I’ll get the dud out of the way first.
Borrowed Time: Lennon’s Last Decade
The following is a community service announcement:
Do not spend your hard earned on this pretentious, lazy, emotionless and self-indulgent piece of tripe.
I’m so angry at myself for not following due diligence before witnessing this insult to music documentary lovers.
Director Alan G Parker has gathered together a bunch of drug frazzled, brain dead music journalists and groupies from the 60s and 70s, who take forever to provide what they believe are momentous insights into John Lennon’s life.
The memories are fleeting and have no gravitas when it comes to providing any new insights into John and Yoko’s decade in New York. Correct me if I’m wrong but wasn’t that the title of the film?
It’s embarrassing to the point I was just getting angry, so I won’t go into detail as to why it’s so bad because it only makes things worse. Trust me, this felt like the cinephile equivalent to getting scammed.
All I’ll say is there was zero approval and cooperation from the remaining Beatles or Yoko Ono to make this film, therefore there was no soundtrack whatsoever and whatever footage Parker had, was ripped straight from Youtube. In fact he used a Beatles interview twice by accident, so poor was the editing.
A dead set disgrace. 1/10 and that’s only for Ringo and George appearing in a Michael Parkinson interview in the mid 80’s, again ripped straight from Youtube. I’m tipping Mr Parker’s on borrowed time.
For an excellent doco of John and Yoko in New York check out One To One.
https://isowilson.com/john-and-yokos-fresh-adventure/
Anemone
My finger is clearly not on the pulse of the nation when I read Rotten Tomatoes’ review of this brilliant film. Emotionally distant and lacking narrative flow?
I would say this film is emotionally powerful and the reason there may be a slow narrative is because great films provide space in dialogue and give the audience time to think for themselves instead of dumbing everything down.
Daniel Day Lewis plays Ray, a former British soldier who completed three tours of the Northern Ireland conflict. For the past twenty years Ray has gone off grid into a beautiful forest without explanation.
He has left behind his former partner Nessa, played by Samantha Morton, her husband Jim, the brother of Ray played by Sean Bean and Jim’s son Brian played by Samuel Bottomley.
Brian, like his Dad and Step-Dad is in the army but is currently AWOL (absent without leave). Despite being a natural leader within the army, Brian is struggling emotionally and has anger management issues, having recently beaten someone to within an inch of his life.
Jim finds out where Ray lives and decides to track him down in order to drag Ray back to talk to his son whom he has never met.
Daniel Day Lewis left acting in 2017 to spend more time with his family. Well hasn’t that paid off big time when his twenty seven year old son Ronan can direct a debut feature as good as this!
Not a shot to camera is wasted, the dialogue is superb and the scenery is stunning. All the actors are perfect and it beggars belief that Day Lewis could maybe win a fourth Oscar with his portrayal as the tortured ex-soldier.
The film is a slow burn and at times a meditative piece but for me I empathised with Ray and Jim having had many men such as these as my boss during my time in the army and I’m more than familiar with complex skeletons in family closets.
Ronan Day Lewis has set a phenomenal precedent for himself. Perhaps it’s in the genes. Apart from being Daniel’s son, his mother is film maker Rebecca Miller and his grandfather is the late playwright Arthur Miller.
My advice to Ronan from a St Kilda supporter…don’t rush son and keep your expectations low. That way you’ll never be disappointed. 🙂 A cracking film. 8.5/10
The British Film Festival runs until December 5. Plenty of good films to come. Details here:https://britishfilmfestival.com.au
Finally a new release that’s not part of the BFF.
Die My Love
I’ve only ever seen one of director Lynne Ramsay’s films, that being We Need To Talk About Kevin and really enjoyed it. The film was deeply psychological, at times shocking and very well acted.
It’s a similar vein with her latest Die My Love, albeit a different focus.
Grace (Jennifer Lawrence) and Jackson (Robert Pattinson) decide to move from New York to an old home in Montana inherited by Jackson from an uncle.
Its beautiful ‘big sky country’ but after Grace has a child, she develops Post Natal (or Post Partum) Depression. The isolation of where they live only compounds the mental challenges she faces which leads to unsettling, unpredictable behaviour.
Obviously not the best premise for a date night, however in Australia alone PND affects approximately 16% of new mums. It’s often deadly, whether that be for mum or dad on the receiving end and these complex issues are handled very well by Ramsey.
She doesn’t take you on a journey of how to manage PND through proper therapy, mores-o this film looks at the devastating effects of the illness.
Taken from a 2012 book by Ariana Harwicz, the film was produced by Martin Scorsese and Lawrence in order to bring it to the big screen.
The cast do a very good job, especially Lawrence who is in every scene and it was wonderful to see a couple of legends in Sissy Spacek and Nick Nolte pop up again.
Overall, it’s heavy going but well made. I doubt it will secure you a second date unfortunately. 🙂 7/10
