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4/5
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Materialists
(2025)
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Jane Freebury
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An engaging romance deftly balanced with light comedy and social critique that doesn't shy away from making its points about the dating business of 'doing the math'
Posted Jun 17, 2025
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3/5
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Widow Clicquot
(2023)
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Jane Freebury
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The fascinating backstory that surely belongs with this tale of a female wine entrepreneur in Napoleonic France just doesn't get the attention it deserves in this vague, dreamy treatment with great atmos but weak script
Posted Feb 16, 2025
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3/5
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Nosferatu
(2024)
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Jane Freebury
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The powerful visual aesthetic, Depp's lead performance, and the attention to historical detail are all compelling, but this 21st century version of a weird and wonderful silent classic could have tweaked the familiar journey with more new ideas
Posted Jan 14, 2025
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3/5
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Mufasa: The Lion King
(2024)
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Jane Freebury
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It looks good and there's plenty of race-and-chase action against spectacular backdrops but less childhood trauma and more meerkat, plus a terrific score like the classic original, would have made this way more engaging
Posted Dec 31, 2024
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3/5
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Goodrich
(2024)
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Jane Freebury
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An intelligent script dealing with familiar family stuff, along with Keaton's comedic flair as a single parent, makes for an interesting watch
Posted Nov 30, 2024
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3/5
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Mr. Blake, at Your Service!
(2023)
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Jane Freebury
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Although there is some humour in this rather ordinary fare, the perfomances from the pros in the cast give it a lift and occasional moments of endearing charm
Posted Aug 09, 2024
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3/5
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The Road to Patagonia
(2024)
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Jane Freebury
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Documents what stands as a pretty stunning achievement for any enterprising young person addicted to travel, while it diarises the personal growth that took place along the way
Posted Jul 20, 2024
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1/5
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The Garfield Movie
(2024)
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Jane Freebury
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The complicated plotting doesn't make this origin story any more engaging and leaves us wondering why we need to know why our favourite tabby is a grump, although life is purrfect
Posted Jun 17, 2024
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3/5
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Radical
(2023)
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Jane Freebury
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A film that celebrates a dynamic, unconventional teacher who gets great results from his lucky students, telling a story that has its heart in exactly the right place
Posted Jun 16, 2024
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3/5
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Monster
(2023)
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Jane Freebury
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The touching story of a pair of misunderstood schoolboys in a regional city in Japan endeavours to capture different perspectives on what may or may have happened to them, but is unwieldy in the end
Posted May 26, 2024
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4/5
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Origin
(2023)
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Jane Freebury
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Despite the omnibus approach, one woman's quest for greater insight into the systemic racism that blights American society is told with fluency and skill and gives some characters the space to surprise us
Posted Apr 29, 2024
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4/5
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May December
(2023)
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Cris Kennedy
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May December plays out like one of these 3D pictures you need to unfocus your eyes to see, revealing more only after it is all taken in.
Posted Feb 06, 2024
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4/5
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The Color Purple
(2023)
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Cris Kennedy
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Blitz Bazawule takes a lot on his shoulders, with just a few films on his CV against the intimidating weight of his producers Spielberg, Winfrey and Jones, and makes interesting choices.
Posted Jan 30, 2024
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5/5
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All of Us Strangers
(2023)
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Cris Kennedy
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There's a moment that happens as a camera lens changes its focus, moving from foreground to background, where both parts of the image appear to soften and await resolution. That's the space British writer-director Andrew Haigh inhabits...
Posted Jan 23, 2024
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3/5
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The Beekeeper
(2024)
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Cris Kennedy
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I don't expect subtlety from a Jason Statham film, nay, I don't want it.
Posted Jan 18, 2024
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4/5
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Ferrari
(2023)
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Cris Kennedy
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This film works on many levels, gear-shifting throughout from family drama to high-octane sports film, but particularly because the performances are mostly fantastic.
Posted Jan 08, 2024
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3/5
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Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom
(2023)
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Cris Kennedy
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But visually, the film is a spectacular explosion of ideas that might feel like a lot to take in but faithfully reference the Aquaman comic books of the 1960s and '70s.
Posted Jan 08, 2024
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3/5
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The Marsh King's Daughter
(2023)
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Cris Kennedy
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Neil Burger does a good job with the film's pace and in shepherding strong performances from his whole cast, especially Prince as the young Helena.
