THE SCREEN-SPACE BEST (AND WORST) FILMS OF 2019

Takeaways from the year in cinema include the forced retirement of some once-glorious franchise friends (Terminator Dark Fate; X-Men Dark Phoenix; Rambo Last Blood); the resounding indifference to remakes/reboots/rehashes (Charlie’s Angels; Pet Semetary; Hellboy; Shaft); and, the struggle faced by marketers when selling specialised content (despite pre-release hype and critical buzz, Midsommar sputtered to US$43million globally). Australia produced a legitimate homegrown hit with Ride Like a Girl (US$8.5million), but otherwise found the marketplace tough (Storm Boy, US$4million; Danger Close, US$2million; The Nightingale, a paltry US$0.5million, despite critical acclaim).

But there was much to feel optimistic about. Despite what the HFPA would have you believe, women directors have made some of the year’s best films (40% of my Top 30 are female helmed); Oscars 2019 recognised diversity (in their own baby-step way) when handing out the Golden Guy, even if Best Picture winner, Green Book, carried with it some ugly baggage; and, quite hilariously, the young, white male web-overlords freaked the f*** out when the CATS trailer dropped (apparently, if you’re going to prance around in tights and makeup, you better be in a Marvel movie). Anyway, here are our favourites of 2019 (with their Rotten Tomatoes % included, to show how much we really run with the pack on this stuff)…

10. KNIVES OUT (Dir: Rian Johnson; 130 mins; USA; 97%) Starved of ol’ fashioned star-driven ensemble romps, audiences and critics alike reacted to Rian Johnson’s ripping murder/mystery yarn as if a genre had been borne. Knives Out isn’t new cinema (seek out Sidney Lumet’s Deathtrap, from 1982, for starters), but it pulsed with a crisp freshness and giddy sense of fun the likes of which rarely survive studio suits interference.

9. HOMECOMING: A FILM BY BEYONCE (Dir: Beyoncé Knowles-Carter; 137 mins; USA; 98%) The vivacity and vision that Beyoncé displayed in staging her Coachella 2018 set is captured with a potency that leaves the viewer breathless in Homecoming. Her music, her motives, her motherhood – the icon stamps this moment in her country’s history as her own in a behind-the-scenes concert film that ranks amongst the best ever.

8. WORKING WOMAN (ISHA OVEDET) (Dir: Michal Aviad; 93 mins; Israel; 97%) “The piercing humanistic precision that Michal Aviad honed with her decades as one of the world’s finest documentarians serves her well..” Read the SCREEN-SPACE review here.

7. COLOR OUT OF SPACE (Dir: Richard Stanley; 110 mins; USA; 87%) The combination of talents is irresistible to the cult cinema crowd – be he brilliant or barmy, director Richard Stanley; author of the alien invasion source story, H.P Lovecraft; and the mad maestro himself, Nicholas Cage. The finished product is a B-movie fever-dream; a twisted, terrifying, exhilarating nightmare of family angst and parasitic world domination.

6. BOOKSMART (Dir: Olivia Wilde; 101 mins; USA; 97%) A coming-of-age teen comedy with heavy doses of blue humour shouldn’t feel so fresh, be so funny, or pack an emotional punch like Olivia Wilde’s directorial debut managed. With Beanie Feldstein and Kaitlyn Dever (pictured, top; far left) inhabiting their co-lead roles and a thematic through-line in acceptance tugging at the heartstrings, Booksmart is so much more than the Superbad-for-girls the trailer promised.

5. WILD ROSE (Dir: Tom Harper; 101 mins; UK; 93%) The balance between dreams, talent and the roots that give them meaning have rarely been so acutely portrayed as in Tom Harper’s Wild Rose. As Rose-Lynn Harlan, the Glaswegian ex-con with a voice that fills the room and raises the roof, Jessie Buckley is a revelation; by the time she belts out ‘No Place Like Home’, her tears and triumphs bring emotions that only great rags-to-riches-to-rags stories deliver.  

