Details

Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 20 December 2024

A sign of a great movie is its ability to generate meaningful conversation and in the case of Anora, that box is firmly ticked.  I saw this with a friend at the Brisbane International Film Festival back in October and then chatted about it for a solid hour over dinner.  There’s much to scrutinize in terms of the characters (they all have good and not-so-good qualities) but also about the style adopted by writer-director Sean Baker (The Florida Project).

Played by soon-to-be-Oscar-nominated Mikey Madison, the title character is a 23-year-old exotic dancer from New York City.  Anora turns on the charm at a popular strip club and gets horny guys to hand over $100 bills in return for lap dances and kind words.  It’s through a fortunate coincidence (she’s the only stripper who can speak the language) that she meets an excitable 21-year-old Russian named Vanya (Eydelshteyn).  He’s got plenty of cash to splash around given he is the son of a well-known Russian business tycoon.

It’s not long before they’re spending every day together.  The immature Vanya is loving the abundant sex (he’s a novice in that department) and having a beautiful “girlfriend” to show off at his extravagant New Year’s Eve party.  The hard-working Anora is dazzled by the Russian’s money (he gives her $15,000 to be “exclusive” with him for a week) and stunning waterfront home.  Do they share a true romantic connection?  Or is it more transactional?  It’s one of many questions for audiences to ponder.

I won’t say much more about the premise because it does move in unexpected directions.  I’ll describe it as a movie of three sections.  The opening act is a fun, sexual romance between two interesting people, the middle act is a surprising screwball comedy, and the final act is a meatier drama with the consequences of certain actions coming to the fore (like waking up with a bad hangover and regretting the night before).  The ending is perfect.

The two stars, Mikey Madison (Scream) and Mark Eydelshteyn (The Land of Sasha), are exceptionally convincing as Anora and Vanya.  The dialogue between them feels so natural as the converse in a mix of English and Russian.  In the same manner as a Coen Brothers movie, the supporting players are all distinctive and memorable.  It’s hard to pick a favourite!  I also loved the way the film humanises “henchmen” and shows they’re more than just dispensable morons. 

Anora arrives with hype having won the prestigious Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in May.  It’s a prize with a strong form line – the last four winners have been Parasite, Titane, Triangle of Sadness and Anatomy of a Fall (all are must-sees).  This year’s jury, presided over by filmmaker Greta Gerwig, deserve praise for another excellent choice.  One of the year’s best.

Details

Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 16 December 2024

Different strokes for different folks but when it comes to animation, Wallace & Gromit is right up my alley.  The duration is short, the characters are cute, and the use of Claymation is brilliant.  Most importantly, as we saw with the Shaun the Sheep spin-offs, there’s something to be said (pardon the pun) about a character who doesn’t speak.  It doesn’t matter if you understand English or not – a character’s facial expressions and body language are often more interesting than dialogue itself.

Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl is the 6^th entry in the franchise.  The Oscar winning short The Wrong Trousers kicked things off in 1993 and it’s been followed by three other shorts and one full-length animated feature from 2005, The Curse of the Were-Rabbit.  It might be worthwhile revisiting the original 29-minute short (currently streaming on Stan) as this new outing serves as a direct sequel which refers to previous plot points.

The film opens with the creative Wallace (Whitehead) continuing to invent semi-pointless household devices.  His latest contraption is Norbot (Shearsmith), a robotic gnome that performs chores in and around the home.  Wallace is chuffed with the creation but his loyal dog, Gromit, is less than impressed.  He’d rather tend to the backyard garden himself (he’s quite a green thumb) than have a one-size-fits-all robot do things for him.

The villain is a returning character from The Wrong Trousers.  The sneaky penguin Feathers McGraw has been incarcerated at the local zoo after attempting to steal a valuable diamond.  He hasn’t given up on his lofty, criminal ambitions and wants a second crack at the heist.  As part of his efforts, he also seeks revenge against Wallace, Gromit, and Chief Inspector Mackintosh (Kay) after they led to his capture the first time around.

