Navalny  ★★★★ THERE’S an amazing section of the 2022 documentary feature Navalny that’s worth watching by itself. Russian politician Alexei Navalny, who is as close as you’re going to get to an Opposition Leader in that country, has survived an assassination attempt and is working with people who believe they […]

Navalny transcends genre

Operation Mincemeat  ★★★½ BRITISH war-time drama Operation Mincemeat bites off more than it can chew. The central, true-life story is interesting enough to carry the film, but the audience is distracted by two sub-plots that don’t work. Directed by John Madden, the story is based on a book by Ben […]

War drama distracted by sub-plots

A Male (Melbourne International Film Festival)  ★★★★½ TWO impressive debuts are involved in the slow-burn Colombian drama A Male. Writer/director Fabian Hernandez appears well at home behind the camera for his first feature effort after delivering three short films. His vision is terrifically assisted by young lead actor Felipe Ramirez […]

Colombian debuts combine

Sundown  ★★★★ TIM Roth again shows us what a great actor he can be with the right role in Sundown. This slow-burn drama set in Mexico is full of sudden surprises in the narrative and provides Roth with a part that seems to suit him perfectly, both emotionally and physically. […]

Roth rises in Sundown

The Next 365 Days  ★½ POLAND may have given us the worst trilogy in film history. In fact, I’m pretty sure it has. The Next 365 Days is the latest instalment of an erotic drama franchise based on a series of books by Blanka Lipinska. 365 Days, released in 2020, […]

In a word – woeful

Crimes of the Future  ★★★ DAVID Cronenberg’s latest, Crimes of the Future, may be one of his least accessible films. In a long and illustrious career the Canadian body horror specialist has always managed to juggle complex themes and intellectual arguments within a fairly straight-forward and exciting narrative. But Crimes […]

Cronenberg’s latest takes patience

Prey  ★★★ PREY is the latest film in the Predator franchise and, against all odds, it’s actually pretty good. The main reasons are a simplicity of plot and the location and time period – on the Northern Great Plains of North America in 1719. The latter enables two things to […]

Prey re-invigorates franchise

The Integrity of Joseph Chambers (Melbourne International Film Festival)  ★★★½ THERE’S something special about the films of American writer/director Robert Machoian that is hard to explain. He has only made five films to date and I’ve only seen the last two. Quietly powerful studies of small-town rural communities and the […]

Integrity goes on the line

Mass (Melbourne International Film Festival) ★★★★½ WHAT a gut punch the American drama Mass delivers. Fran Kranz’s directorial debut feature is almost wholly set in just one room with dialogue from four people. Veteran character actors Reed Birney, Ann Dowd, Jason Isaacs and Martha Plimpton all produce the performances of […]

Mass delivers drama masterclass

Piggy (Melbourne International Film Festival) ★★★½ POST the pandemic the Melbourne International Film Festival organisers chose to continue offering a limited streaming program in 2022. It’s easy to use and many, but not all, of the better titles were available from the annual event. Unfortunately the selection was light on horror, […]

Piggy tops festival’s horror list

Last Seen Alive  ★★½ GERARD Butler’s latest effort lacks originality and tension. The script for Last Seen Alive, by Marc Frydman, borrows the basic set-up from several better films and adds little to differentiate it. Butler plays Will Spann whose marriage to Lisa (Jaimie Alexander) is on the rocks. While […]

Last seen struggling

Thirteen Lives  ★★★½ ONCE again director Ron Howard has managed to create tension and suspense where there could have been none at all. There are hardly any people on the planet who don’t recall the rescue in 2018 of a Thai soccer team and their coach from a flooded cave […]

Lives in the balance