Skincare ★★½ IN THE shadow of The Substance, one of 2024’s best films, the American thriller Skincare has been billed as something similar. It’s not. Skincare will not make your skin crawl in the beautifully horrific way that Coralie Fargeat’s film does. But what Skincare does share with The Substance […]

Banks is best thing about Skincare

The Outrun ★★★½ SAIORSE Ronan adds to her impressive gallery of strong, intelligent and nuanced characters with the 2024 drama The Outrun. The Irish actress, who was actually born in New York and lived there until she was three, plays Rona who has recently returned to her family home on […]

Ronan adds to her impressive list

The Shadow Strays ★★★½ INDONESIA’S Timo Tjahjanto is one of the best action directors working in cinema today. As one half of the Mo Brothers, he burst onto the scene with 2014’s Killers and followed with Headshot in 2016, the terrific The Night Comes For Us (2018) and now blistering […]

Indonesia ups the ante on action

Executive Action ★★★ WITH the attempted assassination of Donald Trump still echoing, it’s fascinating to watch the 1973 thriller Executive Action. It’s not the best directed film, in fact some scenes are a little amateur in their pacing and editing, but the context and story make up for these problems. Even […]

Executive Action lays out Kennedy conspiracy

Lee ★★★½ WHAT a person Elizabeth ‘Lee’ Miller must have been. In her 70 years she was a socialite, fashion model, surrealist photographer, war correspondent and gourmet chef, achieving success and notoriety at every turn. During World War II, she forced her way into being allowed to work on the […]

Winslett shines, but there’s much more to Lee

Gladiator II ★★★½ IS Gladiator II worth the long wait? As usual, it depends on your expectations. If you expect big-screen entertainment that is unlikely to measure-up to the original film, you won’t be disappointed. The original’s director, English big-budget specialist Ridley Scott, again delivers an entertaining spectacle highlighted by […]

For those about to watch

Snapshot ★★ SO, your stalker spies on you from the driver’s seat of his ice cream truck? No kidding, that’s part of the plot in the 1979 Australian thriller Snapshot. This is a weird film all round with odd characters, uneven acting, a bland script and mostly pedestrian direction. The […]

Stalked by Mr Whippy

Woman of the Hour ★★★ NOTHING screams ‘Welcome to America’ more than a serial killer using a television game show to target his next victim. Actress Anna Kendrick surprisingly chose this real-life premise for her 2024 directorial debut, the interesting crime thriller Woman of the Hour. When he appeared on […]

Kendrick is Woman of the Hour with directing debut

The Chain Reaction ★★½ AUSTRALIAN sci-fi thriller The Chain Reaction is worth considering for a remake. The original film, released in 1980, has a good premise that could easily be made more topical and even expanded to a limited television series. An earthquake in rural Australia causes a dangerous leak […]

Aussie ’80s thriller worth a remake

Brothers ★★ THE impressive cast of American comedy Brothers tries hard but is hamstrung by a script that is only intermittently funny. Josh Brolin and Peter Dinklage are twin brothers Moke and Jady Munger who come from a family of redneck criminals headed by matriarch Cath, played by an almost […]

Script fails twin Brothers

Conclave ★★★½ RALPH Fiennes continues to be a little under-rated. In nearly 100 performances across three decades, he has rarely given a bad one. Schindler’s List, Quiz Show, Strange Days, The English Patient, Oscar and Lucinda, Red Dragon, The Constant Gardener, In Bruges, The Reader, Great Expectations, Hail! Ceaser, The […]

Cardinal Fiennes in fine form

Shame ★★★ THE 1988 Australian drama Shame is a film before its time. If it had been released within the last few years, Shame would not have been overlooked and may even have created a lot of interest and controversy. But back in 1988, the story of a country town […]

Shame that Shame is overlooked