Image via miff.com.au
This low-key love letter to Tasmania made me want to hang out with director Ted Wilson and his engaging family. Continue reading
Under the Cover of Cloud (2018)
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Terror Nullius (2018)
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Image via http://www.sodajerk.com.au
What an unexpected delight Soda Jerk’s Terror Nullius: A Political Revenge Fable in Three Acts is. It is an odd and irreverent insight into Australian film, TV, society and culture. Continue reading
Hereditary (2018)
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Image via http://www.wmagazine.com
With horror, you often buy a ticket for the ride, not the destination. With Hereditary, director Ari Aster cranks up the suspense, ensuring the convoluted plot can’t be properly deciphered until the helpfully explanatory final scene. This is really what you expect in a film of this ilk but I often feel a sense of disappointment when the climax doesn’t live up to the drama and thrills of the journey. Continue reading
Disobedience (2017)
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Image via cinemavine.com
I like a film that makes you feel a bit emotionally wrung out by the end. Directed by Chilean Sebastián Lelio (A Fantastic Woman) and his first English-language film, this is a rich and absorbing story about religion, family and independence. Continue reading
Upgrade
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Image via deluxevideoonline.org
Upgrade is a slick and serviceable sci-fi that retreads the oft-used Frankenstein trope in a near future, with Melbourne convincingly masquerading as a futuristic USA. Continue reading
Gurrumul (2017)
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Image via http://www.theaustralian.com.au
I’m so glad I caught this heartbreakingly beautiful documentary about the late Dr. G. Yunupingu at the State Cinema in Hobart on its last day of screening. The story and the man alone is enough reason to see it yet you don’t have to be a fan of his music to enjoy it. It is made all the more rewarding by its respectful narrative and exquisite sound editing and cinematography. Continue reading
Lost in Paris (Paris Pieds Nus) (2016)
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Image via http://www.mfah.org
Jacques Tati lives on in this featherlight slapstick farce from duo Fiona Gordon and Dominic Abel. Continue reading
Tully (2018)
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Image via http://www.vulture.com
If you have experienced the sleepless nights of parenthood or the mental fragility that can come with it, it’s hard not to feel a connection with this story. Even if you haven’t, the powerhouse performances of Charlize Theron as exhausted mother Marlo and Mckenzie Davis as Tully, the night nanny she hires, will hook you in. Continue reading
Foxtrot (2017)
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Image via variety.com
This slow and absorbing Israeli allegory of the futility of war and the inevitability of fate isn’t quite what it seems. The synopsis – “a troubled family must face the facts when something goes terribly wrong at their son’s desolate military post” – somehow undersells a story that is much richer and more poignant than this. Continue reading
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (2018)
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Image from IMDb via http://www.kotaku.com.au
A shameless pleasure, this warm adaptation by Mike Newell (Four Weddings and a Funeral) of the book of the same name by Mary Ann Shaffer hits all the right notes. Continue reading
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