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3/5
|
Saltburn
(2023)
|
Jane Freebury
|
A clever, queasy drama, with a terrific star turn from its lead actor, that dares to drive a twisted story about class envy and class war to a risky conclusion
Posted Dec 02, 2023
|
|
3/5
|
Foe
(2023)
|
Jane Freebury
|
An unsettling combination of sci-fi, horror and intimate drama that is evoked by two terrific young actors and enhanced by lovely work on camera, but the big picture concerns the narrative explores needed strengthening at the writing stage
Posted Nov 20, 2023
|
|
3/5
|
The Marvels
(2023)
|
Cris Kennedy
|
DaCosta keeps her cameras on the hop, barely pausing to allow the slower beats to hit, but the film's leads do serviceable work giving their characters heart, and with Vellani winning the bulk of the audience-winning funny dialogue.
Posted Nov 15, 2023
|
|
4/5
|
Fingernails
(2023)
|
Cris Kennedy
|
Greek director Christos Nikou and his co-screenwriters Sam Steiner and Stavros Raptis make some intriguing propositions in their screenplay... But what their script lays the foundations for are some exceptional performances from the trio of leads.
Posted Nov 07, 2023
|
|
4/5
|
The Killer
(2023)
|
Cris Kennedy
|
The Killer is just, well, good. A good, straightforward film.
Posted Oct 31, 2023
|
|
4/5
|
Killers of the Flower Moon
(2023)
|
Jane Freebury
|
With its sweeping prairie vistas and a terrific score, this grim, important story of crimes against First Nations people as the US tried to leave its frontier culture behind, need not have been delivered at a slow, deliberate pace
Posted Oct 31, 2023
|
|
3/5
|
The Crime Is Mine
(2023)
|
Jane Freebury
|
At the end of this theatrical romp with a hint of underlying substance, no ones leaves empty-handed during the general tidy-up, except for the very dead producer
Posted Oct 30, 2023
|
|
4/5
|
Lie with Me
(2022)
|
Cris Kennedy
|
There is a familiarity to Lie With Me as it treads the same boards of many other queer coming-of-age films, because these tropes of repression are so familiar to many.
Posted Oct 17, 2023
|
|
3/5
|
Fair Play
(2023)
|
Jane Freebury
|
Straining for credulity in the tough, fast-moving world of financial services, the film's appealing young romantic couple each have a point to make in the power-play, in this good-looking but oddly even-handed thriller
Posted Oct 13, 2023
|
|
3/5
|
The Exorcist: Believer
(2023)
|
Cris Kennedy
|
[Burstyn's] presence anchors this film to the heft of that brand name, and elevates a film that is otherwise comme ci, comme ca.
Posted Oct 10, 2023
|
|
3/5
|
Saw X
(2023)
|
Cris Kennedy
|
Bell has aged across the 19 years since Saw hit our screens in 2004, and it gives a wonderful physicality to this quiet, broken man.
Posted Oct 03, 2023
|
|
4/5
|
Past Lives
(2023)
|
Jane Freebury
|
Subtle and understated, if occasionally mundane, romantic drama, that reflects our complicated lives in a universal story about the life choices, and sweeps you away in its final climactic moments
Posted Sep 28, 2023
|
|
3/5
|
BlackBerry
(2023)
|
Jane Freebury
|
It's an intriguing take on the spectacular rise and demise of the cell phone that everyone had to have, until they didn't, but aspects of the movie's style and tone are distracting and over-drawn, detracting from its impact overall
Posted Sep 27, 2023
|
|
3/5
|
It Lives Inside
(2023)
|
Cris Kennedy
|
Placing the story within the milieu of an Indian high school student who can't run far enough away from her own cultural heritage, even when that's the probable path to salvation, is one of the film's stronger elements.
Posted Sep 27, 2023
|
|
2/5
|
Meg 2: The Trench
(2023)
|
Cris Kennedy
|
The filmmakers are more than comfortable with the writing team either overlooking any scientific inaccuracy in Steve Altern's source novel, or in adding their own logic-defying scenarios, including that meeting of the megalodon and Tyrannosaurus...
Posted Sep 19, 2023
|
|
|
Everybody Loves Jeanne
(2022)
|
Cris Kennedy
|
Other directors might have taken this idea a number of ways, perhaps an Under The Tuscan Sun-style sex comedy... Being French, however, Celine Devaux gives this film a bit of a Gallic shrug, an enjoyable but slight little affair.