4. ALICE (Dir: Josephine Mackerras; 103 mins; UK | France | Australia; 100%) In this story of a French woman cocooned by the façade of a dishonest marriage and her rise to independence, Josephine Mackerras has crafted a moving, funny, immediate #MeToo superheroine. As Alice, Emilie Piponnier (pictured, right, and top right) is the Australian director’s perfect foil; her emergence on-screen as a self-reliant, sexually energised woman in charge of her own destiny is the character arc of the year.

3. AD ASTRA (Dir: James Gray; 124 mins; USA; 84%) ‘Mr Serious Filmmaker’ James Gray tackling a science-fiction story (essentially Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, with added daddy issues) had us all intrigued; most critics liked it, audiences not so much (tapped out at US$130million globally). A dark reflection on legacy, masculinity and the pain of truthful self-discovery meant Gray was in his high-minded element, but he didn’t skimp on genre prerequisites (the year’s best VFX) and a subversive ‘movie star’ presence in Brad Pitt’s nuanced performance.

2. PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE (PORTRAIT DE LA JEUNE FILLE EN FEU) (Dir: Céline Sciamma; 121 mins; France; 97%) How does the artist capture a subject who refuses to be observed, who refutes closeness of any kind? Writer/director Céline Sciamma painstakingly unravels the constraints of 18^th decorum and privilege to capture a physical and spiritual connection between two women, alone on an isolated Brittany island. Embodying the soaring, doomed romantic liaison are actresses Noémie Merlant and Adèle Haenel, whose performances connect as only the greatest of screen lovers can.

1. ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD (Dir: Quentin Tarantino; 161 mins; USA; 85%) “[Tarantino’s] heart is in this film, for the first time afforded as much input as his fan-boy passion and film culture knowledge…” Read the SCREEN-SPACE review here.

The next 20 (in no particular order; with their Rotten Tomatoes %, where possible) are also great, so please seek them out…:
REPOSSESSION (Dirs: Ming Siu Goh, Scott C. Hillyard; 96 mins; Singapore; N/A)
LITTLE WOMEN (Dir: Greta Gerwig; 134 mins; USA; 96%)
KNIVES AND SKINS (Dir: Jennifer Reeder; 112 mins; USA; 72%)
ROMANTIC COMEDY (Dir: Elizabeth Sankey; 78 mins; UK; 100%)
THE PEANUT BUTTER FALCON (Dirs: Tyler Nilson, Michael Schwartz; 97 mins; USA; 95%)
ATLANTICS (Dir: Mati Diop; 106 mins; France | Senegal | Belgium; 95%)
THE GOLD-LADEN SHEEP AND THE SACRED MOUNTAIN (SONA DHWANDI BHED TE SUCHHA PAHAD (Dir: Ridham Janve; 97 mins; India; N/A)
UNDER THE SILVER LAKE (Dir: David Robert Mitchell; 139 mins; USA; 58%)
READY OR NOT (Dir: Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett; 95 mins; USA; 88%)
KLAUS (Dirs: Sergio Pablos, Carlos Martínez López; 96 mins; Spain | UK; 92%
THE BEACH BUM (Dir: Harmony Korine; 95 mins; USA; 55%)
HUSTLERS (Dir: Lorene Scafaria; 107 mins; USA; 88%)
CAPTAIN MARVEL (Dir: Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck; 123 mins; USA; 78%)
PARASITE (GISAENGCHUNG) (Dir: Boon Jong Ho; 132 mins; Korea; 99%)
TOY STORY 4 (Dir: Josh Cooley; 90 mins; USA; 97%)
THE REPORT (Dir: Scott Z. Burns; 119 mins; USA; 82%)
APOLLO 11 (Dir: Todd Douglas Miller; 93 mins; USA; 99%)
THE FURIES (Dir: Tony D’Aquino; 82 mins; Australia; 60%)
JOJO RABBIT (Dir: Taika Waititi; 108 mins; New Zealand | Czech Republic; 79%)
MOSLEY (Dir: Kirby Atkins; 96 mins; New Zealand | China; N/A) 

