A new Australian/New Zealand co-production that was made in New Zealand. All comments and collages by Johnny Moronic

Johnny’s remarks:

Went Up the Hill is a possession horror thriller when Jack (Dacre Montgomery) comes home for the funeral of the mother who gave him up. There’s a bit of tension with his arrival, particularly from his aunty Helen (Sarah Peirse), as he hasn’t been home since he was given up. Then he meets his mother’s partner Jill (Vicky Krieps) and a strange connection strikes up between them. At night Jill starts acting weird, seemingly possessed by the mother’s spirit. Jill wakes up without knowing what has happened but then as they go back to sleep, Jack becomes possessed by his mother and things get very weird. With each possession, the mother’s gives something for the both of them. For Jack, it’s finding out why his mother abandoned him and for Jill it’s one last taste of passion. But the mother’s old ways come back and she becomes malevolent towards the both of the them, causing harm both physically and emotionally and it soon becomes very dangerous for the both of them. A very strange, hard-to-pin-down movie that puts an interesting twist on the possession horror genre. It took quite a while for me to understand what was going on and it feels a bit incestuous before I realised that the mother was inhabiting both people. The movie is never not incredibly weird and does get quite ugly but this is a very intriguing entry into a fairly overstuffed genre. The movie does lay on thick ‘Jack and Jill went up the hill’ theme although

Johnny Moronic’s film clips are here.

I assume it’s Sassoust. It’s her character, but I suppose that doesn’t automatically mean it is she.

Defoe’s video

Her performances in Essex Boys and Croupier both finished in the top ten in our annual polls.

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Artistic, multi-generational drama from Germany. Original title: In Die Sonne Schauen (“Looking at the Sun”)

You probably have never heard of this art film. but many critics have declared it a masterpiece, possibly the greatest German film since Metropolis. It scores 95% at Rotten Tomatoes (no popcorn score yet, but it will be lower)

The Hollywood Reporter:

Schilinski doesn’t spare us all their pain and suffering, nor does she hide the joy and wonder they sometimes experience. Her brave girls carry their forebearers within them from one generation to the next, surging toward the future both damaged and victorious.

Variety:

No finer point of craft, performance or poetic nuance has been rushed or neglected.

New York Magazine:

It’s an astonishing work, twining together the lives of four generations of families with an intricacy and intimacy that feels like an act of psychic transmission.

Screen Daily:

A work of thrilling ambition realised by an assured directorial vision.

The Film Stage:

This highly experimental, deeply unsettling tale about the fates of women and their echoes down history plays like a psychosexual fever dream of epic scope. While it will confound and upset plenty, hardcore cinephiles can mark this down as their next film to obsess over.

Movie Brief:

A powerful reminder of what movies — and only movies — can do, Sound of Falling is, quite simply, the best film of the year.

As a lowbrow Philistine, I fast-forwarded to the knockers. I do love some art films, but there are just some phrases that get my finger firmly on the fast-forward button. For example, if a film is called a “tone poem,” or when a plot summary begins with “In rural Ireland in the 19th century …”

You just know nothing pleasant ever happened there.

In the reviews of this particular film “pain and suffering” and “deeply unsettling” were coupled with other reviews calling it “bleak,” always using those terms as positive attributes. Ouch. If I want to experience unremitting misery, I can call my ex-wife.

Based on the reactions of respected critics, it’s probably a great film, but it’s decidedly not my kind of great film. Even after seeing just a few minutes while fast-forwarding, I had to re-watch Porky’s to cleanse the palate.

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This is another spin-off in the Westeros universe, set about a century earlier than Game of Thrones. Ser Duncan the Tall was a humble hedge (landless) knight whose strength, bravery and good nature brought him into contact, and eventually in favor, with the powerful families. He was said to be 6’11”, although the actor playing him is much shorter than that. Previous revelations have indicated that he is an ancestor of the giantess Brienne of Tarth, who played a major role in Game of Thrones, although their specific blood tie has not been revealed.

The original 1998 print source is called The Hedge Knight, one of the Tales of Dunk and Egg, three novellas that were published together about a decade ago as A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. According to Wikipedia, The Hedge Knight was also issued as a six-part series of graphic novels.

The female nudity was disappointing – an insignificant character topless on her back for a second or two. I’m not even sure who this woman is. She has a line, so she’s probably credited. My best guess is Abigail O’Regan.

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En passant: “The House of Ashur” was not aired this week, for reasons unclear.

There isn’t any nudity, but I think you’re gonna like it anyway.

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