JUST MERCY - film

Just Mercy is a drama that tells the true story of Walter McMillan (Jamie Foxx), an African American man who is in jail for a murder conviction he is fighting with the help of an idealistic Harvard law graduate, Bryan Stevenson (Michael B Jordan).

Stevenson has moved to Alabama to help black people on death row. The racism they face is so blatant that it’s painful.

I gather McMillan’s story is quite well known but confess I knew nothing about it. I won’t spoil the ending in case you don’t either but Stevenson proves a formidable opponent along with his colleague, legal administrator, Eva Ansley (Brie Larson).

It wouldn’t be quite right to say I enjoyed this film because despite it being very good, it was a bit difficult to watch at times. But if you’re open to a little discomfort interspersed through a good, inspiring film then this one is for you.

Foxx and Jordan are both very, very good in this and for those who are interested in such things, Jordan can be seen without a shirt briefly in the film. Sadly it’s not a cheerful moment in the film - far from it - but take a win when you can, I guess. (Yes, yes, I’m a terrible person who is bound to be struck by lightning at any moment, I know.)

My one criticism of this film is that it does feel a bit paint-by-numbers. I can live with that but it does mean there was never any edge-of-your-seat moments. Here’s a four star review from the Fairfax press and a slightly less generous three star review from The Guardian if you’d like to read more.

Just Mercy is in cinemas now. It’s rated M and runs for 137 minutes. (137 minutes is too long, even for a good film. Please stop doing this, film makers.) Trailer here.

A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD - film

A Beautiful Day In The Neighbourhood stars Tom Hanks as (apparently) much-loved American TV presenter Fred Rogers, star of the children’s show Mister Rogers’ Neighbourhood which ran from 1968 to 2001. I presume that, like me, most Australians will not have heard of the man or the show so are going in cold here.

Set in 1998 and based on real-life events, the film is about journalist Lloyd Vogel (Matthew Rhys) who is tasked with doing a short puff piece on Rogers. Vogel is battling some heavy stuff, not least the unresolved anger at his father who abandoned the family when his mum was dying. As he gets to know Rogers over many encounters, Vogel tries desperately to scratch the ultra-kind exterior of Rogers to find something more. Unfortunately all he discovers is that Rogers is actually just a very kind person (BORING!) and that it’s he who has the interesting stuff going on that needs to be dealt with.

This film is pleasant enough but frankly I don’t get the fuss. For a while there I was thinking, crikey, he’s going to uncover that Rogers is a horrific paedophile or something and this is going to turn into a dark drama. Nope. Just a nice enough but slightly traumatised younger guy getting to know a boringly nice older guy.

Time magazine included A Beautiful Day In The Neighbourhood on its list of the ten best films of 2019 and to that I say, NO SIR PLEASE AND THANK YOU, YOU ARE WRONG. (If you want further proof of their wrong-ness, the list also includes The Irishman, which I switched off after 30 minutes. Do not @ me.) That said, I did read a 2.5 star review of the film in The Age which is about what I’d give it, I think. Not terrible, not excellent, just a bit ho hum.

This is the piece Vogel ultimately had published in Esquire magazine following his encounters with Rogers, if you’d like some additional reading. As you will discover if you read it, it wound up being something very different to a puff piece on Rogers.

A Beautiful Day In The Neighbourhood is in cinemas now. It’s rated PG and runs for 109 minutes. Trailer here.

WAR HORSE - theatre

If you’re anything like me, it might be that all you know about War Horse is that it’s about war and involves horse puppets. And when you hear “horse puppets” you think… ummm… how does that work?! Well, this image will help you picture it:

The three people you see with each horse are puppet masters bringing the horses to life on stage, not separate characters in the show. For me, that took a little getting used to. But once I did, I was engrossed. It’s remarkable how they can make the puppets mimic real horses with the slightest of movements.

The two horses pictured are central to the story. I mean, it ain’t called War Horse for nothing! The story is based on a 1982 novel of the same name, about a young man called Albert and his horse Joey who live in country England. Albert’s father sells Joey to the British cavalry at the start of WWI and eventually, having lied about his age, Albert heads off to war too.

No spoilers about what happens but this is a beautiful story and very moving. That said, contrary to my usual blubbering style, I didn’t actually cry during this. The same cannot be said for the person I took along to the premiere and many of the people sitting around us, though.

