Dementia drama ‘Vineyard Ablaze’.
To those checking in: Reviews are finally on track and will go up in the next week or two. Profuse and deep apologies for the delay, caused by incredibly boring but unavoidable matters. Coming soon: A Mother’s Love; Orchid; Stockton to Table Rock; Sunday Best. Appreciate your patience.
VINEYARD ABLAZE *** (97 minutes)
Largely confined to two housebound locations, Vineyard Ablaze fronts up as a very good, low-key, slow-burn psychological drama about the tense relationship between a loving daughter (Madeleine Burges) and her rapidly deteriorating grandmother (Sandra Bradshaw-West) whose gentle and loving nature is being consumed by the advancing tide of dementia.
In a strong feature debut, writer/director Troy Blackman methodically unfolds his increasingly tense drama in a minimalist framework, with stately black-and-white cinematography evoking a subtly haunting domestic atmosphere that feels progressively constrained and threatening.
Keeping things on simmer for most of the time, Blackman does a fine job peeling back the layers of what is actually going on between the two, making strong use of the “less is more” school.
The danger, of course, with such a demanding and disciplined style is that matters can become a little too beguiling, yet these minor lapses are kept in check by a series measured, skilful revelations.
Easily one of the most impressive Australian indie films in years.
Misfits * (118 minutes)
At around 40 minutes into Misfits a very peculiar happen – something vaguely resembling a storyline begins to appear. It involves the strained relationship between a grieving, recently widowed father and his daughters.
This emerges from a swamp of scattershot storytelling, a common ailment with independent films where a central narrative struggles to coalesce into something worth caring about.
Regrettably, that’s but one of the issues afflicting a film that lacks concision, credibility, drive, tonal consistency and, most of all, focus.
Again, like many other indie efforts, Misfits looks like it began rolling a few drafts too early, signalled by its inordinate running time of nearly two hours.
It begins poorly. The opening chapters feature multiple time jumps that are simply clumsy and confusing, resulting in too many scenes where you spend half the time trying to figure out where you are in the story.
There are hints throughout of potentially engaging themes – coping with loss; friendship; financial hardship; family unity. So the core elements of a solid comedy-drama are there.
Unfortunately, they are squashed by sheer narrative sloppiness, waffling dialogue, overuse of f-bombs, off-key stabs at humour, poor continuity and, painful as it is to say, a pretty ordinary lead performance that lacks the emotional range required. You can sense the effort, the hallmark of something not working.
Try as you might to get into the story, it is strewn with irritants.
The father’s constant smoking is one. It often seems out of place, such as at a key, terribly judged, graveside scene.
The guy’s supposed to be dealing with emotional trauma, yet he’s puffing away like he’s watching a football game. He might as well be chewing gum. If it’s meant to be a character point, it’s not weaved into the story.
Bad continuity also hobbles the film with far too many cuts that don’t match. It doesn’t matter what scale you’re working on, if a character’s position changes from edit to edit it pulls the viewer out of the picture. It’s a basic filmmaking tenet not on show here.
As for the film’s tonal problems, they can be summed up in the scene where characters gleefully jump from a rooftop. How this ended up in the film is mystifying and typifies how ungrounded the direction is. It’s one of many moments where the film loses the viewer.
Indie films are often driven by passion and conviction yet, admirable as that might be, it all needs to be matched by discipline and storytelling skill.
Writing critiques such as this is not fun. It is an arduous and thankless task yet, if nothing else, they hopefully serve to punch the importance of streamlining a central storyline so that it is clear and relatable.
It all comes down to one key principle – focus. It’s a quality Misfits sadly lacks.
AIR SHIFT 1/2 (76 minutes)
A lame attempt at a horror-comedy, Air Shift is just plain awful.
A potentially strong premise is repeatedly thumped into oblivion by a host of terrible performances, excruciating dialogue, gigantic story holes, laughable implausibilities, dreadful continuity and really poor direction. Consequently, despite its brief running time, the film feels interminable.
Late one night at a failing public radio station a dedicated female DJ gets a visit from a gent looking for help with car trouble. While he waits for assistance she invites him into the studio to watch her work.
But guess what? He’s the psycho maniac who’s been killing people in the vicinity.
And guess what? The radioactive material in the basement is turning people into zombies.
Then guess what? The film collapses to become yet another example of a genre-driven indie with no sense of style or direction.
While the film’s flaws are legion, they all stem from one thing – the complete absence of tension.
To wit: the DJ doesn’t seem all that fussed about what’s going on; she’s ludicrously casual about having a serial killer sitting right next to her; she chats to him in a chummy manner, even after she knows he’s a serial killer; she misses multiple opportunities to escape or fight back; and, at one stupid point, she even invites others in.
If all that wasn’t bad enough, there’s the zombie apocalypse to deal with as the Undead amble about the place, looking for purpose.
Watching this was painful, with the performances and dialogue proving particularly egregious. A big problem with the film is that it’s overloaded, trying to do way too much on an ultra-low budget.
But rather than carp on like a bile-spouting sod, here’s a modest suggestion that neatly addresses the chief issues.
Perhaps the film would have been better off without all the zombie nonsense, concentrating instead on the DJ and her unexpected guest, who she slowly comes to realize is the killer. And don’t tip to the audience that he’s the killer. Put them on the same learning curve as the main character, an age-old device that has worked in countless mysteries.
That’s it. Plenty of opportunity to build tension and a gradual escalation of fear as things become tighter and more claustrophobic.
As it is, the film is just sloppy. Much of what was said above about Misfits applies to Air Shift, particularly in regard to clarity and focus.
It also highlights the importance of working creatively within budget constraints. Cheap visual effects and zombie make-up that look like they came from a novelty store is not a good look.
Also, the closing credits feature a pretty funny, out-of-the-blue scene where two office workers discuss the money they could be making with a fetish website.
The sketch sounds great and has a lively vibe completely absent from what came before.
So, where’s that movie?
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