THE PHANTOM OF THE OPEN

Stars: Mark Rylance, Sally Hawkins, Rhys Ifans, Christian Lees, Jonah Lees and Jake Davies
Writer: Simon Farnaby
Director: Craig Roberts

Rating: ★ ½

The Phantom of the Open is based upon the true story of Maurice Flitcroft, a factory worker who offset the anxiety of his impending retrenchment by acting on a whim - he liked the look of golf on the tele, so he filled out the entry form and somehow managed to gain a spot in The 1976 British Open Golf Qualifying Round. Of course, having never played the game, he shot the worst round in Open history, yet became a folk hero in the process.

These ‘sports underdogs’ stories have a long and rich film history, the best of their kind being pics like the 1979 cycling drama Breaking Away or the 1993 bobsled comedy Cool Runnings, but Phantom of The Open isn’t really like those films. Sure, it’s got sport in it - the cinematically-challenging spectacle of golf - but those films identified with and seemed to actually like their heroes. But Phantom of The Open feels like a piss-take, a shot at both this dippy, working-class dolt and the establishment he snuck one pass to become a national laughing stock.

No, Phantom of The Open is more like another film I hate, the 1997 Australian film The Castle. Both base their “comedy” upon the premise that you have to be a bit dim to stick to your working class morals in the face of modern society, and it's a bloody hilarious miracle if by doing so, you get the outcome you’re hoping for. The Castle turned working class Australians into idiots and then conned us into laughing along at them, and Phantom of The Open tries to pull off the same schtick.

It is also no surprise that Phantom of The Open is written by one Simon Farnaby, whose script for Paddington 2 earned him a BAFTA nomination (wtf?). In Mark Rylance’s terribly mannered, vaguely condescending performance as Flitcroft, you have what is essentially a cartoon figure, like Paddington, trying to cope with the real world around him and the real world deciding to laugh along at his buffoonery.

Actor-turned-director Craig Roberts pumps up his Forrest-Gump-on-the-fairways story with period-appropriate add-ons, succumbing to the cinematic feel-good shorthand that disco hits and flared trousers provide. It’s all so shallow and flash-in-the-pan as to suggest there wasn’t that much to Flitcroft’s achievements or, in Rylance’s one-note portrayal, the man himself, in the first place.

HUSTLE

Stars: Adam Sandler, Queen Latifah, Juancho Hernangómez, Ben Foster, Kenny Smith, Anthony Edwards, Jordan Hull, Maria Botto, Ainhoa Pillet, Raul Castillo, Jaleel White, Heidi Gardner and Robert Duvall.
Writers: Will Fetters and Taylor Materne.
Director: Jeremiah Zagar

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★

Adam Sandler finds a winning balance between his ‘comedy sports guy’ bit and the dramatic leading man potential he displayed in Uncut Gems with his new Netflix movie, Hustle. He plays ageing NBA talent scout Stan Sugarman, a 30-year veteran of chasing leads to sign basketball’s next big thing. His mentor, Philadelphia 76ers owner Rex Merrick (the legend Robert Duvall) ups him to assistant coach for his dedicated service, but when ownership shifts to his son, Vin (Ben Foster), old conflicts see Stan punted back into the scouting game with the added pressure of finding that championship-winning rookie every club yearns for.

Stan may have found his next NBA great in the housing projects of Spain - a natural talent called Bo Cruz (Juancho Hernangómez, real-life Utah Jazz recruit and a member of the Spanish national team). He’s a true wild card, with a history and temper to match, But together, and with a little help from a cast drafted from the NBA ranks and featuring names like Seth Curry, Trae Young and Jordan Clarkson - Stan and Bo can build a partnership that ought to take them to the top of the toughest basketball league in the world.

Director Jeremiah Zagar and his writers Taylor Materne and Will Fetters do exactly what they need to do to turn the standard sports drama template into the crowd pleaser they deliver. Take a coupla of down-on-their luck outsiders, have them set goals for themselves that’ll make them strive to be better and punch out an ending that ensures they deliver above and beyond their new self-belief.

Zagar and his ace cinematographer Zak Mulligan give the game play some super immersive energy, while support players like Queen Latifah as Stan’s super-supportive wife and ex-SNL player Heidi Gardner as the more likable Merrick offspring bring the right pitch.

But it’s all about Sandler, who’s in every scene and who flushes out depth and character in his shuffling, shrugging Sugarman like he was born into the part; there’s both Walter Matthau’s exasperation with life and Jack Lemmon’s understated desperation in Sandler’s performance. Oscar loves this sort of performance - the clown who finds a place in the real world (think Robin Williams in Dead Poet's Society or Good Morning Vietnam). Sandler pulls up just shy of riffing on Burgess Meredith’s classic trainer archetype ‘Mickey’ in the Rocky films, but the temptation must have been strong (they are shooting on the streets of Philly, after all!) 

