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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 17 May 2021

It has a chequered history but the best international feature film category at the Academy Awards still plays a big part in bringing non-English language cinema to the world’s attention.  To be eligible, the feature film must be produced outside of the United States and more than 50% of the dialogue must be non-English.  Perhaps the most controversial rule is that each country may only submit one movie.  This places a heavy burden on those involved with the selection process to ensure they pick the film with the best chance of success.

In France, the process is overseen by the National Cinema Centre and the panel consists of directors, producers, sales agents, and other knowledgeable film folk.  They come up with a shortlist of roughly five movies, meet with the respective filmmakers, and then decide on a “winner”.  Their selection for the most recent Oscars ceremony was Two of Us and while it didn’t make the final list of nominees (a tough ask given 93 countries submitted in 2020), it’s easy to see why it was France’s worthy submission.

Marking the feature film debut of Italian-born director Filippo Meneghetti, Two of Us explores a dynamic that we don’t often see depicted on the big screen – a same-sex relationship between two 60-something-year-old women.  Nina (Sukowa) and Madeleine (Chevallier) have been lovers for roughly 20 years but, worried about how society will perceive their connection, they’ve kept it hidden from everyone.  It’s particularly problematic for Madeleine who is scared of telling the truth to her two grown children (from a former marriage).

So how have they kept it a secret for long?  By becoming neighbours.  They share adjoining residences on the top floor of an apartment building and they freely walk back-and-forth across the corridor when they need to see each other.  If one of Madeleine’s kids decides to stop by, Nina can easily slip back to her place and no one’s the wiser.  It’s an arrangement that’s served them well but, with hopes of moving into their own combined place, Nina has been pressuring an apprehensive Madeleine to finally “come out of the closet” to friends and family. 

It’s at the start of the second act when a tragic event tears these two women apart (it’s best I don’t reveal too much).  The tone shifts, other characters enter the mix, and the emotional heart of this story resonates.  Barbara Sukowa and Martine Chevallier are excellent in the lead roles and they will convince audiences of their love for each other.  Muriel Bénazéraf adds a layer of complexity with her scene-stealing performance as a caregiver with issues of her own.

The adage “sex sells” has been around since the 19^th century and it’s a major reason why characters in romantic movies (whether they be comedy or drama) tend to be young and good looking.  Meneghetti and co-writer Malysone Bovorasmy wanted to buck that trend and provide a love story that contrasts with “society’s obsession with youth and the perfection of the body.”  It wasn’t easy to secure finance (as it was seen as “non-commercial”) but I’m glad they stuck with their vision and followed this through.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 22 April 2021

Edee (Wright) is a middle-aged, suburban woman who has purchased a dilapidated, single-room cabin in the Wyoming wilderness.  You won’t find this place on Google Street View and there’s no highway or convenience store nearby.  Wyoming is already the least densely populated state in the contiguous United States and she’s deliberately selected this spot due to its remoteness from civilisation.

There’s a reason behind her unusual change of living.  Edee went through a tragic experience and, as she tells a psychiatrist in the film’s opening scene, she doesn’t want to be around people anymore.  Edee has pushed away those offering support so she, rightly or wrongly, can be “alone with her pain” and grieve in the way she desires.

One could look at Edee and see her actions as selfish and suicidal.  She hasn’t told her family where she’s gone (they must be worried sick) and she’s living in a freezing shack in the middle of nowhere with no car, no mobile phone, a minimal amount of tinned food, and zero skills when it comes to hunting and fishing.  It doesn’t matter what she reads in the handful of self-help books she’s purchased.  In the same vein as Christopher McCandless in Into the Wild, Edee’s is well-intentioned but ill-equipped.

Writers Jesse Chatham and Erin Dignam have structured the film as part drama (which works) and part mystery (which doesn’t work).  They try to build unnecessary intrigue by withholding details of Edee’s heart-breaking past, continually dropping hints via flashbacks and fantasy scenes, and then revealing all at the end.  Perhaps this decision was taken to mirror Edee’s insular nature (she gives up very little) but, as a viewer looking in from the outside, a greater understanding of her fractured psyche from the outset would have made it easier to “buy into” the decisions she makes along the way.

