Byron Shire Echo – Issue 28.23 – 12/11/2013

Page 30

MYSTERY ROAD

>>>cinemareview<<< review

Ivan Sen’s new film is set somewhere in the unlovely, unromantic outback, where the car numberplates have no identifying state initials – this is the lost Australia of neglect, disadvantage and wasteful lethargy. Son of a stockman, detective Jay Swan (Aaron Pedersen) returns to his unnamed hometown, where the body of an Indigenous teenage girl has been found out where the big rigs rumble through the desert – her throat slit. The sergeant at the local police station (Tony Barry) is apathetic, prepared to take only the most rudimentary investigative measures. But a story that

might follow the familiar lines established by In The Heat Of The Night (1967) veers away from the classic (and now standard) Poitier versus Steiger racial dichotomy and instead takes us with Jay as he navigates a divided cultural landscape as an unwelcome outsider. To his dismay, he discovers that his own daughter, Crystal, living with Jay’s ex (Tasma Walton), was a close friend of the murdered girl and that she, in all likelihood, was moving in the same shadowy, drugnumbed world. Other coppers are most likely bent, with Hugo Weaving’s shady detective running his own race. The

Baileys (David Field and Ryan Kwanten) own the big cattle station and are hostile redneck roo-shooters. Sen films it without any affectation – but for some beautiful aerial shots, the camera is stationary at all times, getting in tight for numerous character close-ups, and is never hand held, while music is kept to a bare minimum, allowing the soundscape to contribute enormously to the atmospherics (as it should more often). Performances are excellent – Pedersen is especially good as a man becoming exposed to unpalatable truths. Perhaps in keeping with the title, the script is only partially failed by

a lack of cohesion – or binding glue – that results in its many disparate components never quite falling into one piece. Ultimately, there is some crucial information not imparted, because probably of an imprecise edit – Sen might have been advised to not attempt absolutely everything himself. Otherwise fab. ~ John Campbell

on this occasion should not have come as a surprise, for nine times out of ten in anything based on a Marvel comic my eyes glaze over and

my brain wanders as soon as the bad guys are identified. As usual, the back-story tells of a humungous clash between good and evil in the heroic past. Darkness was vanquished, but the villain saved himself and the mysterious black ‘ether’, which he would use again to pursue his dastardly schemes. Then we’ve got Thor (Chris Hemsworth) smiting what look like troglodytes in a swashbucklingly violent but bloodless battle – and this is an anomaly typical of the genre; Thor and his mob can zap through eons of space, but when it comes to armed combat they are still reduced to spears and swords and bows and arrows. In the introductory

stink, Hemsworth (by God, who’s the lucky maiden who’ll bed him, I wondered) brings proceedings to a close when he slays a giant using David’s old trick of slinging a stone into the brute’s head. ‘Why didn’t we just do that in the first place?’ some wag in the ranks calls out – which is exactly what the exhausted viewer might ask at the film’s end (oh, bitter irony). Everybody celebrates at the futuristic gothic castle, eating venison with their hands whilst balancing a couple of pretty wenches on their knees. Cut to a restaurant in today’s London, and there’s Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) with a dag who has no chance of keeping the gorgeous heroine out of

Chris’s arms. There are heaps of punters who love this sort of thing – why else spend $150 million making it – but alas, I’m not one of them. Admittedly,

the rest is the black silence of weightless space. The vacuum is punctuated by the banter of US astronauts working to repair damage to one of the countless telecommunications nodules that orbit the planet. Ryan (Sandra Bullock) is a novice, but Matt (George Clooney) is an old hand. Gradually they come into view and just as their mission seems as banal as taking out the wheelie-bin, Ground Control (voiced by Ed Harris in a nod to Ron Howard’s Apollo 13) commands ‘abort!’ A distant explosion has sent debris hurtling their way. Irreparable damage is done to their base, so they must travel across space to a Russian station. The tension led me at one point to involuntarily hold my breath

in suspense, and the special effects are overwhelming – the tear floating off Ryan’s face is a jewel. Clooney, who has mastered debonair humility, even in a NASA bubble suit, is‌ well, he’s George Clooney and we love him for it, but Bullock, as the central character, carries the weight of the message. Her performance is stunning, from the moment she is set adrift to when she drags herself ashore in the quasi-religious finale, re-born from the egg of her capsule. To understand that, even with our ever-multiplying apps and gizmos, we are no different from prehistoric amphibians is a profound and liberating irony. Fantastic. ~ John Campbell