War Horse is running at the newly renovated* Regent Theatre in Melbourne until 8 February and then heads to Sydney and Perth. Tickets start from around $60. Get all the details here.

*The seats are super comfortable and remarkably there’s plenty of leg room. Amazing!

BOMBSHELL - film

Bombshell is a drama based on the true story of women working at Fox News in America who exposed network CEO Roger Ailes’ sexual harassment. Nicole Kidman, Charlize Theron and Margot Robbie are the three women central to the story. All are fantastic, as evidenced by Oscar nominations for Theron (Best Actress) and Robbie (Best Supporting Actress) and Kidman managing to get through a whole film without her Australian accent popping out to say g’day.

I loved this film. It’s really great! And I didn’t look at my watch once, which is how I know I was completely engrossed. (This is my special, unique and definitely-not-had-by-anyone-else-before idea about how to measure whether a film is any good.)

John Lithgow is perfectly super creepy as Ailes and Kate McKinnon, Allison Janney, Rob Delaney and Connie Britton all give knock-out performances in smaller roles. And a treat for Australian viewers - actor brothers Josh Lawson and Ben Lawson as James and Lachlan Murdoch respectively.

The use of an English actor - Malcolm McDowell - to play Rupert Murdoch is about the only misstep in this film for me. The real Rupert’s accent is about 70% Australian and 30% American in my estimation and McDowell’s is 30% English, 30% American, 40% really bad Australian for a total of 100% jarringly bad. But it’s a small thing in an otherwise excellent film.

Bombshell opens on Thursday 16 January, runs for 109 minutes and is rated M. Trailer here.

LITTLE WOMEN - film

To answer the question posed by my oldest friend of this film “do we really need another version of Little Women?”… HECK YES! I wasn’t sure in theory but I’ve seen this and I loved it so much. I laughed and cried and enjoyed every minute.

Most of you are probably across this but in a special nod to my millennial readers (hi, three people!), a quick backgrounder is that Little Women is a novel from the 1800s about the lives of four sisters and their journey from childhood to adulthood. It’s a classic! Go borrow it from the library if you haven’t read it! (A library is a place you can go and borrow books FOR FREE! There’s probably one near where you live… google it!)

The cast is just perfect. Saoirse Ronan as Jo March, Emma Watson as Meg March, Laura Dern as Mary March, Meryl Streep as Aunt March and Timothee Chalamet as Laurie, just to name the ones you’ve probably heard of, is killer casting. And this screen adaptation was written and directed by Greta Gerwig who also directed Lady Bird, which I loved!

I won’t go into the plot here (either you know it or if you don’t, it’ll spoil it) but there’s a reason a story from the 1800s is still being made into a film in 2020. It’s full of reminders that romance, family and life are complicated and hard and beautiful.

This is a lovely and lively adaptation of a story I knew but had frankly forgotten. I’m so grateful for the reminder! This version is well worth your time and hard-earned.

Little Women is in cinemas now. It’s rated G and runs for 135 minutes*. Trailer here.

*This is arguably too long - I’m a 100 minutes kinda gal - but this actually doesn’t feel long, which is a very good sign indeed.

Jojo Rabbit - film

I’ve dragged my feet a bit writing this to be honest with you. You see, this is a satirical drama/comedy film about a young boy living in Nazi Germany late in WWII and I just wasn’t sure how to process the fact that a film about something so grim could be so damn funny. ‘Am I allowed to laugh at this?!’, I found myself thinking. I decided that if it was ok with Jewish people then it was ok with me but then I didn’t get round to googling the Jewish community’s reaction to the film for a few days and, in truth, I confess let it slide. But then I asked a Jewish colleague about it and he told me that the director Taika Waititi is Jewish and that settled it… laugh and be damned!

So…

Jojo Rabbit (Roman Griffin Davis) is the aforementioned young boy - a Hitler Youth member - who lives with his mother Rosie (Scarlett Johansson) and is often visited by his imaginary friend, a comical version (!) of Adolf Hitler (Taika Waititi, also the director). He discovers his mother is hiding a young Jewish woman in their home and after initially threatening to turn her in to the Gestapo, forms a bond with her.

To cut to the chase (regular readers will have to try their best to forget my Cats blog!), I thought this film was both hilarious and thought-provoking. I have an annoyingly loud laugh and was quite self-conscious about how much I was laughing in the cinema. When other people chuckled politely, I really cacked myself. Mainly at Taika Waititi’s Hitler. Truly, that guy is just absolutely sublime. WAITITI, NOT HITLER, OBVIOUSLY.