The film finds its feet in the second half through the introduction of Miguel (Bichir), a cowboy-like hunter who befriends Edee and helps out with a few things.  A cynical part of me saw his arrival as an attempt to add dialogue to the movie (there isn’t much when Edee is on her own) but ultimately, I loved the bond developed between these two leading characters.

They remind us that, however much we try to shut ourselves off from the world, there’s no substitute for meaningful human interaction.  We’ve seen this theme driven home in many other movies where two unrelated people come together and improve themselves by helping the other.  It rings true in this case thanks to the subtle performances of Robin Wright (Forrest Gump) and Demián Bichir (A Better Life).  It’s hard not be moved by the finale.

Marking the feature film directorial debut of Wright, Land is a simple but effective tale.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 13 May 2021

Those Who Wish Me Dead serves up a formulaic hero story with not much subtlety or nuance.  Everyone is either 99% good or 99% bad.  A forensic accountant (Webber) has uncovered incriminating information that would rival the stuff Jeffrey Epstein took to his grave.  It implicates high-profile people who will stop at nothing to ensure it is never made public.

These villains aren’t the type to use bribes or light coercion.  They’ve already killed a renowned judge (making it look like an accident) and their next target is the accountant and his 12-year-old son, Connor (Little).  Sensing the danger, they’ve fled to Montana to hide out with a family relative (who just so happens to be a trustworthy local sheriff).

It’s at this point where Hannah (Jolie) becomes of relevance.  She’s a risk-loving smokejumper who, in the midst of bushfire season, has been posted to a remote watch tower described as a “20 x 20 box on stilts with no toilet”.  If we’re being honest, she shouldn’t be there alone.  Hannah recently endured a traumatic work experience and it’s clear, as evidenced by her dreams, that she hasn’t come to grips with what happened.

Hannah stumbles across the scared Connor in the wilderness and, after an outlandishly convenient lightning storm destroys all their forms of communication (the special effects aren’t great), the pair team up to hike back to civilisation and alert news outlets about the bad guys.  I’m not sure why Connor’s dad didn’t do this at the outset… perhaps because it would have been a 10-minute movie otherwise.

It’s rare to be saying this about an action-thriller but the best element of Those We Wish Me Dead are the villains.  The Tyler Perry cameo is a head-scratcher but I enjoyed the perspective of the two experienced hitmen played by Aidan Gillen (Game of Thrones) and Nicolas Hoult (The Favourite).  I’ll acknowledge the resources at their disposal are a bit far-fetched (private planes, hacking tech) but they’re smart guys and their detailed strategic discussions make for good listening.  They’re more interesting than the heroes and perhaps that’s why they’re given a similar amount of screen time.

The film boasts a cool local connection with Brisbane-born 14-year-old Finn Little (Storm Boy) showing off his talent alongside Oscar winning star Angelina Jolie (Girl, Interrupted).  It’s a role that requires much emotion and Little shows he’s up to the task.  The man shaping those performances is director Taylor Sheridan – the screenwriter responsible for Sicario and Hell or High Water.  This isn’t as strong as those two outings but it’ll find fans amongst those looking for an entertaining chase movie.

Based on the 2014 novel written by Michael Koryta, Those Who Wish Me Dead could have used more complexity but it’s still a passable action-thriller.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 15 April 2021

In 1972, singer Diana Ross earned an Academy Award nomination for playing iconic American singer Billie Holiday in her first movie role.  History has repeated with Andra Day.  Almost 50 years after the release of the maligned Lady Sings the Blues, director Lee Daniels (Precious) and writer Suzan-Lori Parks (Native Son) offer a different perspective on Holiday and, despite the film having a few issues, it’s hard not to be impressed by the performance of Day who deftly embodies the title character.

