Ambition and success sometimes don’t go hand-in-hand. With a heavyweight pedigree and intellectual heft, George Clooney’s latest, Suburbicon, should (by rights) be up there with his best. Yet this undoubtedly ambitious but deeply flawed film dallies with greatness without ever fully achieving it. With the backing of the Coen brothers and Clooney’s go-to collaborator George…
Regrets and letting go are the cornerstones of The Midwife. This French drama looks at a fractured relationship between a straitlaced woman and her free-spirited elder. Cesar-winning writer/director Martin Provost’s (Séraphine) film pairs two of French cinema’s most beloved stars, Catherine Deneuve and Catherine Frot. Gifted midwife Claire (Frot) has led a quiet, focused life. She’s…
I can’t help thinking the latest Thor outing, Thor: Ragnarok (which introduces several Marvel Universe characters) is yet another elongated, derivative outing. In the story, Thor (Chris Hemsworth) is imprisoned on the other side of the universe without his mighty hammer. He finds himself in a race against time to get back to Asgard to…
Birdland is a British play written in 2014 by Simon Stephens. He generally writes from a ‘working class’ perspective (the provincial English city of Stockport is the usual location) and focuses on the struggles of particular ordinary individuals dealing with the social and materialistic difficulties that the ‘progress’ of the world throws at them. Mr…
The Australian premiere of actor Andy Serkis’ directorial debut, Breathe will open the 2017 Cunard British Film Festival. Coming straight from opening the 61st BFI London Film Festival, the film stars Andrew Garfield (Hacksaw Ridge) and Claire Foy (The Crown), in the inspiring true story of a couple who refuse to give up in the face…
Greg McLean’s (Wolf Creek) latest film, Jungle, is based on the international best-selling memoir by Yossi Ghinsberg. This is a true story of survival against all odds. The year is 1981. Twenty-two year-old Ghinsberg (Daniel Radcliffe) has finished his mandatory Israeli military service. He’s working odd jobs and selling his worldly possessions to fund the adventure…
Finland’s official entry for the Foreign Language Oscar in 2018, Tom of Finland is a handsome production. This is a biopic of artist Touko Laaksonen. Laaksonen’s erotic drawings (under the pseudonym Tom of Finland) had a huge influence on gay identity and became a symbol of gay pride in the sexually liberated 70s and 80s….
A wintry wonderland hides dark secrets in the atmospheric thriller The Snowman, which has undertones of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. In the frigid landscape, a sociopath who calls himself “The Snowman Killer” has targeted the one person he wants to appreciate his methodical, unthinkable “skills”. That person is Harry Hole (Michael Fassbender), lead investigator…
Geostorm has to be one of the most ridiculous disaster movies in a pantheon of clunkers in the genre. Even the special effects are severely underwhelming. After an unprecedented series of natural disasters threatened the planet, the world’s leaders came together to create an intricate network of satellites to control the global climate and keep…
Writer and director David Pulbrook (Last Dance) has a way to go before being compared to Alfred Hitchcock. The great director’s command of the genre is what Bad Blood seems to be going for, but it falls short. Carrie (Morgan Griffin) is in love with her new fiancé Vincent (Xavier Samuel), a handsome and successful young…
