ENTERTAINMENT
CONTINUED FROM p33
HOT SHORTS FOR MULLUM!
SUBOTIKA – LAND OF WONDERS – (BEST OF INTERNATIONAL) SCREENING AT FLICKERFEST 22–24
Celebrating its landmark 25th year, Flickerfest, Australia’s leading Academy Award-accredited and BAFTA-recognised short-film festival, and the country’s largest Australian and international short-film competition, screens the best of shorts from Australia and around the globe; ensuring the presentation of A-list short film programs recognised among the best in the world. Flickerfest screens for 10 days under the summer stars at Bondi Beach over 8–17 January 2016, with selected highlights the most entertaining and innovative short films from around the world touring Australia on a 50+
CULTURE
Come celebrate amazing independent filmmaking in venue national tour over Jan–May Mullumbimby over 22–24 January 2016, with Byron Shire being the first with a glam catered opening stop. Flickerfest is screening for its night party followed by the Best of 18th year in the northern rivers region International Shorts on the Friday in 2016 and will celebrate its landmark night. Saturday afternoon kicks off 25th birthday since the festival’s first with Byron All Shorts local filmmakers ever screening in Balmain Sydney finalists screening showcasing the back in 1991. best from our region, and Saturday night the Best of Australian Shorts The Flickerfest 2016 tour will take light up the screen. place at the new home of the aircooled Mullum Civic Hall, screening Sunday night catch the Byron All a smorgasboard of the world’s and Shorts awards then, sit back and Australia’s best shorts, over one enjoy our global Short Laughs big weekend, handpicked from a Comedy program, comedy record 2,400 entries. Along with the highlights handpicked from Byron All Shorts finalists screening, Flickerfest. In the air-conditioned audiences will experience the best comfort of the Mullumbimby Civic of short films from the Byron region, Hall. For tickets and information go Australia and around the world over to www.iQ.org.au. Tickets are also three cinema-packed days. available at the door.
cinema Reviews BY JOHN CAMPBELL WEDNESDAY
13 JAN to
WEDNESDAY
20 JAN
NOW SHOWING
OPENS THURS
SESSIONS FOR WED 13 JAN TO WED 20 JAN, 2016 CAROL (M) (no free tickets) Thu-Wed (20) 1.00, 2.50, 6.20pm GOOSEBUMPS (PG) (no free tickets) Thu-Wed (20) 9.00, 10.40am THE REVENANT (MA15+) (no free tickets) Wed (13) 3.35, 8.20pm Thu-Wed (20) 1.10, 3.20, 8.40pm
OPENS THURS
POINT BREAK (M) (no free tickets) Wed (13) 3.45, 7.10, 9.20pm Thu-Wed (20) 5.10, 9.30pm JOY (M) Wed (13) 4.50, 9.10pm Thu-Wed (20) 9.25pm SNOOPY AND CHARLIE BROWN: THE PEANUTS MOVIE (G) Wed (13) 9.10am, 1.45pm Thu-Wed (20) 8.45am
STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS (M) Wed (13) 11.10am, 1.00pm, 6.30pm Thu-Wed (20) 10.35, 4.10, 6.50
ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS: THE ROAD CHIP (PG) Wed (13) 9.00, 10.50am Thu-Wed (20) 8.45am
SUFFRAGETTE (M) Wed (13) 11.00, 2.45, 6.10pm Thu-Wed (20) 12.40, 7.25pm
THE GOOD DINOSAUR (PG) Wed (13) 9.00am, 12.40pm Thu-Wed (20) 11.00am
Enjoy our licensed bar
Lavazza Espresso Coffee
Gift cards are the perfect gift
Group Bookings available
108-110 Jonson Street, Byron Bay 6680 8555 | www.palacecinemas.com.au
36 January 13, 2016 The Byron Shire Echo
DADDY’S HOME
There’s a lot to be said for a good low-brow comedy, especially when it pairs the likes of Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg. The upshot often turns out to be smarter than your high-brow cinephile anticipates and, best of all, funny. Before continuing, however, I should come clean – I’ve been a fan of Ferrell’s flabby-gutted iconoclasm since Talladega Nights (2006). Here he has built on the tradition of Clark Griswald’s self-deluded, all-American idiot family-man, without relying quite so heavily as Chevy Case did on transparent goofiness. As Brad, he is the doting stepfather of Sara’s (Linda Cardinelli) two little kids. When Dusty (Wahlberg), the children’s biological father, unexpectedly comes to town the two men find themselves in a battle to be numero uno in their shared family’s hearts. It’s a premise that results in a screenplay that wavers between slapstick and sharp insight to explore the accepted if sometimes silly ideas of what it is that makes a man a man. Brad is four-square reliable, whereas irresponsible Drew rides an enormous Indian motorbike and looks fab without a shirt. Brad’s toolbox consists of a hammer, but Dusty can do anything he puts his hands to. Inevitably, the two arrive at a matey détente, but not before a succession of edgy conflicts; challenging Brad to break out of PC’s straightjacket, Dusty tells him he’s racist if he doesn’t sack a handyman (Hannibal Buress) just because he’s black, but when Brad sacks the handyman he is then accused of racism. There are enough cleverly constructed sight gags to keep things zappy – Brad being briefly pronounced clinically dead after a misadventure on his old skateboard is a scream – while the support cast of Buress, Thomas Haden Church as Brad’s boss and Bobby Cannavale playing an out-there gynaecologist are excellent in their extremes. Typically, little is written for Cardinelli to work with – actresses are generally short-changed in flicks such as this – but the climax is laugh out loud and the self-deprecation heartily welcome.
THE REVENANT
Set in the icy high mountain wilderness of early nineteenth century America, the story, based on real events, tells of Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his determination to seek revenge for a murder committed by fellow fur-trapper John Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy). The through-line, however, concerns an old chief and his Pawnee braves tracking down the white men who have abducted the Indian’s daughter. This surely is intended as a homage to John Ford’s classic The Searchers (1956), only with Mexican director Alejandro G Iñárritu reversing the racial roles to accommodate a latter-day understanding of who the ‘savages’ were in the Wild West. It is an astonishing film of visceral beauty, confronting but never gratuitous violence and haunting animism, similar to Iñárritu’s previous Birdman for its focus on one man’s obsession, but abandoning the former’s wordiness in favour of action and raw physicality. The opening sequence, in which the trappers for whom Glass is acting as guide are set upon by Indians, is riveting in its savagery, but it is then topped when he is attacked by a grizzly bear defending her cubs – the realism of the scene is stunning. Betrayed by Fitzgerald after the main party have headed for the nearest settlement, Glass is left to survive the bitterly cold, untamed environment with only the spirit of his dead Indian bride and mother of his son to sustain him – along with raw fish and buffalo innards. The cinematography of Emmanuel Lubezki, who shot Birdman and is another Mexican, is nothing short of transcendent – rivers, snow-clad forests of towering conifers and craggy rock faces are every bit as evocative and mood-setting as the Broadway of Birdman. For DiCaprio it would have been an exhausting assignment – he sleeps naked inside the carcass of a horse and spends a lot of time in freezing water – but he succeeds manfully, as does Hardy who, in a villainous role, has never been better. This is not a movie for the squeamish, being as bloodcurdling as it is psychologically gruelling, but it should not be missed.
Byron Shire Echo archives: www.echo.net.au/byron-echo