Posted Jan 03, 2024
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5/5
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The Old Oak
(2023)
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Cris Kennedy
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It is as strong as much of his work, a very noble exit for the filmmaker, and full of the issues of the present day as you would expect from the noted champion of the underclasses.
Posted Dec 29, 2023
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2/5
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The Black Demon
(2023)
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Cris Kennedy
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Grunberg has some terrific films under his belt including the Mel Gibson flick Get the Gringo and Rambo: Last Blood, but The Black Demon is that blip in your CV you try and brush over in job interviews.
Posted Dec 29, 2023
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4/5
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Wonka
(2023)
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Cris Kennedy
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Chalamet has a magician's fluid movement and a fine singing voice, and his Wonka is a delightful street urchin, a cross between Gonzo the Great and David Blaine.
Posted Dec 20, 2023
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4/5
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Christmess
(2023)
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Cris Kennedy
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Sydney filmmaker Heath Davis presents this dark comedy-drama as something of an antidote to those photogenic coupled-up saccharine Christmas rom-coms that fill up our streaming services at this time of year.
Posted Dec 20, 2023
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4/5
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Ford v Holden
(2023)
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Cris Kennedy
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There's more than a century of history covered here, so director Ou doesn't allow the narrative to veer off course for less than a few seconds here and there.
Posted Dec 20, 2023
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3/5
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Saltburn
(2023)
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Jane Freebury
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A clever, queasy drama, with a terrific star turn from its lead actor, that dares to drive a twisted story about class envy and class war to a risky conclusion
Posted Dec 02, 2023
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3/5
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Foe
(2023)
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Jane Freebury
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An unsettling combination of sci-fi, horror and intimate drama that is evoked by two terrific young actors and enhanced by lovely work on camera, but the big picture concerns the narrative explores needed strengthening at the writing stage
Posted Nov 20, 2023
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3/5
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The Marvels
(2023)
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Cris Kennedy
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DaCosta keeps her cameras on the hop, barely pausing to allow the slower beats to hit, but the film's leads do serviceable work giving their characters heart, and with Vellani winning the bulk of the audience-winning funny dialogue.
Posted Nov 15, 2023
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4/5
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Fingernails
(2023)
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Cris Kennedy
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Greek director Christos Nikou and his co-screenwriters Sam Steiner and Stavros Raptis make some intriguing propositions in their screenplay... But what their script lays the foundations for are some exceptional performances from the trio of leads.
Posted Nov 07, 2023
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4/5
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The Killer
(2023)
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Cris Kennedy
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The Killer is just, well, good. A good, straightforward film.
Posted Oct 31, 2023
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4/5
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Killers of the Flower Moon
(2023)
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Jane Freebury
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With its sweeping prairie vistas and a terrific score, this grim, important story of crimes against First Nations people as the US tried to leave its frontier culture behind, need not have been delivered at a slow, deliberate pace
Posted Oct 31, 2023
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3/5
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The Crime Is Mine
(2023)
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Jane Freebury
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At the end of this theatrical romp with a hint of underlying substance, no ones leaves empty-handed during the general tidy-up, except for the very dead producer
Posted Oct 30, 2023
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4/5
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Lie with Me
(2022)
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Cris Kennedy
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There is a familiarity to Lie With Me as it treads the same boards of many other queer coming-of-age films, because these tropes of repression are so familiar to many.
Posted Oct 17, 2023
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3/5
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Fair Play
(2023)
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Jane Freebury
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Straining for credulity in the tough, fast-moving world of financial services, the film's appealing young romantic couple each have a point to make in the power-play, in this good-looking but oddly even-handed thriller
Posted Oct 13, 2023
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3/5
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The Exorcist: Believer
(2023)
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Cris Kennedy
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[Burstyn's] presence anchors this film to the heft of that brand name, and elevates a film that is otherwise comme ci, comme ca.
Posted Oct 10, 2023
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3/5
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Saw X
(2023)
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Cris Kennedy
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Bell has aged across the 19 years since Saw hit our screens in 2004, and it gives a wonderful physicality to this quiet, broken man.
