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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 25 October 2024

It has become one of television’s most successful shows.  It’s been on air for over 49 years, it’s helped launch the career of many famous comedians, it’s won 90 Emmy Awards (from 331 nominations), and it still draws 5 million viewers in the United States each week.  Saturday Night Live deserves its place in the annals of TV history.

As we learn from most breakout shows (“we had no idea it would become a hit”), Saturday Night Live had rocky beginnings.  NBC needed something to fill the midnight time slot and, instead of trotting out more Johnny Carson talk show reruns, they threw money and a bunch of young, little-known writers and humourists for a live sketch comedy program.  Many industry executives expected the show to be a short-lived flop.

The creation of Oscar nominated director Jason Reitman (Juno, Up in the Air), Saturday Night recounts the chaotic 90 minutes in the lead up to the first episode on 11 October 1975.  I’ll describe it as a semi-fictionalised version of events.  Reitman interviewed many who were there to create an authentic record but to help make the story more cinematic, things that occurred weeks prior have been made to look like they all happened between 10pm and 11:30pm on that history-making night.

That makes the film a little messy.  It’s arguably impossible to condense all the subplots (80 actors have speaking lines) into a 109-minute running time.  A talent co-ordinator has a drug-related freak out, Chevy Chase gets touted as a future talk show host, John Belushi won’t sign his employment contract, and a kid outside the building tries to lure a studio audience, and Milton Berle is sleazily whipping out his giant penis.

Everything happens so quickly that it’s hard to keep up or care in any meaningful way.  As an example, what was behind John Belushi’s weird behaviour?  Further, the screenplay gets bogged down with plot points that aren’t interesting.  Did we need all the references to the married Rosie Shuster and what surname she would use in the credits?  How many times do we need to hear from Jim Henson worried about his lack of script pages?

It’s not all bad though.  There’s a central character who creates a narrative through-line for everyone else to hang off – 22-year-old Gabriel LaBelle (The Fabelmans) plays producer Lorne Michaels.  He too comes with unnecessary repetitiveness (why does he need to be asked so many times what the show is about?) but still does a terrific job capturing the excitement and stress that came with co-ordinating the problematic first episode.

A few jokes hit the mark (the naïve censor, the llama) and others miss (the sketches feel dated) but there’s enough on offer with Saturday Night, in terms of laughs and a history lesson, to recommend a watch.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 15 October 2024

World War II movies remain a constant staple of the global film and television industry.  In the past year alone, we’ve seen a British humanitarian saving Jewish children in Czechoslovakia (One Life), a Nazi commandant living next door to the Auschwitz concentration camp (The Zone of Interest), a group of U.S. Air Force pilots bombing German targets inside Europe (Masters of the Air), and a British veteran comedically escaping from a retirement home to attend D-Day commemorations in Paris (The Great Escaper).

From Hilde, with Love is the latest addition to that list and is from director Andreas Dresen (Stopped on the Track).  It arrives in cinemas with positive buzz having premiered in competition at the Berlin Film Festival in February and being selected to open the German Film Festival here in Australia back in May.  It’s now receiving a limited release across the country for those who missed it earlier.

It’s based on the true story of Hilde Coppi (Fries), a 30-something-year-old German woman who was arrested and imprisoned by the Nazis in 1942 for being part of the Soviet-sympathising “Red Orchestra” group.  She and her close friends would distribute anti-war, anti-Nazi material across cities and would help send innocuous messages back to Russia using morse code.  The history books show there were roughly 150 individuals engaged in similar behaviour across Berlin.

I’ve seen better World War II films that offer deeper insight but From Hilde, with Love still has appeal.  We observe the actions of Hilde and her friends and can ask ourselves a series of questions.  Did they realise the risks they were taking?  Should they have better covered their tracks?  Did their efforts impact the resistance movement?  Was Hilde mislead by those around her?

I’m don’t think we get a complete picture of Hilde Coppi and the flashback scenes don’t provide enough information to understand her views and mindset (perhaps that was the intention of screenwriter Laila Steiler?)  The prison scenes, post her arrest, are more compelling as she navigates the uncertainty of her upcoming trial while also looking after a newborn baby (she gives birth in prison).  The friendship she builds with a female prison guard is the film’s most interesting subplot.

Starring 33-year-old Liv Lisa Fries, a household name in Germany for her work on the popular TV series Babylon Berlin, From Hilde, with Love is another reminder of World War II’s atrocities.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 24 October 2024

Looking back over my notes, I was disappointed with 2018’s Venom but more impressed with the 2021 sequel, Venom: Let There Be Carnage.  That’s not to say one film was better than the other but rather, my viewpoint had shifted.  I’m more willing to look past the inconsistencies within the screenplays and appreciate the franchise more for its comedic qualities.  Oscar nominee Tom Hardy (The Revenant) is pivotal in creating those laughs.

If new to the character, Venom is an off-beat superhero who is the mishmash of a human journalist named Eddie and a cheeky alien life form.  Neither controls the other.  The alien provides incredible agility and strength, but Eddie still has influence in how it’s used.  This unlikely duo has become closer, physically and metaphorically, over the last two movies but there’s still plenty of debates and disagreements.

Promoted as the third and final instalment of the series, Venom: The Last Dance isn’t exactly reaching for the clouds with its storyline.  It’s a ho-hum sequel that uses templates established in other alien and superhero flicks.  We learn that an incredibly nasty creature, who wants to destroy the universe, has been incarcerated on another planet.  The “codec” (aka key) which can release him lies within Venom and so he’s sent an unfriendly, spider-like alien to Earth in retrieve it.  If successful, it won’t just be Venom who meets his demise but rather, every living thing on the planet.

