Wednesday 12 December 2018

MOWGLI: LEGEND OF THE JUNGLE (full review at Screen Realm)

The much-delayed Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle finally arrives on our screens via Netflix and a limited cinema release. With a host of diverse filmmakers – from Ron Howard to Alejandro González Iñárritu – attached to the film at various times, the long-gestating project heralds Andy Serkis’ second feature as director following Andrew Garfield-starring biopic Breathe.

Originally scheduled for release back in 2016, Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle was set to clash with Disney’s live action Jungle Book update, directed by Jon Favreau. But when two similar movies turn out at the same time, one will inevitably sink without trace. For example, not many folk will remember the 1991 Robin Hood movie starring Patrick Bergin that could not escape the shadow of Kevin Costner’s Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, despite beating it to theatres by a month. However, they might recall the irony of the tables turning two years later, with Costner on the receiving end, his three-hour Wyatt Earp biopic getting upstaged by George P. Cosmatos’ rollicking Tombstone.

Read the full review at Screen Realm:
https://screenrealm.com/mowgli-legend-of-the-jungle-movie-review-netflix/

IMDB: Mowgli: The Legend Of The Jungle

Monday 3 December 2018

CLIMAX (full review at Screen Realm)

Climax is the latest controversial feature from Gaspar Noé (Irreversible, Enter the Void, Love), purportedly based on true events, and setting the festival circuit aflutter with its seedy depiction of very a bad drug experience and stunning dance choreography.

The film takes place during the nineties and we’re introduced to various members of a French dance company via videotaped job interviews that preface the movie. We then meet the company as they let loose for a pre-tour party. The party progresses as you would expect, until they discover the sangria has been spiked, and with nearly the entire company having indulged, everyone begins to have a considerably bad time. And just in case it needs saying, things go downhill rather quickly.

Read the full review at Screen Realm:
https://screenrealm.com/climax-movie-review-gaspar-noe/

IMDB: Climax

LORDS OF CHAOS (full review at Diabolique Magazine)

Lords of Chaos (2018) is the fourth feature from director Jonas Åkerlund, and charts the inception of Norwegian Black Metal in the early 1990s. The movie attempts to shine some light on mysterious progenitor Øystein Aarseth a.k.a. Euronymous, Olso’s infamous record shop Helvete and the bands that sprung up around it. But mostly it’s a segway into the outrageous, headline grabbing events that brought Norwegian Black Metal to the attention of the World.

Based on the book of the same name by Michael Moynihan and Didrik Soderlind (but omitting the salacious subtitle The Bloody Rise of the Satanic Metal Underground), Lords Of Chaos is a hard film to categorise because as the creaky old saying goes, truth is stranger than fiction. So it emerges as part musical biopic, part thriller, part horror movie. It’s the age old story of teenagers being dickheads, large egos running rampant, money, suicide, church burning and murder.


Read the full review at Diabolique Magazine:
https://diaboliquemagazine.com/lords-of-chaos-review/

IMDB: Lords Of Chaos

Sunday 25 November 2018

DRAGGED ACROSS CONCRETE (full review at Screen Realm)

Few filmmakers working today are as crucial as S.Craig Zahler. Novelist, screenwriter and with Bone Tomahawk and Brawl In Cell Block 99, the director of two of the best films this decade has seen so far. A renaissance man for pulp cinema, he’s even had time to scratch out an excellent column for Fangoria magazine on home made horror. In this reviewer’s opinion, only Jeremy Saulnier and Ben Wheatley can really give him a run for his money.

So with that in mind, it’s safe to say the bar is set quite high for Dragged Across Concrete, another foray into the type of pulpy crime universe Zahler is making his own. Unfortunately, instead of clearing that bar with ease, Concrete ducks just underneath it.

Brett Ridgeman (Mel Gibson) and Anthony Lurasetti (Vince Vaughn) are two detectives, suspended from active duty after being captured on video using excessive force on a suspect. Ridgeman needs to move his family out of their bad neighbourhood and Lurasetti has an expensive wedding on the horizon, so with their ability to earn taken away from them, they turn to a less legal income stream. Working off a tip, they stake out a local drug lord, soon discovering what they thought would be a routine drug trade, is fact the preparation for an elaborate and savage bank robbery.

Read the full review at Screen Realm:
https://screenrealm.com/dragged-across-concrete-movie-review-vince-vaughn-mel-gibson/

IMDB: Dragged Across Concrete

NIGHT OF THE CREEPS (full article at Diabolique Magazine)

In 1986 Fred Dekker, made his directorial debut with that trickiest of all genre blends – the horror comedy. He was twenty six years old, and wrote the movie in two weeks, incorporating all of his favourite elements of horror, science fiction and classic 50s B-movies into Night Of The Creeps. Although it failed to set the box office alight on release, Night Of The Creeps found its audience in the years to follow, developing into a popular cult favourite. As it enters its 32nd year, what better time to take a look at why Night Of The Creeps is still so much fun.

Read the full article at Diabolique:
https://diaboliquemagazine.com/revisiting-night-of-the-creeps-1986/

IMDB: Night Of The Creeps




Tuesday 23 October 2018

THE NIGHT COMES FOR US (full review at Screen Realm)

The Night Comes For Us is director Timo Tjhjanto’s follow up to his 2016 action movie Headshot and is premiering on Netflix. It’s a kinetic, bloody action movie utilising Indonesian Pencak Silat martial arts, cinematically popularised in The Raid movies.

