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Stephen A. Russell
Tomatometer-approved critic
Stephen A Russell is a freelance film critic hailing from Glasgow, Scotland, and based in Melbourne, Australia. You can read his reviews at The New Daily, and listen in on Joy 94.9FM show Sunday Arts Magazine.
Movies reviews only
| Rating | T-Meter | Title | Year | Review |
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The Last Voyage of the Demeter (2023) |
Did we really need this Dracula footnote to set sail at all? Perhaps not, but while Øvredal’s expansion on the world isn’t as fun as the grim fables from which it draws blood, it still has some bite. - Time Out
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| Posted Sep 09, 2023
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Chevalier (2022) |
I really wanted to love this ... but it's just really pat ... Lucy Boynton is cataclysmic as Marie Antonette... a middling biopic. - Sunday Arts Magazine Podcast (JOY 94.9)
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| Posted Sep 06, 2023
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Showing Up (2022) |
Just give that pigeon the Oscar now - Sunday Arts Magazine Podcast (JOY 94.9)
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| Posted Sep 06, 2023
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20,000 Species of Bees (2023) |
A very beautiful film - Sunday Arts Magazine Podcast (JOY 94.9)
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| Posted Sep 06, 2023
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Theater Camp (2023) |
An exceedingly jolly romp full of exaggerated but recognisable characters, you can’t help but root for them even if they veer off stage and into wrongtown on occasion - ScreenHub
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| Posted Aug 24, 2023
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Sorcery (2023) |
Seething with righteous fury burning bright below its meditative pace, it casts a ferociously powerful spell. - Flicks (AU, NZ, UK)
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| Posted Aug 21, 2023
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Tótem (2023) |
Eliciting remarkable performances from its youngest star all the way up to its eldest, it thrums with humanity and will leave you desperate to fall into the arms of your own when the credits roll. - Flicks (AU, NZ, UK)
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| Posted Aug 21, 2023
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Sunflower (2023) |
If the coming-out-of-age story told here is familiar ... it’s leant a rewarding authenticity by Carrubba’s generosity, drawing deep from his not-too-distant school dramas to paint a beautiful portrait of a young man edging past adversity towards hope. - Time Out
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| Posted Aug 16, 2023
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Ego: The Michael Gudinski Story (2023) |
Ego is exactly what you would expect, a rollicking rock, pop and roll fanfare for a life well lived that’s packed with big hitters paying their dues. - ScreenHub
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| Posted Aug 15, 2023
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Monolith (2023) |
Making the most of the palatial but spookily claustrophobic setting ... Vesely and Campbell take us on a spine-chilling ride that, even if it winds up in fairly familiar territory, is never less than gripping thanks to a bravura performance by Sullivan. - Time Out
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| Posted Aug 12, 2023
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The Rooster (2023) |
Nudity is a soul undressed in actor-turned-writer-director Mark Leonard Winter’s at times bleakly comic debut feature. - ScreenHub
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| Posted Aug 09, 2023
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The Eternal Daughter (2022) |
Hogg is knowingly tingling our goosebumps, playfully evoking our expectations of a horror movie. But while Julie is reading a book of ghost stories, this isn’t strictly one any more than the haunting of The Souvenirs. - ScreenHub
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| Posted Aug 08, 2023
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Fairyland (2023) |
This is an HIV/AIDS crisis film, but one that’s not hooked on the spectre of death, though its unimaginable shadow falls over the final act. - Time Out
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| Posted Aug 07, 2023
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Hello Dankness (2022) |
Soda Jerk aren’t in the business of pushing false hope, but their sheer unadulterated brilliance will make you feel better about despairing for our future. And that’s genius. - Time Out
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| Posted Aug 06, 2023
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Shayda (2023) |
Shayda is a welcome window into an Australian community we have not heard enough from on the big screen. It announces Niasari as a promising filmmaker with a gift for conveying internal thought with the surprising might of leaves whipped up in the breeze. - ScreenHub
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| Posted Aug 06, 2023
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Barbie (2023) |
It's a real good time... it was a weird choice for Greta Gerwig, I think, and yet she's done the absolute best you could probably do with a film like this. - Sunday Arts Magazine Podcast (JOY 94.9)
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| Posted Jul 24, 2023
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Oppenheimer (2023) |
