Is it weird that I associate Aussie alt-rocker Courtney Barnett with Aussie comedian Hannah Gadsby? They don’t look much alike but I don’t think it’s a crazy comparison to make. Both possess the straight-talking, cigarettes-and-VB aura of Australiana. They both spent at least some of their formative years in Tasmania. Each has succeeded in traditionally…
The original French title of Girlhood is Bande de filles – roughly, “girl gang” – and the difference between the two titles is illustrative of the dualism of director Céline Sciamma’s approach to the film. Centring on sixteen year old girl Marieme (Karidja Touré), the film provides an individual-centric portrait of her experience – friendship,…
Comparing David Cronenberg’s Hollywood satire Maps to the Stars with Ari Folman’s Hollywood satire The Congress is an effective demonstration of how originality and quality don’t always go hand-in-hand. Of the two films, The Congress is far and away the most original, draping an overabundance of ideas offer a scaffolding constructed out of equal parts…
On the surface, Insurgent appears to be a substantial upgrade to Divergent. The cast is fleshed out with the likes of Naomi Watts and Octavia Spencer, we’ve got a new director (Robert Schwentke, responsible for The Time Traveller’s Wife and, uh, R.I.P.D.) and we’ve even moved to the third dimension. Visually, we’ve definitely stepped things…
Advanced Style is an affirming document of ageing – not gracefully, but stylishly. The film consists of a series of warm portraits of women in their 60s and over; women who embody their intelligence and artistry in their carefully-orchestrated appearance. As someone utterly ignorant of fashion, I admit to having some degree of trepidation. But…
Thanks to Icon Film Distribution Australia, ccpopculture has 5 buy-one-get-one-free passes to Infinitely Polar Bear, releasing in Australian cinemas Thursday March 26th, along with a DVD drama pack featuring Dan in Real Life, The Burning Plain, Last Chance Harvey and The Beaver. “Fresh from his much lauded performances in Foxcatcher and TV’s The Normal Heart,…
Hollywood has never really known what to do with Chris Rock. That’s been increasingly apparent over the last decade or so, with the so-called “the funniest man in America” finding work as either a cartoon zebra in the Madagascar series or as Adam Sandler’s Friend in The Longest Yard, You Don’t Mess with the Zohan…
The toxic critical reaction to Neil Blomkamp’s latest sci-fi flick, Chappie, is understandable coming from those expecting the film to offer up a coherent social allegory, a coherent narrative or coherent action. It doesn’t deliver on those expectations. But once you recognise that the sharp satire of District 9’s opening half is an outlier rather…
There’s something incredibly endearing about Infinitely Polar Bear’s unostentatious simplicity. Constructed on familiar indie tropes – a hand-made, whimsical aesthetic, a period setting, a family unit defined equally by conflict and closeness – the film sidesteps cliché to conjure an utterly charming experience. Infinitely Polar Bear’s impossibly twee title is paraphrased from Faith Stuart’s (Ashley…
This cumbersomely titled anime – called Noucome for short – has perhaps the largest gulf between potential and quality of anything I’ve seen. Its premise is absurd but laden with promise: the show’s protagonist, Kanade Amakusa, a high school boy, finds himself regularly faced with “Absolute Choice” – a set of options that he’s required…
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