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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 26 February 2018

When asked about my favourite films of all time, one I always include is Billy Elliot.  Released in 2000, it was the story of an 11-year-old boy from England who, against his father’s wishes, takes ballet classes instead of boxing classes.  Infused with a narrative about the famous coal miners’ strike in the mid-1980s, it was beautifully written by Lee Hall and perfectly directed by Stephen Daldry.  Both earned Academy Award nominations for their impressive work.

The reason the movie springs to mind is that Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool marks the first time since Billy Elliot that Jamie Bell and Julie Walters, who both won BAFTA Awards for the earlier film, have appeared together on screen.  This is a very different film with very different characters but I still had a smile on my face watching them interact during one of the opening scenes.

Directed by Scotland-born Paul McGuigan (Wicker Park, The Wrong Man), Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool is based on the memoir of Peter Turner and chronicles his interactions with American film star Gloria Grahame during the final two years of her life between 1979 and 1981.  For those unfamiliar with Grahame, she was a Hollywood starlet who appeared in a number of big films in the 1950s including Sudden Fear, Human Desire and Oklahoma!  The high point of her career came in 1952 when, as a budding 29-year-old, she won an Oscar for her performance alongside Lana Turner and Kirk Douglas in The Bad and the Beautiful.

The years that followed weren’t as successful.  She struggled to land good roles on screen and on the stage.  McGuigan’s film picks things up in the late 1970s.  Grahame (Bening) is now in her mid-50s, living alone in London, and furiously searching for any kind of paying role in the theatre.  She’s recognised from time-to-time but it’s clear that the name Gloria Grahame has been all but forgotten.

It’s at her apartment building where she first meets Paul Turner (Bell), a young man who has lofty dreams himself of becoming an actor.  He knows very little of Grahame’s past but the two form a friendship which develops into something a little deeper.  Those close to them have differing views about the noticeable age gap between the pair.  His mother (Walters) offers loving support but her mother (Redgrave) is inherently sceptical.

The fact this is based on a true story creates an added layer of interest than what we’d normally expected from a romantic drama.  I knew nothing of these individuals beforehand and so it serves as an eye-opener and a fitting tribute.  Having done some subsequent research and looked at a few Gloria Grahame clips on YouTube, I have a stronger appreciation for Annette Bening’s superb leading performance.  Jamie Bell is also great in the subtler, less-showy role.

My attention waned ever so slightly during the middle stages but Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool is a warm, heartfelt drama about the dreams we chase and the people who shape them along the way.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 15 February 2018

We’ve seen black superheroes before such as Blankman (1994), Steel (1997) and Blade (2004) but Blank Panther still marks an important milestone in terms of the genre.  Never before have we seen a superhero flick with so many black actors getting a chance to shine.  Of the 10 actors shown on the film’s poster, only two are white.  Arguably this movie should have been made long before now but it’s still great to see Marvel putting up $200 million to launch this new franchise.

The choice of director raised eyebrows when announced two years ago but hindsight shows it to be an excellent choice.  Ryan Coogler is a Californian-born with just two previous credits to his name.  He burst onto the scene in 2013 with Fruitvale Station, a low budget independent film that premiered at Sundance and told the true story of a 22-year-old African American who was killed by police in Oakland.  He followed that up with Creed, a reboot of the Rocky franchise that saw Sylvester Stallone pick up an Oscar nomination as the boxing coach of a young guy with big dreams.

If there’s a weakness in Black Panther, it’s the battle to pack so much story inside of two hours.  I was a little confused by the opening act as we’re introduced to all the characters and given a brief history lesson.  To do my best to explain… there’s a fictitious country in central African known as Wakanda.  It’s thought of as a third world country but what many don’t know is that it is home to a powerful, alien-sourced metal known as vibranium.  They keep the metal hidden and mask their true wealth so as not to be targeted by neighbouring countries.  It’s not a bad strategy.

Those living Wakanda harvest the metal and use to create technology that eclipses anything else available in the world.  This is where our hero comes in.  The King of Wakanda, otherwise known as the Black Panther, drinks a special potion which gives him near-invincible powers.  He rides around in an invisible spacecraft and wears a latex-like suit that can repel any bullet or any punch.  All of these are thanks to the magic that is vibranium.

With the introduction out of the way, the film then has the chance to explore some worthy themes.  The current King/Black Panther (Boseman) is being questioned by his shrewd girlfriend (Nyong’o) about his plans for the country.  With so much poverty in the world, she thinks it’s time to reveal the true Wakanda and use their wealth to help others.  The King isn’t so sure and sees his role as one of protecting his fellow citizens.  The parallels with Brexit and Trump’s America are clear.

There’s more than that going on.  A boisterous South African arms dealer (Serkis) is looking to steal some vibranium and sell it on the black market.  A young man from California (Jordan) learns of his Wakandan heritage and travels to Africa in search of answers and power.  Leading tribes people in Wakanda are forced to pick a side when the King’s views are challenged.  Do their loyalties lie with the man or the throne?  There’s a lot of cool stuff here.

