Listen Up Philip is relentless story telling based on relentless story tellers. Relentless seems an apt adjective to describe both the characters and the narrative, both of which rarely waiver from their over analytical tendencies and their inability to take a step back. With tongue firmly planted in cheek, Listen Up Philip documents the struggles…
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Studio executives know the value of the phrase “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” That sort of thinking has led to countless terrible and lazy sequels because the film-makers know that audiences will turn up no matter what dribble they serve up onscreen. However, sometimes more of the same is a good thing. The…
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Now an established action mega-franchise, The Expendables series has emerged as a behemoth of the genre simply by piling on the world’s most celebrated blockbuster stars, welding them together and putting together scripts decent enough to play on all their strengths, rather than their many weaknesses. If it’s anything action stars are known for, it’s…
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In the bleak Icelandic countryside, Hera (Thora Bjorg Helga) lives with her brother Baldur and their parents on a dairy farm in a small, isolated community. After her brother dies in a tragic tractor accident, Hera immerses herself in the heavy metal culture that he loved so much. Throughout her teenage years, while her parents…
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The Hundred-Foot Journey is the latest addition to the recent surge of food-related films (see: The Chef, The Trip To Italy, Julie & Julia, etc). This new film is a feel-good one which will no doubt curry favour with many members of the audience. But despite being a pleasant trip, the overall meal could use…
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The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby is the ambitious vision of writer/director Ned Benson to capture a relationship in breakdown. Shot over three films ‘Her’, ‘Him’ and ‘Them’, (the first two screened back to back at this year’s MIFF, the second released later this year), Benson covers all angles of the crisis. In ‘Her’, Eleanor (Jessica…
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The name Aaron Swartz may not mean an awful lot to some people. But if you’ve ever used Reddit, openlibrary.net or Creative Commons or if you can remember the real reason why there was an Internet black-out in 2012 then you’ve been touched by his work. Swartz was a gifted computer programmer and activist who…
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From John Carney, the writer and director of Once, comes Begin Again – a spiritual follow up to the acclaimed (and Oscar winning) 2006 romantic musical drama. Like his former work, Begin Again focuses on music as something that can represent a moment in your life. In Once, it was about bringing two people together and creating…
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A Hitchcockian thriller in the country, Tom At The Farm is a grim exploration of homophobia, secrecy and family sustainability. Directed by Canadian filmmaker Xavier Dolan (I Killed My Mother, Heartbeats), the film is based on the play of the same name by Michel Marc Bouchard. Tom – played by Dolan – is a young…
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Alex (Natalia Tena) and Sergi (David Verdaguer) are very much in love, living in a poky apartment in Barcelona and planning to have a baby when Alex is offered an un-missable career opportunity. In Los Angeles. Living 10,000 kilometres apart, they make the best use of modern technology to stay in touch – Skype features…
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And So It Goes won’t win any points for its name. Nor will it win any prizes for originality. But this rom-com does have a bewildering amount of talent coming together to make a film that’s not great, just nice. This means it is fun and pleasant enough to watch, but it won’t change your…
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While any female with internet connection and a love of fashion and style are intimately familiar with street fashion photographer Scott Schuman from The Sartorialist, or fashion blogging powerhouse duo Tash Sefton and Elle Ferguson from They All Hate Us, not many are aware of Ari Seth Cohen’s work on fashion blog Advanced Style. Why?…
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Love comes in many forms. It can exist as the experience of first love between a young couple, the frustrating protective love a parent has for their child or the love a couple who have been together for nearly 40 years share. In Love is Strange, we see all three, and director Ira Sachs has…
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The Good Life (La Belle Vie) is a French drama film based on a true story. It’s a delicate, coming of age tale and portrait of paternal love set in the freewheeling countryside. It asks some big questions about love and freedom. But while it is beautiful, it fails to fill in some of the…
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Admit it, you weren’t too confident a buddy cop, action flick could mesh with a supernatural horror film and actually work, at all. I thought the exact same thing. As such, I went into Deliver Us From Evil with unfairly low expectations and walked away feeling defeated; deflated in my ability to judge a film…
