Well, that was a year! With everything that went on in 2020, movies proved both a comfort and a hope for better times. The big story of the year was the rise of streaming as a genuine alternative to (and in some cases, a replacement for) traditional cinemas. Those changes played out elsewhere, and we…
Becky Chambers burst onto the science fiction scene with her multi-species but intensely humanist spaceship adventure The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet. This became the first of what is now known as the Wayfarer series, based on the name of that ship. Despite the name, there are only tangential connections to the Wayfarer…
King Kong and Godzilla move over. There’s a new kid in town. Let me put it this way: Rampage isn’t a gentle romantic comedy. It is a CGI-driven destruction-fest with The Rock providing an endearing link between a gigantic albino gorilla and humanity. Primatologist Davis Okoye (Dwayne Johnson) oversees the ape habitat at the San…
I never thought I would ever ask the following question: “Mr. Scott, could you draw a line under the whole Alien franchise and concentrate on other projects? Please?“. As an Alien fan of the first order, I was deeply disappointed about this film. In hindsight I thought Exodus: Gods and Kings was even better. It’s…
If anything will put you off working at a fast-food outlet, look no further than Red Stitch’s latest production. A world premiere, Fast Food is a comedy concerning a manager, assistant manager and three staff at a burger joint. Think McDonald’s or Hungry Jack’s. For the manager, Troy (Kevin Hofbauer), a vegetarian, it is all about…
– The Public – Only in cinemas from 1 August 2019 We have 15 double in-season passes thanks to Rialto Distribution. *(Tickets valid in Australia only)* Watch the trailer HERE An unusually bitter Arctic blast has made its way to downtown Cincinnati and librarians Stuart Goodson (Emilio Estevez) and Myra (Jena Malone) see their regular…
Movies about weddings, with all their inherent potential for high drama and comedy, are a popular choice for both filmmakers and audiences. Top Wedding, directed by Wayne Blair (The Sapphires), should prove a crowd-pleaser in this country although whether it will translate to overseas audiences will be interesting to watch. Marketed as a romantic comedy,…
Can one truly escape one’s past? Can true love win out? These are questions posed in Giacomo Puccini’s La Rondine (The Swallow). The three-act lyric opera set in Paris and on the French Riviera concerns the fate of a mistress. She – Magda – and her provider, the wealthy Rambaldo, are hosting a cocktail party…
In 2015, Robert Eggers played with the intersection of the real and the fantastic in the horrifyingly effective The Witch. Now writer-director Emily Harris treads similar territory in the creepy Carmilla. Like The Witch, Harris explores the line between reality on one hand, and fear and superstition on the other. But where Eggers left a…
A mighty confusing psychological thriller, The Girl on the Train partly suffers by overdoing the signaling of time frames on the screen. It takes ages to figure out just what is going on and by then you can’t help thinking it is all too hard. Devastated by her recent divorce, Rachel (Emily Blunt) spends her…
