ENTERTAINMENT CONTINUED FROM p55
CULTURE
STILL FROM HALFBEARD, SCREENING AT FLICKERFEST AT MULLUM CIVIC HALL 22–24 JANUARY
FLICKERFEST COMES TO MULLUM
being the first stop. The Flickerfest 2016 tour will take place at the new home of Mullum Civic Hall, screening a smorgasboard of the Celebrating its landmark 25th world’s and Australia’s best shorts year, Flickerfest, Australia’s leading over one big weekend handpicked Academy award-accredited and from a record 2,400 entries. Come BAFTA-recognised short film celebrate amazing independent festival, and the country’s largest filmmaking in Mullumbimby over Australian and international short 22–24 January with a glam catered film competition, screening the opening-night party followed by best of shorts from Australia and the Best of International Shorts on around the world for their 2016 Friday night; Saturday kicks off with festival. Flickerfest screens for 10 days our Byron All Shorts local filmmaker under the summer stars at Bondi finalists screening showcasing the Beach in January 2016, with selected best from our region and afterwards highlights of the most entertaining our Best of Australian Shorts light and innovative short films from up the screen. On Sunday night sit around the world touring Australia back and enjoy our global Short on a 50+ venue national tour over Laughs Comedy program highlights Jan–May 2016, with Byron Shire handpicked from across the festival.
Local Mullumbimby residents Flickerfest director Bronwyn Kidd and tour manager Shane Rennie are thrilled to be bringing the festival home to their own town and look forward to sharing some incredible festival highlights with their local region. Among an amazing array of highlights this year is a delightful locally produced comedy film, Nan and a Whole Lot of Trouble shot
at Tullera, Lismore, and Wardell and produced by local resident Lois Randall, directed by awardwinning Indigenous director Dena Curtis, will have its world premiere at Flickerfest Sydney in the Academy-accredited Australian competition and its northern rivers premiere at Flickerfest on tour. (Don’t miss this one-off chance to see this and other amazing shorts before they continue
cinema Reviews
BY JOHN CAMPBELL
their journey around the world; curated from the Flickerfest competition screenings at Bondi; expect to experience the best in short filmmaking Australia and the world have on offer. Watch the Flickerfest 2016 Tour Trailer: vimeo.com/flickerfest/ flickerfest2016tourtrailer. Visit: www.iQ.org.au for full program, info & tickets (also avail at door). Flickerfest Mullum is a fundraiser for the Island Quarry Arts and Eco Reserve.
LEGALLY BLONDE IN BALLINA The madly popular movie Legally Blonde was the inspiration for the family-friendly version Legally Blonde Jr, this January’s Ballina Players youth musical. It tells the story of Elle Woods (Jamaika Smith), blonde, beautiful and obsessed with the colour pink. Before her boyfriend Warner (Finley
Black) heads off to Harvard and rejects her to find someone more ‘serious’. Elle is determined to gain entry to Harvard Law and prove him wrong about her. She can be both blonde and a ‘serious’ wiz at law! Much of the story is told in song, and numbers such as Omigod and So Much Better are already favourites. The musical’s sense of humour as well as catchy lyrics and its themes of self-empowerment and open-mindedness make Legally Blonde Jr fun for young performers as well as young audiences. A cast of 27 young people aged from ten to eighteen bring it to the stage. Jaime Sheehan is responsible for the lively and colourful choreography. This the eighteenth show Jaime has choreographed for the Players, and she first performed with them at age fourteen. Jaime is an outstanding product of the Ballina Players’ policy of providing experience for young people and encouraging them to continue in all areas of theatre arts. Legally Blonde Jr, directed by Mike and Jaime Sheehan, will be staged at the Players Theatre from January 15 to 24. Evening performances will commence at 7pm and matinees at 2pm. WEDNESDAY
30 DEC to
WEDNESDAY
6 JAN
THE GOOD DINOSAUR SUFFRAGETTE What kid doesn’t love dinosaurs to start with? They have fascinated little brains for time out of mind, so the concept of their surviving instead of becoming extinct as a result of an asteroid’s collision with Earth is a delicious one to conjure with (the shot of the asteroid soaring by as the mighty creatures graze is strangely moving). Because Disney/Pixar animations have been a constant source of enjoyment and stimulation for me over the years, my disappointment with this was probably even more pronounced than it might otherwise have been. Had I noticed it beforehand, the PG rating would have provided a clue, for this is a film of confronting and discomforting imagery – it’s joyless in a way that you don’t expect (or maybe I’d over-indulged in the De Bortoli and tiramisu the night before). There is more darkness and danger – savagery, even – than most parents might normally want their ankle-biters to deal with and, for all its clear-stated elevation of companionship and home, it never really delivers the feel-good finale, notwithstanding Jeff and Mychael Danna’s typically heartbooming score. It’s a big bad world out there, so it could be argued that exposing children to life’s tougher side is doing them a service, but if the subdued mood in the cinema at the session I attended is anything to go by, the lesson is proving to be a bitter pill to swallow. Arlo, the green Apatosaurus, after losing his father in harrowing circumstances, is befriended by Spot, an orphaned caveboy in the Mowgli mould, who helps Arlo find his way back to his family. The animation of the environment in which the action takes place is gorgeous, but the drawing of Arlo is decidedly unoriginal, as are those of most of the creatures. The pacing is often hectic, with too much emphasis on fights, but really, Velociraptors off their face on ice is about as charmless as a kids’ flick can get. Let’s hope the upcoming Peanuts restores brightness and humour to cartoonland.
