Nightcrawler Movie Review
25 years ago the Hoodoo Gurus released , a song about the ever increasing prevalence of violence in the mass media. Of course, even then it was by no means a new concept. Indeed the song references the ancient Romans as ‘taking out all the guesswork’ in the formula.
With the advent of motion pictures it was inevitable that violence would become a fundamental element of the medium; unsurprising, of course, given violence is a primal staple of human drama. Fewer, though, are the films ...
The Dark Horse Movie Review
Pretty as a picture in his cardigan, trackie daks and red Crocs, Gen's severe bipolar disorder sees him frequently institutionalised as he struggles with the norms of society. Released into the care of his brother, Gen is thrust back into the violent gang environment into which he was born but his iron determination to overcome his disability and help others sees him use his substantial chess playing ability to help disadvantaged youth avoid an inevitable path of violence and crime.
The ...
Interstellar Movie Review
Environmental disaster is coming and our days are numbered on Mother Earth. Unfortunately the world is also consumed with an incongruous mixture of hyper-cynicism, conspiracy and hopeless optimism: living day to day, hoping for the best, shunning technology; existing in a perpetual state of damage control, rather than seeking new horizons. In the words of traumatised ex-test pilot, Cooper (Matthew McConaughey), we have become caretakers rather than explorers and pioneers. In what appears to ...
Whiplash Movie Review
Every now and then a film comes along that reorganizes your mind in regards to the obtainable level of acting performance. It forces you to raise the bar in your mind and reassess how powerful the art form known as acting can be. The film Whiplash provides just such an example.
The story of a young prodigy musician joining a demanding music school and running headlong into its most obsessive teacher becomes the canvas on which actors J.K. Simmons and Miles Teller paint one of the most ...
Dracula Untold Movie Review
From Nosferatu in the twenties to Bela Lugosi in the thirties to Peter Cushing in the fifties and now to modern versions like True Blood, the vampire myth and the Dracula character in particular has seen so many theatrical versions it’s amazing. Into this landscape comes Dracula Untold.
In this latest take we are introduced to Vlad ‘The Impaler’ Tepes (Luke Evans) before he became the Count. He is a family man and leader trying to save both his family and his people and he becomes ...
Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day Movie Review
I've not read the book (other than a few sample pages courtesy of Amazon.com) but I imagine, as was the case with Where the Wild Things Are, that the book is a much more economic and elegant tale than the resulting feature film. The film appears to be riding the coat tails of the recent Diary of a Wimpy Kid films (which do a very good job of translating its literary source to the silver screen) but where the Wimpy Kid films riff neatly on the familiar misfortunes and fears of our youth, the ...
Gone Girl Movie Review
The primal questions of marriage comprise the underlying theme of David Fincher's Gone Girl and shine a light on an uncomfortable and confronting truth: that marriage is inherently beset with elements of emotional manipulation. For the purposes of this story, that theme is naturally taken to a science-fictionesque nth degree and like any propaganda film - for this operates much like a propaganda film - there are seductive elements of truth that draw us in to its unpalatable thesis.
Like ...
The Little Death Movie Review
The actor/director/writer, probably best know as Doug Guggenheim on the American TV show House Of Lies has delivered an Australian comedy that doesn’t rely on the bogan ethic for its laughs. It is also unafraid to show its main protagonists in all their ugly humanity and this gives the proceedings a more authentic feel than most comedies.
This ensemble piece follows a number of couples and their attitudes and approaches (and sometime dysfunction) towards sex. These couples seem to have ...
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Movie Review
Well, lots could go wrong and a lot does. The film is an exercise in groan-inducing predictability right up to the casting of Megan Fox as April O'Neil and its clear influences from Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins to Bay's own Transformer films.
Formally the ‘director’ is Jonathan Liebesman (Wrath of the Titans, Battle Los Angeles), Bay is credited as ‘producer’ but his fingerprints are all over it. This includes his usual teenage adolescent farts and giggles humour, banal ...
Boyhood Movie Review
When the film starts, we catch up with six year-old Mason (Ellar Coltrane) and his family, sister Samantha (Linklater’s real-life daughter Lorelei Linklater) and mom and pop (Patricia Arquette and Ethan Hawke). What follows is a coming of age tale that touches on many elements of the modern day life, single parenthood, sibling rivalry and just trying to figure out this crazy thing called life.
The concept is interesting but it’s the performances that make this film transcendent. ...