THE WORST FILMS OF 2019:
Todd Phillip’s Joker was a puerile, garish, tone-deaf shout-out to angry white males who responded en masse, as was the plan.
Disney plundered its vaults and manufactured a series of awful live-action/CGI abominations that reeked of cash-grab cynicism and stockholder pandering - the hideous Mary Poppins Returns and unnecessarily mean-spirited Dumbo; The Lion King was ok, but ‘not as bad as we expected’ is faint praise.
A lot of critics played the ‘its big, dumb, fun card’ in cutting slack to the idiotic brand-extension film, Fast & Furious Present: Hobbs & Shaw, while the more mature filmgoer had to contend with their own dire movie moments, in grotesque melodrama (Isabelle Huppert in Greta) and boomer privilege fantasy (director Rachel Ward’s insufferable Palm Beach).
The Worst Film of 2019, and by some measure, is Sony’s risible attempt to rekindle the MIB franchise, MEN IN BLACK: INTERNATIONAL. Directed by the utterly disinterested F. Gary Gray, this mish-mash of poor effects and grab-bag plotting hoped to exploit the chemistry generated by Thor Ragnarok co-stars Tessa Thompson and Chris Hemsworth, but the film leaves Thompson clutching at thin air character-wise and Hemsworth…well, he’s no Will Smith. Handing this horror-show over to Kumail Nanjiani’s comic-relief CGI alien to salvage at the midway mark is testament to the vacuum of creativity on show.  

THE PUBLIC LIFE OF EMILIO ESTEVEZ

Emilio Estevez remains one of the biggest movie stars of his generation, adored by Gen-Xers for The Outsiders, Repo Man, The Breakfast Club, Stakeout, St Elmo’s Fire and Young Guns and by their kids for the Mighty Ducks franchise. Twenty years ago, he cashed in his stardom to forge a career making a rare kind of modern film – the heartfelt, humanistic drama, once common amongst Hollywood’s output but now too indie-minded for corporate L.A. Bobby (2006), The Way (2010) and his latest, a crowd-pleasing study in civil disobedience called The Public, are the works of…well, an outsider. He has never been to Australia, much to his regret (“Every time I get invited, it's work-related and they want to get you in and out quickly”) but he was happy to phone in to talk at length with SCREEN-SPACE about his latest film, it’s depiction of America’s homeless population and the changing role that public librarians play in maintaining his homeland’s fragile democracy…

SCREEN-SPACE: You excel at directing the socially conscious film, like Bobby, The Way and now The Public. Cinema is still a very important forum, an important art form, for you, isn’t it?

ESTEVEZ: It is. It has the ability to change minds and hearts and educate, as well as entertain. What other venue can you sit in the dark for two hours and ask to have your attention be held? Great leaders and speakers can barely do that. I think that film is an art form that is under siege right now, especially independent film. It's trying to find its way again, and I believe it will. I just think that there's so many different delivery systems now that filmmakers are having to adapt to and [they] may not like how they're having to adapt to it. We all come from a generation where seeing your movie on the big screen was the ultimate prize for a filmmaker and that may not be the case anymore, right? I'm not big on sitting in front of a small screen and watching much these days. I love the theatre experience. I love going to the movies and sitting in the dark with a bunch of strangers. There's nothing like it.

SCREEN-SPACE: You grew up alongside artists and storytellers and activists that the rest of us look to; your father, of course, and the likes of Mr. Coppola and Mr. Hughes. Who have been the storytellers that inspire you today?

