Director Report Card: Cate Shortland (2021)

5. Black Widow

The question of why it took so long for Marvel to give Black Widow her own movie has a number of answers. As a character, Black Widow doesn't have the legacy of stories the way many of her fellow Avengers do. She doesn't have her own “Demon in a Bottle,” her own “Winter Solider,” her own “Infinity Gauntlet Saga.” The other reason is a lot more obvious: Hollywood has a problem with women-led superheroes movies. Former Marvel CEO Ike Perlmutter specifically seemed to have a problem with women-led superhero movies. This is presumably why it took until 2018 for a project starring huge star Scarlett Johansson, reprising a role she played in some of the biggest blockbusters in cinema history, to begin production. ScarJo herself would have a producer credit on the movie and picked Cate Shortland to direct from a long list of candidates, based on the strength of “Lore.”

Of course, this was before COVID put the world – and the entertainment world most of all – on pause for an entire year. In that time, “Black Widow” went from being just another cog in Marvel's endless machine of box office dominance to the first massive superhero movie to open since the pandemic began. After multiple release date shifts, the movie has finally come out in the middle of summer. While it's not the first giant, effects-driven action movie I've seen since I got my vaccine, there is admittedly something comforting about seeing that Marvel logo up on the screen again after a long absence. Love 'em or hate 'em, superhero movies were yet another part of our normal lives that were disrupted by the pandemic. Having that back feels like another step towards normalcy being restored.

Set directly after “Civil War,” “Black Widow” sees Natasha Romanoff on the run from S.H.E.I.L.D. While hiding out in Norway, she receives a package containing mysterious red viles. After surviving an attack by a masked assassin who can mirror her every move, Natasha seeks out the person who sent her the package: Yelena Belova, a fellow assassin that Natasha grew up with as her "sister." Yelena informs her that the Red Room – the Soviet program to turn girls into brainwashed killers – still exists. Teaming up with Melina and Alexei, the other members of their makeshift family of Russian assets, Natasha seeks to take down the Red Room forever and free all the other Black Widows.

It's been noted before that the Marvel Cinematic Universe has a lingering obsession with father figures. This might just be because Daddy issues are relatable but it's made family a reoccurring theme in these movies. "Black Widow" foregrounds the Marvel fixation on family in several different ways. Mostly, it allows for a lot of smaller, funny moments. The highlight of the movie is when Natasha and Yelena are sitting around a dinner table with their parental figures. Alexei may be the Soviet equivalent to Captain America and Melina is a brilliant scientist but they are also amusingly warm towards their pseudo-daughters. Melina tells Natasha not to slouch and Alexei regales his daughters with rambling anecdotes from his years of adventuring. The image of a team of superheroes sitting around a table, eating potato salad and squabbling like family, is definitely worth a laugh or two.

Focusing the movie on this off-beat family unit gives "Black Widow" a feel distinct from most Marvel flicks. A long stretch of the film is set on Melina's farm, focusing on the characters talking out their various feelings towards one another. This is sandwiched between two huge, extended action sequences, which feel a lot less distinct. One gets the impression that Cate Shortland was a lot more interested in the familial squabbling than the special effects-packed fight scenes. This push-and-pull between the director's indie movie sensibilities and the obligations of a superhero blockbuster sometimes gives "Black Widow" an unsteady feeling. 

Making Natasha the star of her own movie also allows us more of a peek into the character's psyche than we've ever gotten before. Throughout her previous seven cinematic appearances, Natasha has made references to the red in her ledger. We finally find out what that's all about: Black Widow had to kill a kid once and it fucked her up. Which is understandable but it seems overly simplistic that one incident is the root of her guilt. Throughout the movie, it's asked how Natasha "kept her heart" after being a professional killer for so many years. "Black Widow" never quite answers the question of how Romanoff balanced her empathetic qualities with her time spent murdering people for the Russian government, despite Scarlett Johansson's attempts to add some gasping, teary-eyed emotion to this role she's played so often.

Anytime a smaller director is scooped up by the massive Hollywood blockbuster machine, I always try to see if any of their trademarks or pet themes survive the transition. While I was really hoping "Black Widow" would be another Cate Shortland movie about a damaged outsider seeking self-forgiveness – and, as I said, it kind of is – you can most tell who the director is due to the film's feminist ideas. We quickly learn that the Red Room is controlled by one person: Dr. Dreykov. One man de-personalizing countless girls, to turn them into tools for his own wicked plan, is an obvious criticism of the dehumanizing way women are treated in our patriarchal society. When Natasha comes face-to-face with Dreykov, he's touchy and sleazy. (An angle Ray Winstone's somewhat over-the-top performance definitely leans into.) Ultimately, Natasha most wounds this villain, this author of all her pain, with her words. Even though Dreykov certainly knows this woman is a master manipulator, he still allows her to rile him up by insulting his fragile, masculine ego. 

It's certainly a point that can never be made too many times: That a lot of men have issues with women having autonomy over their own minds and bodies. Watching Natasha finally take her revenge on Dreykov, and all the dehumanizing forces he represents, should be satisfying. But, like most Marvel movies, "Black Widow" is politically toothless. Dreykov makes the Widows his literal mind-controlled slaves. The movie's evil scheme is the work of one, somewhat cartoonish guy. The film never broaches the ideas of the sexist forces at work in society in any deeper way. And it certainly doesn't address the lingering effects of the Soviet ideologies in the modern geopolitical landscape, which easily could've intersected with these feminist ideas in a deeper way. It's a toothless critique of a generalized Bad Thing, that doesn't really engage with these concepts. (Honestly, I think "Captain Marvel" handled this stuff better.)

