Movies Archives - Page 24 of 53

5 February 202111 January 2022

Review: ‘Malcolm & Marie’ confirms Zendaya and John David Washington as major talents

I like movies that are based on plays, or that resemble them. Movies where characters sit in a room and talk endlessly. Showcases for actors, heavy with dialogue and a tendency toward big performances. Malcolm & Marie, the new film by Sam Levinson starring John David Washington and Zendaya is not based on a play, but it does resemble one.

5 February 202111 January 2022

Victoria Film Fest Review: ‘Skyfire’ doesn’t make a lick of sense, but is still fun

Disaster movies occupy a small but bombastic niche of filmmaking. They’re big on spectacle, small on plot, and medium on characterisation in the case of the best ones. When it comes to the science of whatever disaster they are portraying, they are usually either accurate to a point, or seemingly completely unresearched. Skyfire, the first blockbuster budgeted disaster movie from China, is one of these movies, and a fun example of one, too.

4 February 202114 January 2022

Review: ‘The Dig’ is an unpretentious look at how the past affects the present

They say that you can never really know where you are going if you don’t know where you have been. This is true for societies as well as individuals, and in the new Netflix movie The Dig we get a chance to delve into a moment in England’s history as well as England’s relationship with its history.

30 January 202114 January 2022

Review: ‘Palmer’ is pretty good!

Here’s a confession: I love Justin Timberlake. The guy is a triple threat. He can sing, he can dance, and he can act. Not everything he has been in has been gold, but he’s put in enough good performances that I am ready and willing to see just about anything he is in these days.

It has been a few years since Timberlake has been seen in person in a film, and Palmer represents exactly the kind of movie that an actor looking to re-assert themselves after a bad role or an absence (or both) would take. So is it any good? Yeah. Mostly.

29 January 202114 January 2022

Review: ‘Penguin Bloom’ is just fine

A tragic accident. A woman in distress. An animal with which to form an emotional bond. Penguin Bloom is precisely the movie you think it is.

20 January 202114 January 2022

Review: ‘The White Tiger’ is a rags-to-riches story, but not a fairy tale

With over 1.3 billion people, India is the worlds largest democracy. The country is still steeped in traditional values, and while there used to be many castes of people there are now seemingly just two: the rich, and the poor. The White Tiger sets out to tell you a tale of those two classes, much like 2008s Slumdog Millionaire did, but where Slumdog was a fairy tale, The White Tiger is a tale of power and abuse, and how those things will reveal exactly who you are.

15 January 202114 January 2022

Review: ‘Love Sarah’ is sweet, but underbaked

Grief is a powerful thing. Imagine that you’re waiting for your friend to show up on the first day you begin your new adventure as business partners. I imagine being a child who texts your mother good luck and then goes on about your day. Imagine being a mother, estranged from her daughter, and having to answer the door to a pair of police officers there to let you know that your daughter has been killed in an accident.

This is the setup of the three main characters in Love Sarah, the story of a daughter, a mother, and a friend who open a bakery and name it after the titular Sarah dies in the films opening moments.

13 January 202114 January 2022

Review: ‘Outside the Wire’ is a bit derivative but has some cool action

You have definitely seen this film before. Well, ok, not exactly this film, but if you’re a fan of science fiction and you’re presented with a story about a cocksure young recruit being paired with an android who can’t lie but clearly isn’t telling the whole truth, well, you’ve seen this movie before.

11 January 202114 January 2022

Italian Film Fest Review: ‘Sin’ humanizes a legend

Michelangelo Buonarroti is one of the worlds great artistic geniuses. Admired in his own time and now, his skill for sculpture, in particular, is second to none. Juxtaposed to his talent is how he lived his life, eschewing food and personal hygiene in favour of his work.

Given the man’s stature and the interesting twists his story had, it’s surprising that there aren’t more films about him. In this new film, Russian director Andrei Konchalovsky offers a new perspective of a man we’re all familiar with, but few know much of anything about him beyond his artistic genius.

4 January 202114 January 2022

Review: ‘Pieces of a Woman’ has a tour de force performance from Vanessa Kirby

Parents aren’t supposed to outlive their children. This is one of those universal truths, along with things like “the Earth is round” or “water is wet.” The devastation of losing a child is unimaginable, let alone losing one at the moment of birth. This is the story of Pieces of a Woman, which follows expectant parents Vanessa Kirby and Shia LaBeouf through the night of their daughter’s birth and then through the year after as they deal with the aftermath of her death.

2 January 20215 September 2021

Matt’s Favourite Films & Performers of 2020

2020 has been a hell of a year. With theatres ending up being an unsafe place to be during an ongoing worldwide pandemic you’d think it would be a harder year for film, but looking back it’s clear that this year has been an as vibrant and diverse year for film as any other.

Of course, the difference is that without theatres, there have been far fewer blockbusters and far more indie and middle-tier films. The impact on my film diary for the year has been an interesting one, with bigger budget films losing the endorphin high of the theatrical experience –and thus losing some of the immediate forgiveness they earn if they aren’t great. Additionally, film festivals moved to an online experience either in whole or in part this year, which has meant that I have “attended” more of them.

As a result, I have seen more than 120 of 2020’s films, a steep increase from years past. Narrowing the list down to a group of favourites is as difficult as ever! Also this year, for the second time, I am going to highlight some of the performers that blew me away.

21 December 202019 April 2022

WFF Quick Reviews: ‘Death of a Ladies Man’, ‘Between Waves’, and ‘Small Time’

The festival proper is over, but all the titles at the Whistler Film Festival are still available to stream through the end of the month. With that in mind, let’s take a quick look at three more films that you can watch right now.

21 December 202021 December 2020

Review: ‘The Midnight Sky’ shoots for the stars, but ultimately misses

George Clooney is a talented actor and director, and often produces excellent work when he does both of those things. The Midnight Sky, his latest starring and directorial effort, features an incredible ensemble of character actors, stunning effects and production design, and a story clearly influenced by many seminal science fiction stories, but even in the hands of such talent fails to become something special.

21 December 202022 February 2021

Review: ‘Soul’ cements Pete Docter as one of our great storytellers

Pete Docter is one of the best directors of animated features working today. That might sound like hubris, but it isn’t. Each of his films is adorable, approachable, and visually stunning enough to warrant the praise, but each also has a core of love and acceptance that makes them universal. The marriage montage in Up! or the simple truth that sadness plays a key roll in our lives from Inside Out, Docter makes movies that tell truths.

Soul, his latest film, is no different.

17 December 202012 July 2021

Review: ‘Tenet’ is visually impressive but too clever by half.

Tenet was one of the most anticipated movies of the year. Delayed multiple times due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, it was finally released to theatres late in the summer in an effort to save the cinema business but need up only proving that the world still wasn’t safe enough for that to happen. Not a flop at the box office exactly, but not a moneymaker either, there isn’t a movie with a more interesting story behind it this year.

Now, finally, it has arrived on home video, and I have finally had a chance to see it. So, how is it? Well, it’s a visually stunning and completely frustrating mess of a movie.

Awesome Friday!

Category: Movies