The Barbie movie has been one of the more intriguing events in recent popular culture. The fact that it’s based on a doll designed for pre-tween children but has a trailer with adult humour and ideas, makes this a complex, uncertain and slightly unsettling prospect before the opening titles roll. Is this a cleverly subversive feminist satire of a female
Read moreLa La Land is Whiplash director Damien Chazelle’s exhilarating homage to 1950’s musicals and the artists who struggle to make it in the dubious city of dreams that is LA. Superbly crafted from its touching love story to its vibrant cinematography and sprightly musical numbers this is a cinematic experiment that works from beginning to end. Chazelle’s triumph is his
Read moreThe Big Short sounds like the title of a caper comedy and in a sense it is although the caper is a particularly dubious one, the multi-billion dollar exploitation of a dysfunctional and seemingly corrupt financial system by greedy unscrupulous bond traders that led to the GFC and the financial devastation of millions of working people in 2008. Directed by
Read moreThe Australian release of Only God Forgives has been preceded by much hype and vitriol claiming it to be one of the worst and most hideously violent films of recent times. Fortunately, it’s neither of these things. It’s certainly not for all tastes and like many of Danish director Nicholas Winding Refn’s films, seems like an exercise in style over
Read moreFor the life of me I can’t understand the fuss about Ryan Gosling. He has been dubbed the actor of his generation but to my mind that honour firmly belongs to Michael Fassbender. For me Gosling’s minimalist acting and smirking arrogant manner have stopped most of his films cold. A movie with the right script and sympathetic direction, however, can
Read moreShifting awkwardly from solid crime-busting drama to cartoonish, ultra-violent action film, Gangster Squad doesn’t know if it wants to be The Untouchables or Dick Tracy. Allegedly based on fact, the film depicts the nefarious empire of gangster Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn) a vicious New York hood and former boxer who, in the late 40’s, set up his own chapter of
Read more