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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 03 September 2014

Vampires often get a dud rap.  Fictional films usually make them out to be nasty, evil, blood sucking creatures.  Dracula Untold, a new film to be released in a few weeks, looks like more of the same.  There are some exceptions though.  The recent Twilight franchise showed that not all vampires are villainous.  Some are sweet and friendly… and good in bed apparently.

What We Do In The Shadows has been funded by the New Zealand Documentary Board and follows a small crew as they get up close with a group of eccentric vampires who share a home in suburban Wellington.  In case you’re wondering about the well-being of the film crew, they’ve all been given assurances by the vampires that they won’t be eaten.  Just to be safe, they’re also wearing crucifixes.

This is an intriguing documentary that will be of interest to anyone curious about the vampire world.  It confirms a lot of the basic things we already know about them – they can’t go near sunlight, they can’t go into a building without being invited in, and they can’t see themselves when they look into a mirror. 

Where this documentary shines is that it creates empathy for its subjects.  It’s not their fault that they were bitten centuries ago.  They’re just trying to make the best of the situation.  How would you feel if you weren’t able to see a sunset and then post it on Instagram?  The best these vampires are able to do is watch videos of the sun on YouTube.

The film also highlights that while vampires aren’t technically alive, they still display “human” like qualities.  They argue about who’s going to do the dishes (they’ve been piling up in this house for 5 years) and they get cranky when their alarm clock goes off at 6 o’clock (that’s PM, not AM).  It’s not all grim though.  They still find time to go clubbing and find a nice girl to take home (well, for different reasons).

Filmmakers Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi have focused their attention on the day-to-day misadventures of vampires and I like the approach.  Vladislav, Viago and Deacon are not afraid to open up and speak on camera.  They’re smart guys with a decent sense of humour.  It’s just a shame we don’t hear more from 8000-year-old Petyr who spends much of the film cooped up in the basement inside his stone coffin.

It all culminates with some exclusive footage from The Unholy Masquerade – an annual event where vampires, zombies, werewolves, and other members of the “undead” come together for a huge party.  While they’ve secured a great venue this year (the spacious function room at the Mt Victoria Bowls Club), the night doesn’t quite go to plan.  I won’t spoil it through.  It’ll be new to anyone who didn’t read about it in the news.

We don’t see a lot of documentaries make it into Australian cinemas and so hopefully What We Do In The Shadows will perform strongly at the box-office and put the bite back into one of my favourite genres. 

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 20 August 2014

As part of his Oscar-winning screenplay for Midnight In Paris, writer-director Woody Allen used time travel as the device to transport us back to 1920s France.  I guess Allen subscribes to the mantra that “when you’re on a good thing, stick to it”.  Magic In the Moonlight uses the same setting and the same time frame (well, minus the time travel part).

The film’s chief protagonist is Stanley Crawford (Firth), one of the world’s most renowned magicians.  Dressed as a Chinaman and using the stage name of Wei Ling Soo, Stanley regularly performs in front of sold-out auditoriums and leaves his audiences in awe of his mind-boggling illusions.

He may have found wealth and success… but Stanley’s personality isn’t quite as positive as you might think.  A friend sums it up best when he describes him as having “the charm of a typhus epidemic”.  He humiliates his staff when they fail to achieve perfection.  He demeans his friends when they say anything remotely disagreeable.  It’s a wonder that anyone wants to spend time with him at all!

Taking a quick break from his craft, Stanley has accepted an intriguing business proposal offered by a long-time acquaintance, Howard (McBurney).  He tells Stanley that a young American woman has been soliciting money under the guise that she’s a clairvoyant who can communicate with the dead.  Her name is Sophie Baker (Stone) and Howard is hoping that Stanley will live up to his reputation as “the greatest debunker of fake spiritualists” and expose her as a fraud.

Taken to the French Riviera, where Sophie is currently staying with a wealthy American family, Stanley rubs his hands and gets to work.  He is somewhat dazzled by Sophie’s good looks (acknowledging that “a pretty face never hurt a cheap swindler”) but it only makes him more determined.  He knows there are no spirits, no ghosts and no afterlife.  He just needs to keep a close eye on her and work out her secrets.

Magic In The Moonlight is one-third comedy (which works), one-third mystery (which kind of works), and one-third romance (which doesn’t work).  Starting with the comedy, it’s an absurd situation and I couldn’t help but smile when listening to the fiery banter between Colin Firth and Emma Stone.  This isn’t Woody Allen’s best work but I’ll never grow tired of the witty, thought-provoking dialogue that laces so many of his films.

While it’s predictable in places, it’s nice to enjoy a movie that keeps you guessing until the end.  Who will finish with the upper hand?  Will Stanley finally pick up on Sophie’s tricks?  What if they’re not tricks?  Could she possibly be real?  It drags a little too long in the later stages but it’s still a fun ride. 

