Empire of Light  ★★★ SAM Mendes’ latest film, Empire of Light, is a case of the parts being greater than the sum. The 2022 romantic drama depicts a wonderful relationship at its core and features outstanding performances from Olivia Colman and relative newcomer Micheal Ward, an interesting location and the […]

Performances are key to Empire

After Yang ★★★½   KOREAN director Kogonda’s After Yang is a beautifully presented and told study of family relationships. The follow-up to his award-winning Columbus (2017), After Yang is written, directed, and edited by Kogonada, adapated from a short story by American writer Alexander Weinstein. It is set in the […]

Many questions to ponder After Yang

Nanny  ★★★ THE talents of two Senegalese-American women come together successfully in the horror/drama Nanny. In 2022 it became the first horror film to win the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival and continued to be lauded by many critics throughout the year. While I don’t think it’s […]

Nanny showcases Senegalese talent

Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody  ★★★ WHAT an amazing voice Whitney Houston had; power and emotion mixed with technical brilliance and control. The authorised biographical drama Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody is a nice tribute to the singer and showcases some of the iconic moments in […]

Entertaining tribute to The Voice

Bones and All  ★★★★ ITALIAN director Luca Guadagnino first came to prominence with his beautiful romance Call Me By Your Name released in 2017. Timothee Chalamet, a relative newcomer at the time, played a young man who shared an transformative summer relationship with an older man. Even though it’s a […]

Romance will eat your heart out

Black Site  ★★½ AUSTRALIA became a bit of a handy location for filming quick-fire action movies during the Covid years. Spiderhead and Interceptor are two recent releases that come immediately to mind. Unfortunately neither was particularly good. Black Site is another one and it’s probably the best of the three. […]

Best of an average Oz-made bunch

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery  ★★★ Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery isn’t quite as good as Rian Johnson’s previous whodunnit, 2019’s Knives Out. It’s very entertaining and the mystery element is nicely presented, thanks mainly to an extended flashback sequence that enables the audience to re-set and re-evaluate […]

Glass Onion a bit of a mystery

Christmas Bloody Christmas  ★★ JOE Begos is certainly a trier. The low-budget horror film-maker has delivered five releases since 2013 but none have managed to put him in a box seat with any of the major independent horror houses. He nearly got there with V/F/W in 2019 and Bliss, released […]

Begos’ killer Santa a step backwards

Medieval  ★★★ IN CASE you are not aware – as I wasn’t – Jan Žižka is a hero in Czech history, a Bohemian military commander who never lost a battle. Director Petr Jákl’s tribute to Žižka is called Medieval and it’s the most expensive Czech film ever made. It focuses […]

Czech hero brought to life

Avatar: The Way of Water  ★★★★ ON TECHNICAL achievement alone, Avatar: The Way of Water is amongst the best films of 2022. I have never been a fan of 3D and it’s difficult to determine how much of performance capture is the acting and how much the special effects. But […]

Once again Cameron raises the bar

Prizefighter: The Life of Jem Belcher  ★★ OH boy, how to stuff up a) a real-life interesting story and b) a boxing movie. Prizefighter: The Life of Jem Belcher is about  a bareknuckle fighter who ended up becoming the youngest ever world boxing champion only to be partially blinded at […]

Prizefighter is out for the count

Project Wolf Hunting  ★★★½  Project Wolf Hunting is another example of just how far Korean film-makers will go in the name of entertainment. This grotesquely violent 2022 sci-fi action thriller is set on a cargo ship being used to transport a bunch of dangerous criminals from the Philippines to prison […]

Korean violence hits a high note