Jojo Rabbit has been nominated for Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy in the Golden Globe awards and it’s a well-deserved nomination. I’d love to see it take the win! (It also won the People’s Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival.)

This four star review in The Age encapsulates my feelings about this film more articulately than I have and gives you more details about the film and plot, if you want to read more. Then there’s this in-depth review from the ABC which examines the concerns my instincts alerted me to, if you want to read even more.

Jojo Rabbit is in cinemas now. It’s rated M and runs for 108 minutes. Trailer here.

Cats - film

Oh that’s right, Cats is bONkErS! I mean the actual storyline of the musical - and of course the film - is really something else. If you Google it, this is what you’ll find:

“A tribe of cats must decide yearly which one will ascend to the Heaviside Layer and come back to a new life.”

Got it? Good.

Seriously though, it’s a rag tag bunch of ‘character’ cats that you learn about as they tell their story in an attempt to be chosen to ascend to something called “the Heaviside Layer” (huh?!), as selected by one old cat, in this case played by Dame Judi Dench. A Dame, like an actual DAME, dressed as an old lady cat with human hands, you say? Yes, yes I do.

Still got it? Good. Keep up!

“But is the film any good?!”, I hear you yelling at me. Well firstly, stop yelling at me! But secondly, to answer your yelly-pants question, it sort of is! But I reckon it really very much depends on who you are and what your deal is. You see, my deal is that I’m bang up for a musical and I have listened to the Cats soundtrack a million times and love it. I know the story is unhinged and I’m totally fine with that.

So reader, do you like musicals? Not just a film with a few songs here and there, I’m talking the full ALW box and dice. ALW is of course Andrew Lloyd Webber and if you didn’t know that, it’s probably a sign that you will hate this film. If you dig musicals and don’t mind a bit of ALW, read on.

The cast includes some massive names in addition to Dame Judi - Jennifer Hudson, Idris Elba, Sir Ian McKellan, James Corden, Rebel Wilson, Jason Derulo* and pop star Taylor Swift. They’re all good of course - you don’t get a gig like this if you’re not - but I want to manage your expectations about Ms Swift if she’s the reason you’re up for this film. You see, she’s really not in the film all that much and it takes a pretty long time to get to it.

A bunch of people I saw it with clearly did not fall into the “I’m fine with ALW” category. Unfortunately there were many walk-outs before the film finished. One pair even left as Jennifer Hudson weepily sung Memory. For crying out loud! Their cold, dead hearts must be, well, cold and dead.

Anyway, regular readers will know I usually try to keep my blog posts short and I’ve failed miserably on that front here. So here, finally, is the #cuttothechase version: If you like crazy musicals, this is some light, fun entertainment you’ll probably enjoy the heck out of. If you don’t, then run a flippin’ mile from this, it’s definitely not for you.

It got 2.5 stars from 5 from News Ltd and a brutally unkind 1 star from The Guardian, if you want to read more.

Cats opens on Thursday 26 December. Trailer here.

*It’s really lucky he sung his own name in that song he had years ago, back when I listened to commercial radio, because it’s literally the only thing I know of him. You’re singing it like he does in your head now, aren’t you?

1917 - film

1917 is a British war drama about two young soldiers who are sent on a special mission to save 1600 other soldiers from almost certain death during World War I.

Soaring, long, award-hunting dramas are often slow (Disagree?! So sue me!) and 1917 is no exception. Especially the first half or so. But it does come good and get more action-packed and interesting in the second half.

Some elements of this film are predictable (no spoilers!) but on the other hand, there were times where I was on the edge of my seat, almost holding my breath waiting to see what happened next. And the film is visually beautiful, there’s no doubt about that.

But back to the cons… don’t go to this if you’re a Benedict Cumberbatch fan thinking you’ll get to drink him in. He’s in the film for literally about two or three minutes. Same goes for Richard Madden, Adam Scott and Colin Firth really.

Taking into account the pros and cons it’s probably a net result of about 3.5 stars out of 5 from me. And the friend I saw it with said the same. But in the interests of fairness, you should know that The Guardian gave it five stars and The Telegraph gave it three stars - give one of them a read if you want more on the plot.