ESTEVEZ: I love the films of Paul Thomas Anderson. I think he's a terrific storyteller. He always puts characters and people first, and the bulk of my work in the last 20 years has been all about that. Character-driven, actor-driven. I respond to filmmakers who haven't lost that sense of humanity, haven't lost their sense of storytelling. So I'm drawn to actors' directors. Scorsese is still somebody who I think makes extraordinary films and movies that I want to see. (Pictured above; Estevez as librarian Stuart Goodson in The Public)

SCREEN-SPACE: The Way came out at the height of an America that was full of Obama-inspired hope and optimism. In 2019, things such as understanding and empathy aren't…on-trend, let's say, under the current administration. Has selling a film like The Public been tougher this time around?

ESTEVEZ: Yeah. It's a film that's decidedly uncynical, that speaks to a gentler pace, to compassion. And it has come out in a very noisy world, a confusing time, [that] we've not seen in this country in over 150 years. So to make a movie that is about hope and compassion was, yeah, I think it's a tough sell. Unfortunately. Sadly.

SCREEN-SPACE: What did you have to get right about your depiction of civil disobedience?

ESTEVEZ: I grew up under a roof with somebody who is very, very active. My father's been arrested 68 times. And all for acts of civil disobedience - anti-nuclear rallies, immigration rallies, issues regarding homelessness and the environment. While I was exposed to it, I didn't fully understand what he was doing, spiritually, until I started working on The Public. And then it all started to make sense to me as to why he was doing what he was doing and why he couldn't say no. Why he couldn't be complicit in the policies that were cruel. I understood it on a much deeper, more spiritual level after getting involved in the film. Which is why that act of civil disobedience at the end of the film, is such an unexpected moment. And as we've screened the film here in the States so many times ... I went on a 35-city tour of the film. The audience never sees the end coming. Ever. They anticipate that it's going to end up in a bloodbath, but, in fact, it ends with an act of love. (Pictured, above; Alec Baldwin as Det Ramstead in The Public)

SCREEN-SPACE: And what needed to be most honest about the way homeless life was portrayed?

ESTEVEZ: It was important not to stereotype them, to give them a depth and a character and make sure that they were humanized. In my research, there was a self-effacing nature to many of the homeless that I talked to, who said, "This is where I am in my life, and I have hope that it will turn around, and here's how I arrived here, and I'm not proud of it." They were very honest and truthful in sharing their personal stories.

SCREEN-SPACE: You draw extraordinary performances from Michael K. Williams (pictured, above; with Estevez), Alec Baldwin and my favourite actress, Jena Malone. Your entire ensemble is remarkably natural…

ESTEVEZ: Thank you. What's interesting is a lot of these actors were not friends of mine before starting the film, so they weren't in my Rolodex. And often times, we would meet on the day, on the set. And that's very ... it's a little unsettling. You're hoping that your conversations on the phone have landed, that you see eye-to-eye on the character, and you're not going to be spending a whole lot of time rewriting the scenes on the day, because that eats up your time. So for us, we were very fortunate that all of the pieces of the puzzle fit together beautifully, because we shot the film in 22 days.

SCREEN-SPACE: How do the added duties of the indie filmmaker sit with you - finding financing, traveling with the film, having to talk to people like me in Sydney?

ESTEVEZ: I think that these days, there is so much noise and so much competition for people's attention. And with a film that didn't have a hundred-million-dollar budget or a big studio behind it needed as much advocacy as possible. And by going out and screening the film, not only to librarians but to homeless advocacy groups, at film festivals, and stopping in those regions, as we travelled around and across the country, where people from Hollywood don't normally stop, and bringing the movie to the people. And that was in the spirit of the film, but also necessary. (Pictured, above; Jena Malone as Myra in The Public)

THE PUBLIC premieres on DVD/Blu-ray and digital platforms in Australia this week via Rialto Distribution; check local schedules for release details in other territories.

