Film Review: Sweet Country

Warwick Thornton’s feature debut, Samson and Delilah, a sensitive, sad tale of two Aboriginal lovers living in Alice Springs, took home the Camera d’Or at Cannes and introduced an emerging talent to the stable of promising Australian directors.  The 47-year-old cinematic jack of all trades, often serving as both Director and cinematographer on his films, working from a script by Steven McGregor and David Tranter, delivers in Sweet Country a beautifully poetic, brutally raw Australian Western that explores the intersection, connection and overlap of White and...

Film Review: Bombshell – The Hedy Lamarr Story

In 1941 amateur inventor Hedy Lamarr worked with composer George Antheil to create and patent 'frequency hopping', which when applied in naval warfare could prevent enemy jamming of communications with torpedos and move the battle for the seas in the favour of the Allies. Although not put into use by the US Navy until the 1950s, 'frequency hopping' is now used as an integral element of everything from GPS to Wi-Fi. Lamarr's day job was performing as one of the...

Film Review: Game Night

Coming off a string of Daddy's Home 2, Bad Moms' Christmas and The House, a Febraury release "WASPs in a pickle" comedy was a sign of oncoming dread to me. As it happens, Game Night is unashamedly huge fun that drags the American middle-class comedy from the gutter. It's love at first sight for Max (Jason Bateman) and Annie (Rachel McAdams), their highly competitive nature bringing them together. When they can't conceive, blame is placed on Max feeling inadequate against...

Film Review: I, Tonya

It is a testament to Margot Robbie’s impressive acting talent that from the moment you set eyes on her in I, Tonya, that you instantly know that you are in a pair safe hands. Directed by Craig Gillespie (Lars and the Real Girl, United States of Tara) the film recounts the extraordinary story of how one of the most talented American figure skaters of all time suddenly found herself at the centre of one the biggest scandals to ever hit...

Film Review: The Ice King

For many, the story of John Curry will be an unfamiliar one, but James Erskine, the director behind 2013’s Battle of the Sexes, intimate documentary, The Ice King, about the “best ice skater in the world,” is a graceful success. John Curry’s story begins like many, in his childhood, when his aspirations of becoming a ballet dancer were hobbled by his strict, working class father who refused the boy his dream to dance on the grounds that it was “unmanly.”...

Film Review: Dark River

Not even a compelling central performance from Ruth Wilson is enough to save Clio Barnard’s rustic, social-realist melodrama, Dark River, from being the first major cinematic upset of the 2018 calendar. Having made such a huge impact with her first two films – bracing docu-hybrid, The Arbor, and her acutely poetic follow-up feature, The Selfish Giant – Barnard has now turned her attention away from the inner-city existence, and instead settled her focus on the Britain’s pastoral hinterland; following in...

Film Review: Lady Bird

Lady Bird is a film that deals with the trials and tribulations of first love, losing your virginity, and the final year of high school in a way that is rarely seen on the big screen. Each section of the film is given its own space to breathe, and although the film sticks to its tight 93 minute running time, no scene feels rushed. The film in fact should be commended for leaving you wanting more, for making you want...

Film Review: The Shape Of Water

In eyes of Guillermo del Toro, ‘monster’ is a relative term. So when Richard Jenkins’ Giles, our nominal narrator, tells us that The Shape of Water is a story “of love & loss, and the monster who tried to destroy it all,” it would be unwise to assume that the antagonist he refers to is the piscine humanoid at the heart of this otherworldly fable. The latest offering from del Toro’s beloved cabinet of curiosities, The Shape of Water is...

Film Review: Black Panther

“Just because something works, doesn’t mean it cannot be improved,” we’re told early on in Ryan Coogler’s courageous new entry into the Marvel canon. Loyal fans who have stuck with the series since the first Iron Man will no doubt be relieved to hear that this exhilarating blockbuster yarn doesn’t deviate too far from the studio’s winning formula, but it is those whose voices are callously sidelined so often in such big-budget fare, and crucially given such definition here, who...

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