Here’s the thing about doing something clever. You’ve got to BE clever in the first place, otherwise your flash of lightning you think separates you from the rest of the population exposes you as nothing other than egoistic and naively entranced with your mind’s ability to function at the most rudimentary level. This is a […]
Category Archives: Film Reviews
September
01
Me Earl and the Dying Girl – Good writing is uncessesary if you tell us what we want to hear. (Film review)
posted by lisathatcher
August
22
Articles at The Essental
posted by lisathatcher
My blog has been pretty quiet lately. For those of you who don’t know, my day job is in accounting and this time of year is a total punish for me. It all starts mid June and each year seems to stretch on a little longer. I’m racing to complete all my accounting obligations […]
August
09
Last Cab to Darwin – What is it to live the fulfilled, examined life? (Film Review)
posted by lisathatcher
Last Cab To Darwin is pure triumph of the mcguffin, the made-famous-by-Hitchcock device where an object, goal or desired place is deemed to be the focus of a heroic journey, but reveals itself to be nothing other than the distraction against which a narratives primary purpose is posited. The significance of technique used in a […]
July
28
’71 – The eerie nature of the suburbs as a war zone. (Film review)
posted by lisathatcher
’71 Came out on DVD in Australia last Thursday. There is an uncomfortable appeal smouldering beneath films about conflict set in suburbia within the “United Kingdom.” It comes to the fore in ’71, the film about a young British soldier whose naiveté is swept away one remarkable night when the very physical conflict of a pitched […]
July
13
Ruben Guthrie – Sydney as Narcissus and Aussie drinking culture. (Film Review)
posted by lisathatcher
Ruben Guthrie opens in Sydney July 16. The enormous and imposing image of Zoya, Ruben Guthrie’s estranged fiance, is plastered over the wall of his home acting as judge, pledge and talisman over the year of sobriety he promises her in exchange for reinstating their relationship. It is the pure sustaining of an identity through […]
July
12
30 Depictions of Female Genius in Film – Articles at The Essential
posted by lisathatcher
I know! I hate lists! I still do. I actually wrote this one for The Essential because it turns out, the way intelligence is depicted in popular culture actually affects real life perceptions of ability. The way female intelligence is depicted in movies has a direct impact on the way they are looked over for […]
July
11
Magic Mike XXL – Unapologetically one for the ladies. (Film Review)
posted by lisathatcher
“It’s not bro time it’s show time – are you guys ready?” I plead with my friends to spare a thought for the heterosexual feminist. Falling in love with a man always demands a dose of Stockholm syndrome and for most hetro-identified feminists, myself included, anger is your only defense, your only friend and your […]
June
29
30 Years ago today – The Terminator (Film review)
posted by lisathatcher
I published this review in 2014 on the 30th anniversary of The Terminator. Republishing now, due to the endless rise of the sequal… Los Angeles: 2029 AD The machines rose from the ashes of the nuclear fire. Their war to exterminate mankind had raged for decades, but the final battle would not be fought in the future. […]
June
14
Eisenstein in Guanajuato – Sydney Film Festival Review
posted by lisathatcher
I’ve been reviewing some films for the Film Fest over at The Essential. Check out my heated adoration of Eisenstein in Guanajuato here. Unapologetically Sassure / unapologetically Greenaway! Evolving like some erotic fevered animal for words, Peter Greenaway’s latest masterpiece sees him devote screen time to his great idol Sergei Eisenstein, a man be believes set […]
June
14
Results – Sydney Film Festival Review
posted by lisathatcher
Over at The Essential I have written about the great new Andrew Bualski film Results. Check it out here. The so-called godfather of mumblecore remains true to his off-the-beaten-track aesthetic with this step toward the mainstream inResults, a rom-com with a typically Andrew Bujalski twist on the mainstream genre. Given that romantic comedy is arguably […]
Lisa Thatcher 