French legal drama, The Thread, which is directed by and stars the revered Daniel Auteuil, is in many ways a familiar courtroom drama but Auteuil invests the story with a potent sense of intrigue and an affecting personal quality. Based on actual events, the film sees Auteuil play Jean Monier, a lawyer in the throes of self-doubt and disillusionment with
Read moreCop show parody, The Naked Gun (1988) was classic Zucker brothers humour with silly word play, send ups of Hollywood clichés and surreal sight gags revolving around the bumbling Captain Frank Drebin’s (Leslie Nielsen) complete obliviousness to reality and capacity for unintentional destruction. The quality of the Naked Gun movies declined across the sequels but some people, including producer Seth
Read moreGuess what folks, the big new cinema release for this week is a sequel. Freakier Friday is the follow up to the juvenile but fun 2003 body swap comedy Freaky Friday which starred Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan, a mother and daughter whose consciousness swapped bodies so that each had to live the other’s life and learn about their
Read moreWhile it had some gnawing inconsistencies and questionable logic, Zach Cregger’s 2022 home share horror film Barbarian, was so artfully creepy it signalled the writer/director as an exciting new force in the horror genre. His latest film, Weapons is even better. There are a few stumbles but this bizarre, disturbing mystery thriller is so cleverly constructed and so well performed
Read moreThe Fantastic Four has been the problem child of the Marvel cinema family. There have been two previous false starts with the 2005 film starring Chris Evans and Jessica Alba and the 2015 reboot starring Miles Teller and Kate Mara which began promisingly before weirdly falling apart half way through. Now, in the wake of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s takeover
Read moreWith a touch of the destructive disillusion of Falling Down and the unsettling oddness of Yorgos Lanthimos’ films, the very strange, dark and often very funny bromance cringe comedy Friendship is a bizarre take on the weird neighbour film. Comedian Tim Robinson (Saturday Night Live, Detroiters, I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson) plays the socially awkward, misfit office
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