fbpx

Ali’s Wedding – movie review

With all the anti-Muslim bile being peddled at the moment, along comes Ali’s Wedding. This feel-good entertainment, based in fact, puts a smile on your dial. There’s something of The Castle’s sensibilities about this one. It’s funny and silly at the same time. Some of it seems incredibly far-fetched, but given what we are dealing with here, that…

Read More

All For One – movie review

All For One is a slick documentary about the first Australian professional cycling team to compete in the Tour de France. The film follows the first five years of GreenEDGE cycling team. United by their renegade spirit, these riders take on the international circuit. In particular, it focuses on three members of the team – Melbourne-born…

Read More

The Lost City of Z – movie review

The Lost City of Z turns out to be a kind of boy’s own adventure story. Based on author David Grann’s non-fiction bestseller, the film follows British explorer Lieutenant-Colonel Percy Fawcett (Charlie Hunnam). Fawcett journeys into the Amazon in 1906 where he discovers evidence of a previously unknown, advanced civilisation that once inhabited the region. His…

Read More

Maudie – movie review

“A broken bird and a scarecrow. An artist and a fish-peddler. A mismatched pair. Two souls existing on the fringes of society who find one another and change each other in the course of their lives together.” So says director Aisling Walsh (The Daisy Chain) about the two outsiders who form the nucleus of Maudie….

Read More

Killing Ground – movie review

Killing Ground is part of a long tradition of Australian cinema, which delves into our sense of unease in our own backyard. When young urbanites Ian (Ian Meadows) and Sam (Tiarnie Coupland) go camping, they arrive at their isolated destination to discover a tent already set up, but no sign of its owners. With the other campers at…

Read More

47 Metres Down – movie review

If you’re scared of sharks, 47 Metres Down isn’t the film for you. It isn’t Jaws, but cut from the same cloth … the same well of fear. Two sisters are holidaying together in Mexico. The conservative elder sibling, Lisa (Mandy Moore), has been dumped by her boyfriend. Devastated and hurting, Lisa fails to tell her sibling, Kate…

Read More

Logan Lucky – movie review

Wickedly clever with lots of droll humour, Logan Lucky is a rare treat. Divorced and desperate for money, unemployed West Virginia coal miner Jimmy Logan (Channing Tatum) hatches a wildly elaborate scheme. He plans to rob the Charlotte Motor Speedway in neighbouring North Carolina during a NASCAR race. He convinces his one-armed brother Clyde (Adam Driver),…

Read More

Hampstead – movie review

A  man who lived the kind of life he wanted inspires the feel-good Hampstead.  The setting for the film is breathtaking. Hampstead in London is famous for its beautiful and much-loved heath – a piece of quiet countryside in a vast metropolis. Living on the edge of the heath is American widow Emily Walters (Diane Keaton). Since her…

Read More

Madame – movie review

Madame is a romantic comedy set in Paris. But this one misses the mark and then some. Anne (Toni Collette) and Bob (Harvey Keitel) are a wealthy American couple in a waning marriage. They move into a manor house in the City of Light, where affairs are commonplace. While preparing a luxurious dinner for friends, Anne is…

Read More