Showing all posts tagged: film
Shayda by Noora Niasari, Australia’s 2024 Oscar Best International Feature hopeful
6 September 2023
Shayda, trailer, the debut feature of Iranian born, Melbourne based, Australian writer and filmmaker Noora Niasari, has been selected by Screen Australia as Australia’s entry in the Best International Feature category of the 2024 Oscars.
Based in part on Niasari’s own experiences, Shayda recounts the story of an Iranian woman who is forced to seek refuge in a women’s shelter with her young daughter, for two weeks during Nowruz, the Iranian New Year.
Shayda has already won a number of awards, the World Cinema Audience Award among them, after its world premiere at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. While the feature had its Australian premiere at the Melbourne International Film Festival in August, Shayda commences a theatrical season in Australian cinemas on Thursday 5 October 2023.
RELATED CONTENT
film, Noora Niasari, trailer, video
Barbie, highest grossing movie of all time at Palace Cinemas
16 August 2023
While Barbie, Greta Gerwig’s latest feature, has some way to go to become the highest grossing movie of all time — it’s currently ranked twenty-six — it is now the highest grossing movie of all time at Australian film-house chain, Palace Cinemas. Previously, The King’s Speech, made in 2010, by British filmmaker Tom Hooper, had been the biggest selling title at Palace.
RELATED CONTENT
film, Greta Gerwig, Tom Hooper
Dan Ackerman claims Tetris film story copied from his 2016 book
14 August 2023
Book cover of The Tetris Effect, written by Dan Ackerman.
Dan Ackerman, editor-in-chief of design and technology publication Gizmodo, claims in a recent court filing that Apple TV+, producers of the 2023 film Tetris, directed by Jon S. Baird, copied the storyline from his 2016 book, The Tetris Effect. Ackerman further alleges he sent a pre-publication edition of the book to Maya Rogers, CEO of the Tetris Company, and soon after received a cease and letter warning him not to adapt the story for film or television:
Ackerman accused Rogers of working with screenwriter Noah Pink to develop a screenplay using content taken from his book without his knowledge or consent. Apparently, numerous producers showed interest in adapting his book, but the Tetris Company refused to license its IP for the project. “This was done at the direction and behest of Ms. Rogers so that she and the Tetris Company could pursue their own project and opportunities based on Mr. Ackerman’s book without compensating him,” the lawsuit reads.
I wrote about the film last March, but still haven’t had a chance to see it. According to the film’s IMDb page, the screenplay was written by Noah Pink. No mention, at least that I can see, is made of Ackerman, nor The Tetris Effect, there.
RELATED CONTENT
books, Dan Ackerman, film, Jon S. Baird, screen adaptations
Would watching films be more fun if smartphones were banned?
10 August 2023
Image courtesy of Startup Stock Photos.
Blockbusters such as Barbie and Oppenheimer have been a windfall for cinemas struggling as a consequence of the Covid lockdowns of recent years, and stories of packed auditoriums are surely good news.
But the news hasn’t been all good. In staying home to watch movies over the last few years, some film-goers appear to have forgotten their cinema etiquette. Reports have emerged of people taking phone calls, scrolling social media, and, incredibly, giving their children phones to amuse themselves should the main feature not be of interest.
Cripes.
While there might be a generation of young film-watchers to whom cinema-going is a new experience, that cannot be the case for their parents. And it seems only a couple of short years of viewing movies from home have been enough to make some forget how to behave at the movies.
Perhaps though, as people begin to come re-accustomed to seeing a film in a communal setting, their conduct will improve. But I wonder. For some time, years prior to the pandemic, I’d been noticing a change in the behaviour of cinema audiences.
While it now seems to be a granted people will glaze at their phones during a film, I would have thought they’d draw the line at taking, or making, calls during the screening. Of course there have always been issues with people arriving late, going in and out of the auditorium repeatedly, along with being baffled by allocated seating.
But talking on the phone during a movie? That’s a whole other level of film-watching misery.
I wonder though, how much of the audience behaviour problems we see today can be attributed to smartphones, and our umbilical-like dependency on them? In the past I’ve been to film preview screenings where we’ve had to leave our phones outside the auditorium, in a secure locker. This to prevent a yet to be released feature being recorded, and leaked.
For sure, it seemed strange to be temporarily separated from our phones, but I wasn’t aware of anyone suffering adversely as a result. These screenings were quite the spectacle though. Everyone, for the most part, sitting still for the duration, focussed only on the film. Of course most of those present were film critics or journalists, at what was effectively a work event.
Still, it’s tempting, if futile, to conject here. Imagine if everyone had to leave their phones at the box office, prior to sitting down to watch a movie. Sure, there’d still be people turning up late, sitting in someone else’s seat, and opening bags of food in the noisiest way possible. But if music festivals can operate phone-free, why can’t cinemas?
