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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 23 January 2023

What’s Love Got to Do with It? is the latest effort of director Shekhar Kapur (Elizabeth).  I recently spoke to him about the project…

Matt:  Elizabeth: The Golden Age came out back in 2007 and was your last movie. I’ve got to ask – what have you been up to over the past 15 years?

Shekhar:  I’ve done a lot of stage musicals all over the world.  I’ve also been doing television such as a series about the young William Shakespeare.  I’ve been busy but I haven’t done a feature film in a while.

Matt:  How did this script from Jemima Khan first come across your radar?

Shekhar:  I worked with Working Title before who produced Elizabeth and Elizabeth: The Golden Age.  They reached out to me, I read the script, and I said I’d do it.  It sounded really interesting.

Matt:  What was it about the script that made you want to get involved?

Shekhar:  I was fascinated by Zoe, the lead character played by Lily James.  I’m fascinated by the idea of intimacy and where it’s going in society.  Where are apps like Tinder leading us?   I’m not taking a moral view but I’m trying to show there’s a fundamental human need for intimacy… but is casual sex the way to get it?  I remember doing the same thing in London as an 18-year-old.  I can’t remember forming any meaningful relationships out of casual sex but maybe that’s just me.

I found it interesting that a girl of Zoe’s age is looking for that online and then explores other ways to find intimacy.  Just when you think that her old friend knows exactly what to do, you realise she doesn’t.  What I like about the script is that everyone is in the same boat and everybody is yearning for that mysterious thing called love.  Life is a mystery and that’s really why I wanted to make the film – to reinforce that. 

Ultimately, I wanted to explore love from different angles – a mother’s love for her son, a girl’s love for a boy, a father’s love for his son.  The moment the family comes into the story, everyone in the world will respond.  We like to think different nationalities have different family dynamics but that’s often not the case.  When I had the first screening of the film for the cast and crew, three different came up to me and said the grandmother character was exactly like their own.

Matt:  This is your first romantic comedy – a genre which puts a smile on people’s faces but which can also be very formulaic and predictable.  Are there rom-coms from other directors which you look up to and use as a benchmark for what you want to achieve here?

Shekhar:  For me, other rom-coms seems to come to a conclusion.  This film doesn’t do that.  It’s forgiveness, and being honest with each other, and being close with each other.  There’s no ribbon on the top, and it doesn’t provide all the answers, and it doesn’t have a scene where they run after each other at the railway station.  It’s a more “searching” rom-com.  They’re not fairy tale characters.  These are real, every day character.

Matt:  A more traditional rom-com would have just had the two protagonists chatting back and forth but there’s an extra layer here with Zoe (Lily James) being a documentary filmmaker and making a movie within the movie.  Do you approach those scenes any differently?

Shekhar:  A lot of those things were already there in Jemima’s script.  It wasn’t an easy film to make but I said let’s go for it.  Those scenes are designed to make audiences reflect.  It’s like the characters are narrating their own story to you… and yet they don’t know.

Matt:  The film makes several references to the way in which white British people are perceived differently from non-whites.  Sometimes this is done dramatically and sometimes through comedy – like the joke about having to get to the airport earlier.  It’s obviously a topic you wanted to highlight?

Shekhar:  Yes, absolutely.  Emma Thompson is great as Cath.  Of all the characters, she’s the one who aspires to do the right thing but gets it wrong all time.  She’s say a line like “Kaz is so good looking… he almost doesn’t look Muslim.”  You can’t say that.  She’s both appreciating him and also being caught in the dilemma of what used to be.  Yet, she’s the one who aspires most to be Asian because of the way she dresses.

Matt:  Emma Thompson is having a sensational year after Good Luck to You, Leo Grande and Matilda: The Musical.  She gets so many great one-liners here as the nosy, pushy, inquisitive mum.  How did she come on board the project?

Shekhar:  She read the script and we spoke.  Jemima was very persuasive also.  It’s hard to get great actors attached to your script.  It’s their job to examine and try to find out if they can “be” that part.  Once she realized the script had something deeper than the words, she went for it.

Matt:  And I have to ask how you settled on Lily James and Shazad Latif in the two lead roles?

