OK people, clear out the MySky and make some room - here are a few of the must-see films screening this week as part of our Rialto Oscar’s Collection.
OK people, clear out the MySky and make some room - here are a few of the must-see films screening this week as part of our Rialto Oscars Collection.
WINTER’S BONE: New Zealand TV Premiere, Saturday 10th March, 8.30pm.
A couple of years ago Jennifer Lawrence was just a young actress with a couple of television series and film appearances to her name. That changed with the role of seventeen year old Ree Dolly in Debra Granik’s stunning film Winter’s Bone, an adaptation of Daniel Woodrell's 2006 novel of the same name, and Lawrence immediately became an indie darling. She’s now taken a further step and on 22nd March she hits the big screen in the highly anticipated blockbuster, The Hunger Games.
Winter’s Bone, however, was one of the most talked about and memorable films of 2010. It received four nominations at the 2011 Academy Awards; best motion picture of the year, best writing adapted screenplay, best performance by an actress in a leading role (Lawrence) and best performance by an actor in a supporting role (John Hawkes). Sadly Winter’s Bone left the awards empty handed.
The story unfolds slowly at first, as if we’ve stumbled into the story of the Dolly family part way through, but it soon becomes clear we’ve arrived at a pivotal moment as Ree discovers her wayward father has put their house up as collateral for his bail. If she doesn’t find her father in a week, Ree, her incapacitated mother and two siblings, will lose their shack of a family home.
It’s a grim, depressing story, with characters scrapped off the bottom of the barrel, but Ree’s quiet determination to save her family from ruin shines through - and it’s this remarkable and naturalistic performance by Lawrence that makes this a rewarding film.
After experiencing the harsh and decaying backwoods of Missouri in the film I’m not sure I’d read the novel - how many toothless, flannel wearing, morally inept, drug dealing and brutal hillbillies do you need to meet. But if you haven’t seen Winter’s Bone then don’t miss it – it’s my pick of the week.
EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP: Thursday 8th March, 8.30pm
‘Priceless’ is the best way to describe this 2011 Oscar nominee for Best Documentary, Feature. Described as the world’s first ‘street art disaster movie’, it’s directed by infamous Brit street-artist/prankster Banksy. To be honest I’ve watched this film twice and I’m still not sure whether it’s a cleverly constructed version of the truth, or a brilliant “prankumentary”.
The characters are real - Banksy, Shephard Fairey, Invader and even its protagonist Thierry Guetta, a.k.a Mr Brainwash - but the set up is almost too good to be true. An amateur French filmmaker living in LA starts filming street artists at work for his documentary on street art, and when he gets the chance to meet and film Banksy he jumps at it. When he’s forced to actually edit his film the result is a disaster, and Banksy suggests Thierry become a street artist rather than just filming it. Almost overnight, Thierry, known as Mr Brainwash, becomes a phenomenon.
It’s a fascinating introduction to the world’s top urban street artists. Exit Through The Gift Shop also makes a profound statement about art and commerce, and questions the definition of “art” and what makes an artist legitimate. In doing so it’s almost too funny, too good, and too beautifully crazy to be real.
Banksy, who is brilliantly dry in the doco, maintains the film is based on fact. As he told one online interviewer “Ordinarily I wouldn’t mind if people believe me or not, but the film’s power comes from the fact it’s all 100% true. This is from the frontline, this is watching an art form self-combust in front of you. Told by the people involved. In real time. This is a very real film about what it means to ‘keep it real’.”
Who knows and who cares, it’s brilliant all the same.
OUTSIDE THE LAW: New Zealand TV Premiere, Tuesday 6th March, 8.30pm
From Days of Glory director Rachid Bouchareb comes the 2011 best foreign language film nominee Outside the Law. A sweeping historical and political drama about the Algerian struggle for independence, Bouchareb’s film follows the plight of a peasant family in Algeria, kicked off their ancestral land by the French in 1925, and 20 years later caught up in the French massacre of Algerian nationalists marchers in Sétif.
After this dramatic event the family’s three brothers go their separate ways, only to meet again in Paris many years later. The most fanatical of the brothers Abdelkader (Sami Bouajila) sets up a branch of the National Liberation Front, an organization that believes violence is a necessary part of achieving independence and its from here the film really begins.
It’s an interesting, intense story and yet it takes time to emotionally connect with any of these characters. The film focuses on politics and its stance is clear; France is evil. However no one really wins, the NLF hardly begs for our sympathy. The story unfolds in a conventional, no-nonsense, almost brutal kind of manner - it’s a cold film that could have done with a few more female characters or personal moments in the brother’s lives to warm it up a little. It does lack a sense of humanity, and yet this gangster/western styled drama still presents a powerful conclusion.
It’s a good week here on Rialto, enjoy.