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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 02 March 2022

It’s a stretch at 2 hours, 56 minutes but to the film’s credit, it doesn’t waste time on a long-winded introduction establishing Batman’s origins.  We know he’s Bruce Wayne and that he was orphaned at a young age.  We know he’s a filthy rich recluse and is aided by a loyal butler.  We know he goes out at night to help rid Gotham City of its gangsters and criminals.  If you’ve seen one of the many cinematic interpretations of this character (there’s even a LEGO version), none of this is new information.

So… it’s straight into the story and the action.  Gotham is as corrupt as it’s ever been and a masked man, known as The Riddler (Dano), is intent on exposing the dirty, powerful men behind it.  The mayor is his first victim and that’s followed by other respected, high-profile individuals who have been engaged in illegal activity for many years.

Some in the community see The Riddler as a hero but given the way he brutally kills his victims, as opposed to letting them have their day in court, Batman (Pattinson) paints him as a villain who must be identified and apprehended.  To paraphrase – “the city may be beyond saving but he has to try.”  Those offering support include police officer James Gordon (Wright), putting his neck out to provide Batman with access to crime scenes, and Selina Kyle (Kravitz), a well-connected nightclub bartender with hidden skills.

I’ve seen stronger stories.  The writers build early intrigue but the more it progresses, the more you realise it’s a simplistic tale of corruption with little nuance.  I hoped for more.  The Riddler could easily have been the most interesting character but we don’t spend enough time with him to understand his mindset and methods.  Without giving too much away, how did he orchestrate it all?  His key scenes generally involve gruesome/creative killings as opposed to insightful conversations with others.

Batman himself lacks complexity.  He’s so emotionless and forlorn that it makes me wonder how he gets out of bed of a morning!  Why does he keep doing what he’s doing?  We get a splash of detail through the use of narration but I wish the filmmakers delved more into his depressing nature as opposed to sequences where he cases crime scenes quicker than Sherlock Holmes and solves riddles faster than a Mensa member.  

The limitations of the screenplay are offset by the stellar direction of Matt Reeves (Cloverfield, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes) and cinematography of Australian Grieg Fraser (Zero Dark Thirty, Dune).  I lost track of the number of times I thought “whoa, that’s a great shot!”  It all takes place at night (I’m not sure when these characters sleep) and it allows them to make great use of light and shadow in creating a stylish superhero movie.  Kudos also goes to the editing team of William Hoy and Tyler Nelson for using their tools selectively instead of abundantly.

Creating enough points of difference to distinguish itself from the successful Christopher Nolan-helmed Batman trilogy, The Batman is dark, interesting… and a little frustrating.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 13 February 2022

Flee is the first film to be nominated at the Academy Awards for best animated feature and best documentary feature.  If that strange combination hasn’t tweaked your curiosity, the fact it’s also nominated for best international feature should put it on the radar for any discerning filmgoer looking for a slice of quality, original cinema.  My opinion is equally rapturous.  It’s one of the best releases of the past year.

Director Jonas Poher Rasmussen first met the film’s subject, Amin Nawabi (not his real name), when they were teenagers living in Denmark.  They’ve been friends for 25 years but it’s only now that Amin has had the confidence to cathartically open up and speak of his traumatic upbringing.  Using the medium of animation allows Rasmussen to keep Amin’s identity hidden while also illustrating key events from his past in rich, articulate detail.

Amin was born in the 1970s and grew up with his two parents and three other siblings in Afghanistan.  His father disappeared in 1979 after being arrested by the communist government and then when war broke out in the early 1990s, he and the rest of the family fled to Russia as refugees.  It was tough going.  They had next-to-no money and they lived in constant fear of being “discovered” and sent back home to Afghanistan to face persecution.

Today, Amin is a successful academic but the film skilfully articulates the impact of events 30 years ago and how they still shape his life today.  Even with the people closest to him, Amin keeps this story hidden – worried that someone will use it against him one day.  Keeping such secrets for so long, coupled with the fact he’s been a closeted gay man, has had a huge impact on his personality and his relationships.  You can’t help but wonder what he’d be like now if not for the trauma in his life.

