There’s complexity within the rather simplistic narrative of Other People’s Children, Rebecca Zlotowski‘s affecting French drama about a certain definition of motherhood. Headlined by a captivating Virginie Efira, last seen dominating Paul Verhoeven’s controversial Benedetta, Other People’s Children focuses on her Rachel, a 40-year-old teacher – single and childless – whose blossoming relationship with Ali…
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When you have a film led by such reliable talent as Richard Gere, Diane Keaton, Susan Sarandon and William H. Macy, it’s understandable to believe that the hands you’re in will guide you to a safe destination. And perhaps that’s the problem. Maybe I Do is entirely too safe to make any lasting impression beyond…
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There’s a lot to be said about mental health – and here, specifically, obsessive-compulsive disorder – within the short minutes of Just Right. So much so that you can’t help but wish Camille Wormser‘s charmingly off-centred comedy was expanded to feature length, but, as it stands, it’s no less funny and affecting as a commentary…
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It goes without saying that the topical interest in Kristen Roupenian’s 2017 short story “Cat Person”, which ran in The New Yorker, before going viral online, is ripe for a filmmaker to adapt and expand. Unfortunately, director Susanna Fogel can’t quite secure a grip on proceedings, clumsily handling the film’s tone and undermining its central…
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The wealthy whites and their easy skewering is a narrative mentality that we have been witness to in a variety of practices as of late. But unlike The White Lotus and The Menu, two of the most recent examples of such a temperament, Brandon Cronenberg‘s Infinity Pool pushes further past being just a little wicked…
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Fair Play tells the story of a recently engaged young couple Emily and Luke (Phoebe Dynevor and Alden Ehrenreich) who both work at a corporate hedge fund in secret. As they witness a fellow employee crash and burn and is let go of their job, a new spot for PM has opened up, leaving a…
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Shayda tells the story of our titular heroine (Zar Amir Ebrahimi), an Iranian woman who is living in Australia with her 6-year-old daughter Mona (Selina Zahednia). She resides in a women’s shelter after having fled from Iran to hide from her husband Hossein (Osamah Sami) and she tries to establish a normal life for her…
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Run Rabbit Run tells the story of Sarah (Sarah Snook), a fertility doctor and single mother who is trying to maintain a carefree existence for herself and her daughter Mia (Lily LaTorre). The two start to celebrate by planning Mia’s seventh birthday, with Sarah’s ex-husband Peter (Damon Herriman) his partner and their child in attendance….
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Set in 22nd century New York, The Pod Generation tells the story of Rachel (Emilia Clarke) and Alvy (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a happy couple who live in a future where technology has become overabundant in terms of efficiency and convenience. Rachel is a rising executive at the Womb Center and Alvy is a botanist with a…
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There’s a lot to digest within the 158 minutes of Todd Field‘s ambitious Tár, so much so that lead Cate Blanchett practically devours it whole and spits out a venomous toxicity in return. It’s an, at-times, icy black comedy and a tragic character study melded within the cancel culture mentality and the #MeToo movement. It…
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Don’t let the title fool you, What’s Love Got To Do With It? has nothing to do with Tina Turner. Instead, the titular question is a rhetorical of sorts that documentary filmmaker Zoe (Lily James) ponders when she hears that her life-long best friend (Shazad Latif‘s Kaz) is interested in an arranged marriage, and subsequently…
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A brutal movie to endure, Elijah Bynum‘s Magazine Dreams speaks to the strive for physical perfection within men and how such toxicity can consume them from the inside out. On that outside, Killian Maddox (Jonathan Majors in a demanding, raw performance that should already be favourited come award season next year) has the type of…
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Sometimes an artist’s vision is best conveyed through the use of metaphorical imagery. Reiki Tsuno is not one of those artists! Leaning bombastically far into literal chaos and absurdity, Tsuno’s Mad Cats is a high-art-meets-low-brow martial arts extravaganza that embraces melodramatic nonsense – and is all the better for it. When he receives a message…
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Whilst it isn’t always moving at a tolerable pace, nor does it necessarily answer the questions it raises throughout, Rachel Lambert‘s at-times dreamy dramedy Sometimes I Think About Dying still manages an emotional resonance as it tackles social anxiety and the feeling of disconnection that can stem from such. Daisy Ridley – in a beautiful,…
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The unexplained corpse of a white woman at the feet of three Black gentlemen doesn’t look good. Four dead white women looks even worse, and it’s a situation at the centre of Mahogany Drive that writer/director/star Jerah Milligan navigates with precise wit and a social commentary that doesn’t quite travel where we expect it to. Before…
