The first two thirds of horror film Mama are so creepy and stylishly shot it’s a tragedy that the film succumbs to cliché and implausibility in its latter stages. This is yet another film with the production imprimatur of Guillermo del Toro and anyone who has seen previous films he has produced will know that this means spooky children communing
Read moreNot to be confused with Nic Roeg’s freaky 1970 counter-culture film, Performance depicts the traumas afflicting a revered American string quartet as they confront human frailty in its many forms. The film was originally titled A Late Quartet but this was changed in Australia to avoid confusion with Dustin Hoffman’s film Quartet which also focused on a group of classical musicians.
Read moreJulie Delpy seems to treat her films as a form of family therapy as they frequently explore the emotional bonds and conflicts inherent in families. Her latest film Skylab is no different as it plunges us into a (possibly autobiographical) childhood reminiscence of a pivotal time in a woman named Albertine’s (Karin Viard) life. Neither plot driven nor particularly episodic,
Read moreRebelle aka War Witch is a Canadian film shot in the Congo which takes us on a harrowing journey into the world of child soldiers in sub-Saharan Africa. Its slight narrative tells the story of Komona (Rachel Mwanza), a 12 year old girl stolen from her home by rebels and forced to become a child soldier. Fuelled up on drugs
Read moreIt’s classic album time once again on Built For Speed and this week we go back to 1996 for Wilco’s alt country game changer Being There. There’s also plenty of new Australian and overseas music for you. On the movie front we look at sinister goings on in the sweaty Southern swamplands in The Paperboy and an astonishing story of deception in
Read moreIt’s a pretty daunting task for any director to try to create a prequel for a classic film. Tinkering with a well-established movie mythology means there’s a huge threat of a backlash should they get it wrong; Phantom Menace anyone? The task is even greater when it’s an icon of old Hollywood and such a universally loved film as The
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