A beginning, a middle and a new beginning

The Swell Season  

Cinema Village, October 25, 2011

Movie #76 for 2011

Beginning kind of where the story of 2007's Once (but not the film itself) left off - Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova are lovers and are beautiful, effortless music together as "The Swell Season" and are touring a new album.  They’ve just won an Oscar for Best Song for “Falling Slowly” (pictured).  Then it all goes downhill.

Hansard is nearly 40 and has been professionally making music - including touring - for more than half his life.  Irglova is a shy 19 year-old, has just graduated high school and is playing in massive venues to enormous crowds as much invested in the fairytale of the Hansard/Irglova romance as they are in the music.  She is very, very overwhelmed.  The fatigue of the road, the reality of success and the disintegration of their relationship are grist, mill-wise.

This is a great documentary: the music is tremendous (although not my usual), it is beautifully shot and the subjects are bare, honest and un-self-conscious with the camera as with each other.  Like the 2002 documentary about Wilco, I am Trying to Break Your Heart, the film-makers of The Swell Season (Nick August-Perna, Chris Dapkins and Carlo Mirabella-Davis) were in the right place at the right time to capture unexpected events and deeply interesting conflict.  Not just a Once-style love story, it is about struggle, music, fame, ambition, success, failure, intimacy, balance, internal conflict and creativity.

The doco is pieced together from bits and pieces over about three years.  And, although it finishes quite abruptly, it tells a cohesive story that - and this is as much as any documentary can ever do - feels true.

Holy stars, who'd've thought

Tangled  

Northlands Hoyts, 01/02/2011

Movie #7 for 2011

I know, I know, I know: it’s a Disney musical about Rupunzel. My expectations, it’s safe to say, were low.  But it was 40 degrees with a northerly blowing and I just needed to be air-conditioned.  (And, to be honest, I’d forgotten there would be songs – the last bunch of animated films I saw were manga, Pixar and French hand drawn stuff, so I pretty much forgot there could be songs.)

The beginning of Tangled had me fearing the worst – the first two songs in particular are very, very average.  But then, much to my surprise, it found its groove and I found I was enjoying myself… quite a bit more than a decorous amount.

Tangled really hits its stride when the creators start to thoroughly embrace and exploit the animated format – the action sequences are wonderful and the comedy completely over the top and delightfully slapstick.  On top of that, the writing is funny, the animation superb, the direction inventive, the voice acting terrific, the remaining (mercifully few) songs are lively and the pace is energetic.  It’s a shame about the first songs, but the rest of the film more than makes up for them.

Four stars for a Disney movie?  Shut up, I know.

A bit of a song and dance (movie #9)

Bran Nue Dae 

Cinema Nova, 1/2/2010

Status: Behind, still!

Although I am on principle dubious about musicals, I had been curious about Bran Nue Dae since last August when it closed the Melbourne International Film Festival.  Sometimes I see Australian movies in the cinema because I feel like I should.  An aboriginal musical, though, was something I was glad to spend my hard earned clams on.

Bran Nue Dae’s plot is paper thin: Willy (ROCKY McKENZIE) runs away from his Perth boarding school.  On the way home to Broome and his girl (JESSICA MAUBOY), he picks up Uncle Tadpole (ERNIE DINGO), two hippies (MISSY HIGGINS and TOM BUDGE who both embrace the ridiculous beautifully) and a crazy lady (a saucy DEBORAH MAILMAN).  In hot pursuit is the school’s principle (an excellently hammy GEOFFREY RUSH).  And there’s songs.

It’s a fairly classic set up that has worked well in the past, but here the hero is slightly too damp and the drama slightly too, well, slight.  Everything culminates in a tangle of connections that is way too over the top and stretches disbelief to breaking point.

Despite this, the music was energetic and some of the scenes had a great slapstick feel about them.  It’s a shame director Rachel Perkins didn’t have more confidence (or perhaps more budget) to arrange the musical sections as big set pieces.  Bran Nue Dae started life as a stage musical and it feels like Perkins is  desperately saying "Look, look, not a stage show anymore, it's a movie!  So let's have a dance number on the back of a moving ute!" With all that amazing talent in the room (including choreographer Steven Page and the Chooky Dancers) it’s a shame they didn’t have room to properly show off.

Although I enjoyed it well enough during the running time, I remain, as ever, dubious about musicals.