1917 opens on 9 January 2020. Trailer here.

KNIVES OUT - film

Part mystery, part drama, part comedy… Knives Out is jolly good fun! At two hours and ten minutes, it’s half an hour too long for my personal taste but other than that, I really only have good things to say about this one.

Christopher Plummer stars as Harlan Thrombey, an ageing crime author sitting on a fortune over which his family will fight when he dies. BUT WHO KILLED HIM?! Line up for questioning by private investigator Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig with a dumb accent), family and hangers on! The cast of family and hangers on is impressive - Jamie Lee Curtis, Chris Evans and Toni Collette among them. The investigation is camp but genuinely mysterious, not unlike that in the 1985 hit motion picture Clue.

The Herald Sun has given it 5 stars which is a fraction too generous in my view. It’s more like four stars, I reckon, which is what The Independent has given it.

Knives Out opens Thursday 28 November and is rated M. Trailer here.

OFFICIAL SECRETS - film

Official secrets is a UK drama based on a true story starring Keira Knightley as Iraq war whistleblower Katharine Gun, circa 2003.

If you’re anything like me, the words ‘war’ and ‘whistleblower’ make you think of a suspenseful thriller and whilst I did enjoy this film, it was strangely lacking in that end-of-your-seat suspenseful feeling. I suppose it would lack that if you knew Katharine’s story and how it ended but I confess I wasn’t really across it so there was something else at play though I’m not sure exactly what.

Katharine was a translator working in the British security services (#spy) when she uncovered information so unpalatable to her that she leaked it via an advocate to a journalist. She struggles with guilt about the leak as well as the implications her actions have on her Muslim husband who is dragged into the saga too.

Knightley gives a good performance though this film reminded me that I’m not wild about her. I DO NOT KNOW WHY LEAVE ME ALONE OK?! Matt Smith and Rhys Ifans also bring their A-game as journalists working on her story and covering the war more generally and Ralph Fiennes is very good too as Katharine’s human rights lawyer.

I enjoyed Official Secrets but it somehow wasn’t quite as thrilling as it could and should have been. About 3-3.5 stars worth of good for me. Here’s a 4 star review in The Guardian and a 3 star review in The Independent UK if you want to read more.

Official Secrets opens 21 November and is rated MA 15+. Trailer here.

AFTER THE WEDDING - film

So apparently this is a remake of a 2007 film of the same name and most of the reviews I’ve read mention this. But I haven’t seen the 2007 one and I dare say most of you readers haven’t either (that’s not a drive-by attack on you, it just wasn’t exactly mainstream) so let’s just take this on face value and forget about the original.

After the Wedding stars Michelle Williams as Isabel, a do-gooder running an orphanage in India. She has an opportunity to get funding from a super rich American woman Theresa (Julianne Moore) but Isabel has to go to the US and meet her face-to-face to persuade her to donate the cash. Once Isabel is in America we are let in on a hell of a coincidence involving Theresa’s husband Oscar (Billy Crudup). The kind of thing that made me think, oh come on this was actually quite good til you asked me to believe that. BUT IS IT A COINCIDENCE?!

Anyway, I shall say no more on the plot for fear of spoilers but I kinda liked this one. Williams, Moore and Crudup (#swoon) are all very good. It’s not 5 stars good, but probably 3.5 stars good for me. If you want to know more about the plot (they’re happy to do at least a little spoiling) check out this 3 star review in The Guardian.

Look for After the Wedding in your more arthousey cinemas from October 24. It’s rated M and runs for 112 minutes. Trailer here.

PROMISED - film

Look. Here’s the thing about Promised. It’s not terrible but it’s just not the kind of thing I can recommend you make plans to get to a cinema and dish out $20+ to see.

Set in Melbourne in the 1950s and then 1970s, this film is about a young Italian Australian couple Angela (Antoinette Iesue) and Robert (Daniel Berini) whose parents promised them to each other when they were littlies. In adulthood they are living separate successful lives but the promise hangs over their head. Will they or won’t they?! Should they or shouldn’t they?! Honestly, I just wasn’t interested enough in either of them, or their proposed union, to really care that much about how it unfolded. I hate to not be a cheerleader for an Australian film but here we are.

Paul Mercurio and Tina Arena play Angela’s parents and both give serviceable performances but even if Tiny Tina had suddenly started belting out “Sorrento Moon” for no reason it wouldn’t have made this interesting enough for me to suggest you rush out for it.

