Category Archives: 5/5

Disclosure Day – Movie Review

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TL;DR – I can see this being a very divisive film, but it completely captured me. Hook, line, and sinker.

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I was invited to a press screening of this film.

Camera flashes go off.

Disclosure Day Review Introduction

When someone tells you that Steven Spielberg, David Koepp, John Williams, and the gang are teaming up for what might be the last time, it doesn’t matter what the film is, you know you must see it. I don’t think I have ever said yes to an invitation as quickly as I did here. And it was so worth it.
 
So, to set the scene, we open in a crash of bodies as a wrestling match is in full swing. But we are not here for the clashing brawny men; we are here for a man with a backpack that looks out of place. For Daniel Kellner is not here for sport; he is here to be part of an exchange. All the highly classified information he stole from the Wardex corporation was for his partner Jane (Eve Hewson). But Daniel is not just a helpless analyst; he has seen the information he stole, so he knows exactly what pressure point to use against the head of Wardex, Noah Scanlon (Colin Firth), and soon everyone is on the run.

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Project Hail Mary – Movie Review

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TL;DR – Project Hail Mary is everything a sci-fi film should be: bold, evocative, immersive, and wonderous.

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I paid to watch this film.

Warning – Some scenes contain flashing lights.

Warning – Contains scenes which may cause distress.

The Hail Mary floating next to a much larger alien ship.

Project Hail Mary Review Introduction –

As I sit down to write this review, I feel like I am floating a touch on air, as if I had just witnessed something glorious to behold. Something I hoped would be good, but which delivered in ways not even I was expecting. It’s a rare film that not only meets expectations but exceeds them.   

So, to set the scene, a man wakes up sealed in a bag, not able to talk, and is accosted by some persistent medical device. He does not know who he is. He does not know where he is. He does not know why there are two dead bodies with him. And you better believe he does not know why he is on a spaceship, or why the star he is looking at is not Sol. There are flashes of memory, of a dying Sun, a Petrova line to Venus, and microbes called Astrophage eating it away. But the man whom the computer says is Dr Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling) doesn’t have much time to think about things when the computer alerts him to Blip-A, and he realises he is not the only spaceship out here.     

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Hamnet – Movie Review

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TL;DR – This film emotionally wrecked me. It’s raw to the bone and yet also one of the most cathartic works of cinema I have ever witnessed. Full of unbelievable pain and yet also moments of absolute joy. It exists as both a stunningly beautiful work of art and a profoundly haunting treatise on trauma.

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I was invited to a press screening of this film.

Warning – Contains scenes which may cause distress.

The Globe Theatre.

Hamnet Review Introduction –

Okay … phew … deep breath … I can do this. In my time, I have watched a lot of films that have made me emotional in the cinema. Indeed, including at least one time when I ugly cried so much the old lady sitting next to me asked if I was okay, oh, and that time when Pixar made us think they were going to kill all the toys in the furnace, I have still not forgiven you for that, Pixar. However, I have never experienced emotions quite the same way as I sat down to watch Hamnet, a film steeped in both beauty and trauma.  

So, to set the scene, we are in a small town in Elizabethan England, where, while tutoring some boys in Latin, a young William (Paul Mescal) sees an enigma walk out of the forest. Agnes (Jessie Buckley) is nothing like any of the other women he has met, understanding the ways of bees, knowing the curative power of herbs, and being the master of birds of prey. It is the combination of traits that makes the town whisper unseemly things behind your back. But when an expedited wedding is needed, a new complicated family is born. But life can be hard in this era, and you never know when it will sneak up on you, no matter how well you prepare.

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One Battle After Another – Movie Review

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TL;DR – This is a chaotic, uncomfortable, taut, and downright weird film, but it is also completely captivating from the opening frame to the closing credits.  

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I paid to watch this film.

A road meandering up and down over some hills.

