News.com.au

News.com.au is not a Tomatometer-approved publication. Reviews from this publication only count toward the Tomatometer® when written by the following Tomatometer-approved critic(s): Wenlei Ma
Rating Title/Year Author
3.5/5 Raya and the Last Dragon (2021) Wenlei Ma With its visual majesty, rollicking pace and winning voice performances from Kelly Marie Tran and Awkwafina, Raya and the Last Dragon is another feather in Disney's cap. EDIT
Posted Mar 3, 2021
2.5/5 Chaos Walking (2021) Wenlei Ma It could've been worse. EDIT
Posted Mar 3, 2021
3.5/5 Another Round (2020) Wenlei Ma Thomas Vinterberg is incredibly astute when it comes to how humans behave in extraordinary circumstances. EDIT
Posted Feb 27, 2021
5/5 Minari (2020) Wenlei Ma Weeks, maybe even months later, you'll still be thinking about it. EDIT
Posted Feb 27, 2021
3/5 I Care a Lot (2020) Wenlei Ma Rosamund Pike is almost too effective, her delicious villainy too irresistible to completely loathe. From her sharp canary yellow suit to her fearless resolve, Marla may be problematic, but she is fabulous. EDIT
Posted Feb 27, 2021
3/5 The Rental (2020) Wenlei Ma Delivering solid thrills and an ugly portrait of disintegrating relationships, The Rental is a clever meld of drama and horror. EDIT
Posted Feb 27, 2021
4/5 The White Tiger (2021) Wenlei Ma Any hope or salvation The White Tiger offers is laced with a drop of arsenic, and there are certainly no Bollywood dance numbers to lift your spirits. EDIT
Posted Feb 27, 2021
4/5 High Ground (2020) Wenlei Ma Australian storytelling that packs a punch and pushes you to think deeply about the history of this country, High Ground captures the raw beauty of Arnhem Land as it does the brutality of colonialism. EDIT
Posted Feb 27, 2021
3/5 The Dig (2021) Wenlei Ma The elegance in The Dig lies in what it says about the continuity of life rather than the finality of death. EDIT
Posted Feb 27, 2021
4/5 One Night in Miami (2020) Wenlei Ma There's a Shakespearean quality to One Night in Miami, wrestling with grand ideas about the complexities of the human experiences through these flawed but noble characters. EDIT
Posted Jan 17, 2021
3/5 Sylvie's Love (2020) Wenlei Ma Sylvie's Love ticks many of the boxes with assurance and style, there's much to recommend it if you like a little flutter of the heart. EDIT
Posted Dec 22, 2020
4.5/5 Soul (2020) Wenlei Ma There's a lot of poignancy to Soul without being bogged down in sentimentality. It's a cure for any existential malaise 2020 may have burdened on us, a celebration of the mundane and the grand, all-consuming passions. EDIT
Posted Dec 22, 2020
3.5/5 The Midnight Sky (2020) Wenlei Ma It's a carefully balanced movie that gives as much time to human connections, loss, regrets and hope in the small moments as it does to what we reveal of ourselves when survival is at stake. EDIT
Posted Dec 21, 2020
5/5 Nomadland (2020) Wenlei Ma Chloe Zhao's thoughtful balance of majesty and intimacy makes Nomadland one of the most accomplished films of the year, an emotional tour de force that moves you but never imposes or manipulates. EDIT
Posted Dec 19, 2020
3.5/5 Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (2020) Wenlei Ma Chadwick Boseman gives a powerful performance that reverberates with pride, pain and thwarted ambition. EDIT
Posted Dec 19, 2020
3.5/5 Wonder Woman 1984 (2020) Wenlei Ma This is a movie that absolutely crackles on a big screen, the large canvas playing deserving host to the scale of Wonder Woman 1984's ambitious action sequences, pop art colour palette and scene-stealing villains. EDIT
Posted Dec 15, 2020
2.5/5 The Prom (2020) Wenlei Ma The Prom takes giant leaps (literally and metaphorically) in its story progression without earning it. EDIT
Posted Dec 12, 2020
4.5/5 Palm Springs (2020) Wenlei Ma All charm, heart and hilarity, Palm Springs is one of the year's best films. EDIT
Posted Dec 7, 2020
1.5/5 Hillbilly Elegy (2020) Wenlei Ma Adams and Close deserved better than this relentlessly gloomy, often trite, movie. We all did. EDIT
Posted Dec 7, 2020
4/5 Happiest Season (2020) Wenlei Ma There's nothing guilty about this pleasure. EDIT
Posted Dec 7, 2020
5/5 Mank (2020) Wenlei Ma More than a magnificent technical achievement, Mank is hypnotically entertaining. EDIT
Posted Dec 7, 2020
3.5/5 Tenet (2020) Wenlei Ma If Tenet had paid as much attention to its writing and character work as it did to its visual and conceptual ambitions, it could have been a masterpiece instead of merely great. But it's still great. EDIT
Posted Aug 21, 2020
3.5/5 The Trip to Greece (2020) Wenlei Ma The Trip to Greece is like an old jumper. When you pull it on, you know all the familiar grooves of the threads, and you also know where all the snags are. EDIT
Posted May 24, 2020
3/5 The Lovebirds (2020) Wenlei Ma This is exactly the kind of movie you want to watch on Netflix, an inoffensive, silly and riotous comedy with sharp dialogue, that comes in at a brisk 87 minutes. EDIT
Posted May 24, 2020
3.5/5 Hearts and Bones (2019) Wenlei Ma Starring Hugo Weaving and directed by Ben Lawrence, the sombre and empathetic drama is a complex story about memory, trauma and family. EDIT
Posted May 18, 2020
3.5/5 Bad Education (2019) Wenlei Ma Fuelled by a fascinating story and its sensational performances, Bad Education is a movie worthy of its star-power and ambitions. EDIT