For the benefits, and audience comfort, of phone-free movie sessions though, sadly I can’t see any cinema even dreaming of imposing such a demand on customers. After the last few difficult years, movie house owners would be reluctant to do anything that might dissuade patrons.
Over the course of the pandemic, and the lockdowns, I became quite the fan of streaming films at home. Doing so certainly has downsides, such as the waiting time for some titles to become available for streaming, but at least we can engage in all those irritating film-goer behaviours I’ve described, without annoying anyone else.
RELATED CONTENT
film, movies, smartphones, trends
Barbie by Greta Gerwig earns one billion dollars at box office
10 August 2023
With Barbie, American filmmaker Greta Gerwig has become the first woman director to make a billion dollar earning movie. In addition, Barbie is, so far, just one of nine films to reach the milestone featuring a woman as the main protagonist:
Nine, that is, if you count female fish. Finding Dory (2016) swims in the billion dollar club, along with the animated princesses of Frozen (2013), Frozen II (2019) and Beauty and the Beast (2017). Two mega-franchises managed to spit out a billion-dollar film with women at the story’s heart: Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017) and Captain Marvel (2019). Then, two other billion dollar one-offs: Titanic (1997) and a live-action Alice in Wonderland (2010).
RELATED CONTENT
film, film production, Greta Gerwig
The Rooster, a film by Mark Leonard Winter, with Hugo Weaving
8 August 2023
A scene from The Rooster, a film by Mark Leonard Winter.
The Rooster, trailer, is the debut feature of Australian actor turned filmmaker Mark Leonard Winter, starring veteran actor Hugo Weaving, and Phoenix Raei. The Rooster had its world premiere on Saturday 5 August 2023, at the Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF). This sounds like a brooding, atmospheric, Australian feature not to be missed:
Dan (Raei, Below, MIFF Premiere Fund 2019; Clickbait) works in a remote police outpost in regional Victoria, but when a childhood friend is discovered dead following an incident at the local high school, his judgement and credentials are thrown into question. Consumed with guilt and suspended from the force, Dan decides to camp out in the forest, where he encounters a cranky jazz-listening, shotgun-toting, ping-pong-obsessed misanthrope (Weaving, Lone Wolf, MIFF Premiere Fund 2021; Measure for Measure, MIFF Premiere Fund 2019). At first transactional, this bond soon becomes transformative for the broken men. But, surrounded by trees, far away from any trace of civilisation, is everything really as it seems?
I’m still looking for details about a wider theatrical release for The Rooster, but it will screen several times during MIFF, between now and Sunday 13 August 2023.
RELATED CONTENT
Australian film, film, Mark Leonard Winter
Have film influencers killed off insightful film critique?
3 August 2023
London based film writer Manuela Lazić, writing for The Guardian:
If the internet has paved the way for the devaluation of cinema via streaming platforms, it has also done the same for film criticism. The democratising effect is undeniable, but so is the cheapening one, literally and figuratively. With so many more people writing about cinema online, fees for reviews have fallen to shockingly low levels and the expertise supposedly required of film critics has been forgotten – knowledge of the film history and good writing skills are less and less valued.
Once, many years ago, during a regrettable stint working in the corporate sector, I was called into division wide meeting by my boss. The CEO, whom my boss reported to directly, wanted to conduct a staff survey. The CEO was — so he said — keen to learn what people thought about working at the company. My boss was clearly terrified at what might be said, and sought to steer our thinking.
“I think it’s great of the CEO to offer us this opportunity to speak our minds, and accordingly, I think we should be positive,” he said, trying, but failing, to sound as matter-of-fact as possible. Whether he missed my colleagues and I side-eyeing each other, or only pretended to, I don’t know. My frazzled boss though was able to rest easy. A few days later it was announced the survey was being delayed, and that was the last anyone heard of it.
But the takeaway was clear. When asked to offer honest feedback, always be complimentary.
Ten years ago, I was being invited to film preview screenings left, right, and centre. I was, according to a marketer at one of the promotions agencies I was “partnering” with, an influencer. But I wasn’t an influencer, and I certainly wasn’t a film critic, even though I wrote a bit about some of the films I saw. What I did have though was a website, the content of which, at the time, ranked quickly and well, on certain search engines.
There it was: I was an asset. If I were to write about a film, chances were the review would be near the top of the search results. Now if only I could write positively about that film. Perhaps the excitement, the extravaganza, of being at the local premiere, where food was abundant, the alcohol flowed, and the stars were in attendance, would entice me to say something nice. Well, sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t. But I can’t say I didn’t enjoy the hoopla of it all.