A remarkable film, despite its foibles, like those neutrons, protons and electrons manhandled by (in)humanity, what is not here is as important as what is. Perhaps there’s no wrangling with this moment... Nolan... is not god any more than Oppenheimer was. - ScreenHub
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| Posted Jul 20, 2023
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Past Lives (2023) |
A deeply emotionally mature film in which happily ever after isn’t guaranteed. Majestic. - Flicks (AU, NZ, UK)
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| Posted Jun 20, 2023
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Anatomy of a Fall (2023) |
Hüller is on fire, Snoop the dog deserves equal adulation, and you’ll be debating what really went down in the foyer for hours. - Flicks (AU, NZ, UK)
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| Posted Jun 20, 2023
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Perfect Days (2023) |
A sublime film about finding your own way, it’s a feast of slow cinema for the soul. - Flicks (AU, NZ, UK)
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| Posted Jun 20, 2023
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Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023) |
There’s definitely a touch of Logan to this hangdog tale of a hero at the end of his journey, thankfully less nihilistic here. This is, after all, a movie in the old-school mould of the Saturday afternoon adventure. - ScreenHub
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| Posted Jun 20, 2023
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No Bears (2022) |
Freedom or art? What if there’s no choice at all? Fearless Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi has endured both house arrest and prison in his tireless quest to tell stories that matter under duress.
- Flicks (AU, NZ, UK)
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| Posted Jun 19, 2023
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Omen (2023) |
Replete with street gangs of lads wearing pink tutus and tiaras, Mad Max-style wrestlers and a gingerbread house-dwelling witch, the film is a stunner staring into the dark heart of superstition and dancing over its grave. - Flicks (AU, NZ, UK)
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| Posted Jun 19, 2023
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May December (2023) |
Portman and Moore make for wickedly camp frenemies, but Melton’s quietly heartbreaking grace steals the show. - Flicks (AU, NZ, UK)
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| Posted Jun 19, 2023
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Pretty Red Dress (2022) |
Dionne Edwards’ South London family drama blows up the gender binary with a whip-smart deconstruction of Black masculinity... this big-hearted film... subtly unpicks the stitched hems that bind us into identity expectations. - Flicks (AU, NZ, UK)
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| Posted Jun 19, 2023
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Blue Jean (2022) |
English writer/director Georgia Oakley’s debut feature unpicks the knotty complications of much-maligned Thatcher-era policy Section 28... a stylishly shot period piece that pops with an electric ‘80s soundtrack. - Flicks (AU, NZ, UK)
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| Posted Jun 19, 2023
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Scrapper (2023) |
Campbell’s magnificent performance makes it look easy, holding her own against the always-excellent Dickinson. Their tit-for-tat strafing through old grudges is glorious, evoking the question of who exactly is the grown-up. - Flicks (AU, NZ, UK)
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| Posted Jun 19, 2023
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The New Boy (2023) |
There’s a kinetic strength to star-in-the-making Aswan Reid’s screen presence as we first glimpse his unnamed ‘new boy’... A scrapper with a mess of sun-bleached hair, he seems to channel the vast majesty of the mountainous desert. - Time Out
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| Posted Jun 08, 2023
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Master Gardener (2022) |
It’s a fabulously steamy set-up. Sure, Weaver’s role is over-written and almost panto-broad, but she leans right into it, with Edgerton a reliably stony counterpoint. Sadly Swindell can’t keep up. - Time Out
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| Posted May 18, 2023
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John Farnham: Finding the Voice (2023) |
If you’re coming in totally blind, you’ll be treated to a rollicking walkthrough of what it took to make Farnham who he is. But Finding the Voice can just as easily be relished as a time capsule of sorts, spanning the kooky ‘60s right up until today. - ScreenHub
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| Posted May 16, 2023
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Limbo (2023) |
Sen’s Western-tinted detective fiction offers a heartsore reckoning with Australia’s colonial past and its deep scars. A remarkable auteur with a laser-like focus. - Flicks (AU, NZ, UK)
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| Posted May 16, 2023
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Hannah Gadsby: Something Special (2023) |
No one can expect Gadsby to suffer for their art in perpetuity... But pretty soon I found myself wondering ... if the opposite of Nannette’s room-silencing truth bombs necessarily needs to be a pretty stock-standard, if amiably enjoyable, stand-up hour? - ScreenHub
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| Posted May 09, 2023
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Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983) |
