Author: Natalie Teasdale

I want to share with other movie fans those amazing films that get under your skin and stay with you for days: the scary ones, the funny ones; the ones that get you thinking. With a background in creative writing, photography, psychology and neuroscience, I’ll be focusing on dialogue, what makes a great story, if the film has beautiful creative cinematography, the soundtrack and any movie that successfully scratches the surface of our existence. My aim is to always be searching for that ultimate movie, to share what I’ve found to be interesting (whether it be a great soundtrack, a great director or links to other information of interest) and to give an honest review without too much fluff. BAppSci in Psychology/Psychophysiology; Grad Dip Creative Arts and Post Grad Dip in Creative Writing. Founder of GoMovieReviews.

Dark Waters

Rated: M

Directed by: Todd Havnes

Written by: Mario Correa and Matthew Michael Carnahan

Based on The New York Times Magazine article, “The Lawyer Who Became DuPont’s Worst Nightmare,” by Nathaniel Rich

Produced by: Mark Ruffalo, Pamela Koffler, Christine Vachon

Starring: Mark Ruffalo, Anne Hathaway, Tim Robbins, Bill Camp, Victor Garber, Mare Winningham, William Jackson Harper, Bill Pullman.

Better living through chemistry – that’s the catch phrase from big chem company, DuPont.

For decades the company has been sticking Teflon onto everything: carpet, teeth whitener; it’s the stuff that makes fry pans, non-stick. The stuff is everywhere, making DuPont one billion a year in pure profit.

When Rob Bilott (Mark Ruffalo) makes partner at a prestigious Cincinnati law firm, it’s everything he and his wife Sarah (Anne Hathaway) have worked for.

Until a couple of farmers from West Virginia turn up at the office with a box full of video tapes of dead or dying cows.

Rob’s grandmother who lives in the area gave the farmers his name because he’s an environmental attorney. A corporate environmental defence attorney for the chemical companies.

But what Rob sees when he visits his grandmother is enough to sue DuPont, resulting in a case spanning two decades, a case he continues to fight today.

It’s a classic David and Goliath tale of the small people being knowingly poisoned by the big chem company for profit.

Even with compassion fatigue (after seeing so many of these films and after watching what’s on the news), I was still stunned by the evil of a company that would knowingly lace cigarettes of employees with a toxic, man-made chemical to see what would happen.

It’s a stark tale based on the true story and The New York Times Magazine article, “The Lawyer Who Became DuPont’s Worst Nightmare,” by Nathaniel Rich.

Adding to the bleak story is the way the film was shot, in the middle of a bitterly cold winter of snow, flat colourless buildings in a small community filled with sick residents.

Stark and Anne Hathaway cast in a wholly unsuitable role – I just couldn’t believe her performance as the housewife: it’s depressing.

Yet, it’s a movie that starts to answer the question of why so many people seem to be getting cancer these days.

Not that every cancer is accountable to the dreaded man-made PFOA compound. But this is a story of just one of the ‘forever chemicals’ floating around. That once in the body can never be processed and eliminated.

It’s not the family or the expose that gives this film momentum – the story here is the truth of the story itself. And it’s bleak.

Miss Fisher and the Crypt of Tears

Rated: M

Directed by: Tony Tilse

Produced by: Fiona Eagger

Written by: Deb Cox

Based on the Phryne Fisher Mystery Series of Books by: Kerry Greenwood

Starring: Essie Davis, Nathan Page, Rupert Penry-Jones, Miriam Margolyes, Daniel Lapaine, Jacqueline McKenzie, Izabella Yena, Khaled Naga, Nicole Chamoun, John Waters.

‘Let’s kick off our shoes and watch a movie,’ says Essie Davis at the Melbourne premiere, the setting fitting with the character Phryne Fisher being a Melbourne girl.

