MARCH 10 2018 LISTENER 59
key to the success of Game Night’s witty
comedy is its willingness to dispense with
jokes long before they’ve been exhausted.
It’s a pleasure to encounter a film that
is both tightly scripted and thematically
consistent and that gets laughs from
The honest approach can
be incredibly affecting,
but here we find pure
malice engineered for
dramatic effect.
KOBI
directed by Andrea BosshardT
he grandfather of contemporary
jewellery in this country, Swiss-born
Kobi Bosshard, is portrayed with
affection and insight by his daughter,
who has made several excellent no-
budget community-based features. The
film’s stillness suits its subject, whose
Central Otago lifestyle is as pared back
and old-fashioned as his view of crafts-
manship: a disquisition on breadmaking
quietly illustrates his belief that “going
fast is always at the expense of quality”.
The film-maker’s attempts to link the
development of her own artistic sensibil-
ity into the story doesn’t quite work, but
she documents a remarkable life and
delivers a hauntingly beautiful exhibi-
tion of work from a man who insists he
is not an artist but a craftsman.- Peter Calder
IN CINEMAS MARCH 8
OLDER THAN IRELAND
directed by Alex FeganT
he title of this undemanding but
delightful documentary, a collection
of interviews with Irish centenar-
ians, refers to how its subjects’ long lives
predate the republic itself. Yes, the 1916
Easter Rising and the troubled decades
that followed are vivid in the memories
of many. But it’s the personal recol-
lections – of first kisses, school days,
departed spouses – and the advances in
technology they’ve witnessed that give
the film its unhurried charm.- Russell Baillie
ST PATRICK’S FESTIVAL SCREENING,
ACADEMY CINEMA, AUCKLAND, MARCH 8
Films are rated out of 5:
(abysmal) to (amazing)KobiSHORT TAKES
one of them spits. “I don’t know what
I’m seeing.” Always there is the idea that
Marina is being deceitful, rather than
simply mourning her lost partner.
As a portrait of the indignities transgen-
der people face, A Fantastic Woman is
certainly confronting. It contrasts the
warmth of Marina’s love with the scorn
of those who cannot see her as human –
Orlando’s ex-wife calls her a “perversion”;
his son brands her a “chimera” – but these
bigots are creatures of reflexive prejudice
rather than fully fledged characters with
complicated motivations.
The Chilean film, an Oscar nominee for
Best Foreign Language Film, runs head-
long into the argument about whether
oppressed people should be depicted
in positive stories that emphasise their
humanity or whether the worst aspects of
their lives should be used to argue against
injustice.
Director Sebastián Lelio (Gloria) takes
the latter approach: though he never
fails to accentuate Marina’s defiance and
strength and takes a brief dip into her
talents as a singer, she is almost entirely
defined by the perspectives of those who
despise her. This is at its most absurd
when a young girl cries at the sight of her- as if the point about her suffering hadn’t
already been rammed home.
The honest, realistic approach can be
incredibly affecting, as it was in Sean
Baker’s 2015 indie hit Tangerine. But here
we find pure malice engineered for dra-
matic effect. As played by Vega, Marina is
a fantastic woman, to be sure, but it’s not
such a fantastic film.
IN CINEMAS NOW
characterisation rather than increasingly
elaborate or ridiculous set pieces.T
he film’s best and most absurd
moments belong to the brilliant Jesse
Plemons (the Matt Damon lookalike
from television’s Fargo and Breaking Bad).
He plays a sullen divorced cop who lives
next door to Max and Annie and yearns
to be part of their game nights.When we first meet him, he’s stand-
ing on his front lawn, clutching a small
white terrier, like a suburban Dr Evil or
something out of David Lynch. His lines,
delivered in a languid drawl, are simulta-
neously sinister and pathetic. He injects
heavy doses of outright absurdity in much
the same way as Kate McKinnon has done
in such films as Rough Night – elevating
the ordinary into something more unruly
and riotous.
IN CINEMAS NOWGame Night: unruly and riotous.It’s a pleasure to
encounter a Hollywood
comedy that is both
tightly scripted and
thematically consistent