I’m cold, but rowing with this icy current. Embracing The “Wu wei” principle of Taoism.
Engage Intellect (Let Go)
Journey to the Beginning of Time (1955)
Natural prehistory comes to life in a series of special effects ‘attractions’ as Zeman’s charming adventure sees four boys enter a cave that transports them back to millions of years ago.
1969
1969 is summoned in a pat and predictable yet sincere, excellently acted, frequently moving 1988 drama about two families caught up in and forever changed by events in that wild final year of an extraordinary decade. Ernest Thompson had scored a big win some years earlier writing On Golden Pond; this time out he directed […]
Review: Spring (2014), Romance Meets Body Horror in Italy
When Americans leave home in search of meaning somewhere on the European continent, it’s usually a recipe for disaster (at least in the world of horror cinema). Young, brash, naive Americans have to face ancient beasts (The Ritual), human traffickers (Hostel), and even covens of witches (Suspiria). Watching enough horror films might make you think […]
Lamborghini: The Man Behind the Legend
He was the greatest car maker of all time and a visionary like no other. Except, there have been others and we’ve seen their movies too. Ferrari did it most recently, Ford v. Ferrari did it better. It’s hard to make the same story feel fresh and Lamborghini: The Man Behind the Legend falls into […]
The Visitor (1979), A Hidden Gem of Insane 70s Sci-Fi
When you think of the 1970s, you probably think of free love, cults, psychedelic drugs, and maybe Jimmy Carter. Giulio Paradisi’s film, The Visitor (1979) has most of these things, but more than anything else, it embodies that whacky, hallucinatory vibe that only 70s films can capture. It seems to me that people back then […]
Reflect (2023), A Mind-Bending Metaphysical Journey Into the Unknown
As a film critic, there’s nothing more satisfying than discovering a director with a truly distinctive and entertaining style. With so many films I come across, I feel as though I’m watching something I’ve seen before, simply pushed through a grinder to give it a unique texture. It may look a little different, but it’s […]
’65’ (2023) – Film Review
Director: Scott Beck, Bryan Woods Cast: Adam Driver, Ariana Greenblatt Review Author: Tony Synopsis: After crash-landing on prehistoric Earth, only two survivors must navigate the hostile terrain and fend off vicious creatures to ensure their survival. I’ve always had a soft spot for schlock in my genre films, so when Hollywood decides to splurge on a B-movie […]
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
The Disney Renaissance was packed with a catalogue of excellent movies that are being zombied back as tolerable live-actions. With a few notable exceptions. When we say a movie hasn’t aged well, The Hunchback of Notre Dame is generally what we mean. As nostalgic as it was this week to dust off a childhood favourite […]
The Shape of Night (1964) review
This filmic narrative needs to be counted among the classics of Japanese cinema
Falling In Love (1984)
Frank (Robert De Niro) and Molly (Meryl Streep) meet accidentally in a bookstore in New York whilst Christmas shopping. Months pass, and their paths cross again as they both travel into the city from their suburban neighbourhoods on the same train and so they strike up a conversation. They also find that there is a […]
The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare
The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare (2024) on Amazon is a $60 million budget action-comedy film directed by Guy Ritchie which bombed at the box office but is doing rather well on streaming. The film is based on the book Churchill’s Secret Warriors: The Explosive True Story of the Special Forces Desperadoes of WWII by Damien […]
REVIEW: “The Order” (2024)
Out of the many features premiering this Fall movie season, few have peaked my curiosity quite like Justin Kurzel’s “The Order”. Based on the 1989 non-fiction book “The Silent Brotherhood” by Kevin Flynn and Gary Gerhardt, Kurzel’s period crime thriller sets out to tackle some potent subject matter. And with Jude Law, Nicholas Hoult, Tye Sheridan, and […]
Lanthimos: Kinds of Kindness (2024)
The working title of Yorgos Lanthimos’ Kinds of Kindnesses was And. In some ways, that was a more apposite title, since this anthology comedy is obsessed with one of the uncanniest spectacles in a hyper-connected world: the physical spaces and silences between things. The structure of the film itself reflects that interest in connective tissue […]
10 things I hate about you: charming mix of 90s teen culture and classic romance
Gil Junger’s 10 Things I Hate About You (1999) is a charming mix of 90s teen culture and classic romance. This film adapts Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, setting it in a high school context and focusing on two sisters, Kat and Bianca Stratford. Their father has a strict rule: Bianca, the popular younger […]
The Big Short Review
Happy New Year! Nothing rings in another year like a review on a film focusing on the economic collapse of the late 2000s, right? Anyway… Montages of excess and breaking of the fourth wall allow The Big Short to perfectly illustrate the underlying messages throughout the film. That is to say, the economic greed and […]
Beatles ‘64
Another Beatles doc you should Come Together for. The new made-for-Disney+ doc “Beatles ‘64” focuses on how, after JFK’s assassination, the Beatles made their first visit to America to perform on “The Ed Sullivan Show.” This was a 14 day…
“The Piano Lesson” Film Review: The Ghosts of our Past
The Piano Lesson (2024) is an American drama film from director Malcolm Washington, producer Denzel Washington (his father) and starring John David Washington (his brother). It tells the story of the Charles family in 1930’s Pittsburgh, as they debate whether to sell a piano that has become a family heirloom. The film debuted at the Telluride […]
For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943)
And so I’ve been on a bit of a Hemingway kick while reading a brand new book (Just released) by favorite author Mark Kurlansky. Kurlansky tracks some of his adventures in journalism alongside those of Hem while on assignments and travels in Europe, Cuba and elsewhere. I didn’t read this particular […]
AIRPORT
Burt Lancaster described his participation in what would become the first of a batch of 1970s all-star disaster epics as the worst picture he’s ever done. He declared it “the worst piece of junk ever made.” Perhaps because of this assessment we were eventually blessed with the Airplane! spoofs a decade later. Airport […]