ENTERTAINMENT
cinema Reviews BY JOHN CAMPBELL
WIDE OPEN SKY
It’s important to be reminded occasionally of how cinema can elevate and liberate simply by striking a chord that joins us all as human beings. Lisa Nicol’s splendid doco does exactly that. As Philistine politicians continue to strip funding from arts bodies, national treasures such as Michelle Leonard carry on regardless in their efforts to repel the barbarians from the door. In Michelle’s case, she exposes children in remote and disadvantaged areas of NSW to the wonders of music and, through it, to their own limitless potential. Every year, driving from Brewarrina to Walgett to Lightning Ridge and farther, she auditions scores of school kids for her Moorambilla Voices choir. Those that make the cut are then brought to a camp where they receive intensive training and, critically, formal instruction, before coming together again for the annual Coonamble Festival. Nicol’s camera catches all of the fresh, eager faces, but introduces us more intimately to a handful of the youngsters and their parents. I loved the little Indigenous boy in his blue Origin jersey who has just been taught about music written on the page – ‘now I know all the sharps and… what are the others called?’; the boy who only wants to sing and dance – ‘we tried, but he was never gonna play rugby,’ his mum and dad concede – and who has discovered that there are others like him after all; the girl who needs to be the centre of attention and would like to be a famous country singer; and the inseparable sisters…
THE BFG
At the heart of it all, larger than life, is the exuberant Michelle, repeatedly stressing that learning is a tool that should never be neglected and encouragement the key that should never be ignored. Contrary to the decrees of many limp-wristed educationists, Michelle also insists that competition brings out the best in the boys. She is convinced, and you will be too, that anything is possible. Beautifully shot and edited, this is the sort of movie that moves you to tears of joy. Extraordinary.
One thing that you can bet the sheep station on is that a Steven Spielberg movie will have a happy ending. Jaws is still my favourite, but, besides confronting the holocaust and being obsessed with boys’ own high adventure (yet another ‘Indiana Jones’ has been announced), Spielberg has become a little over-keen on juvenilia. His latest is gorgeous to look at, which we knew it would be, but the CGI far outweighs the content – like so much we see now, it is smoke and mirrors gone mad. It opens with Sophie (Ruby Barnhill) being abducted from a London orphanage by a stooped, balding giant. With ill-lit cobbled streets and two-storey Georgian houses, the mood is Dickensian (the Big Friendly Giant will place ‘Nicholas Nickleby’ on the bed he provides for Sophie), but there are VWs on the roads and Ronnie and Nancy, we later learn, are in the White House. The BFG (Mark Rylance) is a dream-catcher (could anybody possibly believe that a ten-year-old English boy’s ultimate dream is to be called for advice by the US president?), who inhabits a distant land where he is bullied by even bigger giants who are stealing children from the Midlands. Sophie decides to right matters by going to Buck House and asking the Queen (Penelope Wilton) for help. Notwithstanding the American obsequiousness when dealing with the British royalty, this sequence (in which Phil the Greek does not share his wife’s bed) is by far the most amusing – the kids around me got a tremendous kick out of Her Maj farting after drinking a bubbly green drink given to her by the BFG. The corgis are good too, but overall the story is a bit slow moving with no strong moral conundrum driving it. Nor is Spielberg now above selfreference – Sophie reaching out to touch BFG’s finger is ET all over again (which in turn was Michelangelo’s Creation of Adam). Barnhill is cute in a ‘little missy’ way and Rylance is agreeably avuncular but, though visually stunning, it is entirely forgettable.
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The Byron Shire Echo July 6, 2016 43