While all of this is true, The Beekeeper still had better fight choreography than Dune: Part Two.
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Stray 2018
Set in New Zealand’s deep south, Dustin Feneley’s feature debut is a tender exploration of both interior and exterior remoteness, the former in the shape of a relationship between two damaged ‘strays’ who don’t speak much, and the latter captured through Ari Wegner’s (The Power of the Dog, Zola) distant, patient lens.
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Out of the Blue 2006
A chilling, artful and sensitive recreation of one of New Zealand’s most notorious acts of violence. I’m fascinated by depictions of historical events and the degree to which a reconstructed reality must be balanced with artifice, character moments and narrative drive. Sarkies delivers here what I understand from written accounts to be an achingly accurate portrayal of an unknowable evil.
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Poor Things 2023
Felt like a strange and wonderful amalgam of words by the Decemberists and pictures by early-nineties Tim Burton, punched up to transcendent heights by one of the most accomplished directors in any era, and served to an obliging audience on a baroque silver platter.
Emma Stone is the heart—and eventually the brain—of this operation, in a risky, career-defining role that will land her, if there is any such thing as justice (or an end to the SAG strike), her second…
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The Royal Hotel 2023
A fictional reimagining of the events depicted in Pete Gleeson’s excellent 2016 documentary Hotel Coolgardie, this Outback-set thriller eventually diverges from both its source inspiration and its audience’s probable expectations for how this story plays out. Grimy, tense and at times darkly comedic. Kitty Green can do no wrong.
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Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales 2017
I should have disembarked. This was terrible, start to finish, even on a plane.
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Talk to Me 2022
A manic little chiller that wastes no time introducing its central plot mechanic and then leans into it with a series of increasingly vicious set pieces. The firecracker pace of the first half hour isn’t quite sustained through to the end, and eventually more conventional themes of familial trauma come to the surface, but there’s plenty to enjoy here, including stand-out turns from Sophie Wilde and Zoe Terakes, and Miranda Otto in mad-mum mode.
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The Fabelmans 2022
An altogether rather enchanting affair, but what the hell was going on with that cigar-smoke continuity in the final scene? Feels a bit mean to single out such a small detail but the rest of it was kind of perfect…
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Batman & Robin 1997
First published in August 1997.
Holy headlines, Batman! Clooney captures caped crusader’s carbon codpiece for calamitous caper as camp crimefighter. For a relative unknown in Hollywood terms, the bat boots left vacant by Val Kilmer’s hasty departure from the title role were of the variety marked “rather large”. To be fair, though, the erstwhile ER doc doesn’t do a half-bad job here. Physically, he’s the dark knight’s best match so far, and if he evokes his TV character’s soft-spoken, head-nodding…