Parky At the Pictures (16/5/2025)

(Reviews of Good One; The Surfer; and Goldbeak)

GOOD ONE.

The daughter of Antipodean director Roger Donaldson, India Donaldson makes her feature debut with Good One. Intriguingly, the idea for the film came when she and her husband found themselves living with her father, his new wife, and their two teenage children during the Covid lockdowns in Los Angeles. It follows on from the admired shorts, Medusa (2018), Hannahs (2019), and If Found (2021).

Leaving girlfriend Jessie (Sumaya Bouhbal) in bed, 17 year-old Sam (Lily Collias) meets up with her divorced dad, Chris (James Le Gros), for a weekend hiking in the Catskills. He has married again and has a young baby, but Sam seems on good terms and even tolerates the bluster of Chris's actor buddy, Matt (Danny McCarthy), whose teenage son refuses to join them because he's so cross with his father for cheating on his mom.

Miffed at being moved into the backseat, Sam laughs of Matt's messing around with the passenger window as they drive along. She exchanges knowing glances with the woman at a garage checkout when Matt loads up with unnecessary items and Chris sighs in frustration because he never listens. He's scarcely more sympathetic when Matt complains about being the villain in his marriage break-up and Sam suggests that he views things from his wife and son's perspectives instead of his own. Chris gets a work text and asks Sam to send replies, even though she has asked to drive to stop her from feeling car sick. She calls Chris out on his sexist remark about female customers and he shrugs it off by implying she should take his side and not the client's.

Stopping at a motel for the night, the men take the beds and Sam sleeps on the floor. At supper in a diner, they tease her about her sexuality and the fact she should be vegetarian to go with her right-on image. When she starts to answer, Matt cuts in to complain about his son's online search history and Sam rolls her eyes before joining a toast to a good weekend's hiking as a trio.

After Chris insists on decluttering Matt's rucksack, they set off and discuss favourite colours and dream jobs while trudging through the woods. When they make a stop, Matt hacks down a pair of jeans to make some shorts, while Sam spots through young men horsing around in the river when she slips away to change a tampon. She's put out when they roll up at their camping spot and Chris is fine about them pitching nearby.

Having filled a water bottle from a stream while Matt and Chris are squabbling about whether the former could run a marathon, Sam helps both men erect their tents. She cooks noodles and is touched when Matt sheds a tear because they taste so good and he wishes his boy was there to share the experience.

As it starts to rain and they have a tarpaulin cover, they invite Zach (Sam Lanier), Andy (Eric Yates), and Jake (Peter McNally) to join them for a game of cards. Chris and Matt reminisce about an expedition when the latter's girlfriend wore flip-flops and Sam keeps shooting embarrassed glances at the college kids, who listen with respect. She's even more mortified when Chris proposes a trek across China because the frat boys have already done the trips to Patagonia and Alaska that he is so proud of. Matt chides him for leaving his wife with the baby for a month, but he insists that such separations are what makes a family strong.

Finding themselves alone in the morning, the trio brew coffee before dismantling their tents. Chris rollicks Matt for eating during the night because a bear might have picked up the scent and silence descends as Sam and Matt fall in behind Chris. He gets jealous when they start chatting about their favourite foods and keeps up the snub when they stop for a comfort break. When they reach a ledge over a lake, Matt becomes emotional and Sam has to stop Chris from teasing him because she realises how vulnerable he is feeling. They take selfies and Chris ignores a work call because they have a phone signal. He joshes Matt into posing like muscle men for Sam to snap them and the mood lightens.

As they sit around a fire that night, Chris tries to tell a spooky story, but makes such a mess of it that Sam mocks him. Slugging from a hip flask, Matt describes how his acting career took a dive and he had to work as a white goods salesman. At a convention in Vegas, he succumbed to temptation and his wife found out and he is still devastated that he faces the future alone. When Chris says it happens to the best of us, Sam interjects to remind her father that he played an active role in things going wrong.

Matt is impressed by her wisdom and asks Sam how things will pan out for him. She describes precisely what happened to her father and they laugh at him being an age-gap dad who is hardly fit for new parenting. Nettled, Chris goes to bed and Matt confides in Sam that he's scared about being alone and asks how long it will take for his son to forgive him. Sam feels sorry for Matt, but he shocks her by suggesting in a throwaway manner that she warms him up in his tent because he doesn't have a sleeping bag. Making an excuse that she needs water, she slips away, leaving Matt by the fire with no idea that he's crossed a line.

Next morning, after breaking camp in silence, they walk to a waterfall and Matt falls behind to take photos. Chris asks Sam if she's excited about going to college and she jokes that this is the first question he has asked her all trip. She mentions Matt's inappropriate remark, only for Chris to scoff that she shouldn't take him seriously when he's drunk. When she stresses how uncomfortable she had felt, he chides her for spoiling a nice day and persuades her to go for a dip. Too dismayed to enjoy the water, Sam dresses and stuffs rocks into Chris and Matt's rucksacks before striding off alone.

