Reel Review Roundup

Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody (M)

Directed by: Kasi Lemmons

Starring: Naomi Ackie, Stanley Tucci

Review by: Julian Wright

Super talented singer, the late Whitney Houston’s tumultuous life gets the bloated big screen bio treatment hot on the heels of box office gold Bohemian Rhapsody and Rocketman.

In the early 1980s, Whitney Houston (Naomi Ackie) was a church choir singer disciplined by her strict singer mother Cissy (Tamara Tunie).

Houston is eventually “discovered” by record producer Clive Davis (Stanley Tucci) who helps showcase her powerful voice to everyone around the world.

Whitney’s rise to fame is huge and almost instantaneous, becoming one of the most successful singers ever, but she struggles with multiple issue behind the scenes – accused by the Black community of selling out, bumpy marriage to Bobby Brown and her drug addiction that will eventually be her downfall.

While the highs and lows of Houston’s life are certainly ripe for storytelling, I Wanna Dance With Somebody suffers from many of the same issues that most other bio films cannot seem to break free from.

Writer Anthony McCarten and director Kasi Lemmons show us the significant milestones of Houston’s life (her first hit song, performing at the Superbowl, marriage etc) but fail to thematically tie them together to create a coherent narrative or motivation.

Yes, it is interesting to see her milestones recreated, but how do they impact her or inform her decision making?

The film makers are so afraid to suggest or theorise, and too careful to not offend Houston’s memory, her estate or fans, that we may as well just give her albums another spin to appreciate her talent.

The cast is fine, Tucci a lovely presence as usual and Ackie perfectly serviceable and talented lip syncer but this never rises above made for TV simplicity, despite the apparent larger budget.

It is undeniable that Houston was a massive talent, whose voice goes unrivaled, and it is a tragedy that she is no longer with us, but a tribute with a bit more teeth would have been more worth the effort.

Triangle of Sadness (MA)

Directed by: Ruben Ostlund

Starring: Harris Dickinson, Charlbi Dean, Woody Harrelson

Review by: Julian Wright

Swedish film maker Ruben Ostlund takes sharp aim at the rich and privileged in his biting satire Triangle of Sadness.

When model Carl (Harris Dickinson) accompanies his social media influencer girlfriend YaYa (Charlbi Dean) on a luxury superyacht with an array of wealthy multi-millionaires, the couple witness how the “other half” live and behave.

When the cruise encounters a storm, they get to see another side of these well-to-do passengers, and when a selection of them become stranded on an island with yacht staff Abigail (Dolly De Leon), the tables are turned and their true skills (or lack thereof) come to light.

Ostlund drags the wealthy through the mud in this delightfully delicious dig that pulls no punches on the one per cent.

There are some draw dropping sequences (the dinner scene is an all-timer) and the character interactions and dynamics will have you giggling with glee.

Ostlund reminds us there are few things that thrill and entertain more than witnessing the downfall of hoity-toity rich folks on film.

Woody Harrelson as the alcoholic captain is suitably nutty, but it is De Leon that steals the show out from under the eclectic cast in the second half as the smart and resourceful cleaner.

Triangle of Sadness is screening as part of Perth Festival Lotterywest Films.

Blueback (M)

Directed by: Robert Connolly

Starring: Radha Mitchell, Mia Wasikowska, Eric Bana

Review by: Julian Wright

The beautiful Western Australian coastline and some of Australia’s top acting talent is showcased in this lovely tale of an unlikely bond between a fish and a young woman based on Tim Winton’s 1997 novel.

Abby (Mia Wasikowska) is called back to her small, quiet, seaside town when her mother Dora (Liz Alexander) has a stroke and needs care.

The trip home brings memories of Abby’s childhood flooding back in which her environmentalist Mum (Radha Mitchell) raised her to appreciate and protect the small bay that the live alongside.

During their numerous diving explorations throughout the years, Abby (Ariel Donoghue and Ilsa Fogg) encounters and bonds with a Blueback fish, one that, along with the rest other various marine life, is threatened by developers who are keen to carve up the land for an estate.

Blueback makes no bones about its environmental and conservationist message, it’s prime focus is to drive home a positive message about the importance of preserving our precious marine life.

