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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 15 February 2021

The United States of America has long been described as the “land of opportunity” and it’s why so many have been attracted to its shores.  More than 40 million people living in America right now were born in another country.  These people were lured by its economy, culture, health care, education, living space and, perhaps most importantly, its career opportunities.  It remains the top country of choice (by a significant margin).

There’s a seemingly endless number of real-life stories you could tell when it comes to immigrants in search of the American Dream.  A small number have been told on screen before as evidenced by In America, The Namesake, The Visitor, Brooklyn and Coming to America (the later offering a comedic perspective).  American writer-director Lee Isaac Chung adds a new title to the list with Minari – a tale loosely inspired by his own upbringing in Arkansas during the 1980s and the strong desire of his Korean father to create a better life for the whole family.

There’s division amongst the characters from the opening scene.  Tired of his job as a “chicken sexer” in California, Jacob (Yeun) has purchased a small farm in Arkansas which is to be the new family home.  He believes the property has the “best dirt in America” and his goal to grow niche Korean vegetables, sell them to local supermarkets, and watch the money roll in.  He’s finally working for himself as opposed to someone else.

His wife, Monica (Ye-Ri), is not as enamoured with the change.  She had no idea the farm would be so remote and she’s appalled by the old, leaky demountable they now must live in.  Money is also tight and she’s worried this venture, which requires significant bank borrowings, might see them end up in a worse position than beforehand.  Their arguments are often overheard by their two perceptive children, Anne (Cho) and David (Kim), who sense the family may soon split apart.

If you’re a fan of the film, you’ll probably describe it as “patient” and if not, you’ll refer to it as “slow”.  It’s an observational, skilfully acted drama where we watch these characters go about their daily lives (the perspective continually changes) and there isn’t much in the way of action and surprise.  Jacob gets help on the farm from a heavily religious man (Patton), Monica invites her Korean grandmother (Yuh-jung) to move in with them, and the two kids try to make friends at a nearby church.

As the days pass, the connections between the characters evolve.  By pouring so much time and energy into his work, Jacob has become blinkered to the negative impact his fatherly absence is having on the rest of the family.  Grandma Soon-ja steps up to fill the parenting gap and she slowly wins the affections of her grandson.  The interaction between 8-year-old Alan Kim and 73-year-old Young Yuh-jung is one of the film’s biggest strengths.

Minari earned the Sundance Film Festival’s Grand Jury Prize back in January 2020 and the acclaim has continued through to the current awards season.  It picked up three Screen Actors Guild Award nominations (including best cast) and you’re likely to be hearing it mentioned again when the Oscar nominations are announced in mid-March.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 05 February 2021

Four male high school teachers, who have been friends for years, have gone out for a nice dinner to celebrate a 40^th birthday.  Much is discussed but at one point, the focus turns to a Norwegian philosopher who proposes that people are better functioning when they have a blood alcohol content of 0.05%.  They’re more relaxed, they’re more poised and they’re more open.

This curious quartet then make a pact and, as part of an informal written thesis, decide to put theory into practice.  From the moment they wake up of a morning, they continually consume enough alcohol to remain around the 0.05% mark throughout the work day.  They even carry around a breathalyser to help measure!  It’s as if they’ve become opposites of the general population – drinking during the day but never at night or on weekends.

There’s a motivation behind their madness (if you want to call it that).  The central character, Martin (Mikkelsen), is having somewhat of a mid-life crisis.  His marriage is waning and he’s worried that his wife sees him as just a boring, empty shell of the man she originally married.  His time at school isn’t much better.  His students, all in the final year of education, are worried they won’t get the grades they require to go to college and they’ve expressed concern about Martin’s tired teaching methods.

I’m not sure I’d be recommending the idea to my own friends but Martin’s world improves with a little alcohol in his system.  He starts talking more with his wife, his organises a short family vacation with his two sons, and the kids at school soak in more content with his newfound approach.  Similar benefits are discovered by the other three men who find their lives are becoming more appealing and fruitful.

