Not to be confused with Blake Edwards’ slapstick Tatiesque comedy from 1968, this black comedy and social satire comes from director Sally Potter. With films like Orlando and The Tango Lesson to her credit, Potter has long been a favourite on the art house and film festival circuit. But The Party may well be one…
Both these films are in very limited release. 1945 On a summer day in 1945, an Orthodox Jewish man and his grown son return to a village in Hungary. The villagers are preparing for the wedding of the town clerk’s son. The townspeople expect the worst and behave accordingly. The town clerk fears the men…
Testosterone flows in Walking Out. This coming-of-age tale involves a father and his son in beautiful American wilderness in the middle of winter. Based on the short story of the same name by acclaimed naturalist David Quammen, Walking Out tracks 14-year-old David’s (Josh Wiggins) annual visit to rural Montana. He’s there to visit his brooding,…
A suspenseful horror film from director John Krasinski (best known for his work on the US version of The Office), A Quiet Place is also as scary as hell. Not since last year’s Don’t Breathe has the use of silence been such an effective and potent cinematic tool for creating edge of the seat tension….
Superbly written by Jane e Thompson, Fierce is a beautiful nuanced play that highlights gender disparity in sports. I was riveted throughout. Suzie Flack is better than other female AFL footballers. She doesn’t want to play in the women’s league. Rather, she’s intent on competing against men. And she gets her chance to do so,…
Teaming (arguably) the most successful director of all time with a story that plays on both the current obsession with gaming and pop culture nostalgia would seem to be a no-brainer. It has to be good, right? Well, kinda. Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player One is a visually stunning spectacle at times, but it’s no E.T….
There’s a fine line with fantasy that can, and often does, cross the line of credibility. A Wrinkle in Time absolutely smashes it. Meg Murry (Storm Reid) is a typical middle-school student. Struggling with issues of self-worth, she just wants to fit in. The daughter of two world-renowned physicists, she’s intelligent and uniquely gifted. So is her…
The Endless is a mind-bender that doesn’t make sense and gets weirder the longer it goes. Two brothers – Justin (Justin Benson) and Aaron (Aaron Moorhead) – have escaped a death cult. But they struggle to make ends meet and make something of their lives when they return to society. They live in poverty in a…
The Divine Order is a crowd-pleasing light drama from Switzerland. A bit like Pride and Made in Dagenham, it explores how a social movement can bring about change and alter entrenched attitudes. In 1971, women in Switzerland were still denied the right to vote – one of the last countries in the industrialised world to…
In the 1950s, Biblical films were extremely popular. Sweeping epics like the Oscar-winning Ben Hur and the spectacular The Ten Commandments scoring at the box office. These stories featured timeless themes of good versus evil. But in the 60s, their popularity seemed to wane. More modern takes on Bible stories have tended to be revisionist,…
