Reviews from the Edge

Hello cruel world.

 I am again spending my Sunday, completing tasks for work. As it is too early to bring my bottle of wine into my office (when you have a husband who rarely drinks and a judgmental one-eyed rabbit in your midst), I will sedate myself from my boiling rage by stringing together some poorly written reviews for the interweb to ignore. 

The Magdalene Sisters (2002) 

The Magdalene Sisters is the story of four teenage girls sent to the Magdalene Asylum, a home for "fallen" women", condemned by their families for flirting with boys, getting pregnant, or being raped by your cousin. It is the type of film that as a semi-decent human being of the female variety, fills me with rage at the way women/human beings have been treated (and continue to be treated) in our history. I was raised in a roman catholic household and attended catholic school, I was also an altar server for many years at my local church, and I'm not ashamed to say I loved it. I loved it indeed until I was old enough to understand how we, as people, ruin religion through the very organisational structures and twisted perceptions we come to worship.

The reason I finally watched the film was thanks to my partner in crime, Mark and the necessary fulfillment of one of our many traditions  The tradition I speak of is watching torturous/painful movies together at his aunty's holiday home, lovingly referred to as "Utopia". It all began back in the early 00's when we watched The Accused and Requiem for a Dream. What had been a carefree night of dancing to La Bouche and wearing homemade "Papa Giuseppe  hates we cut out of the back of the cardboard pizza box, quickly turned into a night of screaming "trauma" in varying accents at the television screen.

While this particular viewing may have been influenced by the humour of our tradition and Mr "leave me out of this" Mark's disappointment that the film wasn't a documentary and then subsequent shock that filmmakers could find actresses which such awful teeth to fill the roles, it was nonetheless a much needed and heartbreaking reminder of our recent history.        
****1/2

The Great Gatsby (2013)

Lets be straight here, Baz Luhrmann's film adaptation of F.Scott Fitzgerald's novel is not for everyone. Most of the reviews, particularly coming from American critics were extremely harsh, citing a fundamental lack of 'understanding' of the story, replaced with a bombastic orgy of excess, CGI party scenes and the musical stylings of Jay Z and Lana Del Ray. If the thought of such treatment bestowed upon what many regard as a literary masterpiece sends a shiver down your spine, then I suggest you avoid this film like the plague.  If you're a Baz Luhrmann enthusiast (and I am one of them), sit back and prepare to embrace the spectacle of one of the few Australian auteur directors still making films in Australia with excellent actors. Leo DiCaprio may be the brightest star of the bunch, and he is extremely  charismatic as Gatsby, however I found the likes of Joel Edgerton, Isla Fisher and Jason Clark, brought the most Luhrmannesque spark to their small roles. Much has been said about the performance of Tobey Maguire, most of it very unflattering and in my humble opinion unwarranted. The performance of Maguire as the wide-eyed narrator Nick Carraway is a solid one from a solid actor, sure it's not a great performance by a great actor, but he manages to convey the vulnerability and naivety required for the role well, and his longtime friendship with DiCaprio gives the two an instant chemistry on screen which anchors the film within the spectacle.
****

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun (1985)
Helen Hunt is a badass  I never thought I'd make such a statement but that was my exact thought after the first 15 minutes of Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, the tale of Janey (Sarah Jessica Parker) a new girl at school who befriends Lynne (Hunt) an 'out there' girl who shares her passion for dancing. The two girls compete for a spot on the hit television show "Dance TV" and along the way must tackle Janey's disapproving military dad, a classic 80's bitch and a blossoming romance with a feather haired fellow dancer. You might be asking, so why is this called "Girls just wanna have fun"? Well I presume it was just an attempt to cash in on the popularity of the song, it's not all fun and games, but the girls do dance and shop in a montage featuring the Cindi Lauper song that can best be described as the kind of clip that a talk show host would drag out of the vault to make the future "Carrie Bradshaw" cringe. OK so now that we have the title out of the way, you may also be asking, what am I doing watching this film? Well this is what happens when two best friends since primary school get together to watch a movie, eat pizza and slide on a polished floor with our socks on. It was great. 
**
Side note-The film is awarded an extra half star for this hat.....



and for featuring the only woman I would ever consider sleeping with....Shannen Doherty, 



But not in 1985, I'm talking circa 90's 



Documentary Sunday 

Over the last few years I have aimed to watch a documentary once a week, usually on a Sunday. Most of my doco Sunday's consist of watching slightly dodgy conspiracy theory films and/or  true crime stories (that's right....line up boys). I promise I will try and keep my review of such films to a minimum and focus on documentaries people might actually be watching. 

The Invisible War (2012)

An example of a good doco Sunday, I was so devastated by Kirby Dicks's 2012 film exploring the epidemic of sexual assault against women and men in the U.S military, that I did what any sane person would do, immediately force someone else to watch it. The film features interviews with veterans from all branches of the military and in some cases their loved ones. These interviews are inter-cut with talking heads from the military and "experts", as well as one family's journey to receive medical compensation for an injury obtained during a sexual assault and the lead up to a civil suit against the department of defense. While hearing the women and one man tell their stories is heartbreaking, an edited in a manner that creates a tension to the story without being overly manipulative, the real blows come from the film's exploration of the department of defense's "prevention program", as if pulled from our blame the victim headlines, the experts in charge of this program have long titles and no clue. When asked if they spend any of their time and sizable budget on addressing and preventing the behaviour of the perpetrators of sexual assaults, they simply stare vacantly at the screen and repeat their scripted description of "prevention methods". The final gut punch comes in the form the outcome of the civil suit, dismissed because 'rape is an occupational hazard of military service'. This is a film everyone should watch and discuss. 
*****


Exporting Raymond

An example of a not so good doco Sunday is my purchase of the DVD Exporting Raymond, which chronicles Raymond creator, Philip Rosenthal as he travels to Russia to help create a Russian version of his hit show. 

Right off the bat, I am not a fan of Everybody Loves Raymond, I won;t deny i have chuckled at it in passing, probably due to fever but that's about it. I actually find it mildly offensive. I mean Debra seems miserable all the time because Ray and his family are horrible yet she stays... why???????  Either shit or get off the pot. Not to mention his parents are meant to be Italian? I mean no offence to Doris Roberts and Peter Boyle, but my chihuahua comes across more Italian than they do. That always got on my nerves.  

The story of how I stumbled across this documentary is more insightful than the documentary itself. You see when I;m feeling like depression and negative I enter a shameful youtube spiral, spending hours upon hours alternating between searches for "animals attacking humans", tsunamis and other miscellaneous natural disasters, Oscar acceptance speeches, DIY "smokey eye" make up tutorials and any new interviews featuring Joshua Jackson.  On the way down one such spiral I stumbled across some clips of the Russian version of The Nanny, which I of course watched. The whole episode can be found here for those also suffering from mental health issues :

What I had hoped would be an insightful and humorous look at the challenges facing a well known producer translating his work for a different cultural audience, quickly became an uncomfortable 86 minutes with Raymond (I mean he is pretty much the character he created) as he makes fun of Russia and  tackles most of the films challenges from a typical American attitude that my way is the only way. This is particularly prevalent in the first of 3/4 of the film, only easing off slightly near the end to wrap the whole adventure up in a nice little 30 minute sitcom bow.  
*1/2 

Next time on Reviews from the Edge...

• Pacific Rim
• Before Midnight
• Spring Breakers
• This is the end