Reviewdle

Constrained by art

2012-01-30T04:03:00.000+11:00

The Ides of March Union Square Regal, November 7, 2011Movie #81 for 2011 So, I saw Ides of March right before a whirlwind trip to Australia and forgot to write up any notes about it. So this review will be based on what I think I remember about it. Steven (RYAN GOSLING), a young media guru, is working for Paul (PHLLIP SEYMOUR HOFFMAN, pictured with Gosling), an old media

2011-12-06T13:06:00.001+11:00

Like Crazy Union Square Regal, November 7, 2011Movie #80 for 2011 Despite the unfortunate title (which evokes for me young-people-madly-in-love-movies like Crazy/Beautiful and Vomit Like Crazy) there is very little actual craziness in Like Crazy. Thank goodness for that. What there is, instead, are good performances (from ANTON YELCHIN, Star Trek, Fright Night and FELICITY JONES, The Tempest,

The kids are not - really, really, not - alright.

2011-12-01T10:27:00.000+11:00

Martha Marcy May Marlene Angelika Film Centre, November 4, 2011Movie #79 for 2011 Early one morning, Martha (ELIZABETH OLSEN) leaves the Catskills commune she’s lived on for two years and calls her sister Lucy (SARAH PAULSON, who I know and love from “Studio 60” and “Deadwood”) from a bus station payphone. Lucy picks her up and takes her to the Connecticut holiday home she

A shit-storm’s abrewin’, Annie.

2011-11-23T17:22:00.000+11:00

Margin Call Angelika Film Centre, November 4, 2011Movie #78 for 2011 Margin Call follows the events of one (fictionalised) 2008 night perched between a perfectly ordinary day and the catastrophic collapse of Wall street. Over the course of the film, and the night, more and more senior staff are called from their beds into the office as the importance of the impending

Storm’s abrewin’, Annie.

2011-11-13T10:11:00.000+11:00

Take Shelter Angelika Film Centre, November 3, 2011Movie #77 for 2011 Curtis (MICHAEL SHANNON, pictured) and Samantha (JESSICA CHASTAIN) are happily and comfortably married. They are good people, hard workers, good neighbours and, although money is tight, their deaf six year old daughter gets good care. When Curtis begins to have nightmares - both dreaming and waking - he

A beginning, a middle and a new beginning

2011-11-02T07:10:00.000+11:00

The Swell Season Cinema Village, October 25, 2011Movie #76 for 2011 Beginning kind of where the story of 2007's Once (but not the film itself) left off - Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova are lovers and are beautiful, effortless music together as "The Swell Season" and are touring a new album. They’ve just won an Oscar for Best Song for “Falling Slowly” (pictured). Then

From here to Elmo.

2011-11-01T07:43:00.000+11:00

Being Elmo: A Puppeteer’s Journey IFC Centre, October 25, 2011Movie #75 for 2011 Kevin Clash (pictured, with Elmo) knew he wanted to be a puppetter from a very young age, so he cut up his dad’s furry coat to make his first Muppet-style puppet. And then he never looked back. He idolized Jim Henson and worked with him for many, many years, eventually taking over Sesame

Gosling Versus the World

2011-10-08T01:06:00.000+11:00

Drive Regal, October 4, 2011Movie #74 for 2011 This movie made me so sad. It made me wish that violence just wasn’t a thing and that people who made bad (but not necessarily evil) choices had a second shot. RYAN GOSLING (Ides of March, pictured) plays an unnamed driver for movie stunts and petty robberies. He fancies his neighbor, Irene (CAREY MULLIGAN, An Education)

Runaway Fidelity

2011-10-06T03:54:00.001+11:00

What’s Your Number? Regal, October 4, 2011Movie #73 for 2011 Mindy Kaling (from the Office) wrote a little article in last week’s New Yorker giving a chuckle-filled explanation of what we already know: the lead actresses is romantic-comedies get a bum deal: they’re always short-changed to be non-threatening in some way (like being klutzy, or work-obsessed) or at 40, are playing the mother of the

A completely different version of exactly the same story.

2011-10-05T09:43:00.000+11:00

Moneyball Regal, October 3, 2011Movie #72 for 2011 The Oakland Athletics are a poor major league baseball club. In 2001 they had a really good season, so inevitably, their star players were poached to richer teams, leaving the A’s gutted. Billy Beane, the general manager, realized that the traditional methods of scouting new players weren’t going to cut it, so he hired

Even Odds.

2011-10-04T10:27:00.000+11:00

50/50 AMC 7, September 30, 2011Movie #71 for 2011 With a cancer movie featuring SETH ROGEN (Green Hornet), you pretty much know you’re going to:a. cry a bit; and b. laugh a bit; and, if you’re like me, alsoc. find Seth Rogen very, very annoying a bit. Crying in a cancer movie is a given. What I’m more interested in is how it happens - do they take the time to build

Like wildfire.

2011-09-29T22:54:00.001+10:00

Contagion Regal Union Square, September 20, 2011Movie #70 for 2011 I like that director STEVEN SODERBERG is always surprising. Like the Coen brothers or Michael Winterbottom, he seems interested in making all kinds of movies (except, of course, of the Ocean’s series, which seemed to have funded everything that came after). People have been calling Contagion a “return to form” for Soderberg,

World keep on turning.

