Category: Film
My collected writing on one of my greatest passions: film. I was a film critic in my undergraduate days (trivia: that’s how I met my wife!) but I now take a more philosophical approach to thinking and writing about films I see.
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Observe and Report
Hill | 2009 | USA Umpteenth viewing, but my first in years. Criminally misunderstood and widely underseen, this is my go-to answer when people ask for a hidden gem (with the GIANT caveat that the comedy is very dark and the action shockingly violent). Done zero favours by a marketing campaign that would have you […]
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The Mastermind
Reichardt | 2025 | UK, USA I remember reading an interview with one or both of the Coen brothers in the aftermath of No Country For Old Men blowing everybody’s mind back in 2007. They were asked why they chose to set the story in the 80’s and their answer was simple: to not have […]
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Certified Copy
Copie conforme Kiarostami | 2010 | France, Italy 2nd watch. I don’t have notes from my first watch and so l don’t remember if I was initially as struck by the role that literal reflections play in the story (see above for a good example). It’s all part of a delightfully playful conceit that I […]
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Dog Day Afternoon
Lumet | 1975 | USA First watch; instantly a new favourite. Rarely has a film been this sweaty. Mind-bogglingly layered, it will reward viewing after viewing. Al Pacino simply hands in another all-timer performance, no biggie. The sound design alone deserves to be unpacked via a one-off podcast. I cannot imagine the dread in the […]
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Wake In Fright
Kotcheff | 1971 | Australia | 35mm I’m new to the Yabba, so why not ring up my 1,600th movie with what is probably the best Australian film I’ve ever seen – and on a pristine 35mm print from the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia, while we’re at it. Wake In Fright had […]
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Weapons
Cregger | 2025 | USA Julia Garner now 2-for-2 since Wolf Man and we’re back! Enough here to sustain interest, but a case of there being a great movie in here somewhere that just is never really drawn out. This is likely my own fault, as I went in expecting a much different tone and […]
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The Fantastic Four: First Steps
Shakman | 2025 | USA Trivia Factoid: the subtitle of this film refers to the first steps on the road to forgiveness for Julia Garner (who subjected me to Wolf Man earlier this year).
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Le Rayon vert
Rohmer | 1986 | France Considered by many to be his greatest film, this was a Rohmer blind spot for me until now. Knowing people loved it, I’d saved it for “the right moment”. Ironically so, it turns out, as the central character is also waiting for something she can’t articulate or read in the […]
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Affeksjonsverdi
Trier | 2025 | Norway My most anticipated 2025 release, and it delivered. In The Myth of Sisyphus, Albert Camus posits that suicide is the only true philosophical question. He ultimately rejects suicide and outlines his absurdist philosophy, using the stage actor as one of his illustrative examples of the “absurd man” [sic]. The stage […]
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À bout de souffle
Godard | 1960 | France 3rd watch; first in cinema. And what a delight to see the recent 4K remaster on the Ritz’s biggest screen in the dark of the matinee. Godard’s manner of punctuating nods to his influences with idiosyncratic formal touches is what makes him inimitable. This is my favourite of his films […]