CINEMA in a sentence, Vol. 3!
Korean filmmaker Bong Joon-ho (Parasite) teams with Robert Pattinson, Toni Collette and Mark Ruffalo to present Mickey 17, a sci-fi black comedy in which a desperate man seeks a minimum-wage life on another planet which requires him to be cloned any time he is killed in the course of his work.
A dramedy from British director Mike Leigh, Hard Truths explores the struggles of a working class mother (Marianne Jean-Baptiste) whose depression and anxiety have made her acerbic to all she encounters, including her long-suffering yet optimistic sister IMichele Austin).
Keke Palmer, SZA and Katt Williams star in One of Them Days, an over-the-top buddy comedy about best friends on the poverty line who have one day to find money to pay their rent after a boyfriend absconds with all their cash, only to find absurd obstacles at every turn.
The Spanish comedy La cocina (The Kitchen) is an adaptation of a 1957 stage-play focused on the relationships between immigrant kitchen staff in a hectic New York restaurant and the white staff who are the public face of the business.
My Melbourne is a home-grown anthology film comprising four stories from filmmakers of Indian heritage who tackle themes of race, gender, disability and the ways in which people search for belonging.
The romantic comedy Ex Ex Lovers comes from the Filipino filmmaker JP Habac and follows the efforts of Joy who travels to Malta to ask Ced, her ex, if he would be willing to walk their daughter down the aisle at her wedding, only to find that there may still be a spark between them.
Actor David Wenham brings back one of his surprisingly enduring characters in Johnny Spitieri for Spit, a sequel to 2003’s Aussie comic crime caper Gettin’ Square, in which the somewhat reformed junkie returns to our shores and, in his unique way, attempts to “give back to the community”.
Japanese anime The Colours Within blends high-school drama with art-house visuals as a young girl, who sees people and sounds in the form of vibrant colours, forms a band with classmates who are also trying to express themselves.
Though set amidst the deceptive glamour of Hollywood, Every Little Thing is from Australian documentarian Sally Aitken, who follows a woman named Terry Masear as she aids in the recovery of injured hummingbirds, only to find that her patients are helping her to heal her own heart.
Faith-based film outfit Angel Studios present the biopic Bonhoeffer, an all too fast-moving overview of the life of one of the 20th Century’s most influential Christian theologians – a German pastor whose final years were spent embroiled in efforts to assassinate Hitler.
Similar to the way Bollywood films insert song-and-dance into any genre, the Hong Kong film Hit N Fun proves that in the right hands, kung fu fights can be inserted into even the most lighthearted of dramedies; in this case a washed-up actress and her business associate training for an exhibition match in the hopes of reigniting her flagging career.
By Lindsay HALL
