Author: Kate Larkindale

Review: ‘The Turning’

Posted by | Nov 25, 2013 |

Tim Winton’s bestselling book of seventeen short stories is not something most people would see as being an obvious choice for adapting to the big screen. Filmmaker and producer Robert Connolly is not most people, and he has gathered together an enviable list of Australian cinema talent to put together this compilation film. Each of the seventeen stories has been made into a short film by a different director – a veritable who’s who of Australian talent, both established and up-and-coming. The result is, as you might expect, is a little mixed…but ultimately rewarding. The book, set primarily on the Western Australian coast, is populated by damaged people. Alcoholism runs through the stories, as does abuse of both women and children. But there are also undercurrents of hope, salvation and spiritual awakening that will pull the desperate characters out of the world they currently wallow in. The tone of the film follows that of the book – melancholy and yearning. Segments that stood out for me were “Sand”, in which two brothers engage in a dangerous game on the beach while the adults fish, oblivious to how easily they could have lost a son, and “On Her Knees” in which a cleaning woman deals with being wrongfully dismissed with uncanny dignity and passes a valuable lesson on to her son. I also very much enjoyed the experimental dance piece, “Immunity”, and...

Read More

Review: ‘One Chance’

Posted by | Nov 24, 2013 |

In the same vein as British hits Billy Elliot, The Full Monty and Brassed Off, One Chance is based on the true story of Britain’s Got Talent winner Paul Potts. However, “based on” can often be a very broad term. As a child, Potts is bullied for being overweight and obsessed with opera. Yet he shrugs it off, along with his father’s disapproval – dear Old Dad would rather see his son sweating it out alongside him at the metalworks. As he pursues his dream of singing opera, Potts is besieged by troubles. I’m sure that in real life, while the man may have suffered multiple misfortunes, they would have been tempered by some happiness and good luck. As portrayed here, every happy moment is followed directly by one that would send most people running for the hills. When a pop-up ad on a debt clearing website for the televised talent show Britain’s Got Talent catches Paul’s eye, he wavers over pushing send on his application. But Jules, his girlfriend-then-wife, is nothing but encouraging and does it for him, thus sealing his place in reality television history. From here the film follows the predictable route, showing Pott’s electrifying performance on the show, complete with real-life footage of the judges who, not expecting anything from this unattractive, lumpish Welshman, are quite obviously gobsmacked when he opens his mouth. There is...

Read More

Review: ‘Diana’

Posted by | Oct 11, 2013 |

Reviewers slammed this film on its London premiere, calling it tasteless at best, and offensive at worst. I was never a huge fan of Diana, so my expectations going in were low despite Downfall director Oliver Hirschbiegel being at the helm. The film I saw was neither offensive or tasteless. It was dull. Centering on the last two years of Diana’s life, the film follows her as she meets and falls in love with Pakistani surgeon Hasnat Khan. As their relationship blossoms, so does Diana. She expands her humanitarian work and grows more confident when dealing with the media who seem determined to expose her relationship to the public. Unwilling to be party to such media scrutiny, Khan is less confident that the partnership will work, even after Diana heads to Pakistan alone to introduce herself to his family. Naomi Watts looks the part, but because the script fails to show Diana outside the relationship – dealing with her ex, her children, or anyone else in her pre-divorce world – she never becomes a real person. Toward the end of the film when Diana uses her powers to manipulate the media and flaunt her new relationship with Dodi Fayed so that Khan will see, it makes her downright unlikable – before she just appeared self-centered and rather dim. And Naveen Andrews (Khan) and Watts have so little chemistry, even their most...

Read More

Review: ‘Mr. Pip’

Posted by | Oct 5, 2013 |

Great expectations have indeed been piled onto this cinematic adaptation of Lloyd Jones’ award winning novel set against the backdrop of civil war in Bougainville. But readers of the book will not be disappointed by how the text has been translated to the big screen. Matilda has lived on the island all her life and has had little contact with the outside world. So when Mr. Watts, the white husband of one of the natives, takes over the long-closed schoolhouse and introduces her to Great Expectations, it changes her world and that of all the children in the room too. Pip, Magwich and Estella offer Matilda an insight into another world, and a respite from the fear and uncertainty brought on by the power struggle over the nation’s copper mines. It is the scenes from Matilda’s imagination that are the most powerful in the film. Never having seen Victorian England, Matilda’s imagining of Pip’s world is both stark and vibrant. Women wear Victorian dresses, but made from colourful Bougainville prints, and Pip himself is a handsome black man. The contrast between this imagined world and the bleak reality is stark. The dense bush and tangled vines are the same shade of green as the uniforms worn by the armed soldiers who sporadically invade the village, leaving violence and pain in their wake. And yes, there is violence. Brutal, realistic, horrific violence that forces upon you...

Read More

Review: ‘Turbo’

Posted by | Oct 2, 2013 |

Cinema frequently asks the audience to suspend their disbelief, but never more than this preposterous tale of a snail taking on the Indy 500. But take that leap – this is the most fun you’re likely to have in a cinema this school holidays. Turbo is a speed-obsessed snail who discovers the joys of motor racing through his illicit viewing of the sport on a TV in the garden shed where he lives. He’s dissatisfied with his life in a suburban the tomato patch where daily perils include bird-snatches and an evil trike-riding toddler who likes the crunch of snails under his wheels. When he escapes the yard and heads out into the real world, Turbo is sucked into a car’s engine and is infused with a miracle energy that gives him super-speed. It’s this speed that brings him into the sphere of another dreamer, Tito, a taco-store worker who wants more than to drive a taco van through neighborhoods where no one wants to buy tacos. On the side he races snails, so when he finds Turbo, he knows he’s made. Turbo’s speed easily blows all other snail competition away, so Tito sets his sights on the big time: the Indy 500. He’s sure that entering a snail is just the gimmick he and his brother need to bring their franchise into the public eye. The parallels between Turbo’s cautious brother,...

Read More