One of the unfortunate consequences of Australia’s long-delayed exposure to Oscar contenders is that the critical narrative around these films has coalesced long before they screen here. So it is with Still Alice, which the majority of critics have described as some variation of overly sentimental Alzheimer’s weepy that will win Julianne Moore the Oscar.…
It is, by definition, impossible to give an “objective” review of art (though this review of Citizen Kane provides a hilarious example of what it might look like). Having a bad day can make an okay movie terrible; a great night with friends can make a mediocre movie seem a lot better than it is.…
Aussie time-travel rom com The Infinite Man sits somewhere the middle of the triangle formed by Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Primer and, uh, Triangle. That’s a promising combination, and given my fondness for time-travel films, I had high expectations. They were not met. The film’s main problem is a lack of emotional authenticity.…
Illmatic is one of those rare texts to have established itself as a classic within two decades of its release; it’s a hip-hop touchstone and unquestionably one of the greatest records ever released. It’s understandable, then, that Nas: Time is Illmatic, One9’s documentary of both the artist and the album, takes an uncontroversial, conventional approach…
Birdman, or the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance is a divisive film, leading this year’s Golden Globe nominees and attracting a suite of five star reviews on one hand and repulsed pans on the other. It’s the sort of film that invites – nay, demands – hyperbole. The screenplay even presents the viewer with two distinct…
Elmore Leonard is one of those authors that you can be familiar with having not read a single page of his writing. This is thanks to the numerous cinematic adaptations of his work – whether its Jackie Brown, Get Shorty, Out of Sight or, now, Life of Crime. Daniel Schechter’s film has plenty of familiar…
I was introduced to Kim Ki-young’s The Housemaid late last year at the Brisbane Asia Pacific Film Festival with a screening of the World Cinema Foundation’s restored print. I’m not sure exactly what I expected from the film’s reputation – apparently a “consensus pick as one of the top three Korean films of all time.”…
I’m not sure if this is an overreach, but I feel like Sofia Coppola’s choice to make a biopic of sorts about Marie Antoinette is a feminist statement in of itself. That probably requires some justification, so here goes: what comes to mind when you hear ‘Marie Antoinette’? For me – and I imagine for…
Ingmar Bergman’s Oscar-winning Autumn Sonata succeeds on two fronts. At first, it operates as a chamber drama two-hander, with a mother (Ingrid Bergman) and daughter (Liv Ullmann) cracking open deep emotional faultlines and unearthing toxic secrets. The subject matter – neglectful parent, unwanted abortions – is familiar but vital, thanks in large part to the…
A couple weeks ago, The Daily Beast asked the question Why Can’t Movies Capture Genius?, looking at the recent cluster of British biopics Mr Turner, The Imitation Game and The Theory of Everything and considering how difficult it is to convey genius without being burdened by overblown exposition. The chief success of Reaching for the…
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