LITTLE WOMEN : Thursday 6th February 2020.

I saw the G Rated 'LITTLE WOMEN' at the Open Air cinema at Mrs. Macquarie's Point in Sydney last week and this American coming-of-age period drama film is written for the screen and Directed by Actress, Screenwriter and now second time film maker following 2017's highly acclaimed 'Lady Bird', Greta Gerwig. This is the eighth big screen adaptation of the 1868 novel of the same name by Louisa May Alcott. The film cost US$40M to produce, has so far grossed US$177M, was released in the US on Christmas Day, and has garnered universal acclaim from Critics. The film has so far picked up 67 award wins and a further 177 nominations from around the awards and festivals circuit including Six Academy Award nods, two Golden Globe nominations, and a BAFTA win and four other nominations.

The film opens up in 1868 and we see Jo March (Saoirse Ronan) as a New York teacher and budding writer. She visits Mr. Dashwood (Tracy Letts) and presents him with an article she has written that she is looking to have published in his magazine. Mr. Dashwood scans the article and agrees to publish her work but not until Jo has done some considerable editing to the piece to make it more reader friendly. He pays her US$25, and Jo leaves very happy.

Her sister Amy (Florence Pugh), is in Paris with their Aunt March (Meryl Streep), and notices childhood friend Laurie (Timothee Chalamet) one day walking through a park. She invites him to a party. At the party, she becomes angry over Laurie's drunken behaviour and he scolds her in front of all the other invited guests for spending time with wealthy businessman, Fred Vaughn (Dash Barber).

In New York, Jo meets with Friedrich Bhaer (Louis Garrel), a professor infatuated with her. Jo asks Friedrich to critique her work and when he offers constructive criticism Jo takes it personally and ends their friendship. Following this, Jo receives a letter saying that her younger sister Beth (Eliza Scanlen) has become more sick, and so she returns home to be at her side and help nurse her back to health.

We then go back to 1861 in Concord, Massachusetts, and Jo and her older sister Meg (Emma Watson) go to a party where Jo meets Laurie, the grandson of their neighbour Mr. Laurence (Chris Cooper). On Christmas morning, their mother 'Marmee' (Laura Dern) persuades the girls to give their lavish breakfast to their poor neighbour, Mrs. Hummel and her four starving young children. They do so, albeit somewhat reluctantly, and when they return to their own home, the girls see their table full of food, provided by Mr. Laurence, together with a letter from their father fighting in the American Civil War, saying, amongst other things, how he misses his four 'little women'.

Jo later visits their Aunt March, who invites Jo to travel to Europe with her on an extended stay. One evening Meg, Jo, Laurie and John Brooke (James Norton), Laurie's tutor and Meg's eventual husband, go out to the theatre, leaving a jealous Amy behind at home. Jo hides the manuscript of a novel she has been working on in her bedroom in a chest of drawers. An angry Amy go searching for the manuscript, finds it and burns it out of spite, upsetting Jo when she discovers it missing. The pair get into a fight after Amy admits burning it, which is quickly broken up by their sisters and mother. Amy attempts to apologise but Jo will have none of it. The next day Amy, wanting to make amends with Jo, chases her onto a frozen over lake where Jo and Laurie are ice skating. The two skate over to rescue Amy when the ice breaks below her feet and she falls into the frozen water. That night, Jo expresses guilt to her mother over what happened to Amy.

We then fast forward back to 1868 and Laurie visits Amy to apologise for his behaviour at the party. Subsequently he urges Amy not to marry Fred Vaughn, but to marry him instead. Amy is upset at playing second fiddle to Jo for just about everything, including Laurie. Amy later turns down Fred's proposal only to learn that Laurie has left for London.

Back in the past, Marmee, is informed by letter that her husband and the girls father is ill from the effects of the Civil War. She reluctantly visits their father, for fear of leaving the four girls to fend for themselves. Beth is given the piano from Mr. Laurence, as her playing reminds him of her dead daughter, and he cannot abide to see the piano at which she used to play go to waste. Beth soon afterwards contracts scarlet fever. Amy, who has not had the disease before, is sent to stay with Aunt March. Marmee comes home early when Beth gets worse, but she recovers in time for Christmas, with their father (Bob Odenkirk) returning home too, surprising the girls. However, in the present, Beth's condition starts to deteriorate, and she dies.

