Anatomy of a Fall (2023)

Written for RAF News November 2023

A fraught and complex marriage is put on trial when a man is found dead in front of his chalet having fallen from the attic. Discovered with a fatal head injury, it may have resulted from a knock during the fall; or maybe just before.

Although we see the moments around his death, we do not yet have the context. This will be drawn out in the courtroom, where the film spends most of its runtime. Sandra (Sandra Hüller) is a successful German novelist living in France with her partially-blind son Daniel (Milo Machado Graner), family dog Snoop, and until now, with her husband Samuel (Samuel Theis) – but the relationship certainly had issues, as the prosecution will make evident.

Sandra is suspected of killing Samuel for various reasons: the circumstances around the incident itself, their history of violent exchanges, and going as deep as the resentments that they harboured for one another. The courtroom scenes are less stagey than is common in films. By comparison this feels conversational, almost intimate, but nonetheless pointed and combative. Witnesses are brought to the stand and cross-examined, but when evidence is presented, or an anecdote described, we see the moments play out. One particular fight is viewed almost in its entirety, and it feels painfully lived in.

The performances of the central cast are phenomenal. Samuel is only seen briefly in flashbacks, as someone struggling severely with work-life demands, whether he is suicidal or not will be debated. Daniel is 10 years old and witnesses the entire trial, every revelation fracturing the idea of his family. Sandra is the one in the spotlight, under scrutiny, her resilience almost working against her. The centre of the film, she enriches the text deeply though we cannot be sure if she is telling the truth.

Anatomy of a Fall is a riveting courtroom drama, expertly played.

November 3, 2023 0

Killers of the Flower Moon (2023)

Written for RAF News October 2023

Martin Scorcese’s latest epic is a western about the exploitation and killing of Native Americans in early 20th century Oklahoma; a revisionist take on the Osage murders.

Based on the bestselling nonfiction book by David Grann, it follows dim-witted World War I vet Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo DiCaprio) as he returns to his uncle’s cattle ranch looking for work, or more importantly, money. William ‘King’ Hale (Robert Deniro) has amassed his own wealth, but it is nothing in comparison to the First Nation locals who struck rich when they found that their land was sitting on an ocean of black gold.

Becoming the richest peoples per capita on Earth, it is not long before others start sniffing around and finding ways to part them from their riches – whether through robbery, insurance scams or marriage. The latter is suggested to Ernest by conniving Uncle Bill, matching him with Mollie (Lily Gladstone) as way to secure the inheritance of the ‘headrights’ to the oil money. Of course, there is Mollie’s mother and sisters to consider, but they are a minor inconvenience that can be fixed with a bullet or enough dynamite.

There is a great power in the storytelling, aided wondrously by the central performances, all presenting a deep contradiction or duplicitousness. Hale presents himself as a friend to the natives, speaking their language and established in the community, but underhandedly plotting their demise. Simpleton Ernest appears to genuinely love his wife and yet his loyalty to his uncle, or maybe his hunger for power, triumphs this bond repeatedly. Mollie, in a show-stopping turn from Gladstone, is aware of Ernest’s bad intention but allows him in anyway, her intentions cloaked behind an expression of constant restraint.

Killers of The Flower Moon presents a great American story of massacres and land snatching in the name of money and control – a saga that runs at just under 3 and a half hours, but somehow flies by – a true masterpiece.

October 13, 2023 0

Past Lives (2023)

Written for RAF News Sept 2023

Korean immigrant Nora (Greta Lee) has set up a life for herself in New York: a career, an apartment and a loving husband, but the sudden reappearance of her childhood sweetheart reminds of a deep connection to a time and place that she had left behind.

What might appear as a typical, contentious romantic drama with two suitors competing for the affection of the same woman, Past Lives is told with great realism and tenderness. There are no villains in this film other than circumstance.

Nora had moved from Seoul as a child, leaving Hae Sung (Teo Yoo) with whom she had become incredibly smitten, walking home hand in hand from school every day, their affection was innocent and uncomplicated.

