filmgaze.com
Film reviews in a nutshell
Categories: BFI LFF 2011, Drama, Romance | Comments Off
like-crazy

Relationships are hard enough without visas, stretches of water and time differences standing in your way. Writer-director Drake Doremus’s new romantic indie drama, Like Crazy, tackles the tricky issues faced by any fledgling couple, in addition to trying to keep love alive while separated by two continents. British college student Anna (Felicity Jones) is coming [...]

Categories: BFI LFF 2011, Comedy, Drama | Comments Off
the-descendants

It’s Hawaii – but not as we know it. Writer-director Alexander Payne has set one of star George Clooney’s most anticipated releases, The Descendants – since its unveiling at the BFI LFF 2011 – in paradise. But it’s a paradise of a viewing kind that is the perfect combination of dramedy, tragedy and familiar fallouts [...]

Categories: Action, Thriller | Comments Off
filmgaze-x

Those making films on the subject of female exploitation, especially prostitution, need to be fully alert of not falling into the trap of aligning themselves with the very individuals that fuel a misogynistic interest. Sadly, even with the dangerous locations of Sydney’s very own red-light Kings Cross district on show for the international audience to [...]

Categories: BFI LFF 2011, Drama, Romance | Comments Off
filmgaze-we

Madonna’s second foray into film directing naturally raises more scrutiny than is focused on her new film itself, which is a pity because W.E. produces some memorable moments among its flawed narrative. In fact, had you not known it was the star in the writer-director’s seat, this love story still makes for a haunting picture [...]

Categories: Action, Comedy | Comments Off
filmgaze-The-Sitter

Jonah Hill may appear to have grown up in Moneyball, and got some intellectual credibility in an adult environment, but he reverts back to the same self-depreciating man-boy role we all know him for in David Gordon Green’s new mainstream comedy, The Sitter. It’s really a half-hearted, mischievous Noughties twist on zany 1980s comedy adventure, [...]

Categories: Drama, Thriller | Comments Off
filmgaze-jedgar

This is yet another film full of promise about another enigmatic icon, J. Edgar Hoover, the man who created the FBI, and one of the most complicated and feared characters to walk the US corridors of power. The parallels between this film and the recently released The Iron Lady, starring Meryl Streep, are apparent: both [...]

Categories: Action, BFI LFF 2011, Drama | Comments Off
filmgaze-coriolanus

Part The Hurt Locker meets Shakespearean war documentary, debut director Ralph Fiennes thrashes out the sound of conflict with a war of words in his cinema adaptation of his acclaimed stage play, and the British bard’s tragedy, Coriolanus. Refusing to pander to popular rule and the wishes of his dominant mother, Volumnia (Vanessa Redgrave), celebrated [...]

Categories: Action, Drama, Thriller | Comments Off
filmgaze-haywire

The Girl With A Dragon Tattoo has done wonders for fighting fit females on screen recently, and any nimble, fearless female protagonist giving male counterparts as good as they get still fascinates audiences. Real-life Muay Thai Record holder Gina Carano who stars in new action thriller Haywire, directed by Ocean’s director Steven Soderbergh, appears to [...]

Categories: BFI LFF 2011, Drama, Thriller | Comments Off
filmgaze-shame

Steve McQueen said the reason his latest drama isn’t based in the UK is trying to get sex addicts over here to open up proved nigh impossible during the research into the film. Sex addiction is still a dirty, sleazy subject, with connotations of men in rain macs lurking precariously in dark corners waiting for [...]