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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 30 July 2024

In a recent interview for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ digital magazine, writer Tony Spiridakis (If Lucy Fell) reflected on the saying – “If you’ve met one autistic child, you’ve met one autistic child.”  He himself is a parent with two neurodiverse sons but given all kids are different, he felt pressure in depicting such a relationship on screen and having it connect with audiences.  Spiridakis took on feedback from a range of folk, including long-time friend and director Tony Goldwin (Conviction), and Ezra is the finished product.  It premiered at the Toronto Film Festival last September and is now receiving a small release in cinemas across the globe.

The narrative is centred on the relationship between Max (Cannavale), a struggling comedian in search of a big break, and Ezzie (Fitzgerland), his autistic 11-year-old son having a tough time at school.  Max has a clear view in what’s best for his child but that doesn’t always align with those of his ex-wife (Byrne), the school principal, and doctors looking to prescribe drugs to moderate Ezzie’s behaviour.  Adding further complications are Max’s irregular work commitments which sometimes take precedence over Ezzie’s best interests.

Blending both comedy and drama, Ezra is a warm-hearted film which deftly illustrates the challenges of parental responsibility.  No character is perfect.  They have good intentions (there are no villains here) but they often make judgmental errors (as we all do) which create problems and anxiety.  Without giving too much away, Max and Ezzie go on a road trip across the country  It’s a metaphorically bumpy ride, but it deepens the father-son relationship and provides lifelong memories.

Ezra is a well-honed production.  The performances are wonderful with Bobby Cannavale (Blue Jasmine), Rose Byrne (Bridesmaids), and Robert DeNiro (Taxi Driver) all getting a chance to open their hearts and offer sage advice.  It was important to Goldwin and Spiridakis that a neurodiverse actor play the title role and they’ve hit the jackpot in finding 15-year-old William Fitzgerald who defies a lack of experience (it’s his acting debut) and adeptly captures his character’s pent-up emotions.

With cameos from the likes of Rainn Wilson (The Office) and Whoopi Goldberg (Ghost), Ezra provides a timely reminder that when it comes to being a supportive parent, no one is perfect.  Life is a continual journey of learning and discovery.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 22 July 2024

Spanish journalist-turned-author Francesc Escribano has always been attracted by the work of activists who “devote their lives to their beliefs.”  The subjects of his non-fiction books have included Salvador Puig Antich, a 25-year-old militant who was executed in 1974 for his involvement in bank robberies, and Pedro Casaldáliga, a libertarian Brazilian bishop who ran afoul of his country’s government and the Vatican during the second half of the 20^th Century.

Another of his works, first published in 2012, is the source material for The Teacher Who Promised the Sea, adapted for the screen by Albert Val and directed by Patricia Font (Cites).  It tells the story of Antoni Benaiges (Auquer), a Catalan teacher who was posted to a tiny, rural public school in northern Spain in 1934.  He introduced revolutionary teaching techniques which engaged his young students but his secular, left-leaning views earned the ire of the town’s religious and political leaders, and would ultimately lead to his death.

We know this from the outset as the film focuses on two timeframes.  The first is set in 2010 as a middle-aged woman, Ariadna (Costa), yearns to know more about her family’s past.  Her ailing grandfather is tight-lipped about his troubled upbringing, but she knows her great-grandfather was murdered in the 1930s during the Spanish Civil War.  Hearing about a recently discovered mass grave, she travels alone to the city of Burgos to see if it contains his skeletal remains and any other personal belongings.

The second timespan takes us back to 1935 where Ariadna’s granddad was a pre-teen kids in the classroom of Antoni Benaiges.  There’s no question Benaiges’s approach was unorthodox, but the children were absorbed, and the class size grew.  In addition to the basics of maths of Spanish, Benaiges had a small printing press and tapped into the students’ artistic creativity by having them write short stories which could be published.  One of these books centred on the children’s perception of the sea, which none of them had seen before, and inspired this film’s quirky title.

