What would happen if you invited a slew of A-list actors to the zombie apocalypse and everyone just kind of lost interest? Why, then, you’d have Jim Jarmusch’s gloriously-uneven The Dead Don’t Die which over the course of ever-more-inert one hour and forty-three minutes rather ironically loses its will to Continue Reading
Movies
Frozen 2: Giants, equine water spirits and grave threats to the kingdom
SNAPSHOTWhy was Elsa born with magical powers? The answer is calling her and threatening her kingdom. Together with Anna, Kristoff, Olaf and Sven, she’ll set out on a dangerous but remarkable journey. In Frozen, Elsa feared her powers were too much for the world. In Frozen 2, she must hope Continue Reading
Movie review: Bellbird
There’s an idea prevalent in society that grief unexpressed isn’t grief at all. In other words, if you’re not wailing and crying and gnashing your teeth like an Old Testament prophet clad in sackcloth and ashes, then are you really grieving? It’s an idea that is gently and thoughtfully challenged Continue Reading
The short and the short of it: The endless parental love of Freaks of Nurture
SNAPSHOTFreaks of Nurture is an animated short about a neurotic mother-daughter relationship inspired by the filmmaker’s own unorthodox upbringing with her single-parent mom, who is also a foster parent and dog breeder. Self-deprecating and bursting with energy, the film reveals that no matter how grown-up we think we are, we Continue Reading
Movie review: Brittany Runs a Marathon
If you were to use the likes of Oprah and Tony Robbins are your guides, you would have to assume the world is awash in victorious people, staring down all manner of existential perils and emerging, self-realisation trophy in hand, on top every single damn time. But as we know Continue Reading
Movie review: The Extraordinary Journey of Celeste Garcia
New beginnings are always a curious thing. They come with the shiny promise of everything new and unsullied, and yet lurking somewhere deep within, is the knowledge, however energetically repressed, that the past is never truly left behind. Whatever the truth of this observation, in The Extraordinary Journey of Celeste Continue Reading
Keep off the grass … or you might get Stuck
SNAPSHOTDarby (Heather Matarazzo) finds herself in trouble with the law, and is sentenced to house arrest. Now she must serve 30 days in the home she used to share with her ex-boyfriend Mo (Amir Talai), that he now shares with his new fiancé. Stuck is directed by American actress-turned-filmmaker Jillian Continue Reading
Movie review: Always Be My Maybe
There is a sacred contract between filmmaker and audience member for anyone who goes to see a romantic comedy – they will take you away on a magically romantic carpet ride to a place where “meet cutes” trounce Tinder and obstacles are overcome with a quick trip to the airport Continue Reading
Pixar’s already gone UP(ward) … now it’s time for Onward
SNAPSHOTSet in a suburban fantasy world, Pixar’s Onward introduces two teenage elf brothers who embark on an extraordinary quest to discover if there is still a little magic left out there. “At Pixar, we try to create stories that come from some kind of personal truth”, said Dan Scanlon (Director). “This film Continue Reading
The short and the short of it: The childlike fun of Coin Operated
SNAPSHOTCoin Operated, written and directed by Nicholas Arioli, is an award-winning 5 minute animated short film that spans 70 years in the life of one naive explorer. This film was proudly made by independent artists. (synopsis via YouTube) Hanging onto your childhood dreams and sense of imagination is tough. Tough, Continue Reading