Triangle of Sadness  ★★★★ SWEDISH director Ruben Ostlund’s most recent award-winning film Triangle of Sadness achieves the dual success of being intellectually challenging and highly entertaining. It won the Palme d’Or at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for Best Film at this year’s Oscars. It follows the […]

Triangle of Sadness is bitingly entertaining

Beau is Afraid  ★★★½ A COMMENT made by another patron at a Beau is Afraid cinema screening will probably sum up the viewing experience for many. “What the fuck? I can’t decide whether that was pure genius or total bullshit.” After a period of reflection, I’m currently leaning slightly towards […]

Don’t be afraid of seeing Beau

The Pope’s Exorcist ★★½ THERE are some actors you just don’t picture in horror films…people like Tom Hanks or Meryl Streep. In terms of Australians, Russell Crowe is another. He was good as a lunatic in the recent Unhinged, but that was more drama than traditional horror. Against expectations Crowe […]

Crowe’s exorcist loses way

The Princess  ★★★ The Princess is an odd little action/comedy. It’s set in a mythical medieval kingdom and stars Joey King as a princess refusing to marry the powerful suitor who has been chosen for her. The princess – we never know her by any other name – has been […]

Nothing dainty about this princess

Polite Society ★★★½ SOME films just manage to keep a smile on your face throughout their running time. They aren’t laugh-out loud throughout, but there is something about them that makes you, well, happy. The 2023 British action comedy Polite Society is one of these, also combining elements of coming-of-age, […]

Action and laughs in Polite Society

The Dirty Dozen ★★★★ BEFORE Michael Bay and James Cameron there were tough-guy Hollywood directors like Sam Peckinpah and Robert Aldrich. These guys were the real deal, with reputations for uncompromising film-making and masculine themes. And before today’s action stars like Dwayne Johnson, Jason Statham and even Stallone and Schwarzenegger […]

Dirtier by the dozen

The Night of the 12th ★★★ YOU’VE probably seen the set-up for The Night of the 12th before. A police detective is haunted for many years by one particular case. There’s no specific reason, other than he may picture the woman as being his own wife, sister or daughter. Bastion […]

Drama made with French precision

Luther: The Fallen Sun  ★★½ BIG screen versions of television series don’t generally work. It’s not the expansion in scale that’s the problem; more the writing. By that I mean using the same writers who are more familiar with long-form story-telling and asking them to fit a a new set […]

Luther slips from grace

Where Eagles Dare  ★★★★ IN 1968 Clint Eastwood’s film career was in a state of flux. He had starred in a successful television western series, Rawhide, and then took a punt on starring in three so-called spaghetti westerns made by Sergio Leone in Italy. At this early stage critics were […]

The coming of Clint

The Silent Twins  ★★★ POLISH director Agnieszka Smoczyńska has taken on a fascinating subject with her first English language film. The Silent Twins tells the true story of June and Jennifer Gibbons whom we first meet as teenagers in their native Wales. The girls have been extremely close since birth […]

Fascinating story of silent struggle

God’s Creatures ★★½ IT’S not that often that I struggle to follow a film’s story. But that was the case with the drama God’s Creatures. It came down to a struggle with both the accents and subtle progressions in the narrative that I didn’t fully grasp. It’s set in a […]

God’s Creatures loses its way

John Wick: Chapter 4  ★★★★½ WITH the release of its latest instalment, John Wick now rivals Mission Impossible and James Bond as the best action film franchise ever. And it’s achieved that status after only four films, with just one more to hopefully go. John Wick: Chapter 4 also rivals […]

Wick universe spreads wider