LARA – ★★★★

This film really resonated with me. It’s the story of the mother of a young pianist/composer on the opening day of a recital where he will play his first composed work. There’s a lot of reasons to find the mother an unpleasant person, but underlying this is the story of her own past and how that has created the person that she is; a somewhat bitter and overbearing judge that obvious has driven her son to his levels of skill, but also torn their relationship into what it is.

THE LEADERSHIP – ★★★☆

Another documentary that demonstrates how unfair the world can be, this time on a women’s leadership retreat to Antarctica. Similarly to ‘9to5’, and a dash of ‘On the Record’, both also shown at MIFF this year, this shows the inexcusable inequity of women, particularly those who work in STEMM (Science/Technology/Engineering/Maths/Medicine). At points there’s (unfortunately) unsurprising details about how much women have to put up with; unequal pay, abuse, sexual assault, etc. And then there’s the impacts of the women who go on the first of these voyages, and the aftermath of that. Worth watching. I hope that existing business leaders that have the power to make changes to create equity, inclusiveness and diversity see the film and start making the positive changes desperately needed.

MADDY THE MODEL – ★★★

This documentary should be celebrating Maddy’s mum more than Maddy herself. Maddy, who has Down syndrome, wanted to be a catwalk model, and her mother who is endlessly supportive, did what she could to help realise the dream. You can see that the mum’s expectations are reasonable, and she’s not a stage mum. But it’s a difficult situation that requires a real commitment and juggle. Congrats to Maddy’s mum for the hard work, and to Maddy for pursuing her dreams.

THE LETTER – ★★★

Maybe I’m hitting documentary fatigue. This film about an African community that appears to be suffering from issues around the elderly being accused of witchcraft and then attacked by machetes just felt a little but too surreal. At points it felt like a war of Christian beliefs vs Witchcraft, when both feel like the wrong answer in the face of science.

PERFECT 10 – ★★★☆

Mostly well excecuted British film about a young gymnast and her attempts to make sense of her place in the world. Her mum is no longer around, and her dad isn’t the most attentive parent. She meets her half brother for the first time, and starts dabbling into the wrong side of the law with his influence. Perhaps a little predictable in parts, but a nice enough story nonetheless.

LOOKY LOOKY HERE COMES COOKY – ★★★

Short, but reasonable documentary marrying the story of Australia’s ‘discovery’ by James Cook from the indigenous Australian perspective. This is worth watching in hearing about the continuing difficulties of the people who were here before colonisation, and the marrying of the stories to song was mostly well done. Recognising that something does need to be done, I’d like to have heard a little more about what can be done to improve the situation from the perspective of indigenous Australians, assuming that the issues have been heard.

SUK SUK – ★★★

An okay drama from Hong Kong about a couple of gay men hiding their true colours from society. Their story together is nice, but the film felt a little bit laboured and didn’t advance as much as I’d’ve liked. And it doesn’t really reach a conclusion of note.

PRAYER FOR A LOST MITTEN – ★★

Disappointing. I thought the idea of a documentary about a lost and found office at a train station would have interesting stories. This started there, and then went a wandering with several far too long jazz incidental scenes and rambling conversations. I feel like the filmmakers were trying to create a allegory to the concept of loss, but it just didn’t do that for me.

WELCOME TO CHECHNYA – ★★★★

Incredible documentary covering the efforts of a Russian organisation to help LGBT people in Chechnya escape from persecution. There were some pretty distressing scenes in this showing the treatment of these groups in Chechnya. It’s hard to believe that in 2020 this kind of bigotry and hatred can still exist. Please consider donating to https://outrightinternational.org to help make a difference.

CORPUS CHRISTI – ★★★☆

This Polish film sounded like its plot was similar to that of ‘Troubled Water’, a Norwegian film from MIFF 2009; in both films someone comes out of jail, and ends up trying to escape their past by becoming part of a church in a small town. (The former was by playing the organ, the latter, by pretending to be a priest). This one is apparently based on real events, and I thought it was very well done. It’s obvious that the character is trying to reconcile their past, and uses it to help provide good to a community that is still trying to come to terms with a recent tragedy. An excellent performance by the lead, too.