Ito (Joe Taslim) is an enforcer for a Triad operating out of the infamous Golden Triangle. He is a member of a group of high level operatives who go to extreme measures in service of the Triad. These merciless enforcers are known as The Six Seas.

Under orders to exterminate a fishing village for skimming profits, Ito refuses to kill a young girl, Reina (Asha Kenyeri Bermudez), and turns instead on his own men. He heads home to the Jakarta underground hoping to get himself and Reina fake identities and passage out of the country.  However, the Triad has recruited Ito’s old friend Arian (Iko Uwais) to pursue him, promising Arian a lucrative territory and Ito’s place in The Six Seas in return. In addition, the Triad sends its local thugs in pursuit of Ito, and a mysterious, deadly assassin known as The Operative (Julie Estelle) is circling the whole affair with an unknown motive. 

Read the full review at Screen Realm:
https://screenrealm.com/the-night-comes-for-us-movie-review-netflix/

IMDB: The Night Comes For Us

Sunday 21 October 2018

BEAUTIFUL BOY (full review at Screen Realm)

Beautiful Boy is the true story of David Scheff and his son Nic’s battles with drug addiction and the impact it has on their family. Directed by Felix Van Groeningen, it is adapted as an amalgam of David’s book Beautiful Boy: A Father's Journey Through His Son's Addiction and Nic’s memoir Tweak: Growing Up on Methamphetamines.

The story unfolds from David’s (Steve Carell) point of view and follows his family’s journey though the turmoil of Nic’s (Timothée Chalamet) drug addiction, recovery and relapse, recovery and relapse. We see the impact it has on David, his other children and his wife, Karen (Maura Tierney). We see the impact on Nic’s mother Vicki (Amy Ryan), and we witness Nic’s life unfold and compose and unfold again.

Read the full review at Screen Realm:
https://screenrealm.com/beautiful-boy-movie-review-2018/

IMDB: Beautiful Boy

Wednesday 10 October 2018

HOLD THE DARK (full review at Screen Realm)

Hold The Dark is Jeremey Saulnier’s fourth film as director and is an adaptation of a novel by William Giraldi. Collaborating with Macon Blair (writer/director of the exceptional I Don’t Feel At Home In This World Anymore) they bring us a slow burn, enigmatic thriller, saturated with violence.

After a young boy is taken by wolves outside his family home in rural Alaska, his mother, Melora Slone (Riley Keogh), writes to author and wolf expert Russell Core (Jeffrey Wright) for help. She requests that he come to Alaska, track and kill the animal responsible for her son’s presumed death.  Russell agrees to assist and what follows is a film that takes us in unexpected and not always explained directions.

Read the full review at Screen Realm:
https://screenrealm.com/hold-the-dark-movie-review-netflix/

IMDB: Hold The Dark

DEEP RISING (full article at Diabolique Magazine)

It's always exciting when you get to write for someone new, and this article on Deep Rising is my first time writing for the excellent Diabolique Magazine.

In 1997 a movie about a stricken ocean liner set the box office alight. Titanic, James Cameron’s historical fiction starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet romped to Oscar glory and monumental box office, changing the face of cinema forever. The following year, another imperilled ocean liner movie emerged… and it was better. It incorporated many elements that were sorely lacking in Titanic – namely sea monsters and lots of guns. And that movie was Deep Rising.

The plot is pure and innocent and beautiful in its simplicity. Somewhere in the South China Sea or “the middle of nowhere squared” according John Finnegan (Treat Williams), skipper of a small boat hired by a suspicious group of mercenaries, a luxury cruise ship called the Argonautica is on its maiden voyage. The mercenaries, led by Hanover (Wes Studi) and comprising a motley crew of great character actors like Jason Flemyng, Cliff Curtis and Djimon Hounsou are en-route to intercept the Argonautica and mess some stuff up. However, when they arrive at the rendezvous location they find the Argonautica adrift and deserted. As the crew investigate the desolate vessel they encounter several survivors including smarmy boat designer Simon Canton (Anthony Heald) and the fantastically named professional cat burglar, Trillian St. James (Famke Janssen). Together, they learn the cruise liner was the victim of an attack by a multi-tentacled deep sea leviathan, hell bent on gruesomely chowing down on everyone on board.

Read the full article at Diabolique:
https://diaboliquemagazine.com/deep-rising/

IMDB: Deep Rising

Friday 5 October 2018

TERRIFIER


My second movie for Shocktober was Terrifier. I'm not sure why I dislike its particular brand of crass exploitation over say, Maniac, which I like very much. Perhaps because Terrifier can't decide if Art the Clown is mortal or supernatural and if there aren't any rules then there aren't any real consequences. While Art is a superbly nightmarish character - silent and freakish - and the movie is uncompromisingly violent, the kills are not scary. Terrifier does not terrify - it disgusts. It lingers too long on repugnant set pieces  and crosses a line into territory that's just generally unpleasant. Art's real successes are early in the film where he does little more than stare at people - in these moments of bizarre, stoic creepiness we get to be genuinely uncomfortable and Terrifier actually works quite nicely. The odd bit of warped, black humor also unnerves - when Art randomly honks a clown horn in the direction of a victim he cannot reach.

