MISS FISHER AND THE CRYPT OF

What’s Hot and What’s Not in Blu-Rays and DVDs

FILM: A HIDDEN LIFE:

Genre: Biography/Drama/Romance.

Cast: August Diehl, Valerie Pachner, Bruno Ganz, Matthias Schoenaerts, Michael Nyqvist, Maria Simon. Year: 2019. Rating: M . Length:

174 Minutes.

Stars: ****

Verdict: Based on the true story of Austrian farmer Franz

Jägerstätter, a conscientious objector, who refused to fight for the Nazis in World War II.

A sombre and spiritually philosophical WWII epic unlike anything

seen on screens before, an epic, atmospheric, slow burning journey that relies more on sweeping mountainous vistas and claustrophobic visuals than excessive dialogue to draw on its deeply multi

layered emotion for its 174 minute running time, and not a frame is wasted with awe-inspiring results.

Written and directed by Terrence Malick, whose previous credits

include the powerful "Badlands" (1973), the haunting "Days of

Heaven" (1978) and the powerfully surrealistic and haunting "The Thin Red Line" (1998), to name

a few, draws uniquely realistic

performances from August Diehl as the conscientious objector, F ranz

Jagerstatter, and Valerie Pachner as his wife, along with screen

great Bruno Ganz in his final big screen performance.

Filmed by breathtaking beauty in natural lighting in and around

where the events actually took place, "A Hidden Story" is a little

known story from the pages of WWII, an original, intelligent, power

ful and thought provoking cinematic experience, a uniquely large

tapestry on an canvas from a master filmmaker who knows the

power of the camera and what makes its heart beat, resulting in an epic that is to WWII what Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odys

sey" (1968) is to science fiction.

FILM: THE PEANUT BUTTER FALCON:

Genre: Adventure/Comedy/Drama.

Cast: Zack Gottsagen, Shia LaBeouf, Dakota Johnson, Bruce Dern. Year: 2019. Rating: PG. Length: 97 Minutes.

Stars: ***½

Verdict: Through circumstances beyond their control, a small-time

outlaw on the run, becomes an unlikely coach and ally to a young

man with Down syndrome, who has run away from the nursing

home to chase his dream of becoming a wrestler .... and together

they wind through back woods, across rivers, drink whisky, find God

and catch fish, all to elude capture and convince a kind nursing

home employee with a story of her own, to join them on their journey.

Bittersweet, funny and engaging journey succeeds due to the high

spirited performance by Zack Gottsagen as young Zak, the young

runaway with a mission, and a deeply effective soul searching per

formance by Shia LaBeouf as Tyler, the fugitive on the run, along

with a sensitive performance by Dakota Johnson as the nursing

home employee in search of her missing patient, and two delight

fully outrageous laugh-out-loud performances by veterans Bruce Dern

as a nursing home patient and Thomas Hayden Church as an over the top wrestling instructor.

Filmed with haunting effect in and around Savannah, Georgia, by

cinematographer Nigel Bluck, big screen debut writer-directors Tyler Nilson and Michael Schwartz have created a 21st century "Huckle

berry Finn" adventure void of c liché and over-sentim entality, a de-

lightfully rich, heartfelt, refreshing and unique experience filled with depth and intelligence, and what it may lack in originality, it cer

tainly makes up for it in heart and charm.

FILM: THE GREAT WALDO PEPPER:

Genre: Adventure/Drama.

Cast: Robert Redford, Susan Sarandon, Edward Herrmann, Margot Kidder. Year: 1975. Rating: PG. Length:

107 Minutes.

Stars: ****

Hugely underrated and overlooked on its release 40 years ago, this

is the bittersweet and thrilling tale set in the early days of flying of

a pilot who just missed out of flying in WWI and takes up barn

storming, then later a movie career as a stunt pilot in silent films,

all in the search for his quest and the glory he had missed.

