Reviews

Plenty of pizazz, and big name French actors, going through their paces. Great airplane movie, if they ever let us onto airplanes again.

For me, it seemed like too much skill, devoted to little of an idea. OK, the guy can pay big-time, to have his salad days recreated with great finesse. And so? Didn't seem to go anywhere, it just went on, the end.

A whole bunch of reviewers and users have marked down this movie because it's not the one that they wanted Decker to make.

It is particularly silly to pout, because the Shirley of this movie doesn't have her four real-life kids in tow.

But that would be a totally different movie, and you wouldn't get the extremal love-hate of the Shirley-Rose interactions, which riff on Moss's similar interactions in AR Perry's Queen of Earth.

News flash, movies change, deal with it. We have sound and colour these days. Jump cuts. If you look at this one its own terms, Decker is the way she always is, consistently different and original.

I think she can go a little better yet. I maybe prefer Madeline's Madeline, even though it had less money thrown at it, and no Scorcese for EP.

Brilliant opening credits. Terrific soundtrack. Stylish production design. The point of the movie? Go figure.

I was amazed to find this one on Netflix, got thru three hours OK. Puiu himself as the bitter divorcee Viorel does a fine turn, consistently sour-faced, obnoxious, and aggressive with everyone he has to deal with.

I wouldn't over-react to the washed-out winter grime of Romania, "minus 11 in the capital". It's more of a backdrop than a critique. Puiu is interested in the moods of the scenes and angles, as our disturbed non-hero angles across rail lines, city streets, suburban alleys, and apartment corridors.

The end stage, where Viorel explains too much to the viewer, but also barely explains anything, is fun. And not inconsistent with how we humans are.

Australia postures as "the most successful multicultural nation on earth". Works for Anglos, Chinese, Indians, you name it. Not so well, if you're Indigenous.

Director Newell couldn't possibly have made this movie without the hard-earned trust of the communities and families. This pays off as cinema, as the central figure of Dujuan springs to life as a complex and renegade character at odds with his "white" schooling. Central locale Alice Springs, not the prettiest of towns, also springs to life visually, under artfully-chosen lenses and shots.

Along the way, Newell makes a powerful case for much more respect and resources to be thrown at Indigenous (non-school, land-based, language-based, elder-centric) channels and pathways of educating Indigenous kids.

It's a case that wouldn't cost that much to realise, in one of the richest countries on earth, which already has a two-tier schooling system in any event.

By OECD norms, a ridiculous share of our $50bn national schooling kitty goes to church schools with selective entry and uncapped fees. Yep, these pampered schools do take a few Indigenous kids. Just enough to make them look good.

Gotta hand it to Kore Eda, taking on the French language and La Reine Catherine at the same time. Not surprising that he is bested somewhat.

There's enough to like. I smiled when the Deneuve character disses the Hawke character as an actor. Same could be true in real life. But the Hawke character does riffs on the "Before Sunrise" franchise he was in, also fun.

Some of Deneuve's film-within-a-film scenes are true and affecting. But I agree with other comments, that the partial mother-daughter reconciliation at the end is out of whack with what's gone before. Lessens the whole movie.

How am I meant to cope, with the beautiful ScarJo morphing into an Annette Bening? It's not easy, I can tell you that. Putting that aside, go see this, on Netflix if you will, I don't care. It's clever, but not in a bad way.

This calendar year, any calendar year, movies that actually prick my emotions (in real time) are very rare. Spanish-language Our Time, and Pain and Glory, did it. Here, ScarJo and Driver got to my emotions, a couple of times.

The money scene, a full-on donnybrook between the divorcing couple, is terrific. If director Baumbach provides a "happy" ending, then I reckon he's earned it.

Peoples are losing their minds over the sainted director, forgetting the movie. Sure, it's well made, fascinating history. But it's second nature for De Niro, and Pacino overreaches at times. The third reel is repetitive over the decline of the De Niro character. Would be a better movie at 2hr 30. In fact, I thought it had ended about then, but it meandered on another hour.

Though a couple of user reviews panned it, I thought it was a terrific take on the topical issue of sexual harassment. The perp, the victim, and the victim's husband, are all finely drawn, rather than being overblown or unrealistic characters. The director gets a lot out of 95 minutes, good ending too.

If you're fascinated by classical piano, or indeed manipulative mothers, this is a must watch. Even if you're not, it has surprising resonance.

The Australian Geoffrey Tozer was a world-level pianist (no, seriously) who flickered out early, but resurged under the patronage of Australian PM Paul Keating. When it all goes pear shaped once again, the suspects are variously too much patronage, the mother's death, the agent's death, or the end of the affair.

Resisting the urge to turn all this into white-hats and black-hats, director Janine Hosking achieves something better, a compact and original doco about the ominous and unlikely places from which great art arises.

The cruel business of Asian forced-labour fishing is no joke, but if you want to make a movie of it, it still has to work as a movie.

Rathjen largely succeeds, aided by fine camera work, and cinematic interludes that break up what would otherwise be an unbearably grim tale. The interludes might be a high-altitude shot of the death boat, a thoughtful moment of beauty, or a flashback to the young conscript's home village.

The ending strikes an apt note, neither too sad nor too sentimental. It's hard to imagine this one will do huge box office, so let's hope that Rathjen comes back for another round. Talented Australian directors are rare, and rarer still do they kick on for longer careers.

La Binoche has done a couple of these out-there roles, brave of her. One hopes the real person is not really troubled by her approaching age.

Very watchable, though the plot grates gears a couple times. The protagonist's psych does a fine and nuanced turn. But I never bought the cougar romance with the youngster, not on any level, even though he works so hard. They always seem to be faking it. Y'know, like Don and Mel, at some presidential occasion.

