Poor Things

Official Australian release date: 26/12/23. Viewed: 22/12/23.
Director: Yorgos Lanthimos
Actors: Emma Stone, Willem Dafoe, Mark Ruffalo, Ramy Youssef
Genre: Drama / Romance
Rating: MA

‘Poor Things’ is… weird and hard to fully explain. It has elements of sci-fi, Frankenstein, romance, comedy and drama, as well as oddly framed camera angles, lots of fish-eye lens and keyhole shots. It follows Bella (Stone) and her “father”/creator, Godwin (Dafoe, who does well to still be able to act in his mask), Bella’s fiancée Max (Youssef) and fling Duncan (Ruffalo). The film's technically set in the 19^th century, but in a fictional world.

We follow Bella as she grows and learns what the world’s about, through 6 distinct acts – London, Lisbon, Alexandria, Paris and London again. I don’t think it’s a spoiler to say that Godwin is a faux Frankenstein/Geppetto, w with Bella his Frankenstein’s Monster/Pinocchio. While the first 40min is all black & white, it establishes that we’re in a fantastical/un-real world and enables what follows to not be too jarring. Once Bella gains independence, her and Duncan go on a trip and we’re back in colour and there’s lots of nods to Wes Anderson.

There is a lot of sex and nudity from Stone, as Bella explores her sexuality. It often adds to the story, but not always. Stone is excellent as Bella, giving her a peculiar gait and way of talking to always make sure you know the character is not a normal adult. Ruffalo has some fun moments, and Dafoe’s always good, making Godwin into an empathetic character. I didn’t love the score and some of the cinematography, although the sky when they’re on the boat is captivating. At 140min, it’s probably 30min too long and while different, it with sometimes feels like odd things are thrown in just for oddness’ sake.

Overall: Unique, odd, sex-filled journey

Gav's Rating: 3 stars 

Godzilla Minus One

Official Australian release date: 1/12/23. Viewed: 11/12/23.
Director: Takashi Yamazaki
Actors: Ryunosuke Kamiki, Minami Hamabe, Hidetaka Yoshioka, Kuranosuke Sasaki
Genre: Action / Drama
Rating: M

‘Godzilla Minus One’ (or ‘Gorjira -1.0’) is probably the 35^th Godzilla film overall, but the first Japanese language one I’ve seen in a while. It’s definitely a little different to the last 3 Hollywood versions of Godzilla we’ve seen over the past 10 years, and not just his actual less-bulky design. The CGI’s not bad – just different. This film is set in Japan during 1945–1947, so there’s plenty of post-WWII trauma and themes at play.

We follow failed Kamikaze pilot Koichi (Kamiki) as he comes to terms with the devastation of Tokyo, his family and his survivors guilt. He’s then joined by Noriko (Hamabe) and daughter Akiko (Nagatani) and the film spends a lot of time with this complicated relationship. Koichi eventually gets a job clearing sea mines with Captain Yoji (Sasaki) and Dr Noda (Yoshioka). They just survive their first encounter with Godzilla.

As with all monster movies, I find it’s a very fine line between seeing too little of the monster/creature and not enough. There’s probably an hour in the middle of this film where we needed to see more Godzilla. That being said, the film’s don’t work if there’s absolutely no plot or sympathy for the lead characters – which there is here. But it’s sometimes a bit too melodramatic. It also makes it confusing – am I cheering for Godzilla to kill all these people? Or are we cheering for the humans to kill Godzilla? Bittersweet either way. Some great large-scale set pieces here, but a little too long.

Overall: Bigger = better?

Gav's Rating: 3 stars 

The Boy and the Heron

Official Australian release date: 7/12/23. Viewed: 10/12/23.
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Actors: Luca Padovan, Robert Pattinson, Gemma Chan, Florence Pugh
Genre: Adventure / Drama
Rating: PG

‘The Boy and the Heron’ is Miyazaki’s 12^th film, and while not his best, it’s still exceptional animation with a nice story and a bit of weirdness thrown in to make it interesting. This time, we follow the titular boy, Mahito (Padovan) as his father (Bale) moves them from Tokyo to the Japanese countryside during World War II, after the death of his mother. There he has to deal with his new step-mother, Natsuko (Chan) and new environment.