On Meg's wedding day Jo tries to convince her to run away, and not proceed with the wedding, but Meg tells her she is happy getting married, opting for a life of security, stability and the love of a good man. Aunt March announces her trip to Europe, but decides to take Amy instead of Jo. After the wedding, Laurie opens up about his feelings for Jo, but she insists she does not feel the same way, and that their marriage would never work.

Soon afterwards Jo begins to wonder if she was too quick in turning Laurie down and writes him a letter, expressing her change of heart. On their way back from Europe with a sick Aunt March, Amy tells Laurie she turned down Fred's proposal of marriage. The two kiss and soon after marry on the journey home. Returning home, Laurie catches up with Jo and breaks the news. Jo is inwardly devastated but outwardly as stoic as ever, and they agree to just be friends. Jo returns to the letterbox and retrieves the letter she wrote for Laurie, tears it up and tosses it into the stream beside the house.

The next day, Jo starts work on a novel based on the lives of her and her sisters. She dispatches the initial chapters to Mr. Dashwood, who is seemingly unimpressed. Bhaer turns up at the March house to bid the family and Jo in particular farewell, as he is on his way to California to teach. Mr. Dashwood in the meantime has agreed to publish her book, but finds it unacceptable that the main character was unmarried. Jo amends her ending so that the main character, herself, chases after Bhaer in the rain and catches up with him at the Concord railway station, and stops him from going to California. She successfully negotiates copyright and royalties with Mr. Dashwood.

Later, after the death of Aunt March, Jo inherits her house and decides to open it as a school. Meg teaches acting and Amy teaches art to the young schoolchildren. Bhaer is also seen to be teaching children. Jo looks on at a printing and binding press as printers run off the first editions of her book, titled 'Little Women'.

It's easy to see why and how Great Gerwig's adaptation of the classic 'Little Women' novel has garnered such widespread critical acclaim. The production values are top notch from the horse drawn carriages, the grand piano's, the wide skirts and dresses and the detail in the homes of that era to the outstanding performances of the principle cast noting especially Ronan, Pugh and Chalamet, with honourable mentions going to Dern, Streep, Cooper and Letts also in the limited screen time they do have, but which make their performances no less effective. And the story is handled with a deft touch by Gerwig whose modern interpretation of the timeless classic presents us with an up to date coming of age story, female empowerment, endearing sisterhood and the power of a tight knit family unit, all wrapped up in a period piece set some 150 years ago. Despite all these positives and those thrust upon the film from Critics the world over, I found the time shifting premise of the film a little confusing and irritating, not knowing if I was watching a scene from 1861/2 or 1868/9 at times. That said, if you are able to get over this, then this is a smart, modern and creative retelling of a nostalgic period in American (fictional) history, that should easily delight the young and old, both the female and male audience, and those familiar with the source material, or those viewing for the first time.

'Little Women' warrants four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard out of a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

FORD V. FERRARI : Tuesday 19th November 2019.

'FORD v FERRARI' is an M-Rated American biographical drama film which I saw earlier this week, and is Directed and Co-Produced by James Mangold, whose previous film making credits include 'Cop Land', 'Girl, Interrupted', 'Walk the Line', '3:10 to Yuma', 'Knight and Day', 'The Wolverine' and 'Logan'. In early stages of development, Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt were cast in the starring roles, but those plans fell through, paving the way for Matt Damon and Christian Bale to take on the two leads. The film cost US$98M to make, was released in the US last week too having seen its World Premier showing at Telluride in late August, then at TIFF in September, has garnered widespread Critical acclaim, and has so far recouped US$63M of its initial budget outlay.

The film opens up with Carroll Shelby (Matt Damon) competing in, and ultimately winning the 1959 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race when he co-drove the Aston Martin DBR1 beating out fierce rivals Ferrari. Due to an emerging heart condition that made it riskier for him to race, Shelby retires from racing following his Le Mans victory but kept his motivation very much alive to beat the Ferrari's, who had previously turned him down for a driving position. We then fast forward four years to 1963, and  the Ford Motor Company Vice President Lee Iacocca (Jon Bernthal) proposes to Henry Ford II (Tracy Letts) to purchase the cash-strapped Ferrari as a means to boost their flagging car sales by participating in the 24 Hours of Le Mans race in order to attract the emerging younger more affluent customer demographic. On a trip to Maranello in Italy - the Ferrari HQ, Enzo Ferrari (Remo Girone), turns his back on the deal, as Fiat counter offers him a much more attractive deal that allows him to retain his ownership of his racing team and pride and joy, Scuderia Ferrari.

