Actor-director Bradley Cooper shows his success in A Star is Born was no fluke with Maestro. This impressionistic portrait of the conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein is technically dazzling, although its oblique approach may distance some viewers. As with A Star is Born, Cooper again pulls triple duty as director, actor (in the titular role…
Action, humour, a ripping soundtrack and heartfelt back-story combine to make Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 an appealing package. In this third film in the trilogy, fan favourites return and are pitted against a megalomaniac arch villain searching for perfection at any cost. At the start of the movie the Guardians of the Galaxy…
If any setting was just made for Guillermo del Toro, it’s got to be the circus. Colour, spectacle, carnies, creepy clowns, “freaks” – it positively screams for treatment from the modern master of smart horror. But del Toro is mercurial. Just as he turned his hand to big-budget action in Pacific Rim, he pivots in…
Few directors have as formidable a reputation as Paul Thomas Anderson. Magnolia, There Will Be Blood, The Master, Phantom Thread – his films deal in big themes in majestic ways. So his latest, Licorice Pizza, might seem a change of pace for him. After all, this could be seen as a rom-com – complete with…
Not to be confused with the 2014 Australian comedy of the same name, The Mule is the latest from prolific filmmaker Clint Eastwood. The Mule tells the semi-fictional account of a 90-year old man who ran drugs for a powerful Mexican cartel. The film was inspired by the New York Times article “The Sinaloa Cartel’s…
Lady Gaga and Brad Cooper mesmerise in A Star is Born. Their tour de force performances bring a decidedly 21st century take to the highs and lows of fame. The picture is based on screenplays for the 1954 film of the same name featuring Judy Garland and James Mason and the 1976 version starring Barbra…
A mighty quirky film about a grossly dysfunctional family with a fiesty and determined young woman at its core, Joy is the latest offering from acclaimed writer/director David O. Russell (The Fighter, Silver Linings Playbook, American Hustle). This dramatic comedy asks the question what makes up the magic of a life? What keeps a person…
Chocolat, No Reservations, Soul Kitchen, Big Night, Babette’s Feast, Like Water for Chocolate, The Hundred Foot Journey, Eat Drink Man Woman, Ratatouille – just some of the films about food that have bombarded us. Food has become a lifestyle obsession, rather than the fuel it was considered to be a few decades ago. Television schedules…
Academy Award-winner Cameron Crowe turns his attention to second chances in this comedic romance. Brian Gilcrest (Bradley Cooper), a celebrated military contractor, returns to the site of his greatest career triumphs – the US space program in Hawaii – and reconnects with a lost love, Tracy Woodside (Rachel McAdams). Tracy is now a mother of…
