Category Archives: Movie Reviews

‘Fish Tank’ – Movie Review

Long ago, I tired of the brand of grim UK working-class realist cinema that Mike Leigh and lesser directors have built their careers on. I loved Leigh’s early movies, kicking off with High Hopes, which were original and courageous in their uncompromisingly honest depiction of battling working class Brits at the bottom of the social hierarchy – the Untouchables of the despicable English caste system. Leigh brought an undeniable humanity to his films that surfaced in the moments of humour, affection and dignity his characters somehow salvaged from the squalor and degradation of their mostly bleak existences. Their small personal victories were profoundly moving, and a vital counterbalance to the oppressive bleakness of their physical and human environment. Continue reading ‘Fish Tank’ – Movie Review

The Boomtown Rap Awards For 2009

Here they are again. Random, disorganised, informed by personal prejudice…just how you like it. Yes you do. YES, you DO!

Right, now that that’s established, are you all sitting comftybold two square on your botties? Then I’ll begin…

2009 Boomtown Rap Free-to-air TV Awards: The BR Bogeys

Pet Semetary Award: Hey Hey It’s Saturday. Whose idea was it to dig this rotting cadaver up, give it mouth-to-mouth and send it lurching back to TV land? I never could understand the popularity of Hey Hey even back in its halcyon days, but what do I know – exhuming it was a ratings winner. Daryl Somers proved there is plenty to eat in the afterlife. Other than that, what to say except thank God for the blackface ‘Red Faces’ skit – anything that riles Harry Connick Jnr gets my tick of approval.

Family Show of the Year: John Safran’s Race Relations. This is confessional comedy taken to its limits (until the next Safran outing). Continue reading The Boomtown Rap Awards For 2009

‘Up In The Air’ – Movie Review

It’s hot, I’ve been eating and drinking too much for too many days in succession, and I’m in lazy holiday mode. I don’t feel like banging out a review, but I just can’t let this movie pass without comment, so here goes. Last review for the year, short and sweet.

Up In The Air opens with a series of aerial shots of US cities that, in hindsight, sums up the perspective of the lead character, Ryan Bingham (George Clooney). Bingham is a high flyer, literally and figuratively. A corporate downsizing specialist enjoying boom times courtesy of the GFC, he spends most of his year in transit, flying all over the States to expertly perform the task bosses shirk from – firing staff. A doity job, but someone’s gotta do it, and there’s no one better at it than Bingham. Continue reading ‘Up In The Air’ – Movie Review