2011-09-22T00:30:00.001+10:00

Higher Ground Angelika, September 14, 2011Movie #69 for 2011 Earlier this year Salvation Boulevard was released. Despite it’s terrific cast (Greg Kinnear, Jennifer Connelly, Ed Harris), I was never going to see it. It seemed like a mean-spirited pot shot at a really easy target. If I want to mock Christians, I can do that in my own time. But what I ranted and railed against the most was why

Hell of an interest rate.

2011-09-16T04:12:00.001+10:00

The Debt Angelika, September 14, 2011Movie #68 for 2011 In 1966, Rachel (JESSICA CHASTAIN, Tree of Life), David (Australia’s own SAM WORTHINGTON) and Stephan (also Australia’s own MARTIN CSOKAS, The Tree, pictured, right, with Chastain and Worthington) are young Mossad Nazi hunters tracking the “Surgeon of Birkenau” (JESPER CHRISTENSEN, Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace), a Joseph Mengele-type

Choke on that.

2011-09-15T00:44:00.000+10:00

Brighton Rock Village East Cinema, September 13, 2011Movie #67 for 2011 Adapted from Graham Greene’s novel, Pinkie Brown (SAM RILEY who was so good as Ian Curtis in Control) is a young, small time racketeer in 1960s Brighton. A bigger, better funded, more organized gang is moving in, upping the violence and the uncertainty for Pinkie and his boys.

This idiot movie.

2011-09-07T06:43:00.000+10:00

Our Idiot Brother. Regal Union Square, August 30, 2011Movie #66 for 2011 I can imagine being more disappointed by this film, but honestly? It’s a stretch. EMILY MORTIMER, ELIZABETH BANKS and ZOOEY DESCHANEL (pictured, left to right) play the sisters of PAUL RUDD, a biodynamic farmer and free spirit who is jailed for selling pot to a (uniformed) policeman. When he’s

Risin all up in your face

2011-09-04T04:59:00.000+10:00

Rise of the Planet of the Apes Regal Union Square, August 26, 2011Movie #65 for 2011 Sometimes it seems that everything I read and see and do is part of a bigger context, a longer conversation I’m having with myself. Rise of the Planet of the Apes was, surprisingly, that kind of experience. Between reading articles about animal actors (Susan Orlean on Rin Tin Tin in The

< Insert witty pun about the running time feeling like one entire day >

2011-09-03T04:25:00.000+10:00

One Day Regal Union Square, August 26, 2011Movie #64 for 2011 Some films transcend the hooks that make them neat to pitch. Others, like One Day, just get all gimmicky. Dexter (JIM STURGESS, Across the Universe, 21) and Emma (ANNE HATHAWAY, Love and Other Drugs, pictured with Sturgess) spend an awkward night together in the late 1980s - their graduation night from

Vrrrrrrrrrrrrom!

2011-09-01T08:05:00.000+10:00

Senna Landmark Sunshine, August 23, 2011Movie #63 for 2011 Ayrton Senna was a Brazilian Formula One driver who won the world championship three times and who is widely considered to be one of the best drivers ever. At 34, he was killed in a crash on the track of the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix. Apart from another death on the same track two days prior, deaths in Formula

Helpy helpers

2011-08-23T07:52:00.000+10:00

The Help City Cinema Village East, August 16, 2011Movie #62 for 2011 Aibileen (VIOLA DAVIS, Doubt) is a black woman in Mississippi in the 1960s. It’s not pretty. She’s spent her life raising white children for society mothers and is nearing retirement bitter for it. Skeeter (EMMA STONE, Crazy, Stupid, Love., pictured, left, with Davis) is different from the rest of her

A (really, really) mixed bag

2011-08-20T01:53:00.000+10:00

DocuWeeks Shorts ProgramThe Barber of Birmingham Maya Deren’s Sink The Home Front IFC Centre, August 16, 2011Movie #61 for 2011 Every year the IFC Centre screens the IDA's documentary film festival to help docos qualify for Oscar nomination (something about the number of screens in the number of cities, or something). This includes a shorts program. The Barber of

Permanent Revolution

2011-08-19T00:28:00.000+10:00

Unfinished Spaces IFC Centre, August 16, 2011Movie #60 for 2011 I find that the best documentaries are these complete, complex stories about intelligent and engaged people who have differing opinions about something surprising - something that you didn’t even know was there. Like, say, the Havana Schools of Art. In 1961 Cuba, the spirit of the revolution infused

Alien Invasion part 2

2011-08-17T00:58:00.000+10:00

Cowboys & Aliens Regal Union Square, August 10, 2011Movie #59 for 2011 It’s true that Cowboys & Aliens suffered from following Attack the Block in a double feature, but mostly it suffered from being a bit shite. Has there ever been such a promising high-concept blockbuster idea in the history of the world? Well, yes, probably there has, but Cowboys & Aliens is right up

Alien Invasion Double Feature part 1

2011-08-16T07:31:00.000+10:00

Attack the Block Regal Union Square, August 10, 2011Movie #58 for 2011 Moses (JOHN BOYEGA, pictured centre) is the leader of a gang of young bullies. He’s on the make and has the wherewithal to be a proper South London drug-running thug. He’s angry, disrespectful, quietly powerful and entirely unsupervised. His trajectory is pretty clear, until aliens land and South

Worst Film Ever? Easily in the top three.

