This Much I Know To Be True (2022) - Movie Review

Teaming up once again with director Andrew Dominik (and I mean in front of the camera, since he also contributed to Dominik’s… interesting Marilyn Monroe biopic), This Much I Know To Be True serves as a follow-up to the 2016 documentary One More Time With Feeling. Where that film captured Cave at his most outwardly melancholic, wrestling with his grief over the death of his son, this shows him in a much better place.

Blonde (2022) - Movie Review

Even in a year that gave audiences the media hurricane of Don’t Worry Darling, this will likely go down as the most controversial film of 2022. Over the last few months, I’ve heard no shortage of horror stories about CGI fetuses and how exploitative its depiction of Marilyn Monroe’s life is. Since it is one of the bigger titles of the year, I knew I’d have to get to it eventually… but understandably, I’ve been a bit apprehensive about it. But hey, it’s got Ana de Armas continuing to spread her wings as a lead actress, and I quite liked the last film I saw from director Andrew Dominik in One More Time With Feeling (not to mention Nick Cave and Warren Ellis doing the soundtrack for this as well); maybe this will be another case where I find something good where others didn’t. Well… maybe I did? Even after I finished writing this, I’m still not sure.

Wind River (2017) - Movie Review

The plot: Wildlife tracker Cory (Jeremy Renner), while on a routine hunt, discovers the body of a dead Native America woman in the snow. As she alerts the residents of the surrounding reservation of Wind River, in particular the victim’s father Martin (Gil Birmingham), FBI agent Jane (Elizabeth Olsen) is brought in to help with the investigation. As she and Cory try to figure who was responsible for the death, they are confronted with just how dangerous this land can be.

Hell Or High Water (2016) - Movie Review

Last year, one of the bigger critical successes was the harrowing war thriller Sicario. It also represented one of the few times when I met the critical consensus not just in opinion, but in the magnitude of that opinion. Sicario, structurally, was easily the best film of the year and all of its individual pieces were genius on their own and created sheer magic when brought together. Since almost everyone involved already laudable careers to fall back on, I sincerely hoped that writer Taylor Sheridan would also stick around. I mean, if that was his first attempt, I legitimately can’t wait to see what he’s cooked up for us this time.

One More Time With Feeling: Nick Cave (2016) - Movie Review

Nick Cave, in no uncertain terms, is one of the finest musicians that Australia has ever produced. With his pitch-black sense of humour combined with a taste for subject matter that almost begs for the word ‘morbid’ to be redefined as human dictionaries recognize it, he has produced some absolutely amazing works of musical art. I grew up with Murder Ballads as a regular in my mother’s car stereo, with tracks like Henry Lee and The Curse Of Millhaven creating an indelible impression on my brain. Probably goes to explain my own love for all things dark and weirdly funny. He also done great work beyond that, writing numerous books and film scripts that have gone on to become seminal classics. He was also the subject of what I consider to be the best film of 2014 with 20,000 Days On Earth, a film so good as to induce what I can only describe as a personal religious experience while watching it. Needless to say, this is another one of those occasions where I would probably be talking about this film even if I didn’t have this cinematic obligation hanging over my head. So, how does this latest documentary on one of the most fascinating creative minds in the world fare?

Far From Men (2015) - Movie Review

In the world of film criticism, or at least how I perceive it, there are very few things that scream pretension as loudly to me as the phrase "French Film Festival". Sure, it may just be the still-lingering stereotype of what film snobs prefer to watch that I find myself clinging to, but there’s also the fact that I have little to no patience for pretence as my hatred for Terrence Malick and the Annie remake will show. However, there are always exceptions to arbitrarily written rules and I found myself going to a film that was screening for a French Film Festival in my area (Incidently, in the same cinema where I’ve gone to five interactive screenings of The Room). This is because I saw that Nick Cave did the soundtrack for it alongside Bad Seeds bandmate Warren Ellis. So, out of love for not only the man’s music but also 20,000 Days On Earth, I decided to give it a go.