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4/5
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Foxcatcher
(2014)
|
Simon Miraudo
|
Two men become untethered from reality and a third pays the ultimate price in Foxcatcher, a contemplative, chilling meditation on America's sense of owed victory by director Bennett Miller.
Posted Nov 21, 2018
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4/5
|
Turist
(2014)
|
Simon Miraudo
|
An avalanche descends on a family of tourists and it's not even among the five worst things to happen to them on their cursed ski trip in Force Majeure, the blackly comic Swedish psychodrama from director Ruben Östlund.
Posted Nov 21, 2018
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4/5
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Children of Men
(2006)
|
Jess Lomas
|
Ultimately grimy, both in subject matter and visually, thanks to set designers Jim Clay and Geoffrey Kirkland), the picture is frightening and powerful.
Posted Apr 01, 2015
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2/5
|
The Theory of Everything
(2014)
|
Simon Miraudo
|
For those deadened by the Transformers saga comes The Theory of Everything, a Stephen Hawking biopic to remind us even prestige movies made with good intentions can be interminable too.
Posted Feb 12, 2015
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5/5
|
Selma
(2014)
|
Simon Miraudo
|
Selma's achievements defy those of regular films.
Posted Feb 01, 2015
|
|
2.5/5
|
Wild
(2014)
|
Simon Miraudo
|
I've always believed Nick Hornby books make for better movies. Here, a Nick Hornby screenplay was probably better left as someone else's book.
Posted Jan 18, 2015
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4/5
|
Into the Woods
(2014)
|
Simon Miraudo
|
Into the Woods is a musical unruined by the transition from stage to screen, which is pretty much the best we can hope for when it comes to Stephen Sondheim adaptations.
Posted Dec 21, 2014
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2/5
|
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
(2014)
|
Simon Miraudo
|
Let's call it the 'seafood extender' of sequels. It takes up room on the plate, but there's no meat here.
Posted Dec 19, 2014
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4/5
|
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
(2014)
|
Simon Miraudo
|
Hollywood keeps trying to convince us with each new blockbuster that we've "never seen anything like this before." In 2014, it took a technically-audacious yet inexpensive backstage satire for that sentiment to actually ring true.
Posted Dec 17, 2014
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4/5
|
Mr. Turner
(2014)
|
Simon Miraudo
|
Mike Leigh's late-career fascination with the turning of the seasons and corporeal decline is illustrated with great humour and poetry in Mr. Turner.
Posted Dec 14, 2014
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3.5/5
|
Big Hero 6
(2014)
|
Simon Miraudo
|
Do we celebrate its strides toward cultural diversity, or cringe at the christening of its setting as 'San Fransokyo', a hybrid Japanese-American town where everyone looks only a little foreign?
Posted Dec 11, 2014
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|
4/5
|
The Imitation Game
(2014)
|
Simon Miraudo
|
The Imitation Game is a great biopic. The trouble is, biopics just ain't that great.
Posted Dec 10, 2014
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3/5
|
Unbroken
(2014)
|
Simon Miraudo
|
Though viewers suffering from 'inspirational biopic' fatigue won't be energised by its conventional storytelling, the tale within is so unlikely and so empowering only the steeliest of viewers could keep from being moved.
Posted Dec 08, 2014
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2.5/5
|
Finding Fela
(2014)
|
Simon Miraudo
|
Fela Kuti was a one-in-a-million figure with indomitable presence. What film could possibly contain him?
Posted Dec 07, 2014
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|
4/5
|
Starred Up
(2013)
|
Richard Haridy
|
Starred Up may cover familiar ground but it's executed with such arresting authenticity that it's hard to not be drawn in and ultimately excited. This is prison melodrama done amazingly well with sharp performances and visceral attention to detail.
