DVD Gem - Beasts of the Southern Wild

A film that may have passed you by but is definitely worth a watch is ‘Beasts of the Southern Wild’.  It scored rave reviews from a range of movie critics after a short release last year, and was nominated for Best Picture, Best Director (a first timer!), Best Actress (9 year old Quevenzhane Wallis) and Best Adapted Screenplay.  Not bad for a movie most of us hadn’t heard of! It didn't end up winning anything after all, but it’s an absolutely unique film that will leave a lasting impression so I suggest you rent it out from the video store!

Adapted from a play, the plot covers two main storylines – a father teaching his young daughter how to survive in the world, and a community who want to deal with a severe weather event in their own way.  Where this becomes unlike anything you’ve ever seen before is in the setting: ‘The Bathtub’.  The bayous of Florida, outside the levee.  It's a wild, primitive kind of life for the residents but that's the way they like it.

The main character is named Hushpuppy, a young girl whose mother just up and left her to be cared for by her father Wink.  Wink has a tough love approach to raising Hushpuppy, but you can see that it is based on love.  As the film progresses we suspect that it's because Wink has a medical condition which means he may or may not be around to take care of Hushpuppy for much longer, so he is teaching her to be self-sufficient even at the tender age of about 7.  Problems arise for both when a huge storm hits the bayou (very Hurricane Katrina-like) and the water level rises, forcing the Bathtub dwellers into desperate action as their ecosystem struggles to survive.  When the Government tries to forcibly evacuate them, they become even more determined to stay/get home.

Quevenzhane Wallis gives an extraordinary performance, being only around 7 years old and never having acted before.  It's fierce and strong but also wondrous.  Most of the actors in the film are actually non-actors from the area where the movie was filmed.  It's a credit to the director that he has drawn such naturalistic performances from these people who must have gone through hell in some parts.

All of the above does absolutely no justice to the magic of this film.  Hushpuppy's voiceovers give an insight into the poetic thoughts of this fierce young girl with a softer side as she longs to meet her mother. Her interest in ancient cave paintings and creatures manifests in the release of a group of ancient aurochs (large scary ox like creatures) who were frozen in ice, which has melted in a really unsubtle dig at global warming.  As the movie progresses, the aurochs stampede towards the Bathtub and confrontation with Hushpuppy, but is it real or all in her mind?  Will she actually find her mother?

What I loved about this movie was the combination of fierceness of these people but the joy they take in their simple lifestyles and the strength of the community and their roots.  There are some very strong messages here, some obvious and some that require a bit of quiet reflection to notice.  You won't be able to shake some of the images that you will see here so you will have time to think it over.  It's a completely unique setting and unlike any other movies I've seen.  There are no easy answers given and even the title is a puzzle - does it refer to the stampeding aurochs or the people of the Bathtub themselves?

Oscars 2013 Tips

The Oscars are on tomorrow! This has come at a bad time for me but I've managed to squeeze in seeing 4 of the Best Picture nominees in the last week so I feel a bit more informed now.  Nobody better ruin any of the categories for me since I'll be taping the show while I'm at work and watching it later.....

Here are my predictions for the Oscars:

Best Picture
I'm now convinced that Argo is going to win this category.  It was smart, entertaining but most of all tense and exciting.  Lincoln was a worthy film on a worthy topic but it's just plain boring in parts. Beasts of the Southern Wild could pull of a surprise win but I don't think any of the others are in it.

Best Actor
There are some really good performances here but I think the favourite is Daniel Day Lewis and I think he probably does deserve to win and will win.  It is a startling likeness and how much he changed his voice and walk is worthy of the award.

Best Actress
This is a tough choice, either Naomi Watts or Jennifer Lawrence will win.  Both are excellent performances, one showy and dramatic, one understated and dramatic.  I'm going to pick Jennifer Lawrence as the winner but I personally think Naomi deserves it.

Best Supporting Actor
Christoph Waltz for Django Unchained, surely.  Anything else will be a crime.  Alan Arkin is barely in Argo!

Best Supporting Actress
Les Mis is one of the few I haven't seen this year but I'm going with the short-priced favourite, Anne Hathaway for this category.

Best Screenplay - Adapted
Tough choice again.  Argo may win this too for a very smart script.

