Majestic, powerful and intimidating, the sad reality is that sharks have more reason to fear us, than the other way round. Thanks to netting, shark finning and mercury poisoning we’ve managed to push over 90% of shark species to the brink of extinction. Directors Luke Cresswell and Steve McNicholas choose to broach the subject more…
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It’s almost become cliché to say it now, but Meryl Streep dominates yet another film. August: Osage County is an adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize winning play of the same name, with original playwright Tracy Letts penning the screenplay for The Company Men director John Wells to helm. A darkly comic drama, the film begins…
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The Little Mermaid. Beauty and the Beast. Aladdin. The Lion King. These animated musical classics were all released within a 5 year period (1989-1994) when Disney animation was at its high point. This fruitful period, known as the Disney Renaissance, continued until the end of the century and also included films such as Mulan (1998) and Tarzan (1999). However, during the…
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Catholic guilt can be one pervasive beast and if ever there was a film to embody this phenomena it’s Philomena. This is the tragic drama/comedy that is inspired by a true story. It crosses three nations, several decades in time and shows the misdemeanours of an institution that should’ve protected its vulnerable charges. The film…
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There’s a lot riding on the second installment in The Hobbit trilogy. The first film, An Unexpected Journey, did fairly well (if grossing over a billion dollars worldwide is your definition of “fairly well”) but received some less than favourable reviews, primarily due to its length and some issues with the High Frame Rate technology. Though…
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The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is a film, which thrives in the visual first, and the story second. But the story is a very close second. Based on a short story in the New Yorker magazine by James Thurber – but not completely following it – we see Walter Mitty – played by Ben…
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The Muscle Shoals documentary is as soulful as the music that came out of the Alabama County of the same name. The documentary is filled to the brim with the rich musical history of the town that gave the world The Swampers, and countless hits from The Rolling Stones, Aretha Franklin and way too many others…
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While Computer Chess is spruiked as a ‘hilariously offbeat comedy’, it only draws a few tepid chuckles, most of which don’t make the trip from brain to mouth. But assuming it’s one of those comedies where you’re not supposed to laugh, it’s still enjoyable. I’m just not sure if it’s enjoyable enough to invest your hard earned…
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Ask anyone under the age of 30 what they think is the funniest film ever made, and 9 out of 10 of them will say Anchorman. Hardly a success when released in 2004, the film became a hit on DVD and has since become the most frequently quoted film amongst members of Generation Y. Who among us has…
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As we approach the 100th anniversary of the beginning of World War I, it is good for us to be reminded of the terrible and destructive nature of war. The most effective war films are able to give their audiences a tiny taste of what it might have been like to live through those times, as…
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With an ensemble cast of some of Hollywood’s current A-list crop and an Oscar nominated multi-award winning director/writer helming the film American Hustle is already garnering a lot of hype and I would say that you better believe it’s worth it. We open with the film telling us that “some of this actually happened” and…
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Seeing any film at the Chauvel cinema, Paddington in Sydney is like stepping into an intimate experience. The service is friendly and personalised, and the cinema itself exudes a kind of chilled-out classy atmos; before your chosen film starts, you can order a beer or glass of wine to enjoy out on the balcony, or…
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“Rhyme, meter, conceit. Without this balance, a poem becomes slack.” Allan Ginsberg’s poetry professor proclaims this line in the earlier moments of Kill Your Darlings, and throughout its runtime I found myself wishing that the film had heeded this advice. Kill Your Darlings is a schizophrenic trip through the origins of the Beat Generation that never…
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After receiving rave reviews from its debut at the Sundance Film Festival earlier in the year, buzz has been building for James Ponsoldt’s The Spectacular Now. So, does it live up to the hype? No, not really, but films rarely do. Despite being overrated by critics during its currently-brief lifetime, the film still impresses in many ways. It…
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Growing up, we always have a couple of books we connect with. For me, before there was Harry Potter and before I could fully appreciate the sheer brilliance of the Hitchhikers series, there was a little 1985 Sci-Fi novel called Ender’s Game. It was the sort of novel, that at nine years old – or…
