My series review is here. Or read my episode recaps: episode 1 (Gold Stick), episode 2 (The Balmoral Test), episode 3 (Fairytale), episode 4 (Favourites), episode 5 (Fagan), episode 7 (The Hereditary Principle), episode 8 (48:1), episode 9 (Avalanche), and episode 10 (War). “The perfect wife, the perfect princess, and the whole place goes nuts.” It’s February… Terra Nullius: Episode 6 (The Crown season 4 recaps) Read More
INTERVIEW: writer-director Natalie Erika James on her inter-generational horror story Relic
“The idea that these memories could be within this never-ending sinister space, a labyrinth-like space, that was really the first image and the starting point.” Relic director and co-writer Natalie Erika James Natalie Erika James’s bold and shocking horror Relic takes place in an outwardly serene and beautiful family home in Australia, a home that inside… INTERVIEW: writer-director Natalie Erika James on her inter-generational horror story Relic Read More
Writer-director Michael Beets on his LIVE lockdown horror movie “In The Shadow It Waits”
“It looks like a film, but it hinges on the excitement of live performance. I’d love to give this format a name, so any ideas are welcome!” Michael Beets A study of isolation combined with modern living, In The Shadow It Waits sees a group of twenty-something colleagues, struggling with lockdown, become entangled in a… Writer-director Michael Beets on his LIVE lockdown horror movie “In The Shadow It Waits” Read More
Storm Boy 3 stars
When Michael Kingley, a retired businessman, sees images from his past that he can’t explain, he is forced to recall his childhood memories and how, as a boy, he rescued and raised an orphaned pelican, Mr Percival. Arriving just in time for our locked-down Easter holidays, this film about self-isolation, loneliness, and our enduring connections to… Storm Boy Read More
Little Monsters (London Film Festival 2019) 3 stars
Little Monsters is a great advert for teacher excellence, if not much of a recruiting tool – as multi-talented kindergarten teacher Miss Caroline has to save her class of small charges as they face down an attempted zombie apocalypse. I say attempted; it does feel a little half-hearted, as the world’s slowest undead hordes stagger round… Little Monsters (London Film Festival 2019) Read More
The Nightingale (Sundance London) 3 stars
It’s an easy get-out, to anoint a movie “a hard watch”, but Jennifer Kent’s period revenge thriller The Nightingale is just that. I went in with no other information beyond this being a follow up to The Babadook, a horror film about a menaced, powerless child but really about loneliness and grief. This is, in… The Nightingale (Sundance London) Read More
Isn’t It Romantic – 1 Minute Video Review Includes Video 4 stars
Read the full Isn’t It Romantic review and watch the trailer
Isn’t It Romantic 4 stars
I’m delighted to say that Isn’t It Romantic doesn’t have one original idea in it. You’ll have seen them all before, in a thousand romcoms – but director Todd Strauss-Schulson has taken those ideas, chucked them into the air then watched them fall to the ground in perfect order, a bit like if Rebel Wilson did… Isn’t It Romantic Read More
Sweet Country Trailer: Warwick Thornton Tackles Racism & Justice
*** My review of Sweet Country is now up *** A tale of death and racism in 1920s Australia, Sweet Country is a gut-wrenching but brilliant and gripping film set amid an arid but beautiful landscape, from director Warwick Thornton (Samson And Delilah). Sam (Hamilton Morris in his first professional role), an aboriginal farmer, is… Sweet Country Trailer: Warwick Thornton Tackles Racism & Justice Read More
Lion 4.5 stars
“Did you REALLY look for my mum?” asks little Saroo, in an orphanage in Calcutta, sitting opposite Mrs Sood, a kind but firm woman charged with finding new homes overseas for unclaimed children. “I looked everywhere”, she replies. And with that, Saroo has to move on to a new family far away in Tasmania, while acknowledging that his mum… Lion Read More
Light Between Oceans 4 stars
Guilt. That’s what they could have called Light Between Oceans, though it wouldn’t have conveyed the light-drenched sunrises that the gorgeous cinematography scatters through this film. And I was already feeling guilty at hardly having reviewed any Fassbender films despite him being officially trademarked as one of the Best Actors of his Generation. I have… Light Between Oceans Read More