The film’s big weakness is its inability to sell the romance between these two leading characters.  I have no problem with the age difference (Firth is 53, Stone is 25).  It’s just hard to believe that young woman like Sophie could fall so easily in love with such a “caustic” individual.  It’s also a shame that more isn’t asked of the supporting cast – particularly the likes of Marcia Gay Harden and Australian Jacki Weaver.

Woody Allen makes one film every year (he’s as regular as clockwork) and his next effort will see him work with Emma Stone (again) and Joaquin Phoenix.  It’s currently being shot in Newport, Rhode Island and like all of his movies, I can’t wait to see it.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 01 September 2014

Michael Apted’s 7 Up series is one of great achievements in world of cinema.  For those unfamiliar, Apted made a documentary back in 1964 where he picked 14 British kids and asked them a bunch of questions.  He has met with them every 7 years since and the most recent instalment in his documentary series, 56 Up, was released back in 2012.

It’s a fascinating “big brother” type experiment.  We look back and see a bunch of excitable 7-year-olds talk about their interests and their big plans for the future.  Over time though, their priorities changed.  Some found success.  Some found much failure.  The series is a wonderful depiction of life and a look at how our perception of the world can change so quickly.

Writer-director Richard Linklater is an equally impressive director who has already taken this same concept and applied it in a fictional setting.  In 1995, he released Before Sunrise – a dialogue-driven drama that starred Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy as two people who meet in Vienna and spend the day together.  Nine years later he followed with Before Sunset and nine years after that, he finished the trilogy with Before Midnight.  Like the 7 Up series, we see these characters evolve.  Their discussions today are far different from those two decades ago… and many will be able to relate.

With Boyhood, Linklater has taken this concept one step further and provided us with one of the year’s most memorable films.  It’s a 2 hour, 45 minute epic that chronicles the process of “growing up”.  When we first meet Mason (Coltrane), he’s a 6-year-old who seems solely interested in playing video games.  Over the next 12 years, we see him attend school, make new friends, drink his first beer, try smoking, land a part-time job, discover his first love, and consider going to college.

What’s so special about the film is not just the story… but also the way it has been created.  This isn’t a movie that was shot over a period of 6 weeks with a bunch of different actors.  Linklater found a cast back in 2002 and he brought them together for a few days each year to shoot the necessary scenes.  So the 6-year-old Mason we see in the film’s opening scenes is played by the same guy we see as the 17-year-old Mason when the credits start to roll.  The risks were high (what if an actor wanted to pull out?) and the patience shown by Linklater to bring this project to the screen is to be admired.

I was particularly struck by the seamless way in which we jump between timeframes.  Instead of putting an obvious “one year later…” warning on the screen every 10 minutes or so, Linklater provides subtler ways for us to recognise the shift in time.  There are changes in Mason’s hairstyle, the use of different songs and video game consoles, and certain landmark events that are discussed (such as the release of the sixth Harry Potter book and the Obama election win).

While the focus of the film is Mason and his journey of self-discovery, much attention is also given to the up and down relationships he shares with his mother (Arquette), father (Hawke) and sister (played by Linklater’s own daughter).  The interaction and dialogue feels so natural.  I became so interested, so invested in these characters that I kind of wished they were real.  I wanted to know more.  I wanted to be able to follow them after the final scene.

The performances are all superb.  No matter who he cast as the 6-year-old Mason, Linklater was always going to be taking a gamble as he had to keep that actor right through until he was a mature 17-year-old.  Ellar Coltrane turned out to be a terrific choice and I loved the way in which his character develops into a softly-spoken introvert (most teenagers in movies these days are loud, busy, insightful).

The awards season is still a few months away but there’s talk that Boyhood has a great shot at landing Oscar nominations for best picture and best director.  It’s not hard to see why.  This is a beautiful motion picture that will release the valve on your own childhood memories.

You can read by chat with star Ellar Coltrane by clicking here.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 12 August 2014

James Cameron is a ridiculously successful filmmaker.  Think Terminator, Aliens, The Abyss and True Lies.  In 1997, he created the highest grossing motion picture of all time – Titanic pulled in more than $600m at the U.S. box-office and took home 11 Academy Awards.  Only one film since has made more money and amazingly enough, it was Cameron’s next feature, Avatar.  Sequels are currently in pre-production.

So what did he do with all his cash?  Well, I’m sure he bought himself a nice house and a few other bright shiny things… but as we see in this documentary, James Cameron is about more than just movies.  He’s an explorer who is fascinated by our planet’s oceans – the part that covers 71% of the Earth’s surface and yet remains such a mystery (evidenced by the recent disappearance of Malaysian Airlines Flight 370).

