Australian

DIRT MUSIC: a gorgeous bodice-ripper with a WTF ending

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Garrett Hedlund and in Kelly MacDonald in DIRT MUSIC. Photo courtesy of Blue Finch Film Releasing.

Dirt Music is a contemporary bodice-ripper set on the wild West Coast of Australia. Georgie (Kelly Macdonald) has become increasingly dissatisfied in her lot as the second wife of Jim (David Wenham), the local commercial fishing baron. Taking some personal time out on the beach, she happens upon Lu, a recluse who ekes out his subsidence from midnight poaching; it turns out that Lu has been emotionally scarred by tragedy in his family.

Georgie and Lu are soulmates and soon become passionate bedmates. Jim, pissed off about Lu’s poaching and REALLY pissed that he is screwing his wife, drives Lu out of town. Georgia goes on a quest to find Lu, who has become even more reclusive, becoming a needle in an endless haystack of tiny coastal islands. At this point, there’s a very unexpected plot twist that is justified later by a dark secret about the earlier tragedy,

During Georgie’s search, the landscapes and seascapes of Western Australia, become even more spectacular.

Will Georgie reunite with Lu or will she have to live only with his tragic memory? The WTF ending wants to have it both ways. As I said, WTF?

Dirt Music is based on the award-winning novel by Australian writer Tim Winton, (and I am assuming that a substantial percentage of the Australian movie audience had previously read the novel). In fact, this is one of those stories that might be better told as a novel.

Kelly MacDonald in DIRT MUSIC. Photo courtesy of Blue Finch Film Releasing.

Kelly Macdonald has been a compelling screen presence since her debut in Trainspotting. She’s brought her intelligent watchfulness to roles in Gosford Park, Intermission, Finding Neverland, No Country for Old Men, Boardwalk Empire and Puzzle. Macdonald’s performance elevates this material, which could have been completely silly with a lesser actress.

Garrett Hedlund is appropriately moody and hunky as Lu; he plays most of the movie with his shirt off and the rest with his shirt unbuttoned. David Wenham is very good as the unsympathetic husband. It’s always a treat for me to watch a movie with Aaron Pederson, so great as detective Jay Swan in the movies Mystery Road and Goldstone and the more recent miniseries Mystery Road; here, Pederson has a small part as Jim’s indigenous factotum Beaver.

Dirt Music has an abysmal Metacritic score of 35 because critics have uniformly opined that its corniness outweighs the gorgeousness. I could tell this was going to be a chick flick from the trailer; that usually means that I’m not the ideal audience for it, but I really admire Kelly Macdonald, and took a flyer in case some family members might enjoy it.

Those who can swallow the ending might enjoy this romantic melodrama in a visually spectacular setting. Dirt Music can be streamed from Amazon, AppleTV and YouTube.

THE DRY: a mystery as psychological as it is procedural

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Photo caption: Eric Bana in Robert Connolly’s film THE DRY, which playes at SFFILM. Photo courtesy of SFFILM.

Eric Bana soars in The Dry, an atmospheric, slow-burn tale of murder and long-festering secrets from the Australian outback. The Dry is as psychological as it is procedural.

Bana plays Aaron, a renowned big city police officer who returns to his remote, tiny hometown, for the funeral of his childhood best friend. The friend, with his wife and young son, have been shotgunned to death, and all signs point to a murder-suicide. The friends’ parents implore Aaron to see if there is another explanation.

That task is complicated by the act that Aaron is not welcomed by many in his hometown. His teen heartthrob was mysteriously drowned, and Aaron was a prime suspect, causing him to flee the town. Twenty years later, all he knows is that he didn’t do it and that he lied about his alibi.

As indicated by the title, writer-director Robert Connolly sets The Dry in Australian outback in the Climate Change. The vast, tinder-dry landscapes underscores the literal and psychological isolation of the locals.

