Image via miff.com.au
An intriguing albeit flat documentary by Irene Lusztig, Yours in Sisterhood has contemporary women reading unpublished letters sent to Ms magazine in the 1970s. Continue reading
Yours in Sisterhood (2018)
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Thoroughbreds (2017)
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Image via miff.com.au
Slick, dark and thoroughly watchable, Thoroughbreds is an accomplished first feature from Corey Finley about privilege and morality. Touted as American Psycho meets Heathers, it has an affinity with both in its exploration of the heartless self absorption that can come with wealth and entitlement. Continue reading
First Reformed (2017)
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Image via miff.com.au
Dear Paul Schrader,
I have just finished watching your latest film, First Reformed, which starts Ethan Hawke as the Reverend Ernst Toller, a man facing a personal crisis. I am wondering, did you intend this to be an ode to the ills and delights of patriarchy or did you think you were telling a universal story? 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
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
The Room (2003)
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Image via drinkinggamezone.com
The Room is a must-see Melbourne cinematic experience. Two cinemas are packed out at 11.30pm on a Saturday night and the audience is armed with plastic spoons. Beginning with a montage of dated ‘candy bar’ ads and images of frolicking puppies and kittens, the noise from the audience reaches a crescendo until the lights go down and a Cinema Nova employee exhorts everyone, in the words of The Room director Tommy Wiseau, “You can laugh, you can cry, you can express yourself, but please don’t hurt each other.” Continue reading
Isle of Dogs (2018)
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Image via http://www.vox.com
Get it? And if you love dogs AND Wes Anderson movies, it’s likely that you’ll find more enjoyment in this clever and quirky but ultimately disappointing animation than I did. Continue reading
The Endless (2017)
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Image via http://www.theverge.com
The Endless fulfilled the promise of its name and felt never-ending. Listed as a horror, it is more a muddled sci-fi, low on suspense and high on exposition. Continue reading
Annihilation (2017)
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Image via blackgirlnerds.com
Directed by Alex Garland, he makes up for his terrible characterisation of women in Ex Machina (2014) with this epic female-led sci-fi. One of the first of many films, I suspect, sold directly to Netflix to avoid the cost of distribution outside the US, Annihilation is worth a look. Continue reading
Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool (2017)
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Image via time.com
Based on the autobiography of Peter Turner, who had a relationship with Hollywood star Gloria Grahame in the last years of her life, this serviceable biopic showcases Annette Bening’s fine acting skills, which mostly distracts us from the rose-tinted clichés. Continue reading
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