Best Screenplay - Original
Come on down Quentin Tarantino.  Django Unchained is the highest profile here, although Amour could give it a run for it's money with the critics.

Best Song
Adele's Skyfall theme should romp home here.  I'm still humming it!

Best Animated Feature
I reckon Wreck-It Ralph will take the trophy here although Frankenweenie was better and had more heart.

Best Cinematography
I'm betting on Life of Pi to win this and the Visual Effects Oscar.  It was stunning!

Best Foreign Film
Amour will surely top this category.

Best Director
This is probably the hardest one for me to pick.  Steven Spielberg is the sentimental favourite and Lincoln is again worthy subject matter, but the film is kind of boring.  I'd like to see Ang Lee win for making the 'unfilmable' book Life of Pi into such a great movie, and I'd like to see Behn Zeitlin win for the unique Beasts but it's probably too obscure.  David O. Russell is too much of a troublemaker to win the Oscar at this point.  Therefore I think Michael Haneke may win this, but I'll go with Spielberg as my final answer.

Seth McFarlane will kick arse as the host in opinion so I'm really looking forward to the ceremony regardless of how many I get right.  Tracking down these films has given me many hours of quality viewing in the last few months.  Feel free to comment on my accuracy with the benefit of hindsight tomorrow night!

Top 5 Soundwave 2013 Moments

 

 Captain's Log: Saturday 22 February 2013, Soundwave Festival at RNA Showgrounds Brisbane

 

 

Well Soundwave 2013 would have to be the biggest and best music festival we've seen in many years. An incredible lineup was assembled, forcing us to make some very difficult choices throughout the day (or at least anyone who isn't into only one specific type of music).  But how anyone can complain about the clashes or choices is beyond me - it just means you are getting to see the cream of the crop and there are always sidewaves to attend. 

The festival's organisation was top notch this year with many improvements.  Though it makes no difference to this little straight-edge duck, the ability to take your alcoholic beverages anywhere except into the D barrier made the day much more enjoyable for those who like to actually see the bands they are hearing and drink at the same time.  The lineup to get in was almost non-existent at 11:30am.  There were few queues for food given the size of the crowd, bar and drink lines were pretty short, no toilet queues (and clean!), free sunscreen, and the stage layout was perfect.  The weather was great, although we all wished for a bit less of that hot hot sun as the afternoon waned.  Bet Slayer's Tom Araya in his leather pants wished the sun would set a bit faster!

Finding the perfect hat to go with my outfit for the day, for sale at one of the market stalls, was a happy accident.  OK onto my Top 5 moments of the day:

1. Cutting sick to Sick of it All on tiny little Stage 6 inside the Auditorium. After a day spent observing, bopping away down the back of a huge crowd, the indoor stage was intimate, dark, air conditioned and full of rough and tough hardcore kids during Madball.  These disappeared for SOIA, allowing me to go a little crazy with the fists without fear of being hurt or hurting anyone.  The wall of death was a bit scary since our side was outnumbered about 10 to 1.  But I managed to do it! Fun.

2. Metallica, the whole thing.  I wasn't fully planning to watch these guys but on the day I couldn't resist the master professionals.  The biggest 'show' Soundwave has ever put on, with amazing lights, screens, fireworks off the roof, pyro on stage, giant ramp.  Oh year, and four of the best players in the world ripping out most of my favourite tracks!

3. Kyuss on the main stage.  They sucked all the heat out of the sky and made the place super cool.  I absolutely loved hearing 'One Inch Man' live for the first time ever. Garcia's voice isn't quite as good as it used to be but damn these guys built a groove.

4. Anthrax. Antisocial rocked, their Dimebag Daryl and Ronny James Dio tribute was touching, and their cover of TNT was the best Bon Scott impersonation I've heard.

5. Hanging out with my friends while watching The Vandals, Sum 41, Bullet for my Valentine, Slayer and Dragonforce.  Keeping the gang together for most of the day was challenging but rewarding.  It also allowed me to enjoy Metallica with Josh and Michelle, neither of whom had seen them live before which was fun to hear their reaction.

I do wish I could've seen a bit of The Offspring (the good old bits), Garbage and Paramore, but them's the breaks.  Next time!

