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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 27 August 2008

I didn’t really like this film but don’t let that stop you from seeing it.  When the producers got together and gave this film the green light, they didn’t have people like me in mind.  The plot description on the Internet Movie Database sums it up – “three women take a road to trip to Santa Barbara in order to deliver the ashes of one of their dead husbands to his resentful daughter”.  Yep, it’s a “chick flick”.

If you’re still interested in seeing it, I should tell you a little more.  It has a fairly strong cast.  There’s Jessica Lange, Kathy Bates and Joan Allen.  All are accomplished actors and they do their best to brighten up this clichéd story.

These three ladies have a variety of adventures en route to their final destination.  They meet some interesting people and have fun in the process.  The trip brings them together and they all take something away from it.  There were quite a few laughs at the screening I attended and this leads me to believe that it will strike a cord with some audiences.

That’s all I have to say and this will go down as one of my shortest ever reviews.  I can’t hide my apathy.  I might have watched a few bits of this if I saw it on television but it wasn’t worth the effort of a trip to the cinema.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 13 August 2008

Walter Vale (Jenkins) is a semi-retired college professor from Connecticut.  He is teaching only one subject this year.  You’ll learn pretty quickly that Walter is a “tired” man.  That’s the best adjective I can come up with.  He doesn’t care much about his job and he does his best to avoid communicating with others.  He’s lives alone and has effectively shut himself off from the rest of the world.

Walter reluctantly has to travel to New York City to present a paper at a conference.  He will stay at an apartment that he has a long-term lease over in Manhattan.  Walter hasn’t spent much time there since his wife passed away a few years ago.

When he turns up, Walter finds two squatters living there.  Tarek (Sleiman) is from Syria and Zainab (Gurira) is from Senegal.  They are illegal immigrants trying to “make a go of it” in the United States.  Tarek and Zainab thought they had rented the apartment legitimately but now learn they were duped.

It is at this point that Walter makes a decision which shapes the rest of the story.  Most people would have kicked them out on the street and never seen them again.  I expected Walter to do the same.  He does not however.  Feeling somewhat sorry for Tarek and Zainab, he lets them stay until they can find a new place.

Over the next few days, they become friends.  Walter is interested in their story and wants to learn more about their past and their time in the United States.  He seems most interested in Tarek’s musical abilities.  Tarek plays the African drum and makes a little money by performing in clubs.  Walter has a love of music but has never been able to play an instrument himself.

Their lives will come to an abrupt halt when Tarek is arrested at New York subway station.  The police have identified him as an illegal immigrant and have taken him to a detention centre awaiting deportation.  Zainab is devastated.  She is worried that Tarek will be sent home to Syria and that she’ll never see him again.  She can’t even visit him at the detention centre since she is an illegal immigrant herself.

Walter immediately hires an immigration lawyer to help Tarek in his fight for freedom.  Turning up on his doorstep a few days later is Tarek’s mother, Mouna (Abbass), who has travelled from Michigan.  Walter tells her that there’s nothing she can do but she vows to stay in New York until her son has been released.  She moves into Walter’s apartment and the two find comfort in each other’s company.

There are parts of this movie that will make you feel great.  They will reaffirm your belief in the goodness of people.  There’s a beautiful scene where Walter takes Mouna to see The Phantom Of The Opera.  He knows she is a fan and he takes her with the hope of lifting her spirits.  I loved the way these two characters interacted.  They’re polite to the point where it is almost annoying.

There are also parts of the movie that will make you feel sad.  This includes the humanitarian message within the story which is conveyed strongly by writer-director Thomas McCarthy (The Station Agent).  The images he captures both inside and outside the detention centre show it to be a very depressing place.  There’s also an element of unknowingness.  We only see the centre through Walter’s eyes.  We don’t see what happens to Tarek beyond the visitor’s room.  You’ll get a sense that it’s not pleasant from Tarek’s changing persona.

Central to the entire film is a wonderful performance from Richard Jenkins.  Jenkins has been in a lot of movies but most always as a supporting actor.  His talents are fully utilised in this film and he features in almost every scene.  He doesn’t say a lot but you can always tell what he’s thinking.

Without a doubt, The Visitor is one of the best films I’ve seen so far this year.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 21 August 2008

Not Quite Hollywood will bring back memories for some and create new memories for others.  It’s a documentary which reflects back on the crazy Australian movies that were made in the 1970s and 1980s.  These films contained heaps of sex, nudity, violence and horror.  They were perfect for drive-in movie theatres and they helped put the Australian film industry on the international map.

Mark Hartley’s documentary contains an array of clips from these “Ozploitation” movies.  Titles you might be familiar with include Alvin Purple, The Adventures Of Barry McKenzie, Razorback and Mad Max.  The scenes shown are intermingled with current day interviews with the directors, writers and stars.  Some are proud of what they did whilst others a little regretful.

Their insights are fascinating and it opened my eyes to a host of Aussie films that I never knew existed.  I’d guess that a large percentage of these movies aren’t even available on DVD.  They weren’t made to win awards – they were made to make money.  They did so by creating controversy.  Who’d have thought that our movies from the 1970s contained more nudity than our films today?  It’s hard to believe.

