huckthing Reviews

Money Monster (2016)

Foster successfully recasts female representation

[7/10 · 14 June 2016]

MONEY MONSTER Jodie Foster directs this suspenseful hostage drama set in a live-to-air television studio. George Clooney's Lee Gates is the flippant host of a tacky infotainment show for Wall Street watchers. Soon after the morning show goes to air a disgruntled young shareholder, Kyle Budwell (Jack O'Connell), bursts into the studio and threatens to blow up Lee who had recently spruiked an investment company whose share price had plummeted.

Under threats from the gunman the producer, Patty Fenn (Julia Roberts), orders the film crew to continue filming, and to contain the situation, she fits out Kyle with a collar mic "so people can hear you properly", effectively giving him a voice as the show beams into bars and cafés across Manhattan. The film cleverly juggles the fear of a loose canon with the growing sympathy for Kyle, the battler who has a legitimate grievance, who lost his savings through the legal greed of Wall Street bankers.

To buy time, the producer investigates the claims made by Kyle and the film develops into an on air "real time" investigation into the background of the company's $80 million loss. It is probably the first time the show has ever produced journalism of any worth in its glitzy life and it now has an audience of millions watching. The movie concerns itself with the reveal of those investigations.

Along the way of the film we learn a little about algorithms of high frequency trading, share price basics, the kind of outrageous speculations bankers make with investors' money; and a whole lot of the baloney of the medium of low production infotainment.

It is a fast paced, intense drama. The tone of this movie, particularly the tension of the full barrelled police response, is strongly reminiscent of Spike Lee's heist drama "Inside Man" (2006) in which Foster played a pivotal character. Clooney is well cast as the superficial TV presenter but the transformation of his character is a bit hollow. Julia Roberts gives a strong performance which is refreshingly free of the sexual objectification that has characterised her Hollywood career. If Jodie Foster has a special directorial quality it very well could be the recasting of female representation.

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot (2016)

Hollywood creates a Kabubble

[7/10 · 23 May 2016]

WHISKY TANGO FOXTROT Tina Fey stars, produces and dedicates this war correspondent film to her late father, Donald Fey "Veteran and Journalist". The film is based on the book "The Taliban Shuffle" by American journalist Kim Barker, recounting her five years as a female war correspondent in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

When "Kim Baker" (played by Fey) first arrives as a rookie in Kabul in 2004, she is out of her depth but quickly earns a reputation for brinkmanship and scoring cred points as a plucky "embed" journalist. Like her peers, Baker develops the addiction that besieges war reporters; she constantly seeks the rush of being on the frontline. Over time the mainstream news networks turn their focus from Afghanistan to Iraq and interest for Baker's hard won stories wanes. We see the ruthlessness that exists amongst journalists for scoops and the pressurised environment in which they work. Living in a "Kabubble" as they call the bizarre mix of ever present danger and foreignness, the journalists, photographers and their minders live in a frat house atmosphere with constant partying and heavy drinking interrupted only by bombs and the pressure to file stories from the frontline.

The use of hand held cameras in the streets of Kabul jostles the viewer inside dusty cars and further unease is created by the sound design where, at times, the volume of the surrounding field threatens to drown out the dialogue. Despite the gritty realism of the film's visual and sound elements there is an implausible plot detail involving the blowing up of a village well which contradicts the tone of naturalism. Add Tina Fey's unshakeable Los Angeles demeanour and the blonde bombshell treatment of Margot Robbie as a rival correspondent, Tanya Vanderpoel, and the film has the Hollywood stamp on it. These odd casting choices add to the dissonance between a complex subject matter and flippancy. Baker's Afghan minder, Fahim Ahmadzai, is played, controversially, by an American actor Christopher Abbott.

For his part Abbott does an excellent job of portraying an Afghan man honourably attempting to cross the cultural/gender abyss using English as his second language. Ironically the relationship of Baker and Ahmadzai is one of the few poignant elements of the film and something of a retreat from the shallow relationships of hardened war hacks. One of whom is a dissolute Scottish journalist, played by Martin Freedman. Billy Bob Thornton faultlessly plays an ultra focused US Marine colonel.