Enzo Ferrari insults Henry Ford II and puts a slur on him personally and his company, which Iacocca takes back to Detroit and recounts to Fords face. As a result of this, a furious Ford II orders his racing division to build a car to defeat Ferrari at Le Mans. For this project, Iacocca hires Shelby American owner Carroll Shelby, who at first is very reluctant and sceptical, but when told by Iacocca that money is no object, he relents. In turn, Shelby enlists the help of Ken Miles (Christian Bale), a hot-tempered and highly opinionated British racing car driver and cash strapped motor mechanic relocated to southern California from his native Birmingham in England, with his wife Mollie (Catriona Balfe) and young son Peter (Noah Jupe).

Miles is also very sceptical of Ford's intentions at first and takes some convincing by Shelby to come on board, but eventually does so, with the promise of US$200 a day plus expenses as an inducement - much needed under his dire financial circumstances at the time, with the IRS having recently repossessed his mechanical workshop.

Shelby and Miles test drive the Ford GT40 Mk I prototype at Los Angeles International Airport, putting the new vehicle through its paces and one by one ironing out all of its design flaws until it is race ready. Deeming that Miles is not their ideal driver on the grounds of his outspokenness and unpredictability to mouth off, Ford opts to send Phil Hill and Bruce McLaren to the 1964 Le Mans race instead, who are much better versed in the marketing and PR protocols likened by Ford. As predicted by Miles, none of the Fords finish the race. Shelby is summonsed by Henry II who sees this result as a humiliating defeat. However, Shelby explains to him that the GT40 instilled fear in Ferrari, as it reached a record breaking 218 mph on the Mulsanne straight before it broke down.

Shelby and Miles continue working on the development of the GT40 Mk II, but Miles is nearly killed when the car's brakes fail during testing. In 1966, Ford Senior Vice President Leo Beebe (Josh Lucas) takes over the racing division, with the intent to continue the program without Miles.

On a trip out to Shelby's HQ to see for himself where his US$9M race car investment is being spent, Shelby gives Henry II a ride in the car around the test track at top speed. Henry II has never experienced anything like this before, and is an emotional wreck when Shelby brings the car to an abrupt halt. To make Henry II see sense, he bets his own company, Shelby American, on the line to convince him that if Miles wins the 24 Hours of Daytona race, then he will be granted to race at Le Mans later in the year.

Shelby American enters Daytona with Miles behind the wheel. Beebe puts a second Ford team in the race with a proven NASCAR crew supporting them in the pits. While the second team has quicker pit stops, Shelby has Miles push his car's limit to 7,000 RPM, which sees him winning the race, much to the chagrin of Beebe, and the tongue in cheek disappointment of Henry II for not winning Shelby American.

And so the 1966 Le Mans race day arrives. During the opening lap Miles has problems with his door, which won't close and so pits at the end of the first lap, and so team engineer Phil Remington (Ray McKinnon) fixes the door with a mallet. Thereafter, Miles begins to set lap records while catching up with the Ferrari's. While racing with Ferrari driver Lorenzo Bandini (Francesco Bauco), Miles experiences brake failure and has his whole brake system replaced during his pit stop. Enzo Ferrari protests the move, but Shelby convinces the race officials that there is nothing written in the race rule book that says a team cannot replace the whole brake system, at which point the official backs down.

Miles and Bandini once again battle it out on the Mulsanne Straight until Bandini blows his engine, completely eliminating Ferrari in the race. About 21 hours into the race, Miles has driven convincingly amassing a significant lead, leaving three Ford teams in the top-three positions. Beebe hits upon an idea and orders Shelby to have Miles slow down for the other two Fords to catch up with him and provide the press with a three-car photo finish. Miles is initially against this decision, continuing to set new lap records towards the end of the race, but decides to let Ford have their way on the final lap. 

