Rules for escaping a totalitarian state: 1) Don’t use a mobile phone; 2) Don’t use a mobile phone to call the daughter-in-law of your pursuer; 3) Don’t use a torch when crossing a patrolled border at night. And a hot tip – Siberian aluminium foil is the bomb!
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A panacea for Downton fans, Downton Abbey: A New Era is as insubstantial as a cucumber sandwich with the crusts cut off.
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A well-meaning but underwhelming documentary that fails to paint a compelling portrait of its quirky Maori subjects.
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I wanted to like this confronting, dystopian thriller but it is so unrelentingly cynical and brutal that it felt it had nothing new to say.
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I can see what this austere drama from Georgis Grigorakis was trying to do and, for a first feature, it is well crafted and tonally interesting. Pitched as a David and Goliath battle between an everyman and a mining company and also, oddly as a ‘Western, revisited’, it didn’t quite achieve its aim.
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Image via miff.com.au
A disappointingly flat and somewhat tone-deaf treatment of an interesting topic. Continue reading
Image via http://www.spanishfilmfestival.com
A worthy but oddly unsatisfying look at the brutal government response to worker strikes in the Basque region of Spain in the 70s. Continue reading
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This dramatisation by James Franco about the making of the cult classic The Room (2003) should only be watched after attending a midnight screening of the film it explores (the only way to watch it, in my opinion) or perhaps not at all. Continue reading
Image via http://www.comingsoon.net
It’s possible I am a lone reed in not loving the third remake of this quintessential film about the tragedies inherent in fame. A lone reed. Or a heartless wretch. I remained unmoved as Bradley Cooper heroically directs himself into every frame, leaving not enough room for the absorbingly wonderful Lady Gaga. Continue reading
Image via http://www.filmoteca.cat
It’s a long time since I last watched this movie, which has stuck in my mind primarily due to the unexpected Oscar win of then unknown actors and screenwriters Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. I’d forgotten it was directed by Gus Van Sant, a director I admire for films like Elephant (2003), Mala Noche (1986) and My Own Private Idaho (1991). Sitting down to watch this again for the first time in perhaps 10 or 15 years, I found myself underwhelmed. Continue reading
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