And there is no better way to do it than to film on WA’s picturesque coastline and utilise some top tier screen stars to engage an audience.

Wasikowska is understated, while Mitchell relishes the opportunity to play a mother who is fiercely protective of her environment and Bana offers identifiable and likable larrikinism that radiates off the screen.

It is heartwarming and heartbreaking in equal measure, but the general tone is surprisingly low-key, and while it is admiral that director Robert Connolly has avoided broad theatrical dramatics to impact his audience, it often feels like he has dialed it down a little too far.

Blueback is a lovely exploration of the connection between people and their environment and nature versus nurture that could have benefited from a stronger Indigenous perspective.

Blueback is screening from November 21 to 27 as part of Perth Festival Lotterywest Films at UWA Somerville Auditorum.

Bros (MA)

Directed by: Nicholas Stoller

Starring: Billy Eichner, Luke Macfarlane

Review by: Julian Wright

Hyped as being the first gay rom-com from a major film studio, Bros was labelled a cinematic milestone before anyone had seen it. But does first necessarily mean good? Milestone or not, in this case, it is better than good.

Career focused gay podcaster and perpetually single 40-something Bobby (Billy Eichner) is proud to be unattached, a little cynical of the dating pool.

When he meets Aaron (Luke Macfarlane), a straight presenting, gym bunny looks like he was chiseled from marble, it is a classic case of opposites attract.

The two navigate a bumpy friendship/hookup/relationship while Bobby curates the first National LGBTQ+ History Museum in Manhattan.

The rom-com tropes are there but having gay characters lead the story is more than just a surface level twist.

Eichner’s script is sharp, witty, relatable and, most importantly, hilarious, with dialogue that snaps.

Usually rom-coms open big with laughs then the humour settles once the romance part starts to dominate the story, but this is one of the most consistently funny films in a long time, never afraid to have us laughing while we get caught up in the emotional beats of the story.

While some of Eichner’s monologues get a little out of hand and preachy, as a film maker, he has some spot-on observations and satirical jabs at straight and LGBTQ+ culture, dating and life in the 40s.

Bros may be the the first gay rom-com from a major film studio, but it is also one of the best films of 2022.

The Woman King (MA)

Directed by: Gina Prince-Bythewood

Starring: Viola Davis, Thuso Mdebu, Lashana Lynch

Review by: Julian Wright

A fascinating and untold piece of history gets the big screen treatment it (mostly) deserves with a Viola Davis impressive as ever in a more physical role.

We get an insight into the West African Kingdom of Dahomey circa 1823, and in particular, the the all-female group of warriors,the Agojie, that protects it.

Led by the commanding and loyal Nanisca (Viola Davis), the Agojie liberate women who have been enslaved.

When the fiercely independent young woman Nawi (Thuso Mbedu) refuses to marry an abusive older man, she is dropped off at the Agojie community, but her stubbornness clashes with Nanisca.

A story about a group of strong, independent, self sufficient and self reliant women of colour in the 1800s is such a refreshing and compelling concept to explore in film.

The action scenes are terrifically staged and directed (if a little underlit), both thrilling and brutal allowing, us to see these fierce female warriors cause just as much physical damage as men, if not more.

And the dramatic scenes are mostly compelling.

This is a fascinating and powerful story here and yet, the longer it goes on, the more that power is slightly diluted. Perhaps some tightening in the editing may have helped prevent this.

It becomes less about how these women exist in and interact with this world and more about borderline soap opera twists.

But what is consistently incredible, is Davis, who brings both phsycial and emotional gravitas.

Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris (PG)

Directed by: Anthony Fabian

Starring: Lesley Manville, Isabelle Hubbert, Lambert Wilson

Review by: Julian Wright

Lesley Mandeville shines as the titular Mrs. Harris in this delightful adaptation of the 1958 novel Mrs ‘Arris Goes to Paris.

In 1957 London, when house cleaner and seamstress Mrs Ada Harris (Lesley Manville) receives notice that her husband, who has been MIA since he went to war almost 10 years ago, has died, she finally has closure she needs to move on.

Around this time, Mrs Harris spots a client’s 500 pound couture Dior dress, instantly falls in love with it and begins saving her pennies to head to the House of Dior in Paris to buy her own.