I can’t reflect on how accurate Promised is as a reflection of the experience of Italian immigrants to Australia but I did turn my mind to whether people who can relate to that story would enjoy this film more than me and I dare say they would. But even then I think I’d be inclined to say watch this on TV, which is where I suspect it would have been better placed in the first place.

Promised opens 24 October in select cinemas.

JOKER - film

Look. I just. I can’t. I’m not sure. Ummm…

So Joker is Joker from Batman. Not like the fun Batman from your childhood though. But actually there’s no Batman in this film anyway so forget about him. This film is entirely about the Joker and it. is. grim. Like, real grim.

Joker is played by Joaquin Phoenix and he is Oscar-worthy incredible. Truly, he does bleak like no one else I can think of. Joker is profoundly mentally ill and just as in real life, it’s not in any way enjoyable to watch someone spiraling out of control.

So now that I’ve covered the basics, it’s hard to know what to say to be honest. Did I enjoy watching this film? No. Is it beautifully crafted? Sure.

So to cut to the chase, if you’re a fan of the more recent Batman films and are wondering if you should see this to satisfy your curiosity, my view on that would be, yes I suppose you should. But if Batman and DC Comics are not your thing (they’re not mine, in case that wasn’t clear) then definitely, without any shadow of a doubt, give this one a miss. Even when it’s for free on the telly. Because it’ll suck the life out of you.

Joker has received mixed reviews. For example, The Guardian say it’s the most disappointing film of the year and gave it 2 stars but The Telegraph (UK) gave it 4 stars. So as with the Instagram poll that landed me seeing this film in the first place*, it can go either way.

Joker is in cinemas now and is rated MA 15+. It runs for just over two hours and the first hour felt long to me. The second hour was so chock-full of trauma that it certainly passed quickly! Trailer here.

* I had no personal interest in seeing this film so I put it to the people by way of a poll on my Instagram (@stephaniepuls). It ended up with a 54% yes vote with an alarmingly large number of voters. Life is full of mysteries.

AD ASTRA - film

The reviews for Ad Astra are largely positive and I’ve gotta tell you, it leaves me pondering if there is something wrong with me.

Ad Astra is a science fiction action film starring Brad Pitt as astronaut Roy McBride who goes into space to search for his father Clifford – until now assumed by Roy to be dead – who was also an astronaut. Despite being publicly considered a space hero, Clifford is now thought to be up to some dodgy stuff – sabotaging human life on earth, that kind of thing - from Neptune.

Set in the not-too-distant future when solar system exploration is much more common and pirates roam it with guns, Ad Astra is clearly a film for people who love sci-fi and fantasy and that ain’t me. Now, I do see lots of films for this blog that are not the kind I typically enjoy. Sometimes I’m pleasantly surprised and reminded I ought to keep an open mind but other times I’m left shrugging my shoulders and this time my shoulders were working overtime.

I thought Ad Astra was a bit of a snooze-fest to be honest. Brad Pitt’s performance left me a bit underwhelmed. I think it’s because the character he was playing was a super cool & mellow guy and he just really went so hard on the low-key mellow vibe that I found it a bit dull. The film runs for two hours and the first hour needed to be shaved in half if you ask me. Not all long films feel long but this one sure did.

In the interests of balance and if you want more detailed info about the story, check out this four star review in The Guardian. If you’d like confirmation I’m not the only one who thought it was pretty ordinary, check out this less complimentary review from the ABC.

 Ad Astra is rated M and in cinemas now. Trailer here.

RIDE LIKE A GIRL - film

Ride Like a Girl is based on the true story of Australian jockey Michelle Payne being the first woman to win a Melbourne Cup. It’s bloody delightful!

I knew just a little of the Michelle Payne Melbourne Cup Fairytale (TM) before I saw this so it was great to learn more about just how hard she worked, how many barriers she broke down and how many setbacks she overcame to achieve such an incredible feat.

Payne is played by Teresa Palmer, her father Paddy by Sam Neill and her brother Stevie is played by Stevie himself which is pretty cool - they are all fantastic and bring the story to life. Accomplished actors Magda Szubanski and Sullivan Stapleton have smaller roles and are also both very good of course but I’m saving a special shout out for Genevieve Morris who I think is a really underrated Australian actress. You might not know the name but I bet you know her face - she’s been in loads of Aussie TV shows and some iconic ads.

