At The Movies for Wednesday 25 October 2017
AT THE MOVIES #707 PASSION PROJECTS AND WEAPONIZED WEATHER
Simon Morris welcomes two New Zealand films that went with their gut, rather than a formula, and reviews two very different North American films – a Canadian indie biopic, and a climate-change disaster movie.
Waru invites eight women directors – mostly at the start of their careers – to contribute a ten-minute scene, shot in one take, to an 80 minute feature. Produced by Kerry Warkia and Kiel McNaughton. Also: No ordinary Sheila, a documentary about New Zealand writer, naturalist and illustrator Sheila Natusch, made by veteran film maker Hugh Macdonald.
Maudie tells the story of real-life “outsider” Nova Scotia artist Maude Lewis, from the unlikely start to her career, to her equally surprising relationship with husband Everett. Stars award-winners Sally Hawkins and Ethan Hawke.
And disaster movie Geostorm solves the climate change problem, only to have it revived by someone who wants to “weaponize the weather”! Stars Gerard Butler, Abbie Cornish and Jim Sturgess.