.
I go into Kooza having a background in Theatre myself, both in acting, design and technologies such as lighting and sound. What Kooza does brilliantly isn’t just a circus act, but also a brilliantly staged and designed theatre act, which encompasses live music and a story which doesn’t need to told, instead, shown. The story of Kooza itself is about a boy in rags, who has a kite which closely resembles what he wears; grey, lifeless, and sagging. As he fails to send it high into the sky, a package is delivered to him, a jack in a box which comes alive, and transforms the world the boy resides in.
The first act of the play is split into different aspects of Circus acts, including aerial hoops, contortionists, and a unicycle duo. Kooza drip feeds excitement and danger, backending each circus act with a comedy sketch, including audience members twice. Each audience member brought up acted along well, however the second man by the name of Zach did so well, he earned more applause than the actual comedians themselves. The story progresses, as each act is brought out by the use of a wand, which when timed well gives the idea that pure magic is being used on stage, as the band plays to the shifts in the stage, curtains, and movement of actors. In the climax of act one, the wand drops, and a darkness encompasses the stage.
Returning to act two, the overall feeling and design of the production shifts. Purple and black costumes and lights shine as skeletal characters emerge, mimicking Day of the Dead, a Mexican holiday which is famous for its beautiful yet haunting skeleton designs and costumes. The acts as well become more dangerous, including balancing acts, a teeterboard, and easily the best part of the show, the Wheel of Death, which is metal pendulum with two circles on either side, in where two performers jump, move and skip rope as they cause the crowd to gasp and cover their eyes. My only gripe with Kooza is the conclusion of the production, which is resolved quite simply, the boy being given a new pair of clothes, and a fresh kite to fly. The actual Day of the Dead invasion into the play's design is not resolved however; the dropping of the wand seemed to me as the dark part of the play, and as the original cast run and shriek from the arrival of the skeletons, it is confusing why the situation isn’t resolved. Do they just go on living in a different world, and if not, how did they return to the act one world?
However, putting aside the small problem, Kooza was a brilliant display of theatre, circus and music combined into one action packed performance. It is sure to thrill anyone who has a sense of adventure, and also anyone with an urge to explore international cultures such as Day of the Dead, which Cirque de Soleil celebrates with its production of Kooza.
Written by Hamish Vallance
Click here to listen to Hamish and Christian's inteview with Lisa Ramey, one of the singers from Kooza
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Theatre has been my thing for a few years now, easily being my best subject in high school alongside Media. Thus, I’ve been a lot of theatre, both good, bad, amateur and professional, yet I’ve never seen a La Mama production until now. Todd in Venice is a Midsumma Festival show on display at La Mama from February 1st-5th. Written by Sofia Chapman, a musician and writer who has previously had plays on at La Mama, Todd in Venice details Anges Kermode and Michael Bark’s travels in Italy, where they come across the peculiar Todd Ash. Chapman’s story can be best described as a look into human emotion, sexuality, discovery and lust or love. Kate Hosking, Alex Beyer and Joseph Lai appear as the main cast, with Terry Cole and James Adler supporting as Guido and Doge of Venice respectively.
Each character within the play are very separate to each other, meaning very different personalities clash on stage. Anges is a very direct woman, however consistently changes her mind and decisions, worrying about money one second, then throwing it out for anything in another. Michael is a very sexual young man, puffing out his chest and striking poses, but also has a big heart, falling for Todd very quickly. Todd is a different case entirely. Later revealed as a sex worker, Todd rebuffs Michael’s advances for the better part of the play, before finally succumbing to lust, or love; neither is specified. As for the supporting cast, they add a lot to the background of the primary performances. Guido performs and plays behind the action, be in a small italian guitar, an accordion, or even circus tricks. His performance is obviously used to enhance the idea of being in Italy, however for a lot of the time it's almost unnecessary, acting as more of a distraction than an accompaniment. Meanwhile, the Doge adds a very aussie feel to Venice, whilst although pitched as a very religious character, quickly relaxes and acts as casual as if one of the audience members. Although he is most seperate to the other four characters, he is also the most interesting.
The play itself is quite scattered; split into three acts, the play picks up pace wise in the second act abruptly, then drops suddenly within the third. The abrupt reason is the dance sequence. Music, singing, and even some light dancing is used earlier in the play, however not to the extent of its use in act two. Before it came on I noticed that Lai and Hosking did the choreography of the play, however I hadn’t noticed any major dancing. That changed quickly. As though in a bollywood dance film, Anges, Todd and Michael suddenly began prancing and dancing across the stage, sticking together rather tightly as they grinded, twerked, and pouted for the small, twenty person audience. Fascinating, to say the least. What it caused however was a jumble in the play's structure. By the end of it, I still couldn’t tell you what exactly happened during it. Anges got a sex change as a woman, but she was already a women, Todd became sick and then was placed in a boat made from balloon animals, and Michael held him in his arms as the lights lowered on the play.