Taking herself into the verdant hills, Sam feels the breeze rustling the trees before making her way back to the car. She flops down and waits for Chris and Matt to return. Her father is baffled by her sudden disappearance and he offers her the keys to drive by way of atonement. She locks them out for a few seconds before opening the doors. The silent Matt slouches in the back, as Chris plonks a stone on the dashboard and father and daughter exchange a meaningful glance.

Connie Converse's `Talkin' Like You (Two Tall Mountains)' plays over the closing credits, which is apt, as Celia Hollander's guitar and harp score is one of the highlights of this fine, fine film. Lily Collias is outstanding as the outwardly composed, but inwardly anxious Sam taking in her stride the foibles and faux pas committed by the equally commendable James LeGros and Danny McCarthy. The skill in the playing and in India Donaldson's screenplay is that neither boor is presented as entirely unsympathetic. There are degrees of toxicity, even in middle-aged white men and it's intriguing to surmise how Dylan (seen briefly rowing on the stoop with his dad) and the three college campers will turn out (not that all of them are white).

Sam seems to be heading in the right direction, which she demonstrates by returning to the car park without any bother after having been made to stay in step behind her father for three days. Despite actively re-evaluating her perceptions of her childhood, she also demonstrates her emotional maturity when speaking about the self-inflicted complications facing her companions without bruising their egos. Indeed, she even feels sorry for Matt when Chris taunts him about his weight, his sloppy preparations, and his unthought-out plans for the future. But his misjudged fireside comment goes beyond the pale and Chris's failure to take him to task is inexcusably shocking.

Although cinematographer Wilson Cameron captures the beauty of the Catskill terrain, he is also alert to small details within the natural world. Moreover, he succeeds in creating a sense of claustrophobia within the great outdoors, in much the same way that Peter Sillen did in Kelly Reichardt's Old Joy (2006), with which this film has much in common, as Donaldson uses the dialogue to divulge the backstories that keep the tensions simmering. That said, it also brings back memories of Mike Leigh's Nuts in May (1976), which, ridiculously, is nearly half a century old.

THE SURFER.

Dubliner Lorcan Finnegan has made a steady start to his directorial career. Since debuting with Without Name (2016), he has shown distinctive talent with Vivarium (2019) and Nocebo (2022). But he takes his biggest stride forward to date with The Surfer, a Nicolas Cage vehicle that is not afraid to admit its roots lie deep in Ozploitation.

Taking his teenage son (Finn Little) out of school for the day so he can take him pre-Christmas surfing in Luna Bay and show him the house he is planning to buy in the hills, Surfer (Nicolas Caage) parks his Lexus above the beach and makes a few calls. His boss is furious that he's playing hooky, while his broker breaks the bad news that a rival bidder for the property is prepared to pay in cash. Worse still, his ex-wife announces that she's pregnant and intends marrying the father and, therefore, has no intention of joining him and their son in a happy ever after at Surfer's childhood home.

Born in Luna Bay, but raised in California after his father's shocking death when he was 15, Surfer (his real name is never revealed) recognises a few faces from his past, including Scally (Julian McMahon), who seems to be the leader of the pack. But he's a complete stranger to the majority of the locals who jealously guard their exclusive stretch of paradise. As a result, Surfer's son is mortified when he's threatened by Pitbull (Alexander Bertrand) and ordered off the beach by Scally, who mocks him for being a pampered city slicker.

Forced to drive his boy home, Surfer returns to the car park, where he makes the acquaintance of Bum (Nic Cassim), who lives in a broken-down station wagon and vows to get even with Scally (who might have been involved in the death of Surfer's father) for the disappearance of his surfer son and the death of his faithful dog. He swaps his binoculars for Surfer's sunglasses, but warns him that Scally has the town in his pocket and suggests that he'd be better off driving away.

Risking everything to secure his former home, Surfer asks his broker to help him raise additional cash to meet the asking price. However, he finds himself without a phone charger and allows the air conditioning run down the car battery. As he doesn't carry cash, he is stuck without any means of communication, apart from a pay phone next to the snack kiosk next to the washrooms.

On returning from the latter, Surfer cuts his bare foot on a broken bottle. He also finds his car has been vandalised by three teenage slackers (James Bingham, Austen Wilmot, and

Talon Hopper). Moreover, the runts have stolen his prized surfboard. So, he calls the police. The Bum makes himself scarce when the local cop (Justin Rosniak) turns up and leaves Surfer in little doubt that he doesn't take kindly to outsiders. However, a photographer (Miranda Tapsell) is more sympathetic and takes a picture of him standing next to his car after she lends him her jump leads. Less neighbourly is the delivery guy (Tayren Maclou) bringing an order for the beach, who charges Surfer a small fortune for a pizza that he doesn't get to eat because the runts tip it into the gravel while he's filling a bottle with rust-tainted water.

