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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 13 March 2016

“We may be through with the past, but the past ain’t through with us.”  It’s one of my favourite lines from Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia.  A masterpiece of cinema, Anderson’s 3-hour epic featured a group of inter-connected characters living in Los Angeles who were in search of forgiveness for past misdeeds.

That quote feels appropriate when getting to the heart of The Daughter.  It’s set in a small Australian town that is on the brink of collapse.  The local sawmill has been providing work for more than a century but times are tough and it’s about to close its doors for the last time.  Residents are already packing up their belonging and heading to bigger cities in search of new opportunities.

The gloomy mood hasn’t put a stop to the plans of Henry (Rush), the mill’s owner and a well-respected member of the community.  He’s getting remarried in a few days and his much younger wife-to-be, Anna (Torv), has meticulously planned a lavish reception.  The event is also significant because of the attendance of Henry’s son, Christian (Schnedier).  He now lives in the United States and this is his first trip back to his birthplace in more than 15 years.

Henry and Christian put on a few smiles but it’s clear they have a strained relationship.  Henry invites him a special pre-wedding dinner but Christian chooses to catch up with old friends instead.  Instead, he spends the night catching up with two childhood friends who have tied the knot – Oliver (Leslie) and Charlotte (Otto).  They now have a teenage daughter, Hedvig (Young), who is in search of romance and adventure.  Also in the mix is Oliver’s retired father, Walter (Neill).

This is a film you need to be patient with.  There’s a lot of backstory and time needs to be spent building the relationships between the respective characters.  Writer-director Simon Stone uses quick, overlapping scenes to keep things moving at an appropriate pace. 

You’ll have a sense that it’s leading up to something significant and yes, that’s exactly what happens.  The film’s tagline eloquently phrases it – “keep your family close and your secrets closer.”  Skeletons are pulled from the cupboards and lives will be changed forever.  Everyone should be able to relate.  No matter how hard we try, there’ll always be a time when our emotions get the better of us and we’ll say stuff that we immediately regret.

The narrative is loosely based on The Wild Duck, a 19^th Century work from Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen.  Stone adapted it for the stage in 2011 (it won 4 Sydney Theatre Awards) and decided it also work as a feature film.  Academy Award nominated producer Jan Chapman (The Piano) saw the stage play and also decided to jump on board.

These characters have to suffer a heavy emotional toll and thanks to some outstanding performances, those same feelings will resonate with audiences.  I’d never heard the name Odessa Young a few months ago but after her powerful appearance here and in Looking For Grace, I’m convinced she’s got a bright future.  It’s hard to single anyone out though.  The likes of Geoffrey Rush, Sam Neill and Ewen Leslie are equally good.

Selected to screen at lucrative film festivals in Venice, Toronto and London, The Daughter again shows that Australians can make great films.

You can read my chat with director Simon Stone by clicking here.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 02 March 2016

Triple 9 is a complex story with simplistic characters.  The two don’t go together.  Set in Atlanta, it revolves around Irina Vlaslov (Winslet), the wife of a powerful Russian mobster who is currently in jail.  We’re told that even Putin is afraid of this guy but since we never get to meet him, aside from a simple phone conversation, it’s hard to forge our own opinion.

Irina has somehow managed to maintain her husband’s business empire with the help of few hired goons.  Her main focus though is on securing his release from prison.  Apparently there’s some key information that could clear his name.  Part is located in a safety deposit box within a bank and the other part in a safe housed by Homeland Security.

She has therefore engaged the services of some well-trained criminals to break into each facility and steal the evidence.  They are led by a shrewd planner (Ejiofor) and the group includes two corrupt police officers (Mackie and Collins Jr.)  The film is sketchy when it comes to their backgrounds and motivations.  Why have they turned to a life of crime, why do they need so much cash, and what are their plans once it’s all over?