Laced with political messages, Black Panther is a film to be admired for its rich, compelling story.  There are a few neat twists and you’re never quite sure what’s around the corner.  Further, there’s no clear “good” and “evil” as several of the key characters illustrate both traits.  If you’re going along just for the action, you won’t be disappointed either.  Coogler has created some intense battle sequences that are light-on in terms of special effects and editing.

The casting can’t be faulted either.  We’ve got veterans like Forest Whitaker (The Last King of Scotland) and Angela Bassett (What’s Love Got to Do with It) working alongside terrific young actors such as Chadwick Boseman (Get on Up) and Lupita Nyong’o (12 Years a Slave).  Everyone will have their favourites but in my eyes, it’s Michael B. Jordan who impresses most as the film’s intriguing quasi-villain.  He comes complete with a commanding presence and a trend-setting hairstyle.  It’s also interesting to note that of the three films Coogler has made, Jordan appears in all three.  They clearly have a great working relationship. 

I’m not alone in my positive words for Blank Panther and given the hype that is quickly building, this has the potential to be one of the biggest Marvel films yet.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 22 February 2018

In doing a little background reading before seeing Winchester, I was fascinated by the true story on which it is based.  Oliver Winchester lived in Baltimore during the mid-1800s and created the Winchester Repeating Arms Company – an extremely profitable business that sold lever-action rifles.  Oliver died in 1880 at the age of 70 and then one year later, his only son, William, passed away due to the effects of Tuberculosis.  As a result, William’s wife, Sarah, inherited roughly $20 million as well as a 50% stake in the company. 

Three years later, Sarah moved to San Jose, California and bought an unfinished house along with 161 acres of farmland.  Using her immense wealth, she commissioned a series of renovations and extensions to her new home.  It’s at this point where things start to get rather strange.  The renovations continued for 38 years with Sarah seemingly never satisfied with the work performed.  At the time of her death, there were roughly 160 rooms including 40 bedrooms, 13 bathrooms, 47 fireplaces, and 17 chimneys.

It gets weirder.  Because the house had been built in such a haphazard manner with no formal plan, there were design features that made no logical sense.  Stairs went nowhere, doors opened up into blank walls, and windows overlooked other rooms.  Sarah also had an obsession with the number 13.  An expensive chandelier had room for 13 lit candles, clothes hooks were always placed together in groups of 13, and the drains in the sink contained 13 holes.  If you believe the rumours, this was all because that Sarah Winchester believed the house was haunted by the ghosts of those killed by firearms purchased from the Winchester Repeating Arms Company.

What excites me most of all is that the house still stands today.  If you’re ever visiting San Jose and have $39 USD to spare, you can get an hour-long tour that takes you inside 110 of the 160 rooms.  It has attracted more than 12 million visitors and it’s a place I’d love to visit myself one day.  It’s certainly a “truth is stranger than fiction” kind of tale.

All of it sounds like a great idea for a movie which is where Peter and Michael Spierig enter the frame.  They were born in Germany but moved to Australia with their parents at the age of 4.  They few up in Brisbane, went to the Queensland College of Art, and have made some worthy thrillers including Undead, Daybreakers and Predestination (a personal favourite of mine).  In putting together the cast for Winchester, they enlisted Oscar-winner Helen Mirren (The Queen) along with a bunch of fellow Aussies delivering their best American accents – Jason Clarke (Everest), Sarah Snook (The Dressmaker) and Angus Sampson (The Mule).

In terms of the narrative, it revolves around a doctor (Clarke) who has been recruited by the Winchester Repeating Arms Company to perform a medical assessment of Sarah Winchester (Mirren).  Given the bizarre house and the stories circulating about ghosts and spirits, the Board of the company don’t believe Sarah is of sound mind and body.  They assume the doctor will come back with a negative evaluation and this can be used to sever her involvement with the company.

What follows is a formulaic, ho-hum horror-thriller.  The doctor goes through the whole routine of denying the existence of ghosts but changes his tune when strange things start happening in the house.  Things get more extreme with each passing scene and we end up at a point where we’ve got possessed children, objects mysteriously being flung across the room, creepy noises, and equally creepy ghouls.  We’ve seen it before and we’ll see it again.

Given the way it is shot and the way the story plays out, it never feels scary and never makes the most of the intriguing setting.  The house is more interesting than any individual – and even it gets a bit boring after the opening hour.  It’s the same sort of thing from scene-to-scene with Helen Mirren trying to act mysterious, Jason Clarke searching for a personality, and a bunch of dull supporting players grasping for attention.  This is a cool idea for a movie but it’s not well executed.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 12 February 2018

Awards season is always filled with terrific movies but this year’s group is particularly good.  We’ve been treated to The Florida Project, Call Me by Your Name, Coco, Three Billboards, The Post and The Shape of Water.  The last of this year’s Oscar nominees for best picture to make its way into Australian cinemas is Lady Bird, the creation of writer-director Greta Gerwig.  Gerwig is better known for starring in quirky comedies such as Greenberg, Damsels in Distress and Frances Ha but with Lady Bird, she shows that she’s just as talented behind the camera as she is in front of it.

