tomdickson Reviews

The Holdovers (2023)

Tears and laughs

[8/10 · 16 January 2024]

Great to watch a film which presses all the buttons without resorting to excess. Capable director knows his craft creating a movie that at first images makes you think you are deep in old Europe! Well worth watching. Characters go through personal realisation as the story progresses leading to change in attitude and beliefs. We can only hope the final outcomes will lead to good lives but a sequel or just leave the cinema and have a coffee to discuss what might h happen. Of note is the music which feels very period and often contains lots of emotions that dialogue won't convey. Effective technique which my group of viewers all noted and spoke about.

Ablaze (I) (2021)

Final Australian history gets a true telling

[8/10 · 20 July 2022]

It's a fascinating period in modern Australian history which has been waiting for a truthfull telling. This documentary achieved a great deal in treading new ground. That original footage was retrieved is a tribute to the film makers. It's part of a video history waiting to be used in school curriculum so the next generation grow up with the truth to understand the country.

Well worth watching.

Caché (2005)

So many things to admire

[8/10 · 20 July 2022]

In this wonderful engrossing film one thing that gripped me was George relationship to his wife and being incapable of sharing with her his most intimate secret. Had he been a rare man who was able to let this defence down first it world of saved life and shown a resolution in his own ongoing dilemma. He's not the only man in a relationship who can never come to open up but somehow m managed to keep the family going!

Aspects of french society problem with those they colonized and then had come to perch on the periphery of there culture are beautifully documented preceding the Paris race blow up months after this movie was released.

It's a movie that keeps you engrossed from the first frame.

Hangmen Also Die! (1943)

Document in history

[7/10 · 15 February 2022]

You'd watch this movie particular in its 4k release as a time capsule created by creative team who had witness this unique period in modern history. Lots of things are problematic in acting casting etc but hey look at the release date.

This is a marvel to bring so much to the eyes of its audience and a good score by composer.

Plenty of academic writing on this movie and the expat Californian community that created it. Go research this wiemar in California while a horror story was happening in Europe.

Drive My Car (2021)

Absorbing

[8/10 · 15 February 2022]

You as a viewer get in that car and get taken along. For myself the ride was the journey now the destination but I can imagine some viewers experience frustration.

Is a long movie but that seems fine as the sides of the relationship are revealed. As they are both creative peeps the story feeds there own creative universes. Normal couples must find this quite confronting.

It's a story that easily translates to most countries and there creative peeps.

Aristocrats (2020)

Director to watch

[8/10 · 15 February 2022]

Watch as part of jpp Australia thank you!

I really enjoyed this movie in the way I enjoy uzo movies. That slower progression to reveal subtleties of Japanese culture which an outside can never touch.

The trick of this story is that it's takes a feminine view, very even handed, whilst showing the hierarchical society with its taboos and expectations. The slap to face by mother in law when her lineage is betrayed focuses where values are held.

Watch directors previous movie of iron foundry owners daughter to continue this subtle exposure of Japanese class for 20 somethings.

Annette (2021)

Need a specific viewer.

[5/10 · 9 January 2022]

Tried to watch Annette love the director but sadly from the premise of the movie onwards it just wasn't my cup of Tea. I had been avoiding because too much didn't attract new and in the flesh I was right. It might appeal to some peeps I,m not one of them in fact seems a waste of dollars and talent to arrive at such a shambles. Enough said.

The Bicycle (1982)

GDR insght

[7/10 · 21 December 2021]

Chance to go behind the Berlin wall with a female director who skilfully tackles themes that aren't supposed to exist in the socialist state. It's a film that tackles social issues while crafting change in the lead actors relationship to her surroundings, I enjoyed this film because it is real but also has a dramatic narrative.

Nitram (2021)

Probably best watched in clinical setting

[7/10 · 29 November 2021]

Well made excellent acting even the American boy who was only in Australia just before filming and then with 14 days quarantine.

For me it is just to clinical I don't have any empathy for the lead. Can't compare to elephant as Gus van Sant makes a different type of film to cover broadly similar topics. This movie is very clinical and if that's your thing you'll enjoy.its highly emotive to take on topics that had such national impact.snowtown another example. You need a forensic bent to get a lot of what the filmakers are about script and director have been collaborating on this type of movie several times.

Throw Away Your Books, Rally in the Streets (1971)

Must see list

[8/10 · 26 November 2021]

Fortunately the Sydney JFF had an excellent print off this masterpiece.

The use of colour is important to the director in aiding dream sequence and as part of the surrealism.

