This week was all about the Audi Dublin International Film Festival (ADIFF), which is an annual event consisting of screenings of movies from all over the world. It’s usually a very difficult task to pick a few movies because all of them seem so good but I do restrict myself to two or three. This week, I watched two European movies as part of the ADIFF, and one from the Oscar list at home.
I, Tonya (English)
I like sports movies. You know the outcome but there is some energy, and most often an underdog element, in these movies that I enjoy. I like cheering for the odd player, the one whose talent is not recognized, or the one who is weak or not fit enough to play that particular sport.
In I, Tonya, however, there are no underdogs. It’s about Tonya Harding, the girl who briefly lit the ice-skating world ablaze with her immense talent. Tonya (Margot Robbie) is obsessed with ice-skating ever since the tender age of 4, and her mother, a waitress, scrimps and saves to ensure she gets coached well. Tonya goes on to not only perform well but also become the first American woman to perform the difficult triple axel maneouvre effortlessly.
It becomes doubly impressive when we see Tonya as a plucky kid who has to put up with her mother’s mostly emotional abuse.
I made you a champion, knowing you’d hate me for it. That’s the sacrifice a mother makes! I wish I’d had a mother like me instead of nice. Nice gets you shit! I didn’t like my mother either, so what? I fucking gave you a gift!
Later, Tonya gets married to Jeff, and becomes the victim of physical abuse. Through it all, it’s skating that Tonya turns to. She skates her way into Olympic glory, and that’s when “the incident” with Nancy Kerrigan all but puts a stop to her skating career. She quit skating and went on to become a professional boxer for a short while, which also came to an end due to physical problems. Today, the real Tonya Harding lives largely unknown, unheard of, making a living doing odd jobs like welding, painting, and deck building.
I was loved for a minute, then I was hated. Then I was just a punch line.
That’s how Tonya poignantly defines herself in the movie, most of which stays true to Tonya’s life. Shot in the mockumentary format, I, Tonya is laced with dark humour, and irony with a fine balance of heartbreak, and the disturbing portrayal of abuse. Makes it a gripping and satisfying watch.
Margot Robbie (The Wolf of Wall Street) is just 27 years old but puts up a very mature, and simply outstanding portrayal of Tonya as the rough and tough woman with determination in her eyes. She completely deserves her Oscar nomination for this role, and the film crew deserves an applause for pulling off those amazingly detailed shots of the triple axel jump with combination of experienced skaters, Robbie herself, and special FX.
Rating: 5/5
In the Fade (German)
The subject of neo-Nazis, although not new, doesn’t stop being relevant because they continue to exist even today. In the Fade is the story of how neo-Nazis tear a family apart with mindless violence. Katja (Diane Kruger) returns home in the evening to find that her husband and six-year-old son have been killed in a bomb blast. When she discovers that it was perpetrated by neo-Nazis, she becomes restless until she gets her revenge.
In the Fade is about Katja’s fight for justice on one hand, and her battle against her own disintegration caused by the pain of loss. But somehow there were some elements that that were missing that just didn’t make the film forceful enough. We barely get to know Katja’s husband except that he was in prison for dealing drugs but he has turned over a new leaf and is happy with his family now. There are grey areas that linger. Who are the two men who are in his shop when Katja comes to meet him in the morning? Was he still in touch with his old dealer friends? We don’t get straight answers to these, which makes it difficult for us to decide if he really is the victim of racism or his past.
Diane Kruger (Troy, Inglorious Basterds) was good as the wronged mother and wife boiling with rage one instant and dissolving in resignation the next. But apart from that, I would suggest watching American History X, which is a much more forceful movie and more satisfying watch.
Rating: 3/5
Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts (Indonesian)
I think this is the first Indonesian movie I have seen, and unfortunately it wasn’t the best experience for me. Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts is the story of Marlina (Marsha Timothy), a widow in a small village, whose house is taken over by a gang of robbers. They threaten to rape her, and make away with her livestock and other valuables. But before that they need dinner. Marlina manages to kill most of them by poisoning their food but she is forced to cut the head off the leader who tries to rape her.
The movie felt like an absurdist Western where Marlina rides a horse with the head of the murdered man hanging on her side. I thought that was subtly subversive. She had the bounty, not the men. There is also plenty of surrealism – Marlina’s husband’s mummified body propped up in a corner of her hut in accordance to Torajan rituals in a remote part of Indonesia, the headless body of the robber playing his stringed instrument and following Marlina everywhere.
But theme of triumphant feminism apart, I struggled to understand what this movie wanted to convey. The visuals were gorgeous, and beautifully shot. However, they stand as just that – beautiful photography. I am still puzzling over where they all add up together to make a meaningful movie.
Rating: 2.5/5