Movie # 5 - The Impossible

The Impossible is a devastating movie to watch, recreating the events of the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami which struck Indonesia, Thailand, the Maldives and other countries in the same region.  Hundreds of thousands of people were killed, many more injured or displaced and any beachfront land was just razed.  The impact was so devastating because they were so unprepared for it, leading to the development of the current Early Warning System that we have now.  So why do we want or need a movie on this topic when there was so much news coverage at the time and on the anniversaries ever since?

The answer I guess lies in the way the filmmakers have chosen to tell the story – reducing the focus down to the survival story of one family and not trying to look at the region wide issues or just shock you for shock’s sake.  It’s a story of great courage, determination and never losing hope, set in possibly the most hopeless and scary situation you could face.  This is based on the experiences of a real family from Spain who were holidaying when the tsunami struck, with the mother and eldest son being swept away by the wall of water, while the father and two little boys who remained at the destroyed resort.  In the film, it has been changed to an English family for reasons unknown but probably to allow them to cast Ewan McGregor and Naomi Watts as the couple, who put in powerhouse performances.  I don’t know how closely the plot sticks to their real experience but it seems pretty authentic with all the ‘near misses’ the family goes through in their quest to be reunited.

My motivation in seeing the movie was mainly driven by the hype around Naomi Watts’ performance as Maria Bennett, rather than any particular desire to understand more about the tsunami.  And so I was a little unprepared for the shock and awe that the filmmakers have delivered, finding myself gasping out loud at various points, white knuckled with stress and welling up with emotion as some of the parents’ incredibly difficult decisions resulted in sad consequences.

The performance by Naomi Watts is incredible, even when she is simply lying in a hospital terribly injured.  The director has literally and figuratively put her through a wringer in this film and she does deserve the awards she has won to date.  But Ewan McGregor’s performance should not have been overlooked either, although featuring less in the movie, as some of his scenes are the most heart wrenching of all as he is torn between looking after his small children or searching for his beloved wife and eldest son who may be dead but he refuses to give up hope.  The children’s performances are quite amazing for their age and what they must have been exposed to mentally and physically to pull off the tsunami scene.

Many people will choose not to see this movie to avoid a reminder of a huge tragedy which could be exploitative, and I completely understand this.  I would have been one of that group without my Oscars goal.  It’s not a must-see movie given how closely it covers an enormous level of human suffering. However, I’m glad that I did see it and that they haven’t exploited the issue.  I definitely can’t say I enjoyed it (yes I know it’s one of my favourite descriptions, I will work on that) but I gained something from the viewing.  An appreciation of the smallness of our existence compared to Mother Nature’s power, of telling the people around you that you love them (something the family in the movie did all the time which is probably what gave them the hope to carry on looking and find each other, knowing the others would be doing the same) and of the strength we are capable of if we have a purpose and don’t just give in to hopelessness. Sad and horrifying, but inspirational and amazing.

 

Movie # 4 - Silver Linings Playbook

I approached Silver Linings Playbook more for the level of Oscar nominations than any familiarity with the popular in America book or strong connection to the plot.  However it turns out that the plotline kind of mirrors the situation that someone we know is going through right now which made it much more personal to watch than I would have guessed.

The movie follows a 30 something guy called Pat whose mother has just come to release him from a mental institution, where he has been since an 'incident' six months earlier that broke up his marriage and resulted in him being diagnosed as bipolar and delusional.  That incident is revealed early on to be much more severe than Pat makes it sound but Pat is living under the delusion that he will turn his life around without needing medication and get his wife Nicki back.  The film explores Pat's journey as he struggles to achieve his goal, puts his family through a rollercoaster ride and forms an emotionally volatile friendship with Tiffany, who may or may not also have a few mental issues.

Both Pat and Tiffany are quite socially awkward which would make them quite unlikeable in real life but the characters both have enough redeeming moments to make you really want to cheer for them to get through their issues and achieve stability.  The performances by Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence in these roles are very strong, mainly because they haven't gone 'showy' with them - they feel natural and realistic.  No wonder the pair have won Oscar nominations for acting, although Jennifer is more likely to win her category than Bradley.

The supporting parts and plotlines are also quality.  The football angle, where Pat's dad is an obsessed Eagles NFL team fan and amateur bookmaker who wants Pat to spend time watching games with him to help the 'juju', is a bit cheesy but ultimately satisfying.  Robert de Niro does a nice restrained performance (for once) as a man struggling with his son's illness while possibly also suffering some similar, undiagnosed issues.  Jacki Weaving is also nicely subdued as Pat's supportive Mum with a nice slightly Jewish accent.  Chris Tucker pops up briefly as a friend from the psych hospital and John Ortiz is Pat's best buddy Ronnie who is having his own issues with his seemingly perfect life but these subplots get a little bit sidelined to keep the movie on track.

