Heal the Living is a French art house drama with decidedly European sensibilities dealing with the touchy subject of organ donation. It is actually three stories in one, based on a novel by Maylis de Kerangal. Three young surfers leave before dawn on a pilgrimage to the raging sea. They are on their way back home when…
The Dancer is an unusual story about achievement, heartbreak and pain. This period film concerns a dancer who rewrote the rule book. Born in the American Midwest, nothing in her background destined farm girl Loïe Fuller (Soko) to become the toast of Europe’s Belle Epoque cabarets. But – hidden behind metres of silk, her arms…
The animated Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie is the first feature film based on the popular series of children’s’ books. Written and illustrated by Dav Pilkey, the series has sold over 70 million copies worldwide. It centres around George Beard (voiced by Kevin Hart) and Harold Hutchins (Thomas Middleditch). They’re best friends and overly…
In 1973, former Wimbledon champion Bobby Riggs played women’s champion Billie Jean King in a spectacular tennis match – dubbed the Battle of the Sexes – at the Houston Astrodome. Riggs was also a serial tennis hustler, gambling addict and sexist braggart. It proved a landmark that ultimately had repercussions for the status of women’s tennis and…
Director Kriv Stenders (Red Dog, etc) seems like he is trying to set up a series of films centred around significant national holidays. In 2007, he gave us the powerful but bleak, grim drama Boxing Day which told the story of one man’s desperate struggle to try and reconcile his estranged family on this one…
Discomfort underpins Beatriz at Dinner, a fable about power, privilege and responsibility. At an elegant dinner party in a swanky hilltop home, conversation between a soft spoken holistic healer and a hard-nosed businessman and tycoon explodes into a bitter clash of cultures. Beatriz (Salma Hayek), a self-effacing and spiritual immigrant from Mexico, has spent her adult…
Exploitation and heartache are at the centre of Indivisible, a gritty story about attractive, singing 18-year-old conjoined twins. Connected at the hip, Daisy (Marianna Fontana) and Viola (Angela Fontana) are gifted. They have beautiful voices and often sing at local weddings, family functions and communions. Their father, a seedy, small-time businessman, has turned them into an…
It is cheeky, irreverent, elegant, stylish and a sequel that begs you to have seen the original. That is Kingsman: The Golden Circle. Co-writer and director Matthew Vaughan – along with his collaborator Jane Goldman – introduced us to the Kingsmen, an independent self-funded British spy organisation, in 2015. Dedicated to keeping the world safe,…
A ninja story with young Lego block heroes, The Lego Ninjago Movie is the third in the franchise of Lego films, which started with The Lego Movie in 2014 and earlier this year offered up The Lego Batman Movie. Lloyd, the Green Ninja (the voice of Dave Franco), and his friends – Kai, the Fire…
In The Belko Experiment, the Belko of the title is a US non-profit organisation based in Bogota in Colombia. It works to facilitate American businesses wanting to operate in South America. One day though an unusually high level of security appears around the high-rise office building. As the employees go about their business, a wall…
