It’s classic album time once again on Built For Speed and this week we go back to 1996 for Wilco’s alt country game changer Being There. There’s also plenty of new Australian and overseas music for you. On the movie front we look at sinister goings on in the sweaty Southern swamplands in The Paperboy and an astonishing story of deception in
Read moreIt’s a pretty daunting task for any director to try to create a prequel for a classic film. Tinkering with a well-established movie mythology means there’s a huge threat of a backlash should they get it wrong; Phantom Menace anyone? The task is even greater when it’s an icon of old Hollywood and such a universally loved film as The
Read moreWith their wonderful, ornate prose and vivid imagery, Charles Dickens’ novels seem ideally suited to cinema adaptations. David Lean realized this potential magnificently with his atmospheric 1946 version of Great Expectations. Less successful was Alfonso Cuaron’s miscalculated modern day version of Great Expectations with Ethan Hawke and Robert de Niro. The latest adaptation of this novel, from British director Mike
Read moreFor a country in which sport is almost a religion it seems strange that Australia has produced so few decent sporting movies. While American films have successfully turned baseball, into a near-mythic commentary on clashing American values, Australia’s sporting films seem to be little more than a mix of nationalistic chest-beating dramas, well-meaning, blink and you’ll miss them low-budgeters and
Read moreLike the Al Pacino film City Hall, Broken City immerses us in the grubby world of New York politics. Unfortunately, this film also immerses us in a world of clichés, clunky dialogue, dull heroes and ridiculous villains. Mark Wahlberg plays disgraced New York cop Billy Taggart who, years after a questionable shooting, is now a struggling, debt-laden private eye. When
Read moreThe sensational documentary The Imposter is a triumph for young director Bart Layton who has mostly worked on the TV show Banged Up Abroad. The film describes the astonishing events surrounding the 1994 disappearance of 13 year old Texas boy Nicholas Barclay. The circumstances of this case are so bizarre that if this was a fiction film no one would
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