After the premiere I saw Australian actor, producer and radio host Jane Kennedy say something along the lines of “don’t let the PC reviews put you off” in a tweet praising this film which filled me with dread to be honest. There is an obvious point to which you can object - I know many people think horse racing is cruel. If you fall into that category, of course don’t see this one. If you can live with it then I reckon you’ll love Ride Like a Girl. I laughed and cried! For what it’s worth, Jane deleted the tweet and replaced it with something like “support Australian films”.

The one thing I would say by way of caution is that for much of the film I was thinking it would be a great one for my nieces to see (aged between 12 and 18) because I think they’d like it and be inspired by it. However when Michelle started eating only one orange in a day and wrapping herself in cling wrap and sitting in her car with the heater on to get herself down to 50 kilograms to achieve her dream I thought better of that. I’m all in favour of working hard to achieve your goals but that’s not something I want them to see and idolise. Based on that - even though it’s rated PG - this one is for grown-ups who can be objective, I reckon.

Ride Like a Girl opens Thursday 26 September and runs for 96 minutes (YES! I hate long movies!). Trailer here.

DOWNTON ABBEY

Like many people, I loved the TV show Downton Abbey. I tried to keep my expectations in check for the film figuring it would be hard for it to live up the TV show and so it was.

I’m going to approach this blog assuming that if you have enough interest in this film to read this blog, it’s because you’re familiar with the TV show. If you’re not, stop reading now because this film is barely for people who loved the TV show so it’s certainly not for people who didn’t.

The storyline could have worked - the King and Queen are coming to Downton to visit! - but it was hammed up in such an excruciating way that I really found it very difficult to enjoy. Mr Bates said very little which was a plus but Mrs Bates was suddenly plotting a coup against the King and Queen’s own staff and the whole thing was just implausible and silly. Yes, yes, I know it’s a drama and these things are often implausible but trust me, they really stretched the friendship on this one. I’m talking people being drugged and locked in rooms, ok?!

The Crawley family played to type of course. The arrival of a cousin of Robert’s (Imelda Staunton/Delores Umbridge) brought a little intrigue but really only a little. Carson comes out of retirement (I was reminded how insufferable he got as the show went on) which frees up Barrow to have an interesting mini subplot but it was such a small part of the film it just wasn’t enough to suck me in. For me there was too many storylines left too undercooked - do less and do it better, I reckon.

The film is set up in a way which so obviously leads to another film that when it finished I just thought, no, please don’t do that. You’re ruining a great thing.

I saw this with a friend who is also a Downton Abbey TV show fan and we were completely on the same page about how disappointing it was and both thought it’s worthy of only 2 stars out of 5. Some proper critics have been a little more generous giving it 3 stars but it doesn’t get much better than that. In the interests of balance, here’s a three star review in The Guardian and here’s a summary of early reviews if you want a broad spectrum.

Downton Abbey opens 12 September and is rated PG. Trailer here.

THE AUSTRALIAN DREAM - film

The documentary is partly a bio of Aboriginal AFL player Adam Goodes and party a look at racism in Australia. It’s beautifully made, reflective and poignant. I can’t recommend it highly enough.

I will say that I haven’t seen the doco on the same topic that was recently on TV. A friend who I saw The Australian Dream with had seen it and felt this one didn’t offer any significant insights that the one on TV already had however in sharing that observation with others who’ve seen both, they disagreed. In fact one described this film as significantly better, not just a little better.

It’s not easy to watch. I cried. And if you’d told me AFL great Nathan Buckley would offer one of the most searingly painful observation of the film I wouldn’t have believed you but here we are. It took my breath away.

If you’re interested in sport, Australian culture, Indigenous history, AFL or media I think you will find this film fascinating and well worth your time and hard-earned. Here’s a 3.5 star review in the Fairfax press if you want more details.

The Australian Dream is in cinemas now. Take a friend who you think could do with seeing it. Don’t pretend you don’t know what I mean.

(As a bit of an aside, it reminded me that Aboriginal former AFL player Gilbert McAdam is bloody good media talent and should be in mainstream media coverage of the game way more often.)

