Tag: movies
Review: The Florida Project finds sunshine in the rain
At numerous times in Sean Baker’s The Florida Project, the director and co-writer splices together two starkly different realities. One – the city of dreams, where tucked between the highways and residential Orlando lies Disney World, the other happiest place on Earth, where people take family vacation, spend honeymoons and anniversaries, ride roller coasters, stay…
Review: La fille inconnue (The Unknown Girl)
You know that old saying “Lesser Dardennes is still better than most anything else?” OK, it’s not an old saying because I just made it up. But it should be. Because with Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardennes, movies that fall several notches down on their list of achievements are significantly better than the vast bulk of…
Movie Review: Darren Aronofsky’s Mother!
About ten years back, I went to a play at one of my local rep theatres. If I remember right, it was an American premiere, but I suppose that doesn’t really figure into the story. The next day, I was inspired to send a $100 contribution to the theatre, with the accompanying note. “I saw…
Why the Space in Outer-Space Movies Should Be Silent
In space, the tagline for Alien (1979) once noted, no one can hear you scream. Apparently, everybody can hear Death Stars and intergalactic starships explode, though, while laser beams pew-pew-pew through the ether. Someone, please, someone give the world a film where the no-atmosphere environment is nice and quiet. Hollywood offers a culture of standards.…
Movie review: What ‘It’ gets right and wrong
Stephen King’s It was first and foremost a coming of age story that utilised its horror elements as a metaphor for the traumas of childhood and adolescence, and it is in reflecting this human element that Andy Muschietti’s new film adaptation truly excels. Unfortunately, he isn’t as successful in taking the novel’s antagonist and turning him/it…