Cinema & Streaming

CINEMA End of the world comes early with Nolan shocker

“Tenet” (M) FOR several months, local cinemas have displayed publicity for writer/director Christopher Nolan’s behemoth sci-fi, fantasy, actioner, end-of-the-world movie with overtones of wealth-based class distinction. It’s arrived. Imagine a lemon chocolate sponge cake full of fruit and nuts, cooked by deep-frying in hot oil. Eergh!

The IMDb estimates that it has cost Nolan’s backers $US205 million. If you look at it hard enough, it’s possible to discern a sort of, kind of message about the future of our planet.

But you’ve got to look really hard among its complex elements. In particular, you need to work out whether what’s going on is now, in the past, or yet to happen.

It’s not completely without merit. A long sequence involving a gaggle of heavy trucks led by a splendid fire engine along a freeway is exciting and sets some sort of benchmark for future action movies. Where would movies be these days without cameras mounted on drones?

Who’s in it? Probably not as many actual people as are actually visible rushing about the screen in various military-style manoeuvres.

Playing the principal good guy, known only as The Protagonist, is John David Washington. As Andrei the baddest baddie, Kenneth Branagh shouts a lot. As Andrei’s much put-upon wife Kat, Paris-born to a Polish dad and an Irish mom and Melbourneraised Elizabeth Debicki looks delectable. “Tenet”... Imagine a lemon chocolate sponge cake full of fruit and nuts, cooked by deep-frying in hot oil. Eergh!

IMDb lists her first of an essentially male cast. IMDb got it right.

Nolan directs with a fondness for destruction – characters, cars, buildings, a Boeing 747, once the queen of the skies but now fit only to taxi into a disposable airport building. He shows wrecks of other buildings then runs the film backwards to show them before demolition. It’s a trick that quickly begins to pall.

The dialogue is muffled and garbled, to the extent that it really was hard to figure out just what the film was trying to tell us aurally that its images couldn’t do.

If you simply must see “Tenet”, I suggest you empty your bladder before it starts and bring a cut lunch. It runs for 154 minutes. I’ve seen longer movies but none of them as ultimately disappointing. At all cinemas

“Les Misérables” (MA) A DECADE ago, Mali-born writer/director Ladj Ly filmed local cops in the Paris suburb of Montfermeil.

At a press conference at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, he spoke about its conception and gestation: “The starting point… was a police blunder that I filmed 10 years ago. For five years, I filmed scenes in my neighbourhood – we filmed the cops – it was a neighbourhood where a lot of things happened and I started to film the cops and then I actually filmed a cop blunder…”

From that, it should be apparent that Ly’s 104 minutes movie isn’t going to try to encompass Victor Hugo’s massive (655,478 words in the original French) novel. The only direct reference to the novel is a passing reference to Montfermeil, where the dialogue suggests that it was written – in the novel the Thénardier family keeps an inn there.

In Ly’s film, Montfermeil has a significant Muslim population. The most appropriate description for both is a toss-up between underprivileged and impoverished.

Today’s the first day there for experienced cop Ruiz (Damien Bonnard). In the car with local veteran cops Chris (Alexis Manenti) and Gwada (Djebril Zonga) of Paris’s Anti-Crime Brigade, he’s going to learn the territory, its people and its problems. And how the local cops do things to keep a lid on a community that could boil over into violence and riot at any time.

Like today. It starts routinely enough. Ruiz meets the mayor (Steve Tientcheu). And the proprietor of a popular café. Among the teenagers who roam the streets, Issa (Issa Perica) stands out for no particular reason – yet. A van full of roustabouts from a local circus turns up demanding the return of circus property. What is it? It’s improbable, not impossible, and a delight to see when it finally makes an appearance. I won’t spoil the pleasure for you.

“Les Misérables” is about adolescent energy, social tension, the plight of people there because there’s no other available place to live. The mayor tries to keep a lid on things while looking after his own interests. Tensions build. Not least between Ruiz, who wants to do his job by the rule book, and Chris who has his own way of confronting issues.

It’s exciting, vigorous, confronting, sympathetic, a day in the life of people abandoned by society. And fresh, optimistic, doing their best, following one faith in a location surrounded by folk of a different faith. The film pays little or no attention to religious differences. But the undercurrent is always there,

“Les Misérables” was voted best film at this year’s Césars (France’s equivalent of the Oscars). I left it delighted and refreshed after the disappointment of what I’d seen earlier that day.

At Palace Electric

WATCH IT! / streaming and stuff ‘Streamtember’ coming to screen near you!