THE FURIES' FINAL GIRL: THE AIRLIE DODDS INTERVIEW

FANGORIA X MONSTER FEST 2019: The well-trodden road to overnight bigscreen success began for Airlie Dodds in 2010 with the short film, Purple Flowers. Nearly two decades later, after 10 more short films, a healthy live theatre resume and a stint on the iconic TV series Neighbours, her lead performance as the blood-splattered heroine Kayla in Tony D’Aquino’s The Furies is generating career-defining buzz. Only her third feature film role, the tough 20-day shoot in the wilds outside of Canberra required a physical commitment she was not entirely ready for. The acclaim coming her way, that, she’s ready for…

“I do a lot of short films and TV, so I turn up, do a little bit and go home,” said Dodds, addressing the Monster Fest crowd in Melbourne at a Q&A appearance hosted by SCREEN-SPACE’s Simon Foster. “So, by the second week of the shoot, I was like ‘Tony, I’m so tired!’ And he said, ‘Yeah, me too.’ But we were fine. It was exhilarating, even euphoric running through this bush location.”

Dodds came to the audition process with a strong sense of her character, a young woman thrust into a brutal bushland game of survival when pitted against five merciless monsters. “It was pretty much all on the page, nothing really changed,” she says, recalling that moment when she had to stand before her somewhat offbeat writer/director and weigh up her career choice. “When I did the audition, it was the big scene at the end just after a key character had died. I looked down, towards Tony, and he was watching the monitor wearing purple socks and an avocado T-shirt and I’m thinking, ‘Well, this is my life’ (laughs).”

Making his feature film directorial debut, Tony D’Aquino presents as a pure gentleman, softly spoken and unassuming. Yet he has delivered a horror opus that harkens back to the most gruesome examples of the slasher genre; no surprise his favourite film is The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. For Dodds, that dichotomy of character helped her build trust with her director. “He’s very gentle and quite meek,” she recalls fondly. “You might think that in a performative sense he would be pushing for intensity, but his gentleness can ground you at times, which felt very nurturing.” (Pictured, left; D'Aquino, left, with DOP Garry Richards)

The complex psychology of Kayla was key to the actress going after the role. She had played lauded support parts in Damian Power’s acclaimed thriller Killing Ground and Heath Davis’ comedy/drama Book Week, and was ready to graduate to a multi-dimensional lead role. “The main thing about Kayla within this type of genre film is that it helps her emerge, really weaves out her inner strength,” says Dodds, who responded to the convincing character arc in D’Aquino’s script. “When you meet her, you’re not inclined to think her very strong, and she doesn’t really know herself until the circumstances force her to. It was less about the idea of the character and more about her immediate actions that ultimately define her.”

High on the actress’ list of positives was that Kayla has to interact with several female characters to survive. Actresses Linda Ngo, Taylor Ferguson, Ebony Vagulans, Danielle Horvat, Jessica Baker, Harriet Davies and Kaitlyn Boyé are granted as much complexity, if not screen time, as Dodds’ Kayla. For the actress, it was central to the story’s appeal. “There are so many stories about men being cunning and violent and manipulative and crazy, so one of the great things about this film is that it shows those complex elements being explored with women characters,” she opines. “The characters [who survive], do so because of their light, feminine value; they use compassion to get ahead. It is still a tactic, a survival tactic, but it is genuine. They all represent aspects of femininity, the resourcefulness or the vindictiveness, and I like that they are as complex as any male character.” (Pictured, above; from left, Linda Ngo, Dodds and Ebony Vagulans)

THE FURIES director Tony D’Aquino will be present for a Q&A following the Fangoria x Monster Fest session on October 31 at Event Cinemas George Street, Sydney. Check the official website for further information.

DARK WHISPERS, LOUD VOICES: THE WOMEN SHAPING AUSTRALIAN HORROR CINEMA.

FANGORIA x MONSTER FEST 2019: As Chairperson of the New South Wales chapter of Women in Film & Television (WIFT), Megan Riakos is one of the most determined advocates for gender equality in Australian cinema. She has fought that fight in the male-dominated ivory towers of the government, corporate and film sector for some time now, but she knows the most effective way to counter long-held prejudice is to get the work of women filmmakers to the fore. To that end, with producing partner Leonie Marsh, she has curated the anthology work Dark Whispers Vol. 1, a collection of vivid and complex horror shorts directed by women from the last decade of Australian film.  

