No this is not a remake of the fluffy and lightweight 1966 rom-com that starred Elvis Presley as a part-time NASCAR driver. Rather, this is a raucous, at times bawdy and crude Ocker comedy along the lines of Barry McKenzie Holds His Own, Dimboola, Stork and even the more recent A Few Best Men. There’s…
One of the prospects that drew director Ron Howard (A Beautiful Mind) to this famous story was the opportunity to give a new generation a glimpse at what happened to launch this extraordinary phenomenon. The baby boomers grew up with The Beatles and their children perhaps only know them vicariously through their parents. As the…
The comedic horror story Yoga Hosers is the second of what writer and director Kevin Smith has called the True North Trilogy. The first, Tusk (released in 2014), was based upon Smith’s weekly podcast in which he and his long-time producing partner Scott Mosier discuss current events and other random topics in a humorous way….
The Red Turtle is a dialogue-free animated film from the renowned Studio Ghibli, which has given us Howl’s Moving Castle and Spirited Away. But this is an international co production between France and Japan, and is the first non-Japanese film produced by the revered animation studios. This is a richly emotional and resonant exploration of…
A slow-burning Iranian movie, Wednesday, May 9 lifts the lid on the role of women and the subjugation of them in a repressed society. It takes a while to unravel the threads, because the story is presented as a puzzle with the pieces being fitted together over time. We first meet a woman with a…
Life, Animated is a touching, life affirming documentary that is a tribute to the human spirit and the importance of art and film in transforming lives. This documentary centres around Owen Suskind, who was diagnosed with severe autism at the age of three. According to the doctors and specialists, the symptoms meant that he would…
A mighty confusing psychological thriller, The Girl on the Train partly suffers by overdoing the signaling of time frames on the screen. It takes ages to figure out just what is going on and by then you can’t help thinking it is all too hard. Devastated by her recent divorce, Rachel (Emily Blunt) spends her…
On April 20th, 2010, one of the world’s largest man-made disasters occurred on the Deepwater Horizon, an ultra deep-water drilling rig off the Louisiana coast in the Gulf of Mexico. This is the story of some of the 126 crew members working aboard the Deepwater Horizon that day, caught in the most harrowing circumstances. Mark…
Yet another (dull) night at the museum? This dull, slow moving and pretentious documentary looking at the history of France’s famous Louvre museum comes from Russian filmmaker Aleksandr Sokurov, who gave us the visually impressive Russian Ark, a tour through the famous Hermitage Museum that was shot in one long, continuous take. No such cinematic…
I am really sorry to have to say that I have just seen another Australian movie which is absolutely ghastly, in the form of Red Billabong. Nick Marshall (Dan Ewing from Home and Away) and his estranged brother Tristan (Tim Pocock) are drawn into a world of secrets and lies when their grandfather’s enormous outback…