Posted Sep 19, 2023
|
|
|
Blue Beetle
(2023)
|
Cris Kennedy
|
Gareth Dunnet-Alconer's screenplay has plenty of those big laughs and deserved bad-guy-comeuppances that slay in the hyped-up atmosphere of a large audience...
Posted Sep 19, 2023
|
|
|
Biosphere
(2022)
|
Cris Kennedy
|
I think it is one of the film's charms that this isn't the masterclass in scenery-chewing it might have been, with two folk facing the end of the world, as they're both such laid-back characters.
Posted Sep 19, 2023
|
|
4/5
|
Sisu
(2022)
|
Cris Kennedy
|
What a brilliant role this is for Tommila, a crusty old man with the unkillable quality of Keanu Reeves' John Wick... with the inventiveness for killing with whatever is at hand of Liam Neeson's Taken character Brian Mills.
Posted Aug 01, 2023
|
|
4/5
|
Driving Madeleine
(2022)
|
Cris Kennedy
|
There's a tiny bit of similarity to Driving Miss Daisy, this also being an intergenerational road-tripper of a film, but mainly in their enjoyability.
Posted Jul 25, 2023
|
|
5/5
|
Oppenheimer
(2023)
|
Cris Kennedy
|
Nolan's screenplay jumps through time, slowly revealing his characters and their motivations, only making complete sense in its final moments, but with not a moment wasted.
Posted Jul 25, 2023
|
|
3/5
|
Carmen
(2022)
|
Jane Freebury
|
A heavily stylised, star-crossed romance with an intrusive score and odd scattering of religious icons, that has little impact outside the dance scenes, unlike the fiery star of opera it invokes who had impact to burn
Posted Jul 25, 2023
|
|
4/5
|
Other People's Children
(2022)
|
Jane Freebury
|
In this relatable, sensitive relationship drama set in the city of love, intense emotions are explored but the mood is low-key, as a woman, a highly empathetic Virginie Efira in the role, suddenly realises that her chances of motherhood are slipping away
Posted Jul 14, 2023
|
|
4/5
|
Reality
(2023)
|
Jane Freebury
|
A gripping, slow-burn political thriller based on FBI records, in which minimalist details make for maximum suspense, as the drama reconstructs the interrogation and detainment of a young female whistleblower
Posted Jul 09, 2023
|
|
4/5
|
The Last Daughter
(2022)
|
Cris Kennedy
|
Here's a little Australian documentary hitting the screens the same week as the DC Universe's $220 million The Flash that packs twice the punch of the big-budget action flick with nothing but a strong sense of story.
Posted Jun 21, 2023
|
|
4/5
|
The Flash
(2023)
|
Cris Kennedy
|
The Flash is great fun, mostly well-made, and thoroughly enjoyable.
Posted Jun 21, 2023
|
|
4/5
|
You Hurt My Feelings
(2023)
|
Jane Freebury
|
A sweet, smart and playful cautionary tale for anxious writers and aspiring writers that pokes a bit of fun at New Yorkers too and their inner-city angst
Posted Jun 20, 2023
|
|
2/5
|
Unlikely Pilgrimage Of Harold Fry, The
(2023)
|
Jane Freebury
|
Even a dependable and likeable lead actor cannot lift this slight, feel-good film above its shallow messaging
Posted Jun 20, 2023
|
|
3/5
|
To Catch a Killer
(2023)
|
Cris Kennedy
|
Szifron approaches his work with invention and panache and this film is just so good-looking and atmospheric.
Posted Jun 13, 2023
|
|
3/5
|
Bank of Dave
(2023)
|
Cris Kennedy
|
... A small and sweet British feel-good film of an unexpectedly triumphant underdog, in the vein of such likeable films as Brassed Off or The Full Monty or Billy Elliot, which puts it in fine company indeed.
Posted Jun 06, 2023
|
|
4/5
|
Sweet As
(2022)
|
Jane Freebury
|
The issues for at-risk youth are referenced but not not followed through in this inspiring and hopeful road trip through Australia's remote Pilbara region
Posted Jun 05, 2023
|
|
4/5
|
Quant
(2021)
|
Jane Freebury
|
Packed with talking heads and Sixies style, this doco on a fashion diva of Swinging London still manages cut-through on her influence and significance
Posted Jun 05, 2023
|
|
3/5
|
Renfield
(2023)
|
Cris Kennedy
|
It is a ton of fun, in its own right and in the layers McKay imbeds in loving homage to the classics of cinema and horror literature.
