More MIFF 2015 – movie feature

Last week we brought you a potted preview of this year’s Melbourne International Film Festival. Now with the festival well and truly underway, our intrepid and bleary-eyed reviewer Greg King sorts through some of the highlights and not-so-high-lights of this year’s event.

Force of Destiny

Paul Cox is a perennial favourite of the Melbourne International Film Festival. His 1979 feature Kostas was the first Australian film to open the Festival. The auteur’s 47th feature fittingly opens the 64th MIFF. Force of Destiny is his most personal and intimate film to date as it draws upon his own experiences while undergoing a life saving liver transplant a few years ago. Cox draws inspiration from his book Tales From The Cancer Ward, a diary in which he recorded his fears and confronted his own feelings of mortality.

Cox’s surrogate here is Robert (played by David Wenham, a regular in his films), a sculptor who is diagnosed with liver cancer and given six months to live unless a donor organ can be found. While he waits, Robert reconnects with his family on a deeper spiritual level. He also finds a second chance at love and happiness with Maya (Shahana Goswami), a marine biologist who works at the local aquarium and is fascinated with Robert’s work. In a parallel subplot Maya’s beloved uncle back home in India is also dying of cancer.

Wenham delivers a subtle and nuanced performance as a man confronting his mortality. Force of Destiny explores themes of death and mortality, which gives it a sombre note. This also makes it a bit of a downer, especially for an opening night film. But many of Cox’s familiar preoccupations – the beauty of art, relationships, love, spirituality, humanity – are all very much in evidence. But there are also a number of stylistic flourishes and impressionistic touches that unnecessarily stretch the material out by 20 minutes or so.

Cox’s films have always been something of an acquired taste, and Force of Destiny is something of a dour and bleak experience that is unlikely to win him any new admirers.

Turbo Kid

Welcome to the post-apocalyptic world of 1997, a desolate wasteland where water is a precious but rare commodity. This world is ruled by the despotic and sadistic one-eyed Zeus (Michael Ironside), who presides over an army, and stages bloody gladiatorial contests to sate the bloodlust of his troops. Turbo Kid has the same sort of grungy post-apocalyptic feel as films like Mad Max, etc. But is sort of Mad Max-lite, as the characters ride across this wasteland on BMX bikes rather than in souped up cars.

We are introduced to our hero, simply known as “the kid” (played by Munro Chambers, from Degrassi High), an orphan who lives on his own in a bunker on the outskirts of an unnamed village. He survives by scavenging for scraps that he can trade for water. He is also obsessed with the comic book character of Turbo Rider, and his bunker is adorned with lots of collectibles. One day he meets a mysterious girl named Apple (Laurence Leboeuf), who turns out to be a robot. Once she is kidnapped by Zeus’ goons though the kid is forced to step up and become the superhero he idolises, with the help of a mechanised suit with its own power source that he stumbles across.

Chambers has an appealing presence as the naive kid who becomes a reluctant superhero. And Aaron Jeffrey brings a laconic style to his role as Frederic, the defender of the small town threatened  by Zeus. Ironside hams it up beautifully as Zeus, a villainous role that pays homage to some of his own iconic roles.

Turbo Kid is a surreal and thoroughly entertaining homage to low budget B-grade 80s schlock sci-fi action adventures and splatter films, with appropriate use of low rent special effects and lots of blood spattering across the screen. There is lots of gore and blood, and decapitations, all done with glee and tongue-in-cheek style, but the material is also sweetened with touches of the coming-of-age tale.

This is the debut feature film from Canadian filmmaking trio of Francois Simard, Anouk Whissell and Yoann-Karl Whissell (who directed one segment in the horror anthology The ABCs of Death), and they handle the material with lots of energy and imagination, and an obvious respect for the tropes of the genre.

