For those like Liz Lemon in 30 Rock who are wondering what happened to the Mentalist, Simon Baker, he’s now directing films. His debut feature is an adaptation of Tim Winton’s novel Breath. This slow-burn teen rites-of-passage story, partial biopic and surfing film has some impressive moments but never quite jells as a coherent or compelling drama. Samson Coulter, in
Read moreBritish film, The Party from director Sally Potter has nothing to do with the 1968 Peter Sellers movie. Instead this oddly brief, extremely erudite, stagey and occasionally pretentious film recalls the sort of politically-infused dinner party films we often see coming out of European arthouse cinema. The Party features a superb cast – including Kristin Scott Thomas, Timothy Spall, Patricia Clarkson
Read moreThe Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is one of those quirky film titles that suggests a twee lightweight rom com. While this charming film, based on the 2008 novel of the same name by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows, has a touch of romance and is set amid some idiosyncratic country folk, it rides a dark undercurrent
Read moreA Quiet Place is the second recent film that transforms a post-apocalyptic monster movie scenario into a highly effecting human drama. The other film is Cargo and coincidentally, the male leads in both these film, John Krasinski and Martin Freeman, started playing essentially the same character in different versions of the TV show The Office. In A Quiet Place, John
Read moreLion director Garth Davis’ new film Mary Magdalene is a low-key, very slow moving but occasionally stirring religious drama that presents a confluence of Christianity and feminism. As well as telling the familiar story of Jesus (or at least some of it), the film attempts to resurrect the image of Mary who since the middle ages has often been wrongly
Read moreSome may recall filmmakers Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead’s intriguing and perplexing doomsday cult drama Resolution from 2012. While not a sequel to that film, sci-fi/ horror flick The Endless explores a similar world in equally odd, brain-twisting fashion. This is one of those labour of love movie projects in which the producers, in this case Benson and Moorhead, are
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