Whilst the man was away...
I sat down to watch Little Red Ridinghood, somehow expecting it to be a Tim Burtonesque treatment of a classic. How disappointing to find it was more Twilight than Tim. I struggled to maintain any interest at all. Then I popped on Super 8 and after laughing hysterically at the 'train crash' found I was caught up in it for at least an hour. I wanted to like this film, but again my interest petered out to zero when it all became too big for itself and just too silly.
Rabbit Hole starring Nicole Kidman was next and this one I did enjoy. Beautifully written about a very delicate subject matter - death of a child - with a few really interesting twists that managed to not only maintain my interest but totally engage me. Watching how different people handle grief is not easily done and its pretty easy to fall into standard cliches. I think this one was a winner. I doubt it would have been commercially sucessful.
Speaking of winners, my copy of Snowtown also arrived in the mail. Having seen it in Adelaide, appropriately enough, I didnt manage to hear a lot of it at the time so wanted very much to be able to watch it again and pick up all the pieces I missed first time around. What a stunning film. The director wanted to concentrate mostly on the relationship between the older man (Bunting) and the boy (Vlassakis) and consequently cut the film back to the very basics, leaving out much of the extraneous detail, of which there was an abundance. In what could have been a slasher flick, this film has managed to darkly portray a series of murders by actually only really showing you snippets of one or two of the twelve murders committed by Bunting, with help from his thug mate Wagner. With so much material on public record and so much that could have been included in this film, it was always going to be dificult to determine just how best to tell this story as faithfully as possible.
The inclusion of some particularly gruesome imagery for a very short time was enough to convince you of the sadistic and brutal nature of the protagonists without any need to prolong the scenes or spell out any further detail of the horrific and sustained torture and abuse suffered by victims of this misguided band of men. This film has captured the bleakness of the housing commission culture, the awful consequences of a childhood lost to physical and sexual abuse and the uncertainty and desperation felt by boys just wanting guidance and stability in a life full of hopelessness, drug use, unemployment and fragile relationships.
Its not an easy film to watch, nor will it be one that many people will actually like. Having read about Snowtown in some detail, I was not sure how this would be treated by a filmaker so was very suprised and pleased that the final product was a well made, gritty, realistic and sensitively handled piece of film.It is at times confusing and hard to follow, and if you dont know much about the interwoven relationships between the killers and victims, this film will probably leave you even more confused. Read up before you watch it. Not perfect by any means and I am sure it could have been done better, but to choose to focus the film on Jamie and John was clever. For a directorial debut it's a fine effort despite the flaws.
I know I cleared the decks and watched most of the downloaded films I had saved up, including Hanna and The Adjustment Bureau, but most were lost on me due to severe lack of interest or sustainability and they served only to fill in the void before bed time. I wish I was more easily pleased.
Rabbit Hole starring Nicole Kidman was next and this one I did enjoy. Beautifully written about a very delicate subject matter - death of a child - with a few really interesting twists that managed to not only maintain my interest but totally engage me. Watching how different people handle grief is not easily done and its pretty easy to fall into standard cliches. I think this one was a winner. I doubt it would have been commercially sucessful.
Speaking of winners, my copy of Snowtown also arrived in the mail. Having seen it in Adelaide, appropriately enough, I didnt manage to hear a lot of it at the time so wanted very much to be able to watch it again and pick up all the pieces I missed first time around. What a stunning film. The director wanted to concentrate mostly on the relationship between the older man (Bunting) and the boy (Vlassakis) and consequently cut the film back to the very basics, leaving out much of the extraneous detail, of which there was an abundance. In what could have been a slasher flick, this film has managed to darkly portray a series of murders by actually only really showing you snippets of one or two of the twelve murders committed by Bunting, with help from his thug mate Wagner. With so much material on public record and so much that could have been included in this film, it was always going to be dificult to determine just how best to tell this story as faithfully as possible.
The inclusion of some particularly gruesome imagery for a very short time was enough to convince you of the sadistic and brutal nature of the protagonists without any need to prolong the scenes or spell out any further detail of the horrific and sustained torture and abuse suffered by victims of this misguided band of men. This film has captured the bleakness of the housing commission culture, the awful consequences of a childhood lost to physical and sexual abuse and the uncertainty and desperation felt by boys just wanting guidance and stability in a life full of hopelessness, drug use, unemployment and fragile relationships.
Its not an easy film to watch, nor will it be one that many people will actually like. Having read about Snowtown in some detail, I was not sure how this would be treated by a filmaker so was very suprised and pleased that the final product was a well made, gritty, realistic and sensitively handled piece of film.It is at times confusing and hard to follow, and if you dont know much about the interwoven relationships between the killers and victims, this film will probably leave you even more confused. Read up before you watch it. Not perfect by any means and I am sure it could have been done better, but to choose to focus the film on Jamie and John was clever. For a directorial debut it's a fine effort despite the flaws.
I know I cleared the decks and watched most of the downloaded films I had saved up, including Hanna and The Adjustment Bureau, but most were lost on me due to severe lack of interest or sustainability and they served only to fill in the void before bed time. I wish I was more easily pleased.