Scarygirl (2023) - Movie Review

Coming off of the decent if inconsistent Tales From Sanctuary City trilogy, director Ricard Cussó’s latest is a major switch-up, both textually and visually. Textually, it’s adapted from an IP that has been doing the rounds semi-regularly for the past two decades, becoming toys, a comic book, a Flash game and even an Xbox Live Arcade download before making it to the big screen.

Visually, however, is where things get really interesting. While Australia has been experiencing something of a boom within the animation industry over the last several years, thanks in no small part to studios like Animal Logic and Flying Bark, this still manages to look like nothing else I’ve seen this country produce thus far. Not even the Sanctuary City movies come anywhere close to this.

Daisy Quokka: World's Scariest Animal (2021) - Movie Review

Time to take a trip back into Sanctuary City, our own little slice of the talking animal market and, judging by the previous two films set in this world, a welcome reprieve from what I’m convinced is the ‘norm’ for this sub-genre. Having already gone over the visual quality in those past reviews, with this sticking firmly to the series standard, I probably won’t be talking much about the animation for this animated film. Instead, I’m probably going to spend most of this write-up hung up on the title, which is one of the most misleading and, the further into the film I got, befuddling titles I’ve seen in a long time.

Now, on the surface, it makes total sense. It’s about the titular quokka (voiced by Angourie Rice) who, rather than fitting into the cute and non-threatening role that society has laid out for her, wants to become the champion of the World’s Scariest Games, just like her idol Frankie Scales (Sam Neill). It’s a nice juxtaposition, aided by some species-ist subtext since literally every other quokka in this world is in the tourism industry, which mainly consists of taking selfies with said tourists.

However, even with the ultimate message about rejecting societal expectations and redefining who can and can’t excel in a certain field, it really feels like the film missed a trick with its title and its repeated use of the word “scary”. Like, if this was some kind of Monsters Inc. situation, or even just a Halloween-set story about competitive trick-or-treating (an animated film could easily turn that into an Olympic-level event), that would make sense. But the actual World’s Scariest Games are closer to American Ninja Warrior than anything else, with athletes competing in increasingly-hazardous terrains and obstacle courses. I’m just saying, ‘World’s Strongest Animal’ would make a lot more sense and would still fit with the main themes of the story.

I usually try and focus just on what a film is, rather than what it could be, but it’s rare when I get the impression that a film is repeatedly using the wrong word to describe itself. Especially when what really describes this film, to be brutally honest, is likely the reason why I found myself so fixated on that one word: It’s just another sports movie. An underdog athlete is trained by a disgraced former champion, facing resistance from their competition who think they don’t deserve to be there, but gradually winning their respect through their determination and skill at the sport; we’ve all seen this before. As fun as it is to hear Frank Woodley returning as Flightless Feather, here serving as colour commentator on the Games, that nostalgic connection isn’t enough to get past how tired and, even with the animation quality and the plentiful background gags, uninteresting this all is.

I get that I’m not the target audience for these things, as I’ve likely proven with my track record for films about humanoid animals, but I can’t shake the feeling that I wouldn’t be the only one disappointed by this flick. Kids are just as entertained by being scared as adults, and I do think that a film all about a cute little quokka learning how to be proper scary could still work as a family film. But no, it just succumbs to cliché that, unlike Wishmas Tree and Combat Wombat, doesn’t have enough of its own flair to keep things interesting. The additions to the world-building that are made here definitely open up the world of Sanctuary City, but I’d be lying if I said I was super-hyped for where things go from here.

Blackbird (2021) - Movie Review

Well… after a much longer (and unannounced; apologies for that) break than anticipated, I’m already wishing I took a bit more care regarding the film I'd come back with. I mean, a film all about voluntary euthanasia isn't exactly the cheeriest material I could have picked for my return. But after so much inactivity, I’ll take anything I can get my hands on, and to this film’s credit, I certainly don’t feel like I wasted my time watching it.