Shekhar:  I didn’t know they were friends before and it was only after I cast them that I realized.  I hadn’t met Lily previously but we had long conversations during the pandemic about what life and love is about.  That’s how she came on board.  With Shazad, I did an audition and I realized he could be the perfect person to come across as dependable and solid.  He knows what he’s doing with his life whereas she’s all over the place.  In then flips, when he falls in love and everyone is in the same place. 

Matt:  I believe this was produced during the COVID-19 pandemic so I’m curious to know if it was all shot in a single location or the cast and crew travel between the UK and Pakistan?

Shekhar:  It was tough to do.  Most of the film was shot in London but we did go to Pakistan. 

Matt:  Anything you’re working on at the moment?  I hope it won’t be another 15 years before we see another movie from you.

Shekhar:  I’m doing another big stage show but I’m also in prep for a movie on water and a city has to come to grips with a water shortage.  When people in power have the water, they use it as a tool to economically oppress other people.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 22 December 2022

Based on a 2015 Swedish film, A Man Called Otto arrives in Australian cinemas on 1 January 2023.  I recently spoke to one of its supporting stars, Mariana Treviño, about the project…

Matt:  Otto has put up some strong emotional barriers but of all the people in the film, it’s Marisol who cuts through those barriers best.  What is it about your character that you think makes her so successful in doing that?

Mariana:  We Latin people are very expansive and we often barge into a neighbourhood with that energy.  I barge into Otto’s life in a similar fashion but not in an invasive manner.  It’s more like a burst of life and it helps her establish an immediate closeness with Otto.  There’s an instant connection beyond what is rational.  I think we Latin people have that ability and that is portrayed in the film.

Matt:  Marisol is a very animated, chatty person who loves to gesticulate.  Is it a personality you could easily relate to, or did it require a bigger transformation?

Mariana:  It’s a personality I can relate to, but I am more reserved and less friendly than Marisol.  It was within me and so I could tap into the character and it was a joy to do it.

Matt:  She has such a great spirit to her.  What is it you want audiences to take away from the movie in terms of her character?

Mariana:  The idea that anybody can make us reconnect back with life if we’re receptive to the people who are around us.  It doesn’t have to be a very close person.  It can just be someone who comes to you and open up.

Matt:  You get to work alongside one of Hollywood’s most loved actors, Tom Hanks.  Instead of asking if there was anything you learned of him, I’ll flip it around and ask if there was anything you were able to teach him?

Mariana:  No.  I don’t know.  I can tell you that I was happy and humbled to have been given the opportunity to do scenes with him.  We were all learning from him and trying to take everything he gives off into our hearts and souls.  He works from such a truthful, vulnerable, private space and we were all in awe.  Even if we can’t describe it properly, it imprints on us and that’s a gift we get to walk away with.

Matt:  The learning to drive scene with you and Tom Hanks is amusing.  Was it easy being such a bad, stressed-out driver?

Mariana:  Yeah, I had to take classes again because I’d forgotten how to drive with a shift stick.  I took two lessons before so I didn’t crash the car with Tom Hanks in it.  It was fun.  Some of the nerves were real because I wasn’t too keen on the shift stick.  I remember it as one of the most memorable days on the shoot because it all flowed so beautifully and we got to sit in that little car like a capsule going back and forth.  We had a nice chat and we connected.

Matt:  You worked under the direction of Marc Forster who I’ve admired for films like Monster’s Ball and The Kite Runner.  How did you two meet and end up working together?

Mariana:  The audition process got to a point where they said okay, you’re still in the mix and the director wants to talk to you.  I did a Zoom with Marc and I remember being very nervous.  He’s such a sweet person and he made me feel very comfortable and welcome to the project.  I instantly wanted to work with him.  Everything in the experience connected in the right way – both with Tom and with Marc.

Matt:  A Man Called Otto is receiving a wide international release.  Is it a much bigger time commitment in terms of all the press and marketing stuff as we head into its release?