North Coast news daily: www.echonetdaily.net.au
Let me say at the outset – the suffragette movement in Britain at the beginning of the twentieth century was a hugely important story of liberation. It is unconscionable to us today that women should be denied the vote because of their sex, so the campaign of Emmeline Pankhurst and her followers was of unarguable significance… but, at the risk of being branded a misogynist, the movie it has spawned is curiously dull and without vigour. The central character is Maude Watts (Carey Mulligan), a laundry worker who is (to coin a current term) ‘radicalised’ by the ideology of Pankhurst’s fearless feminism. That the ubiquitous Meryl Streep was hired to play Pankhurst probably had more to do with the producers’ need to find a name that would draw an audience in the US, for, despite her gravitas, La Streep does little more than mouth high-minded platitudes – ‘never surrender’. The hulking menace of Brendan Gleeson is in the mix as the government’s ‘counter terrorism’ troubleshooter, Helena Bonham Carter is cast less than inspiringly as the head of the ‘cell’ to which Maude is drawn and the palely loitering Ben Whishaw gets a start as Maude’s unsupportive husband. All of them combined, however, are upstaged by Adam Michael Dodd who, as Maude’s little boy, George, breaks your heart in an incredibly moving separation scene. Otherwise, director Sarah Gavron’s penchant for hand-held closeups has a numbing effect, especially when combined with an unrelenting sombre palette and one-paced, episodic edit. The period (pre WWI) is beautifully created – especially when out and about in the streets of London – the occasions of public melee convincingly executed and the dreadful incident of Emily Davison’s Derby Day martyrdom hammers home the point – but there remains an emotional disconnect that is made startlingly clear by the B&W archival footage of the thousands of people who lined the streets for Davison’s funeral. Those couple of minutes at the end make all that precede them appear to be self-conscious artiness. It’s an education, for sure, but it could have been much better.
YES, WE ARE OPEN ON NEW YEAR’S DAY!
OPENS FRIDAY!
NOW SHOWING
POINT BREAK (M) (no free tix) Fri-Wed (6) 3.50, 6.50, 9.10pm SNOOPY AND CHARLIE BROWN: THE PEANUTS MOVIE (G) Fri-Wed (6) 9.15, 11.15am SUFFRAGETTE (M) (no free tix) Wed (30)/Thu 1.30, 4.45, 7.00pm Fri-Wed (6) 12.30, 4.50, 7.00pm ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS: THE ROAD CHIP (PG) (no free tix) Wed (30)/Thu 9.30, 11.30am Fri-Wed (6) 9.00, 10.45am THE GOOD DINOSAUR (PG) (no free tix) Wed (30)/Thu 9.40, 11.50am, 6.00pm Fri-Wed (6) 9.20, 11.30, 1.40pm Enjoy our licensed bar
Lavazza Espresso Coffee
OPENS FRIDAY!
JOY (M) (no free tix) Wed (30) 3.20, 8.15 Thu 10.00, 3.20pm Fri-Wed (6) 2.30, 9.05pm STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS (M) Wed (30) 12.35, 2.00, 3.45, 6.30, 9.15pm Thu 12.30, 2.00, 3.45, 6.30pm Fri-Wed (6) 1.20, 4.05, 6.15, 9.00 HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY PART 2 (M) Wed (30) 9.20pm LAST DAY! SPECTRE (M) Wed (30) 9.35am LAST DAY!
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108-110 Jonson Street, Byron Bay 6680 8555 | www.palacecinemas.com.au
The Byron Shire Echo December 30, 2015 37