Something Cult, Foreign-Language or Indie #118: The Death & Life of Otto Bloom (2016).

Otto Bloom (Xavier Samuel) is a legitimate enigma. Beginning his tale in a mental institution, he experiences time in reverse, travelling backwards through the years and only remembering the future because for him, that's the past. He becomes famous first as a contemporary artist, then as the SO of rock star Suzi Noon (Rose Riley). Through a mockumentary format, several of the other key figures in his life retrospectively fill the blanks in and tell us about his awful demise: music promoter Bob Simkin (Terry Camilleri), psychiatrist Prof. Charles Reinier (John Gaden), journalist Miroslaw Kotok (Jacek Koman), and most notably Ada (Rachel Ward), a therapist at Otto's institution with whom he had an intense love affair.

I actually just saw this on TV last night, and it's surely one of the strangest movies I've ever seen; I'm still trying to get my head around it. However, some films aim for weirdness and come off as pretentious while others that do that manage to be thought-provoking and seductive. From Australia and 2016, The Death & Life of Otto Bloom takes the latter route. Writer-director Cris Jones, who sadly died suddenly last year aged just 37 (RIP), has hit upon a genuinely unique, if obviously implausible, predicament for his protagonist (and one that's puzzling for the viewer) and ambitiously attempts to juggle navigating it with sprinkling a trail of visual and symbolic breadcrumbs to help us do that ourselves. Plotting this story must've been a bitch, but that's how it proves so stimulating and as I watched its trajectory I nonetheless saw not one puzzle piece out of place. Aesthetically, Jones also wisely applies a strong hipster/bohemian vibe which deliberately evokes the ethos of Otto's own artistry.

Xavier Samuel gives a nicely natural, easygoing turn as Otto, and backing him up are Camilleri and Gaden in respectively authoritative and amusingly eccentric supporting work. But if Otto is the heart of this tale, Rachel Ward's Ada must be its soul, and it's her performance that impresses the most. She expertly depicts a woman openly reluctant to discuss her long-past intimate relationship with Otto, and reveals in dribs and drabs the low points in their relationship, particularly when he instantly forgot about her once they had to part.

Whether because some will struggle to follow it or others will find it too far-fetched or stylised, The Death & Life of Otto Bloom certainly isn't for everybody. But that's exactly its agenda, and overall every minute of it simply captivated me.

Something Cult, Foreign-Language or Indie #117: Ghost Graduation (2012).

High school teacher Modesto (Raul Arevalo) would certainly identify with the movie The Sixth Sense. Ever since his own school days, particularly a very embarrassing incident at a school dance with a girl, he's been able to see dead people. Naturally, this has cost him big money with therapists and has made it impossible for him to hold employment down. Somehow, though, he's just been hired to teach again at yet another new school, and is assigned to educate five students who've turned its prestigious halls into ones of horror. His mission is to help them pass their outstanding subjects and finally graduate but you guessed it: they all died in a horrible accident twenty years ago. There's Tina (Alexandra Jimenez), Dani (Alex Maruny), Angela (Anna Castillo), Marivi (Andrea Duro) and Pinfloy (Javier Bodalo), the one who's perpetually drunk because he died in that state. Modesto develops sympathy for and faith in them, but he will only get them over the line if he can bring them to control their cynical, rebellious attitudes and raging libidos - and that's a huge "if."

I can only liken Ghost Graduation to a Spanish hybrid of The Breakfast Club and American Pie, if both of those had supernatural elements; the kids all represent a different clique and it's quite salacious. Nonetheless, it's a concoction that feels genuinely fresh and unforced in its efforts to be cool. Working from Cristobal Garrido and Adolfo Valor's amusing and well-plotted screenplay, Javier Ruiz Caldera directs it with a sharp eye for the science of joke-telling and teen movie pacing, invoking very suitable soundtrack selections (namely Bonnie Tyler's Total Eclipse of the Heart) to remind us of the characters' eras and perhaps even our own, alongside maintaining the energy. He also uses voyeuristic, wild photography and editing to reflect and echo the mischievous old habits Modesto has to finally undo in his charges. The cast all delightful, too, especially Arevalo as the browbeaten protagonist and Bodalo as the wild child who we sense wasn't much tamer when he was sober and living.

