tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8220426150305511782012-02-17T09:53:03.427+11:00"I'm no critic, but I know what I hate." C. Montgomery BurnsD.R.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11517891007414596722noreply@blogger.comBlogger4201100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-822042615030551178.post-76122201863761112552012-02-04T13:50:00.016+11:002012-02-16T11:18:05.884+11:00

Roadshow FilmsNow ShowingMuch like The Iron Lady, My Week With Marilyn succeeds or fails on whether or not you believe the recognisable leading lady as the recognisable historical figure, in this instance, the most recognisable woman on the planet in 1956, Marilyn Monroe. And at first it seems as though Michelle Williams, a fine actress who often manages to do so much with so little (see Blue

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Madman FilmsNow ShowingMuch like last year's Bill Cunningham New York, Cindy Meehl's documentary, Buck, focusses on one man who has made his passion his life's work. Buck Brannaman, like photographer Mr. Cunningham, seems to be one of those fortunate few who successfully subscribes to the adage 'find something you're good at and try to make money from it', although one suspects Buck (and Bill)

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20th Century Fox FilmsNow ShowingLove is battelfield, Pat Benatar famously sang, and when two best friends who also happen to be C.I.A. operatives clash over the same woman, it proves to be the case. But all is fair in love and war - with the emphasis on the latter. Following a botched operation in Hong Kong, agents FDR (Chris Pine) and Tuck (Tom Hardy) are assigned to desk duties. Tuck decides

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Icon Film DistributionNow ShowingAlive meets Jaws. That's one thumbnail description of the Joe Carnahan-Liam Neeson feature, The Grey, a survival tale with wolves instead of a shark. And while that description may sum it up succinctly, it misses the point of the film entirely.When a plane carrying workers from an Alsaskan oil drilling operation crashlands in the frozen wilderness, only eight men

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Sony PicturesNow ShowingJust how far would you go for love? Or more precisely, to reclaim your love? In The Vow, a romantic drama "inspired by real events", a car accident sees one half of a married couple lose part of her memory -- her entire relationship with her husband -- and the other half of the couple trying desperately to bring it - and win her - back. Leo (Channing Tatum) and Paige (

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Transmission FilmsNow ShowingNo doubt already known to most as the "sex addiction film", artist-cum-director Steve McQueen's sophomore effort, Shame, arrives in Australian cinemas two weeks after its leading man, Michael Fassbender, was "snubbed" in the Academy Awards' Best Actor category for his figuratively, and quite literally, naked performance. Fassbender plays Brandon, the sex addict in

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20th Century Fox FilmsNow Showing Found footage films have been enjoying a steady popularity with cinemagoers, and film producers, for some 12 years following the success of The Blair Witch Project, the handy cam low-budgeter which racked up big scares and even bigger box office in 1999.Of course, film producers like the 'found footage' genre (which more often than not is also horror) because it

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Roadshow FilmsNow ShowingIt's 1927. The iconic hillside sign still reads Hollywoodland and the movies - black and white, and silent - are a relatively young entertainment but are at the height of their popularity. And George Valentin (charm personified, Jean Dujardin), a vowel shy of Rudolph and with a passing resemblance to Clarke Gable, is the leading man of choice.But talkies (movies with

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Hoyts DistributionNow ShowingSnakes On A Plane. The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford. Buried. Title, plot synopsis and spoilers all in one. It may be a case of Hollywood being lazy, particularly when it comes to the high concept Snakes (2006) (where one suspects they came up with the title first), but sometimes the title is just a jumping off point (pun intended).Certainly

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20th Century Fox FilmsNow ShowingHype is never a good thing for a film, especially one which you have to wait too long to see. Martha Marcy May Marlene was probably more heavily praised than hyped, but having to wait almost 12 months to see writer-director Sean Durkin's directorial feature debut, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2011, was never going to help. Not that the

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Warner Bros. FilmsNow ShowingIf windows are the eyes to the soul, then J. Edgar Hoover, founder of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, possessed a very dark soul indeed. As effectively portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio, Hoover's eyes are a beady black, revealing very little white and nary a glint as though in a permanent squint; always thinking, always analysing people and situations. Perhaps that

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Rialto DistributionNow ShowingLimited release*While Weekend owes a minor debt to the lo-fi, two-hander films Before Sunrise (1995) and Before Sunset (2004) - Richard Linklater's wonderful walk-and-talk pieces about possible soul mates, played by Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke - writer-director Andrew Haigh's second feature is very much an original, and arguably far more emotionally resonant. When