But it's not like we go to Marvel movies to see biting criticism of misogyny. I watch these movies to see beautiful people make quips in-between fights with supervillains. "Black Widow" certainly succeeds in that regard. Its best choice is handing most of those quips to Florence Pugh. Pugh plays Yelena as a smart-mouthed little sister who can easily see through Natasha's pretensions. Her mockery of her sister's tendencies towards superhero landings is the film's best running gag. Pugh has great chemistry with Johansson, showing the mixture of resentment and admiration any younger sibling has for their older sister or brother. And Pugh certainly has no problem being funny and charming while doing green screen-assisted action theatrics. If the hope is for Yelena to take over the franchise, and it obviously is, Marvel did a pretty good job of picking their new star.

As the dysfunctional parents to these bickering sisters, we have David Harbour and Rachel Weisz. Harbour is essentially the movie's comic relief. He plays Alexei as a buffoonish figure, a posturing man-child who can't go more than a few minutes without mentioning his glory days as the Red Guardian. Harbour is good at this kind of broad comedic shenanigans and he also manages to find the occasional nugget of warmth or wisdom under the character's cartoonish exterior. Weisz, meanwhile, is totally overqualified as Melina, a soft-spoken mother figure and brilliant schemer in her own right. Weisz is absolutely qualified to bring a character like this to life, even if she's given few opportunities to really show off her range her.

In the world of previs sci-fi spectacle like this, you never can be certain how much control the director even has over the visual presentation of the movie. However, “Black Widow” sees quite a few of Cate Shortland's trademarks returning... Which isn't always a good thing. The shaky camera work that wasn't too distracting in an indie drama like 'Somersault” or “Lore” proves problematic here, as the first few melee fight scenes are tricky to follow. Which is all the more frustrating since there's some impressive stunt work in there, of flips and bodies slamming into walls and chairs. It gets better as the movie goes on, though some of Shortland's other visual quirks – slow motion and fade-to-white – are also implemented to mixed effect throughout the action scenes.

Which isn't to say “Black Widow” is a bad looking movie. Shortland engineers some eye-catching visuals. A sequence where a group of Widows, in a literal red room, are training and practicing like a choreographed dance trope is pretty cool. So is a moment when a darkened home is suddenly lit up by a bright white-blue spotlight. Yet I continue to believe that the big budget action stuff was what Shortland was the least interested in here. In its last act, “Black Widow” becomes a barrage of CGI destruction. Repeated shots of the actors diving through the sky around falling wreckage features underwhelming green screen effects. Honestly, a movie with this kind of budget and resources that that sat on a shelf for a whole year should look a lot better than that.

That the movie inevitably falls into such underwhelming computer generated chaos is even the more disappointing, considering there's actually some clever writing in the last third. Our ragtag team of heroes put together a scheme to infiltrate the villain's lair and take it down. What makes this interesting is that we are sparingly given the information about this plot. This allows the viewer to be as caught off-guard about some of the twists and turns as the characters are. Some of these are more predictable than others but a few – involving a sci-fi disguise and the blunt way a certain plot device is disposed of – managed to surprise me.

Phase 4 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe does, partially anyway, seem devoted to bringing back some iconic comic villains that the company previously discarded. Perhaps as a way to get more comic accurate incarnations on-screen. Yet the studio is still making the same mistakes of the past. Without getting too spoiler-y, the Taskmaster from the comics, a sarcastic villain-for-hire with a complicated past, doesn't have much in common with the Taskmaster from this movie. Once again, as with the Mandarin and the Skrulls, an iconic comic villain is thrown away in favor of a plot twist. This one is easy to see coming too, once you notice a fairly well-known performer is listed in the opening credits but seemingly doesn't appear in the movie.

If I'm being totally honest, "Black Widow" is not the Black Widow movie I most wanted to see. A direct prequel showing Natasha actually going about her business as a spy and assassin, and what drove her to leave that lifestyle, probably would've been way more interesting to me. Mostly, I guess I just wanted a buddy movie between her and Hawkeye, illustrating the oft-referenced Budapest incident that's been hinting at before. (And is further alluded to here as well.) We certainly see plenty of Black Widow's early days here, thanks to an extended opening that sees Shortland packing in ironic Americana to contrast with this family of fleeing Soviet spies. But I guess I wanted more. 

