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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 10 January 2024

In the same way that Hollywood is addicted to sequels, reboots and franchises, Broadway in New York City has always been attracted to musicals based off movies.  I could list dozens of examples but Tony Award winners over the past two decades have included Billy Elliot the Musical, Once, Kinky Boots, The Band’s Visit, and Moulin Rouge!  Ironically, Hollywood then steps back in to convert the more successful stage musicals into… a rebooted movie (insert sarcastic gasp)!  Australian cinemagoers will be treated to two this month – Mean Girls releases on January 11 with The Colour Purple to follow on January 25.

While live stage shows are as popular as they’ve ever been (Broadway ticket sales for 2022-23 were $1.6 billion), there’s a widely held industry view that film musicals are off-putting to a sizeable portion of the public.  It’s why trailers for movies like Wonka and Mean Girls downplay the songs and focus more on the narrative and dialogue.  I have several friends who thought this was a straight-up remake of the 2004 flick as opposed to a freshened musical.

Screenwriter Tina Fey aims of the best of both worlds with the script here.  Roughly half of the songs have been ditched so the film can be done and dusted inside of two hours.  Those songs which survived the cut are the catchier, more popular ones with an emphasis on “World Burn”, “Someone Gets Hurt”, and “Sexy”.  It’s also worth noting Fey knows the material as well as anyone having authored the 2004 screenplay (drawing from Rosalind Wiseman’s novel) and the 2018 stage musical.  She’s also reprising her supporting role as the chatty maths teacher Ms Norbury.

The storyline will be known to those familiar with the original movie.  Cady attends high school for the first time in her life (she was homeschooled previously), befriends a group of pretentious girls, falls in love with a cute guy, makes a bunch of mistakes, and learns some valuable lessons.  Australian Angourie Rice (The Nice Guy) takes on the lead role but, if looking for a standout performance, I’d focus on Tony nominee Jacquel Spivey (A Strange Loop) as a proudly gay student she meets on her first day.

The energy generated from the live show doesn’t quite come through in this film.  Several musical numbers lack punch, and the direction of Samantha Jayne and Arturo Perez Jr is rudimentary.  It lacks the visual “wow factor” we’ve seen in the likes of La La Land and In the Heights – two great movie musicals from the past decade.  A few jokes will get you chuckling but, in sticking so rigidly to the 2004 film, surprises are limited.

If there’s one thing that’s certain… it’s that Mean Girls is better than Mean Girls.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 02 January 2024

The films aren’t connected but this new outing from director Michael Mann (Heat, The Insider) serves as an appropriate prequel to James Mangold’s 2019 Oscar-nominated release, Ford v Ferrari.  Mangold’s film was set in the first half of the 1960s and centred on the financially strapped Ford Motor Company as they tried to defeat Ferrari at the famous Le Mans race.  Mann’s film is set in 1957 and looks at how Ferrari, struggling themselves at the time, first garnered the upper ascendancy.

Drawing from the 1991 non-fiction book of acclaimed racing writer Brock Yates, the movie is centred on company founder Enzo Ferrari (Driver) and balances up his rocky life, both on and off the racetrack.  It wasn’t a great time for the business as sales were stagnant and bankruptcy was looming.  Following the mantra of “win on Sunday, sell cars on Monday”, his sights were set on winning the prestigious Mille Miglia 24-hour race which would boost the brand and the bottom line.

The racing scenes aren’t too bad (dangerous, old-school cars) but the film is more interested in exploring Enzo’s tumultuous personal life.  His marriage to Laura (Cruz) was on the wane and she was looking for a lucrative cash settlement before agreeing to any formal separation.  At the same time, Enzo was in a long-term relationship with another woman (Woodley) with whom he had fathered an illegitimate child.  They were taken care of via secret, off-the-record payments through the company.

