Director Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther sequel Wakanda Forever faced an unusual challenge in that it’s star Chadwick Boseman, who played the title character, tragically passed away in 2020. This left us with the question, without Black Panther himself, is there enough in the world of Wakanda to really engage audiences? The answer is yes (just) but at 161 minutes, this
Read moreMrs Harris goes to Paris is a charming but very twee and often implausible feel-good comedy/drama. The film at times recalls movies like Hidden Figures, The Help and Pretty Woman as it features a working-class woman who’s ignored or looked down upon by society but proves astonishingly formidable and cleverer than those who see themselves as her superiors. There’s also
Read moreArmageddon Time, which was the opening night feature at this year’s Jewish Film Festival, is a wonderfully poignant rites of passage drama based on the experiences of its writer/ director James Gray. (Michael) Banks Repeta plays a slightly fictionalised version of Gray named Paul Graff, a decent but precocious and trouble-prone 12-year-old living in Queens, New York in 1980. A
Read moreBarbarian is almost a really effective horror film. It’s stylishly shot, makes inventive use of familiar horror settings and is at times genuinely unnerving but it’s also infuriatingly erratic with some bizarre plot devices and clumsy tonal shifts. The film begins as an impressively tense and mysterious cautionary tale with a young professional woman Tess (Georgina Campbell) turning up to
Read moreBros, which was written by Billy Eichner (yes, Craig from Parks and Recreation) who also stars and Nicholas Stoller (who also directs) has been dubbed the first LGBTQI rom-com. Pasting a label on a film like that can feel a bit dubious but it does serve to remind us of one of the film’s key themes, the attempt by our
Read moreBased on Kate Kyriacou’s book, The Sting, which documented the events surrounding the elaborate police operation to capture the man who tragically abducted and murdered Queensland boy Daniel Morecambe, the gripping Australian crime drama The Stranger explores not only the depths of criminal behaviour but also the dark places it takes those who investigate these crimes. It’s important to note
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