Category Archives: Perth Film Festival 2012-13

Reviews of PFF movies for season 2012-13

Movie Reviews, Perth Film Festival 2012-13

The Hunt Movie Review

Leave a comment

Featuring: Mads Mikkelsen, Thomas Bo Larsen, Annika Wedderkopp, Lasse Fogelstrøm, Susse Wold, Anne Louise Hassing, Lars Ranthe, Alexandra Rapaport, Ole Dupont
Director: Thomas Vinterberg
Writer: Thomas Vinterberg, Tobias Lindholm
2012-13 Lotterywest Perth Film Festival season dates:
Somerville 7–13 January, 8pm; Joondalup Pines 15–20 January, 8pm
Reviewer: rolanstein (one-word verdict: stunning)

Story:
Lucas (Mads Mikkelsen) lives in a small tight-knit Norwegian rural town, and is going through a rough patch. He’s entangled in a bitter custody battle over his teenage son with his ex-wife and is a casualty of the flailing economy. Having lost his teaching post, he is working with kids in a temporary position at the local kindergarten. One of the children, Klara (Annika Wedderkopp), the daughter of his best friend Theo (Thomas Bo Larsen), develops a crush on him, and is hurt by his gentle redirection of her affections towards her peers. In retaliation, and referencing some pornographic images her older brother has flashed at her from his iPad, she lies that Lucas has exposed himself to her. The head of the kindergarten mishandles the subsequent investigation, and before long the rumour that Lucas is a child molester has spread through the town. Deserted by all but one of his long-term friends, his fight to establish his innocence appears a hopeless cause as the town closes ranks against him.

Review:
The movie opens with a scene of idyllic natural beauty and tranquility: a group of deer grazing in a forest. A shot rents the quiet and the animals scatter. But one has been hit, and is easily traced by hunters following the blood trail, who find it not far away, breathing its last. Then follows a traditional ritual of celebratory boozing, the hunters – town locals including Lucas – laughing loud and raucous into the night, playing drinking games around a long wooden table and chanting encouragement as the “loser” skols his beer.

Thus, the scene is set symbolically for what is to follow, the irony being that Lucas is soon to become the innocent hunted, convicted without trial and spurned by all seated around the long table of mateship and bonhomie. Parallels with the Last Supper are retrospectively unavoidable, though not apparent at this early stage of the film. Continue reading The Hunt Movie Review →

Movie Reviews, Perth Film Festival 2012-13

Shadow Dancer Movie Review

Leave a comment

Featuring: Clive Owen, Andrea Riseborough, Gillian Anderson, Aidan Gillen, Domhnall Gleeson, Brid Brennan, Kevin Mulville
Director: James Marsh
Writer: Tom Bradby (adapted from his novel of the same title)

Perth release date: Somerville 24, 26–30 December, 8pm; Joondalup Pines 1–6 January, 8pm
Reviewer: rolanstein (one-word verdict: nail-biter!)

Story:
In 90s London, single mother and IRA activist Collette (Andrea Riseborough) is arrested for planting a bomb at a tube station. An MI5 officer, Mac (Clive Owen), offers her a stark choice: imprisonment vs returning to her Belfast home as an informer. With her young son’s welfare central to her decision, she agrees to the latter. Since her brothers are hardline IRA members in regular contact with senior leadership ordering assassinations and masterminding other terrorist activities, Collette’s informing role is both vital to MI5 and fraught with personal danger. Her risk escalates still further when she is forced into taking part in an IRA hit which MI5 agents foil, placing her under immediate suspicion within IRA ranks as the ‘rat’. The tension is tuned to extreme when Mac seeks unsuccessfully to pull her out of her informing role and discovers that MI5 has hidden agendas…

Review:
The action opens in the 70s, with Collette as a child bribing her younger brother to take on her father’s request that she run off to the nearest store to buy him some cigarettes. The brother is killed when British soldiers open fire on some fleeing IRA militants. Naturally, Collette’s guilt is crushing. Continue reading Shadow Dancer Movie Review →

Movie Reviews, Perth Film Festival 2012-13

The Angel’s Share Movie Review

Leave a comment

Featuring: Paul Brannigan, John Henshaw, Siobhan Reilly, Gary Maitland, Jasmin Riggins, William Ruane, Roger Allam
Director: Ken Loach
Writer: Paul Laverty
Website:
Australian release date: 3-9 December (Somerville, Perth)
Reviewer: rolanstein (one-word verdict: engaging)

Story:
Robbie (Paul Brannigan), a Glaswegian petty crim with a history of violence, is introduced to the finer points of whisky by his kind-hearted community service officer, Harry (John Henshaw), and discovers he has an extraordinary palate. Teaming up with a motley crew of fellow offenders, Robbie masterminds an audacious heist, the object being the contents of the only existing barrel of one of the world’s most prized and valuable single malts.

Review:
Last week I caught Ken Loach’s The Angel’s Share at Joondalup’s excellent open-air venue for the Perth 2012-13 Lotterywest Festival Films program. Joondalup’s site is smaller and more intimate than the Somerville. Don’t hesitate to check it out if you’re in the mood for outdoor cinema – and with last week’s unseasonably squally weather a fading memory, why wouldn’t you be?

The movie switches to Somerville this week, running from 3–9 December, commencing 8pm. Gotta dash this review down in haste, then, if it’s to be up in time to persuade you teeming hordes of Boomtown Rap faithfuls to make the effort to see this one before it finishes. Which you should! This will come as a surprise to regular readers of my reviews who might recall that Loach is not one of my favourite directors – I have to report that this is a little charmer of a flick. Continue reading The Angel’s Share Movie Review →