Category: Film Reviews
Film reviews ranging from the latest blockbusters, to the smallest Indies, to the all the late in the year Oscar bait.
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NIGHTBITCH Review- Amy Adams is Having Oodles of Fun in a Canine Satire on the Metamorphosis of Motherhood Sorely Lacking in Bite.
Marielle Heller’s early directorial career has certainly been eclectic. She debuted with the biting dark comedy Can You Ever Forgive Me? and followed things up with a big warm hug of a film in A Beautiful Day In The Neighbourhood. Now, with the fabulously titled Nightbitch, she makes another left turn with a magical realist satire examining the metamorphosis… Read more
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Conclave Review- Dan Brown’s Got Nothing on These Scheming Pontiffs.
One could be forgiven for thinking the election of a new Pope wouldn’t make for the most interesting film. After all, the last time it happened over a decade ago the world was subjected to unrelenting footage of one God-forsaken chimney. Even on the inside, a bunch of largely old, largely white men furtively writing… Read more
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Gladiator II Review- Roman Epic now with added Sharks, Rhinos, and Monkeys makes for a Supersized but Serviceable Sequel.
When rewatching Gladiator in preparation for its long-awaited sequel, I was surprised at how melodramatic it was. I had remembered the film only for its epic scope, quotable monologues, and sweaty brawls. I had forgotten its moments of deep emotion found not just in Maximus (Russell Crowe) mourning his murdered family but also in the… Read more
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Emilia Pérez Review- Jacques Audiard’s Daring Venture into the World of Musicals leaves a Lacklustre Aftertaste.
There is no doubting the audacity of Jaques Audiard’s new film in terms of form and content. Emilia Pérez follows a disillusioned lawyer, Rita Mora Castro (Zoe Saldaña), as she is kidnapped and then recruited by Mexican drug lord Manitas Del Monte to assist with their gender confirmation surgery. Rita is tasked with finding a… Read more
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Dahomey Review- Debate on looted colonial artefacts brought to life in lyrical new documentary.
Dahomey, which won the Golden Bear at this year’s Berlinale, is an experimental new documentary that follows the return of colonial artefacts taken from the former Kingdom of Dahomey to Paris back to their home in modern-day Benin. In total 26 artefacts were returned in 2021, but director Mati Diop focuses on three statues of… Read more
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Memoir of a Snail Review- A Beautifully Twisted Journey through the Doldrums of Human Despair and Out the Other Side.
Memoir of a Snail, the winner of the official competition at this year’s London Film Festival, is a stop-motion animation set in its writer-director Adam Elliot’s native Australia. However, this is not the Australia of sun-dappled coastlines and beach-ready bodies, as Elliot blends Aardman-style animation with a Burtonesque aesthetic in a tale of tragedy, comedy… Read more
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Blitz Review- Steve McQueen’s new WWII drama makes for truly epic British filmmaking.
Blitz, Steve McQueen’s latest directorial venture set during the height of German bombing raids over London, is a visceral and never-shattering cinematic experience. The film perfectly blends McQueen’s early career as a visual artist- who has created commissioned works on the Iraq War– into the popular framework of a mainstream movie. It opens with searing… Read more
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Megalopolis Review- Francis Ford Coppola’s swan song is one of the worst films I have ever seen.
In the stuffy mists of Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis, our protagonist and architect Caesar Catalina (Adam Driver) asks his soon-to-be love interest Julia Cicero (Nathalie Emmanuel) why she came to see him if not for laughs. Watching, I couldn’t help but ask myself the same thing. Had I come to see the film out of… Read more
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Lee Review- Kate Winslet dazzles as war photographer Lee Miller in a more complex biopic than first meets the eye.
Kate Winslet once again dazzles as the model turned war photographer Lee Miller in a far subtler film than first meets the eye. It feels almost perfunctory to praise a Kate Winslet performance at this point. Like Meryl Streep or Daniel Day-Lewis, she has entered a rarefied pantheon of acting genius for which only the… Read more
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Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Review- Tim Burton returns to the sandbox he was born to play in.
I had never seen the original Beetlejuice until preparing for this double-sized sequel, but it is an absolute blast. The story is refreshingly simplistic about a recently deceased couple Adam and Barbara Maitland (Alec Baldwin, Geena Davis) haunting their old house to get rid of its new occupants with the help of the unhinged demonic… Read more