I love Rasmussen’s use of animation.  The current day interviews still look and feel like a documentary.  We see two men sitting in front a camera with one asking questions of the other. The lens occasionally loses focus too!  There are also moments where “off the record” conversations have seemingly been captured via a camera kept at a distance.  Different styles of animation are adopted for the film’s flashback scenes.  This is best articulated by sequences involving people traffickers where the simplest, barest of sketches is used.

Flee is an incredibly moving film that highlights the emotional scars forever carried by refugees.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 28 February 2022

Released in 2013, Red Obsession was a terrific Australian-made documentary that looked at China's newfound fixation for French red wine.  It highlighted that wine had been transformed from something people drink… into an “investment” that was too valuable to touch.  Narrated by Russell Crowe, the film articulately covered the subject from a range of angles including a detailed look at wine economics.  It’s worth hunting down if you haven’t seen it.

Warwick Ross, one of Red Obsession’s co-directors, is back with a new documentary which again takes us inside a lesser-known part of the wine industry.  Described as “the Olympics of wine tasing”, The World Wine Tasting Championships is an annual event that’s been conducted in France since 2013.  Each competing country is represented by a 4-person team and they are given the same 12 wines – 6 red and 6 white.  They score points for identifying the grape variety, country, name, producer, and vintage.  Teams train for months in advance by sampling and critiquing the widest variety of wines possible.

Blind Ambition focuses on the 2017 event and follows 4 unlikely men from Zimbabwe who are competing for the first time.  The film’s first half delves into their troubled upbringing.  They all overcame much poverty and adversity in Zimbabwe before fleeing to South Africa as refugees in search of a better life.  They didn’t know each other beforehand and none of them had a background in wine.  The only stumbled into the industry after landing small jobs in restaurants.  Their stories are both compelling and inspiring.

The film’s second half sees them raise 6,500 pounds and travel to Burgundy to take on the world’s best wine tasters.  It’s amazing how far they’ve come!  The tale has a Cool Runnings-type vibe with an interviewee describing it as “like Egypt putting together a skiing team for the Winter Olympics.”  Adding a splash of humour is their meddling, talkative coach who is as much a hindrance as a help.  Ross, along with co-director Robert Coe, get some wonderful footage to build suspense as the competition unfolds.

If you’re someone who likes seeing good things happen to good people, Blind Ambition deserves your attention.  It shines the spotlight on a cool, fascinating wine competition but, more broadly, it reminds us that to achieve big things, we must first be given an opportunity.  The faith shown by many people in these refugees is a testament to that.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 13 February 2022

55-year-old writer-director Mike Mills has always had a love for artists who were honest, open and revealing, and it’s a major reason why he’s drawn heavily from personal experiences in crafting his last three movies.  Beginners, which won Christopher Plummer a long overdue Academy Award, was inspired by his father who came out as gay at the age of 75.  His follow up, the brilliant 20^th Century Women, featured a lead character based on his late mother (star Annette Bening wore her actual jewellery).

Mills became a father himself in early 2012 and C’mon C’mon was born from his learnings as a dad and the “powerful intimacy” that develops between a parent and their child.  The central protagonist here is Johnny (Phoenix), a radio journalist working on a major project where he interviews tweens across the United States and asks them about their thoughts on the world and where it’s heading.  This too is drawn from Mills’ life since he completed a similar project for the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in 2013 and was surprised by the “dark” answers provided by some of the interviewees.

The unmarried Johnny spends a lot of time speaking to children but has none of his own.  It’s not something that bothers him.  He seems content living alone in his New York City apartment and pouring time and energy into his work.  That changes when Johnny gets a call from his not-so-close sister (Hoffmann) asking if he can look after her 8-year-old son, Jesse (Norman), for a few days in Los Angeles while she deals with issues relating to her separated husband (McNairy).

