GOODBYE, LOVER

US, 1998, 102 minutes, Colour.
Patricia Arquette, Dermot Mulroney, Mary- Louise Parker, Ellen De Generes, Ray Mc Kinnon, Alex Rocco, Don Johnson, Andre Gregory, John Neville, Barry Newman.
Directed by Roland Joffe.

Goodbye, Lover seems an odd choice for British director, Roland Joffe, who had distinguished himself with such films as The Killing Fields, The Mission and City of Joy. Nothing spectacular or serious here. Rather,, this is a black comedy with some satiric ingredients and some deadly intentions. It Is entertainingly preposterous for those who enjoy this kind of satiric storytelling.

It is a Los Angeles story, focusing on a company where image is everything – rather a theme for the film. Two brothers are executives, Don Johnson and Dermot Mulroney – the latter is married to a very glamorous and blonde-wilful Patricia Arquette who is having an affair with the former.

Complications emerge when the husband finds out about the affair, lures his brother to the apartment, pretends to be on the verge of suicide when the couple then murder the brother. A lot of insurance is involved but the plan is spoilt when it seems that the dead man had married one of the office associates, Mary- Louise Parker, only days before in Las Vegas.

While there was the initial intrigue, there is even more with the couple going to an assassin for hire and contract being made. Then contracts are changed with some dire results.

There is a great deal of humour in the portrayal of the detective and her associate, Ellen De Generes and Ray Mc Kinnon, she for four sardonic and cynical remarks, he nicely ingenuous.

And just when all seems settled, there is a further twist, some blackmail – and a good luck happy ending for those who don’t deserve it.

The 1980s was the heyday for Roland Joffe and subsequent to this film his career was minor, although he did make the film about the founder of Opus Dei, There Be Dragons.

1. Black thriller-comedy? The emphasis on the dark, the emphasis on the comic? Sometimes over the top? Spoof?

2. A film from the late 1990s, the American city, businesses, image and politicians, the importance of image over reality? The emphasis on church? Intrigue, money deals, sexual infidelity, conspiracy to murder? A film of twists? Police investigations? The musical score? Especially with Sandra and her fondness for The Sound of Music and the various songs used throughout the film?

3. Introduction to Ben, at the office, efficient, the board meeting, the senator and the scandal? Plans for covering his reputation? Ben and his management, the members of the board, Peggy and her solutions? Jake and his arriving late, his criticisms, lack of interest? His being sent out?

4. Ben and Sandra, in the church loft, and the organ, the choir practice, the sexual encounter? Sandra and her relationship with Ben, with her husband, Jake as Ben’s brother? Going to the house, the bedroom, the inhabitants coming back, calling their bluff?

5. Sandra and Jake, the phone call to Ben, his entanglement with Peggy? His leaving and her being upset? The revelation that Jake knew about Ben? His coming to the house, Jake sitting on the balcony, his being pushed, hanging on, falling?

6. The police, Rita and her tough manner, offhand, her associate, his being ingenuous? The banter between the two, at his expense? The investigation of the case?

7. The revelation that Ben had gone to Las Vegas, the marriage to Peggy, the insurance money going to her? Sandra and Jake and the reaction? The plan to have Peggy murdered? The visit to Michael, the slot machines, his sinister background, hired assassin? Jake going back and changing the plan, ordering the murder of Sandra?

8. Rita and her associate, going to Las Vegas, his ingenuous response, going to the wedding chapel, the photo, the fact that Jake impersonated Ben for the wedding?

9. Sandra, suspicions, following Jake Peggy, the red wig, buying the car, the ATM, the document – and Rita later using all of this? Her pursuing Peggy and Jake, running them off the road, the crash and their deaths?

10. The assassin, coming to kill Sandra, rooted intervening and shooting him?

11. Sandra, Rita’s visit, her associate’s questions? Sandra covering herself and her grief? Rita’s return, the blackmail, wanting half the money? Sandra attempting to inject Rita and the tables being turned?

12. One year later, the room with the bars, the bank vault, Sandra signing away half the money?

13. Sandra and Rita out on the town, reaches transformation – and the irony of meeting the associate, his saying there were under arrest – and the joke? His being in the detail for protecting the senator?

14. The ironic good luck happy ending – and the final credits and Sandra taking up the collection in the church?

BIG SKY

US, 2015, 90 minutes,. Colour.
Bella Thorne, Kyra Sedgwick, Frank Grillo, Aaron Tveit, François Arnaud.
Directed by Jorge Michel Grau.

Big Sky is a melodrama set in the new Mexican desert. While the plot may be basically plausible, there are some unexplained aspects of the screenplay, very little background of the men involved in the abduction, especially the roles as police, and the plans for getting the ransom?

Bella Thorne portrays Hazel, an 18-year-old girl, who suffers from agoraphobia. She lives with her mother, played by Kyra Sedgwick. She has missed out on important aspects of life, confined to the house, seeing therapists and ready to go to an institution, in a special ban, with a compartment where she can hide, lie down with a torch, and a hole. The van picks up several other passengers for the institution.

On the way, there is an attack, masked thugs, and several immediate deaths and the wounding of the mother. It is up to Hazel to go for help and the film focuses on her fears, tentative steps, the difficulties on the way, her meeting an eccentric young man in the desert, her being rescued by a prospecting couple. The thugs are revealed to be police and the brother of one of the policeman, a man who also has mental disabilities and needs tablets.

It all builds up to quite a melodramatic climax.

1. Melodrama? Characters? Mental disabilities? Criminal activity? Touches of heroism?

2. The New Mexico settings, town and homes, the deserts, the expanses, gulches, atmosphere? The musical score?

3. The premises: Hazel and her agoraphobia? Dealing with it, at home, inside, with her mother, the past, the father leaving, 18 and no family support? Therapists? The decision to go to the institution? Packing up, Hazel, nervous, taking the steps, getting into the vehicle, the hole, the torch? Her mother coming with her?

