An angry young man and a woman seeking passion
Nitram Cert 18 | ★★★★✩
CALEB LANDRY Jones (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Get Out) leads a stellar Aussie cast in this impressive dramatisation of the infamous 1996 Port Arthur massacre in which 35 people were murdered by a lone gunman. Directed by Justin Kurzel (True History of the Kelly Gang), Nitram premiered at the 2021 Cannes film festival where Jones also won the best actor prize for his brilliant interpretation of a troubled young man who became Australia’s most notorious mass killer.
Acclaimed Aussie actors Anthony LaPaglia (So I Married an Axe Murderer, Empire Records, Without a Trace), Essie Davis (The Babadook) — who is married to Kurzel — and Judy Davis also star, while writer Shaun Grant delivers a commendably courageous and thought-provoking screenplay.
Jones is Nitram, based on notorious mass shooter Martin Bryant, an intellectually challenged young man living wIth his parents (LaPaglia and Julie Davis) in Port Arthur, Tasmania in the mid 1990s. Having secured a business loan, Nitram’s father hopes to buy a local bed and breakfast business and start a new venture involving the whole family.
After begging his mother to buy him a surfboard to no avail, Nitram decides to offer his services as a lawn cutter in the hope of making his own money. The young man soon forms a deep friendship with a middle aged wealthy neighbour named Helen (Essie David) who hires him to walk her dogs. When tragedy strikes, Nitran finds himself alone again and angry at the world. To make matters worse, his father is outbid for the b&b by a
Good Luck to You Leo Grande
Cert 18 | ★★★★★
EMMA THOMPSON (The Remains of The Day, Sense and Sensibility, Love Actually) gives one of her best and most memorable performances yet in this engaging two-hander from director Sophie Hyde (Animals) and comedian-turned-screenwriter Katy Brand. The film which premiered at Sundance Film Festival , charts the intimate relationship between a 55 year old widow and a 20-something male sex worker, covering a series of clandestine meetings that take place in a hotel.
Widowed pensioner Nancy Stokes (Thompson) feels unfulfilled sexually and intellectually young couple, leaving the whole and seeks to remedy that by hiring family unsure what to do next. the services of Leo Grande (Peaky
Kurzel’s film manages to be Blinders alum Daryl McCormack), a hard-hitting and technically young male sex worker. Despite his sound while avoiding the usual deep fascination with his new client, tropes usually found in similarly Leo makes it abundantly clear themed productions. that he wishes to keep their relationship
He and screenwriter Shaun strictly professional. Grant deliver a sober treatment of Over several meetings and hours this shocking story., which is beautifully of conversations, Nancy finds herself acted by the cast. While more and more attached to her they never exonerate Nitram young companion who seemingly there is no denying that one feels seems to feel the same way about almost some kind of sympathy for her. Things however come to a head the young man and his predicaments. when personal boundaries are breached and secrets are revealed,
On the whole, this is a levelheaded leading Leo to put his foot down retelling of a shocking and threaten to end their event. It highlights the continued arrangement. rise in gun ownership in Australia Hyde’s last at the end of the film. film was the
Kurzel however never seems to flawed, explicitly make a pertinent case but for or against, which in the end feels a little alarming for a director who has once again made a film from the point of view of a mass murderer. well acted, adaptation of Emma Jane Unsworth’s 2014 best selling novel Animals. Here she delivers a brilliantly understated ode to female sexual empowerment that goes further than any other film on the subject has gone before. Much has been made in the press of Thompson’s daring full frontal nude scene, but perhaps the most daring thing about the film is its unabashedly feminist approach to sex after 50 for women.
Elevated by Katy Brand’s expertly paced dialogue and gorgeously layered storytelling style, Good Luck To You Leo Grande manages to successfully breakaway from its slightly stagey two-hander format to deliver an engaging, funny and hugely affecting drama comedy.
Thompson puts in a fearless and typically, for her, disarming turn as a woman who has to learn to love everything about herself in order to reclaim her sexuality.
McCormack oozes confidence and charm all the while managing to avoid coming across as annoying or domineering. The result is truly a match made in heaven.
It’s not every day we are presented with a piece of filmmaking that is so set on rewriting the rule book on how women of a certain age are viewed, and for that reason alone, Good Luck To You Leo Grande will prove to be an essential work for many years to come. This is a real eye-opener and yet another fantastic performance by Emma Thompson who seemingly can’t put a single foot wrong. Genuinely
thrilling.