Mariana:  We’re very excited to share it with the world.  We created this in a private space and then comes the moment where we roll it out into the world and share.  We’re at that stage right now and I’m so grateful to be part of the process.  I’m hoping it resonates with people.  A lot of people struggled with isolation during the pandemic and so the timing is right for people to see a movie like this.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 22 December 2022

Blueback in a new Australian family film being released to start 2023 and I recently spoke with director Robert Connolly (The Dry) about the interesting project…

Matt:  I remember talking to you a few years ago about family movies and how Aussies tend to rely more on American imports instead of making our own.  Is Blueback an attempt at balancing the ledger?

Robert:  Yeah.  We know there’s been a great success of Australian films here going right back to my own childhood with Storm Boy.  We’ve then had movies like Red Dog and my own movie, Paper Planes, which did really well.  I think Australians love taking their kids to films that reflect their own world and are familiar to them.  It’s fantastic that Blueback continues that tradition. 

Matt:  I know you’re a fan of Tim Winton having produced The Turning about a decade ago.  What was the spark that made you think Blueback deserved a cinematic adaptation?

Robert:  I read it when it came out back in 1998.  It’s such a great book about the ocean and Tim calls it a “fable for all ages”.  It’s a beautiful, optimistic story about the ocean and our responsibility to it while also being about a mother and a child, and a fish.  It had all these elements which spoke to me.  Australians flock to the sea and we swim on amazing coral reefs and we just love it.  A film like this is a rare gift to get to make.

Matt:  So when did you first approach Tim about making it into a movie?

Robert:  When the book came out in 1998.  I couldn’t work out how to do it though and so I took some time off and returned to it after the success of Paper Planes.  Eric Bana and I had some discussions and we went and made The Dry which was successful but we wanted to make another film and bring it to audiences for our families. 

Matt:  The central character in Winton’s book was a boy but here it’s been changed to a girl.  Any reason behind that?

Robert:  Yeah, I’ve got two daughters and they were giving me a bit of grief about having another male protagonist like Paper Planes.  They were right actually.  I spoke to Tim and he said “go for it” and explore the idea.  It’s a universal story about a child and the power of a mother to instill a value system in that child about the environment.  I think it speaks to both young boys and girls but it was fun changing it for my daughters.

Matt:  The book is 25 years old.  Were there many other alterations you and Tim felt needed to be made to reflect today’s way of thinking?

Robert:  Yeah, it’s a really good question.  The book deals a lot with biodiversity and we know that a many marine reserves have been established which has had a beneficial impact on our oceans.  We stopped hunting whales and now the ocean is full of them.  They are wonderful stories about how when you change your ways, the ocean can heal itself.

The big thing that’s happened since the book has been the continuing dangerous curve of climate change.  That’s something Tim and I spoke about to reference and address in the film.  Particularly when you think about our great coral reefs which are under threat from the rising temperatures of the ocean’s waters.  That was a new element that Tim and I intertwined into the film but with a sense of optimism to show there is a path forward through activism and change.

Matt:  The story in the novel is told in chronological order but with the film, you mix that up.  What was the motivation behind that creative choice?

Robert:  I’ve always loved that going back to my earlier films and I know people did with The Dry.  I have this feeling that cinema is a great form to show how the past and present are “hand in glove” in our lives.  I remember someone asking in any given day, how much time do we spend between thinking about the past, the present, and the future?  It’s probably in equal measure because we live our lives in three different time frames.  Cinema is an amazing artform in that I can blend those timeframes together in a poetic, lyrical way.  It’s a credit to my editor that it’s so seamless and easy for an audience to follow.

Matt:  Without giving too much away, I’ll like to get your thoughts on the way death is covered in the film.  Particularly in terms of what is seen and what is not seen.

Robert:  Yeah, it’s a family film.  Babe director Chris Noonan was a great mentor when I made Paper Planes and he said there’s nothing wrong with a little bit of sadness when it comes to family movies.  Walt Disney knew this and the Pixar films are the same.  I want to offer a range of emotions but not in a confronting way.  There’s no point about being graphic because if you’re targeting this audience, you need to make sure they can trust it.

Matt:  Movies often rely on make-up artists to help age characters but you’ve gone with a different approach here with Radha Mitchell playing the younger Dora and Liz Alexander playing the older Dora.  Was consideration given to the same actor playing both roles?