The French race officials, after initially agreeing to Ford's dead-heat 'photo-finish', reneged after the fact, stating that as the McLaren/Amon #2 car had started some 20 yards behind the Miles/Hulme #1 car, it had travelled a farther distance, and as such Bruce McLaren and Chris Amon were declared the winners on a technicality, with Miles and Hulme being awarded second place. Miles is however, graceful in his defeat and grateful to Shelby for giving him the chance to race at Le Mans.

Two months after Le Mans and following almost a day of testing the new model J-car at Riverside International Raceway in the blisteringly hot Southern California desert summer weather, Miles approached the end of the track's one mile, downhill back straight at a top speed of 200+ mph when the car suddenly looped, flipped, crashed and exploded in a ball of flame. The car broke into pieces and ejected Miles, killing him instantly. Miles was aged 47 when he died on August 17th 1966.

You don't have to be a petrol-head die hard fan of motor sport to like 'Ford v. Ferrari'. The film has a true story to tell, that Director Mangold keeps grounded in the truth and the facts surrounding these moments in motor sporting history that saw the true underdog of American motor manufacturing defeat the Italian Goliath's dominance on the race track over successive years. The pairing of Damon and Bale is well matched as two close friends who overcome adversity both on and off the race track, frustrations with the corporate establishment, numerous roadblocks and questionable decisions to ultimately win through yet pay the ultimate price in doing so. The story line is compelling, well scripted, the race sequences are very well realised, the performances strong and as an overall package it's a real crowd pleaser and a throw back to those films of yesteryear of a similar ilk - 1966's 'Grand Prix' and 1971's 'Le Mans' - in terms of spectacle and emotion, but updated with all the modern gloss that Hollywood can throw at it.

'Ford v. Ferrari' merits four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a potential five.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

LADY BIRD : Tuesday 20th February 2018.

'LADY BIRD' which I saw earlier last week is a highly praised and critically acclaimed film Written and Directed by Greta Gerwig in her first solo Directorial outing. Costing US$10M to make, the film received its World Premier at last September's Telluride Film Festival, and a week later received a standing ovation when it screened at TIFF. Going on general release in the US in early November, the film has so far taken US$53M at the Box Office, and went out on wide release in Australia and the UK just a couple of weeks ago. The film has so far garnered 83 award wins and a further 190 nominations including the pending Academy Awards for which it is up for five including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress. It won two Golden Globes, and was nominated for another two, and also gained three SAG Award nods, three BAFTA nods and five International AACTA nominations.

Set in Sacramento, California in 2002, the film tells the coming of age story of Christine 'Lady Bird' McPherson (Saoirse Ronan) who is studying in her last year at Catholic High School. She is seventeen years of age, lives with her parents Marion and Larry (Laurie Metcalfe and Tracy Letts respectively) in a relationship that is somewhat strained with her mother especially, as well as her adopted brother and his girlfriend. Lady Bird yearns to attend a University with culture and adventure somewhere other than Sacramento - ideally on the east coast, and anywhere but Sacramento. Her family is struggling financially - Marion works double shifts as a psychology nurse at the local Hospital to make ends meet, and Larry is unemployed from the IT industry and given his age is unlikely to find another role anytime soon. Marion's chastises Lady Bird as ungrateful for what she has, which creates a constant air of tension between mother and daughter.

Lady Birds best friend at school is Julie Steffans (Beanie Feldstein) and together they join the school theatre programme, and audition for a role each in a school musical production. They each secure a part, as does every other student who auditioned, and Lady Bird is attracted to the male lead Danny O'Neill (Lucas Hedges). Over time they grow fond off each other and begin dating. Danny comes from quite a well to do background and certainly more monied than her own family circumstances.

Lady Bird is invited to spend Thanksgiving Dinner with Danny's family, which attracts the ire of Marion. Sometime later, however, Lady Bird discovers Danny kissing another boy in a passionate embrace in a toilet cubicle, so ending their brief relationship.

At the insistence of her mother, Lady Bird scores a job at a local coffee shop, where she meets young musician and local boys High School student Kyle Scheible (Timothee Chalamet). Fairly soon the pair start dating, and Lady Bird and her bestie Julie begin to see less and less of each other and drift apart. Coinciding with this, Lady Bird befriends Jenna Walton (Odeya Rush) one of the more popular girls in school which will have something to do with her attractiveness, her maturity and her family's wealth. The pair hit it off after Jenna is reprimanded by Sister Sarah (Lois Smith) for wearing too short a skirt to school, and so the girls vandalise the Sisters car to get even.