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Paramount PicturesNow ShowingWhen Julia Roberts set out for Chicago to win back her ex-college beau from the matrimonial clutches of the chocolate-covered Cameron Diaz in P.J. Hogan's 1997 rom-com, My Best Friend's Wedding, she pulled out all the stops. It was the first time the star had used her flaming mange and mega-watt smile for evil instead of good, subverting our expectations of both the

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Universal PicturesNow ShowingAlthough billed as a Cold War thriller, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is anything but thrilling. That is to say, not in the action sense of the term. Tinker Tailor may not have you on the edge of your seat or your pulse racing, but it will have your cerebral cortex working over time in an attempt unravel the film's labyrinthine plot.Adapted by Bridget O'Connor and Peter

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20th Century Fox Films Now ShowingTo paraphrase Matt King's opening narration of The Descendants, "Just because I live in paradise, doesn't mean everything is perfect". Matt (George Clooney), well-to-do lawyer and family man, may indeed live in Hawaii, but he's about to have one of the worst weeks of his life.Matt's wife is in a coma following a waterskiing accident, and his rebellious teenage

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Paramount PicturesNow ShowingA family film directed by Martin Scorsese and shot in 3D seems as unlikely as, well, just that. But given that Hugo, based on the Brian Selznick book, The Invention of Hugo Cabret, and adapted by John Logan (Rango), is a love letter to early cinema and a rallying cry for its preservation - one of the passion projects of Scorsese - this latest venture by the veteran

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Walt Disney Studios FilmsNow ShowingUnless parents have been paying due diligence in their caretaker roles, then the underlying premise of The Muppets - that Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Gonzo et al have faded from public consciousness - is a perfectly solid one, no matter how much Frank Oz, long time Jim Henson collaborator and the original voice of Miss Piggy, doth protest. Serving

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Sony PicturesNow ShowingI'm not sure if the Swedes have an equivalent term for deja vu but there's an overwhelming sense of “been here, seen that” when watching David Fincher's The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. Then again, that's to be expected with a too-soon remake of the 2009 Swedish film which will still be fresh in many peoples minds, particularly those not perturbed by subtitles (the US

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Hopscotch EntertainmentAvailable now to own or rent on DVDOne of my favourite scenes in Mike Mills' semi-autobiographical film sees an elderly man phoning his son in the early hours of the morning to ask the name of the music they play in the gay clubs he now frequents. "House music," the son suggests, and his dad writes it down.After the death of his wife, Hal (Christopher Plummer), announced to

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Warner Bros. PicturesNow ShowingGiven the amount of gunfire and explosions in the trailer for Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, one could be forgiven for thinking that director Guy Ritchie had succumbed to the “bigger is better” maxim which plagues many a sequel; in this instance, Ritchie's surprisingly enjoyable (if not entirely faithful to Sir Conan Arthur Doyle's literary creation) Sherlock

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In what was a solid if not spectacular year for films, I find myself unable to nominate – for the third year running – a #1 favourite film. Call it a cop-out (I'll pay that) but I've listed, in alphabetical order, 10 films I really enjoyed, connected with and, in some cases, truly loved in 2011.*And with some of those, I've mentioned another film which shares similarities and I'd suggest checking

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20th Century FoxNow ShowingFollowing the death of his wife, journalist Benjamin Mee (Matt Damon) understandably found himself in a rut. Work was no longer fulfilling (not helped by his boss and co-workers' constant sympathy) and his relationship with his children, particularly his teen son, had become strained. What the Mee family needed was a change. What they did was buy a zoo. The premise for

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Walt Disney/DreamWorksNow ShowingWith an acclaimed and popular stageplay as its source material (adapted here by Lee Hall and Richard Curtis), and a great director in Steven Spielberg at the helm (with regular collaborators - composer John Williams and cinematographer Januzs Kaminski - on hand), War Horse promised to be one of the films of the year. That it's not, I'd suggest, has more to do with

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Hopscotch FilmsNow ShowingGiven its title, and the film's premise - a woman masquerading as a man in late 19th century Ireland - you could be forgiven for thinking that Albert Nobbs is a sex farce. It is not. But then, Rodrigo Garcia's film, from a screenplay co-penned by leading lady Glenn Close, can't decide if it's a genteel comedy of manners or a tragic drama; swaying between the two and

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Universal PicturesNow ShowingGiven its release coinciding with the Occupy Wall Street movement, and the similar sentiments at its core, one can probably overlook the irony of Brett Ratner's little-guy-strikes-back comedy, Tower Heist, starring $20 million men Ben Stiller and Eddie Murphy. They may not be the 1% but these comedians aren't exactly scraping by. Then again, Stiller and Murphy are far

