Tag: mystery
Limbo
Friday, May 26th, 2023 Film Reviews,For the Catholic Church, Limbo was literally the outskirts of Hell, inhabited by those good people who died before Christ was born, and by infants without experience of baptism or sin. In common parlance, the word has come to mean a state of indecision, of forced inaction with no clear path in sight. For filmmaker […]
Decision to Leave
Friday, October 21st, 2022 Film Reviews,Among Korean directors, Bong Joon-ho achieved worldwide fame when Parasitewon the Oscar for best Picture in 2019, but one should not ignore the claims of his contemporary, Park Chan-wook. At this year’s Cannes Film Festival, Park won the award for Best Director, while his new film, Decision to Leave, has been selected as South Korea’s […]
The Night of the 12th
Friday, October 14th, 2022 Film Reviews,Never has a whodunnit been less dependent on suspense than Dominik Moll’s The Night of the 12th. At the very beginning we are told the French Criminal Investigation Department opens 800 murder investigations every year. “Some are never resolved,” we read. “This film is about one of these.” Even though we know this is the […]
Nine Perfect Strangers
Friday, August 27th, 2021 Film Reviews,“Wellness” is one of humanity’s oldest pursuits but the word dates from only 1950, when an American doctor, Halbert Dunn, combined “wellbeing” and “fitness” to create a neologism that now denotes a billion dollar industry. In the eight-part Hulu series, Nine Perfect Strangers, we follow a disparate group of people who have booked themselves into […]
Only the Animals
Friday, January 29th, 2021 Film Reviews,Only the Animals sounds like half of a proposition that needs to be completed. After watching Domink Moll’s ingenious mystery I’d venture: “Only the animals understand that life is a matter of instinct and impulse.” Or perhaps: “Only the animals know how strange humans really are…” There are six main characters in a tale that […]
The Dry
Saturday, January 23rd, 2021 Film Reviews,As Australia Day looms so does another round of Australian movies. If you’re feeling patriotic you can now watch Glendyn Ivin’s Penguin Bloom, in which a disabled Naomi Watts finds new hope through a magpie. Coming soon is Stephen Johnson’s High Ground, an historical drama set in Arnhem Land, where Simon Baker treads a blood-stained […]
The Burnt Orange Heresy
Friday, July 31st, 2020 Film Reviews,In The Square (2017), Ruben Östlund’s wicked send-up of the contemporary art scene, Claes Bang was a self-serving curator who couldn’t take a trick. In The Burnt Orange Heresy, Bang is back, as a louche art critic playing a dangerous game. It’s not uncommon for actors to get type-cast as tough guys, criminals or cowboys, […]
Vivarium
Wednesday, April 15th, 2020 Film Reviews,This may not be the best time to release a feature about a couple trapped in a suburban nightmare, completely isolated from the rest of the world. Are we eager to stream a film that reminds us of our own predicament? Perhaps there’s a vicarious pleasure in watching others doing it harder than oneself. Vivarium […]
Burning
Thursday, April 18th, 2019 Film Reviews,There are few genuine auteurs in today’s cinema but Korea’s Lee Chang-dong is one of them. It’s a word favoured by French new wave critics when referring to a director whose work has its own distinctive artistry. Only a true artist could have made films such as Secret Sunshine (2007) and Oasis (2002), filled with scenes that have […]
Arrival
Friday, November 18th, 2016 Film Reviews,Anyone who enjoyed Independence Day (1996), or some similar tale of alien invaders trashing Planet Earth, would be well advised to give Arrival a miss. For those who feel an evening’s cinematic pleasures to be incomplete without two full hours of Armageddon, Denis Villeneuve’s cerebral, atmospheric sci-fi flick will be a massive disappointment. For the […]