AZOR – NO RATING

Couldn’t finish it. I love many Argentinian films, and was looking forward to this one, but it was just too much talking without context. I couldn’t piece together who the characters were, or what the story was. I probably didn’t give it a fair enough chance. Maybe lockdown fatigue is setting in and just becoming fatigue.

PALAZZO DI COZZO – ★★★

Documentary about Franco Cozzo, the Melbourne king of gaudy handmade Italian furniture. Growing up in Melbourne his ads were pretty famous, but I never desired owning a piece, nor did anyone I know. I suspect that in a sense, he was a meme before Internet memes were a thing. It was easy to watch, but I felt like there were some opportunities lost. It felt like there might have a been a story that could have been a universal interest story for an International audience, but ultimately it didn’t really deliver on that. All we really got was that he was famous for the ads, and that to some extent time had moved on and the demand for his style of furniture has dissipated. I’d have liked the documentary to dive a little deeper, but instead it kind of felt like an advertisement for the man and his furniture store.

THE MACALUSO SISTERS – ★★☆

An Italian film about five sisters. I was a little bit tired watching this, so maybe I missed some key points, but it felt like huge chunks of story were missing. I’m not clear where their parents were, but due to a tragic event at the beach while they were young, we see the how the event had a destructive result on the family over three eras of time. Didn’t really grab me.

LUZZU – ★★★★

It’s odd how there seem to be themes that occur during MIFF. This year fishing seems to be one of them, with this being the third film featuring it (the others being ‘CODA’ and ‘Gaza Mon Amour’. Luzzu is a beautiful Maltese film with plenty of heart. It tells the story of a fisherman whose lineage goes back generations, finishing from the same boat. He’s faced with several challenges, from his infant son needing medical care, to the challenges of modern fishing, shady dealings by others for out of season fish, and natural decline of fish in the sea due to global warming. A pleasant surprise.

SISTERS WITH TRANSISTORS – ★★☆

Documentary about women and their place in the history of electronic music. It was narrated by Laurie Anderson, and I was pretty excited to watch this. It wasn’t a terrible film, but I felt it was a little bit dry, and generally found the most interesting parts were relating to Suzanne Ciani. There was a previous documentary about her at MIFF in 2017 (‘A Life in Waves’) though. So, this was worth checking out, but I preferred A Life in Waves.

GAZA MON AMOUR – ★★

I can only imagine that something was lost in translation, as the reviews for this seemed so positive. Story of an old Palestinian fisherman who has spent his life as a single man, but who decides to approach a woman that has caught his eye. Maybe I’m missing something, or maybe I was just the wrong demographic for this one, but nothing much seemed to happen.

THE GIG IS UP – ★

This documentary was about gig economy jobs like Uber, Lyft, Deliveroo, etc. So much not to like about the documentary. Someone from *Microsoft* of all places talking about the evils of these companies (ha!). It was too long, without enough content – it could have been half the length. No scenes with representatives of the other side sharing any views (nor reference to whether they were asked and refused). The poverty-porn scenes of the guy from Florida and his mother – what else was the purpose in the long scenes with his mother and her lottery tickets? And it wasn’t really telling us anything that most of us don’t know – that many companies will exploit whatever they can to make profits. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, *is* the gig up? The movie ended without showing that anything of note had actually been achieved in reaching fairness for employees of these kinds of jobs. I’m sure there’s a story to tell, I just don’t think this documentary achieved it.