In different hands, such a narrative could be used to create a silly, far-fetched comedy in the same vein as The Hangover and Bad Moms.  Instead, Danish writer-director Thomas Vinterberg (The Hunt) threads the needle and goes with a darker style comedy.  These characters aren’t over-the-top caricatures.  Yes, we laugh at their actions but they’re real, honest human beings and many will relate to their problems and their mindset.

It’s not a “preachy” film either.  There’s not some grand revelation where the men realise alcohol is evil, swear never to drink again, and then live happily ever after.  There’s nuance to the issues being explored and that’s particularly evident during the film’s unusual climax which takes place at a marina.  It’ll leave you thinking about what these characters have learned and where they’ll end up.

It’s a touch repetitive during the middle act (a lot of fun without any hint of consequences) and relies on a few hooks too heavily (the thesis writing) but for the most part, Another Round is an interesting piece of Danish cinema.  The Golden Globe nomination it picked up this week for best foreign language film will help boost its already growing profile.   

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 14 February 2021

Over the Christmas holidays, I had the chance to revisit David Fincher’s Zodiac.  It remains one of the finest serial killer movies ever made.  The focus is not so much on the killer, his identity and his motives, but rather the impact on the frustrated detectives working the case.  I’ll never forget the tagline – there’s more than one way to lose your life to a killer.

The Little Things wants to follow in Zodiac’s footsteps – in that it’s more about the detectives than the killer – but it’s inferior in almost every way.  It’s hard to believe three Oscar winning actors could be involved with something so unsatisfying.  I can only assume the original idea of writer-director John Lee Hancock (The Blind Side, Saving Mr Banks) looked more attractive as a pitch than as a finished product.

The first half of the movie is a slow, tedious exploration of Denzel Washington’s character.  He plays Joe Deacon, a grey-haired deputy sheriff stuck doing dead-end jobs and living in a dilapidated home.  It’s as if he hasn’t smiled in a decade.  He clearly has a backstory and we soon learn he once had a very high-profile role within the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.  Supporting characters interact with Joe cryptically (hinting at the past but never spelling it out) so as to drag things out as long as possible.  This plot device is overused to the point of becoming frustrating.

The film’s second half is about the ongoing investigation into a series of murders and the interrogation of a key suspect.  Detective Jim Baxter (Malek) teams up with “Kojak” Joe (that in itself lacks logic) and they start trailing a loner named Albert Sparma (Leto) in search of evidence and a motive.  The softly spoken Albert is bizarrely enjoying the attention but he’s quick to inform he’s not the man they’re searching for.

I enjoyed the unsettling music score from Thomas Newman (The Shawshank Redemption) and the cinematography of John Schwartzman (Seabiscuit) but when it comes to the more important ingredients of narrative and performance, The Little Things is lacking.  Perhaps I’m part of the minority view given the puzzling awards season love for Jared Leto (Dallas Buyers Club) who picked up Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild nominations for best supporting actor.  I don’t get it.  There’s minimal development in terms of character and the role requires little more than a creepy voice.

The shaky screenplay also limits the performances of Denzel Washington (Training Day) and Rami Malek (Bohemian Rhapsody).  Perhaps the most laughable sequence is where a tormented, drooling Denzel is lying in bed and trying to find a connection between mugshots posted on his motel wall.  As for the continually brooding Rami, I don’t understand how an intelligent detective with a wealth of resources needs to rely so heavily on one man.

Hollywood productions with big-name stars are a rare commodity in Australian cinemas right now given the impacts of COVID-19.  It’s a shame this isn’t worth recommending.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 31 January 2021

There’s a moment in The Simpsons where Mr Burns speak of his incredible wealth and says “but I’d trade it all for a little more”.  It’s the first thought that came to mind in describing Rory O’Hara (Law), a commodities trader who yearns for financial wealth above all things.  He has a nice home with a backyard pool in New York but he’s given it up and taken his reluctant wife and two teenage kids to London to “make some real money”.  Given they’ve moved 4 times in the past 10 years, you get a sense it’s not the first time they’ve made such a leap for those reasons.

