rose byrne

If I Had Legs I’d Kick You

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Close up of Linda

Rose Byrne has been acting since she was 15, but it wasn’t until If I Had Legs I’d Kick You that some people started noticing how good she is – no matter how much money movies like Bridesmaids or Insidious make, it takes a “serious” movie to unlock some people’s critical reward system. But she is good in this. And she has to be, because this entire exercise in performative neurosis revolves around her. In fact the camera is on her so much that almost no one else features, and we only get to see her daughter – a bone of some contention throughout – right at the end. Which is how (once … Read more

Seriously Red

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Fake dolly with fake Kenny

“Find out who you are and then do it on purpose.” Seriously Red starts out with this pithy aphorism from Dolly Parton then dives into the story of Raylene “Red” Delaney, an Australian property valuer who really really wants to be the Tennessee country star herself. Red is a lovely woman but a terrible valuer, and director Gracie Otto and writer Krew Boylan’s film wastes no time in getting her fired from her job for being too empathetic, not quite pencil-skirted enough, and then putting Red on the road to glamour and glory as she goes all in on being a Dolly impersonator. But can you be true to yourself by being someone … Read more

Annie

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Quvenzhané Wallis and a cute dog

Annie is the “turn that frown upside down” musical seemingly custom-built for stagestruck kids. But in writer/director/songsmith Will Gluck’s updating, it breaks out of the greasepaint shuffle-step limbo it’s been consigned to and makes a bold dash for the spotlight. Gluck opens with a swerve, showing us a precocious and stagestruck young ginger Annie holding her classmates to ransom with a show-and-tell delivered with weapons-grade winsomeness. Then swivels to reveal that this isn’t the titular Annie, but another one. The Annie we’re interested in is played by Quvenzhané Wallis, the cute kid from Beasts of the Southern Wild. And god is she cute. A bright little button who is the making of this singing, … Read more