Tag Archives: Film

Ashes (Kül) – Movie Review

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TL;DR – A film that does a fantastic job of setting up a world and mystery that unfortunately can’t sustain itself all the way to the end.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5.

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

Disclosure – I paid for the Netflix service that viewed this film.

Warning – Some scenes may cause distress.

The manuscript Kül.

Ashes Review –

Today, we dive back into the world of romance but with a side of danger as we explore Turkish cinema for the first time properly on the site. Romance films can be fascinating because they can meld and merge into so many different genres and take on a broad scope of tone. In today’s film, we dive into the harder edge of the genre, where danger awaits.

So to set the scene, from all appearances, Gökçe (Funda Eryigit) is living her best life. She is a successful publisher with a talent for picking good manuscripts, something that has made her husband Kenan (Mehmet Günsür) fabulously wealthy. But her life feels like it is missing something, missing a lot of things. But when a manuscript called Kül arrives, she is immediately transported into its prose. Being captured by its narrative, it awakens a joy that she had not realised was missing. But when she discovers the bakery in the book is real, and more of the book is real, she hunts down the mysterious man.

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Badland Hunters (Hwang-ya/황야) – Movie Review

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TL;DR – While some moments hit hard, it felt like we had a world that was only ankle-deep deep, and you really wished you could dive in.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

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

Disclosure – I paid for the Netflix service that viewed this film.

The destruction of Seoul.

Badland Hunters Review –

The thing that makes the post-apocalypse setting such an excellent world to explore is that you can explore human stories without the frameworks that hold everything in place. But if you are going to dive into that world, you need to bring something to the table.

So to set the scene, a scientist, Yang Gi-su (Lee Hee-joon), was involved in many unethical experiments in an attempt to bring back his daughter. However, just as the authorities reach him, Seoul is struck with an earthquake so severe that it destroys most buildings and leaves much of the Korean Peninsular a barren wasteland. If you are lucky, you will find a place to barter on what food and water is left. If you are unlucky, you will see yourself set upon by cannibals. Nam-san (Ma Dong-seok) and Choi Ji-wan (Lee Jun-young) work as hunters bringing food to the local settlement, but when people kidnap Han Su-na (Roh Jeong-eui) with a bad habit of not dying, well, that is not on.   

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The Kitchen – Movie Review

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TL;DR – A thoughtful meditation on identity, community, and family.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

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

Disclosure – I paid for the Netflix service that viewed this film.

Izi pears out from behind the slit in his door.

The Kitchen Review –

I am always fascinated by the techniques that filmmakers use to hit you with emotions. Sometimes, it can be pretty forceful, like a slap in the face. Other times, it is like a tide coming in, almost imperceptible, until you realise that you have been engulfed. Today’s film skews closer to the latter and is just as powerful for it.  

So to set the scene, in the not-to-distant future, Izi (Kane Robinson) lives in The Kitchen. A large, dense residential area on the outskirts of London’s centre. It is a difficult life because the police are trying to move people out of the slum, but most have nowhere to go. Izi works for Life After Life, a company that repurposes the remains of people who have died to become the support network for a new tree to be planted in a reclamation project. It is here when he discovers one of the names is someone deeply familiar to him from his past. A woman whose only griever is her son Benji (Jedaiah Bannerman).

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Lift – Movie Review

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TL;DR – It may not be original, but it needs to be said that Lift failed to launch.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5.

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

Disclosure – I paid for the Netflix service that viewed this film.

A literal ton of gold.

Lift Review –

Historically, I have tended to have a better time with the sort of films that Netflix has been championing as of late because even if they are not high art, they still have amusing moments. Or at least bank their blandness of stars with personalities that can shine through. Well, today, we have a film that flounders when it should soar.

So to set the scene, we open on an art auction in Venice that is happening in tandem with London. Cyrus (Kevin Hart), a world-renowned art thief, is there, as is Abby (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), the Interpol agent out to capture him. When an NFT for N8 (Jacob Batalon) sale goes wrong, it is time for a chase through the canals. It is a scene of chaos, but it is all a distraction. But when Abby’s boss, Huxley (Jean Reno), discovers a terrorist plot and needs something heisted from a plane in mid-air, well, it looks like Abby will need Cyrus and his team.   

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Role Play – Movie Review

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TL;DR – There are some moments when the film shines. However, there is a lot of space in between those moments filled with missed opportunities.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

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

Disclosure – I paid for the Amazon Prime service that viewed this film.  

Role Play Review –

In the Spy and Spy-adjacent world, one of the core narratives that we see is when a spy’s family does not know what they do for a day job. The most famous is probably True Lies, but we see a lot of them moving from the more comical to the more serious, depending on the vibe that they want. That is if you can choose a vibe.  

