2009 MIFF Diary part the fourth

More short reviews from the 2009 Melbourne International Film Festival...

MOON
(Dir. Duncan Jones, 2009)

As a fan of speculative fiction, I was delighted to see a science fiction film in the festival program that was firmly focused on content and concept rather than blockbuster-style special effects.

Starring Sam Rockwell as an astronaut nearing the end of his three-year solo shift on a lunar base, and the voice of Kevin Spacey as the base robot, Gerty, Moon is a slow-moving and contemplative piece about what it means to be human.

It's not an original theme, and nor is Moon an especially original film - it's clearly influenced by films such as 2001: A Space Odyssey, Solaris and Silent Running, while its visual aesthetic is clearly indebted to the lived-in and grungy look of Alien - but if you can relax into its minimal pace you'll find much to appreciate, from the performances through to the plot twists (which I'll say nothing of, because the less you know about this film before seeing it the more you'll enjoy it).

That said, the film is not without its faults. Chief among them is that director Duncan Jones fails to develop an emotional tone through the visuals, forcing the film to fall back on that old standby, the heavy-handed soundtrack, to inform the audience when we're supposed to be feeling nervous or sad. In fairness, the soundtrack by Clint Mansell (formerly of UK grebo outfit Pop Will Eat Itself), who also scored the cult film Requiem for a Dream, is suitably atmospheric, rarely becomes intrusive, and more than effectively accents the poignancy of Sam's situation.

Criticisms about pace and emotion aside, Moon is a well-resourced, well played and beautifully lensed SF film that will doubtless find an extremely appreciative audience beyond the festival circuit.

Rating: Three and a half stars


RED RIDING: 1974
(Dir. Julian Jarrold, 2009)

The first film in a trilogy based on the Yorkshire noir quartet by British crime writer David Peace, and originally commissioned by UK broadcaster Channel 4 for television, Red Riding: 1974 is a grim and gothic tale of murder, corruption and the abuse of power.

Eddie Dunford (Andrew Garfield) is a cocky young reporter for The Yorkshire Post who returns home after an unsuccessful stint down south, only to be drawn into a web of police corruption via the murder of three young girls and a seemingly unconnected attack on a gypsy encampment. What follows is harrowing, for the audience as well as Dunford.

The film's bleak tone is unrelenting, generating a palpable sense of gloom and misery, as befitting the north of England in the mid-Seventies. Period details are astutely observed without being overpowering - thankfully this is not the sort of film in which a 70's pop song burst onto the soundtrack every few minutes - from the fog of cigarette smoke permeating almost every scene, to the ugly brown jocks worn by Garfield in one of his scenes; while the film's spasmodic acts of violence are viscerally and effectively conveyed.

Unfortunately, director Julian Jarrold (whose previous film was the remake of Brideshead Revisited) seems more concerned with the mood of his film that the story, which is based on the 1975 murder of Lesley Molseed. That said, the story he has crafted is magnificently presented; a world of shadows, rain, and roiling clouds hanging low over decaying tenement buildings and miserable lives.

While performances are excellent throughout (particularly Garfield, but also Sean Benn as the corrupt construction magnate John Dawson; and Rebecca Hall as Paula Garland, the mother of one of the missing children) the film itself seems somewhat lacking in heart, and its story only spasmodically engaging. That said, given that it is the first part of a trilogy, I expect some of the plot holes that appeared in this episode to be filled in further down the track, and that taken as a whole, the film will be more than the sum of its parts.

Rating: Three stars


OUTRAGE
(Dir. Kirby Dick, 2009)

American director Kirby Dick's fascination for documenting and exposing secrecy and hypocrisy is once again displayed in his latest film, Outrage.

Having previously examined the issue of child abuse within the Catholic Church in Twist of Faith (2004), and more recently tackled censorship in This Film Is Not Yet Rated (2006), Dick now turns his attention to the lives and careers of closeted gay politicians such as former US Senator Larry Craig, who consistently voted against gay law reform, but who was also arrested for soliciting sex from a policeman in a public toilet.

Bloggers and independent media sources, as well as witnesses who testify on the record to having had sex with Dick's shady political subjects, are gathered together in a damning indictment of the political forces which conspire to keep gay men in the closet in Washington DC.

Throughout the film, Dick successfully documents the damage the closet causes - politicians so scared of any public suggestion they might be gay that they aggressively campaign against the gay community, voting down marriage rights bills and government support of AIDS programs. Such hypocrisy is the reason that Dick has made such men his target, and is one of the main reasons I enjoyed this film, as I'm not usually a fan of 'outing' people except under such exceptional circumstances as the film explores.

While he never quite proves his theory that the mainstream media has engaged in a conspiracy of silence by ignoring the truth about the sexuality of men such as Larry Craig, Florida Governor Charlie Crist and others, Outrage certainly goes a long way to indicate that there is something rotten in the USA when it comes to the fact of homosexuality in the Republican Party. A fascinating film which would have had even more power had Obama not been elected as President of the USA last year.

Rating: Three stars