German Film Festival – The Audition Movie Review
Anna is a bit of an enigma as she has the pieces of modern-day life that most would be satisfied with. A home, job, understanding husband, and precocious young child. Her centre is just slightly askew. Her job as a violin teacher at a Conservatoire gives her little confidence or pleasure.
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When she comes into contact with a young student Alexander (Ilja Monti) she sees things in him that others don’t. Her obsession comes to full fruition and in so doing, she ...
A Quiet Place Part II Movie Review
Starting with a first reel filled with departures, the film drops the enigmatic approach of part one by letting the audience in on the story behind the alien’s first day on earth. Generating this amount of explanation early on isn’t the only change. The sound design is very different as well. There are few completely silent scenes and a more conventional approach is used to creating tension. Popcorn vendors will rejoice.
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After the opening, the story picks up ...
Ema Movie Review
Ema is young, irresponsible, erratic, and loves to set things on fire. Her life is filled with distraction and disfunction while she tries hard to fill a gap left by the abandonment of the young adopted boy Polo (Cristián Suárez) by her and husband Gastón (Gael García Bernal). She is a dancer by trade and Gastón a choreographer.
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Through a convoluted plot device, Ema comes in contact with the couple that adopted Polo and ensnares both of them in her hedonistic ...
Those Who Wish Me Dead Movie Review
Cast somewhat against type, Angelina Jolie is one of the boys as part of a rough around the edges gang of firefighters plying their trade in the open forests of Wyoming. She is struggling to recover from a traumatic experience that led to fatalities on her watch. Her misjudgment of that event has sent her on a suicidal spiral. Her disconnection is at the heart of the story.
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Into her damaged life comes Connor, who is on the run from dark forces who mean him ...
Retro Movie Review – Riddick
The Riddick franchise has always held style over substance and the filmmakers of the first edition, Pitch Black were quite adept at turning what was a low budget science fiction yarn into a big dollar money making machine. This latest edition looks marginally better than its predecessors but the emphasis is still on mood and not pinpoint detail.
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The film also has a lot of humour (and not always intentional) at its core as Diesel’s dialogue is a succession of ...
De Gaulle Movie Review
June 1940 saw the threat to France from the Nazi war machine massively escalate and many in the French government thought that capitulating to Hitler was the only way to save the country and its people from almost complete devastation. de Gaulle was in the minority in wanting to present an aggressive and optimistic approach to the battle with the German troops.
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He believed so strongly, he left his country and young family behind in France as occupational forces ...
Fatale Movie Review
He escapes to Las Vegas for a bachelor's party where he strays from the missus and hooks up with Val (Hilary Swank) for a night between the sheets. He gets an inkling of her crazy in the morning but escapes relatively unscathed. That is until he runs into her again when his house is broken into and she turns out to the detective assigned to the case.
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Thus begins a cat and mouse game where Val gets to unleash some seriously deranged activities that are all geared ...
Rosa’s Wedding Movie Review – Moro Spanish Film Festival
Rosa tries to do it all. Full-time work (and then some) as a seamstress, keeping a wayward daughter on the up and up, even looking after the neighbour’s plants while they are away on the vacations she never seems to have. She is helpful to all who ask and this has led her to be bled dry of energy and joy.
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One day she decides to put herself first and disappears from her normal day to day. Slowly all her dependents realise her absence and are unbelieving when ...
Land Movie Review
We are given few details about the actual cause but as the story progresses, small details coalesce into a narrative of a person so broken she feels she must retreat into absolute solitude. She does this by uprooting what is left of her life and moving to an isolated cabin deep in the woods of Wyoming, the least populated state in America.
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Once there it becomes quickly obvious that she is almost completely unprepared for a life in the wild. There is a stark ...
The United States vs. Billie Holiday Movie Review
Jazz singer Billie Holiday came to the fore of America’s conscience during a continuing low period of race relations in that country, the 1930s. The song that gave her such notoriety was Strange Fruit, a very powerful take on the lynching of black people. Its words and Holiday’s powerful delivery of it became a rallying cry and the FBI set out to diminish the unrest it caused.
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Set more in the backstage world than on-stage, it shows Holliday in various states ...
