The Secret: Dare To Dream (2020) - Movie Review

Well… this is an idea that someone thought was going to work: Make a movie based on a self-help book that, for those who even remember it in the first place, was met with meme status on initial release and has stayed there ever since. Book-to-film adaptations are usually iffy at the best of times purely because of the adaptation process, so you can imagine the hill that needs to be climbed to inject cinematic narrative into something objectively plotless.

Seberg (2020) - Movie Review

I don’t think there’s a single actress working today who could take this role other than Kristen Stewart. As much as the white liberal populace could quite easily take a shine to stories like that of the real-life philanthropist and actress Jean Seberg, the narrative of a white woman implanting herself into the protests and struggles of the Black Panther Party isn’t something just anyone could pull off. With how high-profile Stewart has grown of late, and how endearingly riot grrl her public persona has become, her status as one of the mainstream's favourite social subversives makes her ripe for this kind of story. And thankfully, through thick and thin, she manages to pull it off.

Wish Upon (2017) - Movie Review

The plot: High schooler Clare (Joey King) is given a music box by her father Jonathan (Ryan Phillippe), who found it while dumpster-diving. Clare manages to translate enough of the text written on it to learn that it is no ordinary music box: It has the ability to grant a person seven wishes. As she uses this new gift to improve her life conditions, it seems that the price for her wishes is far greater than she realises, and it could spell doom for everyone she holds dear.

 

Money Monster (2016) - Movie Review

I have admitted in the past being very much on the left side of the political spectrum, when I’m even bothered to get involved in such matters in the first place, and I have been rather favourable to films that align with those views. However, in my furthering subconscious attempt to bring a bit more objectivity to these reviews, I am not about to let that paint my impression of every political-tinged piece of cinema that I will look at from here on out. Pundits from all areas of political thought have this idea that we only stick to those who voice or at least mirror their own perspectives and aren’t willing to hear anyone else’s take. Well, while that might be true for some, it is still possible to disagree with those in your own supposed camp. Hopefully by the end of this review, I will have explained why that is.

'71 (2015) - Movie Review

Jack O’Connell as a prisoner of war? Didn’t I already review this movie earlier this year? Well, thankfully, rather than dealing with yet another WWII drama, because for some reason people think that we still haven’t gotten enough of those yet, we’re dealing with a different skirmish this time round. Today’s film is set during the Irish civil war, otherwise known as ‘the Troubles’. Now, aside from little titbits I’ve picked up from videos made by fellow reviewer and friend of the blog Diamanda Hagan, I’m not too familiar with all the specifics about what went down. For the sake of summary, it involved Northern Ireland wanting to become its own territory separate from the United Kingdom, so war broke out between the Northern Irish nationalists and the Irish loyalists. Since we’ve gotten more than enough media concerning the U.S. civil war for independence, it’s already a welcome change of pace to see a film go after another historical conflict. But does it do it well?

Unbroken (2015) - Movie Review

As Oscar season comes along in Australia, we of course have a period drama set in World War II. That's not to say that that automatically means it'll be bad; just that I have grown savvy enough in my short foray into film criticism to know that war stories make for great Oscar bait. With Angelina Jolie at the helm as director, a fact that blindsided me so much that I didn't even find out until recently that this isn't her directorial debut, and the Coen brothers as co-writers on the script, this film at least has some talent at its core. But how does it fare against its usually lofty competition?