Ana Lily Amirpour’s new film, Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon, is an intriguing and entertaining fantasy-thriller. Mona “Lisa” Lee (Jun Jong Seo) first appears wearing a straitjacket in a padded cell at a US psychiatric institution. Regarded as a violent schizophrenic, and still only 22, the abandoned Korean immigrant has been there for the…
Australian filmmakers seem to be fascinated with true crime stories – films like Snowtown, Chopper, Nitram and the TV series Underbelly have all explored violence and the psychology of criminals. Based on the true story of the largest undercover police operation in Australia’s history, The Stranger is an extremely bleak and disturbing drama that’s also…
Although the title of this film is Halloween Ends, after 13 instalments (three since the reboot) you have to ask whether Michael Myers (James Jude Courtney) will ever die? I’m not going to say, but I can say his blood lust hasn’t dissipated in this chilling finale of the slasher franchise. Blood be spilled as…
Dr John Everyman (Dennis Coard) is a retired and much-loved GP who lost his wife Sophia, when she was just 59. She was taken 13 years ago and he hasn’t been able to fill that void. To this day he rages at God for the “theft” of his beloved wife (he calls it “an act of divine…
Based on a memoir by the late Timothy Conigrave, playwright Tommy Murphy has given us an up close and personal look at a 15-year gay relationship. It starts in the teen years and works its way through to the HIV/AIDS crisis of the ‘80s and ‘90s. Tim (Gene Efron) has his eyes on the school football captain…
The much talked-about Don’t Worry Darling has created some pre-release buzz, not always for the right reasons. But alleged on-set and Venice Film Festival tension should fade into the background when audiences see this very stylish, if somewhat illogical film. But again, the buzz might not always be for the right reasons. Katie Silberman (who…
The 2022 Cunard British Film Festival full programme has been unveiled with a formidable line-up celebrating the talents of Britain’s finest filmmakers and actors including Stephen Frears, Sally Hawkins, Emma Thompson, Bill Nighy and more. Marking its 10th anniversary this year, the festival will deliver a number of exclusive premieres of highly anticipated films in…
WARNING: PLEASE BE AWARE THIS REVIEW CONTAINS DETAILS OF A CONFRONTING THEME In Jerrod Carmichael’s dramatic comedy On the Count of Three two uninspired, 30-something mates decide to end things for good. Kevin (Christopher Abbott) has been in and out of therapy since the age of 8. He was in foster care and was abused…
Smile is a genuinely scary and engaging psychological horror movie. It centres around a hard-working therapist in an emergency psychiatric unit, named Dr Rose Cotter (Sosie Bacon). As Dr Cotter is about to leave the facility after a particularly long shift, a young graduate student Laura Weaver (Caitlin Stasey) enters shaking and clearly traumatised. In…
A secret imaginary rendezvous between two towering but polar opposite African American leaders plays out in The Meeting. The pair lived in the same era. Both were assassinated at age 39. One preached non-violence, the other violent rebellion. I speak of Baptist minister and activist Martin Luther King Jr. (January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) and Muslim…
