Watch the trailer for The United States Vs Billie Holiday!
Beginning in the 1940’s in New York City, the federal government targeted Holiday in a growing effort to escalate and racialize the war on drugs, ultimately aiming to stop her from singing her controversial and heart wrenching ballad, “Strange Fruit.”
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Led by Oscar® nominated director Lee Daniels and introducing Grammy® nominated singer-songwriter Andra Day, The United States vs. Billie Holiday unapologetically presents the icon’s complicated, irrepress...
Retro Movie Review – The Social Network
Jesse Eisenberg has never been better as Mark Zuckerberg, the man/boy who turned and burned most everyone he came in contact with while creating the Internet tsunami that is Facebook. Director David Fincher tones down some of his more overt mannerisms and gets things just right. Even Justin Timberlake as Sean Parker (the creator of Napster) delivers career-defining work.
It’s a sign of the level of film mastery that a subject with so little visual identity could be made into such a ...
Judas and the Black Messiah Movie Review
As the film’s title suggests, it’s the story of the betrayal and ultimate assassination of Fred Hampton (Daniel Kaluuya) who was involved in the Black Panther Party in Chicago in the late sixties. Kaluuya whose acting style thus far has been one of reductionism expands his range to include a role filled with anger and indignation. He delivers his words with an unbridled sense of outrage.
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At times, the words and emotion are rendered so quickly, it’s hard to ...
Retro Movie Review – Rush
A little knowledge of that period of Formula 1 does however enhance some of the film's emotional impact as the sport at that time was incredibly dangerous and killed its drivers with a gruesome regularity. This knowledge puts what is a sporting event into the realm of a real life or death battle.
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The film’s main protagonists couldn’t have been any different as well. The British playboy driver James Hunt (played with an impressive verve by Chris Hemsworth) was ...
Watch the trailer for Judas and the Black Messiah – in cinemas March 11!
A career thief, O’Neal revels in the danger of manipulating both his comrades and his handler, Special Agent Roy Mitchell (Jesse Plemons). Hampton’s political prowess grows just as he’s falling in love with fellow revolutionary Deborah Johnson (Dominique Fishback).
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Meanwhile, a battle wages for O’Neal’s soul. Will he align with the forces of good? Or subdue Hampton and The Panthers by any means, as FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover (Martin Sheen) commands...
Watch the trailer for Zappa – in Aussie cinemas February 18!
With unprecedented access to Zappa’s archives, exclusive interview and eye-popping unseen live & behind-the-scenes footage, ‘Zappa’ will open your mind to the creativity & fearlessness of a man whose “worldview, art & politics” were, in Winter’s words, “far ahead of their time, & profoundly relevant in our challenging times.”
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Zappa will be released in Australian cinemas February 18!
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Retro Movie Review – Moneyball
Lewis’ book follows the reinvention of baseball by using computer and statistical analysis to achieve the desired individual results and bypasses the traditional way that teams scouted players and as a topic of a ‘sports movie’ presented quite the challenge. It’s to the filmmaker's credit that a subject that could have resulted in a very dry cinema experience has been turned into such a warm human examination.
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The acting is excellent throughout and Brad ...
Retro Movie Review – Marley
His rise from being a poor and struggling musician to becoming one of the world’s great healers makes for a riveting story. Macdonald uses live performance clips, interviews with Bob, his family and close friends as well as stock footage to set the time and place in a masterful way.
Both Marley and reggae came of age in a most tumultuous time and one has to have first hand experience of how difficult life can be in those poor and improvised countries to know how exceptional his level ...
Win ticket to Ammonite – in Aussie cinemas January 14!
Led by powerful performances by Kate Winslet (The Dressmaker, Titanic) and Saoirse Ronan (Lady Bird, Brooklyn), Ammonite is set in1840s England. Acclaimed but overlooked fossil hunter Mary Anning and a young woman sent to convalesce by the sea develop an intense relationship, altering both of their lives forever.
Directed and written by BAFTA nominee filmmaker Francis Lee, Ammonite is a follow up to Lee's astounding debut, God's Own Country.
In 1800s England, acclaimed but unrecogni...
Retro Movie Review – Frost/Nixon
The film is based on a play by Peter Morgan (writer of The Queen) and features the original stars from its London and Broadway performances. British born actor Michael Sheen plays David Frost and the American actor Frank Langella plays Nixon. At first, Langella seems an odd choice to play the unlikable Nixon but by the end of the film, his emulation of Nixon’s odd body language and speech patterns become quite convincing.
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As the interviews begin, the lightweight ...
