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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 05 December 2020

I’ve noted this before but it’s often difficult to depict mental illness in visual form.  You’re dealing with something in one’s head as opposed to that which can be physically seen.  The leading character in Words on Bathroom Walls, Adam (Plummer), is battling schizophrenia and the choice of director Thor Freudenthal (Diary of a Wimpy Kid) is to illustrate this using narration and fictitious characters.

It’s the clunkiest element of the film and that’s partly because it’s overused.  You’ll tire (or become annoyed with) the three “voices in his head” as they rely on the same routine and the same jokes from scene-to-scene.  I also wasn’t sold on the black mist and shaky camera work which arrives when Adam is about to experience a serious attack.

Despite these limitations, Words of Bathroom Walls succeeds because of the casting and its emotions.  A few early scenes are over-written (such as a moment where Adam chats to a girl alongside a pier) but the more we get to know these characters, the more we empathise.  Having suppressed his troubled mindset for so long, Adam finally opens up and has powerful heart-to-hearts with his worried mother (a sublime performance from Molly Parker), his newfound girlfriend (Russell), and a happy-go-lucky priest (Garcia).

Skilfully played by Charlie Plummer (All the Money in the World), Adam is an easy protagonist to like.  He’s in his final year of high school and trying to get good enough grades so he can follow his dream and be accepted into a leading culinary school.  Unfortunately, his schizophrenia has made it difficult to study (he’s easily distracted) and forge friendships.  With the help of his mum, Adam has seemingly tried every drug on the market but his body is “treatment resistant”.

The film is largely focused on Adam’s interactions with his mother, stepfather (Goggins) and girlfriend.  He’s concealing his true self from all of them – partly because he wants to be treated like a “normal” person and partly because he’s worried about how they’ll react if they know his inner most thoughts.  It’s also the reason why his standard defence mechanism is to push each of them away (despite needing them) when times get tough.

It’s great to see a teen-oriented drama shine the spotlight on mental illness to help destigmatize the condition.  There’s a memorable scene where Adam compares himself to a cancer-suffering child in the Make-a-Wish program.  It asks us to open our minds and think about how we perceive those with similar troubles in our own lives.  An affecting film.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 17 November 2020

Fatman is a Christmas-themed movie that asks an interesting question – who funds Santa Claus?  He needs a ridiculously large warehouse to produce all the presents and his employee costs would be substantive given all the elves on the payroll (assuming they pay at least a minimum wage).  Let’s not forget overheads such as utilities, insurance and legal fees.  Do taxes come into play?

As we learn in the opening scenes of Fatman, our beloved Santa (played by Mel Gibson) is in financial strife.  He’s heavily subsidised by the U.S. Government (they pay him an annual operating grant to make gifts) but it’s not enough to cover his costs and his debts are mounting up.  Suffice to say he’s not happy.  Given the economic stimulus that Christmas provides each year, Santa think he’s undervalued by the government and the taxpayer.

With few other options available, Santa diversifies his operations and becomes a military contractor!  During the off-season, when the elves aren’t required to make presents, they’ll instead be assembling control panels for fighter jets.  So when little Timmy or Jenny get a new bike under the Christmas tree on December 25, it’s likely been made by the same group who helped build the air force jets flying above Syria.

This sounds like a fun concept but unfortunately, Fatman never fully delivers because it focuses more on its not-so-exciting subplots.  A rich kid, Billy (Hurstfield), is given a lump of coal in his stocking (he’s been naughty instead of nice) and so he’s hired an incompetent hitman (Goggins) to kill Santa.  Much of the film is then spent following the hitman as his stumbles across Northern America trying to locate the famed bearded man.

It’s a boring, tired storyline.  There’s an early sequence where the hitman kidnaps one of Billy’s classmates because of a dispute over a school science contest.  It’s clumsy and nonsensical.  We then get repetitive scenes where the hitman tries to find Santa’s address (which shouldn’t be that hard given everyone else seems to know) and then sloppily kills people (with no one raising any alarms).

Mel Gibson isn’t the first name that comes to mind when you think of actors destined to play Santa Claus but he’s a worthy choice in that he plays the character as a depressed, forlorn drunk who believes he’s lost relevance.  There are also some nice exchanges where he opens up with his smart, level-headed wife (Jean-Baptiste).

In the same vein as Bad Santa, it’s important to note this isn’t a family film and it’s deservedly rated MA in Australia for its “strong violence”.  The action packed finale (which takes itself far too seriously) is proof of that.  Fatman is trying to offer dark humour but the end result is subpar.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 30 November 2020

At one end, you’ve got long-time Bee Gees fans who bought every album and could sing every song by heart.  At the other end, you’ll have youngsters who have never heard of Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb.  It doesn’t matter where you sit along that spectrum.  There’s something for everyone in this stellar documentary, The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart (sans question mark).

Directed by legendary producer Frank Marshall (Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Sixth Sense), it’s an impressive feat to cover this much material inside of two hours.  We begin with their upbringing here in Brisbane, we culminate with their final works, and in between we explore the brilliant music that saw them inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (amongst many other notable accolades).

So… what made them a success?  There are current day interviews with producers and band members who take us inside their unorthodox creative process.  There were times when they didn’t even write lyrics until the day of the formal recording session!  There are also interviews with the likes of Noel Gallagher (Oasis) and Nick Jonas (The Jonas Brothers) who can relate to the experience of siblings being part of the same band.  It comes with both pros and cons.

