Y VÂN: THE LOST SOUNDS OF SAIGON

Director: Khoa Ha & Victor Velle

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️½

A young woman’s journey to discover the grandfather she never knew becomes a bridge between family, music and country in Y Vân: The Lost Sounds of Saigon, a wondrously lovely, deeply moving documentary. From the Orange County diaspora community where the odyssey begins to deep into the steamy streets and collector’s culture of Vietnam, this small wonder of a film pulsates with retro style and a heartfelt connection to its subjects, past and present.

Co-directing with Victor Velle and out front of her own film is Khoa Ha, a Vietnamese-American whose parents relocated from their homeland to California when she was a child. The disconnect from community and culture that Khoa experiences is personal, but common to the immigrant experience; her story provides the narrative thrust, but thematically the film captures a longing for people and place that is universal amongst emigres.

The focus of her familial search is her grandfather Y Vân, whose legendary, almost mythical status as a pop-star crooner of the 1950s-60s has faded. Pre-1975 pop cultural relics all but disappeared following the Communist takeover in the wake of the American War; records of Y Vân’s hits Lòng Mẹ (Mother Heart) and Sài Gòn (Saigon) were rare, the reel-to-reel masters all but gone.

Ha and Velle unite a production team that deliver gorgeous images and an evocative cultural experience. Jake Mitchell’s camera captures colour and texture with an acute eye for beauty, and utilises long-lens technique to capture intimate moments while never seeming intrusive (a extended family dinner is a standout); editor Benjamin Shearn cuts with both propulsive energy and respectful restraint. Animators Thien Nguyen and Kim Dhan are the film’s MVPs, with still photos, record covers, archival material and original concepts brought to stunning life under their inspired artistry.   

Ultimately, Khoa’s return to Vietnam and determination to learn about the music and the man that was her ông nội brings with it scenes of profound reconnection, from the family members who recall Y Vân’s early years and musical growth to the collectors whose life-long musical passion now help a young woman define her lineage. Ha’s film builds momentum as a dramatic, detective-type story, but also soars as a testament to the bloodlines that shape us.

SEVEN SNIPERS

Stars: Radha Mitchell, Ioan Gruffudd, Annabel Wolfe, Ryan Kwanten, Damien Ryan, Charles Cottier, Pacharo Mzembe, Bianca Wallace and Tim Roth.
Writer: Andrew O'Keefe
Director: Sandra Sciberras

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Melbourne/Naarm-based genre giants Monster Pictures launch their Studio production arm with Seven Snipers, a sturdy action-thriller that boasts name players Radha Mitchell, Ioan Gruffudd, Ryan Kwanten and, somehow, Tim Roth. Watching this line-up crawl around in the long-grass of Victoria's rural hinterland playing a sternfaced version of shoot'em'ups makes for a diverting, occasionally exciting programmer; it won't feature heavily at the next AACTA industry love-in, but global sales are all but assured in markets where bullets and bodycounts are prized over critical bouquets.

The never-not-working Radha Mitchell plays single-mum Kris Hendricks, living on a vast property with some Brahman bulls and her fiesty daughter, Anja (on-the-cusp starlet Annabel Wolfe). Square-jawed and unyielding in the face of Anja's teenage attitude, there is a militaristic coolness in Mitchell's character, a trait we come to understand is a by-product of her past as an elite military dark ops soldier, codename 'Voodoo Child'. Her remote existence is a necessity; she lives with a target on her back and the shadow a Keyser-Soze-like warlord called The Dragon hanging over her.

That shadow inches closer with the arrival of Dragon scout Ryan Kwanten, posing as a real estate agent (which is worse? Not important, but...). Before Kris can shut him up permanently, he informs his boss of her whereabouts, demanding she calls in her old boss 'White Dog' (Damien Ryan) and his band heavily-armed, suitably diverse markspeople - his son 'Junior' (Charles Cottier), stealth master Nico (Pacharo Mzembe), steely Italian sharpshooter Kaldayev (Bianca Wallace) and the unit's alpha-male, 'Milk' (Ioan Gruffudd).