There’s a bit of effort that goes into the set-up – and the fire scene in Tokyo is excellently animated – then a lull as Mahito tries to find his place in his new circumstances. This is where he encounters the Heron (Pattinson) – with a cool face-swap trick – who leads him to an abandoned tower, which transports them to a hidden world, a we’re on a bit of an ‘Alice in Wonderland’ trip. Kiriko (Pugh), Himi (Fukuhara) and Grand-Uncle (Hamill) are (mostly) helpful to Mahito here, as he has to figure-out how to save Natsuko and get back to his world.

I don’t think this lives up to ‘Princess Mononoke’ or ‘Spirited Away’, but is similar to ‘Ponyo’ or ‘The Wind Rises’. Possibly a bit long at 2 hours, but it does have plenty of weird creatures, a great voice cast (including Dafoe as a pelican and Bautista as a parakeet!), some beautifully painted backdrops, a great score and a nice little moral about looking out for others and choosing your own path.      

Overall: Interesting animated other-realm adventure

Gav's Rating: 3.5 stars 

Napoleon

Official Australian release date: 23/11/23. Viewed: 25/11/23.
Director: Ridley Scott
Actors: Joaquin Phoenix, Vanessa Kirby, Tahar Rahim, Rupert Everett
Genre: War / Drama
Rating: MA

‘Napoleon’ is another grand historical epic from the masterful Ridley Scott, and while it’s hard to compare all his films, this would rank below ‘Gladiator’, ‘Black Hawk Down’ and ‘The Martian’, but better than ‘The Last Duel’, ‘Robin Hood’ and ‘Kingdom of Heaven’. The film starts during the French Revolution in the 1790s, when Napoleon Bonaparte (Phoenix) is already in his 20s and an up-and-comer in the French army. There’s not a whole lot of back-story, as there’s a lot of his life to fit into the 2.5 hours. We then see a few pivotal battles and meet his soon-to-be wife, Josephine (Kirby) and politician/advocate Paul Barras (Rahim), as Napoleon becomes Counsul.

While Kirby is good, the film probably spends more time than is needed establishing the relationship between Napoleon and Josephine and their trying to conceive an heir. While more background to the French revolution, the mechanisms of how Napoleon become Emperor and why he was going to war with some of the other countries would’ve been nice, it’s already hard to keep up with the amount of characters – other army generals, governors, politicians, foreign kings, etc.

What grounds the whole film is Phoenix – as usual, he’s a great mix of serious, eccentric and captivating. I assume he’ll be Oscar-nominated again. The Battle of Waterloo in 1815 is impressive and superbly staged and looks done mostly without CGI. The Duke of Wellington (Everett) only comes into the film in the final 40min or so, but is a good counter-point to Napoleon. While never getting bogged down and it’s certainly a good film, it feels like there’s something missing that would’ve made this great. Maybe the 4-hour cut will remedy it!

Overall: Well-made story of one of history’s most famous characters

Gav's Rating: 3.5 stars

 

The Marvels

Official Australian release date: 9/11/23. Viewed: 11/11/23.
Director: Nia DaCosta
Actors: Brie Larson, Teyonah Parris, Iman Vellani, Samuel L Jackson
Genre: Sci-Fi / Action
Rating: M

‘The Marvels’ is the sequel to ‘Captain Marvel’ and the first time we’ve seen Carol Danvers (Larson) since ‘Avengers: Endgame’. The difference this time is that this time, fate brings her, Monica Rambeau (Parris, introduced in ‘WandaVision’) and Kamala Khan (Vellani, introduced in ‘Ms Marvel’) together to stop the new Kree threat this time, Dar-Benn (Ashton). Tying it all together, like he’s done so many times, in Nick Fury (Jackson) – but he has a lot more levity here than in ‘Secret Invasion’, thankfully.

There’s a bit of background to the Kree/Skull war, but not too much – but the best aliens are still the cats/Flerken, who have a nice mini-role to play. Special mention to the singing/choreography-dancing aliens on the water planet too. Besides stopping the Kree from destroying more worlds, the main plot point is the three lead characters finding out how to use their light-powers together and complement heach other. This is helped by Kamala enthusiasm and teenage idealism – like the show, this is a real breath of fresh air and balances well with Carol and Monica.

