M/C Reviews

Margo Lanagan - Yellowcake

Reviewed by M.A. Bonney
Bringing together stories that have been published between 2006 and 2009, Yellowcake is a new collection of short stories from Margo Lanagan.

Cinema: Martha Marcy May Marlene

Reviewed by Michael Dalton

Martha Marcy May Marlene is a contemporary horror film, perhaps the most poignant in years. It’s not horror in the sense of body counts and hockey masks, no, this is the kind of emotional horror where characters live in fear for themselves as they search for their identity and its cunningly delivered in director Sean Durkin’s unnerving sophomore effort. The key to the film’s success lays on the shoulders of doll-like Elizabeth Olsen (she would’ve been perfect in last year’s futile Sleeping Beauty) and her glassy eyes amp up the deep sadness of a shattered psyche.

Cinema: The Artist

Reviewed by Michael Dalton

The Artist, the film everyone is talking about, has finally arrived. It’s been sweeping award ceremonies, seems to be a dead lock to win big at the Academy Awards, and this week its leading man won the coveted trophy at the Screen Actors Guild ceremony. How good is it? Has it been overhyped? Is it as lyrical, sweet and beautiful as they’re saying it is?

Cinema: Chronicle

Reviewed by Michael Dalton

Where did Chronicle come from? Much like District 9 (filmed in South Africa as Chronicle was), this thrill-a-minute sci-fi adventure seems to have appeared out of nowhere and should end up as loved as its tasty predecessor. In his exciting feature film debut, Josh Trank blends fresh-faced, largely unknown actors, who deliver fine spontaneous performances, with spacey visuals in this exhilarating tale of three boys whose wildest fantasies come alive.

J M G Le Clezio - Mondo and Other Stories

Reviewed by Peter McCarthy

This collection of short stories from Nobel laureate, Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio, should come with a warning: ‘readers not prepared to put aside their sense of reality and accept new possibility paradigms should not enter here’.

Aravind Adiga - Last Man in Tower

Reviewed by Peter McCarthy

Readers familiar with Adiga’s Man Booker Prize-winning novel, The White Tiger, and his subsequent collection of short stories, Between the Assassinations, will find this latest work a little more orthodox in its content and structure. Last Man in Tower is more conservative in its style, but still bears the trademark Adiga quirkiness and dark-hued humour.

Cinema: Man On A Ledge

Reviewed by Michael Dalton

What a fabricated, loopy piece of work Man On A Ledge is. When I first heard about it, I assumed they were remaking the 1951 thriller Fourteen Hours that starred the lionhearted Paul Douglas. In that film, a suicidal man climbed out onto a ledge in Manhattan and Douglas’s police officer had to talk him down. The premise was a good one but it was let down by the talky style and ended up being more notable for starring Grace Kelly in her feature film debut. What a shame director Asger Leth, a noted documentary maker, didn’t remake it. It couldn’t have been any more lackluster than what he came up with for this is a movie you leave in the cinema.

Malcolm Knox - The Life

Reviewed by Peter McCarthy

The carefree ‘surfie’ life is an Australian cultural icon, and has long been the subject of envy-generating movies and books. The Life by Malcolm Knox, shows another side… a lifestyle dominated by drugs, egos, intense competition and broken relationships. And he shows it with such credible detail that this could be an autobiography rather than a work of fiction.

Cinema: Weekend

Reviewed by Michael Dalton

The fact that the two characters in Weekend are men is of little relevance. This warm new drama directed by Andrew Haigh, about a one-night stand that blossoms into much more, has its gay sensibilities but the situations and discussions that arise apply to all those who play the singles game. Haigh has more on his mind than studying the cinematic taboos regarding the intimacies two men can share. Like Frankie and Johnny, a film it seems to take its cue from, Weekend follows two people taking those first tender steps towards a commitment they are hesitant to embrace.

Cinema: J. Edgar

Reviewed by Michael Dalton

When was the last time we saw a film about a famous historical figure where we first meet him or her in their youth and then follow through to old age? Do the narratives start in their twilight years so we can instantly marvel at how the performer looks under a mountain of latex? It was one of the many mistakes in Phyllida Lloyd’s The Iron lady and now Clint Eastwood has pulled the same stunt with J. Edgar. I use the word stunt for that’s how the whole film feels. Aside from the chopping and changing of timeframes (which leads to a grand mess in the structure), the makeup, which seems to be where most of the attention was paid, overwhelms from the first shot of Leonardo DiCaprio seated behind his desk. Bull-headed and phony, the look is naturally confronting but DiCaprio, hellbent on delivering an iconic performance, only finds the derivative notes. Try as he might, he never catches on.