I’m not sure what message director Lawrence Michael Levine was ultimately trying to convey in Black Bear but I thoroughly enjoyed the ride.
Continue readingBlack Bear (2020)
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Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets (2020)
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This quite astounding docudrama by brothers Bill and Turner Ross seems to coalesce all that is precious and precarious about the US on the brink of the 2016 election that saw Trump come to power and the lives of the powerless crumble.
Continue reading9to5: The Story of a Movement (2020)
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Who knew that the comedy 9 to 5 (1980) was based on an actual grassroots organisation that began in the 70s to advocate for fair work conditions for (mainly female) clerical workers?
Continue readingDay 19: A film I’m most likely to quote
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When Harry Met Sally (1989)
Rob Reiner and Nora Ephron were a magic combination for witty dialogue and interesting characters. Combine that with Billy Crystal, Meg Ryan, Carrie Fisher and Bruno Kirby at the height of their game and you have a film that you can’t help but quote.
Continue readingDay 18: A film starring an actor whose films I will always watch
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Suddenly 30 (2004)
I don’t love everything that Jennifer Garner does but I find her films usually very watchable and there is something about the characters she chooses and the way she comes across in her socials that makes me like her. She is funny.
Continue readingDay 17: My favourite film franchise
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The Hunger Games (2012-15)
Responding to this prompt has taught me that I don’t really like film franchises. Some are diverting but run out of puff after a few films – Bourne Identity, Die Hard, Terminator, Alien, Shrek and so on. Some are great but then are flogged to within an inch of their lives – Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Batman, Harry Potter.
Continue readingDay 16: A film everyone else loves but I hate
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Forrest Gump (1994)
I suspect I’ll have some extended family members who really like this film and it gets a score of 8.8 on IMDb so I may be a lone reed. I first saw this at the cinema with my mum and dad for our annual Boxing Day treat and remember feeling trapped in my seat for an interminable 142 minutes. Two years later I experienced the same with 182 tedious, gnaw-off-my-leg-to-escape minutes of The English Patient (1996).
Continue readingHustlers (2019)
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Image via http://www.kmuw.org
It’s a rare treat to see a mainstream Hollywood film where so many of the leads are women of colour. Lorene Scafaria’s Hustlers takes a true story of a group of women in the late 2000s, who survive the financial crash by fleecing businessman, and turns it into a warm and vibrant story of female friendship. Continue reading
Midsommar (2019)
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Image via film.avclub.com
Like Hereditary (2018), his first feature, Ari Aster’s follow up hipster horror is sumptuous and engaging but ultimately disappointing. Continue reading
Colour Out of Space (2019)
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Image via http://www.indiewire.com
Nicolas Cage, you seem to have made your way out the other side of the Hollywood leading man stereotype and into something rather delightful. Continue reading
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