Ride is a study in contrasts. The most obvious contrast is between its two settings. There’s the fast-paced New York in which the tale begins, where editor Jackie (Helen Hunt, who also wrote and directed the film) and her wannabe-writer son Angelo (Brenton Thwaites) bicker about punctuation over coffees. And then there’s sun-drenched Venice, California;…
Not long after I began university, my mum was diagnosed with breast cancer. Almost everyone has to one day deal with the mortality of their parents and, like almost everyone, I dealt with it terribly. I slid right into the ‘denial’ phase and never really left; rather than do the logical thing and try and…
The Intern has a charming premise, charming direction and charming leads; in fact, the whole thing is pretty charming. Writer-director Nancy Meyers has shed the rom-com trappings of her previous films (The Holiday, It’s Complicated) to produce a considered tale that entertains while negotiating sexism and ageism in the workplace. The film benefits from terrific…
Three-and-a-half decades ago, Alien established Ridley Scott as a director to watch. Drawing on the conventions of the increasingly-popular slasher film and rejecting the Star-Trek-esque optimism of the sci-fi films of that era, he created a chilling classic. But his potential as a director has dribbled away somewhat in the years since; while I don’t…
Watch Macbeth if you like your Shakespeare slick and relentlessly bleak. Michael Fassbender gives an awards-worthy clinic as the flawed, tortured king. But a word of warning: this story is not for everyone; and I recommend doing your homework. I’ve never studied ‘The Scottish Play’ and I found the language equal parts beautiful and frustrating…
Despite my storied history of nerdy pursuits, I’ve never really been a comic book reader. I’ve read some of the canon titles – you know, Watchmen, Kingdom Come, and, um, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics? – but it’s only recently that I’ve begun to educate myself in the medium, picking up some discount trades…
Andrei Konchalovksy’s The Postman’s White Nights consciously blurs the line between documentary and fiction, with an introductory title card noting that the characters are primarily played by residents of the rural community of Lake Kenozero. This presumably positions the film as commentary on contemporary Russia. It sort of is; the film’s strongest stretch is its…
Trust Denis Villeneuve to take what could have been a fairly conventional drug war thriller and transform it into a hollowed-out horror movie. His latest film, Sicario is, at its core, a scathing indictment of modern American patriarchy. He pulled a similar trick with 2013’s underrated Prisoners, realising an unapologetically pulpy script as a deeply…
I remember a time. A special time, when around every corner was another secret waiting to be discovered, another story to be told. It was a time that could never end. Of course it did end. We grew up. Reality intertwined our perception and the tales we’d created faded into insignificance. Pan asks us to…
“You’re telling me we lost our president like we… lost a set of car keys. This is the most powerful nation in the history of the planet. This is America, and as Vice President of this great nation, I am commanding you to sort this shit out.” That quote gives you a good indication of…
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