Reviewed by GREG KING Director: Jean-Stephane Sauvaire Stars: Joe Cole, Pornchanok Mabklang. This intense brutal prison drama is like Kickboxer meets Midnight Express. This unflinching, hard hitting and gritty and harrowing true story is set inside Thailand’s notorious Bang Kwang Central prison, better known as the infamous Bangkok Hilton. Like Midnight Express, which depicted Billy… Continue Reading »
ON BODY AND SOUL
Reviewed by GREG KING Director: Ildiko Enyedi Stars: Geza Morcsanyi, Alexandra Borbely, Zoltan Schneider, Reka Tenki, Zsuzsa Jaro. Love in the abattoir? This is a quirky drama about the unlikely romance that develops between two lonely employees in a Budapest abattoir. The film won the prestigious Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival, but it… Continue Reading »
GURRUMUL
Reviewed by GREG KING Documentary Director: Paul Williams. This is a reverential and respectful documentary about blind indigenous singer Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunipingu, who died at the age of 46 in July 2017 from liver and kidney disease caused by hepatitis, which he contracted as a child. According to traditional aboriginal lore, after a person has… Continue Reading »
LOVELESS
Reviewed by GREG KING Director: Andrey Zvyagintsev Stars: Maryana Spivak, Aleksey Rozin, Matvey Novikov. A rather grim and bleak view of life in contemporary Russia, Loveless focuses on an unhappy family. Zhenya (Maryana Spivak in her feature film debut) and Boris (Aleksey Rozin, from Leviathan, etc) are a couple trapped in a loveless marriage and… Continue Reading »
THE PARTY
Reviewed by GREG KING Director: Sally Potter Stars: Kristin Scott Thomas, Patricia Clarkson, Timothy Spall, Cillian Murphy, Emily Mortimer, Cherry Jones, Bruno Ganz. Not to be confused with Blake Edwards’ hilarious slapstick Tatiesque comedy from 1968 that starred Peter Sellers as an accident prone Indian actor who ruins a swank Hollywood party, this black comedy… Continue Reading »
HAVE YOU SEEN THE LISTERS?
Reviewed by GREG KING Documentary Director: Eddie Martin. Another warts-and-all documentary about another deeply troubled, self-obsessed and self-destructive artist wrestling with his personal demons and the high cost of fame. This local film charts the rise and fall and the highs and lows of Anthony Lister, a celebrated contemporary Australian street artist who was Brisbane’s… Continue Reading »