When she arrives, she is met by the snooty President Claudine Colbert (Isabelle Hubbert), but staff rally to make this people pleasing woman’s dream come true.

What appears on the surface to be a light and fluffy adventure aimed squarely at the older female demographic (and, to be fair, it is all these things), Mrs Harris Goes to Paris is a bittersweet charmer that unveils layers that one may not initially expect.

It has a laundry list of themes – never to old to dream or achieve your goals, fashion should be for everyone, class system, rich vs poor, karma etc – and yet manages to juggle and interweave them with such grace that it never feels preachy.

Had this been an American production, it would have had the ability to rot teeth with its saccharine tone.

But with a British sensibility, there is a certain refreshing charm and genuineness about the story and its characters.

Manville is an absolute star in the lead role, just radiating purity and goodness, but also able to dig deep and break your heart, particularly in the scene where she processes the news of her husband.

An added bonus, and it would have been a fatal flaw without it, is the jaw dropping fashions, which this movie clearly appreciates and wants to share, but does not rely solely on them to keep the audience interested – it always comes back to the characters and story.

Fisherman’s Friends: One and All (PG)

Directed by: Meg Leonard, Nick Moorcroft

Starring: James Purefoy, Sam Swainsbury, Dave Johns

Review by: Julian Wright

Those sea loving larrikin singers are back for another heartwarming adventure with an added love story sprinkled in.

After unexpectedly taking the world by storm and topping the pop charts with their folk music style sea shanties, the members of the Fisherman’s Friends band are faced with second album syndrome.

The head of the record label has lost interest, media training the traditional and politically incorrect members is a difficult task and the process of auditioning and hiring a new member has rubbed band leader Jim (James Purefoy) the wrong way.

Meanwhile, Jim has a little distraction with newcomer to town Aubrey Flyn (Imelda May), a pop singer herself who is looking for a low-key lifestyle away from the cameras and tabloids.

While a touch long and perhaps at least one too many complications (a rescue from an old abandoned mine shaft is something out of an episode of Skippy), this delightful and amusing second outing is an inoffensive, family friendly affair.

The cast continues to be endearing and lovely company to keep and the real life footage of the band during the credit sequence adds another layer of warmth, closing things off with some of the biggest laughs of the film.

Fisherman’s Friends: One and All screens as part of the British Film Festival 2022, which runs form October 19 to November 16.

Halloween Ends (MA)

Directed by: David Gordon Green

Starring: Jamie Lee Curtis, Andi Matichak, Rohan Campbell

Review by: Julian Wright

It has been a highly anticipated, much debated and long windy road in the latest saga between murderous Michael Myers and his perpetual target Laurie Strode, that finally culminates in an ambitious, but unfocused finale.

After masked Michael Myers’ 40th anniversary rampage through his hometown of Haddonfield in 2018 on Halloween night, he has disappeared and left a town in ruin.

A year later (2019) when a child accidentally dies in a Halloween prank gone horribly wrong under the care of 21-year Corey Cunningham (Rohan Campbell), he is shunned by the community and treated like an outsider.

Fast forward to 2022 and Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) is now on the path of healing, living with and doting on her granddaughter Allyson (Andi Matichak), flirting with local cop Frank (Will Patton) and writing her memoir about her experience with death and trauma.

When she crosses paths with sensitive but misunderstood Corey, Laurie introduces him to Allyson who is now a nurse at the local hospital.

The two are immediately drawn to each other (having both experienced different types of trauma) and a love blooms, but the timing could not be worse, as Corey has an encounter with a sewer dwelling Myers that sparks (or draws out?) an evil streak.

Ends take an entirely different approach to the Halloween formula, one that is certainly fresh, but for many, perhaps too jarring.

It certainly isn’t the batshit “druids” level nonsense that a former timeline devolved into, but it is also not the path you expect this to take, particularly when all marketing points to an all out showdown between Myers and Strode that this saga has been teasing since it launched, and has struggled to deliver satisfactorily.

Director and co-writer David Gordon Green sets up an evocative thesis about different kinds of evil – pure versus created, nature versus nurture. Are some people born evil and are some people made that way?