While the narrative has that faint whiff of “seen-it-before”-ness about it, Hustle fits in alongside such hoop classics as Hoosiers (1986) and Coach Carter (2005) as simply structured stories that find their vibrancy in fresh perspectives, honest emotions, great performances and boundless energy.

YOU CANNOT KILL DAVID ARQUETTE

Featuring: David Arquette, Christina McLarty Arquette, Rosanna Arquette, Patricia Arquette, Courtney Cox, Coco Arquette, Jack 'Jungle Boy' Perry, ‘Diamond’ Dallas Page, Rj Skinner, Eric Bischoff and Jerry Kubik.
Writers/directors: David Darg and Price James.

YOU CANNOT KILL DAVID ARQUETTE will be available on digital platforms September 6 in Australia via Blue Finch Film Releasing.

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★

From its title on down, this study of a man determined to right a wrong while reigniting his celebrity is filled with layers of meaning. The words ‘You Cannot Kill David Arquette’ is certainly a rousing declaration from the actor that there is still life and promise in him yet. They could also work as a contract stipulation for any pro wrestlers involved in the production, so hated was Arquette in the wake of a 20 year-old publicity stunt that made him wrestling’s most reviled figure.

In 2000, David Arquette was leaning into the perception that the exciting young actor who had emerged in the booming ‘90s indie sector was also a bit...kooky. He had broken out as goofball cop Dewey in the Scream franchise and decided to double-down the on-screen daffiness with a lead role in the wrestling comedy, Ready to Rumble. To promote the film, he got in the ring with real-life wrestling giants and walked away with the WCW World Heavyweight Championship; fans were less than impressed (and baulked on watching Ready to Rumble, which bombed).        

You Cannot Kill David Arquette finds the man nearing 50, happily married to Christina McLarty Arquette (the film’s producer), but in the career doldrums. It is not immediately obvious why he would want to return to the scene of his infamy other than honouring the old adage, ‘any publicity is good publicity’, but motivations emerge; he loves wrestling, has since childhood, and is tormented that he will forever be, in his words, “a smear on its legacy.”

In tracking Arquette’s arduous return to, first physical activity, then the professional circuit, directors David Darg and Price James capture aspects of the man that drag their film, kicking and screaming at times, beyond a chronicle of eccentricity. Arquette’s mental health and the potential impact upon his addiction issues is examined; the very real concern for his physical well-being, given pre-existing conditions; and, how his family (including sisters Patricia and Rosanna, teenage child Coco and ex-wife Courtney Cox) view his typically unpredictable career choices.

And Arquette puts in the hard yards. The physique goes from ‘dad bod’ to an athlete’s frame over the course of the film. He earns pro-wrestling cred by pitting himself against backyard battlers (who absolutely f**kin’ hate him) and plunging into the choreographed theatricality of Mexico City’s luchadores troupes. In one legitimately shocking sequence, he suffers a near-fatal neck-wound when an exhibition match goes bad. Emotions take a hit, too; the film is dedicated to Arquette’s friend, the late Luke Perry. 

If it is the spirit of pro-wrestling that the actor wants to honour with his return to the canvas, You Cannot Stop David Arquette works wonderfully to that end. It is, in equal measure, a rousing sports-drama narrative and pure bells-&-whistles; a study in struggle and pain to achieve a personal goal and managed spectacle in the name of putting on a great show. If that doesn’t capture the essence of the sport, it’d be hard to pinpoint what does, and ought to correct the anti-Arquette sentiment amongst his fellow leotard-lovers.

SPACE JAM: A NEW LEGACY

Stars: LeBron James, Don Cheadle, Cedric Joe, Khris Davis, Sonequa Martin-Green and Ceyair J. Wright, Steven Yeun, Sarah Silverman and Zendaya.
Writers: Juel Taylor, Tony Rettenmaier, Keenan Coogler, Terence Nance, Jesse Gordon and Celeste Ballard.
Director: Malcolm D. Lee

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ½

Director Malcolm D. Lee’s amped-up odyssey through Warner Bros. licensed property goldmine subs in LeBron James for Michael Jordan as the NBA superstar zapped into a ‘toon netherworld, but in every other respect Space Jam: A New Legacy is a just a fresh coat of CGI-paint on the 25 year-old concept. ‘You Do You’ is the meaningful thematic depth of the studio's literally on-brand reboot, and that will be fine for the family audience drawn to this mostly fun, often frantic romp.

