Antebellum Movie Review
She wakes up in a present-day apartment with a loving husband Nick (Marque Richardson) and cute as a button daughter Kennedi (London Boyce). In this reality, she is Veronica Henley, a successful professor, and author. On this day she is leaving home on a book tour and engaging in a series of lectures. Things don’t go well.
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The film is unsuccessful at building suspense and littered with flaws of story and character. For example, when Veronica hooks up with her ...
Retro Movie Review – Moon
Moon is the first major film by the son of David Bowie, Duncan Jones (born Duncan Zowie Haywood Jones) and it ticks a lot of the boxes. It’s got a great concept, great acting by Sam Rockwell, looks suitably grotty to be actually located on the moon and most of all, features good science.
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The story revolves around a lone individual, Sam Bell (Rockwell) who is nearing the end of a three-year stint as the sole proprietor of a mining establishment on the Earth’s ...
Watch the trailer for The Translators – in Aussie cinemas September 17!
The eagerly awaited final book of a best-selling Dragon Tattoo-esque French trilogy is about to be globally released, and nine international language experts have been hired to translate it into their native tongues (English, Danish, Chinese, Spanish, Russian, Italian, Portuguese, Greek and German). With the stakes so high, the supercilious publisher (Lambert Wilson) has them on lock-down, confined together in a bunker – without any contact to the outside world – until the task is ...
Retro Movie Review – Blade Runner 2049
As visual arresting today as the first edition was 35 years ago, Blade Runner 2049 asks as many new questions as it does answering questions of old. It’s visual mix of cultures and moods (complements of genius director of photography Roger Deakins) adds so much to each scene that the film is never less than visually stunning.
The story still raises questions about what it is to be truly human but from a slightly different vantage point than before and the main actors keep things as fluid ...
Retro Movie Review – Get Out
The story revolves around leaving the big city and going out to the country to meet the girlfriend’s parents for the first time. Along the way it touches on issues as diverse as rich white privilege, social injustice, true friendship and how often times people are completely different than the first impression would lead you to believe.
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The direction is assured and important elements of the story arrive with perfect timing. For a first time director, this level ...
Retro Movie Review – The Gunman
Standing in for Neeson this time out is the now craggy faced Sean Penn, who looks like he spent considerable time in the gym while preparing for this role. He plays Jim Terrier, an overseas mercenary with a dark secret and a love interest in Annie played by Italian actress Jasmine Trinca. Through circumstance they become separated but the tie of love warrants a future reconnection.
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There are more notable moments of interest amongst the cast members like Javier ...
Retro Movie Review – Arrival
Amy Adams is Dr. Louise Banks, a linguist expert that the government recruits to help communicate with one of the alien entities that have arrived at twelve points around the globe. She is the soul of the story. Joining her is Jeremy Renner as Ian Donnelly, a theoretical physicist with a very well developed sense of wonder about the world.
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The story is told in a non-linear manner and subsequently every scene must be paid attention too. The film is also shot with a ...
Retro Movie Review – Jasper Jones
The story is set in a small town in Western Australia and it mirrors small town life with a loving feel. The surrounds are idyllic and its inhabitants are not portrayed as yokels but as a community with compassion but one coloured by conservatism and some degree of racism. Into this mix we focus on Charlie Bucktin (Levi Miller), a soft spoken and sensitive 14 year-old boy who is about to get pulled into a world previously unknown to him.
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The cast is peppered with ...
Retro Movie Review – Sicario
This is a modern day tale of drug running and Mexico/America border politics and it draws you in with bold strokes. It then details the character’s action in such a way as to illustrate the horrors that both the innocent and guilty have to endure during these drug wars.
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The screenplay leads you to make certain assumptions about the main protagonists actions and it’s to its satisfying complexity that right up until the end of the last reel there are still ...
Retro Movie Review – Hail, Caesar!
Viewers with a basic knowledge of cinema history will be paid dividends as the references to a glorious past arrive with regularity. From references like the dance extravaganzas of Busby Berkeley to the screwball comedy of Cary Grant, the love and respect is up on the silver screen for all to see.
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A familiar cast of characters is evident and Josh Brolin, George Clooney, Frances McDormand and Scarlett Johansson are just a few regulars that do justice to the ...
