In Review
Welcome to In Review! Check out the latest reviews across film, TV, theatre and so much more…
MQFF 2021 Film Review: Dramarama
Director Jonathon Wysocki’s Dramarama set wistfully in 1994, tells the ever-bittersweet story of a group of teenagers, Gene, Ally, Rose, Claire and Oscar, as they have one final night together before they each part ways for college.
Film Review: The Suicide Squad
This is a high-risk mission, life or death, and I want to see someone’s head blow up!
Film Review - Disclosure
Disclosure is a confronting tale about two close couples whose friendships implode through the allegation that one of their children was sexually abused by the other.
Film Review: The Ice Road
Set in the icy tundra of Manitoba Canada, The Ice Road is a race-against-time action thriller that pits Liam Neeson not only against thin ice roads that could crack at any minute, but also corporate greed.
Film Review: Fanny Lye Deliver'd
Fanny Lye Deliver’d is a quasi-Western set just after the English Civil War, circa 1657, in period of moral and sexual liberation, as well as barbaric violence.
Film Review: Dating Amber
Dating Amber centres on Eddie and Amber, both teenage homosexuals who fake a romantic relationship together at school to convince their tormenting classmates they are straight and otherwise ‘normal’.
Film Review: Little Joe
No film in recent memory has made the experience of sitting with a knot in your stomach so enthralling and intriguing.
Film Review: The Sparks Brothers
A wonderfully enthusiastic and enjoyable tribute to the esoteric stylings, and wide-ranging influence, of the band Sparks.
Film Review: Minamata
Minamata’s painterly composition paired with its desperate, clawing story of inequality and the exposing of truths creates a multilayered masterpiece that is equal in its depiction of beauty and pain.
Film Review: First Love
Amidst the turbulence and wildness, First Love is fundamentally a story of the quiet good and maniacal evil that inheres in the world.
Film Review: Ema
Ema unveils itself as a political statement through the microcosm of its titular character. However, it’s crowning achievement is the immersive kinetic energy created from the phenomenal dance choreography, pumping soundtrack and beautiful cinematography.
Film Review: June Again
If you want a film that takes an honest look at familial relationships, which breaks your heart and proceeds to mend it in 100 minutes, then June Again is your best bet.
Film Review: Twist
Don’t immediately write Twist off as just another modern re-telling of a classic, only further proof that the film industry is well and truly out of new and fresh ideas. New and fresh is exactly what director Martin Owen achieves with this re-vamped return to everyone’s favourite orphan (sorry Annie).
Film Review: First Cow
Reichardt’s concern throughout First Cow, it seems, is with people, and the consequences of the structures to which they are subject. That much is clear from the film’s framing device, which I won’t ruin here – this story, astonishingly tender and beautiful as it is, isn’t content to just give the audience likable characters developing an endearing friendship that you like to watch.
Film Review: Collective
Every so often, you get to watch a film that chills you to your core, and properly challenges your belief in the good of people and faith in human nature to care for one other. Even more unsettling so, sometimes that film can be a documentary. This is one of those films.
Film Review: Supernova
The title itself alludes to the film’s central premise: ‘Supernova’ is about a couple deeply in love, and when an endpoint to their relationship is revealed, their emotions and sadness burst in all directions.
Film Review: The Father
The Father showcases the horrors of dementia with standout performances by its lead actors. First-time director Florian Zeller adapts his own stage play with limited settings and cast, but powerfully wrenches at the heart with the psychological turmoil of its few characters.
Film Review: Saint Maud
Many of the horror genre’s all-time classics, such as Rosemary’s Baby (1969), The Exorcist (1973), and The Omen (1976), are based firmly in Christian beliefs, in an association that continues through to modern-day favourites like The Conjuring (2013). While Saint Maud, the debut film by British writer-director Rose Glass, is also a horror film with religion as its central theme, its unique approach offers a refreshing change of pace from this long-standing stereotype.
Film Review: Earwig and the Witch
Earwig and the Witch holds the distinction of being the first film from the esteemed studio to be entirely 3D animation, as opposed to the traditional hand-drawn films before it.
However, that is probably the last distinction the film has.