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If there’s one thing you can rely on when it comes to the romantic comedy genre, it’s that if there’s a wedding involved Jennifer Lopez can’t be too far from the fray. The reliable superstar knows how to play the genre game, but if any audiences are concerned that Shotgun Wedding will play things a…
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An elephant graphically defecates on its unsuspecting handlers, before stomping about in an uneven state amongst a storm of fornicating bodies. An aspiring actress urinates on the face of a willing movie star in a coked-out stupor. A tuxedoed lounge singer seductively croons about petting her girlfriend’s genitalia. A party reveller bounces around on a…
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“It’s an ugly book, full of selfish people who only care for themselves” isn’t exactly the sterling praise one would reap upon something as treasured as “Wuthering Heights”, but it is how author Emily Brontë’s work was described by her older, more traditional sister Charlotte upon finishing it; or, at least, that’s how Frances O’Connor…
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Right from the opening of M3GAN it’s obvious what type of film Gerard Johnstone‘s A.I. horror-lite is going to be: one that doesn’t take itself remotely seriously, has its wink poised at the audience, and knows you can’t think it’s ridiculous any more than the creators already do. If its trailer didn’t already clue you…
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Originally scheduled for an early release starting in January of 2022, the sudden pulling of Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre from the theatrical schedule certainly didn’t bode well for a film that, from all appearances, seemed like a certified success. Yes, it wasn’t uncommon for films to shift during the time period due to the…
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Kiddo, a short film written and directed by Brett Chapman, is an oddity, to say the least. And that’s meant in the most complimentary of fashions, as the supremely bizarre, always unsettling outing announces itself as an original, individually interpreted horror film that’s likely to sit differently (and divisively) with its audience. In fact, it’s…
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Needle drops have become more and more of a popular addition in film over the last year. The notion of having a song not written for the film – often one that already has a sense of notoriety – and inject it into proceedings has been utilised to either enhance a physical sequence or, perhaps,…
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“Mommy and Daddy will be right next to you the whole time.” From the opening line of dialogue in Steven Spielberg‘s The Fabelmans, an autobiographical coming-of-age tale that boasts itself as his first writing credit since A.I. some two decades prior, we get a sense of what’s to come as, outside a New Jersey movie house in the early…
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Welcome back, Mr. Hanks. After adopting a not-so-easy to digest accent and exaggerated acting style in Baz Luhrmann’s divisive Elvis, and whatever the hell that adaptation of (not Guillermo del Toro’s) Pinocchio was, America’s loveable dad has returned for another of his committed, affable turns in Marc Foster‘s A Man Called Otto; which is rather…
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Given just how successful his last film The Dry was, it’s understandable for their to be a certain expectation and closely examined look at what director Robert Connolly has on his table for his immediate follow-up. Not that you should expect a crime thriller 2.0 given he’s adapting Tim Winton‘s family-friendly short Blueback, but don’t…
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The rich eat, but then suffer mercilessly in Ruben Östlund’s Triangle of Sadness, a wicked, at-times horrifically and humorously gross satire that takes aim at the wealthy in a manner that is deliciously void of any subtlety. Divided into three chapters – all linked by a young, glamorous couple – the film promises one observation…
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Though he certainly didn’t lose any of his sense of comfort by travelling across the Atlantic for his last film – 2017’s Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri – there’s a sense of grandeur in writer/director Martin McDonagh returning to his homeland for The Banshees of Inisherin, an impossibly funny and, at times, heartbreakingly bleak dramedy…
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Behind every true story there’s always a slew of accusations as to what is exactly fact and what’s fiction. In the case of The Lost King, a charming dramedy surrounding everywoman Philippa Langley and her search to find the grave of Richard III, there’s the historians who believes it absolves the king of the supposed…
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Much like a Greatest Hits package where it’s all the beats that both fans and the casual listener are familiar with, I Wanna Dance With Somebody, a glossy biopic about “The Voice”, Whitney Houston, Kasi Lemmons‘ film refuses to delve beyond a catchy hook. There’s no bridge, no worthy duets, and no deep-rooted B-side. And…
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Given that it has been 11 years since we last saw Puss in Boots garner his own solo outing, it’s fair for any audiences going into this one to have certain reservations. Not that the original was bad in any manner, but Puss in Boots: The Last Wish isn’t exactly a continuation many were clamouring…
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