After seeing this doco, I fell in love with Suzi Quatro all over again. Growing up she was the “it” girl for me – this sexy, dynamic bass player and singer with that gravelly voice … all dressed in leather. I loved songs like “Devil Gate Drive”, “48 Crash”, “The Wild One”, “Stumblin’ In” and…
Brian Kirk’s 21 Bridges is a predictable procedural broken into two parts – one involving a big haul of drugs and cop killers, and the other corrupt police. The script by Adam Mervis and Matthew Michael Carnahan (World War Z) is nothing we haven’t seen many times before. The only interest is how it reaches…
Judy and Punch is a real mixed bag. This Australian production from actor-turned-director Mirrah Foulkes is something of a breakthrough for the local industry. It proves Australian cinema can be more than just sunshine, beaches and gritty dramas. But its wildly uneven tone and confronting themes will test audiences’ patience. Domestic violence presents a huge…
State-sanctioned lies underpin the political thriller Official Secrets. The lies cost as many as a million lives. The US and the UK were looking to justify starting a war in Iraq; with or without the backing of the UN (which wasn’t forthcoming). They do so on the pretense that the Iraqis have weapons of mass…
As they say, only lawyers benefit from divorce proceedings. That rings true in Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story. Nicole (Scarlett Johansson) and Charlie (Adam Driver) have been married for a decade. They live and work in New York. She’s an actress originally from Los Angeles. She met Charlie when she travelled to New York as a…
First up, an admission. Despite its fine pedigree, I was quietly dreading the prospect of seeing Ford v Ferrari. I figured the movie would be a drawn out against-the-odds motor racing story. But I need not have worried because it turned out to be pretty darn good, although I felt it was a tad long….
A man writes a 17,000 page report. Sound good? Maybe that potted summary doesn’t really sell it; but Scott Z. Burns’ docu-fiction about US torture during the euphemistically-named “war on terror” is a fascinating if slow-moving lesson on the dangers of unbounded power. Burns is possibly better-known as a writer, particularly for his collaborations with…
This colourful but corny reboot of the iconic Charlie’s Angels TV series has been kicked up a gear for a contemporary audience. It retains the basics of the original, but has a whole lot more attitude. Charlie’s Angels was a huge hit when it first aired on TV in 1976. It lasted five seasons and…
In the tradition of Mafia movies like The Godfather (1972) and Goodfellas (1990) comes The Irishman. This tale is set around the fortunes of one man rising through the ranks of the organisation. And while the action centres on him, much of the plot concerns the fate of powerful Teamsters’ union boss Jimmy Hoffa. World…
In Emu Runner, nine-year old Gemma (played by newcomer Rhae-Kye Waites) is a Ngemba aboriginal girl growing up in the NSW town of Brewarrina, some 800 kms north of Sydney. She is devastated when her mother dies during a fishing expedition to the local river. Gemma’s father Jay Jay (Wayne Blair, a filmmaker in his…
