The Last Dragon (1985)

My favourite moment in Motown producer Berry Gordy’s The Last Dragon (1985) is when a packed movie theatre showing Enter The Dragon is interrupted randomly by two break-dancers and a boom-box, who are then shouted down and told to leave. Right before the unforgettable Sho’nuff (played by Julius J. Carry III in an indomitable performance) […]

The Beach Bum (2019)

The Beach Bum (2019) was one of my favourite films of 2019 but sadly did not receive a cinema release in Western Australia (you can now watch it legally as the DVD, not the Blu Ray, is available to purchase at JB HiFi). One reason for the lack of screenings is that the film was […]

Sleuth (1972)

Listening to several interviews with Knives Out director-writer Rian Johnson, he mentioned several influences on his take on the “Whodunnit?” genre (including some very obscure ones like The Last Of Shelia). I’d heard of Sleuth (1972) ever since an old movie book I once read spoiled the ending with its chapter on ‘Classic Movie Deaths’. […]

A Matter Of Life And Death (1946)

SBS OnDemand adding several films by British directors Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger is a real treat for any lover of cinema, and a great chance for myself to catch up on the titles that I’d not seen. What strikes me, and I’m sure many others, about A Matter Of Life And Death (1946) is […]

Hi, Mom! (1970)

A product of its times as well as being a statement on its times, Hi, Mom! (1970) is a free-wheeling satire of middle-class values. A young Robert De Niro plays Jon, a returned Vietnam vet in New Yorl who veers from one obsession to the next, beginning as a budding pornographer who wants to create “Peep […]