J.C. Chandor excels at pinpointing and extending the single crucial moment that makes or breaks a psyche into powerhouse suspense film that evolves into very contemporary morality tales revolving around a chicken coming home to roost, rather than chance or the turn of a fateful card. IHowever, in each of his three films, there remains the crucial […]
Category Archives: Film Reviews
February
25
A Most Violent Year – First you get the money, then you get the power, then you have a film. (Film Review)
posted by lisathatcher
February
19
Rosewater – Jon Stewart and that comic political touch. (Film Review)
posted by lisathatcher
Politics hasn’t been my thing since it started to make me so angry I couldn’t get through the day without a headache, but I confess to being excited, like all obedient left wingers, at the 2010 – 2012 Arab Spring. Even with the endless coverage it did and still receives, we know we haven’t seen […]
February
16
Boy Mets Girl – We are all imposing sterotypes. (Mardi Gras Film Festival Review)
posted by lisathatcher
Boy Meets Girl is just one of the attractions at this years Sydney Mardi Gras film festival, Feb 19 to Mar 5. Grab your tickets here. Boy Meets Girl is a complicated film wrapped up in a simplistic tale. It’s brilliance teeters on three clever filmic devices; the warm and engaging nature of Michelle Hendley, […]
February
15
Fifty Shades of Grey – A fan film for females crazy like that. (Film Review)
posted by lisathatcher
In a marvellous ‘fuck you’ to the critics (Rotten Tomatoes has Fifty Shades of Grey currently marked down to 28% by the 3/4 male critical audience) Universal refused previews, knowing from the start the film was directed specifically to the fans and more interestingly that the target audience would grow with word of mouth […]
February
03
The Gambler – The turn of the unfriendliest of cards. (Film Review)
posted by lisathatcher
One triumph does not a great director make, as we see in the 2015 remake of the semi-remake The Gambler, a film that should have given director Rupert Wyatt a chance to work more of the magic he performed with Rise of the Planet of the Apes, but instead winds up being a soup of […]
January
27
Selma – an American problem, an American film, an American audience. (Film Review)
posted by lisathatcher
Selma is a specific film made for a specific audience at a specific time. It is a well made film, that includes competent performances, a high level of technical acumen and is directed by one of Americas most interesting directors. Its purpose is two-fold; to highlight a specific problem to the American people that recent […]
January
22
American Sniper – I need a hero! (Film Review)
posted by lisathatcher
American Sniper is a tribute eulogy to Chris Kyle, fetishising the American hero in the most calculated ways, not the least of which is linking him to The Man With No Name and Dirty Harry. It is a disturbing propaganda piece, of which the man himself would most likely approve, painting a horribly gray […]
January
20
Wild – Reece Witherspoons real woman. (Film Review)
posted by lisathatcher
Note: I originally placed reviews for Wild and Tracks next to each other in my publication scedule, because I thought they may be similar films (with Tracks coming out a full year earlier) but after seeing Wild, I realised they’re very different films, with very different female leads. They are as different as Platoon and […]
January
20
Great Movies I (almost) missed in 2014 – Tracks (Film Review)
posted by lisathatcher
One of the rather dire problems of Tracks, is that its protagonist, Robyn Davidson (performed by Mia Wasikowska) seeks to escape the patronizing gaze of a humanity that tries to fetishise her, which is the very motivation to make the film. It’s a tricky one, because on the one hand, Tracks is the perfect film […]
January
19
Still Alice – Julianne Moore swims skillfully through an ocean of tears. (Film Review)
posted by lisathatcher
Ok, so the first thing to say is that Julianne Moore is amazing in Still Alice and even though she deserved The Award for so many other films, it will certainly help me sleep just that little better at night knowing she finally has ‘One’, and unlike Susan Sarandon that should have had one forever, […]
Lisa Thatcher 