4. The character of the mother, abandoned, love for her daughter, exasperation, going for the ride?

5. The driver, going to the institution, picking up the passengers, the young golfer, the nervous man, the kleptomaniac girl? Driving, conversation? The man and his antagonism, the girl stealing?

6. The hold-up, the shooting, the sudden deaths? The mother being wounded? The masked thugs, the revelation that the leader was the police? The conspiracy, the other police? Jesse and his bond with Pru, Pru and his need for tablets, with the gun, shooting? The plan to abduct the girl, tying her up, a wealthy father, the plan for a ransom?

7. The mother, wounded, sitting in the car, hoping, imagining walking, waking up, Pru, getting the driver’s gun, holding him at bay? Her concern about her daughter, letting her go?

8. Hazel, tentative, making the decision to go, wrapping herself, the tentative steps, the insect and the loss of her scarf? From cactus to cactus? The flashbacks, her mother, tentative acts as a child, the cliff? Her falling down the cliff, injuring herself, binding the wound? The stranger and his bike, drugs, talk, and Aldous Huxley in reading, the bike in parts? Hazel being rescued by the couple, in the hut, prospectors, her story, driving her, handing her up to the police and the van?

9. Jesse, his role, care for Pru, violence, searching for Hazel? The return, the police accomplice, the couple following in the car – the guns, the shooting, the criminals dead, the prospector wounded?

10. Hazel, her achievement, reunited with her mother? The abducted girl being saved?

11. The plausibility of the plot, the characters, the planning of the crime, carrying it out, the ransom?

THE WRITER’S BURROW/ LA MADRIGUERA

Spain, 2015, 102 minutes, Colour.
Francisco Conde, Adriana Torrebejano.
Directed by Kurro Gonzalez.

This is a Spanish psychological drama. The focus is on a writer who is suffering from agoraphobia but is also unable to finish his manuscript despite the urgings from his publisher. He is in grief about the death of his wife in an accident. The only other people in his life are a neighbouring boy who likes to play war games and a real estate agent who wants to sell an adjoining apartment.

A young woman, Catarina, is being urged by the publisher to visit the writer to encourage him to continue his manuscript and by the required deadline. She herself wants to be a writer. She does visit, looks around the place, assesses the writer and then leaves. She later invites herself to his house, offers to take him to dinner – and he agrees but, in the taxi, en route to the restaurant, his fears surface again and he returns to his house.

This is when his subconscious urges surface and he has a sexual encounter with the assistant, looking after her with breakfast, urging her to type his handwritten manuscript into the computer. But, then, the plot veers towards that of The Collector, the writer becoming a captor and the assistant a captive, bound, gagged. She uses her ingenuity to try to persuade him to let her go as well as attempts to escape, visits to the toilet, taking the Morse Code symbols from a book, using the bathroom light to send a message.

They work together, the assistant typing in sentences in the manuscripts about her being captive, but the writer discovers these and turns very brutal, raping the woman. On the other hand, she is diabetic, and he has to continue getting pills and syringes, even venturing outside the house, feeling his way along the wall to go to the pharmacy.

There is a further disturbance when the estate agent wants to look at his house with some potential buyers to appreciate what it is like – and he refuses.

The assistant snoops in folders and learns about the writer’s wife.

The police do arrive, ask questions, but it is not until there is a desperate fight, through the apartment and through the wall that the writer is breaking down as he has bought the next apartment for the assistant. There is a violent altercation and the police arrive, the writer taken by ambulance to hospital and the assistant saved.

HEAVEN ON EARTH: AS IT IS IN HEAVEN 2/ SA OCK PA JORDEN

Sweden, 2016, 144 minutes, Colour.
Frida Hallgren, Jakob Oftebro, Niklas Falk, Lennart Jahkel.
Directed by Kay Pollak.

As It is In Heaven was an extraordinary box office success in many countries, screening in some Australian cinemas for a year. This has not been the fate of its sequel, Heaven on Earth.

While the original film had a great deal of music, singing, likeable characters in this context, the music has been greatly reduced here, some country music for dancing, some emotional songs, and rehearsals for Handel’s Messiah with an amateur country choir and a range of proper and make-piece instruments.

Lena, the central character of the first film, is now pregnant although Daniel, the choir conductor, has died. Lena (Frida Hallgren) is a lively character, up and down with moods, wanting to go on stage on the very verge of giving birth, staggering offstage, berated by some of the men in the village, caught in snow and going to her home after finding the depressed minister, Stig, drunk on the road but who has to help her with the birth because the midwife is stranded in the snow.

Much of the activity of the film is the gathering of the choir, the rehearsals for the Messiah concert, the decision to change the format of the church, removing the pews – the picture of the Lutheran Church in this film is a very authoritarian and dour church – decorations and the plan to hold a dance in the church. There also has to be a lot of action to keep Stig away from the alcohol.

Actually, the dance goes well and is reported with colour photos in the local magazine much to the ire of the authorities and the barring of the church door to visitors.

Lena has her drama with Arne, the kindly man who took her in when her parents were killed in an accident and her grandmother blamed her for their deaths, and with Axel, a widower who works on local jobs and is attracted to her. Lena also has to devote a lot of attention to her baby son, Jacob.

There is something of a dramatic crisis when crowds press into the church for another dance and they have to be removed for health and safety reasons, Tore, a benign but mentally handicapped man takes Jacob to save him but goes on a rowing boat on the lake with some dire results.

Obviously, the film has to have a happy ending, the recital of The Messiah but not after Lena has to come to her senses about blaming herself for deaths, love or Axel, and support for Stig.

At almost two and half hours, the screenplay is too prolonged for this lightness and treatment of the plot.

1. The popularity of the first film? Music, the choir? Village life? Characters?

2. The return to the village? The atmosphere of Sweden, in the winter? Heaven on earth? The homes, the church, the countryside?

