French writer/ director Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance disturbingly updates Oscar Wilde’s The Picture Of Dorian Gray and adds a smattering of Showgirls for a gruesome body horror satire of Hollywood, the beauty industry and the damaging expectations placed on women. In an unsettlingly appropriate piece of casting, Demi Moore plays celebrity aerobics trainer Elisabeth Sparkle who hosts a successful Jane
Read moreWhile its plot and thickly layered Australiana are a little clichéd, Runt, from director John Sheedy, is still a very sweet, charming family film that represents another instalment in the ‘amazing animal’ film sub-genre. The title character (played by a dog named Squid) is a stray terrier who lives in the fictitious remote Australian town of Upson Downs. Having just
Read moreFor some, June Squibb will be best remembered as Bruce Dern’s long-suffering wife in Alexander Payne’s Nebraska, or Sheldon’s flinty grandma in The Big Bang Theory. She’s been acting in movies since 1990 but the uneven yet touching comedy Thelma is her first leading role. Squibb plays the 90-something title character who’s still adjusting to life after her husband’s death.
Read moreThe thinly plotted but generally fun and family friendly fantasy Harold and the Purple Crayon is based on the 1955 children’s book by Crockett Johnson. The slightly meta story has the character Harold (Zachary Levi) living in the two-dimensional book world created by Crockett Johnson. There, Harold can use a magical purple crayon to create any object he needs including
Read moreStrange Darling is guaranteed to be a favourite of those who enjoy blood-soaked cinema. While it’s certainly violent and confronting, it’s also inventive in the way it gleefully plays with the conventions of the serial killer film and with audience expectations. Written and directed by JT Mollner, the film cleverly goads us into thinking in a certain way about the
Read moreTim Burton has forged a unique sub-genre in Hollywood, comical goth horror with films often celebrating mercurial outsiders such as Edward Scissorhands, Ed Wood, Willy Wonka and of course the title character from the film that arguably put him on the map, the 1988 horror/comedy hit Beetlejuice. That anarchic, inventively odd, if occasionally irritating film introduced us to the mischievous
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