Ahead of the film's NSW premiere at Fangoria x Monster Fest 2019, Riakos very kindly compiled the thoughts of her team of extraordinarily talented filmmakers for SCREEN-SPACE, posing to them (and herself) the question, "What inspired your contribution to the Dark Whispers project..."

(Pictured above, from left to right; top - Megan Riakos, Briony Kidd, Jub Clerc, Lucy Gouldthorpe; middle - Leonie Marsh, Isabel Peppard, Kaitlin Tinker, Madeleine Purdy; bottom - Angie Black, Janine Hewitt, Katrina Irawati Graham, Marion Pilowsky.)

MEGAN RIAKOS (Co-producer; Dir: THE BOOK OF DARK WHISPERS, the wrap-around narrative that binds the anthology; stars Andrea Demetriades)  “Dark Whispers was curated from a callout for completed films and we received impressive submissions from almost every state and territory in a myriad of sub-genres. There are great hidden depths of talent out there and I feel very privileged to be the caretaker of these films and to have the opportunity to work with these amazing filmmakers for the project.”

BRIONY KIDD (Dir: WATCH ME; stars Tosh Greenslade, Astrid Wells Cooper, Jazz Yap)
“Watch Me was written by Claire d'Este, from a concept she says was inspired by ‘The Nothing’ in The Neverending Story. Claire and I are friends and I think she knew it was an idea that would appeal to me. I love how it's quite simple but there's a lot to think about. The protagonist is quite unlikeable on the surface, and yet she is somewhat sympathetic because of what we see her going through. I enjoy characters who are not easy to pigeonhole.” (Pictured, right; Astrid Wells Cooper in Watch Me)

JUB CLERC (Dir: STORYTIME; stars Jhi Clarke, Sylvia Clarke, Jimmy Edgar)
“I was inspired to tell the story of a mythological being from my cultural heritage to pay homage to all the campfire stories my family would share on hunting trips. I shot Storytime in 2005, so to have life breathed back into it in this format with all these wonderful female directors is such a treat.  Having the opportunity to terrify a whole new audience is so rewarding.”

LUCY GOULDTHORPE (Dir: GRILLZ; stars Tosh Greenslade, Melanie Irons)
"Grillz was partly inspired by a raft of dreadful online dating experiences. I felt so vulnerable going on dates with people who weren't what they seemed from their online personas. So we flipped that and our main character Milla preys on the vulnerability of her online hook ups. I also wanted to make something short, sweet and black and white in my hometown of Hobart. Something fun and cheeky with a strong woman vampire who was dealing with stuff that ordinary women have to deal with - weeding through online matches and making a trip to the dentist." (Pictured, right; Melanie Irons in Grillz)

LEONIE MARSH (Prod: DARK WHISPERS VOL. 1)
“Being a part of the producing team of Dark Whispers has been a great joy; to work with so many wonderful women; to create new opportunity for these stories and these filmmakers' careers, and to highlight the wealth of talent we have here in Australia to the rest of the world.”

ISABEL PEPPARD (Dir: GLOOMY VALENTINE)
"My film was inspired by the song ‘Gloomy Sunday’, also known as the Suicide Song. It was written by a Hungarian composer in the 1930s and interpreted by Billy Holiday who's version was banned by the BBC till 2002 after a spate of deaths were associated with it. I went through a period of infatuation with this song and the combination of music and lyrics inspired a series of poetic visuals. These ended up being the inspiration for Gloomy Valentine."

