I’ve never particularly been interested in climbing a mountain, and after seeing this dramatic feature about a tragic attempt to climb Mt Everest in 1996, I have even less interest. Although paradoxically many who watch the film may somehow be inspired to take up the challenge. Since Edmund Hillary conquered Mt Everest in 1953, replicating…
The title is Hindi for America. This is a heartwarming but ultimately sad story about a family from a small village in India that is invigorated when one of its own travels to the USA and details his adventures through letters home. With strong overtones of Slumdog Millionaire and The Lunchbox, Umrika focuses upon a…
Denis Villeneuve (Prisoners, Incendies) has proven himself to be a director with few peers. Now he is at it again, with tough and gritty filmmaking at its finest. In Mexico, Sicario means hitman. When Arizona FBI agent and kidnap response team leader Kate Macer (Emily Blunt) uncovers a Mexican house of death, her shocking find…
Based upon the successful memoir and stage play of the same name, this is a true story of a 15-year love affair between two people who met at school. It is Australia in the ‘70s and Tim Conigrave, a budding actor at an all-boys Catholic school, has fallen big time for the captain of the…
Is there anything that Meryl Streep cannot do? At an age when most actresses find it hard to land meaty roles or substantial character parts, Streep is a chameleon who seems to still be going strong, playing a variety of diverse and challenging roles. A case in point is her new film in which she…
This droll and offbeat fish out of water story is actually based on a 2001 urban legend about a Japanese woman who died while trying to find the money that Steve Buscemi’s character buried in the snow in the Coen brothers’ classic movie Fargo. That myth has provided the inspiration for this quirky drama from…
Inspired by a seven-year affair between celebrated British playwright, screenwriter, director and actor Harold Pinter and television presenter Joan Bakewell, the silences say as much as the words. In fact, when he had finished writing the play, Pinter sent it to Bakewell, who was shocked her life was being raked over. As she read through…
I think I like adaptations rather than translations – especially from Russian and German. Turgid prose tends to translate to turgid prose. Daniel Evans is good at the adaptation business – Oedipus Doesn’t Live Here Any More is a good example and this one bears his unique in-your-face style, with bad language, lots of smoking,…
Director Paul Cox (My First Wife, Human Touch, Innocence) had a second chance at life when he received a liver transplant on Christmas Day 2009. The experience profoundly affected him and Force of Destiny, the first film in the new phase of his life, is in many ways an outpouring of his renewed love for…
Fifty shades of bland? This offbeat film exploring a sadomasochistic relationship between two women in an unnamed community of women situated somewhere in Europe has hit local cinemas in the wake of more sexually explicit films like Blue is the Warmest Colour and Nymphomaniac, as well as a couple of other more risible films exploring…
