Reel Review Roundup

On The Rocks (M)

Directed by: Sofia Coppola

Starring: Rashida Jones, Bill Murray, Marlon Wayans

Review by: Julian Wright

Arthouse darling Sofia Coppola takes a broody marriage drama and spices it up with a father-daughter caper twist in her latest On The Rocks.

After their fairy-tale wedding, New York author and mum of two Laura (Rashida Jones) is plagued with suspicions that her workaholic husband Dean (Marlon Wayans) is cheating on her with his attractive new staff member.

When Laura expresses her concerns to her charming and philandering father Felix (Bill Murray), he takes the news with glee and suggests they stalk Dean around New York and Mexico to catch him in the act.

On the scale of Lost In Translation to The Bling Ring, On The Rocks tends to lean slightly towards the Hollywood Hills heist side. Not enough resonant substance to cement itself as one Coppola’s most memorable or best, but also not completely devoid of moments of insight and charm.

While dealing with the potential of a broken marriage and the relationship between father and daughter, this film serves as a love letter to a side of New York that we never see on screen – it is peaceful, charming and almost feels like a small town or an unpopulated part of an Italian city.

Murray does what Murray does best and Coppola just lets him go, and yet the chemistry between him and Jones is what highlights this dramedy. The film as a whole may not be one of Coppola’s best but the two leads together are a joy to be in company with.

Jones herself proves her dramatic acting chops, her face long and her shoulders carrying the weight of her character’s deeply troubled thoughts. It is a side of her we have not yet seen and one that deserves more screen time.

A breezy time with enjoyable banter between a couple of charming leads, On The Rocks is more about providing giggles than digging deep into the relationships it sets up.

Antebellum (MA)

Directed by: Gerard Bush, Christopher Renz

Starring: Janelle Monae, Jenna Malone, Eric Lange

Review by: Julian Wright

Eden (Janelle Monae) is one of several slaves held captive and mistreated on a Louisiana plantation owned by the icy Elizabeth (Jenna Malone) and run by sadistic officers of the Confederate States Army.

Attempts to escape have been thwarted with unspeakable consequences for those who tried and failed, but with the arrival of a batch of new slaves (including a young pregnant woman), plans are underway for another attempt.

After Eden is raped yet again by a Confederate General known only as Him (Eric Lange), she falls asleep and jolts awake as Veronica, a successful sociologist, author, wife and mother, who is preparing for another business trip.

Throughout her day, Veronica experiences subtly odd moments such as encountering people who look like those on the plantation and the usual racially based microaggressions black people encounter day to day.

Co-writers/co-directors Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz contrast the harsh treatment of black people during slavery with the way they are treated today, asking us to ponder how far things have really come and how much attitudes have really changed.

It also looks at the constant reminders around us of the horrific acts of the past and how they permeate through time and even leans into the suggestion that trauma can still be felt through several generations.

Antebellum is visually self-assured with its framing, imagery, and the terrific (seemingly) one-take opening tracking shot through the plantation. It also, working within the thriller/horror genre expectations, playfully drops visual hints throughout.

However, ultimately it all feels heavily Get Out inspired, and leads to a big M. Night Shyamalan “Gotchya!” twist, which when encapsulated in one single shot near the end, is enough to elicit a cringe.

The film also suffers from the same technique the recent Black Christmas remake was lambasted for – its viral woke Tweets and memes inspired dialogue is overwhelmingly clunky. It is so focused on appealing to a young internet user crowd, Veronica’s husband is saved as “Bae” in her phone.

The Goddess Of Fortune (M)

Directed by: Ferzan Ozpetek

Starring: Stefano Accorsi, Edoardo Leo, Jasmine Trinca

Review by: Julian Wright

The open relationship between Arturo (Stefano Accorsi) and Alessandro (Edoardo Leo) has been an intimacy free zone for quite some time but it is finally creating tension between the pair.

Just as Arturo’s jealousy comes to the surface, the couple’s longtime friend Annamaria (Jasmine Trinca) asks them to look after her two young children while she spends time in the hospital.

The child-free couple’s lifestyle is upended as they welcome the new guests, tackle for the first time child rearing and adjust to new morning routines.

The situation puts an even greater strain on the relationship and it may not be the healthiest environment for the two youngsters, so they seek out their rich but estranged Grandmother to take over – but that could prove to be an even more toxic environment for the children.

True feelings are revealed and deep, dark secrets finally come to light that test the relationship and family dynamic.

