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Tag: oscar-nominated

Films nominated for an Oscar.

Film Review: The Square

Film Review: The Square

Published March 14, 2018 By Lee Hill

Reviewed by Lee Hill

In his 1946 essay, Politics and the English Language, George Orwell said: “…if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought. A bad usage can spread by tradition and imitation, even among people who should and do know better.” Clear thinking, common sense, open debate and reason face new threats from the grip that marketing, branding, spin, “fake news” and other forms of intellectual cheerleading now have over our lives. The extent to which this corruption can infect even the most progressive nations, organisations, communities and individuals is one of the many themes of The Square, Ruben Östlund’s problematic follow-up to his 2014 arthouse hit, Force Majeure.

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Film Review: A Fantastic Woman

Film Review: A Fantastic Woman

Published March 2, 2018 By Linda Marric

Reviewed by Linda Marric

A few films have managed to garner the kind of good will directed at Chilean filmmaker Sebastián Lelio’s brilliantly well observed feature A Fantastic Woman. Nominated for a foreign language Oscar at this weekend’s Academy Awards, the film offers a wonderfully complex, engaging and thoroughly affecting account of a young trans woman’s battle against preconceived ideas about gender and sexuality in a traditional latin society. Staring transgender actress Daniela Vega in the principle role, A Fantastic Woman is as innovative in its story telling as it is tender in its dealings with issues relating to grief and loss. 

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Report: I, Tonya Press Conference

Report: I, Tonya Press Conference

Published February 23, 2018 By Amon Warmann

Report by Amon Warmann

I, Tonya has been a big player in this year’s awards season, and for good reason. Margot Robbie delivers a career-best performance as Tonya Harding – an ex figure skating champion with a shocking story to tell – and she’s ably supported by an eye-catching turn from Allison Janney, Harding’s overbearing mother.

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Film Review: The Shape of Water

Film Review: The Shape of Water

Published February 16, 2018 By Rachael Kaines

Reviewed by Rachael Kaines

With The Shape of Water Guillermo del Toro has finally returned to form. A charming and beautiful romance as well as a tale (tail) of underdogs (fish) of all shapes and sizes. del Toro manages to represent many marginalised aspects of society in the setting of America during the cold war (even a group we never knew were marginalised — fish men).

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Film Review: Loveless

Film Review: Loveless

Published February 8, 2018 By Lee Hill

Reviewed by Lee Hill

For international audiences, Andrey Zvyagintsev is THE Russian director in the way that Andrei Tarkovsky was in the 80s. Since his astonishing debut in 2003, The Return, he has found a way to combine portraits of individuals in crisis with wider examinations of Russia’s inability to move away from totalitarianism. In his last two films, Elena (2011) and Leviathan (2014), relationships between men and women are severely disrupted if not shattered by the social, economic and political dysfunction of Putin’s Russia. Zvyagintsev views the citizens of his fractured homeland not just with the eye of a poet, but a clinician’s knack for making sense of the fragments and the grim reflections of what is left.

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Film Review: Phantom Thread

Film Review: Phantom Thread

Published February 6, 2018 By Rachael Kaines

Reviewed by Rachael Kaines

Not quite the harrowing experience some might be expecting, Phantom Thread is closer to a perverse romantic comedy than a serious or dark drama. If the idea of watching people throw beautiful barbs at each other over a breakfast table sounds appealing, then Phantom Thread is your film.

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Film Review: Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri

Film Review: Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri

Published January 11, 2018 By Freda Cooper

Reviewed by Freda Cooper

It was only a matter of time. One of the brothers McDonagh had to hit the jackpot. Big brother John Michael had made The Guard, Calvary and, more latterly, War On Everyone. Martin had In Bruges and Seven Psychopaths under his belt. And now he brings Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri to the screen – the most cumbersome of titles for a film which is the complete opposite.

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Film Review: All The Money In The World

Film Review: All The Money In The World

Published January 5, 2018 By Freda Cooper

Reviewed by Freda Cooper

Only two months ago, a large question mark hung over the fate of Ridley Scott’s All The Money In The World. We all know why and we all know what happened next. Rather than have his film shelved, the director reverted to his original choice of Christopher Plummer to play billionaire J Paul Getty and re-shot his scenes in just six weeks.

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Film Review: The Disaster Artist

Film Review: The Disaster Artist

Published December 4, 2017 By Rachael Kaines

Reviewed by Rachael Kaines

James Franco, (much like Tommy Wiseau the man he plays), directs, produces, and stars in The Disaster Artist, easily his finest film to date. Based on a book by Greg Sestero about the nightmare experience of making a horrendous movie called The Room, and the extremely strange experience of being friends with the writer, director, producer, and star, Tommy Wiseau.

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