Hustlers, which is based on the Jessica Presler’s 2015 New York Magazine article ‘The Hustlers at Scores’, recounts the confessions of strippers and lap dancers who devised a scheme to scam male customers out of thousands by drugging them to the point where they could do little else but hand over their credit cards. Writer/director Lorene Scafaria gives the story
Read moreKidnapping drama Everybody Knows sees an impressive confluence of talent with esteemed Iranian director Asghar Farhadi at the helm and a cast led by Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem. The film often lives up to the promise offered by this dream team but a little too frequently slips into soap operatic drama. Cruz plays Laura a mother of two who
Read moreSuperfly is not another Marvel Comics insect-themed superhero flick but a remake of the slightly dubious but iconic 1972 blaxploitation crime drama of the same name. It wasn’t exactly a film crying out for a remake but Director X (who is better known for hip hop and r’n’b music videos) has done just that, updating the characters to a contemporary
Read moreBrothers’ Nest is the latest collaboration between brothers Shane and Clayton Jacobson, the pairing that brought us the breakthrough Aussie hit Kenny. Brothers’ Nest, a Cohen Brothers-esque murder drama infused with family resentment and a touch of Hitchcockian creepiness is, however, a very different beast to Kenny. Shane and Clayton play Terry and Jeff, two middle-aged brothers who have decided
Read moreOn-screen text at the beginning of Sicario: Day of the Soldado, the sequel to the much lauded 2015 drug-crime drama Sicario, delivers what seems to be a disturbingly ‘conservative’ message about people smuggling across the Mexican-US border, much like the sort of statement we might expect from a certain oddly-coiffured world leader. It appears that this film may have shelved
Read moreAlthough it boasts the novelty of having been shot in one continuous take, low-budget German movie Victoria thankfully manages to be a complete film rather than an indulgent experiment. With its unusual ebb and flow of tension and manic action, Victoria intrigues, unnerves and excites in equal measure. The title character (Laia Costa) is a young Spanish woman who lives
Read more