Boxing Day Releases

With Boxing Day right around the corner, cinema aficionados are gearing up for some of the most awaited films of the year. Director Wes Anderson (The Life Aquatic…) returns to his favoured themes of family and love with The Darjeeling Limited, a gently comical story of three estranged brothers uniting for a train journey across India. Tinted by the real life experiences of co-writers Anderson, Jason Schwartzman and Roman Coppola, Anderson carves his most emotionally grounded offering to date, whilst still maintaining his signature eccentricities. Julie Delpy (Before Sunrise/Sunset) meanwhile steps behind the camera to both direct and star in Two Days in Paris, where she plays a verbose, borderline-hysterical Parisian who brings her cynical, arrogant, French-hating American boyfriend (Adam Goldberg) home for the weekend. Delivered with all the verbal frenzy of a Gilmore Girls episode, there’s something delightfully endearing about the film (perhaps because of Delpy’s effortlessly likeable nature), despite her self-conscious narration and the film perilous dance on that thin line between comedy and tragedy. And the musical biopic receives yet another make-over in I’m Not There, where Marcus Carl Franklin, Richard Gere, Christian Bale, Heath Ledger and Cate Blanchett all recreate different images of Bob Dylan through interweaving narratives. For all that it’s trying to do, the film doesn’t really do anything all that well, coming off as extremely self-conscious and with some narrative strands decisively more interesting and well-developed than their half-baked counterparts.

Ratings: 8.5, 8.0, 6.9

And, as cinemas around the nation brace themselves for the onslaught of post-Christmas cinema releases, Perth prepares for some more local surprises. The Luna Outdoor season gets going with its second film, Buddha’s Lost Children, a documentary about Thai boxer-come-monk, Khru Bah, who now devotes himself to assisting struggling hillside tribes throughout Thailand’s impoverished borderlands, and to taking in homeless or lost boys, in order to give them another chance at life. There’s a very intimate feel to the unfolding storytelling, as we are gradually drawn into the community’s daily workings, the lives of the young boys and the karmic life philosophies of Khru Bah himself. The filmmaking is solid, sprinkled with exquisite cinematography and some genuinely thought-provoking interviews. While it may be slower paced and less exciting than other ‘inspirational’ documentaries making the rounds at the moment, Buddha’s Lost Children remains an interesting, if not enthralling, portrait of a hidden community.

Rating: 7.5

PIAF’s Film Festival also introduces two new films for the new year. I Served the King of England is the Czech comedy that will soon be lighting up the Sommerville auditorium. It sees Czech actor Ivan Barnev become a cross between Charlie Chaplin and a weasel (sneaky, yet somehow endearing), as he plays the ingratiating Jan Dite, a waiter hoping desperately to become a millionaire in wartime Czechoslovakia. Despite its trailer suggesting nonsense absurdity, there is actually a gripping narrative weaving through all the more unbelieve images that cross the screen (monetary note wallpaper, a pool for naked Aryan women and a waiter who upturns the tables of his clients, to mention a few), whilst these surreal interludes help to spice up the film as whole.

Rating: 8.1

Meanwhile, Moliere welcomes 2008 at Joondalup Pines. No doubt inspired by the success of Shakespeare in Love, director Laurent Tirad presents a speculative take on how the famous French playwright may have gained inspiration for his most famous play, Tartuffe. While the film could have suffered under the confines of its period setting, and what many have criticised to be a poor casting choice Romain Duris as Moliere), the screenplay has obviously taken many of its comedic cues from the playwright it celebrates, rendering the end result fresh and genuinely funny, as well as just that little bit touching. This, combined with the perfectly tuned performances of the supporting cast (especially Fabrice Luchinni and Laura Morante as the wealthy couple who welcome Moliere into their home with mixed results) cements the film as one of the Festival’s most notable highlights thus far.

Rating: 8.6