Category: Short Film Review

THE BIFF IS BACK – BIFF 2018 PART I – SPECIAL PREVIEW SCREENING OF ‘WOMAN AT WAR’ REVIEW AVAILABLE ON WEEKEND NOTES

Posted on by Lloyd Marken

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Long time readers will recall the affection I hold for my hometown film festival. We lost BIFF for a little while there 2014-2016 and I planned to write of my fond memories of it when it suddenly came back last year thanks in no small part to Palace Cinemas. Now having gone out to tender, it is back this year with a new home base at the Gallery of Modern Art and a new Artistic Director in Amanda Slack-Smith but we will always owe a debt to the Zeccolas for their part in bringing BIFF back in 2017. Palace Cinemas are not venue partners for BIFF this year instead a wide range of cinemas are involved including New Farm cinemas which held the first Brisbane Film Festival back in the 1960s.

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Seen recently at New Farm Cinemas. Copyright Lloyd Marken.

Karen won tickets through local rag and BIFF Sponsor The Courier Mail to attend a special preview screening at GOMA the day before opening night. We were welcomed by the Artistic Director to watch Woman At War from Iceland. The whole event had that air of being let in on a little secret and getting a sneak peek of what was to come. The atmosphere was warm and friendly and full of mutual love for cinema. A perfect way to kick off the film festival before “kicking off” the film festival, whoever came up with the idea should pat themselves on the back.

At the entrance to GOMA. Copyright Lloyd Marken
Copyright Lloyd Marken
Karen and I before the movie. Copyright Lloyd Marken

 

You can read more of my thoughts here https://www.weekendnotes.com/woman-at-war-film-review-brisbane-international-film-festival-2018/ with a review I have had published with a new sixth publication Weekend Notes.

Weekend Notes are a growing online magazine with a wealth of contributors based out of several cities across the United Kingdom, Australia and New York. Articles are leisure related and can include a wide variety of subjects from rainforest hikes to cultural festivals, from what hot new play is on at your underground theatre to a ultra trendy eatery. Writers are paid for their work based partly on how many views their articles get so please feel free to stop by and show some love.

-Lloyd Marken

 

‘FIRST MAN’ REVIEW AVAILABLE ON SCENESTR MAGAZINE

Posted on by Lloyd Marken

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I am proud and happy with my review for the movie First Man and would love to hear what you think of the review and the film. I was lucky enough to get the opportunity to attend a preview screening two weeks ago for Scenestr magazine and I have been eagerly awaiting the publication of the review to see how it would go.

The Oscar race is amongst us and I’m not sure how First Man will fare as the race goes on and more contenders are released. The appeal of the film is tough to market too and may explain that the film opened this weekend below expectations box office wise. So I feel its important to get the word out in my own small corner of the internet that this film is good, damn good. You can read my review here http://scenestr.com.au/movies-and-tv/first-man-review-20181011 and if you like it please feel free to give it some social media love. God when did I become such a shill? But people sometimes tell me to be more confident so let me say with confidence I’m pretty happy with this one, yeah I was pretty happy with the Cher review too but that doesn’t always happen so let me know what you think.

Produced by Eyeball Media Enterprises Scenestr is an online national magazine with local offices around Australia. Celebrating 25 years in 2018 of publishing history they’ve excelled at moving into the digital realm but they remain at heart from the streets. They still publish magazines in print for Western Australia, South Australia, New South Wales, Queensland and now Victoria! every month too.

-Lloyd Marken

ITALIAN FILM FESTIVAL OPENING NIGHT FEATURING ‘LORO’ REVIEW AVAILABLE ON SCENESTR

Posted on by Lloyd Marken

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The first time I went to the Italian Film Festival was in 2008 and I asked Karen to come see with me Giorno E Nuvole – Days and Clouds (2007). In the heady first weeks of dating Karen and I did not care for the film and did not care that we did not care for it. Just another date that’s real purpose was for us to be together. Centred around a well off middle aged couple declining to harder living conditions as the employment of the well establish husband is radically altered. Depressing and heartbreaking and all too real in the aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis. One thing that still remains with me years later is the power of the lead actress Margherita Buy.

