I’ve read that Ayer write this script in under a week, and I have to say you can tell. There is enough good stuff in the film to carry it, but a huge let down for me is how underdeveloped the Brain Taylor (really well-played by Jake Gyllenhaal) character is. There are far too many […]
Category Archives: Film Reviews
Lawless: Nick Cave and American violence.
posted by lisathatcher
I wrote an article at the start of this blog entitled: Why I love Miller and hate Hemingway, or how I pick and choose my misogynists, and I confess it’s in the spirit of what I talked about there that I have to enter this review of Lawless. I’m not 100% sure why I love […]
Grandma Lo-fi: The Basement Tapes of Sigrídur Níelsdóttir (Antenna Documentary Film Festival)
posted by lisathatcher
I spent a delightful 62 minutes with Sigrídur Níelsdóttir a woman dubbed Grandma Lo-Fi at the Sydney documentary film festival recently. This is a gorgeous documentary about an enormously charming woman, who also happens to be – as she describes herself – filled with music. At the age of 70, Sigrídur Níelsdóttir decided to start her recording […]
The American Soldier – Fassbinder does Godard
posted by lisathatcher
It can be difficult with Fassbinder films over and over again. I’ve said on this blog in the past that he is one of my favourite directors and yet I can only take him in certain doses. If I were locked on an island with nothing but a screen and Godard films I’d think I’d […]
Pierrot le Fou – Godard and the ecstasy of words.
posted by lisathatcher
One of the lines in Pierrot le Fou (Pierre the fool or Crazy Pete) is a quote or at least an echo from Rimbaud, Une Saison en enfer – A season in hell. This is one of many art references in this film, but possibly sums up this intense period of film making for Godard. […]
To Rome with Love – Woody Allen and the whistle-stop tour does Italy
posted by lisathatcher
Is it my imagination, or has Woody Allen finally grown up? Vicky Christina Barcelona teeterd on the past and the future for him, Midnight in Paris was a refreshing look at a great director, not back in form, but using his wit and wisdom to create something fresh, and now with To Rome with Love we have […]
Outing – Discussion of the ultimate taboo: Antenna Documentary Film Festival
posted by lisathatcher
I just saw the most difficult and controversial of documentaries. However, like all serious takes on taboo subjects that never get discussed properly, it was enormously enlightening. Here is the film festival blurb for Outing, to give you an idea of what this film is about: Sven is a goofy, floppy haired 26-year-old student. He is also […]
Looper – A mothers love will save us all.
posted by lisathatcher
Time travel has not yet been invented but 30 years from now, it will have been. I am one of many specialized assassins in our present called loopers. So when criminal organizations in the future need gone, they zap them back to me and I eliminate the target from the future. Loopers are well paid. […]
Killing them Softly – Andrew Dominik reveals America is a business.
posted by lisathatcher
When I saw Killing Them Softly on the line up at the Sydney Film Festival I confess I did a wide berth. I was like “oh god – ANOTHER one?” about this film. I know there is nothing fresh in cinema (supposedly) and I know Lars von Triers Melancholia is about the death and drudgery […]
Mother Küsters goes to Heaven – Fassbinder and the the question of what comes after exploitation.
posted by lisathatcher
Mother Küsters goes to Heaven (1975) is another of those chilling Fassbinders. Chilling, not just because of the subject matter, but also because it stars Armin Meier who will kill himself over his love for Fassbinder in three years after this film is made and about whom Fassbinder will make In a Year of Thirteen Moons. Typical of Fassbinder it […]
Lisa Thatcher 