Directors Elaine Bogan and Ennio Torresan deliver a charming and colourful animation in DreamWorks’ Spirit Untamed. The story concerns a feisty 13-year-old girl and a wild horse. The youngster is Lucky Prescott (the voice of Isabela Merced), who is being brought up by her aunt Cora (Julianne Moore), in a prim and proper household, governed…
The gig economy has grown exponentially in recent years. So much so, concerns are now being forcefully voiced about its actual and potential dangers. Director Noah Hutton taps into those fears as he takes audiences on an intriguing and sometimes frightening journey into a digitised future in Lapsis. Lapsis has something in common with one…
Based on a true story this drama about industrial pollution and environmental damage caused by giant chemical companies. Minamata explores their greed, corruption and refusal to accept responsibility or take action. This puts the film in the same wheelhouse as films like Erin Brokovich and Dark Waters, although it is nowhere near as provocative or…
Not to be confused with the so-so 2014 supernatural themed thriller starring Eric Bana, Deliver Us From Evil is a frenetic and violent hard-boiled action thriller from Korean director Won-Chang Hong (who wrote films like The Yellow Sea). It delivers plenty of action and will delight fans of this genre. Korean action cinema seems to…
Breaking News in Yuba County is a low-rent comedy that failed to ignite for me. Married for 30 years and working in a menial job, the awkward Sue Buttons (Allison Janney) is treated shamefully by everybody in small town California. It’s her birthday and she’s keen to share the occasion with her husband, Karl (Matthew…
Christopher André Marks’ documentary King Otto tells the story of how rank underdogs became European champions thanks in significant part to an outsider. The outsider was Otto Rehhagel, a German coach who took the Greek National Football Team to glory at Euro 2004. Rehhagel was born in 1938 in Essen, where – as a five-year-old…
Wow! What a ripping good, most entertaining, magnificently realised origin story. Cruella is clever, funny and sassy – a family comedy turned sophisticated adult offering. English children’s novelist and playwright “Dodie” Smith is best known for the novel The Hundred and One Dalmations (1956), which became the big screen animation 101 Dalmations in 1961. Disney…
David Gulpilil is one of Australia’s most prolific actors. After being randomly selected by Hollywood director Nicolas Roeg in 1971 for his film Walkabout, Gulpilil has gone on to have a half-century acting career with numerous classics of cinema. My Name is Gulpilil is a documentary about David’s deteriorating health, as he reflects on his…
The wait has been worth it. The outbreak of COIVD-19 significantly delayed the release of A Quiet Place Part II and it is now difficult to watch this film without drawing parallels to the world on a precipice. How I’ve missed quality Hollywood fare of this ilk. Tension characterises the movie, which picks up where…
French cinema icon Isabelle Huppert displays her comedic side in Jean-Paul Salomé’s crime caper The Godmother (La Daronne). The film starts out as a conventional crime drama with the cops looking to intercept a shipment of drugs, but ends up in some pretty wild territory. Huppert plays Patience Portefeux*, a translator with the Paris police….