2011-08-15T07:35:00.000+10:00

The Change-Up AMC Loews Village 7, August 5, 2011Movie #57 for 2011 I have gushed elsewhere about how much I like JASON BATEMAN and RYAN REYNOLDS (both pictured). I’m not going to do that this time. I'm not even going to recount the plot or discuss the (many and vast) flaws of The Change-Up. It's just too depressing. All I am going to say is that actors for whom I have

Documentary Day part 3

2011-08-13T01:33:00.000+10:00

Buck IFC Centre, August 4, 2011Movie #56 for 2011 Just as Bill Cunningham New York was pretending to be a documentary about fashion, Buck is pretending to be a documentary about horses. It's really about something else entirely. Buck Brannaman is a horseman who travels around the US for nine months a year running four-day clinics that help “horses with people problems”.

Documentary Day part 2

2011-08-12T02:53:00.001+10:00

The Trip IFC Centre, August 4, 2011Movie #55 for 2011 Hang on a minute! This isn’t what I signed up for! I was fooled! Fooled, I tells yer! I thought The Trip was a MICHAEL WINTERBOTTOM documentary about STEVE COOGAN and ROB BRYDON (both pictured) touring the North of England’s restaurants, eating food and trying to make each other laugh. But it’s not! It’s a MICHAEL WINTERBOTTOM film

Documentary Day part 1

2011-08-11T05:05:00.000+10:00

Tabloid IFC Centre, August 4, 2011Movie #54 for 2011 Joyce McKinney (pictured) was a young American woman, in love with a Mormon man who ‘disappeared’ one day in the late 1970s. Joyce followed him to England where he was fulfilling his religious mission and then kidnapped him, tied him up in a cottage in Devon and had sex with him all weekend - an act that would both get

July in August

2011-08-10T02:05:00.000+10:00

The Future IFC Centre, August 3, 2011Movie #53 for 2011 MIRANDA JULY (Me and You and Everyone We Know) is not for everyone. I totally get that. She is mannered, strange and idiosyncratic. And there is nowhere to hide from her in a film she wrote, directed and stars in. I quite like her - as a visual artist of the most imaginative kind, I find she has an interesting

Bad archaeology in 3D? Oh, lordy.

2011-08-08T11:43:00.000+10:00

Cave of Forgotten Dreams 3D IFC Centre, August 3, 2011Movie #52 for 2011 I hate 3D. I haven’t seen a 3D film since they started simultaneously releasing 2D and 3D versions. Cave of Forgotten Dreams is only screening in 3D, and I think that’s why it took me so long to get to it. I really freaking hate 3D. But I got there in the end and here’s what I think in a nutshell:

Fashion as history, fashion as armor.

2011-08-06T03:10:00.001+10:00

Bill Cunningham New York Village East Cinema, August 2, 2011Movie #51 for 2011 I don’t care about fashion, but I’ve always liked a good fashion documentary. Mostly because the good ones are not actually about fashion at all. Such it is with Bill Cunningham New York, the story of one of the mainstays and most influential men in New York fashion, the 80-year-old ‘photographer’ for the New York

Not really crazy. Possibly a little stupid.

2011-08-03T08:04:00.000+10:00

Crazy, Stupid, Love. AMC Lowes Gramercy Park, July 29, 2011Movie #50 for 2011 Like most women with a uterus of a certain disposition, I need to watch romantic comedies once a month. Which is where Crazy, Stupid, Love. comes in. My uterus and I were deceived, however, and Crazy, Stupid, Love. is not really a romantic comedy at all. The cast of Crazy,

Beneficial Friendships

2011-08-02T00:24:00.000+10:00

Friend With Benefits AMC Lowes Gramercy Park, July 29, 2011Movie #49 for 2011 I was never a fan of Justin Timberlake’s music - although that was probably more the genre than him specifically. But, what with his Buzby Berkley-ish number to The Killer’s “All the things I’ve done” being the only interesting thing in the excruciating Southland Tales and then his awesomeness

The Captain of America

2011-08-01T05:05:00.001+10:00

Captain America: The First Avenger Union Square Regal, July 29, 2011Movie #48 for 2011 CHRIS EVANS (pictured) is usually either the best thing in a terrible movie (like The Losers or The Fantastic Four) or holding his own among a fine cast in something exceptional (Scott Pilgrim, Sunshine). Captain America is somewhere in the middle - he’s the best thing among a very fine cast in a move that is

Yes, I get it, the tree is grief.

2011-07-30T02:31:00.000+10:00

The Tree Village East Cinema, July 26, 2011Movie #47 for 2011 The second-to-opening shot of The Tree is a wide Northern Queensland desert with a truck driving slowly down a dirt road. The bush is not particularly archly shot, or lit (not glammed up like it was in Beautiful Kate, say), it kind of just is. It’s stunning. God damn, Australia is a good looking country. It’s

Can you hear that? Listen, it’s a fat lady singing.

