Without having seen Alfonso Cuarón’s Sólo Con Tu Pareja (Only with your Partner), I’m forced to begin my journey through his films with A Little Princess. It’s a shame (I just haven’t been able to get my hands on the film yet) because Sólo Con Tu Pareja is important in the green period, plus its the film […]
Category Archives: Film Reviews
February
10
A little Princess – Alfonso Cuarón steps out into a magical world of green. (Film Review)
posted by lisathatcher
February
09
Blue is the Warmest Color – Abdellatif Kechiche and the aching intimacy of love. (Film Review)
posted by lisathatcher
I wondered, after reading so many of the criticisms of Blue is the Warmest Color (note: almost all were written by straight people) if there had been any gay directors who have misrepresented straight sex through the ages in film. Gay actors and actresses have certainly played straight lovers in hetro sex scenes, sometimes well, sometimes […]
February
07
The Decendants – The end of the unpleasant man and the start of the unpleasant film. (Film Review)
posted by lisathatcher
It’s eleven yeas later in 2011, and we haven’t seen a new Payne film, and this absence of a much-loved film maker might account for the disproportionate worship The Descendants received when it finally hit the screens; immediately obvious is the absence of Jim Taylor who, we can now safely contend, was primarily responsible for […]
February
06
Sideways – Alexander Payne and the mid-life crises Odyesey. (Film review)
posted by lisathatcher
Alexander Payne’s second most successful film to date – his most up until Nebraska – is also arguably his funniest, if you like conversational wit over quirky charm, because its best competition is and always will be the titular Payne film (that incidentally is nothing like any other Payne film) Election. Now two films and […]
February
05
About Schmidt – Alexander Payne and the Odyessy of the anti hero. (Film Review)
posted by lisathatcher
There are many images in Alexander Payne’s films that stick with his audiences, but it has to be admitted that Kathy Bates’ outrageously sexy BBW nudity is one of the most thrilling, being one of the most audacious and confronting acts of unashamed sexual drive in the history of American cinema, and earning that actress […]
February
04
Dallas Buyers Club – Jean-Marc Vallée asks how should crises affect a system? (Film review)
posted by lisathatcher
There are no spoilers in this review. If Dallas Buyers Club succeeds at anything (besides Matthew McConaughey teriff performance) it reveals the devastating impact, not necessarily of prejudice, but the first worlds astounding inability to act when a true crises hits. The FDA (in this country it is the TGA – Therapeutic Goods Administration), whether […]
February
04
Election – Alexander Payne finds his stride. (Film Review)
posted by lisathatcher
Riding on the success of Citizen Ruth, the writing team of Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor, and the film making success of director Alexander Payne, editor Kevin Trent and cinematographer James Glennon continues three years later with the arrival of the great film, Election, arguably both teams best work, most certainly one of Alexander Payne’s […]
February
03
Citizen Ruth – Alexander Payne and the trouble with women. (Film Review)
posted by lisathatcher
As a stand alone, Citizen Ruth has some interesting things to say about the abortion debate and, as Payne himself repeatedly assures, the problems of zealotry and extremism, in its depiction of the ways that ideology can cloud judgement and strangely end up committing the moral crimes it is trying to ensure against, but overall […]
February
01
Inside Llewyn Davis – A Coen story perfectly told. (Film Review)
posted by lisathatcher
When one is determined to say nothing about the Academy Awards, until subsequent years of course, it is a promise of a sacred type born of a determination in this particularl film commentator/reviewer, to not further saturate an already bloated marketplace with my completely useless predictions or opinions about what the primary awards white Anglo […]
January
30
Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom – Justin Chadwick’s comfortable confinement. (Film Review)
posted by lisathatcher
Having never made a bio-pic about a saint, I can only guess at the moral complexities waging war within the soul as pen is put to paper and story put to board. As far as I can tell, in post-modernity we’ve only really had three people who’ve reached the pop zenith of universally being claimed […]
Lisa Thatcher 