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Reviews
The Human Race (2013)
Great concept, half-baked execution
This film had a great idea but it suffers from inexperienced and self-indulgent direction and clumsy production values. Its a shame because in some ways this film is quite subversive and had the potential to be a cult classic. The unconventional casting (a disabled leading man, a deaf couple as major characters) flies in the face of the standard rule of horror flicks that all of the cast must be hot college kids with toned abs and flawless skin. The lengthy introduction of the teenage girl's back-story, immediately followed by the un-expected twist, mocks (perhaps unintentionally) the 'self-help and self-empowerment' ethos of present-day culture, instead bluntly reminding us that despite all of our best efforts in controlling our own destiny, death and misfortune can still be brutally random and unjust. However any valid points that could have been made about life and society are soon hopelessly lost in the gore and mayhem which is overdone. The scene with the young pregnant woman was too horrific, was not necessary and should have been cut. And the gang of three men's seemingly instant transformation into giggling, smirking psychopaths was not convincing (although I couldn't help but enjoy seeing them get taken down). True, people in such extreme situations would react and behave unexpectedly but surely they would not turn into lip-smacking killers so rapidly. The callously selfish jogger in the yellow t-shirt was sadly more believable in how people would likely react. Somewhere in here is an idea for a good film. With less gore, better direction and better production values, it could have been the 'Clockwork Orange' of the 2010s. Instead, its merely a sadistic messy student film.
Gattaca (1997)
Great film, even with the ambiguity.
I love this film, I think its one of the most thought-provoking and stylish sci-fi films of the past few decades. Rather than just repeat all the praise/comments that previous reviewers have posted, I will get straight to what struck me about this film is the retro-feel of much of it's design. This film is set in an imaginary future yet the film is as much a homage to the styles and sheens of 1950s/60s sci-fi. The elites dress like the early Beatles, everyone seems to drive Cadillacs, the detectives wear film noir hats & overcoats, even the space rockets seem to have lifted straight from a 50s sci-fi comic. As well as a thought-provoking study on what it means to be human and how limitations are often imposed by others, the film seems to be a love-letter to both classic and B-grade sci-fi, from the shiny design of 'Logan's Run' to the cheesy, lovable awfulness of 'Mars Needs Women'. Having said that, this is one of my favourite films of the 1990s. Even the few baffling parts of the film don't bother me (like they bother a friend of mine who always complains about the final scenes where Ethan Hawke is boarding the space ship- 'he's still wearing his ordinary clothes, where's the space suit? And why hasn't he done any astronaut training? And why didn't he even bother to say goodbye to Uma Thurman?'), I like films that leave you wondering and thinking.
Bligh (1992)
A misguided imitation of Blackadder
An oddity of Australian TV that is best left in merciful obscurity. Released on Ch-7 in 1992, this was a pale shadow of the BBC's superb Black-Adder series, a show that Bligh was desperately trying to emulate by choosing a historical setting, in this case Colonial New South Wales in the early 1800s.
25 episodes were filmed (if the rumours are true) but only 13 went to air. Even one of the main cast, Michael Veitch, has recently admitted that he knew the show was a stinker even whilst working on it. In his book 'Flak', Veitch remembered being hurriedly dispatched by Ch-7 on a promotion tour of Australia's state capitals, desperately trying to flog the show before word-of-mouth spread of its awfulness (keep in mind this was back in 1992 in the pre-internet era).
The show was a disaster- a poorly written, over-acted mess with crass jokes and all the subtlety of a primary school Christmas play. Director Ted Emery has had a varied career (to put it politely) and a very prolific one. As some-one wrote recently, 'if you ever wondered why some much of Australian TV looks the same, its because most of it is directed and produced again and again by the same dozen people'.
He has scored some hits- Kath & Kim, The Micallef Program etc. But has had lots of misses. 'Let Loose Live'- his stinker from 2005 which was axed after only 2 episodes went to air- is the first to come to mind.
Trivia note- One episode of Bligh was written by Steve Vizard.
Out of the Blue (2006)
A lesson in film-making: How less can be much, much more.
This is a superb film which depicted a horrific, tragic & extremely violent real-life event without ever descending into sensationalism, over-dramatization or melodrama. The film is a classic example of how a low budget can be turned into an asset- the director making a virtue out of the film's self-imposed limitations, creating a masterpiece of under-statement. The film depicts ordinary people reacting to extraordinary events and does so beautifully despite the extreme subject matter, the sharp contrast between the sleepy seaside beauty of the locale and the horrors of the event proving very effective. The film does not beg the viewer to hate Gray, in this film he is depicted as more pathetic than evil, a mentally ill man whose isolation, self-obsession and idleness has festered into paranoia, fear and rage, erasing any empathy for his fellow human beings. Yet the film allows the viewer to almost pity him as much as we want to fear and loathe him. In one telling scene, Police officer Harvey and Detective Knox cautiously enter Gray's house and in one room there is a hobby desk with miniature models of military vehicles & soldiers that Gray has constructed, indicating the lonely fantasy world he inhabited. The film avoids graphic portrayals of the violence- most of the deaths occur either off-camera or are filmed from a distance. The hand-held camera technique, so over-used by other directors, is used here with restraint, allowing for a gentle naturalism, rather than the bobbing camera, self-conscious hyper-realism of a film like Bloody Sunday or the battle scenes of Saving Private Ryan. Another plus for the film is the avoidance of any glib summary or moralising of the event. Instead, the film lets us view a silent montage of the survivors of the events, each dealing with the grief and trauma in one of the most moving dialogue-free sequences I have ever seen. I highly recommend this film and I hope it serves as a warning over here in Australia as the housing boom in the major cities forces people on low incomes out into small, forgotten towns, including many people who are the most vulnerable and dysfunctional members of society, condemning them to live their lives in isolation, loneliness and poverty, breeding the ideal conditions for another hundred David Grays to emerge.