Leigh Paatsch gives his verdict on biopics I Am Woman and Marshall, and the doco Showbiz Kids
It’s a mixed bag for biopics available to stream this week, with a shocker for an Australian music great and a gem starring the late, great Chadwick Boseman.
SmartDaily
Don't miss out on the headlines from SmartDaily. Followed categories will be added to My News.
No matter what jury you pick, they will keep returning the same verdict on I Am Woman: hell of an inspirational song, hopelessly uninspired movie.
So it goes for a bland, cliche-riddled screen biopic of Helen Reddy, an Australian-born singer whose modest, middle-of-the-road stylings met with considerable approval in America in the 1970s.
Though the shifting sands of taste eventually erased all trace of Reddy’s fame — while a blizzard of cocaine that went up her husband’s nose blew away her hard-earned fortune — the one hit for which she will be remembered remains a towering achievement.
Even now, the force, fury and pure feminine insight broadcast by I Am Woman as a composition hits the listener right between the ears, and leaves a lasting impact.
However, at its time of release in 1972, processing that anthemic earworm for the first time — particularly its defiant declaration of independence for all women — opened and changed minds in a way very few pop hits have done before or since. Determining how Reddy was able to capture lightning in a bottle so definitively is a task that is completely beyond I Am Woman as a movie.
As played by Tilda Cobham-Hervey, Reddy rarely comes across as the crusading trailblazer the filmmakers would have you believe.
Between some fairly listless run-throughs of Reddy’s other hits (almost all of which have aged quite badly), the movie dodgily doodles all over an increasingly sketchy outline of its subject.
Just as there is little verifiable context supplied for how Reddy came up with that miraculous song, there is no cause for celebration or admiration sparked in viewers once this tale has been told.
Capping off a totally underwhelming experience is an unintentionally comic subplot involving the drug-fuelled antics of Reddy’s husband-manager Jeff Wald (Evan Peters), always ready to tear up any scene with a wet sniffle and a wild mood swing.
I AM WOMAN (M)
Director: Unjoo Moon (feature debut)
Starring: Tilda Cobham-Hervey, Evan Peters, Danielle Macdonald.
Rating: **
Hear us snore, in numbers too big to ignore
STAN
MARSHALL (M)
*** 1/2
With the sad passing this week of actor Chadwick Boseman (pictured right), most of the (rightly glowing) obituaries have focused on his starring role in the game-changing Marvel action epic Black Panther. However, across a very short, yet extraordinarily consistent and strong career, Boseman’s favourite work remained his stirring performance in the unjustly overlooked courtroom drama Marshall. Anyone looking to pay tribute to a singular talent gone way too soon should make tracks for this gem. You will not be disappointed in any way. Boseman plays future US Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall in the early throes of a celebrated legal career. The year is 1941, and Marshall has been given a near-impossible case to defend. Joseph Spell (Sterling K. Brown) is a black chauffeur who stands accused of raping his white employer, Eleanor Strubing (Kate Hudson). Spell is not the most trustworthy defendant, but that turns out to be just one of many obstacles placed in Marshall’s path towards a right and just outcome.
NETFLIX, SBS ON DEMAND
SHOWBIZ KIDS (M)
****
“Every year, over 20,000 child actors audition for roles in Hollywood — 95 per cent of them don’t book a single job.” It was with this sobering stat that this compelling HBO-produced doco begins, and it soon becomes clear this rigorously researched production is a cut above other titles that have investigated the pitfalls of preadult stardom. Director Alex Winter was a child actor himself, and his insider’s grasp of this still-misunderstood topic draws some raw and telling contributions from the doco’s many interviewees. Among those with the most illuminating and cautionary experiences to share are Henry Thomas (best known as Elliott in E.T.), Mara Wilson (Mrs Doubtfire and Matilda, pictured inset), Milla Jovovich (a model and actor from age 11), Wil Wheaton (Stand By Me) and the late Disney teen star Cameron Boyce (who tragically died from an epilepsy attack shortly after filming his very eloquent contributions here). Recommended viewing for both parents of kids with showbiz ambitions, and the kids themselves.
FOXTEL; coming soon to BINGE