There is a haunting reference to an image of the brilliant Pulitzer prizewinning photojournalist, the late Anja Niedringhaus (killed in action in Afghanistan in 2014). In the film Kim Baker is wearing a blue burqa and a hand held camera shoots from inside her burqa looking out at the world through the fabric grille. This is an exact image of the still by Niedringhaus.

The film is reminiscent of the absurdist war comedy, "M.A.S.H". Other writers have documented the peculiarly comic unreality of the foreign journalist's life in a war zone ("Absurdistan" by Eric Campbell, "Despatches" by Michael Herr). A female-positioned gallows humour successfully sustains the script and narrative but the strength of it seems to be undermined by the casting and incongruously smooth presentation of the female characters.

Spear (2015)

Educating and moving

[9/10 · 16 May 2016]

SPEAR is a moving film directed by Stephen Page, artistic director of Bangarra Dance Theatre. It expresses and educates on issues for Aboriginal men in contemporary Australia. The film explores initiation to manhood rituals and the themes arising are leadership, guidance, role models and identity. All the dance sequences are referenced to these themes; I was never left guessing about ambiguous abstract compositions.

The film gives examples of male support outside of the usual macho paradigm. For example, the beautiful sequence shot near Dhulunbuy where dancers weave sensuously in a red desert sand circle. This is contrasted with the images of men in burnt out abandoned cars looking lost and vacant.

The only scripted character in the film is Suicide Man, played with chilling naturalism by Aaron Pederson. He voices and plays out the demons threatening Aboriginal men: alcoholism, self and family disintegration and inner turmoil. The indignity of incarceration and the further violence that those institutions perpetuate is explored. It has a very strong narrative. Visually, it is a treat to behold. The combination of music, costume, lighting and the use of spatial textures creates a series of visceral atmospheres. There are many beautiful, haunting images in this film. The group dance sequences in the desert near Dhulunbuy are glorious.

Midway through the film there is a satiric piece parodying the souvenir like caricatures of "Aboriginalia" using the novelty song "My Boomerang Won't Come Back" and tramped up using a vaudevillian tableau. Similarly ironic is the excerpt from the film "Jeddah" and its sugared version of Aboriginal identity, a comment on the disconnect of Aboriginal identity within mainstream Australian culture.

The late David Page, the director's brother, has created an intelligent, understated soundtrack which is very dynamic and responsive. In the fight scenes he synchronizes sharp attacks with choreographed violence. At other more reflective moments he creates sheer fabric soundscapes for dancers to move within.

Translating a traditional stage setting for dance to the three plus dimensions of cinema was successful. It was rewarding to be able to get detail of body shots in close ups. However the mid range shots were, for me, not as effective in composition. I wondered whether they could've been plotted better? I felt I was cut off from key parts of the body composition in the mid range shots.

On one level the film is a celebration of the male physique rivaling the beauty of the male form from the Italian masters. Director Stephen Page has given us many levels of engagement in his film which is why it is so deeply satisfying. It is a multi layered poetic style of filmmaking. Ultimately, I found it both educating and moving.

Florence Foster Jenkins (2016)

What happens when serious music is turned upside down?

[8/10 · 11 May 2016]

The film is based on the true story of the New York socialite Florence Foster Jenkins. In 1944 she hired Carnegie Hall to perform as a soprano soloist. With no musical ability whatsoever but a large inheritance to enable her to indulge her love of performing, Florence Foster Jenkins becomes an unwitting musical clown which sustains the comedy throughout the film. The character is played with gentle comic affection by Meryl Streep.

Hugh Grant is well cast as Florence's doting and enabling husband St Clair Bayfield. It is to Grant's charisma and acting ability that he is able to portray an adulterous scoundrel who is milking his wife's inheritance and turn it into a devoted and loving husband. His brilliant charm offensive is one of the remarkable things about the movie.

Hazel Finn