It goes without saying that Paul Walker was blessed with the type of face destined to be in front of the camera. And as much as this dedicated documentary, I Am Paul Walker, celebrates his Californian-blessed aesthetics, it seeks more so to highlight that behind the tanned skin, sun-kissed blonde curls and baby blue eyes…
If there’s one director that needs a true change of pace out there, it’s comedy director Paul Feig. He started off great making a successful string of comedies, starting from the romantic-comedy hit Bridesmaids to the buddy cop-comedy The Heat and the espionage-action comedy Spy. Then he hit a big of a snag with his…
According to a book by renowned author Christopher Booker, there are seven different plots in stories, which are: Overcoming the Monster Rags to Riches The Quest Voyage and Return Rebirth Comedy Tragedy And since we have so many stories that essentially are encapsulated in one of these plots, what would make a story stand out…
It is quite amusing to think that we have many films released over the years, regardless of genre, that span across many imaginative worlds, planets, fantasy settings and so on. With the vast amount of superhero films and blockbusters, it’s hard not to see why. But, the world that has not been mined more than enough,…
It can be hard watching characters who you’ve grown up with and have a long standing nostalgic attachment to, get brought back to life on the big screen. There’s something deeply rooted in the warmth of how you remember them, and how sometimes the new version doesn’t quite stand up to that test. The trailer…
There are children’s animated movies made exclusively for kids, which generally lead to a rather torturous experience for parents and caretakers alike (I’m looking at you, Hotel Transylvania 3). Then there is something deceptively ingenious and utterly delightful as Teen Titans GO! To the Movies, which successfully entertains both young and old, whilst also offering up a…
The Conjuring universe began five years ago, spurred by James Wan who had successfully delivered one of the great ghost stories of the 21st century. It was a box office darling, as was every sequel and spin-off that came after, with only the first Annabelle (terrible by every standard) failing to meet the franchise’s critical…
Although The Miseducation of Cameron Post‘s 1993 setting may have people believe that the gay conversion camps at the film’s centre are a thing of the past, and therefore easy to mock as a symbol of how backwards society’s thoughts on therapy was, this treatment is still sadly legal in a large number of American…
Australian cinema has produced some of the finest comedy the screen has ever seen. But the romantic comedy genre is not a territory we Aussies explore particularly well. For every groundbreaking example like last year’s sublime Ali’s Wedding, there’s something as generically safe as The Flip Side, the debut feature film from producer-turned-writer/director Marion Pilowsky. There’s nothing…
Oh, look! We have another Berg-er joint coming in cinemas! Mile 22 is the fourth collaboration between actor Mark Wahlberg and director Peter Berg after the three dramatic films that were based on true stories i.e. the biographical war drama Lone Survivor, the disaster film Deepwater Horizon and the crime drama Patriots Day. All of…
A film like Crazy Rich Asians is a long time coming. For the past 25 years, since the release of Wayne Wang‘s expansive drama, The Joy Luck Club, there haven’t been a lot of films in the Hollywood system that featured Asian-Americans in substantial roles; let alone managed to assemble a talented ensemble cast. Whilst, the…
It takes quite some time before Kin ramps into its intergalactic promise, with Aussie directors Jonathan and Josh Baker stretching their indie short Bag Man into an odd hybrid feature to try thin the chunky line between on-the-road family drama and sci-fi. And while the uneven plot can be frustrating to witness as it slowly…
Ziad Doueiri’s Oscar nominated film, The Insult (L’insulte) could be called Pride & Prejudice. This isn’t because this Lebanese drama has anything to do with Jane Austen. Rather, it is because this film is all about how one minor conflict between two men escalates because of a combination of hubris and hatred. It seems that…
Before Melissa McCarthy’s involvement essentially fast-tracked The Happytime Murders into production, the dark comedy had languished in development limbo for the good part of decade with both Cameron Diaz and Katherine Heigl attached at various moments as potential headliners. With the final product now upon us, McCarthy’s penchant for vanity-free comedy feels like the most…
You can imagine the meeting. “We need a film for the grey-dollar à la Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.” “How about a story involving a book club? Older women like those.” “Sure, but let’s make it into a rom-com.” “We need to include sex because that sells.” “But they might be a bit old for Sex…