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Paramount PicturesNow ShowingWho better than Steven Spielberg to direct an old school, globe trotting matinee adventure not unlike his own Indiana Jones series of films? Indeed, Herge's animated creation, the boy reporter Tintin, partly inspired Spielberg's own films and the Belgium animator himself has said that the American director was the only person capable of bringing his hero to the big

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Transmission FilmsNow ShowingThere's melodrama and there's camp, and then there's Pedro Almodovar. The Spanish auteur is one of modern cinema's best proponents of both melodrama and camp, often effortlessly melding the two as he also celebrates the beauty of women – very few male directors are so generous with their female characters and actors – and of cinema itself. But even a master such as

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Icon Film DistributionNow ShowingWhatever your opinion of Margaret Thatcher, the first female prime minister of Great Britain whose legacy could be diplomatically described as polarizing or, more bluntly, as reviled, there's no doubt about Meryl Streep's interpretation of the so-called Iron Lady of British politics. Playing both Thatcher in her prime, governing Britain from 1979 to 1991, and the

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Paramount PicturesNow ShowingIf you can believe Swedish actor Michael Nyqvist could go toe-to-toe with Tom Cruise, mono-e-mono, then chances are you'll have no problems with the preposterous, yet highly entertaining action sequences which precede that showdown in Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol.With all due to respect to Nyqvist, best known as the male lead in the Millennium trilogy of films

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Madman FilmsNow ShowingIn recognition of his own battle with depression, Danish auteur terrible Lars von Trier decided to make Melancholia, a film whose heroine, Justine (Kirsten Dunst), also suffers bouts of depression, and which climaxes with the end of the world. That's not a spoiler: the opening sequence of von Trier's film is a beautifully composed, super slo-mo tableau (set to the score of

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Palace FilmsNow ShowingWhile it is the story of female domestics in the 1960s, any comparisons between Philippe Le Guay's new film and 2011's earlier release, The Help, end there. Le Guay's look at the Spanish maids keeping house for the bourgeoisie of Paris is so rosy-coloured and sweet natured, it makes The Help seem positively hard hitting. Although not without their hardships, the Spanish

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Paramount PicturesNow ShowingA prequel of sorts to DreamWorks' Shrek franchise, where the the titular feline made his debut in that series' second film, Puss In Boots lands (on its feet) more toward the middle of the Shrek spectrum (Shrektrum?): behind one and two but ahead of the disappointing third and fourth instalments. Certainly the animation in Puss In Boots (directed by Shrek 3's Chris

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Sony PicturesNow ShowingIn spite of its young lovers being haunted by the spectre of death (figuratively, not literally; this isn't a teen horror flick), Restless, the new film by director Gus Van Sant, is more affected than affecting. And I'd suggest that has more to do with the efforts of the first time screenwriter, Jason Lew, than the veteran director.Enoch Brae (Henry Hopper, son of Dennis)

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Icon Film DistributionNow ShowingWorking from the premise that a housing estate in London is as good as any place to stage an alien invasion of Earth, writer-director Joe Cornish takes great delight in indulging, and sometimes subverting the genre cliches in his highly entertaining and very cool feature debut, Attack The Block. After mugging a nurse, Sam (Jodie Whittaker), on her way home from

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Sony PicturesNow ShowingAlthough stamped with the imprimatur of Aardman Animation - those clever clogs behind Chicken Run (2000) and the Wallace and Gromit franchise - Arthur Christmas, a collaboration with Sony Animation, bears only the slightest of Aardman touches. There is of course the unmistakeably British humour, provided by an impressive Brit voice cast - James McAvoy, Jim Broadbent, Hugh

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Palace FilmsNow ShowingBilled as an Italian Love, Actually, Ages of Love (or Manual of Love 3 as it is also known) even has its poster art recalling that 2003 Brit film of interconnecting stories of love won and lost. But despite its interlocking story structure, Giovanni Veronesi's film is a much more straight forward affair, making the Richard Curtis' rom-com seem positively labyrinthine by

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Roadshow FilmsNow ShowingWhile a perfectly fine political drama, The Ides of March suffers under the misconception that its premise – that politics is a dirty game and ideals are the first thing to die in the pursuit of power – is revelatory. Anyone who ran for student council in high school can tell you it's not. Yet when this truth is revealed to young campaigner Stephen Meyers (Ryan Gosling),

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Hopscotch FilmsNow ShowingThere has been some discussion in the media of late as to whether or not women who choose not to have children (for whatever reason) are selfish. While a silly debate to begin with, a strong argument for the negative is Lynne Ramsay's new feature We Need To Talk About Kevin: anyone, not just women, will abandon the idea of parenthood after seeing this film. Based on the

