POMO

Destroyer is a hundred minutes of watching an unlikable character(s) in extremely unlikable LA locations (without the atmosphere or mystery of Nightcrawler), and at the end the movie tries to explain the character’s wrecked state, give her a human dimension and surprise us with one formal plot detail, which doesn’t really salvage the boring viewing experience.

A more courageous and mature filmmaker might have got more out of such interesting source material than a generally nice movie about the familial relations between a suffering son, an understanding mother and a bigoted father.

This movie enables you to experience a nine-month rowing journey from California to Australia (!) with a group of girls. Two hours of sleep or rest, two hours of rowing, rinse and repeat for nine months. It is an admirable feat both physically and especially mentally. They don’t experience lifethreatening storms and no sharks attack them while they are swimming, but the mental burden that they must bear (and confess to the cameras) lend sufficient drive to the documentary, which is a psychologically intriguing study of a decimated person in an unusual situation. Admirable!

Captain Marvel is a nice chill-out movie without the great drama of The Avengers, which it doesn’t really need. The only character whose emotions are explored in depth is the protagonist; everyone else is either there to provide comic relief or a villain with a surprising plan. The setting in Los Angeles (and the surrounding desert) in the 1990s enables a lot of cool jokes and establishes the overall lighthearted mood of the movie (Samuel is immortal!). This was what I liked best about Captain Marvel. Plus Brie Larson. The movie benefits from casting her and not a sexpot like Amber Heard. Larson is more approachable, natural and cute.

"Driving Mr. Mahershala"? Too bad that Viggo had to fight Rami Malek for the Oscar, as the jury couldn’t give it to anyone else but Rami. Here, Viggo put on a remarkable performance, just like in Eastern Promises. Mahershala is also great. The movie itself, however, is a dime-a-dozen Hollywood template, with a good heart and gorgeous narrative but without a hint of filmmaking inventiveness.

Though the technical aspect is nicely done, Greta remains an unimaginatively plotted thriller with a great actress who is wasted on such a one-dimensional character. Due to her involvement (and also due to the director’s reputation), one would expect more from this than just a minor genre movie. [The Elizabeth Picture Theatre, Brisbane]

With an unremarkable narrative based on an issue created by the Chinese social system, Bends is about a Chinese man and his wife trying to give birth to their second child in Hong Kong, beyond the boundaries of Shenzen. However, the film’s more memorable character is the rich Hong Kong woman who tries to help them while addressing her own existential situation. [Australian Cinémathéque, Brisbane]

The Mermaids is an artsy emotion-based movie with a dense atmosphere that pulls you in. With its details, scenes fading into one another, intense tableaus, a bunch of ingenious people looking for food and shelter in dry prairie and mud, the film is a critique of colonialism through the hopeless wandering of Aboriginal Australian people. [Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane]

There are several similar documentaries out there, including those that meticulously focus on their protagonist’s character. Free Solo stands out slightly due to its visuals and music (Beltrami stealthily turns it into the most suspense-packed thriller of the year) and Honnold’s REMARKABLE performance, which defies common sense and is something much bigger than just sport. Watching it “live” would be impossible. Even being aware of how it’s going to end, I was covered in cold sweat. That the film won an Academy Award in the documentary category made me very happy, if only because for a long time, rock climbing was not acknowledged as a discipline worthy of the Olympics (it appeared for the first time in 2020). But I think it was the other way around - the Olympics weren’t worthy of rock climbing.

“Don’t deal with art, especially art that doesn’t belong to you.” Of course, this was not supposed to be a full-blooded horror movie, but the wannabe dramatic death scenes do not work at all. They’re more like WTF. If you consider it a satire of the world of artists, art critics and art dealers, it is watchable; observing an interesting group of people is fun. But Velvet Buzzsaw doesn’t hit the bull’s eye even in this respect, unlike, for example, Altman’s The Player from behind the scenes of moviemaking. I’m sure Gilroy had greater ambitions for this project.