"Black Widow's" role as merely another component of Marvel/Disney's own plan for global dominance is apparent. Several plot points are left dangling for further adventures and the requisite post-credit scene is an even more blatant set-up for a sequel. Considering Natasha's fate in "Endgame," and the general eagerness the movie shows to get on to the next story, "Black Widow" can't help but feel like a side story to something larger. It's certainly an entertaining movie – and its guaranteed box office victory is another sign that movie theaters are recovering – but the unsatisfactory balance between family issue and typical superhero thrills renders it mid-tier Marvel. A winning cast, lots of funny moments, and the occasional pause for gracefulness certainly go a long way but it can't beat the lingering sense that this is an epilogue, instead of a new beginning. [Grade: B]

Director Report Card: Cate Shortland (2017)

4. Berlin Syndrome

Throughout her still developing career, Cate Shortland has flirted with the thriller genre. "Somersault" had that one, brilliantly tense sequence. “The Silence” hovered around being a thriller without ever succeeding at it. “Lore” was certainly grim and unsettling, though not exactly in the way you expect from a genre effort. All along, the director was clearly showing mastery of the various building blocks necessary to make good suspense. With her fourth feature, she would finally commit. “Berlin Syndrome,” based on a novel by Melanie Joosten, sees Shortland moving in a more commercial direction without leaving behind the ideas she's explored in her previous films.

Clare, an Australian backpacker, travels to Berlin in hopes of photographing the sights of the German city. She meets a handsome man named Andi, a teacher. The two spend the night together. The next morning, Andi goes to work and leaves Clare locked in his apartment. At first, she assumes this was a simple mistake. After Andi returns, acting as if nothing unusual happened, it becomes increasingly clear to Clare that he doesn't plan on letting her leave. He restrains her, threatens her with violence, and attempts to manipulate her. Clare quickly discovers that she is not the first girl Andi has captured either.

After quickly deducing that Andi has trapped her, Clare smashes a window with a chair. The glass is double-pained. Later, she injuries Andi and makes a run for it. He immediately scoops her back up. While out in public, she attempts to alert a young boy of what's happening. The kid doesn't speak English. After successfully alerting a bystander, Andi kills the man before he can rescue Clare. Is this frustrating for anyone else? That's precisely the point. “Berlin Syndrome” puts the audience in Clare's place. She is trapped in a seemingly inescapable hell. The viewer is trapped with her. An atmosphere of grim tension quickly overtakes you, as you wonder if there's any way out of this prison.

How you feel watching Clare's escape plans get continually dashed is how every woman trapped in an abusive relationship feels. That is what's most unsettling about “Berlin Syndrome:” There's nothing extraordinary about Andi's abuse. He repeatedly gaslights her, ignoring her concerns and treating this situation as normal. When doing horrible things to her, he insists it's her fault. He neglects her when she doesn't interest him, leaving her locked inside the apartment without power for days. When she bonds with a pet dog, he quietly, remorselessly kills it. My mom's first husband, a piece-of-shit who beat her regularly, did that too. Even the suggesting of leaving the apartment is met with a threat of violence. A girl I knew in college had a boyfriend do that to her as well. “Berlin Syndrome” is a horror movie not in spite of but precisely because of how totally plausible its horror is.

It's a horror movie for other reasons too. While Clare is trapped inside her room, she slowly uncovers clues that Andi is a serial killer. Hidden throughout the apartment are remains of the last girl Andi did this to. All of these discoveries are the kind that make you squirm: A scrapbook full of nude photographs, a lock of blonde hair fished out of a shower drain, a bloody fingernail stuck into a floorboard. You feel the same sort of revulsion Clare feels as she finds these gruesome hints. “Berlin Syndrome” shows that Cate Shortland actually has a pretty good grasp on a disquieting, even gross, type of horror.

When not suggesting acts of brutal violence, “Berlin Syndrome” occasionally actually shows them. A notable moment has a screwdriver being slammed into Andi's hand. He counters this by smashing Clare's hand into a door. Her hand is broken throughout most of the rest of the film, the camera lingering on the slow recovery and pain she must be in. This is only the second most unnerving incident of violence in the film. The most is even more subtle. After having a simple conversation with her, Andi shoves Clare in the trunk of his car in a deeply blunt fashion. The violence in “Berlin Syndrome” is realistically savage, giving it even more impact.

The film's title brings Stockholm Syndrome to mind. There are certain points throughout the movie where you wonder if, maybe, Clare has successfully fallen under Andi's unhinged spell. After his father dies, she comforts him. During a Christmas celebration, she seems to actually enjoy his conversation. At one point, she willingly consents to wearing lingerie for him. The question one must ask is this: Is Clare becoming psychologically dependent on her captor? Or is she merely playing the long con, hoping to catch him with his guard down? It's good for a thriller to have that level of uncertainly, for the audience to be kept guessing until the final reveal.

What makes Andi's psychosis and Clare's dire predicament all the more upsetting is how genuinely steamy their initial pairing is. He's charming. When they first meet up, they have some pretty hot sex. They do it again the next morning. Shortland shows a previously unnoticed skill for eroticism, in these moments. Of course, that's what allows senselessly abusive men like Andi to get away with it for so long. They are charismatic, handsome, and likable. It's another example of how all of “Berlin Syndrome” functions as a metaphor for the entire idea of an abusive relationship. The film itself lures you in with the sexy sex, before revealing the horror that hides underneath.

Though it shows her moving towards a different genre, “Berlin Syndrome” definitely looks like a Cate Shortland movie. The handheld camera work isn't present as much as usual. However, the overcast and gritty colors are definitely present and accounted for. The film has a uniformly gray color palette. Save for the occasional burst of color from some Christmas lights, which happily recalls the more colorful moments from “Somersault.” Shortland also just can't let go of the slow motion. That appears during a montage of Clare photographing herself for Andi's amusement. It's good to know the filmmaker has kept some consistent qualities along the way.

