In Paul Greenrass’ new film, News of the World, a veteran of the Civil War travels across the country reading the news from papers he collects. Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd (Tom Hanks) shares stories of disasters, politics and gossip for audiences in every town he visits. He’s mainly talking to people who are illiterate or…
WARNING – FOR MATURE AUDIENCES ONLY Ten naked women cavorting on stage in a comic book reality is the wild work of 37-year-old Austrian choreographer and performance artist Florentina Holzinger. A live back piercing in close-up, dancers being elevated off the stage by their scalp and a rat birthing from an elderly woman (complete with…
Body image is a hot topic at the moment, something The Substance recently tapped into with great success. But while The Substance leaned more into a particular kind of body horror, Aaron Schimberg goes in a different direction with his intriguing but perplexing A Different Man. In the film, the main character has neurofibromatosis. Basically…
In the animated adventure Missing Link, Sir Lionel Frost (Hugh Jackman) is a fearless adventurer who investigates myths and monsters. He cuts a dashing figure globetrotting, but his peers don’t believe his latest “discovery” because he has no proof. But Sir Lionel wants recognition, so he sets off on yet another adventure. This time it’s…
Intrigue is the currency of merit in the intelligent, slow-moving drama, The Sense of an Ending. Tony Webster is semi-retired. The Internet and mobile phones are foreign to him. He potters around in his small shop which sells expensive second-hand cameras. Although long divorced from his lawyer wife, the pair remain on friendly speaking terms, especially…
Patrick is a British comedy celebrating our love of pets. It’s told through the eyes of a young woman whose life changes when she unexpectedly inherits her grandmother’s pampered pug. That woman is Sarah Francis (Beattie Edmonson). Her partner has just called it quits on their relationship. She’s about to start a new teaching job…
Photo by Krists Luhaers on Unsplash Despite some dire rumblings, the Australian cinema scene posted a respectable 2024. According to Screen Australia, overall attendances showed a small rise of around 200,000 on 2023 – from 57.9 million to 58.1 million. The gross box office however grew about 5%, from $940 million to $985 million. This…
What do you do when you’ve got two great stories, but only one movie? Mash them together of course. And while this can be fraught, director Tom Harper (Wild Rose) masters the technique in The Aeronauts. Working from a script by Jack Thorne, he deftly melds two real-life stories into one cohesive narrative. The first…
Mexican writer-director Michel Franco’s slow-moving existential drama Sundown stars Tim Roth and Charlotte Gainsbourg. Roth plays Neil Bennett, who is spending a relaxing holiday in an exclusive resort in Acapulco with his sister Alice (Gainsbourg) and her two teenage children Colin (Samuel Bottomley) and Alexa (Albertine Kotting McMillan). Neil is the scion of a family…
Great energy, a strong score, big voices, creative staging and impressive lighting design distinguish Tommy circa 2022. The story still packs punch. Tommy has seen and experienced too much in his young life. His mum, Mrs Walker (Amy Lehpamer) and dad, Captain Walker (Matt Hetherington) were very much in love, when his dad was sent off to war,…
