Category Archive: FILM
The Odyssey
(Directed by Christopher Nolan, 2026) My Ancient Greek class attended the Adelaide premiere of “The Odyssey” on the IMAX screen at Palace Nova East End, Adelaide. We are a hard audience. Our excellent teacher Dr. B (originally from Rome) has shepherded us from the alphabet to Plato via his amusing (but rigorous) methods over the last dozen years. So, By Zeus, Nolan had better do Homer right! He did. We had some minor quibbles – apparently Agamemnon’s black armour is not correct for the time, (but Benny Safdie made an amazing, surreal figure in it. Sauron eat your heart out)….
Continue Reading →Vale Sam Neill
14 September 1947 – 13 July 2026 By all accounts from those who knew him, Sam Neill was a thoroughly decent chap, a movie star without any of the trappings of ego or narcissism. He was a dependable leading man (‘Dead Calm’), or second-in-command (‘The Hunt for Red October’), but he was quite accomplished in villainous or morally ambiguous roles as well (‘The Piano’, ‘Event Horizon’). For example, as Old Scratch in ‘The Final Conflict,’ he manages to give quite a good performance, despite the prevailing silliness. He made a lot of films and television shows we’ve never seen, but…
Continue Reading →EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert
(Directed by Baz Luhrmann) (2025) Luhrmann’s biopic, Elvis – The Movie came out in 2022 (reviewed here), and whilst it was in preparation, Baz learned of the existence of over 60 boxes of 35mm and 8mm film footage of Presley in concert, in rehearsals and interviews. They were stuck in a Warner Bros vault in a salt mine in Kansas, of all places, negatives near to perishing, with no accompanying sound. Luhrmann had to spend a lot of his own money, and two or three years technical time, to have selections of the film retrieved and synced to existing audio….
Continue Reading →Sentimental Value (dir. Joachim Trier)
[Norwegian, 2025] Nora (Renate Reinsve) is an acclaimed actress. She lives in the family home which changes from traditional, dark and maximalist to sleek, pale and minimalist during the film. Which is better – messy, intricate family life or a cleaned-out refurbished freedom, with everything open to view? Nora, as a child, decided that the house was happiest when full of people, – namely her parents, her sister Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas) (Ibsen seems to be getting a workout here) and herself. Now that they are adult, Nora is a bit miserable. We think it’s more than just being Scandinavian….
Continue Reading →Eternity (dir. David Freyne – 2025)
This TVC reviewer avoids weepies because they are for weak girls and, if she does accidentally watch one, will sit with defiantly non-running mascara whilst yawning at the tear-jerky bits. Unfortunately, one or two weepies have snuck their way through her defences (when Beth dies in Gillian Armstrong’s 1994 Little Women) and when Eddie Scissorhands goes up his mountain to make snow. What is it about Winona Ryder?). Films about the afterlife and memory can be strangely compelling (Heaven Can Wait, The Lovely Bones, Memento, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) or ghastly like the schmaltz we haven’t watched, so…
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