While most characters in the film are “bad guys”, there are two well-intentioned cops who are putting the pieces of the puzzle together and closing in on those responsible.  The first is a seasoned detective (Harrelson) with an obvious drug addiction (which no one seems to care about).  The second is his inexperienced nephew (Affleck) who is out of depth but fortunately stumbles across important intelligence.

What does this all add up to?  Not much.  The quality cast are given very little to worth with.  Kate Winslet dons a Russian accent and is laughably bad as the film’s chief villain.  How can so many people find her intimidating?  Woody Harrelson is equally goofy as the investigating detective.  It’s as if the cast were told to over exaggerate the qualities of their respective characters.

Directed by Australian John Hillcoat (The Road, Lawless), Triple 9 struggles to generate tension.  There’s a quality scene where a group of police officers carefully sift through an apartment building in search of a gunman but it’s a rare highlight.  The rest is a jumbled mess that finishes on a bizarre note.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 09 March 2016

Batman Vs. Superman hits cinemas across the world in two weeks.  The production was announced at Comic-Con back in 2013 in front of thousands of screaming fans.  More new stories were written a month later when Ben Affleck was named as the caped crusader.  Since then, the publicity department has churned out 4 different trailers and numerous TV ads.  Clips have been shown on late night talk shows as the stars do their own promotion.

The approach for 10 Cloverfield Lane could not be more different.  Few people even knew this movie was being made until less than two months ago.  A trailer was shown in the United States before screenings of 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi and caught many film lovers by surprise.  Director Dan Trahctenberg and producer J.J. Abrams are behind the low-key release strategy.  It’s a throwback to the pre-internet days where the first time you heard about a movie was seeing a trailer on the big screen.  It’s how Dan himself first learned about Jurassic Park in 1993.

That trailer was just the start of what has been an elaborate tease.  It doesn’t contain a single ounce of dialogue until the last few moments where John Goodman screams “don’t open that door” to an equally frightened Mary Elizabeth Winstead.  Exactly what is he referring to?  The film’s title has also got people talking.  Given the use of the word “Cloverfield”, many have been asking if this is a prequel, sequel or spinoff to the 2008 monster film that was also produced by Abrams.

The film is released tomorrow in Australian cinemas and everyone is still in the dark.  I went searching for a few audio clips to use for my radio programs and couldn’t find anything.  That’s highly unusual.  So too is the cast list which contains just three names – Goodman, Winstead and Gallagher Jr.

I usually say that the less you know about a movie going in, the better.  Well, everyone’s in that position with 10 Cloverfield Lane because so little has been made public about the plot.  I think that’s part of the reason I liked the film so much.  There are unexpected twists, surprising turns, and you have no idea what is going to happen from scene-to-scene.  It held my attention throughout.

I have somehow found a way to use 400 words without actually mentioning anything about the premise myself.  It’s the will of the director and I’d love for audiences to enjoy it in the same spoiler-free way.  Some will be frustrated by the film’s unorthodox nature but as someone who sits through 200 movies a year, it’s a breath of fresh air.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 29 February 2016

It’s hard to believe that in the space of two months, we’ve been treated to three separate films set in 1952.  Carol was released in January, Brooklyn was released in February, and now The Finest Hours has been released in March.  The coincidence extends a step further with all three films set in the north eastern United States.  You could let your mind stray and wonder if these characters ever crossed paths.

It’s unlikely they would have done so on 18 February 1952.  It was at that time when a huge tanker, the SS Pendleton, split in two off the coast of Massachusetts during a severe storm.  For the 33 surviving crew members, their situation couldn’t have been more perilous.  The tanker was sinking into the freezing water, their communication lines had been cut, and the flimsy lifeboats would never hold up in the rough seas.

Based on actual events, The Finest Hours is told from several perspectives.  The first is from aboard the Pendleton.  Following the loss of the tanker’s negligent captain, Ray Sybert (Affleck) is trying to rally his fellow crewman and keep it afloat.  Not everyone agrees with his unorthodox approach and there are several tense exchanges.