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Hopscotch FilmsNow ShowingPalm Island, off the east coast of Queensland, is a beautiful location and a tropical idyll. But looks can be deceiving, and when one of the indigenous locals died in police custody in 2004, all kinds of ugly were revealed, extending across to the mainland and the heart of the Queensland Police Force, and back to the island's aboriginal penal colony past.Cameron

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Sony PicturesNow ShowingMoneyball could best be described as the baseball film for people who don't like baseball films. And an even better one for those who get off on numbers and statistics, for director Bennett Miller's film (from a screenplay by Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin) is less concerned with what happens on the field than the machinations behind the scenes when a major league

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Madman FilmsNow ShowingI'll readily admit I'm not a fan of fashion, and not just because, as a writer, I can barely afford to keep up with my rent let alone the latest sartorial trends. But I can respect the hard work that goes into the creation of fashion (and the even harder work put in by sweatshop slaves to produce it, and at a fraction of the price it sells for), as well as the industries

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Sony PicturesNow ShowingNot content with destroying the world on a regular basis, director Roland Emmerich (2012, Independence Day, The Day After Tomorrow) takes time out from his usual big budget filmmaking to go period and attempt to obliterate the reputation of one William Shakespeare.Anonymous, penned by John Orloff, and a noticeable change of pace for the director, is a fanciful tale of

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Hopscotch FilmsNow ShowingBy Guest Reviewer: A.J. SmithHave you ever wondered what the Tooth Fairy does with your teeth once it exchanges them for a coin under your pillow? Guillermo del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth, Hellboy) thinks he knows, and if you’ve seen any of his previous films, it will come as no surprise that his theory is dark, creepy, and anything but nice. Young Sally Hurst (played by

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Pinnacle FilmsNow ShowingRyan Gosling's Driver, so known for his skill behind the wheel - be it for a getaway car, a racing vehicle or a stunt in a movie - doesn't have an awful lot to say, subscribing to the 'actions speak louder than words' philosophy and keeping himself to himself as much as possible. The closest person he has to a friend is Shannon (Bryan Cranston), owner of the garage where

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Roadshow FilmsNow ShowingIn a tale almost as old as time (and certainly the Bible), Gavin O'Connor's Warrior takes the Cain and Abel story of rival brothers, updates it for modern times and places it smack bang in the arena of Ultimate Fighting. The biggest surprise is just how effective - and affecting - O'Connor's film is.That's despite a trailer which reveals almost every plot point of the

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Warner Bros. FilmsNow ShowingSteven Soderbergh directing a disaster film? That's ostensibly the template for medical thriller Contagion but fans of The Towering Inferno (1974) shouldn't get too excited: the director's take on the disaster film genre is far more clinical and histrionic-free than those films of the '70s and '80s. That's in spite of a cast of Hollywood's who's who - Matt Damon, Kate

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Hoyts DistributionNow ShowingThe huge box office success of The Pirates of the Caribbean franchise is perhaps the only way to explain why we have a new movie about the Three Musketeers. Sensing an audience appreciation for swashbuckling and pantaloons, Hollywood no doubt went in search of an already established brand and, et viola!, rediscovered Alexandre Dumas' classic tales of derring-do in

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Hopscotch FilmsNow ShowingSomeone once famously said that you can never go home again but you can, according to Woody Allen, return to Paris of the 1920s. Such is the conceit of the writer-director's new film, Midnight In Paris, and what a wonderful conceit - and film - it is. Much like what happened with the New York auteur's 2005 film, Match Point (England), and 2008's Vicky Cristina Barcelona

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Universal PicturesNow ShowingIf, like me, you've never seen John Carpenter's 1982 original The Thing, or the Howard Hawkes produced 1951 film, The Thing From Another World, nor read John W. Campbell Jr.'s original short story, Who Goes There?, which spawned every "thing", then chances are you'll have a good time with this prequel to the 1982 film.This The Thing, directed by Matthijs van

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Sony PicturesNow ShowingNote: this is an edited version of my original review which I wrote after seeing Take Shelter at the 2011 Sydney Film Festival. I have since seen the film a second time. When Curtis LaForche (Michael Shannon) starts having dreams of impending doom - a gathering storm, rain like petrol, and mysterious people threatening his and his family's lives - it's not a copy of

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2oth Century Fox FilmsNow ShowingDespite being predicated on a flimsy high concept - a woman goes in search of her ex-lovers to find the one that got away just so she doesn't exceed the number of lovers - 20 - which would render her doomed never to marry - What's Your Number? is not the worst film of the year. Don't get me wrong, Mark Mylod's film is by no means a great one and it's only ever a

