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Reviews
Monsoon (2019)
A proper character piece with surprises
A quiet and understated film about a British guy looking for a place to honour his parents ashes in their home county of Vietnam. Along the way he makes new connections with his estranged relatives, finds new friends and a surprise love interest. The film uses a local cast for the minor parts to highlight the diversity available. I really like it when big-budget actors do proper character pieces to show their range and give something new.
The film follows a westernised character and how he interacts with the surroundings. Therefore, the lives of ordinary people is lacking apart from an aside about him connecting more with the poorer areas of his memories than the tourist spots. Further exploration would have made it a very different and equally interesting story. As would continuing the debate about exploitation of cheap labour. It felt too sanitised for the audience. His formal interactions show uncertainty to great effect. My favourite scene is at the lotus flower tea farm. A beautiful setting.
It was a surprise that the lead character is gay - only because I've seen Golding in firmly hetero roles previously and knew nothing of the director's other work beforehand. There was some very steamy kissing between the two men. Now I know why it was on tele so late. It is unclear what the family decide to do for the ashes as the primary plot. But the mystery is part of the melancholy appeal. Sometimes it's nice to slow it down. I really enjoyed it.
Zola (2020)
Exaggerated to be ridiculous
I really struggled with this, almost walking out partway through. It wasn't what I expected and I did not engage well with the story on offer. Their lives are so far removed from mine that I have little in common with the characters. It's almost a soft porn version of Go (1999) without the likeable people. I stayed to the end only because I found the presentation interesting where both narrators are equally unreliable so the audience can never be sure which account is closer to reality in this highly fictionalised account. A Twitter thread and Reddit rebuttal are not the most obvious premise for a hit movie. Some of the incidents are so ridiculous the final narrative had to be a black comedy. We know from the background material that both women survive to tell their perspectives, with guns waving at many junctures. In some places, the story makes for uncomfortable viewing to increase awareness of the ease with which marginalised populations can be trafficked no matter how street-smart the individual. Of course, much is exaggerated for dramatic effect.
Blush (2021)
Tissues at the ready
In a fine example of international branding recognition, the pink ribbon hidden in the logo is a giveaway to the cathartic nature of this piece for the Director/Writer, a metaphor for his feelings of loss. It's clever how the world blooms with their love and that each of the girls is the merged opposite of the parents. It is very moving with a more optimistic cut-scene ending after many production credits. A master class in how to make non-speaking characters cute.
Muse (2020)
Clever and ambiguous with great tech
The central artwork of the piece clearly takes inspiration from Munch's *The Scream* (1893). The contrast between human and robot is very clever, colour vs greyscale on canvas. Kay's expression and intonation barely changes, only a cock of the head and a swirling light at the temple shows non-human activity. It's really creepy when the artist forces a kiss upon 'her', true property on which to play out his darkest fantasies - with a delete option, however incomplete. Both police investigating the disappearance are no-nonsense and direct, being almost as emotionless as the android in instant characterisation. I like the interesting premise and useful tech but wish the ending was a little clearer. I've watched it 3 times and still unsure of who survives or who is responsible for what. I think ambiguity is the point. The holowatch is amazing. I want one.
Awkward Conversations with Parents (2018)
Hapless and amusing teenage stories
A simple idea that works well as a high quality budget production having three central characters in a contemporary nuclear family. It is filmed within a fully kitted out household set to look like a lived-in home. I reckon they had a right laugh making it. The story is based around high-school graduate Ishaan Sharma and his liberal middle-class parents. Online comments suggest it is only slightly exaggerated behaviour of families behind closed doors within the culture. This is modern India. It can be as cringe-worthy as you would expect from the title but is mostly amusing to watch the hapless Ishaan talk himself out of typical teenage boy scrapes to his parents over a ~10m story per episode. It doesn't matter that much about the language divide, although authorised videos have full subtitles. There is enough to get the gist from expressions, tones and context, even for ND me. Modern Hindi uses some English words for contemporary items or concepts. I liked the lead actor from his guest role in Episode #1.1 (2017) of The Good Karma Hospital so this find was welcome. Individual episode reviews to follow.
Ostrich (2018)
Subtle but powerful high drama
It's clever how the writer has silently set-up the dialogue that follows, with a newspaper front page as the first scene. The conversation sounds totally natural, with veiled threats and counter-accusations in abundance. The tension builds slowly while the interview reveals the exact nature of her shady dealings. Even the lighting matches the mood of the moment - dark for mystery, bright for realisation. It's a hard thing to convey the complicated web of connections in financial crime for a general audience but it succeeds if you pay attention to the fast script. It's almost Aaron Sorkin-like in that sense. The protagonists are on opposite sides of the argument but have plenty in common too. Both characters are alumni of the same university and equally driven in their goals. Hewitt suddenly becomes aware of the danger he is in, surrounded by her allies. He must decide there-and-then between his principles or his life. Subtle but powerful high drama with great dialogue.
Hollow (2014)
A modern commentary on sins
This has a large cast of extras for such a short piece and is filmed in super-widescreen over one continuous shot. Impressive cinematography in itself. There is only one line of script in the whole thing, by James Norton as the hands of the party guests crave his touch. Apart from this dialogue, the soundtrack is background and environmental sounds only, like shoes and laughter adding to the atmospheric presentation. It is an interesting if nonsensical modern commentary on gluttony, debauchery, depression and heroes. I didn't understand it without the intro. As side notes, that's a nice Katana Koji carries in, and Floyd is hard to recognise without the trademark stubble.