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SEPTEMBER is going to have a streaming surplus, with a bunch of new stuff to binge coming as different platforms fight to get viewers locked in as they approach the end-of-year holiday season.

Here’s a few of what I reckon will be worth looking out for.

“The Devil All the Time” is Netflix’s newest big-budget movie that’s been rustling up quite the hype. It’s a psychological crime film with a star-studded cast: Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson, Bill Skarsgård and Mia Wasikowska.

Or, in that order, we might know them at their most recognisable: Spiderman, Twilight Vampire Dude, Pennywise the Clown and Alice from Wonderland (fun side note – Mia Wasikowska grew up in Canberra and studied drama through Karabar High School’s distance-education unit).

That’s only the beginning of the massive cast and the ensemble is certainly fitting for the lineup of characters to be portrayed: a false preacher, a pair of husband-and-wife serial killers and a disturbed war veteran, just a few of the moving pieces of this intricate plot.

It’s based on a bestselling 2011 book of the same name and has sparked enough interest to get the likes of Jake Gyllenhaal coming over to produce.

Such talent is sure to secure Netflix a whole bucket of viewers – I’ll definitely be one of them. It hits the streaming service September 16.

Stan is set to stir the already well churned political pot with its new series “The Comey Rule”. This one stars Brendan Gleeson who’s rather boldly playing an interpretation of a man you might have heard of: Donald Trump. He’s accompanied by Jeff Daniels as FBI director James Comey, probing the 2016 election and particularly the controversy Tom Holland in Netflix’s “The Devil All the Time”.

about the Russians having some involvement.

I may be spit-balling here, but the timing of this two-part drama seems more than a little deliberate given a presidential election set for not two months after its release. What statements it makes, and how it handles its delicate subject matter will be fascinating to see. It’s on Stan from September 27.

Moving from the cheery matters of serial killers and intense political conflict, Disney Plus is going down its well-trodden wholesome route with a new documentary series – “Becoming”.

Each episode follows a different celebrity back to their hometown where they explore their childhood, their influences and what set them on the path they chose.

These real-life stories include musicians, athletes, entertainers and everything in between. All episodes of “Becoming” will be out on the platform from September 18.

Over on the platform a little more forgotten about in Oz, Amazon, is the second season of “The Boys”, about to drop September 4. It seems that in the current supreme reign of comic-book adaptations every streaming service needs their own group of caped crusaders. Amazon’s effort quite cleverly mixes up the formula.

“The Boys”, unlike what’s generally seen in the genre, is a dark comedy. Like, really dark. This one is definitely only for the adults.

It’s about a multi-billion-dollar mega corporation that acts as a management-like business of superheroes, and covers up any of its dirty secrets. The Boys, a group of vigilantes, seeks to try to expose the company and the corrupt superheroes they represent, making it a series that quite cleverly subverts the genre we see so done to death.

So that’s September; there’s certainly no shortage of variety being generated in our ever-growing streaming superverse.

MUSIC Bob feels the buzz for emerging School of Music

By Helen MUSA

EYES widened in the arts community recently when the ANU announced the formation of a new advisory board for its School of Music, to be headed up by former politician Bob McMullan.

McMullan said at the time: “The Community Advisory Board will both be a voice for the ANU School of Music to the community and ACT government, as well as a way for our community to directly engage with the School.”

Some scoffed. After all, Kate Carnell’s government had defunded the schools of art and music in 2008 then partially refunding them on the condition that they incorporate community development into their curricula, creating confusion about objectives.

Then there was the debacle of 2012 when the ANU attempted to sack the entire faculty in a clean-sweep approach that forgot about staff entitlements and student courses.

In 2016 incoming vice-chancellor Brian Schmidt commissioned a report on the school from former public servant Andrew Podger.

Sceptics supposed that report has

The School of Music’s Community Advisory Board chair Bob McMullan… “To be a voice for the ANU School of Music to the community and ACT government, as well as a way for our community to directly engage with the School.” disappeared into the capacious filing government from 1993 to 1994, he’s lived systems of the university, but as it turns out, in Canberra since 1981, becoming the first they couldn’t have been more mistaken, person to represent the ACT in both houses as we discovered when we caught up with of federal parliament and retiring in 2010. McMullan last week. He most definitely calls Canberra home

An enormously popular but short-lived and, after a five-year stint in London on the Federal arts minister in the Keating overseas board of the European Bank, he and

ARTS IN THE CITY Broadway ‘Chill’ set to thrill

By Helen Musa

BUDDING Theatre has secured the rights to the teen musical “Be More Chill”, to be staged for the first time in Canberra next year. The 2018 Broadway hit is billed as “a rocking new sci-fi musical about growing up, high school, and what we will do to get what we want” and shows what happens when dorky teenager Jeremy discovers a supercomputer inside a tiny grey pill he swallows.