They’re different films with different approaches but I didn’t feel the same passion and engagement here as I did for Ford v Ferrari.  Adam Driver (Marriage Story) gives it his best shot as the stoic Enzo but he’s a bit of a dullard and it’s hard to appreciate the reasons for his success.  Penélope Cruz (Vicky Cristina Barcelona) has more to offer as the semi-deranged wife.  She feels over-the-top at times but I love the way she uses her power, and she has plenty of it, to maximum effect.

I’m a fan of Michael Mann (The Insider is a masterpiece) but wrestled with his artistic choices here.  There’s a sequence at an opera house which tries to provide backstory, but it comes across as awkward and distracting.  When it comes to the big racing climax, a brief introductory scene involving a random family (it takes place in a kitchen) is contrived, gratuitous and unnecessary.  It’s the sort of stuff that belongs in a B-grade action flick.

I’ll do some more reading about Enzo Ferrari… but that’s because this film only tweaks the curiosity instead of fully satisfying it.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 08 January 2024

Born in 1961, director Alexander Payne developed a passion for cinema growing up in the 1970s that shaped his career.  The two-time Oscar winner (Sideways, The Descendants) has made some wonderful films over the past three decades – Election remains one of the greatest dark comedies every made – but his latest outing, The Holdovers, represents a pivot.  It’s Payne’s first period piece flick and, by giving it the look and feel of a movie made in the 1970s (right the from the opening titles), it pays homage to the style of filmmaking he relished as a teenager.

It’s framed as a three-hander with each actor fitting beautifully into their respective characters.  Paul Giamatti (Cinderella Man) is Professor Paul Hunham, a booze- loving, tenured teacher in ancient civilisations at a boarding school in New England.  He’s reminiscent of the lead in the Terrence Rattigan play The Browning Version in that he’s a disrespected, washed-up figure.  Students don’t like him because of his heavy workloads and tough marking, while staff see him an unhelpful, outdated academic who sticks too rigidly to old-school rules.

Tony Award nominee Da’Vine Joy Randolph (Ghost) is Mary Lamb, the no-nonsense head cook in the school’s cafeteria whose son was killed during the year while serving in Vietnam.  Largely keeping to herself, she’s still struggling to process the grief and figure out her next steps in life.  The final member of the trio is newcomer Dominic Sessa who plays Angus Tully, an intelligent but socially awkward student.  He has a knack for rubbing people up the wrong way, particularly his classmates, and has family issues back home.

In using an age-old cinematic technique, screenwriter David Hemingston crafts a way to bring these three “broken” people together and, in spending time together, they find comfort and humour.  The school shuts down for the snow-filled Christmas holidays but, given Angus has no immediate family to return to, Professor Hunham is tasked with the role of caregiver.  They shack up in the infirmary (the only building with heat) while Mary provides their daily meals from whatever is left in the industrial refrigerators.

There’s so much to like about The Holdovers.  In terms of Payne’s direction, I adored the grainy look, the long fade-outs, the slow camera zooms, and the soothing melodies of the soundtrack.  Hemingson’s script is a cracker!  Humour is generated from the stinging barbs (“at least pretend to be a good person”), well-written one-liners, and expressive faces.  These are countered by dramatic shifts as characters open up about their past and we finally see behind their prickly exteriors.

Filled with an array of memorable scenes, The Holdovers is an exquisitely told tale.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 26 December 2023

There’ll always be an audience for feel-good.  There are times when we want to go to the movies, relax with a beverage, and see good things happen to good people.  All the subplots are neatly wrapped up inside of two hours and the grinchy characters get what they deserve (or undergo a remarkable transformation).  Next Goal Wins, the latest from Oscar-winning filmmaker Taika Waititi (Jojo Rabbit) would be described as such.

There’s a backstory to the backstory.  In 2011, directors Mike Brett and Steve Jamison spent 14 weeks in American Samoa shooting a documentary (also called Next Goal Wins) as the local men’s soccer team tried to quality for the FIFA World Cup.  The team were ranked last in the world and, having never won a qualifying match in history, they’d brought in respected Dutch-American coach Thomas Rongen to turn their fortunes around.  The film took home the prize for best documentary at the 2014 British Independent Film Awards.