Aaron, racked with feelings about the twenty-year-old mystery death, starts investigating the current day murders. He joins up with the inexperienced local cop, and they poke around the rural community over several, searingly hot days. It takes a while to get there, but I thought the payoff justified the slow pace; The Wife didn’t. Both of us were surprised when the The Real Killer was revealed.

Eric Bana’s performance as Aaron is superb. The whole movie is about Aaron trying to keep his investigative focus while being buffeted by feelings about his childhood friends and his hometown and the trauma that caused him to move away from them.

Because of his good looks and his physicality, Bana appears in a lot of big movies that don’t test his emotional range (Hulk, Troy, Black Hawk Down). But Bana is always good and even better in movies like Munich and Hanna, where we get to glimpse his thinking and feeling. For a really good and overlooked Eric Bana movie, I recommend the 2012 thriller Deadfall, available to stream on Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.

The Dry played at SFFILM in April, but I missed it there. The Dry is now in Bay Area theaters and streaming on AppleTV, YouTube and Google Play.

Streams of the Week: MYSTERY ROAD and GOLDSTONE

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Aaron Pederson in MYSTERY ROAD

Writer-director Ivan Sen’s Australian crime dramas Mystery Road and Goldstone both feature Sen’s wholly original protagonist Detective Jay Swan (Aaron Pederson). Swan is an indigenous police investigator who must face racist locals and his own demons.  Pederson’s performances in both movies are very strong, bringing out the inner conflict within a guy who needed to leave his hometown and his marriage but is tormented by the consequences of those decisions.

In the contemporary murder mystery Mystery Road, Detective Swan returns to his small town in the Australian outback to encounter racist co-workers, a drunk and shiftless ex-wife and a resentful teenage daughter.  The daughter is a concern because her gal pals are starting to turn up murdered one by one.  Mystery Road is a solid but unexceptional police procedural except for two things: the movie’s climactic gun battle between guys using hunting rifles through telescopic sights – a real show stopper .

Hugo Weaving chews up some scenery with a supporting role as a cop with ambiguous motivation.  Weaving, with his supporting roles in The Matrix, V for Vendetta, Lord of the Rings, Transformers, etc., may be the world’s most financially successful character actor.

Aaron Pederson and Jacki Weaver in GOLDSTONE


In Goldstone, Swan is still reeling from a family tragedy when he finds a dark personal tie to the latest crime scene. Alcohol doesn’t help. A missing persons case brings Swan to a remote mining outpost. There’s a young local cop of ambiguous motivation – will he obstruct Swan, compete with him or become an ally? The local cop is working a human trafficking case, and the two cops pursue their investigations on dueling separate tracks until they inevitably converge.

Once again, the great Jacki Weaver (Animal Kingdom, Silver Linings Playbook) plays a peppy, ever-pleasant cutthroat as only she can.

The dialogue and most of the plot in Goldstone are pretty paint-by-the-numbers, but just as with Mystery Road, the character of Jay Swan and the performance by Aaron Pederson, along with the Outback setting, make Goldstone very watchable.

Both Mystery Road and Goldstone played at Cinequest. Mystery Road is available to rent on DVD from Netflix and can be streamed from Netflix, Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play. Goldstone can be streamed on Netflix, Amazon , iTunes, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.

DVD/Stream of the Week: THE SAPPHIRES – here’s a crowd-pleaser

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THE SAPPHIRES

This week’s video recommendation celebrates the opening of Cinequest with a nugget from the 2013 festival:  The Sapphires is a triumph of a Feel Good Movie. Set in the 1960s, a singing group from an Australian Aboriginal family faces racial obstacles at home, but blossoms when the girls learn Motown hits to entertain US troops in Vietnam. Remarkably, Tony Briggs based the screenplay on his mother’s real experience – make sure you stay for the Where Are They Now end credits.

The ever amiable Chris O’Dowd (one of the best things about Bridesmaids) is funny and charming as the girls’ dissolute manager. Jessica Mauboy, who plays the lead singer, has a great voice for soul music. A surprisingly beautiful song by the girls’ mom, played by veteran actress Kylie Belling, is an especially touching moment.