For the majority of its run time, “Berlin Syndrome” is a two person show. Teresa Palmer plays Clare. She has a lot of heavy lifting to do as an actress here. Her character spends most of the film in an extreme emotional state. When she's not outwardly panicking, she's panicking internally too. At the same time, you can spy the gears turning inside, as she tries to find some way out of a seemingly impossible situation. Clare is a girl constantly breaking apart and then coming back together again, Palmer taking us through the steps every time they happen.

Max Riemelt is the other half of that two-hander, as Andi. Riemelt is very good at something that makes Andi an even more chilling character. Most of the time, he seems perfectly normal. When talking with his dad or teaching his class, there's nothing unsettling about his behavior. When he comes home to the apartment, with flowers for Clare, asking her if she likes pesto, you're not even sure if he knows what he's doing is wrong. All of this is before he reveals the depth of sociopathy, when he coldly considers killing Clare or sets a body on fire without even pausing. There's no mask of sanity and that's the creepiest part. Every awful thing Andi does is totally justified in his own mind. Riemelt portrays all of this fantastically.

If you're looking for Shortland's pet themes in “Berlin Syndrome,” you can see some of them. Andi's relationship with his father, and his even more implied relationship with his mother, follows the theme of parenthood that has run through all her movies. Yet there might be some headier themes in “Berlin Syndrome.” Berlin is obviously a city with a long history. The story of a person being held against their will, totally under control of a homicidal and psychotic madman, seems to present certain parallels with Berlin's fascist past. Some with a better understanding of Berlin's history and location might be able to speak to this stuff more. It went over my head a little bit, I'm thinking.

It's fair to say that “Berlin Syndrome” is my favorite of Cate Shortland's films, so far. I'd argue its her best film. It is a taunt execution of a creepy premise, that is full of deeper angles worth exploring. Both lead performers do a wonderful job, Palmer creating a heroine you can root for and Riemelt creating a very disturbing antagonist. Maybe the threads of melodrama that undid Shortland's previous films for me work better with the horror/thriller genre, where heightened emotions are expected and perfectly understandable. However you slice it, “Berlin Syndrome” is a deeply unnerving and effectively grim picture that will send the kind of shiver up your spine that lingers for quite a while. [Grade: B+]

Having watched all her movies now, I'm kind of surprised that Disney chose Cate Shortland to handle a big budget action-fest. Her previous four features aren't exactly commercial. They have almost no action sequences or special effects in them. Aside from having female protagonists and her last two movies being set in Eastern Europe, I don't really see any direct line between her previous films and “Black Widow.” Which, weirdly, makes me far more interested in what's to come. I'm genuinely intrigued how these indie sensibilities will adapt to blockbuster fare... Ya know, assuming the world ever settles down enough for superhero movies to get released again.

As for my opinion on Shortland overall, she's interesting. She's got some impulses I'm not a fan but others that draw me in. I'm not sure yet if she's a director I would've jived with otherwise, at least based on her first three films. Her career is still early enough that it's possible Shortland has a masterpiece in her. “Berlin Syndrome” is getting there. I suppose, for going in blind on this one, things turned out pretty well.

Director Report Card: Cate Shortland (2012)

3. Lore

If I had to guess, it would seem to me that Cate Shortland had already developed a respectable, critical following in her home country. “Somersault” was obviously very well received in Australia. However, the director hadn't quite made an impression on the global scene just yet. That would change with “Lore.” The film would be adapted from one of the three novellas published in Rachel Seiffert's book, “The Dark Room.” It would play multiple festivals all over the world, grabbing positive reviews everywhere it went. It would even be Australia's submission to the Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film, though it wouldn't receive a nomination. The film would put Shortland's name on the lips of many international critics.

It's 1944 and, in Germany, World War II is coming to a close. The Allies have captured Berlin and Adolf Hitler is dead. The Dressler family – father Vati a Nazi officer, mother Mutti a high society woman – live in a large home in the Black Forest. The parents are forced to leave, becoming prisoners-of-war. This leaves the children to fend for themselves. Oldest girl Hannelore must look after her five younger siblings, including the infant Peter. With few resources, they soon set off to find their grandmother's home in Hamburg. Crossing war torn Germany, Lore befriends a Jewish boy named Thomas. Forced to survive the harsh environment, Lore must confront her own identity.

The saying is well-known: In war, the history books are written by the victors. The cinematic version of World War II, the "Last Good War" for us Americans, has played out on-screen a thousand times. It's not often that a film forces us to consider the losers in this conflict, those who do not write the history books. In “Lore,” we see how German life was devastated by loosing the war. The cities are destroyed. The people are starving. The borders are chopped up by competing superpowers. The traditional rules of society are breaking down. An invading force, openly hostile to the natives, are rolling through the country. The citizens are innocent, caught in a conflict none of them have any control over. Just putting this perspective on screen is a bold decision.

However, there is an unavoidable factor to “Lore.” The filmmakers are in the unenviable position of trying to get us to sympathize with literal Nazis. Lore's father is a commanding officer in the Third Reich. Her mother was active in wartime social functions. Her little brothers are Hitler Youths. Lore herself has an antisemitic outburst late in the film. Many of the German people spotted throughout the film are already espousing the belief that the Holocaust is an American hoax. This is, of course, exactly the point. Throughout the story, Lore is forced to confront the idea that the life she knew – the perfect bubble she lived in, of Nazi high society – is a total lie. That the regime she believed in was built on racism and genocide. When she sees the photos of Holocaust victims, she is shocked and crestfallen. She cannot deny their reality. This is a valid idea to explore. Still, generating sympathy for Nazis is not a comfortable plot point.

