Furiosa: a Mad Max Saga

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

Director ~ George Miller

Writers ~ George Miller, Nick Lathouris

2024, Australia-US

Stars ~ Anya Taylor-Joy, Chris Hemsworth, Tom Burke

 

Firstly, the pace is different. Where ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ was all revving up and then full speed ahead, Furiosa’s tale is a bildungsroman and makes many drive-bys and pitstops over time to chronicle her stolen childhood. Her nemesis Dr. Dementus (Chris Hemsworth) is coded as still hanging onto his own lost childhood by the stuffed bear he carries, the one that he tries to pass onto her but young Furiosa (Alyla Brown) rejects. Keep note of that.

It's pretty with its wastelands, takes time with its tale rather than stunts, although when the stunts come there is no disappointment. There are lots of expendable War Boys and gang punks, noise that hardly abates, a bad guy full of bluster in Dementus (Chris Helmsworth) but who’s not particularly good at the politics once he’s won a kingdom. He’s no Immortan Joe (Lachy Hume). The facing-off between the bad guys is a high point.  Hemsworth is having a grand old time, riding his bike chariot and putting in a prime performance. The segue from young to adult Furiosa, from Alyla Browne to Anya Taylor-Joy is effortless, and the latter puts in a striking wordless performance; those eyes do a lot of work. The only male saviour gesture here for Furiosa is by Praetorian Jack (Tom Burke – gruff and secretly humane in the manner of Max), and he’s just getting by too, but otherwise she is out there making her own code of morals and survival.

Which means that ‘Furiosa’ is even more interested in the characters behind the whacky names than previously. Or rather, never has Miller been quite so confident at giving the bizarre their trauma and credence. It’s always been there, but with ‘Fury Road’s Nux he hit a rich stream that he continues to mine here. Where the original film promised much that the sequel delivered on, with ‘Fury Road’ Miller got right the incisive study of a post-apocalyptic crazy culture study that he didn’t quite manage with ‘Beyond Thunderdome’. As Tatsam Mukherjee writes, George Miller “gives us another film filled to the brim with his fears and doubts about the world, and shrouds it in a blockbuster.”

Where there’s a typical given shallowness to the genre, rarely does an action flick possess such genuine despair and outrage and thrill at the same time. There seems to be some kickback because it did not profit as well on its opening weekend as ‘Fury Road’, or because Ana Taylor-Joy is the lead, or because it’s not as good as ‘Fury Road’ or something. As if something of this calibre comes along all the time. As if we regularly get a moment like the War Rig (and he’s directed three of these!). If it is lesser than ‘Fury Road’, it is surely a little due to familiarity and to heightened expectation. In fact, ‘Furiosa’ is commendably different in tone, being a fully-fledged coming-of-age-in-a-post-apocalypse story, although the difference is a disappointment to some.

Dementus and Furiosa spell out the themes quite clearly in their final face-off, as if the whole franchise is stopping to examine the consequences of its multiple pile ups. Like ‘Fury Road’s tirade against tyrants and patriarchy, there is more to ‘Furiosa’ under the hood. Any film that features, let alone begins with a female taking fruit from a tree is going to make me sigh, but by the ending the symbolism achieves layers that carries on the anti-patriarchal line of ‘Fury Road’, allowing for a non-subtle but nevertheless subversive underlay. - Are you sure that we were the sinners? Let me relocate the tree and the blame in its rightful place; and don’t forget that this hellhole is a bunch of male-dominated petrolheads brmming around being degenerate and stealing childhoods. - The symbolism may be broad, but it accumulates to a sophistication; this is more than just sound and fury. 

It’s a slab of definitive action cinema, but in saving all its eloquence and reflection for its showdown – indeed, the most articulate and self-reflective of the whole series, and one that must have been the big enticement for Helmsworth – ‘Furiosa’ ends with a little commentary on the whole bombast, reminding us that the whole thing started with the agonising madness of grief and loss.

And of course the stunts are jaw-dropping.