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Marvel Studios and the Disney team had a huge amount of reputation riding on this film after setting the bar ridiculously high with their ensemble action superhero fest that was The Avengers. With a bunch of characters who are mostly unknowns unless you’re a comic fan, this film would need to pull out some wicked…
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We Are The Best! (Vi är bäst!) is a loaded title but this Swedish film is all about challenging your expectations. The movie was written and directed by Lukas Moodysson, who was adapting the graphic novel that his wife, Coco, had penned about her fictionalised teenage years. The result is a feel good, coming-of-age story…
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One of the entries in MIFF’s Big Scene – Small Screen program, Doll & Em is an unassuming portrait of a friendship that succeeds with a delightful mix of undeniable heart and unobtrusive style. Doll (Dolly Wells) and Em (Emily Mortimer) have been best friends since childhood. When Doll unceremoniously breaks up with her boyfriend,…
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Taped is a Dutch thriller that is gripping from the very first frame to the last. Brutal and breathless, it’s not hard to see why director Diedrik Van Rooijen has been chosen to helm the remake of the Alfred Hitchcock classic The Birds. There are certainly elements of the Hitchcock style in Taped. The film…
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One of the great things about Danny Boyle’s work is that it’s so damned colourful. Even when times are tough and the characters are going through hell, there’s always technicolour and light and thumping music. Ok, maybe not in 28 Days Later, but in the majority of his movies. It helps us digest some of the bleaker…
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From the man that brought you La Femme Nikita, Leon: The Professional and The Fifth Element comes yet another stylised badass individual out to settle some scores whilst simultaneously attempting to advance humankind through a very thinly veiled pseudo-science and psychology subplot. Lucy (Scarlett Johansson) is our hapless damsel unwittingly roped into being a drug…
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There’s finally peace in Northern Ireland, but some people have not buried the past. This is the premise behind first-time director Nathan Todd’s A Belfast Story. Colm Meaney (The Commitments, Layer Cake, Con Air) plays hardened detective James, who, like many of his generation in Northern Ireland, are living in times of “peace”. In his…
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A Most Wanted Man is an espionage thriller about terrorists. But despite this genre, the film contains no explosions, gun battles or high-tech special effects. Instead, it has more in common with The Ides Of March, in that it is a tense and dramatic labyrinth of power plays where rivals with competing agendas use political…
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It’s a simple question with no straight-forward answer, “What would you do?” if it really was your last day on the earth, if you knew it was all going to end, how would you spend your final waking moments? These Final Hours examines the dystopian world that James (Nathan Phillips) must navigate as the remaining…
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The latest in a series of fantastic historical telemovies from the ABC, Carlotta is a crowd pleasing – and emotional – retelling of the life of Australia’s most famous transgender pioneer. Richard Byron (Jessica Marais) is an unhappy kid from working class Balmain, when as a teenager he finds work in a Kings Cross department…
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High-concept films are so called because they have a premise that can be easily summed up (and sold) in one sentence or so, and many of the most successful comedies of recent years fall under that banner. A group of friends must retrace their drunken night in order to find their missing friend. A laidback…
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There is fewer dialogue and exposition needed in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, the long awaited sequel to 2011’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and the film benefits greatly from it. While Rise was an exciting movie itself, with one of the best reboots of an old franchise in years, Dawn…
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A dark thread is strung throughout Devils Knot, the latest feature from Egoyan in which the unnerving act of a real-life case of child murder looms from beginning to end, with the sense of dread carried out well enough for the film to stick with you long after the credits. Unfortunately, awkward pacing speeds through…
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Tokyo Tower: Mom and Me, and Sometimes Dad (Tôkyô tawâ: Okan to boku to, tokidoki, oton) will warm your heart and tug at your heartstrings. The winner of the best film award at the Japanese Academy Awards as well as winning a host of others, is a slow-burning and detailed family drama. It’s also the…
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The Angriest Man In Brooklyn could be dubbed “The Diary Of A Mad Man”. The film is a straight-to-DVD release directed by Phil Alden Robinson and stars comedian, Robin Williams as one obnoxious lawyer. After being told he has 90 minutes left to live the irate curmudgeon engages in a frenzied, amazing race around New…
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