My biggest gripe with the play is its lack of a significant plot, meaning although the scenes wereinteresting, as was the acting, I didn’t know why they were there or shown in the first place, as they didn’t make up a strong timeline of events.Todd in Venice tries to be a lot of things; a dance number, a circus show, and a play. However, it only achieves two of these, failing at what it is actually meant to be.
Written by Hamish Vallance
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Christian chats to Kent Morris, CEO of the Torch Project about Confined 8, an exhibiton on at The Gallery in St Kilda Town Hall that features 140 artworks by 130 Indigenous artists in or released from Victoria prisons.
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Review transcript:
You’re listening to Art Smitten on SYN. I’m Rebecca Houlihan, and today I’m going to be talking to you about a National Theatre Live production of No Man’s Land, written by Harold Pinter, and this version is directed by Sean Mathias.
So this play was originally produced in 1975, which is where it’s set. The big draw card of this version is the two Sirs, Sir Patrick Stewart and Sir Ian Mckellen.
It’s a four-man play, and it focuses on conversations between the four characters. So that’s Spooner (played by Ian Mckellen) who’s this bumbling, failed poet, Hurst (played by Sir Patrick Stewart) who’s this successful writer that you don’t really know much about, and it’s clear his mind is deteriorating, and then the two younger men, Foster (played by Damien Molony), and Briggs (played by Owen Teale), who come into the play and you know less about them than either of the other characters, and they sort of raise a lot of the questions. So this play is really interesting because it is essentially a power play with words. Each character is trying to upstage another, and only one character holds the power in the scene at any particular time, and all the characters reveal themselves through story rather than what’s happening. It’s all in one setting, all in one scenario, so it’s what they say and do that you find out stuff about them which is a really interesting device for me. Especially the concepts it explores through this, what memory is, they’re all drinking so how alcohol affects people’s relationships, what taking advantage of people is even.
The set itself is very amazing it’s this round, enclosed room. It’s sort of feels a bit like a jail, while also being a bit comforting because it’s this nice stately room. There is very little set dressing on it, but what is, is styled to perfection. Every little part is detailed. Even the alcohol they drink, although it’s not alcohol presumably, it’s the right colour and you can see it.
The play itself is sort of very, uncomfortable and sinister in a hard to put into place way. There’s just something not quite right about the whole situation. It’s very unsettling, in a really comprehensive, but engaging way. It definitely captured my attention. It’s the sort of play I want to really study, and read reviews of, read critiques of, and try and understand what’s happening, because it’s not quite clear what they’re doing there. You sort of know a bit about the characters but you don’t really know what they’re relationships are to each other, or if they’ve even met each other before. Is all feels like they’re taking advantage of Patrick Stewart’s character but you don’t really know that.
Another interesting element is the contrast between the characters of Spooner and Hurst, Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart. Spooner the bumbling, wanting to please Hurst, character that doesn’t really know what he’s doing and is very cringe-worthy and embarrassing, vs. Hurst who, his mind is deteriorating so he goes between being pitifully pathetic or intensely powerful, holding the scene and everyone in it.
It makes you question what’s reality and what’s not in this play.
Another delightful thing about the play is the contrast between this ethereal, existential drama, and this really abrupt comedy. In the Q&A session that is featured after this version of this film, they talk about the precisely placed swear word in it, which is really just delightful, in contrast to all this intense stuff, there’s jokes, there’s humour, it’s really quite rude, but it’s also deeply philosophical.
So even if you don’t generally enjoy shows in one setting with minimal characters it’s definitely a show to check out, if only because the actors in it are so amazing, bringing so much through their facial expressions.
It’s just really an interesting play, I just really want to watch it over and over again, and I probably will go see it again, just to try and figure out what on earth I think is happening in this play.
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Toni Erdmann is a German-Austrian comedy directed, written, and co-produced by Maren Ade. It centres on the relationship between the eccentric prankster father, Winfried Conradi (played by Peter Simonischek), and his stressed, work-a-holic daughter, Ines (played by Sandra Hüller). Spurred by the death of his dog, and the loss of his piano students, Winifried decides to spontaneously visit Ines, and thus essentially begins interfering in her life through pranks, questions, and inopportune comments that Ines fears will ruin her business partnerships. Winifried agrees to go home, but doesn’t, instead appearing again as his life-coach alter ego Toni Erdmann, and continues to push Ines to her limits.
