Festival Update: The Hunter lines up

The Hunter, from director Daniel Nettheim (Rush, The Secret Life of Us), will have its world premiere at the prestigious ‘Special Presentation’ section of the 36th Toronto International Film Festival in September – lining up in the celebrated company of past selectees including Slumdog Millionaire and The Wrestler.

“I am thrilled to be presenting The Hunter to Toronto audiences, a story and landscape that is distinctly Australian and a film that I am very proud of”, Nettheim said.

Announcing the news this morning, Paul Wiegard, Managing Director of the film’s distributors Madman Entertainment, said: “Madman is ecstatic the film is being introduced to industry and public audiences attending the Toronto International Film Festival. The stunningly beautiful Tasmanian landscape, international cast and exotic nature of the film will have broad appeal.”

Equally thrilled is the film’s Producer Vincent Sheehan (Animal Kingdom, Little Fish). “It has been a long journey and quite an adventure making The Hunter, and selection for Toronto is certainly very exciting, but I am equally looking forward to our Australian release later this year”, Sheehan said.

Based on the novel by Julia Leigh, The Hunter is described as ‘a powerful psychological drama’ that tells the story of Martin (Willem Dafoe), a mercenary sent from Europe by a mysterious biotech company to the Tasmanian wilderness on a dramatic hunt for the last Tasmanian Tiger.

Still courtesy Madman Entertainment.

The Wishlist

High Priestess of the film world Tilda Swinton has been announced as the curator of the inaugural Film on the Rocks – ‘an immersive annual showcase and dialogue for art and film’.

Screened under the stars on the rocks of Thailand’s magnificent Phang Nga Bay, Film on the Rocks will showcase the work of emerging filmmakers, local activities and conversation over four nights and three days from 16–20 December, 2011.

Phang Nga Bay is a national marine park of immense ecological significance with its 42 islands featuring dazzling limestone cliffs, caves and archaeological sites as well as protected populations of Dugong and the Black Finless Porpoise.

Film on the Rocks will also include activities and conversations with local villagers and sea gypsies from the island of Yao Noi and her neighbouring islands, with contributions from Waris Ahluwalia, Jefferson Hack, Andre Saraiva and Olympia Le Tan.

Film Review: Bad Teacher

Bad Teacher. Rated M (sexual references, sex scene, drug use and coarse language). 92 minutes. Directed by Jacob Kasdan. Screenplay by Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg.

There are, quite simply, some films that should never have worked. We’ve all seen one or two. The signs might have been pointing in all the wrong directions, and while the script certainly had its moments, it was never really going to hold itself together long enough to be anything other than a pleasant and occasionally funny enough distraction from a work-a-day world.

But as soon as we are introduced to Cameron Diaz’s (There’s Something About Mary, Gangs of New York, Charlie's Angels) narcissistic gold-digging ‘bad’ teacher Elizabeth Halsey, we suspect we might be about to have a really good time in her company. And we absolutely do.

Courtesy of Stupnitsky and Eisenberg’s sharply-observed and clutter-free screenplay and Kasdan’s ‘give it to me baby’ approach to direction, Miss Halsey is someone most of us will instinctively (and immediately) relate to. Perfunctorily dumped by her obscenely rich, opera-loving boyfriend in the presence of his controlling mother (who obviously despises her), our anti-heroine suddenly finds herself humiliated and back in the classroom where she obviously doesn’t belong. Or does she?

Ms Diaz is wonderful in the leading role, and Bad Teacher really only works as well as it does because of her absolute and unconditional commitment to the role. She does, however, receive sterling support from Justin Timberlake (The Social Network) as the uptight new teacher and object of her attention Scott, while Lucy Punch has a field day with her role as the picture-perfect ‘good’ teacher Amy Squirrel. Jason Segel (How I Met Your Mother) is equally good as gym teacher Russell Gettis – whose role is to help keep the whole thing honest and, ultimately, totally charming.

While it certainly won’t thrill everyone, Bad Teacher wins points for not straying from the course it sets for itself – which is to be an entertaining, light-hearted romp through the perils and misfortunes of Ms Diaz’s delightful misfit and her search for the way in which she can make a difference in the world.

This review was commissioned by the Geraldton Newspaper Group.

Film Review: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2. Rated M. 130 minutes. Directed by David Yates. Screenplay by Steve Kloves. Based on the novels by J K Rowling.

Harry Potter clearly has history in his sights, and by having been released by Warner Brothers to appear on more Australian cinema screens than any other film before it, has stormed not only the Australian box office, but smashed international box office records in the process.

Fans of the books and the films will not need to be told anything by anyone about this film – suffice to say that this final instalment is masterful film-making and the picture-perfect send-off for the determined young wizard we first met on the big screen in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001).

In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), Ron (Rupert Grint) and Hermione (Emma Watson) continue their quest to find and destroy the remaining Horcruxes that have ensured Voldemort’s immortality. And while one could certainly be forgiven for thinking that it could all have been dealt with in half the time, the ultimate battle between Harry Potter and the evil Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) is never less than totally absorbing – with Radcliffe and Fiennes, in particular, giving it everything they’ve got.

Yates, who has directed the last four films (beginning with 2007’s Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix) brings Kloves’ (responsible for all but one of the cinematic adaptations) screenplay to life in often breathtaking style – with Voldemort’s venegeful attack on Hogwarts just one of many simply dazzling highlights.

Like Star Wars before it, Harry Potter has defined a generation – which is no more humbling than in the glimpses we see of the, then, eleven-year-old Radcliffe as the film briefly (and quite brilliantly) encapsulates how Voldemort’s precious Horcruxes came into being. And while not all of the Harry Potter films have been welcomed with the same unconditional adoration as this one, it is impossible to deny the young wizard his rightful place in both publishing and cinematic history.