The bulk of the film is spent watching the pair interact.  Jesse is sharp and inquisitive but also a little weird and rebellious.  He’s at that loss-of-innocence age where he’s starting to understand his own emotions and the impact he can have on others.  Johnny finds the “babysitting” experiment to be both rewarding and exhausting.  It’s the first time in his life he’s been responsible for a child’s wellbeing and he soon relishes the chance to shape his nephew’s future by passing on his own wisdom and values.  Sometimes it's as simple as treating Jesse to great local pizza.  Sometimes it’s as complex as answering Jesse’s probing questions about his knotty relationship with his sister.

The performances are all outstanding.  British (you wouldn’t know it from his accent) newcomer Woody Norman was just 10 years of age when the film was shot in late 2019 and is a revelation.  The banter between he and Joaquin Phoenix (Joker) is so natural and effortless that it’ll make you wonder if it was all improvised (it wasn’t).  Gaby Hoffmann (Now and Then) is also terrific as the anxious mother.  The frank back-and-forth between Hoffmann and Phoenix where they open up about parenting is both humorous and insightful.

Shot in black-and-white to help give the film an “iconic, fable-like quality”, the memorably titled C’mon C’mon is another high point in the career of Mike Mills.  The way he can make audiences care so deeply about characters in the space of two hours is a skill many other filmmakers struggle to master.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 21 February 2022

“Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive!”  The line is from Scottish poet Sir Walter Scott but it could also be used to describe the plot of Cyrano, a movie based on a stage musical based on the play.  The original source material is Cyrano de Bergerac, a romantic tale set in the 17^th century authored by French dramatist Edmond Rostand and first performed in Paris in 1897.  The work has been adapted many times of the screen including Roxanne, released in 1987 and starring Steve Martin, and a 1990 French version which earned 5 Academy Award nominations including a nod for the iconic Gérard Depardieu.

Those familiar with previous iterations will know it’s centred on an intelligent man with an unusually large nose, Cyrano, who doesn’t believe he’s attractive enough to land the woman of his dreams, Roxanne.  The pair have been friends for many years with Cyrano never revealing his true feelings.  Then along comes Christian, a young, good-looking military man who captures Roxanne’s eye.  Christian asks for Cyrano’s help in wooing Roxanne and, when one lie leads to another, we end up with a love triangle that becomes increasingly complex with each passing day.

Writer Erica Schmidt was commissioned to transform Rostand’s play into a musical and it was first performed in Chester, Connecticut in 2018.  The biggest change in her adaptation is that she’s ditched Cyrano’s ridiculously large nose and made his perceived weakness less obvious.  The Cyrano we see is of short stature and it’s why he’s so insecure about his appearance.  This change also allowed Schmidt to cast her husband, Emmy-winning actor Peter Dinklage (Game of Thrones), in the lead role (call it nepotism if you want but Dinklage is still terrific).

Director Joe Wright (Atonement) saw the stage musical and reached out to Schmidt with hopes of bringing it to the big screen.  This is the end result and, as we’ve seen with other recent Hollywood musicals, it tries to preserve the intimacy of the story while making things a little grander in terms of sets and costumes.  Dinklage and Hayley Bennett (The Magnificent Seven) reprise their roles from the stage and have been joined by Kelvin Harrison Jr (Waves) and Australian Ben Mendelsohn (Animal Kingdom) in the key supporting roles.

It’s an old-fashioned story which has been beautifully told.  Like something out of a Shakespearean comedy, the characters humorously skirt around the bleeding obvious without harnessing the courage to express their inner thoughts.  It’s something many will relate to – a classic fable of unrequited love.  You can sense Cyrano’s love for Roxanne (“even her imperfections are perfect”) but understand his timidness when comparing himself to the handsome Christian.  His secret love letters also remind us how the pen can be mightier than the sword.

The songs, sung live on set as opposed to in a sound stage, have been cleverly constructed by Aaron and Bryce Dessner (music), and Matt Berninger and Carin Besser (lyrics).  They don’t fall into the trap of being over-written and instead, keep things simple and offer insight into these characters and their deepest feelings.  They may not be as memorable as a West Side Story but they suit the film’s tone.

Musicals have found it tough going at the box-office over the past year and, while Cyrano may meet the same fate, it’s still worth your time and attention.

You can read my interview with star Kelvin Harrison Jr by clicking here.