The film is beautifully crafted with an amazing visual aesthetic. The drone shots are particularly impressive at establishing the out in the wilderness feel. The sound design is also noteworthy, as no matter how lush and green the visuals are, there is an edginess imparted through the music used as the film score. It is noisey post-rock in nature and emanates almost entirely from the side speakers in the cinema. This acts to never lets you relax into mere travelogue mode.

The story revolves around themes of family, duty, guilt and the awful misuse of power by the church (you know which one). It is also an acting tour de force with Daniel as Ray Stoker going toe-to-toe with Sean Bean as his brother Jem. When they reunite after years apart, they dance around the awful facts that make up their past as they head towards the inevitable clash. This brutal brawl erupts near the film’s end. All of their life details are revealed conversationally, and you hang on every word and physical nuance. There are also a number of fantasy scenes where you are left alone to find meaning.

There is a mastery at work here that requires attention and empathy and rewards those who look for more than surface entertainment in their film-going ethos. The technical aspects are sublime, as are the acting chops on display and the solid writing through out. This is not a work that you can casually approach; you need to be all in, and if you are, it is one of this young year’s most rewarding pleasures.
Rob Hudson
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Anemone explores the intricate relationships between fathers, sons and brothers, and the dynamics of familial bonds. 

Starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Sean Bean, Samantha Morton, Samuel Bottomley and Safia Oakley-Green, Anemone will be released in Aussie cinemas this November!
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It is equal parts thriller and scientific exploration and focuses on the human resolve to rise to the occasion and survive despite all the odds. Matt Damon is fantastic as the hyper intelligent astronaut that due to circumstance gets left behind on an aborted manned mission on Mars.

His approach to survival is based around his scientific knowledge and raw will to live but it is tempered by irreverence towards his circumstance and to the authority figures that he has to interface with. This provides the film with some genuinely funny moments and gives the viewer that perfect amount of space to relax in before the drama begins again.

Scott takes the raw material of Andy Weir’s book (and the screenplay by Drew Goddard) and uses it as a basis for a real thrill ride of a film. Damon along with an all-star cast that includes Jessica Chastain, Jeff Daniels and Chiwetel Ejiofor also deliver fine performances. This is one of those films that deserves to be seen in the dark on a twenty-meter wide screen.

Rob Hudson
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Pixels follows on from the likes of Wreck It Ralph and TRON, mashing up the real world with that of the video game. This time around it turns out that a videotape of classic arcade games was sent into space in the early eighties and discovered by aliens who used its contents to model weapons with which to attack us. It all makes perfect sense really. Naturally the best hope for Earth’s defence are former classic gamer champions who suitably proceed to kick all kinds of pixelated ass. Yes, it’s silly. Yes, it’s fun.

There’s enough pop culture references from the eighties to the tweenies to poke fun at both gens X and Y whilst remaining supremely entertaining for gen Z. There’s plenty of visual gags, generation specific quips and some outstanding CGI to tie it all together and only the hardest of sardonic hearts could fail to be entertained, even if it were only the slightest bit.

Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Michelle Monaghan, Peter Dinklage and Josh Gad are joined by some remarkable star power that includes Brian Cox, Sean Bean and Dan Aykroyd among a slew of other cameos wanting to get their face into a big budget movie. Most of the performers deliver their expected shtick and in a movie of this nature, there’s nothing wrong with that.

The film’s climax is a fantastic exercise in classic game character spotting, incumbent with the obligatory in-game sound signatures that accompany each of them.

Pixels is a mindless, fun blockbuster. Will history hold it in the same esteem as TRON or Wreck It Ralph? No, it’s much more disposable than that. But it delivers more than you’d expect from a film that is clearly derived from a popular trend set by better predecessors.

Stuart Jamieson
www.pixels-movie.com