We also get Kamala’s mum, dad and brother, who also add some nice heart and humour, including with Fury and during the initial place-swapping scenes. There’s some middling battle scenes, but some nice CGI and planets throughout. The ending is mostly satisfying, with a good mid-credits scene.

Overall: Good standalone buddy adventure

Gav's Rating: 3.5 stars

Killers of the Flower Moon

Official Australian release date: 19/10/23. Viewed: 22/10/23.
Director: Martin Scorsese
Actors: Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, Lily Gladstone, Scott Shepherd
Genre: Drama / Biopic
Rating: M

 

‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ is Scorsese’s 3^rd 3-hour-plus film in the past 10 years, and the 10^th film directed by him starring Robert De Niro, and 6^th film starring Leonardo DiCaprio. This film proves a case of “if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it”. While not necessarily an “epic”, it is a very well put together story, set just in the 1920s in Oklahoma, where Ernest (DiCaprio) is returning from WWI to live with his uncle, Hale (De Niro) and brother Byron (Shepherd). They’re the white folk trying to cash in on the Native Americans who have found oil and are becoming rich – the Osage people.

Rather than focusing solely on white men subjugating the native population, the film does well to establish a few key characters to follow over a number of years and watch their (unfortunately true) stories unfold. Critical to this is Mollie (Gladstone), an Osage woman, who Ernest falls in love with and marries. What happens to her and her extended family over the course of the film is both tragic and hard-to-believe, but also sadly within the realms of human evil.

The film is helped by Gladstone delivering an excellent performance that holds everything together and acts as a benchmark for the other characters. DiCaprio is also good, but this is arguably De Niro’s best performance in the last 15 years, as he plays a subtle hand as the seemingly benevolent Hale, as his true intentions are slowly revealed. The supporting cast are good, including Millie’s sisters and the FBI/lawyers when they finally come into play in the final third. It’s well-paced, with a good wrap-up and at no point did I feel bored. Probably not Scorsese’s best ever, but up there with ‘Casino’, ‘Raging Bull’ and ‘Gangs of New York’.

Overall: Excellent story of human greed.

Gav's Rating: 4 stars

A Haunting In Venice

Official Australian release date: 14/9/23. Viewed: 14/10/23.
Director: Kenneth Branagh
Actors: Kenneth Branagh, Tina Fey, Michelle Yeoh, Kelly Reilly
Genre: Drama / Mystery
Rating: M

 

‘A Haunting in Venice’ is the third (and maybe final?) film in the Agatha Christie series directed by Kenneth Branagh, and starring him as genius detective Hercule Poirot, after ‘Murder on the Orient Express’ and ‘Death on the Nile’. This time, 1947 Venice is the setting, with the Italian canals and rooftops adding to the overall vibe. Poirot is coxed out of retirement by Ariadne (Fey) to come to a Halloween party and séance to disprove a medium, Reynolds (Yeoh).

Obviously, someone is murdered and Poirot is back on the case. The plot is thickened, as Rowena (Reilly)’s daughter mysteriously died in the past year, and we’re not sure how it’s connected. There’s a fine-line tread between ghosts/spirits here and Poirot’s scepticism/logic. All is eventually revealed. Once the murder occurs, there are 10 suspects left in the palazzo – including a Doctor (Dornan), bodyguard (Portfoglio), ex-boyfriend Maxim (Allen) and housekeeper (Cottin) – and Poirot goes about collecting their stories and alibis.

This film is shorter than previous two films, but does seem a bit scattershot for the first 30min, with lots of odd cuts and camera angles, mostly trying to put us of the scent of what’s actually happening. But I did feel that Poirot felt a little tired and lacked some verve. Might just be that Branagh is now in his 60s! Since it’s set in the early hours of Halloween in an old building in the 40s, there’s a lot of darkness/candle-lighting, so it’s sometimes hard to see what’s going on. The culprit is a bit of a surprise, and the reasoning just makes sense.

Overall: Still a good mystery, but not my favourite of the 3

Gav's Rating: 3 stars