Aimed at Gen Z, Zola has attitude but, arguably, few smarts. The premise is straightforward enough, namely how two twenty-something women fall out. Zola (Taylour Paige) works at a fast-food restaurant. She’s befriended by Stefani (Riley Keough) who she serves at the diner. Both are pole dancers and they have a night out in a…
Justin Chon treads a difficult path in his new film Blue Bayou. The writer-director (and star) seeks to highlight a little-known social issue in America; but he uses a problematic protagonist to do it. The result is a heartfelt and moving film, but one that’s perhaps less powerful than Chon intended. The issue is the…
Scott Cooper, who directed Jeff Bridges to an Oscar with Crazy Heart, returns with Antlers. This eerie and deeply unsettling horror film set in a small and forgotten mining town in Oregon that has been devastated by the opioid epidemic. The film has been produced under the auspices of horror/fantasy veteran Guillermo del Toro, whose…
No Time to Die is, in many ways, the perfect send-off for Daniel Craig in his last appearance as James Bond. That’s not to say it’s a perfect film, but it pays deep reverence to the work Craig has done in re-defining the character for the 21st Century. The producers tapped Cary Joji Fukunaga –…
In the wake of The Sopranos (1999-2007) – one of the most popular and acclaimed TV series of the noughties – comes a cinematic prequel in The Many Saints of Newark. While the film is about the emergence of The Sopranos’ central character Tony, it centres around his uncle, Dickie Moltisanti* (Alessandro Nivola). It opens…
Eternals is the 25th special effects extravaganza in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). But its storyline doesn’t sustain its bloated running time. That storyline, which introduces ten new superheroes, harks back to the return of half the population in Avengers: Endgame (2019). The return ignited “the emergence”. Now, the Celestials, who have secretly lived on…
Discomfort looms large as two old school friends reunite after 12 years in Rebecca Hall’s directorial debut, Passing. It’s the 1920s. Irene (Tessa Thompson) is the wife of a doctor, Brian (Andre Holland) and mother of two school age sons, Ted (Justus Davis Graham) and Junior (Ethan Barrett). They live in Harlem, where she volunteers…
Relative newcomer to the Australian streaming scene, Paramount +, has bold plans. The Ten-affiliated streamer wants to embrace live sport and movies along with its TV offerings. And one of the first big-name movies to be added to the platform is Queenpins. And it’s a pretty good way to kick things off. Writer-directors Aron Gaudet…
Joe Baylor (Jake Gyllenhaal) is a cop who has been demoted for some unspecified incident and is now working night shifts at the Los Angeles Police Department’s 911 dispatch call centre fielding calls from the desperate and frightened victims of crime. This is his final shift before a court appearance in the morning that will…
Ridley Scott is rightly regarded as one of the most innovative filmmakers of the 1970s and ’80s. His groundbreaking work in films like Blade Runner, Alien and Thelma & Louise still stands up today. But since Gladiator (2000) his work has tended to the epic and slightly bombastic. His latest, The Last Duel, remains in…