And hot on the heels (kicked off) of the highly successful TV, lady detective, crime series, Miss Fisher – one of the most successful television brands in Australia and overseas with episodes from the three series capturing audiences of more than a million each week in Australia with the series debut in France gaining an audience of 3.28 million – here, Miss Fisher and the Crypt of Tears finds Phryne (Essie Davis) in the streets of 1929 Pakistan after 9pm. With undesirables.

Still up to her saving-the-world-while-dressed-in-the-latest: bright red dresses and the glittering gold sequined fashion of the 1920s, we find Phryne still has no regard for the rules, ‘That’s because they happen to be written by men.’

Rebellion aside, Miss Fisher is on a new case – imagine a Bedouin tribe flourishing for hundreds to thousands of years that is suddenly buried by an apocalyptic sandstorm that covers up the murder of the entire tribe.

Except one lone girl, Shirin Abbas (Izabella Yena).

‘Don’t worry,’ says Phryne. ‘I’ll find out who murdered your family.’

Based on the books written by Kerry Greenwood, the film has the same style as the TV series that will keep fans happy (although, some may miss side-kick Dot (Ashleigh Cummings) and hubby, Constable Hugh Collin (Hugo Johnstone-Burt) making only a brief appearance), yet there’s more room for story and intrigue in the movie-length mystery taking Phryne to Jerusalem back to Australia all the way to the sandy deserts of Pakistan.

And it’s funny: ‘Jack, are you there?’ Miss Fisher asks.

‘No,’ he replies.

Yes, the romance continues between the two crime fighters, adding to the charm of the Miss Fisher franchise that translates to the movie here – along with the old worldly humour, clues circled in red lipstick, the belief curses are real and exchanges like:

‘You’re only trying to butter me up.’

‘Like a crumpet.’

So, ‘Forget the tea, crack open the champagne’: Miss Fisher and the Crypt of Tears is more of the same, but what’s wrong with that? It’s sweet and fun and deserves to be celebrated.

The Invisible Man

Rated: MA15+

Directed by: Leigh Whannell

Screenplay and Screen Story by: Leigh Whannell

Produced by: Jason Blum, p. g. a., Kylie Du Fresne, p. g. a.,

Executive Produces: Leigh Whannell, Couper Samuelson, Beatriz Sequeira, Jeanette Volturno, Rosemary Blight, Ben Grant

Starring: Elisabeth Moss, Aldis Hodge, Storm Reid, Harriet Dyer, Michael Dorman and Oliver Jackson-Cohen.

‘He has figured out a way to be invisible.’

Watching waves from behind as they crash towards a dark shore gives a forboding sense of what’s to come.

The Invisible Man conjures thoughts of ghosts and the supernatural, yet writer and director, Leigh Whannell, known for his taste for the otherworldly (Insidious: Chapter 3) and horrific (Saw franchise) has given this new version of the invisible a modern twist.

I’m not going to give too much away, but the focus here is more about Cecilia Kass (Elisabeth Moss) escaping from Adrian (Oliver Jackson-Cohen), her optics guru, very rich and controlling boyfriend.

I was taken back to the 1991 film, Sleeping With The Enemy, as Cecilia prepares her escape from the imposing architecture of a cold and clinical space on top of a cliff overlooking the ocean, hiding her bag, planning the moment only to be haunted by the memory of Adrian telling her he would always find her.

And with a steam of warm breath in the cold outside from someone not visible, we see the invisible Adrian as he continues to stalk.

It’s these moments that impressed, the new and inventive creation of the invisible man.

The film could have turned twee, yet the idea felt new as the sound becomes muffled, dropping Cecilia into a world where an invisible man can exist.

I can’t say I was ever really terrified watching this film, but those silent moments waiting for the invisible to make good on the next threat shows restraint, allowing the gaps in between sound to ramp up the tension; the sound absent, like the man, yet the absent becoming something else, becoming the threat.

Composer, Benjamin Wallfisch (Blade Runner 2049, Shazam! and the It franchise) manages to add that extra layer to the story with the soundtrack which is such an important factor in a scary movie.