The Sapphires is not a deep movie, but it is a satisfying one. It’s predictable and manipulative, but I can’t think of anyone who wouldn’t enjoy it. The Sapphires is a guaranteed good time at the movies.

The Sapphires is available to rent on DVD from Netflix and Redbox and to stream from Amazon Video, iTunes, Vudu, GooglePlay and Flixster.

Cinequest: GOLDSTONE

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Aaron Pederson and Jacki Weaver in GOLDSTONE
Aaron Pederson and Jacki Weaver in GOLDSTONE

The Australian crime drama Goldstone is writer-director Ivan Sen’s sequel of sorts to the 2014 Cinequest film Mystery Road. Both films feature Sen’s wholly original protagonist Detective Jay Swan (Aaron Pederson), an indigenous police investigator who must face racist locals and his own demons.  Pederson’s performances in both movies are very strong, bringing out the inner conflict within a guy who needed to leave his hometown and his marriage but is tormented by the consequences of those decisions. In Goldstone, Swan is still reeling from a family tragedy when he finds a dark personal tie to the latest crime scene. Alcohol doesn’t help.

In Goldstone, a missing persons case brings Detective Jay Swan to a remote mining outpost. There’s a young local cop of ambiguous motivation – will he obstruct Swan, compete with him or become an ally? The local cop is working a human trafficking case, and the two cops pursue their investigations on dueling separate tracks until they inevitably converge.

Once again, the great Jacki Weaver (Animal Kingdom, Silver Linings Playbook) plays a peppy, ever-pleasant cutthroat as only she can.

The dialogue and most of the plot in Goldstone are pretty paint-by-the-numbers, but just as with Mystery Road, the character of Jay Swan and the performance by Aaron Pederson, along with the Outback setting, make Goldstone very watchable.

(Mystery Road is available to rent on DVD from Netflix and can be streamed from Netflix Instant, Amazon Instant Video, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.)

GIRL ASLEEP: it’s my party and I’ll trip if I want to

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GIRL ASLEEP
GIRL ASLEEP

I’ve seen plenty of teen coming of age movies, but none like Girl Asleep from Australia and first-time director Rosemary Myers.   The arc of the story may be familiar – a new school, an excruciatingly awkward boy and an encounter with Mean Girls.  The anxiety for our teen protagonist Greta (Bethany Whitmore) is crowned by her parents doing what must be the most embarrassing thing for a teenager – the parents putting on a party for her and inviting everyone at her new school.  As the story is set up, we see some glimpses of magical realism. Then, when the party maximizes Greta’s stress, the story is immersed into a trippy Alice in Wonderland parallel universe.  It’s  all an allegory for the perils of the adolescent journey.

Greta’s batty parents are played with gleaming resolve by Amber McMahon and screenwriter Mathew Whittet.  Harrison Feldmore’s  total commitment to his role as Greta’s suitor is admirable; he’s not just geeky but enthusiastically so, plunging headlong into a profound geeky totality.   Director Myers also has fun with the 1970s milieu, taking particular glee with the short shorts worn by the male characters.

The movie is pretty funny, and you won’t find a trippier coming of age flick.   Girl Asleep opens tomorrow in the Bay Area at Camera 3 in San Jose and at the Roxie in San Francisco.  Girl Asleep screens with the short film Pickle, a deadpan comedy.

THE DRESSMAKER: an offbeat tale of Aussie revenge

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Kate Winslet in THE DRESSMAKER
Kate Winslet in THE DRESSMAKER

In the comedy The Dressmaker, a woman (Kate Winslet) returns to her remote Australian home village with revenge on her mind.  She was run out-of-town as a child for something that she can’t remember, and has become a successful Parisian dress designer.  She’s come back to resolve the mystery and, when she finds that the hateful townspeople have left her mother (Judy Davis) to decompensate, she’s ready to unleash vengeance on a Biblical scale.  It’s set in the early 1950s.

