With its contemporary catchphrase title, Spoiler Alert sounds like it should be a snarky teen comedy. Instead, this romantic comedy/drama ,which is based on memoir of the same name by Michael Ausiello, is a sensitive, at times very moving but also tonally erratic film about the impermanence of life and the short time we have with one another. Jim Parsons,
Read moreA religious parable, a critique of a society poisoned by chatroom conspiracy theories, an endorsement of conspiracy theories or simply a loopy shaggy dog story, the meaning of M. Night Shyamalan’s latest film A Knock at the Cabin is a little too fuzzy and while some of the journey is worth it, its half-baked story makes for an often-irritating experience.
Read moreHi Built For Speed listeners, here’s my review of The Whale from Friday 3rd Feb 2023.
Read moreWith Tar, his first feature length film as director since 2006’s Little Children, Todd Field mixes high fibre Ingmar Bergmanesque intellectualism with Michael Haneke’s growing sense of threat and some of the meticulous framing and clinical creepiness of Stanley Kubrick. It’s a very impressive but difficult combination requiring patience and work from the audience as they have to negotiate some
Read moreExactly what writer/ director Damien Chazelle was trying to say with his latest film, Babylon, a wild sprawling, occasionally funny, often ridiculous, exhaustingly manic, yet emotionally hollow homage/satire/savaging of early Hollywood is not entirely clear. It’s as if he’s poured all his memories of film making and watching into a blender, mixed them with lurid fantasies of Hollywood’s debauched underbelly
Read moreThe Fabelmans, the latest film from Steven Spielberg, is a semi fictionalised account of the director’s early life. That’s in no way apparent from the title which sounds more like the name of a 1950’s family sitcom. That title, however, not only reminds us that this is not a straight biopic but it’s largely about family and the values the
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