3. The music, country and western, church music, Handel, dance music? The Messiah, practice, the parishioners singing, the variety of instruments, the climax?

4. Nina, pregnant, memories of Daniel, his death? Her playing with the band, enjoyment, the people, line dancing? Her water breaking? The abusive man, hitting her? Arne, getting the car started, Axel and his pushing? The midwife, the phone calls, her being stuck in snow, Lena going home? Finding Stig on the road, drunk? Arne knocked out, Stig having to participate and help with the birth?

5. Lena, her past story, Arne looking after her as a child, her parents in a car crash, the rescue, the grandmother blaming Lena for the deaths? Her growing up in the town? In the choir, Daniel? The birth of Jacob and her care for him? The concern for Stig, meeting Axel, resisting a relationship, changing, listening to his story, the accident and the death of his wife and child? Her friendship with Tore? With the other members of the parish?

6. The Handel concert? The decision? The rival choir? Her hold over Stig? Keeping him sober? The idea that the pews be removed, Transforming the church, decoration? The crowds, the dance, the Bishop and the clergy watching? The magazine with all the photos? Stig and his being dismissed?

7. The image of the Lutheran Church, the authorities, more than a touch puritanical? A severe spirituality?

8. Stig, with only two people in the church, his drinking, out in the snow, despair, helping with the birth, drinking with hidden bottles of alcohol? Wary about the situation, upset? Concerned about the authorities? Removing the pews? Yet the success of the dance – and then the barring of the church doors?

9. The choir practices, the range of characters, the Messiah, voices, instruments? Lena and her enthusiasm and improvisation?

10. Axel, his story, his hard work, the attraction to Lena, the sexual relationship? Memories of his own child? Lena upset at his leaving, telling him off, going to seek him again, his return, happiness?

11. The episode with the crowds and the church, too many, having to oust them? Tore and his concern about the baby? Taking it to the lake, and the boat, rocking the boat, his falling in to the water and drowning? Lena, the attempted rescue? Failing? Axel rescuing the baby?

12. Lena, withdrawn, Stig and his confrontation, that she was not to blame?

13. The final concert, exuberance, everybody happy?

INDIGNATION

US, 2016, 110 minutes, Colour.
Logan Lerman, Sarah Gadon, Tracy Letts, Linda Emond, Danny Burstein.
Directed by James Schamus.

Indignation is based on the novel by Philip Roth, best known for such novels and film versions of Portnoy’s Complaint, Goodbye Columbus and The Human Stain. Indignation is a lesser known novel – which would gain in readership because of this film version.

The film opens with an old people’s home and an elderly lady – with a revelation about who she is at the end of the film. There is a then a shift to career, the Korean War, soldiers in the basement, Americans and Koreans and the death of a soldier. Then there is a move to New York City, a Jewish funeral, grieving parents, and the introduction of the central character, Marcus, a fine performance from Logan Lerman.

As Marcus and his friends talk about the draft, it emerges that Marcus has a scholarship to a Christian University in Ohio, meanwhile working in his father’s kosher butcher shop, with some strong scenes indicating Marcus and his work, his father concerned about him, even wary about being his led astray – but Marcus has a strong relationship with his mother and also with his father, despite his tensions.

At college, Marcus shares a room with two young men, Jewish (part of a Jewish minority at the college where Marcus is canvassed by the fraternity leader to join the Jewish group but he refuses) with whom he eventually clashes and moves rooms. Marcus has a strong background as a student, debater, free thinker.

This comes to the fore when he is challenged by the Dean of the College about his behaviour and beliefs, his not coping with others by moving rooms, his objections against going to Christian Chapel which is obligatory, his ideas, with Marcus having mounting resentment against the interrogation, using debating styles, articulate and strong, praising Bertrand Russell whom the Dean condemns personally and morally. The intelligent dialogue and the two performances make this an outstanding intelligent sequence.

Marcus, who has very limited encounters with girls, is attracted by the blonde Olivia (Sarah Gadon) and goes on a date with her when she surprisingly initiates sexual activity which he finds very difficult to deal with, avoiding her, but her pursuing him, especially when he is hospitalised with appendicitis. Again, she makes sexual advances which are seen by the nurse.

There is another highly intelligent discussion sequence when Marcus’s mother visits him in hospital, sees Olivia’s scars from an attempted suicide, warns her son against her – and they make an agreement that he will as long as his mother does not divorce his father who is showing strong signs of mental disturbance.

The issue of Chapel becomes a major problem for Marcus which leads to his presence in Korea and a reinterpretation of the initial sequence of the war, with his reflections about life, choices, moments of death, and a very sobering ending.

This is a fine, strong, intelligent portrait of a young man, a piece of Americana of 1951, well written and directed by James Schamus, who has been a producer and writer for some time, and this is first film as director.

1. The title, the tone, expectations?

2. The writings of Philip Roth? Americana, the 1950s, young men and women, education, the Korean War, politics, family, friends, relationships? College, love, sex, death?

3. The New York settings, the street, the butcher shop, home? Ohio, campus, the rooms, the Dean’s office, Chapel, hospital? The Korean War sequences, the tunnel, the soldiers, the attack? The musical score?

4. The opening, the old people’s home, the staff at work, the room, the woman – perhaps Marcus’s mother? Korea, the war and the soldiers, the dark, the pursuit, the shooting – and not seeing the full scene until the end? The end, Marcus, present as a soldier, conflict, the Koreans, his memories, reflections about death, death as a particular moment, the choices leading to it, seeing the bayonet, his death? The sobering ending?

5. The transition to the funeral, the background of the Korean War, American involvement, after World War II? 1951? The draft? The dead boy’s parents, their remembering, the Jewish background? Marcus, talking, his going to college? His father and his strong influence? Outside, smoking, with his friends, talking about the draft, sex and the dead boy?

