Good Boys

Official Australian release date: 19/9/19. Viewed: 21/9/19.

Director: Gene Stupnitsky

Actors: Jacob Tremblay, Brady Noon, Keith L. Williams, Molly Gordon

Genre: Comedy

Rating: MA

  

‘Good Boys’ is almost a prequel to ‘Superbad’ and ‘Pineapple Express’ (both of which are better), but this time around, there’s three of them & they’re in grade 6, not grade 12. The three “tweens” call themselves the “beanbag boys” – Max (Tremblay), Thor (Noon) and Lucas (Williams) and they do everything together, including the main plot point – trying to get to a spin-the-bottle party.

Needless to say, as a Seth Rogen-produced film, there’s plenty of language, drugs and crude sex references. Plenty goes wrong and they end up on a low-stakes adventure, trying to replace a drone, even though they end up in a cat-and-mouse game with Hannah (Gordon) and Lily (Francis), two college-aged women who they’ve accidentally stolen drugs from.

There’s lots of winks and ‘adults-only’ jokes as the three boys mess up terminology or misinterpret things. Some good physical comedy and a fair few laugh-out-loud moments. Plenty of stupidity too, but in the end, they are genuinely boys trying to be good and not intentionally bad – the underlying story of friendships and how they change resonates.  

Overall: Quick & simple with enough laughs.

Gav's Rating: 3 stars.

It: Chapter Two

Official Australian release date: 5/9/19. Viewed: 5/9/19.

Director: Andy Muschietti

Actors: Jessica Chastain, James McAvoy, Bill Hader, Bill Skarsgard

Genre: Horror / Drama

Rating: MA

  

‘It: Chapter Two’ is the sequel to ‘It’ from only two years ago, but this is now the prophesized “27 years later”, with Pennywise (Skarsgard) back to wreak havoc on Derry. The seven teens from ‘It’ come home as adults to fulfill their oath of stopping Pennywise. This time, they’re: Bev (Chastain), Bill (McAvoy), Richie (Hader), Ben (Ryan), Mike (Mustafa), Eddie (Ransone) & Stanley (Bean). Don’t worry – there’s plenty of flashbacks so you can recall who’s who.

Thankfully, there’s some humour, thanks to Hader and Ransone, but the others seem to kind of coast through – no one’s bad in this, but no one stands out either. Unfortunately, for a film based around his psycho-killer-clown, Pennywise has very little screen time until the final 30min and you kind of forget what his motivation is. Being released so close to the first one, not sure we need so many prompts/reminders. That’s the main problem with the film – it’s almost an hour too long at 2 hours 50 minutes.

The second act where they have to each get a totem could’ve been done in a 10min montage, not a 45min drawn-out mini-mission for each character. There’s a few good CGI bits, some jumps, some gross moments, but nothing truly terrifying. Still, wouldn’t want to be watching this is I was under 12. Considering how tongue-in-cheek the film is with it’s references to Stephen King and crappy endings, I’m not sure if the ridiculous ending is supposed to be meta, or is just poor.

Overall: Better than the 1990 version, not quite as good as the 2017 one.

Gav's Rating: 3 stars.

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.

Spider-Man: Far From Home

Spider-Man: Far From Home

Official Australian release date: 1/7/19. Viewed: 4/7/19.

Director: Jon Watts

Actors: Tom Holland, Zendaya, Samuel L. Jackson, Jake Gyllenhaal

Genre: Action / Sci-Fi

Rating: M

  

‘Spider-Man: Farm From Home’ is the second “new”/MCU Spider-Man and Tom Holland’s fifth time playing Spider-Man/Peter Parker. It’s a good follow-up to ‘Endgame’, in that it doesn’t ignore what happened, but chooses to focus on this group of teenagers getting on with their lives. The romance between Peter and MJ (Zendaya) is funny, because they’re supposed to be awkward teens, but are actually both 22 – as are Ned (Batalon) and Flash (Revolori), both back as the wisecracking friends. Also worth a mention are the comedic support offered by the teachers – Mr Harrington (Starr) and Mr Dell (Smoove) – with plenty of great little moments

It’s also good to see Nick Fury (Jackson), Maria Hill (Smulders), Aunt May (Tomei) and Happy Hogan (Favreau) back, linking this nicely with other MCU films, but also hitting home how important Tony Stark was to Spider-Man. Bascially, after ‘Endgame’, Peter just wants to go on his European science trip/holiday (what type of school does he go to!?)  and not worry about “superhero-ing” for a while. Obviously, things don’t go to plan, as he teams up with Mysterio (Gyllenhaal), who has Dr Strange-like powers, to beat “elementals” – giant fire/water/earth creatures.

Obviously, if you know anything of Mysterio from the comics, all’s not what it seems. The illusions and CGI-within-CGI is expertly done and some of the best scenes in the film. Love Peter’s black & red suit at the end. Every character gets enough screen time, but there’s definitely some slow moments where not too much happens. Pretty satisfactory ending, with a great final battle and it’s definitely worth staying for both credit scenes.

Overall: Good, without being spectacular/‘Into The Spider-Verse’.

Gav's Rating: 3.5 stars.

Toy Story 4

Official Australian release date: 20/6/19. Viewed: 19/6/19.

Director: Josh Cooley

Actors: Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Annie Potts, Tony Hale

Genre: Comedy / Fantasy

Rating: G

  

‘Toy Story 4’ is the sequel no-one asked for, but it is another excellent entry in the Pixar filmography – probably not quite as great as the original ‘Toy Story’, or the most recent ‘Toy Story 3’ (crazy that even it’s nine years ago!), but still a great film. We’re reintroduced to Woody (Hanks), Buzz (Allen), Bo Peep (Potts), Jessie (Cusak), Slinky (Clark), Rex (Shaw), Hamm (Ratzenberger) and the gang in a flashback, which sets up the film as a reunion story for Woody & Bo Peep.

Now that the toys are enjoying their second lease on life after Andy passed them on, Bonnie (McGraw) is “their kid”. When she goes to kindy, she creates a new toy – Forky (Hale), which is exactly what it sounds like. When Bonnie, her parents and the toys go on a roadtrip holiday, Forky gets lost and Woody embarks on a rescue mission. This search for Forky also parallels Woody’s search for relevance.

There’s plenty of adventure and toy-action, as well as plenty of great new characters – Duke Caboom (Reeves), Ducky & Bunny (Key & Peele), Gabby (Hendricks), Giggle (Maki) – but it’s hard to go past the originals (& “newer” additions of Trixie the triceratops [Schaal] and Buttercup the unicorn [Garlin]), including Mr Potato Head, pieced together by previous lines from the late Don Rickles. The friendship between Woody & Buzz is still key, but not at the forefront – it’s almost a “love” story between Woody & Bo and a father/son story between Woody & Forky. Needless to say, excellent CGI, great soundtrack and a fantastic ending.

Overall: Another excellent story about life and love.

Gav's Rating: 4 stars.