Many artists fade into obscurity after their 15 minutes of fame but The Bee Gees were a group who kept reinventing themselves.  One of the more interesting parts of the documentary delves into the creation of their Grammy Award winning album Saturday Night Fever in 1977 and the subsequent backlash when disco music fell out of favour several years later.  They were victims of their own success – an unavoidable dilemma that Coldplay’s Chris Martin offers insight on.

Marshall spent roughly two years pulling the film together and it includes never-before-seen archival footage.  An obvious challenge is the fact that all but one of the Gibb brothers has passed away.  To help ensure their voices are heard, the film uses old interviews from Maurice and Robin to help give equal time to their respective viewpoints.  As Barry eloquently explains during the opening scene - everyone will have different memories depending on who you ask.

Likely to kick start new interest in their music, The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart is fascinating from start to finish.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 11 November 2020

Hollywood loves making movies about Hollywood.  I could spend an hour going through them all but the list includes Singin’ in the Rain, Sunset Boulevard, The Player, Get Shorty, Ed Wood, For Your Consideration, Mulholland Drive, The Artist, Argo and the aptly titled Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.  The Comeback Trail appears to be the latest entry into the club but in fact, it’s not a new member.  The same storyline was used in a low-budget movie that was shot in the 1970s and released with no fanfare in 1982 (it didn’t even go to VHS or DVD). 

This new adaptation, directed by George Gallo, brings together three Oscar winning actors who each have more than 50 years’ experience in the industry – Robert DeNiro, Morgan Freeman and Tommy Lee Jones.  DeNiro plays Max Barber, a penniless producer who is desperate for a big hit.  Freeman plays Reggie Fontaine, a ruthless mobster who put up the finance for Max’s last unsuccessful venture.  Jones plays Duke Montana, a washed up actor who is seriously contemplating suicide.

These three have teamed up to make a new corny western – the tale of an elderly cowboy who discovers he has Indian blood and then rises up against property developers.  The catch is that they’re involved for VERY different reasons.  Duke sees it as a chance to reinvigorate his sagging career and make one last great movie for people to remember him by.

The other two aren’t quite as genuine.  Max knows the script is garbage and he’s hoping Duke dies during an elaborate stunt (on the first day of shooting if possible) so he can collect a huge insurance payout and use it to fund a separate dream project.  Reggie is equally dodgy and wants a cut of the proceeds to recover his losses from Max’s previous flop.

In trying to make an interesting movie, it helps when filmmakers are one step ahead of the audience.  In the case of The Comeback Trail, it’s unfortunately the other way around.  You can see exactly where the storyline is going and so when “surprises” are revealed, they’re anything but.  It’s for this reason the film loses momentum from the start of the second act.  It gets stuck in a repetitive lull as we follow Max and his clumsy efforts to kill his leading man (parts are reminiscent of a Road Runner cartoon).

There are also credibility issues.  The more you think about the narrative, the less sense it makes.  The cowboy film looks awful and has an incompetent crew.  It’s impossible to believe anyone involved thinks it’ll be a success.  How they managed to find the perfect camera angles to the flawed stunts in one-take without any rehearsals will forever be a mystery.  It lacks the intelligence and nuance seen in Argo (a much better effort about a “fake movie”).

There’s an early scene where Max notes that if a film turns out to be good, it’s a miracle.  Despite a half-decent idea and the best intentions, no miracle occurred with The Comeback Trail.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 20 November 2020

They’ve lost relevance today (for a myriad of reasons) but there was once a time when beauty pageants were incredibly popular.  Between 1966 and 1976, the Miss World competition was one of the top 5 highest rated TV programs for the year in the United Kingdom.  Pitched as “family entertainment”, households would gather around their televisions to watch contestants parade in their swimwear and reveal their measurements (bust, waist, hips).  The judges would then weigh in with their choice for the most beautiful unmarried woman in the world.

Misbehaviour takes place right in the middle of that pageant “boom”.  The 1970 edition, hosted by iconic American comedian Bob Hope, was historical for two significant reasons.  Firstly, the contestant from Grenada, Jennifer Hosten, became the first black woman to wear the crown in the event’s 20 year history.  Secondly, a group of Women’s Liberation activists disrupted the show and caused the live television feed to be disrupted.

Rather than focus on a single perspective, writers Gaby Chiappe (Their Finest) and Rebecca Frayn (The Lady) tackle the subject from multiple viewpoints.  The forceful Jo Robinson (Buckley) and a semi-reluctant Sally Alexander (Knightley) lead the group of activists.  The list of beauty pageant contestants including the apprehensive Pearl Jansen (Harrison) from South Africa and the aforementioned Jennifer Hosten (Mbatha-Raw).  Time is also spent following Bob Hope (Kinnear), his wife (Manville), and the long-time competition organiser, Eric Morley (Ifans).

Kudos to the writers, along with director Philippa Lowthorpe (The Crown), in crafting a movie with nuance and “greyness”.  It’d be easy to simplify Keira Knightley’s character and turn her into a feminist hero who never puts a foot wrong and takes down all the villainous men.  Instead, we learn that whilst her efforts should be applauded, there were disagreements behind the scenes.  The film’s most powerful scene occurs late in the film where she has a heart-to-heart with winner Jennifer Hosten and realises there are more issues at play.

That gets to the essence of what Misbehaviour is about.  On one hand, it’s an important history lesson to remind us of the limited life choices offered to women and people of colour in the 1960s.  On the other hand, it offers us a chance to reflect today, think about what more needs to be done, and remember that there isn’t a quick, easy fix to certain issues.  Featuring a slew of strong performances, it’s a film worth your time.