Posted May 31, 2023
|
|
4/5
|
Limbo
(2023)
|
Cris Kennedy
|
Sen places his characters as small figures within these enormous outback locales, against great expanses of desert and under endless monochrome skies, and yet this world still feels claustrophobic.
Posted May 25, 2023
|
|
4/5
|
Infinity Pool
(2023)
|
Cris Kennedy
|
... You cannot turn away, regardless of how intense the performances are, how luridly psychedelic is the lighting, how much of an acid trip is the editing, how mordant is cinematographer Karim Hussain's eye for the macabre and banal.
Posted May 16, 2023
|
|
4/5
|
The Survival of Kindness
(2022)
|
Jane Freebury
|
A singular vision of cool, fierce intensity from a filmmaker who shows he has plenty of innovative ideas to explore in his creative arsenal yet
Posted May 13, 2023
|
|
3/5
|
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
(2023)
|
Cris Kennedy
|
Flashy, fun and funny, it honours its main characters...
Posted May 09, 2023
|
|
3/5
|
My Neighbor Adolf
(2022)
|
Cris Kennedy
|
While the screenplay could be punchier, this is a strong two-hander between performers of the stature of Hayman and Kier.
Posted May 02, 2023
|
|
4/5
|
Evil Dead Rise
(2023)
|
Cris Kennedy
|
Lee Cronin most unfortunately doesn't emulate Raimi's humour or tongue-in-cheek ethos - this is pure horror, not particularly new or inventive, but respectful to the expectations fans will have for gore.
Posted Apr 26, 2023
|
|
4/5
|
Suzume
(2022)
|
Cris Kennedy
|
What might sound like fantasy nonsense is really allegorical, as Shinkai captures the social anxiety felt by a nation of people who live on the edge of grinding tectonic plates...
Posted Apr 26, 2023
|
|
2/5
|
The Super Mario Bros. Movie
(2023)
|
Cris Kennedy
|
The missing ingredient for those adult audiences is any kind of wit or clever dialogue in the film's screenplay...
Posted Apr 11, 2023
|
|
3/5
|
The Portable Door
(2023)
|
Jane Freebury
|
A jaunty comic fantasy with loads of talent in front of and behind the camera, but the conspiracy ideas wear a bit thin over the long run time
Posted Apr 06, 2023
|
|
2/5
|
Perfect Addiction
(2023)
|
Cris Kennedy
|
The film's decent performances and high production values elevate it beyond the quality of the writing.
Posted Apr 04, 2023
|
|
3/5
|
John Wick: Chapter 4
(2023)
|
Cris Kennedy
|
Reeves gives more of the super-chill guy we love, though the most fun looks to be had by Skarsgard whose Marquis dresses in immaculate costuming. He camps and vamps through his role.
Posted Mar 28, 2023
|
|
3/5
|
Shazam! Fury of the Gods
(2023)
|
Cris Kennedy
|
While the film almost, almost falls into the same trap the second Wonder Woman film fell in - relying too much in its final acts on dumb and confusing CGI carnage - it remains an enjoyable slice of silliness.
Posted Mar 22, 2023
|
|
3/5
|
Meet Me in the Bathroom
(2022)
|
Cris Kennedy
|
Southern and Lovelace have built a time capsule: as they are only using of-its-day footage and interviews, we have no context for the acts' ongoing evolution and impact.
Posted Mar 22, 2023
|
|
4/5
|
Till
(2022)
|
Jane Freebury
|
Told from the perspective of a mother's love, the story of a lynching that galvanised the 1960s civil rights protests has dignity and raw emotive power
Posted Mar 17, 2023
|
|
2/5
|
We Have a Ghost
(2023)
|
Cris Kennedy
|
What a shame... there are a handful of brilliantly directed and exciting action scenes that show what the film might have been. It feels instead like two films, one fun and one tedious, have been Frankensteined together.
Posted Mar 10, 2023
|
|
3/5
|
Creed III
(2023)
|
Cris Kennedy
|
For a first-time director, Jordan does a very good job, notably in the film's handful of fight scenes, understanding the ballet of the match.
Posted Mar 10, 2023
|
|
4/5
|
Cocaine Bear
(2023)
|
Cris Kennedy
|
Cocaine Bear might sound like it is going to be some frivolous D-grade schlock like Sharknado, but it is, believe it or not, well made with an A-film budget, an A-list cast and crew, and B-grade horror film sensibilities.
Posted Mar 01, 2023
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