Robert:  I think actors are amazing and there’s this tradition of different actors playing different time frames.  I sometimes feel it’s artificial if you take a 40-year-old actor and age them to look like a 70-year-old.  The role of Abby is played by Mia Wasikowska, Ilsa Fogg and Ariel Donoghue – these three women play the one character and I think when you watch the film, you effortlessly move between them.

Matt:  Where was this shot?  It looks like a stunning part of Australia.

Robert:  It’s in Bremer Bay in Western Australia between Albany and Esperance.  It’s an incredible part of the world which is about a 6-hour drive south-east from Perth.  Some days its beautiful and idyllic and other days it’s tough and visceral.  It has an incredible marine life.  We lived there for many months while making the film.  It takes the audience to somewhere they’ve never been and I love that about cinema.  We’re above the water, beneath the water, we see Bremer Bay, and we see the Ningaloo Reef.  I have to pinch myself that I get to direct these films because it’s very exciting.

Matt:  The house in the film is fantastic as well.  Did it have to be constructed or was it always there?

Robert:  We built the house.  Clayton Jauncey was my amazing production designer and we stood on that plot of land overlooking the bay and he said “I can build the house for you here.”  A lot of American films do stuff in a studio whereas in this, we see young Abby come from inside the house and step onto the verandah and we follow her out and there’s the view.  You get a sense of what it would be like to grow up there and have that as your view every morning when you wake up – looking out at the clouds and the whales beneath your house.  Building the house was a critical choice we made.

Matt:  A fair chunk of this film is shot either on a blustery coastline or under the sea.  Did things go to plan or were there unexpected challenges?

Robert:  I’ll be frank – it was pretty tricky.  It’s not easy… but making films shouldn’t be easy.  We took the crew there and taught these actors how to free dive so they could do their own stunts.  Ilsa dove 20 metres down and swum along the bottom of the bay.  It did have its challenges.  We had shark mitigation drones looking for sharks for example.  We pushed the film to the edge of what was possible but I’m delighted with what we were able to achieve.

Matt:  There are some beautiful underwater shots.  Did you end up in the water yourself or was that left to trained experts?

Robert:  I did but I don’t scuba dive.  The first thing we shot were the whale sharks on the Ningaloo Reef and that was incredible.  I was with Tim Winton and our underwater camera operator and they said if a shark turns towards you to get out of the way.  A shark then turned our way and my adrenalin went through the roof.  It’s the most incredible thing to see this majestic marine creature in front of you.  We also spent time with the titular character, blue gropers like Blueback, in Clovelly in Sydney.  They’re called the “puppy dog of the ocean” because they come right up and you can pat them.

Matt:  Central to the story is the blue groper which I’m going to assume is special effects?

Robert:  That’s for the audience to work out (laughs).  The only thing I would say is that we didn’t do any VFX.  There’s a tradition of puppetry which goes back to E.T. and Yoda in Star Wars that families love.  There’s so much VFX in some movies now that it’s almost like animation.  As spectacular as that is, I’m more old-fashioned and I like the idea of putting actors in the real world.

Matt:  You’ve got three recognizable Australian stars here in Mia Wasikowska, Radha Mitchell and Eric Bana.  How did you settle on them being the right fit for the roles?

Robert:  It was during the heart of the COVID pandemic and they’re all my friends.  They had to do two weeks quarantining to be able to film.  They are three of this country’s great actors and they really gave me 150%.  I can’t thank them enough.  Eric Bana did two weeks quarantining to play that small supporting role.  We haven’t seen him do comedy for a long time and it was fantastic.  There’s also a great love of Tim Winton which helped lure them in.

Matt:  It’s not a big role but I’m always impressed by Eric Bana.  He comes across in this film as a very chatty, fun character.  Was that part of your instruction to him or did he create that himself?

Robert:  He’s very clever.  He did a lot of research and grew the hair and the beard.  He learned how to drive boats and tried to understand what an abalone fisherman would be like.  He’s a detailed performer who went right into the heart of the character.

Matt:  What are you working on at the moment?  What will we see from you next?

