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Mystery Road, 2013

Jay Swan (Aaron Pederson) has just returned to his small town from training in the big city when the body of a young aboriginal woman is found on the side of the road. As different factions in the town suspiciously stay mum or close ranks, Swan must figure out what's behind the girl's murder. Even more concerning, his own daughter, Crystal (Tricia Whitton) may be somehow involved.

I very much enjoyed this mystery, a satisfying mix of an actual murder mystery and an examination of the tensions and dynamics of a town where racial tension, drug culture, and poverty combine in a potent, ugly mix.

Pederson is a strong lead character. He falls into a very classic archetype---the minority authority figure trapped between worlds--but his experience is portrayed in a very dynamic, complex, and compelling way. Swan faces open racism from many of the people in town, men who know there won't be any consequences for their casual hatred. But at the same time, he's repeatedly looked down on by the aboriginal or mixed-race citizens of the town, who tell him "we hate cops, bruh" or ask how he feels locking his own people up. He's a man with a foot in two different worlds, fully belonging in neither. There's pain there, but also determination.

Swan's personal life is just as complex. His ex-wife, Mary (Tasma Walton) is an alcoholic. (I don't know if I missed something or if the film never fully explains, but I was unclear as to why Swan had left his daughter behind with Mary. At one point he says he couldn't watch her drink herself to death . . . but he could leave her in charge of their child?). Crystal is clearly on a bad path herself, and Swan is taunted and haunted by that fact through the film.

The supporting cast is pretty good as well. Hugo Weaving is the standout as Johno, a shady fellow detective who is clearly mixed up in bad things. But is he mixed up in THIS bad thing? Ryan Kwanten is another archetype--as the smirking handsome young white racist--but his portrayal of deadly, callous bravado is still pretty chilling.

What the film captures best, in my opinion, is the sinking sense of being in an environment where you know that you are considered lesser than. Obviously not everyone in the police station is part of what's going on. Swan has a very sympathetic ally in Jim the coroner (Bruce Spence). But at the same time, there's a sense that a lot of his co-workers kind of feel that the victim got what was coming to her. That they wouldn't mind if this all just went away.

Overall this was a very engaging mystery with a strong personal story underpinning it.




Count me in as someone else who pretty much dislikes Scarface, but loves Carlito's Way.
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I prefer Scarface to Carlito's Way (Crumbsroom summarizes it's qualities well; it's also funnier), but I do like that the climaxes of both movies feel like different sides of the ultimate Hong Kong shootout.
My most controversial Scarface opinion is that Sosa is the only one in the movie with any ******* taste.



Woohoo! More Mystery Road love. Hope I helped its spread.
It's been on my watchlist for ages. Recent mentions of the TV series put it back on my radar, and I needed an Oceania film for the 2022 Film Challenge, so . . .



I'm sure you meant it suffers from a ton of coke



One might say it's a real chazzer of a movie.



It's been on my watchlist for ages. Recent mentions of the TV series put it back on my radar, and I needed an Oceania film for the 2022 Film Challenge, so . . .
“… It was all you, MKS. You arbiter of quality cinema!”

You can finish your sentences, Tak. And you’re welcome.



“… It was all you, MKS. You arbiter of quality cinema!”

You can finish your sentences, Tak. And you’re welcome.
I'm glad some people on this site are still capable of understanding subtext.



I don't think Sosa gets enough credit being that totally believable one dimensional drug lord you wouldn't want to **** with




Son of the White Mare (Marcell Jankovics, 1981)
so it has this annoying rule-of-3 type structure that's super repetitive and i do not like it but godd@mn by the end there were just so many unbelievable images that i can't not love it. just every frame of it is incredible.



Tonight, it was Parallel Mothers, a Spanish film directed by Pedro Almodovar, the most well known star in the US would be Penelope Cruz. It's in Spanish with subtitles. The basic plot arc is that two women are pregnant, one in her late 30's, apparently impregnated in a fling. The other woman is only in her teens, similar situation. They bond over their similar situation. Sadly, one of the babies dies from crib death and there's some uncertainty over the appearance of the surviving baby and the part of the plot gets complicated in a way that I won't reveal.

In a simultaneous plot line, the erstwhile partner of the older woman is involved in a project to exhume remains of a group of people killed in the Spanish Civil War.

How do these plot lines converge? Do they? IMO, not really that well. The pregnancy-infancy plot seems like something you might see on the Lifetime Channel. The civil war exhumation plot line is fairly less prominent, lurking around the edges of the film until the end, which is somewhat of a visual shocker.

I have to admit that I was frustrated with the plot, which seemed to take too long, be too talky. By the time that the reveal came, I had already figured it out since I had so much time to think about it.

Oh well.






Glad you liked Mystery Road, Tak.

Scarface is a weird one. It’s somehow simultaneously iconic and not good. Carlito’s Way is the better movie but also not as memorable. It’s weird DePalma’s weird man.



I don't think Sosa gets enough credit being that totally believable one dimensional drug lord you wouldn't want to **** with
To be fair, he warned Tony a long time ago (that ****ing little monkey) not to **** him.



I forgot the opening line.

By May be found at the following website: http://www.moviegoods.com/movie_prod...211&sku=202759, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=26290772

Jabberwocky - (1977)

I struggled with Jabberwocky as a kid, and expected more this time around. Gilliam seems to be half-stuck in the Monty Python days, and goes for a similar brand of comedy which sometimes works but often doesn't. Still, it does have it's moments - and those moments can be good. Loved Gorden Kaye as the hidden nun in a bit of a panic as to being found out - he had a small role in Brazil as well.

6/10


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Licence to Kill - (1989)

This James Bond film dared to stray from the formula which had kind of grown stagnant and solidified since the latter Roger Moore films. I've preferred The Living Daylights over this through the years, but it's nice to have a change of pace and a harder edge to things. The opening credits seem cheap and unimaginative - a poor copy of predecessors - but overall this isn't a bad Bond film.

6/10
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Croatian movie The High Sun from 2015.