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Note: This Review May Contain Spoilers How I Live Now is at once strange and intriguing. Set in the 21st century, How I Live Now tells the story of a young, American girl who is sent to live with her cousins in the English countryside, when a world war breaks out across the country. Daisy, the American, and…
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Darlene Love. Merry Clayton. Lisa Fischer. Claudia Lennear. Táta Vega. Judith Hill. Jo Lawry. Stevvi Alexander. The names of these women may not seem familiar, but I can guarantee that you have heard at least one, if not all of them sing. How? Because all of these women are backup singers, and among the most celebrated of…
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As with many European Art films, Blue Is The Warmest Colour requires patience. The film moves at a snail’s pace but this is only to increase the drama and tension at pivotal turning points in the narrative. That being said, Blue Is The Warmest Colour is a beautiful character study that, with its depiction and…
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Foxfire screened at Biff Wednesday night at Palace Cinemas. The film runs dangerously close to three hours but thankfully you won’t notice it until you step out of the theatre bleary-eyed onto the busy, buzzing barracks shopping complex. This isn’t the first time Foxfire has entered the minds of girls, women and people everywhere. The…
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OXV: The Manual is unlike any other film you’ve seen, it’s even coined a new genre: the ‘scientific-philosophical romance’. It breaks free from genre conventions to deliver a unique story that presents a new look on fate, determinism and freewill. The film may take a few viewings to fully grasp the rules of writer/director Darren…
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It’s refreshing to see a war film that doesn’t concentrate on the ‘fighting’ aspect of war. Instead, The Railway Man, which opened the Brisbane International Film Festival, focuses on the effects of war such as post-traumatic stress disorder and its devastating nature for decades to come. Based on the autobiography by Eric Lomax, the film…
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From the man that brought you Trainspotting we have another gritty, intense depiction of debauchery, excessive drug and alcohol intake and the deterioration of the mind courtesy of the abuse of those substances. Climb aboard the rollercoaster and see if you can deduce what’s really going on in this mind-melding trip. Bruce Robertson ( James…
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And we’re back. It’s the sort of feeling you get the minute The Hunger Games: Catching Fire hits the screen, throwing you right back into Suzanne Collins’ hypnotising dystopic world of Panem, this time in a film helmed by Francis Lawrence (no relation to the film’s star). The sequel to the international hit film The…
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It’s been a few years since the last Jackass film; the hit and miss formula of ridiculous public stunts, aimed to shock and confuse bystanders is incredibly fun to watch at times, which is why the brand has always been entertaining. Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa threads this formula throughout an actual narrative, much like one…
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One of the great things about Brisbane International Film Festival is not only the celebration of new films and innovations but also the celebration of old ones. Six Degrees of Separation is almost incidentally nostalgic of New York, the 90s and the fantasy of socialites. Though there’s been enough time to get informed, it’s obvious…
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Viewers going in to see this documentary were warned that it was going to be grizzly. But none were prepared for the disturbing images this film produced. Most of which were re-enactments and fantasies, but they were all horrific and true. The Act of Killing focuses on a group of retired gangsters in Indonesia. In…
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You know when you watch a film, and when someone asks you to describe what you just watched you’re completely lost for words? Ari Folman’s The Congress is one of those films. It’s a psychedelic rabbit hole that you’ll tumble down with increasing velocity, leaving logic and reason behind for an experience like no other. Robin Wright stars…
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There have been mixed reviews for Italian director Giuseppe Tornatore’s latest masterpiece. His name is perhaps not extensively known in Australia, but some may remember his film Baarìa, a beautiful piece from 2009. The Best Offer may just be his best to date, showcasing his talents as both a director and a writer, casting insight to the mind…
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Poor Camille Claudel. The famous artist would create a lasting legacy of sculptures and drawings that are still important and relevant today. But she was also one tortured artist. Camille Claudel 1915 attempts to capture all of these emotions and feelings. It’s also a French biopic that is a claustrophobic chronicle of three days in her sad life. Claudel…
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The horror genre has always been filled with a lot of rubbish. Audiences will pay to see anything if they think it will scare them, regardless of the quality. This has led to the success of many sub-par horror films in recent years. However, there has been one director quietly championing the return of proper,…
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