The Immortal & Gomorrah: the series

The Immortal

Director ~ Marco D'Amore

Writers ~ Leonardo Fasoli, Maddalena Ravagli, Marco D'Amore

2019, Italy-Germany

Stars ~ Marco D'Amore, Giuseppe Aiello, Salvatore D'Onofrio

 

Robert Saviano’s book ‘Gomorrah’, about the Neapolitan Mafia the Camorra, is an outraged diatribe against the influence organised crime has on ordinary citizens, the fashion world, etc, etc. There is a section about how the gangsters started imitating films; for example, how a female gang started dressing like The Bride from Tarantino’s ‘Kill Bill’, or how one crime lord wanted a bath like Pacino’s in ‘Scarface’. There is perhaps no better symbol for Saviano’s disgust than when he reports that he pissed upon that bath when researching.

 

The Italian TV series very loosely based upon the book is more soap opera, but despite lots of garish often tasteless jumble to symbolise wealth, there is never the sense that these people are happy or joyous. There’s little showboating because they’re too busy being morose, plotting and grim to cosplay films. There is little glamourisation of the lifestyle. Soap opera miserabilism helps to convey that this is not a life of contentment: after all, for all the garish trimmings, nearly everyone ends up dead.

 

Since the look and feel of the series ‘Gomorrah’ tended towards the cinematic by nature, this spin-off film resembles an extended episode, but for that there’s no disappointment. This film is directed by its star, Marco D’Amore, so the look and feel is of a piece. The show stuck to its staples: people facing-off constantly; men glaring into each other’s faces, close enough to kiss; women quite often toxic and enabling; men swaggering; women crossing their arms disapprovingly; occasionally characters will decry their lot or swing between declarations of loyalty and angst. Our main man Ciro (D’Amore), for example, says little but occasionally laments his existential loneliness and lack of feeling. Occasionally, the actors get to flutter vulnerability and lost humanity on their faces; and sometimes it is unintentionally amusing as posturing tends to be.

 

This spin-off tells the tale of what Ciro was doing while season four was taking place, the difference being that we get flashbacks to when he was a little proto-gangster orphan shit. It’s not a show with much sympathy, being more fascinated with the politics and betrayals with a little weepiness over male bonding. If the crucial ingredient with Ciro is that he was a mystery (but don’t cross him), then the flashbacks perhaps attempt to give him some context or motivation, but it also reaffirms that he was always thus and no crush on an older girl is truly a redeeming backstory.

 

Marco D’Amore continues smouldering as Ciro and his work as director on some of the episodes, and this certainly doesn’t scare the horses or go any deeper. This doesn’t have the outrage of Matteo Garrone’s original film, nor, for example, the deconstruction of machismo, mythology and fighting that Kinji Fukasaku’s ‘Battles Without Honour and Humanity’ series, but ‘The Immortal’ follows the format of the series. You won’t get the moral challenges of ‘The Sopranos’ or the jaw-dropping facts of 'Narcos'. But as with the series, most of the cast are scumbags so guilt levels and empathy is not a high demand; the betrayals are thick and occasionally surprising, the turn-over is high, the pace swift, the locations of backstreets and alleyways are excellent, interspersed with beatific panoramas of the city.

 

It all makes for diverting gangster soap and this film fills in the last jigsaw piece from the series.

 

2023 Film Round-Up part 2: action & animation & franchises

• ·         Oh, so animations and franchises and action and such:

 Part 1 has the dramas.

 

 

Takashi Yamazaki’s ‘Godzilla Minus Zero’ epitomised all the fun and seriousness of a kaiju premise, mindful of the wartime origins and analogies whilst giving a worthy human drama with weight instead of killing time. And when the monster action starts, it’s so, so good.

The reality defying action in Chad Stahelski ‘John Wick: Chapter 4’ made my gripes about Jalmari Helander’s ‘Sisu’

churlish and unreasonable, but different expectations for different films. I anticipated more from ‘Sisu’ and expected nothing less from ‘John Wick’. (Then again, I recently watched some King Hu films and unrealism has always be a part of action, I guess.) ‘Chapter 4’ was ridiculously long, which was appropriate for its silly self-aggrandisement, and I was just waiting for the undeniable thrill I got from the first 40 minutes of ‘Chapter 3’. Then I began to drift, and John was across the table from another underworld adversary with just a bunch of cards between them and a bunch of expendable henchman standing around the sides of the ornate room… but I had to go for a bathroom break and I figured I could miss the bad guy pontifications and hoped I would be back in time for the action. Well, I went, and about five minutes later came back and the bad guy was still speechifying. Then followed a full-on fight on a dancefloor across several levels but no one noticed because, y’know, fighting is just like dancing or something. Of course, none of this would work without Keanu, a man of a certain age who continues to dazzle taking on these fight scenes – and indeed, learning nunchuks (and yes, yes, Tom Cruise). But it was the overhead view following a gunfight through many, many rooms that really got my thrill levels up. The last movement (last hour?) entertained me mostly. Still that first 40 minutes of ‘Chapter 3’ I will stand by.

