Sydney Film Festival 2016
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- DirectorRobert BudreauStarsEthan HawkeCarmen EjogoCallum Keith RennieA re-imagining of jazz legend Chet Baker's musical comeback in the late '60s.SFF#01: BORN TO BE BLUE. Ethan Hawke plays troubled jazz great Chet Baker in this impressive biopic. Carmen Ejogo is the woman who stands by him, most of the time. During the endless Opening Night speeches by sponsors and politicians, I took off down George Street to see this feature - and got back to the State Theatre before the Opening film started!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lC1DQ9qIECo - DirectorIvan SenStarsAaron PedersenAlex RussellJacki WeaverIndigenous detective Jay Swan arrives in the town of Goldstone to search for a missing person, and his simple duty becomes complicated when he uncovers a web of crime and corruption.SFF#02: GOLDSTONE. Aaron Pedersen is a police detective in search of a missing girl in a remote Australian town. Ivan Sen's sequel to 2013's MYSTERY ROAD is sharper, tighter, funnier and better than the original.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWbk3-gEBRU - DirectorAlexandru BelcStarsCornelia ChelmuLorena CosauGheorghe PuriceEvery cinema has a story - a tale of loneliness, friendship, hope and unfulfilled dreams.SFF#03: CINEMA, MON AMOUR. In the 1980s, there were over 400 cinemas in Romania. Today, there are less than 30. This documentary looks at a cinema owner who is more interested in installing a 3D projector than dealing with the rats in the building. He provides blankets and hot tea to patrons when the heating fails and is struggling to continue business. It's a tough game.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_08oErqqGOo - DirectorDanis TanovicStarsSnezana VidovicIzudin BajrovicVedrana BozinovicThe major hotel Europe in Sarajevo will receive an important visit on the anniversary of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, attack that triggered World War. As the manager of the place waiting to Jacques, a special French guest, workers in the kitchen preparing a strike because they have spent months without pay and journalist records a television show on the roof.SFF#04: DEATH IN SARAJEVO. A shady hotel manager faces striking workers during a major conference to mark the 100th anniversary of the events that sparked the First World War. To add to the drama, a descendant of the assassin, Gavrilo Princip, has arrived and he's armed. A constantly-moving camera follows multiple protagonists through a labyrinth of corridors and passageways as they go about their business in this intriguing drama.
https://vimeo.com/154601861 - DirectorVahid JalilvandStarsNiki KarimiAmir AghaeeShahrokh ForoutanianA not wealthy man publishes an ad which says near 25000$ will be donated to a needy person. His past makes whom to choose a super hard decision.SFF#05: WEDNESDAY, MAY 9. When a philanthropist places an advertisement in the newspaper to offer money to those in need, he doesn't expect to be inundated by hundreds of desperate people. This potent Iranian melodrama looks at the lives of two people who urgently need his help.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74TVeqj1wew - DirectorWerner HerzogStarsElon MuskLawrence KraussLucianne WalkowiczWerner Herzog's exploration of the Internet and the connected world.SFF#06: LO AND BEHOLD, REVERIES OF THE CONNECTED WORLD. Director Werner Herzog explores the past, present and future of the Internet in this documentary that is as scary as it is fascinating. After enjoying this thought-provoking film, I have forgiven Werner for the disastrous QUEEN OF THE DESERT.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Pv8Qj0Vkbo - DirectorOliver SchmitzStarsSteve CooganAndrea RiseboroughGarion DowdsA lawyer takes on a case of a prison guard in South Africa who is traumatized by the executions he's witnessed.SFF#07: SHEPHERDS AND BUTCHERS. Steve Coogan takes on a serious role in this manipulative but engaging South African courtroom drama. Chris Marnewick, the author of novel on which the film is based, was present at the screening and provided a better balance by speaking of the horrific crimes for which some of the men were condemned.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzm9d_mpj_c - DirectorLiza JohnsonStarsMichael ShannonKevin SpaceyAlex PettyferThe untold true story behind the meeting between Elvis Presley, the King of Rock 'n Roll, and President Richard Nixon, resulting in this revealing, yet humorous moment immortalized in the most requested photograph in the National Archives.SFF#08: ELVIS & NIXON. 'The Left Wing behave like caged animals because that's exactly what they are, they're animals!' I loved this hilarious comedy from start to finish, as did the rest of the audience. Michael Shannon's Elvis meets Kevin Spacey's Nixon and it's a lot of fun. Easily the best of the festival so far!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9x3Z6b0Z1g - DirectorRodrigo PláStarsJana RaluySebastián AguirreHugo AlboresWhen her insurance company refuses to approve the care her husband needs to survive, Sonia Bonet (Jan Raluy) takes things into her own hands. Up against an unyielding bureaucracy and disinterested workers, she is pushed to her breaking point: with her son in tow, she attempts to fight the system.SFF#09: A MONSTER WITH A THOUSAND HEADS. A Mexican woman will do anything so her dying husband can receive medical treatment in this slow-paced but more realistic version of JOHN Q.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ug2534juBhA - DirectorKelly ReichardtStarsMichelle WilliamsKristen StewartLaura DernThe lives of three women intersect in small-town America, where each is imperfectly blazing a trail.SFF#10: CERTAIN WOMEN. Director Kelly Reichardt has no interest in entertaining an audience. Or cutting a trailer to her latest film, either.