12 years later and now an aspiring playwright, Nora scans social media for her old friend on a whim, discovering a message that he had sent in search of her. This reignites their bond, deepened now by maturity, but anchored to memory and nostalgia.

The interactions feel genuine, seeking to connect rather than impress or woo, their conversations are deeply heartening to witness. At this point in their lives, Korea and North America respectively, they are unable to travel and so communication is limited to patchy Skype calls. This is until Nora finally makes the decision to stop talking, feeling that the distance is too painful, and afraid of throwing away all that she has worked for to travel back to her home country.

Another 12 years later Hae Sung arrives in New York to visit Nora And her now husband (John Magaro). There is no cunning or covetous plan; all three people are aware of their situation, and in fact treat it with great emotional intelligence, but this doesn’t make the ordeal any less difficult.

Past Lives is a simple and realistic romance that is incredibly tender and heartbreaking.

September 8, 2023 0

Pinocchio A True Story (2023)

Written for RAF News July 2023

Pinocchio A Tue Story is a confused adaptation of the popular fairytale, a janky Russian animation that makes little sense, but has gained online notoriety for its particular American dubbing.

Evidently the story of Geppetto and his living doll have become public domain, and so we have had a number of versions released in the past couple of years. From Disney’s updated live-action with CGI, to Guillermo De Toro’s comic but darkly twisted stop-motion, and now this: a much smaller scale, no-thrills animation, that appears to be geared toward a much younger audience, and apparently those watching ironically for the memes.

The plot is much like the others, or at least it uses some of the same ideas (though notably excluding Jiminy Cricket or his growing nose). Pinocchio (Pauly Shore) is a wooden boy who comes to life and longs to see the world, along with his trusty talking horse Tybalt (Jon Heder) he joins a travelling circus and falls in love with the shifty proprietor’s daughter Bella (Liza Klimova). Now he wishes to become human so that they may share a love together, but her father’s schemes, and the thieving animals under his employ, threaten to interfere.

Despite being cemented into public consciousness through its many retellings, this instalment is pretty non-sensical, with drama arising out of nowhere and then being resolved just as casually. The score is generic whilst the animation is ropey and unexciting. The American dub is where the film has garnered much attention, largely due to Pauly Shore’s flamboyant delivery, causing a wave of TikToks celebrating the perceived sexuality of Pinocchio.

A suitably bizarre fate for this strange film, that isn’t nearly as funny as the reactions it has provoked.

July 7, 2023 0

Love According to Dalva (2023)

Written for RAF News April 2023

A young girl is taken from her home and placed in a shelter after being kidnapped, brainwashed and abused by her own father. Here she must come to terms with what has happened to her, learn to trust the people in her care and reintegrate with kids her own age.

Rather than focus on the abuser, or the acts of abuse, the film instead focusses on the victim, eagerly trying to understand the world through her eyes in this powerful Belgian drama.

Dalva (Zelda Samson) is 12 years old but dresses well beyond her years in lace dresses and pearl earrings. Though her father was arrested, she wants nothing more than to see him again, making desperate attempts to flee the shelter to the prison where he is being held. Far beyond Stockholm Syndrome, she has been convinced that the sexual relationship that they had was an expression of love that others simply don’t understand.

At the shelter, her new roommate Samia (Fanta Guirassy) is hardly sympathetic – coming from a place of neglect herself. Samia is tough, but will ultimately become a friend and guardian of Dalva – especially when she is dropped into school, where there is a difference in social standing. Other children speak forwardly and matter of factly about Dalva’s experiences, trauma that she has not yet even begun to process.

Love According to Dalva is an interesting film that burrows into some difficult and uncomfortable ideas – but does so with complete consideration for the victim, played with believable conviction by Samson. A darkly complex idea that shows an insidious form of abuse from the point of view of the victim to whom everything has been normalised.

April 21, 2023 0