In the same manner as The Walk and Rescue Dawn, Next Goal Wins is a fictionalised movie based off a documentary.  Waititi and co-writer Iain Morris (The Inbetweeners) have given it the full Hollywood treatment.  The recognisable Michael Fassbender (Shame) steps into the shoes of the coach, jokes have been inserted at any opportunity, and the narrative coated in sugar to make it as sweet as possible.

It’s a structure we’ve seen used before in sporting flicks.  Fassbender’s character has taken the job with extreme reluctance and would rather be drinking booze (all forms) than coaching an inept group of misfits.  That is until he starts falling in love with the local community and bonding with the kind-hearted team members, each providing a subplot (one player is transgender for example).  It’s a tale where they help him as much as he helps them… and it culminates with a defining match against neighbouring Tonga.

As a fan of director Taika Waititi, I wish I liked this more.  It’s already such a great story (illustrated by the documentary) and I don’t know why they felt the need to embellish it further.  The likes of Will Arnett and Elisabeth Moss have been cast to boost the film’s appeal but their cameos are corny, contrived, and pointless.  Waititi is normally on point when balancing comedy and drama (see Boy or Hunt for the Wilderpeople) but he’s missed the mark here by skewing too much towards goof.  This is most evident when watching Fassbender overplay every emotional beat (subtlety doesn’t exist).

If looking for more authenticity with the subject matter, I’d suggest hunting down the original documentary on a streaming service.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 02 January 2024

There are so many wonderful stories throughout history which have been largely forgotten due to the passage of time.  All it takes is a spark of inspiration to bring them back into the public’s mind.  I had those thoughts two decades ago on reading the 1999 novel Seabiscuit: An American Legend which later became an Oscar-nominated movie.  The work of author Laura Hillenbrand ensured the rags-to-riches story of the much-loved American racehorse would be enjoyed and remembered for many generations to come.

There’s a nice parallel with The Boys in the Boat, the latest directorial outing of George Clooney (Good Night, and Good Luck).  It too is based on a non-fiction book, authored by Daniel James Brown and first published in 2013, which focuses on an inspiring, much-forgotten sporting achievement.  The period of history also aligns!  The film’s climax takes place on 14 August 1936 at the Summer Olympics in Berlin – the same month Seabiscuit was purchased by entrepreneur Charles Howard at Saratoga Race Course back in New York City.

If you’re new to the tale, and a lot of people will be, The Boys in the Boat follows an athletic group of students from the University of Washington chosen for the men’s eight rowing team.  Selection came with free food and accommodation – a lucrative benefit given this was the middle of Great Depression and some could barely afford to eat.  Given little chance, they overcame huge adversity in defeating the more fancied crews across the United States and earning the right to compete at the Berlin Olympic Games.

I’ll concede screenwriter Mark L. Smith’s (The Revenant) handling of the material is as formulaic as it gets.  There are training montages, token love interests, moments of self-doubt, and folks sitting around radios listening to races.  It’s the sort of stuff you’d expect from a sporting movie.  The inclusion of Jesse Owens and Adolf Hitler adds nothing (it’s a distraction more than anything) and the script is only scratching the surface with a handful of subplots (like the fractured relationship with a rower and his father).

Still, the film works because of the energy and emotion generated by the three big rowing races.  My eyes were moist.  It’s hard not to be caught up in the moment as the camera closes in on the boat and we listen intently to the sights and sounds.  The cast are terrific with emphasis on two individuals who get more screentime – Callum Turner (Fantastic Beasts) as a determined rower and Luke Slattery (New Amsterdam) as a cheeky coxswain.  Australian Joel Edgerton (The Gift) blends toughness, compassion, and vulnerability with his worthy portrayal as the team coach.

The Boys in the Boat has its limitations but as the story is so damn good, it’s a movie you need to see.

You can read by chat with star Joel Edgerton by clicking here.