The film takes us inside the world of Christine McPherson (Ronan) – a restless high school senior from Sacramento who isn’t sure what she wants out of life.  Set 15 years ago, she laments that “the only exciting thing about 2002 is that it’s a palindrome.”  She doesn’t have a lot of friends at school, she hasn’t been able to land a boyfriend, and she has a rocky relationship with her interfering mother, Marion (Metcalf).

What is clear is that Christine longs to escape her family roots and get the hell out of Sacramento.  The first way she demonstrates this is by changing her first name to “Lady Bird”, much to the displeasure of her mother.  Secondly, she enrols in a bunch of out-of-state colleges with the hope she’ll be accepted.  That won’t be easy given her school results are sub-optimal.

There are a number of storylines that generate both humour and drama.  Lady Bird finds love for the first time by winning the affections of a quiet, conservative boy (Hedges).  She ditches her loyal, long-time best friend so that she can try to strike up a new friendship with a superficial, uber-popular girl.  She runs afoul of the nuns who run the Catholic school by instigating a series of pranks and rebellious deeds.  Whilst they’re impeccably acted, these subplots aren’t offering anything we haven’t seen in previous teen-orientated flicks.

What separates Lady Bird from the pack is the funny, heartfelt way in delves into the relationship between mother and daughter.  Both women are strong willed and don’t yield easily when they have a differing point of view (which tends to be all the time).  Marion thinks she knows best as the elder statesman who appreciates how ruthless and tough the world can be.  She wants to impart that view on her daughter.  On the flip side, Lady Bird is frustrated by her mother’s negative, cynical attitude and lack of optimism.  It’s a big reason why she wants to enrol at a college across the other side of the country.

The tension between these two characters is the heart of the movie.  It’s also the reason why the brilliant Saoirse Ronan (Brooklyn) and Laurie Metcalf (Roseanne) have been nominated for Academy Awards.  Both make mistakes and both say unnecessarily mean things but that’s part of life.  There’s a great scene where they argue in a clothes store and then act like “best friends” moments later.  No matter how much they try to push each other away, there’s an unspoken bond that draws them back.

With sharp, insightful dialogue and some great individual scenes (such as when Lady Bird visits a convenience store after turning 18), Greta Gerwig deserves all the credit she’s been receiving for this “coming of age” gem.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 20 February 2018

I work with a bunch of people who get to the movies once every month or so but wouldn’t consider themselves film buffs.  Talking to them about the premise of Game Night (which they hadn’t heard of before), there was certainly a heightened level of intrigue.  Even I have to admit that it sounds like a cool idea for a movie on paper.

Written by Mark Perez (The Country Bears, Herbie Fully Loaded), we begin with a cute introduction as to how the film’s two key protagonists first me.  Max (Bateman) and Annie (McAdams) were on opposing teams at a pub trivia night but they quickly realised they had something in common – a mutual attraction and an intensely competitive nature.  Such is their love for games, Max actually popped the question during a game a charades.  I’d have expected nothing less from these two.

Things are generally going well for Max but there’s one sore point that’s making him anxious – his brother.  Brooks (Chandler) is a successful venture capitalist who lives in nice houses, travels around the world, and drives expensive cars.  Their levels of success are summed up best when Brooks is described as Mark Wahlberg and the underappreciated Max is described as Donnie Wahlberg.  It’s clear that max is tired of living in his brother’s shadow.

Agreeing to host a game night for the first time, Brooks once again tries to show off in front of Max, Annie and four of their good friends.  Rather than organise a simple game of Monopoly, Scrabble or Cluedo, he goes all out and orchestrates a fictitious crime.  He says that someone at the game night will be kidnapped and it’ll be up to everyone else to put together the clues and solve the mystery.  A substantial prize awaits the winner.

If you’ve seen the trailer or any adverts, you’ll know what happens next.  An actual crime is committed but the problem is that the participants at the game night are none the wiser.  They see Brooks being gagged and carried away by two hired goons without having any idea that it’s actually real.  What follows is a series of humorous, chaotic events as the game night participants try to locate Brooks without realising just how dangerous the situation is.

Leave your brain at the door with this one.  The more you think about it, the less sense it makes.... but that’s not to say that you can’t have fun watching it.  The story doesn’t flow particularly well but there are some great individual scenes that make it worth the price of admission.  A great example is a sequence where Max and Annie argue outside a convenience store while she tries to extract a bullet from his arm using a craft knife, a bottle of chardonnay, and instructions from Google.  It’s farcical but it’s funny.

The bickering between the characters also wins humour points.  Kevin (Morris) and Michelle (Bunbury) are two game night participants who lose focus after she admits she slept with a Hollywood celebrity several years ago (but won’t reveal who it is).  Ryan (Magnussen) is a not-so-bright friend who has brought along a first date (Horgan) for unknown reasons.  He gets limited screen time but Jesse Plemons is the MVP of the cast with his portrayal as a creepy, game-loving next-door neighbour with zero friends.

With some of the best jokes requiring a long set up (e.g. the scenes with Danny Huston), Game Night is fun, silly and trashy.  Make sure you stay until the very end of the credits for one final joke.