If you’re new to the Billie Holiday tale, she was a gifted African American jazz singer who rose to fame during the Great Depression.  She recorded her first songs as an 18-year-old in 1933 and, based in New York City, she regularly performed at concerts and cabaret shows in front of packed crowds.  Dying in 1959 at the age of just 44, she was posthumously inducted into both the Grammy Hall of Fame and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

The United States vs. Billie Holiday portrays its subject as a gifted musician, a powerful civil rights activist, and a troubled human being with questionable taste in men.  It’s not trying to paint her as a saint.  Most notably, it recognises she had both drug and alcohol addictions that had a significant impact on her personal and professional life.  She was imprisoned for a year in 1947 after being found guilty of narcotics possession.

Drawing largely from the Johann Hari’s source material, “Chasing the Scream”, the film also offers the perspective of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics headed by Harry Anslinger (Hedlund).  It paints Anslinger as a racist who uses the “war on drugs” to specifically target African Americans and other minorities.  He enlists an undercover agent (Rhodes) to follow the high-profile Holiday and gather intelligence that could lead to her arrest.

Few would deny Anslinger was a bigot but there’s a clumsiness to the way these scenes play out in the film.  He’s very open about his villainy and, given he served as commissioner for 32 years, you have to believe he was more cunning and calculating than what we see in the movie.  The relationship Holiday shares with the undercover agent is also difficult to buy into (perhaps because it didn’t happen in real life either).

The film is at its best when it focuses solely on Billie Holiday, her talent and her role in representing African American people.  This was all prior to the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 60s.  Holiday wasn’t afraid to stand on stage and sing protest songs like “Strange Fruit” to shine the spotlight on inequality and white suppression.  I enjoyed the confidence and no-bullshit attitude brought to the character by Andra Day.  We see Holliday as a woman not afraid to speak her mind.

The drug/alcoholism stuff is overdone (it feels repetitive in places) but The United States vs. Billie Holiday still offers insight into a person who’s legacy should not be forgotten.

You can read my chat with Oscar nominated star Andra Day by clicking here.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 03 May 2021

A film that’s long stuck in my memory bank is Penny Marshall’s Awakenings, a 1990 drama that earned an Academy Award nomination for best picture.  It followed a physician (Robin Williams) who used an experimental drug on catatonic patients to “bring them back to life.”  I wouldn’t have believed it if not knowing it was a true story.  What if you were asleep for 30 years and then suddenly woke up?  How easy would it be to reconnect with family and to understand all that has changed in the world?

A similar idea is explored in June Again, an Australian film with Noni Hazlehurst in the title role.  June suffers from dementia (the effects of a series of strokes) and has spent her last few years living in an aged care facility.  She no longer remembers her family and she struggles to recall simple words.  The introductory scenes bear a curious resemblance to Florian Zeller’s The Father in that we see things through June’s confused eyes and it’s hard to work out what’s real and what’s not.

And then... a miracle happens.  June wakes up unexpectedly one morning with her memory restored.  She reads staff name tags, she completes a crossword puzzle, and she asks questions about her family.  Writer-director JJ Winlove goes with a not-so-heavy-handed approach and plays these moments for laughs.  Now that June’s full personality is on display, we see she’s a feisty, funny woman who loves to exert dominance.  She bluffs a security guard, sneaks out of the aged care home, and sweet-talks a taxi driver into giving her a free ride.  The end result - June is on the loose!

There are a handful of interesting misadventures (such as a moment where June befriends a young music student) but at its heart, June Again is the tale of someone effectively “coming back from the dead” and the impact it has on close friends and family.  On realising how much her two grown children have underachieved (at least in her opinion), June re-establishes herself as the meddling matriarch and is quick to dispense advice.  Her heart is in the right place but there are times when her ignorance of recent events and her general stubbornness cause more harm than good.

There’s a bit too much going on at times.  The weakest subplot involves June involving herself in family’s wallpaper production business and dishing out ideas.  Would she not have higher priorities to worry about?  The better stuff, and this a credit to the fine performances, are the squabbles between June and her two kids (exemplified by an awkward “intervention” where the son arrives with a six-pack of beer).  Hazlehurst wins the majority of laughs while a subdued Claudia Karvan and Stephen Curry are required to take things more seriously.  It’s a nice balance.

As fantastical as this scenario may appear, you grow to care about these three characters and their fate.  If there was any doubt, the film’s emotional punchline provides confirmation.  A feel-good movie about dementia?  June Again is a winner.