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“The biggest problem here is that there isn’t enough time spent with the food. That should be ‘Restaurant Movie 101’ – linger on the dishes, make us desire them.”
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“Ruizpalacios has his heart in the right place – and there are some incredible long-takes here including one that ends with the kitchen flooded with Cherry Coke – but it’s all too much, even the quiet bits. This was the second film of the weekend that I couldn’t wait to end.”
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“In the end, I stuck it out but I feel like I gained nothing from the exercise apart from a renewed respect for the craft of gory physical puppetry effects and the precision engineering skill on the part of screenwriters Gary Busick and Lori Evans Taylor and co-directors Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein.”
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“What The Final Reckoning does exceptionally well – it’s in the franchise’s DNA after all – are ticking clocks and countdowns. Director Christopher McQuarrie and editor Eddie Hamilton ensure that each of those spectacular set-pieces are (literally) gripping – the editor-in-chief and I still hold hands in the movies and it took me a few minutes to get the blood circulating once again when the lights went up.”
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“For a while, I thought it was going to be one of those stealth Christian films – the title, the opening voiceover suggesting that the virus survivors thought that ‘God had left us’, the graffiti on the road saying, ‘Hell is real’. But, if that was the motive, it thankfully doesn’t follow through in any literal way.
But then there is the relationship between a virus, an overreaching state response – the villain of the film is a psychopathic government tracker played by Aussie Callan Mulvey – and lots of talk about freedom, property and tres from Roxburgh’s character. Add to that, the fact that there’s a script consultant credit for screenwriter Dane Giraud, who happens to also be a board member of the Free Speech Union (an organisation that has argued that Nazis should be allowed to speak in publicly-owned venues and advocated for the right of a Holocaust-denier to visit New Zealand on a money-making tour) and the libertarian conspiracy theory door is ajar.
Of course, I’m drawing a very long bow, but when the film itself is so uninteresting, this is where my mind wanders. The perils of overthinking.”
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“As you might expect with a film that is anchored by the star of Killers of the Flower Moon, the majority of it is underplayed which allows the farce – when it appears – to burst into life and then retreat back to normality. There’s a very funny meta moment in the ‘de-gaying of the house’ montage, in hurried anticipation of Grandma’s arrival, where Gladstone removes all the LGBTQ-themed DVDs from the shelf including a film that she appeared in.”
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“I’m such a sook for stuff like this but I really did appreciate that the characters that Howard has found here – linked by very cute kids explaining why their pets are so important to them – are actually really interesting. There’s a Spanish solo kayaker who adopts a dog who travels around the Mediterranean with him, a couple who adopt a pig who encourages them to start a rescue farm for animals with special needs, and a former Washington D.C. gang banger who now keeps falcons.”
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“Is Nashville one of the greatest films ever made, as some have dubbed it? Doubtful from this distance, but it is still a fascinating window on a time and place as the seeds of the culture wars that we are suffering from now are sown.”
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“Williams’ tentative steps towards the project – and his own journey into the language – alongside his conviction that he cannot not make the record are very relatable. I’ve heard some tracks from the finished collection now and – from memory they are a lot more lush and polished than the versions we hear being recorded in that old community hall in Haast.”
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“The tonal shifts are bipolar in their own way. The road movie bickering among the gang is often pretty funny but this is a superhero film that finally acknowledges that you can’t punch your way out of trauma, and the deep wells of sadness that all the Thunderbolts have is made moving by real actors encouraged to do some real acting.”
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“A few of the incidents are plucked from The Big Chill book of clichés – unrequited love becomes suddenly requited, alcoholic falls off the wagon – and the most interesting character is the dead one who still manages to narrate the story from beyond the grave.”
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“There’s very little war in this war film – it’s about relationships under pressure and refusing not sacrifice your humanity for an idea, especially an idea that doesn’t belong to you.”
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“This is one of Sorrentino’s road movies, like This Must Be the Place or The Great Beauty, where the central character searches for meaning in a privileged but unexamined life. Indeed, Parthenope is a great counterpoint to The Great Beauty – she is “The Great Beauty” but is no more fulfilled than the one searching for her.”
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“... Tarantino-style twisty crime drama with more double-crosses than a game of Giant Jenga.”
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“Star Rodrigo Santoro almost manages to make the unpleasant egotist watchable – and there’s not enough of his reportedly mesmerising footballing skill on show – but the film brings the glamorous world of wartime Rio brilliantly to life.”
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“... tells the obscure (to our eyes) story of the cultural and political movement that swept Brazil in the late 1960s, mixing traditional folk music with psychedelia and threatening the military dictatorship with hordes of beautiful groovy teenagers.”
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“... if you didn’t see (or didn’t enjoy) the original film then this won’t be the most engaging 90 minutes you have on offer.”
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“Full of information and heartbreaking witness testimony, I feel certain you will be as enraged as I was about this subject.”
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“Farhadi has a remarkable ability to get under the skin of ordinary people, slowly detaching them from the security of their daily lives, emphasising psychological truth but never losing sight of social context. It’s immaculate filmmaking and his control is breathtaking.”
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“... a very good film and among other things it gives the lie to that myth that Icelanders are the best trawlermen in the world.”
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“... quietly intelligent ...”
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“... a little miracle – a film based on a great book that manages to keep almost all the nuance and subtext alive, as well as add a little of its own.”
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“It’s definitely not for vertigo sufferers but the alpine scenery is stunning. Sadly, the film fails to manufacture much tension back down on the ground.”
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“I’m a showbiz kid, so it was just catnip to me, but the inherent drama of a long and rigorous selection process should appeal to anyone not ruined by those awful Idol shows.”