Mandy is a crazy two-hour LSD trip led by a totally unhinged Nicolas Cage performance. The film follows Red (Cage) and Mandy (Andrea Riseborough) who live a peaceful life in the Pacific Northwest, that is until a religious cult barge in and rob Red of the love of his life, sending the man on a…
6 years after The Hunger Games lead the charge of YA dystopia book to film adaptations, a new contender has appeared in an attempt to revive the genre. Adapted from the Alexandra Brooks’ series of the same name, The Darkest Minds combines young adult fiction dystopia with superpowers. When a disease wipes out 90% of…
Spike Lee is quite clearly fired up as he scatters sharp, defiant dialogue all through BlacKKKlansman, his first feature film since 2015’s good-but-uneven Chi-Raq and without a doubt one of his best works to date. That is no overstatement either, with Lee directing a big middle finger to the racism both explicit and implicit, by…
You don’t really need to know much about The Meg aside from that it is entertaining enough to justify it’s spot on the box office. That’s the most we could ask from a movie about a gigantic prehistoric shark unwittingly released from the depths of the ocean by hapless scientists who are stationed over the…
Director X has already built a reputation for his stylish and inventive music videos, churned out over two decades with an impressive portfolio that overflows with mega-successful acts like Drake and Justin Bieber as well as beloved hip hop titans like Ice Cube and JAY-Z. It was only a matter of time before he crossed…
The average woman is said to criticise herself around eight times each day. It is in this headspace and society that a rom-com like I Feel Pretty exists. The film had the best of intentions and tries to tackle some complex topics like how hard we women can be on ourselves and the feelings of…
Whilst no one is going to go out of their way to suggest The Spy Who Dumped Me is here to reinvent the wheel in its chosen hybrid genres, Susanna Fogel’s kinetic spy caper does a bloody good job at delivering on its advertised packaging. An action-comedy that proves both consistently amusing and alarmingly crazed…
On Chesil Beach may be a boy-meets-girl story but this one doesn’t play as you would typically expect. The film is an adaption of an Ian McEwan novella and is a heart-wrenching, domestic drama. Set in 1962 in the period between the lifting of the ban on Lady Chatterley’s Lover and the release of The…
You Were Never Really Here is a gripping psychological thriller, and a dark and disturbing character study with Joaquin Phoenix putting in a thrilling lead performance. The film follows Joe (Phoenix), a veteran living with PTSD, who spends his time finding and rescuing missing girls. On this job, however, he stumbles into a larger conspiracy…
It is perfectly reasonable to believe that the majority of the world sees cinema as a temporary reprieve of the burdens of the outside world. We all see enjoyably bombastic things that would never occur in real-life like dragons, magic, aliens, sea creatures; features that are proven to provide examples of powerful cinema. But on…
Based on the oft-adapted French satire Knock by writer and poet Jules Romains, this name-same feature fails to embrace the dark satirical properties of its source material and instead plays out all too predictably and implausible. At the centre of the film is a suitably charismatic turn from the reliable Omar Sy, and had Knock…
Up to this point each Mission: Impossible film has operated on their own mechanisms. The 1996 Brian De Palma-directed original felt like an organic extension of the 1960’s television series it drew its inspiration from; the 2000-released sequel was an orgy of unsubtle combat buoyed by the favoured-slow motion of Hong Kong filmmaker Jon Woo;…
I’m going to throw out a hot take – It’s tough to be a woman in comedy these days. Late night talk shows and weekly round ups are still dominated by male comics, you try to put out a new-take on an old concept with an all-female cast and unearth the wrath of legions of…
Whitney may not be the most necessary film but it’s certainly an entertaining one. This documentary comes hot on the heels of Whitney: Can I Be Me, but where this latest offering differs is in its unprecedented access to Whitney Houston’s family and friends. The result is an intimate and bittersweet portrait of her meteoric…
If there was one sequel this year that people did not see coming, it’s Mamma Mia!: Here We Go Again. The sequel to the 2008 blockbuster hit has the entire original cast reprising their roles and we have welcome newcomers into the mix like Cher, Andy Garcia and of course, Lily James. The reaction from…