After being bored and not able to finish watching nitram 2021 the day before it was a real pleasure to be engrossed by a sort of Godard of the East.

The playful use of the media to create this film is always engaging and question the viewers relationship to what is on the screen.

Cinema that challenges our perception of itself requires real skill to be effective.

This tale entertains us while also achieving that. A little less demanding than Godard still done with a strong command of the tools available.

Music is a real takeaway. Being used really well and adding so much and yet now a snapshot of its time era

Best seen on the big screen!

Undine (2020)

Berlin plus love and intrigue

[7/10 · 10 November 2021]

Watched at Sydney film festival Continues this directors rewarding output. Plenty to put the mind across especially if you know something of Berlin. Definitely available for several rewarding viewing to unravel these fine actors and the story they build.

I also enjoyed the history lessons as they also reveal things about undine, and provoke thoughts about Berlin the stage for this movie. I enjoyed the way the camera brings us to the characters and we never tire of its lens. It's so easy to be mesmerised by the leads faces and gestures.

Can't wait to watch again Bravo Christian!

Memoria (I) (2021)

Wonderful!

[8/10 · 7 November 2021]

Watched at Sydney film festival. What a pleasure to have a static camera. I can only think of once when it moves. Plenty of time to study each set up! Each loaded with plenty to take away for post movie chatting. You kind of want to go back and watch again as soon as possible. The big screen is essential for a movie like this. It is not a Netflix container. Buddhist thought seems to pervade the very seams of each frame with tilda being so perfectly cast. To have your senses heightened for Two and a half hours particular the audio brings great pleasure. Especially if you are lucky enough to be able to be surrounded by nature and birds after the screening. Apitchatpong breaths nature into this and tilda does a great job of interpretation bring us into the experience. Go see it on a big screen near you!

Ane Is Missing (2020)

well played family drama

[7/10 · 8 October 2021]

That dilema of childrearing espeially in a broken home. This drama takes us along a peth including basque country firey temperament. Its an insightful look at parenting when events have moved beyond the realm of the family and require external profesional assist.

The movie is delightfully grim in setying , acting and colour, does the sun ever shine on the basques?

Its deservedly won a few awards for its balance and truth to subject.

15 Hours (2021)

well handled study of abuse

[8/10 · 7 October 2021]

At first i thought i might not last the distance but as the struggle the lead lady had developed i became more and more engrossed.

If a movie can show a believable change in a character then it has done its job very well.this film is well directed and achieves an outcome that the viewer can understand and still leave lots of room for further contemplation and if you watch with your friend plenty to talk about. Its always a pleasure to watch films that do this .

Champions (I) (2018)

great fun

[7/10 · 4 October 2021]

Watched as part of institute cervantes festival, thank you

this starts of in a completey differnet direction and doesnt stop ducking and weaving right to the end as have a fabulour hilarious ride along. Its so clever in handleing its theme or several theme that any audience is going to have a hoot. Highly recommend , effective use of the instrument of cinema!

Una vez más (2019)

can we go back?

[6/10 · 4 October 2021]

Watched as part of institute cervantes spainish festival thankyou!

I knew these two characters i felt very comfortable with them and they way they played. It doesnt mean i like them or felt especially warm to them. Perhaps they were directed too much as TV tele series than a feature. But the script was very well handled and so many scenes, with music backing worked so well. The songs were really good and help tell the story ,cinematography equally helped. Plenty of times i was taken along by the emotion .... ultimatley i didnt really care what decision the two leads made because a feature must make me want to believe in them and it didnt.

A este lado del mundo (2020)

great euro cinema

[8/10 · 4 October 2021]

I watched this as part of institute cervantes spanish film festival, thank you!

This movie tackles a complex issue head on by going to place where the real action take place.

I enjoyed this movie because it certainly doesn't gloss the story with a very believable central charcter doing his job as best he understands it. Along the way he interects with the characters who make up drama which is a border station to control refugees. The movie has time to acquiant us with the scene and allow us time to consider our personal reaction. I learnt a lot and also enjoyed the voyage of the engineer like me confronting the reality for the first time. Funny enough the elements make you think itd drag but thats not the case as it charges along . A well thoguht and made movie.

Goodbye, Dragon Inn (2003)

An experience non longer available

[8/10 · 20 March 2021]

One of ten classics getting there own book each. It captures you in a visual non-verbal way. There's almost no dialogue but busy soundtrack as the cinema last pic screens to an assortment of character including a few aging actors from the show on screen . Bogdanovich? Very distant. Enjoy cinema as a visual treat with a leisurely pace that allows you to savour cinematography. The 4k print helps. That time in cinemas will be unreachable for a huge section of the cinema multiplex attending audiences. A snapshot of the departed.