And Elisabeth Moss was made for this role, drawing strength from the bruised and battered, running from the one who would control her very thoughts; to show strength in a world where she sounds insane.

However, I feel like the story gets a bit loopy – getting confused about the relationships, like the single dad and best friend, James (Aldis Hodge). I originally thought that James was the ex of Cecilia’s sister, Emily (Harriet Dyer). And what made James and Cecilia such good friends?

There’s some great AHA! moments, but there’s times I questioned an obvious strategy like Cecilia’s obsession with ladders…

But the way the story’s shown is tight and restrained with the timing of those tense moments just right.

Who would have thought panning to a blank space on a wall or corner of the room could be scary?

Emma

Rated: PG

Directed by: Autumn de Wilde

Written by: Eleanor Catton

Based on the Book Written by: Jane Austen

Produced by: Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Graham Broadbent, Pete Czemin

Starring: Anya Taylor-Joy, Johnny Flynn, Bill Nighy, Mia Goth, Miranda Hart, Josh O’Connor, Callum Turner, Rupert Graves, Gemma Whelan, Amber Anderson, Tanya Reynolds, Connor Swindells.

Love knows best.

Or, Emma (Anya Taylor-Joy) knows best.

Living in Highbury Park with her widowed father, Mr. Woodhouse (Bill Nighy), Emma spends her days indulged as she plots to match and make those around her, careful never to fall in unnecessary matrimony herself.

That’s what she tells herself and others, including the insufferable and righteous Mr. Knightly (Johnny Flynn), the brother to her new brother-in-law. Mr. Knightly’s always on hand to point out her vanity.

Yes, Emma tells herself she doesn’t want marriage as she uses her influence to partner her new project and friend, Miss Harriet Smith (Mia Goth) with someone she thinks Harriet’s equal, the local vicar Mr. Elton (Josh O’Connor) (and not the besotted farmer Robert Martin (Connor Swindells), whom Harriet really cares for).

But underneath a cool demeanour Emma can’t stop the flutter of her heart when she hears of the return of the very handsome, Frank Churchill (Callum Turner).

Can you sense the period drama?

Based on the novel penned by Jane Austen (published in late December 1815), there’s plenty of lace and bonnets and piano forte playing and performance.

I admit, I could not have been in less of a mood to watch pomp and ceremony.

But despite my sigh of boredom at the beginning of the film, I found there was a sweetness and intrigue that I was slowly drawn into, helped along with the dry wit of Bill Nighy as Emma’s cantankerous but really warm-hearted father who considers a day at a wedding a truly awful day.

He’s always searching for that cold draft determined to flow through the house from some crack or cranny.

It’s really the comedy that saves this film, subtle, shown in a glance, a tsk, or a flummoxed, energetic jump from stair to floor.

So yes, sweet and funny with, Anya Taylor-Joy well-cast as the handsome, clever and rich Emma.

But this is a long movie (117 minutes), dragging with a yawn and watch-check in the first half hour, and then again when approaching the two-hour mark.

You’ve got to be in the mood for the period romance that is Emma – hence the release in time for a tolerable viewing on Valentine’s Day.

Like A Boss

Rated: M

Directed by: Miguel Arteta

Story by: Danielle Sanchez-Witzel

Screenplay by: Adam Cole-Kelly, Sam Pitman

Starring: Rose Byrne, Salma Hayek, Tiffany Haddish.

“I love my friends, but I don’t think I can handle the judgement today.”

I’m trying to think of a moment I didn’t like in this film. Maybe because I’ve been watching nothing but serious movies, crime series or the school holiday kid flicks… Do I like a chick movie now, that gets it?! Maybe I do…

Best buddies Mel (Rose Byrne) and Mia (Tiffany Haddish) are living the dream, running their own makeup store.

Boutique and clever with ideas like the, One Night Stand pack, they work when they want, give cute nerdy-girl discounts to young prom beauties so they can shine from the inside out… But living the dream comes at a cost that leaves the entrepreneurs in crushing debt. Debt that will close their business without a huge investment from an external source. Like Claire Luna (Salma Hayek).