In a brief prologue, tweenage LeBron gets a talking-to when his coach catches him distracted by the latest handheld tech - a Nintendo Gameboy (aaww...). From that moment on, vidgames were out, replaced by life lessons learnt through the prism of achieving basketball greatness. That proves a problem when adult LeBron’s middle-child Dom (Cedric Joe) excels at game design and is meh about basketball (though he designs a basketball game, oddly). 

A trip to Warners to hear a pitch from two execs (played by in-house HBO stars Steven Yeun and Sarah Silverman) turns incredible when LeBron and Dom are digitized and kidnapped by the evil algorithm, Al G. Rhythm (a hit-&-miss Don Cheadle) and cast into vastness that is ‘The Warner’s Serververse’. It is inside this extraordinary vision of a digital galaxy that Space Jam 2021 hits its stride; planets repping such WB profit centres as Harry Potter, Game of Thrones and DC Comics are superbly-realised concepts.

In line with the ‘95 original, LeBron must collect and coach the misfit Looney Tunes team and defeat Al G. Rhythm’s bad guys in a ball game for very high stakes. Lee and his six screenwriters (!!) take a little too long getting to the big game, although there are fun moments along the way that allow for time in both ‘classic’ animation mode (beautiful to watch) and updated 3D CGI (remember when they made Homer Simpson 3D? It’s just as disappointing here).

When Jordan teamed with Bugs Bunny in 1995, the stable of Warners’ animated characters had stagnated. The project was initiated to give that rascally rabbit, Daffy Duck, Tweety Bird, The Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote a fiscally advantageous jolt; it was directed by ad-guy Joe Pytka, a commercials and music vid director, before and since. The studio paid big bucks for an extended Bill Murray cameo and Seinfeld’s Wayne Knight, but there are no similar comic-relief/fallback players in 2021.  

Instead, the Warners’ ‘toon ensemble enlists all their studio buddies to bolster box office potential, and herein lies the unexpected joy for film buffs. The last thing one expects to see in your Bugs Bunny cartoon are supremely silly and very funny riffs on Mad Max Fury Road, The Matrix or Casablanca, or a barrage of back catalogue faces (The Herculoids!! The freaking Herculoids!!) When gathered for the final match, the Warner Bros properties are a sight to behold; looking past the foreground action to discover another great WB character becomes second-nature. Parents will have fun on the drive home explaining the cultural significance of The Droogs from Kurick’s A Clockwork Orange.

While Space Jam: A New Legacy doesn’t come within a stuttering pig of the live-action/animation genre’s high-water mark, Robert Zemeckis’ Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, the tech is of such a standard in this day and age there is no doubt that LeBron (by far the least animated presence in the movie, in every sense) is interacting alongside his co-stars.

THE TEST: A NEW ERA FOR AUSTRALIA'S TEAM

Features: Justin Langer, Tim Paine, Steve Smith, David Warner, Nathan Lyon, Pat Cummins, Usman Khawaja, Aaron Finch, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Shaun Marsh, Mitchell Starc and Marnus Labuschagne.
Narrated by Brendan Cowell.
Director: Adrian Brown.

Available on Amazon Prime.

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ½

Not since the summer of 1981, when Australian captain Greg Chappell ordered his brother Trevor to roll the final delivery along the pitch to deny New Zealand any hope of winning, has the national team been held in such low esteem as it was in the wake of the 2018 sandpaper/ball-tampering incident against South Africa.

The Test: A New Era For Australia’s Team begins at that low point in Australian cricket history. Captain Steve Smith and opening batsmen David Warner and Cameron Bancroft were banned from the sport for a period, after Bancroft was filmed damaging the ball to help it swing against the dominant South African batsmen. Warner was deemed the mastermind, while captain Smith (and, ultimately, coach Darren Lehmann) took responsibility and bore the brunt of the reprisals.

Director Adrian Brown’s polished and insightful Amazon Prime documentary series chronicles the resurrection of the squad and the baptism of fire they had to endure at the hands of the global media, rabid international crowds and, most importantly, the Australian public. The very fact that the series exists at all, with a great deal of its eight episode arc unfolding within the previously untouchable ‘inner sanctum’ of coach’s and player’s personal space, is testament to how desperately damaged the iconic brand was in its homeland.

