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Comedies about people who refuse to grow up tend to be about men (howls of “oh no they don’t”), but Pamela Adlon’s feature debut, Babes, reminds us that women get stuck too. If that doesn’t grab you as a concept, what if I just say Babes is Booksmart for grown-ups? Ish ish ish. Clever, funny, … Read more
In spite of its attempts to sabotage itself with comedy, Lady in the Fog (also known as Scotland Yard Inspector) is a successful noirish British thriller from 1952. An adaptation of the debut story in what would become a long-running BBC radio series, it takes a while to get going – two thirds of its … Read more
Thelma, a collaboration between director Joachim Trier and writer (and sometime director) Eskil Vogt, is another reminder of what a dynamic duo these two are, separately and together. And that they make powerful and suggestive, moody and magnificent dramas that are also sly as hell. Slo-mo gotcha movies of a very high order. Thelma starts … Read more
There’s not a likeable person in 1950’s The Furies, with the possible exception of a character who winds up at the end of a rope. It’s possibly why it’s so hard to get stuck into this complex and thematically rich film, though bad storytelling might be another reason. Since it’s called The Furies, you might … Read more
John Woo goes John Wick in Silent Night, his first US movie in 20 years, since 2003’s Paycheck in fact. And if Wick was all about people doing creatively terrible things to each other in beautiful choreographed ways, so is Silent Night, with the added gimmick that here no one speaks. Not that they speak … Read more
Amazing really what you can achieve with coloured lights, smoke machines, cobwebs and a zoom lens. Exhibit A: Mario Bava’s classic Kill, Baby… Kill! which goes by a whole host of names – Operazione Paura (literally Operation Fear) in the original Italian, and Orgy of the Living Dead, Curse of the Dead and Curse of … Read more
If it’s nothing else, Arthur the King is a solid introduction to adventure racing, an arduous mix of running, climbing, biking and kayaking in inhospitable climates over hundreds of miles. One race takes days. It’s not for the faint hearted. Unlike this movie, which is pre-chewed meat for the softest of constitutions, a fictional retelling … Read more
The French New Wave directors loved a bit of auteur machismo and they loved Sam Fuller’s Forty Guns, a tough, lean and smart western with lots to say and a pitiless logic that’s very un-Hollywood. Do not expect a happy ending. It’s filmed in CinemaScope and Fuller lets us know that immediately. Right after the … Read more
Not so much neo-noir as neon-noir, I Saw the TV Glow is Jane Schoenbrun’s follow-up to We’re All Going to the World’s Fair, and continues in much the same vein, interrogating identity and authenticity in psychic landscapes constructed from online memes. Pink and orange are the key colours, though it’s shot dark like a noir, … Read more
There’s a remake of 1989’s The Killer in the works, with Nathalie Emmanuel and Omar Sy in lead roles. But can it match up to the original, even with original director John Woo calling the shots. I believe it’s Emmanuel as the assassin in the update/reimagining, but it was Chow Yun-Fat way back when, as … Read more
My Mistress is the story of a bored, horny teenage lad and the dominatrix he hooks up with, to the ultimate satisfaction of neither. Imagine inserting a character clad entirely in wetlook PVC into the Australian TV show Neighbours and you’re most of the way there. Handsome young Charlie comes home from school one day … Read more
In a world where the excellent is often the enemy of the good, what about The 39 Steps? Not Hitchcock’s 1935 classic, but the 1959 remake starring Kenneth More? So often compared to the original, so often reviled – especially in its native UK – the 1959 version is actually a pretty good stab at … Read more
