Empire Australia - 08.2019

KURSK: THE LAST MISSION
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OUT29 AUGUST/ RATEDM/118 MINS
DIRECTORThomas Vinterberg
CASTMatthias Schoenaerts, Léa Seydoux,
Colin Firth

Based on the tragic 2000 true story of the Russian
submarine left stranded for seven days at the
bottom of the Barents Sea following a series of
explosions,Kurskflits between underwater
survival situations (freezing to death, diminishing
oxygen) and dry-land dramas as the Russians
refuse help from the international community
(aka Colin Firth) and the families fight for news of
loved ones. Script-wise, it’s standard disaster
movie shenanigans (aPoseidon Adventure-style
hold-your-breath swim) with a little bit of old
school World War I camaraderie thrown in, but it’s
well played by the Euro star cast and the craft,
from Anthony Dod Mantle’s snaking camera and
inventive use of aspect ratio/colour to Alexandre
Desplat’s spare score, is impeccable.IAN FREER

PALM BEACH
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OUT8 AUGUST/ RATEDM/97 MINS
DIRECTORRachel Ward
CASTBryan Brown, Greta Scacch, Richard E.
Grant, Sam Neill, Jacqueline McKenzie

A group of late-middle-age friends decamp to
a luxurious holiday home in the titular Northern
Sydney enclave for a weekend away. The occasion
is the birthday of retired streetwear impresario,
Frank (Bryan Brown), which should be a happy
event but, as is the way of such things, old
secrets and current anxieties surface once the
booze begins to flow. The top-notch cast,
including Greta Scacchi, Sam Neill, Richard E.
Grant, Jacqueline McKenzie, Claire van der Boom
and Matilda Brown, are as watchable as ever, and
the setting is gorgeous but, despite the
occasional stab at depth or resonance, you can’t
shake the feeling that these wealthy, successful
people don’t have much to complain about.
TRAVIS JOHNSON

CAMINO SKIES

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OUTNOW/ RATEDPG/80 MINS

DIRECTORSFergus Grady, Noel Smyth

CASTSue Morris, Julie Zarifeh, Father Manny

Domingo, Mark Thomson, Belli Naima

This New Zealand documentary follows six Kiwis

and Aussies on the famous 800km Camino de

Santiago pilgrimage that begins in France and ends

in Spain, several of them using the punishing but

picturesque trek as a means to deal with personal

trauma. The film largely focuses on three key

pilgrims: 70-year-old Sue who wills herself onward

despite painful degenerative arthritis; 54-year-old

Julie who’s dealing with the loss of family members

and Mark whose stepdaughter has died. Their

lengthy journey brings up pain of both the physical

and emotional variety and, like them, at times

you’ll wonder if you can take any more walking. But

like all good journeys it offers catharsis, painting a

moving and inspiring portrait of pressing forward

in life, even when it feels like an impossible task.JJ

OPHELIA

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OUTNOW/ RATEDM/107 MINS

DIRECTORClaire McCarthy

CASTDaisy Ridley, Naomi Watts, Clive Owen

Playing in a similar just-left-of-centre plane as

Tom Stoppard’sRosencrantz And Guildenstern Are

Dead,The Waiting Citydirector Claire McCarthy’s

lavish gothic period piece reimagines

Shakespeare’sHamletfrom the perspective of

Ophelia, one of the Queen’s Ladies-In-Waiting and

later the object of the Danish prince’s desire.

Unlike Stoppard’s absurdist comedy,Opheliaplays

it straight; the fun to be had is watching familiar

scenes unfold with a different skew. Rich in period

detail and quality performance, especiallyStar

Wars’ alum Daisy Ridley as the titular feminist

heroine and Naomi Watts as the Queen. Only a

wiggy Clive Owen risks derailing proceedings as

the King’s murderous brother, exuding a muscular

modernity at odds with this carefully constructed

witches’ brew.DAVID MICHAEL BROWN

DRAGGED ACROSS CONCRETE

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OUT29 AUGUST/ RATEDR18+/159 MINS

DIRECTORS. Craig Zahler

CASTMel Gibson, Vince Vaughn,

Tory Kittles

FROM ITS TITLE (three words of purest pulp) to

its casting (Mel Gibson as a racist cop) and its

ultraviolence (three more words: key in stomach),

Dragged Across Concreteis out to inspire

a visceral reaction. In that, it succeeds. It’s

a thrilling, grindhouse-flavoured heist movie

with some ingenious plotting and a nice line

in granite-tough dialogue; one character is

described as a “human steamroller covered

in spikes”. At the same time, it’s resoundingly

grim, with cruelty played out in slow-motion,

a disturbing portrayal of women (over-emotional

wrecks or there for the camera to ogle) and, most

troubling, scenes that seem to back up the white

protagonists’ perspective on other races.

NICK DE SEMLYEN

DEFEND, CONSERVE, PROTECT

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OUTNOW/ RATEDPG/88 MINS

DIRECTORStephen Amis

CASTDan Aykroyd, Paul Watson

Narrated by Dan Aykroyd, this gripping doco

follows four ships as they set sail to Antarctica on

the biggest anti-whaling campaign ever against

Japanese fleets in the Southern Ocean. The 120

strong international crew gather together as part

of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Movement, the

only people bravely policing the high seas for the

illegal slaughter of whales and attacking the

problem head on. What unfolds is a battle of wits

in a three-way cat and mouse chase between our

crusading environmentalists, the justifiably

vilified Japanese whalers and the majestic

creatures themselves. In turn distressing,

exhilarating – especially the tension drenched

David v Goliath stand-offs – and moving,Defend,

Conserve, Protectis a passionate call to action to

stop a barbaric practice.DMB