Author: Kate Larkindale

Review: ‘Still Mine’

Posted by | Jun 19, 2013 |

This film could easily be compared with Amour.  Both films feature devoted couples in their twilight years, and both show the husband caring devotedly for his ailing wife.  But there the similarities cease. Craig and Irene have been married sixty years.  They live on a farm in the remote Canadian area of Brusnwick.  Craig has long shunned modern technology and prefers doing everything the old-fashioned way. So when Irene becomes ill and it becomes apparent she can’t stay in their ramshackle two story farmhouse, Craig sets out to build them a new home on the land he’s farmed his whole life.  He even refuses help from his son, preferring to do the work himself, by hand. But even when you own the land, in this day and age you can’t build anything without a permit and Craig soon finds himself tangled in red tape as he battles the inflexible building inspector.  He doesn’t have time for the bureaucracy as Irene’s dementia worsens, exacerbated by a fall that breaks her hip. The case goes to court where, with the support of the local paper and an understanding lawyer, he makes an impassioned plea that, surprisingly, doesn’t fall on deaf ears. Based on a true story, this touching and powerful love story shows a couple whose love for one another is just as strong as the day they met.  Even their...

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Review: ‘The Great Gatsby’

Posted by | Jun 17, 2013 |

That I’ve never much liked F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel probably makes me a philistine. But the over–privileged characters with their petty problems and concerns didn’t interest me, and when you don’t care about the characters it’s difficult to engage with a story, no matter how well written. Leaving the theatre after seeing Baz Luhrmann’s extravagant cinematic retelling of the story, I didn’t feel any different. In fact, I felt like I’d murdered 142 minutes and resented Luhrmann for wasting my time. Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet was a bold and new Shakespeare with hip-hop and other contemporary influences. But now his post-modernist approach to the literary classics is stale, and the constant movement of the camera over hundreds of gyrating, grinding party-goers is just wearying. That said, the production design and overall look of the film is spectacular – I just wish the camera had stayed still long enough for me to admire it. Not to mention that my eyes hurt from the completely pointless 3D. Amid all this overblown grandeur and lavish set-dressing, finding the actors is difficult. Tobey Maguire as Nick Carraway has so little screen presence he might as well be a part of the furniture. Leonardo DiCaprio gives a solid performance as Gatsby, while Carey Mulligan smiles and pouts and looks impishly pretty as she does in every role she plays. Overblown, over-marketed and over-long, The Great Gatsby is one...

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Interview: Simon Fulton, Out Takes Film Festival Director

Posted by | Jun 4, 2013 |

The 2013 Out Takes Film Festival runs from May 30th until June 12th at Paramount Cinemas in Wellington. I was privileged to be able to interview the festival director, Simon Fulton about this year’s programme and more… . K8: How many years has Out Takes been running now? And have you been involved from the start? . Simon: Out Takes started in 1995 in Wellington. There’s no one from the original team still involved. The first festival I was involved in organising was the 1997 one. . K8: What makes Out Takes special? . Simon: Two things stand out for me – it’s still the audience’s only chance to see most of the films we screen – hardly any Out Takes films get a general release. Over the years some of the films we’ve screened have later screened on pay TV like the Rialto Channel for example, and some titles will eventually be stocked by independent DVD hire stores like Aro Video – but it’s a tiny percentage of the titles we’ve screened. The festival remains the only opportunity to see most of the titles. And Out Takes provides a truly queer space – sitting in an auditorium of fellow queers watching a queer-themed film is a completely different experience from watching a film at home with friends, or seeing a queer-themed film with a straight audience. Out Takes...

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Review: ‘The Reluctant Fundamentalist’

Posted by | May 24, 2013 |

A few years ago there was a gritty little British drama called Shifty. It starred a then-unknown Riz Ahmed, and even then I thought he was an actor to keep an eye on. Here he plays Changez, a Pakistani in New York, living the American dream. He’s a Princeton graduate, has a great job on Wall Street and is engaged to a gorgeous artist. Then 9/11 happens and Changez’s life takes a sinister twist. Suddenly he’s the enemy and has to fight suspicion and racial prejudice at every turn. He travels back to Pakistan and takes a job as a professor at a Lahore university, questioning whether there is a Pakistani dream as well as an American one. The framing story involving an American journalist is not as compelling or as well presented as Changez’s own story and the drama in it feels a little forced. But if you can overlook that, this is a powerful, challenging film about manipulation and assumptions. Director Mira Nair draws us into her net and shows us how images can be manipulated to present what we want to see – making her point that nothing is what it seems and that there is no single truth. It’s a film that poses difficult questions about out perceptions of East and West. For those willing to confront their pre-conceptions, this is a rewarding ride. 7.5/10 . THE RELUCTANT FUNDAMENTALIST UK/ USA/ Qatar |...

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