The specifics of the conflict are obviously extremely important to “Lore.” Yet this is also a film that fits neatly into a genre often seen in arty, foreign language dramas: Miserablist tales about the horrors of war. Yes, “Lore” is not an easy watch. In order to survive, Lore and her siblings have to go through hell. They are frequently filthy. One unnerving episode has them staying with a clearly mentally unstable woman, who forces them to stand around in their underwear. Lore is forced to give away her mother's ring, her last prized possession. Most bitterly, one of the children is senselessly killed before our eyes. When watching films like this, I often can't help but grow a little numb. One can only take so much cinematic misery before tuning out.

One grim fact of war especially floats over the film. Harrelore's status as a young woman, physically budding and virginal, can't help but make her vulnerable. An air of sexual menace floats over most of the film. The siblings, early on, discover the corpse of a woman who was clearly assaulted. While trying to court favor with a fisherman, Lore nearly offers up her body. Thomas is introduced having rough, though apparently consensual, sex with a woman early on. Whenever Lore is alone with him, you fear for her. It's unavoidable fact that this is an unspeakably awful threat a girl in this situation must have faced every day.

Even with its bleak historical setting, “Lore” still has some things in common with Shortland's earlier movies. Like “Somersault,” this is a coming-of-age story. Harrelore definitely begins the story as a child. She loves her parents and think they are always right. She sees her younger siblings as burdens of sorts. By the story's end, all of this will change. She'll realize that authority figures can be wrong. That she has a special bond with her brothers and sisters. Though her relationship with Thomas is anything but typical, it is a young romance of sorts. She feels drawn to the boy in ways she doesn't entirely understand. Much like her debut, “Lore” is another Cate Shortland movie about a teenage girl in a serious state of transition.

Even though this is only her third feature, Shortland's visual trademarks are well established by now. “Lore” maintains the gritty style seen in her first two films. Once again, the film is shot in a partially handheld fashion, that emphasizes sometimes shaky camerawork. There's a lot of close-ups on the faces and bodies of her actors. All in the name of capturing a greater sense of grounded reality. Likewise, the color palette is largely gray and overcast. Which is befitting of a gloomy and dark tale like this, though I'm really starting to miss those burst of colors we saw in “Somersault.” Some of Shortland's less desirable visual quirks, such as a tendency to punctuate scenes with slow motion, also returns.

Another reoccurring element from “The Silence” that, perhaps, I could have done without is some more overly on-the-nose symbolism. As Harrelore discovers her family legacy is totally full of shit, she soon learns that other people around her are lying as well. This is a largely unnecessary plot twist that adds little to the film. (Though it reveals the title as a pun of sorts, “Lore” referring to both the main character and the myths we tell ourselves.) There's also the loaded visual symbolism of a porcelain deer she carries with her throughout the film. When reunited with her grandmother, she places the toy deer with a set of similar elk. Soon afterwards, she smashes all of them, rejecting the familial legacy she was expected to carry. Yeah, we get it. Thanks for ladling that on.

Here's something I haven't really mentioned yet. Even though “Lore” was directed by an Australian, produced by Australians, and co-written by a Brit, the film is entirely in German. This must have presented some interesting challenges for the cast and crew. Shortland, apparently, does not speak a word of German. I wonder how she communicated clearly with the cast? Either way, it is an interesting choice. It adds an appropriate level of verisimilitude to film, as that subconscious Hollywood question of “Why are the Germans speaking English?” never enters into the question.

The cast is uniformly strong. Saskia Rosendahl would only be making her second screen appearance here. Yet she gives an impressive performance. Rosendahl plays Harrelore as a girl doing everything she can to carry the sudden load on her shoulders. She frays under the pressure sometimes, physically shaking or tearing up. Yet she never admits defeat, charging onward in order to protect her younger siblings. Rosendahl shows all these complex feelings largely with her face, hinting at the interior strife without ever overdoing it. Her emotional outbursts are well-earned and cathartic.

The supporting cast is also well utilized. Kai Malina as Thomas does a good job of leaving the audience uncertain of his motivations. At times, he is effectively menacing. Other times, he seems sincere, even sweet. He successfully conveys the idea that the boy himself is uncertain of his own feelings. Ursina Lardi is quietly heartbreaking as the mother. She might be despondent over the death of Der Fuhrer, yet there's something undeniably human about the way she breaks down. Among the younger siblings, Nele Trebs as Liesel, the younger sister, makes the best impression. She carries a certain sardonic edge to her dialogue that makes her stand out among the other kids.