Otherwise Terrifier is largely just a collection of horrifying imagery draped over the flimsiest of plots. Again I've given a lot of thought as to why this doesn't sit right with me, when other horror movies concerned with imagery over plot (Baskin, for example) fall right into my wheelhouse. And I think it's because there's almost no thought process to Terrifier beyond wanting to gross you out. And even it's worst excess is an idea shamelessly lifted straight out of a better movie (naming it would spoil both films, so I will decline to).

Ultimately Terrifier feels like it had the tools at its disposal to become a really fantastic horror movie, but instead focused on gore at the expense of all else. The result is a largely plotless film that's also quite nasty.

IMDB: Terrifier

This review was also posted to Letterboxd

YOU WERE NEVER REALLY HERE (full review at Screen Realm)

You Were Never Really Here is the fourth feature from Lynne Ramsay and is an adaptation of the novella by Jonathan Ames.

Joaquin Phoenix stars as Joe, a deeply traumatised ex-soldier who lives with his elderly mother and works as the hired muscle for a private investigator. A lucrative case comes his way as he is employed to locate Nina (Ekaterina Samsonov), the runaway daughter of a local Senator. He is given an address and a request to exercise both discretion and brutality. To divulge any more plot would be to enter spoiler territory but suffice it to say, the plot takes us into some dark territory and violence is ever present.

Read the full review at Screen Realm:
https://screenrealm.com/you-were-never-really-here-movie-review-joaquin-phoenix/

IMDB: You Were Never Really Here

GUZOO: THE THING FORSAKEN BY GOD - PART1 (aka Guzoo: Kami ni misuterareshi mono - Part I)

This was a tricky one to learn about and I expected that trying to find it would involve a lot more work. Fortunately Guzoo's minimal search results yielded a YouTube upload, and while that's not the ideal screening option it does stand as your best (only?) chance of seeing Kazuo Komizu's splatter obscurity.

Trying to learn more about this film ended up being very similar to investigating Japanese punk records - when you arm yourself with an overwhelming curiosity and zero language ability. A chance encounter with a screenshot on Tumblr led me down a rabbit hole where, beyond what's here on Letterboxd, the only thing I've been able to establish is that Part 2 does not exist.

On to the film itself then, and if you're not consumed by waves of intrigue at the title Guzoo: The Thing Forsaken by God - Part 1, then perhaps this is a good place to take your leave. The plot is not a million miles away from Nobuhiko Obayashi's Hausu as four schoolgirls go to visit a family friend in a country house and after a bunch of innocent wholesome fun, get terrorised by something sinister- in this instance, a lumpen, tentacled monstrosity from the basement. The creature is an amorphous mound of blubber that really looks a hell of a lot like a Shoggoth from Lovecraftian lore. John Carpenter's influence can also be felt in the Prince of Darkness vibe and similarities to The Thing in some of the effects. Stuart Gordon's body horror masterpiece From Beyond emerged the same year and Guzoo feels a bit like its demented sibling.

But the main issue with Guzoo is that at a brisk 40 minutes it feels more like the IDEA of a movie than a fully fledged story. Guzoo could have been something spectacular if they'd just (pardon the pun) fleshed it out a bit more.

IMDB: Guzoo: The Thing Forsaken by God - Part 1

This review was also posted to Letterboxd

Tuesday 21 August 2018

MANDY (full review at Screen Realm)

In 2010 first-time director Panos Cosmatos created a surreal and grotesquely beautiful science fiction movie by the name of Beyond the Black Rainbow. Cosmatos crafted a movie with a superficially retro appearance, which, upon inspection, contained a depth of startling visual originality...

And while Beyond The Black Rainbow was certainly not for everyone, it found appeal among those who like to look in the dark corners and around the smudged edges of cinema for something a bit different. Even if you don’t agree that Black Rainbow succeeds in its mission, you can’t name another movie like it… until now.

...Red (Nicolas Cage) and Mandy (Andrea Riseborough) live an idyllic life together in their home in California’s Shadow Mountains, until one day they cross paths with a religious cult led by Jeremiah Sand (Linus Roache). Jeremiah decides he must possess Mandy and enlists the help of a monstrous trio of L.S.D.-bent bikers to take her by force.

...Mandy is dark and weird and unhinged, and very, very good.

Read the full review at Screen Realm:
https://screenrealm.com/mandy-movie-review-nicolas-cage/

IMDB: Mandy

THE MEG (full review at Screen Realm)

After years in Development Hell, The Meg, based on the book by Steve Alten, arrives on our screens with the irresistibly high-concept formula of Jason Statham + Giant Shark. It has thus ramped up enthusiasm to giddy heights for those of us who consider ourselves connoisseurs of both the large-creature-runs-amok oeuvre, and the filmography of Mr Statham.

