25 Oct 2017

At The Movies for 25 October 2017

From At The Movies, 7:30 pm on 25 October 2017
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Photo: Supplied

This week two New Zealand films that went with their gut, rather than a formula, and two very different North American films – a Canadian indie biopic, and a climate-change disaster movie.

Waru invites eight women directors – mostly at the start of their careers – to contribute a ten-minute scene, shot in one take, to an 80 minute feature.  Produced by Kerry Warkia and Kiel McNaughton.

Waru is the opposite of a safe bet – no stars, no hoopla, a potentially confronting and divisive theme – but its very riskiness is its attraction.

The critics love it, but will audiences go? If they go, will they get it? And if they get it, will they pass it on?  

I hope so. It’s certainly the best New Zealand film since Wilderpeople.

No ordinary Sheila is a documentary about New Zealand writer, naturalist and illustrator Sheila Natusch, made by veteran film maker Hugh Macdonald.

It was not only a labour of love by all concerned, but it was racing against the clock. Several of the people featured in the film – including Sheila herself - have since passed away. 

But it looks gorgeous – particularly the shots of flora and fauna, sky and sea that Sheila loved so much.

Maudie tells the story of real-life “outsider” Nova Scotia artist Maude Lewis, from the unlikely start to her career, to her equally surprising relationship with husband Everett. It stars award-winners Sally Hawkins and Ethan Hawke.

The pleasures of Maudie are quiet ones, and Irish director Aisling Walsh has a sensitive touch for a story like this.   The acting, needless to say, is a dream - particularly Sally Hawkins. 

It’s one of those performances that usually get noticed around award-time.  This is fine, of course, but I’d love to see her in something less niche - something that lets more people see how good Hawkins can be.  

The overpowering Geostorm combines A-Level effects with a B-List crew. The climate change problem has been solved only to have it revived by someone who wants to “weaponize the weather”! It stars Gerard Butler, Abbie Cornish and Jim Sturgess.

Personally, I’d have thought the world has suffered enough with real-life bad weather recently, without inviting a fictional variety in. 

But that didn’t prevent me from having a deplorably wonderful time at Geostorm, cheering on every action cliché – from the car-chase while the world crumbles around them, to the miraculously rescued dog.

When the audience starts joining in on the dialogue, you know this may not be a film that wins Oscars, but it will keep audiences pinned to the sofa when it turns up on prime time TV.

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