LATE NIGHT - film

Late Night is a comedy (more on this later) about a late night talk show host Katherine Newbury (Emma Thompson) who is trying to revitalise her show and career. She hires Molly (Mindy Kaling) to the shows’s writing team in an attempt to breathe life into the material which had, until Molly’s arrival, been written by a team of men. Molly’s fresh perspective is an affront to the writing team and her honesty an affront to Katherine, who has terrified her team into a bunch of yes-men over many years.

The film is based on a screenplay by Kaling and directed by Nisha Ganatra. Regular readers will know I often don’t talk about the directors of films but in this case it’s relevant to my views in that there’s a whole lotta woman power behind this film and it made me want to love it and support it.

Sadly I can’t give this film a big pump-up. It’s a solid idea and excellent cast but the execution fell a bit flat for me. The laughs that are there are very good but there’s far too few and in moments where they tried to pull at some heart-strings (Katherine betrays her ill husband, played by John Lithgow) I just felt very little empathy. I hadn’t bought in and I didn’t care enough.

I actually looked the film up on the distributor’s website to see if they were selling it as a comedy, wondering if perhaps it was meant to be a funny drama and I’d misunderstood but nope, comedy it is. They claim.

Late Night isn’t terrible but it’s not as good or funny as I hoped it would be or as it could have been. It’s a pleasant enough film (say, three stars) but one which I’d be inclined to wait and see when it pops up on Netflix or similar.

I want to see more amazing films starring women, about women, created by women, celebrated by women but Late Night hasn’t given me enough to sing from the rooftops about. What a pity.

Here’s a three-star review in The Guardian if you want to read more.

Late Night is rated M, runs 102 minutes and is in cinemas now. Trailer here.

PALM BEACH - film

Regular readers will know it pains me to say negative things about an Australian film so I’m sad to report that there’s pain a comin’ here.

Palm Beach is an Australian drama that follows a group of old friends gathering for a weekend for one of their birthdays. Happily birthday boy (Frank - Bryan Brown) is loaded and lives in Palm Beach in Sydney’s northern beaches so the scenery is stunning and the booze and great food is flowing freely. If nothing else this film will make you crave some delicious grilled prawns and a glass of expensive champagne.

The group are all battling various dramas life throws at you, especially as you age. Think an actress being offered the part of a grandmother for the first time, a guy not being able to get an erection anymore and a woman battling breast cancer, for example. Of course there’s a secret among them and things appear to be about to blow up when one of them (Leo - Sam Neill) declares to another (Charlotte - Greta Scacchi) that he’s not inclined to keep said secret anymore. No more for fear of spoilers but I’ll say that I never really felt invested in the drama or mystery to feel compelled to care much about the fate of the characters.

I wanted to love Palm Beach reeeaaal bad. The cast is chock full of impressive names - Richard E Grant, Jacqueline McKenzie in addition to those already mentioned - but they didn’t have a compelling enough storyline to work with in my view. There were times it was hard to escape the conclusion that it was a bit of a soap opera… an episode of Home and Away with far superior production values, if you will. The friend I saw it with concurred.

I’m conscious I’m not the target audience for this film (I assume it’s aimed primarily at the 50+ market who can relate to the main characters) so I pondered whether my parents would enjoy it and I just don’t think they would to be honest.

In the interests of fairness, here’s a 3.5 star review in the Fairfax press and a 2 star review in The Guardian.

This isn’t a dreadful way to spend an hour and a half but I can’t put my hand on heart and recommend you rush out for it. Maybe when it pops up on TV.

Palm Beach opens 8 August and is rated M. Trailer here.

THE PUBLIC - film

The Public is a excellent drama by writer, director, producer and star Emilio Estevez, whom I can scarcely believe is 56 years old!

It’s the story of the homeless community of Cincinnati who flock to the local public library for warmth, friendly faces and something to occupy their days. But when the days and nights turn bitterly cold, they stage a protest to try to secure permission to sleep in the library at night.

Estevez stars as librarian Stuart Goodson who has experience living on the streets himself leaving him deeply sympathetic to the protesting homeless community. Alec Baldwin and Christian Bale also star in the film and like Estevez they are effective as always.

The Public isn’t perfect - it can be overly simplistic and sanctimonious at times - but I reckon it’s worth your time. It’s on at only a handful of cinemas in cities around Australia so you’ll have to look a little further afield than your local megaplex on this one. If you don’t catch it on the big screen, keep an eye out for it on the telly in future.

Check out this review in the New York Times if you want to read more on this one.

The Public opens on 1 August and is rated M. Trailer here.