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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 28 January 2025

Born in the United States to Greek parents, Maria Callas is considered one of the great opera singers of all time.  She rose to fame in the 1950s with unforgettable performances in Verdi’s La traviata, Bellini’s Norma, and Puccini’s Tosca.  Callas died in 1977 at the relatively young age of 53 but her voice will forever be heard thanks to recordings, both audio and video, which can be savoured online.

With films including Post Mortem and No (a favourite of mine), Chilean director Pablo Larraín built a strong resume in highlighting key events within his home country.  That’s shifted over the past decade and his attention has turned towards powerful, often misunderstood women from the Western world.  He has delved into the lives of Jacqueline Kennedy in Jackie, Princess Diana in Spencer, and now Maria Callas in Maria.  Natalie Portman and Kristen Stewart earned Oscar nominations for their performances but Angelina Jolie, a former winner herself for Girl, Interrupted, missed out.

English screenwriter Steven Knight (Dirty Pretty Things, Peaky Blinders) has taken my preferred approach when it comes to biopics – focusing on a small chapter of someone’s life.  It provides ample time to dig deep (as opposed to the rush of squashing 50 years into 2 hours).  Interestingly though, he’s selected the final week of Callas’s life in September 1977 as she contemplates a comeback while battling serious health issues.  We do get a glimpse of her upbringing and achievements, but this is via fast-paced flashbacks.

The crux of Larraín’s movie is therefore centred around Callas’s interactions with two long-standing servants.  Her loyal butler, Ferruccio (Favino), is struggling himself with a dodgy back but he’s built a strong enough relationship with his employer that he’s not afraid to openly question some of her decisions.  Her caring housemaid, Bruna (Rohrwacher), is a little more subdued but she’s equally concerned about Callas’s physical and mental decline.  I enjoyed the subtle power games between the trio as they try to take the upper hand.

As surprising as it may sound, I enjoyed Maria more for its comedic playfulness than its historical drama.  Callas is portrayed as a good-natured person, but she also had a cheeky side who loved playing the “diva”.  From hiding pills throughout her bedroom, through to booking appointments at restaurants and hair salons, Callas made the most of her notoriety.  Jolie, in her first film role in three years, seems to have as much fun as the audience with her attention-seeking performance.

The laughs aren’t enough to compensate for the film’s shortcomings, and I still don’t think I have a clear picture of who Callas was.  A fair chunk of time is spent covering the weird relationship she had with Aristotle Onassis (Bilginer) but it’s unfulfilling.  Did we need the JFK cameo?  I was also unsure about the plot device in which Callas speaks with a young journalist (Smit-McPhee) and in doing so, creates a form of narration to help drive the story.

I enjoyed both Jackie and Spencer (worthy of an A-) but Maria is clearly the weakest in Pablo Larraín’s unorthodox trilogy.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 16 January 2025

Premiering in 1941, The Wolf Man was a successful horror film about a man bitten by a werewolf and subsequently transformed into one.  The creature never garnered the same popularity as Dracula or Frankenstein, but Hollywood still had two cracks at reinvigorating the character for 21^st Century audiences.  Van Helsing (2004) featured Will Kemp in a supporting role, whereas The Wolfman (2010) saw Oscar winner Benicio del Toro front and centre.

After the critical and commercial success of The Invisible Man, released in early 2020, Australian writer-director Leigh Whannell (Saw) now gets his chance to tell an origin story about the famed character.  Set in the current day, it’s centred on a married couple and their young daughter.  Charlotte (Garner) is a journalist, Blake (Abbott) is an unemployed writer, and Ginger (Firth) is their fun-loving child.  The trio have taken a short holiday to a remote, forested location in Oregon so that Blake can show his family the small house where he grew up.

Suffice to say the trip doesn’t go as expected.  They crash their mini truck on route, Blake is bitten by something, and… well… I think you can guess what happens next.  As Charlotte, Emmy winner Julia Garner (Ozark) is the film’s prominent character.  She doesn’t know what to make of the situation at first – are the greater risks inside or outside the house?  With no mobile phone reception to alert the authorities (surprise, surprise), the burden falls on her shoulders in keeping their daughter safe.

