Reviewed by GREG KING Director: Guillermo del Toro Stars: Sally Hawking, Michael Shannon, Octavia Spencer, Richard Jenkins, Doug Jones, Michael Stuhlbarg, Nick Searcy, David Hewlett. The Shape Of Water is a bold and surprisingly moving mash up of science fiction, 50s and 60s creature feature, fantasy, cold war thriller, beguiling romance, politics, science, prejudice, forbidden love and sexual identity. It is visionary Mexican born filmmaker Guillermo Del Toro’s best film since 2006’s Pan’s Labyrinth. However, a healthy suspension of …
MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2017 – REVIEWS
ALL FILMS REVIEWED BY GREG KING LAST UPDATED AUGUST 13, 2017 FINAL PORTRAIT. In 1964, renowned portrait artist and sculptor Albert Giacometti passed away soon after completing his final painting. He had painted a portrait of American journalist James Lord, who had come to Paris for a brief visit. The portrait was only supposed to take a couple of days, but the increasingly frustrated Lord spent a couple of weeks with the mercurial artist in his Paris studio. Final Portrait is a passion project for writer/director Stanley Tucci who has been nurturing the film …
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ARRIVAL
Reviewed by GREG KING Director: Denis Villeneuve Stars: Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Forest Whitaker, Michael Stuhlbarg, Mark O'Brien, Tzi Ma. For the most part science fiction movies tend to fall into different camps - there are the rollicking space adventures like Star Trek, Star Wars, Alien, and Independence Day, featuring intergalactic battles with alien creatures; the out and out futuristic action yarns like Total Recall, Blade Runner, etc; or more intelligent and cerebral offerings that try to deal with the concept of intelligent life in the universe, films …
DOCTOR STRANGE
Reviewed by GREG KING Director: Scott Derrickson Stars: Benedict Cumberbatch, Rachel McAdams, Tilda Swinton, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Mads Mikkelsen, Benedict Wong, Benjamin Bratt, Michael Stuhlbarg, Scott Adkins. For a long time the DC comic book adaptations have been rather dark and grim, both in content and look, while the Marvel comic adaptations have been lighter in tone and more colourful and creative, boasting some great special effects and strong characterisations. And this is indeed true of Doctor Strange, which gives us yet another origins story for a Marvel …
TRUMBO
Reviewed by GREG KING Director: Jay Roach Stars: Bryan Cranston, Diane Lane, Louis C K, Elle Fanning, Michael Stuhlbarg, John Goodman, Helen Mirren, David James Elliott, Alan Tudyk, Richard Portnow, Roger Bart, Sean Bridgers, Adewale Akinuoye-Agbaje, Stephen Root, Dean O'Gorman, Christian Berkel. The so-called McCarthy era and its communist witch hunts is one of the most shameful episodes of American political history in the twentieth century. There have been a few films that have looked at this dark era characterised by paranoia and suspicion, including The Front, …
STEVE JOBS
Reviewed by GREG KING Director: Danny Boyle Stars: Michael Fassbender, Kate Winslet, Seth Rogen, Jeff Daniels, Michael Stuhlbarg, Katherine Waterston, John Ortiz, Sarah Snook, Perla Haney-Jardine, Ripley Sobo, Makenzie Moss, Adam Shapiro. We have already had a couple of films about the late Steve Jobs, the iconic and revered founder of technology giant Apple who revolutionised the world of computers. We have had Alex Gibney's revealing documentary Steve Jobs: The Man In The Machine, which screened at MIFF in 2015, and the recent biopic Jobs, starring a miscast Ashton …