Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne’s Two Days, One Night has taken the top prize at the Sydney Film Festival, trumping favourites such as Boyhood and Locke, as well as Australian features The Rover and Ruin. Marion Cotillard stars in the picture as a woman who has a weekend to convince her colleagues to turn down a bonus and save her from being made redundant. The […]
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Tag Archives: sydfilmfest
No country for big feet – Willow Creek review
June 13, 2014 
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By Simon Miraudo June 13, 2014 Notorious comic Bobcat Goldthwait, once the bane of any ear-haver’s existence, has been steadily building a solid career for himself as a director, but whodathunk a mostly terrifying mockumentary would wind up bettering his black comedies? His 2009 cult favourite World’s Greatest Dad boasted an incredible first act, only […]
Continue readingOne shot – Fish and Cat review (Sydney Film Festival)
June 13, 2014 0 Comments
By Simon Miraudo June 13, 2014 The first name that came to mind during Fish & Cat, a two-hour and fourteen-minute Iranian film shot in just a single take, was Samuel Beckett. The next was Shane Carruth. That was not a jump I was expecting to take. Promoted as a “slasher flick,” Fish & Cat […]
Continue readingHeartbreak kid – Mommy review (Sydney Film Festival)
June 13, 2014 0 Comments
By Simon Miraudo June 13, 2014 Xavier Dolan‘s Mommy has one of the year’s best movie moments. Two even. Maybe three. Look… it’s all great. Those who’ve seen one of the sickeningly-talented 25-year-old filmmaker’s previous works could have predicted that. His camera moves so fluidly, as if in a dream, and here, contained within an […]
Continue readingTeenage dream – Palo Alto review (Sydney Film Festival)
June 12, 2014 0 Comments
By Simon Miraudo June 12, 2014 Much wailing and gnashing of teeth awaits any film adaptation of a beloved novel, but what welcomes the cinematic retelling of a despised one? James Franco’s unintentionally-LOL-worthy collection of short stories, Palo Alto, has been condensed, refined, and infinitely bettered by writer-director Gia Coppola, who, as you can imagine […]
Continue readingThe road worrier – The Rover review (Sydney Film Festival)
June 10, 2014 1 Comment
By Simon Miraudo June 10, 2014 The Rover is a hugely stressful tone poem in which on-screen characters are constantly being shot and killed by off-screen characters. That precise trick made for a startling capper to David Michôd‘s breakout hit Animal Kingdom, and he trots it out again several times in his theatrical follow-up. It’s […]
Continue readingDrag race – How to Train Your Dragon 2 review (Sydney Film Festival)
June 10, 2014 0 Comments
By Simon Miraudo June 10, 2014 Dragons don’t kill people. Bad people with dragons kill people. So goes the lesson of How to Train Your Dragon 2, the sequel to DreamWorks Animation’s only great movie. Kids can do with that metaphor what they will, except, hopefully, apply it to drugs or guns. Written and directed […]
Continue readingCompassion play – Two Days, One Night review (Sydney Film Festival)
June 10, 2014 0 Comments
By Simon Miraudo June 10, 2014 Two Days, One Night is paced like a joke, but it plays like a prayer. Writer-directors the Dardenne brothers, Jean-Pierre and Luc, spend the movie repeating the setup over and over again. Marion Cotillard‘s Sandra, recovering from a nervous breakdown, has a single weekend to convince each of her […]
Continue readingLosing it at the movies – Life Itself review (Sydney Film Festival)
June 9, 2014 1 Comment
By Simon Miraudo June 9, 2014 Roger Ebert, lover of women, alcohol, cinema, and life itself, is seen at the conclusion of Steve James‘ new documentary making peace with his impending death, calling it a satisfying conclusion to his narrative. He would have hated being robbed a “third act” through sudden death. That’s remarkable chutzpah […]
Continue readingYou get what you give – Begin Again review (Sydney Film Festival)
June 9, 2014 0 Comments
By Simon Miraudo June 9, 2014 It’s called Begin Again, but why, when once was probably enough? Keira Knightley stars as heartbroken English singer-songwriter Greta, still reeling from a break-up with a newly-minted rock star (Adam Levine) whose increasing douchebaggery can be measured by the growth of his beard and widening of his shirts’ v-necks. […]
Continue readingBless this mess – Love is Strange review (Sydney Film Festival)
June 7, 2014 0 Comments
By Simon Miraudo June 7, 2014 Love is Strange but the housing situation in New York is stranger. “Like something out of Kafka” is how Alfred Molina‘s character, George, describes it. Suddenly made homeless, music teacher George and his partner of 39 years, painter Ben (John Lithgow), have the unenviable task of begging their extended […]
Continue readingSister Kristen – The Skeleton Twins review (Sydney Film Festival)
June 7, 2014 0 Comments
By Simon Miraudo June 7, 2014 Everyone’s doing it. Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort have done it. Elizabeth Olsen and Aaron Taylor-Johnson are about to do it. Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader have just finished it. Call it Hollywood’s hottest and grossest new fad: incesting. It’s that thing where actors play both siblings and lovers […]
Continue readingUnknowing me, unknowing you – The Unknown Known review (Sydney Film Festival)
June 6, 2014 0 Comments
By Simon Miraudo June 6, 2014 Not even Errol Morris‘ infamous Interrotron – a camera-rig that gazes right into the subject’s freaking soul – can pierce an unyielding Donald Rumsfeld in The Unknown Known. Morris’ latest documentary isolates the former U.S. Secretary of Defence and sees him grilled on topics ranging from the World Trade […]
Continue readingPiety party – Calvary review (Sydney Film Festival)
June 5, 2014 0 Comments
By Simon Miraudo June 5, 2014 Those devilish McDonagh boys, always zigging when you think they’ll zag. John Michael McDonagh – brother of Oscar-winning In Bruges director Martin – follows up his dirt-black buddy comedy The Guard with despairing anti-hymn Calvary. It plays out like a parable, or, maybe, some half-remembered joke, with Brendan Gleeson‘s generous Father James learning of a mysterious parishioner’s desire to murder him; […]
Continue readingLose your head – Frank review (Sydney Film Festival)
June 5, 2014 0 Comments
By Simon Miraudo June 5, 2014 Michael Fassbender covers up in Frank, though you could say that of any film he’s done in the years since Shame. The pants stay on, and now, a papier-mâché head has been added to the mix, obscuring the Irish actor’s handsome visage for the majority of the movie. Though […]
Continue readingA festivus for the rest of us: Sydney Film Festival 2014 begins!
June 4, 2014 0 Comments
The Sydney Film Festival is once again upon us, and 2014’s slate is as tantalising as any that has come before. This, of course, means our editorial team will be occupied skittering from darkened cinema to darkened cinema, up all night scribbling reviews, and frantically posting them each morning for the pleasure of those unable […]
Continue readingSydney Film Festival unveils first batch of films for 2013
April 4, 2013 0 Comments
The first batch of titles headed to the 2013 Sydney Film Festival have been unveiled on the SFF’s official website. A couple of the pictures were expected by arthouse aficionados to make the cut, including Park Chan-wook’s English-language debut Stoker (which was delayed from its original March release date to instead debut at the fest), and Noah Baumbach’s […]
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