Whannell gives it his best shot with the creepy setting and noises (thumbs up to the sound engineers) but, in the same vein as previous Wolfman flicks, I didn’t find the character that interesting.  There’s nothing particularly sinister about his actions or motives (he can’t control what he’s doing) and he’s just someone who transforms from human to wolf.  I prefer villains who are more cunning, calculating, and worthy of rooting against (like what Whannel brilliantly created in The Invisible Man).

I also struggled to buy into the nuances of the screenplay.  Given her life is in danger, I was surprised by Charlotte’s lack of urgency and awareness at times.  Where’s the stress?  Where’s the panic?  She knows there’s something bad outside so why be so slow to close the front door?  I’ve no issue with Charlotte being the film’s hero and so why not give her more dialogue and emotion?

Wolfman isn’t a bad film but it’s not a particularly good one either.  Middle-range horror.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 20 January 2025

A Complete Unknown has become the big over-performer this awards season.  Pundits were iffy on its chances a few months ago but it’s been nominated for the top prize by the three major industry bodies – the Screen Actors Guild, the Directors Guild, and the Producers Guild.  It also picked up 6 BAFTA nominations (including best film) and is likely to be honoured further when the Academy Awards nominations are unveiled later this week.

Music biopics tend to follow a predictable path but director James Mangold, no stranger to the topic having made Walk the Line two decades ago, has done enough to make this different.  This isn’t the kind of movie where Bob Dylan’s achievements are ticked off like a shopping list.  Rather, it looks only at the start of his career (1961 to 1965) and is focused more on who he was as opposed to what he did.  There are a lot of songs (you could almost call this a musical) and its through Dylan’s own lyrics that we understand his personality and perspective on the world.

I’ve been in the Timothée Chalamet fan club since his Oscar-nominated, breakout performance in 2017’s Call Me by Your Name.  Refusing to be typecast, he’s since proven himself across a range of genres including romance (Little Women), historical drama (The King), action (Dune), horror (Bones and All), comedy (The French Dispatch), and family (Wonka).  It’s a resume any actor would be proud of.

A Complete Unknown is another fresh challenge in that he’s playing a well-known, real-life person for the first time.  Chalamet does a brilliant job is capturing Dylan’s essence without slipping into caricature.  His singing is particularly impressive!  You can feel the emotion (tingle down your spine stuff) as his character goes on stage and reels the audience in with his charm and lyrics.  Part of the credit goes to vocal coach Eric Vetro, who worked with Austin Butler on Elvis, in helping shape Chalamet’s voice.

The three main supporting players are Elle Fanning (Maleficent) as his on-again-off-against girlfriend Sylvie Russo, Edward Norton (Primal Fear) as folk music mentor Pete Seeger, and Monica Barbaro (Top Gun: Maverick) as performing partner Joan Baez.  It’s hard to pick a favourite (they’re all great) but Norton was the slightly standout for me.  I enjoyed the interplay between he and Chalamet as the power dynamic between Dylan and Seeger shifts over time.

Finishing on a humorous note at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, A Complete Unknown is a fitting tribute to a music icon.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 13 January 2025

There’s at least one in every awards season.  I’m talking about an Oscar-touted flick which, for whatever reason, I think is overrated.  They’re not particularly bad films but, out of the 200 odd movies I’d see each year, they’re not even close to making my annual top 10.  Recent examples which spring to mind include Elvis, CODA, Promising Young Woman, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, and Bohemian Rhapsody. 

The movie which fills that spot from the current crop is Emilia Pérez, the latest from 72-year-old director Jacques Audiard (A Prophet), which has been hyped since it won the Jury Prize (quasi 3^rd place) at the Cannes Film Festival last May.  It recently won the Golden Globe for best musical/comedy and is likely to be showered with Oscar nominations when soon released.

There aren’t a lot of songs, but the film is classified as a “musical” and is centred on a powerful Mexican gang leader, Manitas (Gascón).  Background details are scant but from what we see in a quick introduction, he’s a much-feared individual with a small army of henchmen who help carry out illegal drug trades and murders.

What happens next is not something I’ve seen in a gangster flick before.  Manitas wants “out” of the crime business, and he also wants to fulfill a long-time ambition of having a sex change operation.  He engages the services of as astute lawyer, Rita (Saldaña), to serve as organiser and confidant.  The plan is to fake his own death, have the required surgery, and begin a completely new life.  Manitas will completely leave his past behind – including his wife Jessi (Gomez) and two young children.