6. The butcher shop, Marcus cutting the meat, his father’s work, and smoking? The customers, the woman buying the chickens, Marcus wrapping them, cleaning up? The meal at home, his father, concern? The discussion about stealing cars, the father’s wariness? Marcus going out, returning at night, his mother waiting for him, his father out searching for him? Marcus’s intense reaction? Going to his room, the bonding with his father?

7. Marcus as a character, his age, the only child, parents and work, at school, straight A’s, the debating team, baseball, good boy? Jewish, visiting the synagogue? The shop, Hebrew signs, kosher? Marcus and sexuality and his being a virgin?

8. Going to Ohio, the scholarship, his arrival, the room, the two students in it, the different reactions? The Jewish minority at a Christian college? The Jewish fraternity, the visit, trying to recruit Marcus, his not wanting to join? The two characters in the room, the actor and his performance, the studious man? Talking, clashing, Marcus deciding to move rooms?

9. Classes, Marcus and his questions, serious, tense, planning to study law?

10. Olivia, in the class, blonde and attractive, outsider? Marcus borrowing the car for the date? The French restaurant and the snails, his trying one? Driving to the cemetery, Olivia and her sexual approach, the effect on Marcus, puzzling about it, thinking that this was because Olivia’s parents were divorced? His not responding to her, her approach, thinking that he would think she was a slut?

11. The chapel visits, the speeches, the prayers, the hymns? Marcus and his reaction against it?

12. The Dean, the summons, the powerful sequence, intelligent dialogue? The Dean as a character, authority, in 1951, his concern, questions, the issue of Marcus moving rooms, unable to be with people, isolated? The questions about the date? About basketball? About his beliefs? Marcus and his skill in debate, articulate, his rights, not going to Chapel, his atheism, dealing with people, his right to be free, quoting Bertrand Russell, the Nobel Prize? The Dean’s condemnation of Russell as a person, morality? The ad hominem argument? Marcus resenting the interview, the interrogation? The Dean’s motivation? Marcus being sick?

13. At the hospital, waking, having his appendix out, the significance of his dreams, the presence of Olivia? Olivia’s visit, the roses, the sexual advance, being seen by the nurse and her reporting it? The talk, Olivia’s history, Marcus’s history? Her father, the doctor, the divorce and its effect? A breakdown, slitting her wrists, going to the institution, coming to college?

14. Sonny, his visit to the hospital, talking, Marcus and the chapel issue, the scam to pay for someone else, the substitute – people handing in envelopes, the substitute being caught?

15. A visit from his mother, the issue of divorce, her meeting Olivia, seen the scars, Olivia and leaving, the mother’s influence?

16. The significance of the talk with his mother, intelligent discussion, the themes, her husband and his seeming madness, her bargain, that Marcus would not see Olivia, that she would not divorce, take care of her husband?

17. Marcus and his concern about Olivia, her disappearing, the phone calls, trying to find her?

18. The Dean, the issue of Olivia, her breakdown, the explanation? The Dean blaming Marcus? The issue of pregnancy – and Marcus’s irony about the impossibility of his impregnating anyone?

19. Gone, in Korea, the scene in the basement, the Korean soldiers, the pursuit, the shooting, Marcus being bayoneted? His rumination about death and the right time?

20. The revelation that the old woman was the old Olivia – and her memories?

21. The cumulative effect of this character portrait, period, themes, intelligent dialogue?

A LADY OF CHANCE

US, 1928, 78 minutes, Black and white.
Norma Shearer, Lowell Sherman, Gwen Lee, John Mack Brown.
Directed by Robert Z. Leonard.

Norma Shearer had been making silent films since the end of 1919 and was soon to become queen of MGM, winning an Oscar for The Divorcee, appearing in such prestige films as Romeo and Juliet and Marie Antoinette.

This film shows some of her versatility, playing a woman who is a professional criminal, seducing men for their money and then leaving them. She has served time in jail. But, there are some tender moments as she begins to fall in love with an earnest young man from the South, John Mack Brown who was to appear in the number of MGM films with Joan Crawford but then became famous as a cowboy star in the movies.

This is MGM at the end of the silent era, stylish filmmaking, sophisticated storytelling and, though very much its time, still entertaining and a showcase for Norma Shearer.

1. A drama of the 1920s? Confidence tricks, professional criminals? The touch of true romance?

2. MGM production values, stylish sets, the American city, the contrast with the poorer home of the South, the plantations? Norma Shearer and her role at MGM?

3. The story of Dolly, seeing her at the phone exchange, her flirting with the millionaire, Brad and Gwen finding her, her hurrying away, in the restaurant, Brad and Gwen taunting her, her phoning the millionaire, his paying over $10,000 and his complaint to the police, Brad hiding the money, Dolly seeing this, being consoled by Gwen but taking the money, Brad and Gwen in pursuit?

4. Dolly going to the social, the telegram, her paying for it, the attraction to Steve, target? His response? Going out with her? The proposal, her acceptance? His dreams, talk of the contract, hopes, the home and the plantation? The decision to go south?

5. Dolly, disillusionment, Steve’s car, the home, cramped, meeting his mother, the plantation next door, the “darkies” and their singing (and the attitude of the filmmakers towards African- Americans at this time, servants, plantations, the emphasis on the honour of white people)?

6. Dolly, wanting to go back to New York, the sudden change and her decision to stay – although the glimpse of her with the veil, the wedding dress, the glimpse of her thinking about marriage?

7. Brad and Gwen, arrival, pressurising her, her giving back the money? The invitation to go to New York?

8. Brad and the false contract, Dolly and her conscience, ringing the police, stopping Steve signing the document, the arrival of the police, the arrests?

9. Her going to jail, farewelling Steve, thinking he was better off without her? Her being called in by the warden? Steve offering to have her and supervising her in her parole? The happy reunion?

BAD MOMS

US, 2016, 101 minutes, Colour.
Mila Kunis, Kristin Bill, Kathryn Hahn, Christina Applegate, Jada Pinkett Smith, Jay Hernandez, Annie Mumolo, Clark Duke, Wendell Pierce.
Directed by Jon Lucas and Scott Moore.