Offering his thoughts throughout the documentary is high-profile director Quentin Tarantino.  Tarantino is a huge fan of Ozploitation cinema and you can see from movies such as Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Ficton that they helped shape his own style of filmmaking.  When Hartley interviewed Tarantino, they spoke for over 3 hours.  That’s a testament to how passionate Tarantino is about the subject.

The film is broken up into several chapters which look at the different types of movies which fall under the Ozploitation umbrella.  I was most impressed with the section on action films.  Stuntmen risked their lives with every major stunt they did.  They didn’t have all the safety measures that we have today.  Knowing the risks that they took makes these action films feel more suspenseful than the computer generated action sequences we see in the current era.

Documentaries are one of my favourite genres because you can be entertained and learn something at the same time.  Not Quite Hollywood is a perfect example and I hope it finds success at the local box-office.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 13 August 2008

Persepolis is one of the finest animated films ever made.  I don’t think I’ve seen another film this year which has left such an emotional impact.  That said, it’s going to be tough for me to convince some moviegoers to see it.  This is because (1) the style of animation looks basic, (2) it’s in black and white, and (3) it’s French with English subtitles.

Wait!  Don’t stop reading just yet.  Let me tell you more about the film.  The central character is a girl named Marjane.  She was born in 1969 and the story follows her upbringing in Iran.  Marjane was always taught by her parents to be open-minded.  This made life very difficult for her under Iran’s suppressive political regime.  People couldn’t drink alcohol.  People couldn’t have parties.  People couldn’t even own playing cards.  The lack of civil liberties was even worse if you were a woman.

This story isn’t one of fiction.  It’s based on the autobiographical graphic novels which were written by Marjane Satrapi.  Satrapi created this movie adaptation with the help of fellow comic book writer Vincent Paronnaud.  Her books have been read by many people but the medium of cinema now allows Satrapi to tell her story to a wider audience.  Most importantly, she’s been able to do it her own way – in black and white with simple, hand-drawn animation.

It’s taken a while for the film to reach Australia and so it already comes with much acclaim.  It won a special jury prize when it premiered at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival.  It was also nominated for best animated film at the 2008 Academy Awards but it lost out to Ratatouille.  Just two weeks ago, the film won the audience award right here at the Brisbane International Film Festival.  There are a lot of people, myself included, who love this film.

The story is compelling but the movie’s style deserves praise.  Drawing the film in black and white gives it a dark, menacing tone.  The “bad guys” are actually quite scary.  You never quite feel at ease – you’ll feel a connection with Marjane and her parents but at the same time, you sense that something bad is going to happen to them.  Olivier Bernet’s film score helps build the tension.  I love a good ending and whether you like it or not, I think this film ends on a perfect note.

This one film I will remember for many years to come.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 19 August 2008

Let me start with a piece of advice – if you’re going to see this movie, make sure you aren’t late.  The film opens with three fake movie trailers which introduce us to the characters of Tugg Speedman (Stiller), Kirk Lazarus (Downey Jr) and Jeff Portnoy (Black).  They set the tone for what is a very funny movie.

When the “real” film begins, we find that these three Hollywood stars are shooting a war movie in Vietnam.  It is based on the book written by Four Leaf Tayback (Nolte) and tells of his brave escape from the Viet Cong.  The director, Damien Cockburn (Coogan), is struggling to keep his film on track.  The shooting is behind schedule and he’s having trouble with his leading actors.

Cockburn realises that the only way he can save the movie is by changing the attitude of the cast.  He arranges for a helicopter to drop the stars into a remote part of the Vietnam jungle.  He gives them a map and a shooting script and says that it’s up to them to find their way home.  They will be secretly filmed the whole time.  Cockburn’s new directorial approach is meant to give the film a realistic, gritty feel.

Within minutes of landing, Speedman, Lazarus and Portnoy find themselves under attack from a local militia group.  They think it is all part of the movie and start fighting back.  What they don’t realise is that their attackers are real!  They are guarding a nearby drug crop and are heavily armed.  When will they wise up to the fact that their adventure is no longer a movie?

There are a few holes in the story but the humour more than compensates.  Writers Ben Stiller, Justin Theroux and Etan Cohen have come up with a politically incorrect comedy which pokes fun at the heavyweights within Hollywood.  I speak of actors, writers, directors, producers and even agents.

The film also targets a number of minority groups and I’m sure this will offend some viewers.  I didn’t mind the jokes though.  There’s an undercurrent to the whole movie which hints at something deeper.  It may look like an insanely silly comedy but it paints an interesting picture as to how the industry really works.  I’d love to know what the heavyweights in Hollywood think of it.

The strongest quality of the film is the stellar acting from the cast.  Robert Downey Jr, Ben Stiller and Jack Black are all brilliant.  Their characters all have psychological issues and they make the most of the problems for comedic effect.  There are also some well-timed cameos.  I won’t mention names but there’s one big-name star who pops up a few times in the film and I think it’s the best thing he’s done in years.

2008 has been a good year for comedy so far with films such as Pineapple Express, Kung Fu Panda, Lars & The Real Girl, Charlie Wilson’s War and Forgetting Sarah Marshall.  Tropic Thunder is another to add to that list.