In the opening scene of Fatima, a scared 10-year-old girl has a vision that would shape the course of her life. That was in 1917, shortly after Portugal had become a Republic and turned anti-clerical. Next, the film cuts to a convent in the city of Coimbra in 1989. That girl, now an ageing nun…
An ambitious but unusual take on the superhero/high concept sci-fi genre, Project Power has quickly become one of the most watched movies on the streaming giant Netflix platform. This slick action film seems to be setting itself up for a potential franchise. On the streets of New Orleans an experimental new drug known as Power…
In writer-director Ladj Ly’s Les Misérables, cop Stéphane (Damien Bonnard) has just moved to Paris. He’s joined a tough unit – an anti-crime squad, patrolling the impoverished Paris suburbs of Montfermeil*, where many residents live in crowded high-rise apartments. His immediate superior, Chris (Alexis Manenti), is a piece of work. He starts by giving Stéphane…
Okay, a few caveats. I am most definitely not the target audience for Trolls: World Tour – because I’m not 8 years old. That disconnect makes reviewing this film difficult, because what I see isn’t what an 8 year-old sees. The character design alone made me nauseous; but they’ll love it. The film operates on…
If you can imagine James Bond, mixed with Harry Potter and topped with Edge of Tomorrow, you might have some idea what Christopher Nolan’s new epic Tenet is all about. In terms of scope and ambition, this is one of Nolan’s grandest films. But the big ideas get lost in an overly complicated script and…
Not everything is spelt out in writer-director Itay Tal’s drama God of the Piano. In Israel, Anat (Naama Preis), makes a shocking decision in hospital after receiving unexpected news following the birth of her son. The daughter of an elite piano teacher, Arieh (Ze’ev Shimshoni) Anat never reached his heights, despite her talent. She never…
From 1996 to 2001, the Taliban ruled over Afghanistan with an iron fist. During this time, many basic human freedoms were curtailed and public executions became common place. All are highlighted in The Swallows of Kabul, a remarkable portrait of life under Sharia law. Specifically, we are in the Afghan capital, Kabul, in the summer…
Paul Murphy’s NZ feature Lowdown Dirty Criminals is an enjoyable but somewhat derivative crime-comedy. The darkly comic caper cribs from the Guy Ritchie playbook, with a lot of his flashy visual flourishes. The non-linear narrative structure uses plenty of flashbacks and replays scenes from different perspectives. The film opens with a Mexican standoff in a…
“Dead bodies usually mean something bad…” It’s 1945, towards the send of WWII. The German navy are even sinking hospital ships. When the film opens, a group of survivors from a sunken hospital ship are adrift somewhere in the North Atlantic. Tensions are high as they are desperately short of food and water. This motley…
If you’ve ever seen Karel Reisz’s superb The French Lieutenant’s Woman (1981); or Michel Gondry’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), you may find something familiar in Nicolas Bedos’ La Belle Époque. This brilliantly conceived drama of love and loss is inventive, poignant and compelling. Bedos is an actor who’s turned to directing. That…
