MA 15+, 116 minutes 4 stars Review by © Jane Freebury Among the memorable moments in the classic film, Gallipoli , there’s a standout that is set in the desert, the Australian heartland. Two young men on their way to enlist in Perth are having a chat with a cameleer they have just… Continue reading The Furnace
Month: December 2020
The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart
M, 107 minutes 4 Stars Review by © Jane Freebury The song in the title of this doco about one of the biggest pop music groups ever, may not be the one that comes to mind first when thinking about the Bee Gees, but it is certainly apt. For all the amazing successes they had,… Continue reading The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart
Oliver Sacks: His Own Life
M, 151 minutes 4 Stars Review by © Jane Freebury The subject of this fine documentary was one of society’s eccentrics. A medical doctor and a writer of books with whimsical titles like The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and An Anthropologist on Mars. He was the kind of person whose life… Continue reading Oliver Sacks: His Own Life
Misbehaviour
M, 106 minutes 4 Stars Review by © Jane Freebury When organisers were getting ready for the Miss World contest in 1970, there were plans afoot to gatecrash the televised event and spoil their party. A group of radical young feminists in another part of London were hatching a plot to disrupt it as the… Continue reading Misbehaviour
In the Name of the Land
3 Stars M, 103 minutes Review by © Jane Freebury French farmers sure know how to stage a media event. In recent times, they have let sheep loose at the Louvre, dumped tonnes of pumpkins and manure at the doors of government buildings. A recent demo saw a battalion of tractors from around the country… Continue reading In the Name of the Land
Monsoon
M, 85 minutes 3 Stars Review by © Jane Freebury The personal histories of two of the key creatives behind Monsoon, writer-director Hong Khaou and lead actor Henry Golding, make them uniquely qualified to tell this story. Monsoon explores displacement and cultural homelessness, a growing problem in the world today. Both the filmmaker and the… Continue reading Monsoon
Hillbilly Elegy
Gutsy female lead performances lift all boats in this tale of backwoods America that is both vilified and embraced by a polarised public M, 116 minutes 4 Stars Review by © Jane Freebury Hillbilly Elegy, the book about growing up among white working-class communities in the Appalachians, was published in 2016. It was the year… Continue reading Hillbilly Elegy