I’m not the biggest fan of superhero movies. I’ve seen a few – Batman, Superman, Spiderman, Ironman, X-Men, Avengers – and some are more watchable than others but there is a certain sameness to them. For a start, the superhero is nearly always a man (looking forward to next year’s Wonder Woman), female characters are there for sex or saving (or both) and the plot rarely varies – ordinary guy, painful process, super powers, denial and rage, girlfriend captured by villains, saves her and saves the world. Deadpool doesn’t really depart from these archetypes but it is unlike any superhero movie I’ve seen before. Continue reading
Tag Archives: 3.5 stars
Valentine’s Day (2010)
StandardToday we watched one of my favourite romantic comedies just because it was Valentine’s Day. It’s not up there with Love Actually but it has a similar sensibility, it shows us that love has many forms and doesn’t always work out as we planned, it just does it in a slightly cheesy Hollywood style. It still makes me feel good though when I watch it. Continue reading
Spotlight (2015)
StandardSpotlight is based on true events, when the Boston Globe uncovered evidence that the Catholic church had known of child sexual assault by priests and covered it up by shifting priests from parish to parish. Marty Baron (Liev Schreiber), a new editor at the Globe around 2001, insisted that a small story about a lawsuit pertaining to a priest accused of sexual assault be further investigated after the court documents were ordered to be sealed. What becomes apparent is the extent of the cover up and the reticence of a community that is staunchly Catholic to acknowledge the problem. Continue reading
Bill (2015)
StandardIf you have kids and you live in Melbourne, take them to this film at ACMI in Federation Square. Made by the Horrible Histories guys, it’s very loosely-based on the story of William Shakespeare. If you know Horrible Histories, you’ll know what I mean. There are puns aplenty, multiple parts played by five or so actors and lots of quick visual and verbal jokes, some just for the grown ups. The humour is distinctly British, my favourite kind, and reminds me of Blackadder in its irreverence and dry subversion of English history. Continue reading
It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)
StandardHow have I managed to get through 50 years without seeing this classic Christmas film? I don’t know. The Deniliquin Film Society screened it this month and so, with mince pies clutched in our hands, my whole family and several friends reclined on the sofas at the front of the venue and submitted to a good dose of Frank Capra wit and sentimentality. It’s a cracker of a film and much less saccharine than I was expecting. Continue reading
Mockingjay Part 2 (2015)
StandardI will admit right from the start that I think the recent fashion of splitting the final book of a series into two films is a good thing. Harry Potter was my first experience of the final-book-into-2-films trend. The cynical part of me knows that the purpose is to maximise revenue – from film-goers, through merch and DVD sales and ‘tie-ins’ – but I don’t really care as finally you can see a book brought to life mostly intact. And when it’s a great book, or at least a really good one, there is much jubilation and filmic enjoyment. So yes to The Deathly Hallows and Mockingjay, a ‘meh’ to The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn and an ‘oh my goodness what on earth were they thinking’ to The Hobbit. In fact that’s a great example of where it can all go wrong. If you have to pad a book out with misappropriated and invented characters then maybe you’ve gone too far. Continue reading
Winter’s Bone (2010)
StandardThis film has been on my list to watch for quite a while. The reviews were good and the Oscar-nominated lead role by a young Jennifer Lawrence had me intrigued. It is a bleached and gritty movie about the harsh realities of poverty and there is a realness to it that pulls you right into the world of Ree, a 17 year old eking out an existence in the Ozark Mountains in Missouri. You could perhaps dub this one ‘The Real Hunger Games’. Continue reading
Rear Window (1954)
StandardThere’s something special about Hitchcock films, they can be enjoyable and make you uneasy at the same time. This is my favourite and I was lucky enough to catch a screening last week at ACMI for the Melbourne Festival. It has all the elements of a good Hitchcock – tricky, stylish camerawork, dry humour, an interesting subtext and a bit of moral ambiguity. It also has Grace Kelly at her best in some very stylish outfits. Continue reading
Putuparri and the Rainmakers (2015)
StandardI’ve seen a few films in the past two weeks that have changed my view on something or at least given me a profound insight. This Australian documentary joins those ranks. I mentioned that Don’t Tell Me the Boy Was Mad made me think of the displacement of Australian Aboriginal people and this commonality has been reinforced by today’s film, Putuparri and the Rainmakers. Continue reading
Grey Gardens (1975)
StandardThis US documentary by the Maysles was made in 1975 and it shows that, if you have remarkable people, you only need to point a camera at them for long enough to get a story. We are flies on the wall of the crumbling East Hampton mansion, Grey Gardens, owned by Edith Bouvier Beale and her daughter, ‘Little Edie’. Edith is Jackie Kennedy’s aunt and we can see that she has come from old money and the American aristocracy. That is all in the past though, as the mansion is a squalid place, full of cats and raccoons and rubbish and Edith and Little Edie live an insular and co-dependent life within its walls. Continue reading
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