The time has come, cosy up for icy cinema air conditioning and grab your jumbo bucket of popcorn. The annual New Zealand International Film Festival starts on August 7 and we’re rounding up the best movies from the schedule to book right now.
Every year, it seems that the New
At the end of August, we often find ourselves hearing the films recounted and reviewed at social occasions, cursing ourselves for yet again forgetting to nail down a ticket. Not this time. This year, we’re ensuring that we’re part of the popcorn-eating audience by booking ahead of the festival’s opening.
On the 2024 programme, audiences are welcomed to watch 105 films, from more than 20 countries, spanning a collection of genres. Within the collection, these are a few that have caught our eye.
We Were Dangerous
Josephine Stewart-Te Whiu’s debut feature We Were Dangerous will open the festival on August 7, setting the tone for the nationwide festival and celebrating a major achievement in film-making from Aotearoa. The film is set in 1954 and follows a trio of girls, among a wider group, plucked from society and sent to a facility on Ōtamahua, a remote island, to be “reformed” from their “delinquencies”. The story captures the formation of a friendship between Nellie, Daisy and Lou, as they rebel and struggle against the prejudiced matron imbued with relentless colonial power. We Were Dangerous received rave reviews after its worldwide premiere at South By South West in March, with IndieWire calling it “precious” and Collider complimenting Stewart-Te Whiu’s handling of the heavy subject matter (a headlined review calls it “funny and frightening”). The film will also land in New Zealand cinemas for a more permanent run on August 22. Book ahead, as this is sure to be one of the major events on the schedule.
Evil Does Not Exist
This drama-thriller, set in Mizubiki, a mountain village in Japan, follows woodsman and single father Takumi in a pressing eco-fable. Takumi (played by newcomer Hitoshi Omika) is swept up in a plan to open a glamping destination after determined developers arrive in the isolated, scenic settlement. With their eyes set on economic progress, the out-of-town planners set off a dramatic story, which explores the consequences of upsetting nature’s fine and fragile balance. The director, Ryusuke Hamaguchi, previously won an Oscar in 2021 for Best International Feature Film with the drama Drive My Car (it was also nominated in three other categories). Reviews have heaped praise on Hamaguchi’s follow-up, and even the shortest snaps of cinematography in Evil Does Not Exist are spellbinding.
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Problemista
Julio Torres is the magnetic comedian-writer-director of the moment. The SNL writer has showcased a distinct and dreamlike approach to the comedy genre, with the release of his TV series Los Espookys and Fantasmas. The much-anticipated Problemista will mark his feature directorial debut (Torres also wrote and starred in the film). Problemista is billed as a surrealist comedy. The film follows an aspiring toy designer from El Salvador named Alejandro, who begins working within New York City’s eccentric art world. Simultaneously, he juggles the impending deadline of his non-sponsored work visa. Torres plays the struggling creative, alongside a sparkling cast, including Tilda Swinton, RZA and Greta Lee.
Good One
Good One is an exciting debut feature from film-maker India Donaldson, who is also the daughter of New Zealand film-making legend Roger Donaldson (best known for Sleeping Dogs and Smash Palace). It’s the first pick of the programme for Viva’s deputy editor Johanna Thornton. “It follows 17-year-old Sam, her father Chris and his oldest friend Matt on a three-day hike through the Catskills. Sam spends the hike listening to her dad and Matt reminisce on the good old days,” Thornton writes. The film’s description highlights Sam’s reaction to all this chat about the golden days: “At best they’re embarrassing, tactless, a little pathetic. At worst, they’re selfish, oblivious to the casual callousness of their behaviour.” Thornton is particularly keen to see Lily Collias in her first debut role, as the sullen Sam. “Critics have compared Collias to a young Wynona Ryder. Sign me up!”
Dahomey
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Advertise with NZME.Mati Diop, a French-Senegalese filmmaker (whose film Atlantics previously won the Cannes Grand Prix in 2019), captures a major moment of repatriation in Africa in this observational documentary. Dahomey follows the journey of an ancient statue of King Gezo, as it is returned home to the people of Benin (the piece was taken by French soldiers and stored in a museum, along with many others, during the 90-year period when France colonised the region). The film is said to blend fiction with fact, to communicate the stories of 26 artworks taken in the time. It also portrays the discussions that take place after their repatriation – presenting a valuable viewing experience within the catalogue of post-colonial cinema.
The Substance
Directed by Coralie Fargeat, a creative familiar with brutal subject matter, The Substance stars Demi Moore as 50-year-old aerobics instructor Elizabeth Sparkle, who is fired due to her age. As her self-esteem wavers, Elizabeth is offered a miracle solution by a mysterious laboratory, which promises to cure all her woes. Moore plays alongside Margaret Qualley and Dennis Quaid in this “wrenching” body horror. At Cannes earlier this year, the film also won the Best Screenplay award, so it’s sure to be a story that draws you in.
Cuckoo
I can barely get through the trailer for this jumpy horror film, which indicates it’s a great pick for that electric, edge-of-your-seat cinema viewing. Cuckoo follows 17-year-old Gretchen (Hunter Schafer of Euphoria and Kinds Of Kindness), as she moves from her American home to live with her father in the serene yet isolated German Alps. Gretchen is offered a job at the local resort and notices an uncanny vibe permeating the idyllic holiday spot – guests vomit in the claustrophobic lobby and strange noises erupt from the surrounding woods. The story promises twists and turns as the town tightens around Gretchen, as she’s forced to confront deadly circumstances. Promotional material for the film boasts all of the usual horror markers, with sudden scares, stomach-turning gore and nightmarish imagery. Fans of the genre should certainly book in for this final girl flick. Scaredy cats should bring someone to hide behind.
Seeking Mavis Beacon
This vivid, fast-moving documentary captures director Jazmin Jones and fellow investigator Olivia McKayla Ross on their search for an influential black figure in cyberspace. Mavis Beacon was a fictional character from a typing program released in the late 1980s, and a figure who had been lost in the messy digital archives. In the film, Jones and Ross look for the people behind this character and consider Mavis Beacon’s place in technological history (while integrating a wider discussion about the way our identities and wider social structures are synthesised and adopted through technologies). In an interview with Deadline, Jones explains an interest in wider technological histories led them to Seeking Mavis Beacon: “We wanted to hear more about what led to the casting of a Black woman and what her experience was.”
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