NO TRAILER - DirectorMirjana KaranovicStarsMirjana KaranovicBoris IsakovicJasna DjuricicA film about a woman who discovers her husband's war crimes and must decide how to respond.SFF#11: A GOOD WIFE. As if being diagnosed with breast cancer were not bad enough, a Serbian woman discovers her husband is responsible for war crimes. A strong setup but this drama is needlessly slow. Let's hope the next film, by Almodovar, can liven today up.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9UlE7PkbvA - DirectorPedro AlmodóvarStarsEmma SuárezAdriana UgarteDaniel GraoAfter a casual encounter, a brokenhearted woman decides to confront her life and the most important events involving her estranged daughter.SFF#12: JULIETA. A woman longs to see her estranged daughter in Almodovar's best film since TALK TO HER. I just wish we weren't cheated at the end.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATcsHdyFVTE - DirectorPete GleesonStarsNicolinaStephaniePeter CoffeyOn a road between Australia's most isolated town and its largest gold mine lies Coolgardie, where the arrival every three months of a new foreign backpacker couple is a much-anticipated event.SFF#13: HOTEL COOLGARDIE. Two women walk into a bar ... and are treated like dirt by the animals inside. Finnish backpackers Lina and Steph accept jobs as barmaids at a pub in remote Western Australia and have to deal with an abusive boss and the constant unwanted attention from lascivious drunks. They do an excellent job at laughing it all off - but shouldn't have to - and then something completely unexpected occurs. Director Pete Gleeson, a friend of mine from film school, captures everything as it unfolds. It's great to see his work - and the work of producers Kate Neylon and Melissa Hayward - up on the big screen. This documentary is entertaining, troubling and important and it deserves to be widely-seen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xhE9KTsfHI - DirectorJohn Michael McDonaghStarsAlexander SkarsgårdMichael PeñaTheo JamesTwo corrupt cops set out to blackmail and frame every criminal unfortunate enough to cross their path. Events, however, are complicated by the arrival of someone who appears to be even more dangerous than they are.SFF#14: WAR ON EVERYONE. From the director of THE GUARD. Alexander Skarsgard and Michael Pena play shamelessly corrupt cops in search of money that does not belong to them. Endless one-liners make this violent black comedy a real crowd-pleaser.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8W-Q5GT62hY - DirectorThomas VinterbergStarsFares FaresTrine DyrholmUlrich ThomsenA story about the clash between personal desires, solidarity and tolerance in a Danish commune in the 1970s.SFF#15: THE COMMUNE. At the insistence of his wife, a Danish architect welcomes a group of adults into their large house and they all live together in peace and love and harmony ... until they don't. For how long should one hold onto ideals when they prove so destructive? Thomas Vinterberg's somewhat plodding film explores this interesting question.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXghS9TLPyc - DirectorDeniz Gamze ErgüvenStarsGünes SensoyDoga Zeynep DogusluTugba SungurogluWhen five orphan girls are seen innocently playing with boys on a beach, their scandalized conservative guardians confine them while forced marriages are arranged.SFF#16: MUSTANG. Watching five unruly teenage sisters scream and run amok is not my idea of entertainment. Then they're separated as some are forced into arranged marriages. I'd be more sympathetic if they weren't such undisciplined brats in the first place. But, of course, the trailer shows us none of that, they're perfect little angels.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABNB3zw5BAo - DirectorAssad FouladkarStarsDarine HamzeRodrigue SleimanZeinab Hind KhadraFour tragicomic interconnected stories about how devoted Muslim men and women are trying to manage their love life and desires without breaking any religious rules.SFF#17: HALAL LOVE (AND SEX). Two young girls misinterpret a sex education class and think they can fall pregnant to earthworms. A great setup but it doesn't really go anywhere. Instead, we have one separate storyline after the next in a film that can't decide if it's a comedy or a drama.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lU1ftnJPvEo - DirectorArgyris PapadimitropoulosStarsMakis PapadimitriouElli TringouHara KotsaliOn a hedonistic Greek island, a middle-aged doctor becomes obsessed with a young tourist when she lets him tag along with her group of hard partying friends.SFF#18: SUNTAN. A middle-aged doctor befriends a group of young tourists in Greece and gets the chance to relive his youth for a short time. What starts as predictable becomes very sinister as the doctor cannot learn to take no for an answer. This film will have definite appeal to those twisted folk who like the Greek Weird Wave. There's no shortage of nudity here and I've never before seen someone lick another person's eyeball, on or off the screen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcGXr8D1Lzc - DirectorRebecca MillerStarsGreta GerwigEthan HawkeJulianne MooreMaggie wants