This bittersweet Italian delight explores the idea of what makes a family – whether it is family we choose or family we are stuck with – with a fresh, queer lens.

It openly and frankly discusses open gay relationships, normalising it in a way that so few mainstream or queer films have done in the past, and yet for every progressive step forward, there is one slight step backwards.

The two male lead performances, while both solid and endearing, lack any queer characteristics. They are alarmingly straight presenting. If we weren’t constantly reminded that they are gay, there would be no way to pick it.

Regardless, The Goddess Of Fortune is a joyful and heartbreaking journey to go on as these two men learn more about themselves and each other.

The Goddess Of Fortune screens as part of the St Ali. Italian Film Festival 2020 which runs in Perth from October 1 – October 14.

For more information, click here.

The High Note (M)

Directed by: Nisha Ganatra

Starring: Dakota Johnson, Tracee Ellis Ross, Kelvin Harrison Jr

Review by: Julian Wright

Aspiring music producer Maggie Sherwoode is paying her dues as the overworked assistant to singing superstar Grace Davis, who is successfully touring but hasn’t released new music in a decade.

Grace’s next career move is up in the air – her long-time manager Jack (Ice Cube) and record label executives urge her to settle with a cushy Las Vegas residency, but she wants to release a new album.

Meanwhile, Grace meets talented but unsigned musician David Cliff (Kelvin Harrison Jr), fibs about her credentials to convince him to let her produce his first album and the two spark a relationship.

Dakota is reliably cute, Ellis Ross is commanding and June Diane Raphael almost steals it as Grace’s ditsy staffer Gail, but The High Note’s script is more interested in trotting out taking a rom-com tropes than exploring an under-told story.

This could have been a juicy, relevant and timely exploration of the plight of a relevant black middle aged music star who’s career and creativity is being stifled by younger white male studio executives.

The High Note merely hints at it with a heartbreaking monologue from Grace (sensationally delivered by Ellis Ross) where she lays it all out for Maggie, Cliff’s Notes style.

But instead of spending more time fleshing this out, we get a meet-cute between Maggie and David and a love story that is perfectly serviceable, but by far the least interesting avenue this film could have taken.

Props where they’re due – there is a knockout twist towards the end that you won’t see coming and the songs are top class efforts (something you don’t often get in films about pop music).

The Broken Hearts Gallery (M)

Directed by: Natalie Krinsky

Starring: Geraldine Viswanathan, Dacre Montgomery

Review by: Julian Wright

After each relationship break-up, New York art gallery assistant Lucy Gulliver (Geraldine Viswanathan) keeps a memento of her ex, whether it be a tie, shoelace or trinket.

Her sassy best friends/room-mates Amanda (Molly Gordon) and Nadine (Phillipa Soo) call it hoarding, but Lucy insists its honouring the relationship.

After Lucy is dumped and has an emotional breakdown in front of important guests at a work event, she is fired and in her fragile state mistakes Nick’s (Dacre Montgomery) car for a ride share.

The two hit it off and become business partners – Nick’s opening a trendy new hotel that will feature a broken hearts gallery curated by Lucy – relationship mementos donated by broken hearted New Yorkers.

Lucy and Nick become inseparable and the gallery idea is a social media smash, but in true rom-com fashion, it is not an easy road to love or success.

Just when you think there are no more fresh rom-com ideas, The Broken Hearts Gallery breathes new life into the genre.

It ticks all the cliche boxes: fun and bubbly unlucky in love lead, handsome love interest, eccentric sidekick gal pals and a quirky idea. But this time, the quirky idea actually has a lot of resonance, relatability and pathos.

There are some genuinely lovely ideas swirling around in this story – that all items (no matter how small or junky) have a story, finding good and artistic merit in everything, hanging on to precious memories but also learning when to let go of painful ones.

Sure it leads to an almost two hour experience, which makes this feel a little long as it sticks to the riskless rom-com routine and has an occasionally sluggish pace, but it never feels forced and is a joy to experience.

The reveal of why Lucy began holding onto items from people in her life is such an affecting moment and shows this film is just as much about creating realistic and well-rounded characters as it is committing to rom-com tropes.

Writer/director Natalie Krinsky shows she has a firm grasp on the genre and how to keep it fresh with some seemingly Mindy Kaling inspired lead character dialogue and quips.

Throw in a fun and frisky cast and you have a heartwarming winner.