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DreamWorks/Walt Disney Studio FilmsNow ShowingRocky with robots; The Champ with microchips. Real Steel is an amalgam of every boxing film you've ever seen with the only difference being the pugilists are not flesh and blood but, well, real steel. But in spite of the film being cobbled together from bits and pieces - much like Atom, the fighting robot at the centre of the action - Real Steel

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Paramount PicturesNow ShowingIt is a universally acknowledged truth that it is humanly impossible to hear the Kenny Loggins song, Footloose, and not want to dance. Now 27 years later, that song, from the film of the same name, is about to get toes tapping once more with the release of the remake.Craig Brewer's film is actually more of a cover version, one which remains true to the melody and

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Icon Home EntertainmentNow available on DVD and Blu-ray In 2010, the Australian government apologised to the 'forgotten generation': hundreds of thousands of men and women who, as children of post-World War II Britain, were shipped out to Australia to begin new lives under the "protection" of various Christian charities. It was the early 1980s when this government sanctioned but clandestine mass

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20th Century Fox FilmsNow ShowingThree pretty, young things, European locales, mistaken identity and romantic misadventures: while the recipe for Monte Carlo isn't a particularly new or daring one, the results in Thomas Bezucha's film (produced by Nicole Kidman and Forest Whitaker) aren't as bland as you'd expect, and bound to sate the appetites of its intended teen girl audience.Grace (Selena

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Walt Disney Studio FilmsNow ShowingMuch like family, you rarely get to choose who your neighbours are. Unfortunately for high school student, Charley Brewster (Anton Yelchin), his new neighbour, Jerry (Colin Farrell), isn't so much a pain in the arse as a pain in the neck - literally. Turns out Jerry is a vampire, which would explain the blacked out windows on his house and his only appearing

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Madman FilmsNow ShowingCall it ironic or prescient but on my way to the screening of Page One, the documentary chronicling a year at The New York Times as it struggles to remain relevant and commercially viable in the new media world order, I discovered the closure of a(nother) bookstore. The screening was being held at the Dendy Newtown, and whilst walking along King Street I realised that the

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Transmission FilmsNow Showing*This interview with Alexandra Schepisi first appeared in the August 2011 issue of Cafe Society magazine.“I thought it was going to be difficult to give him the same respect I would give other directors on set. I thought he would be really hard on me, too, and that I would have to shut up and just do what I was told,” says Alexandra Schepisi, recalling her preparation

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Icon Film DistributionNow ShowingI'll admit I'm not overly familiar with the samurai film nor the works of Japanese director Takashi Miike, although enough to know that the the two are mutually exclusive. Miike's films, I understand, span several genres although more often than not, involve a violent element. And it goes without saying that in a samurai film titled 13 Assassins, there will be

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Madman FilmsNow ShowingThe coming-of-age/rites-of-passage story is almost as old as storytelling itself. Subsequently, there's not a lot that hasn't been covered thematically in either literature or film, and possibly nothing approaching the excellence of J.D. Salinger's 1951* novel, The Catcher In The Rye.But what Submarine - the directorial debut of actor Richard Ayoade (he plays Moss on TV's

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DreamWorksNow Showing It's 2011 and race is still as contentious an issue as ever. How then to approach a film, based on book by a white woman (Kathryn Stockett) about a white woman writing about the 'black experience' during the United States' turbulent civil rights era? Indeed, your approach will most likely determine how much - or little - you enjoy The Help. Upon graduating from the

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Paramount Pictures Now Showing I've never been skiing and, what's more, have no desire to ever do so. That's probably because of my aversion to the cold. Don't get me wrong: if you want to invite me to the Austrian Alps for a winter weekend, please do. Just don't be disappointed when I take up residence by the chalet's open fire, indulging in hot chocolate and not once taking to the

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Universal PicturesNow Showing The premise of One Day - two friends meeting, or not, on the same day every year over a 20 year period - is such an intriguing one that it's unfortunate that its execution on film, adapted from David Nicholls' novel, is not. And doubly disappointing given the involvement of Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess, and director Lone Sherfig. On the night of their

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Walt Disney Studios Home EntertainmentAvailable now to rent or own on DVD and Blu-ray Much like the titular horse at the centre of this story - the 'Big Red' stallion who famously came from behind in his races to win more often than not and, most importantly [Spoiler Alert] the Triple Crown in 1973 - Secretariat takes a while to get going. It's almost 25 minutes into the film before the horse