The Arch (1968)

Slow contemplation of a time now passed

[8/10 · 22 June 2017]

Such a pleasure to view this period piece chinas 1600's ming dynasty and its melodic passage highlighted by key events , many slight, but beautifully underlined by the film maker. The hands touching, the makeup removal, the words of the admirers poem reoccurring, the change of seasons and the constant music to assist the viewers passage through the story while minimising the dialogue.

The pictures tell the story , one the first things you learn at film school and often forgotten by new age directors.the ending is appropriate to the tale but do i yearn.....

Yu nu chi qing (1968)

LSD charged romp which must bring many smiles to the viewer

[6/10 · 21 June 2017]

Yes LSD does feature in this as an LSD party which young hong kong attend, its a period piece (now seen as) because it so captures the time . only thing that reminds might be peter seller in 'the party' but this is younger and more dynamic, not pot here its just adrenalin and LSD (well only one monent of LSD but it sort of sets the scene of this over the top romp. !! the real plot is played out very well . the plot is :" A young girl, upon learning that her unmarried older sister is with child, decides to fake her own pregnancy to divert her parent's attention, confident that she can better handle the scornful reproach of the family's temperamental patriarch because she is the father's favourite; madcap shenanigans ensue... The late 1960s saw the rise of youth culture in Hong Kong cinema, embodied by a new generation of movie stars lovingly labelled Jade Girls, among them Connie Chan Po- chu was the most adored. The Pregnant Maiden, starring Chan and directed by Chor Yuen, takes the audience on a hilarious romp, poking fun at social conventions while exploring the hazy ambiguities of sexuality"

White Sun (2016)

Good script give insight into the complexities of changing politics

[7/10 · 19 June 2017]

This intergenerational movie gives us the kids eyes seeing the entrenched beliefs of adults and there aging peers brought together for the mayors funeral. Like his previous outing the director steadily unwinds his tale without rushing and for the observant a massive amount is revealed about Nepal's transition. It's an educated approach to film asking which satisfy our intelligence. Highly recommended.

In the Fade (2017)

Good solid offering from experienced director.

[7/10 · 18 June 2017]

The conclusion of this movie wraps up solid story based on activism in Germany in very recent past. It's a tight story that as events we so often see are played out. Technical details in the court case, lone women on revenge, couple of Stereotypes emerge. Hard to match English title with story unless I'm missing something. It's has a real sense of what we hear happening particular in Europe but the world phenomena of war displaced persons.you leave the cinema thinking more tolerance will go along way.

Jupiter's Moon (2017)

Engrossing to the end

[7/10 · 18 June 2017]

Part of SFF late arrivals from Cannes. Think Botticelli by Tarrantino. You'll suspend your disbelieve and fly away with this story or never really get it. I happily went along with the angel as I watched the desperation of people to get outcomes and believe in a God. The camera work, direction, acting are all write capable. Timely film when we see what has happened since the west decided to sort the middle east out. Hungary took a particularly strong potion on this and the film may be making a point, but there are so many angles in this story. Strap your seat belt on and enjoy the ride.

Jackie (V) (2016)

Gripping bio that captures a key moment in USA history

[8/10 · 18 June 2017]

I came to Jackie because it Neruda. It's a compelling vignette of American public life from a declared private family. Jackie even admits this is all about me not JFK. Her voice is reported so perfect,from those who know . So does this movie grip the viewer for its Duration or are we sufficiently taken along by the performance, for me this is an overwhelming yes. Jackie has resonated with my progress through life being very young on that momentous day when all in my family were truly shocked outraged, and that's all the way from a tiny town in Australia. It only happens once more and that was Diana. An equally strong lady, with many similarities to Jackie O. To take the short period of a few days and say so much make for good film making the pictures tell the story.

On Body and Soul (2017)

Such a pleasure to watch the work of a master at their craft

[8/10 · 14 June 2017]

SFF entrant that by viewer comment in audience was going to sweep up the awards on offer. To hear the director explain some of here career working the themes, animals , relationship of humans and animals , both as part of food chain and in the wild, the impacts of climate and human progress on habitats. In addition the sensitivity shown to some medical issues Asperger, autism , the skill in producing great outcomes from the actors, the plot twists and the subtle way that are incorporated make for an enormous pleasure. The tag song from Laura Marling which had been in the directors head for a decade used in such an effective manner, the list goes on , i had at times thought of Ozu its different but you feel the actors are working in a similar environment. Catch this film when it releases in cinema near you.