Full credit to Aaron Sorkin; with Steve Jobs he manages to solve the structural problems plaguing most biopics, which struggle to accommodate the scope of a human life in a neat three act narrative. How? By literally structuring the film as three acts – three product launches – across which we come to know our…
There’s a world in which Dirty Grandpa is a great, if lowbrow, comedy. Robert De Niro is perfectly suited to the eponymous role of smutty senior; he’s always been convincing at improvisational comedy (look at Mean Streets, or even Goodfellas) plus you buy him as someone who can still pull off one-armed push ups. Oh,…
Real life doesn’t fit a movie narrative – real life rarely accommodates twists, dramatic speeches, or neat climaxes. In Spotlight, an excellent return to form for writer-director Tom McCarthy, a true story is presented exactly as it (presumably) happened, for better …and sometimes for worse. Spotlight follows four journalists (Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, Michael Keaton,…
“Where are you going!?” “Nowhere.” Australian director Sue Brooks takes a prismatic approach to Looking for Grace, a tale of family, infidelity and theft told from a variety of perspectives. It’s not quite Rashomon, though. Fractured, non-linear narratives rely on the strength of their individual storylines as well as the whole, whether aiming for ‘everything’s…
Filmed in Supermarionation is a modest documentary about the production companies responsible for – amongst other series forgotten to anyone who isn’t old and British – Thunderbirds. Talking heads recount from the ramshackle early days of the studio (involving flagrantly terrible puppetry from amateurs who knew no better) all the way up to post-Thunderbirds series…
The first chapter in a book-to-film young adult franchise has to balance telling a complete story with setting the stage for future entries. The 5th Wave is the latest to attempt that challenge, but it never finds its footing – the story is plodding, anti-climactic, and never gives any sense of the world needed for emotional investment…
Todd Haynes’ adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s 1950s lesbian romance novel is an elegant exercise in visual storytelling. Carol is aesthetically nuanced, lensed with layered graininess and often obscured or muted by windows and reflections. Though thin in narrative, a single frame transcends story, with imagery becoming subtext for characters’ emotional states and positioning us as outsiders. Therese (Rooney…
By any ‘objective’ measure, People Places Things has a terrible screenplay. It’s a romantic comedy almost completely bereft of comedy. It centres its entire first act on the challenges of being a single father – with cartoonist/teacher Will (Jemaine Clement) frantically dashing his twin daughters between work and home and school – before jettisoning any…
I suppose Peanuts, the comic strip, has dimmed in the public consciousness since Schulz’s death in 2000. As a kid’s IP, the ageing Peanuts brand has a lot to do in a world with Minions and Frozen. I left the theatre mostly satisfied; this is the Peanuts you remember – sweet, nostalgic and populated by…
It took me until the third episode of Ghost in the Shell: Arise (the first instalment of which I reviewed precisely one year ago) to realise that this was a prequel, rather than an alternate universe take à la GITS:SAC. That’s as much a reflection of my obliviousness as it is Arise’s similarities to its…
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