Category Archives: Perth Film Festival 2014-15

Reviews of PFF movies for season 2014-15

Zero Motivation movie review

Featuring: Dana Ivgy, Nelly Tagar, Shani Klein
Screenwriter/Director: Talya Lavie

2014-15 Lotterywest Perth Film Festival season dates:
Joondalup Pines: 9-14 Dec, 8pm

Reviewer: rolanstein
Verdict: Well-acted, well-crafted, irreverent and fun, the humour tempered by quietly subversive undertones that never detract from the film’s sheer entertainment value.

Review:
Seinfeld’s “comedy about nothing” catch-line might well be applied to this languidly paced satirical piece on the penpusher side of army life from the perspective of female Israeli soldiers counting down time on their compulsory military service in a remote outpost. The closest they get to military action is in their daily competing to set records in a computer game entitled “Minesweeper”, their only acts of hostility towards each other – and then, mostly in the form of boredom-inspired paying out. Continue reading Zero Motivation movie review

Maps To The Stars movie review

Featuring: Julianne Moore, Mia Wasikowska, John Cusack, Robert Pattinson
Director: David Cronenberg
Screenwriter: Bruce Wagner
Movie website: mapstothestarsfilm.com/

2014-15 Lotterywest Perth Film Festival season dates:
Somerville: 8-14 Dec, 8pm
Joondalup Pines: 16-21 Dec, 8pm

Reviewer: rolanstein
Verdict: A savage, hateful, slash-and-burn satire targeting Hollywood that will appeal to the like-minded, while likely repulsing others.

Review:
Unsurprisingly in a film satirising Hollywood, Maps to the Stars features a conga line of dysfunctional characters. It’s a telling irony that of these, Agatha (Mia Wasikowska), a burns-scarred schizophrenic pyromaniac, is the most balanced (or rather, least unbalanced) – and the only one remotely likeable. Continue reading Maps To The Stars movie review

The Dark Horse movie review

Featuring: Cliff Curtis, James Rolleston, Miriama McDowell, Kirk Torrance, Wayne Hapi, Te Ahorangi Retimana-Martin
Writer/Director: James Napier Robertson
Movie website: www.thedarkhorsefilm.com/

2014-15 Lotterywest Perth Film Festival season dates:
Joondalup Pines: 25-30 Nov, 8pm
Somerville: 1-7 Dec, 8pm

Reviewer: rolanstein
Verdict: A feel-good flick with edge that charms, shocks and packs an emotional wallop. The lead performance by Cliff Curtis is a tour de force.

Review:
Kiwi movie The Dark Horse kicks off the 2014-15 Lotterywest Perth Film Festival at Joondalup Pines on November 25, and what a superb opener it is! Continue reading The Dark Horse movie review