 

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In 2009 we decided to play it safer and went with Michael Winterbottom’s Genova starring Colin Firth as the father of two daughters and a widow who moves to Italy as an academic to provide a seachange. Well intentioned, with beautiful scenery and thoughtfulness it still proved for the most part unengaging to us.

 

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Not trusting our own judgement we deferred to our friends in 2011 who had made good selections in the past for the French Film Festival and went to see Habemus Papum – We Have A Pope. Coming off a 10 minute standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival that moved director Nanni Moretti to tears something must have been lost in translation because I laughed nor cried but I did fall asleep on the lazy sunday afternoon screening we went to.

This is no reflection on the film festival itself, if you look at the programs for the years we went you will see universally acknowledged modern classics and crowd pleasers. It seems we just had a bad run of luck or made poor decisions for own tastes. Following the wonderful opportunity to interview Palace CEO Benjamin Zeccola last year for Scenestr magazine about the 2017 Italian Film Festival, I thought for sure I would take him up on one of his recommendations and see maybe a comedy like War for Love but alas circumstances kept us from the film festival last year too.

This year the opportunity to attend opening night for Scenestr magazine came up and having had such a wonderful last year at the Brisbane opening night for the Cine Latino Film Festival I couldn’t wait to take Karen with me this time. The film was Loro, directed by Paolo Sorrentino who made easily one of my favourite films of 2015 Youth along with the fantastic This Must Be The Place (2011) and The Great Beauty (2013), the latter I watched in anticipation of seeing Loro. Loro is easily the best film Karen and I have seen at the Italian Film Festival and an interesting film that holds your attention for the most part. It re-teams Sorrentino with Toni Servillo who gives a fantastic performance as the magnetic Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. The opening half an hour becomes tedious despite its fireworks visuals and editing as it focusses on another character but when Servillo arrives the film grips. Upon reflection thought it comes across as some great ideas but lacking in overall vision. I suspect this is intended but I can’t say that excuses the lack of discipline. You can read more of my thoughts here http://scenestr.com.au/movies-and-tv/loro-italian-film-festival-brisbane-opening-night-review-20180921 but I cannot deny that the film lingers and Sorrentino remains one of my favourite directors to watch.

 

Before the movie in foyer of Palace Barracks. Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Karen! Copyright Lloyd Marken.
With my Italian silk tie from my sister. Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Copyright Lloyd Marken.
A view of the crowd. Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Lavazza Italian Film Festival. Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Palace Barracks Cinemas. Copyright Lloyd Marken.

 

As for opening night itself, Karen and I had a wonderful time. There was a cheese table that had many a party goer hovering nearby, a live band, much wine and tasty h’orduvres making the rounds as the 2018 Lavazza Italian Film Festival kicked off in style. Grabbing our goodies bag though Karen and I eventually had to make our way home for me to start on my review. Our luck at the Italian Film Festival is definitely improving and there are plenty of wonderful films to check out this year yet.

Produced by Eyeball Media Enterprises, Scenestr is an online national magazine with local offices around Australia. Celebrating 25 years in 2018 of publishing history they’ve excelled at moving into the digital realm but they remain at heart from the streets. They still publish magazines in print for WA, SA, NSW, Vic and QLD every month. If you’re into music they’re a great read but they do cover all of the arts including festivals, stand-up comics, fashion, theatre and film. I feel very fortunate to get to write for them.