The world is filled with little-known true stories and The Teacher Who Promised the Sea is another great example of how cinema can be used to bring them to our attention.  It’s an absorbing, heartfelt movie with superb performances – from the happy-go-lucky Benaiges we see in 1935 through to the stressed, concerned Ariadna we meet in 2010.  The young children, despite limited acting experience, are also superb.  As director, Patricia Font deserves praise in weaving the two time periods together.  It’s as if we’re on the same knowledge-collecting expedition as Ariadna. 

Nominated for 5 Goya Awards (the Spanish Oscars) including best actor and best supporting actress, The Teacher Who Promised the Sea reminds us of humanity’s beauty… and tragedy.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 29 July 2024

American Adam Cooper has always wanted to be a feature film director but over the past two decades, Hollywood has tapped into his skills as a screenwriter.  His credits include Assassin’s Creed, Allegiant, and Exodus: Gods and Kings.  Cooper’s patient wait comes to and end with Sleeping Dogs which marks his directorial debut and is based on the novel “The Book of Mirrors” from Romanian author E.O. Chirovici.

Following the mould created by films including Memento and The Bourne Identity, Sleeping Dogs is a thriller where the protagonist suffers from memory loss and we, as the audience, go on a journey with them in search of answers.  Academy Award winner Russell Crowe (Gladiator) plays Roy Freeman, a retired homicide detective who lives alone and is struggling with early-onset dementia.  To limit its impact, he’s trying a revolutionary medical treatment, and the doctors ask that he “keep his mind active.”

He usually does this by completing jigsaw puzzles but since that wouldn’t make for an interesting movie, a contrived plot device is then used.  Roy is approached by an incarcerated individual, Isaac Samuel, who has served 10 years in prison for murder and will soon be executed.  He has consistently proclaimed his innocence and that he was “strung out” when a false confession was coerced out of him at unnecessarily intense interrogation.

The connection is that Roy headed the original investigation and in one final, desperate attempt for survival, Isaac seeks his help in re-examining the case.  Roy can’t remember any details (due to the dementia impacts) and so he digs out old paper files, visits retired colleagues, and re-interviews key witnesses.  I’m not sure how a retired cop has the legal authority to do any of this (he rocks up at a morgue at one point to inspect a body) but, in following the doctor’s advice, it’s keeping him busy.  As you might suspect, he uncovers several “loose ends” which seem to confirm Isaac’s claims of innocence…

Sleeping Dogs is the kind of movie that’s too tricky for its own good.  It wants to keep viewers on their toes with twist and turns, but they grow increasingly less credible.  The performances also lack sincerity and it’s if the actors were instructed to look/speak as dodgy and suspicious as possible.  Russell Crowe is an accomplished performer, but he can’t elevate this lacklustre screenplay.  It’s reminiscent of the corny, B-grade movies that would be released directly to video stores (bypassing cinemas) in the 1990s.

There’s a strong Australian connection as Sleeping Dogs was shot in Melbourne in 2023 and utilises local talent as part of the cast and crew.  I love promoting great Aussie cinema, but Sleeping Dogs is well below the required benchmark.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 15 July 2024

Author Lily Brett was born in Germany in 1946, grew up in Australia, and now makes a home for herself in the United States.  Her works (books, essays, poems) have received acclaim, and it was her most successful novel, Too Many Men, which won a Commonwealth Writers’ Prize when first published in 1999.  Drawing from her own life, it was the fictionalised tale of a middle-aged woman from Melbourne who took her aging Jewish father to Poland for the first time in four decades after surviving the Holocaust.

Brett’s novel is the source material for the re-titled Treasure, a cinematic adaptation directed and co-written by German Julia von Heinz (And Tomorrow the Entire World).  It features a largely unknown cast apart from the two leads.  Emmy nominee Lena Dunham (Girls) steps into the shoes of Ruth, a 36-year-old journalist travelling to Poland to learn about her family history and craft an article worthy of publication.  BAFTA nominee Stephen Fry (Gosford Park) plays Edek, her elderly father who accompanies his daughter on the trip and provides insight on his own Polish upbringing.

