Larry Oliver Film Reviews

  There is nothing in Jasper Jones , a murder mystery with a fourteen year old ‘outsider’ protagonist, Charlie Bucktin (Levi Miller) that suggests that it is directed by a woman, in this case Rachel Perkins ( Bran Nue Dae, Radiance ). Based on an acclaimed novel by Australian author Craig Silvey, adapted by the author in collaboration with screenwriter Shaun Grant ( Berlin Syndrome , Snowtown ) it is a coming-of-age film of sorts about prejudice and brutality in Corrigan, a small town in Western Australia in 1969. It is no Twin Peaks or To Kill A Mockingbird for that matter – the book has been compared to the latter, which makes me go all Suzanne Vega (‘Harper, Harper, Harper/Lee, Lee, Lee/Why do they always/Compare you to me/To me?’) Yes, it does. It has some tense moments and the obligatory casting of Hugo Weaving as a bearded ‘weirdo’ who may have murder in his blood, but it has plenty of light moments including a feel-good set piece involving cricket, which is practically a ‘g...

  For film directors, third films can be difficult. Your debut has calling card qualities - pace, invention and a fresh perspective. Your follow-up can consolidate your strengths but also make a statement about what you’re really about. Your third film is more commercial. You show what you can do with someone else’s material and – on occasion – someone else’s script. If you discount An Angel at My Table (a TV series released as a movie), The Portrait of a Lady is Jane Campion’s third film, a dull and emotionally unengaged adaptation of a Henry James novel starring Nicole Kidman and John Malkovich. Quentin Tarantino’s third film is Jackie Brown , a remarkably unadventurous adaptation of an Elmore Leonard novel, Rum Punch . If you discount Boxcar Bertha , an assignment for Roger Corman, Martin Scorsese’s third feature is Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore in which he proved – sort of – that he could make a women’s picture. Steven Soderbergh’s third film was the mechanical King of the Hi...