 

But if a bloodbath with the same negligible relationship to reality, then Kim Hong Son’s ‘Project Wolf Hunting’ will more than do the trick. A perpetual bloodbath of a film that just changes genre or sends in helicopters with new bodies to massacre when it needs to. To this, one of the film’s strengths is that no one seems to be safe. That guy who you think to be the main villain? The one who you think might be the eventual hero? Pffftt. Not that you’ll be invested, as this is pure 2D stuff, but… Then the sci-fi-horror kicks in. For braindead gory fun, it’s entertaining, undemanding, slick, goofy and unrelenting. Thin on substance, probably overlong, frequently inventive, culminating in a growth of narrative at the very end that probably hopes for a sequel.

Choi Jae-hoon’s ‘The Killer’ had a similar John Wick Vibe with its tongue slightly in its cheek.  A rudimentary set-up is just to prop up a number of action set pieces, the best of which is inevitably a hallway fight. It’s bright and breezy – based on the web-comic! & adapted from a popular novel “The Kid Deserves to Die” written by Bang Jin-ho – doesn’t waste so much time on characterisation, although it avoids overt cartoonery, even some gun-fu that isn’t just pow!pow!pow! - also peppered with some genuine nastiness. We’re left in no doubt that Bang Ui Gang is a brutal piece of shit, but Jang Hyuk can also turn on the charm and reassure us that this is all good movie anti-hero-kicking-butt fun. There no insight or depth, although the plot does weave a decent web, but it’s un-insulting in its shallowness and offers some nice fight choreography (by Hyuk). 

Xavier Gens 'Farang' added to Impressive Fight genre. Action movie cliches perfectly intact: when you go a new city (in this case: Bangkok), find a high building, go to the rooftop and take in the panorama. There’s not the social commentary you might have expected/hoped for, and there’s probably too much ticking of tropes, but when it finally gets to the hallway and elevator fights, that’s everything. A film like Choi Jae-hoon's 'The Killer' and even 'Extraction 2' know to get on with the fights and play cursory attention to predictable, familar set-up, but 'Farang' is happy to wallow in comfort-action.  Nassim Lyles is magnetic enough presence and the fights look visceral and painful. And then it’s just silly season.

Talking of action, Sam Hargrave’s ‘Extraction 2’ shirked much of its bond to narrative and instead offered impressive one take action sequences which, in themselves, were impressive and that’s what we came for, even if the film was average. 

But for something more serious, a little more ‘City of God’, there was Jadesola Osiberu’s ‘Gangs of Lagos’. More Traditional Gangland Tropes than the furious criticism like others such as 'City of God' and 'Gomorrah'. Oh, there's anger here - the exploitation of the street-level gangsters by the crime lords living in opulence; political corruption - but it errs on the side of formulaic. Tobi Bakre is a striking presence that centres the whole thing, but there are lapses into cheaper melodrama and a score that is applied to everything in a way that implies amateurishness. The street slaughters pull their weight, though, where it's obvious that budget restrictions aren't hindering the extras'/stuntmen's enthusiasm, and there are a couple of splashes of gore. Most of the ingredients are here, but it's mostly admirable rather than successful.

Dan Tratchenberg’s ‘Prey’ returned Predator to some kind of credibility, very enjoyable and infused with a Girl Power streak. More successful was the hint that a franchise of Predator films set at different periods, against various communities (vs. Centurions; vs. World War I/II soldiers; etc.), was possible and offered a variety of possibilities. But I doubt we’ll get that.

Although erring on the side of earnestness rather than fun – every five minutes we’re reminded that the patriarchy isn’t respecting how kick-ass this girl is – this is probably the least insulting Predator sequel. A little temporal relocation and forgoing the Urban Jungle stuff, a little reboot of the predator’s look and some decent action and we’re in solidly entertaining territory.