Of course, I won't tell you if these ghost kids finally graduate. But I will tell you, as a horror comedy with laughs, spookiness and skin galore, Ghost Graduation, passes with flying colours.

Something Cult, Foreign-Language or Indie #116: Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010).

In Toronto, Canada, twenty-something slacker Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera) plays bass guitar in garage band Sex Bob-Omb with his friends, vocalist Stephen Stills (Mark Webber) and Kim Pine (Alison Pill). Looking on are Scott's girlfriend Knives Chau (Ellen Wong) and Sex Bob-Omb's biggest fan, the simple but (thus wisely) quiet "Young" Neil Nordegraf (Johnny Simmons). He lives with his sardonic gay roommate Wallace Wells (Kieran Culkin). When Scott suddenly meets dreamy Amazon delivery girl Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), Scott automatically wants to date her, and they soon do. But when he then encounters her spiteful ex-boyfriend Matthew Patel (Satya Bhabha), Ramona tells him that if they are to date, he must meet and defeat her seven evil exes: Patel, Hollywood action hero Lucas Lee (Chris Evans), superpowered vegan Todd Ingram (Brandon Routh), Roxy Richter (Mae Whitman) from when Ramona was bicurious, twins Kyle and Ken Katayanagi (Shota and Keita Saito), and Internet entrepreneur Gideon "G-Man" Graves (Jason Schwartzman). Now whether he likes it or not, Scott must man up if he wants to level up and achieve true love.

Based on Brian Lee O'Malley's Scott Pilgrim comic book series (and O'Malley clearly loves alliterative names), Edgar Wright, making his Hollywood debut after breaking through in the UK with 2004's Shaun of the Dead and 2007's Hot Fuzz, and co-writer Michael Bacall bring it to the screen with all the immediacy and unabashed lack of subtlety that I just relish in an action comedy like this. I can understand how come would say it tries too hard to be hip, but I think it gets away with that thanks to its thorough sincerity, thick-skinnedness and rollicking pace. Wright's approach shows he took to this material like a child with a new toy, albeit one who's eager to share it around. His direction is especially vibrant and charming in how he consciously uses varying, bright colours for each character and scene which also helps to emphasise the discrepancies there without being jarring. He also offers a Tim Burtonesque, video game spin on the Universal studio logo, which sets the tone perfectly. Sharp editing and photography (the latter by Bill Pope, who previously lensed the Matrix trilogy) increases the suspense and energy even more, particularly in the Scott vs. Lucas fight. The screenplay provides non-stop laughs but also keenly observed and relatably layered characters.

And the cast all bring them to life very entertainingly. Cera often frustrates me by so frequently playing neurotic young nerds but here he shows solid balance as the simultaneously determined yet uncertain yet blunt protagonist, the stunningly attractive Winstead infuses Ramona with an assertive affection that fits like a glove, as do Pill, Simmons and Schwartzman in their own unique ways. But for me, stealing the show is unquestionably Kieran Culkin, who serves provocative and borderline misanthropic remarks with blisteringly funny results. I think with just this performance he shows more talent than his brothers ever have combined.

I won't tell you who wins in the story of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. But artistically, it wins, and when you watch it, you will.

Aborigines and Aussie film awards.

Firstly, as a white Australian let me just stress this whole entry is intended merely as impartial commentary.