Set in 1991, Treasure is structured as a dark comedy, but the dramatic elements are more pronounced than the comedic ones.  Accompanied by their jack-of-all-trades taxi driver (Zamachowski), the pair visit Edek’s dilapidated childhood home from half-a-century ago and discover family heirlooms (a tea set, a silver bowl) they’d left behind after fleeing the Nazis.  They also visit the “museum” in Auschwitz where Ruth sees the camp building her father was detained in.  It triggers a flood of repressed memories which leaves you wondering if the trip is a help or a hindrance to Edek’s attitude and psyche.

The film’s most interesting layer is a more traditional one – an exploration of the relationship between father and daughter.  Edek is a “glass half full” guy who loves interacting with others and focuses on the positives of his current life.  Ruth is a “glass half empty” person who pours herself into work and is struggling to find a sustained sense of happiness.  The pair argue about trivial details at first, but things get more heated when Edek makes inferences about her failed marriage, and Ruth pushes for more information about her dad’s mental scars.

It’s repetitive in places and not all subplots add value (like Edek’s interaction with two Polish females at his hotel) but the thought-provoking interactions between Dunham and Fry make the film work as a whole.  Fry’s accent is a hammy but it’s still great to watch their respective characters as they push each other’s buttons.  They each get a chance to display likeability, vulnerability, and nastiness.

Selected to play out of competition at the Berlin Film Festival back in February, Treasure is worth a look-see.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 24 July 2024

Rewarded financially (top 10 at the annual box-office) and critically (nominated for a Producer’s Guild Award), Deadpool was what the film world needed when released in early 2016.  It broke the fourth wall, spoofed superheroes, and had (most) audiences laughing with its lewd insults.  I was less enamoured with the 2018 sequel but that was more a product of the weak script as opposed to the fun concept.

After a six-year hiatus, Deadpool (Reynolds) returns at a time when he’s needed more than ever.  That’s not just because the world needs saving from a destructive baddie but also, because superhero movies are losing favour with the public.  Since the turn of the decade, just one release (the creative Spider-Man: No Way Home) has grossed more than $1 billion USD at the global box-office.  This compares with 13 movies, headlined by Avengers: Endgame, which achieved that milestone in the 2010s.

I can happily report that Deadpool & Wolverine is an entertaining riot.  It taps into my dark, puerile sense of humour (admitting that’s not for everyone), refers to other superheroes (some long forgotten), and weaves in the intellectual property squabbles of big Hollywood studios.  As a Family Guy fan, the approach is reminiscent of segments where they mercilessly mock the inconsistencies in iconic films such as Star Wars and The Shawshank Redemption.  It appears no topic is off limits in this new sequel – including the personal lives of the cast.

While it’s structured as an Austin Powers-style spoof, the most surprising positive in Deadpool & Wolverine is the worthy narrative at its core.  Our two heroes are unwillingly transported to a desolate, Mad Max-like universe where they encounter Cassandra Nova (Corrin), the cold-hearted sister of X-Men founder Professor Charles Xavier.  She’s one of the best villains we’ve seen in recent years (her “fingering” is fantastic), and when you throw in a fun performance from Emmy winner Matthew Macfadyen (Succession) as a similarly nasty individual, you’ve got the necessary ingredients for a classic good versus evil tale.

I’ve been a vague in terms of plot and that’s because the less you know going in, the better.  An example is how they explain the return of Wolverine (Jackman) given he was killed off in 2017’s Logan (an Oscar nominee for best adapted screenplay).  The up-and-down interaction between Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman is terrific as they attack each other physically (brutal fights) and verbally (sharp barbs), but slowly grow closer in pursuit of common goals (love a good double entendre).

With countless references to plot points in past cinematic universes (some you’ll get, some you’ll miss) and a well-timed soundtrack including everything from NSYNC to Olivia Newton-John, Deadpool & Wolverine is a clear winner.  See it on the big screen with a big crowd!