KAITLIN TINKER (Dir: THE MAN WHO CAUGHT A MERMAID; stars Roy Barker, Bilby Conway, Verity Higgins)
"[I wanted to examine] the male gaze, the projection of anima and the hidden, darker side of Australian suburbia. What lies beyond those garage doors? What secret, inner worlds are we operating in? I lost the opportunity to make a feature film because a male executive decided he could re-write my feminist, prize-winning horror pitch better than I. It was crushing. I'd relish the opportunity to develop a feature with a supportive production house, and to write/direct for live theatre.” (Pictured, right; Bilby Conway in The Man Who Caught a Mermaid)

MADELEINE PURDY (Dir: LITTLE SHAREHOUSE OF HORRORS; stars Georgia Wilde, Colan Leach, Travis Jeffery)
“Fear is always relevant, but the things we fear in horror films, not so much. I wanted to speak the same language as this genre I love so much, but using the (often banal) fears that spike my adrenalin on any given day as the subject. I freak out about the natural world quite a lot. The main character in Little Sharehouse of Horrors, Maeve, is similar to myself. We exist in a little world where people talk agricultural conspiracies, and freak ourselves out about the consequences of putting in our body what we do. In short, my own anxieties inspired the short.”

Birthday Girl_trailer from Black Eye Films on Vimeo.

ANGIE BLACK (Dir: BIRTHDAY GIRL; stars Sarah Bollenberg, Michaela Teschendorff-Harden)
“The writer, Michael Harden and I had been working on a horror feature script that was drawing on aspects of Japanese horror. We wanted to investigate the fragile psychological state after loss and both of us being parents thought that the loss of the child is about as dark as you could go. Birthday Girl is about a mother who isn’t ready to let go and is tormented at the thought of not remembering.”

JANINE HEWITT (Dir: THE INTRUDER; stars Asher Keddie, Bree Desborough)
“The idea for The Intruder came from a ghost story that was emailed to me by a colleague. It posed the question - what would you do if your friend turned up wanting to talk to you but you received a phone call during your conversation letting you know that same friend had died? The email gave me goose bumps and I knew it could be developed into a great short horror film.” (Pictured, right; Asher Keddie in The Intruder)

KATRINA IRAWATA GRAHAM (Dir: WHITE SONG; stars Derty Eka Putria, Alana Golingi, Luke Wright)
“The Kuntil Anak ghost is Indonesia's most famous ghost. She is the ghost of a woman who has died in childbirth, often from a pregnancy that has resulted from male violence. She haunts pregnant women, children and men. As a child growing up in Jakarta, I was terrified of her! Later, as a young mother and abuse survivor myself, I switched from identifying as the possible victim to identifying with the ghost. I understood her desire for revenge, but also saw that there could still be the redemptive power of love even in the cold heart of a ghost. So I wrote White Song - an Indonesian ghost story told from the ghost's perspective.”

MARION PILOWSKY (Dir: THE RIDE; stars Anthony LaPaglia, Ed Speelers, Emer Kenny)
“Unbeknownst to me, my father had written a short story called 'The Lift’ under a pseudonym in 1961. Some 50 years later, he gave it to me to read and I loved it. I felt very connected to the material and I asked him how I could talk to the writer. That’s when all was revealed! I updated the setting, found a fantastic producer and pushed the button, thinking I would be paying for it myself. Then, the BBC came on board three days before we shot, which was amazing. During the pre-production madness, Anthony LaPaglia (who I knew from Adelaide) read the script and said that if I hadn’t cast the role of the 'Driver' he wanted it. The Ride was my first adaptation and first short film as a director so I was very fortunate for such great support.”

DARK WHISPERS VOL 1 will screen on Sunday November 3 at 6.15pm at Event Cinemas George Street, Sydney as part of Fangoria x Monster Fest 2019. Following the screening, the directors will be present for a QA session hosted by SBS Movies Managing Editor, Fiona Williams. Full ticket and session details can be found at the venue's official website.

