It’s that time of year again when Melbourne’s citizens stock up on movie snacks, schedule sick days in advance and work to a gruelling schedule of film-going – at least that’s our recommendation of how to tackle the Melbourne International Film Festival. With a staggering number of films in the program, it can get a little bit bewildering, so here are a few suggestions about what to catch this year.
This year’s Searching For Sugar Man swaggers along with a bunch more balls. OK, there’s no intriguing apartheid-era subplot, but there are a bunch of eerie similarities between Rodriguez and the three Hackney brothers who make up Death – except these dudes know to plug guitars in in and turn that shit up. Like Rodriguez, Death hail from Detroit and no doubt the decay of the city made an impact on this band, too. For a while there, they would have been gigging around in crappy venues at the same time, but Death’s breed of heavy rock – presaging punk – sounds more energetic and vital today than Rodriguez’s retro singer-songwriter flourishes. Still, it didn’t help them at the time – as this doco shows, they didn’t get either Americans or Afrikaners kicking out their jams. Until… well, you’ll see.
STEVE NEWALL
Read more on A Band Called Death
Fans of seeing Somali pirates taking over shit are really getting their fill during the course of this year (also see The Captain and His Pirates and Captain Phillips). But this one wins my attention. In part, it’s due to all the festival hype this Danish thriller has accumulated on its way to rocking our own. However, it’s mostly due to the name of writer/director Tobias Lindholm, co-writer of the sublime The Hunt. I’m totally on board for this.
LIAM MAGUREN
When it comes to polarising European provoc-auteurs, I prefer my Bruno Dumont over Michael Haneke, and it’s been sometime since New Zealand has been “treated” to Dumont’s brand of chilly Bressonian austerity in theatres. I was blown away by the transcendent likes of L’Humanite (‘99) and Twentynine Palms (‘03) at previous fests, and this period piece, depicting the time French sculptress Camille Claudel spent at a mental asylum, looks to be as mesmerising and uncompromising as his other works. Intriguingly, the film marks a bit of a departure for Dumont: usually a proponent of working with non-actors, it’s the first time he’s cast a professional name (Juliette Binoche, who’s received raves for her performance).
AARON YAP
Read more on Camille Claudel, 1915
Takeshi ‘Beat’ Kitano, writer, director and star of the superlative Violent Cop, Hard Boiled, Sonatine and Brother, returns to the Yakuza genre with the sequel to last year’s cracking Outrage. Takeshi stars alongside Toshiyuki Nishida and Tomokazu Miura in the second part of a trilogy that’s part Japanese Godfather, part bonkers. I’m in love with the stunning cinematography and minimalist acting style, combined with slow build character studies, intrigue and power play, that lead to explosive action set-pieces in an ever-escalating cycle of violent revenge. Ah, yes – when it comes to violent existential gangster movies – you can’t ‘Beat’ Takeshi.
ADAM FRESCO
Writer-director Shane Carruth’s Primer, famously made for $7000US, is a richly satisfying experience whether you unravel its time travel narrative or not, and it’s one of my favourite films. I’m slavering with anticipation then to see Upstream Color, Carruth’s second film, finally with us 9 years after his first. The trailer (cut by Carruth) is beautiful, and the film looks like it contains an emotional element that was absent from Primer, as well as some comparably mind boggling science fiction. A puzzle movie about a parasitic lifeform and its effect on human behaviour from the director of one of our generation’s finest debuts? Oh man, bring it on!
TONY STAMP
I liked the first V/H/S more than a lot of people did, but it wasn’t without its problems. The sequel to that found-footage horror anthology is apparently a huge improvement, with reviewers saying the subtleness and slow-burn approach has been eschewed for a more full-throttle thrill ride of visceral shocks. New directors include Gareth Evans (The Raid) and Jason Eisener (Hobo with a Shotgun), two blokes who have in recent years crafted intense film violence in ways that have given me blissful gratification.
DANIEL RUTLEDGE
ALSO WORTH SEEING…
Psychedelic and psychological period weirdness from director Ben Wheatley sees a group of deserters from England’s 1648 Civil War (including The Mighty Boosh’s Julian Barratt) lose their marbles on mushrooms.
Generating serious buzz at festivals worldwide, this documentary features former members of Indonesian death squads re-enacting the atrocities they committed – reinterpreted as their favourite film genres.
Casey Affleck and Rooney Mara star as outlaw lovers in 1970s Texas, taking on the cops together in a gunfight for which Affleck takes the rap before eventually breaking out of jail to reunite with his wife and daughter.
A down-on-his-luck father getting boozed in a dive bar meets a cashed-up couple and begins to accept their cash for a series of increasingly insane challenges in this obscene black comedy described as “a nasty piece of work” by Variety.
A weekend tournament pits man against machine in this black and white film set in the early 1980s that sees computer software geniuses trying to outdo each other in programming the ultimate chess-playing opponents.
Legendary director Alejandro Jodorowsky (El Topo, The Holy Mountain) makes a surprise return to filmmaking after more than two decades with this autobiographical film that applies his surrealist tendencies to his own life.
The director of Sound of My Voice reteams with Brit Marling for another infiltration-themed feature that sees elite operative Marling go undercover with an eco-terrorist group including Alexander Skarsgård and Ellen Page.
The late 20th century’s fear of nuclear annihilation is explored in this documentary centred on Nevil Shute’s Australian-set 1957 novel On the Beach, its international impact and that of the 1960 feature film adaptation.
The true story of Oscar Grant, a young African-American whose troubling history combines with unfortunate circumstance on the eve of 2009 in a confrontation with Bay Area police officers at a Fruitvale train station.
Rocks become grenades, sticks guns and trees control towers as the fantasy world of a group of young boys playing war is brought to life on the big screen, bringing its participants closer to glimpsing humanity’s dark side.
Takashi Miike’s insanely violent black comedy about a beloved teacher, admired by students, staff and parents, who also just happens to be a murderous psychopath working his way up to a full-blown killing spree.
Berlin Film Festival-winning coming-of-age drama set in 1981 sees a small-town teen’s alternately tough and boring life move in an unexpected direction when he finds friendship and love amongst a gang of roaming shoplifters.
Nicole Kidman and Mia Wasikowska form a troubled mother-daughter pair in this disturbing domestic psychological thriller from Chan-Wook Park (Oldboy) – his first English-language feature film.
Exploring the secrets of her own family in this documentary, actress/writer/director Sarah Polley uncovers the unexpected while acting as a detective in her own history, trying to understand a long-held family mystery.
Roman Polanski accompanies world Formula One champion Jackie Stewart to the 1971 Monaco Grand Prix in this intriguing behind-the-scenes documentary portrait, recently restored with additional present-day footage.