Deepsea Challenge is a documentary that follows Cameron’s attempts to build a submersible and travel to the deepest part of our ocean, the Mariana Trench.  Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it’s an 11,000m journey from the surface to the very bottom.  When you think that Mount Everest is just under 9,000m, it provides some perspective on just how deep we’re talking about.

It’s a film that’s very Cameron centric (perhaps too much so).  He provides a lot of narration to help us understand what he’s trying to achieve.  He makes the point that we’ve used Google Earth and Google Street View to document so much of the planet’s land surface.  We spend billions on space exploration, have sent several men to the moon, and have now placed a planetary rover to Mars.  He wants to raise awareness about the importance of the oceans to our own ecosystem (an area which he feels has been neglected) and also see what cool creatures can be found at the deepest depths.

Director Ray Quint, the man responsible for pulling all the footage together, has hedged his bets and tried to come up with a film that will please a broad audience.  If you’re a lover of science, exploration and research, you’re likely to be drawn into the film’s “educational” elements.  You can see how the submersible was created, what technology was utilised, and what samples were brought back to the surface for analysis.

On the other hand, if you’d prefer something a little more suspenseful, you’ll probably find yourself more interested in the film’s dramatic elements.  We all know that James Cameron lives to tell the tale… but you’ll still feel the tension as some of the test dives go pear shaped.  When you’re kilometres below the surface and locked in a tiny sphere with virtually no leg room, you don’t want to hear a loud crack (and yep, this does happen during the movie).

There aren’t any ground-breaking revelations and it’s too melodramatic in places but Deepsea Challenge is still an appealing documentary that shines the spotlight, both physically and metaphorically, on a very dark place.

You can read my chat with director Ray Quint and "star" James Cameron by clicking here.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 22 August 2014

Allow me to put forward a theoretical situation for you to consider.  You’ve achieved a major milestone at work and to celebrate, you go with your colleagues to a nearby pub for a few drinks.  It turns out to be a very long night and you end up chatting, drinking and partying until about 4am the following morning.

You’re not “hammered” but you’re almost certain that you’re over the 0.05% blood alcohol limit.  Still, you decide to risk it and drive home anyway.  It’s only a short trip and there be almost no cars on the road.

On the way, you pass a young teenager riding his bike and delivering newspapers.  You slow down and veer to the right to make sure that you give him enough room but you misjudge the distance.  The kid clips your left side view mirror and he falls from his bike.  You pull the car over to make sure that the teenager is alright… but it turns out that he’s not.  He’s not wearing his helmet and is now unconscious after hitting hit his head on the road surface.

It’s a quiet street.  There are no witnesses, no other cars, no CCTV cameras.  Let me now ask the question – what would you do in this situation?  Would you flee the scene and hope you don’t get caught?  Would you call an ambulance but then say that you just found the kid and had nothing to do with it?  Or would you confess to it all – telling the authorities that you were over the limit and were responsible for the accident?

If I had you on public radio, you’d probably say that you’d do what is “right” and confess.  The reality is that while we can speculate, we never know how we’re going to react in a particular situation until we experience it firsthand.  There are a substantial number of “hit and run” accidents in Australia.  The point I’m trying to make is that not all of these perpetrators are villainous monsters.  Some are just ordinary people who have made a snap decision, albeit a bad one, in a very stressful situation.

This concept gets to the heart of Felony – the new film from writer Joel Edgerton (The Square, The Rover) and director Matthew Saville (Noise, Please Like Me).  It centres on a celebrated police detective (Edgerton) who has caused an identical accident.  He does his best to help the unconscious kid by calling an ambulance and waiting for it to arrive… but doesn’t confess.  He tells the investigating detectives (played by Tom Wilkinson and Jai Courtney) that he just came across the scene and that he saw another car speeding off into the distance.

Edgerton has described this film as a “crowd participation movie”.  It’s like when you leave a child’s birthday party and are given a bag of lollies to take home.  He wants the experience and the discussion to continue after you’ve left the theatre.  It’s a big reason why two-time Academy Award nominated actor Tom Wilkinson was attracted to his own role.  This is a thought-provoking thriller that asks interesting questions.

How can we determine the difference between an unavoidable accident and a preventable act of negligence?  Even if we knew all the facts of a particular situation, is there a clear line that separates the two?  How easy is it to forgive someone for a tragic mistake?  Is it any easier if it’s a good person who has done the bad deed?  If we cover up a crime, why do we feel guilty?  Is it because we know we’ve done the wrong thing… or is more because we’re worried about being caught?

It’s a fantastic set up and while there is some great drama throughout, Felony stumbles in its later stages.  The finale has too many twists and too many convenient coincidences.  It’s hard to take seriously.  Thankfully, its messages aren’t lost and its questions still linger in my mind.

You can read my interview with writer-actor Joel Edgerton by clicking here.