THOR It can be an awfully long haul when you lose interest in a movie the minute you’ve licked the last sticky bit of choc-top off your fingers. That it happened

TUESDAY

12 NOV to

WEDNESDAY

20 NOV

OPENS THURSDAY

1.00PM, SUN 17 NOV

ENOUGH SAID (M) (No free tix) Thu 14-Sat 16, Mon 18-Wed 20: 12:00, 4:50, 7:10 Sun 17: 12:00, 4:45, 6:50 THE FIFTH ESTATE (M) (No free tix) Thu 14-Sat 16, Mon 18-Wed 20: 9:25am, 4:35, 9:10pm Sun 17: 9:30am, 4:15, 8:50pm MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG (CTC) (No free tix) Sun 17: 1:00pm STORIES WE TELL (M) Tue 12: 1:40, 6:35pm Wed 13: 12:20, 6:30pm Thu 14-Sat 16, Mon 18-Wed 20: 12:05 Sun 17: 12:10pm THE BUTLER (M) Tue 12: 11:00am, 3:55, 8:30pm Wed 13: 9:45am, 3:20, 9:00pm Thu 14-Sat 16, Mon 18-Wed 20: 9:30am, 2:00, 6:50pm Sun 17: 10:15am, 2:00, 6:45pm The Royal Ballet’s: DON QUIXOTE (CTC) (No free tix) Wed 13: 11:00am Enjoy our licensed bar

Lavazza Espresso Coffee

COMING SOON! 21 - 27 NOV

CAPTAIN PHILLIPS (M) Tue 12: 10:45am, 3:20, 9:25pm Wed 13: 10:00am, 12:40, 9:25pm Thu 14-Sat 16, Mon 18-Wed 20: 11:45am, 4:20, 9:00pm Sun 17: 4:20, 9:00pm TIM WINTON’S THE TURNING (MA15+) (No free tix) Tix; $19.00 Movie Club Members / $23.00 Non-members. Tue 12: 1:00, 6:00 Wed 13: 3:00, 6:00 ABOUT TIME (M) Tue 12: 10:30, 8:50 Wed 13: 2:40, 8:45pm Thu 14-Sat 16, Mon 18-Wed 20: 2:20, 9:25 Sun 17: 9:40am, 9:20pm 3D: GRAVITY (M) Tue 12: 4:30, 6:30pm Wed 13: 5:10, 7:05pm Thu 14-Sat 16, Mon 18-Wed 20: 9:50, 2:25, 7:00pm Sun 17: 2:25, 7:00pm 2D: GRAVITY (M) Tue 12: 1:25pm All sessions are correct at the time of publication. Current session times at: www.palacecinemas.com.au Gift cards are the perfect gift

Group Bookings available

108-110 Jonson Street, Byron Bay 6680 8555 | www.palacecinemas.com.au

30 November 12, 2013 The Byron Shire Echo

it was fun to see that old limelighter Anthony Hopkins hamming it up as Odin, with a metal eye patch, no less. ~ John Campbell

GRAVITY It’s an age since I’ve seen a movie as different as this. Longer since I’ve seen one that, if only briefly, helped me look at the world through clearer eyes. Mexican filmmaker Alfonso CuarĂłn already has a distinguished CV (including a ‘Harry Potter’), but with a script co-written by son JonĂĄs, he gives the impression here that he is fulfilling a personal ambition. Naysayers might argue that it is merely another tale of triumphalism against the odds‌ but sometimes our voguish cynicism can be our own worst enemy. The (courageously) longheld opening shot sets a spellbinding tone. A curved segment of blue-shrouded Earth covers part of the screen,

<echowebsection=GigGuide>

invites you to a Lock the Gate ďŹ lm screening

FRACTURED COUNTRY: An Unconventional Wisdom

& UNDERMINING AUSTRALIA: Coal vs Communities

Friday 15th Nov THE DRILL HALL Cakes, Tea & Chai available %PPST QN t 'JMN 5JDLFUT Pre-book Mullumbimby Bookshop

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Byron Shire Echo archives: www.echo.net.au

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Byron Shire Echo – Issue 28.23 – 12/11/2013 by Echo Publications - Issuu