Tenet (M)

Directed by: Christopher Nolan

Starring: John David Washington, Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth Debicki

Review by: Julian Wright

It is no wonder that so much pressure has been placed on Christopher Nolan’s summer tentpole film Tenet to single-handedly save the cinema industry during a pandemic – it is a film that requires multiple viewings.

Much like Nolan’s chronologically challenged Memento and multi-level dreamiverse Inception, just once is not enough to capture all the intricacies of Tenet. But be warned: if those other films gave you a headache, you are in for a splitting migraine this time.

A nameless Protagonist (John David Washington) discovers that technology invented in the future that causes items to reverse their trajectory, has somehow made its way to the present.

A startling discovery on its own, but he then must team up with a group, including new buddy Neil (Robert Pattinson) to try and stop Russian villain Andrei Sator (Kenneth Branagh) from ending the world with this ability to move back and forth in time.

In order to get close to Andrei, Protagonist has to use his suffering wife Kat (Elizabeth Debicki), who is trapped in the abusive marriage.

If you want a spoiler-free review, you are in luck. Tenet is the kind of film that is almost impossible to spoil because, to be honest, it is hard to keep up with it. What has been mentioned is about all you will come away with the first time around.

A lot of things are said, time travel and movement theories expounded, but not a lot of time is allowed for it to sink in. We are even let off the hook early on when a woman in lab coat says “Don’t try to understand it”. What it does allow for is some startling action sequences in which some elements play out in reverse.

Having said that, Tenet is the most entertained I have been without knowing what is even going on half the time. Every 20 minutes you catch nuggets of information that gives you a general gist before cars suddenly start reversing on a freeway and you are back at square one again.

Sure the appropriate amount of spectacle is there – enough to please any movie starved cinema-goer, but it is the underwritten characters and lack of stakes that disappoint more than the confusion.

If you enjoy the mental gymnastics of Inception, Donnie Darko, Mulholland Drive and The Matrix trilogy, you will have a field day with Tenet. Expect to be trying make heads or tails out of it for hours after.

Where’d You Go, Bernadette (M)

Directed by: Richard Linlater

Starring: Cate Blanchett, Billy Crudup, Kristen Wiig

Review by: Julian Wright

One could suspect that something may have been lost in translation in adapting Maria Semple’s novel, as the film slowly loses touch with reality as it’s lead character sets out to rediscover her creativity.

Bernadette (Cate Blanchett) is a celebrated architect who stepped away from her thriving career when she got married and had a family.

Years later she, her husband Elgie (Billy Crudup) and teenage daughter Bee (Emma Neslon) live in a dilapidated renovators dream house in the Seattle ‘burbs where the icy, busy housewife finds herself in constant dispute with neighbor and annoying PTA mum Audrey (Kristen Wiig).

But with Bernadett’s increasingly erratic behaviour, it becomes clear that she has become “lost”.

Exploring the importance of expressing one’s creativity and the consequences for one’s mental well-being when they no longer have a creative outlet is intriguing and makes for some juicy food for thought.

However, this adaptation seems to lose its way. It is about the mid-point in which Elgie calls in a shrink (Judy Greer) for an intervention that the film screeches to halt to explain Bernadette’s psychological state via a slew of exposition.

From there it takes a strange turn when Bernadette just up and leaves to Antarctica, and that’s not the strangest thing that happens in a coincidence filled final third that is difficult to be on board with as an audience member.

It is around these turns that one could there was a breakdown in the adaptation of the novel. This story grounded in reality slowly begins to lose touch with it.

Blanchett is a powerhouse of flustered energy, pitching her performance perfectly so that when all about Bernadette’s past is finally revealed, her behaviour all makes sense. If it weren’t for the film’s structural missteps, this would be one to go back and watch again immediately to marvel at the intricacies of Blanchett’s performance.

The King Of Staten Island (MA)

Directed by: Judd Apatow

Starring: Pete Davidson, Marisa Tomei

Review by: Julian Wright

Having spent the last five years focusing on television and documentaries, writer/director Judd Apatow returns to the big screen with his signature lengthy dramedy about a complex and lovable loser.

Since his firefighter Dad died many years ago, 20-something bum Scott Carlin (Pete Davidson, giving a terrific performance) has had zero direction in life.

Still stuck in a state of grief, the jobless tattooed stoner still lives with his Mum Margie (Marisa Tomei) and spends his days and nights with his equally directionless mates, smoking weed and talking crap.

