Double Feature: Clouds of Sils Maria (2014) and Camp X-Ray (2014)

Once-spidermonkey Kristen Stewart has swiftly escaped the confines of franchise cinema to prove herself one of the most promising young actresses of her generation. Her sullenness – relentlessly mocked by the tabloid press when she was at the centre of pre-teen Twilight attention – has become an asset in the subsequent years; as a performer,…

BAPFF - Winter Sleep

Brisbane Asia Pacific Film Festival 2014

  The last time I wrote about the Brisbane Asia Pacific Film Festival, my attitude was one of scepticism. And, I’ll concede, a modicum of bitterness. You see, the birth of BAPFF meant the death of BIFF (the Brisbane International Film Festival), the latter cut down in its prime (at twenty-one years old!) to pave…

12 Years a Slave - Chiwetel Ejiofor picking cotton

On Festivals

Today heralded the end of a great Australian festival that has lasted over two decades. I’m not referring to the Big Day Out, whose cultural capital was irrevocably eroded by the influx of teenage, Australian-flag-wearing bogans a decade ago and has limped its way to extinction ever since. No, I’m talking about the Brisbane International…

Kevin Kline and Romany Malco in Last Vegas (2013)

Review Roundup – The Past & the Last

A pair of reviews to share… The first is of the dismal Last Vegas; a bad film, but I hopefully managed to salvage an entertaining review out of its mediocrity. My write-up can be found at Cheated Hearts. Second is for The Past, the follow-up from the director of 2011’s excellent A Separation. A much…