We then skip four years ahead where Manitas, now a woman named Emilia Pérez, is happy with life… with one exception.  She misses her kids!  To fix this issue, she weaves her way back into their world by pretending to be Manitas’s long-lost cousin and moving back in with the family.  It’s like a darker retelling of Mrs. Doubtfire – not even Jessi realises the woman living in her home is the husband she believes is dead.

It’s a convoluted narrative which I struggled to buy into.  Why did Manitas want to live life as a woman and leave the family behind?  Was it that easy to fake a death and disappear without a trace?  What had Emilia been doing for the last few years?  Did no one suspect anything?  Stars Karla Sofía Gascón and Zoe Saldaña deliver credible performances but it’s not enough to overcome the limitations of the screenplay.

My biggest grievance is the redemptive character arc provided to Manitas/Emilia.  The current day individual is a kind-hearted person who starts a charitable business but why?  Does having a sex change operation also transform your personality?  Given Rita knows Emilia’s murderous past, why does she keep working with them?  Jacques Audiard pushes too hard in making the title character a likeable hero.  I wanted to them judged more harshly.  If you murder someone and then show the cops where the body is buried, does that make you a nice guy?

I’ll applaud the film’s cinematography and unorthodox musical approach.  It’s weird… but in an entertaining, attention-grabbing way.  I only wish I felt as positively about the script.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 20 January 2025

When it comes to 3 ½ hour epic period piece movies worthy of multiple Oscar nominations, Martin Scorsese (The Irishman, Killers of the Flower Moon) has cornered the market.  Until now.  Director Brady Corbet, who got into the industry as a child actor in the early 2000s, has wowed festival audiences with The Brutalist and it’s currently a serious contender for several Academy Awards including best picture (where it’ll be the 3rd longest nominee in history).

Corbet, working with co-writer Mona Fastvold (director of The World to Come), has split his creation into two distinct chapters with a 15-minute intermission for the film’s cinema release.  It’s a fun, old-school novelty and when I caught this at the Brisbane International Film Festival back in October 2024, there was a hurried rush for the exits at the midway mark as patrons sought bathrooms and the candy bar.  They’d return to a countdown clock informing them of the second half kick-off time.

The Brutalist is set in Philadelphia in the years following the conclusion of World War I.  László Tóth (Brody) is a Hungarian-Jewish architect who, on surviving the Holocaust, fled his home in a Budapest and moved to the United States.  He’s a sharp, well-educated man but as he’s looked down upon as an immigrant foreigner, the only work he can find is designing simple desks and chairs for his cousin’s (Nivola) small furniture store.  The scales seem heavily stacked against László in his pursuit of the “American Dream”.

His big break arrives when engaged to design and build a library for a wealthy businessman, Harrison Lee Van Buren (Pearce).  The project is celebrated (although not at first) and years later, Harrison ambitiously seeks to build a multi-purpose community centre to solidify his nice-guy image and philanthropic legacy.  László is brought in as architect who, with a few more dollars in the bank, now lives with his wife (Jones) and niece (Cassidy).  It sounds like a dream job but László still can’t shake the fact he’s seen as a second-class citizen to those who wield the power and control the purse strings.

The runtime may be a deterrent, but The Brutalist is one of the year’s best movies and worthy of the acclaim it has received since its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival last September.  Adrian Brody (The Pianist) is terrific in creating a multi-dimensional lead character who is both heroic and flawed.  There are times when he is unfairly treated and discriminated against but on the flip side, there are times when he’s his own worst enemy because of drug use and an inflexible disposition.  Guy Pearce (Memento) is equally impressive as the entrepreneur who is as charming as he is manipulative.

Filled with great conversations (loved the one between Brody and Pearce at a library launch party), the themes within The Brutalist are as relevant today as they’ve ever been.  So much of the first world has been built on the back of immigrant labour and yet it’s easily forgotten.  The film also has something to say about architecture, the way it is shaped by the time, and the legacy it leaves.  Here in Brisbane, many old Queenslander homes were built 100+ years ago and while their designers are long dead and forgotten, what they left behind still shape the culture and way-of-life in suburbs today.

With cinematography and music that elevate the material even further, The Brutalist is a powerful piece of cinema.