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I resisted seeing this Best Picture Oscar nominee because it is a war film (not my favourite genre) and promos had made it seem a bit epic and action-heavy rather than introspective. Boy was I wrong. Continue reading
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An overwrought black-and-white melodrama of grubby masculinity, Roger Eggers’ The Lighthouse is too self-consciously arty to be genuinely engaging. Continue reading
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This autobiographical meditation on trauma, fame and rehab, written by actor Shia LaBeouf and directed by documentarian Alma Har’el, is surprisingly gentle and engaging. Continue reading
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I wasn’t expecting to love this feature, by writer directors Olivier Nakache and Éric Toledano, so much. Their huge hit The Intouchables (2011) achieved all the right notes of feel-good, odd couple drama with a social subtext and rarely overplayed its hand. It felt like an elegant and understated Hollywood pic though and it is unsurprising that it was re-made in 2017 as The Upside (which I can’t bear to watch). I was expecting the same with The Extraordinary and so was unprepared for its social and emotional depth and understated authenticity. Continue reading
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Pema Tseden’s gorgeous and enigmatic Tibetan road movie has the bleached understatement of Sergio Leone and the lush intimacy of (producer) Wong Kar Wai.
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Ten minutes into this sophomore feature by Kaili Blues (2015) director Gan Bi, I remembered how much I struggled to engage with his first film. Continue reading
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The 80s weren’t a great time for female characters in teen cinema. Continue reading
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I was primed for this New Zealand musical as a line of Maori singers serenaded the queue as we waited and they walked into the cinema. I was a tad disappointed when I realised they were there for For My Father’s Kingdom in Kino 1 and Daffodils was going to be a bit more pakeha. Continue reading
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Told in a Wes Anderson-esque tableau style, Makoto Nagahisa’s We Are Little Zombies is a visual onslaught that frames childhood grief as a computer game, with avatars, quests, save points and perhaps even a chance of a game reset. Continue reading
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This is a tough film to watch. Lina Wertmüller’s caustic satire can’t help but discomfit an audience fooled by its initial comedy. Continue reading
