Luke McWilliams gives his review of the 2022 film, Blaze (MA15+), starring Julia Savage and Simon Baker.
Blaze (newcomer Julia Savage) is deep in her headphones on her way back from school when she witnesses a horrific crime against a woman. At home, her concerned father Luke (Simon Baker), tries his best to comfort her. In her embryonic-like room, however, a sequin-bedazzled dragon lays sleeping.
Archibald-winning artist Del Kathryn Baron makes her feature-length directorial debut in a powerful and confronting exploration of anger resulting from violence against women. Whereas Suzie Miller’s play Prima Facie explores the legal system’s inadequate processes for justice regarding sexual crimes, Blaze focuses heavily on the psychological and emotional journey to overcome the anger caused by it.
Savage is a tour-de-force as she navigates a range of emotions on her way through the fear that paralyses her and the anger that threatens to consume her. Like Sia’s Music, director Del Kathryn Baron populates her world with increasingly surreal imagery as Blaze retreats into an imaginary world, struggling to both confront the horror she has witnessed and to cope in this new world on the other side of childhood. Feathers, felt, sequins and stop-motion puppetry fill Blaze’s world, birthing a Jim-Henson-like dragon which symbolises Blaze’s rising justified fury.
Despite participating in the justice process, Luke struggles to help his daughter out of the turmoil he finds her in. He is conflicted in giving his spiralling daughter the space she needs to heal and to reel her in for the safety of herself and others.
Verdict: Visually sumptuous and brutally affecting, Blaze is a fantastic debut for its director and lead. 3.5 stars.
- Luke McWilliams, themoviclub.net
Viewed at Palace Cinemas.
