Two Teensy Reviews: The Dressmaker & Miss Peregrine

Presented to assuage Nathaniel's guilt from not having properly reviewed them when they arrived.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (Tim Burton)
Story: A teenager (Asa Butterfield) who just mysteriously lost his beloved grandpa (Terence Stamp), seeks out the home and guardian (Eva Green) he grew up with overseas. The home is hidden in a time loop (!) and under seige by eyeball-eating supernatural forces (!!!)
Review: Intermittently engaging but ultimately generic even in its "peculiarities". Butterfield is dull in the lead but Eva Green delivers (as always) from the sidelines. The premise screams out for a fuller miniseries treatment to provide depth and pathos rather than what amounts to a rushed peek at an admittedly intriguing freakshow.
MVPs Beyond Eva: Props Department & Set Decorators (love those lead shoes, all the photos, and the weird details in the rooms)
Grade: C+ 
Oscar Chances: No. Too underwhelming overall and Colleen Atwood, a favorite of Oscar's costume branch, has other more high profile movies out this very year.

The Dressmaker (Jocelyn Moorhouse)
Story: A sophisticated hostile fashion designer returns to her home town for... what exactly?
Review: Those who miss Kate Winslet and/or those who long for the 1990s era of popular eccentric Australian imports must not miss this sassy throwback. Others may scratch their heads at the spectacularly uneven results. Kate Winslet has a welcome ball but many of the character arcs (and even the casting) make no sense whatsoever. Pity about the jarringly sad final act.
MVP's beyond Kate: Liam Hemsworth whilst stripping / Sarah Snook's makeover
Grade: First Half: B+; Second Half: C
Oscar Chances: Perhaps an outside shot at costume design since they're such a crucial part of the narrative? But then who to credit? -- Kate Winslet's costumes are by a different designer (Margot Wilson) than the rest of the costumes (Marion Boyce).

If you saw these pictures, what were you favorite and least favorite things about them?

AACTA Awards Hail Mel Gibson, Tanna and... Gods of Egypt?

by Glenn Dunks

Mel Gibson certainly won’t object to waking up to 13 nominations from the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (the AACTA Awards) for his directorial comeback, Hacksaw Ridge. This canny bit of career rehabilitation for the former Oscar winner began, by association, with the revival of Mad Max. Even if Hacksaw Ridge doesn't ultimately pan out in terms of Oscar success, it should at least go some way to redeeming him in the eyes of many who have been turned off by his personal dramas and increasingly violent movies. I have not seen the film which leads today’s AACTA announcement, but a big-budget international co-production with a big name at its helm is catnip to this group --it’s not surprising to see it nominated in every category possible except one (Best Original Score).

The pleasure in these nominations is the swathe of nominations for much smaller, unique titles like the desert noir Goldstone, the quirky coming-of-age fantasy Girl Asleep, and Australia’s foreign language Oscar entry the Vanuatu-set romance Tanna that in any other year (er, one with bigger hits) would have likely been left with scraps. These four films are nominated alongside the all-star Ibsen adaptation The Daughter in the Best Film category. Alas, Gods of Egypt had to settle for technical nominations.

And, in case you’re wondering, Lion is not here because it doesn’t receive a local release (in its home country!) until next January. This time next year, folks.

The full list of nominations with commentary after the jump...

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APSA Nominations: Lion, Cold of Kalandar, and More

The Asia Pacific Screen Awards has announced its nominations for the film year. The organization is in its 10th year -- and we should note that our own Glenn Dunks works for them behind the scenes. They basically cover the whole continent so that includes Asian countries, Australia, Russia, you name it. Their definition is loose enough that it even covers films with creative teams that qualify even if the film is a co-production made elsewhere. Their nomination procedure is elaborate -- 303 films from 43 countries were in the mix this year -- and whittled down throughout the year. The results are certainly a unique barometer of the region.

Cold of Kalandar, Turkey's Oscar submission, has 3 nominations

The nominations with commentary are after the jump...

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Middleburg Day 1: "Lion" is a winner

By Nathaniel R

Sheila Johnson welcomes you!Salamander

Middleburg Film Festival, now in its fourth year and just an hour outside of Washington DC, is a rising festival to watch. Most of the festival's big events take place at the Salamander Resort and Spa which sits on 340 beautiful acres. The rooms are gorgeous -- I even have a nice little terrace to sit on while typing up these diaries for you. In short, this is a destination festival rather than a 'drop in for a film or two or two after work' type big city festival. Emma Stone and Damien Chazelle are coming into town for La La Land and other luminaries appear for their films, too.

The festival, which has an Oscar hopeful heavy lineup, was founded by the African-American billionaire Sheila Johnson (co-founder of BET network) who welcomed us to the opening night screening. The event was in the resort's huge ballroom and I was surprised to be very happy and pleased with the screen size and sound since non-traditional venues at regional festivals can sometimes present challenges.

 The opening night film was the lost child / adoption drama Lion. True to early buzz we've heard the movie is quite wonderful...

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Foreign Oscar Race Begins: Australia, Brazil, Croatia, Cuba, Denmark

Over the next couple of months we'll be hearing the names of the 70ish films that will be competing for Oscar's coveted shortlist as Best Foreign Language Film. So far nine countries have selected their films and other countries have begun the winnowing to get to their top choice.

Our charts are now in progress with posters, info, and links to official sites and such as well as links back to highlights from last year's global class. 

The Companion forces a boxer and a soldier with AIDS to spend lots of time together

Chart 1 Afghanistan to Finland

Denmark and Brazil have narrowed it down to three films each with Brazil's choice already embroiled in a lot of controversy due to political fighting in regards to Aquarius (starring Sonia Braga which hits TIFF & NYFF shortly and which was very well received at Cannes) though I have to admit it's hard to make sense of the turmoil from an outsider's perspective given the Google translate limitations. Thank to Jon in the comments for alerting us to this brewing controversy but if someone can sum it up for us in brief that would be appreciated. But on our first chart we have three official submissions

CUBA - THE COMPANION
Cuba's submission is about a boxer accused of doping who is forced to become a companion to a soldier who has contracted AIDS. Cuba has only been nominated for the LGBT drama Strawberry & Chocolate (1994) in the past but I maintain that Behavior (2014), their most recent submission, would have been a worthy nominee. Here's the new film's trailer with subtitles:

CROATIA - ON THE OTHER SIDE
There is a trailer available but not subtitled. It's about a mother who's kept a secret for a very long time.

AUSTRALIA - TANNA
Australia's entry takes place on a remote island and is performed by the Yakel tribe. This one opens in New York City and Los Angeles in September so cross your fingers that it wins further expansion. Here's the official site and the trailer. Our own Glenn Dunks wrote about it for Paradise magazine. It won two prizes at Venice last year and it looks potentially exciting...

Tanna - Trailer - All parts performed by the people of Yakel from Lightyear Entertainment on Vimeo.