Rolf de Heer’s 1991 film drama Dingo opens on one of the boldest and most striking scenes in the history of Australian cinema. Children play on the street of an isolated Western Australian town, way out in the middle of the bush. … Continue reading REVIEW: Dingo (1991)
With Hollywood keeping its biggest films out of cinemas until the coronavirus pandemic moves on, it has been an odd heyday for most countries in allowing local features the chance to flourish. Robert Connolly’s haunting crime drama The Dry is a case … Continue reading REVIEW: The Dry (2020)
Indulge me, for just this one paragraph. There is a magic time, and it starts some time after midnight and ends some time before dawn. It is the time when cities tend to be at their strangest, and conversations with … Continue reading REVIEW: Drive All Night (2021)
You have to be careful with the English titles with Chinese language films. Take Hong Kong’s The Calling of a Bus Driver (2020), written and directed by Patrick Kong. With a title like that one would expect to see some … Continue reading REVIEW: The Calling of a Bus Driver (2020)
School can be hell, as popular culture is keen to remind us, and perhaps it is never more hellish than when you are at that awkward age – not a child, not quite a teenager, and trapped for a year … Continue reading REVIEW: Eighth Grade (2018)
Challenging cinema creates its own challenges for the film reviewer. Lynne Ramsay’s 2011 feature We Need to Talk About Kevin is a strong character piece that showcases a powerful performance from Tilda Swinton. It focuses on powerful themes and opens up discussion … Continue reading REVIEW: We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011)
There will always be a place in the hearts – and stomachs – of moviegoers for films about food. Whether it is an animated film like Ratatouille or a cult favourite like Tampopo, films about food seem to inspire all kinds of … Continue reading REVIEW: Délicieux (2021)
Three Paris police officers have their morality sorely tested in Anne Fontaine’s considered and powerful drama Night Shift (aka Police). Virginie (Viriginie Efira) has fallen pregnant to a fellow officer, and is planning for an abortion. The officer in question, Aristide (Omar Sy) … Continue reading REVIEW: Night Shift (2020)
Biographical pictures are a dime a dozen in Hollywood; much less common is the autobiographical picture, in which a filmmaker adapts events of their own lives. It must require a major ego to film one’s own life for a paying … Continue reading REVIEW: All That Jazz (1979)
Thomas Vinterberg’s new comedy-drama is a striking piece of work. It is genuinely funny in all of the right places, yet often feels too awkward to laugh at due to its overwhelming patina of melancholy. At the same time that … Continue reading REVIEW: Another Round (2020)
