What a top actor, Robert De Niro. Most of the films in which he played the lead, became film classics. Memorable roles that will still impress in decades to come. From Taxi Driver to Goodfellas. From The Deer Hunter to Casino. Unforgettable masterpieces. The only thing De Niro should have avoided in all these years…
How tough a job is teaching and disciplining a bunch of lively, but often disinterested and unmotivated students? The engaging French dramedy School Life (La Vie Scolaire) explores that question. A new vice-principal, Samia Zibra (Zita Hanrot), arrives at a school in economically disadvantaged Saint-Denis. She wants to do all she can to make a…
While music videos are often a stepping stone to bigger things, the concert film is another level. Ever since Martin Scorsese helmed The Last Waltz in 1978, many acclaimed filmmakers have tried their hand at this niche genre. And now it’s Spike Lee’s turn as he weaves his magic around David Byrne’s American Utopia. Byrne…
Christmas cheer is not all it’s cracked up to be for one “happy” couple in Clea DuVall’s holiday comedy Happiest Season. Abby (Kristen Stewart) and Harper (Mackenzie Davis) live together and are in love. It is the holiday season and during a night visiting suburban homes festooned with lights, Harper invites Abby to share the…
Misbehaviour – as its name suggests – mixes activism with fun. Director Phillipa Lowthorpe crafts a crowd-pleasing film that delivers a (perhaps surprisingly) nuanced message. This is actually second film this month to look at the “women’s liberation” movement (after the Australian doco Brazen Hussies). The two clearly share some DNA. Both, for example, explore…
A haunting tale of desperation and regret, Let Him Go packs a punch. We’re in rural Montana in the early 1960s. George Blackledge (Kevin Costner) is a former lawman, but when it comes to “my way or the highway”. His wife Margaret (Diane Lane ) rules the roost. Once she gets an idea in her…
The year 1968 was a turbulent time in American history and politics. Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy were assassinated; US involvement in the war in Vietnam increased; and President Johnson raised the draft total to 3,500. And the Democratic National Conference in Chicago was marred by riots between police and anti-war protestors. They had…
Ghosts of old Hollywood and demons of contemporary life both hang heavy over David Fincher’s Mank. This ostensible biopic of Citizen Kane screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz does a great job of exploring a troubled character struggling with his problems and his art. But it also delves into what Fincher sees as the root of America’s…
Some movies are good. Some movies are bad. And some are just so bonkers, they defy rational assessment. Fatman is one of those. Co-directors and writers Eshom and Ian Helms have crafted a stunning piece of whack-battery that seems more like a fever dream than an actual plot. Not that there’s anything wrong with zany…
Following a whirlwind romance in Monte Carlo, a naïve unnamed young woman (Lily James) is swept off her feet by the handsome and debonair and recently widowed Maxim De Winter (Armie Hammer) and marries him. She is whisked off to Manderley, his imposing ancestral mansion on the windswept English coast. But far from an idyllic…