A gift, a rescue, Mel thinks, because she knows the finances. It’s Mia who’s the genius when it comes to product. Mia doesn’t want to give up control, but without financial backing Mel knows the company will sink.

Savvy businesswoman Luna proposes a compromise, forty-nine percent if the girls can continue to work together, fifty-one percent if the partnership doesn’t last.

Confident in their friendship, the two besties agree to the terms not realising the lengths this ‘angry carrot – that’s not her hair,’ will go to in order to drive them apart.

There are some genuine chick moments that strikes a chord here, the setting of friend against friend unveiling some of that passive aggressive behaviour we’ve all been guilty of, when confronting a friend is just too hard.

I mean, I could go on about directors and actors and how the film was shot, but this movie’s all about the comedy and friendship of these two girls being themselves. Exactly what I was in the mood for.

I loved seeing Jennifer Coolidge as shop assistant, Sydney – gorgeous woman! And seeing chicks deal with the stress of it all without being dickheads about it is a lot of fun.

I know I’m being a bit lazy with this review, but right now? Like everyone else these days, I feel busy. So with this screening, I enjoyed taking a break and just having a laugh.

Bombshell

Rated: M

Directed by: Jay Roach

Written by: Charles Randolph

Produced by: Aaron L. Gilbert, Jay Roach, p.g.a., Robert Graf, Michelle Graham, Charles Randolph, p.g.a., Margaret Riley, Charlize Theron, p.g.a., Beth Kono, A.J. Dix

Starring: Charlize Theron, Nicole Kidman, John Lithgow, Kate McKinnon, Connie Britton, with Malcolm McDowell, with Allison Janney, and Margot Robbie.

When a young ambitious woman looking for a promotion asks whether her humiliation of showing a little more than just her legs because, ‘Television is a visual medium’, will go further than the office of Fox News’ founder Roger Ailes, he replies, ‘I’m discreet but unforgiving’.

With lines stated like this and quotes from Donald Trump like, ‘You can’t rape your spouse’, there was plenty of real-life material here to make an uncomfortable story come to life.

Bombshell is the true story surrounding Fox & Friends co-host, Gretchen Carlson (Nicole Kidman) accusation and lawsuit in 2016 (that recent people!) against Roger Ailes for sexual harassment.

Rather than an expose style of film, director, Jay Roach uses an understated telling from the two protagonists, Gretchen Carlson and what really shocked the world, Fox News correspondent, Megyn Kelly (Charlize Theron).

Gretchen and Megyn talk through the camera to the audience to feel their struggle, of whether it’s worth risking everything to stop the abuse.

Multiple women are shown in still-picture with their stories noted underneath, all with the similar tale of being asked to, ‘prove their loyalty’ to Roger (and friends) through-out their careers

We hear the thought going through the mind of Fox News correspondent Rudi Baktitar when propositioned back in 2006, where sleeping with the boss is expected to get a promotion, each thought heard before she carefully choses her response, to be kind, to say no, only to get fired.

This was the expectation. This is the revelation of the film.

The third yet fictional character, Kayla Pospisil (Margot Robbie) is a representation of all those women put into an impossible situation of choosing between a dream career and humiliation, or losing that one chance at opportunity with dignity.

The drama of this unnerving story is in the performance – there’s nothing violent here. Just the destruction of being bullied by those not afraid to use their power, and the mentality that powerplay over others weaker is the normal way of things.

Nothing more needs to be said than seeing the fear in a woman’s eyes before a door is closed.

I’m not sure I can say this is an entertaining film, but Bombshell is a gripping story with a particularly impressive performance from Charlize Theron as her character struggles with the decision to stand up to a bully who has ultimately been the making of her career, or to stand and voice her story of sexual pressure and to help finally put a stop to the humiliation of other women.

Without having to be too tricky with the presentation, this is a linear telling of each milestone towards Gretchen’s ultimate success, each moment fought with every last bit of strength and determination because it’s enough.