The plot involves an offshore, hi-tec science lab, dedicated to exploring the depths of the ocean. More specifically a team of scientists lead by Zhang (Winston Chao) and financed by Morris (Rainn Wilson) set out to prove the floor of the famed Marianas Trench is merely a deep sea cloud protecting a realm of undiscovered sea life. It begins as a forgotten world yarn in the grand tradition of Jules Verne or Edgar Rice Burroughs. Think 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, Journey To the Center Of The Earth, The Land That Time Forgot. But in a similar plot development to Alexandre Aja’s feral Piranha remake, the scientists accidentally loose a gigantic prehistoric shark, or Megalodon, upon the modern world and it’s up to burly, expert rescue diver Jonas Taylor (Statham) to stop it.

Read the full review at Screen Realm:
https://screenrealm.com/the-meg-movie-review-jason-statham/

IMDB: The Meg




Tuesday 7 August 2018

LET THE CORPSES TAN (LAISSEZ BRONZER LES CADAVRES) (full review at Screen Realm)

French writing/directing team Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani follow up their acclaimed neo-gialli Amer and The Strange Color Of Your Body’s Tears with their third feature, Let The Corpses Tan (Laissez Bronzer Les Cadavres). Corpses… is a stylish and bloody crime noir that also takes influence from Italian cinema - this time in form of spaghetti western and classic Italian ‘poliziottesco’ crime films.

A criminal gang, led by Rhino (Stéphane Ferrara), uses local artist Luce’s (Elina Löwensohn) remote studio residence as cover to undertake an early morning gold heist on a coastal road outside an unnamed town. Returning to their hilltop hideaway, with a couple of hitchikers in tow, the gang plans to lie low until the furore around the robbery has died down. Unfortunately, two local motorcycle cops call in on a routine check and the situation quickly devolves, resulting a bloody stand off as both cops and criminals find themselves under siege.


Read the full review at Screen Realm:
https://screenrealm.com/let-the-corpses-tan-movie-review/

IMDB: Let The Corpses Tan

Saturday 14 July 2018

ESCAPE TO VICTORY (full review at Screen Realm)

Escape To Victory (or simply Victory if you are more familiar with the prosaic US and Australian title) is a 1981 World War II / sports movie meld from legendary director John Huston. Or to put it another way, Escape To Victory is the greatest sports movie ever made.

Loosely based on a 1962 Hungarian film by the name of Two Half-Times in Hell (Két félidő a pokolban) aka The Last Goal, the story has its roots in a remarkable real-life series of games known as The Game of Death aka The Death Match, which took place in 1941 and saw F.C. Dynamo Kiev trounce a team of Nazis.

Read the full article at Screen Realm:
https://screenrealm.com/escape-to-victory-movie-1981-classic/

IMDB: Escape To Victory

Sunday 8 July 2018

SEE YOU UP THERE (AU REVOIR LA-HAUT) (full review at Screen Realm)

In 1918 as the First World War edges to a close, on verge of armistice, Edouard Péricourt (Nahuel Pérez Biscayart) and Albert Maillard (Albert Dupontel) are ordered, along with the rest of their company, to undertake one last foray into No-Mans Land.  Their commanding officer Henri d'Aulnay-Pradelle (Laurent Lafitte), sends his charges into the firing line of the Somme, where Edouard saves Alberts life. But as the two prepare to retreat Edouard is injured in an explosion which tears away the bottom of his face, leaving him permanently disfigured.

Read the full review at Screen Realm:
https://screenrealm.com/see-you-up-there-au-revoir-la-haut-movie-review/

IMDB: See You Up There


Thursday 14 June 2018

THE LEISURE SEEKER (full review at Screen Realm)

Will and Jane Spencer arrive at their family home one morning to find their parents, John and Ella (Donald Sutherland and Helen Mirren) have absconded in the family Winnebago, the Leisure Seeker. They want to hit the road one last time, to have a final vacation in the trusty vehicle of their family holidays, and to allow John, a retired English professor, to finally visit the house of his idol Ernest Hemingway.

Paolo Virzi’s, The Leisure Seeker, is a road movie which forgoes the usual odd-couple conflict, in favour of a couple who know each other very well. Long married and embarking on what they both know is likely their last holiday, because Ella is sick, and John is battling dementia. Which leaves an underlying sense of sadness to The Leisure Seeker, as we get to know John and Ella, we share the sorrow of their mutual deterioration.

Read the full review at Screen Realm:
https://screenrealm.com/the-leisure-seeker-movie-review/

IMDB: The Leisure Seeker

Thursday 7 June 2018

OCEAN'S 8 (full review at Screen Realm)

Freshly released from prison, Debbie Ocean (Sandra Bullock) teams up with her best friend Lou (Cate Blanchett) with a plan to pull off an elaborate jewel heist. Having spent the past five years plotting every aspect of their perfect crime, Debbie and Lou set about recruiting a team to steal an extremely valuable necklace from famous actress Daphne Kluger (Anne Hathaway) at the prestigious Met Gala in New York.

Ocean’s 8 is threaded into the Soderbergh iteration of Ocean movies as Bullock’s character, Debbie Ocean, is the sister of George Clooney’s character Danny. It’s worth it as an excuse to see Elliot Gould cameo as Reuben, but beyond establishing a thin continuity with the previous trilogy, it’s not that necessary. Soderbergh’s version (itself a remake of the 1960 Brat Pack movie) and the sequels, although fun, are unlikely to have left anyone believing the movies to be sacred ground. In fact, in these times of superfluous remakes, the Oceans series actually looks like a perfect candidate for reinterpretation.

