Magic Magic is showing at the Sydney Underground Film Festival. You can grab tickets here. I think the idea to cast Michael Cera as the villain in a psychological thriller might be one of the most inspired casting choices I’ve ever seen. Cera has one of those odd ball persona that makes you laugh (sure) […]
Category Archives: Film Reviews
September
07
Magic Magic – The Psychological thrill ride of Sebastián Silva. (Sydney Underground Film Festival Review)
posted by lisathatcher
September
04
The Gatekeepers – Dror Moreh and the impossible access. (film review)
posted by lisathatcher
There is something strangely fascinating watching older (wiser) men talking about how they performed institutionally sanctioned violence. In many ways The Gatekeepers reminded me of The Act of Killing. Although the documentaries are poles apart in form and narration (as are the interviewed men), they have a striking similarity; That is of the killers seeking […]
September
03
The Canyons – Paul Shrader and Brett Easton Ellis on the death of film. (Sydney Underground FFF review)
posted by lisathatcher
The Canyons is one of those films that is very difficult to define. Sure its bad. Startlingly so. But given the talent behind the camera, its difficult to know how deliberately bad it is. There is something about the film that makes it one of those car crashes that may end the right way up […]
September
03
See You Next Tuesday – Drew Tobia and the ugly real. (Sydney Underground Film Festival Film Review)
posted by lisathatcher
Even in the year 2013, it’s a courageous film that shows women at their worst. Not a caricatured worst, but a real, low-down and dirty, dare I say it, unattractive worst. As Woody Allen’s Blue Jasmine sweeps the film watching world (a film about an extremely attractive female playing a supposedly unattractive female falling apart) […]
August
31
The Sydney Underground Film Festival – Sept 5 – Sept 8
posted by lisathatcher
The Sydney Underground Film Festival runs from Thursday the 5th of September through to Sunday the 8th of September. You can purchase tickets here. Highlights of this years Underground film fest are Alejandro Jodorowsky’s latest film, The Dance of Reality and Paul Schrader’s latest film The Canyon’s. Each of these films are opening and closing […]
August
29
The Rocket – Kim Mordaunt and the intelligent feel good film. (film review)
posted by lisathatcher
If we must have feel good films these days (and we must) at least let them have a brain as well as a heart. Let them expose us to our global differences as well as our similarities without trying to ‘educate’ us. Let them inspire us without reducing our struggles to personal weakness. Let them […]
August
26
Michael Haneke and Benny’s Video 20 years on. (film review)
posted by lisathatcher
“My films are intended as polemical statements against the American ‘barrel down’ cinema and its dis-empowerment of the spectator. They are an appeal for a cinema of insistent questions instead of false (because too quick) answers, for clarifying distance in place of violating closeness, for provocation and dialogue instead of consumption and consensus.” — From […]
August
25
What Maisie Knew – Scott McGehee and David Siegel take on Henry James. (film review)
posted by lisathatcher
Please note, this review is a discussion on the film that includes spoilers if you are not familiar with the book. What Maisie Knew is a novel written by Henry James in 1897 that is meant to be a harsh criticism on a British society that had no child welfare policies, and used children, just […]
August
24
Red 2 – Dean Parisot and the boomers who kick ass. (film review)
posted by lisathatcher
Warren Ellis wrote RED (Retired-Extremly-Dangerous) in 2003 and 2004 and except for the coming-out-of-retirement plot line, pretty much the rest of the film(s) based on the comic strip have steered away from the original. Ellis was quoted as saying the comic and film had to be different because the film needed far more content than […]
August
23
The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones – Harald Zwart and the tweenie girl thing. (film review)
posted by lisathatcher
It is with some trepidation that I approach a review of The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones. For starters, it is impossible to separate the film from the book and I haven’t read the book. Also, the film has to be seen in the context of its audience. There is no point comparing it with […]
Lisa Thatcher 