The past few months have been a boom time if you’re into European – particularly French – cinema. And that trend continues with the engaging A Difficult Year. I mean, the idea of a comedy about anti-capitalist activism doesn’t sound like a winner, but writer-directors Olivier Nakache and Éric Toledano manage to pretty much keep…
The price of fame drives one of the most intense and remarkable films of the year. The Substance is about physical beauty, adoration, self-love and loathing. It explores the lengths someone will go to remain relevant. Elisabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore) used to be a movie star, before transitioning to hosting a successful workout show on…
A moderately engaging Australian drama set in the 1970s, Kid Snow is set against the backdrop of circus troupes of tent boxers that travelled through the outback. This is a tale of outsiders on the fringes of society fighting for survival; and also something of a comeback story and a redemption tale. The film centres…
In the same way that Spider-Man transposed from live action back to animation so successfully, now Transformers has done the same. Transformers One is a high-octane adventure with umpteen twists and turns, and extremely well-realised. I’d also like to think that as with Spider-Man, the same will be the case for Transformers moving forward. This…
School holidays are once again upon us, and there are plenty of options for some family friendly films to enjoy with Harold and the Purple Crayon, the Australian film Runt, and the animated origin story of Transformers One. However, easily the best of the bunch is the superb animated The Wild Robot, which has been…
A demonic-looking James McAvoy stars as a manipulative monster in the psychological horror-thriller Speak No Evil. An American family meets and befriends a British family while holidaying in Italy. Soon the Americans are invited to spend a weekend at the seemingly idyllic country estate of the Brits. What starts out with promise ends up as…
What if the cartoon world turned into real life? Well, that’s what happens in Carlos Saldanha’s family-friendly fantasy Harold and the Purple Crayon. Harold (Zachary Levi) is the manifestation of the vivid imagination of writer Crockett Johnson. He’s a character in a book, who along with his buddies, Moose (Lil Rel Howery) and Porcupine (Tanya…
A beautiful, heartfelt story about the greatest racehorse on the planet, A Horse Named Winx is an emotional ride (pun fully intended). Written and narrated by Andrew Rule, and directed and produced by Janine Hosking, it tells the tale of the record-breaking mare through the people that raced her. The retired champion won her last…
Where have all the indies gone? The days when the likes of Steven Soderbergh or Hal Hartley were delivering idiosyncratic but exciting films seems a world away. With the rise of franchises and “sequel-itis”, a lot of American indie movies seem to have been squeezed out of cinema real estate. But occasionally one sneaks through,…
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is so much riotous fun – a zany hoot. The 36-year wait for the sequel to the beloved Beetlejuice has well and truly been worth it. Just seeing Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder and Catherine O’Hara “doing their thing” again is joyful. I relished the addition of Jenna Ortega as the third-generation member of…