An important film, because it really is ENOUGH.

The Gentlemen

Rated: MA15+

Directed by: Guy Ritchie

Screenplay by: Guy Ritchie

Story by: Guy Ritchie, Ivan Atkinson & Marn Davies

Produced by: Guy Ritchie, Ivan Atkinson, Bill Block

Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Charlie Hunnam, Henry Golding, Michelle Dockery, Jeremy Strong, Eddie Marson, with Colin Farrell and Hugh Grant.

Opening with a pint, a pickled egg and a song on the juke box, the tone is set as kingpin of the marijuana trade (AKA bush) Mickey Pearson (Matthew McConaughey) begins the story of his journey to get out of the business.

Time has gentrified the once bloody beginnings of this man coming up the hard way.

Mickey wants to take long walks, plant roses and spend time with his lovely wife. Well, maybe lovely isn’t the right word, more, super-sharp, won’t-take-anything-from-anyone-but-loves-her-man, Rosalind (Michelle Dockery).

But no good deed goes unpunished, so eloquently stated by Mickey’s right-hand man, Raymond (Charlie Hunnam); the tale of the story narrated in Raymond’s kitchen by dirt-gathering journo/PI, Fletcher (Hugh Grant), as Fletcher attempts to blackmail the kingdom of Mickey, the information he holds given in the dramatic fashion of cinema in 35mm film, anamorphic (so to speak) and in true Guy Ritchie style.

The comedy of this gangster film really hits the mark. This has a lot to do with the brilliant casting of Hugh Grant as the dastardly Fletcher.

This reinvention of Hugh Grant has a unique flare that makes him an incredibly entertaining villain. Think Paddington II with an adult rating.

The intricate tale of dirty deeds and moves ahead of moves also keeps up the entertainment while throwing in segues from one scene to the next like a stage production, as each ‘liquorice assortment of tasty mates,’ are introduced:

Michelle Dockery as Rosalind, the luxury car and repair entrepreneur tough and sexy in her super stiletto heels and Cockney accent is fantastic.

As is Colin Farrell as the Irish boxer, Coach. Who else could pull-off so much check in an outfit?!

Coming to accents, I still can’t believe Hunnam speaking anything else but American. It seemed his accent went from Brit to Irish to something that was a hybrid of all the above. He still has a good death stare though, and his distaste of the heroin, junkie digs is shown with a delightful twitch across his handsome, bearded face.

Which brings me to Matthew McConaughey – yep, it’s an all-star cast, as we’ve come to expect from a Guy Ritchie film. Best role I’ve seen him in since True Detective. McConoughey wears that kingpin suite very well while throwing out lines like, ‘Doubt creates chaos in one’s own demise.’

There’s a, taking-from-the-poor-giving-to-the-rich, element to the story. But hey, at least bush doesn’t destroy (like heroin), it just makes some people go insane.

But I get the distinction.

Overall, The Gentlemen is fiercely entertaining – think ‘fight-porn’ – on many levels, most importantly, the film has a clever story that’s good fun to watch.

A Shaun The Sheep Movie: Farmageddon

Rated: G

Directed by: Will Becher, Richard Phelan

Written by: Mark Burton, Jon Brown

Produced by: Paul Kewley

Co-Produced by: Richard Beek

Based on the Idea by: Richard Starzak

Shaun the Sheep, mark 2 (ha, ha, like marking a sheep, although, I don’t know wether (ha, ha) everyone will appreciate the farming humour) finds the familiar mob of Shaun and mates: baby sheep, Timmy, Nuts the cock-eyed eccentric and of course, double the size, super-round tub of fun, Shirley, up to mischief on Mossy Bottom Farm and still under the watchful eye of ever vigilant farm dog, Bitzer.

The clay, stop-motion characters (on average, two seconds of animation produced, per animator, per day) never gets old; the woolly tails and gappy-toothed characters always able to make their feelings known without uttering a single intelligible word.