Robert:  Eric and I are current finishing the sequel to The Dry called Force of Nature.  We’ve finished the shoot and are currently in post-production.  Sometime next year I’ll be chatting to you about that.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 22 December 2022

I had the chance to see 190 cinema releases during 2022 and, as I’ve done every year since 1996, I like to put together a list which outlines my favourites.  We’ve all got different tastes but hopefully it inspires a few people out there to hunt down these movies and watch something great they may otherwise have missed.  I went this through this list on ABC Brisbane breakfast radio a couple of weeks ago.

Honourable mentions this year which I couldn’t quite squeeze into my top 10 were – A Hero, Barbarian, Red Rocket, Blaze, King Richard, Belfast, Decision to Leave, The Good Boss, Petite Maman, All Quiet on the Western Front, Cyrano, Moonage Daydream, Happening, Triangle of Sadness, Bardo False Chronicles of a Handful of Truths, and Nowhere Special.

The above films are all worth a look but to narrow it down to my top 10 of the year…

10. Full Time (out Jul 28) is an intense French drama about a single mum (Laure Calamy) having a tough time. We may not personally relate to her problems but, thanks to the skills of writer-director Eric Gravel, it feels like we’re walking alongside her throughout, and this provides us with a deep appreciation of her troubled life and fragile emotional state.

9. Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom (out Jun 2) is the first movie from Bhutan to be nominated at the Oscars for best international feature film. It's the tale of a young teacher who is posted to "the most remote school in the world" to educate a small group of kids. This is a beautiful film which offers much to reflect upon.

8. Good Luck to You, Leo Grande (out Aug 18) is an interesting, progressive character study that offers up material we don’t usually see on the big screen. It’ll provide great talking points with family/friends and is not to be missed. It's the tale of 60-something-year-old Nancy (Emma Thompson) who, having had a disappointing sex life with her late husband, hires a young escort to fulfil her needs.

7. Quo Vadis, Aida? (out Feb 17) was nominated at last year’s Oscars for best international feature. Taking place in July 1995 and based on actual events, it’s the story of a Bosnian woman, working for the UN, who tries to save her family when Serbian troops invade the town. Shot like a documentary, this is a powerful, depressing piece of cinema that shines the spotlight on events that should never be forgotten.

6. C’mon C’mon (out Feb 17) is the story of a unmarried man with no kids (Joaquin Phoenix) asked by his sister to care for his 8-year-old nephew while she deals with family issues. He finds the experience both rewarding and exhausting. The way writer-director Mike Mills can make audiences care so deeply about characters in the space of two hours is a skill many other filmmakers struggle to master.

5. Flee (out Feb 17) is the first film to be nominated at the Academy Awards for best international feature, best animated feature and best documentary feature. It’s the story of a boy who fled war torn Afghanistan with his family in 1980s and sought a new home and a new future. Blending different styles of animation, this is an incredibly moving film that highlights the emotional scars forever carried by refugees.

4. The Banshees of Inisherin (out Dec 26) is an engaging, throught-provoking 1923 dark comedy about two friends on a remote Irish island who have a bizarre falling out. There are many rich, fascinating layers to peel back here. Every member of the cast is in peak form.

3. Top Gun Maverick (out May 26) is a sensational film that surpasses its predecessor in almost every way. The flight scenes will have you twitching in your seat, the splashes of comedy are perfectly timed, and the story is kept short and straightforward. I can't imagine too many people being disappointed. Editor Eddie Hamilton deserves a lot of praise.

2. Lost Illusions (out Jun 23) is a French 19th Century drama which won seven César Awards (the French equivalent of the Oscars) including best film and best adapted screenplay. It’s a fascinating tale about a young journalist caught up in a dodgy media world. It’s filled with rich, interesting characters playing power games and trying to outmanoeuvre their adversaries.

1. Everything Everywhere All at Once (out Apr 14) is one of the year’s best and most original feature films. It's like Sliding Doors on steroids. A storyline which is insanely crazy (characters existing in multiple universes) with a touching finale offering heartfelt joy and significant life lessons. A rich, wonderful, audacious project.