Sneaking down to the beach, he peers through the hut window to see Scally giving a speech. He rages against those seeking to emasculate honest everyday blokes, who do all the work in enriching their bosses and providing for their families and are entitled to a bit of fun on their own terms. Bedecked in a red hooded towel and wielding a hot iron, he brands a new recruit to the Bay Boys and Surfer staggers away in horror and only just manages to get back to the car park before the revellers spot him.

Waking to find his phone is kaputt and unable to afford coffee, Surfer has to give the barista (Adam Sollis) his father's watch. His mood is not improved when a besuited customer (Radek Jonak) tips the cup over him for making him wait while he arranged for his phone to be charged. Then, the now dishevelled Surfer is humiliated when the estate agent (Rahel Romahn) he has been dealing with insists he has never seen him before while preparing to show his dream home to a family of four, who seem to mock him in his misery.

Making matters worse, the snack bar has closed, leaving Surfer without his phone or his watch. He finds a coin in the car and calls the broker's office to leave the number of the pay phone for a 9am update on his offer. Beginning to suffer with the heat, dehydration, and a lack of sleep, Surfer is harassed by the returning cop, who asks how he is going to leave when his only means of transport if the battered Subaru station wagon. Bemused by the disappearance of the Lexus, Surfer has no option than to hunker down in the Bum's ride. As he searches the dashboard, he finds a shark tooth necklace that the old man had sworn his son was wearing when he vanished.

After a hallucinatory night (in which he comes close to eating the dead rat he had smashed against the side of the car), Surfer wakes to find the barista denying any knowledge of his phone and claiming his own father gave him the watch. The runts have also cornered the call box and refuse to move until Surfer gives them his wedding ring. When he gets to the phone, he discovers that they have cut the wire and he slumps in despair. Much to his relief, the photographer returns and she is shocked to see the physical and psychological state into which he's lapsed. She gives him water and shows him the snapshot she took to prove that he is not going crazy. But Surfer has had enough.

Fuelled by the birds eggs he finds in a scrubland nest, he storms down to the beach and attacks Pitbull. He tries to hold his head under water, only to be pulled away by Scally, who reveals that he has known all along who Surfer is and that he had merely been testing him to see if he was fit to join such a select club. Explaining that a real man can endure the worst suffering, he sets him a final challenge to torch the Bum's Subaru before he's welcomed as an equal. Encouraged by the cop, who winks that his own car is being spruced up at the local garage, Surfer squirts in fuel before tossing a match into the car.

Still reeling, but relieved to be part of the inner sanctum, Surfer greets his son, who has come to check up on him. They get into wetsuits to surf with Scally. But Bum arrives brandishing the gun he has been hiding in the washroom. He lets the acolytes go, but orders Surfer and his kid to kneel on the tideline beside Scally. Desperate to save his boy, he shows Bum the shark tooth necklace and urges his son to paddle out with him. Looking back, they see Bum execute Scally before turning the pistol on himself (the `short, sharp shock of violence on the shore' that Surfer had predicted in describing the power of a wave in his opening `surfing as a metaphor for life' speech). Father and son are safe, but their future would appear to be anything but rosy.

Every now and then, Nicolas Cage dusts down his acting talent and puts it to good use. He's on fine freak out form in this timely, if superficial treatise on the crisis of modern masculinity, which scrupulously swerves any Tate-like propagandising in setting up an anxiety scenario that brings to mind such Aussie classics as Ted Kotcheff's Wake in Fright (1971), Peter Weir's The Last Wave (1975), and Colin Eggleston's Long Weekend (1978), as well as studies in suburban delusion like Frank Perry's The Swimmer (1968) and macho insularity like Sam Peckinpah's Straw Dogs (1971).

Flooding the lens with scorching sunlight to convey Surfer's exposure to the elements as his mind starts to fray, cinematographer Radek Ladczuk captures the sense of living nightmare that is reinforced by some splendidly retro woozy effects and Tony Cranstoun's addling insertion of flashbacks that cast doubt on the protagonist's sanity. Finnegan wisely leaves the largely controlled Cage to dominate proceedings, but Julian McMahon makes a suitably menacing macho villain, while Justin Rosniak is magnificently obnoxious as the moustachio'd cop. But, despite a mischievous red herring about the Bum's identity, one winds up wishing that Finnegan had taken more directorial risks than the odd zoom and jump cut and that Thomas Martin's screenplay had more intent than to raise the odd laddish laugh with a few nudge-wink allegorical references to the kind of entitled tosh spouted by a certain orange president and his populist cohorts.

