Mystery Road (M)
Directed by Ivan Sen
Ivan Sen has an Aboriginal mother and an absent European father, so he knows what it is like to straddle both black and white cultures. When the body of an Aboriginal girl is found by the side of the road in a remote community, Aboriginal detective Jay Swan (Aaron Pedersen) has to solve the case. As the film slowly reveals the bigotry, corruption and clandestine activities of the small town, Swan finds himself battling racism within the police force and mistrust from his own people. Solving the murder is also personal for Swan as the girl was the same age as his daughter with white woman, Mary (Tasma Walton). The film is crammed with Australian talent including Hugo Weaving, Jack Thompson, Bruce Spence and Ryan Kwanten and oozes with all the traits of the western genre. Talented writer/director Ivan Sen has ticked all the boxes as far as scripting, acting, cinematography and though-provoking content.
Prisoners (MA)
Directed by Denis Villeneuve
The Thanksgiving celebrations of two Pennsylvania families take a dive when they discover that their youngest children have gone missing. Of course something bad has happened to the two girls but the audience has to go through unbearable tension before they find out exactly how bad. In a town where everyone seems to have a decrepit cellar and a secret to hide, detective Loki (Jake Gyllenhaal) follows dead end leads, including the sighting of a suspicious van that belonged to mentally impaired teenager Alex (Paul Dano in another great performance). Frustrated and angry by the lack of progress, one of the fathers Keller Dover (Hugh Jackman), does his own investigating. His use of torture tactics to try to find information about the girls’ whereabouts is quite sickening. The film is dark, violent, unrelentingly suspenseful and brilliant as the audience works out that there are more than two prisoners in this dingy town.
The Butler (M)
Directed by Lee Daniels
Witnessed through the eyes of African-American Cecil Gains (Forest Whitaker), this film is a postage stamp history of black America from powerless and abused slaves to the most powerful person in the country. Cecil was a butler in the White House for eight presidents from Eisenhower to Reagan. Born on a cotton farm on the 1920s, he became a ‘house nigger’ for the family that had destroyed his family. After working as a hotel valet in the 1950s, he joined the White House staff while his eldest son Louis (David Ovelowo) joined the civil rights movement. One voice can ignite a revolution and the film juxtaposes the submissive father with the subversive son as various presidents’ deal with the race issue and Cecil’s wife Gloria (Oprah Winfrey) struggles with alcoholism. The film is based on a pistache of actual events, but not the life story of Eugene Allen, the actual butler who spent three decades in the White House.
The Counselor (MA)
Directed by Ridley Scott
Michael Fassbender plays a wealthy counsellor (otherwise known as a lawyer in this country) who is in lustful love with the beautiful Laura (Penelope Cruise). When he decides to dabble in the lucrative drug trade, his perfect life is thrown into turmoil and he finds out the hard way that there is no going back. Crammed full of A-list actors including Cameron Diaz, Brad Pitt and Javier Bardem, the legendary Ridley Scott and award-winning author Cormac McCarthy (No Country For Old Men) have constructed a living nightmare crammed with some unforgettable violence. In this twisted story, the women are either dumb or dangerous, beheadings and mutilations are just business and the baddies are so relentlessly spouting philosophical diatribes the audience begins to have violent thoughts to stop the psychobabble. The best thing about this cross between ‘Scarface’ and ‘The Tree of Life’ is the pet cheetahs.
The Mexican Film Festival
From the weird and wonderful to the strange but true, the very best of Mexican cinema and culture will screen at Cinema Paradiso from 14-20 November.
The event is more than just a film festival, striving to take Australians on a journey to Mexico, with tastes of culture, entertainment and food, while the silver screen gives audiences a glimpse into Mexico’s heart and soul.
The 2013 festival will open with Nosotros Los Nobles (We are the Nobles), the surprise Mexican comedy blockbuster of the year and #1 box office hit in Mexico cinema’s history. Other highlights include La Vida Breve Y Precoz De Sabina Rivas (The Precociousa and Brief Life Of Sabina Rivas), which is based on the novel La Mara and nominated for 11 Ariel Awards – Mexico’s equivalent of the Academy Awards. The films After Lucia and Post Tenebrax Lux are also huge award winners, with After Lucia winning the Un Certain Regard at Cannes and Tenebrax’s Carlos Reygadas awarded Best Director at the same event in 2012.
El Santo Vs La Tetona Mendoza – which in English translates to The Santo versus The Big Breasted Woman – is an animated film for adults, full of course language and drugs, based on a comic book and featuring the voices of some of Mexico’s biggest stars – not to mention an appearance from famed director Guillermo Del Toro. Tlatelolco, Verano Del 68 (Tlatelolco, Summer Of 68) is a Love Story set against the backdrop of real events that took place in the lead up to the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico, where the government opened fire on student protesters. There’s opening and closing night after parties with Mexican beers, nibbles and live entertainment. Tickets and program details are available at lunapalace.com.au to embrace, celebrate and question all that is Mexico.
Lezly Herbert
