Film Reviews
Wild Tales
Saturday, May 30th, 2015 Film Reviews,“What does cinema know, that we don’t?” That’s how this column started a fortnight ago, with a quotation from German director, Rüdiger Suchsland. The same line seems even more relevant in discussing Damían Szifrón’s Wild Tales, a portmanteau film featuring six short stories about ordinary people being driven to the brink by “inequality, injustice and […]
Gemma Bovery
Saturday, May 30th, 2015 Film Reviews,Emma Bovary is one of the most enduring characters in world literature, but many would argue no screen adaptation has ever captured the spirit of Flaubert’s masterpiece – even with directors as distinguished as Jean Renoir, Vincente Minnelli and Claude Chabrol. Within a few months there will be a new Madame Bovary, directed by Sophie […]
Mad Max: Fury Road
Saturday, May 23rd, 2015 Film Reviews,Last week I got off a plane from Europe and within a few hours found myself at the movies waiting for the jet lag to kick in. I need not have worried because there is never a moment’s respite in Mad Max: Fury Road. It’s like absorbing a triple expresso on an intravenous drip. Some […]
A Royal Night Out
Saturday, May 23rd, 2015 Film Reviews,“God save the Queen. She ain’t no human bean!” sang Johnny Rotten in the Jubilee year of 1977. “Oh yes she is,” say the makers of A Royal Night Out – a movie designed to convince us the British Royal Family are not only human but adorable. For director, Julian Jarrold, this film is even […]
German Film Festival 2015
Saturday, May 16th, 2015 Film Reviews,“What does cinema know, that we don’t?” This is the question asked by Rüdiger Suchsland’s documentary, From Caligari to Hitler, one of the highlights of this year’s Audi Festival of German Film. The topic is the cinema of the Weimar Republic, Germany’s first tempestuous experiment with democracy, which lasted from 1919 -1933, when it was […]
Unfriended
Friday, May 15th, 2015 Film Reviews,Don’t answer text messages and emails from dead people. They’ll only force you to kill yourself, which is really tiresome. This is the important lesson to be learned from Unfriended, an ingenious new take on the teenage slasher film. It may be the cheapest movie you’ll see this year, clocking in at no more than […]
Clouds of Sils Maria
Friday, May 15th, 2015 Film Reviews,Clouds of Sils Maria is not a title to attract teenage thrill-seekers on a Friday night. Those with a philosophical bent may know this was the town in the Swiss Alps where Friedrich Nietzsche went to breathe the mountain air and wrestle with his concept of the Eternal Return. Since the days of Aristophanes philosophers […]
Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter
Saturday, May 2nd, 2015 Film Reviews,To get the most out of Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter it helps to have seen Fargo – the Coen brothers’ movie of 1996, not the TV series. One of the loose ends in that film was a briefcase full of money left buried in the snow by a hapless Steve Buscemi. As the credits roll […]
The One Eyed Girl
Saturday, May 2nd, 2015 Film Reviews,It’s becoming tautologous to say “a disappointing Australian film.” While I never expect a masterpiece, it would be nice to find a local movie that manages to cover more than a narrow slice of the emotional spectrum. The usual bill of fare ranges from angst to misery and back again. A disproportionate number of new […]
Testament of Youth
Saturday, April 25th, 2015 Film Reviews,Lest we forget it’s Anzac Day here’s another movie about the First World War, albeit far from the shores of Gallipoli. Testament of Youth is based on the war-time memoirs of Vera Brittain (1893-1970), first published in 1933, 15 years after the end of hostilities. Having begun the project as a novel Brittain struggled with […]