Many of us have pondered the meaning of life … whether we are here for a reason. The dogs featured in A Dog’s Purpose are asking the same questions. From director Lasse Hallström (The Hundred Foot Journey) comes the heartwarming story of one devoted dog – Bailey (the voice of Josh Gad). He finds the meaning…
With overtures of Schindler’s List, The Zookeeper’s Wife is based upon fact. It is the true story of gentiles who put everything on the line to save hundreds of Jews from annihilation during the Holocaust. Warsaw in Poland in 1939 was a very, very dangerous place to be. It was where Antonina Żabińska (Jessica Chastain) and her…
In May, Palace Cinemas will once again bring the best of American independent film to Australian screens with American Essentials. Twenty films will make their Australian premiere—many hot on the heels of their world premieres at A-list festivals around the world—as the three-week festival tours five cities, celebrating the latest indie treasures in narrative feature…
Talk about throwing the kitchen sink at a movie – it appears the filmmakers behind Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 have pulled together every cockamamie idea they could think of and left it there on screen for the world to see. The heart of the story is a familial relationship concerning a megalomaniacal father,…
Man’s base animal instincts – or, in this case, woman’s – are on show in Raw; and I must tell you, the results aren’t pretty. Justine’s (Garance Marillier’s) parents are vets and committed vegans. At 16, Justine is a brilliant and promising student and is accepted into an elite veterinary college, where both her parents…
Based on the 2009 short story collection Both Ways is the Only Way I Want It written by Maile Meloy, Certain Women is structured around three stories that briefly intersect. They are all set in the small town of Livingston, Montana. The three stories follow the emotional turmoil, the hopes and disappointments, and loneliness experienced…
From the outset we just know the contention in the action-crime thriller Free Fire is one set to explode and it will inevitably end badly. Suspicion, ego and, above all, greed stand in the way of a cadre of crims in Massachusetts in the late ‘70s. That they are on opposing sides is almost of…
If you ever wondered just how quirky and delusional (off the planet, in fact) billionaire recluse Howard Hughes was, after watching Rules Don’t Apply you will be in no two minds. Set in 1950s Hollywood, Rules Don’t Apply follows the burgeoning romance between aspiring actress Marla Mabrey (Lily Collins) and her ambitious driver Frank Forbes…
Dour and affecting, The Innocents is a historical drama inspired by little known events that happened in Poland immediately after WWII. It concerns the story of nuns that were raped and thereby shamed by their so-called liberators, the Russians. Many of these God-fearing samaritans were knocked up as a result and they were instructed to…
Subtle is the key word in describing Things to Come; a sometimes tortuously slow-moving slice-of-life drama. Nathalie (Isabelle Huppert) teaches philosophy at a college in Paris. She’s passionate about her work and particularly enjoys passing on the pleasure of thinking to the next generation. Married with two grown up children, she devotes her spare time…