2011-07-26T01:01:00.000+10:00

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part two Eau Claire Market Calgary, July 18, 2011Movie #46 for 2011 Picture this: I’m in Calgary, Alberta. My girlfriend’s US work visa has just been approved and we’ve had a boozy lunch to celebrate. Now we’ve got 36 hours to kill until her passport is returned, it’s the middle of the afternoon and it’s about to crap down with rain.

An odd mix of uncomfortable and bland

2011-07-18T07:47:00.000+10:00

Terri Angelika Film Centre, July 15, 2011Movie #45 for 2011 Terri (JACOB WYSOCKI, TV’s “Huge”) is an overweight teenager, and fairly disenfranchised from his peers - except for three judgmental girls in Home Ec, he doesn’t seem to have any friends. He lives with - and cares for - his uncle (CREED BRATTON, from “The US Office” who is surprisingly good) who is unwell and

Monkey see, monkey do.

2011-07-17T01:34:00.000+10:00

Project Nim Angelika Film Centre, July 15, 2011Movie #44 for 2011 I listen to a lot of non-fiction radio podcasts - your This American Life, your Radio Lab and whatnot. Project Nim more like a Radio Lab episode than any documentary I’ve ever seen. I kept expecting Jad Abumrad’s interjection or Robert Krulwich’s chuckle. There are two reasons for this: first, Nim’s story

As advertised.

2011-07-16T10:34:00.000+10:00

Horrible Bosses Regal 14, July 12, 2011Movie #43 for 2011 I refuse to go and see Bad Teacher. You couldn’t get to me to Transformers 3 even if I was allowed to shout at the screen. Hangover Part II? Not in a million years. But Horrible Bosses? Yeah, okay. It seems that everyone has a limit. Nick (JASON BATEMAN), Dale (CHARLIE DAY) and Kurt (JASON SUDEIKIS, pictured

All of the above.

2011-07-10T23:18:00.000+10:00

The Tree of Life Sunshine Landmark, July 9, 2011Movie #42 for 2011 Usually I’ll give a middle star ranking to a film that I feel myeh about - I neither love it nor hate it so the middle sounds about right. Tree of Life, though, I both love and hate equally fiercely, so ends up in the same place for completely different reasons. Terrence Malick (who is more a film creator

Blackest Day, Brightest Night.

2011-07-09T01:30:00.001+10:00

Green Lantern Regal Cinema Centre, July 6, 2011Movie #41 for 2011 Much to the dismay of my BFF, I have a little thing for RYAN REYNOLDS (pictured). I think it’s from watching “Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place” when I was seventeen. That shit’s formative. So I was always going to see Reynolds in a superhero movie, even if I knew nothing about the Green Lantern. Reynolds is Hal Jordan, a test

Same same but different.

2011-07-07T01:07:00.001+10:00

Submarine Angelika Film Centre, July 2, 2011Movie #40 for 2011 What an odd little film. Interesting, unsettling, and ultimately, I think, quite good. Oliver Tate (CRAIG ROBERTS) lives in a Welsh seaside town and is coming of age. He’s a quirky kid, smart and calculating. He wants to be popular and have a girlfriend (namely Jordana Bevan, played by YASMIN PAIGE, pictured with Roberts) but is

Brum brum sputter sputter….sigh

2011-07-02T06:38:00.001+10:00

Cars 2 Village East Cinema, June 29, 2011Movie #39 for 2011 I kinda liked the first Cars movie. I freely admit it was not Pixar’s best - certainly not their most sophisticated - but, y’know, they can’t all be The Incredibles. In Cars 2, Lightning McQueen (OWEN WILSON) participates in the World Grand Prix in Italy, Japan and England, taking his best friend Mater (LARRY THE CABLE GUY) along

The new Spielbrams movie

2011-06-29T02:03:00.000+10:00

Super 8 Union Square Regal 14, June 23, 2011Movie #38 for 2011 Writer/director J. J. ABRAMS (Star Trek) clearly adores early Spielberg movies. Both the writing and direction of Super 8 are all-Spielberg all the time. It’s more than imitation, though, it’s a new mastery of an effective style. Joe (new comer JOEL COURTNEY, pictured, right) is grieving the recent death of

Hiiiiii-YA! again

2011-06-27T05:56:00.000+10:00

Kung Fu Panda 2 Union Square Regal 14, June 23, 2011Movie #37 for 2011 Po is a kung fu panda. An evil peacock prince has discovered firepower and will use it to destroy kung fu and take over all of China, unless Po and his kung fu friends can stop him. But can they do it? Cannons are impervious to kung fu and something about the peacock brings up memories of Po’s past

Not quite a scoop.

2011-06-26T07:19:00.000+10:00

Page One: Inside the New York Times Angelika Film Centre, June 22, 2011Movie #36 for 2011 Film-maker ANDREW ROSSI got access to film inside the New York Times for a year just as the newspaper started to navigate some serious financial troubles, and as they struggled to understand the eternal debate about nothing that is the old media/new media/newspapers-are-dead thing.

