The Young Victoria

Inglourious Basterds:

Inglourious Basterds is a film about people with reputations that precede them - and the film itself is no different. Everything you've heard is true - yes it's bloody, yes it's bloody good.

It follows Lieutenant Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) and his band of Jewish soldiers, who've taken it upon themselves to exact a savage and personal revenge on Nazis. They purposely make their attacks as vicious as possible in order to gain notoriety and strike real fear into the hearts of the Germans. A fair amount of celluloid is also devoted to Colonel Landa (Christoph Waltz), the 'Jew-Hunter', a Nazi officer with a special gift for sniffing out Hebrew targets.

This offering from Tarantino takes a long and well-measured time to say anything. The long uncut shots and extended dialogue are tools used to eke out tension and draw us in. These combine to give a masterclass in exactly what Tarantino has always done best: showing us he knows every rule of filmmaking, then bending as many of them as he can. In truth, some sections of this film could have lost a little flab. There are occasional stretches of dialogue and characterisation that build up, then are promptly and violently dispersed. But we figured this would happen when we sat down.

Almost everyone is pitch perfect in their role, with Waltz bringing a particularly delicious menace to Landa. Only the 'British' roles are inadequately filled, with Mike Myers far too laughable to be effective.

Overall though, Inglourious Basterds is a strong film that will undoubtedly get even better on repeat viewings.

Beautiful Kate:

Beautiful Kate is a story of family, and family secrets. Forty year old writer Ned (Ben Mendelsohn) is returning to his childhood home, way out in the back of beyond. He's brought with him a much younger woman (Maeve Dermody) and a whole bunch of unresolved and painful memories. The only people left on the farm are his younger sister Sally (Rachel Griffiths) and his dying father Bruce (Bryan Brown). 

Writer/Director Rachel Ward takes her time getting the pieces of this film in place. A lot of the characterisation is gradually turned on its head as people we like turn out to be not so sympathetic and vice versa. All of this is a plan to subvert our opinions and keep us guessing.

Beautiful Kate is a sumptuous-looking bit of cinema that is unafraid of facing the darker issues. Instead, the earlier sections embrace them with a subtlety and understatement that immediately hooks us. Unfortunately the wheels start to fall off in the later stages. Ward seems to lose a little faith in us as an audience and, rather than continuing to whisper in our ears, she bludgeons us over the head with controversy. Of course, this has the complete opposite effect than hoped for as the climactic events don't have the desired emotional impact.

A solid and challenging film that tips its hand a little further than needed.