The Nightingale

Official Australian release date: 29/8/19. Viewed: 28/8/19.

Director: Jennifer Kent

Actors: Aisling Franciosi, Baykali Ganambarr, Sam Claflin, Damon Herriman

Genre: Drama / Thriller

Rating: R

  

‘The Nightingale’ is a revenge film set in early 19th century Tasmania from the director of ‘The Babadook’. While not technically a horror film, there’s certainly some horrific moments – rape, lynching and murder. Unfortunately, it’s probably pretty realistic for Tasmania in the 1820s. Clare (Franciosi) is an Irish convict under the rule of the English Lieutenant Hawkins (Claflin) and married to newly-free Aidan (Sheasby). It’s not really a spoiler to say that Hawkins and Ruse (Herriman) murder Aidan, leave Clare for dead and set off north to Launceston, setting in motion her trek for revenge.

While Clare’s totally unprepared for the Tasmanain wilderness, she manages to enlist Aboriginal tracker Billy/Black Bird (Ganambarr), who ends up being the star of the film. He brings compassion and justified anger, but also humour and warmth. It helps that his Black Bird can sing along with Clare’s “Nightingale” song(s), some sung in Gaelic. It’s nice to see them bond over both being subjugated by the English. Much like 2009’s ‘Van Diemen’s Land’ (which I probably slightly preferred over this), the Tasmanian bush is a key character, with so many stunning forest, beach, mountain and valley vistas. You should make sure you visit Tasmania if you’ve never been!

The acting is great, with the villains callous, Clare obsessively determined and Billy trying to find his place in his disrupted world. It’s probably 30min too long and has lots of slow moments that don’t add too much, and lots of people will have an issue with some of the violence. The film really hits home what English colonisation did to Indigenous Australians and particularly it’s compounded effect on Tasmania. There’s a truly touching scene near the end with an old English man helping Billy and Clare – but it highlights the exception to the rule.

Overall: Brutal, single-minded early Australian revenge story.

Gav's Rating: 3.5 stars.

Once Upon A Time In Hollywood

Official Australian release date: 15/8/19. Viewed: 17/8/19.

Director: Quentin Tarantino

Actors: Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Al Pacino

Genre: Drama

Rating: MA

  

‘Once Upon A Time In Hollywood’ is set in 1969 Los Angeles and follows TV actor and almost-has-been Rick Dalton (DiCaprio) and his stunt double/friend Cliff Booth (Pitt) as they try to stay relevant. Given it’s a Tarantino film, there’s plenty of long shots of just actors talking – probably too many. While Margot Robbie is third billed, it feels like she has about 10min screen time and is almost pointless to the story.

It’s good to watch DiCaprio and Pitt together and there’s a natural ease and confidence to all their scenes. The problem is that half the film is just Pitt driving around and DiCaprio acting on a set. There are plenty of nods to the late 60s – Playboy Mansion, drive-ins, the fashion, dozens of film posters, smoking in almost every scene, snippets of songs – but overall, it doesn’t really come across as nostalgic, just gimmicky. Might be more impactful if you lived through it.

Plenty of cameos/small roles – Pacino, Hirsch, Olyphant, Dern, Dunham – but none of significance. There’s Roman Polanski (Zawierucha), Charles Manson (Herriman) and Bruce Lee (Moh), but all have minimal screen time – except Lee, who’s portrayed as an idiot for some reason. It’s basically 2 hours 20min of nice cinematography – although too many shots of peoples shoes as they’re walking – and then a hyperviolent/crazy final 20min which half links some of the film together. As an entire film, it struggles to keep your interest, there’s only a few funny moments and has a very loose plot.

Overall: All style, no substance.

Gav's Rating: 2.5 stars.

Danger Close: The Battle For Long Tan

Official Australian release date: 8/8/19. Viewed: 4/8/19.

Director: Kriv Stenders

Actors: Travis Fimmel, Daniel Webber, Richard Roxburgh, Luke Bracey

Genre: War / Action

Rating: MA

  

‘Danger Close: The Battle For Long Tan’ is a Queensland-filmed Vietnam War film from the director of ‘Red Dog’. Queensland does a good job of standing in for the Vietnamese jungle, as about a third of the film is during rain – realistic. It’s 1966 and a bunch of mostly conscripted ANZAC soldiers – Delta Company – are sent into a rubber plantation to fight a potential Viet Cong attack on their base. Led by Major Smith (Fimmel), the film shows all aspects of the battle – headquarters, helicopters, artillery, and the chaos on the ground.   

While it’s hard to focus on all 100 or so ANZAC soldiers, we do get to know a few – along with Major, there’s Private Large (Webber), Sergeant Buick (Bracey) and Lieutenant Roberts (Peacocke), and back at base is Brigadier Jackson (Roxburgh) and Lieutenant Colonel Townsend (Hayes). Interesting to see some dissention in the ranks when there’s lives on the line and what the soldiers do for each other. The film does well to establish a bit of “normalcy” at the base, before the troops are thrown into battle.

The main feeling I’m left with after watching this film is gratefulness – the fact that these men (mostly 19–22) had to go to a place they knew almost nothing about to fight an essentially pointless war and see so much death. This film is an exceptional piece of filmmaking, with silence, score, lighting, overhead and slow-motion used expertly to raise tension, anticipation and action at all the tight times. The acting is good and the film flies by. Definitely rewatchable – up there with ‘Gallipoli’ and ‘Hacksaw Ridge’.

Overall: A modern Australian classic.

Gav's Rating:4 stars.