Film Reviews
Tolkien review - biopic charms but never wowsThursday, 02 May 2019
Finnish director Dome Karukoski’s Tolkien follows the same formula of many literary biopics, with a tick-box plot of loves, friendships and hardships that forged the writing career of one the 20th Century’s greatest fantasy writers. Read more... |
Long Shot review - semi-hilarious odd couple romcomThursday, 02 May 2019
This is a romcom of two radically different halves, vaulting so dizzyingly from insultingly unbearable to daringly hilarious that walking in half-way through becomes a viable option. Read more... |
Donbass review - war stories from the Ukrainian frontSaturday, 27 April 2019
The latest from the prolific Sergei Loznitsa, Donbass is a bad-dream journey into the conflict that’s been waging in Eastern Ukraine since 2014, barely noticed beyond its immediate region. Read more... |
Styx review - high seas, high stakes refugee nightmareFriday, 26 April 2019
The Mediterranean’s massacres of the refugee innocent come uncomfortably close to a lone female sailor in this stark parable of European helplessness and indifference. Read more... |
Avengers: Endgame review - Marvel save the biggest and best for lastThursday, 25 April 2019
The Earth’s mightiest defenders are back in a triumphant climax, 11 years in the making. Despite a three hour runtime and an overstuffed preceding chapter, the Russo Brothers pull off the near-impossible by creating a wholly satisfying final chapter, and possibly the best film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Read more... |
Eighth Grade review - a dazzlingly real portrait of a teenage girlThursday, 25 April 2019
“Hey guys, it’s Kayla, back with another video. So, the topic of today’s video is being yourself.” Kayla Day (the wonderful Elsie Fisher, nominated for a Golden Globe and also heard as the voice of Agnes in Despicable Me) is in her last week of eighth grade in upstate New York, compounding the horror of being 13 years old by making self-help YouTube videos in her bedroom. “As always, make sure to share and subscribe to my channel. Read more... |
Red Joan review - Judi Dench can't lift lumbering espionage dramaSaturday, 20 April 2019
The decades-long stage relationship between Judi Dench and Trevor Nunn translates to surprisingly little with Red Joan. This is veteran theatre director Nunn's first film since Twelfth Night in 1996. Read more... |
Loro review – hedonism must have an endFriday, 19 April 2019
"Them" - the "loro" of the title (with a further play on “l’oro”, gold) - denotes the mostly sleazy opportunists willing to use and be used by "him" ("lui"), "Presidente" Silvio Berlusconi in his septuagenarian bid for an extended sexual and political life. Read more... |
Dragged Across Concrete review - Mel Gibson's hard-boiled highThursday, 18 April 2019
Mel Gibson’s vile drunken rants a decade ago, his 63 years and the price of both inform his role as cop Brett Ridgeman. Writer-director S. Craig Zahler won’t comment. Read more... |
Greta review – Isabelle Huppert goes full psycho in eccentric stalker thrillerWednesday, 17 April 2019
Isabelle Huppert is famed for the chilly intensity of many of her performances, and a willingness to mine all manner of darkness and perversity – her recent, award-laden turn in Elle being a good example. So it’s surprising how rarely she’s played unequivocal villains. Read more... |
Hellboy review - vivid monster mashFriday, 12 April 2019
No one was waiting for another Hellboy film, but here this rude, crude reboot is anyway, stomping all over Guillermo del Toro’s 2004 original with freewheeling energy. Read more... |
Wild Rose review - how country music can set you freeThursday, 11 April 2019
It was the fabled Nashville songwriter Harlan Howard who commented that country music is “three chords and the truth”. Rose-Lynn, the protagonist of Wild Rose, just happens to have the surname Harlan, and she has the “three chords” motto tattooed on her forearm. Read more... |
Mid90s review – rise of a skate gang tyroWednesday, 10 April 2019
There’s an admirable modesty in the way Jonah Hill has approached his first film as writer-director. Read more... |
Pet Sematary review - spine-jolting shocks, but a disappointing endingSaturday, 06 April 2019
The wilds of Maine have been favourite country for novelist Stephen King, and they form the setting for this new version of his 1983 supernatural thriller (previously filmed in 1989). Read more... |
Happy as Lazzaro review - magical realism from ItalyFriday, 05 April 2019
Italy has a romance with rural grit and innocence and – perhaps not surprising in a country where the links between village and city are still very strong: Alice Rohrwacher’s Happy as Lazzaro (Lazzaro Felice) isn’t in any way derivative, but revisits some of the same territory as Olmi’s The Tree of Wooden Clogs (1978) and the Taviani Brothers’ Padre Padrone (1977) and Kaos (1984), all classics of... Read more... |
Shazam! review - refreshing super-goofinessThursday, 04 April 2019
The DC Universe continues to back out of its dark dead end with this satiric kids’ film about the other Captain Marvel. Read more... |
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