Generally though, I heard little back from the agencies, regardless of what I wrote. It was apparent, from my web stats reports, that some of them looked, but that was all. A bad write up didn’t see me struck off the invite list. But times have changed it seems. All a would-be influencer cum film critic can expect today when being asked to review a film, is a free ticket to the show. Gone is the red carpet, the bubbly, and the assorted “free” gifts. Gone also are tickets to the next event, if a favourable social media post is not forthcoming.
An incentive, if ever there were one, to be complimentary, and positive.
And that’s it. That’s the way film reviews roll in the third decade of the twenty-first century, particularly where the big budget blockbusters are concerned. Experienced film critics seem to no longer be part of the process, or if they are, their thoughts are relegated to the fringes where few paying cinema-goers venture. Social media, and influencers, and a world where negative reviews never see the light of day: what a boon that’s been for the blockbuster film industry.
RELATED CONTENT
Sigrid Thornton joins the Australian Film Walk of Fame
27 July 2023
Melbourne based Australian actor Sigrid Thornton was last night inducted onto the Australian Film Walk of Fame, at a ceremony at the Ritz Cinema, in Randwick, Sydney, where the Walk of Fame is located. Similar to the Hollywood Walk of Fame, on Hollywood Boulevard, in California, Australian actors are likewise honoured by a star embossed emblem on the footpath outside the Ritz Cinema.
Thorton’s prolific acting career, in film, television, and stage, spans five decades. Her film credits include The Getting of Wisdom, Snapshot, The Man From Snowy River, Face To Face (which I wrote about here), and Slant, the 2022 debut feature of Australian filmmaker James Vinson.
Thornton joins other acclaimed Australian actors who have a star on the Walk, including Deborah Mailman, Leah Purcell, Gary Sweet, Roy Billing, and Claudia Karvan.
RELATED CONTENT
Australian film, film, Sigrid Thornton
Barbie nukes Oppenheimer on opening weekend in America
24 July 2023
Still from Barbie, a film by Greta Gerwig.
But all of these box-office taking numbers are staggering:
One of the prime records Barbie is breaking this weekend is the best domestic start for a movie helmed by a female director, with $155M. That figure beats 2019’s Captain Marvel, which was co-helmed by Anna Boden and had a $153M start. Globally, at an estimated $337M, Barbie is the second-best start for a movie from a female after Captain Marvel, which did $456.7M. Big numbers: the entire global haul for Gerwig’s awards-blockbuster crossover 2019 title, Little Women, was $218.8M.
I can’t say I’m surprised, and I think Barbie-mania was as big a thing in Australia as it was the United States. There was no missing the groups of young women and girls especially, adorned in pink, who were on their way to, or from, seeing Barbie at the movies. And this in a small town a couple of hours drive north of Sydney, where we’ve been the last few days.
The numbers for Barbie’s opening rival, the Christopher Nolan made Oppenheimer, are still impressive though. I wonder if the J. Robert Oppenheimer bio-pic will pick up on the long tail what it might have missed on the opening weekend.
Update: here are the Australian box office numbers for last weekend, the period Thursday 20 July through to Sunday 23 July 2023. Movies typically open on Thursdays in Australia (because, who wants to go to the movies on a Friday), hence the four day reporting period. Whatever, you can see Barbie well out in front of Oppenheimer.
RELATED CONTENT
Christopher Nolan, film, Greta Gerwig
Napoleon, a bio-pic by Ridley Scott, parles-tu Francais?
24 July 2023
Still from Napoleon, a film by Ridley Scott.
British filmmaker Ridley Scott takes on the life of French military leader, and former emperor of the French Empire, Napoleon Bonaparte, in his new bio-pic feature, Napoleon. American actor Joaquin Phoenix stars in the lead role, along with Vanessa Kirby as Josephine, Napoleon’s wife, and Catherine Walker portraying the doomed Marie-Antoinette.
Although the majority of characters in Napoleon are French, the cast speaks in English, or at least they do in the film’s trailer. One detail though that has rankled some film commentators, is Phoenix’s seemingly unabashed American accent, a stark contrast to the predominantly British accents employed by the rest of the cast.
I can’t say I detected Phoenix’s American accent, or any particular accent for that matter, when I watched the trailer. I was more focussed on trying to comprehend what Phoenix’s Napoleon was saying, full stop, something Allegra Frank, writing for The Daily Beast, also picked up on:
It takes until the 35-second mark for us to hear Napoleon speak at all, with the trailer mostly cutting to him slightly parting his lips and staring ahead. But then we hear Phoenix mumble quietly for the first time, while facing down a rival army: “I promise you a billion successes.” At least, I think he says “billion;” his take on Napoleon is terrible at enunciating.
Napoleon opens in Australian cinemas on Thursday 23 November 2023, according to Flicks Australia.
RELATED CONTENT