June, 2011

Now here’s a poster bound to send tingles of fear down the spine of many a liberal-inclined cinephile: the one-sheet (left, click to enlarge) for The Undefeated, a pro-Sarah Palin documentary reportedly funded not by the woman herself but by conservative American filmmaker Stephen K. Bannon. Inspired by Palin’s book Going Rogue: An American Life, [...]

Pixar Studios maintain a stellar track record — 12 good movies, no bad, and at least three genuine masterpieces in just over a decade and a half — with this eye hurtingly colourful sequel to 2006′s Cars, the merch friendly romp that imagined a world entirely populated by talking vehicles. Don’t believe the killjoy critics [...]

Jim Carrey as a wealthy silver-tongued workaholic father who thrives off dodgy deals, neglects his children and through a magical strike of happenstance grows to learn the importance of family and The Things That Really Matter? No, not Liar Liar, director Tom Shadyac’s 1997 side-splitter, still the shiniest jewel in Carrey’s comedy crown. We’re talking Mr. [...]

Oranges and Sunshine, the debut feature film of director Jim Loach, shines a light on an ugly period in British and Australian history in the 50s and 60s when around 7000 British children were deported to Australia. The kids were promised a land of oranges and sunshine but instead found themselves imprisoned in an institution [...]

Another year, another slew of sequels, prequels and remakes, another bottomless trough of regurgitated grain to keep the Hollywood cash cow fattened and ready to be milked, and milked, and milked again. But multiplex cinema has a discombobulating effect of taking one by surprise from time to time. While it may be easy — and [...]

The story of how the racy Australian drug drama Pure Shit was created and released is worthy of a film itself. There are heroes and allies, like director Bert Deling, our courageous protagonist, and author Bob Ellis, described by Deling as “a champion of the film from day one.” Then there are villains, such as [...]

Part documentary, part invasion movie, part comedy and part creature feature, director Mark Lewis’s Cane Toads: The Conquest is a roaring nonfiction feature about the devastating effects the introduction of cane toads have had on Australia. An uproariously entertaining hybrid feature, available to watch to 3D in some venues across Australia, it is a sequel [...]

From the soapy hand of director Julian Fellowes comes From Time to Time, a ghost-themed gift-wrapped package of UK-set Hollywood flavoured hokum that embodies tinsel town’s ability to homogenise a potentially unnerving storyline and transform it into a product marketable towards the broadest possible demographics: children and pensioners. Appropriate, then, that alongside a child protagonist [...]

Every Sunday Cinetology presents a compilation of links to film-related stories published online over the last week or so. This list is not intended to be comprehensive; it is merely a snapshot of interesting articles published from various outlets. If you’ve read a story you want considered for inclusion, please email me.

The mantle for the boldest and strangest blockbuster-to-be thus far in 2011 belongs to Super 8 and writer/director J. J. Abrams.

The idea of watching Robert Duvall hiss and sputter as a bitter old hermit and Bill Murray attempt to appease him as a smarmy money hungry undertaker is like catnip for any semi-cultured cinephile, more than enough reason to hand over your hard earned and settle in with the company of two grizzled stalwarts who [...]