So to set the scene, on the surface, the Brackett family is your perfectly normal middle-American suburban unit. The father, Dave (David Oyelowo), is an architect. They have two wonderful kids, Caroline (Lucia Aliu) & Wyatt (Regan Bryan-Gudgeon), and oh, by the way, when Emma (Kaley Cuoco) says she is going out of town to work cooperate management, she actually is a very successful assassin. Emma wants to have some time at home, but her handler, Raj (Rudi Dharmalingam), wants her back out in the field. After Emma forgets their anniversary, they decide to have a fun night out where they pretend to be two strangers meeting in a bar. One long ride stuck in the tunnel and the poor advances of Bob (Bill Nighy), and it looks like the night might be a bit of a mess. It would be the wrong time for someone’s cover to get blown.   

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Awards – My Top 20 Films of 2023

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

However, in this last entry into our Best of 2023 awards, we crown our Best Film of 2023.

All films are subjective, so our list might look completely different from yours. Of the 121 films we reviewed last year, 113 had their Australian Theatrical/Streaming Release in 2023. This is the list we draw our entries from, 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 2022 for you but 2023 for us, and there may be some omissions here because we won’t get those films until later in 2024, which is why you won’t see The Holdovers on this list (it will be on the 2024 list)

Highly Commended – Asteroid City, Crater, John Wick: Chapter 4, M3GAN, Nimona, Sweet As & They Cloned Tyrone

Okay, with that out of the way, let’s dive into the first entry in our list of Best Films of 2023.

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The Best Australian and New Zealand Cinema in 2023

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This year, with the slight shift in how we format the awards, we added in a touch more flexibility. While that is mainly in the backend, I did want to take the opportunity to expand one of the awards we covered during this period.

It was a fantastic year for Australian and New Zealand Cinema, with each film I saw knocking it out of the park. There were intimate documentaries, films that held up a mirror to society, and those that brought the action to a new level.

This list will look more at the locally made Australian and New Zealand productions/co-productions and not just films filmed in those countries.

Our Highly Commended in 2023 are Bring Him to Me, The Portable Door & True Spirit
Our Best Australian/New Zealand TV in 2023 are The Artful Dodger, Aunty Donna’s Coffee Café, Deadloch, & NCIS: Sydney



So, without further ado, these are the best of Australian and New Zealand Cinema in 2023. Be warned that there will be significant spoilers for the films in question.

The Nominees Are –

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Tension That Kept You On The Edge Of Your Seat In 2023!

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Well, we have looked at Emotion and swung wildly across the spectrum to Fun, and now we are completing that trifecta by looking at Tension. Tension is one of the most challenging facets of filmmaking because it requires the script, direction, acting, and editing to all work in tandem to evoke the perfect pace. If just one part of that group misses, then an essential part of the film falls apart.

In 2023, we continued to see some excellent use of tension to build mystery, to be the harbinger of the coming dread, or even to tick the clock of inevitability.   

Our Highly Commended in 2023 are Five Nights at Freddy’s, Killers of the Flower Moon, Knock at the Cabin, M3GAN, The Nun II & Saltburn
Our Best TV Tension in 2023 are Deadloch: Season 1, Doctor Who: 2023 Specials, The Last of Us: Season 1, Poker Face: Season 1 & Silo: Season 1

So, without further ado, these moments of tension kept us on the edge of our seats in 2023. Be warned that there may be slight spoilers ahead for the films in question.

And the Nominees are –

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The Films of 2023 That Emotionally Wrecked Us

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As I have gotten older, I am not afraid of having a good old-fashioned ugly cry in the cinemas when the time calls for it, and hell, I probably got emotional just writing this list (Spoiler: I did). Sometimes, they are tears of grief or tears of joy, and even still, sometimes, they are tears of anger. 

Emotion is a core part of the cinema experience. If you can’t get us to respond emotionally to your characters and/or the situation, I am sorry you failed to make a great film.

Our Highly Commended in 2023 are The Boy and the Heron, Crater, Creed III, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Oppenheimer, Spoiler Alert, Till & Uproar
Our Best TV Emotions in 2023 are The Last of Us: Season 1, Loki: Season 2, Silo: Season 1, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: Season 2 & Ted Lasso: Season 3

So, without further ado, these are the films of 2023 that emotionally wrecked us. Be warned that there will be significant spoilers for the films in question.

The Nominees Are –

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Cinematography That Made You Go Wow in 2023!

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Cinematography is an art form that can be as bold as a gong crashing after a moment of silence or as subtle as the tide coming in. It elevates a film to the heights of accolades or becomes frustrating when it misfires.

While at the heart of cinematography is the Director of Photography or Cinematographer, to get something from the script to the final shot takes a whole team of professionals, and it is their talent that we champion today.

Our Highly Commended in 2023 are The Creator, Godzilla Minus One & John Wick: Chapter 4

Our Best TV Cinematography in 2023 are Deadloch: Season 1, Foundation: Season 2, Jury Duty: Season 1, The Last of Us: Season 1 & Ted Lasso: Season 3

So, without further ado, these moments of cinematography took our breaths away in 2023. Be warned that there may be some slight spoilers for the films in question.

The Nominees Are –

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