With hundreds of fascinating features on offer, Stephen A Russell navigates the twists and turns of this year’s cinematic offering.
If your usual response to a sprawling film festival program is to panic, drop and roll, then fear for your soul no more. We are here to wade through the wonders of this year’s startlingly good Sydney Film Festival line-up, suggesting ten flicks we think might tickle your fancy.
Slanted
Australian filmmaker Amy Wang—currently working on the Crazy Rich Asians sequel—amplifies her experience of racism growing up in suburban Sydney for her SXSW Grand Jury Award-winning debut feature. Casting Dìdi’s sister Shirley Chen as Joan Huang, an American teenager determined to be crowned prom queen, she’s confronted by the fact that every previous title-holder was blonde, blue-eyed and decidedly white. Radical surgery places victory within sight in this satirical swipe co-starring Mckenna Grace.
The Life of Chuck
Not all of spook-meister Stephen King’s stories are made equal. Some of them aren’t even all that scary, as is the case with this strangely looping look at a life less ordinary. A surprisingly upbeat charmer from Midnight Mass creator Mike Flanagan—who also adapted King’s Doctor Sleep and Gerald’s Game—it casts Loki lead Tom Hiddleston as the snappy-toed dancer of the title whose trippy journey through life we experience in reverse, with Room breakthrough Jacob Tremblay cutting in as a young Chuck.
Orwell: 2+2+5
Haitian filmmaker Raoul Peck’s soaring tribute to activist, author and all-round awesome public speaker James Baldwin, I Am Not Your Negro, secured an Oscar nomination in 2017. His latest fascinatingly sewn documentary, heading straight to Sydney from the Cannes Film Festival, tackles another preeminent (and far too prescient) literary voice. This time it’s George Orwell, the man who penned dystopian warning Nineteen Eighty-Four and Russian Revolution allegory Animal Farm, in his sights.
Vie Privée
Fresh from scooping up a Golden Globe for her turn in the latest chapter of True Detective: Night Country, Jodie Foster crops up in this latest offering from Grand Central director Rebecca Zlotowski. Also debuting at Cannes, it’s a slinky murder mystery in which Foster plays a renowned psychiatrist, Lilian Steiner, who is convinced her client died in suspicious circumstances. Foster’s accompanied by a stacked cast of French co-stars including Mathieu Amalric, Daniel Auteuil, Vincent Lacoste and Virginie Efira.
Bring Them Down
Oscar-nominated The Banshees of Inisherin lead Barry Keoghan joins Girls and Wolf Man actor Christopher Abbott, the latter affecting an Irish accent, in this thrilling debut feature from Chris Andrews that debuted at TIFF. Shot in the luscious Irish countryside, this tensely wound drama ignites a rumbling war between sparring farmers that threatens to uncover a long-buried secret. Also look out for magnificent Star Trek: Deep Space Nine alum Colm Meaney, who is always on top of his game.
Dreams (Sex Love)
Norwegian filmmaker Dag Johan Haugerud scored the Golden Bear at Berlinale for this intriguing closing chapter of a loose trilogy. It spins a complicated morality play from the awakening of a 17-year-old Johanne (Ella Øverbye). Obsessed with her French teacher, Johanna (Selome Emnetu), Johanne pours those pent-up feelings into her journal. But when both her mother and grandmother read it and are impressed by her way with words, a dilemma presents itself: to publish or not and at what cost?
The Mother and the Bear
If you enjoyed the darkly drawn catfish comedy of Audrey, you might also dig this sweeter spin. Executive produced by Pablo Larraín (Jackie), Chinese-Canadian filmmaker Johnny Ma’s sophomore feature stars South Korean actor Kim Ho-jung as Sara, a mum who flies into Winnipeg on the approach to Lunar New Year when her 20-something daughter Sumi slips on ice and winds up in a coma. Deciding to sign Sumi up to a dating app, Sara soon gets distracted. It screens with SXSW Special Jury Award-winning short I’m the Most Racist Person I Know by Lesbian Space Princess (also at SFF) director Leela Varghese.
It Ends
Also creating a buzz at SXSW, Alex Ullom’s debut feature takes the phrase “highway to hell” to the next level. Facing the big bad world after graduating from college, four Gen Z besties—Day (Akira Jackson), James (Phinehas Yoon), Tyler (Mitchell Cole) and Fisher (Noah Toth)—head off on a long, late-night drive into the woods. But pretty soon it becomes clear there are wilder things out there than bears. Forced to confront their darkest fears, they soon discover that real life can be pretty darn scary. It screens with Jayden Rathsam Hua’s Otway ranges-shot freaky short Belloe.
The Golden Spurtle
How does a Greek-Cypriot-Australian opera singer-turned director from Sydney’s North Shore end up shooting a documentary about competitive porridge-making in a remote village in the Scottish Highlands? We’re already sold on grabbing a ticket on that basis. You’ll surely fall in love with the charismatically kooky locals plus the hopefuls drawn to this luscious spot from all corners of the globe, including fellow Aussie Toby, a taco chef with his sights set on the grand prize.
Birthright
Having carved an impressive career in theatre, WA-based writer and director Zoe Pepper marks her feature debut with this farcical comedy, landing at SFF straight from debuting at the Tribeca Film Festival. Tackling Australia’s housing crisis head-on, it stars Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes actor Travis Jeffery as Cory, a down-on-his-luck guy hit with the double-whammy of being evicted and losing his job while partner Jasmine (The Newsreader’s Maria Angelico) is heavily pregnant. However, family relations spiral out of control when they move into his parents’ (Michael Hurst and Linda Cropper) place.
This year’s Sydney Film Festival screens across June 4-15. Full info at the SFF website.