Similarly, ‘Evil Dead Rise’ was better than expected. An awful trailer thoroughly put me off, framing it like some ‘Insidious’-inspired pantomime, but people kept telling me It’s Actually Quite Good and then I saw it was directed by Lee Cronin, and I liked ‘A Hole in the Ground’. Some nice claustrophobia and some genuine nastiness and conviction rather than silliness to the gurning possessed. And although it didn’t excel in any way, it wasn’t lazy in intent and didn’t devolve into zingers, despite a reductive promo campaign. It’s debatable whether sticking the ‘Evil Dead’ label to it helped or hindered.

•  Super-stuff
  

Whereas animated features like ‘Legion of Super-Heroes’ were too average and ‘Batman: The Doom that Came to Gotham’ a mess, ‘Merry Litte Batman’ and ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem’ proved delightful.

Although aimed at a younger demographic and possessed of character design that is often repugnant (even Alfred), Mike Roth’s ‘Merry Little Batman’ is consistently amusing family fare without resorting to nudge-wink gags at the adults or compromising the villains’ nastiness. Well, there are a couple of gags at the expensed of Schumacher’s ‘Batman & Robin’… but it doesn’t indulge. That Batman is voiced by Luke Wilson should be a clue, as well as the pop-rock Christmas tunes, to a more grungey-slacker absurdism. The humour comes from 8-year-old Damien Wayne’s hyperactive desire to follow in dad’s footsteps. Damien (sterling work from Yonas Kibreab: “No pictures! Only justice!”) bounces around causing mayhem and stumbling into Joker’s plan to bring crime back to Gotham City A film that happily embraces the absurdities of the Batman mythology whilst relating to the younger audiences’ need to prove themselves. Bright, breezy, funny and oddly ugly at times.

Taking the cue from the possibilities opened up by the Spider-verse, Jeff Rowe’s ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem’ happily freewheels through styles when the desire takes. More successfully, it lets genuine teens voice the Turtles and got the cast to do their voice-work in groups, generating a real energy of adolescent banter. It’s this that is the real magic ingredient, as the issues of difference, rejection, and acceptance all coast along merrily. It’s often funny, as grubby as it is colourful, less headache-inducing (or stunning) than the Spider-verse and, most of all: fun.

 ‘Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 3’: James Gunn rounded up ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ with more epicness, some fan service, some surprises and some fuck-you as he added vivisection to the mix. There were still Daddy Issues, but the proof of how unpredictable Gunn’s mixture of dark-and-schmaltz outlook on the genre can be is that, at one or two points, you really do think he might kill off some major character. He even throws on an ‘Old Boy’ homage. Overstuffed, yes, but fully entertainment. And me, I could have done with more Baby Groot.

 

 But of course, ‘Spider-man: Across the Spider-verse’ was king of the genre. I had the same reaction as I had to the prequel: immediately – Whooo, slow down! And then – oh, wow! I didn’t know this was a “to be continued” ( I like to know as little as possible) so the ending came as a pleasant surprise and I just chuckled with satisfaction. Groundbreaking stuff. 

One last note on the super-hero stuff: Quentin Dupieux’s ‘Smoking Causes Coughing’ happily started from the point of mocking the genre’s absurdism before turning into a portmanteaux that widened its targets to embrace all kinds of silliness with some horror garnish.

The Wanderers

The Wanderers

Director - Philip Kaufman

Writers - Richard Price & Rose Kaufman & Philip Kaufman

1979, USA

Stars – Ken Wahl, Karen Allen, John Friedrich

 

Less obviously Comic Book than ‘The Warriors’ but equally broad, ‘The Wanderers’ has a somewhat nostalgic recreation of Bronx gangland. Even so, the rough edges and a gleeful soundtrack of hits of the era give this a charm and veracity that are thoroughly winning. It’s Brooklyn High School and being in a gang is a survival move for belonging and protecting yourself against other gangs; but in truth that’s no real protection from betrayal and a slap-down. Surely there’s no doubt that the introduction of the gangs/cliques in the school corridors has been a major influence on so many others that followed.

