Movie #14 - The Babadook

I'm skipping ahead to review this film while it's still on at the movies and my recommendation may get a few more 'bums on seats' for this worthy Australian psychological drama/horror film.  For those who don't like scary movies, this would not be for you as it could definitely bring on a few nightmares.

Amelia (Essie Davis) is the frazzled mother of Samuel (first-time actor Noah Wiseman) who is a very unusual 6 year old boy who is obsessed with a fear of monsters and building elaborate home made weapons to defend himself and his mum from these monsters.  Samuel is not doing well at school, is not well liked and is a total handful at times. Amelia is unfortunately a single mother due to her husband Oskar being killed in a car accident while driving Amelia to the hospital in labour with Samuel (shown in the opening scene so this is not a spoiler).   Six years on, she is still struggling with her grief at losing her great love, raising this sometimes painful child, her drab home, a lack of sleep and drab job at an aged care facility.

Into this sad existence suddenly pops a new children's book entitled "The Babadook".  It only takes one reading of this illustrated book about a monster coming into your home to Samuel for Amelia to decide it's way too sinister and throw it away.  But somehow it makes its way back into the house.  This coincides with a series of unsettling events that start to occur with Amelia and Samuel, as well as a loss of support from Amelia's sister.  Both mother and child start to unwind as the Babadook steps up the nightly torment and Amelia gets less and less sleep.

This film is a very brave mix of psycho drama and (mostly mild) horror.  It's an unusual film that explores the not very often talked about concept of parents who don't actually love their children.  Amelia defends and protects Samuel to all outsiders, but struggles to display real affection towards Samuel in a one on one situation - not an understandable thing but kind of relateable given the tragic circumstances around his birth.  You do kind of want to smack him a few times yourself.   It's a subtle thing that you may not even notice had I not said anything (I had read something in advance which put me on alert for this) but it creates a very interesting milieu for the Babadook to insert his presence into and gain a foothold.  Is the bond between Amelia and Samuel strong enough to ward off this evil being?

Tension is built very effectively by first-time director Aussie Jennifer Kent.  Classic horror films played on the 'idiot box' as Amelia struggles to/against sleep, great sound effects, the spooky illustrations of the book which point towards events yet to come, and the eerily retro design of the monster all combine to have you gripping your armrest.  So much so that at the Brisbane premiere screening I attended, a person knocking over their wine glass up in the back row elicited a bunch of audience giggles for the 'jump' moment it added in a quiet scene.

The performance of the usually so glamourous Essie Davis (Miss Fisher in ABC's Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries) is fantastic here.  Bravely allowing herself to be shown in frequent close ups with the makeup department making her look washed out, tired and with little or no makeup, she is the very essence of a woman on the edge.  As the tension ratchets up, she slowly unwinds with no support mechanism until you're not sure what she is going to do next.  The young boy playing the often unlikeable Samuel is also excellent.  Both contribute to an emotionally gripping movie to go with the effective scares.

I would highly recommend this movie to anyone who can handle horror (nothing too gross in here apart from 1 or 2 brief horror scenes) and is looking for something a bit different.  I'd give this a 4 out of 5.

BIFF Movie #17 Zero Theorem

This movie which I saw at the Brisbane International Film Festival has only just been released into cinemas, 6 months later!  So I think it timely to catch up on the review of this film.

This film is the latest from director Terry Gilliam.  Who?  Actually you know him.  Not just a member of the legendary Monty Python troupe, he has directed many movies which cross fun with deep thinking - from The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus to Brazil to 12 Monkeys to Tideland (OK that one wasn't actually fun, just sad) to Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas to The Brothers Grimm.  This one is no different.  Quirky, bizarre, full of big ideas and concepts, underlined with humour.

The Zero Theorem is set in a near future world and centres on the character Qohen Leth (played by Christoph Waltz in another mesmerising performance) who is some type of computer programmer working for "Management".  Qohen is a bit of a weird loner type to begin with, living in a bizarre home within an old church.  I'm just going to jump out for a second here and say that the production design on this film is amazing, there is so much detail to take in that you can't grasp it all on the first sitting.  But it definitely throws you into another world.  Qohen seems a little dissatisfied with his existence when is assigned to work on the hardest problem ever created "The Zero Theorem".  Which is to say that he has to try to solve a conundrum that seems to be centred around working out the meaning of life.

Qohen starts on the task where he is supervised by Joby (David Thewlis weirding out) and has regular holographic counselling sessions with Dr Shrink-Rom (Tilda Swinton).  As it proves more difficult than anyone thought, Qohen soon becomes obsessed with finding the answer, to the point where it takes over his life and he can't do anything else.  The Management try to distract him with a youthful offsider Bob (Lucas Hedges) and seemingly coincidental meetings with Bainsley (Melanie Thierry) who is a sex worker who has her own theories on life.  The more Qohen seems to be on the verge of discovering that there is no "Meaning of Life" and life is pointless, the more life comes at him and tries to give him the message that you just have to live it rather than obsess with meaning.  But can he cope with it?

The performance by Christoph Waltz in this movie is excellent - it's total commitment.  And Melanie Thierry is a total breakout and will have big things ahead of her.  However I think the messages in the movie are a bit obvious and ultimately it doesn't pack the 1-2 punch it needs to make it a great movie that people will be talking about.  It's entertaining while it's on but ultimately it doesn't find a way to connect to the audience.  Worthwhile if you like things that are a bit off-the-wall but it's not going to make any "Top 10 Movie" lists.