A story within a story, set at the height of the Second World War, Their Finest has drama, pathos, humour and subtlety. With increasing numbers of men drafted to fight for their lives on the front line, bombs continued to drop relentlessly on London. Those left behind, made up predominantly of women, children and the…
Based on the 2009 short story collection Both Ways is the Only Way I Want It written by Maile Meloy, Certain Women is structured around three stories that briefly intersect. They are all set in the small town of Livingston, Montana. The three stories follow the emotional turmoil, the hopes and disappointments, and loneliness experienced…
The curious case of Otto Bloom? The rather quirky The Death and Life of Otto Bloom, which opened the Melbourne International Film Festival in 2016, seems like a local variation on David Fincher’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, the story of a man living his life in reverse. But unlike F Scott Fitzgerald’s creation,…
An insight into a patriarchal society I dare say very few people know much about, The Eagle Huntress features stunning cinematography and vistas. Being an eagle hunter is considered man’s business – always has been and, according to some, always will be. That is until a fresh-faced 13-year-old enters the fray – someone who comes…
A thick air of foreboding hangs over the mind-bending psychological thriller A Cure for Wellness like a seemingly never-ending blanket of fog. Dane DeHaan (The Amazing Spider Man 2) stars as Lockhart, a driven Wall Street stockbroker who is sent by his firm to a remote alpine medical spa. His mission is to retrieve the firm’s…
The kid who fell to Earth? In 2018 a small group of astronauts head off to live on Mars in an experimental colony known as East Texas. This space mission is the brainchild of Nathaniel Shepherd (Gary Oldman), a billionaire entrepreneur clearly modelled on Richard Branson, who is the CEO of Genesis Space Technologies. But…
As a bit of a film nerd, I find war movies are generally love-it-or-hate-it propositions. The great ones stay with you and provide valuable insight, but the remainder I could frankly live without. Many try to (literally and figuratively) “blast” you out of your seat with pyrotechnics or gore (I’m looking at you, Mel Gibson);…
This Oscar-nominated Swedish comedy about a socially awkward grumpy old man rediscovering his humanity and the sense of community is essentially Gran Torino with subtitles. A Man Called Ove is a life-affirming tale. At first I thought it was going to be a Scandinavian variation of the perennial Christmas classic It’s a Wonderful Life, but…
Une Pratique De Pays? After screenings at the French Film Festival the gentle bittersweet drama The Country Doctor gets a limited cinematic release on the art house circuit. Jean-Pierre Werner (played by Francois Cluzet, from The Intouchables) is a dedicated doctor in a regional area of France. He is the sort of old fashioned doctor…
Almost two years ago now, director Olivier Assayas and star Kristen Stewart (with more than a little help from Juliette Binoche) gave us one of the most intriguing and beautiful films of 2015 in The Clouds of Sils Maria. Now the pair have re-teamed for Personal Shopper – which just happens to be one of…
