In a not too distant future, robots have replaced humans in the boxing ring. For these impending incarnations of ourselves, the battering of skin and bone has become a little too mundane, apparently. Instead, a form of fantasy boxing has emerged, indulging far more elaborate fancies of large-scale destruction as mindless entertainment. Charlie Kenton (Hugh […]
A highly entertaining slacker comedy that utilises rotoscope animation over live action footage to aesthetically pleasurable effect, Geoff Marslett’s Mars (2010) is the kind of film you can’t help falling a little in love with. Gently subversive in offhand, innocuous ways, it has fun parodying aspects of sci-fi and pop culture whilst never losing sight
Moviegoers who fondly remember Agnieszka Holland’s lovingly crafted 1993 version of the classic children’s story The Secret Garden will be disappointed to learn that Back to the Secret Garden is not the sequel. Rather, it’s the sequel to a 1987 version of the same story, only this one was produced as a “Hallmark Hall of
When gifted with a chance to view thousands of hours of previously unreleased NASA footage from nine manned flights to the moon between December 1968 and November 1972, director Al Reinert’s approach was to orchestrate a composite viewpoint for his intended documentary. For All Mankind (1989) then, at 80 minutes, is a commendably disciplined abbreviation
George Clooney’s lone directorial blunder, Leatherheads (2008), is now long forgotten. With his latest, The Ides of March, he completes a trio of impressive films, beginning with Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002) and continuing with the exemplary Good Night, and Good Luck (2005). With occasional writer partner Grant Heslov at his side, Clooney has
In 2009, despite serious misgivings, filmmaker Tony Krawitz decided to venture onto Palm Island, off the Queensland coast, with a mission to reverse a coin of common perception to tell the lesser known side of a tragic story that began on November 19, 2004. On an ordinary day, a drunken Aboriginal man, Cameron Doomadgee, was
Revived from a seemingly perennial slumber, not by profiteers, but men and women with a genuine affection for what these iconic characters meant to a generation of children, The Muppets are back with a vengeance. Thanks to Jason Segel, leading the way as both performer and co-writer with his Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008) director, Nicholas
The film from staunch political activist and prolific documentarian Patricio Guzman is a haunting story of loss that transcends generations. It’s a uniquely Chilean story but one also interwoven with forced perspectives that thoughtfully consider the bigger picture of our universe, a place that reduces us all in size but cannot exponentially reduce our suffering.
Christian Frei’s latest documentary explores the redefined frontiers of space from two very perspectives. In the first, we’re shown how wealth can purchase an exalted individual passage into space for the ultimate in fantasy fulfilment. In the second, the impoverished masses scour the broken landscape for space junk, grasping for buckled pieces that rockets have
An aimless young woman, Martha (Elisabeth Olsen) falls into the arms of a cult, led by the unassuming, quietly charismatic leader, Patrick (John Hawkes). Though we’re denied the exact context of how this young woman initially strayed into the belly of the beast, Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011) is an impressive achievement; a well-honed, slow-burn
