Shazam! has an exclamation mark in its title for a reason – it’s fun, full of energy and a barrel of laughs.
The attention of cat lovers has been captured twice this month in films that draw-out the docile and wild nature of the beast.
Before the start of horror-genre film Us, a studio opening credit containing a hypnotic teacup animation that references Jordan Peele’s debut film Get Out (2017) is seen. This referral to previous work recognises Peele’s ability to deliver on iconography and is a testament to the driving power of Peele’s brand, which despite having only directed one film in his career has already garnered him accolades and recognition as an auteur horror director.
With the vaguest of childhood memories, I walked into the live-action remake of Dumbo prepared for a tale about an odd little elephant in a sad situation. I had forgotten just how sad the story of Dumbo the flying elephant really is and Tim Burton’s CGI baby elephant pulls hard on the heartstrings.
I grew up in the golden era of sick-lit films. Ansel Elgort with his constant un-smoked cigarette as a metaphor in The Fault in Our Stars (2014)? The conceived-as-a-bone-marrow-donor-for-her-terminally-ill-sister Anna and the subsequent tragic outcome in My Sister’s Keeper (2009)? Give me, give me, give me.
Karyn Kusama’s film Destroyer highlights an ongoing trend of Australian actors working in Hollywood that are unable to disguise their accents (see 2018’s Mary Queen of Scots and anything Sam Worthington).
Suppose you had the option in a game of Scrabble to play the word SACCHARINE or ANARCHIC. Saccharine, meaning excessively sweet and sentimental, and anarchic, much to do with lacking control over circumstances, are both worth more than 15 points but also summarise the range of emotions experienced by Bill Nighy and company in the 2019 British drama-comedy, Sometimes Always Never.
Captain Marvel doesn’t break any new ground in the superhero genre, however, it’s one hell of an enjoyable ride.
Everybody Knows further proves why Iranian director Asghar Farhadi is the master of family-centred, tension-filled dramas, even if it’s his most Hollywood-ized work yet.
From recent releases such as The Rider (2017) and Thoroughbreds (2018), and even as far back as The Godfather (1972), there is an obsession in filmmaking to have horses die to serve metaphoric purposes.
Oscar-winning director Neil Jordan’s latest, Greta, is a genre-piece that offers up some silly thrills that for the most part, work for entertainment’s sake.
Any film which opens with ‘Based on a true story’ incites a desire to know just how true to life the plot is. Director James Marsh attempts to keep King of Thieves as verbatim as possible and you can be assured that there is little glamorizing of this story. The crooks in this film, led by Michael Caine, are surprisingly vicious and callous with a good deal of incontinence thrown in.
Single location films aren’t easy to pull off and on the rare occasion when done right (like in 2010’s Buried) they can be quite engaging and fast-paced. The Danish-set The Guilty, without a doubt, falls into the engaging category, but not only does it keep our adrenaline pumping, it unfolds layer upon layer with a situation you don’t see coming and will leave you assessing what our protagonist (and the audience) has had to deal with after the final credits roll.
It’s a tale as old as time – boy meets dog, boy and dog form an unbreakable bond, boy and dog are tragically separated and then dog spends two-and-a-half years trekking 400 miles to get back to boy. Based on the novel of the same name by W. Bruce Cameron, A Dog’s Way Home is a canine adventure film designed to pull on the heartstrings.
It would be remiss of this reviewer to discuss the psychological drama Vox Lux without commenting on the abhorrent manner which pop-star Celeste is endowed by fame; a by-product of a culture obsessed with celebrity in a system that benefits from the exploitation of trauma.
You’d think it’d be a pie in the face for Sony Pictures Classics to release a film about iconic comedy duo Laurel and Hardy without having their stage name in the title but in the case of Stan & Ollie, it speaks a testament to the genius of the pairing both on and away from the spotlight.