Posted Oct 03, 2023
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4/5
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Past Lives
(2023)
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Jane Freebury
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Subtle and understated, if occasionally mundane, romantic drama, that reflects our complicated lives in a universal story about the life choices, and sweeps you away in its final climactic moments
Posted Sep 28, 2023
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3/5
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BlackBerry
(2023)
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Jane Freebury
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It's an intriguing take on the spectacular rise and demise of the cell phone that everyone had to have, until they didn't, but aspects of the movie's style and tone are distracting and over-drawn, detracting from its impact overall
Posted Sep 27, 2023
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3/5
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It Lives Inside
(2023)
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Cris Kennedy
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Placing the story within the milieu of an Indian high school student who can't run far enough away from her own cultural heritage, even when that's the probable path to salvation, is one of the film's stronger elements.
Posted Sep 27, 2023
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2/5
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Meg 2: The Trench
(2023)
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Cris Kennedy
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The filmmakers are more than comfortable with the writing team either overlooking any scientific inaccuracy in Steve Altern's source novel, or in adding their own logic-defying scenarios, including that meeting of the megalodon and Tyrannosaurus...
Posted Sep 19, 2023
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Everybody Loves Jeanne
(2022)
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Cris Kennedy
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Other directors might have taken this idea a number of ways, perhaps an Under The Tuscan Sun-style sex comedy... Being French, however, Celine Devaux gives this film a bit of a Gallic shrug, an enjoyable but slight little affair.
Posted Sep 19, 2023
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Blue Beetle
(2023)
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Cris Kennedy
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Gareth Dunnet-Alconer's screenplay has plenty of those big laughs and deserved bad-guy-comeuppances that slay in the hyped-up atmosphere of a large audience...
Posted Sep 19, 2023
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Biosphere
(2022)
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Cris Kennedy
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I think it is one of the film's charms that this isn't the masterclass in scenery-chewing it might have been, with two folk facing the end of the world, as they're both such laid-back characters.
Posted Sep 19, 2023
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4/5
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Sisu
(2022)
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Cris Kennedy
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What a brilliant role this is for Tommila, a crusty old man with the unkillable quality of Keanu Reeves' John Wick... with the inventiveness for killing with whatever is at hand of Liam Neeson's Taken character Brian Mills.
Posted Aug 01, 2023
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4/5
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Driving Madeleine
(2022)
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Cris Kennedy
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There's a tiny bit of similarity to Driving Miss Daisy, this also being an intergenerational road-tripper of a film, but mainly in their enjoyability.
Posted Jul 25, 2023
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5/5
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Oppenheimer
(2023)
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Cris Kennedy
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Nolan's screenplay jumps through time, slowly revealing his characters and their motivations, only making complete sense in its final moments, but with not a moment wasted.
Posted Jul 25, 2023
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3/5
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Carmen
(2022)
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Jane Freebury
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A heavily stylised, star-crossed romance with an intrusive score and odd scattering of religious icons, that has little impact outside the dance scenes, unlike the fiery star of opera it invokes who had impact to burn
Posted Jul 25, 2023
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4/5
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Other People's Children
(2022)
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Jane Freebury
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In this relatable, sensitive relationship drama set in the city of love, intense emotions are explored but the mood is low-key, as a woman, a highly empathetic Virginie Efira in the role, suddenly realises that her chances of motherhood are slipping away
Posted Jul 14, 2023
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4/5
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Reality
(2023)
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Jane Freebury
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A gripping, slow-burn political thriller based on FBI records, in which minimalist details make for maximum suspense, as the drama reconstructs the interrogation and detainment of a young female whistleblower
Posted Jul 09, 2023
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4/5
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The Last Daughter
(2022)
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Cris Kennedy
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Here's a little Australian documentary hitting the screens the same week as the DC Universe's $220 million The Flash that packs twice the punch of the big-budget action flick with nothing but a strong sense of story.
Posted Jun 21, 2023
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4/5
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The Flash
(2023)
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Cris Kennedy
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The Flash is great fun, mostly well-made, and thoroughly enjoyable.
Posted Jun 21, 2023
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4/5
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You Hurt My Feelings
(2023)
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Jane Freebury
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A sweet, smart and playful cautionary tale for anxious writers and aspiring writers that pokes a bit of fun at New Yorkers too and their inner-city angst
Posted Jun 20, 2023
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