Image via actress.camera
Some films knock you sideways with unexpected brilliance and Maryline, retitled for the Alliance French Film Festival as Bright Weakness, is one of those. Heartfelt, subtle and unexpected, I could not look away from Adeline D’Hermy’s mesmerising performance. Continue reading
Image via thecinemaarchives.com
Amelie meets Dark City in this darkly whimsical fairy tale by Guillermo del Toro. Fairy tales are often equal parts sentimentality and tragedy and The Shape of Water weaves a long dance around these two elements. Continue reading
Image via http://www.if.com.au
I like Warwick Thornton’s vision. It is an uncomfortable one for a non-Indigenous person like myself but his film should be obligatory viewing for all of us. Continue reading
Image via whysoblu.com
I have been waiting to watch this South Korean zombie film with my Korea-obsessed daughter and it did not disappoint. Now one of my favourite zombie movies (I’m a bit partial to Dawn of the Dead, Shaun of the Dead, and Warm Bodies), it had me hiding behind a cushion for most of its 118 minutes. Continue reading
Image via http://www.wallpapersite.com
I could hear the fanboys (and some girls) wailing from across the globe as I left the cinema. Absolute garbage! The worst Star Wars movie ever! Such a joke! I quite liked it and perhaps for all the reasons they didn’t. Continue reading
Image via http://www.cosmopolitan.com
Better than Pitch Perfect 2, not as great as the original. That’s pretty much all you need to know. Continue reading
Image via http://www.vox.com
There’s lots to love about this film from Martin McDonagh, primarily the remarkable performance of Frances McDormand as Mildred Hayes. Mildred’s daughter was murdered ten months before and, frustrated at the police’s inability to find the perpetrator, she uses three billboards on a quiet road to stir up action. Continue reading
Image via heroindex.net
Based on the graphic novel ‘The Coldest City’, this Cold War action thriller is engaging and entertaining and only occasionally lacks pace and plausibility. Charlize Theron is Lorraine Broughton, the atomic blonde of the title with a shock of white hair and the epitome of sangfroid. She’s an MI6 agent and is sent to Berlin to investigate the assassination of fellow agent and former lover James Gascoigne (Sam Hargrave). Continue reading
Image via http://www.latimes.com
Like Hotel Coolgardie, this is a documentary that positions us as silent viewers, watching everyday life unfold around us. In School Life, there is no context nor narration, we are dropped straight into a day at Headfort School, a boarding school for primary kids in Kells, Ireland. Continue reading
Image via japanesefilmfestival.net
It was the topic that drew me to this documentary. Natsuki grew up in Japan, assigned a boy at birth but always feeling like a girl. As an adult, she narrates her early life at school and the challenges of admitting, and being accepted for, who she really is. Interspersed with reenacted drama, this is an engaging story that teaches us about gender identity and expression in Japan, and leaves us pondering about gender roles in relationships. Continue reading
fillums 