Things were better in the old days

2011-06-25T01:53:00.000+10:00

Midnight in Paris Angelika Film Centre, June 22, 2011Movie #35 for 2011 Ever get nostalgic for Paris in the 20s? Gil (OWEN WILSON) does. Specifically for all the ex-pat American writers partaking of Hemingway’s ‘moveable feast’ of creativity and freedom. He’s in Paris on holiday from his hack Hollywood screenwriter job with his spoiled, heiress fiancé (RACHAEL McADAMS,

You’re never to old to blah blah blah

2011-06-10T00:47:00.001+10:00

Beginners AMC 3rd avenue, June 8, 2011Movie #34 for 2011 Beginners proves that falling in love at 38 or 75 is just as intolerably sunshine-colored and soft-focused as when teenagers do it. Oliver (EWAN McGREGOR, The Ghost Writer) can’t get it together romantically. His recently widowed father (CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER) has, at 75, begun to live as an openly gay man. When he gets terminal cancer,

First class cast, second class film

2011-06-06T05:04:00.001+10:00

X-Men: First Class Regal 14, June 3, 2011Movie #33 for 2011 Was I really going to go and see the fifth X-Men movie after the last two (X-Men: The Last Stand and X-Men Origins: Wolverine) were so very, very bad? With a cast like that, hells yes I was. Hollywood loves a superhero origin story, and the X-Men franchise just keeps on giving. Here, though, they go right back to the origin stories of

Morgan Spurlock presents…

2011-06-04T00:16:00.000+10:00

Pom Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold Village East Cinema, May 28, 2011Movie #32 for 2011 MORGAN SPURLOCK (Super Size Me) is not a journalist. He’s not an investigator. He’s more of a have-an-idea-and-turn-the-cameras-on-it kind of documentary film-maker. And the thing he most turns the camera on seems to be himself. Luckily he - as both a character/

The god of boringville

2011-05-30T07:28:00.000+10:00

Thor Regal 14, May 20, 2011Movie #31 for 2011 My expectations of Thor weren’t high. I don’t know much about Marvel comics (except what I learned from Neil Gaiman’s 1602 which is to say not much) but gods are super fun and I have a soft spot for Thor - in myth he’s as big and dumb as I thought the film might be. It also had a good director and decent cast, so maybe my

Creative translation

2011-05-30T02:38:00.000+10:00

Exporting Raymond Angelika Film Centre, May 19, 2011Movie #30 for 2011 In 2005, the popular American sit-com “Everybody Loves Raymond” wrapped after nine seasons. (Nine! I never saw one single episode!) In 2008, the show’s network and creator PHIL ROSENTHAL (pictured, looking nervous) were approached by the Russians* to develop their own version of the show.

Meek by name, not so much by nature

2011-05-29T02:34:00.000+10:00

Meek’s Cutoff Sunshine Cinema, May 16, 2011Movie #29 for 2011 I feel pretty strongly that there is not nearly enough ambiguity in film these days (or, perhaps, ever). There is a time and a place for a well telegraphed plot, don’t get me wrong, I would just like to see more films tell you what happens in the end, is all. Especially of the kind in Meek's Cutoff. In Meek’s

Good price for you, my first customer

2011-05-18T01:48:00.000+10:00

Everything Must Go Sunshine Cinema, May 15, 2011Movie #28 for 2011 Just like Bridesmaids, when we meet the main character of Everything Must Go, he is at bottom with little spark to speak of. Nick (WILL FERRELL, Stranger Than Fiction, Anchorman) is a relapsing alcoholic who has had a busy morning - he has lost his job, his wife has locked him out of their house with all

Something borrowed, something new

2011-05-16T04:42:00.000+10:00

Bridesmaids Village East Cinemas, May 13, 2011Movie #27 for 2011I was always going to spend money on Bridesmaids - are you kidding? I was going to ride my high-horse all the way to the box office - but I didn’t actually have high expectations. Although I was keen to boost the box office takings of the girl-movie-underdog, I’m not a fan of the Apatow school (he produced

The Bang of Clubs

2011-05-09T07:59:00.000+10:00

The Bang Bang Club Angelika Film Centre, May 3, 2011Movie #26 for 2011 Greg Marinovich (RYAN PHILLIPE, Stop-Loss, I Know What You Did Last Summer) is the new guy for a Johannesburg newspaper’s combat photography team - the image editor at the paper (and inevitable love interest), Robin (MALIN AKERMAN, HappyThankYouMorePlease, Watchmen) signs him up when he proves himself

I call it a win

2011-05-01T03:28:00.002+10:00

Win Win Angelika Film Centre, April 29, 2011Movie #25 for 2011 I really dig writer/director TOM McCARTHY (The Station Agent, The Visitor). I think he makes sensitive, beautiful films about engaging, flawed people in morally interesting, complex situations. His work is characterized by an attention to understated detail and a gentle unfolding of character. It’s right up my alley. Mike (PAUL

Dang it, I spilled source all over my code

2011-04-21T06:16:00.000+10:00

Source Code AMC Lowes 19th street East 6, April 18, 2011Movie #24 for 2011 Like director DUNCAN JONES’ previous film, Moon, the less you know about Source Code the better. Although, where Moon had a strong character-driven story and lovely attention to detail, Source Code hasn’t much more to offer than its intriguing idea. For those who require at least a glimmer of an

