Film Reviews
Tim Winton's The Turning & Lovelace
Saturday, September 28th, 2013 Film Reviews,Tim Winton may be the most overhyped writer in Australian history. This is not to deny his talent, merely to question the kind of reverence in which he is held by so many intelligent people. Personally, I’ve never found his books to be particularly interesting. There’s something irritating about his characters. They are not simply […]
I'm So Excited & Salinger
Saturday, September 21st, 2013 Film Reviews,It’s slightly disturbing to be sitting on a airplane writing about I’m So Excited, set almost entirely on an airplane. It could’ve been worse. There are real life docu-dramas such as United 93, where one spends the whole movie waiting for the plane to thump into a field in Pennsylvania. I’m So Excited is a […]
Blue Jasmine & Mood Indigo
Saturday, September 14th, 2013 Film Reviews, Uncategorized,There are directors who enjoy a special rapport with actors, being able to coax memorable performances from the most unpromising talent. On the opposite side of the ledger are those such as Baz Luhrmann, who can assemble an all-star cast and turn everyone into a cardboard cut-out. Woody Allen is the joker in the pack. […]
The Rocket & Jobs
Saturday, September 7th, 2013 Film Reviews,Laos has the unenviable distinction of being the most bombed country in the world. During the ‘Secret War’ waged by the United States and its allies, between 1964-73, Laos endured 580,000 bombing missions which dropped two million tons of ordnance – the equivalent of a planeload of bombs every eight minutes for a period of […]
Stoker & The Best Offer
Saturday, August 31st, 2013 Film Reviews,There was a moment in the 1980s when Australian directors such as Bruce Beresford, Peter Weir and Gillian Armstrong heard the siren call of Hollywood and went to make films in the United States. It seems this alluring melody is now drifting towards South Korea, with directors such as Park Chan-wook (Oldboy), Bong Joon-ho (The […]
What Maisie Knew & Elysium (+ film festivals)
Saturday, August 24th, 2013 Film Reviews,When Henry James published What Maisie Knew in 1897, the straight-laced mores of the Victorian era were already beginning to unravel. The Edwardian period would be more permissive, more prepared to confront social and sexual issues that had previously been taboo. James had a talent for describing scenes of great moral complexity without condoning deviations […]
Red Obsession & Frances Ha
Saturday, August 17th, 2013 Film Reviews,“When the dragon awakes, she will shake the world,” said Napoleon Bonaparte, with uncanny anticipation of China’s twenty-first century mania for high-end red wine. For wine buffs, Napoleon will be the least significant figure quoted in a film that explores a booming market for Bordeaux that saw prices rise by more than 1000% in […]
The Bling Ring & Beyond the Hills
Saturday, August 10th, 2013 Film Reviews, Uncategorized,Sofia Coppola says she didn’t grow up in Hollywood and has never been a part of the subculture she anatomises in The Bling Ring. Yet Coppola, who has been in the film industry since birth, may be the perfect director to explore a notorious crime spree in which celebrities’ homes were burglarised by a group […]
The World's End & Greetings From Tim Buckley
Saturday, August 3rd, 2013 Film Reviews,There could hardly be a better setting for a movie called The World’s End, than a provincial English town. Regardless of the picturesque, ‘ye olde’ touches, many of those who spent their childhood in these soulless hamlets have fled like refugees from a scene of social disaster. It may not be entirely coincidental that director, […]
Behind the Candelabra & What's in a Name?
Saturday, July 27th, 2013 Film Reviews,It is almost impossible to explain Liberace to anyone under thirty. A walking Christmas tree decked out in rhinestones, sequins, furs and ostrich feathers, with a bouffant wig the size of Uluru, Liberace had millions of fans who never suspected he was gay. When newspapers dared make such slanderous accusations he sued them and won. […]