CANBERRA Strings is presenting two performances of Schubert’s String Quintet, one of the bestknown works for the combination of two violins, viola and two cellos. The sought-after ensemble is led by Barbara Jane Gilby as first violinist and also includes CSO players Pip Thompson, Lucy Carrigy-Ryan, Samuel Payne and Julia Janiszewski. At Wesley Music Centre, Forrest, 2pm and 3.30pm, September 13. Book at trybooking.com “EDGE” is an exhibition by the Marsden Art Group of painters, established in 2003 by Barbara van der Linden. It’s visiting the theme “edge” with inspirations from nature, nurture and plenty in between as part of “Create”, the Ginninderry arts program. At the Link, McClymont Way, next to Strathnairn, Holt, until September 13. THE “Poetry on the Move “Be More Chill”... to be staged in Canberra next year.

Festival” is online during September, October and November, with opportunities for poets to submit work in English and other languages and also participate in free, week-long workshops hosted by poets Owen Bullock, Subhash Jaireth, Lucy Alexander and Melinda Smith. All workshops are limited to 20 participants each. Book at poetryonthemove.net

MEGALO Print Studio + Gallery is now showing its 40th anniversary exhibition, “The Return of the Archive”, featuring work from the archive, with works by 33 artists. At Megalo, Kingston, until November 30. Wagga-raised performer Stephanie Wall. At $50,000, it’s the largest single musical theatre scholarship in Australia, with the second prize of $5000 and four runners-up receiving $1500 each. The endowment was created following the sudden death of musical theatre performer Rob Guest in 2008.

FROM the ashes of the Mallacoota New Year’s Eve bushfires is a timely book by singer-songwriter, guitarist and poet Milena Cifali who, along with her partner Jim Horvath, lost her home, instruments and parrots in the fires. “Mallacoota Time” will be launched at Muse in Kingston, 3pm, September 5, to be followed by a show and book signing at Artists Shed, Fyshwick, 5.30pm on September 6. Free, but bookings to artistsshed.com.au his wife are back for good.

“When I left parliament, people assumed that we would immediately leave Canberra, but it never crossed our minds… This will be our home forever… our children and grandchildren are here and it’s where we want to live and be involved in the culture,” he says.

“I’d been doing some volunteering in film-industry organisations for a few years but gave up 18 months ago,” he says.

“Then Andrew Podger approached me regarding a community-based council. I don’t have much musical ability, but I love the School of Music and when later someone from Brian Schmidt’s office approached me, I said I’d love to.”

He believes the school had to make sure that reforms were working before they set up such a council.

“We had one meeting before shutdown and it seemed to me the place was really buzzing,” he says.

“I don’t really have the breadth of knowledge of other conservatories and musical schools but it seems to me that it’s on the way back… and Brian [Schmidt] has renewed the ANU’s commitment to the School of Music and the School of Art, too.”

He describes the head of the school of music, Kim Cunio, as “inspirational”, praising his ideas as ones that, in time, will have real national impact.

“The first thing we have to do is to reach out, to talk to the CSO and the festivals, but the school’s got to get its foundations right

before any advisory board can start to make some contribution,” he says.

McMullan is aware that the arts are not at the forefront of political consciousness in Australia, but says: “I was lucky, I was arts minister when Paul [Keating] was PM, perhaps it was similar under Gough [Whitlam] but I wasn’t around then.”

Interest in the arts, he says, rises and falls with the leaders and slips down the ladder pretty quickly, evident at the moment in the paucity of relief packages for arts people.

If McMullan is right and the School of Music is buzzing, then that’s coming from the top. Kim Cunio is keen to talk up the resurgence of the school, with 260 enrolments now – the most it ever had was just over 300.

He hints at a new music-for-health program that will be launched later this year, to be overseen by flautist and neurologist Prof Eckart Altenmüller from Hannover, who was here last year.

As well, a planned partnership with NIDA in Sydney, which is now doing postgraduate studies in creativity, may lead to a collaborative musical neuroscience and creativity program.

Cunio hopes the new advisory board will help to tell the good news stories, but notes that change must come slowly, as the school is first and foremost an educational institution.

Anyone interested in joining the advisory board should email kim.cunio@anu.edu.au