Frank Martinicchio thought his love for Scorsese was eternal … until he sat through all 161 minutes of his new film “Silence”.
Almanac Cinema – The Beatles: Eight Days A Week – The Touring Years
October 6, 2016 by 5 Comments
Peter Crossing has good things to say about Ron Howard’s Beatles movie, in fact it’s “an absolute joy”.
Almanac Film Review: Death of a Gentleman
December 24, 2015 by 1 Comment
Shannon Gill saw Sam Collins and Jarrod Kimber’s ‘Death of a Gentleman’ in Melbourne last night. This is his entertaining and insightful observation of the evening and film.
Best of 2015 on australianrules.com.au
December 20, 2015 by 2 Comments
Les Everett shares some thoughts from Knackers and others about their best music, books, movies etc in 2015.
Almanac Cinema: Extreme Whiplash
February 23, 2015 by 4 Comments
Nominated for Oscars across a range of categories at today’s 87th Academy Awards, Steve Baker has his fingers crossed for his favourite film of 2014 – Damien Chazelle’s Whiplash
Gone Girl/Guy: What movies tell us about Essendon and ourselves
October 6, 2014 by 6 Comments
Peter Baulderstone saw a great movie on the weekend, and wonders who is the ‘Gone Girl’ in the Essendon saga? And what does each of these modern fables tell us about how we choose to understand our “truth”?
Five Infamous AFL Documentaries
August 22, 2010 by 11 Comments
By Wednesday night the attention of the vast football public will turn to the premiere of the revealing and highly anticipated Ben Cousins documentary. The well-documented two-part series is set to provide a greater insight into the Brownlow Medallist’s publicized drug addiction and with the support of his family and friends the documentary will attempt [Read more]
Film Review: Bullock’s Blind Side is well-meaning but misses mark
March 2, 2010 by 3 Comments
Film: The Blind Side Release: 2010 Director: John Lee Hancock Starring: Sandra Bullock, Quinton Aaron, Kathy Bates Reviewer: John Butler Anyone with an interest in the USA – and largely thanks to Hollywood, that would be many of us – would probably agree that part of the fascination lies in the many paradoxes and contradictions [Read more]
Film: Australian rules? Not at the flicks, it doesn’t
February 19, 2010 by 14 Comments
By John Butler The recent experience of watching Springboks and All Blacks do battle in a Hollywood film has prompted some general reflections on how differing cinematic cultures approach sport. More particularly, it has given me cause to consider how sport has (or hasn’t) been treated in Australian cinema. Hollywood has long been the world’s [Read more]
Film: Valentine’s Day and the Bear obsessities
February 18, 2010 by 14 Comments
By Tony Taylor Now this is how you do feel-good. Aunty’s had a couple of stabs at it this year but with Valentine’s Day we finally arrive: gorgeous family drama that’s funny, whimsical, warm-hearted and feels absolutely real. Rhys Muldoon is fab as Ben Valentine, the drifter manoeuvred into coaching a small town’s footy team, [Read more]
Film: An unreliable overview of sport on the screen
February 17, 2010 by 17 Comments
Seeing as I’ve been discussing the topic of sports films, I thought I might compile some personal favourites. I warn in advance, this list is highly subjective and far from comprehensive. I’ve included documentaries as well as cinematic features. So, in no particular order… Boxing As the most primal and basic of sporting conflicts, boxing [Read more]
Film: Full points to Cohuna-Union rivalry flick
February 4, 2010 by 23 Comments
By Paul Daffey Ivanka Buczma, a landscape architecture student at Melbourne University, had a piquant first experience of a country footy rivalry. The 20-year-old and a dozen fellow students were on a field trip in Cohuna in northern Victoria as part of their landscape heritage subject. The students, as well as two lecturers, had entered [Read more]
Film Review: Clint continues to intrigue despite playing it safe
February 3, 2010 by 10 Comments
Film: Invictus. Release: 2010. Director: Clint Eastwood. Starring: Morgan Freeman, Matt Damon. Review: John Butler. Many movie fans out there would have long recognised that Clint Eastwood has been on an extended later life roll. Long past his prime as a leading man, he’s prolifically directed (and often starred in) a string of films which [Read more]
General Sportswriting: My ten best sports films
July 3, 2009 by 26 Comments
By Paul Daffey Rocky (1976): While the later Rocky sequels are rightly regarded as cinematic featherweights, the original Rocky outstrips all contenders in the battle for the heavyweight sporting film of the world. One of only two sports films to win the Oscar Award for Best Picture, it features a storyline that happens to feature [Read more]
Jones Files: My ten best sports films
July 3, 2009 by 1 Comment
By Richard Jones Raging Bull (1980): Robert DeNiro at his absolute best as world middleweight champion Jake LaMotta in an era when boxers in this division were the best ever. The self-destructive, paranoid Jake has two memorable fights with Sugar Ray Robinson (Johnny Barnes), but he’s dysfunctional in family matters. As Jake, DeNiro won the [Read more]
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