Read the full review at Screen Realm:
https://screenrealm.com/oceans-8-movie-review/

IMDB: Ocean's 8

Saturday 2 June 2018

THE BLOOD OF WOLVES (KORO NO CHI) (full review at Screen Realm)

The Blood of Wolves (Korô no chi) is a Yakuza movie from director Kazuya Shiraishi, based on a 2015 novel by Yûko Yuzuki.

Set in 1988 it follows rookie cop Hoika (Tori Matsuzaka) as he is assigned to partner gang squad legend Ogami (Kōji Yakusho). Their beat is the streets of Hiroshima, and they must mediate the uneasy balance of power between the city’s two powerful Yakuza gangs, the Kakomura-gumi and the Odani-gumi.

Read the full review at Screen Realm:
https://screenrealm.com/the-blood-of-wolves-movie-review-japan/

IMDB: The Blood Of Wolves

Wednesday 30 May 2018

FUTURE MAN (full review at Screen Realm)

Future Man is a sci-fi comedy written by Kyle Hunter and Ariel Shaffir, (Sausage Party), and produced by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, this review is for the first three episode of the debut series. 

Underachieving janitor Josh Futturman (Josh Hutcherson) lives at home with his parents (Ed Begley Jr and Glenne Headly) and works shifts at a local science lab run by Dr Kronish (Keith David). In his spare time he plays videogames and battles the feeling he was destined for greater things. One day, Josh completes a seemingly unbeatable game, Biotic Wars, which turns out to be used as a recruiting tool by time travellers, exactly like the plot of The Last Starfighter, as the show is keen to point out. Two soldiers from the future, Tiger (Eliza Coupe) and Wolf (Derek Wilson) travel to the present day to enlist josh and prevent the downfall of humanity.

Read the full review at Screen Realm:
https://screenrealm.com/future-man-review-season-one-episodes-1-2-3/

IMDB: Future Man

Monday 14 May 2018

MANHUNT (full review at Screen Realm)

In the late 80s and early 90s, if there was one name synonymous with genre defining action cinema, then it was John Woo. Exploding out of Hong Kong with a laundry list of classics – The Killer, A Better Tomorrow, Bullet in The Head, Hard Boiled – and a dynamite partnership with regular leading man, Chow Yun-Fat, he took action movies to another level.

Read the full review at Screen Realm:
https://screenrealm.com/manhunt-movie-review-john-woo/

IMDB: Manhunt

Tuesday 8 May 2018

TEN MUST-SEE SCI-FI MOVIES ON NETFLIX ANZ (full article at Screen Realm)



The age old ‘What-do-I-watch-on-Netflix?’ question is almost as old as time itself isn’t it? But fear not, we have you covered. Here’s our rundown of ten must-see sci-fi movies, ranging from classics to underrated gems, currently available on Netflix ANZ.


Pacific Rim
There’s not really a lot more you need to know about that time Guillermo Del Toro brought a giant robot to a Kaiju party. Pacific Rim is as self-explanatory as it is deliriously enjoyable. For all its simple maths, Pacific Rim grabs you by the hand and leads you straight down into an intricate universe laden with heroic mech pilots, colossal interdimensional beasts from the depths of the sea and eye popping black markets in monster guts...

Read the full article at The Reel Word:
https://screenrealm.com/ten-best-science-fiction-movies-netflix-australia-new-zealand/

Monday 7 May 2018

SCREEN REALM, formerly The Reel Word & Adam Fleet Movies social media links

The Reel Word, who I have been writing for regularly for a little while now, has undergone a bit of a revamp, including a change of name, to Screen Realm. You can't find them online at the following link:

https://screenrealm.com/
 
I will go through and correct the Reel Word links where possible so that they lead to the new site. But in case any of the older links are no longer working, my full Reel Word / Screen Realm archive can be found here:

https://screenrealm.com/author/adam-fleet/

You can also catch up with me at:
Screen Realm can also be found at the following social media accounts:

Sunday 15 April 2018

2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY

2018 marks the 50th Anniversary of Stanley Kubrick’s science fiction masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey. I remember walking out of the cinema after I saw it for the first time feeling distinctly… underwhelmed. It was long, hard to understand and a little weird, and my legs ached from the ancient cinema seat. I could not work out what all the fuss was about.

But something about it stuck with me and refused to budge. I spent the whole following week thinking about it. I started reading as much as I could about the production and Kubrick and Arthur C Clarke's collaboration on the dual creation of screenplay and novel. Learning of Kubrick’s intention for the movie to be a subjective experience, as if music or a painting, so that 2001 “hits the viewer at an inner level of consciousness”* brought the film into fascinating perspective.

Likewise the attention to detail and accuracy that made it a benchmark for Hard SF started to get inside my head. But the most astounding fact turned out to be one that had been staring me in the face. That 2001 was released in April of 1968, a full year and change before Neil Armstrong set foot on the surface of the Moon!

With tiny mind officially blown, I revisited 2001 and it all gradually developed into a bit of an obsession with the film. I've watched it many times since, enjoying it more with every viewing. I love it.