Sorry Empire stans, but nothing the saga has presented thus far comes anywhere close to the emotional trauma unfolding here. Hauntingly scored by John Williams, who almost equals the impact of his seminal Imperial March, it’s goosebump-inducing. - ScreenHub
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| Posted Apr 27, 2023
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The Eight Mountains (2022) |
The Eight Mountains resonates most strongly in its pregnant pauses as tectonic shifts rumble below. - Time Out
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| Posted Apr 17, 2023
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Tetris (2023) |
It's a real East vs West battle with British and American people trying to get control of this game made in Soviet Russia. They're obviously not very big on the Capitalist game, but the capitalists are salivating at how much money this game will make. - Sunday Arts Magazine Podcast (JOY 94.9)
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| Posted Apr 10, 2023
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EO (2022) |
If you watched The Banshees of Inisherin and, like most of the world, fell in love with Jenny the donkey and went on an emotional journey with her, well this is your next fix of beautiful trauma. - Sunday Arts Magazine Podcast (JOY 94.9)
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| Posted Apr 10, 2023
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Allelujah (2022) |
It's a perfectly lovely British film you'll probably forget as soon as you've seen it ... until it takes a wild turn in the final act ... - Sunday Arts Magazine Podcast (JOY 94.9)
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| Posted Apr 10, 2023
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Broker (2022) |
It's a really beautiful meditation on found family - Sunday Arts Magazine Podcast (JOY 94.9)
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| Posted Apr 10, 2023
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John Wick: Chapter 4 (2023) |
Its less like a [three-hour] fight sequence and more like an incredibly bonkers ballet - Sunday Arts Magazine Podcast (JOY 94.9)
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| Posted Apr 10, 2023
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Aftersun (2022) |
A quiet, emotionally unmooring portrait of father and daughter in moments of blissful silliness and small confessions... it’s a devastatingly honest rendition of the aftershocks of a parent’s love when we realise, too late, the simple joys we shared. - AEU News
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| Posted Mar 20, 2023
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All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (2022) |
If this was a straight documentary on [Nan Goldin] and her art, then it would be incredible, but where it gets really interesting... is the art collective mission to bring down [The Sackler family] name [from museums] - Sunday Arts Magazine Podcast (JOY 94.9)
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| Posted Mar 20, 2023
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Pearl (2022) |
I'm quite sure no animals were harmed in the making of this film, but many of those farmyard critters don't make it out alive... - Sunday Arts Magazine Podcast (JOY 94.9)
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| Posted Mar 20, 2023
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Living (2022) |
It's a really simple, beautiful film - Sunday Arts Magazine Podcast (JOY 94.9)
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| Posted Mar 20, 2023
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The Banshees of Inisherin (2022) |
The rat-a-tat of rifles and thunderous clatter of cannons are but a momentary distraction, piercing the peaceful quiet of the fictional Island on which he lives in playwright and filmmaker Martin McDonagh’s dark parable The Banshees of Inisherin. - ScreenHub
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| Posted Mar 08, 2023
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Luther: The Fallen Sun (2023) |
It helps that the BBC show was always cinematic in the way it depicted a perma-rain-slicked London and the maniacal monsters who prey on her unsuspecting denizens with a flair for the horror movie theatrical. - Flicks (AU, NZ, UK)
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| Posted Feb 25, 2023
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Femme (2023) |
Murky morality abounds in the exhilarating Femme. It’s a credit to the filmmakers that this cat-and-mouse game takes such intriguing turns. - Time Out
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| Posted Feb 22, 2023
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Passages (2023) |
It's sexy, sad and so very French - Time Out
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| Posted Feb 21, 2023
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Spoiler Alert (2022) |
It is interesting... but it is super stagey... and very mawkish - Sunday Arts Magazine Podcast (JOY 94.9)
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| Posted Feb 06, 2023
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The Whale (2022) |
I found this quite hammy... it feels like it's pointing and staring. - Sunday Arts Magazine Podcast (JOY 94.9)
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| Posted Feb 06, 2023
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Knock at the Cabin (2023) |
"There is a very interesting concept behind this one... but it didn't work for me." - Sunday Arts Magazine Podcast (JOY 94.9)
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| Posted Feb 06, 2023
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