Mississippi Grind

Recently we saw Mark Wahlberg as a gambling addict willing to take risks for a big score. Now we meet Gerry (Ben Mendelsohn), a down on his luck compulsive gambler, desperate for one big score to pay off his loans and get his life back on track. Then he meets Curtis (Ryan Reynolds, in a role originally intended for Jake Gyllenhaal), a charismatic fellow gambler, and believes that he has found a lucky charm that can turn his fortunes around. They decide to hit the road to head to Mississippi for a big poker tournament. What follows is part buddy road movie and part character study. The story feels vaguely familiar, and older audiences will probably hark back to Robert Altman’s California Split, which featured Elliott Gould and George Segal as a pair of down on their luck compulsive gamblers. Mississippi Grind is not quite as dour and downbeat.

Mississippi Grind has been written and directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, who gave us another redemption tale in Half-Nelson. There is great chemistry between Mendelsohn and Reynolds here that gives the film its charm and energy, and make it watchable. The character of Gerry plays to Reynolds’ strengths – he is charming, easy going, smart-aleck wise cracking and cocksure – while Mendelsohn brings an intensity and a palpable hint of desperation to his role as the deeply flawed and self-destructive Gerry in  a performance that elicits some sympathy from the audience. Sienna Miller, Analeigh Tipton, Alfre Woodard and Robin Weigert do what they can with small and essentially thankless roles.

The film is enhanced by the jazz infused score and the strong visuals that give us a sense of the various locations and bring to life the smoky bars and backroom poker games.

Robot Overlords

A variation on the classic War of the Worlds, although aimed at younger audiences and replacing the Martians with robots. It also has a sort of charm that was missing from the last couple of over bloated Transformers movies. Set in a not too distant future, the world has been conquered by a race of robots. Humans have been implanted with a tracking device and confined to their houses with a nighttime curfew. But a group of teens discover a way to negate the tracking devices, and decide to try and overthrow the robot overlords.

The special effects are okay, but reveal the limitations of the budget at times. Ben Kingsley is slumming it here (again) as Smythe, a smarmy human collaborator who works with the robots to maintain a fragile relationship, while The X-Files‘ Gillian Anderson does what she can with an underwritten role. The youthful cast, that includes Australian Callan McAuliffe and the endearing Milo Parker (recently seen opposite Ian McKellen in Mr Holmes) carry the film with plenty of energy and wonderful humour that will appeal to its target audience. The director is Jon Wright whose previous film was the little seen Grabbers, yet another entry in the crowded alien invasion genre.

The Lobster

The films of Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos (Dogtooth) are strange, off beat, enigmatic, unsettling, confronting, and often hard to fathom, and have divided audiences. The Lobster, his first English language feature film, is no exception. It won the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival this year, but like a lot of previous such winners it is a film that lacks broad commercial appeal, but will find its niche on the festival circuit. Like Dogtooth, The Lobster is set in a strange, closed and oppressive community with its own rules and structures where deviation is severely punished.

This bleak, absurdist comedy is set in a dystopian society in the not too distant future where single people are arrested and transported to a creepy luxurious hotel. There they are given 45 days in which to find their soul mate, otherwise they are transformed into an animal of their choice. Each new arrival has one hand cuffed behind their back to reinforce the notion that one can’t really do much alone. They mix awkwardly at dinners and dances, and watch the staff perform small vignettes on the advantages of being a couple. The guests also have the opportunity to extend their stay by hunting down “loners”, rebellious runaways who have fled the hotel for the nearby forest and freedom. But the people who live in the forest also have their own set of rules, and relationships are discouraged and any romantic attachment is severely punished. A third world is the nearby city – pristine, cold, sterile and seemingly impersonal.

This is a jarring and unusual film that offers up a scathing satire on contemporary society and its strictures and rules, and it also explores concepts of individuality and modern relationships. The bleak tone is leavened by touches of deadpan humour.

