MAY DECEMBER (Melbourne IFF 2023) – Review by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas

Todd Haynes is back, immersing himself neck deep in the exact kind of melodrama that he has thrived on throughout his illustrious career. It’s excess ahoy as it be expected, and the screen crackles with the electric ferocity of Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman’s on-screen chemistry. Considering the icky subject matter, then, the film requires a fairly delicate balance; the subject of women sex offenders is not a common site of interest in screen culture. While the camp excesses of the film would in the hands of a lesser filmmaker perhaps push the film into the terrain of bad taste, in Haynes hands, there is enormous empathy for the situation.

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THOR: LOVE AND THUNDER – Review by Brandy McDonnell

A lavish space Viking feast of a movie, Thor: Love and Thunder is delightfully laden with Oscar-winning talent, scene-stealing screaming goats, kaleidoscopic color schemes, 1980s iconography, A-list cameos, the Guardians of the Galaxy, thunderous action sequences, witty one-liners, a diverse horde of mythological gods and a bombastic soundtrack featuring Guns N’ Roses, along with Dio, ABBA and Enya. Academy Award-winning writer/director Taika Waititi’s second cinematic serving in the apparently endless banquet of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is a deliciously over-the-top treat that’s sometimes refreshingly bittersweet.

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THOR: LOVE AND THUNDER – Review by Valerie Kalfrin

Thor: Love and Thunder has the verve of a glam-rock musical, full of Guns N’ Roses riffs, bursts of lightning, and technicolor travels along the Rainbow Bridge. But its core is the tender idea that we all crave and need love, even if it hurts to lose it. Taika Waititi, who blasted new energy and humor into the staid superhero with 2017’s Thor: Ragnarok, returns at the helm of this often-loopy vessel and still loves absurdity. Yet the humor works better here.

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VOX LUX- Review by Susan Granger

This garish, gaudy mess of a musical melodrama begins on Staten Island in 1999, when teenage Celeste (Raffey Cassidy) sustains a life-threatening spinal injury as she tries to talk down the shooter during a harrowing massacre at her school. Comforted by her older, more talented sister Eleanor (Stacy Martin), Celeste is understandably traumatized. Working through PTSD, they write “Wrapped Up,” a tribute ballad, mourning the tragic violence. When their song goes viral, they’re courted by a sleazy manager (Jude Law) who seems both paternal and predatory.

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WEEK IN WOMEN: Golden Globes 2019 Snub Female Directors – Brandy McDonnell reports

Once again, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association has shut out female directors. No female helmers are nominated for best director for the 2019 Golden Globes. 2018 Golden Globes presenter Natalie Portman pointedly criticized the lack of female nominees during the televised show earlier this year, going off script to emphasize “And here are all the MALE nominees.”

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AWFJ Movie of The Week December 2: JACKIE

Mythmaking has long been a staple of American movies. Pablo Larraín’s film portrait Jackie tackles one of the greatest of American myths — that of first lady Jacqueline Kennedy. In the week following her husband’s assassination, Mrs. Kennedy granted an interview to Life Magazine. The film uses this as a framing device, and as an almost surgical means to dissect the psyche of its titular character. Opening Dec. 2, AWFJ’s Movie of the Week is Jackie. Read on…

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