The Children Act (2018, FilmNation Entertainment and BBC Films) Directed by Richard Eyre. Featuring Emma Thompson, Stanley Tucci, Fionn Whitehead and Ben Chaplin. Based on a novel by Ian McEwan. This English-set drama follows the traumatic life choices surrounding religious objections to blood transfusions by Jehovah Witnesses. Seventeen year-old Adam (Whitehead) is dying and only … Continue reading The Two Reviews: The Children Act and Vice
First Man (2018, Universal, DreamWorks and Temple Hill Entertainment) Directed by Damien Chazelle. Based on First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrongby James R. Hansen. Featuring Ryan Gosling, Claire Foy, Jason Clarke, Kyle Chandler and Ciarán Hinds. So many movies have been made about space missions. At first I thought that First Man might just … Continue reading The Two Reviews: First Man and The Girl in the Spider’s Web
This film has only had a limited release but has been showing at special screenings across Australia. Language: Bengali (narrated in local Chittagonian dialect) – with English subtitles This film is a powerful tragi-romance about the struggle between power and love, a metaphor for life and death on the river Halda in southeast Bangladesh. The … Continue reading Review Special: Haldaa হালদা (2017 Tauquir Ahmed)
Australiana, noun - items relating to or characteristic of Australia. As the Australian film critic Luke Buckmaster pointed out recently, the madly popular 1980s blockbuster Crocodile Dundee not only gave the world a less than flattering impression of Australians, it was also racist, sexist and homophobic. As fun as it may have seemed when I … Continue reading A Slice of Australiana in Five Films
'...a vehicle for comedy and for showing character flaws...' This dark comedy was filmed in 33 days on a relatively small budget, released in late 2017 in the US and had a world release in January 2018. It has already picked up numerous awards. This doesn’t automatically qualify it as a great film, but to … Continue reading The Two Reviews: Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017 Martin McDonagh)
Murder on the Orient Express (Director, Kenneth Branagh. Featuring Kenneth Branagh, Judi Dench, Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, Willem Dafoe, Daisy Ridley, Penelope Cruz, Lesley Odom, Derek Jacobi and Sergei Polunin) Everyone is on the same train i.e. The Orient Express. There is a murder most hideous and everyone is a suspect. I enjoyed this movie … Continue reading The Two Reviews: Murder on the Orient Express and Loving Vincent
This is the first in a series of posts on the filmmaking of Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980), one of the greatest directors of all time. These posts will be authored by Robin Stevens, JJ McDermott and Alan Matthews, and the idea is for each part to take a selection of Hitchcock’s films and analyze them in … Continue reading Exploring Hitchcock Part 1: A Deeper Look at Rebecca, Rear Window and The Birds (by Robin Stevens)
Maudie (2016) Directed by Aisling Walsh, starring Sally Hawkins and Ethan Hawke Maudie is a small-budget Irish/Canadian film based on the life of Nova Scotia painter Maud Lewis (played by Sally Hawkins), and her long but volatile relationship with the illiterate, ill-at-ease and often belligerent Everett Lewis (Ethan Hawke). The film begins with Maud as … Continue reading The Two Reviews: Maudie and It
Below you will find two reviews: one of The Beguiled from 2017, directed by Sofia Coppola, and another of The Beguiled from 1971, directed by Don Siegel. Both are contrasting adaptations of the 1966 novel of the same name by Thomas P. Cullinan (it was originally released under the title ‘A Painted Devil’). The Beguiled (2017, … Continue reading Adaptations Part 3: A Painted Devil Twice Imagined as The Beguiled
A Ghost Story (Directed by David Lowery, starring Rooney Mara and Casey Affleck) This is a slow-paced but absorbing film about grief and loss. It is not a horror story in any sense, but let’s call it a romance / drama – it concerns a ghost occupying his home following his sudden death and watching … Continue reading A Few New Reviews: A Ghost Story, American Made, Atomic Blonde and Logan Lucky