Posted Dec 07, 2014
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1/5
|
Devil's Knot
(2013)
|
Richard Haridy
|
If anything positive can be gained from Devil's Knot, it's that hopefully it will lead new viewers to the magnificent experiences that await them by watching the superior Paradise Lost trilogy and the conclusive West of Memphis
Posted Dec 07, 2014
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|
2.5/5
|
Transformers: Age of Extinction
(2014)
|
Richard Haridy
|
Transformers: Age of Extinction is as close to an incoherent mess of movement & noise as cinema gets. Michael Bay is slowly perfecting his brand of blockbuster, and to be honest it's getting quite compelling to watch him fall down this rabbit hole
Posted Dec 07, 2014
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|
4/5
|
A Most Wanted Man
(2014)
|
Richard Haridy
|
A Most Wanted Man concludes on a bleakly prescient note, not only in offering an extraordinarily trenchant critique of American foreign policy but also as a moody send off to Hoffman himself.
Posted Dec 07, 2014
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|
3.5/5
|
The Mule
(2014)
|
Simon Miraudo
|
Angus Sampson co-directs and stars in the most unglamorous vanity project of recent memory... A slickly-produced black comedy.
Posted Dec 01, 2014
|
|
3.5/5
|
Heaven Adores You
(2014)
|
Simon Miraudo
|
Heaven Adores You is a fond remembrance of a talented musician by those who knew and loved him most. We should all be so lucky to score a tribute like this when we're gone.
Posted Dec 01, 2014
|
|
3.5/5
|
Time Is Illmatic
(2014)
|
Simon Miraudo
|
As humbling as hagiographies come.
Posted Dec 01, 2014
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|
2.5/5
|
Horrible Bosses 2
(2014)
|
Simon Miraudo
|
The Coens were never moved to make a second Big Lebowski, but Horrible Bosses 2, this we get.
Posted Dec 01, 2014
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|
D+
|
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
(1998)
|
Glenn Dunks
|
Unless viewed through the prism of psychedelic habituates, it is unlikely audiences will find much to savour in Gilliam's picture.
Posted Nov 24, 2014
|
|
A+
|
Jaws
(1975)
|
Glenn Dunks
|
With no superheroes or post-apocalyptic wastelands in sight, the skill behind Jaws becomes even more thrilling to watch unfold. ... Quite literally, Jaws is the original and the best.
Posted Nov 24, 2014
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4.5/5
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Nightcrawler
(2014)
|
Simon Miraudo
|
Jake Gyllenhall gets his Rupert Pupkin on in Nightcrawler, the heir apparent to Martin Scorsese's own satire of media infamy and celebrity (at any cost), The King of Comedy.
Posted Nov 23, 2014
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4/5
|
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1
(2014)
|
Simon Miraudo
|
The revolution isn't just televised in the latest Hunger Games instalment; it's subdivided.
Posted Nov 19, 2014
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|
3.5/5
|
The Dark Horse
(2014)
|
Simon Miraudo
|
Small in scope but significant in stature, Robertson delivers in The Dark Horse a sensitive tale with a crowd-pleasing punch, even as it declines to shy away from the bleakness of its characters' lives.
Posted Nov 18, 2014
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3.5/5
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Let's Be Cops
(2014)
|
Simon Miraudo
|
Reader, do not underestimate my willingness to watch the stars of New Girl screw around with one-half of Key and Peele when I recommend to you the undeniably conventional Let's Be Cops.
Posted Nov 11, 2014
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3/5
|
Interstellar
(2014)
|
Simon Miraudo
|
Interstellar can be pretty fun when it wants to be. The trouble is, 'fun' has never been atop director Christopher Nolan's list of priorities.
Posted Nov 05, 2014
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|
1.5/5
|
The Judge
(2014)
|
Simon Miraudo
|
Judge not, lest ye be judged. Easy to say if you didn't have to sit through David Dobkin's cloying courtroom melodrama.
Posted Nov 05, 2014
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|
4.5/5
|
Obvious Child
(2014)
|
Simon Miraudo
|
A modern, human comedy that tackles a controversial subject with ease.
Posted Nov 05, 2014
|
|
3.5/5
|
John Wick
(2014)
|
Simon Miraudo
|
The depth of one man's thirst for retribution is immeasurable in John Wick, a carnivorous thriller not ruined, shockingly, by the suddenly-useful vacant stare of leading man Keanu Reeves.
