STACK #230 December 2023

MOVIE FEATURE

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I t’s fast-paced fare from director Nimród Antal, who sat down with STACK to discuss the film. ”I was surprised that there was a vulnerability [in Neeson’s character],” Antal explains of his first read of the script. ”In modern day action films, you tend to see this paper-thin kind of presentation of machismo. But what makes a hero cool, in my eyes, is the struggle. ”It’s not the ass-kicking per se, it’s the challenges, and Liam not only embraced the vulnerability, but he really knows how to play it in the most sincere way. ”Perhaps the most striking and provocative element of Retribution is the moral ambiguity of Neeson’s character. As an investment banker, his wealth and Liam Neeson’s latest action-thriller puts him behind the wheel of a car with a bomb under his seat, with no discernible skills to save the day. Words Glenn Cochrane

success during the financial crisis cast a shadow of doubt over his virtue, and as the film’s title suggests, unethical conduct may have put him in his precarious situation. It adds to the film’s unpredictability. ”It’s a shame how we’ve lost a bit of that,” Antal laments on moral ambiguity. ”But isn’t that the Instagram world?” he muses. ”Isn’t that the presentation of perfection, and the presentation of happiness, and the presentation of cool? I'm much more interested in a flawed person than I am in a perfect person.” With the story taking place entirely from inside a moving car, the Hungarian-American director explains the technical challenges of creating action and suspense. ”The car is always in motion, but there was a mixture of green screen, projected digital backgrounds, process trailer, and then we had stunt drivers on the roof or in the back of the car with Liam at the wheel,” he explains. ”It was a bit of a mixed bag, but I storyboard everything from action to dialogue, especially in a film like this with limited space.”

• Retribution is out Dec 13

John Curran’s Mercy Road is unlike anything the director has made before. It has the urgency of Mad Max , the claustrophobia of Locke , and the style of Sin City , none of which remotely resemble his previous films Tracks (2013), The Painted Veil (2006), or Praise (1998). Words Glenn Cochrane

T he film is unique for being a virtual production. Shot entirely against a huge digital backdrop, it employs leading edge technology and innovation to capture a surreal and foreboding atmosphere, the likes of which couldn’t be achieved with regular location filmmaking. Teaming up with Alex Proyas’s ( Dark City ) Arclight production company and shot at the TDC Studios in Sydney, Curran had his lead actor Luke Bracey ( Point Break - 2015) sit inside a black muscle car in the centre of a stage, surrounded by a high resolution LED screen, while the passing landscapes and exterior action took place around him. The result is a breakneck, white knuckle thriller about a man racing against time to save his kidnapped daughter, while at the mercy of a stranger on the phone. Co-starring Toby Jones ( Captain America ) and Susie Porter ( Cargo ) it's an unconventional and surrealistic thrill ride for fans of movies like Death Proof and The Crow .

• Mercy Road is out Dec 6

52 DECEMBER 2023

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