Ultimately, “Lore” is a movie I admire more than I like. Grim and serious motion pictures like this aren't really designed to be “liked” anyway. The film effectively makes its point, showing us the complex emotions the defeated side of a conflict must feel. Its young cast is very good, Rosendahl being especially impressive. It's a well constructed and shot film. Yet it's also not as deep or thoughtful as it postures to be. The film sometimes feels like a depressing slog. While there are certain things to admire about “Lore” – I won't deny that it's obviously a good film – I don't think it's one I'll be revisiting anytime soon. [Grade: B-]

Director Report Card: Cate Shortland (2006)

2. The Silence

When introducing Cate Shortland, I focused mostly on her short film. However, she has also done quite a bit of work in Australian television. She directed multiple episodes of the series “Bad Cop, Bad Cop” and “The Secret Life of Us.” (I don't know what either of those are.) After “Somersault” caused a stir in her home country, she was invited back to TV to direct “The Silence.” The murder mystery/cop thriller was originally aired in two parts over two nights. Over here in America, it was released as one two hour feature. It received somewhat mixed reviews. Most people don't even seem to consider it Shortland's second feature but I am more thorough than that, so here we are. 

Detective Richard Treloar was recently dismissed from the police force. After seeing a man murder a woman, he lost it and nearly beat the guy to death. Deeply affected by the event – and still harboring trauma from his parent-less childhood – Treloar has been sent to work in the Police Museum. There, he combs over old crime scene photographs for an exhibition. That is when he notices the same woman, carrying a birthday present and wearing a silky gown, in several photos... Including one where she's dead. He becomes obsessed with the cold case, tracking down forty-year-old leads to solve the murder. Soon enough, he discovers he is in danger.

I like to think otherwise but it seems the obsession with prime time cop/detective shows is not a uniquely American characteristic. Honestly, I think the whole world loves the format. Australia cop shows are, or at least where at one point, pretty well respected. If “The Silence” is any indication, they are quite a bit grittier than American programs. The film contains graphic violence in the crime scene photos, quite a bit of nudity, and more than a few four-letter words. Broadcast standard differences aside, “The Silence” proves to a mildly involving mystery. The story is easy-to-follow, with enough twist and turns to keep you guessing but never becoming convoluted. It draws you in, as you try to figure out how these story threads connect.

Yet it's apparent that “The Silence” is not setting out to be just an involving murder/mystery. The telefilm has higher aspirations to art. The script has several thematic threads strewn throughout. The least interesting of which, disappointingly, takes up the most time. Richard is clearly haunted by the woman he failed to rescued. We see the crime scene photos concerning that death early in the film. When he discovers the photos of the dead woman from the sixties, and becomes obsessed with solving the crime, the link is obvious. If he solves the murder from the past, he will symbolically be resolving the murder from his present. It's the sort of obvious, almost hacky, attempt to add depth to a story that you see a lot.

Similarly, “The Silence” places a great deal of emphasis on the power of photographs. Richard looks over the old crime scene photographs, obsessing over the tiniest details. Such as the presence of a matchbook or some cigarettes. For his birthday, Richard's girlfriend digs up the only photographs from his childhood as a gift.  It doesn't take the viewer a lot of time to start to see the link between one set of photos and the other. Thus, Richard's attempt to resolve this decades old murder becomes a chance to resolve the trauma of his own abandoned childhood. I wish “The Silence” touched upon the meaning of photographs more. Photographs are record of the past, which can be looked back on but never changed. It's sort of in the movie but not really.

A more interesting layer in “The Silence” concerns Richard's relationship with the women around him. As he becomes obsessed with the woman in the crime scene photos, he neglects his girlfriend. He verbally abuses his police-assigned psychotherapist. He barks orders at the assistant working him on the museum project, also a young woman.  Even though he knows nothing about the woman in photograph, he essentially falls in love with her, even having fantasies about her. In other words, he's more interested in literally two-dimensional women than real, flesh-and-blood ones. Within “The Silence,” there's a criticism of a certain type of shallow, toxic guy. He values the unidentified woman because he can project any feeling he wants on her. Instead of the actual women, who have thoughts and motivations of their own that he doesn't want to grapple with.

All of these interesting layers I'm talking about here, this is before a major plot twist that occurs over halfway through the film. At that point, “The Silence” almost totally falls apart. The connection between the protagonist and his object of obsession are made much more explicit. All the ambiguity is tossed out. The plot becomes far too neat and interconnected, in a way that strains credibility. The film then doesn't address the new, weird implications this plot twist brings up. It's really disappointing and a bad example of a style of screenwriting, where everything that happens in a story must relate to, build on, everything else in the story. Man, it's okay for stuff to just exist on its own sometimes. “The Silence” definitely fails in that regard.

Watching “The Silence” right after “Somersault,” you can see that Cate Shortland did not let the limitations of television hold back her visual sense. This is probably because “The Silence” has the same cinematographer, Robert Humphreys, as Shortland's debut. You see a definite continuity between the two films. Both have a gritty visual style, the camera work often being handheld. You don't see the same use of color that you saw in “Somersault.” There's a very brief moment, where a character creeps around a darkened house, bathed in deep shadows, that I liked. Otherwise, “The Silence” has the same gray, washed-out, “naturalistic” aesthetic you associate with gritty cop shows. Apparently that is true all over the world.

Still, you can see some of the same directorial instincts navigating both films. Even some of the odder, tackier elements from “Somersault” are maintained here. Such as a melodramatic fade-to-white. Or a moment where a character falls to the ground, their image ghosting through the air for a second. Even if this was likely a work-for-hire gig for Shortland, you do see some of the same themes being carried over from “Somersault.” Both movies have fractured protagonists ultimately in search of self-forgiveness as much as anything else. The interest in the relationship between parents and their children continues here as well. Though I'm only two films into her career, it's clear that there is such a thing as “the Cate Shortland aesthetic” emerging.

