An inspirational drama based on a true story in which the main character is disabled. Based on that description, it’s easy to dismiss Stronger as yet another in a long line of Oscar-bait movies, which would be a huge mistake. Yes, Stronger definitely has some familiar beats – but it also subverts quite a few […]
A Blu-Ray release of Richard Fleischer’s 1958 movie The Vikings has finally arrived to the UK, courtesy of Eureka Classics – how does it fare nearly 60 years on? Not too bad. It’s not a great movie – held back by bland writing and thin characterization – but there’s enough action and spectacle to make […]
There is Jackie Chan the man and then there is Jackie Chan the international action star. The two aren’t particularly exclusive. There is usually something very cheerful and light about the man from China with a twinkle in his eye. Even in the more “dramatic” (the term is relative and relegated to maybe one or […]
A few years ago the Nordic Noir took the world by storm and Jo Nesbø’s “Harry Hole” series of crime novels became a hit internationally. Now the series has an English-language adaptation that had a lot of promise because of its all-star cast and talent behind the camera. Harry Hole (Michael Fassbender) is a celebrated yet […]
Downsizing is a film that starts out with a phenomenal concept but gets a little lost in the execution. A brilliant scientific breakthrough allows people to be shrunk down to five inches tall, ostensibly for the purposes of saving resources, and therefore the planet. The film starts strong, with a funny and engaging introduction to the […]
Cargo, co-written and directed by Gilles Coulier, is a drama about three brothers who own a fishery business that’s on its last legs. It tries to be a quiet, introspective character study but is so understated that it ends up being frustratingly dull and opaque. With their father on his deathbed, Jean (Sam Louwyck) finds […]
Ingrid Goes West is a dreadfully dull and pointless movie – a prime example of how to waste a talented cast while pretending you have some kind of meaningful social commentary. Ingrid (Aubrey Plaza) is a mentally unstable young woman prone to obsessing over the lives of complete strangers and believing herself to be their […]
Festivals are great because you get to just walk around the corner and see a new band that you’ve heard but not had the chance to check out. – Johnny Marr At a recent talk on the subject of the film industry, The Big Picture’s Mark Hadley shared the four categories of Australian cinema. The historical epic, […]
Directed by Andrey Zvyagintsev (Leviathan), Loveless is an achingly authentic drama about a Russian family whose young child goes missing. Zhenya (Maryana Spivak) and Boris’ (Aleksey Rozin) marriage is in complete shambles. The two can’t stand each other, no longer live together and both of them are seeing other people. Their young son Alexey (Matvey […]
Based on the novel by André Aciman, Call Me By Your Name tells the story of a dreamily erotic summer romance between a graduate student and his professor’s son. Set at the family’s summer home in Northern Italy, the film flits in and out of English, Italian, and French, with plenty of Latin and Greek […]
