Time Out

Tomatometer-approved publication
Rating Title/Year Author
3/5 Home (2008) Keith Uhlich Terrific performances and superb cinematography lift cowriter-director Ursula Meier's feature debut above its thuddingly metaphorical premise. EDIT
Posted Mar 25, 2021
2/5 Zack Snyder's Justice League (2021) Philip De Semlyen It's all a bit #ReleaseTheDeletedScenes. EDIT
Posted Mar 15, 2021
3/5 Blue Story (2019) Greer McNally It's a vital story about contemporary London. EDIT
Posted Feb 24, 2021
3/5 The Nest (2020) Zachary Shevich As he proved with 'Martha Marcy May Marlene', Durkin is a master of tone, and 'The Nest' is another finely calibrated mood piece. EDIT
Posted Feb 21, 2021
4/5 Ordinary Love (2019) Joseph Walsh Don't expect dramatic fireworks - very little happens narratively - but prepare for this quiet film to tiptoe into your heart. EDIT
Posted Feb 20, 2021
5/5 Firestarter: The Story of Bangarra (2021) Stephen A. Russell It's a living record of a found family that has striven to build a better Australia for First Peoples, a film that places culture at the heart of our national story. EDIT
Posted Feb 18, 2021
4/5 Swallow (2019) Greer McNally This is Bennett's show... It's a role you can imagine a young Isabelle Huppert playing, and there's no higher praise than that. EDIT
Posted Feb 17, 2021
2/5 Kajillionaire (2020) Kate Lloyd Kajillionaire takes a heartbreaking story - a child of abuse trying to escape her sociopathic parents - and bloats it so full of Little Miss Sunshine kook that any emotional sharpness is left soft and doughy. EDIT
Posted Feb 15, 2021
5/5 Saint Maud (2019) Philip De Semlyen I've seen Saint Maud twice and each time it found new ways to freak me out. Take the leap of faith. EDIT
Posted Feb 14, 2021
Babes in Arms (1939) Tom Milne First of the Garland-Rooney musicals, clothing a tired plot with much charm, energy and, mercifully, no Busby Berkeley chorine patterns. EDIT
Posted Feb 12, 2021
4/5 White Riot (2019) Chris Waywell 'White Riot' uses archive footage and stills brilliantly. It dispenses with expositional voiceover and clocks in at a lean 80 mins. But all of that pales beside its central message. EDIT
Posted Feb 12, 2021
3.5/5 Another Round (2020) Stephen A. Russell There's a louche '70s swagger to the film, as it follows this tightening band of brothers' increasingly erratic behaviour non-judgementally. The tragicomic tracing of male fragility is fascinating. EDIT
Posted Feb 11, 2021
3/5 Totally Under Control (2020) Zach Long A timely and competent first chapter, but it's only a fragment of a story that's still being written. EDIT
Posted Feb 7, 2021
2/5 Malcolm & Marie (2021) Philip De Semlyen There's a tonne of interesting questions raised but you're too numbed to absorb them. EDIT
Posted Feb 5, 2021
The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (1974) Time Out Staff Aiming for the stars, the film hits a magazine spread by Norman Rockwell, and obstinately stays there: a respectable enough achievement in its way, but one that ultimately dims the mind as it stirs up the emotions. EDIT
Posted Feb 4, 2021
4/5 Simple Passion (2020) Huw Oliver Laetitia Dosch is subtle and exquisite as a divorced Parisian lost in infatuation. EDIT
Posted Feb 4, 2021
3/5 Rams (2020) Stephen A. Russell Deadpan Aussie dramatic comedy is a good stand-in for Icelandic quirk in this likeable remake. EDIT
Posted Feb 4, 2021
3/5 Greenland (2020) Philip De Semlyen Gerard Butler finally faces an adversary he can't punch. EDIT
Posted Feb 4, 2021
5/5 Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) (2021) Dave Calhoun Politics, music, fashion, history, religion - this is one of those super-smart cultural documentaries that has entry points from all sides. EDIT
Posted Feb 4, 2021
5/5 Passing (2021) Dave Calhoun Rebecca Hall's wonderful, poetic debut sticks close to Nella Larsen's story, never offering easy answers or a neat resolution. EDIT
Posted Feb 4, 2021
3/5 CODA (2021) Philip De Semlyen It's likeable but very familiar. EDIT
Posted Feb 4, 2021
3/5 In The Earth (2021) Dave Calhoun It's a jab of timely anxiety, destined to be a freakout midnight movie when cinemas finally reopen. EDIT
Posted Feb 4, 2021
1/5 Twist (2021) Philip De Semlyen This poor Oliver Twist update needs to be artfully dodged. EDIT
Posted Feb 4, 2021
4/5 Flee (2021) Philip De Semlyen This gut-punch adult animation is a worthy heir to Waltz with Bashir. EDIT
Posted Feb 4, 2021
4/5 Censor (2021) Philip De Semlyen Censor wears its genre influences on its sleeve, but it's very much its own thing. EDIT
Posted Feb 4, 2021
3/5 Earwig and the Witch (2020) Nick Dent It sacrifices Studio Ghibli's hand-drawn style but it's the absence of the studio's usual emotional beats that's the bigger problem. EDIT
