By BRUCE DENNILL
Louis Giglio: Power-Full / All
Meerkat Maantuig / Directed by Hanneke Schutte / 13H
Vaselinetjie / Directed by Corne Van Rooyen / 16LPV
Love, Simon / Directed by Greg Berlanti / PG13
Sleight / Directed by JD Dillard / 16DLV
Passion City Church head pastor Louis Giglio is a persuasive, enthusiastic, personable speaker whose sermons are always well-researched and thought-provoking. Power-Full collects a series of sermons based on the book of Acts in the Bible and dealing, broadly speaking, with equipping viewers and listeners to follow the instructions included in those pages, particularly in the light of feeling to tired or weak to do so. Talks with titles like Purpose And Power, The Miracle And the Message and Carry The Name all offer perspectives and advice that are both sensible and scripturally sound, and Ben Stuart (pastor of Passion City Church in Washington) adds an equally informative angle in his sermon Eternal Impact Through Everyday People. Inspiration to action by this input is unlikely, in reality, to last forever, but the content here is sound, so it’s worth hanging on to the DVD as a resource for appropriate situations in the future.
Based on a book written for teens – Blinde Sambok by Riana Scheepers – Meerkat Maantuig is a serious, carefully paced look at the experiences of Gideonette de la Rey (Anchen du Plessis), a shy young teenager experiencing extreme anxiety after her father dies, based on not only that sad incident but also a supposed family curse that she feels will affect her next. She’s ferried off to her grandparents’ farm for a while, where she meets a mysterious young boy (Themba Ntuli), with whom she begins a rather special relationship. There is not a lot of levity in this film, but there is a considerable amount of beauty, with the use of magical realism and the backdrop of the magnificent Magoebaskloof forest adding to a gentle examination of depression, fear, death and mental illness. These are not themes that are easy to market, but the honesty and sincerity with which this story is told allow for an accessible means of working through such tough material.
A tough drama, Vaselinetjie is a throwback to classic stories such as Ballade Vir ‘n Enkeling, being a no-punches-pulled look at the coming of age of a troubled youngster, persecuted for reasons beyond her control and often short on luck when it comes to trying to escape the difficult situations she finds herself in. The title character (Marguerite Van Eeden) is a white girl raised by a loving, elderly coloured couple. The authorities, in their dubious wisdom, take the child away and place her in a boarding school in Johannesburg, where the sadly predictable cruelty of children and young adults places great strain on Vaselinetjie, but also helps her to find a dysfunctional group of friends to be a part of. The script doesn’t offer any easy outs for the protagonist, but it does show her growth through her circumstances. Serious-minded, well-made in all departments and showing a cinematic side to Johannesburg not often seen, this is well worth watching.
Simon (Nick Robinson), is a normal – if rather sophisticated – teenager, a 17-year-old with average teenager’s issues, including school politics, friendships and clumsy forays into romance. What makes him slightly different (certainly from the point of view of most high-school film dramas) is that he is gay and, while not struggling with that in himself, he does not know how to tell his family or what it will mean for the way his life is currently playing out. There is nothing much more complicated than that in this pleasant, warm story, but there is a good deal of gentle humour – not the acerbic, laconic kind most scripts include as their concession to an older and therefore supposedly more cynical audiences – that and sincere performances from the mostly young cast. In terms of making its point as a platform for activism, Love, Simon does so gently. The protagonist is normal, caring, smart, confused – just as we all are – and his coming of age is as complicated as ours were or will be. So his sexuality is put in perspective, in that it’s not what makes him who he is and does not impact on the ability of those who care about him to love and support him. Goal achieved, and without preaching.
What begins looking like a fairly standard coming of age in a tough scenario story is, in that guise well made and strongly acted, with Jacob Latimore as Bo, a street magician trying his best to look after his little sister particularly good. What makes Sleight more memorable is that this only a single thread, with the other major storyline involving Bo’s apparently supernatural abilities – beyond his skills as a magician – and how these might be of help to him when an ill-advised scheme to make more money as a provider goes south. As the film progresses, it begins to feel more like the superhero origin story it might actually be, with Bo’s (and Latimore’s) youth on the side of the filmmakers if they’d like to extend the story into a series. A strong action film without the large-scale blood-letting of films with older, more cynical characters. Worth a watch.