The Light Between Oceans

Australian movies made for an international market never seem to hit the mark for the intended audience. Recent efforts like The Water Diviner and The Dressmaker were flops despite having big names like Russell Crowe and Kate Winslet. However, when you bring an outsider in to show their perspective on Australian life, it always seems a lot more effective. Add a couple of high profile international stars and you may have a winner.

Tom Sherbourne (Michael Fassbender) has returned home to Western Australia after World War I. In order to find some solitude after the horrors of war, he gets a job as a lighthouse keeper on an island of the coast. On one of his trips back to the mainland, he meets Isabel (Alicia Vikander) and slowly he falls in love with her, despite being separated by the sea. Eventually they wed and she moves to the island with him. Even though it is a harsh environment, they build a life together and are happy until Isabel miscarries not one but two pregnancies. All hope seems lost for them when a boat drifts ashore with a dead man and a baby girl. Isabel convinces Tom that they keep they child rather than telling anyone what happened and they soon return to life like nothing has happened. When they return to the mainland to show off their new child, Tom meets Hannah (Rachel Weisz), whom he learns lost her baby daughter and husband at sea a few years earlier. Soon Tom is wracked with grief and indecision about what to do.

Derek Cianfrance has always been an actor's director. His last two movies have been performance driven and The Light Between Oceans is no different. Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander are two actors at the top of their game. They, along with Rachel Weisz, all fall into stride with fantastic Aussie accents, one that isn't the easiest to do. Granted, that isn't what makes their performances good, it's just an added bonus. What makes their performances so great is their pure commitment to the emotions that are necessary. Tom is supposed to be a character haunted by his experiences in the war and Fassbender masterfully pulls that off. His guilt is entirely believable and at times you felt the pain he had in keeping his secret. Vikander and Weisz are also great at tearing the emotions out from the audience. Both women have their legitimate claim to raising their daughter but the pain in having to potentially give her up is too much. There are three great performances from Aussie veterans Bryan Brown, Jack Thompson and Gary MacDonald that really form a good backbone to the cast.

There are a few missteps in terms of telling the story however. Cianfrance is definitely a fan of an easily identifiable three act structure movie. First, Isabel and Tom get to know each other, then they get married and find the baby, finally the guilt and decision to tell the truth. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it makes the movie a tad slower and seems sloppy. There is a lot of clunky dialogue, like when Jack Thompson's character explains in a rather heavy handed way what happened to Hannah's husband, something the film has subtly hinted at using the unique cinema technique of editing. There is an early montage of letter writing between Tom and Isabel as well that is rather dull and expository.

I guess the reason I really like this movie because of the way it's an Australian film without being one. Australian movies tend to shoot themselves in the foot when it comes to international audiences because you can never beat Crocodile Dundee and that's what they want. It takes an outsider to show the rest of the world what an Aussie movie can be and it takes an actor like Fassbender to show that people really can do our accent. Other than that, it's an emotionally raw epic that tugs at the heartstrings. Especially that epilogue scene.

Youth

Paolo Sorrentino's third film Youth ruminates on the qualities of a long life lived, much like his last film The Great Beauty. In fact, you could say that this film is just a straight remake for an English language audience. Despite this, Sorrentino uses a new cast of actors in a new location deftly enough to make an extremely memorable film.

Retired composer Fred Ballinger (Michael Caine) is taking a vacation in the Swiss Alps with his old friend and director Mick Boyle (Harvey Keitel), who is there with a team of writers trying to work on his next film. Also staying at the hotel is young actor Jimmy Tree (Paul Dano) who is getting ready for his next role and famous former football star the South American (Roy Serrano), a thinly veiled allusion to Diego Maradona. During his vacation, Fred is forced to reflect on his life, fame and regret over not being a good father to his daughter Lena (Rachel Weisz).

Once again, Sorrentino is able to create characters who have a lot of depth that don't leave me wanting to know more. It could be anyone from Fred to the masseuse (Luna Zimic Mijovic) and I have all I need about them, sometimes through as little exposition as possible. What he does like to do though is have heavy monologue and dialogue scenes that come out of nowhere. The fantastic dialogues between Fred and Queen Elizabeth's emissary (Alex Macqueen) and a show stopping sequence between Mick and actress Brenda Morel (Jane Fonda) are amazingly indulgent, but it is an emotional monologue from Rachel Weisz early in the film that caught my attention and reaffirmed for me why she is such a superb actor.

Sorrentino's regular cinematographer Luca Bigazzi returns for a third time and does just a spectacular job making the film beautiful. Where The Great Beauty used the streetscapes of Rome as it setting, the breathtaking vistas of the Swiss Alps are the focus and Bigazzi does an amazing job at showing off these views. Another thing I love about Sorrentino's films are the cutaways he uses between sequences. This time they focused largely on the nightly entertainment for the guests, the bizarre habits of some of the residents and even the scratchy violin practice of a young boy.

Ultimately though, this film is a pretty solid reimagining of The Great Beauty, but made more accessible for an English-speaking audience. This isn't a bad thing however, although I have a feeling a lot of people might see this film and think it is a mash-up of The Grand Budapest Hotel and The Lobster.

The Lobster

Colin Farrell's moustache. Blind Rachel Weisz. A bactrian camel. If this combination of things seems like a no-brainer to you, then you will love The Lobster. This film has the tagline of "an unconventional love story" and I think this is a bit of an understatement. All I can really say in this opening paragraph is that The Lobster is more of an experience than a film.