“The Silence” is a lead role for Richard Roxburgh. Here in the states, Roxburgh is best known for his extremely hammy turns as goofy villains in big budget studio fare, like “Moulin Rouge!,” “Van Helsing,” or “League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.” I have no idea how well known he is in his native Australian but it seems his breakout role was in an earlier TV movie about cops. Roxburgh definitely shows more range here than I'm use to from him. He's good at letting heavy emotions bubble just under the surface, always on the verge of boiling over. He is, indeed, playing a man on the edge. Roxburgh gets at the deeper, complicated feelings of the character without overdoing it. It's a solid performance.

Another reason I wanted to check out “The Silence” is because it also features Essie Davis. Like a lot of genre fans, I was blown away by Davis' performance in “The Babadook,” so it was exciting to see her in something else. Here, she plays Juliet, Richard's shrink. Even though Davis is also Australian, the character is from Ireland. This causes the actress to affect a heavy, sometimes difficult-to-decipher accent. Despite that, Davis still gives an empathetic performance. She even manages to bring some mild humor to the part, in a scene where she complains about her loud neighbors. Though I'm mildly baffled by the movie's decision to play Juliet's relationship with Richard as romantic...

There's a number of talented women in “The Silence's” supporting cast. Emily Barclay plays Evelyn, Richard's put-upon assistant. Barclay has good chemistry with Roxburgh and it's amusing watching the gruff cop and sarcastic younger woman play off each other. Alice McConnell plays Helen, Richard's neglected girlfriend. Even if that subplot proves hopelessly underdeveloped, McConnell still shows off an impressive range. Jennifer Hagan appears in the brief role of Olive, a retired madam of a brothel that Richard interviews on his quest for information. Hagan is amusingly snippy as a hardened old lady who doesn't take kindly to questions.

It does not seem “The Silence” made much of a splash in Australia. Though it was nominated for a few Australian Film Institute awards, in the television division, it did not win any. I think the film would probably be completely overlooked if not for its director. For whatever reason, the Weinstein Company distributed the movie on DVD here in America... But not before providing it with a hilariously misleading cover art. If you rented “The Silence” based on that artwork, you'll be disappointed to find it contains no gun fights or explosions. They even Photoshopped the actresses' faces onto bustier model's bodies. Hilarious. As for the movie itself, it begins as a mildly compelling character study and mystery, before sloppier narrative instincts cause it to end on a complete shrug. [Grade: C+]

Director Report Card: Cate Shortland (2004)

This one might be an adventure. Usually, when I do a Director's Report Card, I'm talking about a filmmaker I'm at least partially familiar with. With every one of these I've done before, I've seen at least one of their movies before.

This one will be different. I've never seen a Cate Shortland movie before. So why am I devoting an entire retrospective to her? You've probably notice I've been watching my way through the Marvel Cinematic Universe, in an incredibly convoluted and ass-backwards manner. Shortland was plucked out of relative obscurity by the Hollywood blockbuster machine to helm “Black Widow,” the delayed-on-account-of-the-apocalypse newest entry in the billion dollar franchise. Before that superhero flick is (eventually) released, I figured I'd take a look at Shortland's previous credits. They seem pretty interesting. I have no idea how this'll work out but here goes anyway.

1. Somersault

Everything I know about Cate Shortland, I've gleamed from her Wikipedia and IMDb pages but, here, let me attempt to summarize her early career anyway. After graduating from film school, she directed a handful of well received short films. Supposedly, several of these won some local awards. Of her shorts, one in particular seems to be relevant to her feature debut. “Joy” followed a teenage girl as she dealt with her daily life and dysfunctional family. Shortland would draw upon similar themes with “Somersault,” her debut feature and a breakout movie for the director.

Heidi is a somewhat socially awkward sixteen year old girl living in a suburb outside Canberra. One aimless day, she attempts to seduce her mom's boyfriend for no reason she can understand. After being caught and having an argument, she runs away from home. She drifts around for a few nights before arriving in tourist town Jindabyne. As winter arrives, she manages to find a room in a hotel and gets a job in a gas station. She catches the eye of a handsome young man named Joe, who seems to be questioning his own sexuality. Yet Heidi's desperate need for affection and approval soon leads her back into trouble.

Throughout “Somersault,” we see Heidi cut out images from magazines and save them in a scrapbook. Later, a key scene has her posing in front of a mirror. She pantomimes what she thinks a seduction looks like. These childish rituals point towards an important idea in the film: Heidi is basically a child. Though she is pushed out on her own and having these sexual adventures, she doesn’t understand how the world works at all. This makes “Somersault” an especially pointed coming-of-age story. This isn’t a story about a child transitioning into adulthood. This is a movie about a lost kid, trying her best to find some catharsis in a confusing world.

That “Somersault” is so upfront about Heidi’s sexual promiscuity also differentiates the film from the rest of the indie coming-of-age lot. Heidi often sleeps with guys right after meeting them. While trying to find a job, she makes an incredibly awkward attempt to seduce her potential hirer. The plot is motivated by her spontaneous choice to make a move on her mom’s boyfriend. Heidi has clearly learned one thing: She can use her sex appeal to get affection and attention. That seduction is the only area she has any power. That the visceral pleasures of sex can distract from the awkwardness she feels all the time. Shortland never judges her protagonist for these actions, presenting what Heidi does honestly without slut-shaming. “Somersault” intimately understands why a teen girl like Heidi seeks out sex the way she does.

