The story while set in the present uses a clever plot device to go back in time to London (specifically Soho) in the swinging sixties. The dress code of the period is also brought to full colour as are the rocking hairstyles. The overall effect is quite intoxicating and it highlights how bland and limiting the current sense of fashion can be.

Eloise “Ellie” Turner (Thomasin McKenzie) is a countryside girl who follows her muse for fashion by moving to the West End of London after being accepted into the London College of Fashion. After clashing with her college roommate Jocasta (Synnove Karlsen) she secures an upstairs room at a house run by Ms. Collins (Diana Rigg). This is the point where her troubles begin.

As Ellie’s life spins out of control, the film switches into horror mode and packs several powerful surprises into its narrative. Wright’s sure hand at the tiller elevates what could have easily become just another genre picture into something much more entertaining. This film also sadly marks the last on-screen performance of Diana Rigg and Margaret Ann Nolan. The film is dedicated to those two fine actors.

Rob Hudson
www.facebook.com/UniversalPicturesAU/

Using Christine Leunens’s novel Caging Skies as the nucleus for his project JoJo Rabbit finds the Kiwi in great form. Leunens’s book about a Hitler youth who finds out his mother is harbouring a young Jewish girl in their house provides the basis for a Waititi screenplay that is rich in humour and subtext.

It’s a wild ride that jumps from being uproariously funny to being heartbreakingly sad without missing a beat. The emotions feel real and are never less than meaningful. In contrast, it makes so much of what passes today as cinema humour feel empty and almost fraudulent.

In a period of hate that was as intense as any time in human history, it seems incredulous for someone to attempt to make a comic statement about it. But the life reaffirming nature of laughter is never more necessary than when faced with the horrors of the dark side of human nature.

Rob Hudson
www.facebook.com/foxmoviesaus