-Lloyd Marken

THE BIFF IS BACK – BIFF 2017 PART IV

Posted on by Lloyd Marken

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THAT’S NOT ME: This little Australian film directed by Gregory Erdstein is the kind of little local film that can be championed by home country festivals and boost them towards international deals. One of Karen’s picks I was still happy to go along and had solid hopes. If you’re keeping score all of Karen’s choices came a cropper and mine didn’t fare much better but I picked the best film of 2017 so there’s that. Karen still stands by The Party and I still don’t think it’s that great. We saw this film at Palace Centro Cinema 7, Thursday night at 6pm 31AUG2017 and grabbed some chow from a nearby Italian restaurant after.

Co-written and co-produced by star Alice Foulcher, who plays dual roles of aspiring actress Polly and her twin Amy also an actress who gets a big break and is off to Hollywood. Specialising in the kind of awkward understated character driven humour that Ricky Gervais made an industry out of, I admired a lot in this film but can’t say I really enjoyed it. I admired the work from Foulcher and the rest of the cast, to be natural in their performances and to play their roles as imperfect humans.

I liked the low production values that still lit atmospherically backyard townhouse parties favoured by young broke artists getting older every day. I liked how it was shot in L.A. and Victoria and showed how clearly without the 35mm film lenses of my childhood Hollywood more and more is just another pretty Pacific Ocean town not too different from where I live. As a comedy though I seldom laughed and as a character piece I found it more and more challenging to get caught up in the plight of this flawed character no matter how honest and real she was written and performed.

 

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AUSTRALIA DAY: Those who follow my blog will recall I covered with some excitement getting to review this film at BIFF for Scenestr magazine. Australia Day screened at 6pm, Palace Barracks Cinema 1 Saturday 02SEP2017 with BIFF 2017 closing down the following day. It turned out to be a great way to finish off BIFF 2017 with a good local film made here in Brisbane. As “press” I got to mingle at a party beforehand and by mingle I mean stand and chat to my wife. I did notice Hornblower himself – Iaon Gruffudd was present. BIFF 1.jpgAfter the film there was a Q&A with some cast, producers and director Kriv Stenders who also made the excellent closing night film of BIFF 2017 The Go-Betweens: Right Here which I later saw at Byron Bay. Kriv Stenders is one of the great modern directors of Australian cinema and the producers were local boys, of Hoodlum Productions, who had done good and were making their first feature film. Karen and I went to Libertines again afterwards for delicious crab sliders and other favourites where I noticed them celebrating with loved ones.

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Libertines on the night of 2nd of September, 2017. Copyright Lloyd Marken.

You can read more of my recap of events here and my review of the film here but suffice to say it was a great way to end our attendance at the Brisbane International Film Festival 2017. Australia Day was a moving energetic film perhaps not subtle in its themes but I found it terribly effective and affecting. I put it in Honourable Mentions for my end of year list and I still stand by it. Getting to be on assignment for Scenestr at BIFF was a personal highlight and I was pleased everything went well.

 

All up Karen and I had seen 7 films, 2 from Asia (one animated from Japan and another from Vietnam), two films from the U.S. (one a documentary), two films from Australia and one film from Europe (in this case the U.K.) Not a bad collection and while only two really passed the grade with me they did so by a far margin. BIFF is returning in 2018 and I hope to share some memories with you about it soon. I also hope to write about my attendance at the Sydney Film Festival in 2008 at some point but we have come to the end for now of my recaps of past BIFFs. I hope you have enjoyed, I admit there is a nostalgic twinge for the ones of the previous decade that I do not get for 2017 but time moves on. You treasure memories and create new ones and I look forward to making many new BIFF ones. I will close by thanking Palace Cinemas once again for bringing back my beloved BIFF.

-Lloyd Marken

THE HAPPYTIME MURDERS REVIEW AVAILABLE ON SCENESTR

Posted on by Lloyd Marken

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It is always a thrill to get to review a film and to attend a critics screening which is what I did on Wednesday night when I saw The Happytime Murders at New Farm Cinemas for Scenestr magazine. A new milestone was reached too, my first media screening where I had to sign an agreement not to breach a media blackout. Karen has taken me to preview screenings previously where mobile phones were confiscated but this was something new for me as a critic where I kept my phone but turned it off during the screening. I was attending a screening at 6:45pm Wednesday and the ban lifted 7am Thursday morning. One can never be too careful. I always enjoy going to New Farm cinemas and hitting the local Pig’n’Whistle afterwards before heading home to write my review.

