FIlm Review
Film Review: Anne at 13,000 Ft
Sure, it helps, but you don’t need a huge budget to make a good film. What you do need is someone who knows what they’re doing behind the camera, and intelligent and well-written script, some very cute editing and an actor who can carry the production. Thankfully, Kazik Radwanski’s new film has all of these …
Film Review: Scare Package
As any good horror movie fan knows, there are many, many tropes which have been prevalent within the genre for decades. More often than not, it’s the depressing case of a directors lazily copying what has gone before. However, increasingly we’re seeing intelligent, innovative and inspired takes on familiar themes. This is a particular popular …
Film Review: Joan of Arc
Joan of Arc holds a fairly unique position as a historical female. Not only is she still revered after hundreds of years, her reputation has only grown since her death. Although, like many of her sisters, that didn’t prevent her being burned at the stake. The ‘Maid of Orléans’s story has been captured on film …
Film Review: The Ground Beneath My Feet
Almost everyone will experience mental health issues at some stage in their lives, either directly or through someone they love. It’s a disease which is highly personal in the way it manifests and one which is extremely difficult to defeat. Representations of these conditions on the big screen have generally been less than impressive. However, …
Film Review: This is Not a Movie
Robert Fisk is the embodiment of a certain generation of foreign correspondent. Privately educated, he started out reporting on The Troubles in Northern Ireland before eventually becoming the Middle East Correspondent for the Times in 1987. Always outspoken and fiercely committed, he has lived in Beirut ever since. When one of his stories was pulled, …
Film Review: The Australian Dream
It’s incredibly difficult to grasp what racism looks like in Australia if you’re not from a similar country where an indigenous population has been subdued, subordinated and slaughtered by a Colonial invader. I can’t even begin to imagine what it must feel like to grow up in a country where many still consider you to …
Blu-ray Review: After Midnight
Multiplexes are dominated by big-budget studio horror films which, as often as not, are uninspired and insipid franchises. However, if you look hard enough it’s possible to find low-budget independent genre movies which are trying something a bit different. That was the case when Jeremy Gardner and Christian Stella arrived on the scene with an …
Film Review: Outside the City
When Henry VIII ordered the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1536 it dealt a blow to abbeys, priories and friaries from which they never truly recovered. It also marked one of the greatest changes in land ownership in English history. Although they returned during the 18th century, their numbers never really recovered. Today, whilst there …
Film Review: Uncut Gems
The hype surrounding Uncut Gems has been ridiculous, but does it live up to it? In a word, yes. As was the case in Funny People (Judd Apatow, 2009) and The Meyerowitz Stories (Noah Baumbach, 2017), Adam Sandler is deeply impressive in a dramatic role that makes one wonder why he doesn’t just retire from …
Film Review: Bad Boys for Life
Viewers of a certain age (including yours truly) were excited to learn last year that a new installment of the popular Bad Boys franchise was due to hit cinemas this January. The first movie was the big-screen debut from a then little-known 30-year-old music video director called Michael Bay that marked comedy actors Martin Lawrence’s …