With a run-time of just 79 minutes, Vengeance Most Fowl is easy-to-follow for kids with plenty of humour for adults.  Feathers McGraw doesn’t say a word and is built entirely from coloured clay… but he’s the equal of any James Bond baddie.  He’s such a fun character!  The interactions between Wallace and Gromit offer both laughs and heart.  They don’t always see eye-to-eye, but you sense the close connection which makes them best friends.

Receiving a short cinema release for the school holidays before screening on Netflix, Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl may appear to be simple but it’s one of the best animated releases of the year.  The series keeps delivering!

Details

Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 20 December 2024

Actor-turned-director Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network) drew on his own experiences in framing his sophomore feature film, A Real Pain.  In 2008, he travelled to Poland with his wife and visited the childhood home of his aunt.  He thought it would be a profoundly moving experience but, with no connection himself to the house or the township, it was an unmemorable, ho-hum moment.  He was surprised he didn’t feel more.

In making the story more cinematic, Eisenberg has turned it into the tale of two 30-something-year-old Americans, David (Eisenberg) and Benji (Culkin), who go on a week-long tour through Poland to understand their family heritage.  The pair are cousins (born just a few weeks apart) and whilst they were close growing up, they now live disparate lives and rarely cross paths.  David is a domesticated, ad salesman living in New York City with his wife and child, while Benji remains a weed-smoking “drifter” who still lives at home with his parents and has no career ambitions.

A Real Pain is one of the best releases of 2024 and that’s largely because of the two lead performances.  Emmy winner Kieren Culkin (Succession) is incredible as Benji.  His character is described as someone who “lights up a room and then shits on everything inside of it.”  It’s the perfect analogy.  There are moments on the tour when he’s warm, chatty and friendly but then, just as quickly, he transforms into one who is blunt, rude, and self-centred.  He doesn’t realise he’s doing it either and those around him don’t know how to react.

Culkin has the flashier, award-worthy role but Eisenberg is equally good as the cousin who, despite a full appreciation of Benji’s history and personality, doesn’t know how to react either.  David finds himself (unnecessarily) apologising on a daily basis for Benji’s bipolar-like behaviour but, worst of all, he’s suppressing his own problems.  This is partly because he’s a natural introvert with obsessive-compulsive disorder, but also because Benji’s more overt “cry for help” usually takes centre stage.  It explains the reason why he’s avoided Benji in recent years.

The interaction between these two is the film’s soul, but the other interesting subplot is the tour itself.  They visit a series of locations across Poland as their knowledgeable English guide (Sharpe) provides a history lesson.  It culminates with an emotional trip to the Majdanek concentration camp near Lublin.  Dialogue is used sparingly at this point in the film.  Recalling the atrocities that took place there in the 1940s provides perspective on the trivial issues of today we tend to overbake – a lesson for both the characters in the film and us as the audience.

Clocking in at a tight 90 minutes, A Real Pain deftly mixes comedy, drama and heart in achieving its goals.

Details

Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 11 December 2024

English author J.R.R. Tolkien penned four novels centred around a fictitious world he named “Middle Earth”.  All have been made into successful motion pictures.  The three Lord to the Rings movies won a combined 17 Academy Awards while the trio of Hobbit movies (one book padded out) made just shy of $3 billion USD at the global box-office.

In the same vein as the Star Wars franchise, the time has come for creatives to break away from the well-known narrative and find other stories to tell.  Tolkien included several appendices in his final novel, The Return of the King, and that’s provided the source material for this new animated tale, The War of the Rohirrim.  It’s set roughly 200 years before the events of The Lord of the Rings and while titbits of information are dropped connecting the two tales (it’s a bit clunky), this is largely a standalone adventure with new characters.