 

It’s more ‘American Graffiti’ than ‘The Warriors’, and toxic masculinity and outdated mores are everywhere; that is, the misogyny won’t play so well to modern sensibilities – it was a different era and it was an innocent time of copping feels on the street (and see that poster). But it is interesting that, even though the title song may imply an aspirational role model – as great and as fun as Dion DiMucci’s song sounds, its self-centred and boastful philanderer is pretty irresponsible, if not predatory – but it is Richie’s cheating that gets him ostracised from The Wanderers, and it’s his having to take responsibility for his actions that leaves him moving from gangs to the realm of gangsters (which doesn’t seem to be to his taste). As with ‘Quadrophenia’, it’s real life and adulthood that puts paid to the youthful glamour and fantasy of gang friendships, where it’s all about belonging and fighting.

 

It’s an ode to lost friendships of another time, and even though it’s based on Richard Price’s novel, we’re a long way from the truths and the gut-punches of ‘The Wire’, but there is a rough edge and grittiness underneath the pop nostalgia. These teens are surrounded by a bunch of useless, manipulative and abusive adults and a real pending threat: whereas the gangs get cool jackets and catchphrases – “Don’t mess with the Wongs!” – and the Baldies are the given chief rivals, it’s the Duckys that are cast as the real threat: the real danger and moving in horror shadows and silent malevolence.

 

 

 

The true currency of ‘The Wanderers’ are the ensemble of characters and sublime needle drops, as typical of the genre. Ken Wahl (Richie) manages a latent innocence and good guy beneath the meathead; John Friesrich (Joey) is aggravated and aggravating, a small man powder keg of frustration; Erland van Lidth (Terror) is quite baffling; Michael Wright (Clinton) carries all the dignity; Linda Manz (PeeWee) has all the genuine feistiness, emerging as tragic; and Karen Allen as Nina carries all the warmth, apparently wandering in from a more mature film. But tap at the surface and there’s deeper currents: Nina is a bit of a scumbag, seducing Richie in plain view of his girlfriend (who isn't necessarily so bright, but also isn't the butt of jokes as you might anticipate); there are hints of latent homosexuality; Richie isn’t like the song (and Wahl cannily plays Richie with an increasing lost look of bafflement); and even the Duckys all go to church (silently).

Of course, it’s a tainted Golden Era coming to an end with Kennedy’s assassination and Dylan singing “The Times They Are A-Changing” at a folk bar. It’s a new era that Richie can’t enter, even when following a lost potential chance at love, or at least something different than a future of filling out a Hawaiian shirt.

 

Grimmfest Day 5: 'Death Ranch', 'Urubú', 'Fried Barry', 'Ten Minutes to Midnight', 'Revenge Ride'

 

DEATH RANCH

• Director and screenwriter - Charlie Steeds

·        2020, USA

 A blaxploitation homage where the homaging provides a pass for some retrograde exploitation as well as some modern ultraviolence. In passing, there are so many homages now that I wonder where nostalgic cinema will be given twenty years time? Homages to homages?

On the run and holed up in a disused barn, three black characters find themselves under siege by a small army of KKK animals. Charlie Steeds’ film is a crude, righteous and ultraviolent unapologetic revenge fantasy, with funky music and a subtext about bettering yourself. Of course, it’s all informed by a very contemporary anger and awareness: in the Q&A Black Lives Matter came up in the first question, and Grimmfest’s Miriam Draeger brought up the word “integrity” in regards to ‘Death Ranch’: that wouldn’t  be the first word I’d associate with it (it’s an unapologetic revenge fantasy, after all) but it’s sure nice to have worthy zombies at the end of the retribution.

Although the film makes them cannibals too, there isn’t really any need for elaboration – i.e. a prolonged prerequisite torture scene as justification – because the redeemability is inbuilt to the KKK. When director-writer Charlie Steed chose the defining line calling the KKK “dumb cunts” as justification for all the silliness, etc, it’s obvious that he knew exactly what he was doing. When Steed spoke of how hard this was to get greenlit, and how the Q&A panel discussed how rare it is, comparatively, to have the KKK as an obvious villain, it’s obvious we shouldn’t take this for granted.

 There are other pluses too, such as the vulnerability in Dieandre Teagle’s performance (he takes punishment that no one could get up and kick ass from, but he doesn’t forget to wince, limp and look tired from his injuries) and Faith Monique written as more than just as sexy love interest (she’s a caring sister).

