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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 16 May 2024

I didn’t expect to be saying this after first watching the rudimentary, family-friendly trailer… but IF is a befuddling filmgoing experience.  I’m not sure what to make of it.  Front and centre throughout is Bea (Fleming), a softly spoken young girl with good manners and impeccable handwriting.  The opening scenes provide limited insight into Bea’s current state – her mother passed away of cancer many years ago, her happy-go-lucky dad (Krasinski) about to undergo surgery for a heart condition, and she’s currently living in a beautiful New York City apartment with her welcoming grandmother (Shaw).

It’s upstairs in the apartment building that she befriends Cal (Reynolds), a man running a small business which tries to find new homes for imaginary friends, known by the acronym IF for short.  Each one of the IFs had a child at some point in their lives but as the kids’ aged, the IFs were soon dispensed and forgotten.  Sounds a little like Toy Story, right?  It is not immediately explained but Bea has the power to see the IFs (no one else can) and, with nothing better to do, she teams up with Cal and becomes part of his operations.

There’s a lot of elements I enjoyed.  From the detail in the apartment building (so much clutter) to a fantasy sequence at an IF living centre, the production values are terrific.  The music score of Oscar winning composer Michael Giacchino (Up) finds the right blend of light and heavy.  17-year-old Cailey Fleming (The Walking Dead) is very good as Bea and I love the simplicity and delicacy she brings to the characters.  There’s also fun to be had in identifying the array of Hollywood A-listers who provide quick cameos in voicing the imaginary friends.

But what does it all add up to though?  Folks talk about imagination, artistry, and storytelling but is there supposed to be a deeper theme here which passed me by?  The IFs seemed to be having a decent time on their own so why did they so desperately want to connect with kids again?  There are no villains, there’s very little in the way of tension, and the important relationship between father and daughter is not given enough attention.  There are moments where it feels like an episode of Sesame Street with its lengthy comedic skits about weird looking creatures getting into mischief.  With a staggeringly high budget of $110 million USD (not sure how), I’m not clear on the film’s target audience.

Writer-director John Krasinski (A Quiet Place) is a talented filmmaker but IF feels like a mishmash of ideas which looked good on paper… but don’t come together on screen.  Tred carefully with this one.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 26 April 2024

The inspiration for Iranian-British filmmaker Babak Jalali (Radio Dreams) came from the real-life stories of Afghan refugees living in the San Francisco Bay Area.  These people had risked their lives working as translators for American soldiers during the war against the Taliban in Afghanistan and in return, they were granted safe passage to the United States.  From there however, they had been largely forgotten about and left to fend for themselves.

Jalali’s film is centred on the fictional Donya, beautifully played by newcomer Anaita Wali Zada in her first acting role.  She’s a former Afghan translator who emigrated to California eight months ago and now works in a Chinese fortune cookie production factory in the city of Fremont.  It’s a lonely existence.  She resides in a tiny apartment (her bedroom only has room for a single bed), lives off a meagre income, and has no family to spend time with (they’re all back in Afghanistan).  Her only friend is a chatty work colleague, and they’ll often exchange text messages of an evening.

We’ve all got a different sense of humour but if you like your comedies dark and dry, Fremont is for you!  The inner workings of the fortune cookie company are hilarious as Donya interacts with a semi-deluded boss, an elderly lady who can barely use a computer, and a broken coffee machine.  Laughs are also drawn from her appointments with an offbeat, book-loving therapist (Turkington) who reluctantly prescribes sleeping pills to help with her insomnia.  Even the innocuous dinner scenes in a rundown restaurant (she’s the only customer) deserve a shout out.

These chuckles are balanced seamlessly with the more dramatic themes of loneliness and self-worth.  It is sometimes hard to “get a read” on Donya given her emotionless expressions but as the film progresses, we get a better sense of her character’s mental health.  It really hits home in the final half-hour as she meets a mechanic, delicately played by recent Emmy winner Jeremy Allen White (The Bear), who is in similar need of conversation and companionship.  It has been a while since I was cheering so strongly for two characters to get together – they just need to harness the courage and open up.

At the recent Independent Spirit Awards, Fremont won the John Cassavetes Award which goes to the year’s best film with a budget of less than $1 million.  Shot in distinctive black and white, Fremont is a funny, big-hearted reminder that you don’t need big dollars to make a great movie.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 13 May 2024

Alexandre Dumas’ 1844 novel has been translated for cinema many times, but this is the first French adaptation since the not-so-well-reviewed Revenge of the Musketeers hit theatres in 1994.  Just a teenager at the time, Martin Bourboulon can remember being taken on set by his father, Frederic, who served as the film’s producer.  There’s a sense of serendipity at play here as Martin, who followed his dad into the industry, is now directing his own big screen interpretation of The Three Musketeers.

“Big” is the right word to use.  The budget was €72 million (huge for a French flick), the shoot took 150 days, and there are two movies in all (both roughly 120 minutes each).  French audiences had to wait nine months between instalments but here in Australia, the gap is much narrower.  Hot off its showing at the French Film Festival, The Three Musketeers: D'Artagnan gets its turn in cinemas this week with The Three Musketeers: Milady arriving next month on June 6.

