Based on the non-fiction book The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History, Monuments Men dramatises the time during World War Two when art critics invaded Germany. Throughout the war, the Nazis had stolen copious art treasures including Michelangelo’s Madonna and Child, from galleries and private collections across Europe. For what are purported in
Read moreYoung adult literature has recently become the scourge of film critics with horrendous adaptations of Stephanie Myers’ Twilight series and The Host as well as the lamentable big screen versions of Cassandra Clare’s first Mortal Instruments fable. Despite fleeting moments of genuine entertainment and deliberate amusement, Vampire Academy maintains the dismal standard. Vampire Academy revolves around Rose Hathaway (Zoey Deutch)
Read moreExistential drama All Is Lost sees sole cast member Robert Redford play an unnamed yachtsman battling the elements and the threat of starvation and dehydration on a sinking yacht in the Indian Ocean. As the story of a marooned person struggling for survival, the film evokes comparisons with Gravity and Life of Pi but this is a far more restrained,
Read moreGore Vidal, who died in 2012, was an acclaimed and highly provocative playwright, novelist, essayist occasional political candidate and famed social and political commentator. The documentary Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia traces Vidal’s life from privileged boyhood as a US Senator’s son, to his emergence as a prominent student intellectual, his military service during the Second World War,
Read moreBest known in this country for the vivid animated fantasy films Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away, Japanese writer-director Hayao Miyazaki brings us what is arguably his most mature, moving and contemplative film, The Wind Rises. This is reportedly Miyazaki’s last film and with its artistically inspired and introspective protagonist and typical Miyazaki themes such as pacifism, environmental devastation, the role
Read moreTracks, starring Mia Wasikowska, dramatises Robyn Davidson’s best-selling book which chronicled her epic 1,700 kilometre journey from Alice Springs to Uluru and the Indian Ocean in 1977. Davidson trekked on foot with four camels carrying supplies and her dog Diggity as company. Reluctantly, she allowed awkward American National Geographic photographer Rick Smolan (Adam Driver) to meet up with her every
Read more