65

Stars: Adam Driver, Ariana Greenblatt, Chloe Coleman and Nika King.
Writers/Directors: Scott Beck and Bryan Woods.

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★

There was a filmgoing era, not that long ago (certainly not the 65 million years referenced here), when the dark shadow of ‘tentpole cinema’ did not loom so large as to dwarf films like 65. Films such as Christian Duguay’s Screamers (1995) or David Twohy’s Pitch Black (2000) were given time to breath during their release; they would build reputations as well-told, mid-tier sci fi action/thrillers with smart scripts and committed leads and grow appreciative audiences with word-of-mouth.

65 is that sort of film. Adam Driver (pictured, above) dons his ‘movie star/action hero’ hat as Mills, the pilot of a deep-space expedition craft that spectacularly crashes after straying into an uncharted asteroid belt. Gripped by survivor guilt, he is about to end it all when he learns one of the cryogenically frozen crew is still alive - teenage colonist Koa (Ariana Greenblatt; pictured, below). The pod they must launch to rendezvous with the rescue craft is 15 kilometres away; the terrain is prehistoric Earth, inhabited by the great, snarly thunder lizards of yore.       

It is a cracking premise upon which to build some old school Hollywood thrills, and that is what co-directors Scott Beck and Bryan Woods pull off with their feature debut; they earned the keys to the studio coffers after their script for A Quiet Place hit big. 65 is a similarly lean but skilfully realised genre exercise; a two-hander that is emotionally bolstered by Mill’s longing for his terminally-ill daughter, Nevine (Chloe Coleman) and Koa coming to terms with the loss of her parents in the crash.

If the forced-together father/daughter psychological complexity of The Last of Us has you in its grip, you’ll likely draw comparisons with the HBO hit series; the handful of hardcore sci-fi fans who also saw Pedro Pascal and Sophie Thatcher in Christopher Caldwell and Zeek Earl’s Prospect (2018) will nod knowingly, too . The emergence of Ellen Ripley’s maternal streak alongside Newt in James Cameron’s Aliens (1986) is another clear influence. The ‘ticking clock’ device that Beck and Woods employs is legitimately nail-biting and spectacularly envisioned, offering an element of inventiveness in a film that sometimes wears its influences a bit too prominently on its spacesuit sleeves. 

With Driver earning above-the-title credit and the high-concept ‘dinosaurs-vs-rayguns’ narrative recalling event films like Jurassic Park or Starship Troopers, there is the expectation of commercial filmmaking grandeur about 65. If that’s what you (or the studio) was expecting, that’s not this film; 65 is a taut 93 minutes of sweaty tension, appropriately scaled action and surprising tenderness. The modern film distribution model won’t allow 65 to find its most appreciative audience in its initial run, though it will certainly grow in cult stature.

CLAW

Stars: Chynna Walker, Richard Rennie, Mel Mede, Ken ’Gabby’ Mertz and Roger the Raptor.
Writer: Gerald Rascionato and Joel Hogan
Director: Gerald Rascionato

WORLD PREMIERE: Byron Bay Underground Film Festival, Saturday May 22 at 8.30pm. Tickets available at the official festival website.

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★

Eliciting the same thrills as the best moments from Jurassic Park and capturing the endearing buddy-comedy chemistry of cult fave Tremors, Claw proves a surefire crowd-pleaser. Clearly made with an un-ironic appreciation for the creature features of yesteryear (ie, the 90s) and a degree of skill that elevates the small scale production into something very big, director Gerald Rascionato’s monster-movie lark deserves global genre festival attention ahead of a long shelf life via whichever smart streamer acquires it.

Rascionato and co-writer Joel Hogan understand that the hard exposition work has already been done by Messrs Chrichton and Spielberg, so next-to-no time is spent on any of that ‘mosquito in amber’ malarkey (some razzle-dazzle gene-splicing graphics behind the opening credits suffices). Instead, their script invites the audience immediately into the friendship of Julia (Chynna Walker) and her bestie Kyle (Richard Rennie), deep in desert highway territory on their way to her big stand-up comedy break in LA. 

Circumstances dictate that they must spend the night with ghost town loner Ray (Mel Mede), an adventure that spins out of control when that most cinematic of prehistoric villains, the velociraptor (credited as ‘Roger the Raptor’), escapes from the confines of a nearby crazy scientist (Ken ’Gabby’ Mertz). The narrative proceeds to careen from one near-death escape to another, with just enough breathing space between the action to maintain audience empathy for the protagonists.

In a star-making turn, Walker’s small frame but strong physical presence is a major asset to the production; her confrontations with ‘Roger’ are legitimately thrilling. More importantly, the actress has a winning on-screen vibe with Rennie, who slots into the ‘damsel in distress’ role with endearing flair. Some of the script’s best moments involve the pair’s initial distrust of Mede’s Ray, recalling the ‘stereotype deconstruction’ genre comedy of 2010’s Tucker and Dale vs Evil, and are indicative of the smarter-than-usual investment that Hogan and Rascionato have written into their B-movie concept.

The director also takes cues from Spielberg’s other great monster movie Jaws, keeping his villain a growling presence largely in the shadows for much of the film’s first half. When unleashed, however, ‘Roger’ relentlessly pursues our heroes more in line with a Jason Vorhees/Michael Myers type. The effects team, supervised by industry veteran Steve Clarke, have crafted a top-tier CGI character that is seamlessly inserted into the action.