Following the huge success of both "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" and "The Sting," Oscar winning director George Roy Hill de

cided to indulge in his passion on the pioneering days of flying with

"The Great Waldo Pepper," and along with star Robert Redford and a

screenplay by Oscar winning screenwriter William Goldman, they

took to the skies, much to the eventual shock and dismay of the

studio. Continued in right-hand column

Rourke’s Reviews

Hearts and Bones ■ (M). 110 minutes. Available to

buy now on digital platforms; then DVD on June 3.

Though it lacks an overall punch and grit, Hearts And Bones does deliver gentle humanism, aided by some excellent performances.

Hugo Weaving stars as Daniel Fisher, a war photographer who has been covering numerous war zones for over two decades.

The constant immersion in human misery and death has left a lasting effect on Daniel, who is showing increasing signs of PTSD.

When his work is going to headline a major exhibition, Daniel is visited by taxi driver Sebastian Ahmed (Andrew Luri), a South Sudanese refugee now living in Australia with his wife Anishka (Bolude Watson), who pleads for the photographer not to display photos taken at his village, where his entire family were massacred.

Initially puzzled by the request, Daniel is invited to meet and photograph a group of friends, also survivors of war and persecution (from countries such as Syria, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia and South Africa), who along with Sebastian, are trying to cope with PTSD via singing.

Unable to deal with the unexpected pregnancy of his partner Josie (Hayley McElhinney), and flashback nightmares taking moreand-more of a hold, Daniel starts spending more time with his new friends, but begins to uncover a hidden aspect of Sebastian's past that may put their entire relationship at risk.

Hearts And Bones works best when it focuses on the growing friendship between Daniel and Sebastian, and the positive connection it presents within sectors of the Australian community, no matter what their race, creed, ethnicity or colour may be, and thankfully refuses to wallow in one-dimensional stereotypes and simplistic speechifying.

Director Ben Lawrence (son of Ray, who helmed Bliss, Lantana and Jindabyne) creates some poignant, powerful moments through the art of silence, rather than falling back on heavy-handed bombast.

Less successful is when the story concentrates on the conflicts Sebastian and his friends have fled, which are surprisingly kept at arm's length, with a hesitancy to confront becoming increasingly noticeable.

Daniel's own experiences are also kept to a minimum, so his professional backstory suffers when compared to first-rate correspondent films such as The Year Of Living Dangerously (1982), Under Fire (1983), The Killing Fields

(1984), and Salvador (1986). While one sees what Lawrence wants to achieve, by pulling his punches, he strips the story of genuine gut-punch impact at crucial junctures. Weaving is superb as Fisher, while both Luri and Watson are wonderfully natural as Sebastian and Anishka. Technically the film is outstanding, with cinematographer Hugh Miller (Sherpa, 2040) deserving special praise. While it may not have the pro- vocative power of the recent Luce (starring Naomi Watts, Kelvin Harrison Jr. and Octavia Spencer), and despite a flawed second-half, Hearts And Bones is a film that deserves to be seen, most importantly for wanting to show a world where unity, humanity and hope is possible.

RATING - ***

Smoking ■ (R) (2018). 12 episodes. Now streaming on Netflix.

Enjoyable if ultimately shallow series that could have either been a biting examination of societal ills, or an outrageous genre outing, but unfortunately settles somewhere in the middle.

Four assassins, living among the homeless, are hired by assorted clients to kill members of various yakuza gangs, and prove that the contract has been successfully carried out by flaying and presenting the target's distinctive back tattoo.

Headed by Uncle Sabe (Roy Ishibashi, who starred in Takashi Miike's highly acclaimed Audition), the rest of the group is made up of hothead Haccho (Nobuaki Kaneko, from Followers and Diner), ex-cage fighter Goro (Tomomi Maruyama), and mute Hifumin (Kaito Yoshimura), who see them- selves as a tight-knit family eliminating evil from the world.

