2017’s Studio Ghibli animation is… It’s… strange. A man is stranded on an island and desperate to escape, but he meets a mysterious red turtle and his life takes an unusual turn. Metaphors and hidden meanings in film are a good thing, in fact films that force the audience to think and make up their…
Review: Lady Bird
A compelling, meaningful coming of age story, full of honesty and blunt humour. Christine, raised and living in Sacramento, California, dreams of escaping her backwater life and controlling mother despite not having the grades at school to allow it, or the money to afford it. But while she angrily protests and rebels against established social…
Review: Mute
I do enjoy dystopian science fiction films, so Mute had quite a lot to give. In the middle of a hi-tech, future Germany, a mute, Amish bartender finds himself embroiled in Berlin’s seedy criminal underworld while tracking down the girl he loves after she mysteriously vanishes. After the burns of Bright and The Cloverfield Paradox,…
Review: Black Panther
Black Panther has all the hallmarks of your usual Marvel entry, but it has a lot of exceptional elements that lift it above the more recent adventures. After his father was killed during the events of Captain America: Civil War, T’Challa finds himself elevated as King of his father’s country of Wakanda. While his people…
Review: The Shape Of Water
I have no idea what general audiences will think of Del Toro’s newest monster movie, but I loved it. A mute woman working as a cleaner inside an American government laboratory encounters a wondrous creature they have captured. But her blossoming feelings for the captive cause her anguish as ruthless authorities want to experiment on…
Review: The Cloverfield Paradox
The Cloverfield Paradox surprised everyone with its release… after viewing it my feelings are somewhat torn. British scientist Eva Hamilton commits to joining an experimental space program to test an advanced particle collider in hope that it might solve Earth’s debilitating energy crisis. But operating the machine, even in Earth’s orbit, has bizarre and far-reaching…
Review: Loving Vincent
What a gorgeous, mesmerizing and sad experience. Depicting the last months of Dutch post-impressionist painter Vincent Van Gogh’s life in France, the story follows a post master’s son and his attempts to deliver the artist’s final letter to his brother. How can you write a review of Loving Vincent without immediately talking about the animation…
Review: Downsizing
Well that was disappointing. Paul Safranek lives a pretty unfulfilling life, always supporting others but not especially giving in to his own wants or needs. Drowning in debt, living small with big dreams, he convinces his wife to join him on a newly discovered science: Downsizing. Living in a miniature world, being only ten centimeters…
Review: The Post
Spielberg can make a great film from filming paint dry, and The Post is very deliberately made in this day and age of political anxiety. A widow is placed in charge of The Washington Post newspaper firm after her husband passed away, taking on the responsibility of a legacy just when strongly guarded Government secrets…
Review: Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Award season begins strong, a movie that is surprisingly funny, tragic, subtle, deep and ambiguous. Seven months after her daughter was brutally murdered, an angry and grieving mother takes matters into her own hands and advertises the local police department’s negligence in catching her killer on three huge roadside billboards. However, does she appreciate how…