BLACK BOX

Starring Tom Brittney, Holly White, Betsy-Blue English, Dane Whyte O’Hara, Kaja Chan, Molly Belle Wright, Asa Ali, Danny Mac and Hanneke Talbot.
Writer: Stephen Susco
Director: Steven Quale

RATING: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

As George Miller proved with his TWILIGHT ZONE THE MOVIE contribution and Marc Forster did with that nerve-shredding sequence in WORLD WAR Z, the confines of a commercial airliner should in no way hinder the delivering of some very cinematic thrills and chills. 

In BLACK BOX, director Steven Quale joins the list of filmmakers able to wring considerable suspense out of a steel tube. With scribe Stephen Susco and a committed ensemble leaning into the full potential of the sci-fi premise, Quale delivers a surprise-upon-surprise romp that Rod Serling himself might have once conjured.

The narrative launches with the twitchy energy of a found-footage film, thanks to an opening barrage of clips from devices owned by key characters. Primary amongst them is Jeremy (Tom Brittney), a forlorn figure travelling alone, who strikes up a friendship with the similarly sad tweenager Chloe (Molly Belle Wright). The iPhone/iPad accounts from on board the plane capture the same desperation that those clips do in the real world and Quale uses the ‘vertical frame’ format well.

Like the ‘70s disaster movies of yore, characters are given just the screentime they need to have the audience pondering their fate. Flight attendant Emma (Holly White) and a trio of GoPro-wielding action-sports types get enough character-building dialogue to buy them time; a douchey finance-bro, convincingly played by Hollyoaks regular Danny Mac and recalling the delicious scumbaggery of Hart Bochner, aka ‘Ellis’ in DIE HARD…not so much.

Jeremy notices brightly coloured flashes in the mountainous cloud formations surrounding them and soon turbulence and ill-health descend upon Vero Airlines Flight 298. The spectacular rendering of the light-show outside and the rich visual tones captured in the plane’s interior indicate the below-the-title craftspeople were working at the top of the game, providing this mid-tier programmer the polish of a high-end studio pic (BLACK BOX is far more satisfying on every level than the other UFO pic doing the rounds at the moment).

The third act more literally defines the nature of what the crew and passengers are experiencing and a tangible sense of menace settles over the film, for characters and  audience alike. A major reveal is handled with the genre filmmaking chops of early-stage Cameron or Carpenter; steam and steel, shrieks and shocks combine to send BLACK BOX into the depths of paranoia and societal disconnect. Like a lot of great sci-fi thrillers, the narrative provides pure popcorn escapism while the thematic ambition gives the journey a timely resonance.

HOW TO TALK AUSTRALIANS

Starring Vikrant Narain, Robert Santiago, Ria Patel, Rohan Ganju, Udara David, Vishal Kotak, Ms Kamala, Eddie Baroo and Shane Jacobson.
Writers: Tony Rogers and Rob Hibbert
Director: Tony Rogers

RATING: ⭐️⭐️⭐️½

Eleven years of honing the comedic essence of a premise ought to pay off for the creative team behind HOW TO TALK AUSTRALIANS, and it does. The first of what might be many big screen undertakings for the viral YouTube hitmakers is a consistently laugh-out-loud crowdpleaser, balancing raucous humour with a sharp satirical eye and big heart.

The class taking the titular tutorial at The Delhi School of Linguistics is offered a field trip to good to miss - a whirlwind tour of Australia (“10 days across all 10 states”), first stop Sydney. But when “some drunken yobbo drives his paddockbasher out onto the tarmac” at Charles Kingsford Smith Airport, their Kangaroo Airlines flight is diverted to a landing strip in the far north-western hillbilly burg of Dubbo (actually a culturally vibrant arts and crafts hub and a technologically high-end farming community, but...comedic licence, let’s say).   

