The New Boy (2023) - Movie Review

Two people can look at the same image and come away with two completely different understandings of what the image is. This is a fundamental aspect of the human ability to interpret, and something that crops up regularly when it comes to discussing art such as films. As much as I try and give the impression that I know what I’m talking about when writing about what a given image ‘means’, I also try and underpin that with the understanding that this is all my interpretation of things. I could be on the completely wrong track from what the image maker intended to convey, or I could be almost on the same wavelength but missing some vital piece of context, but all the same, I don’t tend to write what I think unless it actually is what I think.

Rams (2020) - Movie Review

Why do films need to be remade? Well, for the most part, they don’t. It’s largely done either to cash-in on the memorability of the original, or to further the idea that watching foreign films with subtitles is too much to ask of an average filmgoer (because nothing says ‘we respect our audience’ more than assuming they don’t know how to read), and even before they became so ridiculously ubiquitous in the modern era, this is a framework that has been around in the mainstream for decades. But then there are the rare examples of films with a purpose in reviving an older production, one that might highlight the poignancy of the original still ringing true in a different time, a different culture, a different context. And in the case of this recent Aussie effort, it might be one of the most necessary in our history.