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Menampilkan postingan dari September, 2018

Review: Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far On Foot

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Gus Van Sant’s biopic of US comedian John Callahan is named after Callahan’s memoir, which is turn is named after the punchline of perhaps his most famous cartoon: a couple of cowboys chasing a villain down find an overturned wheelchair and… you get the idea. It’s a sharp skewering of clichés, the kind of cartoon that’s bound to offend, and this biopic contains pretty much none of that spirit.  That's not exactly a slam on the finished product. What Van Sant serves up is a warm-hearted and kind-spirited film that finds it in its heart to treat just about everyone with thoughtfulness and forgiveness. Joaquin Phoenix's performance as Callahan does an excellent job of capturing his youthful naivety (though Phoenix is probably past playing 21 year olds, as that's the age Callahan was at his accident) alongside the essential optimism that surfaces once he shrugs off the booze. As for why Callahan made the darkly funny cartoons that made him famous? Well, this never really digs i...

Review: Ladies in Black

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By 1959, Sydney's tram network was in disrepair. Lines had been closing down since the late 1930s; despite public opposition, removal of the service was government policy thanks to congested streets, competition from buses and private cars, and a general lack of investment. Deliberately run down and rickety, the entire network - once the largest in Australia and one of the largest in the world - would be gone by 1962. Sydney 1959 - specifically, the lead-in to Christmas - is also when Bruce Beresford's latest film Ladies in Black is set. It's a sunny, polished, feel-good tale centered on the staff of the high-class department store Goode’s (think David Jones), where the floor staff – named the “ladies in black” – guide the women of Sydney in their fashion needs. For sixteen year-old Lisa (Angourie Rice), it’s a holiday job between high school and (she hopes) university; for Fay (Rachael Taylor) it’s love that’s paramount (and the Aussie blokes aren’t mea...

Review: The Predator

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The first Predator works mostly because it's a brilliantly simple idea well-told: a bunch of action movie badasses meet something even more badass than they are. The second Predator is pretty much the same idea only in a different setting and with a bunch of extra junk thrown in, and it only kind of works. The Predator is nothing but extra junk; it does not work. At first it seems like all the junk is going to be a feature, not a bug. After his mission to rescue hostages taken by a Mexican drug cartel is interrupted by a crashing spacecraft, US Army Ranger sniper Quinn McKenna (Boyd Holbrook) scavenges some Predator technology (a faceplate and wrist band) and mails it back to the US just before he's captured. He also swallows the equipment's remote control so he can crap it out at an important plot point later. Unfortunately he hasn't paid for his post office box in years so the post office dumps his packages on his doorstep where his estranged family take them insid...

Review: The Merger

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The history of Australian comedy film is the history of a bunch of knockabout larrikins who band together to defeat the bad guys. The Castle : larrikins vs development. Crackerjack : larrikins vs development. Kenny : larrikins vs the development of social taboos around defecation. And so The Merger is also about a band of larrikins getting together to - literally - tackle a worthy foe. Only this time, the foe is far more insidious than a stink that'll outlast religion. Troy Carrington (Damian Callinan) is a local legend for all the wrong reasons. A star AFL player (until he broke his leg running through the Grand Final banner) and environmental activist who got the local logging mill shut down (earning him the nickname “town killer”) he’s not exactly well-loved in his small country town. The terrible wine he makes isn't winning him any friends either. So when the local footy team looks set to close due to lack of players and an asbestos-filled clubroom, nobody – but especially...