New coach Justin Langer (pictured, below) is tasked with rebuilding team culture, confidence and public trust, and The Test highlights what a sturdy, passionate traditionalist the former Australian opener proved to be in a role that needed just such an unshakeable integrity. The playing and coaching group visit the Western front in northern France, where young Australians fought and died on foreign soil for their country. Langer’s aim is to re-establish in his young group the responsibility and heritage that comes with representing a nation.

Brown’s camera then follows the team as they undertake a very rocky path to redemption. Series losses in England, the sub-Continent and, over a particularly soul crushing Australian summer, against archenemy Virat Kohli’s Indian super-side, expose tension, disappointment and frustration. Newly appointed captain Tim Paine, as resolute a character as Langer, emerges as a true modern leader, aware of the mindset of his young charges and not above unforgiving self-analysis.

Crucial to the rebuilding of team character are the inevitable positional shifts within the playing group. A run of outs for One-Day captain Aaron Finch expose the mental anguish associated with the risk of being dropped from the squad; Langer’s often merciless, hard-edged demands run afoul of veteran batsman Usman Khawaja, the pair clashing in one memorable encounter.

While Warner’s return to the fold is somewhat underplayed, Steve Smith’s unique personality and influence on the team’s fortune becomes the unavoidable focus. By episodes 7 and 8, which recount the team’s return to Ol’ Blighty to retain one of sport’s most famous trophies, The Ashes, the thrill of the contest and the complexity of the personalities have melded, resulting in utterly captivating drama where the stakes are clear and the emotions are raw.

The Test: A New Era for Australia’s Team is also a superb technical triumph, with game footage, editing and the accompanying sound design making the action as involving as any follower of the sport could hope for (and which any non-disciple ought to warm to in no time).

Offshore cricket fans, most of whom found icy joy in watching the Australian team’s fall from grace, may find the reformation and rebranding of our team a slightly less emotionally engaging experience than your average Aussie fan. But The Test: A New Era for Australia’s Team, like most great sports documentaries, achieves greatness not for what it reveals about a sport, but what universality it reveals amongst the disparate spirits who have come together to play it.

GO!

Stars: William Lodder, Richard Roxburgh, Frances O’Connor, Anastasia Bampos, Darius Amarfio Jefferson, Cooper van Grootel and Dan Wyllie.
Writer: Steve Worland.
Director: Owen Trevor

Rating: ★ ★ ★

…or, “The Kart-y Kid.”

A young, widowed mum cuts ties with the sadness of her past life and travels cross country to give her teenage son a fresh go at young manhood. There, he finds a new father figure of sorts in an old sports recluse, who bestows wisdom upon his new charge while finding his own new lease on life.

So went John G. Avildsen’s 1984 teen classic The Karate Kid and so goes Owen Trevor’s Go!, which swaps out Ralph Macchio, Pat Morita and ‘The Crane’ for William Lodder, Richard Roxburgh and the inside lane in its shamelessly derivative but generally likable retelling of the familiar narrative. Also gone are the martial arts (except for one quick nod to the source material’s ‘junkyard brawl’ scene), with the dusty, screeching world of go-kart racing providing the new road to realising one’s potential.

Handsome newcomer Lodder impresses as Jack Hopper, a generally upbeat young man despite the loss of his dad (Adam T. Perkins, in flashback) several years prior. Why mum Christie (Frances O’Connor) decides to relocate from Sydney to Busselton, Western Australia when both seem to have overcome the worst of their grief (he died when Jack was 11, a good eight years ago) is never fully reconciled by writer Steve Worland’s sometimes patchy narrative, though dialogue and character represent a marked improvement over his previous work, Paper Planes (2014).

Christie scores Jack an invitation to the birthday party of Mandy (Anastasia Bampos), the best darn mechanic in all Busselton and daughter of local go-kart magnate Mike Zeta (Damian de Montemas, the film’s ‘Cobra Kai’-like villain). The meet will be held at the local go-kart dustbowl, overseen by world-weary crank-pot recluse, Patrick (Richard Roxburgh), whose gruff exterior hides a pain that…anyway, you get the drift. When Jack channels his inner hoon and proves to be a go-kart natural, Patrick and Mandy join his crusade to dethrone Mike’s son Dean (Cooper van Grootel, going full-Zabka) by taking it ‘all the way to the Nationals’.

As in all manifestations of The Karate Kid, the best moment in Go! is the training montage, during which the brash cockiness of the young un’ is worn down by the wise old master with the kid having no idea he is being readied for his new life goals. The ‘wax on, wax off’ scenes are played well (Karate Kid tropes are even referenced in one off-camera comment), as are those final crucial moments which indicate Daniel…I mean, Jack has learnt an important lesson about respecting your elders and growing out of the past. Mid-section has very little to do or say and conjures some minor conflicts without much conviction before getting back to the action.