As 'The Dragon', Tim Roth is not given a lot to do other than dress in camo and stare down a scope, but his sheer presence suitably conveys relentlessly menacing, coldly homicidal intent. There is shading to his character and the history that he and Kris share, which spin the cat-and-mouse, B-movie tropes off into thematically interesting areas linvolving parental alienation and custody agony. Working from Andrew O'Keefe's script, director Sandra Sciberras (Surviving Georgia, 2011; The Dustwalker, 2019) wisely allows this subtext to simmer and slow-reveal, the connection adding heft to the conflict.

THE YETI

Stars: Brittany Allen, Heather Lind, Corbin Bernsen, William Sadler, Jim Cummings, Eric Nelsen, Christina Bennett Lind, Linc hand, Johnathan Brownlee, Elizabeth Cappuccino and Gene Gallerano.
Writers/Directors: Gene Gallerano, William Pisciotta.

RATING: ⭐️⭐️⭐️½ 

Directors Gene Gallerano and William Pisciotta indulge both their love of cryptid-creature features and Steven Spielberg films with THE YETI, a surprisingly serious-minded affair that is just at home playing in the dark recesses of its character’s psyche as it is in the chilly woods of the Alaskan Territory, circa 1947.

The very first frames of the film evoke the opening of Close Encounters of the Third Kind, when lights emerge from a raging sandstorm. Gallerano and Pisciotta climatically invert the scene, introducing their film through the roar of a woodland snowstorm, but the message is clear - we are in the grasp of two filmmakers who love the thrill that crowd-pleasing cinema has to offer. The ensuing prologue is a messy affair, showing the horrible impact our titular monster can have while never showing the beast (you know, like in Jaws…). 

They triple-down on the Spielbergian influences with the introduction of heroine Ellie Bannister (the terrific Brittany Allen, hot of her multi-episode arc in The Pitt). A cartographer (or, in the words of Bob Balaban, “I’m a mapmaker”), she is convinced to join a search deep into the wilderness for a missing expedition that contained oil magnate Merriell Sunday Sr. (Corbin Bernsen) in a sequence echoing that scene between Denholm Elliott and Harrison Ford in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Ellie and her adventurer dad (character actor legend William Sadler, also in the lost group) have been long estranged, a further link, this time thematically, to the Spielberg grab-bag.

Ellie is joined in Alaska by experts in their fields, whose skills may combine to locate the lost group but who are always more likely to butt heads. They include radio-tech guy Booker (Jim Cummings, already a survivor of cryptid chaos in The Wolf of Snow Hollow), World War Both veteran Coates (Linc Hand), whose scarred face is half-hidden by a grotesquely painted mask; capitalist scumbag Merriell Sunday Jr. (Eric Nelsen); a doctor named Parker (Elizabeth Cappuccino); animal expert Lamb (Christina Bennett Lind); and, in a part that gets as close to comic relief as the film allows itself, co-director Gallerano himself as explosives expert ‘Dynamite’ Dan.

At this point of the movie (and this review), one may feel the urge to paraphrase Dr. Ian Malcolm from Jurassic Park and ask, “Ah, there is going to be a Yeti in your Yeti movie?” But Gallerano and Pisciotta are clearly respectful of cryptid lore, instead preferring to drop references to Bigfoot lore into their thriller rather than just unleash their monster. When our Yeti first appears to torment the rescue party, a bright beam of light appears; are the giant apes of North America multi-dimensional travellers who move through portals, as some theorists argue? Do tribes of Yetis communicate through tree-knocking, as heard in the film? And do they exist as family units, conjecture that is central to the narrative here?

It’s a monster movie above all else, even if the script wants to offer up stronger character beats than this sort of B-premise usually affords its audience (some of whom may grow impatient with the fireside chatter). Rest assured, the practical effects creature work and the glee with which the film offers up fleeting but fearsome bursts of gore will delight anyone buying a ticket to a movie called The Yeti.

And I think Steven Spielberg would dig it. 

THE SUPER PROGRESSIVE MOVIE

Featuring Sebastain Peart, Mark Nicholson and Pauline Hanson.
Written by Sebastain Peart and Mark Nicholson.
Directed by Sebastian Peart

A punch-down comedy epic that’s neither as offensive or as funny as it might have been, THE SUPER PROGRESSIVE MOVIE is an animated ultra-right satire aiming to score big with white Australian January 26-ers in the same way that South Park’s Trump takedowns garnered that show a resurgent following among left-leaning Americans.

