The zombie apocalypse is alive and well in director Johannes Roberts’ horror-schlocker Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City. The film starts with a young orphan girl, Claire Redfield, plagued by visions of a presence. Her slightly older brother, Chris looks after her as best he can. Both live in the Raccoon City Orphanage. They were…
The main event which steers the story in The Lovely Bones is horrific and spine-chilling. And yet, it is not a tale of fear. Quite the opposite. Hope, peace and solace are recurring themes. While not uplifting, the play provides an understanding of human failings and frailties. The Lovely Bones centres around 14-year-old Susie Salmon…
Stephen Chbosky’s Dear Evan Hansen is a film adaptation of the Tony and Grammy Award winning musical of the same name. And it features the original Broadway lead actor in the pivotal role. Teenager Evan Hansen (Ben Platt) struggles with anxiety and depression, and is seeing a therapist. He is being brought up by his…
With a haunting look in his eyes, Oscar Isaac (Dune) excels in Paul Schrader’s (First Reformed) intense crime drama The Card Counter. Isaac is William Tell, a cheerless loner who likes to go under the radar. As an elite card player, he travels extensively between casinos, but doesn’t like to draw attention to himself. To…
Experience of Shock Therapy’s Locked In is an intense one, elevated by its grounding in truth. The Australian premiere is inspired by two stories – Ghost Boy by Martin Pistorius and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Baub – which both share about the experiences of living with Locked-In Syndrome. That is a rare…
At 91 years of age Clint Eastwood climbs back into the saddle for this elegiac and reflective contemporary western. He plays Mike Milo, a washed-up former rodeo rider with a broken back who has fallen on hard times. He is asked by his former boss Howard (country singer and occasional actor Dwight Yoakam) to travel…
As cultural touchstones go, few are as storied – or problematic – as Dune. Frank Herbert’s dense 1965 novel was (and is still) regarded as a breakthrough in the sci-fi genre, spawning a sometimes-fanatical following. The book was often considered unfilmable – something reinforced by Alejandro Jodorowsky’s failed attempt at it in the 1970s. Then…
A surreal nightmare, Titane pushes the boundaries of taste. Still, it’s intriguing throughout and doesn’t let up for its entire 100 minutes plus. A father (Bertrand Bonello), who turns out to be a doctor, is having trouble controlling his seven-year-old daughter Alexia (Adele Guigue) in the back seat of their car while driving. She makes…
A Boy Called Christmas is about overcoming tragedy and obstacles. Nikolas (Henry Lawfull) is a Finnish boy who lost his beloved mother and is being raised by his woodcutter father Joel (Michiel Huisman) in a small cabin. They have little. One day, Joel receives an invitation to visit the king (Jim Broadbent). The king acknowledges…
Special effects wizardry, violence and a dollop of humour drive Venom: Let There Be Carnage. The storyline is almost incidental, but split personalities are at the heart of it. Tom Hardy reprises his role as former journalist Eddie Brock, now host to bad alien symbiote Venom. When I say “host”, I mean that literally –…