The film itself is not destined to feature in end of year lists but I did note that one person in our screening chuckled happily away for a lot of the runtime. You can read my review here http://scenestr.com.au/movies-and-tv/the-happytime-murders-review-20180824

Produced by Eyeball Media Enterprises Scenestr is an online national magazine with local offices around Australia. Celebrating 25 years in 2018 of publishing history they’ve excelled at moving into the digital realm but they remain at heart from the streets. They still publish magazines in print for Western Australia, South Australia, New South Wales, Queensland every month and the first issue for Victoria is coming out this month too.

-Lloyd Marken

THE BREAKER UPPERERS FILM REVIEW AVAILABLE AT SCENESTR

Posted on by Lloyd Marken

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Recently I was lucky enough to get the opportunity to go another critics screening again, the second time for Scenestr magazine and the first time at the Blue Room Cinebar. Located in a Western inner city suburb, it offers the premium experience of a bar and full menu delivered to you while you watch in the cinema. On the job, I felt a bit awkward about getting food but my wife was hungry and truth be told so was I and it was dinner time having just come from my other job. I split between my two desires, ordering food but avoiding stuff like pizza that would be hard to handle in the dark. Instead we got Three Stages Potato Trilogy which included garlic aioli, shoestring fries, steak fries and sweet potato fries. We also got the highly recommended Mighty Peking Duck spring rolls. I was pleased to see in the crowd of critics we were not the only ones to get food. Having never been there I must say it was a lovely experience going to the cinema.

The film I was there to review was from New Zealand and called The Breaker Upperers. Starring, written and directed by the New Zealand duo of Madeleine Sami and Jackie van Beek. They play Mel and Jen who play cons on people to help their partners break up with them. A great comedy that has slows down a little in its second half to explore some of the themes introduced earlier. You can read my review here http://scenestr.com.au/movies-and-tv/the-breaker-upperers-review-20180727

Produced by Eyeball Media Enterprises Scenestr is an online national magazine with local offices around Australia. Celebrating 25 years in 2018 of publishing history they’ve excelled at moving into the digital realm but they remain at heart from the streets. They still publish magazines in print for Western Australia, South Australia, New South Wales, Queensland every month and expanded last month to print in Victoria too.

-Lloyd Marken

 

BORDER POLITICS REVIEW AVAILABLE AT X-PRESS MAGAZINE

Posted on by Lloyd Marken

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I’m very glad to say I was sent another screener of a film to review for X-Press Magazine. Border Politics is a new Australian documentary about the plight of refugees and the changing attitudes towards them in the West. With such a divisive and complex issue you can’t fault the filmmakers for ambition but sadly I did not really find a lot to recommend here. You can read my full review at http://xpressmag.com.au/border-politics-gets-5-10-emotional-territory/ As always please feel free to like or comment if you can on the site.

X-Press Magazine was established in 1985 and at one point was Australia’s highest circulating free weekly entertainment publication with over 40,000 copies reaching 1,000 outlets every week.  On the 24th May, 2016 Issue 1527 (the last one in print) hit stands. Like many publications of its ilk X-Press Magazine is now foremost an online magazine engaged globally and making the most of the possibilities that new digital technology offers. It’s roots though are tied to its home city, love of local artists and productions and music which it supports wholeheartedly. Perth a capital city most isolated from all the other capitals is continuing to grow and develop culturally and artistically with its own identity and talent. X-Press has always been there to capture this growth and will continue to do so.