Rory is a superficial, compulsive liar.  He puts an exhaustive amount of time into “appearing successful” as opposed to doing the hard yards and earning his achievements.  When out with work colleagues, he picks up the full tab for their expensive lunch.  When at a party, he brags about his non-existent New York penthouse.  When at a business dinner, he tells prospective clients he can get them tickets for an acclaimed Anthony Hopkins play.  The reality is that Rory has next-to-nothing in his bank account and, despite all the confidence he exudes publicly, he has no meaningful plan to fix his financial free fall.

Written and directed by Canadian Sean Durkin (Martha Marcy May Marlene) and set in the year 1986, The Nest delves into Rory’s insecurities while also looking at the way his self-destructive actions impact on the rest of the family.  His wife, Allison (Coon), interchangeably provides support and criticism to her husband’s ideas.  There’s a great scene where they go out for a fancy dinner and argue over what to order.  The two children are witness to their parents’ disagreements with the eldest (Roche) using it as opportunity to behave badly.

Their new home in London, an unfurnished mansion in the middle of nowhere, could be considered a character in itself.  It’s far too big for them (typical of Rory’s vain nature) and so many rooms remain vacant.  It gives the place a creepy vibe to the point where the youngest son (Shotwell) gets scared walking through the long, darkened corridors at night.

Rory and Allison are flashy, interesting cinematic figures but the character arcs they’re provided with are limited.  You get to know them both during the opening half-hour and beyond that, there’s not a lot on offer in terms of change and development.  There’s a random sequence involving Rory and his estranged mother that feels unnecessary.  The same could be said of a quirky subplot involving the fate of Allison’s prized riding horse.  I’d have preferred to see more interaction with the vulnerable kids who have been pushed too far into the background.

The Nest deserves a look but it misses an opportunity to become something more distinct and memorable.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 11 February 2021

A movie about elderly men and their dogs searching for rare truffles in Northern Italy.  It doesn’t scream “box-office hit” but The Truffle Hunters is a fascinating documentary that premiered a year ago at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival and recently made the shortlist (the top 15 films) for best documentary feature at the upcoming Academy Awards.  Many are tipping it will receive a coveted nomination.

The story of this secretive world will be of interest to many.  The white Alba truffle, found exclusively in Italy’s Piedmont region, is one of the expensive foods in the world with the market price often exceeding $10,000 AUD per kilogram!  It’s a classic case of supply and demand economics in that the price is high because supply is rare.  The truffles grow for just two months a year and, as they cannot be cultivated, they can only be found by experienced hunters foraging in little known forests.

The background to this documentary is as remarkable as the subject itself.  Filmmakers Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw were travelling through Italy one summer when they first learned about truffle hunters.  It took them roughly 3 years to pull the film together with much of that time spent living in Alba, earning the trust of the guarded townsfolk, and getting them to share their stories.

The end result is simple yet beautiful.  There’s no unnecessary narration and no talking heads.  We’re just observing these characters, often from a distance, and listening in on their day-to-day exchanges.  Shots have been meticulously framed with a single, motionless camera capturing the conversations as if those involved are completely unaware.

The Truffle Hunters is the kind of documentary that fills your brain and lifts your spirits.  You’ll be shown a world you never knew existed and then want to tell your friends and family about it.  You’ll discover that truffle hunters do much of their work at night so rivals won’t learn of their treasured rummaging spots.  One of them is 87-years-old but he’s still as active and passionate as ever.  You’ll also learn about the unspoken truffle hunting rules and get a glimpse as the hunters negotiate prices with keen buyers.  This is a film you must see.

You can read my interview with director Gregory Kershaw by clicking here.