East & West: 02/08/2024
"Got to stay on guard always, want to keep my caveman hidden"
Besides the Olympics drone scandal, big news on Sunday was the unexpected death of The Chills’ Martin Phillipps, a sad start to the week that reminded us of the amazing window display put together by Stephen McCarthy at Rhythm Records in Nelson for the release of The Chills’ Soft Bomb in 1992.
Looking to tomorrow, yesterday saw the release of Ant Timpson and Toby Harvard’s fab new film Bookworm. Scroll down for a review!
The Canterbury Panther might not appear on as many craft beer labels or hirsute forearms as the Loch Ness Monster but this folkloric kitty-cat has something that more celebrated cryptids do not: plausibility. Trekking through the treacherous hills of Mackenzie Country, it doesn't take much brain power to imagine a big black leopard creeping up behind you like Nastassja Kinski, pausing in the tussock as it senses your hairs begin to stand on end.
Following Come to Daddy and The Greasy Strangler, Bookworm is the latest film from Ant Timpson (writer-director) and Toby Harvard (writer), who channel the tasty thrill of fantasising about such a beast into a rollicking Kiwi comedy featuring high-stakes adventure and heartfelt drama.
11-year-old Mildred, played by Nell Fisher with Blytonesque gumption, has Matilda’s vocabulary, the convictions of Woodward and Bernstein, and Dorothy Parker's scornful wit. The phrase, "You don't speak like a normal kid, do you?" pops up in Bookworm like a mole in the garden.
Mildred's estranged father Strawn (Elijah Wood) is quite the opposite. An American "illusionist" with Captain Morgan facial hair and a very silly hat, Strawn is a pompous pushover hung up on his cancelled TV show and failed friendship with David Blaine.
When Mildred's mum Zo (Morgana O'Reilly) is shocked into a coma by a freak toaster blowout, Strawn flies from Las Vegas to Aotearoa to look after his daughter for the first time. Struggling for connection — the incompatible David Copperfields are a particular point of friction — Strawn offers to take Mildred camping in search of the Canterbury Panther, video evidence of which wins a $50,000 reward that will pull Mildred and Zo out of debt.
And so the hunt is on, against dangers human and feline, and across some of Aotearoa’s most remarkable scenery. But who is being hunted?
Considering Timpson's renowned cinephilia — his long-term involvements in the 48Hours film contest and the New Zealand International Film Festival — it comes as no surprise that Bookworm is eminently stylish and narratively taut. Transitioning from Mildred and Zo's cottage to the Canterbury Plains sees Timpson's camera change from Peter Peryer trinketry to the majesty of a Sergio Corbucci Western — the latter enriched by soundtrack cues like Bobbie Gentry and The Clean.
With the children's box office crushed under the sunken clichés of Pixar, Bookworm's humanoid grime gratifyingly harks back to American classics like Stand By Me and Goonies: family comedies with swears and blood that describe the inexhaustible hardship of forging a sincere human connection. Wood is sharply funny and achingly credible in a role that could become a mere Russell Brand caricature; Fisher perfectly precocious.
Although Mildred and Strawn's burgeoning father-daughter relationship remains the film's emotional core, Timpson and Harvard's script happily swerves into zones of unexpected, crackpot pleasure. One highlight is Strawn's sunset monologue about David Blaine's treachery, featuring a shark-themed restaurant, backwards baseball caps and Tobey Maguire. Another is a long-winded argument about whether or not a fellow tramper, played by Irish comedian Michael Smiley, is or is not a karate master.
Timpson has said that he wanted Bookworm to homage the wild memories of his Kiwi childhood; when there were no cell phones and you just had to be home by dark. When Mildred and Strawn are stranded near Elephant Hill without food, water or navigation, we remember just how often people really do disappear in New Zealand never to be seen again. Although Bookworm ostensibly follows one myth — that famous black cat — it is equally entwined with a fantasy of the South as the emotional heartland of our divided nation; a landscape where even a deluded yank magician can find salvation. It's not a bad fantasy to believe in.
Things to do over the weekend
Michael Mahne Lamb's Through Points at Ngutu Kākā Gallery, a sculptural photography show that needs to be seen in the room — and at different times of day! — to be properly appreciated.
Kith and Kin (but no Shirin) opens at Season tonight, featuring a hit list of contemporary figurative painters: brunelle dias, Tony Guo, Levi Kereama, Claudia Kogachi, and the esteemed Jacqueline Fahey.
Beyond the Walls is a student exhibition at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki From tomorrow through Sun 18 August. Read about it here: https://www.aucklandartgallery.com/whats-on/exhibition/student-exhibition-or-beyond-the-walls
Paula Morris has written on the Alice Munro debacle at NewsRoom
There was no media coverage. Still, many people in the Canadian literary world knew. Robert Thacker, who chose to ignore the abuse in his biography of Munro, was contacted this month by the Washington Post. He said, “I knew this day was going to come.”
The Booker Prize longlist has come out, including Charlotte Wood’s Stone Yard Devotional, which breaks an eight-year drought for Australia. We read and loved Percival Everett’s James, and it’s heartening to see Yiyun Li as a member of the judging panel — her taste is impeccable and we think she picked the Samantha Harvey. A year to read the longlist and not just the short, although Amy Brown’s My Brilliant Sister deserved a spot.
Do you have your tickets for the New Zealand International Film Festival? It opened in Wellington on Wednesday and starts this week in Auckland. If you have no idea what to see, Rebecca K Reilly and Amelia Berry did a beautifully digressive breakdown:
And, with the new tax cuts in effect, taxcutsforgaza.nz has launched an easy way for you to put your new $40 a week into supplying drinking water and food to Gaza.
Finally, former Girls frontman Christopher Owens is back after a long hiatus with a new single.
East & West is also going on hiatus this month. We’ll be back in September. Ka kite ano.
Will check out Bookworm, Ta!