Walking is trending on Rialto Channel at the moment. Last week in Downhill, a bunch of middle age British men had mid life crisis’s walking the Wainwright's Coast to Coast Walk from St Bees in Cumbria to Robin Hood's Bay in North Yorkshire. This week, a disillusioned young woman takes to the unforgiving Australian outback in an attempt to understand her difficult upbringing and find the meaning of life. This stunning film is called Tracks, and it’s my first pick of the week.
Walking is trending on Rialto Channel at the moment. Last week in Downhill, a bunch of middle age British men had mid life crisis’s walking the Wainwright's Coast to Coast Walk from St Bees in Cumbria to Robin Hood's Bay in North Yorkshire. This week, a disillusioned young woman takes to the unforgiving Australian outback in an attempt to understand her difficult upbringing and find the meaning of life. This stunning film is called Tracks, and it’s my first pick of the week.
Tracks
Starring: Adam Driver, Mia Wasikowska, Emma Booth
Directed by: John Curran
Screening: Saturday 28th March, 8.30pm
The true story of Australian Robyn Davidson’s 1975 epic 2,700km trek across the Aussie desert from Alice Springs to the Indian Ocean, Tracks is a hypnotic journey, filled with expansive, richly coloured landscapes captured by cinematographer Mandy White. Director John Curran and actress Mia Wasikowska (Davidson) avoid romanticising this epic journey, instead giving us a feel for the real mental and physical challenges and dangers Davidson faced during her daunting six month trip. Worth seeing for the incredible sunsets and Wasikowska’s compelling performance.
Crystal Fairy
Starring: Michael Cera and Gaby Hoffman
Directed by: Sebastian Silva
Screening: Rialto World, Tuesday 24th March, 8.30pm
Michael Cera plays a total ass in this film and is excellent at it. A self absorbed American tourist traveling around Chile, Jamie (Cera) invites a crazy hippie Crystal Fairy (Gaby Hoffmann) to join him and his Chilean friends on an adventure to find and consume a rare hallucinogen - the famed San Pedro cactus. Directed by Sebastian Silva (The Maid), Crystal Fairy was shot on a shoestring budget while waiting to shoot another film staring Cera, Magic Magic (coming soon to Rialto Channel). The premise is simple, but the characters drive the narrative with their transformations. Simply shot and tightly edited, Crystal Fairy is a compelling and unpredictable film that manages to be both a drug movie, road trip flick and dramedy all at once.
Whitey: United States of America V. James J Bulger
Staring: Stephen Rakes, James 'Whitey' Bulger & Tommy Donahue
Directed by: Joe Berlinger
Screening: Rialto Documentary, Thursday 26th March, 8.30pm
Continuing the crime stories theme running through Rialto Documentary this month is the fascinating story of James J Bulger, the Irish American mobster who terrorized South Boston for thirty years, before going straight, and on the run for 16 years. Second on the FBI’s most wanted list after Osama Bin Laden, Bulger was finally captured in 2011 in California and was put on trial for racketeering, money laundering, extortion, and weapons charges, including his complicity in 19 murders. Oscar nominated director Joe Berlinger (Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory) does an exceptional job of accessing all side of this story, and his documentary reveals shocking new information which shifts the focus from Bulger’s crimes to the ineptitude of the FBI and Department of Justice. An interesting and unusual twist on this age-old mobster story.