Previous adaptations have emphasised the novel’s comedic elements (such as the 1993 American version starring Chris O’Donnell) but here, the two-man writing team have gone with a heavier, Game of Thrones-type vibe.  It’s still set in the 17^th Century, but they’ve taken the opportunity to look at Dumas’ work through a more current day, progressive lens.  As examples, one of the Musketeers is bisexual, and they’re considerably more respectful of women. 

For those unfamiliar with the material, it’s centred on the young D'Artagnan (Civil) who, driven by a desire to serve and protect the king, befriends three influential musketeers and falls under their tutelage.  He’s immediately caught up in a conspiracy involving murder and manipulation, and so the expanded quartet go on a mission to find out who’s responsible.  One person in their sights is the maleficent Milady de Winter (Green) who is as cunning as she is seductive.

The story isn’t the easiest to follow (lots of characters and subplots) and while parts of the translation are confusing (the politics), there’s still a lot to like.  In the same vein as The Lord of the Rings, there’s something appealing about a swashbuckling epic with a booming film score set across a variety of cool locations with swords, horses, and spirited battles.  The production values are great!  Led by star François Civil (Love at Second Sight), the cast are a worthy fit for their respective characters and give us clear heroes to cheer for, and villains to root against.

You get a sense the juicier stuff is being saved for the second film but The Three Musketeers: D'Artagnan still stands on its own two feet.  Fun, interesting, and engaging.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 26 April 2024

Whether it be two Italian brothers running a struggling restaurant (Big Night), a guy driving across America with a Cuban food truck (Chef), or a talking rat who dreams of becoming a chef (Ratatouille), there’s something about “food movies” that whets the appetite and lures audiences in.  You may not be able to smell and taste what appears on screen, but the sights and sounds of the succulent dishes create a near-equal sense of fulfillment.

The Taste of Things was submitted as France’s entry in the best international feature film category of this year’s Academy Awards.  That caused a ruckus within cinematic circles given its submission ahead of the Palme d’Or winning Anatomy of a Fall.  More fuel was added to the fire when The Taste of Things ultimately missed out on a nomination while Anatomy earned nods for best screenplay (which it won), best director, and best picture.

While most (including me) would agree Anatomy of a Fall is the superior flick, The Taste of Things is still a high-quality romantic drama which audiences should embrace.  It’s a late 19^th Century tale set on a French estate.  Dodin (Magimel) owns the beautiful residence while Eugénie (Binoche) has served as his in-house cook for roughly two decades.  What began as a simple professional relationship has now become a deeper connection driven by love and admiration.

I admired the approach of Vietnamese-born filmmaker Trần Anh Hùng (The Scent of Green Papaya) who serves as both writer and director.  We’ve seen plenty of movies where two characters express their love physically (kissing, sex) or through heartfelt conversation.  In this case, Dodin and Eugénie get the message across through the power of food.  They’ll spend hours in the well-stocked kitchen using the freshest of ingredients to cook up mouth-watering dishes for each other.  Dialogue is used sparingly as it’s the food which does the talking.

It’s a great role for both Benoît Magimel (The Piano Teacher) and Oscar winner Juliette Binoche (The English Patient) who fit the characters beautifully.  Void of cliches and artificial tension, it’s just nice to watch the day-to-day actions of two people who love life, food, and each other.  Several sequences will leave you smiling and, in seeing the positive side of the human condition, it provides an injection of “feel good” which sticks with you on leaving the cinema.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 09 May 2024

When a topical subject matter is talked about on news sites and social media, there’s no shortage of individuals passionately weighing in with their thoughts.  It’s easy to forget that each person’s view is shaped by perspective.  Their opinions are influenced by their upbringing, their family/friends, their personality, their politics, and the level of background information they have about the subject.

This theme is delicately explored in Monster, the latest feature from acclaimed Palme d’Or winning Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda (Shoplifters).  It’s centred on Minato (Kurokawa), an 11-year-old boy who lives with his single mother (Andō) in the small Japanese city of Suwa.  He’s a relatively quiet kid whose best friend is a fellow fifth grade student, Yori (Hiiragi).

With a runtime of just over two hours, Monster is split into three distinct acts.  Minato starts behaving oddly and the film delves into the reasons from a trio of viewpoints – his concerned mother who can’t understand what’s going on, his conflicted teacher (Nagayama) who isn’t sure how to react, and finally, the perspective of Minato himself.  As each layer is pulled back, another equally interesting plot point is revealed.  It’s easy to see why writer Yuji Sakamoto won best screenplay at last year’s Cannes Film Festival.

This is an intriguing character study from start to finish.  The whole cast pull their weight and through their performances, we understand their motivations as they navigate their way through a complex situation (I don’t want to give too much away).  Misinformation leads to confusion which leads to poor decision making.  As the audience, we can reflect on which characters (if any) deserve a harsher judgement, and if any of the outbursts could have been avoided.

Given the same story is told three times, this could easily have become ho-hum but Kore-eda keeps things fresh and interesting by varying the cinematography and focal points.  It’s like a colourful jigsaw puzzle where we can see the individual pieces but can’t see the “bigger picture” until most of the pieces are placed in the correct position.  The film’s final scene also creates discussion points to think/chat about afterwards.

With a contemplative music score from Academy Award winning composer Ryuichi Sakamoto (The Last Emperor), Monster continues the recent trend of great foreign language films getting a release in Australian cinemas.