Disgrace (2008)

basics...
Based on the novel by J.M. Coetzee, Disgrace opens with Prof David Lurie (John Malkovich) coercing a student into sleeping with him. He's then forced to apologise or resign, chooses the latter option and moves from Cape Town out to his daughter's farm in the South African countryside. While there he grudgingly gets involved with a volunteer vet and his complacent attitude is shattered when 3 youths break into his daughter's home and attack her.

boring...
I'm starting this review on the negative side as I didn't find much to recommend this rather bland movie. I haven't read the book, so I don't know whether that affects my understanding, but once the film ended I had an overwhelming feeling of 'what was the point?'. I'm puzzled about what message, if any, the film was trying to convey. Part of the fault must surely be down to Malkovich's sullen performance, although I suppose that is the character. Lurie is unapologetic for being a sexual predator and abusing his position at the university to sleep with a student, and then he's rude and obnoxious when he encounters his daughter Lucy's (Jessica Haines) friends. When the attach on the farmhouse happens, he is beaten and left unconscious in the toilet while Lucy is raped in the next room, although she is very reluctant to discuss events and her anger towards her father for doing nothing while it happened simmers slowly, fracturing their relationship. Disgrace features no likable or interesting characters, and no discernable point.

but...
An Australian movie filmed in South Africa, the location shooting features some stunning cinematography of African vistas. 

briefly...
Not offensive, just uninteresting and uninvolving, Disgrace is simply boring. 

Shine (1996)

All I knew about Shine before watching was that Geoffrey Rush bagged an Oscar for it, and it's clear to see why. Not just because he was playing a mental; he brings warmth, humour and great dollops of charming heart to the role of David Helfgott in a film based on the character's real-life experiences in dealing with his psychological condition and his extraordinary piano-playing abilities. 

Australian movies all seem to have a certain look about them, and they have a great sense of humour that I think translates particularly well for a British audience, and while Shine is at times tragic and emotional, dealing as it does with Helfgott's overbearing, abusive father, the film also offers lighter moments. Rush's ramblings following David's breakdown at a piano recital are scattered with funny lines, sometimes gently poking fun of his own state of mind, but never feeling forced or inappropriate. I've read since that certain liberties were taken with the characterisations of the real life figures, particularly David's father, but these criticisms are churlish when the resultant movie is so uplifting and tells a believable story of success, failure and the reemergence of an undeniable talent. 

Death of the Megabeasts (2009)

A random documentary that Radio Times highlighted on More4 some time ago, Death of the Megabeasts felt like Walking With Dinosaurs cross-bred with CSI. Featuring CGI recreations of the megafauna that roamed Australia many thousands of years ago intercut with a technology/archaeology driven mystery to find out why these creatures died out, the documentary made for interesting yet flashy viewing. 

Making a change from dinosaurs, the megafauna included an array of exotic giant lions and kangaroo type critters, and the Australian focus was interesting in the different perspectives it provided. After suggesting various theories and then disproving them, it was ultimately decided that man was to blame for much of the extinction process, in his manipulation of the climate, hunting of the animals for meat, and burning of the grasses that the herbivores fed on. Ending with an environmental message about how our treatment of the planet could impact on the animals living now, the programme generated intriguing questions and shed light on a part of world history I'd hitherto not even considered. 

Mary and Max (2009)

Australian stop-motion animation Mary and Max is a real gem of a movie, it's one of those that you feel secretly pleased that not many people have seen it, but then bad because it's the sort of experience you would want everyone to have. It's based on the true story of young Mary in Australia, who writes at random to a man named Max in New York and the friendship that builds from their correspondence over the years. 

Max has asperger's syndrome and has some quite bizarre yet endearing habits, while Mary is picked on at school and misunderstood by her parents. Both are rather tragic figures, but writer-director Adam Elliot never makes you feel pity for either of them, rather through a frequently hilariously offbeat narration from Barry Humphries (and great voice work by Philip Seymour Hoffman, Toni Collette, Eric Bana and Bethany Whitmore) and an almost grotesque style of animation, real emotion and life is breathed into the characters. You feel their pain when a loved one dies, or when Mary or Max fails to connect with the people around them. 

