Maxwell Fitzpatrick Does this film seriously contain a line of dialogue where a dirty brown person looks at a clean toilet given to him by a well-dressed, clean white man and then make an argument that he'd rather go back to pooping on the dirt?Yes. Yes, it does.I understand that white guilt is great for getting award nominations and then winning some of those awards, but The Rocket is the most sickening type of poverty porn film out there. The film goes out of it's way to paint the Lao as underdeveloped savages, while at the same time blaming the loss of their simple, noble life on white people. The film plays like a 'greatest hits' list of third world oppression, that the directors seems to have pulled from the first page Google results of a search for 'Problems with Laos'. UXO's? Check. Village relocation due to encroaching Australian hydro-power projects? Check. Corrupt government officials ruling the peasants through bribery and strong-arm violence? Check.The problem is, while these are probably real problems in Laos, the film's need to hit every point on the list during it's 90 minute runtime only serves to trivialize the reality of what's probably happening in Laos. It's hard to believe that one little boy would have his life uprooted by an infrastructure development, only to be blown up several times by old bombs. In the end, the entire film feels like the director just wants you to CARE SO MUCH about all the problems that the Western world has brought to these poor brown, ground poopers... But he jumps from subject to subject so quickly that he glosses over any sort of complexity that might help any audience member to actually have anything less than the superficial understanding the director things will make a tear come to your eye.He's found the heartstrings, and he just haphazardly plucks away. It's almost like after running that first Google search for 'Problems with Laos', Mordaunt Googled, 'How to manipulate festival judges into awarding your film prizes by exploiting poor people.' Hopefully, Mordaunt will make The Rocket 2, and he can film a Lao child covered in flies.

eddie_baggins An Australian co-production that deserves to be seen by a lot more than would've currently experienced it, The Rocket is one of those feel good films that is impossible not to fall for despite it not quite going on with the early promise of the possibility of a new classic.Director Kim Mordaunt clearly has a spot in his heart for the people of Laos (where this film is set), no doubt stemming from his time filming his scary and touching documentary on the amount of unexploded bombs left over in the country in the 2007 doco Bomb Harvest. Weaving his knowledge of this true life aspect of the country Mordaunt tailors a touching story around it that features some stand out child actors and a particularly groovy uncle in the form of the James Brown loving Uncle Purple played very well by Suthep Po-ngam, but in the end it is the aforementioned child actors that steal the film and make it what it is.As determined and supposedly cursed young boy Ahlo young actor Sitthiphon Disamoe does a supreme job of portraying a boy that unfortunately bares the stigma of being born a twin into a village that believes twins carry a curse. Ahlo's journey that he takes with family is fraught with both sadness and joy and it's here that the film struggles to lay hold onto what it's setting out to achieve with moments of emotion not played out to full effect and comedic elements feeling misplaced amongst them. Mordaunt must of found it hard to place all these varying emotions into the right place and the films last 20 – 30 minutes really shows this. Mordaunt however excels at capturing the beautiful and at times scary images of the country and his direction of Disamoe and also young actress Loungnam Kaosainam as Ahlo's friend Kia is exemplary, a fine achievement for an Australian director in what is an area that often trips up other compatriots.Submitted as Australia's entry into this year's Academy Awards foreign film category and playing well to festivals the world over its clear many feel an affection for this unique and often heart-warming tale. Australia should be proud of what Mordaunt has achieved here and even prouder of his efforts to highlight the horror of what Laos still has to deal with today thanks to a war that is now sadly largely forgotten.3 and a half unwashed purple suits out of 5 For more movie reviews and opinions check out - www.jordanandeddie.wordpress.com

MartinHafer "The Rocket" is a very strange film that was made in both Laos and Thailand by an Australian crew. It's an almost fairy tale-like story about a little boy, Ahlo, who is thought to be bad luck. His family is displaced from their village and then bad luck strikes several times. However, instead of feeling sorry for himself, this just makes him more determined throughout the film. Ultimately, there is a rocket contest in a village...and little Ahlo is determined to win even though he's just a kid and the rest of the entries are by adults. This is a good film because it is so very different. Also, for a kid who looks like he's only about 8 or 9, Sitthiphon Disamoe was awfully good in the lead as Ahlo. Very interesting and a decent film for the family--even with its many references to urine, testicles and the like.

jdesando Tired of the Oscar race and its obviously-baiting nominees? The Rocket, set in Laos, is more unusual and imaginative than anything you will see, even Her, under the Oscar umbrella. Ahlo (Sitthiphon Disamoe), a surviving Laotian twin at birth and therefore potentially bad luck for his family, travels with his family and two friends to find a new home after being displaced by plans for another dam.Not only is Ahlo played by a new young actor who keeps your sympathy, but also Kia (Loungnman Kaosainam), his girl friend (he can't be more than 10 and she about 9) is equally charming and intelligent. Their journey is plagued by setbacks, yet Ahlo remains intrepid and creative as he finally plans to nix this curse and become a hero.So far the film is filled with bizarre adventures, mostly suggesting he is a curse on the family as bad luck plagues it (It's not Little Miss Sunshine's pleasant turbulence; however, Rocket's family is an eccentric crew). One of the most interesting fairs to be seen ever in film is the Rocket Contest, held each year to send missiles to the clouds to induce rain, to "poke the gods' arse," or something like that. This event is the Holy Grail of the family's journey, a way to gain prize money and to counter the bad karma of Ahlo's birth.The natural performances of Beasts of the Southern Wild echo in The Rocket, both leads believable as intrepid young, underprivileged waifs of pluck and imagination. The relationship between Ahlo and his loving but too vulnerable father, Toma (Sumrit Warin) is reminiscent of father and son in Vittorio DeSica's Bicycle Thief. Caitlin Yeo's original score, never obtrusive, like the film itself, tells the story with dignity and respect for the characters. Writer-director Kim Mordaunt has balanced the disparate elements perfectly. And best of all, it is not some exploitative tome about the emerging third world. It's about family! Its formulaic nature and slight drift to the sentimental do not keep it from being an original work of merit.The Rocket, winner of the World Narrative prize at the Tribeca Film Festival, is one of the year's best movies with a plot as imaginative as anything else out there.