My Favourite Films of the Last Decade
Movies meant a lot to me in the 2010s. These are the fifty that meant the most.
First Man (2018)
It’s safe to say that a new Damien Chazelle feature is going to be one of my most anticipated films of the year. Unfortunately, First Man falls short of perfect.
City of Stars: La La Land’s Exhilarating Exploration of Art & Love
A soaring Hollywood fantasy about art, romance and nostalgia.
Goat’s Facile Take on Toxic Frat Culture
I’ll give Goat this – it’s at least well-intentioned. So, fraternities are bad, right? The hazing they do is kinda gross and maybe dangerous, yeah? This is essentially the gist of Goat, which offers an unflinching criticism of frat culture but fails to find anything interesting to say along the way. The first fifteen minutes…
Foxcatcher (2014)
In many respects, film criticism is about finding an intellectual justification for an emotional response. Take Whiplash, for example, one of my favourite films of last year. I saw the film twice, and each time was overcome by a visceral, physical response; but to simply record that response as a review felt somehow inadequate. Instead,…
The Top 20 Films of 2014
Here are the top 20 films from 2014! I’ve decided to stick to films that received an Australian theatrical or home entertainment release in the 2014 calendar year or films that screened at an Australian festival but haven’t yet been picked up for 2015 release. This means that 2015 films that I have seen (like,…
The 500 Cast Episode 2: Certain Tendencies of Australian Cinema Edition
The second episode of the 500Cast podcast has yours truly joining Brisbane critics Jesse Thompson and Laurence Barber to discuss Whiplash, Australian Cinema .. not to mention a quick quiz where we endeavour to differentiate quotes as relating to 2001: A Space Odyssey or Christopher Nolan’s latest, Interstellar. Check it out! Listen to the podcast…
Whiplash (2014)
What defines the iconic horror villain? There are a few superficial commonalities to be found among the usual suspects: they’re almost invariably men, sometimes bald, always terrifying in their relentless opacity. If these are the criteria, then surely Terence Fletcher, as embodied by J.K. Simmons, qualifies. Fletcher is the conductor of the fictional Shaffer Music…
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