I had never heard of Australian artist David Bromley but apparently he’s hugely successful and according to the documentary, Bromley: Light After Dark, his work is ubiquitous in upper middle-class homes. This mostly uplifting documentary examines his work and the aspects of his life, like family, that he cherishes and that have sustained him in his battles with mental illness.
Read moreSaltburn, is writer/director Emerald Fennell’s follow-up to her striking but erratic feature debut, Promising Young Woman. More stylistically assured than that film, Saltburn is an enjoyably strange, dark satire of class consciousness, poisonous wealth and social exclusion so full of indelible scenes that we can mostly overlook some slightly shaky storytelling. Barry Keoghan, who was unforgettable in the Banshees of
Read moreThe dystopian sci-fi film series, The Hunger Games was hugely successful and a cultural touchstone for many young cinema goers (but not so much this reviewer). Through those films, Jennifer Lawrence established herself as a major star playing heroine, Katniss Everdeen who, in a post-apocalyptic future, competed in the eponymous televised teen gladiator death matches and battled the fictional nation
Read moreBringing to life a full-scale biopic of Napoleon Bonaparte has been something of an Ahab-like quest for film directors. Stanley Kubrick had a Napoleon film (at one point with Jack Nicholson as the French Emperor) in the works for many years before shelving it due to studio budget concerns. Russian director Sergei Bondarchuk tackled the subject with mixed results in
Read moreFor better or worse, documentary My Name is Alfred Hitchcock is not so much about the man and his personal history but the master of suspense’s filmmaking approach. To delve into this topic, Director Mark Cousins has made the slightly unusual decision to have British actor and impressionist Alistair McGowan impersonate Hitch as narrator. This is a little distracting at
Read moreAustralian cinema isn’t renowned for its science fiction films although Mad Max and Upgrade fans might disagree. Seemingly influenced by the likes of TV show Black Mirror, the latest Aussie sci fi film, Monolith makes for a topical and inventive, if limited, addition to the genre. Monolith is as much a psychological mystery thriller as a sci fi film as
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