GOLDBEAK.

It's taken four years for Dong Long and Nigel W. Tierney's Goldbeak (2021) to reach UK cinemas. The delay raises eyebrows, as it makes it feel as though nobody had sufficient confidence in the film to release it on completion. Being a rare Sino-Irish collaboration, it certainly has a curio value. But in the crowded field of children's animation, this well-meaning fable scarcely stands out.

When an aeroplane carrying Silverwing the eagle crashes in the countryside, everyone in Avian City presumes there are no survivors. But Goldbeak the eaglet (David Henrie) is rescued and left on the doorstep of a kindly mother hen, Momma Biddy (Debra Wilson), in Peckington Roost. Raised alongside his brainy sister, Ratchet (Valkyrae), Goldbeak feels like an outsider, as he's clumsy and keeps annoying the other chickens with his antics. He is also desperate to fly, but Momma Biddy's lodger, Shanks (Jas Patrick), reassures him that he's better off for now with his feet on the ground.

Unfortunately, Goldbeak can't keep out of trouble and he decides it's best to leave after he causes a fire that damages several coops. When he sets off for Avian City, however, Ratchet and Shanks tag along to keep an eye on him. Determined to make Momma Biddy proud, Goldbeak tries to fly en route and is rescued from a ravine plunge by The Master (Crispin Freeman). He is known to Shanks and they break the news that Silverwing was his father and that his uncle, Flutterclaw (Sean Kenin), took his place as the mayor of Avian City.

Deciding to confront his destiny, Goldbeak flies to the metropolis with Ratchet in a wicker basket. On landing, they are amazed by the skyscrapers and the overhead railway that enables the citizens to live well with all the mod cons. However, the systems powering the place only work off a rare kind of red rock and Flutterclaw is pleased to hear when he gives his nephew a guided tour that it's in plentiful supply in Peckington Roost. He suggest that Goldbeak returns home and speaks to the local bigwigs to cut a deal for the red rocks, which he will confirm at a grand ceremony.

Goldbeak is excited at being able to help his friends. But he is also glad to be leaving Avian City because he has been given a rough ride by Guy (Stephen Fu), a member of the Eagle Scout security troop whose father, Guru, was aboard Silverwing's plane and was blamed for the crash. He thinks Goldbeak is a pampered loser and humiliates him in a crash diving dare. However, Goldbeak is given a few hints by Shanks and he returns the next night to show Guy who's top bird.

Following an emotional reunion with Momma Biddy, Goldbeak is regarded as a hero in Peckington Roost, as Flutterclaw arrives laden with gifts for the residents. He also gives them a small fortune for the rocks. But Ratchet overhears him on the phone to his factotum and becomes suspicious that he's not such a philanthropist after all. Indeed, on returning to Avian City, she uses her tekkie skills to break into his office and discovers that he has destroyed lots of other villages with red rock supplies and had turned them into strip mines. Goldbeak is dismayed that he has landed his neighbours in trouble and is appalled to learn that his uncle is a white bird supremacist, who considers all other breeds to be fit for nothing but subjugation.

Busted out of jail by Shanks and The Master, Goldbeak and Ratchet steal a pod shuttle to zoom back to Peckington Roost and warn everyone. They are followed by Guy and the Eagle Scouts, but The Master shows him a baby photograph through the cockpit window and Guy realises that his father is still alive. He aborts the mission, but Flutterclaw hovers over the village in a sinister black spacecraft and declares that he is not going to allow a pipsqueak to ruin his plans.

After an epic battle, Goldbeak wins the day and Flutterclaw laments that he had usurped Silverwing because he was too cautious to develop Avian City and too preoccupied with doing good deeds and proving that all birds were equal to make an effective mayor. As he sobs, the chickens celebrate and the film ends on the supposition that Guru and Guy will join Shanks and Ratchet in ensuring that Goldbeak becomes his father's son.

Those who wish to can spot the odd dig at Maga-style populism in this aquiline rehash of The Lion King (or its many precursors) and Jonathan Livingston Seagull. But the emphasis is firmly on matters ecological and egalitarian (geddit?). While these are important issues to raise with younger viewers, the screenplay doesn't delve too deeply and even offers the villain of the piece the Renoiresque excuse that everybody has their reasons.

The character designs aren't particularly memorable, while the voicework is decidedly generic. Curiously, the big battle is staged in the dark so that it's difficult to see what's going on, especially with all the crash-bang editing. Still, we're spared the sight of some chickens doing kung pow (sorry, kung fu), while the decision not to redub the non-diegetic songs that punctuate the action pays off rather prettily. Nothing special, but who can fault a film that insists we should all flock together?