Rams (2020) - Movie Review

Why do films need to be remade? Well, for the most part, they don’t. It’s largely done either to cash-in on the memorability of the original, or to further the idea that watching foreign films with subtitles is too much to ask of an average filmgoer (because nothing says ‘we respect our audience’ more than assuming they don’t know how to read), and even before they became so ridiculously ubiquitous in the modern era, this is a framework that has been around in the mainstream for decades. But then there are the rare examples of films with a purpose in reviving an older production, one that might highlight the poignancy of the original still ringing true in a different time, a different culture, a different context. And in the case of this recent Aussie effort, it might be one of the most necessary in our history.

Ride Like A Girl (2019) - Movie Review

When I was in high school, there were two major events that were deemed so important that our class was halted just so we could crowd around the wheeled-in television to witness them. The first was then-Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s “Sorry” speech, apologising for the systemic racially-biased treatment of the Indigenous population of Australia. The other was the Melbourne Cup, with all of us taking lots to see if our arbitrarily-chosen horse won.

It’s a sporting event that stops the nation, one of the closest traditions we have to the NFL Superbowl, and it’s one that has continued to sour in my memory over my lifetime, considering how it plays into our cultural history. Today’s film, a biopic about Michelle Payne, the first-ever female jockey to win the Melbourne Cup, is the first feature in a while that has outright forced me to consider the real-life side of the story being presented.

Palm Beach (2019) - Movie Review

With how often I’ve gotten into class divides and the frictions between the haves and have-nots in these reviews, I get the feeling I should have problems with this film right off the bat just on principle. Set in the titular Northern Beaches suburb, basically one of the poshest places in my section of the world, the story follows a group of relatively well-off older people and their struggles with growing old and the relationships they’ve made over their lifetimes. ‘Woes of the upper class’ is the kind of thing that should instantly set off my bullshit detectors, and yet, that wasn’t really a problem for me. If anything, I wish it was more egregious along those lines because that would mean actually getting a reaction out of me.

Sweet Country (2018) - Movie Review

Australia doesn’t have the best track record when it comes to dealing with non-whites. Our country is responsible for some of the worst human rights violations in the Western world, both past and present, and nowhere is that more evident than in the historical treatment of Aboriginal Australians. The people we classified as native fauna long before we ever deemed them human, with our predecessors doing their damnedest to breed them out of existence to try and erase any evidence that we weren’t the first people to inhabit this land. This open sore in our history, one that most seem determined to ignore into absolution, ends up serving as a brilliant backdrop for this Aussie take on the Western cinematic genre.

The Commuter (2018) - Movie Review

The plot: Insurance salesman Michael (Liam Neeson) is taking the train home, same as he has done consistently for the last ten years. However, this trip turns out to be decidedly different as he is approached by a mysterious woman (Vera Farmiga) with a proposition. She tells him that someone on the train doesn’t belong, and he has until the end of the line to figure out who it is. As a reward, he will be given $100,000 once he locates the person and places a tracker on their person. As he considers the proposal, it seems that shadowy forces are about to force his hand, and if he doesn’t do as the woman asked, he could end up losing everything.

Hunt For The Wilderpeople (2016) - Movie Review

Even in spite of my attempts to not let the hype machine sway me when it comes to certain releases, there are still times when things get so intense that I stand back and say “Holy hell, just how good is this thing?!” As I write this, this film is standing at almost 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, with all of one bad review that, when you actually read the thing in all its Geocities-esque glory, still gave it a slightly-above-average rating. The film’s writer-director, Taika Waititi, is not only slated to help co-write the next Disney princess flick with Moana but also directing the next Thor movie with Ragnarok. Even ignoring my somewhat lukewarm reaction to his previous film What We Do In The Shadows (I liked it, but not nearly as much as the rest of the world seems to), this is raring up to be the prologue to a rather explosive break in the mainstream. Now, given how happy I still am that other Oceanic directors like James Wan have managed to get their much-deserved chance to shine, I’m seriously hoping that this will pan out well. But quite frankly, this has a very ‘Boyhood’ feel to it before I even set foot in the cinema; you know, it’s still good but cut down incredibly small thanks to the hype behind it. I’ve said before and I’ll say it again: I welcome the chance to be proven wrong on my scepticism.