Why I love The Lord of the Rings.

Everybody makes public faux pas. Even private ones, for that matter. I understand. I do. But they're often harder to avoid, as you may know, when you're on the autism spectrum. Now, I know not to use that to excuse myself, but I do think doing so is a valid way of explaining myself.

Recently I've repeatedly met up with a certain friend at his place, and we've found ourselves frequently upsetting each other through both my social difficulties and his (by his own admission problematic) temper. This week after another such incident, he told me he was disappointed in how I seemingly regress even after we resolve every preceding one. Obviously, I wish this weren't so but I have noticed how much it can be. Whether it's from my mental wiring or my upbringing or if I've just become set in my ways after having lived more or less alone since 2013, I can't precisely say. But I am not saying that's true just to placate anybody.

My social mistakes, at least in this context, very often differ, too, which obviously trips me up further and so, from them I can feel like I just can't win, although that usually passes before long. But the feeling still hits me nonetheless.

But I digress. I assure you all, he and I have the sort of relationship where we always manage to forgive and educate each other. Don't worry about us; I'm writing this entry just for my own sake. He and I now have arranged to have a private break from each other, excluding the public project we're both working on. To all of you, though, I say this: I know from this friendship of mine that being friends (or family) with an autistic person can be very challenging, but I promise you we can show you unconditional love, loyalty and respect. Such a relationship can be worth it mutually.

P.S. I'm sorry for the fake, misleading title; that was lest my friend sees this blog (he hates The Lord of the Rings, but I do love it).

Something Cult, Foreign-Language or Indie #176: A Birder's Guide to Everything (2013).

On the eve of his estranged father's (James LeGros) re-marriage, teenage birding devotee David Portnoy (Australia's Kodi Smit-McPhee) thinks he's made a significant discovery: the existence of the apparently extinct North American Labrador duck. Now after telling his mates and fellow school birding club members Timmy (Alex Wolff) and Peter (Michael Chen), David suggests they go on a hiking trip into the local wilderness to try to find it. Despite Timmy's and Peter's initial skepticism, the threesome set off on their journey (with the blessing of Ben Kingsley as teacher Lawrence Konrad) but of course, in the best coming-of-age movie tradition, alongside birds they also come to confront buried conflicts and home truths, particularly when female company surfaces in the form of classmates Ellen (Katie Chang) and Evelyn (Zandi Holup).

On paper this sounded thoroughly unappealing to me as a 31-year-old with virtually no interest in ornithology, but it charmed my socks off. With that said, you obviously needn't be a birder to enjoy it. Director Rob Meyer adapted it from his earlier short film Aquarium, and he co-wrote the screenplay with Luke Matheny, who won a 2010 Oscar for his own short God of Love, and despite its premise there's ultimately nothing esoteric, and little cliched, about A Birder's Guide to Everything. Meyer and Matheny flesh this narrative out with conscious clarity and patience, and Meyer visualises and paces it with intimacy, mounting energy and a drive to evoke the featured natural landscapes. He also elicits equally natural, and dedicated, performances from all his young cast (although Kingsley could've played his role in a coma), and invokes rich cinematography and scoring to further enhance the effect.

A Birder's Guide to Everything is like Stand by Me meets Into the Wild, but just on its own merits, it easily takes flight.

Something Cult, Foreign-Language or Indie #175: Capernaum (2018).

12-year-old Zain (Zain Al Rafeea), formerly from the slums of Beirut, Lebanon, is in juvenile prison for five years for a stabbing. Nobody knows his exact date of birth because his parents never received a birth certificate. Sick of his whole predicament, Zain decades to take his parents (Zawthar Al Haddad and Fadi Kamel Youssef) to court for having and then neglecting him. As the trial starts, we then see, in flashback, just what his family situation was like only seven months beforehand: he was having to help raise his seven younger siblings who are all involved in various money-making schemes (chiefly involving drugs) instead of attending school, and he also works as a delivery boy for the family's landlord Assad (Nour el Husseini). Assad also about to become husband to Zain's 11-year-old sister Sahar (Cedra Izam), after her parents learn she can now fall pregnant because she's had her first period (something Zain failed to help her conceal). Infuriated about this, Zain then ran away from home and commits the stabbing.

This Oscar-nominated effort by Lebanese writer-director Nadine Labaki became the most lucrative Middle-Eastern film in history and received a 15-minute standing ovation at Cannes in 2018. I don't think it's nearly that impressive but even so, it engaged and stimulated me throughout. Capernaum, named for the city in Galilee that Jesus condemned for refusing to repent for its sins after He performed a miracle there, does what all dramatic non-English movies should do: provide a clear and insightful peek into life in an entirely different culture to your own, while still showing flickers of globally familiar things. Labaki's Beirut is rife with Islamic motifs and traditions but also hallmarks of Western culture, and of course devastating poverty. Her direction very lucidly and sympathetically sorts through this mess of a cultural melting pot to find and then focus on the human beings inhabiting it, and the screenplay very refreshingly makes these very damaged children talk and act very maturely; there's a great deal of swearing here. Al Rafeea was an illiterate, untrained performer before being cast here (the character was named for him) and yet he expresses just the right determined yet vulnerable and disaffected attitude in each scene to let the viewer connect with his delinquent character. All his co-stars hold their own, but he's the one who shines most. Capernaum is a very compelling snapshot of modern Lebanon, and a welcome and conscious contrast to views of the Middle East we're so often given in the media.