This review was commissioned by the Geraldton Newspaper Group.

Return Seasons: Pin Drop

Without a doubt one of the finest pieces of theatre I saw in 2010, Ms Saulwick brings her award-winning Pin Drop back to Melbourne for two weeks at The Malthouse's Beckett Theatre from 28 July to 7 August (with previews 26 and 27 July).

“The stranger breathing down the phone, the thump on the roof in the dead of the night, the danger lurking in the unlit street. Part documentary, part art-house thriller, Saulwick’s interdisciplinary work, Pin Drop, explores the phenomenon ... of fear in our day-to-day lives, and its impact on how we choose to live.”

More information including show times and bookings are available here.

Film Review: Mr Popper's Penguins

Mr Popper’s Penguins. Rated G. 94 minutes. Directed by Mark Waters. Screenplay by Sean Anders, John Morris and Jared Stern. Based on the novel by Richard and Florence Atwater.

It’s always interesting discovering what ‘Consumer Advice’ needs to accompany a film review. Consumer advice consists of those words we all recognise like “action violence and coarse language” – words that let you know how racy, violent or foul-mouthed the film in question is so that you can make an informed choice about whether to go along or not.

With Mr Popper’s Penguins, we don’t have to warn you about anything – because here is a completely charming film that, if nothing else, serves to remind us how utterly obsessed Hollywood has become with blowing stuff up. And swearing about it all the time. When they’re not having sex. In 3D.

When Tom Popper’s (Jim Carrey) rise up the corporate property development ladder suddenly depends on the acquisition of a quaint and historic restaurant run by Mrs Van Gundy (Angela Lansbury), he begins a charm offensive to rattle the old girl into selling up. But when Tom’s explorer father dies and sends him a rare penguin as a parting gift, Tom discovers that there is a good deal more to living a good life than clinching the deal.

Even though the novel on which the screenplay is based was first published in 1938, the extent to which the story remains relevant to audiences today is, frankly, quite startling. Manipulative, self-obsessed corporate high-flyers hell-bent on feathering their own nest at the expense of everything (and everyone) else. Sound familiar?

From start to finish, Mr Carrey is (as usual) in complete command of the screen, and under the honest direction from Waters’ (Mean Girls) hasn’t had to rely on elastic face-pulling or manic desperation that have been the trademarks of his previous performances. That contribution is left to the supporting cast of show-stopping penguins – both real and computer-generated – that quite literally steal the show.

With references to golden age of Hollywood (courtesy of James Stewart and Charlie Chaplin), it’s clear that the filmmakers intended to escort us back to a time when good, honest storytelling was actually about something meaningful. They succeed beautifully.

This review was commissioned by the Geraldton Newspaper Group.

Box Office Matters: Snowtown takes a bow at a million plus

In only its seventh week of theatrical release, Snowtown – the debut feature from director Justin Kurzel and producers Anna McLeish and Sarah Shaw – has passed the magical $1 million box office mark.

Madman Entertainment, the film’s Australian distributors, have announced that Snowtown’s current cumulative box office take is AUS$1,001,760 – making it the third highest grossing Australian film of 2010 behind Sanctum and Oranges and Sunshine.

Snowtown will also receive an international theatrical release through Revolver Entertainment in the UK and IFC Films in North America.

Pictured: Louise Harris in Snowtown. Image courtesy Madman Entertainment.

Film Review: Transformers: Dark of the Moon

Transformers: Dark of the Moon. Rated M (action violence and coarse language). 149 minutes. Directed by Michael Bay. Screenplay by Ehren Kruger.

Nothing, it has to be said, can compare to the bravura technological showmanship of the brilliant, big-screen world of the Transformers. From the inspired dinky ‘turn, click and soar’ toys of 1984 to this latest (and apparently final) cinematic installment, the Transformers managed to capture and continually inspire the imaginations of young devotees around the globe.

In the world of our heroic Autobots and their arch-enemies, the Decepticons, anything was possible – and Bay (the first two Transformers movies, Pearl Harbor, Armageddon) ensures that his film franchise’s conclusion is reached with a spectacular full metal slap-down of monumental proportions.

Joyfully blasting off with a wonderful re-imagining of the motivation behind the USA’s first moon landing, Kruger’s screenplay runs the gamut from A to Z – while also managing to find time for some quaint but entertaining sequences involving Sam (Shia LaBeouf) and his Mom and Dad, who join him in Chicago on holiday. The boys (much like Bay’s camera) will also find much to appreciate about Megan Fox’s replacement, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley (making her feature film debut), while the regular hard-working cast members are joined by Frances McDormand (Fargo) and John Malkovich (Burn After Reading) – who both polish off their cameos with scenery-chomping efficiency.

But as any Transformer fan knows, it’s not really about human fallibility at all – it’s about the machines – and it is on his spectacular Transformers that Bay and his colleagues (especially production designer Nigel Phelps and cinematographer Amir Mokri) lavish most of their skill, care and attention to detail.

Shockwave’s pet ‘Driller’ (like the Kraken in Clash of the Titans) fits the bill of the seriously-big-predator-set-crushing alien perfectly – and while it takes an eternity to finally arrive on the scene, when it does it is something to behold. In 3D particularly, the transformations take on an astonishing new complexity – and the sequences involving the cast of Transformers are magnificently realised with flawless and uncompromising artistry. Which is both as much and as little as we could possibly have hoped for.

This review was commissioned by the Geraldton Newspaper Group.