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Oscar and Lucinda (1995)
They dared to play the game of love, faith, and chance.
Filmmaker(s): Gillian Armstrong

After a childhood of abuse by his evangelistic father, misfit Oscar Hopkins becomes an Anglican minister and develops a divine obsession with gambling. Lucinda Leplastrier is a rich Australian heiress shopping in London for materials for her newly acquired glass factory back home. Deciding to travel to Australia as a missionary, Oscar meets Lucinda aboard ship, and a mutual obsession blossoms. They make a wager that will alter each of their destinies.

Obsession, Compulsion This is one of my favourite movies. Regular readers of my comments will wonder why I elevate it to my "must see" category Part of the reason I want you to see it is because of how well it pairs with Cate's masterpiece, "Heaven." Now,...


Published February 19, 2023
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Oblivion (2013)

Appropriated Appropriateness One measure of a science fiction movie is whether the science and fiction are coherent. I’ve been following the Hunger Games saga and this is driving me crazy. Some technology is advanced, some adopted from the sixties. In good hands, like with Nolan’s Interstellar,...


Published February 19, 2023
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Seven Psychopaths (2012)
They Won't Take Any Shih Tzu.
Filmmaker(s): Martin McDonagh

A struggling screenwriter inadvertently becomes entangled in the Los Angeles criminal underworld after his oddball friends kidnap a gangster's beloved Shih Tzu.

Counted Only Two I guess this was inevitable. I haven’t yet seen the latest Tarantino faux western, but chose to see this instead. Roughly speaking, it is what used to be called a spoof, before referencing, extending and adding a meta level became permissible. What impresses me...


Published February 18, 2023
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The Invisible Monster (1950)
Filmmaker(s): Fred C. Brannon

Man-woman team of investigators uncover a gang whose mad scientist leader has developed an invisibility chemical and plans to build a mercenary army of invisible men.

Commies! The actual story of this as it develops is so ordinary that it is a waste of time: one fist fight after another. The situations are indefensibly unimaginative. It is the premise of the thing that’s interesting. I’ll give it to you here so you don’t...


Published February 18, 2023
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Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014)

Intelligent Agency I was impressed by a few features of the first one. Most notably, it was a risk for them to adopt and extend a certain cinematic technique in such a high risk project. I wrote about the effect: having battle scenes with only a...


Published February 18, 2023
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Top End Wedding (2019)
When you're feeling lost, family will guide you home.
Filmmaker(s): Wayne Blair

Lauren and Ned are engaged, they are in love, and they have just ten days to find Lauren’s mother who has gone AWOL somewhere in the remote far north of Australia, reunite her parents and pull off their dream wedding.

Companion as Place Why does this earn a special space in my heart? It is a romantic comedy after all, deliberately designed to be discarded. The genre is defined by the attractiveness of a superficial love; the easy way problems are resolved and the balance of...


Published February 18, 2023
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Sherlock Holmes and the Shadow Watchers (2021)
Filmmaker(s): Anthony D.P. Mann

The sensational details of a gruesome murder in The Daily Gazette have London in a panic, as a blood-thirsty madman - more vicious than Jack the Ripper - preys upon the city. Of greater concern to Scotland Yard, however, is that the account of the murder was published nearly two hours prior to the crime having been committed! Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson - the Great Detective and his faithful assistant and chronicler - find themselves challenged with one of their most baffling cases - "The Case of the Woman Who Was Murdered Tomorrow"! Will an innocent man be sent to the gallows? How much blood will be shed before a scarred fiend is brought to justice? ...And who are the mysterious Shadow Watchers, a coven of ominous figures who orchestrate terror from within the darkness? Starring Anthony D.P. Mann as Holmes and Terry Wade as Dr. Watson, "Sherlock Holmes and the Shadow Watchers" is a horrifying new adventure, produced with the kind permission of the Conan Doyle Estate*.

Fiddling Around When you get something like this, you have to give allowances. No money was spent; friends did the acting. Production is brusque. What you have to look for is the intent of the writer/director/main actor. If he could have, would he have delivered a...


Published February 18, 2023
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Flightplan (2005)
If someone took everything you live for... how far would you go to get it back?
Filmmaker(s): Robert Schwentke

Flying at 40,000 feet in a state-of-the art aircraft that she helped design, Kyle Pratt's 6-year-old daughter Julia vanishes without a trace. Or did she? No one on the plane believes Julia was ever onboard. And now Kyle, desperate and alone, can only count on her own wits to unravel the mystery and save her daughter.

Oceans 2 Well, I suppose we all have to decide what it means to be a powerful or effective actress. And whether Jody is capable of delivering this. In this case, the project, at least the first half, depends on us believing her panic and resulting...


Published February 18, 2023
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Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens (2015)
Every generation has a story.
Filmmaker(s): J.J. Abrams

Thirty years after defeating the Galactic Empire, Han Solo and his allies face a new threat from the evil Kylo Ren and his army of Stormtroopers.

Han Shoots Last Movies can do a lot of different things for us, from giving us 90 minutes away from stress to providing a skeleton on which we build lives. The films that matter to me are these latter ones. Much of what we think of...


Published February 16, 2023
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All that Jazz (1979)
All that work. All that glitter. All that pain. All that love. All that crazy rhythm. All that jazz.
Filmmaker(s): Bob Fosse

Joe Gideon is at the top of the heap, one of the most successful directors and choreographers in musical theater. But he can feel his world slowly collapsing around him - his obsession with work has almost destroyed his personal life, and only his bottles of pills keep him going.

Your Death Having just watched an energetic, colourful film on the overlap between life and death, I had to revisit this one from my past. It was one of my early experiences in folded narrative: • a film about a man written and directed by that very...


Published February 14, 2023
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