Table for three? Better make it one

2011-04-20T07:04:00.001+10:00

Ceremony Village East Cinema, April 16, 2011Movie #23 for 2011 I missed the session of the film I actually wanted to see and so bought a ticket to whatever was playing next. Turned out to be Ceremony. Whatever, indeed. 23 year-old Sam (MICHAEL ANGARANO, Sky High) drags his best friend Marshall (REECE THOMPSON, Rocket Science) along as he crashes the wedding of his older ex-lover Zoe (UMA

It's revenge, Jim, but not as we know it

2011-04-17T00:52:00.000+10:00

Hanna Regal Union Square Stadium 14, April 12, 2011Movie #22 for 2011 When I think about director JOE WRIGHT I remember how much I loved Atonement and always seem to blank out how myeh I found The Soloist. SAOIRSE RONAN (Atonement, The Lovely Bones) is Hanna, a young girl (I think she’s supposed to be seventeen, but she looks about twelve) trained by her father ERIC BANA

Pegg and Frost, hijacked and sidetracked

2011-04-06T01:03:00.001+10:00

Paul Regal Union Square Stadium 14, April 4, 2011Movie #21 for 2011 I adore SIMON PEGG and NICK FROST (pictured). Who with two eyes and a funny bone doesn’t? One of my very few regrets about leaving Australia recently was that I would miss them at the Melbourne Supernova convention. I know, it’s sad, I know. In Paul, Pegg and Frost are Graeme and Clive, two English comic geeks who, after San

StupidYuckoGoAway

2011-03-30T05:33:00.001+11:00

HappyThankYouMorePlease Angelika Film Centre, March 27, 2011Movie #20 for 2011 In general, I’m all for indie, navel-gazing movies. I have, several times in fact, been known to quite enjoy them. But HappyThankYouMorePlease is no Garden State, even if it’s writer/director/star JOSH RADNOR (How I Met Your Mother) is being hailed as the next Zack Braff (although, I’m not even sure what that means)

Not-such-a-flower in the attic

2011-03-24T08:34:00.000+11:00

Jane Eyre East Village Sunshine Cinema, March 22, 2011Movie #19 for 2011 Despite being exactly up my alley, I have never read Jane Eyre. I don’t know what to tell you, Charlotte Bronte, but I’m sorry, it’s true. I do know the story though (I’m pretty sure I wrote an essay on it in uni, despite not having read it), but then, who doesn’t? I feel very strongly about

The Matt Damon Trifecta

2011-03-18T01:59:00.000+11:00

The Adjustment Bureau Melbourne Central Hoyts, March 08, 2011Movie #18 for 2011I’m not sure if this has ever before happened in the history of… well, history. The last three films I saw at the cinema were Matt Damon films. THREE IN A ROW. True Grit, Inside Job and now The Adjustment Bureau. (And then there was Hereafter not that long ago as well, but I’d prefer not to

Trading from the Inside

2011-03-08T10:21:00.000+11:00

Inside Job Cinema Nova, March 07, 2011Movie #17 for 2011The US government’s Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission (FCIC) recently found that the 2008 Global Financial Crisis - which much of the world is still recovering from - was both foreseeable and avoidable. Inside Job agrees and warns that systemic change is required or the financial instructions and practices that

Well and truly gritty

2011-03-07T10:47:00.000+11:00

True Grit Cinema Nova, 02/03/2011Movie #16 for 2011When I saw Conviction, the cinema was entirely empty cinema because I went to a middle-of-the-day screening the day it opened. I saw True Grit in an entirely empty cinema because I was seeing it about a month after the rest of the known universe. Cheney (JOSH BROLIN, Milk, No Country for Old Men) is a bad-guy. He's

Hillary to the rescue...eventually

2011-03-03T15:48:00.000+11:00

Conviction Cinema Nova, 24/02/2011Movie #15 for 2011I love when you get an entire cinema to yourself. Not sure what you like to do in that situation, but I will either cheer or heckle the screen. For Conviction, I was compelled to do both. Conviction is an incredible story - in 1983, Kenny Waters (played by SAM ROCKWELL, Moon) is arrested and convicted for a murder he

And counting

2011-03-02T20:03:00.000+11:00

Countdown to Zero Cinema Nova, 21/02/2011Movie #14 for 2011Countdown to Zero is an issue film in that will be co-catalogued under ‘E’ for earnest and ‘T’ for terrifying. Once upon a time, nuclear weapon proliferation seemed like a good idea. Now, not so much. The technology hasn’t changed since the fifties, so they are getting easier and cheaper to get or build. But they’

The Many Griefs Theory

2011-02-23T10:42:00.000+11:00

Rabbit Hole Cinema Nova, 17/02/2011Movie #13 for 2011 Sometimes a play adaptation can feel just like a staging of the play with the cameras rolling, all the action is in one room and the dialogue is all about telling you what’s happening. Lots of plays make really great scripts, but they are not necessarily terribly cinematic films. Then there’s a film like Rabbit Hole