MONSTER FEST BOWS MIKE GREEN'S RED DUST SURVIVAL SHOCKER

When a window of opportunity presented itself, Mike Green needed to act fast. With one feature script on the backburner and fatherhood looming, the writer/director had to craft a bare-bones production that played to his strengths as a storyteller. The result is Outback, a grueling survival thriller starring Taylor Wiese and Lauren Lofberg as American tourists who do everything wrong when stranded in our unforgiving backyard. And Green made it work within the window – Outback was outlined in two months, scripted in four weeks and filmed over ten days. “We had a great bunch of people so it was fun, though,” the director told SCREEN-SPACE, on the eve of his film’s World Premiere at Fangoria x Monster Fest 2019 | Melbourne….

SCREEN-SPACE: The vast and beautiful 'villain' of the film, the Australian outback, is such a unique landscape to film. What was the visual aesthetic you and your cinematographer Tim Nagle needed to capture to convey just how merciless our country can be?

MIKE GREEN: We started off handheld, doco-like to give the audience a false sense of security. As we got deeper into the Outback and the drama and stakes rise we tried not to embellish the camera work because the Aussie landscape already has a built in pre-awareness for good reason. It is vast, hot and hostile. (Pictured, below; Outback stars Taylor Wiese, left, and Lauren Lofberg)

SCREEN-SPACE: Audiences understand the menace of the outback, from Wake in Fright and Picnic at Hanging Rock, to Mad Max and The Proposition, and many others. Was there a cinematic template you used in crafting the look and mood of the film? 

MIKE GREEN: My original idea was Open Water in the outback. Touching the Void was another film I looked at closely. For the use of sound, music, it’s a two-handed, the psychological breakdown of the characters. The look was going to be dictated by the landscape. We knew the red soil would play a huge part in the film. Also the blue skies. We were very selective with the use of colour in the film. Wardrobe, props, hero vehicle, locations; we worked to a restricted colour palette. Production designer/costumer Courtney Covey, DP Tim Nagle and I had in-depth conversations and planning around this. Justin Tran our colourist did an amazing job bringing together our footage. He’s got back-to-back features lined up now. 

SCREEN-SPACE: What was the key human element, the emotional arc of the story that your leads Taylor and Lauren had to remain focused upon?

MIKE GREEN: Thematically the story is about not taking tomorrow for granted. It’s how I try to live my life and it hits close to home for me. At it’s heart, Outback is a tragic love story. Originally when I cast Lauren I had her do some self-tapes. She had a relationship she was working through at the time. With her blessing, I built some of the narrative from her personal situation, which proved an effective way in and a strong anchor upon which to build the story. (Pictured, above; Green, far right, with Wiese and crew on location)

SCREEN-SPACE: Even with the MIFF success of your short Mother and time spent watching Cate Blanchett and Robert Redford as DA on Truth, was the first day of your feature film directing debut a surreal experience? Or did you know the time was right?

MIKE GREEN: I was producing, 1st AD, locations manager, directing, writing; I wore many department hats and had a three month old baby at home. I was [both] tired and focused. There wasn’t time to think beyond the task at hand.

SCREEN-SPACE: How much research was done on the physical horrors of dehydration and exposure to high-temperatures? Is there license taken, or is this as close as your audience should ever come to this kind of physical hardship?

MIKE GREEN: We did a lot of research into dehydration and the breaking down of humans in tough situations. People find themselves in sticky situations very easily and surprisingly quickly. How often do you hear people go missing or getting stuck in the Blue Mountains? And that’s in our backyard. Once dehydration takes place, your decision-making skills leave you very quickly. Silly decisions seem to make sense at the time. After people watch Outback, a lot of them tell me their close calls and horror stories getting lost or stranded in sketchy places. Lucy Woolfman our HMU & SFX Designer went to extraordinary lengths to research the effects of dehydration and the physical and textural subtitles to our bodies. (Pictured, above; Lauren Lofberg, on location) 

The World Premiere of Mike Green’s OUTBACK will screen on Saturday October 12 at Cinema Nova as part of 2019 Fangoria x Monster Fest | Melbourne, then on Saturday November 2 at Event Cinemas George Street as part of 2019 Fangoria x Monster Fest | Sydney. Ticket and session details can be found at the official website.