Mary and Max is at times laugh out loud funny, at other points it encourages a lump in the throat, yet I ultimately took great encouragement and optimism away from the sad-yet-uplifting final scene. Yet again, animation proves to be a medium every bit as capable as being moving and heartfelt as any live action movie. 

The Year of Living Dangerously (1982)

Today I've watched The Year of Living Dangerously, starring Mel Gibson and Sigourney Weaver, and set in Indonesia during a time of unrest. I've had to check Wikipedia for when it was set (1965) and for details about events within the movie, mostly because I didn't feel that I learnt that much about the country and the political situation after 2 hours. It's not that it's a bad film, or that I didn't like it, rather it seemed that you either had to know your Indonesian history going in, or follow very closely. And to be honest, I spent some of the time wrapping Christmas presents, so it was probably my own fault. 

Gibson, back when he was unfeasibly hot, plays an Australian reporter newly stationed in Jakarta. He falls for credibly-accented Weaver, a British spy(?), while getting stories and witnessing the political turmoil of President Sukarno's overthrow. While Gibson and Weaver are as good as you'd expect, the heart of the movie comes from Linda Hunt, an American actress in an Oscar-winning role as Indonesian man, Billy Kwan, Gibson's reporter's photographer. As I knew about the gender-bending role going in, it proved to be a little distracting, but it is through Billy that the viewer witnesses the poverty that exists in Indonesia, sat alongside the rich extravagance of the ruling classes, and the western journalists. Billy hopes that Gibson will help to get the truth of the Indonesian situation out to the world, and he engineers his meeting with Weaver and obtains some high status interviews. Sadly, Billy's idealistic dreams are shattered and he resorts to civil disobedience that gets him killed. Hunt is so convincing in the part, I wished I'd not known about her real identity going in. 

I came away from the movie impressed with Hunt, the different, intriguing locations, yet lacking much understanding of events. And the relationship between Gibson and Weaver never really felt that real or exciting. It may be that this is one of those 'worthy' movies, that you have to be in the right frame of mind to watch. I guess I wasn't.

Mad Max (1979); The Graduate (1967); Lethal Weapon 4 (1998); Loaded Weapon 1 (1993); The Walker (2007)

Watching the Lethal Weapon series and reading about Mad Max (1979) in a recent issue of Empire, we decided to give the latter a spin and to find out why Mel Gibson hit big. I enjoyed the movie, it was clearly cheaply made but there's a lot of fun to be had and what action there is is well-directed and visceral. The violence is cartoonish but wince-inducing, especially when Max gets his arm run over by a motorbike. The Australian locations are gorgeously shot, and altogether the movie holds up as great fun. 

For a break from Mel Gibson we watched The Graduate (1967), the movie that made Dustin Hoffman a household name, and another 'classic'. I really liked this - the characters, the actors, the witty script, and the excellent direction all add up to a movie that has quite rightly gone down as a gem of cinema history. Hoffman is a delight as the awkward Benjamin Braddock who stumbles on an affair with 'cougar' (as they'd call her nowadays) Mrs Robinson, played deliciously by Anne Bancroft. Mike Nichols directs the movie in a stylised way that doesn't distance you from the action, rather it adds commentary to the youthful timidity of Benjamin. Hoffman's performance is very funny, one of his best ever, up there with Rain Man, and I'd quite happily watch this again soon. 

We finished off our run of Lethal Weapon movies with the final in the series, Lethal Weapon 4 (1998), which came several years after the last sequel and added Chris Rock and Jet Li to a cast that had already grown to encompass Joe Pesci and Rene Russo. Packed with memorable stunts (such as Riggs fight on a house-moving wagon) and more comedy than before, LW4 is another strong entry in a series that has no real weak link. The fights are just as bloody as in the first movie, and the script has the decency to point out that Gibson and Glover are indeed getting 'too old for this shit', and their storylines are advanced through Riggs' imminent fatherhood, and Murtaugh's grandfatherhood. Pesci is at his least annoying here, but then he is opposite Chris Rock, so maybe he's just less annoying by comparison. This is a fitting end to the series, and I hope they don't try to make any more, because the stars definitely would be too old - they couldn't pull it off like Bruce Willis did in the superb Die Hard 4.0.

