Director Francis Lawrence re-teams with star Jennifer Lawrence (no relation) for Red Sparrow. But where their previous success were in the YA-friendly Hunger Games trilogy, this film is a far darker – and more adult – proposition. Lawrence (the director) has given his lead actor an intricately crafted spy thriller in which to strut her…
Beyond Skyline is without a doubt one of the better low-budget SF films I’ve seen in recent years. Visually, that is. In terms of content, I thought it was only half successful. Until the part that takes place in Laos, it’s acceptable. From there on story starts to be pretty absurd. As soon as Mark…
Chilean director Sebastian Lelio makes films that deal with strong female characters. His previous film, Gloria, offered a sympathetic and honest portrait of a middle-aged woman looking for love in contemporary Santiago. He handled the material with a sense of compassion and respect. Those same qualities are evident in his fifth feature film, A Fantastic…
Kathryn Marquet’s The Dead Devils of Cockle Creek begins in darkness. When the stage is lit, it reveals a ramshackle ranger’s station shack somewhere in the wilds of south-western Tasmania. Centre-stage is Dr George Templeton (Emily Weir), cradling an infant devil in her arms. The environmental scientist is determined, passionate and intelligent enough to know…
Peter Berg’s Patriots Day looked at the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing and the massive police manhunt for the terrorists that followed. Berg gave the material an almost documentary-like feel as he explored the stories of many of the people involved. Many more tales from that atrocity however have gone untold. Stronger tells a more personal…
Happy End is another typically downbeat drama from misanthropic Austrian filmmaker Michael Haneke (The White Ribbon). Set in the coastal French town of Calais, the film follows the affluent but dysfunctional Laurent family. Haneke works in heavy themes of death, power, the refugee crisis, social media and class. And despite the title, there is no…
Marvel Studios’ latest superhero flick, Black Panther, tells the tale of T’Challa, an African prince who takes on the mantle of king and the centuries’ old legacy that comes with it. Crossing racial and cultural lines, the groundbreaking Black Panther character is another creation of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. He made his first appearance in the…
From South African filmmaker John Trengrove comes the controversial film, The Wound. It’s about a group of teenage boys of Xhosa background. They’re are taken to a remote bushland for their manhood initiation ceremony of ulwaluko – a circumcision. Mentors, who have previously undergone the secret ritual, are on hand to help the boys through…
Mark Haddon’s best-selling award-winning novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time has been adapted to the stage by fellow playwright an Olivier winner himself. The novel which has become a staple of the school curriculum. Haddon himself thought the novel unadaptable, but Stephens’ version has been quite successful, remaining reasonably faithful to the novel….
A decent set up gives way to quite a convoluted storyline in Insidious: The Last Key, the fourth instalment of the supernatural horror franchise co-created by Leigh Whannell. He has also served as screenwriter for the quartet. It started back in 2010 and the central figure is a psychic, Dr Elise Rainier (Lin Shaye). Where…