When the title of an American comedy includes the word ‘bad’, we might expect some crass goings-on, some raucous episodes in language, sexual innuendo (as well as explicit). Which is what we get here – although, there are quite a number of good ingredients, some redeeming features that are not to be found in the Bad Neighbours or Dirty Grandpa films.

Of course, it all depends how you define ‘bad’. Since this is a film about Moms, and is on the side of the busy and harassed Moms, then the meaning of bad is relative. We are treated to a great deal of how busy many Moms are, not being able to rely on their husbands (who tend to be bossy or lazy or both), how they have to attend to every need of the children – and there is a wise section of the film where Amy, Mila Kunis, the principal Mom, is exasperated with her daughter and her complaints, her son and his expecting her to do everything, even his homework, explains to her son that he has been spoilt and feels that he is “entitled”. (This kind of dialogue needs to be something regular in many of the American films with precocious and obnoxious and demanding children!)

Amy confides in us that she has been late ever since she gave birth to her daughter and has been running late ever since, in the mornings, getting the kids to school, going to work in a coffee company where she is not really appreciated and most of the staff are young and juvenile, taking the kids to sports, to music practice, putting the evening meal on the table… When she goes to school, she encounters three mothers who are part of the PTA, Christina Applegate as the truly obnoxious Gwendolyn, nasty in manner talk, determined to be re-elected president of the PTA, and her two acolytes, Jada Pinkett-Smith? and at Annie Mumolo, two yes-women.

Things get worse, especially when Amy finds that her husband has been having a pornographic affair on his computer and ousts him. One night, exasperated, she goes to a bar and meets Carla (Kathryn Hahn,) and another mother, Kiki (Kristin Bell). They drink too much, Carla is sex-obsessed, they let their hair down and run amok in the supermarket. This is a turning point for Amy, realising that she has been too much of a “good” mom and now determined to step back, let everyone takes their own responsibilities.

Humiliated by Gwendolyn, who has strict rules forcibly observed about healthy ingredients for the School Bake and influences every word in the school, the principal and the sports coach, Amy decides she will stand for president of the PTA – what follows is a raucous campaign, Gwendolyn boring the mothers to tears with long campaign speeches, and Amy providing a party at her house and the refugees from Gwendolyn’s party all turning up. Gwendolyn uses some dirty tricks in her campaign, Amy is called in by the principal because drugs have been found in her daughter’s locker and Amy gets disheartened. But, urged on by Carla and Kiki, she arrives just in time to make a speech, urging the liberation of Moms, everyone supporting her and…

So, there is a lot of unnecessary crude language inserted too frequently, there is a lot of sex talk, especially about men and performance, but there are also a lot of good things. And, the ending is more forgiving rather than vindictive. A special bonus is that the five principal actresses are shown during the final credits sitting with their own mothers, the women discussing their childhood and how they were brought up by their mothers.

1. The title, mothers and their role, mothers in practice, good and bad? Defining bad?

2. An American comedy, with plenty of raunchy episodes, sex talk by women about men and their practice? Comic styles, situations, intrusive language? Shock? Satire?

3. Chicago, the suburbs, homes and streets, the shops, school? The bars, the coffee company and the offices? The musical score?

4. An American mixture of the comic, the raunchy, farcical situations and dialogue, the tone? Not to be taken as realism – satire, comedy and the points?

5. Mila Kunis as Amy, engaging with the audience? The story, pregnant at 20, the birth of the baby, her relationship with her husband, the birth of her son, exceedingly busy, the opening and the comments, showing all that she had to do, at home, taking the kids to school, at the job and her skills, sports events and transporting the children, concerned about the dog? Tired and always being late? Love for the children, yet her exasperation with them? Falling out of love with her husband, catching him interacting with the pornographic site? Ousting him?

6. Gwendolyn, her acolytes, the PTA? Comments about her as fascist? The two acolytes as being yes women, one supporting her, the other not realising what was going on? Handing out leaflets, convening meetings, the prohibitions for ingredients for the school bake, the school regimes? Amy’s cakes?

7. Gwendolyn as nasty, her dialogue, superiority? Nasty towards Amy? Standing again for election, the party, everybody gathering, her speech, going to Amy’s, everybody present? Planting the drugs in Amy’s daughter’s locker, the reaction, gossip, her presuming she would win? The speech, the principal, Amy’s late arrival, her speaking, the acclaim? Gwendolyn sobbing in her car? Amy and her care, support for her? Gwendolyn and his story, her husband and the embezzlement, her family…? The finale and her offering the women travel in her husband’s plane?

8. Amy, her job, the boss, young, her work, the boss and his disregard? Issues of pay? The comment about how young the workers were, playing table tennis? Absence, the collapse at work, the phone call, the deal in getting her back and her conditions, and working from home?

9. A daughter, the daughter and soccer, the son and his homework, the variety of moods, loving their mother, their criticising the mother, her comment about her son feeling that he was entitled and that his parents had spoilt him?

10. Amy, her husband turning up, persuading him to go to therapy, his being useless, the role-plays? The comedy of the therapist? No possibilities for reconciliation? Kids going to stay with their father? And even the dog? After Amy had taken the dog to the vet for his vertigo?

11. Amy deciding to go out, meeting Carla at the bar, the encounter with Kiki, memories from school? Drinking, letting loose? Going to the supermarket and the mayhem there? Amy letting her hair down, the attraction to Jesse, at school, his daughter, the girls out on the town, her failure in interesting any of the men, talking school? Jesse, out with him? His turning up at the party, Carla texting him? The date, the beginning of the affair?

12. Kiki, submissive, a dominating husband, the four children, meek, her husband’s demands, going out, joining the girls, friendship? Telling off her husband? The finale with him, her ordering him around?