Following the grassroots success of the web series Please Explain, TSPM represents the next step in the creative and commercial partnership between Melbourne’s Stepmate Studios and ultra-conservative nationalistic MP Pauline Hanson and her One Nation party. The result is 90 minutes of energetic but mostly half-baked mockery aimed at any sector of Australian society that isn’t white, cis-gender or male.

Indigenous people, their culture and ties to native land take the brunt of the abuse, as do those with non hetero-normative genders; other dog-whistle gags include capital-city ‘bubble’ culture, the rewriting of white history and the denying of the white man’s right to freedom of speech (the fact that a movie gets to present that point of view is a little ironic, but…). When not zeroing in on some kind of perceived injustice, space is filled with gags about homophobia, disabilities and tampons.

Director Sebastian Peart’s pictures and pacy delivery keep things moving and engagingly colourful. His film’s depiction of the progressive-minded minorities whose priorities seem to be aimed at dismantling white Australian privilege range from ridiculously stereotypical to wildly inappropriate, but the accompanying humour is of such a schoolyard level it never really bites hard.

The film only truly upsets when it swerves away from hard-bitten fact to get its agenda across. The outback police officer portrayed as ‘daddy’ to three aboriginal kids is poor form, given the ‘death in custody’ history of cops and blackfellas. And the comedic dismembering of two of our highest-serving real-world government officials might be misconstrued by some of the One Nation faithful as a call-to-arms (and almost certainly the key reason a Parliament House screening of the film was pulled). 

That the oft-lampooned Hanson should back herself into a starring role as the nation’s great defier of ‘woke culture’ is arguably the film’s biggest laugh. Also wallowing in her newfound status as a right-wing poster girl is ex-Neighbour’s starlet Holly Vallance, who has backed the project with a reworking of her horrible 2002 hit ‘Kiss Kiss’, called ‘Kiss Kiss My Arse’.

Rating: ★ ★

ZOMBIECON VOL. 1

Stars Manny Luke, Erin Áine, Punkie Johnson, Christian Casillas, Carlo Mendez, Nichole McAuley, J. Michael Trautmann, Melissa Jane Rodriguez and J. Michael Trautmann.
Written by Kyle Valle, Erin Áine and Manny Luke.
Directed by Kyle Valle.

Rating: ★ ★ ★

Kyle Valle’s splattery zom-com employs a lot of handheld camerawork, shoots against the LA streets where cast and crew likely live and largely forgoes a lot of the budget-sucking production elements other films take for granted. But what it lacks in polish, it boasts in energy, chemistry and imagination, as only these kinds of “hey, let’s make a film!” buddy pics can muster.

‘Rocket’s Rockets’ are a quartet of cosplaying friends, whose lives are consumed by their dress-up alter-egos and all that goes with that scene. They are a diverse bunch, the kind who might not ever cross paths in the real world, but who bond over their conviction to costuming. There’s no doubt that cast besties Manny Luke, Erin Áine, Christian Casillas and Punkie Johnson (of SNL fame) have a genuine rapport, such are their spirited portrayals.

But things get bloody when LA succumbs to an undead outbreak. One thing is certain - whoever was talked into handing over their apartment as the film’s key location, definitely lost their bond, such is the extent of the spurtin’ and the sprayin’. For the film’s final act, the group don their most meaningful make-believe outfits, draw on the strength they afford, and get crosstown to save Rocket’s mum from a mauling.

Valle’s film grows in confidence as it progresses, with pacing and character arcs finding focus in the pic's second half. An opening salvo that pits The Rockets against cosplay douchebag Zander (Carlo Mendez) overstays its welcome, but the narrative’s gruesome mid-section in the apartment is fun; the outdoors-nightime scenes, while often hard to comprehend visually, hit the horror-comedy target more often than not, and the entirely foreseeable final conflict adds a twist and is a blast. 

Valle the director might have lent a bit harder on Valle the editor, with some sequences running long, but in for a penny, in for a pound on a passion project like this. Zombie completists will dig the shrieking LA variety, who lean more towards Danny Boyle’s ‘sprinters’ than the traditional Romero ‘shuffler’.

