Splashed with vivid colour and featuring stories about relationships, solidarity and conflicts between women – particularly mothers and daughters – Pedro Almodóvar’s films are immediately recognisable. HIs moving new film Parallel Mothers has all the unmistakable Almodóvar traits, but in exploring women’s lives this time, he links the personal and the political in a story about confronting the raw truth
Read moreGiven director Guillermo del Toro’s catalogue of ornate gothic horror movies, it seems a film about a carnival freak show would be a career imperative. His latest movie, the confrontingly dark and creepy noir crime thriller, Nightmare Alley – which is a remake of the Edmund Goulding 1947 film – explores this unsettling and often sad world. Bradley Cooper stars
Read moreIn its odd but often very moving mix of refugee drama, quirky culture clash comedy, story of crushed hope and depiction of music as a source of salvation, Limbo at times recalls the lauded 2007 cross-cultural comedy-drama The Band’s Visit. Like that film, Limbo sees a group of people displaced from their homeland trying to cope with an unusual and
Read moreThe Gen X nostalgia mining continues with yet another sequel/ reboot of a 90’s favourite, in this case Scream. While just called Scream, this film actually marks the fourth sequel to the 1996 original (so it might be thought of as Scream 5) with Scream 4 having been released in 2011. The first Scream film was a successful attempt at
Read moreDocumentary I’m Wanita is one of those films that reveals a fascinating character living in our midst who most people, including this reviewer, knew nothing about. The film details the remarkable, troubled but courageous life of country singer Wanita Bahtiyar who is referred to as ‘Australia’s Queen of Honky Tonk’. Like its subject, the film has an engaging mix of
Read moreThe 355 attempts to combine the kinetic action and espionage of Mission Impossible with the female solidarity and empowerment of Charlie’s Angels and Gunpowder Milkshake. Unfortunately, this pedestrian film falls short as an action film, fails to say anything particularly original or profound about the role and status of women in action movies and lacks the ebullient fun of the
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