The expectation was for a Summer 2024 Blockbuster, the reality was a fizzle. There have been so much written about the failure to generate a barely noticeable Memorial Weekend debut of Furiosa, the latest Mad Max installment. After only collecting $31 million at the box office over the four-day weekend. One commentator after another has an opinion or analyses are still trending on the Internet. Why didn’t this critically lauded fifth work in the series connect?
Mad Max No. 5.
After the positive debut reception at the Cannes Film Festival, George Miller’s $165 million dystopian epic looked like a sure winner with a 90% Rotten Tomatoes score. No one knows what the public will like. Nine years after the release of Mad Max:Fury Road, director and writer Miller took the prequel route with a backstory to Charlie Theron’s Imperator Furiosa character. This is a no spoiler commentary. I have not watched the movie, but planning to get my ticket soon.
Blame
The world is a different place from 2015. Covid, wars on two fronts, perhaps there is audience fatigue on dark subject matter. Who can blame the public? At times, strolling through a news feed requires a Paxil.
Ticket goers, straining under inflation, are more cautious about shelling out twenty or thirty dollars for a movie based on a cinema cult property.
The window for theatrical release before on a streaming service has shortened. Viewers are deciding to wait to watch releases at home. IF and the Ryan Gosling comedy The Fall Guy had less than spectacular openings.
Top billed Ann Taylor-Joy is not the box office draw the industry many in the industry expected. The Miami native’s career could take a hit. Studios may no longer gamble on The Queen Gambit’s drawing eyeballs to movie houses. Meanwhile, co-star Chris Hemsworth will be fine wearing tights in another MCU flick.
As a fan of the Mel Gibson Mad Max Trilogy, I would have liked to a story based on the lone survivor theme. However, given the veteran action star’s age and in particular his well publicised anger management problems, the creative team sought a fresh story more in line with present day sensibilities.
The present media frenzy points to writing off the franchise. I give it a few years, then there will be a reboot with a new director and lead actor. The Mad Max Saga has only stalled, waiting for a refuel.
The big news from Cannes Film Festival 2024 is the return of 1970’s auteur Francis Coppola with MEGALOPOLIS. The American Born director’s first feature in thirteen years. Early notices about the $120 million production have not been positive with industry professionals calling the work “Challenging”. The all star sci-fi drama includes acting heavyweights Adam Driver, Dustin Hoffman and Giancarlo Esposito will need a big push to recover its costs. This is not the first time the five time Academy Award Winner has gotten bad news during early previews. APOCALYPSE NOW equally divided opinion
1979’s Apocalypse Now
makers in 1979. The Vietnam War drama in my opinion is a work of “Bombastic Pageantry” that at times try’s to numb you into believing it is a great film.
Can Francis get his mojo back at 85? On May 17th we will see.
Screened at the 2022 Tribeca Film Festival, the documentary The Story of Bones he recently hit the headlines of the British paper The Guardian. The feature debut from duo Joseph Curran and Dominic Aubrey de Vere is the story of a purposely hidden tragedy. The Transatlantic Slave Trade’s so called “Saviors” were not as benevolent as they appeared. On St. Helena, Annina Van Neel uncovers the island’s role in an injustice involving “freed human cargo”.
Every father and son relationship is different. The “Ward Cleaver” image from 50’s American TV was a work of the Perfect Eisenhower era fiction. Father’s can show their love, sometimes in imperfect ways. TWO FOR THE RODE from Lochlainn McKenna is an award-winning short film about a parent and childhood bound manifesting itself in some irregular child rearing scenarios.
A Black and Paper interview with filmmaker Lochlainn McKenna.
The opening scene/shot sets the tone for the film and relationship, why did you choose this for the opening scene?
I used to spend the weekends driving all over Ireland with my Dad! I was in every county before I was 10. Ireland’s not a very big country but sometimes those drives might be 4 or 5 hours. He would pick me up on a Friday evening and then drive late into the night and stop somewhere secluded for us to sleep before morning. For me it made sense for the film to start on Saturday morning. I wanted the audience to wonder where this child was? Why is he asleep in a car? Who’s he with? It adds a sense of jeopardy to the story before we establish the narrative of the story.