Thus sets in motion a fish-out-of-water adventure that pits educated, ambitious Indians against a slice of the Australiana heartland populated by mostly lairish, drunken, stupid bogans. In the good-natured spirit of Tony Rogers’ and Rob Hibberts’ script, the casual racism of these outdated Australian stereotypes is played for both gentle laughs (on spotting an Indian at their front gate, one boorish Aussie asks his wife, “Kelly, did you order a cab?”) and targeted takedowns.

Under Roger’s direction, the mostly non-pro cast generate great chemistry - standouts include Vikrant Narain as the clueless Dean of Studies; Robert Santiago as his well-meaning offsider; Ria Patel, one of the few IMDb-listed cast members, as strong-willed Sharna; and, stealing most of his scenes with a consummate deadpan delivery, Rohan Ganju as unlikely ladies man, Chester.

HOW TO TALK AUSTRALIANS (the name of the course they are taking in Delhi) is broad and silly and crude, often brilliantly so, but it also a rare glimpse of ourselves through the lens of visitors to this country. While it doesn’t demand you apply some more profound meaning to their outback odyssey, it wouldn’t hurt for a few of us to take a step back and acknowledge that these visitors sincerely hope to love this land. And how we greet them is not always as the best versions of ourselves.

STOLEN KINGDOM, MAY CONTAIN: MY LIFE IN LIMITED U.S. RELEASE

STOLEN KINGDOM
Dir: Joshua Bailey | Featuring Adam the Woo, Dan Bell, Matt Sonswa, Kenny Johnson, Dan Becker, Dave Ensign, Leonard Kinsey, Seth Kubersky and Patrick Sykes.

RATING: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

One of my favourite Disney characters is the foxy 1973 animated incantation of that thieving anti-hero Robin Hood, and there's plenty of that character's spirit coursing through Joshua Bailey's debut doco. From a broader view that encapsulates the giddy thrill experienced by urban explorers - those trendy trespassers who break into abandoned malls, theatres and, in this case, theme parks - the Floridian filmmaker zeroes in on a handful of B&E-ers who found viral fame in the early days of the internet. Posting photos and videos of their after (sometimes, opening) hours adventures, the mateship formed in the service of cheeky lawbreaking provides the doco's heartbeat.

The narrative takes a darker turn as harmless thrillseeking morphs into black market supply, a development that peaks with the theft of EPCOT Centre's lovable boy-droid, 'Buzzy' (pictured, above). This pivot into true-crime territory is a tonal shift, and sometimes Bailey (himself a past Mouse House employee) is doesn't give his film and his characters room to breath; there's a lot of great material here that might have benefitted from a longer running time or multi-episode streaming arc. It's a minor complaint, however, with the thrill of forbidden access and the cost of greed and ego all on display in this unique study of outlier mentality.

MAY CONTAIN: MY LIFE
Director: Jen Greenstreet | Featuring Giles Kearns, Mandi Kearnes, Owen Osborne, Anna Stover, Hannah & Catherine Brown, Riya Gupta, Dr Ruchi Gupta, Dina Hawthorne, Augusta Maturo, Ava Kolker, Tanner Hagen, Zeina Montifar and Jerome Bettis.

RATING: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

First-person accounts of the very real struggles faced by food allergy sufferers are addressed with heart, humour and enlightenment in Jen Greenstreet's subliminally urgent call-to-action doc, May Contain: My Life. From the tragedy that inspired the Elijah's Law initiative to the takedown of pop culture's use of allergy sufferers as comic material, this Just Like You Films production soars on the voices of those who live with and adjacent to the moment-by-moment threat posed by the disease (yes, broader society, it is a disease).

Particularly effective is the intercut drama starring allergy-afflicted actor Augusta Maturo as a teen navigating the nut-and-dairy minefield that is a birthday party. What might have burdened the documentary with an 'after-school special' leadenness is instead a well-crafted, solidly-acted series of inserts that bolster the film's multi-tiered messaging. The final aspirational act of Greenstreet's doc carries significant heft, both as an argument for the immediate uptake on food allergy awareness and an emotionally-charged finger-to-the-chest that captures what is at stake if we don't act. 

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 teenager. 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 Khim Dang 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 ngoai 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.