Skip to main content

Candy (2006)

Candy (2006), alongside the recently reviewed Looking for Grace, belongs to a sub-genre that could be dubbed "parental nightmares", in which children turn out to be evil (e.g. We Need to Talk About Kevin) or are besieged by the evils of the world (off the top of my head, Hardcore, Ransom, Taken, My Sister's Keeper, Thirteen, Beautiful Boy, Rabbit Hole, Babyteeth, to name a few). In the case of Candy, the nightmare experienced by parents Elaine and Jim (Noni Hazlehurst and Tony Martin) is watching their daughter Candy (Abbie Cornish) in the throes of heroin addiction. Hazlehurst experienced this nightmare previously in Little Fish, as the mother of Cate Blanchett’s recovering junkie, and a quarter century earlier dated Colin Friels’ heroin addict in Monkey Grip, making her an onscreen avatar for women contending with addicts in their orbit.   

Lest the above suggest the film is told from Elaine and Jim’s viewpoints, it’s actually squarely focused on Candy and her similarly addicted boyfriend Dan, played by Heath Ledger. Moving through three Acts charting their deterioration—Heaven, Earth, Hell—the film showcases Ledger and Cornish’s promising talent and thwarted potential: the former by his tragic death, the latter by subsequent career opportunities (she’s had a successful career by most yardsticks, but Somersault and Candy remain very high early peaks). Both deserved better, as attested by their excellent work here as two lost souls, albeit frequently unsympathetic ones, with Cornish in particular tapping into a raw nerve.

Co-screenwriter Luke Davies’ source novel is subtitled “A Novel of Love and Addiction”, and Davies and director/co-scribe Neil Armfield (primarily a theatre director), cinematographer Garry Phillips (Burning Man), and editor Dany Cooper (The Sapphires) succeed in capturing the swoony—and here dangerously intertwined—highs of young love and addiction, as well as the corresponding and escalating miserable lows and the souring of said romance. Composer Paul Charlier and the sound team also contribute significantly to these contrasts, with the lush, soft sound design of the highs contrasting with the more pronounced effects and coarser diegetic sounds accompanying the lows. 

Ben

Popular posts from this blog

John Hargreaves double feature: Hoodwink (1981) and Sky Pirates (1986)

Published 2017 on Down Under Flix Discounting the film  Blackfellas , in which he plays a minor role as a racist policeman, I’m surprised it’s taken this long to cover any John Hargreaves films on Down Under Flix. A six time AFI Award nominee (including for  Hoodwink ) and triple winner, Hargreaves is one of the best leading men to emerge from the Australian New Wave, and I have particular regard for his work in  Don’s Party,   Long Weekend , and  The Odd Angry Shot . Hargreaves was a natural performer: gifted and charismatic, but not unnecessarily flashy; handsome, but not movie star handsome, and slightly crumpled like a creased jacket. He was a quintessential Australian everyman ala Jack Thompson and Bryan Brown, though he’s less familiar to young filmgoers today, partly due to his untimely passing in 1996 at age 50. This article looks at one of Hargreaves’ best films… and one of his other films… 
Read more

Macbeth (2006)

Published 2016 on Down Under Flix Director : Geoffrey Wright Stars : Sam Worthington, Victoria Hill, Gary Sweet, Lachy Hulme It’s fascinating that in the short space of ten years, two Australian filmmakers have adapted William Shakespeare’s  Macbeth . While the Bard’s play is an all-timer, and has been adapted in the past by master directors like Orson Welles, Akira Kurosawa, and Roman Polanski, film adaptations haven’t exactly been abundant. So the fact that two Australians would choose to steer it to the screen less than a decade apart is a weird anomaly, though not inexplicable. One could conjecture at length about the 400+ year old “Scottish” play’s relevance to contemporary Australian identity, the timelessness of its depiction of ambition, greed, conspiracy, regicide, guilt, and hubris… but really, it’s just a terrific, badass piece of source material. I really wanted to like Justin Kurzel’s 2015 adaptation of  Macbeth  starring Michael ...
Read more

Dead Heart (1996)

Published 2016 on Down Under Flix Director:  Nick Parsons Stars:  Bryan Brown, Ernie Dingo, Aaron Pedersen, Angie Milliken I first watched  Dead Heart  back in 2000, as part of a course at university. In recent days I’ve been thinking back on all the other Australian films I studied at university (in a degree comprising various screen and literature courses, including one specifically on Australian cinema, there were quite a few) and pondering where those films have landed, culturally speaking, in subsequent years.  Wake in Fright , which we watched on a scratchy, dog-eared print, has enjoyed a critical and cultural resurgence in recent years and is soon to be  adapted for television by the director of  Red Dog . Other films, such as  A Sunday Too Far Away  and  Two Hands , have sort of plateaued, remaining constant in their standing. And others like  Dead Heart , then only a few years ...
Read more