My top 10 films of 2019!

10-1.

In this DC origin story, director/co-writer Todd Phillips explores how struggling Arthur Fleck (a sensational Joaquin Phoenix) goes from a struggling party clown and stand-up comic living with his loving but deranged mother Penny (Frances Conroy) to the iconic Clown Prince of Crime. While I personally wouldn't have given it quite so many Oscar nominations, Joker still exudes real menace and tension, with a fitting anarchist streak and it also works as an insightful exploration of mental illness.

Ending the sequels with bang galore, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker has two scenes that feel jarringly reminiscent of ones in The Empire Strikes Back. Nonetheless, director J.J. Abrams, returning after handing The Last Jedi to Rian Johnson, stepped up again with an even harder job this time (he had to incorporate unused footage of Carrie Fisher from The Force Awakens into this one and make it fit visually and narratively), and made it into not necessary the best, but definitely the darkest and most emotional of the sequels.

This succulently funny and bloody Aussie horror comedy follows timid English butcher Norman (writer Jordan Waller) and his diva sister Annabelle (Kathryn Wilder) as they flee Brexit for the (luckily fictional) Outback town of Two Heads Creek where, upon getting to know the locals, they discover they might've been better off staying put. Waller and Australian director Jesse O'brien absolutely revel in satirising pariochial Australian rural culture and our relations with the UK, alongside placing nuanced and unusual yet relatable characters in the traps of ones who are just demonic. Two Heads Creek is a ferociously entertaining local comic shocker, but definitely not a good promotion for our tourism industry.

This lauded effort by South Korea's Bong Joon-ho focuses on two contemporary but disparate families: the dirt-poor Kim clan and the affluent Parks, who cross paths when the Kims manage to infiltrate the Park household by posing as educated professionals. I found Parasite to be quite strange, but genuinely amusing in parts and with an intelligently plotted screenplay which Bong visualises lucidly and the cast all inject with assurance and charisma. The crisp editing and photography also helps it effectively to culminate in a shockingly violent climax. Parasite is great as a social class satire and a snapshot of contemporary Korean life.

Here we have young bride-to-be Grace (Samara Weaving; Hugo's niece), who naturally thinks she's in for the happiest day of her life with her fiancee Alex Le Domas (Mark O'Brien). But unbeknownst to her, because an ashamed Alex hasn't told her about his family, Grace is way off the money there, for her new in-laws, whose vices range from alcohol to homicide, have much grislier plans for her: she will be the target in their murderous wedding night tradition, whether she is ready or not. Directors Matt Betinelli-Olin and Tyler Gillett, with writers Guy Busick and R. Christopher Murphy, flesh an unabashedly cynical and twisted treatment of marriage and family out into such a rollicking, misanthropic and genuinely suspenseful horror comedy that, quite frankly, it almost gave me an orgasm. If that subgenre is your thing you'll love it, and maybe just reconsider the brood you may be marrying into.

In this cinematic debut for DC's Captain Marvel, director David F. Sandberg (who previously made 2016's exceptional Lights Out) and writers Henry Gayden and Darren Lemke follow young foster tearaway Billy Batson (Asher Angel), who's desperate to find his birth mother, and is miserable despite his friendship with handicapped superhero fanatic Freddy (Jack Dylan Grazer)... until one day, when the wizard Shazam (Djimon Hounsou) magically summons Billy to become the new Captain Marvel (Zachary Levi). While this one utterly delivers on action, spectacle and laughs, I really loved it this much because of how sensitively and sincerely it explores Billy's fight to be accepted and to learn who he is; that spoke to me quite deeply, having once been a rather lost boy myself. Sandberg, Gayden and Lemke collectively also weave these themes into a tightly-plotted narrative visualised with dazzling effects and a pulsating score to match. Plus, the performances are all utterly convincing and unforced. Shazam! is like Stand by Me meets Superman, and it is an effortless blend of technical prowess and narrative power.

Mystify: Michael Hutchence is undoubtedly one of the most distinctive, impassioned, imaginative, thought-provoking and moving documentaries I have ever seen. Writer-director Richard Lowenstein, who's famous for his numerous music films including his 1987 documentary of the Australian Made concert tour, takes the life of the iconic, late Australian frontman and recreates it exclusively through exquisitely restored and arranged home movies by Hutchence himself, overlaid with new audio interviews with his inner circle and of course the INXS catalogue. This stylistic approach was absolutely transportive and captivating for me, and by the end it had haunted me to the point where I had trouble sleeping after seeing it. I would recommend it to truly anybody, INXS fan or not.

