The Rocky series may be meat and potatoes filmmaking, but it’s a hearty meal. The kind that makes you pat your stomach and fall asleep, the senses duly satisfied. Sylvester Stallone, who like his titular character, went from unknown to celebrity with the 1976 Oscar winning original, isn’t alone when he voices shock that this […]

Damien Chazelle’s had a run of lovingly made, high-quality movies – the kind of run that, historically, in what is sometimes called Michael Cimino syndrome, leads to a filmmaker’s eyes becoming larger than their stomach. It’s the road, strewn with elephant dung, that leads to hubris. The success that guarantees monumental failure. Babylon is that […]

The Rocky series may be meat and potatoes filmmaking, but it’s a hearty meal. The kind that makes you pat your stomach and fall asleep, the senses duly satisfied. Sylvester Stallone, who like his titular character, went from unknown to celebrity with the 1976 Oscar winning original, isn’t alone when he voices shock that this […]

Damien Chazelle’s had a run of lovingly made, high-quality movies – the kind of run that, historically, in what is sometimes called Michael Cimino syndrome, leads to a filmmaker’s eyes becoming larger than their stomach. It’s the road, strewn with elephant dung, that leads to hubris. The success that guarantees monumental failure. Babylon is that […]

Following the inexplicable, four quadrant success of Avatar – a movie everyone saw but nobody remembers, James Cameron has been locked away in a filmmaking lab, MacGyvering the sequel with a team of engineers, who like him, are consumed by the technology of filmmaking. Crew are supposed to be process driven of course. They operate […]

Naughty Rian Johnson – the man who devotes inordinate amounts of time formulating strategies to pull the rug from what used to be cinema audiences (now sofa sinkers), is having a second stab with Glass Onion – the follow-up to the curiously successful Knives Out. Who knew we all missed the all-star whodunnit so much? […]

Prior to watching Blonde – Andrew Dominik’s adaptation of Joyce Carol Oates’ imagined life of Marilyn Monroe – I had no opinions on the late Norma Jeane. After seeing it I still don’t. Her onscreen persona – tits and teeth; a pouting, breathless ingénue; male fantasy personified – always signified to me, and I suspect […]

To appreciate the impact of Steven Spielberg’s 1993 blockbuster, Jurassic Park – not his best work by some distance, one need only consider that the basic proposition; photorealistic dinosaurs hunting humans, has sustained five sequels, none of which, like the original film, was particularly good. But Spielberg’s movie had a USP backed by skilled direction […]

Top Gun: Maverick is the quintessence of redundant cinema. It tells a story that doesn’t need to be told, existing only to trade on the memory of a film that it essentially remakes. It’s a self-conscious and meticulously calibrated appropriation of a manner and style of filmmaking that is irrefutably passé. Yet, it charismatically manipulates. […]

There’s an endearing scattiness to Marvel’s new Doctor Strange adventure. It’s not a friendly standalone. Though the movie spells it out for the uninitiated you’ll get more from the film’s in media res approach if you’ve seen Wandavision and other Marvel TV outings – but that’s how it is now; the MCU has branches on […]

Warning: This review alludes to plot elements. Do not investigate further until you’ve seen this title. Warner Bros’ insatiable hunger for Batman movies may seem the product of creative timidity and commercial cynicism, because it is, but it’s also nothing new. Think of the number of Sherlock Holmes adaptations, or versions of popular characters like […]