9 years ago
Remembering Judy Garland
Judy Garland died 45 years ago today. Her fifth husband Mickey Deans found her in the bathroom of their mews house at 4 Cadogan Lane, Chelsea, around 10am on June …
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9 years ago
John Ford and the D-Day footage
Was John Ford a liar, as well as a drunk? The director who made Stagecoach, How Green Was My Valley, The Grapes of Wrath and many other great pictures also …
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9 years ago
Film festivals season
Do you prefer the BIFF, the MIFF, the RPIFF, the AFF or the SFF? I speak of course of the major Australian film festivals, whose season is upon us. Sydney …
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9 years ago
The truth about Cannes
The stairway to heaven in the film world has 24 steps, all shrouded in red. These are the steps to the Palais, the heart of the Cannes Film Festival, or …
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Recent Reviews
Bad people doing bad things
Detour
Written and directed by Christopher Smith
97 minutes, rated MA 15+
3 stars
There’s no such thing as originality, but that doesn’t mean you stop aiming for it. Detour …
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An elegy for Emily D.
A Quiet Passion
Written and directed by Terence Davies
125 minutes, rated PG
4 stars
When one artist makes a film about another artist, you can be reasonably sure that …
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Kartoonish Korean ultra-violence
The Villainess
Directed by Jung Byung-gil
Written by Jung Byeong-sik and Jung Byung-gil
122 minutes, rated R
3.5 stars
The Villainess is a high-octane Korean thriller about a young woman …
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Fascinating half-true story
Monsieur Chocolat
Directed by Roschdy Zem
Written by Cyril Gely, Olivier Gorce, Gerard Noiriel and Roschdy Zem
114 minutes, rated M
4 stars
This is the fascinating true story of …
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Black and white and red
Get Out
Written and directed by Jordan Peele
104 minutes, rated MA 15+
4 stars
A guide to African–American horror films would be a slim volume. There are black people …
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Fine and brave
Don’t Tell
Directed by Tori Garrett
Written by Anne Brooksbank, Ursula Cleary, James Greville, based on a book by Stephen Roche
108 minutes, rated M
4 stars
Child abuse. …
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Gurinder’s personal Partition
Viceroy’s House
Directed by Gurinder Chadha
Written by Paul Mayeda Berges, Moira Buffini and Gurinder Chadha
106 minutes, rated PG
3 stars
Where to begin with this fascinating, infuriating, entertaining …
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Pablo Neruda as fantasy
Neruda
Directed by Pablo Larrain
Written by Guillermo Calderon
Rated MA 15+, 108 minutes
4 stars
A chubby man with a comb-over (Luis Gnecco) sits bare-chested in front of a …
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