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Concrete Playground

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Rating Title | Year Author Quote
10 Cloverfield Lane (2016) Sarah Ward Through canny camera placement, fine-tuned framing, savvy editing, a foreboding score and a willingness to take its time, the claustrophobic thriller has great fun teasing its audience.
Posted Nov 06, 2025  Edit critic review
The Phoenician Scheme (2025) Sarah Ward Cuts deep emotionally, and seamlessly shows how he's a master at his usual touches while also venturing into new territory.
Posted Oct 16, 2025  Edit critic review
The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) Sarah Ward The most melancholy, poignant and deeply felt of the director's features. And, in its visuals and its performances, it's also oh-so-rich with affecting detail.
Posted Oct 16, 2025  Edit critic review
The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) Sarah Ward It's no wonder that Anderson lets this layered tale of friendship, war, fascism and tragedy hang off his leading man.
Posted Oct 16, 2025  Edit critic review
Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) Sarah Ward Combine Anderson, a magnificent Roald Dahl-penned all-ages story and stunning stop-motion animation, and you get a match made in cinematic heaven.
Posted Oct 16, 2025  Edit critic review
Rushmore (1998) Sarah Ward Deploys both Schwartzman and Murray to perfection, while weaving a smart yet also often dark comedy about learning to adjust your dreams.
Posted Oct 16, 2025  Edit critic review
The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou (2004) Sarah Ward Will always be Anderson's undersung gem. It's so quintessentially Anderson and, with its length, it's guilty of sprawling — but every absurdist moment is a marvel.
Posted Oct 16, 2025  Edit critic review
The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (2023) Sarah Ward Watch all four at once and you've got a new Anderson-directed, Dahl-inspired feature-length anthology, plus pure, quintessential, gorgeous and thoughtful Anderson gold.
Posted Oct 16, 2025  Edit critic review
Bottle Rocket (1996) Sarah Ward Establishes many of the filmmaker's trademarks from the outset — including his penchant for witty interactions, as well as his love of dressing his characters in coordinated outfits.
Posted Oct 16, 2025  Edit critic review
The Darjeeling Limited (2007) Sarah Ward As stylish as any Anderson-directed feature, The Darjeeling Limited is served best by its performances, as well as its touching blend of sadness and humour.
Posted Oct 16, 2025  Edit critic review
Moonrise Kingdom (2012) Sarah Ward A bittersweet story about first love and finding a home, it's also the rare Anderson film that feels as much a part of its genre as part of the director's oeuvre.
Posted Oct 16, 2025  Edit critic review
No Other Land (2024) Sarah Ward While the urgency of Adra, Abraham, Ballal and Szor's film is inherent, thrumming from start to finish, so too is the thought and care that's gone into its construction ... truly unforgettable cinema.
Posted Oct 15, 2025  Edit critic review
I'm Still Here (2024) Sarah Ward [A] deeply moving political and personal drama ... stares solidly as the quest for answers and justice never fades among Rubens' loved ones.
Posted Oct 15, 2025  Edit critic review
Conclave (2024) Sarah Ward Aided by a stellar cast that's answering viewers' prayers, filmmaker Edward Berger swaps World War I's horrors in fellow Oscar-winner All Quiet on the Western Front for a pulpy and twisty but smart affair.
Posted Oct 15, 2025  Edit critic review
The Brutalist (2024) Sarah Ward As it muses on what it means to leave a legacy, this is a film to sit with. It's filled with performances that demand the same.
Posted Oct 15, 2025  Edit critic review
Anora (2024) Sarah Ward [Baker] pens, helms and edits with a wholehearted commitment to seeing people who they are.
Posted Oct 15, 2025  Edit critic review
Wicked (2024) Sarah Ward Jon M Chu has a knack as a filmmaker of stage hits reaching cinemas: matching the vibe of the show he's taking on expertly.
Posted Feb 25, 2025  Edit critic review
A Different Man (2024) Sarah Ward It might have a few kindred spirits in various ways among 2024's highlights, but nothing else truly like this has reached screens in years.
Posted Feb 25, 2025  Edit critic review
The Substance (2024) Sarah Ward A new body-horror masterpiece. Pump it up: the sci-fi concept; the stunning command of sound, vision and tone; the savagery and smarts; the gonzo willingness to keep pushing and parodying; the gore; and the career-reviving performance from Demi Moore
Posted Feb 25, 2025  Edit critic review
A Real Pain (2024) Sarah Ward [Eisenberg] keeps crafting deeply felt features that resound with raw emotion, and that leave viewers feeling like they could walk right into them.
Posted Feb 25, 2025  Edit critic review
Dune: Part Two (2024) Sarah Ward Crucial to Villeneuve's take on Dune, and to his work in general, is seeing and feeling the minutiae; Paul's path and inner conflict, and Chani's reaction to it in particular, wouldn't cut as deeply otherwise.
Posted Mar 02, 2024  Edit critic review
Asteroid City (2023) Sarah Ward Wading through yearning, mourning, disappointments and the unknown, Schwartzman and Johansson in particular are astronomically spectacular.
Posted Aug 09, 2023  Edit critic review
Meg 2: The Trench (2023) Sarah Ward Not that anyone is required to try, but no one can stop Meg 2: The Trench's most apt line from proving oh-so-true: "this is some dumb shit".
Posted Aug 09, 2023  Edit critic review
Chevalier (2022) Sarah Ward While it's the tale, reclamation and portrayals that shine brightest — even if detailing significant parts of Bologne's later story in the text-on-screen post-script is a curious move — reaching ample high notes comes easily.
Posted Aug 09, 2023  Edit critic review
Sisu (2022) Sarah Ward Sisu is many things, just like the term itself in its native Finland — and impossible to stop watching is one of them.
