Golden Globe winner Brie Larson (Short Term 12) gives the performance of a lifetime in this dark, disturbing and emotionally affecting psychological drama that is also one of the films of the year. Larson plays Joy Newsome (though known to her son only as Ma), a woman who has been held prisoner for seven years…
The low budget crowd pleasing underdog story Rocky won the Oscar for Best Film in 1977, made a star out of Sylvester Stallone, and spawned a number of sequels of varying quality. This seventh film in the long running franchise is the first to be written by someone other than Stallone himself. He felt that…
Viggo Mortensen (The Two Faces of January) stars in a tale of morality and friendship set against an unforgiving mountainous landscape during the Algerian War. The year is 1954 and the war is just starting. Remote village schoolteacher Daru (Mortensen), an ex-French Army soldier, who lost his wife a decade earlier, is caught in the…
A quintessential Australian yarn, some decent storytelling and a few beaut performances are the hallmarks of this road trip with a difference. Rex Macrae (Michael Caton) is a Broken Hill cab driver who has spent his life avoiding getting close to people. Even his best friend and occasional lover Polly (Ningali Lawford-Wolf – Rabbit Proof…
It is the winter of 1820 and the New England whaling ship Essex is assaulted by something no one could believe: a whale of mammoth size and will, and an almost human sense of vengeance. The real-life maritime disaster would inspire Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick. But that told only half the story. In the Heart of…
Mortido by Angela Betzien is a new Australian play co-commissioned by Belvoir and Playwriting Australia and presented as a co-production by the State Theatre of South Australian and Belvoir. Mortido begins with a storytelling by Detective Grubbe, of a Mexican fable about a Madre – a mother, The Boy – her son, and an Old…
Set in the aftermath of WWII, Phoenix is a slow burn noir-like psychological thriller about identity, survival, obsesion and betrayal. It bears some similarity to the Hitchcock classic Vertigo as well as Brian De Palma’s Obsession. Disfigured Jewish concentration camp survivor Nelly Lanz (Nina Hoss, recently seen in A Most Wanted Man) has undergone plastic…
A couple of powerhouse performances are at the heart of this drama about a pair of gamblers, one of whom lays it all on the line. Mississippi Grind was inspired by films from the ‘70s such as Five Easy Pieces, Scarecrow, The Last Detail, California Split and Midnight Cowboy. The movie is about flawed characters…
The early-20th Century struggle for women’s suffrage in Britain is given earnest, if somewhat pedestrian, treatment by director Sarah Gavron (Brick Lane) in Suffragette. The film ticks a lot of boxes, but never quite elevates itself beyond many other solid British period dramas. The film’s release hasn’t been particularly well-timed. With the aftermath of the…
An elegant and enigmatic drama, Youth focuses upon holidaymakers at a beautiful establishment at the foot of the Swiss Alps and two of them in particular. Fred Ballinger (Michael Caine) and Mick Boyle (Harvey Keitel) are two very old friends. Fred, a composer and conductor, is now retired. He’s been coming to the same place…