Ultimately, “Somersault” is making a pretty clear point. Heidi makes mistakes the entire movie. She flees from them because the world offers her little forgiveness. She has internalized this lesson, never offering herself any forgiveness either. It’s only in the film’s closing minutes that she realizes, sometimes, a parent’s love can forgive anything. By asking her mom for forgiveness, what Heidi is really learning is to forgive herself. Without ever getting preachy about it, “Somersault” presents a clear lesson on the power of self-forgiveness and love.

“Somersault” wasn’t Abbie Cornish’s first performance, as she appeared in several movies and television shows before. Yet this was clearly the breakout role for the actress. With her blonde hair even brighter than usual, looking like a complete naïf in the woods, Cornish exposes herself physically and emotionally. She perfectly plays Heidi’s confusion and naivety. The small quiver in her voice, her body language, immediately puts you in the same emotional headspace as this character. She’s so convincing that you honestly forget you are watching a performer at all. It just seems like you are seeing a real teenage girl.

Cornish is not the only future star to breakout in “Somersault.” The film would also be an early appearance for Sam Worthington. Thanks to some truly wooden turns, playing forgettable protagonists in sci-fi flicks like “Avatar” and “Terminator Salvation,” Worthington does not have the best reputation as an actor. Yet the evidence suggest it was really the scripts failing Worthington in those movies. For “Somersault,” he would win an Australian Film Institute Award, the country’s equivalent to the Oscars. Worthington is naturalistic as Joe. He shows the young man’s insecurities largely through facial expressions and body language. He’s certainly good, showing a depth as a performer and a certain leading man charm that his Hollywood career has largely underutilized.

However, Joe’s parts of the film are also the biggest issue with “Somersault.” The world around him, represented by his stoic father, demand men perform in a certain way. This conflicts with his own feelings, his changing sexuality and growing attachment to Heidi. This certainly connects with the film’s wider themes of parental dysfunction and self-forgiveness, especially in a moment when a drunk Joe confronts his dad. Yet any time “Somersault” pulls away from Heidi, the film goes off-balance. This is ultimately her story and the moments focusing on Joe feel like digressions. Especially the scenes devoted to his attraction to the gay renter in the house. Really, the story of a young man navigating his own sexuality in the isolated Australian countryside should’ve been its own movie.

Joe’s subplot points towards a larger issue “Somersault” encounters as it goes along. The film slowly veers towards full-on melodrama. As Heidi continues to screw up, the people she thought were her friends callously abandon her. That co-worker is especially mean. This culminate in an attempted threesome with two random guys she meets, both men being portrayed as cartoonishly obnoxious. The film’s miscalculated sense of drama peaks during an unintentionally hilarious moment where Heidi screams while spraying a hose at a window. These scenes capture the volatile teenage emotions of the film’s protagonist perhaps a little too well.

Visually, “Somersault” is very much of its time. The film appears to be shot digitally, with the slightly washed-out but smooth appearance that comes with it. That is combined with an often handheld style of shooting. This recalls roughly a hundred other indie dramas that were being made around the same time. Sure, it works for the movie. This is a small scale and grounded story, so the style is befitting. Yet I found the more visually expressive moments, when Cate Shortland really shows off her strengths as a director, more compelling. Such as a neon-tinged party Heidi attends or a moment when she sings a nursery rhyme and claps her hands.

One scene, in particular, is very well done and points towards the kind of movies Shortland would make in the future. After befriending a co-worker, Heidi spends some time at the girl’s home. There, she discovers that her new friend’s father is the shop owner she attempted to seduce earlier in the movie. He then drives the girl out into the country. The interaction that follows is extremely tense. The audience is uncertain of the man’s motivations, especially as he makes Heidi more and more uncomfortable. The cramped location, the interior of a truck, only adds to the moment’s grim tension. It’s a scene that suggests Shortland could make a strong thriller and it would seem she’d follow that instinct.

Because it’s an indie drama from the mid-2000s, “Somersault” also has an indie rock soundtrack. Australian band Decoder Ring provides most of the songs and score. As you might expect, the music is heavy on electronic ambiance, sparse instrumentation, and lots of whispery female vocals. This isn’t necessarily a mark against the music. It certainly fits the alienation and loneliness Heidi feels, especially in tracks like “Heidi’s Theme” and “More Than Scarlet.” Some of the songs, like the title track, are even rather pretty. “Rough Sex” has a harsher rock edge to it that I enjoy. This is a good example of a score that totally serves the film that I probably wouldn’t listen to on its own.

“Somersault” wouldn’t just win an Australian Film Institute Award for its leading man. In fact, the film would sweep the award show, becoming the first in the program’s history to win in all thirteen film-related categories. Pretty impressive for such a humble, low-budget production. Internationally, the film would not make as big a splash. It would win some positive reviews without being too noticed. That’s how it is, sometimes. Taken on its own, “Somersault” is a very good riff on the coming-of-age story, beautifully acted and compassionately written, that doesn’t entirely escape the pitfalls of the genre. [Grade: B]