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Hopscotch FilmsNow ShowingOne of my favourite scenes in Mike Mills' semi-autobiographical film, Beginners, sees an elderly man phoning his son in the early hours of the morning to ask the name of the music they play in the gay clubs he now frequents. "House music," the son suggests, and his dad writes it down.After the death of his wife, Hal (Christopher Plummer), announced to his son, Oliver (

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Warner Bros. PicturesNow Showing Imitation is a form of flattery, but not only does the new guys-gone-crazy comedy, Horrible Bosses, bear more than a passing resemblance to the 2009 hit, The Hangover, it apparently owes its life to that film as well. According to one of its stars, Jason Bateman, the screenplay for Horrible Bosses had been doing the rounds for some time, only given the

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Paramount PicturesNow Showing Despite the title, Cowboys & Aliens wasn't given the greenlight because of the fun possibilities seemingly inherent in the western-sci-fi mash-up. By all accounts, the film was based solely on the cover of a graphic novel which bore that title, which by Hollywood standards doesn't come as surprise. After all, if you can create a billion dollar film franchise

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Sony PicturesNow Showing I wonder how much time Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis spent spent chatting about future projects between takes on Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan? Perhaps the two made a pact to make lightweight and sexy rom-coms following the no doubt emotionally intense experience of filming the psycho-sexual ballet freak out, for whether by coincidence or design, both actresses' next

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Universal PicturesNow Showing For those with an aversion to motor sports, Asif Kapadia's documentary Senna, about the career and untimely death of Brazilian Formula 1 racing champion Ayrton Senna, might seem like a film to avoid. And I completely understand those reservations. I, too, have no interest in car racing (or cars generally); I mean, is Formula 1 even a sport? Sure it requires

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Warner Bros. PicturesNow Showing Given the critical drubbing the film received in the US, I went into Green Lantern expecting the worst film of the year - and it's not. I mean, it's still not very good and compared to the other superhero movies which have graced our screens this year, it's the least of them. But it's not the steaming pile of emerald-coloured excrement I had braced myself for.

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Roadshow FilmsNow Showing I've been a tad remiss with my reviewing duties of late so apologies for this tardy, and all too brief review of Red Dog. The Australian film opened last week and, after this weekend, should achieve the title of highest grossing Oz film of 2011. That's not surprising given the film, directed by Kriv Stenders, is a family-friendly piece of Australiana guaranteed to

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20th Century Fox FilmsNow ShowingOne of the stand out films of this year's Sydney Film Festival was the documentary Project Nim*, which detailed the promising yet doomed research into the intelligence of chimpanzees via means of teaching them sign language. The project was doomed not so much for the lack of intelligence on the part of the subject - Nim Chimpsky was more than up for the task - but

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Paramount PicturesNow ShowingI'll admit the approaching Avengers film does not produce in me the same giddy excitement it does in some of my fellow reviewers and film goers. Honestly, people were clapping, cheering and, yes, squealing when the teaser trailer played at the end of the Captain America: The First Avenger screening earlier this week. My lack of excitement is perhaps best explained by

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Rialto Film DistributionNow ShowingDirected by Robert Redford and chronicling the military trial of those accused of involvement in the assassination of US President Abraham Lincoln, The Conspirator is the first feature by The American Film Company which has, as one of its guiding principles, accuracy in the depiction of events pertaining to American history.Now I'm all for accuracy, but film

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Potential FilmsNow ShowingIn a film world where CG (and, alas, 3D) animation is king, something as eloquently simple as The Illusionist, the 2D hand-drawn animated feature by acclaimed French director Sylvain Chomet, is an oddity and a beauty. And much like the magician of its title, The Illusionist is a rare - if not dying - breed.Finding it harder and harder to attract a local audience, the

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Sony PicturesNow ShowingIf you've seen the trailer for Bad Teacher and liked what you saw, then odds are you'll probably enjoy the film overall. Those odds might roughly be 60-40 but then I'm no psychic. And Cameron Diaz's Ms Halsey is no Maths teacher; Algebra is not her strong suit. Nor is English Lit, Geography or manners, come to think of it.Elizabeth Halsey is the kind of person who chose

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Hopscotch FilmsAvailable now to rent or own on DVDIf you want silly, sexy and - sure - fun, then the latest by Gregg Araki, one-time enfant terrbile of American indie cinema, certainly fits the bill. With the sexual shenanigans of its main character, Smith (Thomas Dekker), and all the mysterious cult and supernatural goings-on on campus, Kaboom plays like Dante's Cove: The College Years. When