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“I thought it was quite watchable but my sister, a Fame aficionado from way back, was disappointed.”
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“I laughed quite a lot but the woman sitting two seats away snored all the way through – your mileage may vary.”
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“... glorious to look at and weird as all get out.”
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“... not funny, not romantic and not dramatic.”
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“Pitched slightly younger than G‑Force, and without the polish, it is still worth a look.”
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“The animation is first class (and CGI rodents are always cute) but the film as a whole never really gets going.”
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“Viewers in Auckland and Wellington who commute by rail will be laughing hollowly at this point – the New Zealand equivalent of this plot would be a threat to blow up the rail replacement bus if the points network at Wellington station isn’t completed in less than 18 months.”
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“Flirting dangerously between empathy and making autism the butt of the film’s humour – there is an autism spectrum consultant credited but there are also three times as many cat trainers – the film is mostly memorable for the buddy banter between the brothers rather than the action sequences which are as noisy and bloody as they all seem to be in these R-rated days.”
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“... a feel-good movie in a weekend where there's quite a lot of rugged material being released. Quite tough films going into cinemas this weekend. And this is the one that you should go to if you want to be uplifted. It'll make you laugh.”
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Watched on Saturday May 24, 2025.
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Watched on Sunday May 25, 2025.
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“... the stupidest, nastiest, ugliest piece of trash I’ve seen since I started this gig in 2006.”
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“Looking no better than an animation school graduation project, Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil is the first 3D movie that I’ve actually fallen asleep in front of.”
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“Writer-Director Alexander Roman makes some strange choices in of interviews – lots of informed and semi-informed speculation but not much actual first-hand knowledge – and some of the stylistic devices become wearisome even before they are over-used.”
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“Much more sensitive and humane than I was expecting from it’s (online) reputation, Catfish is absorbing and cleverly constructed.”
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“There are plenty of amusing cameos from well-known film and tv faces, most notably the best work Ronnie Corbett has done in decades.”
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“... like a Sunday afternoon TV serial condensed to feature length.”
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“Director Francis Lawrence makes a token attempt to show us the gritty and desperate side of Depression life but in the end the high fructose corn syrup of traditional Hollywood romance smothers everything. Pattinson remains dead behind the eyes as always, Witherspoon fails to convince as an acrobat and Waltz repeats his Oscar-winning psychopathic Nazi from Inglourious Basterds only without the great Tarantino dialogue.”
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“... about as funny as someone standing on your corn (an image drawn directly from life, ladies and gentlemen).”
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“This is minor Allen (aren’t they all these days?) but not without charms and several jokes made me laugh out loud (one of which I am stealing for myself).”
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“If you were a Zodiac-obsessed kid like Fincher, you’ll get a big kick out of the detailed recreations of the era. If you are a normal citizen like myself, by the time the film goes in to Decade (and Hour) Three, you’ll wonder what all the fuss is about.”
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“In these times, it is desperately important that we see people modelling positive change and don’t give in to cynicism or even despair.”
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“Being scolded by a documentary isn’t much fun.”
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“I’m sure there is a lot in there to reward a patient and attentive viewer but, apart from watching one of the great modern screen actors at work, I couldn’t find it.”
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“(Perhaps too) lovingly and (too) carefully directed Apron Strings’ flaws are on the page rather than on the screen. Screenwriters Shuchi Kothari and Dianne Taylor squeeze so much in that the film collapses under the weight of all that coincidence and so many ‘points’. They also prove that it is very difficult to write a decent, three-dimensional, white racist character these days without falling back on cliché.”
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“Sadly, only the great Robert Downey Jr. (as the alcoholic principal) makes the lines sound, not only, like he’d actually thought of them himself but that they had occurred to him right then and there. Everyone else holds their characters at arms length and the whole film wears it’s irony rather too consciously on its sleeve.”
]]>Discs and digital at home.
- The Lake House
DVD
- Los Angeles Plays Itself
Blu-ray
- Boogie Nights
Blu-ray
- There Will Be Blood
Blu-ray
- The Master
Blu-ray
- Fantastic Mr. Fox
Blu-ray
- Isle of Dogs
Blu-ray
- Always Outnumbered
DVD
- The Fountain
DVD
- The Hollow Men
DVD
...plus 828 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.
]]>As at Friday 14 June 2024 ...
- 2001: A Space Odyssey
- The Godfather
- Citizen Kane
- Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles
- Raiders of the Lost Ark
- La Dolce Vita
- Seven Samurai
- In the Mood for Love
- There Will Be Blood
- Singin' in the Rain
...plus 92 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.
]]>- Koyaanisqatsi
- The Family Game
- Leave All Fair
- Meantime
- Mr. Wrong
- Where the Green Ants Dream
- Two Friends
- Ngati
- Mauri
- Rita, Sue and Bob Too
...plus 72 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.
]]>Because the Sight & Sound Top 50 is so male-heavy (in selectors and selected), it is entirely appropriate that the other half of our project focuses on women filmmakers.
- Whale Rider
- Bang Gang (A Modern Love Story)
- Europa Europa
- 150 Milligrams
- Baden Baden
- Before I Fall
- The Night Porter
- A United Kingdom
- Raw
- Paris Can Wait
...plus 5 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.
]]>A weekly countdown of the 2012 Sight & Sound Top 50 Films of All Time throughout 2017, an attempt to restore faith in and direct attention to classic cinema. Also an exercise in finding out how many of these films are available to NZ audiences and in what format.
- Vertigo
- Citizen Kane
- Tokyo Story
- The Rules of the Game
- Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans
- 2001: A Space Odyssey
- The Searchers
- Man with a Movie Camera
- The ion of Joan of Arc
- 8½
...plus 42 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.
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