The second is that of Bernie Webber (Pine), a young, passionate Coast Guardsman stationed at the small town of Chatham.  Under the strict instructions of his chief officer (Bana), Bernie and three colleagues have set out in search of the missing tanker on a tiny 36-foot motor lifeboat.  With the waves increasing and the weather deteriorating, most believe it to be a “suicide mission”.

The final perspective is that of Miriam Pentinen (Grainger), Bernie’s fiancé who must endure an agonising wait back at the Coast Guard station.  She met the softly spoken Bernie on a blind date and the two have been inseparable ever since.  She’s not afraid to voice her disapproval at those who sent her beloved partner out to sea.

This may be a powerful true story but for some odd reason, the three-man screenwriting team have packed it with distracting, unnecessary clichés.  There’s a moment when Bernie is walking out the door of the coastguard headquarters when the phone rings.  He looks back, decides not to answer it, and heads out in the driving rainstorm.  As the audience, we can see that it’s an emotional Miriam making the phone call.  Did she miss the last chance to speak with her husband by a matter of seconds?

There’s not a lot of texture to the characters either.  They’re either horribly awful (such as Eric Bana as the overbearing coast guard chief officer) or wonderfully endearing (such as Casey Affleck and Chris Pine who each have an uncanny sixth sense).  It’s oversimplified and lacking in tension.  The Finest Hours is based on a great tale but I wouldn’t have told it this way.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 07 March 2016

I’m a fan of Sacha Baron Cohen.  His humour is politically incorrect but there’s an often something more significant behind it.  Borat earned him an Oscar nomination for best adapted screenplay and he followed that with Bruno and The Dictator.  Not all of his jokes hit the mark but he has an unorthodox way of highlighting inconsistencies that exist within society.

Unfortunately, Grimsby can’t be described as such.  This is a low brow comedy with not much to offer in terms of story.  Nobby Butcher (Cohen) won’t be winning any father of the year awards.  He seems to enjoy himself most when he’s down at the local pub watching football.  When he does spend time with his 11 children, he’s offering pearls of wisdom such as the benefits of smoking tobacco as opposed to stronger drugs.

They all reside in the small British town of Grimsby.  You’d be hard pressed to find a community with a lower socioeconomic status.  They’re a sister city to Chernobyl and the residents are the self-described scum that are “keeping the Fast & the Furious franchise alive”.  Nobby has lived there all his life and fits right in.  His unemployed and lives off welfare payments.  He even pretends that one of his kids has leukaemia to get even more money from the government.  Got a clear enough picture of this guy?

For the past 28 years, Nobby has been searching for his long-lost brother, Sebastian (Cohen).  They spent a brief period of time together in an orphanage but were separated as young children.  They finally cross paths at a charity event in London.  Sebastian is there as an MI6 agent who is trying to secure the safety of a renowned actress and philanthropist (Cruz).  Nobby is there to take selfies, drink free champagne, and crack inappropriate jokes.

The event turns into a complete debacle and Sebastian is framed for murder.  He is left with no other option but to head back to Grimsby with his brother, the only person he can trust, and keep a low profile until he can identify the real killer and clear his name.  Suffice to say that won’t be easy when trying to battle (1) the bad guys that are hunting him, and (2) Nobby’s incompetence.

It appears that no topic was off limits when Cohen drafted the jokes for the film.  He’s clearly going for shock value with references to paedophiles, rapists, and sex offenders.  He’s also found plenty of room for gross-out humour involving excrement and other bodily fluids.  It’s distasteful but many will still find it hard to maintain a straight face.  There are laughs on offer here.

That’s about it though.  The premise is weak, the characters are dull, and it lacks the memorable punch that we saw on offer in Borat and The Dictator.  Clocking it at a very short 83 minutes, you can’t help but think this isn’t the final product that director Louis Leterrier envisioned.  What else didn’t work and was left on the cutting room floor?