BRANNAVAN GNANALINGAM reports from the Wellington Film Society. This week: hazy days; a film society toast.

TEEN COMEDIES seem to be one of the few Hollywood genres that don’t necessarily need antagonists, or even a proper climax. I guess it’s frequently filtered through the lens of nostalgia, and not many people have teenage lives like Edith Piaf or Jim Carroll. Richard Linklater’s Dazed and Confused basically has no antagonists, and barely has a climax, but it does feel a bit different. It eschews the traditional misty-eyed view of childhood (or disastrous view of childhood) and instead offers a pseudo-realist take which feels incredibly evocative of adolescence and the end of school. It’s simply a day in the life – teenage kids hanging out, getting drunk, talking smack (the word “man” is said over two hundred times in the film), doing weed, wondering whether to grow up, wondering if they’re going to be the same as the bullies. The usual – and Linklater was too smart to simply fall back on basic stereotypes that most teen comedies in the 90s relied on thanks to John Hughes.

The Authorised Daggography; R4
Astronought, AU$29.95 | Reviewed by Andy Palmer

FRED DAGG on DVD! What more needs to be said? I have vague recollections of Fred on the telly in my younger years, though I’m unsure how many of those memories were created after the fact watching various programmes showing edited Dagg highlights. Or listening to the family copy of his “Greatest Hits” LP thinking it was pretty funny even though I didn’t get all the jokes, and didn’t understand why there were so many Trevors.

Out of India, GAUTAMAN BHASKARAN considers the current Indian and Bollywood Cinema.

THE International Film Festival of India begins at Panaji in Goa on November 23 with a Cannes Golden Palm winner, Romania’s 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days. Helmed by Cristian Mungiu, the movie dramatises the horror and dilemma of two university students, one forced to abort her child and other trying to help her do that during the stifling dictatorship of Nicolae Ceausescu. Through stark images, Mungiu builds up the tension the two girls face in a regime where abortion is a crime. Termed “pitch-perfect” and “brilliantly acted” by Variety, the film often conveys unbearable suspense without undue political sentimentality. That the suspense does not eventually lead up to unpleasant or frightening consequences may be seen by some as somewhat flat or even disappointing. But Mungiu’s remarkable ability to achieve precisely that can also be seen as an eloquent testimony of his directorial genius.

Guest columnist DR. SAPNA SAMANT considers the current Indian and Bollywood Cinema.

DIWALI has come and gone. As is tradition every year there is a filmi dhamaka with all the goodwill, cheer and disposable income. Gold at Dhanteras, gambling at Laxmi Pujan, new clothes, sweetmeats, bakshish and, this year, a double filmi dhamaka over the holiday weekend. The Bombay film industry released two of its biggest blockbuster movies Om Shanti Om (OSO) and Saawariya this Diwali. Big films, many expectations. The rumours, one-upmanship games and post-mortems had begun even before the films were out. Which trailer is better, who has got more money through overseas sales, whose music is superior etc etc. We Indians love our films and disregard all this talk because it is us, the public, that decides what is good and bad. This public cannot be taken for a ride because yeh public sab janti hai. Acchi picture hai ke bakwas. This Diwali we came back with the verdict in the first week itself. If both films were good the crowds would have seen both but there is only one winner this Diwali.

In an ongoing series, TIM WONG scouts for new and elusive films that either have fallen off the radar, or are yet to see the light of day in New Zealand.

BRINGING together Hal Hartley and Parker Posey for this left-of-field sequel to Henry Fool is not the continuing saga of a garbageman-turned-poet laureate and his rogue mentor of letters, but the conspicuous dutch angle, common ground for two off-kilter indie favourites whose screen idiosyncrasies appear to miraculously converge at the tilt of a camera. Channelling The Third Man, Hartley goes dutch in his latest – a peculiar espionage thriller branched from the corridors of the literary world – shooting the entire movie at approximately nine degrees, and of the cast it’s only Posey who really seems at home. A chameleon of various shades of crazy, framing her on the slant makes perfect sense – both as a metaphor for the actress and an affectionate ode to her cult.

BRANNAVAN GNANALINGAM responds to Californication’s agitation of Family First, “newly self-appointed moral guardians of New Zealand” who this week called for the boycott of companies prepared to advertise during the show’s commercial breaks.