Here in, Farmageddon, a new character is introduced to the world of Shaun, Lu-La.

Lu-La may look like a purple and pink dog, but those ears glow and have special powers. Alien powers.

With UFO sightings comes Believers. And with Believers flocking (I just can’t seem to help myself) to Mossingham, comes the opportunity to make money.

Full of the usual antics that we’ve come to expect from the franchise, Shaun the Sheep 2 has that same humour with the added dimension of space. In other words, G-rated humour that had my nephews in hysterics – think, nasty bull accidently getting beamed up into a spaceship, looking aggressively unhappy.

And I admit, I was tickled about Farmer walking around in a jumper, woolly socks and bright red y-fronts.

After 150 episodes of the TV show, one TV special and, now, two feature- length movies, Shaun is still a lot of fun, here his world expanded with 70 sets making Faramageddon the biggest undertaking to date.

Due for release during the school holidays, this is a film you can take young kids without being a painful experience for the adults.

1917

Rated: MA15+

Directed by: Sam Mendes

Written by: Sam Mendes & Krysty Wilson-Cairns

Produced by: Sam Mendes, p.g.a., Pippa Harris, p.g.a., Jayne-Ann Tenggren, p.g.a., Callum McDougall, p.g.a., Brian Oliver

Executive Producers: Jeb Brody, Oleg Petrov, Ignacio Salazar-Simpson, Ricardo Marco Budé

Starring: George MacKay, Dean-Charles Chapman, Mark Strong, Andrew Scott, Richard Madden, Claire Duburcq with Colin Firth and Benedict Cumberbatch.

A tense, end-of-seat drama about mateship and the moments in the machine of war that gives a solider back his humanity.

April 6, 1917 is when two young British soldiers, Lance Corporal Schofield (George MacKay) and Lance Corporal Blake (Dean-Charles Chapman) are handed the task of saving sixteen-hundred lives.

Thinking the Germans have cut and run, Colonel Mackenzie (Benedict Cumberbatch) plans to give chase, to make a real difference in this bloody war, without realising the retreat is a trap – a strategy to lure the soldiers to certain death. One of those men, Blakes own brother.

This is a high-stakes drama that rides on the suspense rather than confronting with the gore of war. This is about mateship and family and the drive to help even when exhaustion is so deep you could drown just to rest.

1917 is a linear story that follows the conversation of the two mates as they take the task of the near impossible, across No Man’s Land, through the trenchers of the enemy, behind enemy lines, through a countryside not their own.

It’s a contrast of rotting dead bodies and wildflowers as we follow the young men, as they meet fellow soldiers on their mission, as they battle through traps and trip wires and giant rats.

The tension runs high because the film follows the story of the two soldiers closely so no one knows what comes next.

‘Sometimes, men just want to fight,’ warns General Erinmore (Colin Firth), the man sending them on their mission.

The only thing that matters is getting that message to Mackenzie.

A lot has to be said about the soundtrack here, a low vibrating drone creating that just below the surface feeling something bad is about to happen.

I jumped, that tension breaking with a shot or unexpected fall – you know that bad thing that happens. Not the super bad or expected, but the papercut or trip. That blip in life that catches you unaware. It’s kinda like that, but in a war, the consequences of a slip equals death.

I’m not a fan of war movies because it all gets a bit too real, too confronting. And there were moments here that stirred that anger. But this isn’t gory, it’s more about the suspense and characters, the young men fighting to make sense of where they are and where they’re being ordered to go. And making sense of it in the little things: giving a hand to get a truck out of a bog, to hand over a bottle to another because he knows he’s going to need it more. That’s how to make sense of it. By understanding the little things.

Nat’s Top 10 Movies for 2019

It’s been a busy year taking on another part-time job (because we all know movie reviewing doesn’t pay the bills, but it sure is fun) so a fair chunk of posted reviews are from contributors, notably, the wonderful, Lisa Roberts.