13. Carla, character, talk, in the bars, raucous, drinking, sex language, the farce? Friendship with Amy and Kiki? Amy’s campaign, the posters, Gwendolyn taking them down? Arranging for Amy and her daughter to have the whole facial beauty treatment? The party at Amy’s home, she and Kiki forcing Amy to go to the election, the success? Her son, a dim view of his abilities, making him the healthy lunch, loving him?

14. The coach, pressurised by Gwendolyn, his desperation, Amy and the soccer?

15. The principal, pressurised by Gwendolyn, supervising the election?

16. Amy, her experience as a mother, confronting Gwendolyn, her speech at home, the importance of the speech at the meeting, helping the mothers not to feel pressurised, living up to expectations – the nature of Bad Moms, women standing up, free, liberation, acclaim for Amy?

17. The ending, seeing each of them and their new life – and Gwendolyn taking them on the plane?

18. The mood of the final credits, each of the main characters, their mothers, the pleasant talking about how they had interacted with them?

SAUSAGE PARTY

US, 2016, 89 minutes, Colour.
Voices of: Seth Rogen, Kristin Wiig, Michael Cera, Salma Hayek, James Franco, Jonah Hill, Paul Rudd, Bill Hader, David Krumholz, Danny Mc Bride, Edward Norton, Craig Robinson.
Directed by Greg Tiernan and Conrad Vernon.
An anarchic cosmological allegory.

Not the first description that might come to mind for audiences rolling up for Sausage Party expecting a raucous comedy, especially since Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg wrote the screenplay and Seth Rogen has the central role. For this audience it might seem just an MA certificate raunchy comedy.

And, of course that is what it is also – a crude and often crass surface while, for those who have the time and patience to go under the surface, listening to the clues amid the crass, Sausage Party is trying to take on some of the meaning of life.

Not that most audiences will necessarily want to go to this kind of story of the meaning of life – it will depend, as one reviewer remarked, on the compatibility of the sense of humour of the film and the audience sense of humour. In the words of Mark Twain for many, for very many, never the tween shall meet.

So, what is the sausage party? Setting is the supermarket with customers coming in preparing to celebrate fourth of July. And the main characters are sausages altogether in a packet adjacent to a group of buns. These products, anthropomorphised with strong vocal talent, have the belief that if they are sold, they will be taken out of the supermarket and find out a life after shelf in the Beyond. They sing quite an elaborate song to the Guards, the humans in the shop, projecting on to them a great benevolence, all their hopes and securities – and, we hear, as they sing Guards, the it does sound like God.

The humans and film are all ugly and aggressive characters, cooking the sausages, slicing them, or else aggressive customers and obnoxious staff, especially one who takes a sausage home but is high on drugs and decapitates himself. Stupid humans!

One of the sausages, Barry (Michael Cera) gets separated from the packet, sees the death of his friend Carl, wanders through terrifying he underworld which includes a vicious mop, but eventually get back to the packet and is reunited with his friend Frank (Seth Rogen). Frank has his eye on one of the buns (a quite anatomical female bun), Brenda (Kristin Wiig), who also gets waylaid, chased, and has to team up with a group of products, a Jewish bagel and a Muslim bread, and the Mexican taco (Salma Hayak).

Whether the screenwriters knew how to end the film, they opt for all the products involved in an extreme orgiastic climax (either satirically funny or offputting) and the products surviving 4th July. There are a lot of familiar voices including Paul Rudd, James Franco,

While animation films are generally geared to children and family audiences, Sausage Party is not!

1. The title, expectations? Animation? The products at a supermarket and anthropomorphising them? Shapes and realism? Animation and fantasy? The voice cast? The visual style and action?

2. Making the products human, demonising the human beings, the guards, the customers, oppressive, liars?

3. The serious aspects of the film: the song about the guards and hearing the word God? Lives, destinies, the belief in the Beyond, hopes? Destinations? Defying the guards – God? Asserting themselves?

4. The song, assertion, self-deception? Belief?

5. The US, 4th July, the touch of Jewish presence and Muslim? And the incorporation of jokes, even gay?

6. The ordinary products, becoming persons, their qualities?

7. The use of language, imagery, sexual, the behaviour, survival – and the all-in orgiastic ending? The meaning of this in terms of the themes of the film?

8. The characters, the sausages, in the packet, next to the buns, expectations, to be sold, to go out to the Beyond and happiness? People buying them, the falls, Barry and his nightmare journey? Carl and his being cut, the cooking? The underworld, the mop, the druggie assistant, at home, with the products, the knife, the drugs and his being beheaded, Barry
bringing back his head? Frank, hero, with the other sausages, with Barry? The attraction to Brenda? The quest to find Brenda, saving her?

9. Brenda, the buns, their look, feminine, the genital overtones? Fate, rescue? Teresa, the taco, her sexual attitude, protecting Brenda, everybody being reunited?

10. The bagel, the Jew, the Arab, the action – and the sexual overtones, gay?

11. The products in action, the gun, the chocolates, the sauces?

12. The guard, the mop and its defeated?

13. Sexual overtones, language, frankness, the sausage and the bun and intercourse? The orgy?

14. Gay themes, the Muslim, the due, paradise and divergence?

15. The recovery of the products, fighting back, assertion?

16. The audience for this kind of film – and combative combat abilities of senses of humour?

CHRISTINE

US, 2016, 115 minutes, Colour.
Rebecca Hall, Michael C. Hall, Tracy Letts, Timothy Simmons, J Smith- Cameron, Maria Dizzia, John Cullum, Kim Shaw.
Directed by Antonio Campos.

Christine is Christine Chubbock, a television journalist in Sarasito, Florida, during the 1970s. For those who do not know what happened to her, it is best not to know before seeing the film to appreciate the shock ending. For those who do know what happened, the film is an exploration of an intense character. She is played with drive and conviction in all her complexities by British actress, Rebecca Hall.