In his feature directorial debut, Trevor captures the close-quarters go-kart action with an immersive energy (a professional history filming the Top Gear series proves a bonus), though he can’t breath too much life into perfunctory subplots involving Jack’s new best bud, Colin (Darius Amarfio Jefferson, in the comic sidekick role that was played by Julian Dennison in Paper Planes) and attempts by local cop Barry (Dan Wyllie) to woo Christie. A terrific collection of tunes, old and new, help bolster audience engagement, while the crowd-pleasing ending that you know is coming before you even take your seat hits all the right notes.

CHASING COMETS

Stars: Dan Ewing, John Batchelor, Isabel Lucas, Stan Walker, Rhys Muldoon, Justin Melvey, George Houvardas, Gary Eck, Peter Phelps and Beau Ryan.
Writer: Jason Stevens
Director: Jason Perini

Rating: 3/5

‘The engaging true story of a rugby league player’s faith-based search for enlightened soulfulness’ is not the opening salvo a critic expects to ever write, especially given the pre-release marketing for Chasing Comets was all boozy blokes and locker room skylarking. Yet writer Jason Stevens, whose life transformation from laddish layabout to celebrity celibate provides the basis for director Jason Perini’s likably roughhewn sports/faith dramedy, exhibits a keen eye for gentle melancholy and good-natured integrity with his debut script.

Leading man Dan Ewing progresses from playing a country footballer fighting aliens in Occupation (2018) to playing a country footballer fighting temptation in Wagga Wagga. The Home & Away heartthrob stars as the improbably named Chase Daylight, glamour boy of local bush leaguers The Comets and well on the path to first grade NRL glory. Yet ill-discipline and a tendency to be easily distracted by his hedonistic mate Rhys (Stan Walker) threatens to undo all the good faith placed in him by his single mum Mary (Deborah Galanos), manager/mentor Harry (Peter Phelps) and very patient girlfriend Brooke (Isabel Lucas).

When one indiscretion too many proves the final straw for Brooke, Chase descends into a funk that sees him benched by Coach Munsey (Peter Batchelor) and his potential begin to stagnate. At precisely the moment that Chase has a (symbolic) breakdown, up steps ‘The Rev’ (George Houvardas) who, with his daughter Dee (the lovely Kat Hoyos; pictured, below), begins to school Chase in the character building properties of Christian principles, in particular an adherence to abstinence; Chase becomes a born-again virgin. This revelation proves a giggly delight to his teammates, led by player ‘personality’ Beau Ryan (one of several real-life league cameos, including South Sydney general manager Shane Richardson and commentator Daryl ‘The Big Marn’ Brohmann, as well as Sydney socialite-types DJ Havana Brown and gossip journo Jo Casamento).

In the early ‘00s, Stevens garnered sports-page coverage and copped some infantile ridicule when his life of celibacy became public fodder. At the height of his NRL fame, the representative-level tough guy did not skirt around what it meant to be devout, but he largely refrained from religious grandstanding (despite having the sporting stature and media profile to successfully do so). His script for Chasing Comets not-so-subtly redresses that balance; there are preachy passages that will fall heavily on the ears of non-believers and those that have turned up for that blokey yarn about country league shenanigans the trailer promised.

Of course, this tendency towards message-moviemaking does not diminish its legitimacy as a solid slice of local sector filmmaking. Notably, it sits alongside J.D. Scott's Spirit of the Game (2016) as an early Australian entrant in the burgeoning ‘faith-based’ genre coming out of the U.S; Stevens and Perini’s narrative is every frame as committed to the cause as such sports-themed Christian films as the Oscar-winning The Blind Side (2009), Soul Surfer (2011), When The Game Stands Tall (2014) and Woodlawn (2015).

Steven’s screenwriting inexperience cannot be totally ignored – his women characters are largely one-note, either pitched as redemptive angels or sly temptresses; Lucas is neither, but struggles to find much to work with as the hard-done-by Brooke. Also, the production drops the ball at a couple of key moments; for some reason, Chase’s re-emergence as the town’s sporting hero is staged offscreen, the thrill of the game-winning try (surely the very moment for which these sort of films exist) left to veteran Peter Phelps to convey – while alone, listening to a radio in a Chinese restaurant.

Taking into consideration the moments when it stumbles, the most satisfying aspect of Chasing Comets is that emerges as greater than the sum of its parts; it shouldn’t work so well as a contemporary mix of small-town charm, hard man mateship and heavenly intervention, but Steven’s story certainly does.