And the winner is…: Hoping for victory in ‘Spreadsheet Champions’.
SPREADSHEET CHAMPIONS – Glossy, high-end production values add vibrancy to director Kristina Kraskov’s sprightly and insightful documentary as seemingly ubiquitous cameras follow six wonderful young eggheads as they head to Florida for the Microsoft Office Specialist World Championships.
Striving to top the world in Excel expertise, the film wisely balances all the techno-talk with the personal idiosyncrasies and eccentricities of the competitors who hail from the US, Guatemala, Greece, Cameroon, Vietnam and Australia.
Tension builds towards the big day of the 100-minute exam, but the real payoff comes in the aftermath as the raw reactions to the test are captured – and some are heart-wrenching.
Despite being reminded several times how their mere presence marks them as members of a highly regarded few – each competitor must be a national champion to qualify – some of these young people hold themselves to a standard that seems not-at-all rational.
In this context, the film does a great job showing the value a support network of family and friends can bring to moments of self-doubt and disappointment.
Though it’s thankfully unforced, the film does offer some commentary about resource inequities and the varying degrees of access to technology the contestants have at home.
Living as we do in a culture where being deprived of an internet connection for even a few hours is cause for a complete emotional meltdown, it’s perturbing how some tolerate regular lapses that last for days.
Even more sobering is how the beaming gent from Cameroon, Melong Yvan De La Paix, gets through the ordeal gracefully and returns home without actually owning a laptop.
Gotta say, there’s a key sequence in the film involving a mid-exam techno-crisis during which the exam designer shows great disrespect to one of the competitors.
He’s interviewed throughout, so it’s a pity he wasn’t confronted about how he speaks to teenagers or how much formal training he’s had in dealing with people under stress. From what’s shown on screen, the guess would be zero.
WESTGATE – There are a lot of strong, finely judged moments in writer/director Adrian Ortega’s hard-edged drama as it invites us to spend a frantic, increasingly tense day with frazzled lone mum Netta (Sarah Nicolazzo).
It’s a day one breath away from complete chaos as she copes with her ill 12 year-old boy Julian (Max Nappo), her lousy, promise-breaking ex, her rent-demanding landlord, disappointed mother, steep financial woes and a business venture that might be over before it begins.
Especially well-etched is her escalating sense of desperation, poignantly exposed when she tries finding work with the perfectly decent pub owner she once screwed over.
There’s a nicely finessed tension within Netta as her attempts at being a responsible and caring mother ironically veers over the line to irresponsibility. It’s a fine illustration of how emotional confusion and anger clouds judgement.
Yet while the portrait strives for authenticity, there are lapses that diminish the piece, the most glaring one being the anxiety about getting Julian to an important football game. It’s built up beautifully, then totally forgotten about.
Carrying the film on her shoulders, Nicolazzo works hard at hitting Netta’s challenging onslaught of emotional peaks.
Yet the performance, while good, often feels over-amped and too strident, even for someone under as much stress as Netta is. It’s a case of seeing the acting rather than the character as she tends to overreact to every second remark.
The supports are strong throughout, with kudos to Rosa Nix as Netta’s adorable, no-BS mum and Danny McGinlay as Scotty, the pub owner. Netta’s plight notwithstanding, both seem far more generous to her than she deserves.
Set in 1999, Ortega affects a range of notable period touches – Gameboys; video membership cards; VCRs; cigarettes – and deftly blends in the reasons behind the film’s arresting title.
ONCE UPON A TIME IN GAZA – Set between 2007-2010 in Gaza (filmed in Jordan) this lame attempt at a crime comedy revenge satire takes about half its running time to get going, yet even then the sluggish direction by Tarzan & Arab Nasser – who also co-wrote, served as production designers and art directors – just can’t get out of first gear.
A distinctly ho-hum effort that keeps stumbling over digressions with a sagging second act the film never recovers from, the story involves the brother of a small-time pill pusher who uses his gig on a dubious film production by the Ministry of Culture to exact payback on a corrupt cop.
There are some references to Israel, Palestinian statehood, obstructive Israeli bureaucracy and even Donald Trump (whose words open the film – nice touch) but if these squibs – usually made in passing, seen fleetingly on TV or glanced on newspaper scraps – are supposed to add up to some blistering commentary about the situation in Gaza or the Middle East in general, it is very well encrypted. They certainly don’t stave off the film’s tedium.
Oddly, some of the film’s music overtly riffs on the Godfather theme and the title is an obvious nod to Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Why? If they’re intended as some wily wink to the filmmakers’ Western cinematic influences, again, the evidence for such is very well-hidden.
#