The film opens with Christine seeming to be interviewing Richard Nixon. It is July 1974 and the president, after Watergate, is about to resign. But, Christine is only rehearsing, with ambitions to developing her programs, news items about people in the city, incorporated into the general programming of a very small local station.

We are taken into the television world of 1974 – rather basic it would seem in hindsight. The staff is small, equipment meagre, no teleprompter… Michael C. Hall is the anchorman, George, Maria Dizzia is the ever efficient and sympathetic production assistant, and there is a sports journalist, a weatherman, and an often-exasperated but dominating business manager, Michael (played by Tracy Letts, the Pulitzer prize-winning author of August, Osage County, and other plays and portraying the Dean in Indignation).

Christine is in every sequence and we come to realise just how driven she is, having experienced some kind of breakdown in Boston, returning to Sarosita with her mother, uncomfortable and clashing with her and having to apologise, earnest and eager about her small television pieces (and we see her interviewing a woman who grows strawberries, a man whose apartment was burnt because of his smoking in the house…). Michael is rather more keen on sensation on screen to draw in viewers.

There is a competitive crisis at the studio when the new owner from Baltimore comes down, planning to transfer some of the staff to bigger things in Baltimore. Christine is eager to go, manipulating situations, bursting in to make her case.

In her private life, she always says she is busy, but does accept the invitation to go to dinner with George, putting on a more glamorous dress, to her mother’s great delight, having the meal but then being taken by George to a self-help group, working on Transactional Analysis, some moments where the technique is one to one with the expert saying “Yes, but…” to Christine’s answer to every question. In some ways it is illuminating and contributes to the consequences when Christine finds that the owner is only vaguely aware of her and she is certainly not on the list to go to Baltimore.

The film peaks with her asking to be an anchor one night on the news and her decision to bring some sensationalism to the program, not what we might have been expecting.

The film helps us to realise that we might read a headline and it might sound sensational – but it is only a headline and there is a whole complex life story which needs to be appreciated behind the headline. This is the case with Christine.

1. The title, the focus? The key issue not revealed until the end? For audiences did know the outcome, for those who didn’t? The nature of the audience interest – factual, morbid? Life, death, empathy for personal complications?

2. The death of Christine as a headline – not giving sufficient attention to complexity?

3. Sarasota, Florida, the city, the TV studio and the rooms, editing, make up, conferences? The city, apartments, restaurants? The situations for Christine’s television stories? The musical school?

4. 1974, July-August? Nixon, Watergate, Woodward, the hearings, Nixon’s resignation?

5. Christine, the opening, interviewing Nixon? Introduction to Christine herself, the tone, her work on television, being in Sarasota, local programs, small-scale? The staff, the manager? The owner? News, sport, anchors, reporters? On-air? Production assistance?

6. Christine is a strong character, Rebecca Hall and her dominating the film? Age 29, single, work-oriented, isolated, virgin, her ambitions, mental condition? The background of her past and collapse? With her mother on holidays in the town? Moving to Boston, her work, her breakdown? Return, living with her mother, the bristling relationship?

7. The scenes with Mike, her antagonism, intruding into his office, imitating him, her requests to him, at meetings, the party at his home, his wife, the pressures, the clashes?

8. Jean is a friend, reduction assistant, work, confidant, the editing, the insertion of clips? Her reports, Mike and his dislike of them? Wanting more sensation?

9. George, anchor? Steve the weather? Friends, the antagonism between the two men? At meetings? Mike, business focus, exasperated? The sports journalist?

10. George and Christine, talking, the invitation to dinner, going out, dressing up, her mother’s response, happy? Out, the restaurant, talking? George taking her to the Transactional Analysis sessions, urging her to join in, the partner, the “yes, but…”, The revelations about herself? George the news about his transfer to Baltimore, her reaction?

11. Bob, the owner, visiting, discussions with Mike, impressions, his hopes? George and his success? Christine to wanting to go to Baltimore, to do better stories? Pretending that her car broke down, knocking on Bob store, that talk, his friendliness, hearing that the sports journalist was going with George to Baltimore? The effect on Christine?

12. Historians, the interviews, short pieces, the woman in the strawberries, the man setting fire to his house with the cigarettes…?

13. Steen’s mother, the relationship between the two, tensions? A mother’s boyfriend? The criticisms of her mother, her mother asking for apology, Christine giving it? The couple, watching television and seeing Christine shoot herself?

14. Going to the gun store, the enquiries, buying the gun?

15. Christine becoming overly calm, cheerful, asking if she could be the anchor, the various reactions, talking about sensationalism, her script, shooting herself, the effect? The note saying that it was an attempt rather than the reality? Are going to hospital, her death?

16. The reactions of the various characters – especially Jean to greet?

17. The story behind the headlines?

DOWNUNDER

Australia, 2016, 90 minutes, Colour.
Lincoln Younes, Rahel Ronahn, Michael Denkha, Fayssal Bazzi, Alexander England, Damon Herriman, Justin Rosniak, Chris Bunton, Harriet Dyer, David Field, Marshall Napier, Josh Mc Conville.
Directed by Abe Forsythe.

Downunder is the kind of film that we say we would not like to see – but, in fact, it is a film that we should see. It is a portrait of ugly Australians.

The film draws on Australian audience memory of the race riots at Cronulla and in the Shire at the end of 2005. Mainly young protesters, becoming more violent and vicious as the protests and fights went on, declaring that they wanted to preserve Australian culture (not really having a clue what that meant), rather oblivious of Australia’s migratory history or that of indigenous people, but making the target the Lebanese community in the area, Lebs, including their presence on Cronulla beach, taken as symbolic of what they thought was wrong with this part of Sydney – and Australia.

It is interesting to note that the film was released commercially soon after the 2016 federal elections with the emergence again of Pauline Hanson and three of her associates finding places in the Senate. The scenes in Cronulla in 2005 presage of so much of the philosophy of One Nation, anti-migration, anti-Chinese, anti-Islam… A frightening reminder that history can repeat itself.