And yet, true to form in this overblown three part saga, the longer it goes on and the more scenes it includes to fulfill a feature length run time, the more the theme becomes muddled and even contradicted.

This often plays out like the equivalent of an unprepared high school student giving a rambly oral presentation and the more he talks, the less sense he makes.

While all the fan service was fun for a while (recreating/mirroring key scenes, revisiting iconic locations, returning legacy characters, throwback dialogue etc), a key flaw in this saga is the film makers wanting to have their cake and eat it too, often undermining their own work.

While it is lovely to see Laurie now able to move on and smile, it seems a little nonsensical that she could not heal while her tormentor was securely locked up for 40 years, but she can now despite a second rampage and close encounter, her daughter being slain and Myers loose in the wild.

Also her doomsday preparedness seems to have been completely forgotten.

In fact one could get carried away nit-picking at this timeline (many have and it is certainly deserved) but let us not overlook the good intentions behind trying to make something thematic and meaningful out of another cash grab.

At the very least, one of these movies finally lives up to its name and promise.

Don’t Worry Darling (MA)

Directed by: Olivia Wilde

Starring: Florence Pugh, Chris Pine, Harry Styles

Review by: Julian Wright

A 1950s housewife starts noticing some strange goings on in her utopian community in this thriller that was plagued by off-screen drama.

Alice (Florence Pugh) lives a picture perfect life in her beautifully 1950s style home with her husband Jack (Harry Styles), who is the star employee at Victory Headquarters – though what he does there is unclear due to the highly classified nature.

The pair have everything a couple could ask for or need, but Alice begins to see signs that something isn’t quite right – a plane crashes outside of town leading her to Headquarters where she blacks out, something that everyone around her denies.

Then her neighbour Margaret (KiKi Layne) begins exhibiting concerning behaviour.

Cracks begin to appear in their isolated community and Alice is determined to find out what really is going on.

While the initial setup and some subsequent plot developments may trigger few surprises – admittedly this is clearly heavily inspired by The Stepford Wives – Don’t Worry Darling explores several thought provoking themes.

Olivia Wilde takes the reins and has a firm grip on her material, delivering solid direction, often times thrilling visuals, solidifying herself as a director to look out for.

This comes after her bright teen comedy debut Booksmart.

The cast is great to watch, with Wilde among them with an almost scene-stealing characterisation, but this is Pugh’s film and she continues to be a captivating screen presence.

Carrying the weight of her curious and strong willed character, and indeed the entire film that is visually and thematically ambitious, Pugh proves once again that she has range and conviction, making her one of her generation’s best

Behind the scenes production gossip became wildly overbearing, which is a shame, because this is a thoroughly intriguing journey that manages to hook you in.

The final resolution may not be as a satisfying as it hopes, but the ride getting there is one worth taking, and perhaps even revisiting.

Ticket to Paradise (M)

Directed by: Ol Parker

Starring: Julia Roberts, George Clooney, Kaitlyn Dever

Review by: Julian Wright

Hollywood megastars Julia Roberts and George Clooney remind us that charm and chemistry are a winning combo that can light up a screen in their reunion rom-com Ticket To Paradise.

Bickering divorcees Georgia (Julia Roberts) and David (George Clooney) have managed to mostly avoid each other for several years, until they are seated side-by-side at their daughter Lily’s (Kaitlyn Dever) college graduation ceremony.

Thirty-seven days later, they find themselves on the same flight to Bali where Lily is to marry a seaweed farmer Gede (Maxime Boutier) in a whirlwind but traditional ceremony.

The only thing Georgia and David have in common, other than the constant verbal jabs at each other, is their desire to break up the happy couple and end the wedding plans to encourage Lily to get back on track to her career as a lawyer.

Revisiting the winning rom-com formula of the 1990s, with one of the stars that made the sub-genre the worldwide phenomenon that it is, is a refreshing trip down memory lane and an excuse to bask in the warm glow of Roberts and Clooney.

These two ooze personality and their banter as this feuding ex-couple is deliciously entertaining.

There is even a hint of My Best Friend’s Wedding, as we side with lead characters that are not exactly the purest people.

The script is typically lightweight, and could have had a couple of minutes shaved for a snappier run time, but this is a fun, gentle ride with dreamy scenery and a couple of bright guides.