Film Reviews
Mozart’s Sister
Friday, July 15th, 2011 Film Reviews,After sitting through Sofia Coppola’s disastrous Marie Antoinette many viewers might feel they never want to see another periwig. The French, however, are addicted to these costume dramas which hark back to days of imperial glory and quicksilver repartée. Add a little Baroque music and the recipe is irresistible. So when a French film called […]
The Trip
Friday, July 8th, 2011 Film Reviews,Does Michael Winterbottom make too many movies? The 49-year-old British director has directed 33 projects since 1989, and has another three in pre or post-production. If he continues at this rate he still won’t catch up with old-time Hollywood directors such as Michael Curtiz, who is responsible for more than 170 titles (the early ones […]
Sleeping Beauty
Wednesday, June 29th, 2011 Film Reviews,True to its title, Sleeping Beauty is a fairy tale, as bleak and perverse as something by the Brothers Grimm – if you can imagine the Grimms writing about suburban Melbourne. Lucy (Emily Browning) is a university student studying mathematics. She supports herself with part-time jobs, as a waitress and a filing clerk. In the […]
Blame
Saturday, June 25th, 2011 Film Reviews,Australian cinema has been in the doldrums for years, but with the recent success of Animal Kingdom, and two acclaimed features by new directors released within the past month, it seems we are experiencing a crime-led recovery. First there was Justin Kurzel’s Snowtown, and now Michael Henry’s Blame, which has already been screened in film […]
Little White Lies
Friday, June 24th, 2011 Film Reviews,From the first frame we are plunged into the loud, lurid bacchanalia of a Parisian nightclub. Ludo (Jean Dujardin) is stumbling across the floor, smashed on booze and coke. Finally, he decides to call it a night. Out the door, onto his motorbike, puttering away down the long, lonely avenues of early morning. We watch […]
Penelope
Friday, June 10th, 2011 Film Reviews,Australians all let us rejoice, for we now have our own “art” film. As proof of its art credentials Penelope is slow and ritualistic. The characters do a lot of blank-faced staring, and walk around like somnambulists. The camera is often so far away that it gives the impression we are watching the action unfold […]
Get Low
Monday, May 30th, 2011 Film Reviews,Have you heard the one about the crazy old hermit with a heart of gold, whose past contains a terrible secret? If not, then Get Low may be the film for you. More likely you will recognise the type as a borderline Hollywood cliché, right up there with the reluctant gunslinger or the girl whose […]
Snowtown
Friday, May 20th, 2011 Film Reviews,Snowtown would never be first choice for ‘a nice night’s entertainment’ – the humble goal of Barry Humphries’s character, Sandy Stone. Like Sandy and Dame Edna, the characters in Justin Kurzel’s debut feature are creatures of the Australian suburbs, but this is a very, very dark version of that working class idyll. This controversial film […]
Yang Fudong
Saturday, April 23rd, 2011 Art Column, Chinese Art, Film Reviews,Q: When is a film not a film? A: When it’s a work of contemporary art. Of all the current crop of Chinese artists who have become stars of the Biennale circuit, Yang Fudong (b.1971) is one of the most difficult to categorise. Having studied painting at the Academy of Art in Hangzhou, he has […]
The Way Back
Tuesday, February 22nd, 2011 Film Reviews, Other Writing,As the lights go up at the end of this gruelling film, you feel like turning to your neighbour and saying: “Just leave me here. I’m done for. Go on, you can make it!” It’s a long way back to George Street after trudging 6,500 kilometres with a handful of fugitives from a Soviet prison […]