Francis Ford Coppola (The Godfather) brings a re-imagined Roman Empire into modern times in his passion project Megalopolis. He proposes that the American Republic is not all that different from old Rome and then asks whether it will fall victim to the appetite for power of a few? Coppola began developing Megalopolis in the early…
The power, the glory and the horrors associated with one of the world’s most prestigious marques is on show in Ferrari. The primary focus is on its controlling founder, Enzo Ferrari. Born in Modena, Italy in 1898, Enzo would go on to become a racing car driver, before retiring at the age of 33. He…
Lady Gaga packs a hell of a punch in the tangled web that is Ridley Scott’s new film, House of Gucci. When we first meet him in the late 1970s, Maurizio Gucci (Adam Driver) is a shy, mild mannered man studying law. He doesn’t show a great deal of interest in the family’s successful fashion…
Ridley Scott is rightly regarded as one of the most innovative filmmakers of the 1970s and ’80s. His groundbreaking work in films like Blade Runner, Alien and Thelma & Louise still stands up today. But since Gladiator (2000) his work has tended to the epic and slightly bombastic. His latest, The Last Duel, remains in…
The offspring of Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) and Han Solo (Harrison Ford) trying to resolve deep-seated familial issues is front and centre in this official close of the Skywalker odyssey. A largely masked Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) is given the opportunity to be the unchallenged galaxy leader, with power and control…
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…
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…
Jim Jarmusch is like a cinematic magpie. His filmography includes a Western (Dead Man), a samurai movie (Ghost Dog), a rock doco (Year of the Horse) and a vampire movie (Only Lovers Left Alive). So what does the director who’s done just about everything do next? Why a zombie movie of course! And The Dead…
Maverick filmmaker Terry Gilliam finally brings his long-gestating passion project about Don Quixote to the big screen. The struggles he faced have been well detailed in the fascinating 2002 documentary Lost In La Mancha. That film told of the storms that destroyed sets, the lack of financial support and the ill-health of its star, all…
Spike Lee has to be one of the most influential filmmakers of the past 30 years. From the incendiary Do the Right Thing (1989) to the slick Inside Man (2006), his movies have marked a generation. So when a new Spike Lee “joint” comes along, you better pay attention. The great news is that, after…