Completely Untethered

2011-02-22T12:43:00.000+11:00

No Strings Attached Melbourne Central Hoyts, 17/02/2011Movie #12 for 2011Here’s how I justify spending money on a movie like No Strings Attached: it’s directed by Ivan Ghostbusters Reitman (insert appropriate D-Generation Arnie impression here); the poster promised lots and lots of Natalie Portman’s legs; and I want to see what happens to an indie idea when it’s

Just try going ten rounds with that family

2011-02-16T18:47:00.000+11:00

The Fighter Cinema Nova, 14/02/2011Movie #11 for 2011 Although I despise boxing and usually scoff at sports movies (even as I’m handing over cash money for admission), I’m always drawn to boxing movies. I think this is for two reasons: 1. You just know it’s going to be a triumph-of-the-working-class-underdog kind of story. And who doesn’t love one of those?2. Boxers,

After death comes blandness

2011-02-11T16:36:00.002+11:00

Hereafter Cinema Nova, 10/02/2011Movie #10 for 2011 I’m an atheist. I’m about as atheist as you can get. So to enjoy a film about the afterlife, I was really going to have to suspend my disbelief. I am happy to do that though, and am very well practiced at it. I thought MATT DAMON would help too but turns out that he - although fine - wasn’t quite enough. Damon plays George, a San

Far from the madding crowd, what.

2011-02-06T17:48:00.002+11:00

Tamara Drewe Cinema Nova, 03/02/2011Movie #9 for 2011 I don’t know about this one, I just don’t know. It had a bunch of the right ingredients so that – despite seeing the terrible preview at the Nova nothing short of a dozen times – I still wanted to see what a STEPHEN FREARS (High Fidelity, The Queen) film, with a solid cast, based on Posy Simmond’s terrific graphic novel would turn out to be.

Once more around

2011-02-05T09:32:00.002+11:00

Another Year Cinema Nova, 03/02/2011Movie #8 for 2011Another Year is the ultimate in character studies. While there is almost no plot, a significant running time allows for a full and detailed description of some sympathetic, nuanced, pained and sometimes painful characters. There’s Tom (JIM BROADBENT, Hot Fuzz), a geologist, still happily married to his long-time wife Gerri (RUTH SHEEN, Vera

Holy stars, who'd've thought

2011-02-02T14:08:00.000+11:00

Tangled Northlands Hoyts, 01/02/2011Movie #7 for 2011 I know, I know, I know: it’s a Disney musical about Rupunzel. My expectations, it’s safe to say, were low. But it was 40 degrees with a northerly blowing and I just needed to be air-conditioned. (And, to be honest, I’d forgotten there would be songs – the last bunch of animated films I saw were manga, Pixar and French

When good swans go bad

2011-01-24T16:59:00.001+11:00

Black Swan Cinema Nova, 20/01/2011Movie #6 for 2011Nina (NATALIE PORTMAN) is the fragile, meek prima ballerina in her company’s production of Swan Lake. She has the grace to play the white swan, but lacks the self-assurance and sexuality to play the flipside of the coin in the black swan. Early signs that all is not well with Nina – her troubled relationship with her mother, her distance from

Floats like a butterfly, stings like a…

2011-01-23T19:38:00.001+11:00

The Green Hornet Norflanz Hoyts, 20/01/2011Movie #5 for 2011 Full disclosure: I have never seen a SETH ROGEN film. Not even Knocked Up. His is not a kind of comedy I find particularly appealing (except for Fan Boys where he played multiple bit-characters and was freaking funny). I do like director MICHEL GONDRY (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), though, and I am ever a fan of

#literally*

2011-01-19T11:32:00.000+11:00

Unstoppable Melbourne Central Hoyts, 17/01/2011Movie #4 for 2011 You know what’s really big and fast and smashes things apart when it hits them? A runaway train. Surpringly - delightfully – much of the action in Unstoppable seems to be stunts and real-life actual trains actually hitting other real-life things, rather than computer generated explosions. It made a really

What’s the Story?

2011-01-08T14:14:00.000+11:00

Morning Glory Cinema Nova, 07/01/2011Movie #3 for 2011Morning Glory is set in the egomaniacal faux-news world of morning television. It’s apt, because as a film it’s about as dumbed down as breakfast television seems to be. Becky (RACHEL McADAMS, The Notebook, The Time Traveller’s Wife) has just been fired (despite being realy really good at her job as a producer for Good

The Hottest Spot North of Ostend

2011-01-07T17:40:00.000+11:00

Copacabana Cinema Nova, 05/01/2011Movie #2 for 2011Who’d’ve thought that a character study of an endearing, charming, but flawed person turns out to be a endearing, charming, but flawed film? So much of the film revolves around Babou (ISABELLE HUPPERT, The Piano Teacher, I Heart Huckabees), that so much of its success depends on her too. Babou is separate from the

Spitting on the grave

2011-01-03T18:30:00.000+11:00

TRON: Legacy Sun Theatre Yarraville, 02/01/2011Movie #1 for 2011 In 1982, Disney made TRON, about Flynn (JEFF BRIDGES) a brilliant computer programmer who is digitized and inserted into the system he created. At the time it was original and revolutionary in the area of computer generated imagery (although, sadly, not story-telling). In 2010, Disney made a tepid and

2010: Done and Dusted, or So What Happens Now?