Tight, well acted, the opioid crisis, the flat parts of Texas standing in for Nebraska/Manitoba, what's not to like?

Didn't end the way I expected, arguably the ending is flat, but I was able to buy it nevertheless. Also, Texas has yet to adopt the Alabama attack on Roe v Wade, so you don't have to boycott it on those grounds.

A virtue here is the main character Ruth, who is unglamorous and pissed at the world in ways that female leads aren't always allowed. A fault is the overstaged violence in the third reel. Watchable, idiosyncratic, but not entirely convincing.

A real struggle, both leads flounder with their characters. The cat, even though it's not a very nice cat, was the only person I could relate to. By the time the one fun scene arrives, it's far too late to redeem the movie.

If you're married, this will stop you from divorcing. If not, it will stop you from dating.

An hour in, it seemed, this isn't going anyplace, nothing is going to happen. It wasn't. Folks are going to die, one of them quite creatively, but the story itself is far from creative. Nobody evolves that much, or evinces much sympathy.

Don't make extraordinary efforts to see this moderate piece, especially if you could see an interesting thriller like Burning instead.

What even is a Paraguay? No idea, never been there, but this is terrific. Ana Brun hits the ball out of the park, showing big life stresses and changes through just the subtlest of inflections.

Never heard of the director either. He delivers a sophisticated, morally perplexing and topical movie. I'll sign up for anything else he makes.

Thanks to Palace for bringing this one to Australia.

Bonnaire does well. But she is better than the rest of it. In reality this is quite a limited movie, and its 103 minutes is plenty. Watch, but keep your expectations in check.

Given the distinctive quality of Polish cinema, we don't see enough Polish movies in Australia, and I was happy to catch a one-night stand, as it were, from this one.

Intelligent, well cast, beautifully shot, church-ridden, grey, and typically unsettling. As Polish as anything, this is definitely not a date and popcorn movie. Even the first and 'happiest' dinner party scene is shot in washed out blues and greens. From there on, all four female protagonists are bound for sexual grief, although the lesbian character does win a weird kind of satisfaction at the end.

I'd go see this director's next outing, and I wouldn't mind seeing his previous. For me, his observations are vigorous, expanding to give comment on life as we live it, and not just dispensing gloom for the sake of gloom. The gratuitous moments - like Madame Principal's rough-trade encounter with a former student - can be overlooked.

You have to be astonished that this one collected a Palme. Not least, it evidently lies in the shadow of Haneke, winner of two recent Palmes for much better movies.

The satire on the art world, the rattling of the bourgeoisie, both seem too overdrawn to be effective. Sketches go on too long, as when the museum director videos his apology, or the ape-man detonates the society party. Cutaways that don't happen, or do but are merely irritating, seem like unsuccessful adaptions of Haneke's grating style.

A few folks left my screening up around the 90 minute mark, their patience evidently worn thin. They'd seen the best of it, like the director's fling with the journo.

Now, if you really want to see someone stick it right up the bourgeoisie, you can't go past Haneke's mordant misbehaviour in Benny's Video (1992).

Often, Japanese movies are slightly weird in a good and culturally intriguing way. This one is weird in a not so good way.

Based on a not very good novel, Birds intrigues for the first two reels, but falls away thereafter. The female and male lead, excellent as they are, are forced into too many tight plot corners, and their taut emotionality runs into histrionics.

Worth a watch, sure, but keep your expectations in check.

Just one thing on top of another! Often different noises or different people coming at us simultaneously from different parts of the screen. The Lawrence character is forever fearfully reacting to the latest home invasion or the latest weird effusion from her house. Which she's tried to turn into a heaven. As if.

I went along with this one for the first two acts. Getting more extreme, but still in the frame. interesting and pointed. For me, the violent third act is a polariser, you either love it or hate it. I hated it. In the moment of watching, I couldn't grasp the full sense of it, and it seemed to undo a lot of the good work that had come before.

Good to see Lawrence going for new levels. Bardem as the blocked writer just seems to cruise, a less sinister version of his No Country dude. The previous reviewer here makes a useful comparison to Bunuel's teasing sleights of hand. Just think of the remarkable discipline in the quick-fire third act of Obscure Object, then compare that to the mayhem here.

You'd buy Renner as a strong type with hidden emotions, but Olsen is somewhat against type as an FBI agent. They both do well in this nicely-written snowbound thriller.

Oddly enough, I thought the one characterisation that didn't quite gel was the baddest guy of all. Of whom we don't see a lot, but he's important.

How workable is it to run through miles of snow barefoot? Or indeed burst your lungs from the cold at these altitudes? Medical citations please, chaps.

I'm closer to Thobias on this one.

Sure, it's an easy watch, quick and stylish to a fault, and certainly raises highly pertinent questions about Danish (or any OECD) society.

But I found that the script didn't take anywhere near enough effort to make it plausible. So, here we have this highly integrated professional, Dr Jekyll, with a great marriage. He's consciously walked away from his culture and ethnicity, goes out of his way to abuse his poor old dad for being mentally stuck in Iraq.

Then, on behalf of a loser brother he doesn't even like, he suddenly turns into Mr Hyde on steroids? The only partial explanation we're offered is guilt, but it didn't wash for me.

Billed in Australia as 'Coming of Age', usually a turn-off for me. Saw it anyway, one does get a little reckless down here, you know.

The first reel didn't dispel my misgivings, but it came home well after that, showing unexpected nuance, including the character of the girl's troubled father.

Nice showing by Skog, acting out the difficult brief of a girl supposed to be 'wise beyond her years'. I'm not surprised some of the other girls became her real-life friends.

I was sufficiently OK that I'd try out other movies by this director.