 

Urubú

• Director - Alejandro Ibáñez
• Screenwriters - Carlos Bianchi, Alejandra Heredia, Alejandro Ibáñez
• 2019, Spain

 So I went into this completely blind, thinking it might be a creature-feature in an exotic location. The set-up is long, with a photographer going into the Amazon to hunt a picture of a rarely seen, mysterious bird. The music swells with majesty over the aerial shot of the river and forest: Arturo Díez Boscovich’s score is deliberately old-school to create a ‘70s feel. And then, of course, things get odd and dangerous. As we got deeper in, I was thinking of ‘Vinyan’. And then, of course, it became obvious what this was. And if I didn’t recognise it, a character says the name outright, which was a moment of unintentional humour.

 

Of course, had I read Grimmfest’s blurb, I would have been forewarned: “Writer-Director Alejandro Ibáñez Nauta, is the son of Narciso  Ibáñez Serrador, and describes this as a “tribute” to his father's work. A ferocious, visceral reimagining of Serrador's most famous – and notorious – film, WHO COULD KILL A CHILD?” So if anyone can get away with having that line spoken out loud, it is surely him.

The central pull is going to be the exceptional location work, out in the jungle under undeniably taxing conditions. Ibáñez spoke of how they had to improvise according the weather and conditions. The central agenda of ‘Who Can Kill a Child?’ is that children are so abominably treated historically that the whole adult world is guilty by association, and that’s why the youngsters turn vengeful. ‘Urubú’ follows that line of thinking, and nothing has truly changed: there are still plenty of appalling and heart-breaking statistics to be had.

It’s beautifully constructed and intriguing enough, although one could argue that the jungle setting mitigates some of the sinister familiarity of the children. But this is posed as just the start of a larger picture and the jungle provides a different kind of mystery and panic, as well as alluding to those Italian Seventies exploitation pictures, etc. (And it is notably better than Makinov’s ‘Come Out and Play’ (2012).)

And I’m going for the piranha death, even if it is offscreen.

 

FRIED BARRY

·        Director & Screenwriter - Ryan Kruger

·        2020, South Africa

Scumbag Barry is abducted and replaced by what seems to be an exploratory alien who is dropped into a multitude of crazy and/or sleazy South African scenarios. Or maybe it’s the alien’s holiday? We never know.

 Filmed without a script, ‘Fried Barry’ has elements of ‘Under the Skin’, ‘E.T.’, ‘Starman’, and ‘Being There’. I say ‘Being There’ because Barry is a blank slate that people and the scenarios impose their expectations upon. It’s crazed, kinetic, unpredictable, darkly funny and just skating around on the possibilities with no agenda other than to be thoroughly entertaining. Which it is. The abduction and experimentation/cloning sequence is trippy and a highlight. Gary Green – who has experience as an extra – has such a distinctive face and his expressions are treats in themselves: he won Best Actor at Fantaspoa International Fantastic Film Festival. It’s beautifully filmed: Gareth Place won Best Cinematography at RapidLion Film Festival. It’s crazed, impressive, unpredictable and dynamic right the way through. And an obvious instantaneous cult hit.

10 MINUTES TO MIDNIGHT

• Director – Erik Bloomquist
• Screenwriters – Erik Bloomquist, Carson Bloomquist

Another character study using genre to address the personal. ’10 Minutes to Midnight’ uses vampirism to interrogate one woman’s confrontation with aging and potential obsolescence. Genre staunch Caroline Williams is Amy, a veteran rock DJ facing her last night on the job, being replaced with someone younger and turning up already with puncture wounds on her neck. The film relies on symbolism, surrealism, 80s veneer and folding in on itself to convey Amy’s difficulty with dealing with this phase of her life, as played out as a transformation into a vampire. Williams is great and the genre-bending and mind-games wavering in effectiveness.

REVENGE RIDE

• Director - Melanie Aitkenhead
• Screenwriter - Timothy Durham

An old school biker girl revenge flick with fine performances and capturing of a sub-culture. The girl bikers are all survivors of abuse and are triggered when another girl is the victim of being drugged and gang-raped by frat boys. The school covers up and the women feel betrayed: it feels relevant, post-#MeToo. It’s one of those revenge flicks that wants to dwell equally on the consequences: Trigga (the marvellous Pollyanna McIntosh) can’t let go of her trauma, has never been properly treated for it, giving further layers of tragedy. The film makes sure it is evident that in all of this, it’s always the innocents that ultimately pay the cost. There are no real winners.

It hits all the obvious beats, but it’s well played and looks good.