Ten great films (plus a few more) you can stream on SBS right now
10 excellent films currently streaming on SBS on Demand (plus three more). These are some of the many not to miss on SBS right now.
Portrait of a Lady on Fire
Portrait of a Lady on Fire, the critically acclaimed French film written and directed by Céline Sciamma (also known for Girlhood, Tomboy and the screenwriter of the award-winning animation My Life as a Zucchini), is engrossing and beautiful. It tells the story of a 19th century portrait painter, Marianne (Noémie Merlant) who is commissioned to…
Timothée Chalamet is The King
The King is David Michôd and Joel Edgerton’s reinterpretation of Shakespeare’s Henry IV and V, combined with additional historical detail and told with a modern eye to story-telling. This is not an updated Shakespeare, it’s quite a different beast, but with Shakespearian roots. The story starts with young Prince Hal (Timothée Chalamet), living whatever passed…
Joker is no joke, it’s a film for our time
When a movie about an iconic comic book villain wins the Golden Lion, the biggest prize at the Venice Film Festival, you can expect it’s not a garden variety super hero movie, and Joker is certainly no standard movie. Not in any category. People have different tastes, and read things in different ways, but I’m…
Parasite
Laugh-out-loud funny and shocking, tense and tragic, sad and satisfying, all at once. That is how I would describe Bong Joon-ho’s Palm d’Or prize-winning film Parasite.
The Favourite
The Favourite is an accomplished, funny and clever film from Greek filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos. It’s arguably his most best, and certainly his most accessible film. An entertaining story of palace intrigue and powerplays beautifully shot amongst the decadence of Hampton Court Palace. In fact, Queen Anne spent little time there during her reign. This film…
Cold War
On its surface this is a love story. A tragic romance about two lovers kept apart by the iron curtain. A relationship that spans decades, but is so fiery it can’t be sustained. Their love is one of those impossible kinds so popular in fiction, they can’t live with each other, they also can’t survive…
Week 2 of the Sydney Film Festival 2018
Of the 25 films I ended up seeing at the festival this year, there were two exceptionally good films, both of which I happened to see on the last day, and there were a number of other good films of course, but it wasn’t the stellar program of last year’s festival. At least, not the…
Sydney Film Festival 2018 – Week 1 (and a bit)
The Sydney Film Festival has got off to a slow start this year, for me at least. But at the half-way point there are a few highlights. Documentaries have, as always, been a stand-out, and there have been a couple of other films worth noting. Here’s a run-down of my hits to date, including some…
Loveless
Loveless, the latest from Russian filmmaker Andrey Zvyagintsev, is a beautiful and bleak film. Set in the suburban high-rises of Moscow, divorcing couple, Zhenya (Maryana Spivak) and Boris (Aleksey Rozin), loath each other but are continuing to share a roof until they can sell their apartment. Also living with them, and barely tolerated by Zhenya…