Top of Lisa’s list this year features the Spanish psychological mystery starring Javier Bardem and Penélope Cruz, Everybody Knows (Todos Lo Saben).

But there’s been some interesting documentaries with, Matangi /Maya /M.I.A., Halston and Finke: There and Back all rating 4-stars.

And for something different, see Nicole Kidman in the gritty crime thriller, Destroyer, or the recent release of French historical-romance, Portrait of a Lady on Fire.

Unfortunately, I was unwell around Halloween (yep, one of those years) so I missed some of the horror-thrillers, Joker being the film I regret missing the most…

I finally got to, Once Upon A Time In Hollywood deserving a special mention; a divisive film but one I enjoyed because Tarantino is just such a good writer (or re-writer of history in this case): clever and strangely uplifting, Once Upon A Time is like righting a wrong provoking a deep satisfaction and excuse to enjoy some gratuitous violence and in that sense, a classic Tarantino.

Which leads me to my reviewed, Top 10 for 2019.

I love a good thriller, but I’m finding my taste in movies requires levels, a journey.

Well, my top rating of Hellboy may not reflect this new sophistication – I still love some blood and guts with fantasy and a wry sense of humour.

But some of the family animation out there is mind blowing, as is the foreign film selection released this year, many rating 4-stars with Bong Joon-Ho’s, Parasite making my number one release.

And let’s not forget the indie films, the stand-out for me this year from legendary film maker and star, Jim Cummings: Thunder Road.

10. Thunder Road

A refreshing take on how life just is sometimes with an extraordinary script serving up the heart of a character with perfect delivery: pure gold.

9. The Guilty

Opening on a blank screen, the phone rings.

Asgar (Jakob Cedergren) answers, ‘Emergency Services.’

Set entirely in the room housing the workspaces for those answering and directing the urgent calls incoming, the film focuses on the mysterious Asgar as he shows the classic signs of burn-out.

This is a tense psychological thriller as we’re taken down a dark road of murder, fear and the frustration of being on the end of the phone trying to get to the person on the other side.

8. How to train your Dragon: Hidden World

The animation of this adventure-packed film is stunning; the burst of colours and detail of waterfalls and at the antics of Toothless in his attempt to woo the beautiful Light Fury hilarious and delightful.

7. The Sisters Brothers

Superficially, this is a western, a classic tale of two bad guys going after a man who’s found the secret to finding gold. But underneath all the killing and gold fever is a delicate tale of humanity.

6. Abominable

The DreamWorks Animation team have outdone themselves, the trailer for Abominable not translating just how majestic the film is on the big screen. There were so many times I said, ‘Amazing’ and ‘Wow’ from watching the trio of kids and yeti ride a wave of yellow blossoms to see raindrops fall to the earth to unfurl into flowers. And not just a few times, the film is just one wonderful moment after another.

5. John Wick 3

I’m still reeling from those fight scenes that somehow managed to tap into that fight response fuelling the experience with adrenaline. It’s just relentless, the hit after hit, I could feel the force as I laughed and cringed and grinned through all the blood and violence because it’s so hardcore it’s funny. On purpose.

Instant action-thriller classic.

4. Hellboy

It’s gory. But jez, it really is a LOT of fun.

3. The Australian Dream

A documentary about Adam Goodes, Brownlow Medallist twice (2003 & 2006) and one of the most decorated football players of all time.

But this isn’t about a sporting legend, this is about a man who stood up to a country and said: racism stops with me.

A must watch for all Australians.

2. Pain and Glory (Dolor Y Gloria)

A poignant tale of all the darkness and light in life – sad and happy and true.

Antonio Banderas won the Cannes 2019 Best Actor Award for his performance here. And I can see why with his humble sincerity a warmth felt through the screen.

The overriding feeling I got from this film was grateful: life can be cruel, but it can also be kind.

10. Parasite (Gisaengchung)

A film that starts off one way, then evolves into something else so the film’s like a journey into a way of thinking or a thought that creeps up. Brilliant.