The film uses a lot of footage from the news of the time, the very disturbing close-ups of angry young men, mainly men, but women also, an alarming peer pressure that overflows into vicious slogans and physical violence, with the police trying to cope with the protesters.

But then, the film narrows its focus considerably, concentrating on a group of white protesters and a group of Lebanese. This means particular dramas – but the screenwriter and director, Abe Forsythe, has made the choice for comic representation of the characters and their conflicts. While some of the scenes and dialogue are funny ha-ha, and we can laugh, the point is that the ideology (which, rather dignifies the ignorant attitudes), the language and behaviour is often really dopey, really dumb. The screenplay clearly demonstrates how this kind of racism, attitudes and behaviour, is really stupid.

In the white group, there is a rather genial character, whose name is Shit-Stick? (Alexander England), who works in a DVD store, takes his Down syndrome cousin for driving lessons, is often seen with his drugs and bong, who does not want to be racist but is pressurised by some friends (and his first seemingly benign uncle, Marshall Napier, who urges the group on and lends them his World War I trophy rifle and one bullet). The leader of this group is Jason (Daniel Herriman) who is all talk but has a most slatternly pregnant girlfriend with two children who interrupts the proceedings by demanding that Jason pick up some takeaway for her – and she wants kebabs! They go to buy them.

In the meantime, Hasim (Lincoln Younes) is a serious student but he too has a demanding friend, Nick, and bellicose uncle, and makes the choice to go out with them in order to find his brother who may have been caught up in the violence. Off they go to get some weapons from Nick’s drug boss Vic, David Field camping it up, a gay men with Vietnamese boys at hand, pornography on the television, and a crew packing the drugs.

After various encounters, Hasim being chased and bashed by another white group, and Jason having delivered food to his girlfriend, there is an unexpected confrontation, mainly through arguments within each car leading to a crash. This is no gunfight at the OK Corral, rather awkward chases, bashings, gunshots and some unexpected injuries, especially with pathos for the Down Syndrome cousin who has been urged on to bash Lebs but in his heart of hearts appreciates people for who they are.

One of the jokes needs to be seen – one of the Whites has had his head and face tattooed and wants to have Ned Kelly’s helmet, but the joke is what he looks like when he takes off all his facial coverings. This needs to be seen rather than described!

The language in the film is quite strident and vulgar, sexually and genitally over-focused and extremely homophobic and insulting – part of the dumb stupidity that is incorporated into racist rants.

The film is quite well constructed, the parallels made, the setting given in the actual footage of 2005, the exploration of the characters in each group. Maybe, Downunder is preaching to the converted anti-racists. Would it do anything to change the bigoted attitudes of the racist were they to see the film? Unfortunately, probably not.

1. The title, the tone? Australia? Australian society, 21st-century, in the light of Australian history and migration?

2. Racism, Sydney, 2005, Cronulla and the Shire? The impact of this episode in its time? We created for 2016? The Australian political situation – and the impact of One Nation?

3. Sydney, the newsreel footage, the riots, the vicious outbursts, the violence, verbal attacks? The young, men, women? Racial hatred? The role of the police, defence and attack?

4. The rioters, white, prejudiced, ignorant? The irony of not knowing the Ned Kelly was Irish? Protective of white culture? The glorification of white culture – not really understanding it? The attitudes toward the Lebanese, migrants, greasy, wanting a fight?

5. The Lebanese, the reactions, going to violence, protest and fighting?

6. The opening with the overview of the Shire, Cronulla the beaches, the suburbs, the streets, the riots and fights? Moving to the particular? The white group, Sheet-Stick? and even, is taking the drugs, working in the DVD shop, Jason and Coe, friends? Stacey, a rough manner, pregnant, shouting at her children? Jason wanting to attack, Dig and his statues? Insisting, captured-Capstick not wanting to go? Leadership, protest? Inciting Evan to antagonism? Wanting fights? The aggression, the language, the sexual and genital focus, the fake it wants? Taking the car, the guns, the petrol in the back?

7. Captured-Capstick? and his uncle, Evan and the driving class, the crash, issues of pay, taking responsibility? The explanation of fight, the uncle getting out his World War I rifle? And the petrol?

8. The Lebanese group, are seen,, studying, serious? Not wanting to go, his brother missing? Nick and his appeal, urging? Ha seem saying they were not 12 still? The uncle coming in, his reaction, wanting to go? The aggressive language like the white group?

9. Going to Victor’s house, the gay atmosphere, the Vietnamese, the pornography on the television, the marketing of the drugs, the cat is taunting, gun pointed at Hussey, getting removed his trousers? Nick and his rubble?

10. The white group in the car, travel, Stacey’s phone call, wanting some food, the only wanting kebabs? Leaving the Shire, going to the shop, bashing the owner, the orders for the food, take away?

11. The second white group, the leader, urging, the Polynesian man, chasing a scene, exhausted, finding passing, the bashing? Nick and his reaction?

12. The growing tensions, the irony of letting the Chinese go, the white couple and even in his confrontation, looking for Lebanese?

13. The two groups driving, the crash, the reactions? Getting out, the uncle injured? Ditch and is taking his mask off – Kelly but looking like the burqa? The fights, the bashings, the guns? The chase? The cliff – and the sad irony of Evan backing the car over the cliff? The backfiring of the rifle? I seem and the violence of his bashings? Nick and the shooting?

14. Nick, the comments of that fact it’s, his attitude towards Hussey, the kiss?

15. Group waiting, the police arriving? The irony of the brother ringing, having the lists lift to the Gold Coast?

16. The portrayal of the racism, ignorance, stupidity, down, dopey? The ironic laughs at such stupidity?

17. The message, how much preaching to the converted who are against racism, possibility of changing attitudes, the response of the types in the film to watching this kind of film?

18. Hasim and Shit-Stick? as basically good persons? Evan and the talk about friends, breaking through barriers? And not blind following?