The Australian Academy of Film and Television Arts Awards have awarded the Best Film prize, since 2002 when they were the Australian Film Institute Awards, to five movies about Indigenous Australians: Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002), Ten Canoes (2006), Samson and Delilah (2009), The Sapphires (2012) and Sweet Country (2018, going on its domestic release date). In addition, twelve other such films have been nominated: Beneath Clouds and The Tracker (both 2002), Jindabyne (2006), Bran Nue Dae (2010), Mad Bastards (2011), Mystery Road and Satellite Boy (both 2013), Charlie's Country (2014), Goldstone and Tanna (both 2016), Jasper Jones (2017, which lost to Lion, an Indian boy's tale) and Cargo (2018).

I haven't actually seen all those movies, and some of those I have I disliked for artistic reasons. But in any case, this century the AFIs/AACTAs have honoured more Aboriginal-centric and/or Aboriginal-produced films than in the preceding 31 years in which they had been awarding films. Indigenous Australians are also far away the most honoured minority group on screen in the Awards' history.

Furthermore, in the television categories two Indigenous-based dramas have been recognised: Redfern Now in 2014 and Mystery Road this year. Also winning this year was the cinema documentary of late Indigenous musician Gurrumul.

All I can think of left to say is that I said in an earlier post that unless another Aussie filmmaker could turn water into wine, Sweet Country would win this year's AACTA Best Film prize by the length of the Bass Strait. Of course we'll never know by how much it won, but I was happy on Wednesday night to be vindicated.

Something Cult, Foreign-Language or Indie #115: DOUBLE FEATURE! The Raid (2011) / The Raid 2 (2013).

In the centre of Jakarta's slums is a maximum-security, 30-storey safe house for some of the world most dangerous criminals. It had previously been considered a no-go zone to even the bravest of cops. But now, at pre-dawn, an elite SWAT team is sent in to raid it and execute infamous drug lord Tama Riyadi (Ray Sehatapy), who's pulling the strings in there. Our protagonist is Rama (Iko Uwais), a rookie special tactics officer with a young wife and a child coming. He's an honest, devoted and religious officer but one with no illusions about what they're facing. The operating begins well enough, but then once their cover is blown and Riyadi learns of their assault, he has all the building's exits sealed. Trapped on the sixth storey with no escape, the unit must now fight their way through Indonesia's very worst to live.

Three years after barely surviving everything the first movie literally threw at him, Rama now thinks he's won the war and can return to a normal, quiet life. Not even close. After his brother is executed as retribution for Tama's death, Rama learns he's now on the radar of predators even higher up the hierarchy than those he just eliminated. In order to now get the rest of his family out of danger, he must go undercover in the criminal underworld and expose the crooked police and politicians controlling them all. After then being imprisoned he must earn the trust of gang kingpin's son Uco (Arifin Putra) to become a gang member himself and risk his own life in order to really bring the whole filthy business to a close.

This ferocious cop saga from Welsh-born, Indonesian-based writer-director-editor Gareth Huw Evans for me has brought litres of fresh blood to contemporary action cinema, with both entries deservedly earning global acclaim. With The Raid Evans concocts a premise that works because it's somehow neither conventional nor unique and provides huge potential (which is met) for claustrophobic suspense, and his direction's rollicking pacing just never stops building, albeit without making it hard for us to tell what's happening. He also, with Uwais, gives us a hero who's all the more relatable because his vulnerability is never hidden. Then, with The Raid 2 Evans expands the scope to focus also on how power, crime and poverty trickle down like economics from the upper echelons of any society. The Raid 2 maybe rather overlong (and indeed it's inferior overall) at 148 minutes, but with the extended final fight scene, featuring all manner of random objects, Evans and Uwais still ram the entertainment factor very much home.

The Raid duo also arguably serve as a brutally (pun intended) honest snapshot of contemporary Indonesia, with its widespread organised crime and unequal wealth distribution (although most countries share those issues). But of course, their whole point is to be non-stop, hardcore action excitement, and both installments achieve that to a degree of which most Hollywood action flicks could only dream.

Trimming the Bushes.

