by GREG KING
The Revelation Film Festival screens in Perth from and is designed to showcase ideas at point in contemporary independent film and find a place for them in a conservative cinema and social context.
The opening night film on July 3 is Jonathan Glazer’s eerie sci-fi drama Under The Skin, starring Scarlett Johansson.
The 2014 line up features dramas, documentaries, 6 Iranian films, and the animation showcase. This year, the festival features 116 films, eight world and international premieres and 35 Australian premieres and offers the most star-studded line-up in the event’s 17-year history, with the likes of Nicolas Cage delivering one of his best performances in years in the drama Joe; Tom Hardy stars in the thriller Locke, while Dexter‘s Michael C Hall, Sam Shepard and Don Johnson star in Cold In July, and there is a special 40th anniversary screening of a restored version of Tobe Hooper’s 1974 horror classic The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
Among the special events in the program is the Sight/Unseen live multimedia presentation to be performed by legendary guitarist and Sonic Youth co-founder Lee Ranaldo and artist Leah Singer.
The Perth Revelation International Film Festival is on from July 3-13 at Luna Leederville and other venues. Details: lunapalace.com.au or revelationfilmfest.org
To fins out more about the 2014 Revelation Film Festival, Greg King spoke to the festival’s artistic director Jack Sergeant for his Movies At Dusk program on 3WBC 94.1FM
To hear the interview, click on the link below:
https://www.mediafire.com/listen/5lyb966nmz4r078/190606_001.MP3
REVIEWS
ALL REVIEWS BY GREG KING
LAST UPDATED JUNE 22, 2014.
PALO ALTO.
The Coppolas are obviously an extremely talented family, with three generations of Oscar winners, and a younger generation of emerging filmmakers leaving their mark behind the camera. The latest exciting young filmmaker to make her directorial debut is Gia Coppola, the grand daughter of Francis Ford Coppola. She draws upon her background as a photographer to give this melancholy, sad and bleak look at troubled adolescence an almost documentary-like realism and gritty atmosphere of authenticity. Films looking at the disaffection of adolescents is almost a staple of American independent cinema, and this film dissecting the empty lives of troubled, bored teenagers trying to find their place in life ranks up there with the likes of Fast Times At Ridgemont High and the films of John Hughes. Palo Alto is based on the book written by actor James Franco, and unfolds in a series of vignettes that explore the troubled lives of three teenagers who live in the upmarket Californian suburb. But money doesn’t buy happiness. Teddy (played by Val Kilmer’s son Jack, making his film debut) is a naive, fairly decent kid, but he is often led into trouble by his best friend the rebellious, hard partying and self-destructive Fred (Nat Wolff, from the weepie The Fault In Our Stars, etc). Teddy is attracted to the virginal April (Emma Roberts), but she is becoming aware of her blossoming sexuality and is drawn into a dangerous flirtation with her handsome but predatory teacher and soccer coach Mr B (Franco himself). Palo Alto offers a disturbing exploration of the crumbling friendship between Teddy and Fred, who grows increasingly cruel. Coppola demonstrates an empathy for Teddy, and makes us care about these characters as they stumble through some bad choices. This is an insightful and thoughtful drama, and Coppola gets some good performances from her youthful cast. While the teens here are depicted as deeply troubled, experimenting with sex and drugs and alcohol and dangerous behaviour, the adults are also depicted as flawed.