Posted Feb 4, 2021
4/5 The Sparks Brothers (2021) Dave Calhoun Edgar Wright's sheer enthusiasm means that the two and half hours doesn't feel excessive at all: he powers chronologically through a pop survival story that has you wanting to punch the air EDIT
Posted Feb 4, 2021
Misha and the Wolves (2021) Philip De Semlyen A detective story-cum-meta-narrative full of trapdoors, it's a film to tiptoe through carefully. EDIT
Posted Feb 4, 2021
4/5 Judas and the Black Messiah (2021) Philip De Semlyen Daniel Kaluuya provides a towering: all coiled power, oratorical savvy and meticulously-researched authenticity. EDIT
Posted Feb 4, 2021
3/5 Pinocchio (2019) Joseph Walsh The result is a bizarre fairytale extravaganza, and Garonne should be credited for the thoughtful way he has brought his vision to life. EDIT
Posted Feb 3, 2021
4/5 High Ground (2020) Stephen A. Russell High Ground doesn't quite have the epic sweep of Warwick Thornton's Sweet Country, nor the white hot fury of say Jennifer Kent's The Nightingale, but is nonetheless a powerful indictment on a past Australia has yet to reconcile as a nation. EDIT
Posted Jan 31, 2021
3/5 Occupation: Rainfall (2020) Nick Dent Sometimes even cheesy movies can be a perfect distillation of the zeitgeist. EDIT
Posted Jan 28, 2021
3/5 The Dig (2021) Philip De Semlyen The kind of real-life period story that seems tailor made for your gran, with its cast of dependable British thesps, summery vistas and scenes of people offering each other barley water. EDIT
Posted Jan 28, 2021
4/5 76 Days (2020) Dave Calhoun This is primary evidence right from the source of history. EDIT
Posted Jan 28, 2021
4/5 News of the World (2020) Philip De Semlyen Tom Hanks is immaculate as this world-weary wanderer, imbuing him deep sorrow and humanity. He even rides like a genre veteran. EDIT
Posted Jan 27, 2021
4/5 Assassins (2020) Dave Calhoun This film is fairly straightforward and low-key in its execution, but the access is excellent - and what a story it tells. EDIT
Posted Jan 24, 2021
4/5 The Dissident (2020) Philip De Semlyen This sinister story is told with the breakneck pacing and paranoid edge of a Tony Scott thriller. EDIT
Posted Jan 20, 2021
4/5 The White Tiger (2021) Dave Calhoun It offers style, energy and bursts of goofy fish-out-of-water humour before landing on a vicious, dark streak of black-hearted cynicism. EDIT
Posted Jan 20, 2021
4/5 Scream of Fear (1961) Keith Uhlich Susan Strasberg's doe-eyed dedication to her role and Douglas Slocombe's brilliant black-and-white cinematography counterbalance the film's increasingly ridiculous plot turns, which nonetheless have a crude, jaw-dropper effectiveness. EDIT
Posted Jan 18, 2021
4/5 Dear Comrades! (2020) Philip De Semlyen The script finds plenty of mordant humour in the Kafka-like contortions of the state and its lackeys. EDIT
Posted Jan 15, 2021
4/5 MLK/FBI (2020) Philip De Semlyen This captivating and enraging doc records a battle between two forces vying for moral authority with only one combatant. EDIT
Posted Jan 14, 2021
2/5 Music (2021) Stephen A. Russell Aren't these breakout moments, with their hectic choreography, bright costumes and dazzling lighting, super-exclusionary of the very community the film is trying to represent? EDIT
Posted Jan 13, 2021
3.5/5 The Dry (2021) Stephen A. Russell Bana's taut lead performance is an apt match for the film's haunted spirit EDIT
Posted Jan 11, 2021
The Brown Bunny (2003) Keith Uhlich What was missed amid all the Ecclesiastical accusations of vanity was Gallo's bold exploration of a damaged male psyche. EDIT
Posted Jan 6, 2021
2/5 Law Abiding Citizen (2009) Keith Uhlich It's basically Saw with Gerard Butler as Jigsaw, which means he's as righteous of body as he is of mind. EDIT
Posted Jan 6, 2021
Around a Small Mountain (2009) Keith Uhlich The film [has] about it an air of summation, or at least of farewell, as if it were the bittersweet encore at a closing night performance. EDIT
Posted Dec 26, 2020
Min Ye (2009) Keith Uhlich An astonishing Scenes From a Marriage-esque parable anchored by Sokona Gakou's force-of-nature performance. EDIT
Posted Dec 26, 2020
2/5 The Midnight Sky (2020) Philip De Semlyen The sleek sci-fi visuals occasionally elevate it, although more often it's just a bit of a slog. EDIT
Posted Dec 23, 2020
3/5 Over the Hills and Far Away (2009) Keith Uhlich Comes off as both an edifying work of advocacy and an invasive home movie. EDIT
Posted Dec 22, 2020
Independencia (2009) Keith Uhlich Like Josef von Sternberg's island adventure Anatahan (1953), Raya Martin's weather-beaten melodrama is a hallucinatory emotional hothouse. EDIT
Posted Dec 19, 2020