BRANNAVAN GNANALINGAM reports from the Wellington Film Society. This week: spy games, part deux.

The House on 92nd Street proved so successful that Fox commissioned the exact same crew to further glorify another American war-time organisation, the Office of Strategic Services (essentially a forerunner of the 1947 founded CIA). 13 Rue Madeleine features a double-crossing German spy, war-time intrigue surrounding the D-Day invasion, and of course, the inimitable James Cagney.

Reviewed by Darren Bevan

WHEN YOU think serial killers, I’m willing to bet a number of iconic figures spring to mind – Hannibal Lecter, Freddy, Jason etc – but I’m also willing to bet you don’t think any character played by Kevin Costner. (Although you probably would be forgiven for thinking he’d murdered a lot of his own characters as he portrayed them in his previous celluloid efforts.)

Now in its third incarnation, the DOCNZ Documentary Film Festival reaches its final leg this week, in Wellington until November 21. In the topical stakes are two highlights: the Leonardo DiCaprio-fronted, global warming doomsday pamphlet The 11th Hour, and the Spike Lee-directed Hurricane Katrina requiem When the Levees Broke, which BRANNAVAN GNANALINGAM previews in his essay Spike Lee’s Territory. Elsewhere, ALEXANDER BISLEY picks six essentials from the 91 documentaries on display:

» When the Levees Broke
» My Country, My Country
» The 11th Hour
» What Would Jesus Buy?
» Lovely Rita
» Orange Revolution

The full programme is available online at docnz.org.nz.

BRANNAVAN GNANALINGAM examines the racial landscape traversed by Spike Lee, from Do The Right Thing through to When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts, screening as part of this year’s DOCNZ Documentary Film Festival.

Reviewed by David Levinson

AS A SUBMISSION of star vanity to global wear-and-tear, A Mighty Heart falls somewhere between the moronic campaigning of The Kingdom (where nothing comes between Jamie Foxx and his shades, yo) and the cool trance of The Bourne Ultimatum (whose kinetic submergence of Matt Damon led David Denby to compare him to a “bullet”). Of course, the million-dollary baby floating Winterbottom’s dip into a cracked melting pot is none other than Angelina Jolie – here doing her best to hide her public image behind a tangle of black jerri curls, unshapely frocks, and the quiet commitment to a serious starring role.

BRANNAVAN GNANALINGAM reports from the Wellington Film Society. This week: spy games.

ADMITTEDLY, The House on 92nd Street has dated pretty badly. It’s the type of jingoistic, naďve, chest-beater that looks so out of place in today’s cynical times. And given most modern audiences comfort in tech-heavy espionage tales, whether this thriller thrills is also a moot point. Nevermind, it’s a fascinating viewpoint into the almost post-war United States, and you feel that the enemies depicted in this film trying to steal American secrets are less-Nazis but rather the soon-to-be dreaded Reds.

Reviewed by Tim Wong

A SCRAP YARD of subgenre and pop-cultural hoardings, Quentin Tarantino’s oeuvre resembles a scavenged cinema. Bookmarked in films of incessant referential worship, his findings, in the trappings of Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown, and especially Kill Bill, make for hyperbolic, at times exhilarating expressions of film obsession; as fan-boy compendiums, they’re also responsible for the thousands of impressionably bad student movies to emerge since. What’s ironic is that Tarantino should look to turn over a new leaf within the skin of the now-defunct Grindhouse double-bill – a two-for-one throwback to the exploitation programmes of American drive-ins and seedy Times Square theatres – because Death Proof, for all its retrograde gestures, distinguishes itself as his most authentic feature to date.

Reviewed by Simon Sweetman

THIS NEW Kiwi film is released nationwide November 8. And you need to see it. Why? Because you’re a New Zealander and this could have happened to you! Or because you’re a New Zealander and this could happen to someone you know! Thank god the director didn’t take that approach. But it could have been one way to present the material.

Reviewed by Darren Bevan

Venus is not what you’d expect – written by Hanif Kureishi who caused outrage with the Buddha of Suburbia back in the UK, it’s a bittersweet tale of a dying actor who manages to find some solace in the folly of youth.