Pedro Almodovar’s 20th film, Julieta, is something of a dull affair that lacks many of the Spanish auteur’s usual flamboyant flourishes, edgy quality and signature stylistic touches. It doesn’t carry the emotional weight of his best films. The eponymous Julieta (played by Emma Suarez, who has worked with Almodovar before) is planning to leave her beloved…
The European co-production Corage is an unconventional biopic looking at the (largely fictional) last year in the life of Empress Elizabeth of Austria (Vicky Krieps). Elizabeth is married to Emperor Franz Joseph (Florian Teichtmeister), but she feels like she is merely an appendage. Given no real power, her duties are considered merely ceremonial. It is…
Genre pigeonholing can be useful when potential readers are trying to navigate a bookshop but can act to the detriment of books that don’t quite fit, like Sara Sligar’s debut Take Me Apart. It is tempting to label this as crime fiction (there is a possibly suspicious death that one character is investigating), or perhaps…
Gritty, grungy and wickedly pleasurable, Patti Cake$ is a downbeat rags tale about a blue collar rap wannabe. Patricia Dombrowski, a.k.a. Patti Cake$, a.k.a. Killa P. (Australian newcomer Danielle Macdonald), has had it with life in her rundown New Jersey hometown. At 23 she is ready to hit the road and make a play for…
Our selection of the best new music across a range of genres from the week ending 14 July 2023. Palehound’s new album Eye On The Bat charts something that divides you into “before” and “after” – the danger of fantasy, of heartbreak, and the pain of growth. How we can surprise ourselves. It’s a documentation…
Dominic Smith takes readers to Northern Italy in his sixth novel Return to Valetto and brings with him the richness and descriptive power that characterised his earlier novels. While his last couple of novels revolves around art and artists (The Last Painting of Sara de Vos and The Electric Hotel) they had an interest in…
Director James Wan and writer Leigh Whannell began the Insidious franchise in 2010. The first Insidious featured Patrick Wilson as Josh Lambert, Rose Byrne as his wife Renai, Ty Simpkins as their son Dalton and Lin Shaye as the medium Elise Rainier. It concerned a family looking to prevent evil spirits from trapping their comatose…
The Father showcases the horrors of dementia with standout performances by its lead actors. First-time director Florian Zeller adapts his own stage play with limited settings and cast, but powerfully wrenches at the heart with the psychological turmoil felt by the eponymous character Anthony. Anthony, played by his namesake Anthony Hopkins, has lived in his…
What is it about artists’ tendency to self-destruct? We’ve seen that in documentaries about the likes of Amy Winehouse and Brett Whiteley. Now it’s street artist Anthony Lister in Have You Seen the Listers?. There are times while watching these types of films that you want to ask the subjects what the heck they’re doing….
Veronica Roth is best known for her popular YA Divergent series. Much like fellow YA writer Leigh Bardugo (Ninth House), with Chosen Ones Roth mas moved away from YA concerns into more adult territory. In doing so, she takes readers past the good-defeats-evil narrative of much YA fare into something more complex and with a…