In terms of new additions to the cast, Rhys Ifans (Notting Hill) plays a father who has cashed in his life savings and gone on a trip with his sceptical family to Area 51 in hope of seeing an alien.  Juno Temple (Ted Lasso) is an intelligent scientist studying alien life forms in a secret underground laboratory.  Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave) chimes in as a hard-line military guy who makes a few rushed, misguided decisions in trying to save the day.

There’s nothing wrong with their performances but at the same time, they’re not the most interesting characters (nor are their related subplots).  The key attraction of Venom: The Last Dance remains the humorous interactions between Eddie and the “symbiote” who lies within.  I don’t think there’s as many good one-liners as the previous movie but there’s just enough material, with a splash of heart for the finale, to hold audiences’ attention.

With the first two flicks making a combined $1.3 billion at the global box-office, the producers have played it safe with Venom: The Last Dance and whilst it won’t win prizes for originality, it’s likely to be a hit.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 14 October 2024

He may not be a household name, but Melbourne-born Adam Elliot has earned his chapter in the annals of Australian film history.  In 2004, his took to the stage of the then Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles and accepted an Academy Award from presenters Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson.  He had been honoured in the best animated short film category for Harvie Krumpet – a 22-minute stop motion flick which, helped the Oscar win, was watched by many across the country.

Sticking with the stop motion theme, Elliot followed it with the feature length Mary and Max in 2009 and the short Ernie Biscuit in 2015.  He now returns to cinemas with the likeable Memoir of a Snail, a dark comedy about a young girl enduring a troubled life.  You’ll notice I’ve underlined the word “dark” for emphasis.  An animated movie with a snail on the poster might sound perfect for kids but this is heavy going and the M-rating in Australia (for mature themes, coarse language, and sexual references) is justified.  A heightened level of maturity is required.

Using a lot of narration, Grace Pudel (Snook) is the central figure.  She explains her rocky upbringing in the 1970s through to her predicaments of today.  I don’t want to spoil too much but her mother died in childbirth, her father was a paraplegic with an addiction to scratch-it tickets, and her twin brother (Smit-McPhee) was a pyromaniac.  Orphaned at a young age and separated from her brother, she was sent to Canberra and placed in the hands of two foster parents who had a love for swinger’s parties and nudism.  Standard stuff, right?

Whether it’s a product of her upbringing or just her inherent nature, the Grace we get to know is a reclusive, softly spoken individual who struggles to make friends.  She becomes a hoarder (collecting snail memorabilia) and moving in with a chatty, elderly woman named Pinky (Weaver) who has seemingly done it all in life – from playing ping-pong with Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro through to having sex in a helicopter with American singer John Denver.  The interactions between these two are the heart of the movie with Grace trying to find a sense of peace and happiness she has long wished for.

For those with an offbeat sense of humour, Memoir of a Snail is to be admired for its nuttiness and randomness.  There are so many unexpected laughs – exemplified by an early gag involving a “retired” judge.  The dramatic layers are also impressive as Elliot covers topics including dementia, addiction, mental health, religion, sexual fetishes, hoarding, and suicide.  To include all of that inside of 94 minutes is a testament to Elliot’s talents.  The voice cast, headlined by recent Emmy winner Sarah Snook (Succession), add to the great material and bring these quirky characters to life.

It may not be for everyone but when picking out my favourite Aussie movies of 2024, Memoir of a Snail sits on top.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 18 October 2024

Born in London in 1947, Antony Penrose had a tough upbringing.  His mum, Lee, was an alcoholic for 20+ years and they had a fractured relationship with Antony feeling angry, embarrassed and betrayed by her lack of parenting.  His dad, Roland, was a non-confrontational guy who rarely showed emotion and would “disappear” at the slightest hint of trouble or conflict.

It’s funny how our perspective can change when presented with new information.  When Lee passed away in 1977 at the age of 70, Antony’s wife discovered manuscripts, photographs and roughly 60,000 negatives in the attic of the family home at Farley Farm.  Lee had never discussed it, but Antony then learned his mother had been an official war photographer for Vogue magazine during World War II.  Risking her life and witnessing the brutality of war helped explain the trauma she struggled within in the decades that followed.

Antony honoured his mother’s legacy by authoring a 1988 biography and preserving the photos and documents through the creation of the Lee Miller Archives.  Now, he has assisted in the creation of a feature length film which will introduce Lee’s story to a wider audience.  It is focused on her work during World War II and has been directed by Ellen Kuras, best known for her work as a cinematographer on movies including Blow and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

Academy Award winner Kate Winslet (The Reader) embodies the titular character and plays her as a feisty, determined individual who doesn’t take no for an answer.  The bosses at Vogue don’t want to send her to France.  The military media folk don’t want her admitted into press briefings.  The top brass soldiers don’t want her life endangered on the front line.  None of this is a problem for Lee.  She uses her confidence, charm and persuasion to overcome any barrier.

It plays out as you might expect and a few supporting characters don’t have a lot to do, such as Andy Samberg as a fellow journalist, but in the same vein as Civil War earlier in the year, it’s a fitting tribute to the work of war photographers and the pivotal role they play in educating the world about atrocities.  It may also prompt audiences to do more research about Lee Miller and view her photographs online.  She deserves to be remembered.