Setting the Scene

2025 has been an odd year for noted Indie directors trying to tackle the political situation in America at the moment, because most of them have floundered in the attempt. They have been trying to capture the moment, but their stories get lost in comedic attempts or a poor understanding of the very topics they want to analyse. However, today we are looking at a film that just might have cracked the code with one secret weapon that gets lost in cinema at times, intentionality.   

So, to set the scene, we open as a number of self-labelled revolutionaries, including Pat Calhoun (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Perfidia Beverly Hills (Teyana Taylor), who are staking out an immigration detention facility near the border in California. In the middle of the night, they strike, liberating the camp and beginning their revolution against corporate and oppressive elements of America. The French 75 group places bombs in courthouses, robs banks, and causes general calamity. However, you don’t make that much noise without attracting foes, and little do they know that Colonel Steven J. Lockjaw (Sean Penn) is hunting them all down, or maybe just Perfidia.   

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Andor (Star Wars: Andor): Jedha, Kyber, Erso [S2E12] – TV Review

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TL;DR – A bittersweet symphony of hope and coming sadness.

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Disney+ service that viewed this series.

Warning – Contains scenes that may cause distress.

Two X-Wings flank Cassian on the way back in to Yarvin.

Andor Review –

Well, we are here, it is the end of it all, yet we find ourselves in an interesting place. Unlike most series finales, Andor doesn’t need to stick the landing because the third act of Rogue One has already done that for them. This puts it in an interesting space where you can ask: how do you definitely end something that already has another ending? Well, that is what we will look at today.   

So, to set the scene, much like last week, we start our episode moments after Who Else Knows? ends. Cassian (Diego Luna) and Melshi (Duncan Pow) have made it to where Kleya (Elizabeth Dulau) is hiding out. Unfortunately for them, the Empire is also tracking them, and Supervisor Heert (Jacob James Beswick) is but one floor away and closing in fast. Comms are down, so K-2SO (Alan Tudyk) can’t send a warning of the coming doom, as Stormtroopers start making their way down the hallway to the room where they are hiding. Now, from here, we will be looking at the episode as a whole, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead. 

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My Top 20 Films of 2024

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So far, in our awards, we have looked at Action, Cinematography, Costumes, Emotion, Fun, Music, Tension, Worldbuilding, Best Animation, Best of Australia & New Zealand & Best TV of 2024

However, in this last entry into our Best of 2024 awards, we crown our Best Film of 2024.

All films are subjective, so our list might look completely different from yours. Of the 116 films we reviewed last year, 110 had their Australian Theatrical/Streaming Release in 2024. This is the list from which we draw our entries, and you can see the complete list of movies HERE.

Much like last year’s list, we have had many staggered releases towards the end of the year in Australia. So we may have films here that were released in 2023 for you but 2024 for us, and there may be some omissions here because we won’t get those films until later in 2025.

Highly Commended – The Beekeeper, Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F, Deadpool & Wolverine, The Fall Guy, How to Make Gravy, Inside Out 2, The King of the Indies, The Kitchen, Rebel Ridge, The Rooster,  Transformers One, Turtles All the Way Down, Twisters & Wicked   

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Shrinking: Season 2 – TV Review

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TL;DR – It is rare when a series can both genuinely make me laugh down to my core yet also deliver one of the most potent emotional slaps to the face that I have ever gotten.

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the AppleTV+ service that viewed this series.

Warning – Contains scenes that may cause distress.

Shrinking. Image Credit: AppleTV+.

In today’s binge-streaming culture, it is almost expected that you will sit down and plough through a series in one or two sessions. Television that is almost just on in the background while you are doing other things. Well, today, we look at a series that respects you as a viewer in a way that you can’t watch all of it in one sitting because you need to savour every moment of it.