Be ready for this comedy to darken considerably in its final segment.  The first 90 minutes weave together an excellent comedy, an ordinary whodunit and a run-of-the-mill romance.  Then a tragic occurrence takes the movie to very serious place and unspools  a VERY darkly funny revenge finale, which is both over-the-top and satisfying.  But the shift in tone is jarring, and the movie as a whole is very uneven.

The Dressmaker is, however, very well-acted.  Winslet is good in a very broad role.  Judy Davis, 37 years after becoming an art house favorite in My Brilliant Career,  gleams with energy as the vibrant and demented mother.  Sarah Snook is particularly notable in one of the great “makeover” roles, transitioning from ugly duckling to local princess while retaining the same nasty personality.

My favorite performance in The Dressmaker is Hugo Weaving’s.  I’ve been a fan of Weaving since he so compellingly played a blind man in the 1991 Proof (also our first look at a very young Russell Crowe).  Since then, Weaving has earned iconic roles in the Matrix movies and V for Vendetta and is usually the most interesting performer in big budget movies.   In The Dressmaker, Weaving plays the town constable, a minor official with a very peculiar secret proclivity.  Totally committed to the part, Weaving is flamboyant fun.

All in all, The Dressmaker is generally entertaining, if not cohesive.

PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK: a haunting masterpiece on TV

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PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK
PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK

Tomorrow night, Turner Classic Movies will air the enigmatic Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975) by Australian filmmaker Peter Weir.  An Australian girls school goes on an outing to a striking geological formation – and some of the girls and a teacher disappear.  What happened to them? It’s beautiful and hypnotic and haunting.  It’s a film masterpiece, but if you can’t handle ambiguous endings – this ain’t for you.

Weir has gone on to make high quality hits (The Year of Living Dangerously, Witness, Dead Poets Society, The Truman Show, Master and Commander), but Picnic at Hanging Rock – the movie that he made at age 31 – is his most original work.  Besides playing periodically on TCM, Picnic at Hanging Rock is available on DVD from Netflix and streaming from Amazon Instant and Hulu Plus.

DVD/Stream of the Week: THE SAPPHIRES

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TTHE SAPPHIRES

In honor of the recently concluded Cinequest, here’s a nugget from the 2013 fest: The Sapphires is a triumph of a Feel Good Movie. Set in the 1960s, a singing group from an Australian Aboriginal family faces racial obstacles at home, but blossoms when the girls learn Motown hits to entertain US troops in Vietnam. Remarkably, Tony Briggs based the screenplay on his mother’s real experience – make sure you stay for the Where Are They Now end credits.

The ever amiable Chris O’Dowd (one of the best things about Bridesmaids) is funny and charming as the girls’ dissolute manager. Jessica Mauboy, who plays the lead singer, has a great voice for soul music. A surprisingly beautiful song by the girls’ mom, played by veteran actress Kylie Belling, is an especially touching moment.

The Sapphires is not a deep movie, but it is a satisfying one. It’s predictable and manipulative, but I can’t think of anyone who wouldn’t enjoy it. The Sapphires is a guaranteed good time at the movies.

The Sapphires is available to rent on DVD from Netflix and Redbox and to stream from Amazon Video, iTunes, Vudu, GooglePlay and Flixster.

Cinequest: THE DAUGHTER

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THE DAUGHTER
THE DAUGHTER

Cinequest Closing Night’s headliner is the tragic Australian drama The Daughter, which is emotionally powerful and ultimately devastating.   Paul Schrader along with a passel of Aussie stars  like Geoffrey Rush and Sam Neill portray characters entangled by a family secret that only some of them know.  As the secret is revealed to the rest…(well, no spoilers here).

The  characters that we first think are the most important recede in favor of seemingly secondary characters. as The Daughter drives toward its climax.  As the characters evolve in prominence, our sympathies change, too.  The Daughter is adapted from Henrik Ibsen’s The Wild Duck and is so completely modernized that you’d never know that the source material is a century old.

The cast is superb, but the standouts are Anna Torn and Ewen Leslie, whose performances are absolutely heartbreaking.  The Daughter is gripping and profoundly moving.