John Hyams’ psychological thriller Alone has twists aplenty. This two-hander set in the Pacific Northwest kept me engaged throughout. Six months ago, Jessica (Jules Willcox) lost her husband in tragic circumstances. Now she’s decided to move away. Her parents were going to help her pack, but she decided to do it alone and avoid especially…
It’s Halloween, so we’re checking out a little spooky action with the Netflix movie, Vampires vs The Bronx. This fun excursion into the supernatural won’t test your brain, but never wears out its welcome. Director Osmany “Oz” Rodriguez has an impressive CV in television, notably on A. P. Bio and Saturday Night Live. And he…
While a largely enjoyable romp, The Mystery of Henri Pick becomes too convoluted for its own good. Henri Pick made pizzas for a living in France’s Brittany region. No one could have guessed was a gifted author (so much so that he could juxtapose Russian novelist Alexander Pushkin with the last throes of a relationship)?…
Cinematic exchanges between Australia and Iceland are, understandably, rare. But that hasn’t deterred director Jeremy Sims, who successfully translates Grímur Hákonarson’s 2015 Icelandic hit Rams into RAMS (note the subtle difference). The tyrannies of distance and language prove no barrier for Sims. And when you think about it, maybe Australia and Iceland have quite a…
Leonardo da Vinci’s The Mona Lisa is world’s most famous painting by the world’s most famous artist in the world’s most famous museum. And it’s just one of the works featured in the remarkable, insightful documentary A Night at the Louvre: Leonardo da Vinci. The film is based around an exhibition that closed at the…
A mind-numbing comedy for senior citizens, Never Too Late relies on fanciful nonsense to move the story forward. A voice-over by Jacqui Weaver as Norma McCarthy sets the scene. Norma once met a handsome soldier Jack Bronson (played as an elderly gent by James Cromwell) the day before he shipped out to Vietnam. If he’d…
A Polish film about a teenage criminal might seem an odd vehicle to explore big questions of morality. But that’s what you get in director Jan Komasa’s extraordinary Corpus Christi. This deceptively simple story turns out to be one of the most inventive and profound films of the (admittedly disrupted) year. The film would almost…
In Curtis Vowell’s comedy Baby Done, outdoorsy Zoe (Rose Matafeo) works as an arborist, alongside her boyfriend Tim (Matthew Lewis). Theirs is a happy union. All their coupled-up friends seem to be having babies, but the thought of being tied down makes Zoe shudder. And then she discovers she’s pregnant. Shellshocked Zoe doesn’t tell Tim…
Liam Neeson brings his Taken persona to the lead role in the action-drama Honest Thief. He plays ex-marine, Tom, who went on to become a successful bank robber. Tom looted 12 small-town institutions of more than $9 million over eight years. But a year ago he stopped – because he met Annie (Katie Walsh), who…
Miranda July is a force of nature. The multi-talented writer (for both page and screen), artist, musician and actor can seemingly turn her hand to anything. But with everything on her plate, her film output has been a little sporadic. But she’s come roaring back with Kajillionaire, a film that will almost certainly please her…
