Where did it all go so wrong? After several era-defining movies, the Marvel franchise seems to be sputtering. Judging by the ill-conceived and frankly illogical The Marvels, it seems to have run out of ideas for these characters. The Marvels draws together Captain Marvel (2019), the Disney + mini-series Ms Marvel and a few scattered…
Another formulaic survival story, The Dive is a remake of the little-seen 2020 Norwegian drama Breaking Surface, and it adds little that is new or surprising. Sisters Drew (Australian actress Sophie Lowe) and May (Louisa Krause) share a love of deep-sea diving, instilled in them from a young age by their father. Every year the…
AI is a hot topic right now, so it’s only natural filmmakers would want to explore it. One of them is Garth Davis (Lion), who adopts a measured but sometimes oblique approach in Foe. Davis is clearly passionate about the project, having worked with novelist Iain Reid to adapt Reid’s novel of the same name…
After a three-year break, David Fincher is back with a very un-Fincher-like film with The Killer. This finely crafted film sees the director subverting just about every convention of the hitman sub-genre in a way I found both inventive and a little perplexing at the same time. Fincher is of course known for the directorial…
Toys run amok, killing and maiming, in director Emma Tammi’s Five Nights at Freddy’s. Mike (Josh Hutcherson) is a troubled soul. A shopping centre security guard, his massively aggressive treatment of the father of a young son sees him fired and looking for a new job. At that stage, we – the audience – don’t…
Australian director Craig Gillespie continues his successful foray into American film with Dumb Money. The film showcases Gillespie’s fast-paced directorial style in a David vs Goliath story that replaces slingshots with sub-Reddits. For whatever reason, Gillespie seems to be attracted to stories that say something about America and its people. That was certainly the case…
The powerful Australian produced and shot drama Shayda is set in suburban Australia in 1995 but has contemporary resonance as it deals with some important themes. It centres around Shayda (Iranian actress Zar Amir Ebrahimi) who is married to Hossein (Osama Sami) who has moved to Australia to study medicine and become a doctor. He…
Martin Scorsese’s new film Killers of the Flower Moon is a Western crime drama set in Oklahoma in the 1920s. Based on fact, it looks at the serial murder of native Americans living on oil-rich land. After arriving home from WWI, Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo DiCaprio), moves in with his wealthy cattle rancher uncle, William King…
In Olivier Peyon’s Lie With Me, noted author Stephane Belcourt (Guillaume de Tonquédec) returns to his childhood hometown in the Cognac-producing region of south-west France after a 35-year absence and faces some of the ghosts of his past. He has been invited to be the guest speaker and brand ambassador for the town’s signature cognac…
French cinema is possibly best known for its compelling personal dramas. But you’d have to say it’s not really associated with wacky screwball comedy – at least outside France. But that’s exactly what acclaimed director François Ozon delivers with The Crime is Mine. The situation is a bit of an odd one, because comedies apparently…
