Jumbo
8.20pm - Saturday, 3 July, 8.30pm - Saturday, 10 July (Luna Leederville)
Only the French could make a romance as strange and beguiling as this. Jeanne (Noémie Merchant) is a young introverted woman, still living in a small-town home with her extravert mum (Emmanuelle Bercot), and her miniature models. Jeanne is the janitor at the local amusement park, where the new attraction, a Tilt-A-Whirl carousel (also known as Round Up, depending on what country you live in), becomes, quite literally, Jeanne’s new attraction. She suffers (or enjoys, depending on who you empathise with) from objectophilia, or OS Objectum Sexuality, where a person becomes emotionally and sexually attracted to objects. Not necessarily inanimate, as in the case of Jeanne, who names the object of her affection “Jumbo”.
This all sounds remarkably silly, but writer/director Zoé Wittock treats the subject matter with deep sincerity and seriousness, especially the response of those people around Jeanne. Wittock is not interested in making a mockery of such an unusual disorder, and mental illness is a key theme here, despite the unbridled escapism at the heart of the narrative. Yes, it is about orientation too, and Wittock even pushes the boundaries into curious eroticism, in a scene where Jeanne “makes love” with Jumbo, all ecstatic white surrounds and ejaculations of machine lubricant oil. Yes, it has to be seen to be truly appreciated.
Wittock has a great eye, and there are some stunning, colour-drenched sequences, but the film’s success, ultimately lies with Merchant, and she does a wonderful job of capturing a genuine sense of innocence, of naivety, and of quiet fierceness. She’s a woman stunted in terms of adult emotional growth, trapped by her own predilections, and yet yearns for acceptance, in particular, from her mother, who tries in vain to steer her into a “conventional” relationship with co-worker Marc (Bastien Bouillon). Wittock navigates a curious path, never allowing Jumbo to be truly humanised through Jeanne’s distorted view, yet he (it?) is possessed with a supernatural charm. It’s as if Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind was re-imagined as some kind of earthly courtship.
Paul Dood’s Deadly Lunch Break
6.30pm - Monday, 5 July, 6.3opm - Thursday, 8 July, Saturday, 6.15pm - 10 July (Luna Leederville)
Camera operator-turned director Nick Gillespie delivers his second feature, and it’s a sensational pitch-black comedy up there with the inspired brilliance of Sightseers, Prevenge, and Aaaaaaah! In fact, actor-directors Alice Lowe and Steve Oram have small parts in Gillespie’s biting satire on fame, social media, bullies, and geekiness. Co-written between Gillespie, Brook Driver, and Matthew White, the story sees one Paul Dood (Tom Meeten), a middle-aged no-hoper with huge aspirations for success. He’s got the ambition and the full support of his invalid mother, Julie (June Watson), and he practices his performance routine all the time. Paul is itching for a chance to woo the world with his sequinned magic moves, via Jack Tapp (Kevin Bishop)’s national variety show, “Trend Ladder”. As long as he can fit the audition into the lunch break from his job in the charity shop. Oh the beautiful irony.
But, a calendar date confusion aside, there are a few people who will get in his way, and this becomes Paul Dood’s Rub. A tale of vengeance and attitude unlike any other, Gillespie has fashioned a truly hilarious, ultraviolent (in a very cartoon kinda way), and surprisingly heartwarming portrait of one man’s struggle against the trials and tribulations of day-to-day life, the hypocrisy and the ingenuity, the tragedy and the joy. It all unfolds with alarming, brutal absurdity, and cringe-inducing awkwardness, in spades. It’s as if Edgar Wright had directed The Young Ones or maybe Fawlty Towers.
An inspired performance from Meeten, who inhabits the role with gleeful abandon. He is the backbone of the movie, in almost every scene, and you believe every crazy antic and expression. One of those nutty characters you love to laugh at and with, and one day meet at a party. But mention must be made on the plethora of support actors, each one nailing it. Alice Lowe as a vindictive nun, Steve Oram as a dipshit platform inspector, June Watson as Dood’s mum, Kevin Bishop as the narcissistic Tapp, Katherine Parkinson as Clemmie, the mall janitor who ends up one of Dood’s biggest supporters, and Lloyd Griffith as the Kiwi charity shop assistant, who steals almost every scene he’s in. Yes, Paul Dood’s Deadly Lunch Break will very likely be my favourite comedy of the year. Bloody excellent.
Gaia
4.15pm - Thursday, 8 July, 10.35pm - Saturday, 10 July, 8.15pm - Sunday, 11 July (Luna Leederville)
From South Africa comes this compelling and surreal fantasy horror that sees two park rangers fall foul in the depths of a primordial forest (shot in the lush Garden Route region). Directed by Jaco Bouwer and written by Tertius Kapp, the film is a dual-language (English and Afrikaans) study of humankind’s relationship and treatment of Mother Earth, told through the contrasting perspectives of intruder and defender, and the dark, mossy area in-between. It’s a unique, if slight take on the age-old eco-nightmare scenario of Nature biting back, that more than makes up for in stylistic direction and a rich melange of practical effects and CGI.
Gabi (Monique Rockman) is on a surveillance mission with colleague Winston (Anthony Oseyemi), deep in the jungle, using a drone and checking planted cameras. The drone confronts a man in camouflage and is felled. Gabi sets off to retrieve it. Trouble ensues, communication is severed, and the rangers are separated. Gabi is taken undercover by two apocalyptic survivalists, wary father Barend (Carel Nel), and older teenage son, Stefan (Alex van Dyk). Widow Barend has brought a lot of emotional and baggage into the undergrowth, and it’s soon apparent that there are other creatures, working closely with the flora, lingering in the shadows of the bush. It is this flora, under the manipulation of Mother Earth, that exerts control over the fauna (read: human). Will Gabi escape the hungry tendrils and fleshy lichen?
Gaia is one of those heavily symbolic, sometimes downright obscure horror movies that you shouldn’t try to analyse too deeply. Just enjoy the ride. Bouwer gets decent performances from his small cast, but it’s the visual narrative, the film’s atmosphere and and striking special effects that are the real stars, coiling and weaving like a strange hallucinogenic dream, something fetid and fungal. There is an elusive sensuality, a pungent sexuality that crawls along the forest floor, but dig too deep and the mud and roots became entangled and sludgy in psychosexual nonsense. It’s Annihilation without the alien interference - but instead derivative plant-men - and shrouded in a more immediate existentialism, with an ending that reminded me of We Are What We Are. Enjoy the scenery, but watch out for the roots and don’t eat the shrooms.