Three characters dominate the narrative.  Helm (Cox) is the long-time king of Rohan whose strength on the battlefield is balanced against his savvy diplomacy skills.  He’s well liked.  Héra (Wise) is only daughter while her mum died tragically in childbirth, she has developed into a tough, headstrong woman with a love for adventure and horseback riding.  Wulf (Pasqualino) is the heir to a rival tribe who seeks Héra’s hand in marriage and becomes infuriated when his forceful request is turned down.  It leads to the start of the war where many lives will be lost…

I’m not sure if they’re trying to pander to younger crowds but I’d call The War of the Rohirrim a simple story with not much nuance (even the violence is toned down).  Reminiscent of Merida in the 2012 Pixar film Brave, we’ve got a feisty heroine who isn’t bound by custom, and wants to forge her own independent path in a male-dominated landscape.  There’s a one-note, power-hungry villain who is driven solely out of a need for revenge.  Added a splash of colour and humour are an assortment of supporting players who provide Héra with assistance at opportune moments.  Character depth is lacking.

Still, I liked the anime-style approach and what 58-year-old Japanese director Kenji Kamiyama brings to the project with his decades of experience.  The animation is superb and I enjoyed the contrasts of certain scenes – two characters bloodily fighting on the battlefield… while the wind whistles and pristine white snow falls from above.  It’s the combination of both 2D and 3D animation and while I don’t profess to know the intricacies of the production values, I know the finished product looks damn good.

Opening the door for other spin-offs (animated or live-action), the box-office for The War of the Rohirrim will be a good litmus test in seeing how engaged audiences are in the Middle Earth universe.

You can read my chat with star Miranda Otto by clicking here.

Details

Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 19 December 2024

Writer-director Barry Jenkins has made two of the finest films of the past decade – the best picture Oscar winning Moonlight, and the equally impressive If Beale Street Could Talk.  Did I think he’d end up working for Walt Disney Pictures making a CGI-heavy, animated prequel to The Lion King?  Yeah, nah.  It’s an unexpected choice for Jenkins but you can’t fault the decision.  As seen repeatedly, including last week with Margin Call’s J.C. Chandor directing Kraven the Hunter, filmmakers want to know if the grass is greener on the other side (and put “green” in their pocket as part of the process).

He’s responsible for one of the most mocked sequels of all time, Speed 2: Cruise Control, but writer Jeff Nathanson has redeemed himself with screenplays for movies including Catch Me If You Can, Rush Hour 2, and Tower Heist.  You can add Mufasa: The Lion King to his list of better works.  The film’s messages are a bit too “in your face” but it’s a simple tale of bravery which younger crowds, as the target audience, will find easy to follow.

It’s odd to open (instead of closing) the movie with a dedication to James Earl Jones, who passed away three months ago, but it’s a nice segway into the narrative.  It serves as an origin story for a character he made famous, Mufasa.  Jones distinctive voice brought the strong, powerful lion to life in the original The Lion King from 1994 and the subsequent remake in 2019.  For this prequel, the younger version of Mufasa is aptly voiced by 30-year-old English actor Aaron Pierre (Brother).  He’s up to the challenge.

The crux of the story is centred on a baby Mufasa separated from his parents in a bad storm (he’s swept downriver), being raised as an outsider by a different pack of lions, and then trying to find his way back to his home.  He is accompanied by his adoptive brother (Harrison Jr), a gifted lioness (Boone), and a wise mandrill (Rafiki).  Adventures like this need a villain and so it’s time to introduce Kiros, a power-hungry lion who will kill any creature not from his pride.  He’s skilfully voiced by Dane Mads Mikkelsen (Another Round), the broad-ranging actor who can create someone immensely liked… or universally loathed (as is the case in Mufasa).

There’s a “current day” subplot involving the well-known Simba (Glover), Mufasa’s son, but it’s minor and largely unnecessary.  It feels too obvious in its attempts to add comedy, and reprise the roles of Seth Rogen and Billy Eichner from the 2019 release.  The songs didn’t do much for me either.  The film is at its best when it’s a sweeping adventure – from the heroic lions opening up about their fears… through to the fight sequences illustrated in crisp, clear detail.  The visuals are excellent.

Looking to pull in a big box-office haul, Mufasa: The Lion King has a good chance of success.