Overall I think they key to this movie is the fact that it is all quite understated, so you don't really 'enjoy' it but I did walk away thinking that it was very good and that I hadn't just seen an 'issues movie'.   On reflection, it probably has some good messages about using positivity to make changes in your life but that it's not always that simple.  It really can be so difficult for people to overcome mental issues which should not be dismissed lightly.

I don't see this winning the Best Picture Oscar but we could definitely see some acting wins (de Niro and Weaving are also nominated).

Movie #3 - Life of Pi

It was with very mixed opinions ringing in my ears that I approached seeing this film.  Some said it was fantastic, life-changing and spectacular.  Others said it wasn't their sort of movie (most of whom hadn't seen it).  I decided to just keep an open mind and if the storyline failed to interest, the visuals would at least be stunning.  Turns out that was the best way to go in, as I actually really liked everything about it.

The movie begins with a writer (Rafe Spall) meeting up with the now middle aged Pi (short for Piscine) who, he has heard, has an amazing story to share.  Pi begins to recount the story and we flash back in time to meet the young Pi growing up in India where his family runs a zoo.  The film then alternates between Pi framing the story with the writer in the present day, and the re-enactment of the story at various intervals of his life, before returning to the present to give some context to what you've just seen.  So to answer the first question some have had: No, it's not a 2 hour movie about a boy trapped on a boat with a tiger.  There is a lot of framing device and back story before we get to that.

The various stages of Pi's life that we visit include: when he is very young and his father teaches him that the wild zoo animals such as the tiger are not your friend, they are wild animals with no souls and it is healthy to fear them; when he is a young teenager and starts to explore different religions and faiths and practices three at once (which his science believing father finds ridiculous); and when he is an older teenager and meets a girl he likes.  All three of these stages and Pi's reactions are key to the story that then unfolds - the story of how his parents decide to take the zoo animals to Canada to sell them and live a comfortable life, and the ship the family and the animals take passage on sinks during a storm.  Pi ends up in a lifeboat with a couple of the animals (hyena, zebra, orangutan and tiger) for company, while the boat sinks with his mother, father and brother and all the crew onboard.

The amazing part of his story is how he then survives for 227 days at sea.  This is retold in detail before the film throws up a really head scratching question at the end - did this really happen the way he says it did, or did something else happen and this is the more 'appealing' story that he and the writer and us the viewer want to believe?  The alternative story is presented but I'm not going to ruin that for you.  I'm still ruminating on this question and issue a few days later, to the point of looking up internet forums to see what other people's take is on it.  Happy to discuss privately with anyone who wants to take it up - but not going to spoil things for people who haven't seen it.

The movie is fantastic because it combines beautiful visuals, a gripping storyline (even though you know he survives since he is re-telling his own story) and a deeper meaning that is open-ended enough for each person to make up their own mind what it means.  The 3D has been used so effectively, the movie just looks amazing in so many scenes, especially in the lifeboat scenes where the sea and sky can merge so seamlessly.  Pi's fight for survival is very instructive but surprisingly evokes a fair bit of the humour of the film as well.  And the deep and meaningful part has many facets - religion, faith, ending of relationships, environmental warnings - depending on how much you want to think about it.  As a long time atheist, I thought at first that this was going to stuff belief in God down our throats but ultimately it surprised by leaving it totally up to you to find God's place, or non-place, in the movie.  The main thing I took away from it was actually the thought to tell people how you feel now and be more present in the moment, because sometimes we don't always get a chance to say 'goodbye' and create the ideal parting. 

They key to the strength of this film is in the performance by Surat Sharma as the Pi who goes through the shipwreck and time on the lifeboat.  It's an absolutely raw and powerful performance by a first time actor and in any other year, he may have earned an Oscar nomination.  Ang Lee deserves his 'Best Director' nomination because he has made what many considered to be an unfilmable book into a beautiful, complex film that seems simple on the surface but provokes much thought and discussion.  My Oscars tipping just got a lot more difficult.....