Film Reviews
Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy
Friday, April 29th, 2022 Film Reviews,Ryusuke Hamaguchi was as surprised as anyone by the extraordinary success of Drive My Car, which won the 2022 Academy Award for Best International Feature, and was nominated in the Best Picture category. To my mind, it was infinitely superior to CODA, the feelgood flick that took out the top prize. In a career of […]
The Northman
Friday, April 22nd, 2022 Film Reviews,If you enjoy the brisk swoosh of a sword carving fabric and flesh, or that thunk! thunk! sound of an axe chopping into someone’s torso, then get ready for The Northman. Those who prefer movies with witty dialogue and psychological complexity may have to look elsewhere. Robert Eggers’s medieval saga has been hailed as the […]
The Good Boss
Friday, April 15th, 2022 Film Reviews,It’s a wonder there are not more movies like The Good Boss. Every small to medium-sized business is a potential comedy series, as management tries to maintain the illusion that a company is one big happy family, at least until the employees ask for a pay rise. Javier Bardem’s Julio Blanco is a master operator […]
Farewell, Mr. Haffmann
Friday, April 8th, 2022 Film Reviews,Perhaps the only positive thing that can be said about the Nazi occupation of France, from 1940-44, was that it has inspired a lot of excellent movies. These years brought out the best and the worst of the French, from the heroism of the Resistance to the scandalous number of collaborators and informers that sought […]
Dog
Friday, April 1st, 2022 Film Reviews,Dog is a title that tells us a lot about the world today. Even the dumbest movie-goer will immediately think: “Ah-ha! That must be a film about a dog!” We seem to love dogs more as we love each other less. They are so loyal, so non-judgemental. They don’t vote Liberal or Labor, Democrat or […]
Academy Awards 2022
Friday, March 25th, 2022 Film Reviews,Every year we hear the Oscars’ days are numbered. The awards ceremony is too long and boring, the short-lists not reflective of mainstream tastes. TV audiences can’t be bothered waiting around for hours to find out who receives the only awards that count: Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Director. And yet the […]
CODA & Don’t Look Up
Friday, March 18th, 2022 Film Reviews,Completing my trawl through the contenders for Best Picture at the 2022 Academy Awards, this week I’m looking at CODA and Don’t Look Up. It’s a little surprising that either of these titles is shortisted for the award, although they both have their qualities, with Don’t Look Up, in particular, being touted by some as […]
The Batman
Friday, March 11th, 2022 Film Reviews,Many readers will have been introduced to Batman through that incredibly camp afternoon TV program of the late 1960s in which Adam West played Bruce Wayne (Batman), with Burt Ward as his ward, Dick Grayson (Robin). Has anybody ever heard of these two actors since? The supporting cast was more high-profile: Cesar Romero as the […]
Dune
Saturday, March 5th, 2022 Film Reviews,There are fans for whom Dune’s second coming has been anticipated with a kind of religious devotion. The first cinematic adaptation of Frank Herbert’s cult science fiction novel in 1984 was a film David Lynch would rather forget, so there were high hopes for Denis Villeneuve’s new version. Could they get it wrong again? Well […]
King Richard
Friday, February 25th, 2022 Film Reviews,Watching this bio pic about Richard Williams, who raised his daughters, Venus and Serena, to be tennis champions, I thought back to last year’s Netflix documentary on Naomi Osaka. That strange, vague, disconnected young woman might have benefited from a parent as dogged as Williams, although one suspects Venus and Serena succeeded almost as a […]