A personal journal of film and documentary reviews, and reviews of anything else that intrigues me.
British Films, French and French-language Films
Stanley Tucci, “Final Portrait” (2017) Best seen as a character study and a superficial investigation into an artist’s creativity and what motivates him, “Final Portrait” is…
“Adam Ruins Everything (Season 2, Episode 11: Adam Ruins the Economy)” (2017) Explaining economic concepts and measurements of how well economies are performing to the general…
Jeff Chan, “Adam Ruins Everything (Season 2, Episode 10: Adam Ruins the Suburbs)” (2017) Dedicated as it is to overturning comfortable assumptions and stereotypes about everyday…
Erik Poppe, “Kongens Nei / The King’s Choice” (2016) As a straight history lesson or even as a conventional war-time drama, this film doesn’t succeed: audiences…
Australian and New Zealand Films, Korean Films
Alex Apollonov and Aleksa Vulovic, “The Haircut” (2017) Two Sydney undergraduate students’ desire to travel to North Korea to see if they can get hipster-style haircuts…
Jeff Chan, “Adam Ruins Everything (Season 2, Episode 9: Adam Ruins His Vacation)” (2017) At last didactic comedian Adam Conover has something in common with most…
Stanley Kubrick, “Paths of Glory” (1957) A simply and tightly made film with a powerful message about honour, duty and how war degrades men and masculinity,…
Laura Murphy, “Adam Ruins Everything (Season 2, Episode 8: Emily Ruins Adam)” (2017) At long last, for those who always wanted to get their back on…
“What the Media Won’t Tell You about Syria” (ReallyGraceful, 2017) Among other news and facts that the Western mainstream news media ignores about Syria and its…
Amy Winfrey, “Adam Ruins Everything (Season 2, Episode 6: Adam Ruins What We Learned In School)” (2017) In this completely animated episode, Adam Conover joins a…