Film

Precious Life

Posted 12:42am Tuesday 9th August 2011 by Dan F Benson-Guiu

Directed by Shlomi Eldar, (5/5). Talking about Palestine, renowned Israeli journalist and director of this film, Shlomi Eldar says it is “an hour’s drive away, but a world away.” Precious Life tells the story of Raida, a mother of four, the youngest of whom (Muhammed) suffers Read more...

African Cats

Posted 4:48am Thursday 4th August 2011 by Maddie Wright

Directed by: Keith Scholey and Alastair Fothergill, (4/5). Disney Nature’s African Cats is outstanding; think David Attenborough combined with The Lion King. The exquisite naturalness of the African savannah and its exotic inhabitants render digital animation and manipulative Read more...

Mrs Carey’s Concert

Posted 4:44am Thursday 4th August 2011 by Feby Idrus

Directed by: Bob Connelly and Sophie Raymond, (3.5/5). Mrs Carey’s Concert is one of those quintessential performing-arts films in which, through the power of music/dance/theatre/etc., a bad boy/girl finds out what makes him/her special and rises to the occasion and it’s all, like, Read more...

Copacabana

Posted 4:41am Thursday 4th August 2011 by Loulou Callister-Baker

Directed by Marc Fitoussi, (4/5). Copacabana is a French comedy about Babou (Isabelle Huppert), a mother who is faced with a relationship break up between her and her daughter, Esmeralda (Lolita Chammah). Esmeralda is very unlike the free spirited gypsy of Victor Hugo’s novel. She is Read more...

Cars 2

Posted 4:40am Thursday 4th August 2011 by Zane Pocock

Directed by: John Lasseter, (3/5). Entering Rialto having watched the trailer for Cars 2, I just wanted to see the familiar characters of Cars back in the American west for a wee trip of nostalgia. But the trailer had scared me. After all, how many times have blockbusters turned out to be far Read more...

Film Festival

Posted 4:38am Thursday 4th August 2011 by Sarah Baillie

The New Zealand International Film Festival kicks off this Thursday and runs until the August 21. Critic’s film editor Sarah Baillie gives a run down of our top ten picks for the festival. Make sure to head along, it only comes once a year! Project Nim   Perhaps it is just because I Read more...

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II

Posted 3:06am Thursday 28th July 2011 by Niki Lomax

Directed by: David Yates, (4.5/5). [Spoiler alert: to anyone who has been living under a rock for the past decade and is yet to read a Potter book, be warned; the following review contains plot details.]   It’s fourteen years since the first Harry Potter book was published, Read more...

The Big Picture

Posted 3:05am Thursday 28th July 2011 by Tom Ainge-Roy

Directed by: Eric Lartigau, (3.5/5). The Big Picture centres on Paul Exben (Romain Duris), a successful lawyer with his own firm in Paris, a beautiful wife and two handsome children. From an outsider’s perspective the marriage appears to be going well, but tension is felt from the Read more...

The Conspirator

Posted 3:04am Thursday 28th July 2011 by Lauren Enright

Directed by: Robert Redford, (3/5). The Conspirator is a fantastic historical legal drama. Based on the 1915 drama The Birth of a Nation by D.W. Griffith, it tells the story of Mary Surratt, the only female co-conspirator charged with the Abraham Lincoln assassination and the first woman to be Read more...

The Reluctant Infidel

Posted 3:03am Thursday 28th July 2011 by Dan Benson-Guiu

Directed by: Josh Appignanesi, (3.5/5). Mahmoud (Omid Djalili) could be your average Brit. He’s an entrepreneur who hates cab drivers, walks around in soccer shirts, drinks beer and watches 70s music videos on MTV. He doesn’t need to be told that he isn’t a perfect Muslim by Read more...