When Good Films Aren’t For You: Borg vs McEnroe and Wonder
I’m not much of a fan of either Borg vs McEnroe or Wonder, but for their target audience – tennis fans and preteens/their parents, respectively – the films should be a hit.
Write Better Movies: Baywatch and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales
Either Baywatch or Dead Men Tell No Tales could have been good – well, passable – with screenplays content to be plain ol’ mediocre.
Double Feature: One Wild Moment (2015) and Blame It On Rio (1984)
Two films remaking the same story of an older man sleeping with his friend’s daughter and, weirdly, the 2015 one is less progressive than the 1984 movie.
Kate, Christine and Sonita: Documentary Dilemmas
One of the best things about attending film festivals – such as this year’s Sydney Film Festival – is the opportunity to explore the breadth of documentaries on display. It’s a stark contrast to the genre’s sparse representation in mainstream cinemas. The conventional critical wisdom would be to suggest that multiplex audiences tend to avoid…
Creed, Magic Mike XXL and the Subtle Pleasures of Authentic Dialogue
Read a synopsis of either of Creed or Magic Mike XXL, two of 2015’s best films, and sight unseen it might hard to understand the excellence of either film. The former film, after all, follows a fairly stock Hollywood formula, hitting its Best Picture-winning predecessor’s plot points beat for beat, while Magic Mike XXL is…
Double Feature: Listen Up Philip (2014) and Queen of Earth (2015)
So it turns out I’m not much of an Alex Ross Perry fan. I watched Listen Up Philip, Perry’s third feature, with high expectations. I’d heard positive things about this intelligent indie film, and its cast – Elisabeth Moss, Krysten Ritter, Jonathan Pryce and Jason Schwartzman as the titular Philip, a self-obsessed semi-successful New York…
Double Feature: The Salt of the Earth (2014) and Buena Vista Social Club (1999)
Talking heads seem to be the most maligned convention in documentaries. Just look at Asif Kapadia’s Amy, which has earnt widespread praise for its omission of such interviews despite not being an especially good film. Certainly, talking heads can be a crutch for uncreative documentary directors, who use them solely as an opportunity to flesh…