2011-01-03T14:22:00.003+11:00

2010 Mission accomplished. 120 films in the cinema in a calendar year. Phew. It looked dicey for a while there in May/June when I saw only 2 films in seven weeks and was a whopping 21 films behind, but the Melbourne International Film Festival in August and a sustained effort in the last third of the year (not to mention a good old fashioned last ditch effort in the last week) saw me right.

Everywhere (movie #120)

2010-12-31T19:54:00.003+11:00

Somewhere Cinema Nova, 31/12/2010Status: Done and dusted Wow, did I pick a winner to finish the year with. I'd tell you a bit more about it, but it's New Year Eve and now that Reviewdle's done, I'm getting a life. I'll finish off this review when the hangover subsides. Woo! Edit 03/01/2011: Johnny (STEPHEN DORFF, Blade, S.F.W.) is bored and ennui-ing through the downtime after

Enough to make Swayze swoon (movie #119)

2010-12-31T19:47:00.002+11:00

Heartbreaker Cinema Nova, 31/12/2010Status: Behind by 1 films I was going to write a review, but then I got distra- hey, what's that over there? Edit 03/01/2011: You know what most romantic comedies are missing? A brain, sure. Good writing, most definitely. But most of all, most romantic comedies are missing a reenactment of the “Time of My Life” scene from Dirty Dancing. Until now. Alex, (

Detective D Minus (movie #118)

2010-12-30T18:33:00.003+11:00

Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame Cinema Nova, 29/12/2010Status: Behind by 2 filmsPLACEHOLDER! Because I'm lazy! My 2011 New Year's resolution is to put in a proper review soon. Speaking of New Year's resolutions, let's check in and see how I'm travelling with my 2010 one: I've 2 movies left to reach the magic 120 mark and one day left in the year in which to see them. But

More Americans in Italy - this time with an English accent (movie #117)

2010-12-30T18:23:00.002+11:00

The Tourist Cinema Nova, 29/12/2010Status: Behind by 3 films After Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, Wanted and Salt, AGELINA JOLIE could play a British secret agent in her sleep. The Tourist is proof of that. Elise Ward (Jolie) is a disgraced British financial fraud agent seeing out her suspension in high Venetian style. She is closely monitored by her old boss, Acheson (PAUL BETTANY, Legion, A

The love story you make when you listen to Tom Waits (movie #116)

2010-12-30T18:17:00.001+11:00

Blue Valentine Cinema Nova, 28/12/2010Status: Behind by 4 filmsBlue Valentine is brave and bold and unconventional, but it is also fairly significantly flawed. I feel like I’m giving it four stars for effort in some ways, but still, four stars it is. Told in parallel story lines set (and shot) six years apart, Blue Valentine charts the falling in and out of love of Cindy

Rated O for Oprah. Or possible S for schmaltz (movie #115)

2010-12-29T12:44:00.000+11:00

Sarah’s Key Cinema Nova, 28/12/2010Status: Behind by 5 filmsGetting into the home stretch now – I can count the number of films I have left to watch this year on one hand… and the number of days I have left to watch them on the other. Sarah’s Key is a holocaust story with some differences – and a lot of similarities – to other holocaust stories. KRISTEN SCOTT THOMAS (I’ve

….. Great! (movie #114)

2010-12-28T22:32:00.001+11:00

The King’s Speech Hayden Orpheum Picture Palace Sydney, 26/12/2010Status: Behind by 4 filmsWhile the extended fam went off to Middle Head to see the start of the Sydney to Hobart boat race, I snuck off to the movies (very much starting to feel the pressure of having seven films and just a week to go in the Reviewdle shenanigans). And I’m glad I did - The King’s Speech is a great film that sits

Sex, actually (movie #113)

2010-12-27T13:33:00.000+11:00

Love and Other Drugs Sun Theatre Yarraville, 22/12/2010Status: Behind by 5 filmsYou may have heard about all the sex in Love and Other Drugs, that it’s really edgy and bold? Well, yes and no. There’s a fraction of a scene that sums it all up beautifully: we’ve just seen Maggie (ANNE HATHAWAY, Get Smart) and Jamie (JAKE GYLLENHAAL, Brokeback Mountain, Zodiac) have quite a

An American in Italy (movie #112)

2010-12-23T10:01:00.001+11:00

The American Cinema Nova, 08/12/2010Status: Behind by 1 filmAn aloof hitman on one last job finds redemption in the love of a prostitute with a heart of gold. Yes, The American is truly that clichéd. When laying low in Sweden doesn’t work out, GEORGE CLOONEY lays low in rural Italy instead. He’s contracted to make a sniper assassin gun – no, the sniper assassin gun – and while he works on it a

He’s behind you! (movie #111)

2010-12-22T22:37:00.000+11:00

Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale Cinema Nova, 08/12/2010Status: Behind by 2 filmsRare Exports: A Christmas Tale is absolutely absurd. But that’s kind of what I want in a film about an age-old, evil Finnish Santa that steals children. In the Russian mountains near the Finnish border, a millionaire digs up Santa Claus, buried half a kilometre inside the mountain. Santa’s