Tag: drama
Megalopolis
Sunday, October 6th, 2024 Film Reviews,It’s hard to recall a film being greeted with more perplexity than Francis Ford Coppola’sMegalopolis. A production that has been 40 years in gestation, cost US$120 million, and failed to attract support from the major studios, it’s like no movie ever made. As the director is one of Hollywood’s all-time greats it seemed incredible that […]
My Old Ass & The Critic
Friday, September 27th, 2024 Film Reviews,Margo Robbie is one of the biggest names in Hollywood today, so when she decides her company will produce the second feature by young Canadian director, Megan Park, it’s a huge endorsement. It might have been even better had Robbie acted in this movie, as a little star power would have added to its box […]
The Substance
Thursday, September 19th, 2024 Film Reviews,Wild. Demented. Shocking. Bizarre. Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance is all of the above. It’s difficult to achieve an R rating in Australia nowadays but this movie clears the bar with ease. Along with the blood and full-frontal nudity, there’s a ferocious energy that propels the story forward, and a brand of comedy that leaves one […]
Bonnard, Pierre & Marthe
Thursday, September 12th, 2024 Film Reviews,Despite the hundreds of books and catalogues devoted to the art of Pierre Bonnard, we are obliged to piece together his life from a mass of unreliable snippets. The major authority was his great-nephew, Antoine Terrasse (1928-2013), but the family connection can also act as a form of censorship, ensuring that difficult or disreputable stories […]
Touch & Kneecap
Friday, August 30th, 2024 Film Reviews,Although Icelandic creativity is appropriately volcanic, most of the films from this tiny country fall into the arthouse category. It may be that Baltasar Kormákur’s Touch is the movie that cracks the mainstream. Devoid of rugged landscapes, lurking demons and sheep, Touch is the kind of wellmade, sentimental drama that audiences tend to adore. The […]
Blink Twice
Friday, August 23rd, 2024 Film Reviews,Not long ago, Channing Tatum had all but disappeared from our screens. After a blazing start to his career, from 2017-21 he seems to have done only voiceovers. You may remember him as the voice of Superman in that cinema classic, The Lego Movie 2! Suddenly Tatum is everywhere – starring with Scarlett Johansson in […]
Alien: Romulus
Friday, August 16th, 2024 Film Reviews,Now in its seventh installment since 1979, the Alien franchise delivers a predictable product. Ridley Scott’s Alien of 1979, was a ground-breaking – or rather space-breaking – sci-fi horror flick that made an indelible mark on cinema history. It was seven years before a sequel arrived, partly because science fiction writer, A.E.van Vogt, claimed the […]
Sleeping Dogs
Saturday, August 10th, 2024 Film Reviews,If the word ‘thriller’ conjures up thoughts of car chases, shootouts, martial arts contests and desperate last minute escapes, you might not want to bother with Sleeping Dogs. The most thrilling moments in this film are when a tiny snippet of recovered memory comes flashing through the lead character’s mind. It might not sound especially […]
Birdeater & MaXXXine
Friday, July 26th, 2024 Film Reviews,There seem to be only two certainties about contemporary, non-Indigenous Australian films: they will be dark and unpleasant, and greeted with exaggerated enthusiasm that quickly subsides into silence. The latest movie to test this thesis is Birdeater, written and directed by Jack Clark and Jim Weir, which won the audience award at last year’s Sydney […]
The Bikeriders
Friday, July 12th, 2024 Film Reviews,Assuming that much of the hooning around on motorbikes in The Bikeriders was done by stunt doubles, Austin Butler’s major contribution to this film is to look pretty and stare blankly at everyone else, and the camera. In his role as the young hoodlum, Bennie, the new Hollywood heartthrob has relatively few lines, even though […]