Gran Turismo Movie Review
Accurate it is certainly not but it does provide a fun blast of racing histrionics amid a feel-good story of overcoming great obstacles to realise your dreams. Don’t be misled by the fact it is based on a true story and base your level of enjoyment on its sense of realism. This is pure fantasy stuff.
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The real racing driver in question is Brit Jann Mardenborough who beat 90,000 other entrants in the GT Academy competition. He had no real racing experience but ...
Asteroid City Movie Review
That idiosyncratic nature plays out in the look of the sets and costumes, the colour palette and lighting, the dialogue and performance of the actors and the whimsical nature of the stories they tell. Seldom laugh-out-loud funny, the humour is too dexterous for that, this is the kind of mirth that builds most in remembrance.
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Trying to reduce Asteroid City to a mere synopsis does it a disservice as it is a work filled with subtext, subversion and sublim...
Sisu Movie Review
The violence is ramped up to a ridiculous extreme but since the receivers of the carnage are Nazis you don’t feel that the actions are unwarranted. It is cartoonish in nature but always entertaining. The work is littered with nods to Quentin Tarantino so if you find that auteur's take on brutality palatable then this will be right up your alley.
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Set in the waning days of World War II, a scorched Northern Finland provides the backdrop for the actions of ...
Scandinavian Film Festival 2023: Let The River Flow Movie Review
In Let The River Flow when you combine the sad and racist treatment of the Sámi people with the emerging personality of its main character Ester Isaksen (Ella Marie Hætta Isaksen) you have the basis for some looming signs of emotion.
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Ester does her best to hide her ethnicity in an attempt to fit in but her undeniable sense of heritage is brought to the forefront. Her involvement in the protest of a government’s disregard for Sámi lands by building a dam that ...
Oppenheimer Movie Review
Julius Robert Oppenheimer was an exceedingly complex man and one many see as both a saint and a sinner. He was instrumental in putting the brain trust together for the Manhattan Project, The collection of minds that developed the first atomic bomb. When it was used twice to bomb the Japanese in Hiroshima and Nagasaki it divided both the world and scientific communities.
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Oppenheimer the pragmatist saw the bomb as necessary due to the race for its completion between ...
Barbie Movie Review
With a storyline that works the angle of Barbie (Margot Robbie) becoming a sentient being who begins to question the reality of her surroundings, it opens the door for some very assertive social commentary. Ideas delivered with a sly wink via an effective monologue by America Ferrera. The fully colour-saturated look is as imbued with robust ideas as those words.
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Casting Ryan Gosling as the Ken doll works well as he is unafraid to ham it up or play the fool and ...
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One
Those big risks give the action on-screen a much more visceral impact and the wow factor is elevated substantially. This is also needed as the character development in this, the seventh time out is minimal. Cruise is such a recognisable celebrity that it is difficult to see him other than himself but in that context, he rarely disappoints.
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The storyline of Dead Reckoning revolves around a hot topic in today’s news cycle Artificial Intelligence or AI as it is ...
Insidious: The Red Door Movie Review
Insidious: The Red Door envelopes the audience with just enough information to build a sense of unease that escalate throughout its 107-minute running time. This might underwhelm those who thirst for extreme violence or novel ways of dispatching victims.
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When you take the time and make the audience endure the pace you can build to a real climax. This is where most horror films lose the plot, too much violence and it becomes cartoonish, showing the protagonist in ...
Joy Ride Movie Review
The setup is simple Audrey (Ashley Park) and Lolo (Sherry Cola) are lifelong friends, having known each other since a very young age. Audrey is an overachieving lawyer and Lolo is a free spirit and struggling artist. Together they are the classic odd couple.
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When Audrey has to travel home to China to close a big deal she brings Lolo along and chaos ensues. The film pushes the boundaries and gloriously steps over the line time and time again. It makes you realise ...
The New Boy Movie Review
His new home is run by two renegade nuns played by Cate Blanchett and Deborah Mailman. Set in rolling fields of wheat writer/director Warwick Thornton who also triples as director of photography perfectly captures the sense of isolation.
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The boy is thrown into a way of life that is almost completely foreign to him and he keeps his distance from the other boys in the orphanage. Slowly the true nature of his character is revealed and he is shown to actually have the ...