Posted May 18, 2020
1.5/5 The Rhythm Section (2020) Wenlei Ma When it comes to action movies, absurd, suspend-your-disbelief twists can be forgiven if the movie was exciting and propulsive. But what can't be forgiven is dullness. EDIT
Posted May 18, 2020
2.5/5 Extraction (2020) Wenlei Ma The action is what saves Extraction from being totally written off considering its story and characters are so generic - the screenplay from Joe Russo (Avengers: Endgame) does it no favours. EDIT
Posted May 18, 2020
3/5 Tigertail (2020) Wenlei Ma Yang is a talented filmmaker whose writing has always evidenced a deep, sophisticated understanding of the sometimes-contradictory nature of human emotions EDIT
Posted May 18, 2020
3.5/5 Onward (2020) Wenlei Ma There's a lot to like in Onward, the least of which is its bright, appealing animation, character design and world building, but you wouldn't expect anything less from an outfit as accomplished as Pixar. EDIT
Posted Apr 5, 2020
3/5 The Current War: Director's Cut (2019) Wenlei Ma Fuelled by impressive performances from a sensational cast, The Current War is a sturdy, well-paced historical drama. The production values - its set design, cinematography, costumes - are particularly winsome. EDIT
Posted Apr 5, 2020
4/5 Queen & Slim (2019) Wenlei Ma Queen & Slim bowls you over with its powerful, charged story. Not one to be missed. EDIT
Posted Apr 5, 2020
3/5 Military Wives (2019) Wenlei Ma Military Wives may follow a formula of sorts and you'll see every plot turn coming but it'll put a smile on your face nonetheless. EDIT
Posted Apr 5, 2020
2/5 Spenser Confidential (2020) Wenlei Ma Spenser Confidential is too anaemic to be anything other than a paint-by-numbers bore offering nothing new and trying to skate by on Wahlberg's charisma alone. EDIT
Posted Apr 5, 2020
2.5/5 The Way Back (2020) Wenlei Ma The Way Back is a humdrum movie saved from complete tedium by an affecting Affleck performance. EDIT
Posted Apr 5, 2020
4/5 Dark Waters (2019) Wenlei Ma Dark Waters is as gripping as it is terrifying, and it'll claw into your consciousness in the same way that poisonous forever chemicals have claimed squatter's rights in your body. EDIT
Posted Apr 5, 2020
2.5/5 Downhill (2020) Wenlei Ma Downhill is best watched without having seen Force Majeure because the comparisons are so unflattering. EDIT
Posted Apr 5, 2020
3.5/5 EMMA. (2020) Wenlei Ma This version of Emma is an amusing, pastel-coloured movie which fully embraces the rhythm of Austen's dialogue. EDIT
Posted Feb 27, 2020
3/5 To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You (2020) Wenlei Ma The earnest movie can feel a little generically too sweet at times. EDIT
Posted Feb 27, 2020
3/5 Richard Jewell (2019) Wenlei Ma Where it falters - and badly - is in its portrayal of real-life reporter Kathy Scruggs. It leaves a bitter taste and mars the whole package, undermining its own good work elsewhere. EDIT
Posted Feb 27, 2020
4/5 The Lighthouse (2019) Wenlei Ma The Lighthouse may be challenging, it may even be off-putting, but it's gutsy, accomplished and the kind of movie that sears into your memory. EDIT
Posted Feb 27, 2020
4.5/5 Uncut Gems (2019) Wenlei Ma The thing that elevates it above all else is the frenetic energy that infuses every scene, yet calibrated so perfectly so that it stays, barely, on the right side of frustrating. There's nothing more thrilling than that. EDIT
Posted Feb 27, 2020
3.5/5 The Peanut Butter Falcon (2019) Wenlei Ma The Peanut Butter Falcon is a sweet, tender and joyful portrayal of an unlikely friendship, and it won't fail to charm. EDIT
Posted Feb 27, 2020
3.5/5 A Hidden Life (2019) Wenlei Ma A Hidden Life is definitely on the long side, and there will be people whose patience may be exhausted, but if you give yourself over to it, it's a moving, emotional film with truly breathtaking visuals and wonderful performances. EDIT
Posted Feb 27, 2020
3.5/5 A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2019) Wenlei Ma A Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood is like an anti-Joker in how it confronts the mental health challenges of its main character. Instead of nihilism, hopelessness and violence, this film opts for hope. EDIT
Posted Feb 27, 2020
4/5 Just Mercy (2019) Wenlei Ma Just Mercy is a deeply moving film, a human story about injustice and justice and how intangible and ephemeral they both really are. EDIT
Posted Feb 27, 2020
4/5 Honey Boy (2019) Wenlei Ma Honey Boy, despite its heavy subject, is a deeply empathetic and generous drama that strikes at the heart of complex parent-child relationships and inherited trauma. EDIT
Posted Feb 27, 2020
3.5/5 The Invisible Man (2020) Wenlei Ma This confident, modern reworking of The Invisible Man owes a lot less to Claude Rains' classic screen monster and much, much more to Alfred Hitchcock. EDIT
Posted Feb 27, 2020
3/5 Miss Fisher and the Crypt of Tears (2020) Wenlei Ma Sure, it's cheesy and the punny repartees are on the nose, but that's part of the enjoyment. EDIT
Posted Feb 27, 2020
3/5 Sonic the Hedgehog (2020) Wenlei Ma Sonic The Hedgehog doesn't set out to rewrite the rules of the kids' movies, and given its inauspicious start, you could call the end result a win. EDIT
Posted Feb 12, 2020