Amy (Kaitlyn Dever) and Molly (Beanie Feldstein) are best friends with one day left of high school. They're straight-A students whom the popular crowd shuns, but with graduation looming they both figure it's time to change that, so they decide to attend big-shot jock Nick's (Mason Gooding; Cuba Jr's son) end-of-school party across town. But they have no car and no clue of Nick's address, so as they now spend their entire night ambling around Los Angeles in search of this party and an image change, Amy (who's also a lesbian) and Molly must face numerous compromising situations, come to terms with their future plans and resolve some long-dormant conflicts with each other and their peers. That sounds like a very conventional premise but I assure you, as Booksmart unfolds it becomes a coming-of-age story that proves to be very brave, resonant, hilariously funny, unpredictable and deeply touching. I must admit, as the credits rolled even this male viewer was almost in tears. In her directorial debut Olivia Wilde covers these girls' impermanently intertwining lives as compassionately as she vibrantly navigates LA's nightlife, but she really outdoes herself with a mesmerising animated sequence with dolls on a bed. The screenplay by Susanna Fogelman, Emily Halpern, Sarah Haskins and Katie Silberman is rife with wise plotting and razor-sharp dialogue, and the two leads, particularly Feldstein, are very affecting and share convincing chemistry. I began just watching these girls on their journey but ultimately, I wanted to join them. Booksmart is all kinds of smart.

Now this is a very hard one to watch, or to review. But watching it simply pays dividends. The documentary (yes, two in the top five!) The Australian Dream is a shatteringly powerful chronicle of race relations in Australian history, from the dawn of European settlement to the present day, with two high-profile indigenous Australians, AFL player Adam Goodes and journalist Stan Grant, as our guides through it. The focal point, however, is the controversial incident when a young white girl at a game racially vilified Goodes, and he had her removed from the stadium in response. In centering their film around that moment, Goodes, Grant and director Daniel Gordon, manage to treat it and Goodes' subsequent behaviour as a thoroughly appropriate and convincing metaphor for the devastating fury and violence that racism often inspires. Like far too many before him, in this and most other countries, Goodes on that night was finally pushed over the edge and decided he would take no more. Watching this documentary as a white Australian, I really could not contain my emotions but that wasn't just from my ancestors' misdeeds. This also becomes an impactful meditation on two things just as universal as hatred: the desire for a sense of permanent identity and belonging. The Australian Dream probably isn't a film every Australian wants to see (and indeed it was a commercial flop here), but it is unquestionably one we all need to see.

Yet, if I am entirely honest, the most entertaining and impressive piece of cinema of 2019 for me, is a Third Reich satire. Ten-year-old Johannes "Jojo" Betzler (newcomer Roman Griffin Davis) is a committed member of the Hitler Youth, inhabiting Berlin near the end of WWII with his vivacious and clandestinely Resistance-supporting mother Rosie (Scarlett Johannson). His absent father is apparently serving in Italy but they've not heard from him in quite a while, and his elder sister Inge has died of influenza. Jojo is soon very shocked to learn his mother is hiding Jewish runaway Elsa Korr (Thomasin McKenzie) in their attic. As the war inevitably begins encircling his home even more and he gets to know Elsa, Jojo must now question his ideologies. But making that especially challenging is his imaginary friend, a buffoonish and petulant version of Adolf Hitler (writer-director Taika Waititi). Based on Christine Leunens' novel Caging Skies, Jojo Rabbit (the title comes from the nickname Jojo earns at his Hitler Youth training camp) is proving deeply polarising, and I think from the premise alone you can tell why. But while its tone is predominantly comedic, I completely doubt anybody would consider it anti-Semitic or pro-Nazi even if they didn't find it funny. Personally I laughed like hell, but what makes this so truly special is how it juggles its very brave and provocative (yet insightful) humour with an increasingly serious and sensitive coming-of-age theme which itself contains a very pointed but dignified plea for tolerance and peace. New Zealand's Waititi has taken the picaresque bildungsroman, the Holocaust film and the political satire and thrown them into one pot to make a movie that, while definitely not for all tastes, I would defy anybody to try and shake once they've seen it. He also draws outstanding and hysterical performances from his entire cast (including himself, as I said), with Griffin Davis being a significant child talent; there's also Sam Rockwell and Australia's Rebel Wilson as two of Jojo's training camp guards. Throw some stunning period design, cinematography and editing and very suitable German covers of the Beatles' I Want to Hold Your Hand and David Bowie's Heroes in, and Jojo Rabbit should be up for about twice the Oscars it's nominated for (6), and should win a swag of them (but I know it won't). To me, it's an instant classic.