Featuring: Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Aaron Paul, Octavia Spencer, Nick Offerman, Megan Mullally
Director: James Ponsoldt
Writer: James Ponsoldt, Susan Burke
Website: www.sonyclassics.com/smashed/

2012-13 Lotterywest Perth Film Festival season dates:
Somerville 4–7, 9–10 February, 8pm; Joondalup Pines 12–17 February, 8pm

Reviewer: rolanstein (one-word verdict: lite)

Story:
Young married couple Kate (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) and Charlie (Aaron Paul) routinely spend their nights at bars or drinking with friends, and often kick on later at home. Charlie freelances as an occasional music reviewer, and thus can sleep in after their nightly revelries, but primary school teacher Kate frequently finds herself nursing a hangover in the classroom. On one such occasion, she vomits in front of her students, which she excuses by lying that she is pregnant.

This, as well as episodes of urinary incontinence and a lost night in which she smokes crack for the first time and ends up sleeping on the street at a derelict haunt, sound warning bells that her drinking is out of control. Fellow teacher and recovering alcoholic David (Nick Offerman) convinces her to accompany him to an AA meeting, and she subsequently commits to sobriety. As a result, she is forced to confront some uncomfortable truths about her primary relationships, to face up to some responsibilities she has been avoiding, and to make some hard and life-altering decisions.

Review:
The trajectory from addiction to rehabilitation as dramatised here will ring true to those who have experienced it for real, or know someone who has – and there are many of us. Problem is, this is a reductive treatment of a complex subject that covers too much ground too quickly, without pausing to grapple with the devil lurking in the detail. Continue reading Smashed Movie Review →

Featuring: Kacey Mottet Klein, Léa Seydoux, Martin Compston, Gillian Anderson
Director: Ursula Meier
Writers: Antoine Jaccoud, Ursula Meier, Gilles Taurand

2012-13 Lotterywest Perth Film Festival season dates:
Somerville 21–25, 27 January, 8pm; Joondalup Pines 29 January-3 February, 8pm

Reviewer: rolanstein (one-word verdict: bleak)

Story:
12-year-old Simon (Kacey Mottet Klein) lives with his unemployed adult sister Louise (Léa Seydoux) in a high-rise block on the impoverished outer edge of an upmarket Swiss ski resort area. Louise is no care-giver, leaving the role of provider to Simon, who has created a profitable little business stealing and re-selling skis and other equipment, and otherwise living off his wits amid the affluence of the ski resort.

He is not acquisitive or money-orientated; rather, he steals to survive and in the hope of winning Louise’s affection. She, meantime, takes off for days at a time until funds or her current boyfriend run out on her, then turns to alcohol for comfort – at Simon’s financial and emotional expense.

The situation is unsustainable; it is only a matter of time before something gives…

Review:
This strikingly naturalistic film trains an unsentimental spotlight on a neglected child struggling to negotiate his way through an affluent adult world unsympathetic to his plight, and mostly unmindful of it.

Indeed, Simon does his best to stay under the radar, as is sensible for a kid living off thievery. And as thieves go he’s a pro despite his tender years, not to mention a skilled salesman.

In a sense, this prowess works against him. Continue reading Sister Movie Review →