In a dystopian future where forced encouplement is mandatory, David (Colin Farrell) is sent for a forty-five day stay at a hotel where he must find love within this time period. If he does not, he will be turned into an animal of his choosing. He is able to get more time to complete this by hunting down "loners" (single people who live in the woods) and will get an extra day for every loner captured. He becomes friends with the Lisping Man (John C. Reilly) and the Limping Man (Ben Whishaw). After a violent encounter, David flees the hotel and joins the loners, whose leader (Léa Seydoux) is suspicious of him. He soon falls in love with the Short Sighted Woman (Rachel Weisz).

This is Greek director Yargos Lanthimos' first English language film and it shows. Throughout the film I was wondering whether or not the writer had a grasp of English and apparently not. This, however, does not work against the film at all. Indeed it is quite the opposite. The simple sentences that are present actually makes the dystopian future more disturbing. At the same time it also makes it very funny, especially with the demonstrations on why being single is dangerous. While we're on the subject of dystopias, this one is done really well. We are not told how this future is functioning, we only get revealed to it piece by piece for us to figure out on our own.

The film takes quite a satirical approach to current societal norms, especially that of being in a relationship. Except this takes that expectation to the extreme. A single woman is stopped and searched extensively in a shopping mall. The single people who fail to find a match get released into the wild once they are turned into animals and once in this state they are vulnerable to whatever happens to them.

I'd walk a little faster, but these pants are really tight.

Colin Farrell's straight performance makes this black comedy even funnier than it is. It already has an uneasy comedic quality to it, but once you watch David's acceptance that he must spend the first 24 hours with one hand tied behind his back, you'll be laughing. Even more when the Lisping Man's punishment for masturbating is having his hand burnt in a toaster. These oddball laughs can come out of nowhere, like when the Limping Man decides to suddenly bash his face against the wall to impress the Nosebleed Woman (Jessica Barden).

Colin Farrell is remarkable as David. His somber mood reflects the entire feel of the movie and his acceptance of the world makes you feel comfortable with the entire setting. John C. Reilly is uniquely offbeat with his Lisping Man, but not too far away from his famous character Dr. Steve Brule. Ben Whishaw's desperate performance is great. Rachel Weisz has excellent chemistry with Farrell.

The Lobster will leave you speechless once you've finished watching it. You'll be confused, you'll be amazed. One thing's for sure, you won't forget it.

Oz: The Great and Powerful

Since Judy Garland first explored the land of Oz in 1939, there have been many sequels and various different interpretations of the original. Sometimes ranging from the straightforward (Return to Oz, it is very dark though) to the wacky (Zardoz, Tin Man, The Wiz, the list is endless). Most of these films and  stage performances take place after the events of the original film, in which Dorothy or some other young girl is swept off to the land of Oz.

But Sam Raimi (of Spiderman and Evil Dead fame) has created a story which I have always wondered about. It is that of the titular wizard. Oscar Diggs (James Franco), or Oz, as is his stage name, is working for a traveling circus in Kansas with his assistant Frank (Zach Braff). One stormy afternoon after a show, Oz is confronted by the circus' strongman and escapes via a hot air balloon. However, this balloon proceeds straight into a tornado that transports him to the land of Oz (like there's any other way to get there).

Once there he meets Theodora (Mila Kunis), a witch who lives in the Emerald City with her sister, Evanora (Rachel Weisz). They inform him of the prophecy laid down by the previous ruler, that a wizard would come to claim the throne and defeat the Wicked Witch. Evanora convinces Oz to go and defeat the Wicked Witch and also tells Theodora that Oz has left her for Glinda (Michelle Williams), who we find out is the Good Witch. 

Once Oz discovers that Glinda is a good witch, whose father was murdered by Evanora, she convinces him to help defeat the real threat to the land. Meanwhile, Evanora has given Theodora an enchanted apple that will take away the pain of Oz leaving her. This also transforms her into the Wicked Witch of the West that we all know and love.

Oz must create an army that he will lead to the Emerald City. He does this with the help of his friends Finley (Zach Braff again), a not so scary flying monkey, and China Girl (Joey King), whose story arc is amazingly touching. He also has help from the people of Oz, namely farmers, tinkers and everyone's favourite Munchkins (who are only permitted half a song). They all then march on the Emerald City for the final confrontation with the evil sisters.

It is worth mentioning that the first 15-20 minutes of the film is black and white and is not widescreen. This is a great callback to the original film and, like that one, once the land of Oz is reached, colour and widescreen are restored. There are a number of other references to the original film, such as a cowardly lion and many scarecrows. I was waiting for the trifecta of a Tin Man, but alas there was none.

Also, like in the original film, many of the character's introduced to us in Oz have counterparts in Kansas. Finley is Oz's assistant Frank and China Girl is a wheelchair bound girl who comes to watch Oz's magic show.

One terrifying aspect of this film is the monkeys, as no trip to Oz is complete without them. If you were scared by the flying monkeys of the original, or even the nightmare inducing wheelers from Return to Oz (really horrifying stuff), there is no respite in this movie. Here, they are baboons with giant bat wings and are just plain terrifying.

Verdict: A proper return to Oz, with all the elements of the original film (minus the singing).

This post originally appeared on Mosca Media.