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Warner Bros.Now ShowingAll good things must come to an end, and good things come to those who wait. And for most people who have waited the almost 10 years for the final film in the adaptations of author J.K. Rowling's saga of the boy wizard - the boy who lived, Harry Potter - The Deathly Hallows Part 2 will affirm those opening sentiments, however bitter sweet. Yet we've always known this day

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Madman EntertainmentAvailable on DVD and Blu-ray July 20A remake of the 1960 original, which New York Times critic A.O. Scott describes as kinkier than this outing, makes me think that 60's Korean cinema was no less bold and outrageous than it is today.Not that director Im Sang-soo has skimped on the sex; there's plenty of that early on between Eun-yi (Do-yeon Jeon), newly hired housemaid and

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Madman EntertainmentNow ShowingThe success of any road trip is determined not so much by the time it takes to get to one's destination, but how well we survive the journey; a journey made all the quicker - or longer - by the company we choose to keep.On paper, The Trip promised to be a long haul rather than a Sunday afternoon drive of a film for me. With two leads - Brit comedic talents Steve

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Paramount PicturesNow ShowingFinally a film that lives up to expectations. And by 'up', I, of course, mean 'down'. I have half-jokingly mentioned online that I had pencilled in Transformers 3 as my worst film of 2011, but thanks to ever-reliable director Michael 'more is more' Bay, I can now erase that scribble and ink it in. Transformers 2 was my least favourite film of 2009 - and, indeed, the

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Icon Film DistributionNow ShowingTerrence Malick's first film in six years, the highly anticipated, much speculated upon The Tree of Life, finally arrives in cinemas with some but not all of its mystique removed following its world premiere at Cannes in May. Booing aside (oh, those crazy French!), Malick's visual poem to creation, life and after life – and indeed no less than the meaning of life

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20th Century Fox FilmsNow ShowingIn the wake of Yogi Bear 3D and Hop, two of 2011's earlier and unimpressive entrants in the mixed live action-animation genre, one could reasonably expect Mr. Popper's Penguins to be a similarly tedious viewing experience. But much to my surprise, Popper's proved to be perfectly passable entertainment, thanks in no small part to Jim Carrey who's not about to play

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Walt Disney Studio Films/PixarNow ShowingLet me begin this review by saying that I love Pixar. I LOVE them. Beginning with Toy Story in 1995 (and short films before that), they have managed to successfully create films for all ages under the guise of children's entertainment; a successful marriage of story, character, wit and heart with state of the art computer animation. My favourite of Pixar's

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Paramount PicturesNow ShowingDreamWorks Animation's surprise hit of 2008, Kung Fu Panda, opened with a spirited 2D hand drawn animation sequence revealing its hero Po's fantasies of becoming a member of the Furious Five and a master of kung fu. By the end credits, Po (voiced by Jack Black) had achieved both feats in a film of pure awesomeness. The inevitable sequel also opens with a 2D animation

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WIN WINOne of my favourite films of the '00s is the American indie gem, The Station Agent, actor-cum-writer-director Tom McCarthy's 2003 directorial debut about a little person, trains and the odd bonds of friendship. McCarthy's second feature, 2008's The Visitor, for which Richard Jenkins received a Best Actor Oscar nom, was similarly small but invested with heart. Those elements, combined with

D.R.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11517891007414596722noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-822042615030551178.post-66596326651429438342011-06-18T13:35:00.007+10:002011-09-24T11:43:27.315+10:00

CAVE OF FORGOTTEN DREAMSI'm not sure if it was Festival fatigue or simply being miffed at having missed out on a media ticket for Sundance favourite Martha Marcy May Marlene (grrrr), but the expected entrancing effects of Werner Herzog's 3D documentary, Cave of Forgotten Dreams, failed to take hold at the screening this morning. To be honest, it annoyed me as much as it informed. Whilst an

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TAKE SHELTERWhen Curtis LaForche (Michael Shannon) starts having dreams of impending doom - a gathering storm, rain like petrol, and creepy people threatening his and his family's lives - it's not a copy of Understanding Your Dreams he checks-out from the local library but a copy of Understanding Mental Illness. Curtis's mother (a brief but effective Kathy Baker) has been living in assisted care

D.R.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11517891007414596722noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-822042615030551178.post-73071939376180353182011-06-16T21:20:00.009+10:002011-06-16T22:54:21.706+10:00

LIFE, ABOVE ALLI've often said (high) expectations regarding films are never a good thing, especially the longer you have to wait to see that film. Expectations build over time and, whether fairly or not, a film will rarely meet those expectations and your response to it will suffer as a result. So it was, sadly, with Life, Above All. Oliver Schmitz's drama about the effects of AIDS on a South