IMDB: 2001 A Space Odyssey

*1970 interview with Joseph Gelmis (well worth a read!)
http://www.visual-memory.co.uk/amk/doc/0069.html




Tuesday 3 April 2018

THE SONG KEEPERS (full review at The Reel Word)

The Song Keepers tells us the story of the Central Australian Aboriginal Women's Choir. 30-35 Central Australian women from remote communities, sing hymns originally taught to their grandparents by German missionaries, translated and composed in Indigenous languages. In 2015 they went on tour to Germany, bringing the hymns back to their point of origin, having taken on their own meaning and relevance to the communities they were brought to. Filmmaker Naina Sen documented the journey.

Read the full article at The Reel Word:
https://www.thereelword.net/the-song-keepers-documentary-review/

IMDB: The Song Keepers

Wednesday 28 March 2018

PACIFIC RIM: UPRISING (full review at The Reel Word)

Guillermo Del Toro’s Pacific Rim landed on our screens back in 2013 and certainly had its fair share of detractors, as a brief trawl through the popular movie aggregators will attest. But while many laud Del Toro for his weightier works, some of us find his genre fare far more appealing. Sure, a melancholy tale of fish-man love will win you an Oscar, but does it have mind-melding robots punching the crap out of giant interdimensional monsters? And so with that, and a decent box office behind it, Pacific Rim: Uprising is here. With Stephen S. DeKnight (Daredevil) taking over the helm and Del Toro relegated to producing duties, can it live up to the lunkheaded majesty of the original?

Read the full article at The Reel Word:
https://www.thereelword.net/pacific-rim-uprising-movie-review-2018/

IMDB: Pacific Rim Uprising

Monday 19 March 2018

THE ENDLESS (full review at The Reel Word)

The Endless is Justin Benson and Aaron Scott Moorhead’s follow up to 2014s unique body horror romance Spring. The Endless made its Australian debut at the 2017 Melbourne International Film Festival, ahead of a broader release this month.

Benson and Moorhead also take on the leading roles, as Justin and Aaron respectively, two brothers who have escaped from a UFO cult and spent ten years trying to adjust to life outside the compound. They work cleaning jobs, struggle to make friends and Aaron, being too young to remember negative experiences with the cult, is resentful of how tough they have it in ‘normal’ society. Aaron longs for the familiarity and comfort of their former home. So when a mysterious video tape arrives from the cult, Justin relents under pressure and agrees to visit for one day. Upon arrival, they are immediately welcomed at Camp Arcadia and reunited with old friends. The cult subsists on the profits from their popular homebrew, and having obviously not committed suicide, as Justin had claimed, the simple country life of the cult begins to look a lot more appealing to Aaron than their hand-to-mouth existence back home. However the longer the brothers stay at the compound, the more they start to notice strange and inexplicable events.

Read the full article at The Reel Word:
https://www.thereelword.net/the-endless-movie-review/

IMDB: The Endless

Monday 5 March 2018

ANNIHILATION (full review at The Reel Word)

Lena (Natalie Portman) is a biologist and former soldier, who arrives at a research base in Area X following the reappearance of her husband Kane (Oscar Issaac), who had gone missing
on a classified military operation. As Kane slips into a coma, Lena agrees to join a team of other scientists on a journey into The Shimmer, an unknown area of alien origin which is rapidly expanding to cover everything surrounding it.
The team’s mission is to reach the centre of the anomaly to collect whatever data they can, and Lena is joined by Dr Ventress (Jennifer Jason Leigh), Anya (Gina Rodriguez), Cass (Tuva Novotny) and Josie (Tessa Thompson). As they travel further into The Shimmer they experience the strange effects of the alien zone, from memory loss to technology failure to the wild mutations of the plants and animals.

Read the full article at The Reel Word:
https://www.thereelword.net/annihilation-movie-review/

IMDB: Annihilation

Sunday 4 March 2018

THE RITUAL (full review at The Reel Word)

After a experiencing a tragedy, four friends Luke (Rafe Spall), Phil (Arsher Ali), Hutch (Robert James-Collier) and Dom (Sam Troughton) attempt to cope with their grief by embarking on a hike in Northern Sweden. When Dom injures his leg, and anxious to get back early to the hike lodge, the group elects to take a short cut through a forest. Upon entering the forest they are subjected to nightmares, strange events and a malevolent, unknown evil.

Read the full article at The Reel Word:
https://www.thereelword.net/the-ritual-movie-review-netflix/

IMDB: The Ritual

Friday 16 February 2018

STAR TREK: DISCOVERY (full review at The Reel Word)

After an incident aboard the U.S.S. Shenzhou results in the United Federation of Planets entering into a war with the mysterious and vicious Klingon Empire, disgraced former First Officer, Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green), finds herself amongst the crew of the U.S.S. Discovery. The Discovery is a prototype ship, a one-of-a-kind, because it hosts an experimental spore drive (derived from fungus). Under the guidance of Chief Engineer Paul Stamets (Anthony Rapp) it allows Discovery to use an intricate mycelial network (similar to the roots of a plant) to transport itself, undetected, to almost anywhere in the universe. Instantaneously.

