25 Jan

The film that's divided America finally arrives in Australia. With a swag of precursor awards season success including winning Best Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical (it's neither, by the way) at the Golden Globes, taking home the prestigious Producer's Guild of America trophy, and now receiving five Academy Award nominations including Best Picture, Green Book has all the hallmarks of a new American classic. But dig a little deeper and you'll soon discover this "feel-good" film is problematic as all hell, making its adoration by awards season...

16:34 / Reviews
3 Likes
23 Jan

In an awards season dominated by powerful female performances, the chance to see two fierce Queens go head-to-head sounds like a tantalising opportunity. In director Josie Rourke's debut film Mary Queen of Scots, the epic showdown promised within the film's somewhat misleading advertising never quite materialises. In its place is a revisionist feminist tale fraught with pacing issues that takes a tad too many liberties with history for the sake of spicing up its narrative, leaving us with a decidedly uneven piece of cinema. Saved by the performances of...

16:10 / Reviews
5 Likes
16 Jan

Australian cinema has somewhat of an obsession with crafting adorable animal characters audiences instantly fall in love with. From the gutsy little pig in Babe to the tough cattle dog in Red Dog to those toe-tapping penguins in Happy Feet, it's a long-running subgenre we Aussies do particularly well. A pelican hardly seems the next likely evolutionary step in this chain of cute creature films, but in Storm Boy, you're likely to find yourself captivated by these awkward birds. It's just a shame the film surrounding them is somewhat of a dud. A...

22:59 / Reviews
1 Like
16 Jan

The legend of King Arthur and his infamous sword in the stone has been portrayed on the big screen many, many, many, many times. The most recent effort, Guy Ritchie's 2017 mega-flop King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, was a gargantuan and unmitigated disaster. Wisely flipping the fable right on its head in The Kid Who Would Be King, writer/director Joe Cornish reboots the well-worn tale with a 21st-century setting and a fresh narrative injected with socially aware themes cleverly hidden amongst good old fashioned family fun. With the...

14:10 / Reviews
2 Likes
15 Jan

The Jammies hit the fifth year milestone, and it's a joy to bring you The Jam Report's little slice of awards season fun for another year. After another sublime 12 months for cinema, it's been a tough challenge to pick this year's nominees and winners, but we always get there in the end. If you've been following The Jammies for the last few years, you may notice a few new categories have been added and a few have been cut. With so much negativity already permeating everywhere online, it was...

08:12 / Awards Season / Reviews
4 Likes
13 Jan

Two years ago, a sequel came along few could have known actually existed as a sequel until the film's surprise final moments. Sorry to spoil this for you, but with one brief climatic scene, writer/director M. Night Shyamalan proved he could still deliver a killer twist to stun an audience. By unexpectedly connecting his 2017 film Split with that of his criminally underrated 2000 picture Unbreakable, he created a new cinematic universe no one ever really expected, and, thus, laid the foundation for a third film where it all comes together. A psychological...

08:19 / Reviews
2 Likes
09 Jan

When the first two films of an eventual trilogy are all sorts of wonderful, the third and penultimate chapter has a lot to live up to. Most completely fall over themselves. Think Spider-Man 3, X-Men: The Last Stand, and The Godfather Part III. But every so often, we get the rare threequel that is every bit as terrific (and maybe even better) than the films that preceded it. The gold standard has always been Toy Story 3, which (at the time) wrapped up Pixar's marvellous franchise in spectacular fashion. Move over,...

19:35 / Reviews
2 Likes
04 Jan

It seems like only yesterday we were bidding farewell to 2017, and yet, here we are doing it all again with 2018. It's been another magnificent year for cinema. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. As always, the best came towards the latter stages of the year, but, on the whole, it was a spectacular roster of bombastic blockbusters, indie darlings, foreign language wonders, and quite a few glorious surprise packages. We film critics live a charmed life where we are blessed to see dozens and dozens of films...

10:55 / Reviews
4 Likes
27 Dec

Absurdist cinema is not for everyone. The directorial work of master of the bizarre Yorgos Lanthimos likely hasn't sat well with most audiences. By the same token, period films aren't exactly most people's cup of tea either. When presented with an absurdist period piece directed by Lanthimos, one may have some trepidation. Leave your apprehension at the door. It's not needed here. With his latest work, we are gifted with one of the year's most raucously glorious and wickedly delicious pieces of cinema. Standing as Lanthimos' most accessible film...

13:37 / Reviews
1 Like
18 Dec

"The following is a true story. Or as true as it can be, given that Dick Cheney is known as one of the most secretive leaders in recent history. We tried our fucking best." That's the refreshingly honest admission placed at the beginning of Vice, the latest film from goofy-comedy-writer/director-turned-awards-season-darling Adam McKay that seeks to capture the life and times of one of the 21st centuries most bombastic yet mysterious figures, former Vice President Dick Cheney. By his own confession, McKay is openly admitting he's had to make assumptions...

06:56 / Reviews
1 Like