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FILMS THAT DIVIDE US: 25 YEARS OF DAVID AND MARGARETRomper Stomper, Showgirls, Dancer in the Dark, Death Proof and The Notebook. What do these five films have in common? They are the films which have caused the most division between At The Movies co-hosts, and stalwarts of film review in Australia for the past 25 years, David Stratton and Margaret Pomeranz. And it was at Sydney Town Hall this

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Universal PicturesNow ShowingWhomever it was who is quoted as saying women can't be funny obviously wasn't paying attention. Or was probably only watching Hollywood comedies of the last decade where the boys get to have all the fun, be it in Vegas or with mother's freshly baked pastries.But if he'd been watching TV's Saturday Night Live instead, he would have known that women can be and are funny

D.R.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11517891007414596722noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-822042615030551178.post-26899770143743351002011-06-13T19:40:00.010+10:002011-09-21T21:17:57.731+10:00

PROJECT NIM"Why are people so unkind?" It's a question that iconic Australian singer Kamahl once asked, and one which has yet to be satisfactorily answered other then with the old fall back of "human nature". Why we are even more unkind, which is to say downright cruel, to animals is usually (un)answered by an even less convincing mindset: we're top of the food chain. The recent Four Corners

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THE FUTUREMiranda July is a writer-director-actor, short story writer and visual artist with a very odd sensibility and view of the world. And it's a sensibility and view which I happen to enjoy. July's film debut, Me And You And Everyone We Know (2005) was a small gem of a film and one which I loved, so I was very much looking forward to The Future. LA couple Sophie (July) and Jason (Hamish

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MEEK'S CUTOFFThey say it isn't the destination but the journey getting there that matters. I say phewy to that, especially when it comes to films and to one I had been so looking forward to. Meek's Cutoff, Kelly Reichardt's minimalist western about a wagon train traversing across Oregon in 1845, features a hell of a lot of the journey in its 104 minutes, but fails to arrive at a satisfactory

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HAPPY, HAPPYhttp://www.sff.org.au/films-container/happy,-happy/I'm not sure what the buzz was for Happy, Happy, my second Norwegian film of the Festival, but the audience which turned out for the Friday morning screening noticeably skewed to the post-55 demographic. Indeed, the entire middle floor section of Event Cinemas Cinema 4 was reserved, seemingly, for residents of Sydney's retirement

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THE GUARDhttp://www.sff.org.au/films-container/the-guard/In Bruges was one of my favourite films of 2008, so when I heard that John McDonagh, the brother of playwright cum writer-director Martin McDonagh who was responsible for that film, had also ventured into features with his directorial debut, The Guard, my interest was piqued. Of course, it would be unfair to judge a film based solely on a

D.R.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11517891007414596722noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-822042615030551178.post-55366902941082623052011-06-08T16:18:00.012+10:002011-06-08T22:02:53.597+10:00

THE TROLL HUNTERhttp://www.sff.org.au/films-container/the-troll-hunter/While many of my media colleagues lined-up elbow-to-elbow to catch a glimpse of Cate Blanchett, star of Hanna, the opening night film of the 2011 Sydney Film Festival, I was quite content to be queueing front-to-back inside Event Cinemas. As much as I adore Cate, and look forward to seeing Hanna (it opens in Australian cinemas

D.R.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11517891007414596722noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-822042615030551178.post-69734077798863089522011-06-05T12:38:00.010+10:002011-06-08T22:11:26.925+10:00

Paramount PicturesNow ShowingWith a film calendar full of sequels, prequels and remakes, Super 8 arrives as a pleasant surprise. Granted it's not wholly original – writer-director J.J. Abrams' sci-fi period piece is an unabashed homage to the early works of mentor, Steven Spielberg – but I found it wholly satisfying. I'll take nostalgia over studio colour-by-numbers bean counter filmmaking any

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THE TREE OF LIFEIcon Film Distributionhttp://www.sff.org.au/films-container/the-tree-of-life/Booed at Cannes yet winner of that Festival's top prize, the Palme D'or, The Tree of Life will no doubt similarly divide audiences at this year's Sydney Film Festival: beautiful, epic, ambitious or self-indulgent artistic wank? Perhaps the most anticipated film of 2011, certainly for cinephiles and lovers

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20th Century Fox FilmsNow ShowingHaving missed Bryan Singer's X-Men when it released in cinemas in 2000, I have tried (and failed) repeatedly to watch the first film in the Marvel Comics-inspired trilogy; never getting much further than about an hour in each time. Try as I might, I just can't engage with the mutants-versus-mutants-versus-humans struggle which is at the centre of these films.

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