Last night US time (although today here in Australia), America's 41st President, George H. W. Bush, died aged 94. He was the longest-living president in US history, the most recent to serve just one term (1989-1993) and the first to die since Gerald Ford in 2006.

Before his presidency, he served in the US Air Force during World War II, then directed the CIA before becoming Ronald Reagan's VP in 1981. His presidency included the fall of the Berlin Wall, the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the Gulf War, but he mishandled the US economy (including the breaking of a 1988 campaign promise, "Read my lips: no new taxes") resulting in his 1992 election loss to Bill Clinton. He was married to Barbara Bush from 1945 until her own death in April this year.

But enough of me summarising his career impartially. It's true that all politicians are only human, and he was unquestionably a better leader than his son was (and, for that matter, than America's current Republican commander-in-chief is). But even so, George H. W. Bush was nonetheless a war criminal and a tyrant. After he oversaw a successful military effort to depose Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega in 1989, Bush's administration hindered a smooth transition to democratic government there. Then following the 1991 invasion of Iraq (which, ironically, came soon after Bush condemned Iraq's invasion of Kuwait), he was accused of adventurism in the Middle East for the sake of maintaining his popularity rather than out of a longing world peace or stability. Furthermore, in 2017 he was a target of the #MeToo movement when several women including actress Heather Lind accused him of sexual misconduct.

I must admit that since I was four years old when he left office, my first knowledge of George H. W. Bush came via my high school history studies. Indeed, I grew up during Dubya's presidency. But everybody now has the resources, at least in developed nations, to learn as much as possible about past world leaders and thus to determine for ourselves whether they've been assessed accurately. Maybe it's just my long-standing liberalism at play here, and I am not celebrating his death, but I hope future generations view George H. W. Bush, and particularly his son, with great scorn. He achieved some good things, but in my book set about achieving them in the worst possible way.

Something Cult, Foreign-Language or Indie #114: Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989).

Meet super-slackers and potheads Bill Preston (Alex Winter) and Ted Logan (Keanu Reeves). They've been spending so much time in Bill's shed rocking out as the Wyld Stallyns, that they're flunking history class. When Bill's father learns of this, he threatens to send his son to military school in Alaska unless he turns things around. They're stumped about how to do this, until they encounter angel Rufus (George Carlin) and his time-travelling phone box. With Rufus' encouragement, these two adolescent doofuses now traverse back through time and space to meet some of history's most significant figures and bring them together for a history project that will hopefully help them make the grade.

Following on the heels of 1985's biggest hit Back to the Future, 1989's Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure puts more emphasis on its protagonists' slacker lifestyles and cuts its own entertaining voice by deliberately straying from the time- and space travel laws of more traditional science fiction like that classic, which combined an adherence to them with a genuinely witty and energetic narrative approach. This, however, has its heroes meet Abraham Lincoln, Joan of Arc, Socrates, Genghis Khan, Napoleon Bonaparte, Ludwig van Beethoven, Sigmund Freud and Billy the Kid as it swings back and forth through history. Working from Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon's hilarious and hip screenplay, Stephen Herek (who later made The Mighty Ducks among other things), directs it happily with a complete lack of self-consciousness but nonetheless firmly grips the character relationships for more resonance. Reeves, before he stopped a bus from exploding in Speed and dodged bullets in The Matrix, and Winter, who went practically nowhere despite having more expression than Reeves (although, who doesn't?), make this into a bromance with genuine chemistry and affection, but for me the cast's MVP is Aussie Terry Camilleri, whose Napoleon is all the more entertaining as he grows more and more imperious but bumbling. Keep an eye out also for Bruce Springsteen's former saxophonist, the late, great Clarence Clemons in a very brief cameo.

Obviously, Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure is unlikely to appear in any History class viewing syllabus, or even on any list of SF purists' time travel flicks. But that's because it was always meant to defy the conventions of both those categories, and it does so hysterically and without feeling like it was trying to. It is, as the boys would say, most triumphant.