to have a baby, raising him on her own, but when she gets romantically involved with John, a married man, things get complicated and all the balance of Maggie's plans may collapse.SFF#19: MAGGIE'S PLAN. Maggie's plan is to raise a child as a single parent but when she meets a charming academic, the plan evolves. Like every other film starring Greta Gerwig, this one is highly quirky, mildly amusing and pseudo-intellectual. Add such staples of American independent cinema as Ethan Hawke, Julianne Moore, Bill Hader and Maya Rudolph and we have a film we've seen many times before but one I don't mind watching again. I get the feeling these characters are trying to make their lives needlessly complicated. And sloppy writing - ironically, in a film about writers - gives us an ending that is ridiculously convenient.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbJ49IUyCcA - DirectorXavier DolanStarsGaspard UllielMarion CotillardLéa SeydouxLouis (Gaspard Ulliel), a terminally ill writer, returns home after a long absence to tell his family that he is dying.SFF#20: IT'S ONLY THE END OF THE WORLD. A young writer returns home after an extended absence but he can't bring himself to tell his family he is dying. French-Canadian Xavier Dolan is a talented young director but here we have endless scenes of dialogue, where the characters speak so much and say so little. But those who walked out during the screening - and there were quite a few - missed an incredible final scene.
NO TRAILER
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yx45hFy9mEA - DirectorLee TamahoriStarsTemuera MorrisonAkuhata KeefeNancy BrunningFrom the author of "The Whale Rider", a tale of family rivalry and reconciliation, set against the stunning backdrop of rural New Zealand in the 1960s.SFF#21: MAHANA. A stern grandfather, a large family and a grandson who is too smart for his own good. From the director of ONCE WERE WARRIORS and the author of WHALE RIDER, this fine New Zealand drama has stunning, picturesque photography and is one of the best films at the Sydney Film Festival this year.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VowvDCtc26o - DirectorAndrew NeelStarsBen SchnetzerNick JonasGus HalperReeling from a terrifying assault, a 19 year-old enrolls into college with his brother and pledges the same fraternity. What happens there in the name of "brotherhood" tests him and his loyalty to his brother in brutal ways.SFF#22: GOAT. A college student in the U.S. tries to get into a fraternity where initiation is on par with the abuse at Abu Ghraib. Produced by Christine Vachon, this brutal drama is relentless and not for everyone. Not for most people, I'd say. It's nasty.
NO TRAILER
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9cF4Rjo8LQ - DirectorMarc AbrahamStarsTom HiddlestonElizabeth OlsenMaddie HassonThe story of the country-western singer Hank Williams, who in his brief life created one of the greatest bodies of work in American music. The film chronicles his rise to fame and its tragic effect on his health and personal life.SFF#23: I SAW THE LIGHT. Some of the best musicians have led some of the worst lives. Unfortunately, this doesn't always make for good viewing in this tiring Hank Williams biopic.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lp-zwtB_ejQ - DirectorNicolette KrebitzStarsLilith StangenbergGeorg FriedrichSilke BodenbenderAn anarchist young woman breaks the tacit contract with civilization and fearlessly decides on a life without hypocrisy or an obligatory safety net.SFF#24: WILD. This is not the Reece Witherspoon drama, though I can't imagine anyone would confuse the two. The director flew in from Berlin and when she introduced the film, she said, 'I must warn you there are some disturbing scenes'. Well that was an understatement. The story concerns an odd young woman who lives by herself after her sister moves out of their apartment. One day she sees a wolf in the local park and her life is changed. She goes to a pet shop to buy bunny rabbits to use as live bait and hires sweatshop workers to help her trap the animal. Once caught, he becomes her new housemate and the woman and the wolf start a sexual relationship. I have no words, I'm filing this under 'WTF'.
(No subtitles for the trailer.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3zcZ2a84RQ - DirectorMartin ZandvlietStarsRoland MøllerLouis HofmannJoel BasmanIn post-World War II Denmark, a group of young German POWs are forced to clear a beach of thousands of land mines under the watch of a Danish Sergeant who slowly learns to appreciate their plight.SFF#25: LAND OF MINE. Well this is unnerving. During the Second World War, 2.2 million land mines were scattered along the Danish coast. After the war, German boys were made to defuse them all, many of them blowing themselves to pieces in the process. A tough Danish sergeant is in charge of fourteen boys who are told if they find and defuse six mines an hour, they'll be home in three months. But any footstep could be their last. So intense, I had to turn away throughout this film, and saw that many others in the audience were turning away too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CLtk5NewrM