Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street – Hollywood Goth drama undone by misanthropy and poor source material
Tim Burton, “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” (2007) US film director Tim
Spotlight: a rare quality Hollywood film that celebrates good investigative journalism and examines the nature of evil and its spread
Tom McCarthy, “Spotlight” (2015) On rare occasions Hollywood can still demonstrate an ability to make
Australian and New Zealand Films
Charlie’s Country: a portrait of a man and his community in search of belonging and identity
Rolf de Heer, “Charlie’s Country” (2013) A sad and compassionate film of a man’s search
The Big Short: a crash course into the causes and toxic culture of the 2008 Global Financial Crisis
Adam McKay, “The Big Short” (2015) How do you tell the story behind the sub-prime
Review of Films I’ve seen in 2015
Review of Films I’ve seen in 2015 Dear Under Southern Eyes Readers, Another year, another
The Gold Rush: a fun and clever film of comedy, drama, romance, horror and thriller elements
Charles Chaplin, “The Gold Rush” (1925, revised 1942) In reality, the 1898 Klondike Gold Rush
Suffragette: catering to narrow interests of identity politics over the real interests of people it claims to defend
Sarah Gavron, “Suffragette” (2015) Of the recent plethora of British historical drama movies, Gavron’s film
Pieta (dir. Kim Kiduk): a cruel and absurd grotesquery mocking the poor and the marginalised
Kim Kiduk, “Pieta” (2012) This tale of dark revenge centres around a class of people
Truth: fictional drama has some value in showing how censorship works and propaganda is created
James Vanderbilt, “Truth” (2015) An ambitious film for James Vanderbilt’s directorial debut, though he is
The Great Dictator: using comedy and drama, silent film and talking picture to confront fascism
Charles Chaplin, “The Great Dictator” (1940) It’s over-long and the slapstick comedy is laid on