Lanthimos has attracted a strong cast that includes John C Reilly, Ben Whishaw, Rachel Weisz, and Lea Seydoux as some of the oddball characters. A slightly pudgy Colin Farrell brings a frailty and fragility to his role as David, the central protagonist, a divorced architect whose strange journey we follow. Weisz’s voice over narration is droll and literate, but comes across almost as if she is reading the words from the page of a novel.

Gayby Baby

Debate continues regarding the issue of marriage equality and same sex marriage, particularly here in Australia where our conservative politicians are slow to react to the change in public consciousness on a global basis. And those opposed to the concept still bandy about concerns about “the welfare of the children” and the lack of either maternal or paternal influences. Those who still harbour concerns about the damage caused to society by same sex marriage would do well to check out Gayby Baby, a warm and fascinating new documentary from Maya Newell. The film looks at four 12-year-olds who are being raised by same sex parents. The kids seem rather well-adjusted and normal, and are being raised in nurturing environments. All of the kids are wrestling with their own problems with the help of their same sex parents, but their issues are no different to those confronting kids in traditional family structures.

We meet Gus, a boisterous youngster who is heavily into wrestling, but is also exploring his masculinity, although his two mothers fear that he may be a little too violent when it comes to playing. Matt seems very mature for his age, and he is wrestling with doubts over both religion and politics as they seem to emphasise ideas that are in contrast to the beliefs of his two mothers. A high point for Matt though comes when he attends a dinner with Prime Minister Julia Gillard with his two parents as they discuss marriage equality. Ebony is interested in pursuing a musical career, and gets support from her two mothers despite their pressing concerns over the health of their youngest child who suffers from a severe form of epilepsy. Graham is the adopted son of a male couple and has some learning difficulties which they are working to overcome. But then the family is forced to move to Fiji for work, which complicates matters.

The issue is a deeply personal one for Newell, who has observed the four families over a period of time. Newell has edited down a wealth of footage and has developed a number of narrative strands and themes to follow. The film has a nice unhurried and laid back style, and Newell eschews the traditional documentary format, letting the stories unfold before the camera.

Corn Island

In the middle of the Enguri River in a remote region of Russia, the floodwaters produce small islands that are capable of producing corn crops. An unnamed elderly man (Ilyas Salman) plants corn on the island and builds a small rustic hut where he spends his time tilling the crops and waiting for them to flourish. It is a peaceful existence and a place of tranquility and contemplation. He is accompanied by his teenage granddaughter (Mariam Buturishvili). It is a rather dull existence for the pair, more so for the girl who has to go without the usual creature comforts. The river itself forms a border between Georgia and the breakaway republic of Abkhazia, and the two nations are involved in an ongoing conflict. Gunshots occasionally reach the pair from across the river on the mainland, a reminder of the civil war happening elsewhere. But the conflict doesn’t really touch the couple until a wounded soldier washes ashore one night. They nurse him back to health while wary of the occasional boat patrol passing.

Corn Island is a poetic and visually stunning story about the cycle of nature, of the human cycle life and death and of man versus nature. The process of planting and tending the crop is depicted in meticulous detail. This slow burn and minimalist drama from Russian director George Ovashvili has little dialogue, and relies mainly on the spectacular visuals to tell the story. Corn Island has been beautifully filmed by Elemer Ragalyi, whose sweeping cinematography gives the film an epic scope.

Palio

Twice every year the Italian city of Siena hosts the Palio, the oldest horse race in the world dating back to 1400. It is a horse race unlike any other. It’s a bareback horse race consisting of several laps around the town’s central piazza. Even a horse that has lost its jockey can still win the race! And losing jockeys can be viciously attacked by the crowds. The city is divided into 17 districts, and each district competes for prestige and pride. For the residents of Siena the Palio is a metaphor for the vagaries of life and represents a microcosm of life and traditions of Italy itself. But the outcome of the race is more often than not determined by strategy, bribery and corruption, and side deals between the various jockeys and racing teams.