Posted Nov 02, 2014
|
|
4.5/5
|
The Infinite Man
(2014)
|
Richard Haridy
|
This is nothing less than one of my favourite Australian pictures in quite some time
Posted Nov 01, 2014
|
|
3/5
|
The Armstrong Lie
(2013)
|
Richard Haridy
|
The Armstrong Lie has several insightful moments but is most interesting in how it shows us a filmmaker usually committed to finding the absolute truth in his subjects, suffering when he comes across a story where lies and truth constantly intertwine.
Posted Nov 01, 2014
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4/5
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Ida
(2013)
|
Richard Haridy
|
A black & white Polish film about a nun in the 1960s exploring her family origins is about as tough as art-house pitches come. Yet, Ida has a remarkable lightness of touch and focus of vision making it impossible not to widely recommend.
Posted Nov 01, 2014
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|
2.5/5
|
Life After Beth
(2014)
|
Richard Haridy
|
Life After Beth is an irritatingly undeveloped project. A charming cast and a few moments of inspired lunacy make it passingly worthwhile for genre fans.
Posted Nov 01, 2014
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|
4/5
|
Fury
(2014)
|
Simon Miraudo
|
If you want the quick sell, rest assured Fury is a grisly WW2 flick with a seeming unquenchable appetite for destruction. But there's a little more to Fury than the quick sell would imply.
Posted Oct 28, 2014
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|
2.5/5
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Taking Woodstock
(2009)
|
Simon Miraudo
|
At no point did I feel like I was at Woodstock and surely that was the whole point.
Posted Oct 21, 2014
|
|
4.5/5
|
Humpday
(2009)
|
Simon Miraudo
|
It's a comedy that grows beyond any Apatovian expectations and expertly avoids being an ode to 'Gay panic' a'la I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry.
Posted Oct 21, 2014
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5/5
|
The Last Picture Show
(1971)
|
Simon Miraudo
|
The Last Picture Show is indeed one of the greatest movies ever made (although I hardly think the scorekeepers were waiting for my vote to come in before they declared it such).
Posted Oct 21, 2014
|
|
4.5/5
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Repulsion
(1965)
|
Simon Miraudo
|
The young Catherine Deneuve (she was 22 at the time of filming) gives a performance so unsettling and so precise, I can barely believe she grew into such a confident screen presence.
Posted Oct 21, 2014
|
|
3/5
|
Year One
(2009)
|
Simon Miraudo
|
In the beginning there was light, which was closely followed by the fart joke.
Posted Oct 21, 2014
|
|
3/5
|
X-Men Origins: Wolverine
(2009)
|
Simon Miraudo
|
So much for a clean slate.
Posted Oct 21, 2014
|
|
4.5/5
|
Mary and Max
(2009)
|
Simon Miraudo
|
The universe that is inhabited by Mary and Max is breathtaking, and must have required years of painstaking attention to detail to forge.
Posted Oct 21, 2014
|
|
3/5
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Pirate Radio
(2009)
|
Simon Miraudo
|
At the very least, it will have you feeling all gooey and nostalgic about a time you may not have been around for.
Posted Oct 21, 2014
|
|
1.5/5
|
Dragonball: Evolution
(2009)
|
Simon Miraudo
|
There are fewer depressing sights than Chow Yun-Fat performing stilted wire-fu in a Hawaiian shirt.
Posted Oct 21, 2014
|
|
2/5
|
The Pink Panther 2
(2009)
|
Simon Miraudo
|
It's not a crime to be silly, although the cast of The Pink Panther 2 dance perilously close to committing at the very least a misdemeanor.
Posted Oct 21, 2014
|
|
4/5
|
Duplicity
(2009)
|
Simon Miraudo
|
Tony Gilroy's directorial follow up to the phenomenal Michael Clayton is an impressive addition to his short but impressive filmography.
Posted Oct 21, 2014
|
|
3/5
|
Confessions of a Shopaholic
(2009)
|
Simon Miraudo
|
Confession #1: Despite all reasonable logic and preconceived expectations, I enjoyed Confessions of a Shopaholic.
Posted Oct 21, 2014
|
|
2.5/5
|
Notorious
(2009)
|
Simon Miraudo
|
This film knows the lyrics, but not the music.
Posted Oct 21, 2014
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