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DIRTY WORK Miles Fielder talks to director Christine Jeffs about blood, guts and cleaning fluid
Kiwi filmmaker Christine Jeffs (pictured centre right) wasn’t the obvious choice to direct the American indie comedy Sunshine Cleaning. Her previous two features, the New Zealand marital breakdown drama Rain and the British dead poet biopic Sylvia, might have been fine films, but comedies they weren’t. Nevertheless, Jeffs’ black comedy about two sisters (played by Amy Adams and Emily Blunt) who start up a crime-scene clean-up business in New Mexico was a hit at the Sundance Film Festival.
‘I like comedy, actually,’ Jeff says. ‘My first short film [Stroke, which premiered at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival] was kind of funny. Every time you do a film you have to ask yourself: “am I personally interested in?” With Sunshine Cleaning it was the sister dynamic, because I have one sister. I thought it would be a fun relationship to explore, how the sisters are quick to flare up and quick to forgive, how they take on roles, one of them being bossy and one not. A lot of the humour also comes out of the sisters’ relationship.’
Many of the film’s laughs are also derived from the Midwest setting and from the unusual nature of the
DRAMA RUDO Y CURSI (15) 101 min 0000
their talents.
business the sisters set up. Crime-scene cleaning is actually a thriving business in recession-era America, as the film’s screenwriter, Megan Holley, discovered when she heard a real-life story broadcast on public radio. Basing her script on the report about two friends in Baltimore who went into business mopping up blood and guts, Holley made the friends siblings and moved the location to Albuquerque.
‘l was fascinated by businesses being set up to do this,’ Jeffs says, “but I wondered if Albuquerque was too small to have something like this. In fact, there are two separate crime-scene cleaning businesses there, and it’s a city of only 800,000 people. I think it’s a pretty violent place. I think the Americans in the cast and crew had seen it all before, so I possibly saw the city with a set of fresh eyes.’
Was Jeffs not concerned the dark subject might overwhelm the film? ‘There’s a lot of humour as well as a lot of sadness in the job they do,’ Jeffs says, ‘because they’re fish out of water. And then the screenplay is about these girls growing up and finding to their surprise they’re fulfilled by helping people clean up the mess of their lives. So the film’s kind of hopeful in that way.’
I Sunshine Cleaning is on general release from Fri 26 Jun. See review. page 44.
Latin American superstars Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna reunite on screen for the first time since 2001 '3 Y Tu Mama Tambie’n in this likeable and engrossing tale of brotherly rivalry, professional football and celebrity culture.
When Mexican football scout Batuta (Guillermo Francella) discovers a couple of ‘diamonds in the rough' in an impoverished village he changes their lives forever. Yokel siblings Tato (Bernal) and Beto (Luna) move to Mexico City and find success and fame. But sweet-natured Tato really wants to be a singer and Beto has a gambling addiction. Both will pay the price for following their passions rather than
Writer director Carlos CuarOn’s zippy screenplay and frenetic direction elevate this basic rags-to-riches story to something more satirical, clever and funny. in making the morally questionable Batuta the narrator of the story. CuarOn both pays homage to the deferred narration of these actors' previous collaboration and allows himself scope to make some very caustic comments on Latin America's sports and entertainment industries. The widespread corruption in the Mexican football premiership is laid bare. as is a certain endemic degeneracy and violence in Mexican culture as a whole. But CuarOn also finds warmth in families and mothers and the simplicity of music. (Paul Dale)
I Selected release from Fri 26 Jun. See feature, page 76.
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My Sister’s Keeper (12A) 109min When the daughter of seemingly perfect parents Sara (Cameron Diaz) and Brian (Jason Patric) requests not to carry on with the medical donations that keep her leukaemia stricken sister alive they are forced to deal with some deep moral and ethical questions. Tear jerking adaptation of Jodi Picoult’s popular novel directed by Nick Cassavetes (Alpha Dog, The Notebook). General release from Fri 26 Jun.
Year One (12A) 96min Lazy and inept cavemen Zed (Jack Black) and on (Michael Cera) are banished from their village and go on an epic journey into Biblical times. where they met Cain and Abel (David Cross and Paul Rudd) and the rest of the Old Testament gang before ending up in Sodom. Sacrilegious grunt comedy from the team behind Ghostbusters. Groundhog Day and Analyse This. See panel, in listings. General release from Fri 26 Jun. Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (U) 93min Life is changing for Scrat, Manny, Ellie and co in many different ways in this the latest instalment of popular animated series. Available to see in 3D. General release from Wed 7 Jul.
25 Jun—9 Jul 2009 THE LIST 45