Posted Jul 30, 2023  Edit critic review
Talk to Me (2023) Sarah Ward It's constantly clicking, snapping and ensuring that viewers are paying attention — with terror-inducing imagery, a savvy sense of humour, both nerve and the keenness to unnerve, and a helluva scary-movie premise that's exceptionally well-executed.
Posted Jul 29, 2023  Edit critic review
Oppenheimer (2023) Sarah Ward Murphy is spectacular, and has never been better as Nolan stares so intimately and contemplatively at his revealing face. How joyous it is to see Downey Jr, also never better, actually act again.
Posted Jul 22, 2023  Edit critic review
Barbie (2023) Sarah Ward Gerwig has directed a lively, zany, oh-so witty and pretty Barbie flick that's perfectly cast, a costuming showcase and, in Barbie Land, a production-design dream.
Posted Jul 22, 2023  Edit critic review
Carmen (2022) Sarah Ward Sumptuous and a swirl of feelings... pirouettes with swoon-inducing strength with help from its stunningly cast leads.
Posted Jul 22, 2023  Edit critic review
Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One (2023) Sarah Ward The kind of movie spectacle that always looks best on the biggest and brightest of silver screens.
Posted Jul 22, 2023  Edit critic review
Insidious: The Red Door (2023) Sarah Ward This isn't a meaningful exploration of trauma's lingering impact, the current genre go-to, as much as it wants to be.
Posted Jul 22, 2023  Edit critic review
Joy Ride (2023) Sarah Ward At their best when Joy Ride is either at its most manic and outrageous, or its weightiest and intelligent, Park, Cola, Hsu and Wu are a dream cast.
Posted Jul 22, 2023  Edit critic review
The New Boy (2023) Sarah Ward With his oh-so-perceptive eye, Thornton's visuals stunningly do what New Boy does: expresses everything with little speaking necessary.
Posted Jul 22, 2023  Edit critic review
Reality (2023) Sarah Ward With gripping chills and dripping dread, it puts viewers in Winner's shoes as her world turns — and ours — but the world keeps turning.
Posted Jul 22, 2023  Edit critic review
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023) Sarah Ward Watching Ford flashing his crooked smile again, plus his bantering with Waller-Bridge, is almost enough to keep this new instalment whirring.
Posted Jul 22, 2023  Edit critic review
Transformers: Rise of the Beasts (2023) Sarah Ward As dull as a smashed headlight.
Posted Jul 22, 2023  Edit critic review
No Hard Feelings (2023) Sarah Ward Lawrence is a comic dream... she's such a natural here that wanting No Hard Feelings to constantly ramp up the OTT antics stems wholly from her performance.
Posted Jul 22, 2023  Edit critic review
Red, White & Brass (2023) Sarah Ward An affectionate and joyous film that doesn't just pay tribute to events that clearly begged for the big-screen treatment from the moment that they happened... but to the community and culture goes all-in when it comes to national pride.
Posted Jul 22, 2023  Edit critic review
The Flash (2023) Sarah Ward Feeling like disparate pieces that don't stitch together to make the best whole isn't what The Flash was aiming for, but it's what's been zapped into cinemas.
Posted Jul 22, 2023  Edit critic review
You Hurt My Feelings (2023) Sarah Ward Louis-Dreyfus is at her best, and a true sensation, whenever she's in leading-lady mode in front of writer/director Nicole Holofcener's lens.
Posted Jul 22, 2023  Edit critic review
Elemental (2023) Sarah Ward Elemental feels like Pixar is taking its titular term to heart in the worst way, making for rudimentary rather than particularly ravishing or resonant viewing.
Posted Jul 22, 2023  Edit critic review
The Boogeyman (2023) Sarah Ward A feature can be as layered as strings upon strings of fairy lights and equally as conventional as a regular incandescent bulb... The Boogeyman, with its generic title, swings between both extremes.
Posted Jul 22, 2023  Edit critic review
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023) Sarah Ward All the money in the world can't make people in tights standing against green screens as visually spectacular and emotionally expressive as the Spider-Verse films.
Posted Jul 22, 2023  Edit critic review
Sweet As (2022) Sarah Ward As set to all-Indigenous soundtrack, the film is happiest surveying, contemplating and being in the moment; like protagonist, like movie.
Posted Jul 22, 2023  Edit critic review
Saint Omer (2022) Sarah Ward Diop will never forget Kabou, and audiences won't be able to get her film, its extraordinary story or its exceptional lead actors out of their heads, either.
Posted Jul 22, 2023  Edit critic review
Renfield (2023) Sarah Ward Renfield is at full power when Cage is front and centre, and feels like its blood is slowly being drained when he's out of the frame.
Posted Jul 22, 2023  Edit critic review
The Little Mermaid (2023) Sarah Ward When 'Under the Sea' echoes against a literal sea of colour, movement, creatures and energy, it's a dazzling Golden Age Hollywood-esque spectacular. There's no escaping the movie's bloat when it's not merrily floating, however.
Posted Jul 22, 2023  Edit critic review
Limbo (2023) Sarah Ward This is another rich, impassioned and affecting feature about the vast chasm between being Black and white in Australia, and it refuses to see hurt, pain and unspeakable loss with anything but the clearest of eyes.
Posted Jul 22, 2023  Edit critic review
Fast X (2023) Sarah Ward Living on-screen life a quarter mile at a time now seems more like a variety show than a movie, at least where all that recognisable talent is involved.
Posted Jul 22, 2023  Edit critic review
John Farnham: Finding the Voice (2023) Sarah Ward Reinforces two core contrasts: that great music is eternal, but even superstars are only flesh and blood; and that the tunes that last seem like easy hits, but so often spring from a lifetime of hard work.
Posted Jul 22, 2023  Edit critic review
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