Each episode contains a set assignment, along with clues to who these people are, and given their living conditions and professional rules, I was expecting, underneath all the carnage, a look at how corruption and amoral behaviour affects society as a whole, but it eventually becomes clear that the creators are more interested in delivering traditional crime-world thrills, laced with dark humour and occasional graphic violence. Elements reminded me of Ichi The Killer (2001), Prophecy (2015), and even Magnum Force (1973), but the two directors never take the material to the stylishly delirious heights required for the show to truly fire. Performances seem deliberately theatrical, but the main cast work well together. Smoking, while not the classic it could have been, is compelling and unusual enough to warrant a look, and with each episode running only 24 minutes, is entertainingly compact viewing.

RATING - ***

- Aaron Rourke

Continued from left column

The great models for aerial pictures are William A. Wellman's 1927 classic "Wings" and Howard Hughes' 1930 epic "Hell's An

gels," both filled with jaw-dropping flying sequences that have rarely been equaled. as actors, pilots, cameramen and stuntmen faced actual life threatening danger mostly

without the aid special effects,

Here with "The Great Waldo Pepper," there are also no studio bound green-screen takes,

trick shots of actors in planes, as director George Roy Hill, a former Marine pilot him

self, took to the air himself while directing,

and yes, that's actually Robert Redford

climbing out on a wing at 6000 feet with

out any safety harness or parachute, and

co-star Edward Hermann strapped in the plane during an outside loop.

Also starring Susan Sarandon and Margot

Kidder, along with a cast of spectacular fly

ing machines, the end result is a tremen

dously exciting, poignant exciting and ultimately haunting valentine to not only a spe

cial breed of person, but to a filmmaking

process that no longer exists, a classic film

from an all too neglected filmmaker that

has finally found a firm and respected place

out of the diminishing graveyard of too many classics.

Top 10 Lists

MAY 17-23

THE DVD AND BLU-RAY

TOP RENTALS & SALES:

1. BIRDS OF PREY [Action/Crime/

Adventure/Margot Robbie, Mary Elizabeth Winstead]. 2. BAD BOYS FOR LIFE [Action/Comedy/ Will Smith, Martin Lawrence]. 3. UNDERWATER [Sci-Fi/Action/Horror/ Kristen Stewart, Vincent Cassel]. 4. THE WAY BACK [Drama/Ben Affleck, Hayes MacArthur]. 5. MISS FISHER AND THE CRYPT OF TEARS [Mystery/Drama/Essie Davis].

6. A HIDDEN LIFE [War/Drama/Biography/ Romance/August Diehl, Maria Simon]. 7. LIKE A BOSS [Comedy/Salma Hayek, Rose Byrne, Lisa Judrow]. 8. JUST MERCY [Biography/Crime/Drama/ Michael B. Jordan, Jamie Foxx]. 9. RICHARD JEWELL [Biography/Crime/ Drama/Sam Rockwell, Kathy Bates, Jon Hamm].

NEW HOME ENTERTAINMENT RELEASE HIGHLIGHTS THIS WEEK:

LIZZIE [Crime/Drama/Biography/Kristen

Stewart, Chloe Sevigny, Fiona Shaw].

THE GOLEM [Horror/Hani Furstenberg, Ishai Golan].

BLOODLINE [2018/Crime/Horror/Seann Willam Scott, Dale Dickey].

ABIGAIL [Action/Adventure/Fantasy/Eddie Marsan, Tinatin Dalakishvili].

DVD AND/OR BLU-RAY NEW & RE-RELEASE CLASSIC MOVIES HIGHLIGHTS:

THE PUMPKIN EATER [Drama/Anne

Bancroft, Peter Finch, James Mason]. THE UNINVITED [Mystery/Horror/Ray Milland, Ruth Hussey, Donald Crisp].

NEW RELEASE TELEVISION, DOCUMENTARY AND MUSIC HIGHLIGHTS:

CASTLE ROCK: Season 2. FLEABAG: Season 2. SHAMELESS: Season 10. LUCIFER: Season 4. OCCUPIED: Series 3. GIRLFRIENDS: Series 1.