Drama
Where the Crawdads Sing spoiler-free review
I’m beginning this review having no clue what I’m going to end up scoring this film or even having a clear idea of what I truly felt about it. It all begins with the death of a popular young man in the town. Was his death an accident? A murder? Who did it? WHY? That’s what we’re here...
Top Gun: Maverick
With Top Gun: Maverick being the biggest title to release recently with an epic preview event to go with it, Louise and Saskia decided to head along together, watch Tom Cruise in action, catch Covid and share their thoughts on the film. Saskia – I watched Top Gun several times in my teen years (and it...
Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore (spoiler-free review)
Here I sit, eating mini Lindt Easter eggs and trying to figure out where The Secrets of Dumbledore went wrong. If you’ve read my previous reviews of The Fantastic Beasts films, you’ll know that I thoroughly enjoyed both of them and actually gave The Crimes of Grindelwald a higher rating than the...
In The Heights
Fans of the musical Hamilton, take note! Lin Manuel Miranda’s In The Heights has finally made it to the big screen, and boy was it worth the wait. For fans of Miranda like myself, it’s a treat seeing him cameo in the film – although I bet when he starred on Broadway as Usnavi, he’d never have im...
Made in Italy
I’d always wanted to see what Flight of the Conchords’ Bret McKenzie would be like in a non-comedic romantic role. Well, this wasn’t it, just in case you’re wondering. But it’s close. Bret’s body double -also known as Micheál Richardson- plays Jack, an art gallery owner. ...
The Little Things
Denzel Washington, Rami Malek and Jared Leto! An interesting line up to be sure! So when asked who wants to review The Little Things my choose-me arm shot up. I watched about ten seconds of trailer and stopped. I could see it was a crime drama and I did not want to take the risk of a badly edited trailer ru...
Music – a film by Sia
You might be forgiven for thinking this is a musical, or at least one giant music video. I mean, with Sia at the director’s helm, you already know what to expect. Dancing? Check. Surrealist sets? Check. Maddie Ziegler? MOST DEFINITELY. What I didn’t expect is how this film takes on some pretty difficu...
Dune 1984
Guest review by Tim Baker Dune.Now there is a juggernaut of science fiction. A glorious triumph of literature and an embarrassing mistake of cinema. Dune, written by Frank Herbert, was first published in 1965. The novel is a dense, complicated, brilliant story set around the year 10,190 on the eponymous pla...
Freaky *spoiler free* Review
It’s been way too long since I’ve sat down to write a review. I genuinely am struggling to remember where to start. I think I usually start with some personal little tidbit about my prior knowledge of the film or what I had for breakfast that day, so let’s start there. On Wednesday the 11t...
Older
The Kiwi film Older has been popping in and out of my industry periphery over the past few years. Given the size of the NZ film and TV industry, the film’s progress has often popped up on my Facebook feed and a few people I either know or know of have been involved in it in some capacity. So I was del...
Endings, Beginnings
One night, one party, can change your life forever. In Endings, Beginnings, Daphne (Shailene Woodley) discovers this when she meets not one, but two, handsome men at her sister’s New Years Eve party. Conflicted, she’s drawn into a tumultuous love triangle which propels her into an exploration of her values ...
Resistance
You might think you would want to just watch happy movies at a time like this. You may wish to surround yourself with laughter, celebrations and feasting with friends and family. But there is another way to put what you, and we, have all have been through, into perspective. And that is to know and to learn ...