So, to set the scene, throughout Season One, Jimmy Laird (Jason Segel) was trying to find his place in the world as he was still reeling from the tragic death of his wife Tia (Lilan Bowden) in a car crash years earlier. It was in this space that he decided to try a more hands-on type of therapy with his clients called ‘Jimmying’. There were success stories and failures, but it was working right up until one of Jimmy’s patients, Grace (Heidi Gardner), decided to take some advice a touch too literally and pushed her abusive boyfriend off a cliff. Meanwhile, Gaby (Jessica Williams) is dealing with always having to be the support mechanism for her family while starting a new role as professor, Sean (Luke Tennie) is working through having his dad back in his life, Alice (Lukita Maxwell) is still processing her own grief, and Paul’s (Harrison Ford) Parkinson’s is getting worse. Now, from here, we will be looking at the series as a whole, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.  

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The Penguin: Bliss – TV Review

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TL;DR – A stunning character-focused episode that showed just what a powerful actor Rhenzy Feliz is.

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Binge service that viewed this series.

Vic watches the explosions.

The Penguin Review –


When we first heard that there was going to be a Penguin series, I was not sure how it was going to go. Sure, Colin Farrell was a great side character in The Batmanfilm, but was there enough there to build a series off? Well, if these first three episodes have anything to say about it, the answer is yes.

So, to set the scene, Vic (Rhenzy Feliz) is spending time with his family as he continues to be frustrated with his father that he won’t get paid for all the work he does. Staving off another argument, Vic goes to the roof of a nearby building to watch the fireworks with his girlfriend Graciela (Anire Kim Amoda). But it is not fireworks that go off that election day, but explosions across the city as the sea walls collapse and a surge of water crashes into Crown Heights. Today, Vic is working for The Penguin (Colin Farrell), and they are in a precarious position as two families are circling. Sofia Falcone (Cristin Milioti) is about to make her move, but now they need the Triad’s help. Now, from here, we will be looking at the episode as a whole, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.

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Touch (Snerting) – Movie Review

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TL;DR – This is a stunningly beautiful portrait of a man’s life that feels both deeply personal and universal in what drives him. It is profoundly moving and full of narrative grace that could have been all melancholy but is instead full of heart and joy.   

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I was invited to a screening of this film.

Kristófer looks out over a city scape.

Touch Review –

I know this is only August, and there are many films I will see this month, let alone by the end of the year, but today, can I say that we are looking at one of my films of the year. If not, the film of the year. This is such a stunning work that it has sat with me the whole time since I first watched it. I mean, Touch is such a beautiful film that I am getting emotional from writing about it now.

So, to set the scene, Kristófer (Egill Ólafsson) is going through the motions of his life in Iceland at the start of the COVID pandemic. He is a famous restaurateur on the island, but he has now closed his restaurant and is spending time at a local choir and trying to invoke his past diaries. But as the world starts to close up, Kristófer sets on a mission to answer one of the great questions of his past when he (Palmi Kormakur) was a young student in London and one day, he walked into a Japanese restaurant and met Miko (Kōki).

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The Mountain – Movie Review

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TL;DR – An emotional roller coaster that can have you laughing, crying, and uplifting all in the space of 30 seconds.

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I paid to see this film

Mount Taranaki in poster form.

The Mountain Review –

After a long and challenging week, I thought I would stop in at the movies on the way home from work on a Friday afternoon. I had a number of options, but then I noticed what looked like a fun kids flick out of New Zealand and thought that would be the perfect way to round out the week. I mean, it was, but it was also emotionally devastating on multiple occasions. While also being a delight at every turn. Well, let’s dive in and unpack Rachael House’s directing debut.

So, to set the scene, we open in a hospital as Sam (Elizabeth Atkinson) prepares a sneaky escape with the help of her friend Peachy (Sukena Shah). There is one thing that she wants to do in her life, and that is climb Mount Taranaki. On her way, she runs into Mallory Potts (Reuben Francis), a boy who has just moved to the area with their father Hugh (Bryan Coll), and Bronco (Terence Daniel), who is struggling with relating with his father Tux (Troy Kingi). Together, they decide to climb the mountain, no matter the obstacles in their way.

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