Tag: drama
The Shape of Water
Saturday, January 20th, 2018 Film Reviews,With the passing of time it’s possible to look back on any period with nostalgia. Stephan Elliott proves the point in Swinging Safari, a time capsule of the 1970s that’s advertised as a comedy, but may be the greatest Australian horror film since Wake in Fright. It’s more common for moviemakers to feel nostalgia for […]
The Post
Friday, January 12th, 2018 Film Reviews,Steven Spielberg is to the cinema as Volvo is to the world of automobiles. Everyone recognises that a Volvo is an excellent, well-made car. It’s safe, reliable, high quality… but it will never get your pulse racing. With Spielberg we can be confident that each new feature will be a quality product. He’s too experienced, […]
All the Money in the World
Friday, January 5th, 2018 Film Reviews,Everything has a price. That’s the philosophy of life put forward by J.Paul Getty – not simply the richest man in the world in 1973, but allegedly the richest man that had ever lived. Getty applied the same principle when he sought to beat down the ransom demands of the gangsters who had kidnapped his […]
Downsizing & Call Me By Your Name
Saturday, December 30th, 2017 Film Reviews,Last week saw a drought of reviewable films but Boxing Day always brings the deluge. The two most attractive, for me at least, are Alexander Payne’s Downsizing, and Call Me By Your Name by talented Italian director, Luca Guadagnino. The former might be called a comedy of ideas, the second is an unconventional, deeply intimate […]
The Florida Project
Friday, December 15th, 2017 Film Reviews,Jean Baudrillard – not long ago the most fashionable French philosopher in the English-speaking world – once suggested that the purpose of Disneyland was to make Americans believe the rest of the United States was not Disneyland. He phrased it a little differently, but the gist of his argument was that life in America had […]
Wonder Wheel
Friday, December 8th, 2017 Film Reviews,“Oh God!” says Kate Winslet, towards the end of Wonder Wheel, “Spare me the bad drama!” Alas, by then it’s too late. We’ve just endured one hour and 40 minutes of dialogue so wooden and scenes so hopelessly stagey, no actor could survive such a catastrophe. It’s been a long time since I went into […]
Goodbye Christopher Robin & The Teacher
Friday, November 24th, 2017 Film Reviews,Two films released this week look at the damage that may be inflicted on children by parents and teacher. Goodbye Christopher Robin shows us how A.A.Milne virtually destroyed his son’s life by making him the hero of the best-selling Winnie the Pooh stories. The Teacher, set in Bratislawa in 1983, is a much darker affair, […]
Lucky
Friday, November 17th, 2017 Film Reviews,If films were pieces of music the standard Hollywood blockbuster would be a symphony of the most bombastic persuasion. Lucky is a sonata for harmonica. The film is the directorial debut for character actor, John Carroll Lynch, familiar from movies such as Fargo (1996) and The Founder (2016). He’s chosen to begin with something small […]
Detroit
Friday, November 10th, 2017 Film Reviews,If ever a film were poised on the edge of the great divide that exists in the United States today, it’s Kathryn Bigelow’s Detroit. Like Ava DuVernay’s Selma (2015) it draws on the turbulent history of American race relations to make a not-so-subtle point about the present. After almost two-and-a-half hours, one leaves the cinema […]
Loving Vincent
Thursday, November 2nd, 2017 Film Reviews,Loving Vincent is one of those films that leans heavily on its novelty value. Alan Crosland’s The Jazz Singer was the first talkie; Alexander Sokurov’s The Russian Ark was the first feature to be shot in a single take; Thor:Ragnarok is the world’s first Kiwi superhero comedy; Loving Vincent is the world’s first fully painted […]