Review – You’re Sleeping Nicole
You’re Sleeping Nicole screened at the Sydney Film Festival 2014. Pointing and laughing at entitled millenials has become a sport in the media. Television shows like Girls revel in a youthful malaise...
View ArticleReview – Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
The revolution from Rise of the Planet of the Apes is over as the intelligent ape, Caesar (Andy ‘motion capture’ Serkis), moves from being a hairy Che Guevara to a furry Julius Caesar/Abraham Lincoln...
View ArticleReview – Frank
This review first appeared in BMA Magazine The freak flag is hoisted high in Frank but there’s a cathartic method to the madness that makes Lenny Abrahamson’s film a charmer. Jon (Domhnall Gleeson) is...
View ArticleReview – Guardians of the Galaxy
This review first appeared at Graffiti with Punctuation Marvel Studios haven’t made a bad film yet but they’ve waded in mediocrity across their last two films: Thor: The Dark World and Captain...
View ArticleReview – Stations of the Cross
Co-writer and director Dietrich Brüggemann promises 14 scenes that contrast the life of 14 year-old Maria (Lea van Acken) with the Crucifixion of Jesus in Stations of the Cross. The camera is fixed on...
View ArticleReview – Lucy
This review first appeared in BMA Magazine. Welcome to the new age of machine gun metaphysics with Lucy. A young student living in Taiwan, Lucy (Scarlett Johansson), becomes a drug mule against her...
View ArticleReview – The Dirties
Found footage films sometimes fail to make an impact, beyond gimmickry, because filmmakers forget that the footage has to be discovered. It’s a contract with the audience that’s often broken. There...
View ArticleReview – Force Majeure
Force Majeure is a comedy of passive aggressiveness, a scathing satire of masculinity, delivered with Kubrickian unease by writer and director Ruben Östlund. A Swedish family on a skiing holiday in...
View ArticleReview – Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
This review first appeared in BMA Magazine. The original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic book series was a joke. It was poking fun at the popular comic series Daredevil and the parody evolved into...
View ArticleReview – Gone Girl
Director David Fincher and screenwriter Gillian Flynn (adapting her novel of the same name) poison the marital well with Gone Girl, amplifying the passive aggression of long term relationships until...
View ArticleReview – Interstellar
“Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity – in all this vastness – there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.” Carl Sagan,...
View ArticleAwesome Mix Vol. 2014: The Best Films of the Year
2014 is coming to a close. Savour it, because it’s the last year to be Star Wars free, void of a film based on a DC Comics property, and the latest remake that’s set to ruin your childhood. With so...
View ArticleReview – Birdman
This review first appeared in BMA Magazine. When Sally Field won the Oscar for best actress in 1984, she said in her acceptance speech: “I haven’t had an orthodox career and I’ve wanted more than...
View ArticleReview – American Sniper
This review first appeared at Graffiti with Punctuation. A Texan bull rider, Chris Kyle (Bradley Cooper), sits at home with his brother Jeff (Kier O’Donnell), sipping a beer after an event, watching...
View ArticleReview – Foxcatcher
True success is all about cleverly managing the perception of success. With the right amount of spin, something can be perceived as a triumph without achieving anything. The country best at doing...
View ArticleReview – Selma
‘It’s not right’, Dr Martin Luther King Jr. (David Oyelowo) says as he fiddles with an ascot tie, ahead of accepting his Nobel Peace Prize in the opening moments of Selma. Never before have...
View ArticleReview – Inherent Vice
There are two extremes when over-analysing a film. The formulaic approach crash-tests the foundation of a screenplay ensuring it adheres to the three act structure and ensuring the film’s logic is...
View ArticleReview – Chappie
Here comes the elevator pitch for Chappie; it’s Three Men and a Baby meets Short Circuit via Robocop minus the satire. Bonkers, right? Co-writer and director Neill Blomkamp’s latest low socio...
View ArticleReview –’71
This review was first published in BMA Magazine. In 1971, Gary Hook (Jack O’Connell) is a young recruit in the British Army who is deployed to Belfast, Northern Ireland, to help keep the peace during...
View ArticleReview – Furious 7
This review was first published in BMA Magazine. Since the Fast and Furious franchise became self-aware during Furious Five each sequel became more outlandish than the last, and the stakes got lower...
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