Feature Essays
Favourites of the 2010s: #250-226
With the end of 2019 approaching, I have been counting down through 350 films released over the past decade that really made watching movies worthwhile. ...
REVIEW: The Art of Self-Defense (2019)
Casey (Jesse Eisenberg) is assaulted on the street and grows fearful of his everyday life. To regain control of his courage, he enlists in a local martial arts dojo - only to find its sensei (Allesandro Nivola) governing more and more of his life. The Art of Self-Defense is an absurd comedy written and directed by ...
REVIEW: The King (2019)
It takes a certain amount of nerve to attempt a new adaptation of the life of England's King Henry V. William Shakespeare has effectively had Hal's story sewn up since about 1599, with his rousing and patriotic account standing as pretty much the most famous of his history plays. It seems even braver to base ...
REVIEW: The Lion King (2019)
With this year's release of Jon Favreau's The Lion King, Disney finally reached peak redundancy. Their series of animated classic remakes has been a resounding success in commercial terms, and indeed Favreau's film has grossed more than US$1.6 billion in cinemas worldwide. Creatively, however, it feels like a black page. It adds little to the 1994 ...
REVIEW: Parasite (2019)
Kim Ki-woo (Choi Woo-sik), a young man living in poverty, miraculously scores a part-time job tutoring mathematics for a rich Korean family. When that family needs an art tutor, Ki-woo knows of an excellent choice. When the family fires their driver for impropriety, their new art tutor knows of the perfect replacement. When their housekeeper ...
REVIEW: Lady and the Tramp (2019)
Disney has been on an absolute rampage this year with remakes of their earlier animation studio works. Audiences have been bombarded with four remakes in total - five if you include the Maleficent sequel - and for this critic at least it has been causing a growing sense of cynicism. Tim Burton's Dumbo was a colossal misfire, The ...
Favourites of the 2010s: #350-326
With the end of the 2010s mere weeks away, it seemed a good time to look back over the past 10 years and celebrate some of the best feature films that have been released over that time. To that end, I have noted down all of the films I could think of over that period ...
REVIEW: Shadow (2018)
A rival kingdom has captured Pei's city Jingzhou. While the cowardly Pei king (Zheng Kai) vaccilates, his commander Ziyu (Deng Chao) urges immediate action. Ignoring the king's wishes, Ziyu negotiates a duel with enemy General Yang (Hu Jun) - the winner of which will claim Jingzhou for their own nation. Ziyu, however, is not himself, ...