Beginning life on Discovery as a pariah, Burnham strives to regain the trust of her new crewmembers and former shipmates.  Under the command of Captain Gabriel Lorca (Jason Isaacs), and with the friendship of Cadet Sylvia Tilly (Mary Wiseman), Burnham begins her path to redemption, as the Federation battles for survival.

Read the full article at The Reel Word:
https://www.thereelword.net/star-trek-discovery-season-1-review-cbs-netflix/

IMDB: Star Trek: Discovery


Tuesday 13 February 2018

ALTERED CARBON (full review at The Reel Word)

To try and concisely summarise the plot of Altered Carbon, Netflix’s latest big budget foray into your living room, would likely take as much space as the housebrick of a novel on which it is based. But the gist of it, adapting Richard K Morgan’s 2002 sci-fi opus into ten tasty increments, is thus…

In the distant future human beings are equipped with a device at the base of their skull known as a stack. Acting as a sort of hard-drive-for-the-soul, the stack stores a person’s life, memory, and identity, known as Digital Human Freight (DHF). If a person’s stack remains intact when they die then it is possible to place the stack in a new body, or sleeve, and for the person to carry on living with all the same memories, emotions and experiences. The technology, although available to all, is unsurprisingly controlled by the super-rich. This wealthiest one per cent, having cheated ‘real death’ for generations, are known as Meths, after the Bible’s oldest man Methuselah.

Read the full article at The Reel Word:
https://www.thereelword.net/altered-carbon-season-1-review-netflix/

IMDB: Altered Carbon

Tuesday 23 January 2018

BRAWL IN CELL BLOCK 99 (full review at The Reel Word)

S. Craig Zahler’s second movie Brawl In Cell Block 99, like his intense debut Bone Tomahawk, bypasses Australian cinemas and arrives direct-to-dvd on 31 January. But be under no misapprehension about its quality. Cell Block is a blisteringly violent prison movie, and its tough guy sensibility has swaggered right out of the 1970s to sock you square on the jaw.

Bradley Thomas (Vince Vaughn) is laid off from his tow-truck driver job. His marriage to wife Lauren (Jennifer Carpenter) is under strain, and he finds himself with little other option than to become a drug runner for local dealer Gil (Marc Blukas). As can be deduced from the title of the movie, things do not go well and Bradley finds himself in the clink. On his first day inside, rival drug dealer Eleazar (Dion Mucciacito) contacts him to offer a terrifying ultimatum. In order to save Lauren and their child he must kill a fellow inmate.

Read the full article at The Reel Word:
https://www.thereelword.net/brawl-in-cell-block-99-movie-review/

IMDB: Brawl In Cell Block 99

Monday 22 January 2018

THE FLORIDA PROJECT (full review at The Reel Word)

Sean Baker’s The Florida Project draws us into the lives of residents of the Magic Castle Hotel, living on the fringes of the Florida tourist district, just beyond the reach (and wealth) of Disney’s iconic theme park. It highlights the cruel disparity between ‘The Happiest Place on Earth’, and those that live in poverty just down the street. The wealth, affluence and manicured utopia of Disney versus the brightly coloured, unofficial motels and tourist trap gift shops.

The slice-of-life approach to the storytelling invites us to delve into the experiences of 6 year old Moonee (Brooklynn Prince) and her best friends Scooty (Christopher Rivera) and Jancey (Valeria Cotto), as well as Moonee’s mother Halley (Bria Vinaite) and hotel manager Bobby (Willem Dafoe).

It is the summer holidays and Moonee and her friends are running wild around the hotel and local area. Our introduction sees them getting into trouble for spitting on cars, mouthing off at adults and scrounging ice cream money from passersby. Halley has no inclination to get work, preferring to hang around at the hotel, or sell knock-off perfumes to country club patrons. But this only makes her weekly struggle to make rent a lot worse. Bobby (Willem Dafoe), the hotel manager, does his best in a demanding and unappreciated job, he doesn’t take any shit and he has to enforce the rules, but he also casts a protective arm around his residents and the kids in particular

Read the full article at The Reel Word:
https://www.thereelword.net/the-florida-project-movie-review/

IMDB: The Florida Project

Wednesday 3 January 2018

2017 REVIEW



Top Ten Movies of 2017 

1. Blade Runner 2049   
Denis Villeneuve's slow burn, existential detective tec noir, returns us to the grimy, stifling, corporate ruled dystopia of Ridley Scott's classic and is immensely satisfying. It leaves us with plenty of questions and dazzles the eyeballs in doing so. It's strange and obtuse and proved to be - financially at least – not what people were expecting from a Ryan Gosling sci-fi blockbuster. It plays like 70s sci-fi in that we have to figure out a lot of it ourselves, but this is intelligent, challenging, beautiful and everything I want from modern science fiction. Extraordinary.

2. Downsizing
Alexander Payne's wonderful science fiction movie is funny and thoughtful and has a bunch of considered points to make.  As Matt Damon shrinks down to an environmentally friendly miniature, the combination of inspired concept and expert characterisation makes for an intelligent, amusing and heartwarming experience.