ANCESTRY ROAD

Stars Seb Muirhead, Charlotte Gray, John Xintavelonis, Jessica Stanley, Finn Bertschi, Gillian Unicomb, Jodie Wolf and Anne Cordiner.
Writer/Director: Glenn Triggs

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★

In the voiceover opening of ANCESTRY ROAD, as generations of family memories in the form of photos fade in and out on screen, the phrase, “the temporary nature of forever” is uttered. It’s a lovely collection of words; an observation that only comes with time and loss and realising the boundaries of one's mortality, and that hints at the melancholy that lays ahead in indie auteur Glenn Triggs’ mix of whimsy and existentialism.

The superbly crafted production convincingly substitutes rural Tasmania for pastoral Scotland in telling the story of The McGavins, a young family who are building a new life in a cottage steeped in their clan’s heritage. Things get confusing when the eldest child, teen Cora (Charlotte Gray) finds herself drawn first to a rocky hillside overlooking the home, then to the local elderly care facility.

Father Kevin (Seb Muirhead) and mum Anadele (Jessica Stanley) figure it easier to level the land to the hillside, so that Cora may continue her semi-regular sojourns and recovering her is made easier. But that decision takes a Field of Dreams-type twist when family members from the past, near and distant, begin a series of pop-in visits (as some relatives are prone to do).

The narrative favours sentimentality and emotion over logic, with Trigg’s script urging the cynics to just go with some of the more fanciful developments; dialogue like “It is what it is and I don’t care how,” and “Who are we to say what’s impossible?” says it all. The suspension of disbelief required may account for the Scottish setting, a land where ages-old lore and magical realism is in the societal DNA.

Acting across the board is excellent, with Muirhead and Stanley note-perfect as the young parents both bewildered by the supernatural turn their life has taken and anxious as to how their impressionable kids will deal with it (the horror spin on this narrative would look something like Tobe Hooper’s POLTERGEIST). The ties that bind across generations is the thematic spine of ANCESTRY ROAD, and Triggs and his cast explore it with warmth and conviction.

Find screening locations for ANCESTRY ROAD here.

ABSOLUTE DOMINION

Stars Désiré Mia, Andy Allo, Mario D’Leon, Alex Winter, Patton Oswalt, Junes Zahdi and Julie Ann Emery.
Writer/Director: Lexi Alexander

Rating ★ ★ ★

Remember that school-yard discussion that went, “Get every country’s best fighters to just bash it out, instead of always going to war!”? Cult fave writer/director Lexi Alexander (THE PUNISHER: WARZONE; GREEN STREET HOOLIGANS) takes that prognostication a step further in ABSOLUTE DOMINION, posing the question, “Let’s end all religious wars, and just have muscly reps from each faith fight until one man’s beliefs are left standing.”

Which is bonkers, of course, but the former stuntperson/kickboxer-turned-filmmaker works hard to find both a logical and spiritual connection between religion and full-contact fury. She films action well, and actors like Alex Winter and Andy Allo (the film’s MVP) commit to the more soulful moments of their director’s HUNGER GAMES/MORTAL KOMBAT riff.

Newcomer Désiré Mia (pictured, top) makes for a striking presence in his feature acting debut, a film lacking the carnage and anarchy (and budget) of Alexander’s past features but not without its own likable energy.

RIEFENSTAHL

Writer/Director: Andres Veiel

Rating ★ ★ ★ ★

Currently screening as part of the 2025 German Film Festival

Commisioned by Hitler and backed by the might of the Nazi propaganda machine, actress-turned-filmmaker Leni Refenstahl crafted two of the most remarkable factual films in cinema history - TRIUMPH OF THE WILL (1934) and OLYMPIA (1938). These were documentaries that snapshot Germanic ideals in breathtakingly beautiful images; monochromatic montages that celebrated majestic Aryan physicality, nationalistic fervour and cultural dominance.

Andres Veiel’s chilling, artfully-rendered profile addresses the accusations that have plagued Riefenstahl and, since her 2003 death, her legacy. Was she aware of The Fuhrer’s motivation in commissioning her talents? Did she adhere to the master-race philosophies of ethnic cleansing?

This documentary is understated, allowing the oft-vilified filmmaker a strong voice (via masterfully curated archival people) that echoes denial, defence and defiance. It is ultimately entirely clear which side of the discussion Veiel favours, but his argument is never not balanced and meticulous.

