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Reviews
Fremont (2023)
Lovely little film
I saw this yesterday in one of our vintage Melbourne cinemas (Balwyn) and found myself to be the only person in the 50-seater room, which suited me fine, because I could completely lose myself in this dream of a movie.
No element of this film is remarkably original but the whole adds up to more than the sum of its parts, and the newcomer Anaita Wali Zada is a delight and a captivating screen presence in a way that is hard to define. As others have said, both in appreciation and in criticism, all the performances are understated in this understated movie but in a good way. Even the story is unresolved, if you're judging it by mainstream expectations but, again, it's unresolved in a pleasing and apt way. Visually pleasing, musically pleasing, emotionally touching without milking it. It left me thinking about it for the rest of the day, wishing to hold onto its sense of delicate, intimate atmosphere.
I'd happily see it again and recommend it to anyone of an empathetic nature.
One Life (2023)
Compares favourably with Schindler's List
Seeing 'The Zone of Interest' and 'One Life' one week apart has been a thought-provoking experience, since both concern aspects of the Holocaust and both are strikingly timely, given what's going on in the world right now.
One film aims to examine the everyday lives of a notorious mass murderer and his family, straining to absorb us into a documentary-like virtual reality experience of the quotidian concerns of mundane evil. The other seeks no such novelty, telling the remarkable story of Nicky Winton, a young English stockbroker who helped to rescue many hundreds of Czech Jewish children from the Nazis, in more conventional terms.
It's a fine film, comparable to 'Schindler's List' in content and style, also including the participation of real survivors and with a sprinkling of archival clips and photos. It's also more moving and satisfying as a film than the more highly-rated and Oscar-awarded 'Zone', which fails to deliver the impact that its director so earnestly desires, despite the plaudits. Ultimately, 'One Life' is a story of human goodness against the odds, and that's what leaves a lasting impression. Ambitious films like 'Zone' are necessary too, but if they don't really tell a story they risk leaving only an impression of emptiness and meaninglessness, not enough for a work of art unless you're very very good at it.
The Zone of Interest (2023)
A mundane film about the mundanity of evil
The banality of evil, a worthy and enduring subject. Rudolf Höss, a prime example, and I suppose his wife also, judging by this account. Having read the Amis novel, a bleak and unsatisfying glimpse of love/lust at Auschwitz, I fail to see any resemblance to the story told in this film, but that's not particularly problematic, only curious.
The problem is that the careful efforts to avoid cheap pathos and to explore the everyday ordinariness of evil simply missed the mark and left me unmoved and, let's face it, if you're unaffected after a Holocaust movie you're either a monster or there was something wrong with the film. There's still plenty to appreciate, and Sandra Hüller is quickly becoming one of my favourite actors ('Anatomy of a Fall, is superb).
Duet for Four (1982)
Muddled almost-comedy
Writer David Williamson once explained that this tale of an Australian toy company in negotiations with a powerful American corporation (think Mattel) is a metaphor for the Australian film industry in the early 1980s, worried about losing its financial and creative independence. If so, it's a pretty clumsy one, and the comparison with 'Spotswood', made a decade later and set in a small Melbourne shoe factory, doesn't do Williamson any favours. Significantly, that film was a gentle comedy. It's hard to take 'Duet' seriously because of its try-hard tossing together of way too many plot elements, some laughably ridiculous, others stale and hackneyed. It might have fared better if it had gone the comedy route too. Having recently watched 'Don's Party', I'm beginning to question Williamson's accolades. The reputation for snappy dialogue, realistic depictions of Aussie life and relationships and great one-liners was earned in the theatre, I guess. On film, his dialogue and plots often just seem to be in need of serious editing.
There are things to enjoy, nevertheless. I watched it for the nostalgia of experiencing a little of a time and place that mean a lot to me, and to learn more about Australian films of that era.
Worth watching is Mike Preston as toy company exec Ray and Wendy Hughes as his de facto, both making the most of their roles and often lacklustre dialogue. Diane Cilento as Ray's posh and demanding ex is stylish and Sigrid Thornton does about as much as possible as one-dimensional troubled daughter. For entertainment value, it's fun to watch the absolute hash Michael Pate makes of Al, the American corporate wheeler-dealer, so bad he's almost good. Everything about the character is unconvincing and shallow. If, as Williamson suggests, the setting of 'Duet' is a metaphor, then perhaps the role of Al could be viewed as a metaphor too, for Williamson's hit-and-miss characters.
Us (2019)
Began well
Don't get me wrong, I don't expect a horror movie to be totally believable. There's always got to be some suspension of disbelief, which I'm up for. Without some internal rationale, though, a film like 'Us' fails even on its own terms, because there is no reason for the things that happen or the characters who appear.
I've loved the horror genre since I was smuggled into a drive-in in the 1970s as an 11 year-old to see Peter Cushing in 'The legend of the seven golden vampires'. It gave me nightmares for weeks. Many years later, I found it and watched it again and had a good chortle. That's the thing about horror movies, when they're not really good - you end up sniggering, or leaving. Yesterday, I saw 'Us' and ended up doing both.