Scott does have one pie in the sky ambition: to open a tattoo parlour-slash- restaurant.

When Margie finally starts dating for the first time after 17 years, Scott’s life is shaken up and he is forced to wake up to himself, take on some adult responsibility and put his life on track.

Apatow enjoys exploring the journeys and arcs of characters that appear to have low-key, directionless lives, making his cinematic mark with a 40-year-old virgin and a stoner knocking up a one-night stand.

The King Of Staten Island has surface level similarities, but once again, Apatow finds pathos and nuance in his lovable loser and fresh dynamics with his supporting characters. While Scott may seems like a bit of a waste of space at first, his harmless demeanor and amusing banter with his mates makes him relatable.

Later, in true Apatow fashion, just when Scott thinks he has hit rock bottom, he finds another level of bottom before he can pull his life back together.

It is this structure that results in a generous 135 minute running time, but also allows the character and scenes to breathe, and for us to process and absorb Scott’s developments and growth as he does.

Waves (MA)

Directed by: Trey Edward Shults

Starring: Kelvin Harrison Jr, Taylor Russell

Review by: Julian Wright

Life is going well for Floridian high schooler Tyler (Kelvin Harrison Jr) until a painful arm injury threatens to end his wrestling career before it even begins.

Everything he has trained for, under the pressure of his well-meaning but overbearing father Ronald (Stirling K. Brown) who is a fan of the tough love method, and his future is suddenly jeopardised.

Tyler doesn’t have the appropriate tools to deal with the emotional turmoil of suddenly facing newly broken dreams and an uncertain future (his once loving relationship with his girlfriend also breaks down which just exacerbates the situation) and he begins to spiral on a path of self destruction, which results in an irrevocable tragedy, that he and his affluent family must deal with.

Waves is sensitively and intelligently told by writer/director Trey Edward Shults in a linear fashion, but he has put a lot of thought into the structure, with the beginning and ending mirroring each other despite switching character focus at the mid-point.

This moody film opens with hope and promise (the camera spinning around Tyler’s busy life of training and good times with his girlfriend and mates) before building almost unbearable tension until the second act tragedy, then it shifts focus to his shy younger sister Emily (Taylor Russell) where it and eases back into a sense of hope as she and her parents put their lives back together.

Shults also uses aspect ratio changes throughout his film which acts as an additional indicator of the characters’ psyche at key moments in the story.

It is an emotional and affecting journey as we watch Tyler’s spiral helplessly from the comfort of the cinema. You just want to jump in and help him.

We see his talent and potential but he (and the audience) is all too aware that he could very well one day end up like the young black man surrounded by cops outside a shop that Tyler spots out the window as he cruises past.

Co-leads Harrison Jr and Russell are exceptional as they carry their respective halves of Waves. The pair tackle the heavy and complex material with such understanding and talent and are a pleasure to experience on screen.

Edmond (M)

Directed by: Alexis Michalik

Starring: Thomas Soliveres, Olivier Gourmet, Mathilde Seigner

Four stars

Review by Julian Wright

Struggling but gifted poet Edmond Rostand (Thomas Soliveres), whose work has so far in the late 19th century gone largely unrecognised, is persuaded to pen the next hit play for stage legend Constant Coquelin (Olivier Gourmet) within three weeks.

Despite every step of the way indicating that this could be a career killing disaster for all involved, everyone on and behind the stage persists with the production.

Meanwhile, Edmond gets caught up in a love triangle with his actor friend Leo (Tom Leeb), a dreamy but inarticulate fellow, and costume designer Jeanne d’Alcie (Loucie Boujenah) – but the situation could be his greatest source of inspiration yet.

This fun, witty and fast paced comedy has many laugh out loud moments and memorable characters.

It all starts with the clever script, that gives all the characters (and there are a few of them) their own motivations and moments to shine – and the terrific cast brings it all so splendidly to life.

All the pieces are beautifully juggled by director Alexis Michalik, making his feature film debut, and kept rollicking along at a brisk pace ensuring that there is never an opportunity to be bored.

Gags are terrifically set up and hilariously paid off with such speed and precision that if you blink, you may miss a couple.

Despite the surface appearance that this is simply a frothy French farce, there are some fascinating themes explored amid the fun, in particular how inspiration can come from the most unlikely places and the line between inspiration and love.

And the sumptuously designed sets and costumes are an added bonus.

Edmond screens as part of the 2020 Alliance Franciase French Film Festival.