The Damned (2024 Melbourne International Film Festival) ★★★ ROBERTO Minervini’s revisionist western The Damned is well made and intentioned but too static in its end result. The Italian director sets his story in the winter of 1862 in the frontier lands of America. We follow a company of soldiers tasked with patrolling […]

Western not revisionist enough

Runt (2024 Melbourne International Film Festival) ★★★½ THERE’S a concept in film reviewing known as the ‘Festival bump’. It means you are influenced to rate a film a little higher than you may have normally due to the special nature of watching at a festival. I don’t think that’s the case with […]

Aussie Runt is a winner

Cuckoo (2024 Melbourne International Film Festival)  ★★½ CUCKOO is right. German/US horror film Cuckoo is tense, quirky and interesting for its first half. Then it starts trying to explain the plot and you realise it’s going to fall very short of a satisfying story. Hunter Schafer, best known for the television series […]

Cuckoo by name and nature

Babes (2024 Melbourne International Film Festival) ★★★½ AMERICAN comedian Pamela Adlon’s debut feature is a gem. Babes is written by Ilana Glazer and Josh Rabinowitz, part of the team behind television’s Broad City, and stars Glazer and Michelle Buteau. That’s a lot of talent at work and it shows in the final […]

Babes delivers plenty of laughs and heart

Brief History of a Family (2024 Melbourne International Film Festival) ★★★½ THERE are essentially two types of filmgoers – those who prefer that conventions are adhered to and those who don’t. The Chinese psychological drama Brief History of a Family requires the latter. In his feature directorial debut Lin Jianjie, who also […]

Chinese puzzle requires connection of dots

Inside (2024 Melbourne International Film Festival) ★★★½ FILMS set in prisons have come in many different forms. They can vary as widely as The Shawshank Redemption and Scum, but rarely are they boring. Australia’s best entry to the sub-genre is probably John Hillcoat’s Ghosts of the Civil Dead, released in […]

Prison-set drama offers strong debuts

Message from the King ★★★ ACTION thriller Message from the King is another reminder of the talent that was Chadwick Bozeman. The charismatic American actor died a few years ago and is best remembered for his role in Marvel’s Black Panther. In 2016’s Message from the King, Bozeman plays Jacob King who […]

Bozeman charisma lifts actioner

The Boys in the Boat ★★½ IF ONLY George Clooney could transfer his on-screen charisma to films he just directs. The American has made several films, none of which have registered highly with critics and audiences. It’s not the material he chooses, but rather the care that’s taken with it. […]

Not enough oars in Clooney’s boat

The Strangers: Chapter 1 ★★½ FINLAND’S most famous film director had a string of hits in the 1990’s including Die Hard 2 and Cliffhanger. Renny Harlin also made a massive flop during the same period called Cutthroat Island. The 2000s haven’t been too kind to Harlin with the odd film […]

New strangers not as welcome

The Substitute ★★½ THE 1996 American film The Substitute is a ridiculous action thriller that pits ex-marines turned mercenaries against a bunch of drug-runners who are using a Miami high school as cover. Lead actor Tom Berenger has managed to cling on to an entire career based on one performance  – […]

Berenger fails to teach a thing or two

The Three Musketeers: D’Artagnan ★★★★ The Three Musketeers: Milady ★★★½ IF YOU’RE one of those boring people who constantly claims ‘they don’t make movies like they used to’, check out the latest film version of Alexandre Dumas’ The Three Musketeers. Director Martin Bourboulon actually splits the epic adventure across two […]

New musketeers’ version is one for all

Boy Kills World ★★★ IT’S not often that you say the best things about an action film don’t include the action. But that’s the case with the action comedy Boy Kills World. The debut feature from young German director Moritz Mohr stars Bill Skarsgård as Boy, a deaf mute seeking vengeance […]

Boy Kills World a narrator’s dream