In this fascinating documentary, director Cosimo Spender (Without Gorky) takes us behind the scenes for this revealing and disturbing look at the tradition of corruption that has dominated the sport. He briefly gives us an overview of the history of the sport, and we meet some of the legendary past figures from the sport. In the lead up to the 2013 event Spender has been granted an unprecedented level of access to some of the competitors. He follows several of the competitors, including the arrogant veteran jockey Gigi Bruschelli, who has won 13 Palios, and his younger protege and main rival Giovanni Atzeni. Atzeni is in it purely for the sport and the thrill of racing, unlike the venal champion who has ruthlessly dominated the sport.

Spender and his team of cinematographers and editor (Valerio Bonelli) have captured the frenetic adrenaline-charged and pulse pounding excitement and brutal spectacle of the race itself, but it is the behind the scenes machinations that provide most of the intrigue and drama. Lovers of horses though should be warned that some scenes here could prove distressing.

The Hunting Ground

The Hunting Ground is a provocative and harrowing expose of the systemic cover up of sexual assaults at some of America’s top universities and colleges in order to protect their reputation and brand and the millions of dollars injected each year in donations by ex-alumni. There are some revealing and damning statistics – 26% of female undergraduates will be victims of sexual assault at some time during their time at college, but few of them will find justice from either the college administration, who seem prepared to go out of their way to protect the predators, or the apathetic legal system. Even worse befalls the victims when the accused assailant happens to be a jock or the star of the football team. The number of expulsions for sexual assault is miniscule when compared with the figures of expulsions for cheating and violations of the honor board.

The politics of sex is familiar ground to veteran documentary filmmakers Kirby Dick (Outrage) and Amy Ziering. here the pair probe beneath the surface of some of the most prestigious Ivy League schools to find an out of control fraternity culture on most campuses. Sigma Alpha Epsilon, one of the more notorious fraternity houses, is apparently referred to on campus as “sexual assault expected,” a morbid reality that highlights the macho jock culture of many such institutions.

Dick and Ziering draw upon first person testimony from a number of rape survivors who are frustrated by their treatment and lack of justice. Annie Clark and Andrea Pino are two such young women who have become activists leading the charge for a change in attitude and for legislation forcing the universities to take rape and sexual assault more seriously. Several heads of some of the more prestigious colleges declined to be interviewed for the film. The Hunting Ground will leave you angry, and serves as a timely warning to all new students heading off to college with lots of expectations and dreams.

Rules of the Game

Anyone who has had to deal with Centrelink and the various job seeking agencies will understand the frustrations of the levels of bureaucracy involved in trying to help jobseekers. It is a problem not just pertinent to Australia, but it is a situation seemingly repeated in many other countries.

This enjoyable and observational documentary from the filmmaking team of Patrice Chagnard and Claudine Bories (Les Arrivants) follows a handful of disenfranchised and inexperienced teens who are looking for work in the depressed job market of northern France. They have been forced to use the services of Ingeus, a job consultancy firm that gives them support and training and helps them develop the necessary skills to apply for jobs and cope with interviews, creating CVs and even learning how to dress appropriately for the workplace.

The kids develop an uneasy and often prickly relationship with their mentors who try to inculcate them with the rules and procedures of the workplace and ready them for employment. However, they receive a monthly payment of 300 euros if they meet their weekly appointments and can demonstrate their job hunting efforts. Not all of them are enthusiastic participants and often find flimsy excuses to miss their regular appointments. And they have a hard time understanding the jargon spouted at them.

Kevin lacks self-confidence, while Hamid has an attitude problem. The most memorable of the characters here is Lolita, a frumpy and surly girl with a bit of a chip on her shoulder, a slouched posture, a troubled past which she is reluctant to talk about, and a massive shoulder bag in which she carries around most of her daily needs. But she slowly grows in confidence as the film progresses.

The film is divided into neat little chapters, and the sometimes amusing headings provide clues to the behaviour of the chosen subjects. But Rules of the Game is also remarkably upbeat and often very funny and a crowd pleaser.

Greg King