Lady Bird then drops out of the school theatre production. One day while working at the coffee shop Danny enters and pulls up a seat. Lady Bird cannot look at him and so takes the garbage out the back to avoid any contact. Danny darts around the back and breaks down over his struggles to come out, pleading with Lady Bird not to tell anyone while she offers him a shoulder to cry on. Soon afterwards Lady Bird loses her virginity to Kyle, which ends thirty seconds later! Believing that he was also a virgin, because he said so, he then admits that he has slept with maybe six other girls, and that Lady Bird was not his first. This upsets her. Later in the bathroom at home in conversation with her mother, Lady Bird learns that her father has lost his job and has been fighting depression for a very long time and is on medication.

She begins the application process to numerous east-coast colleges. Her mother is insistent that they cannot afford the fees and the cost of tuition and that she should set her sights on a local college instead. In time after receiving several rejection letters, something positive comes through in the form of a wait list position at a New York college. Her Dad meanwhile helps out secretly with the financial aid applications. The night of the school Prom comes around and with Mum's help a dress is secured. Kyle is her date for the night and she is picked up by him with Jenna an her boyfriend too. Kyle and Jenna decide to give the Prom a miss and make for a party instead. Lady Bird states that she wants to go to the Prom and ask that she be dropped off a Julie's house. There Lady Bird and Julie make up their differences and together attend the Prom and have a blast.

On the day of her eighteenth birthday, her Dad wakes her up with a cup cake with a single candle planted in it. To celebrate her birthday, Lady Bird buys a packet of cigarettes, a lottery ticket and an edition of Playgirl magazine . . . because she now can! Soon afterwards she passes her driving test too, and then sets about redecorating her bedroom. Her mother then discovers that she has been applying to various east-coast colleges without her knowledge, but knowing full well that the family cannot afford it. Out of spite, Marion stops talking with her daughter, despite Lady Bird pleading for conversation and unequivocal apologies. She learns soon afterwards that she has gained a place at a New York college, and with the financial aid package, and some help from her father who has refinanced the house, is able to afford it.

On the day that Lady Bird flies off for the first time to attend college in New York, Marion refuses still to talk to her daughter. She drops off Lady Bird and Larry at the departure terminal and drives off, not even bidding her daughter good luck and farewell. In exiting the airport terminal and driving round the block tears of regret begin to well up in Marion who has a change of heart. She drives back to the departure terminal to be met by her husband, saying that their daughter has already left, and that she has missed her.

In New York Lady Bird unpacks her bags in her new dormitory accommodation. Her father has stashed several letters therein written by her mother to her daughter and then discarded, but salvaged by Larry. Lady Bird thoughtfully reads them all. She then gets involved in the social scene, gets drunk, wakes up in hospital, visits a Sunday church service, and then calls her parents and leaves a message for her mother saying how sorry she is and how much she loves her.

Greta Gerwig has here penned a sort of semi-autobiographical story that makes references to her growing up in Sacramento herself and some of the influences that have impacted upon her life. In doing so she has crafted an insightful warts and all look at the trials and tribulations of adolescence that propels 'Lady Bird' above the other coming of age genre fodder that we are all too often confronted with. The dialogue is grounded in a realism that keeps you invested in the characters and makes you believe what they are saying - it is sharply delivered, emotional, poignant, dramatic, funny and authentic and the wordplay between the characters never misses a beat. Saoirse Ronan delivers her third Academy Award nominated performance and its easy to see why, as she banters too and fro with her mother Laurie Metcalfe who is also up for an Oscar in a support role. Tracy Letts too gives an understated performance as the down trodden weary husband but well meaning and loving father in the all too brief scenes he shares with his family. This is a coming of age film of an ordinary girl, living in an ordinary city and with a fairly ordinary set of circumstances with the complexities of approaching adulthood and the roller coaster of emotions brought on by family, money, peer pressure, sex, school and wanting to follow your own path in life, that all combine to make this a far from ordinary package.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-