3. I Don’t Feel At Home In This World Anymore
Macon Blair’s darkly comedic directorial debut rails against societal ills and is deeply identifiable to your cranky inner self. Melanie Lynskey is always incredible but this might be her finest hour so far. Exasperated and alienated by the self-obsession and selfishness of more or less everybody, the last straw arrives in the form of a burglary. The cops could care less, so she takes it upon herself to solve the crime, reclaim her stuff and exact vengeance upon the home invaders. Part violent wish fulfillment, part angry rant at the state of Trump America, IDFAHITWA articulates the frustrations of many. On top of all that it’s a compelling tale of wannabe revenge reaction, plus David Yow from the Jesus Lizard plays the villain, and Elijah Wood is a New-Wave-Of-British-Heavy-Metal obsessed neighbour, jamming Judas Priest and sporting a killer Saxon T-Shirt! Just brilliant.

4. Revenge
Coralie Fargeat's dark, but satisfying tale of violent retribution is a stylishly constructed, viscerally executed middle finger to toxic masculinity. A massively entertaining horror movie hitched onto a classic revenge template.

5. Kong: Skull Island
If you know me even slightly then you will know of my unhealthy fondness and heroic tolerance for the giant-creature-runs-amok genre and Kong: Skull Island ticks all my boxes. Jordan Vogts-Roberts gives us Apocalypse Now with a giant gorilla.  Helicopters get thrown around like water balloons, there's a boatload of napalm explosions and a slo-mo Stooges training montage. In other words, it’s got everything and Vogts-Roberts makes it look cooler than ten Fonzies.  Famously derided by the likes of Honest Trailers, the criticism feels a lot like snobbery from people not willing to get on board with a b-movie dressed up as a blockbuster (see also: Pacific Rim). I hope I don't have to defend this movie for years to come, but if I must, then I will defend it ferociously. Kong: Skull Island is cinema as pure fun, and what fun it is.

6. Logan
James Mangold's gritty, layered western is the violent, untethered take on Wolverine we've always longed for. It's a slice and dice action movie stitched into a melancholy rumination on age and responsibility. Patrick Stewart gives us the most complex Charles Xavier yet – confused and irritable, kind and parental, but inadvertently a weapon of mass destruction.  Jackman has never been better. He plays Wolverine deflated and clapped out and dealing with mortality. Repeated viewings make Logan even more rewarding.

7. The Belko Experiment
The ultimate toxic work environment sees the employees of the Belko Corporation forced to murder each other in a deadly game of survival. To be the last person standing is the only way to win. As upper management try to justify murder in the same way they might justify a restructure, it's homicide as corporate pragmatism. Greg McLean slathers on the gore and Belko puts its mangled hand up as one 2017s best horror movies.

8. Thor: Ragnarok / Guardians of the Galaxy 2
Cheating a bit here and counting both of Marvel's 2017 big guns as one. Both Taika Waititi and James Gunn's movies (star) lord it up in outer space and run hog wild with the kind of berzerk imagination and universe design that could fill ten movies. Each one reminding me of an updated Flash Gordon in its own different way. Stunning to look at and individual enough to bring a freshness to the tried and tested Marvel formula.

9. Get Out
Jordan Peele's meet-the-parents horror yarn spirals from social awkwardness into bodysnatch nightmare. It felt original and intriguing and combined with an oddball, strangely off kilter vibe to transcend the hype.

10. Hounds of Love
Ben Young's simultaneously magnetic and repellent debut combined stylish visuals with an ugly subject matter, as a young girl is kidnapped and tortured by a deranged suburban couple. Although undeniably nasty, Hounds of Love is more than just an exploitation film. There is a complexity and depth to the characters that belies the sordid premise, as we explore the strange power dynamics at work. With a trio of dynamite performances from Emma Booth, Ashleigh Cummings and Stephen Curry it is an uncomfortable yet riveting watch.

Bonus film. The Florida Project
Because I only just saw it and loved it but can't figure out where it fits in the Top 10 yet. Sean Baker's absorbing, marvellously acted character piece contrasts the disparity between ‘The Happiest Place on Earth’, and those that live in poverty just down the street. It's got a lot of heart and the ability to gut punch you at a moment's notice.


The Other Best Movies of 2017
Ben Wheatley's Boston set (yet Brighton filmed) Free Fire was very enjoyable, as was Astron 6's Stuart Gordon and John Carpenter love letter The Void. I thought Jeremy Rush's Netflix getaway driver movie Wheelman with Frank Grillo, was better than Edgar Wright's more popular getaway driver film, and Mike Mills’ Beginners follow up, 20th Century Women was heart-warming and Linklater-y in its characterisation, with added punk content.


Worst movies of 2017

The Meyerowitz Stories
Noah Baumbach's uncharacteristically dreadful tale of a New York artist's dysfunctional family. Adam Sandler's decent and restrained performance seemed to blind most people to the fact that this is simply about a bunch of hugely unlikeable characters who I rapidly stopped caring about.

Alien: Covenant
With Prometheus, Ridley Scott put his Alien legacy straight into the bin. With Covenant, he set that bin on fire. A creature that thrived in the darkness and mystery that surrounded it, placed directly in the glare of the harsh spotlight and given the origin story none of us wanted.  Cinema's greatest monster declawed and rendered inept by dreadful CGI.


Did not see, but wanted to see
Dunkirk
The Killing of a Sacred Deer
The Big Sick
Mother
War For The Planet Of The Apes
The Disaster Artist