Tag: Sean Penn

The Gunman ***

  Perhaps Sean Penn is hoping that Taken director Pierre Morel will help turn him carve out an ‘aging action hero career’ – like he has Liam Neeson – in The Gunman, based on a novel by Jean-Patrick Manchette? Penn certainly has hit the gym for the part (and a tanning salon), never missing a …

The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty ***

The new Forrest Gump this is not, in terms of an iconic screen character, but actor-director Ben Stiller’s remake of the James Thurber classic 1947 short, The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty has some life-assessing moments, some of which you may be stirred into making. In that sense, it has a poignant and ‘inspiring’ legacy …

This Must Be The Place ***

Writer-director Paolo Sorrentino’s new film This Must Be The Place is a far cry from the tense political drama Il divo (2008) – in fact it’s the complete reverse; a soothing journey with a dark purpose that awakens its curious lead from his hypnotic slumber. It’s a strangely alluring piece of filmmaking as its not …

The Tree of Life ***

Film-maker Terrence Malick is an enigma, much like his films. With secrecy and speculation surrounding his latest ‘creation’ at Cannes this year, the industry prepared itself to be in awe of another Malick abstraction. And it didn’t disappoint Robert De Niro and jury, as The Tree of Lifewon the coveted Palme d’Or. Opening with a …

Brotherhood – 3*

Hazy about what a ‘hazing’ means, the subject of aspiring writer/director Will Canon’s feature debut, Brotherhood? Well, it’s an initiation process involving harassment, and Canon’s frenetic, coming-of-age thriller takes you along on a US fraternity one, imprisoning you in the frat boys’ van from the word go, like an unwilling witness to the tragic acts …