-Lloyd Marken

TOP 10 FILMS OF 2018… SO FAR… LIST AVAILABLE AT X-PRESS MAGAZINE

Posted on by Lloyd Marken

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X-Press Magazine have released a list of the best films given an Australian 2018 release so far as voted by critics of the mag. It is with particular pride and humble gratitude that I have been asked to contribute and that some of my words have been used for three films mentioned. Some of those listed will be films that were released in 2017 elsewhere most prominently Stateside.

You can read the entire list here http://xpressmag.com.au/top-10-films-of-2018-so-far/ which includes great stuff from my fellow writers. Having already written about some of these films with my own Top 10 for 2017 it was a lot of fun to find a new way to discuss these films yet again with original words.

X-Press Magazine was established in 1985 and at one point was Australia’s highest circulating free weekly entertainment publication with over 40,000 copies reaching 1,0000 outlets every week.  On the 24th May, 2016 Issue 1527 hit stands. Like many publications of its ilk X-Press Magazine is now foremost an online magazine engaged globally and making the most of the possibilities that new digital technology offers. It’s roots though are tied to its home city, love of local artists and productions and music which it supports wholeheartedly. Perth a capital city most isolated from all the other capitals is continuing to grow and develop culturally and artistically with its own identity and talent. X-Press has always been there to capture this growth and will continue to do so.

-Lloyd Marken

BLACK PANTHER REVIEW AVAILABLE AT BUZZ MAGAZINE

Posted on by Lloyd Marken

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It’s been a long time coming but I’ve finally done a review for Black Panther which has been kindly published by Buzz Magazine where  a lot of my reviews of blockbusters get published. The editor has been through a lot in the past year and I am happy to hear that Buzz magazine will be continuing due in part to his strength and resilience for which I’m grateful. There’s a couple of other reviews I did for Buzz a few months back that hopefully will be up on the site in the coming days. I hope you enjoy. You can check out the Black Panther review here http://buzzmagazine.com.au/black-panther/

Based out of Victoria, Buzz Magazine was one the longest running street press magazines in Australia being published in print from 1993 to 2010. Some fine writers have worked for Buzz over the years and gone onto successful careers in media since and there is simply no way to measure the contribution the mag made to local music over its print run. With such words and minimal advertising on the website the impression could be taken that Buzz is now semi-retired. Yet the site is quite prolific with new write-ups on a daily basis, the ongoing interest of fans old and new and contributions from some very talented people indeed.

-Lloyd Marken

 

LOST IN PARIS REVIEW AVAILABLE AT X-PRESS MAGAZINE

Posted on by Lloyd Marken

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It’s just a pleasure to review films for X-Press Magazine where I have gotten screeners from some truly interesting and diverse work. I was first published with them December 14, 2017 contributing to the Top 20 Films of 2017 List and then on December 21, the Top 20 TV Shows of 2017 List. Which when you think about it was a pretty privileged way to start as a contributor. In the five months since I have reviewed for X-Press The Crown Season 2, Ellipsis, We Don’t Need A Map, Film Stars Don’t Die In Liverpool, In The Fade, The Endless, Tully and now in my tenth published post for them the 2016 French/Belgian co-production Lost in Paris.

I had never heard of Fiona Gordon or Dominique Abel who wrote, directed and star in this latest collaboration between the real life couple who met years ago in the circus. I defy anyone to not be charmed by this film a little and you can read more of my thoughts here http://xpressmag.com.au/lost-in-paris-gets-8-10-the-french-connection/

X-Press Magazine was established in 1985 and at one point was Australia’s highest circulating free weekly entertainment publication with over 40,000 copies reaching 1,000 outlets every week.  On the 24th May, 2016 Issue 1527 (the last one in print) hit stands. Like many publications of its ilk X-Press Magazine is now foremost an online magazine engaged globally and making the most of the possibilities that new digital technology offers. It’s roots though are tied to its home city, love of local artists and productions and music which it supports wholeheartedly. Perth a capital city most isolated from all the other capitals is continuing to grow and develop culturally and artistically with its own identity and talent. X-Press has always been there to capture this growth and will continue to do so.

-Lloyd Marken