Confusingly, two films called Ava have been released virtually at the same time. The one I watched this week was the Iranian semi-autobiographical drama from first time director Sadaf Faroughi which can be rented on Curzon Home Cinema. The excellent Mahour Jabbari stars as the title character, a high school student in Tehran, subject to strict rules enforced by her teachers and her Mum. When she makes a very small act of rebellion, the reaction both at home and school are severe.
This is beautifully made look at another culture. Faroughi frequently keeps her camera static and at a distance, achieving an alienating effect. The indignities Ava suffers are shocking, including being forced to go to a gynaecologist to check her virginity after being seen in the company of a boy. The hypocrisy of the society she lives in is perfectly highlighted, and i watched most of this with a mixture of fascination and disgust. It did feel a little like Faroughi did not know exactly where to take the story in the third act. That lessens the impact a little but it remains an impressive first time effort.
Rating: 8 out of 10
Amazon are offering two new films for free to their prime subscribers but both are pretty run-of-the-mill. Chemical Hearts is yet another drama about mopey, dopey teens. 17 year old Henry is an old fashioned romantic who wants to be a writer, just like most kids in these films and none that you meet in real life. He falls for new student, Grace, who has recently suffered a tragedy, obviously. This unfolds in exactly the way you would expect though it is elevated slightly by the performances by Austin Abrams and Lili Reinhart in the lead roles.
Rating: 5 out of 10
In Mara, Olga Kurylenko stars as a psychologist, Kate, brought in by the police after a woman appears to murder her husband in her sleep, in order to assess whether she is insane or fit to stand trial. As Kate investigates, she discovers a story about an ancient demon who kills people in their sleep. The films offers a few chills. The conceit is hardly original after so many Nightmare on Elm Street films but it is an effective enough one.
Rating: 5.5 out of 10
Sky subscribers can currently see the earnest Behold My Heart. Marisa Tomei plays a widow who’s grief after her husband is killed turns to alcoholism. Charlie Plummer is her initially supportive son who is driven away by her behaviour. The screenplay by director Joshua Leonard and Rebecca Lowman is perceptive and Tomei is as good as you would expect in a demanding role. However, the film does meander a little and seems to end abruptly.
Rating: 6.5 out of 10
Netflix continues to release new features at an alarming rate. This week, there are a few that are definitely worth seeing.
Love, Guaranteed is a sweet romantic comedy from director Mark Steven Johnson. A dating website promises that its users will find love if they go on 1,000 dates arranged through the site. Nick Evans has done just that and is still single so he hires lawyer Susan Whitaker to sue the company running the website. This really should not work. The plot sticks to the romcom template rigidly as Nick and Susan fall for each other and the score gives it an air of a Hallmark movie at times. But there is a neat twist to why the couple temporarily break up and the film is carried by the charm of the two leads. Damon Wayans Jr who recently starred in the enjoyable but prematurely cancelled sitcoms Happy Endings and Happy Together shows he can carry a movie. Rachel Leigh Cook, who I thought would be a much bigger star after her appearance in 1999’s She’s All That, is terrific as well.
Rating: 7.5 out of 10
The documentary Rising Phoenix a pretty comprehensive look at the history of the Paralympics. Whilst it employs a standard mixture of talking heads and archive footage, the subject is both worthy and interesting. The highlight is a thorough breakdown of the events leading up to the 2016 games in Rio, an event that didn’t nearly happen. The Soviet Union’s attitude to disability in the 70s and 80s is also brought into alarming focus.
Rating: 7 out of 10
The surprise of the week is The Babysitter: Killer Queen, a sequel to a film that I have not seen, though that hardly matters. A high school student narrowly escaped a demon cult two years ago, and they return to finish the job. This is a lot of fun, rattling along at a good pace, helped by Bear McCreary’s score with some neat jokes. Director McG is not someone who has impressed me before but he shows some amusing technical flourishes, and Jenna Ortega provides an appealing heroine.
Rating: 7 out of 10
Yet another film about kids entering a dance contest, Cuties, is grittier than most similar offerings and has proven to be much more controversial. Amy, an 11 year old Muslim girl finds acceptance and friends when she joins a dance group of girls who are all the same age. She also starts to discover her sexuality and that is where the controversy lies. The girls flirt with older boys, talk about sex and their end routine, the moment that would be the moment of triumph in most other similar films, is a highly sexualised one that disgusts the onscreen audience and has revolted a lot of viewers.
Writer/director Maïmouna Doucouré is pointing out how young girls can be both sexualised at such a young age and are subjected to graphic sexual imagery in music videos/performances by artists with mainly pre-teen fan-bases. The fury that the movie has been greeted with, including an IMDB rating of less than 3, highlights the hypocrisy of many viewers who accept the real world issues as mentioned before, as well as their exploitation in child beauty pageants.
The film does drag a little when the focus is away from the girls as a group, and with such inexperienced performers the acting is quite uneven, but, Fathia Youssouf (Amy) and Ilanah Cami-Goursolas both do really well in their screen debuts.
Rating: 6.5 out of 10
Three final offerings on Netflix this week are pretty humdrum.
Message Man is a competently made action movie starring former Home and Away actor Paul O’Brien as a retired assassin who sets out to help an impoverished young mother and her son in Indonesia. The fight scenes are reasonably well done, with extremely graphic violence, but the story is perfunctory and the characters are not very engaging.
Rating: 5 out of 10
In The Paramedic, a man suffers a terrible accident. Whilst recovering, he begins to become very jealous of his girlfriend. Any potential psychological in sights are substituted for cheap thrills in this poorly made Misery knock off.
Rating: 3 out of 10
Dad Wanted is a Mexican family comedy about a girl who wants to enter a BMX competition but is forbidden by her Mum because her husband was killed in a bike accident. This is mostly completely predictable with laughs being very scarce. However, the ending is awful, with a completely unexpected and out of place “fucking” thrown in. I had to rewind to make sure that the word was used in a film aimed at kids!
Rating: 4 out of 10