Following the Lethal Weapon series we revisited National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon 1 (1993) which parodies several films, but none more so than Lethal Weapon. There are direct references such as Emilio Estevez's Colt going for a walk to show off his naked butt, Colt's/Rigg's trailer getting shot up by the bad guys in helicopters (in a brilliant Bruce Willis cameo), and Samuel L. Jackson's Luger sitting on the toilet parodying the classic LW2 bomb scene - but this time the character is just taking a shit. Other send ups include Basic Instinct's 'gratuitous beaver shot', Silence of the Lambs, and Rambo, but it's the LW references that are funniest. While not quite as good as Hot Shots!, Loaded Weapon 1 is a good laugh, full of hilarious performances from Whoopi Goldberg, William Shatner, Denis Leary and Tim Curry.

I enjoyed all of the movies above over the last week or so, and they all had a lot to recommend them. Unfortunately I can't say the same for The Walker (2007), a movie in which Woody Harrelson plays gay as Carter Page, a companion of high society Washington women, including Lily Tomlin, Lauren Bacall and Kristin Scott Thomas. This might have worked as some sort of comedy, but it's far too serious and becomes a murder-mystery-thriller type affair when the lover of Scott Thomas' character is killed and Page attempts to keep her out of it and find out whodunnit. Harrelson tackles the role in much the same way as Heath Ledger handled gay in Brokeback Mountain, by mumbling almost incoherently the whole way through. It's hard to warm to Page, or any of the characters really, apart from Lauren Bacall's society woman who doesn't get enough screen time. As the movie wears on in a po-faced manner the answers to the mystery provide little revelation or interest and there's not much of a satisfying conclusion. For a film with an interesting premise, it all fell a little flat.

Farscape: Season 1 (1999-2000)

We’ve just finished the first season of Farscape, the Jim Henson sci-fi series that features, human, puppets and CGI all working together. This was a new achievement in TV back in 1999, and as far as I know, there still aren’t (m)any adult TV shows using puppets to tell their stories today.

I first watched Farscape when it showed on BBC2 at 6pm on a week night, back when Buffy, Due South, The Simpsons and The Fresh Prince of Bel Air made that a must see hour, right after Neighbours finished on BBC1. But then the BBC decided cult shows such as these were for graveyard slots or the digital realms, so I think I only actually saw a couple of seasons of Farscape – though I’ve definitely seen all of season 1 before.

Watching season 1 again, I found more to enjoy in the series than I’d seen previously. I appreciated how well drawn the characters are, and how subtle some of their interactions are. The concept of Farscape – John Crichton, a human, ends up on a prison ship with a collection of fugitives and tries to find his way back to Earth – has always intrigued me. These characters were (mostly) prisoners, although prisoners of the nefarious and falsely named Peacekeepers, so their crimes are not as cut and dried as they first appear. This show has no basic ‘explore the galaxy’ remit, rather the ship and it’s inhabitants are on the run from the Peacekeepers they escaped from, and each is trying to get to their home planet, although they are currently, inconveniently, in the Uncharted Territories. Each character is distinct and has their own priorities, and each is selfish in different ways. As the season evolves so too do the characters’ relationships with each other, as they develop respect and learn how to interact with others.

Crichton (Ben Browder) is the hunky, pop-culture-referencing Earthling stranded on Moya, a living ship (although as hard as they try, she doesn’t really ‘look’ like a living being, but it’s a very interesting concept, especially when she gives birth at the season’s end), and he is the audience’s way in to this world. Very occasionally, Browder’s performance edges on annoying, but mostly he’s both fun and funny. Claudia Black plays Aeryn Sun, one of favourite characters for she grows immensely from her role as a simple Peacekeeper grunt into a compassionate member of the crew, and her relationship with Crichton is so playful they’ve just go to get it on any minute!