The film captured my attention because although a comedy, with absurd situations, the acting on the whole was admirably understated. The humour of the film came through the wittiness of the script, combined with situations that the actors let speak for themselves. This understated acting also contributed to the emotional connection with the characters during the dramatic and sad moments of the film.
The camera shots themselves had the slightly shaky feel of a hand-held camera, while never being out of focus or detracting attention away from the plot. This added to the realism of the film, which in essence was why this film was so enjoyable. Even though the situations got ridiculous or absurd, and the character of Winifried is very eccentric, is still had an element of reality within it.
As a comedy this film really just works. It is very funny in a sometimes unexpected way. However the humour is mixed in with elements of drama, sadness, and real human emotions. There are times when you can just feel the stress and embarrassment pouring out of Ines.
The only element that perhaps detracts from the film is its length. At a running time of 162 minutes there are points where it does feel long. However this does not last as the narrative style quickly moves from one situation to the next, gaining the viewer’s attention easily.
On the whole, the film’s interplay between being simultaneously underplayed and absurd is key to its enjoyability. It is not a film where you clearly see the plot line laid out before you, but the twists and turns of its story line also are not painfully far fetched.
Written by Rebi Houlihan
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For me personally, reality television is not something that I’m a fan of; I don’t like the staged humour, staged love, and staged drama, as I could get all that from an actual written episode of fictional television, such as Fargo or The Fall. However, Phil Keoghan's The Amazing Race, alongside some other American reality shows, stand out among others, for either its ridiculousness, or its actual credibility, such as Keoghan’s show. Thus, stepping into the directing seat for another documentary, Keoghan brings us Le Ride, pretty much a sequel to “The Ride”, with some French mixed in. Le Ride is truly an interesting, one of a kind documentary in its own right. Keoghan decides to recreate the 1928 Tour de France in honour of the Australasian team which consisted of three Australians, Hubert Opperman, Percy Osborn and Ernest Bainbridge, and one New Zealander, Harry Watson.
The race itself is known as one of the hardest and most brutal tours of all time, with only 41 racers finishing out of around 160. Le Ride documents Phil Keoghan, his friend Ben Cornell, and a crew as they recreate the race on bikes from the same time and place as the 1928 race, as it intercuts actual radio reports from 1928 of the Australisians teams journey to France, racing, and finally completion of the dreaded race. Keoghan, an avid cyclist and New Zealand born himself, honours the four racers for the better part of the film, consistently cutting between intense and hilarious moments with his own experiences riding the 1928 route, with discussions about the four racers, quotes from them, and drilling into the audience the hardship which each rider had to go through as they competed. The film itself mirrors the two races quite well. Whilst Keoghan’s recreation isn’t easy, for the most part it’s injury free, peaceful, and funny, whilst the images from the 1928 include bloody crashes, boils and sores from riding too much, and in some cases death. Keoghan emphasizes the difference in the two races, with him commenting on how hard it would of been for the Australasian team then, if Keoghan and Ben are struggling years later without even having a clock to beat.
However, stepping aside from the history and excitement of the recreation of a race, it's Keoghan’s background in reality television which leaves an interesting mark on this doco. A multitude of the shots within the documentary can be mistaken for actual dramatic movie shots. I’m not talking about long sweeping shots of drones angled down on mountains in the France. I’m talking about extreme close ups on Keoghan as he stares dramatically into the distance, as if waiting for an army to approach. The shots can also be lined up very well with of cause the shots done in The Amazing Race, and other reality shows. These shots add tension, drama and shock value to the program, as viewers can become more immersed with the show and the story it tells. I’m not sure the same effect is achieved using it in a documentary like this, as the documentary story is already fairly laid out with what’s going to happen, so the use of drama is almost irrelevant. Nevertheless, it adds a certain quality which separates it from other documentaries of its kind.
Le Ride celebrates foreign relations through sport, the might of Australians in the face of hardship and the Tour de France itself all in 90 minutes, and in addition manages to include humour, drama and even some ties to reality television. You might not be a fan of the other shows that he’s involved in, however, Keoghan manages to capture something special with this documentary, which keeps viewers captivated and gives them a good laugh as well.
Written by Hamish Vallance
Click here for Hamish and Christian's interview with Phil Keoghan
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