INGRESS

Stars: Rachel Noll James, Christopher Clark, Tim DeKay and Johnny Ferro
Writer/Director: Rachel Noll James

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ½

Heartstrings aren’t the only things being tugged in Ingress (noun; the action or fact of going in or entering), a new-age weepie about a young widow caught in a grief spiral who can travel between alternate realities, some of which contain her dearly departed. There’s also the yin/yang struggle of independent film storytelling, a factor that contributes to Rachel Noll James’ feature debut both soaring and, just occasionally, stumbling.

Cut from the same cinematic cloth as magical realism love stories Somewhere in Time (1980), Ghost (1990), What Dreams May Come (1998) and The Premonition (2007), Ingress is the story of Riley (Noll James, again), whose reality becomes a blurry, increasingly foreboding prospect whenever her dead husband Toby (Johnny Fero) overtakes her thoughts. The ‘shimmer’ means she is about to travel between planes of existence - not something that Riley can continue to experience if she’s going to get past Toby’s demise, but which also means he may be alive in some other reality.

Helping her on the journey is medium-of-sorts Daniel (Christopher Clark), an author and victim of his own inner turmoil, whose connection to a greater, universal consciousness means he can mentor her through some of the more out-there manifestations of her ‘gift’. Their other-worldly union strengthens into affection, but with Toby popping in and out of Riley’s time and space…well, it gets complicated.

The multi-hyphenate writer/director/star has dropped a major calling-card offering with Ingress, with several scenes taking on profoundly lovely and deeply moving attributes that indicate Rachel Noll James is a talent to watch, both in front of and behind the camera. At 118 minutes, I’d argue that there is an edit of the film that tightens the opening act and excises some of the oft-repeated ‘everyday life struggles’ we share with Riley and Daniel. Having the creative control that true indie filmmaking affords brings with it the risk of excessive introspection, which Ingress displays occasionally.  

Regardless, it is a beautiful film to look at, with cinematographer Dan Clarke and production designer Lindsey Jensen crafting some stunning images; also a plus is Michael Reola’s understated score. They exhibit all the genuine tenderness and heartfelt honesty that is evident across all aspects of both Rachel Noll James’ narrative and production.

IT'S OUR TIME

Stars: Tiana Hogben, Bianca Bradey, Peter Thurnwald, Susan Ling Young and Lex Marinos.
Writer/Director: Joy Hopwood

Rating: ★ ★ ★

Like the home baked muffins featured throughout, It’s Our Time is a small, sweet confection, made with a few simple ingredients but benefitting from genuine affection. Multi-hyphenate Joy Hopwood feels like she’s stuck very close to the “Just write what you know” mantra with her story of a flaky filmmaker wannabe and the friendships, romances and setbacks that consume her daily late twenty-something life.

The endearing Tiana Hogben plays Emilia, a young Asian-Australian woman who dreams of turning her action-comedy script into a calling card film that will set her on the road to stardom. But that road presents speed bumps in the shape of Shannon (Peter Thurnwald), a funding agency gatekeeper who passes on her pitch; her bff Zoe (Bianca Bradey), whose baked goods enterprise is soaring and who has eyes for Shannon; and, her landlord Ken (the late Lex Marinos, in his final screen appearance) who is losing patience over unpaid rent.

Hopwood employs dream/flashback sequences to expand upon the relationship Emilia has with Zoe and to explore the ambitions that her immigrant mother (Susan Ling Young) has for her daughter. These provide some effective shading for our protagonist, who might otherwise have just been a reactive foil for all that goes on around her. These elements also bring a universality to Emilia’s ambitions; one could easily imagine this being a ‘00s-set story about struggling writer Greta Gerwig or fashion design hopeful America Ferrara.

Despite her money woes, Emilia’s rental abode is located on Sydney’s ultra-pricey and delightfully photogenic lower north shore, a setting that too easily recalls the ‘NYC-loft logic’ of Friends. There is a sense that the meet-cutes and single-setting locations (her bedroom; his office; her kitchen; their picnic) would perhaps better suit a multi-episode sitcom arc, where weekly obstacles and an expanded cast list can broaden Emilia’s madcap but ultimately meaningful journey. 

Hopwood, who has honed her craft helming micro-budgeted romancers The Script of Life (2019), Rhapsody of Love (2021), Get a Life, Alright (2022) and The Gift that Gives (2024), utilises her ensemble effectively, generally keeps the mood buoyant and delivers a wholly likable comedy-drama that’s the ideal add-on for that rainy weekend couch time.