Tag: drama
Fruitvale Station
Saturday, November 9th, 2013 Film Reviews,“Based on a true story” is a claim that confers a special moral distinction on a movie. We are not talking about the fantasy adventures of James Bond or Superman, or some frivolous rom com. The film we have chosen to watch is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. If only. […]
The Counselor
Saturday, November 9th, 2013 Film Reviews,In a hotel room in El Paso, two anonymous bodies are entwined beneath the sheets. We listen to their conversation for minutes before we lay eyes on Michael Fassbender and Penélope Cruz, playing the Counselor and his girlfriend, Laura. Having just seen a big René Magritte exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, […]
Renoir
Saturday, November 2nd, 2013 Film Reviews,Renoir, a bio-pic about the great Impressionist, poses a familiar paradox: directors love making films about artists, but most artists lead completely sedentary lives. For every Caravaggio, whose life was a tangle of sex and violence, there are thousands of plodders who barely left the studio except to go painting in a field. This doesn’t […]
The Butler
Saturday, November 2nd, 2013 Film Reviews,When a film touches on shameful events that are still raw and painful it exerts a strange moral blackmail on the viewer. In terms of script and character development, The Butler is a horribly corny movie. As a nose-to-the-glass chronicle of the civil rights movement, Lee Daniels’s melodrama strikes at the heart of America’s good […]
Mystery Road & Exposed
Saturday, October 19th, 2013 Film Reviews,Before Mel Gibson got a real American accent, the film Mad Max (1979) was dubbed to make it acceptable to a United States audience. Is that Australian twang still a barrier to international success? Ivan Sen’s Mystery Road should answer this question. The accents could hardly be more Australian but the film is pitched firmly […]
Italian Film Festival 2013 & Thanks for Sharing
Saturday, October 12th, 2013 Film Reviews,Anybody who remembers the thrill of seeing Fellini’s La Dolce Vita (1960) for the first time should swiftly book a seat for the major drawcard in this year’s Lavazza Italian Film Festival: The Great Beauty (La Grande Bellezza). The film critics are strangely sniffy about director, Paolo Sorrentino, but I can’t understand their reticence. He […]
The Act of Killing & Rush
Saturday, October 5th, 2013 Film Reviews,There are limits to a social conscience. When a film has attracted every possible superlative it takes on the status of a must-see event, but after about ten minutes you know The Act of Killing will be both sickening and unforgettable. As one deadpan horror follows another in an interminable procession, many viewers will decide […]
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 […]
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 […]