The non-human looking members of the crew are: Ka D’Argo (Anthony Simcoe), a Luxan warrior who is initially very head strong, but like Aeryn learns to use his head before his Qualta Blade; Pa’u Zotoh Zhaan (Virginia Hey), a blue woman who’s actually a plant, and the slightly hippy one with a knack for medicine; Dominar Rygel XVI, a hilarious puppet creation who resembles a toad or a large slug, but in a nice way!; and Pilot, the massive animatronic at the heart of Moya. Gigi Edgley joined the regular cast for the last few episodes, playing Chiana, and she created some excellent new dynamics with the rest of the cast.

I love the humour in Farscape, and not just Crichton’s pop culture references. The fact that Rygel farts helium is brilliant in itself, and when he’s stuck in a pod with Chiana and can’t help but break wind it lightens a very tense episode. Initially made up of monster of the week style episodes featuring either a new planet or a new visitor to Moya, the latter half of season 1 really ups the stakes with story arcs and recurring villains Crais and Scorpius (re)introduced into the mix, creating more jeopardy and a chance for the actors to really show their acting chops. That is not to say that the first episodes are poor, far from it, although sometimes the ideas on display are better than their execution, it is that the later episodes are noticeably more exciting and tighter scripted. Any new series needs time to find it’s feet, just look at The X-Files and Buffy’s first seasons.

One of the other distinctive features of Farscape that set it apart from other sci-fi series (other than the imaginative puppet and costume work that Jim Henson’s workshop creates every episode) is that it was filmed in Australia, and thus most of the cast and guest cast are Australian. Although our hero, John Crichton, is as American as they come, everyone else in this part of the world usually speaks with an Aussie twang. It’s refreshing to hear that Crichton’s translator microbes work with an Australian accent!

Ross Noble's Australian Trip (2009)

It’s not often I watch anything on Five – I’ve only been able to receive it since moving to Leeds in March – despite the preponderance of US imports such as CSI (which I watch on DVD) that I usually enjoy. For Ross Noble, however, I made an exception, and even had to watch/record the show on Fiver.

I’ve seen Ross Noble live (in York) twice, and he never fails to make me laugh until it hurts. His DVDs are amazing, and packed full of content that gives my chuckle muscle a full workout. And now Ross Noble’s Australian Trip shows once more what a great observational and improvisational comedic force he really is.

The premise of the 6-part series was Ross riding his motorcycle around Australia (in 2007), visiting lots of towns, cities and villages, gigging along the way. So the show was a sort-of travelogue – but with Ross’ comedic observations more than factual information providing the commentary – interspersed with clips from the 95-day Fizzy Logic tour. The way Ross’ comedy works is not no 2 shows are the same, there’s no ‘script’ and no limits to where his imagination will take the audience. In the context of the TV series, Ross visits Aussie towns; taking in the sights and the locals, and then clips of his performance in that town displays the comedy that can be gleaned from his experiences. Analysing comedy performances in this way is very dry and shows nothing of the genius frequently displayed.

So what does Ross Noble’s Australian Trip teach us about his adopted homeland (his wife is Australian)? Every other town Ross arrived in shuts early. Australian towns are full of giant monuments: clamshells, bulls, whales, fruit, veg, you name it! There is a country within Australian ruled over by Queen Shirley and her husband. Kangaroos and other wildlife like to run across the open roads after dark, scaring motorcyclists. Dolphins like to drink wine in the wild. There is a Blue Lake full of water, and a Green Lake with none. Pig’s nipples and pickled calf brains are delicacies in some areas. And much, much more!

The beauty of the series is that it combined what could have been a dry travelogue with Ross Noble’s crazy imagination to provide snapshots of the scattered and varied communities to be found in Australia, many of which are perfect for Ross’ observational comedy. I hope he tours again soon!