The Cannes Grand Prix award winning Finnish film Compartment No. 6 is a surprisingly and impressively gritty and moody take on the romantic drama genre. Here, young Finnish woman Laura (Seidi Haarla) leaves her lover, Russian academic Irina (Dinara Drukarova) in Moscow to travel to Russia’s frozen north in Murmansk to view ancient petroglyphs (i.e. rock carvings). The train journey
Read moreBaz Luhrmann is one of the least subtle directors of recent times. Perhaps only Michael Bay and Oliver Stone in the 90’s top him for obviousness and outrageousness. Having Baz direct a film about Elvis Presley who, at least in the latter part of his life, was known for excess and an extravagant lifestyle, promised to be a sensory assault.
Read moreSteadily emerging as one of the most interesting contemporary filmmakers, Alex Garland, who intrigued and unnerved us with his AI thriller Ex Machina, brings us his creepiest film yet, the oddball horror misogyny parable, Men. As anyone who has seen the evil, shiny, puppet-like face in the promo will realise, there’s something decidedly sinister at work in this film. Here,
Read moreIranian director Asghar Farhadi is one of the great auteurs of contemporary cinema. His distinctly low-key humanist dramas immerse us in the minutiae of Iranian people’s lives and through their stories he subtly but powerfully explores aspects of Iranian society, culture and politics. His latest film, the Cannes Film Festival Grand Prix winner, A Hero, is no different and has
Read moreBenediction, the latest film from revered English director Terence Davies (Distant Voices, Still Lives) intelligently and movingly dramatizes the life of famed poet, Siegfried Sassoon. The film depicts Sassoon as an artist who, despite objecting to Britain’s continued participation in the First World War and to entrenched British values, was celebrated by British high society. The film also reveals his
Read moreMothering Sunday, which comes from director Eva Husson and is based on the Graham Swift novel, explores torrid passions lurking beneath the surface of rigid manners in the British upper class in the early 20th century. The film focuses on young maid, Jane Fairchild (Australian actress Odessa Young) who works in the sterile and often tense household of the Nivens,
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