A Weekend
Steve Wall and Ewin Morris as a father and son on a weekend road trip.
What was the writing process like? Do you have any personal ties to the story line?
I wrote the original story ‘Guinness & Coke’ during the pandemic and that laid the foundations for the screenplay. It’s all based on my own childhood. There was certainly a lot of thought that went into the characters and the scenes and actions. I try to be as detail specific as possible in my filmmaking and I tried not to skimp on any details. The biggest difference between the short story and the film script is that, in the story, a lot of the dialogue is internal in Oscar’s head where as in the film there’s a lot more external dialogue. It was a case of using that external dialogue to better accentuate the narrative. That dialogue is necessary to push the story along.
Chaos, adventure, risking, experiencing life, I’m curious to know if this is how you would describe a weekend with your father?
I think you’ve hit the nail on the head. But there was also a lot of consistency, care, curiosity and companionship. Our weekends were always very physical. We were always doing. Whether that was exploring the countryside looking for old Celtic ruins or chasing thunderstorms… sometimes we’d traverse the coast looking for spider crabs. Other weekends we might be breaking rocks open looking for fossils. Some weekends we would play pool and go to the pub… sometimes motorbike rallies or airplane shows or go to the fair. It was very varied. There was a lot of camping.
Love does not come in a Perfect Box
Steve Wall as Hugh
There is the dynamic of the relationship switching to the son being the adult, looking after his father. Do you think the viewer has less sympathy for the father? My first thought was “Get that kid away from him”.
It’s always been my intention to make sure the father character isn’t vilified. I want the viewer to come out of the film feeling kinda conflicted. We should feel sympathy for the boy but also understand that the father is trying his best, despite wrestling with his own demons. There’s a lot of love between them, despite the obvious complexities. Naturally though, I think depending on people’s personal circumstances and their own relationships with their own parents or children, you’re going to have a strong reaction to it, right? And I think it’s great that you felt that strong a reaction. I don’t think anyone is watching the film and thinking, “ah, that’s fine, good for them”. But I think it’s a sliding scale as to how bad it all is really and I think that grey area is what makes the film intriguing.
How did you work with Eoin on the shooting style?
Eoin McLoughlin did such an outstanding job on this film, honestly. It just makes me so happy every time I watch it back, it’s exactly what I had hoped it would be. I always wanted the film to look and feel like a 90s memory. So the decision to shoot on 16mm was pretty much set from the outset. A big reference for me was Lynn Ramsey’s short film Gasman. There are these scenes in the pub where they use long lenses to pick off really natural moments of action which I just really loved and wanted to emulate. In general the thinking behind our approach was that whenever Oscar is feeling free and having fun we’re on long lenses. The camera is hand held, moving, roaming. When things get serious or dangerous for him, the camera is locked off, very static, very sharp and generally very wide.
Are you planning on making a feature film on the same subject?
I am! I’m currently writing a book which will be based on a number of other weekends with my Dad across a number of years. I’m hoping this anthology of stories will be the basis for the feature film script in due course.
TWO FOR THE ROAD has qualified for the 2023 Academy Awards Best Live Action Short.
Chat Cinema talks to director Turan Haste about his Oscar Qualifying short film THE MOISTURE. The Venice Film Festival entry is a story of challenging relationships for a teacher in a remote Turkish village.
The Chat Cinema Podcast talks to Director Mike Donahue about his Academy Awards 2023 qualifying short live action film. Mike’s film TROY is the story of an intimate relationship, albeit, one sided through a thin wall. Tea and Charlie live in a New York City apartment next to fellow tenant Troy, a man with a “busy” urban life.
For this episode of Chat Cinema we talk to film maker Ahmad Alyaseer about acceptance even in death. His acclaimed, winning 102 prizes so far, short film OUR MALES AND FEMALES has qualified for the 2024 Academy Award.
The Hollywood Strikes are over. Awards Season has started. New episodes of Chat Cinema Podcast are in the pipeline with global filmmakers who may make the final cut for the Oscars this year.
African stories are front and center from a Guardian story on untapped stories from the continent. African filmmakers have had success on the film festival circuit, now thanks to Netflix and other streaming services, there is wider distribution of works by Africa’s cinema creative community reaching global audiences.
